PUERTO RICO REFERENDUM VOTES FOR STATEHOOD…
This is one of those "small stories" that occurred in the last few days, that could have huge repercussions, if my high octane speculation of the day has any merit. The story, such as it is, was noticed by many of you, who sent different versions of it, but this one sent by Mr. V.T. from our friends at The Daily Bell is perhaps one "take" worth considering:
The first four paragraphs say it all:
Secession has been a hot topic lately from Brexit, to Catalonia, to California; so why is Puerto Rico voting on statehood tomorrow?
It is a non-binding referendum which asks Puerto Ricans if they would rather the territory remain as it is now, become an American state, or go entirely independent. But some say the election has been rigged for the pro-statehood group.
And indeed, they seem to have the most power right now. The big fish in a small pond are seeking to form a delegation of two “Senators” and five “Representatives” in order to lobby Congress to admit Puerto Rico as the 51st American State. Puerto Rico already has a Congresswoman who goes to DC, though she is not a voting member. Go figure she supports statehood, as someone who has the most to gain from it.
But the real reason many Puerto Ricans see statehood as appealing: the territory is bankrupt. Somehow it only took $73 billion in debt (about $20,000 per capita) to bankrupt Puerto Rico, as opposed to close to $20 trillion in debt (over $60,000 per capita) the U.S.A. holds. (Puerto Rico cannot simply print more money to pay their debts in inflated currency as the U.S. does–a back door tax.)
Now, since the referendum, as The Daily Bell staff points out, there have been the usual claims of rigging and so on. Indeed, as far as I can tell, approximately 20% of that island's voting population actually turned out to vote, leaving one to wonder what the non-participating eligible voting population of that island thinks, and why.
Whatever they're thinking, however, The Daily Bell is correct: Puerto Rico's mounting debt crisis is driving the move toward statehood, in the hopes that by becoming a state, the debt gets "absorbed" into the US federal debt, and economic woes on the island are relieved at the expense of the US taxpayer. If so, then Puerto Rico becomes another one-party republic, like California or Illinois, in the greater "union."
So where's the high octane speculation in that? Consider, for a moment, the current drive in some places for a constitutional convention as the cure-all for America's ills. Here I'm in four-square agreement with Catherine Austin Fitts: a constitutional convention is the last thing America needs, especially given the "class" and "character" of the people who favor it, for it would be a convenient way to finalize what she has been calling the "financial coup d'etat", whereby all the liabilities are rolled into the public sector, and all the assets are privatized, thus writing off all the "bad paper" in the financial system, and "privatizing" the assets of the country to do it, turning it into a corporate fiefdom. If you think things are bad with the media, or corporate behavior, now, just wait. And Puerto Rican statehood would, in my opinion, be one way to use a "crisis of opportunity" either to call for such a convention, or to address constitutional issues by Congressional fiat.
And this is why I entertain suspicions about the referendum to begin with: it seems contrived; a "small thing" that could turn into a very "big thing" in very short order, as the swamp seeks to extend itself. We don't need a new constitution, we need to observe (for once)the one we already have. I shudder to think of the financial and cultural nightmare the country will become if the current political class - the Hillary Clintons and Jeb Bushes and Chuck Schumers get their hands on it: think of the trumpet-nosed man in the Beatles' movie, The Yellow Submarine, sucking everything out of a lush valley. None of the people talking about the idea are of the stature of a Madison or Hamilton or Jefferson, and none of them have individual freedom and responsibility as their goal. Thus, if anything, the Puerto Rican referendum seems oddly - and in my opinion, suspiciously - out of place, as the Daily Bell points out: in the context of moves of secession in Catalonia in Spain, of BREXITS in Great Britain, of Venezia in Italy, even of Nuttyfornia, Puerto Rico, bucking the trend, wants to join.
True, lifeboats take much less time to sink than the Titantic, but nonetheless, the Titanic still goes down because the crew steams full steam into a field of icebergs.
So, Puerto Rico may have just provided them with the excuse they need to "restructure everything." Those in steerage, please wait in line while we get first class passengers into the life boats.
See you on the flip side...
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Did you know that the Cuban flag and the Puerto Rican flag are the same except for their colors inverted. I have lived under both those flags while sporting three national citizenships… including the Cuban, the American, and the Mexican. My choice would be to dissolve the nation-state [–if they would only let us, or if it were still possible to do considering all you and your readers know about the breakaway civilization, those Babylon Banksters etc…–] while proceeding to create the United biorregions of the Planet with autonomous municipalities throughout. The likes of Jefferson, Adams et al. would have to be located through legitimate procedures on a planetary basis to write something as coherent as that Constitution you and Catherine legitimately defend if only up to a certain point.
We really need some changes here in Mexico, from whence I write, as much as in the States and in Cuba and in Puerto Rico, all of which have been my homeland at some point, and which I dearly love and would like to see saved from all the warmongering that the nation state has been created to impliment under the ludicrous claims to “sovereignty” –which, as Simone Weil briefly and well put: “must look not only down but up as well”… that is what I prefer to call AUTONOMY… which all cities deserve to have as much as people –you and I– do.
I am not sending you money now because I have none but will as soon as I have sold that piece of land that is all I have left to sell… My sites are all down probably not because of censorship but because of technicalities as yet unresolved. The situation has been on for the last three months. Driving me batty.
That REFERENDUM you speculate about, as I recall, is something they do every so many years in PR… By my projections, Cuba and Puerto Rico will be part of a major biorregion to include Florida and all of the coastal lands around the shared waters of the Gulf and Carribbean… also the Western part of the Atlantic that bathes that oldest city of the USof A, St. Augustine, where you can also find, along with the oldest school, post office, drugstore etc… the oldest Greek Orthodox shrine in all of the US… (an interesting story in and of itself, how that house my own ancestor built became the oldest shrine of the religion you were brought up in; how Greek slaves turned up in there between the first and second “Spanish periods”).
Two out of ten occupants of a leaking dinghy vote to moor their boat to the Titanic. Sounds like a plan.
I’d much rather see Guam become the 51st state. When I lived there, the local people (native Chamorros, a considerable minority of locally raised whites, and lot’s of Filipinos) are hardworking, generally conservative folks who are pretty patriotic and have large numbers who join the military.
Guam has its own financial issues, but the way that the US military has bullied the island government is sick.
Furthermore, it is SUCH a strategic part of the USA that I strongly think Guam should be allowed statehood. Plus everyone already speaks English.
looks more and more like ussr collapse every day. think putin would let us have yeltsin and/or gorbachev (or their kids) to replace trump and speed things along a bit? dmitry orlov proves progressively more accurate every day.
I’m afraid Joseph got it wrong when he named Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush and Chuck Schumer as calling for a Constitutional Convention. Everything I’ve read points to the far right that’s calling for one. It’s the billionaire oligarchs like Trump backer Robert Mercer and the Koch Bros, plus their hired minions, the Tea Party Caucus that are rallying around the idea of a Constitutional Convention and actively organizing for one.
I’m with Joseph, the last thing we need right now is a Constitutional Convention, whether organized and controlled by the right or the left.
I did nothing of the sort. You need to pay attention to the argument and what I am saying. I am USING them as an EXAMPLE of a political class to illustrate that we do NOT need the current political class tinkering with the constitution. I may have conveyed that impression to you, but I believe I stated clearly something to the effect that do you want this class of people doing it?
I apologize for mis-characterizing your position on the subject.
As I said in my second paragraph, we both do agree against a Constitutional Convention, whether dominated by the right or left.
“Your comment is awaiting moderation.”
goshawks – June 23, 2017 at 5:17 pm.
(I think I figured it out. Ironically, the offending word may be “Const1tution”! Let’s see…)
An interesting speculation on the const1tutional convention ‘opportunity’. I would take that one further: If a const1tutional convention actually looked like it was going to happen, that would have a high probability of triggering a nationwide ‘civil war’ of sorts. This would be on such a scale that the nation would either collapse internally or spin us off into various state-collections.
The populace is generally sheeple, but our Const1tution is held one or two steps down from God. (Actually, the Declaration of Independence is, but the two are conflated together.) When it is ascertained that the original Const1tution is on the verge of being destroyed (not ignored, but destroyed), there will be a groundswell reaction beyond anything yet seen…
Of course, this may be part of the greater-plan in the disaster-capitalism playbook. “Seize the opportunity” and all. But the tempest may easily get out of hand and have interesting consequences on a “privatize the gains, socialize the losses” power-structure…
An interesting speculation on the constitutional convention ‘opportunity’. I would take that one further: If a constitutional convention actually looked like it was going to happen, that would have a high probability of triggering a nationwide ‘civil war’ of sorts. This would be on such a scale that the nation would either collapse internally or spin us off into various state-collections.
The populace is generally sheeple, but our Constitution is held one or two steps down from God. (Actually, the Declaration of Independence is, but the two are conflated together.) When it is ascertained that the original Constitution is on the verge of being destroyed (not ignored, but destroyed), there will be a groundswell reaction beyond anything yet seen…
Of course, this may be part of the greater-plan in the disaster-capitalism playbook. “Seize the opportunity” and all. But the tempest may easily get out of hand and have interesting consequences on a “privatize the gains, socialize the losses” power-structure…
How about that?
5:00 pm comment sent to the holding cell.
What ever happened to that so-called decentralized & democratic internet anyway?
Still in software holding-cell.
As they say in the 21st Century:
“When is software coming for you?”
Robert, I figured out why you got modded. Ironically, the offending word was “Const1tution”! Got me too…
Got one for you Goshawks!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=cfeAhYUWSas
Second half will blow your socks off!
Robert, thanks for the link. I knew when the FSB was set-up by BIS that the world was being sucked into a black (financial) hole. (Further.) Also, John Titus better watch his back, otherwise the PTB will arrange a nailgun or such for him…
Curiously enough, my internet connection got terrible as I went into that segment. Ultimately, my router was knocked offline. And when I went into it to re-establish the connection, there was a different key/passphrase ‘length’ shown on the sign-in space. Fortunately, I have a quite-strong key/passphrase, or worse may have happened. All of the above was just a coincidence, of course…
“Your comment is awaiting moderation.” Didn’t follow my own advice. “John T1tus” triggered the ‘safe’-guard…
Robert, thanks for the link. I knew when the FSB was set-up by BIS that the world was being sucked into a black (financial) hole. (Further.) Also, John T1tus better watch his back, otherwise the PTB will arrange a nailgun or such for him…
Curiously enough, my internet connection got terrible as I went into that segment. Ultimately, my router was knocked offline. And when I went into it to re-establish the connection, there was a different key/passphrase ‘length’ shown on the sign-in space. Fortunately, I have a quite-strong key/passphrase, or worse may have happened. All of the above was just a coincidence, of course…
Yes Goshawks.
Many coincidences by design.
Speaking of which, Crisis by Design – The Untold Story of the Global Financial Coup and What You Can Do About It[August 1, 2012] by John Truman layed-it-all-out years ago.
Of course, Dr. Farrell has been digging even deeper down than that
Const1tution, Inst1tution, Compet1tion, to name a few software sand/time traps.
This rewriting of the U.S. Constitution ambition is part & parcel to a systemic plutocrim’s lawlessness. Just as in the telecom spying; or, the robo mortgage signing; and many other in-your-face law breaking, the ruling plutocrims pay-off their in-pocket political-crims to pass laws making illegal acts… legal, ex post facto.
In that the ruling crims don’t obey the laws of the U.S. Constitution, with the exception when it suits their purposes, they want to do a re-write to make what they’re currently doing against the law, legal with an ex post facto new constitution[which has been gathering too much dust]
Although 9/11 did rewrite a bunch of rewrites; which ironically, were actually destroying current the current Bill of Rights – it just didn’t go far enough to do a total rewrite[or, more accurately, sacrificing all “our” liberties for the less than 1% honest PlutoCrim’s security from “real Americans justice”.
So ANY excuse to justify a complete destruction of what’s left of the republic – and make it legal…
see[see, as in Edgar G Robinson’s gangster lingo, see].
Of course, the 900 lb. Gorilla Document, that is just as viable today as it was when revolutionaries declared their intent to self governance: The Declaration of Independence.
We the people want representation; NOT, our current corporate and/or monopoly/oligopoly representative government.
…and that goes for both/all sides of the pond.
Here’s my shout-out to all my bruddahs and sistahs in the PC: do NOT, BY GAWD, let them Californicate Puerto Rico. Yours Truly;
Phil the Thrill, certified Nuttifornian
See?! That’s one good reason why; I am so addled by Nuttifornia peaches and cream that I said “PC” instead of “PR.” Please pray for us, y’all.
if my read sources are correct the headquaters of the US Internal Revenue Service is in Puerto Rico and NOT Philidelphia/Texas, etc.- this adds another questionable coin to the IMF purse (the IRS is part of the International Monetary Fund and proof the IRS in NOT a US gov’t institution)-
be well all-
Larry in Germany
I don’t know what they are thinking as the US will not bail out the territory just like they will not bail out any state or city.
Another reason for Puerto Rico to become a state is because of all the “trusts” that have been created there. For example US Trust 63 (I think it is) is the internal revenue trust. These trust apparently are private (not governmental) trusts. If Puerto Rico no longer exists, what happens to all of the trusts? This is not a rhetorical question. I would welcome a discussion from someone more knowledgeable than myself
Great question. Here is my 2 cents worth:
Currently PR is a territory in name but a wholly owned subsidiary of the UNITED STATES Corporation headquartered in DC. As Justice Harlan stated in Downes v. Bidwell (1901) – “Although from the foundation of the government this court has held steadily to the view that the government of the United States was one of enumerated powers, and that no one of its branches, nor all of its branches combined, could constitutionally exercise powers not granted, or which were not necessarily implied from those expressly granted (Martin v. Hunter, 1 Wheat. 326, 331, 4 L. ed. 102, 104) we are now informed that Congress possesses powers outside of the Constitution, and may deal with new ter- [182 U.S. 244, 380] ritory, acquired by treaty or conquest, in the same manner as other nations have been accustomed to act with respect to territories acquired by them.” and further down “…we have in this country substantially or practically two national governments; one to be maintained under the Constitution, with all its restrictions; the other to be maintained by Congress outside and independently of that instrument, by exercising such powers as other nations of the earth are accustomed to exercise. ”
As a subsidiary of the UNITED STATES, the parent corp. is responsible for the debt of the subsidiary. The parent is currently conducting bankruptcy proceedings on behalf of its subsidiary and attempting to negotiate a substantial haircut with their creditors. If they allowed PR to become a state they could pass this debt onto the citizens of the current 50 States. However, we would also own the trusts (and all their assets) such as the IRS trust. Therefore if they do allow PR to become the 51st state, then they will likely move all of the trusts to Guam or the US Virgin Islands so that they can keep their IMF / UN scams going.
I have been living here in Puerto Rico since 1983 the status issue goes back to at least the 1950s Cold War. The Free Associated State was USSA smokescreen at UN to cover up the fact that PR was a imperial satrap vassal state at best. Given the retarded political development of Europe The Roman Empire says it all a citystate created empire unlike Persia, Russia, China. What we are dealing with is naked tribalism by our elites if we are talking of feudalism which one if we mean the eastern the Greco-Roman Mesopotamian would be rightfully called feudal. The western would more rightful called tribal societies with technology. Things are so bad here in PR we pay sales tax on for food items in the stores.
So THAT’S why you always comment with run-on sentences…you are merely dropping us a line in between all those Puerto Rican surf sessions. This bruddah sends his luv.
Statehood for Puerto Rico? Now that is the greatest public relations event staged by a banana territory thus far. It’s just another load of “political reality” by “passing responsibility” to the gullible. And with the outcome of the special elections in SC and GA the Democrats need a “victory” right now! (Two brand spanking new Senators to trim the balance of power in DC…) Like a snickers bar no matter how you slice it vertically you still get nothing but PR!
20% voted – things have changed since that “West Side Story” song “I want to be in Ame-ri-ca”. But now the oligarchs, seeing the dream/nightmare of “world island” domination slip from their grasp, are turning from the Eurasian landmass to a real island, not a very big one.
https://beerepiphany.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/pinky_brain.jpg
It seemed to me from the remarks re Cuba, US will try to organize The America’s having lost Eurasia.
I was hoping to find Mariachi El Bronx doing “America.” Couldn’t, but I did find this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYm_-J7q6UY
Maybe even mo betta!
They are trying to bring investments from China. Bring some of the money from the jobs that were lost in the form of Chinese infrastructure investments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoqg2Mov8Vg&t=220s
If there is one place, outside the States, that deeply and profoundly, understands how the United States is governed, is Puerto Rico. This has been a territory for 119 years, that’s more than a century for crying out loud.
From the very beginning, Puerto Rico understood that every decision made by the United States, was the result of competing interests within the deep state . By 1898 the US had 3 different reports on Puerto Rico. (1) Civil Report (2) Commercial Report (3) Military Report and all of them contradicted each other. The Civil report said give these people self Government and Citizenship immediately. The military report said, nope, let’s have a military Government first. This is how the US governs itself, competing interests, factions, opinions, going at it with each other, all the time. Little has change in 119 years if you ask me.
The Plebiscite is just a poll with no Congressional approval, everyone knew that. I do respect the Governor initiative to resolve the political status. The mistake he made was to subject himself to the US Justice Department for approval. I would have told the US Justice Department, if you want to make your own plebiscite go ahead. I mean the United States, Republican and Democrats, both agreed very quickly to approve an Oversight Board. Why can’t they agree to approve a plebiscite ? Is easy, they are not interested.
Puerto Rico is a territory and lacks the capacity to Govern itself. The most clear example is the Oversight Board, that quiet literally, knocks out the local Constitution. It is a kind of governor with total powers and control. Many people in Puerto Rico were saying, this is not the time to discuss the political status. NO NO NO ! the time is always. Is like telling a slave, this in not the time to discuss slavery, let’s wait for a better moment.
The problem with the political status will be resolved, when the United States DECIDES TO DECIDE. This plebiscite won’t advance Statehood, Independence or any other option, what it will do is bring that decision closer.
Puerto Rican’s believing that the political status will be resolved based on what people want, ARE LIVING ON ANOTHER PLANET. The political status will be resolved, based on the interests of THE UNITED STATES. If they think Statehood is in their best interest, that will happen. If they think is Independence, that will happen.
We lost 150,000 jobs to Mr. Global that was huge. Hence we got a debt, so folks here are clear that a decision have to be made, we are affected all the time by the policy’s made in Washington.