Context: Donald Trump spewing bullshit about annexing Canada and Greenland. Meanwhile, Congress has been dragging their feet for YEARS on resolving Puerto Rico’s territorial status.
Citizens living in US territories do not receive equal representation in congress. For instance, PR has one “delegate” to the House (not an official voting member) and no senators. Taxation without representation.
Although, at this point I wouldn’t blame PR if they changed their minds about wanting to become the 51st state.
Fun battleship fact: all US battleships have been named after states except for one: BB-5, the USS Kearsarge. The original Kearsarge fought in the Civil War and sank the Confederate raider Alabama; ever since then the US Navy has always had a ship in commission named Kearsarge - presumably as a giant fuck you to the South for losing. BB-5 got the name in 1900, forever ruining an otherwise-perfect ship naming convention. For this reason, I support Puerto Rico becoming a state, but only if they rename themselves Kearsarge.
What was Kearsarge named after?
Mount Kearsarge in New Hampshire.
Interesting, were there a series of ships named after mountains at some point? Seems like an odd thing to name boats after: the things the most distant possible from the sea.
The Imperial Japanese Navy named their battlecruisers and heavy cruisers after mountains. You gotta name your ships after something, and the problem is worse the more you have - the British named a ton of their warships after flowers of all things.
I mean:
- rivers
- lakes
- fjords
- towns
- counties
- castles
- fortresses
- weapons
- admirals
- knights of the round table
- legendary heroes
- predatory animals
And if you really have hundreds of vessels (say destroyers) you could just number them.
Pretty sure by 51st state he means Puerta Rico like status. If the entirety of Canada was considered 1 state it may as well be.
There’s no way he’d annex Canada then give them the right to vote. It would be 2 more Democratic Senators, a massive leftward shift in the House, and would have more electoral college votes than any other state - all going to the Dems.
I feel like things could work out for them if territory boundaries were kept intact and integrated as individual states. I feel like Ontario would settle as a solid democrat state, but I think the rest are still in play. I want to say Quebec would end up democrat too but Quebec is surprising, I wouldn’t put any money on it.
While I know PR probably isn’t down for becoming a state now, we know that if they did have two senators and several house members, we’d be in a lot less shit right now. Hell, how many electrical votes would they have been in 2016 and 2024?
I had no idea how bad it is there now: https://youtu.be/6sPRFvWOBwo ☹️
Thank you for posting this, crozilla. Really disturbing. It should be “required watching” for every human being. Please don’t be too busy to watch. Turn up the volume, prep and cook dinner, fold laundry, anything. At least listen! And, at this time in history, Canadians: TAKE NOTE! Do not be complacent in our elections. This is serious shit. The U.S.A. has no soul.
That’s cool, I didn’t think Puerto Ricans had expressed a clear preference, but 56% is pretty good. What are we waiting for? Let’s define a path, let’s start walking it. Let’s chat about whether it’s the path they want.
After a quick read on the issue, the biggest argument against was that Hispanics vote Democrat. But now that Trump broke that trend, maybe now’s the time to get Republicans on board.
Both mainland us and PR have a lot to offer each other. PR can benefit from more investment in their economy, healthcare, infrastructure, etc, we can benefit from both a slight change in perspective, additional business and tourism opportunities, etc.
From what I’ve always heard, most people there weren’t interested in being an actual state.
Like I said, that was my impression as well, but it appears the last referendum had 56% in favor. I don’t know if that’s enough for a significant change in government but it’s clearly enough to take seriously. It’s enough that I hope there is a clear process and clear thresholds to progress in whatever direction the people want, and most of all I wish the US wasn’t an obstruction to whichever direction they want to go.
Agreed, same with other territories.
Healthcare???
Believe it or not.
I don’t know much about the state of healthcare there and nothing about how health coverage or insurance works, but from stories after the hurricane, it appears hospitals are much less equipped or accessible. A significant investment in technology and medical offices seems beneficial.
I’m certainly willing to be called wrong by anyone with first hand or more complete knowledge
Hmm but if the big stumbling block before was that one of the only 2 parties you have to choose from didn’t want PR to become a state on the basis of its population generally voting the other party, and now that’s changed and they prefer the party that previously opposed their integration in to the union, wouldn’t the party that formerly supported them now simply become opposed?
It’s all theater while we turn ourselves into Cuba
And the District of Columbia, and Guam, and Saipan, and Micronesia, and…
DC should vote for independence.
Didn’t they also not want to become a state though? Last I heard they mostly wanted to remain a territory.
Every boriken I know would very much prefer independence
Although close the last couple times PR voted, they voted against becoming a state…
I don’t think that’s correct. They’ve been voting for statehood. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Puerto_Rican_status_referendum
My understanding is that historically, the vote has been almost 50/50, but that there have been issues with the question that have thrown up doubts about the validity of the referendum conclusions. Stuff like giving the options of statehood or territory, but not independence, etc. Even the one you linked says that only around half of the population responded and over 200,000 ballots were thrown out for either being blank or invalid.
I had thought that a significant portion of the population had been in favor of independence, especially since we came in and basically destroyed their economy. They had been one of the largest manufacturers of pharmaceuticals in the world before the US, and now I think their biggest industry is tourism, which, as someone who has lived in a tourist town for decades, is not conducive to a healthy economy.
“You’ll never have to vote again” was, I believe, the quote, so… Not to minimize this very real problem, but I think we all need to be worried about equal representation, right? 🤣😂😅😢
Come on, guys, we all know Israel is already our 51st state if not seat of power.
No we’re their 2nd state…
*7th district (not counting their west bank district)
They’re USA’s “Vatican city”. The US is a theocracy that takes direct orders from its religious authority (Netanyahu).
Which is funny because he doesn’t wear the male religious hat (kippah) and he only ever goes to Shul (synagogue) when a camera is pointed at him.
Republicans don’t want PR as the 51st state because: PR doesn’t have oil wells & PR has brown people.
Also, it’s because Puerto Rico voted 65% for democrats.
It’s amazing to me that Hawaii has around half the population of Puerto Rico and still they aren’t a state.
It’s sad.
Washington DC: bottom meme
At least PR doesn’t get its budget and local laws overturned. DC is like below colony status.
If the US gives away Puerto Rico, a ton of technology companies will be in trouble due to citizen requirements. Like my company off shores a lot of engineering and IT work to PR.
I would think Puerto Rico is ready to no longer be a commonwealth, much less a state.
If Puerto Rico became a state, where would we deport all their brown people to? They’re obviously illegals, but Spain and the ‘country’ of Africa would need to take them back.
Canada also has a ton of brown people from all over the world. I guess they could be sent to their ‘home countries’ too.
/s
Maybe they could become part of the Dominican Republic. Seems a lot better than being attached to the US now.
