It’s an apt description.
Not generators? There are tons of businesses in DC.
“Gun fetishists” is just a phrase made up by the hoplophobes.
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excellent!
Cut 'em loose!
Why can’t the rest of us vote on it? We’re going to have to pay for it.
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It really should take a national referendum. But if dems end the filibuster and ram them through, I just want to remind them, there is nothing stopping future Republican majorities from turning Texas into four states etc. Quite a few giant ruby red western states.
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I think the third choice would be the best option for both parties. Free trade compact and a mutual defense treaty. Other than that they run their own affairs without any input from the US and consequently we don’t pay for their mistakes.
Definitely no to statehood. At least for the foreseeable future. That place is a train wreck and if it became a state the Feds would see fit to “fix it” which would cost billions of dollars we don’t have.
If they go third option and maybe 30 years from now they get their house in order, then statehood could be considered. But right now, absolutely not.
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Yeah a national referendum would be the most fair option for both parties.
I would support option three. Sovereignty for Puerto Rico with a free trade agreement and mutual defense compact.
I would gladly get on the pulpit to scream “no statehood!” That place is a slow motion train wreck and becoming a state would put all of us on the hook to repair the damage they mostly did to theirselves.
I would be called racist for it, but I would calmly remind the Pro-State supporters than I’m darker skinned than 90% of the islanders.
That’s the entire Caribbean. Tourism is the vast majority of all the island economies. If not for mostly American tourists they’d end up like the one outlier country…
Haiti. That place is just a complete ■■■■ hole.
But we do have a long running (over a century) and complex history with Puerto Rico. I got this weird feeling that if we gave up all forms of our influence the Chinese would move in. With a free trade agreement we could help steer their economy and keep the island in our sphere of influence.
Why they want statehood.
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Yepp. And that’s one of many reasons that I am vehemently opposed to state hood.
We’ve got enough of our own issues with the welfare system as it stands. Bringing in Puerto Rico would probably destroy the welfare system, since the vast majority of the island’s residents would qualify.
Are you sure? They would most likely vote Republican.
Besides, they wouldn’t be any worse than Mississippi or Alabama when it comes to being a taker state.
National referendum would never work and no doubt the cost would somehow run into billons.
Does anyone seriously expect both sides to be able to agree on wording let alone the system for tabulating votes.
IMHO this should be decided by the house and senate which means there will be no change.
As has been pointed out and argued on this board MANY, MANY times, the United States is a Republic, not a Democracy. And there is not a Constitutionally designated method for holding a national referendum, nor should a national referendum be attempted. Additionally, there has never been any referendum on any previous statehood admission, from Vermont on March 4, 1791 to Hawaii on August 21, 1959.
The only referendum needed would be of those Puerto Ricans actually living in Puerto Rico on the referendum date.
I would be remiss that this whole situation resulted from the United States playing colonial games around the turn of the 19th/20th Centuries. After the Spanish American War, we should have immediately removed ourselves from Cuba, Puerto Rico and everywhere else. Instead, we decided to play colonial masters, so here we are.
Additionally, as I have shown in other threads, the United States has greatly enabled Puerto Rico’s self destructive behavior and we have imposed the Jones Act on Puerto Rico, which makes life much more expensive for them.
If we had just ■■■■■■■ left in 1898 after the end of the war, we would not be dealing with this situation at all.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we incorporated a rich country into the U.S. as a state with new technology, medicines, and natural resources and not a failed state. Where always downgrading. Why not bring Chad in as well while they are at it.
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We brought in Alabama and Mississippi. In particular, Mississippi makes Puerto Rico look life Canada in comparison.
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Yes it should. It’s not theirs to give.
Republic does not preclude referendum, quite the contrary.
So, California. We’re already part of country, though.
I like this it’s just partisanship right out in the open in the face. We know we suck but if we add this starving state as well as DC promise them free ■■■■ from taxpayers we will have enough votes to win every election regardless of our failures.
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