I saw this story yesterday and it made me hit the roof.

Democrats Block Disaster Relief Bill Over Funds for Puerto Rico

Senate Democrats blocked a $13.5 billion Republican disaster aid bill, contending it lacks enough aid for Puerto Rico, leaving the Senate without an immediate path forward to provide relief for areas hit by recent Midwest floods, Hurricanes Florence and Michael, and California wildfires.

If you have been watching CNN, you would not have seen anything like the video below of flooding in the Midwest.

The pictures from the Bellevue Police Department hit home for me, literally.  The house I was renting in Bellevue is now halfway under water.  Had I not moved to Alabama, that would be my stuff being washed away by the flood.

One thing not covered by CNN was the damage done to America’s farmland.

Over one million calves have been killed in the flooding, as well as topsoil erosion of farmland.

This is going to make beef prices in the coming months to years go up drastically.  Think about it, at decent size steer will net about 500 lbs of beef after processing.  One million lost calves means the loss of more than HALF A BILLION POUNDS OF MEAT.

The flooding also did record damage in South Dakota, a state I also lived in (albeit at the other end).

I still know people in Omaha and Sioux Falls, and some of them have seen property damage.  I very good friend of mine has had his basement flooded three times this year – all the way up to the first floor joists – and is dealing with the cost of damage to his house.

This is a real crisis of signification proportion.

Yet the Senate Democrats are holding up recovery aid because they are still trying to leverage Hurricane Maria and the identity politics there against Trump.

The map below shows exactly why they are doing this.

That is the map of the US by Senate orientation for the 116th Congress.

Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, those are all red because both Senate seats are held by Republicans.

The Democrats can block flood recovery aid to those states for as long as they want because those are not their constituents.

Keep in mind that Hurricane Maria happened in September of 2017, so there has been 18 months of aid going to the island.  The grand total in aid has been more than $91 Billion.  The problem has been corruption of the local government.

Remember when Puerto Ricans claimed that didn’t have enough drinking water after the hurricane and the Democrats blamed Trump.

Well, FEMA delivered it and the Puerto Rican government left it outside on the runway.

BUT… San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz was always able to find time to stand in front of a CNN camera with a T-shirt emblazoned with an anti-Trump sentiment.

This blog has covered the corruption, politicizing, and disaster down there.

This new bill does provide more relief to Puerto Rico, but the Democrats say it’s not enough.

The aid package, amended last week by Republican Richard Shelby of Alabama, would give Puerto Rico $600 million in nutrition assistance, but it doesn’t contain the same funds the House authorized to bolster flood protection and repair the electrical grid. The Senate failed to advance its version of the bill Monday on a 44-49 vote.

This isn’t about Puerto Rico, this is about identity politics, claiming that the GOP is anti-Latino and letting the Midwest drown because of it.

This is the Democrats declaring war on Red state Middle America.