NO ONE HAS A CLUE WHAT TO DO ABOUT PUERTO RICO. Can we just stop fucking around and admit it already? Puerto Rico was in an economic crisis before Hurricane Maria, and now it's confronting a humanitarian catastrophe. Before the storm, PR owed $70 billion to Wall Street and $50 billion to its own citizens. Three weeks after the storm, PR is facing massive food shortages, 8% of its roads are passable, and only 16% of Puerto Ricans have power. Republicans have the #HottestTake, of course.
I get that anti-intellect streak too. Small town hick school, and I moved in from the big city of KCMO, so on top of being smarter than everyone else, I wasn't from around there. So many abusive nicknames, so much ostracization, so much social stigma.In fact, they were so behind I their curriculum, that when I moved in from KC, they were just starting what I'd already done a semester ago. So yeah, I got screwed from every direction when it came to perusing higher educational opportunities.
I don't know my IQ, but I did poorly on a reading comprehension test in 6th grade and in 7th grade they put me in remedial reading. Those kids were the most fun! And the classroom had this great lending library! It was great. Until my mom found out and explained to the school that I was a voracious reader who clearly just tested poorly that one day. They pulled me out of the class, but for the rest of that year I was still in the "track" with the fun kids for all my other classes.
Maybe having the lovely folks from Puerto Rico move to the "real USA" is not such a bad idea. We could get those 3MM people to scatter throughout some of the Redder states and vote.
*Better Caribbean food available to all of us*They'd have actual representation in our government*I got nothin' else....the strain is wearing on me
Yeah, and after the story got loose on the inner webs, I doubt it is still around.I'll still see if it's there, but no chance of visiting.And I was willing to do a report, too!
Oh, but wait, there's more.... In his column today, Krugman notes that "Specifically, PR runs, on paper, a huge trade surplus in pharmaceuticals – $30 billion a year, almost half the island’s GNP." It is, of course, big pharma playing with tax shelters.
And you wouldn't want to, I dunno, TAX that trade surplus (with the mainland!), I mean, that would hurt ROI.....
So let me get this straight...• Puerto Ricans are starving, have no power, no water, no sewer, no hospitals, and the Republicans want to ... lower taxes for rich people• 500 people were shot by a lunatic with 40+ guns and Republicans want to ... lower taxes for rich people.• 16 million Americans acquired health insurance for the first time under the ACA, and Republicans want to take it away from them and replace it with ... lower taxes for rich people.• Clean energy is a global necessity that could save the planet, but Republicans want dirty coal and oil and to ... lower taxes for rich people.I see a trend here.Why on earth would anybody vote for these idiots? The people who do are either rich people, or they are brain dead. Or they are Russians.
Yeah, but it's not as if the people themselves took out the loans and have to personally pay them back, so the per capita thing is sort of a diversion. Next they'll include all the cows in Texas in the per capita figure to make it look better for Texas.
Frankly, I thik PR would be better off annexing itself to Cuba. During their "special period" the Cubans were short of everything, but somehow have emerged as the healthiest people in the Caribbean (they started growing their own food, instead of relying of cash from exports for sugar to buy food), with a good educational system, and excellent emergency preparedness. Ok, there is that Stalinist hangover thing... but still...
I get that anti-intellect streak too. Small town hick school, and I moved in from the big city of KCMO, so on top of being smarter than everyone else, I wasn't from around there. So many abusive nicknames, so much ostracization, so much social stigma.In fact, they were so behind I their curriculum, that when I moved in from KC, they were just starting what I'd already done a semester ago. So yeah, I got screwed from every direction when it came to perusing higher educational opportunities.
There's a per capita thing that makes PR's debt proportionally bigger...
I don't know my IQ, but I did poorly on a reading comprehension test in 6th grade and in 7th grade they put me in remedial reading. Those kids were the most fun! And the classroom had this great lending library! It was great. Until my mom found out and explained to the school that I was a voracious reader who clearly just tested poorly that one day. They pulled me out of the class, but for the rest of that year I was still in the "track" with the fun kids for all my other classes.
Maybe having the lovely folks from Puerto Rico move to the "real USA" is not such a bad idea. We could get those 3MM people to scatter throughout some of the Redder states and vote.
*Better Caribbean food available to all of us*They'd have actual representation in our government*I got nothin' else....the strain is wearing on me
Yeah, and after the story got loose on the inner webs, I doubt it is still around.I'll still see if it's there, but no chance of visiting.And I was willing to do a report, too!
THIS!
THAT!
Oh, but wait, there's more.... In his column today, Krugman notes that "Specifically, PR runs, on paper, a huge trade surplus in pharmaceuticals – $30 billion a year, almost half the island’s GNP." It is, of course, big pharma playing with tax shelters.
And you wouldn't want to, I dunno, TAX that trade surplus (with the mainland!), I mean, that would hurt ROI.....
So let me get this straight...• Puerto Ricans are starving, have no power, no water, no sewer, no hospitals, and the Republicans want to ... lower taxes for rich people• 500 people were shot by a lunatic with 40+ guns and Republicans want to ... lower taxes for rich people.• 16 million Americans acquired health insurance for the first time under the ACA, and Republicans want to take it away from them and replace it with ... lower taxes for rich people.• Clean energy is a global necessity that could save the planet, but Republicans want dirty coal and oil and to ... lower taxes for rich people.I see a trend here.Why on earth would anybody vote for these idiots? The people who do are either rich people, or they are brain dead. Or they are Russians.
Better music?A slightly lower percentage of fundamentalist Christians in the population?
Shorter Republican orthodoxy: Not one dollar of tax money must ever be spent to help anyone, anywhere, at any time, in any circumstances.
https://media.giphy.com/med...
Yeah, but it's not as if the people themselves took out the loans and have to personally pay them back, so the per capita thing is sort of a diversion. Next they'll include all the cows in Texas in the per capita figure to make it look better for Texas.
Apparently they aren't very good at avoiding it, though.
Privatized Gain and Socialized Loss is the New and Improved American Way.
Frankly, I thik PR would be better off annexing itself to Cuba. During their "special period" the Cubans were short of everything, but somehow have emerged as the healthiest people in the Caribbean (they started growing their own food, instead of relying of cash from exports for sugar to buy food), with a good educational system, and excellent emergency preparedness. Ok, there is that Stalinist hangover thing... but still...