This Earth Day, Hillary’s Sending Her Nat Political Dir, Amanda Renteria, to Puerto Rico

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Last edited Sat Apr 23, 2016, 11:47 PM - Edit history (1)

Zika, Flint, and Earth Day

This Earth Day, I’m traveling to Puerto Rico to learn about the Zika virus and its impacts on everyday people.

Hillary is sending me and Ann O’Leary — her senior policy advisor — on a fact-finding mission to study the consequences of Zika. We will meet with health officials, speak with local residents, and get a better understanding of this ongoing crisis.

There’s a lot we still don’t know about Zika. But according to the latest scientific research, we can already see that the mosquitoes that spread diseases such as Zika and West Nile virus are significantly more likely to be found in underserved areas. These communities are more likely to have sub-standard housing, deteriorating infrastructure, problems with standing water, and other characteristics that create fertile breeding grounds for mosquitoes. These factors mean low-income Americans will be disproportionately exposed to the disease.

As we have seen with the water crisis in Flint, the Zika virus is only the latest example of environmental problems that impact the most vulnerable among us.

I am proud to work on behalf of someone who not only understands these issues, but who also plans to work to fix them. That’s why Hillary recently introduced a comprehensive environmental and climate justice plan, which includes protecting public health and safety by modernizing drinking and wastewater systems and investing in clean energy and clean transportation; prosecuting violators who expose communities to environmental harm; establishing an Environmental and Climate Justice Task Force to give local experts and the environmental justice community a seat at the table in federal decision-making; and protecting communities from the impacts of climate change by investing in new, resilient infrastructure.

These issues are not new to Hillary. From drawing attention to the connection between air pollution and child asthma as First Lady, to helping organize the first-ever Senate hearing on environmental justice, to her work to address the ongoing crisis in Flint, she’s been fighting to make a difference for decades.

And as we continue to grapple with the effects of climate change, the rapidly spreading range of disease-carrying mosquitoes in the United States is only one of many environmental dangers we need to address.

Not only does Hillary recognize the impact this can have on all of us — she also understands that low-income communities and communities of color will suffer the most from our inaction. This is why Ann’s and my trip is so important. This Earth Day, on behalf of Hillary, we have an opportunity to ensure we develop environmental and public health policies that protect some of our most vulnerable fellow Americans.


read: https://medium.com/@arenteria/zika-flint-and-earth-day-feef941be019#.e6qbcizc2


**update**

Ann O'Leary ?@Ann_OLeary 7h7 hours ago
@HillaryClinton's environmental justice fight will extend to Puerto Rico. Powerful tour of flooded @CanoMartinPena




Ann O'Leary ?@Ann_OLeary 9h9 hours ago
Puerto Rico Zika fact-finding mission for @HillaryClinton. WIC clinics educating & providing kits for pregnant women




Ann O'Leary ?@Ann_OLeary 8h8 hours ago
Floods last night in Puerto Rico's Martin Pena Canal = hot spot for Zika. @HillaryClinton Zika fact-finding mission




Amanda Renteria ?@AmandaRenteria 8h8 hours ago
Flooding from last night's rainfall in Puerto Rico.




Ann O'Leary ?@Ann_OLeary 8h8 hours ago
How far did the flood go? It went up to the bad. Polluted w/sewer. Multiple public health problems. @HillaryClinton




Amanda Renteria ?@AmandaRenteria 8h8 hours ago
This is school. It will be worse in a week with the smell and mosquitos.




Ann O'Leary ?@Ann_OLeary 7h7 hours ago
Amazing moment. This woman was so fearful of flood and overcome with emotion and appreciation for @AmandaRenteria.




Amanda Renteria ?@AmandaRenteria 7h7 hours ago
Driving around everyone stops Lyvia to talk with her. Mostly to tell her the pblms others are having. #comunidad




Amanda Renteria ?@AmandaRenteria 12h12 hours ago
We learned a lot from Dr. Rullan: how Zika has affected other parts of the world & what early data is showing now.

[pangaia]

1. Hillary isn't sending anybody to learn anything.

She wants the PR vote, so of course.................. now....

[bigtree]

4. the people of Flint remember

...how Hillary responded to their crisis.

This is what politics is ultimately all about. Responding to voters where they live and elevating their plights to a national level of debate and action.

You can't get any more cynical than criticizing folks actually making an effort while your own team is standing flatfooted and gazing at their own navels.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. when is the last time she mentioned Flint?

[bigtree]

11. two days ago

"... let’s put Americans to work rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, including our failing water systems like the one in Flint, Michigan. There are many places across our country where children and families are at risk from the water they drink and the air they breathe."

--from Hillary Clinton’s New York Primary Victory Speech

[Viva_La_Revolution]

13. so not every day, in every speech?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. yep. campaigning is what they are doing

[JaneyVee]

2. K AND R!

[Surya Gayatri]

3. Excellent initiative. Zika is a growing threat, and she'll need to act

on it once she's in the Oval Office.

[bluedigger]

5. She might want to do a little checking on their budget crisis, too, while she's there.

Because that isn't getting fixed this year, either.

[bigtree]

6. While Sanders was at the Vatican on Friday

... Hillary Clinton spent part of the day campaigning in the Bronx, where she addressed the financial crisis in Puerto Rico.

Hillary Clinton: "We need to tell the hedge funds and the other creditors, who are just trying to make a profit off the misery of the Puerto Rican people, to go to the back of the line and stop blocking us from making a fair resolution of this crisis."

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. she should just tell them to cut it out

Worked for the big banks, right?

[bluedigger]

10. Is that what she's telling them in her private speeches as they hand her checks?

No wonder she doesn't wnat those made public. Tough talk like that would give the public the wrong idea.

Sanders spent time with the community as well.

On the eve of New York’s primary, former governor of Puerto Rico, Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, endorsed Bernie Sanders in the Bronx, the newpaper El Nuevo Día reports. Sanders held a meeting today with New York’s Puerto Rican community.

Anibal Acevedo Vilá was elected head of government of Puerto Rico in 2004 and belongs to the present ruling party of the island, Partido Popular Democrático, which is divided between those seeking a sovereign Puerto Rico with a free association treaty (Ela soberano), and those seeking greater powers in a non-territorial and non-colonial arrangement with the US (Ela mejorado).

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/4/18/1517083/-Former-Governor-of-Puerto-Rico-endorses-Bernie-in-NYC

Sanders Statement on Puerto Rico
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
WASHINGTON, July 7 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today on the financial crisis in Puerto Rico:

“I strongly believe Puerto Rico should be afforded the same bankruptcy protections that exist for municipalities across the United States. We need to do everything we can to allow Puerto Rico to restructure its debt in a rational way that does not harm its people, ordinary investors or pension funds in the United States. Chapter 9 protections would be a good first step.

“But we also should recognize that the reason Puerto Rico has such unsustainable debt has everything to do with the policies of austerity and the greed of large financial institutions. Puerto Rico has been in a severe recession for almost a decade. Today, more than 45 percent of the people in Puerto Rico are living in poverty, the childhood poverty rate is greater than 56 percent and real unemployment is much too high. Our goal must be not only to give Puerto Rico the flexibility it needs to restructure its debt, but to make sure that it can rebuild its economy, create good-paying jobs and expand its tax base.”

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-statement-on-puerto-rico

[Jitter65]

12. On this subject. Exactly who is paying for all those ads against bailing out Puerto Rico? nt

[Gothmog]

14. I have met Amanda Renteria who is COS for Clinton and she is impressive

She is a very strong person

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15. +1000

[bigtree]

16. check out the op update w/ some pics and reports

[Scurrilous]

17. K & R