For all of you who are secretly looking to visit all the great states that make up this land of ours, as well as for those of you who own flags.. get ready, you may have to do some adjusting.... Why? Well because Puerto Rico may become our 51st state!
The U.S. House of Representatives will vote tomorrow on The Puerto Rico Democracy Act (HR2499), which includes the holding of a plebiscite in Puerto Rico to decide if it wants statehood. In other words to decide if Puerto Rico wants to be the 51st state of the United States of America.
Reuters reports that it is expected the House will pass the Puerto Rico statehood bill HR2499. However, we don't know what will happen in the Senate. If approved by both the House and the Senate and signed into law by the U.S. President Barack Obama HR2499 will formally consult the citizens of Puerto Rico on their preferred political status if they want a U.S. statehood or continue to maintain their current status.
U.S. is giving parental blessings for the first time in 112 years to Puerto Rico to vote for its future status.
If HR2499 is passed the government of Puerto Rico can amend its constitution and come up with a second constitution with options of U.S. statehood, current status or even an independence.
Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory since 1898. It is self-governing, but depends on Washington in matters of defense, monetary policy, immigration and customs.
The issue of people's self-determination is on the agenda and of concern to other European countries as well. Consider the frozen conflicts in Moldova, Georgia and Azerbaijan. One of the recent successful cases in the world is the case of Kosovo. The conducted a referendum and voted for independence from Serbia. Serbia has not recognized it, but the world has. There is peace now in the Balkans.
Next case may be Azerbaijan. Nagorno Karabakh, a majority Armenian populated enclave in Azerbaijan is a de facto independent republic. After seemingly endless negotiations a formula for peace is put forward by the Minsk group mediators. According to the scheme the liberated territories adjacent to Nagorno Karabakh will be returned to Azerbaijan in exchange of the latter's recognition of of Nagorno Karabakh's right to self-determination and referendum. Azerbaijan is afraid that referendum will lead to independence because the Christian Armenian population does not want to leave in the same country with Azerbaijan because of the cultural differences and past oppressions.
The move by the United States to give its paternal blessing with the passage of HR2499 for Puerto Rico status, whether its statehood or independence, may send a peace message to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova to recognize the change in the global dynamics that the 21st century is the end of colonization and beginning of peace.
"I choose to give more voting power to brown colored people" - No senator ever
I do wonder how many people against PR statehood could actually point it out on a map.
Puerto Whereco??? -Americans
The scary thing is that Puerto Rico, if a state, will likely put Republicans in power. They are highly conservative when it comes to social matters due to tight catholic upbringing but they also have things in there that most liberal would kill for in the states. They have a public health option but it's only given out to the poor, you can scare shitless most establishments that try to fuck with your consumer rights cause they have fully functioning and ruthless consumer rights agency called DACO.
If PR becomes the 51st state, the whole identity of the current parties in there would dissolve since the only thing that separates them from each other is their position on when it comes to statehood/independence/pragmatism.
Puerto Rico being a state and maintaining Spanish as their principle language could also have a real positive effect against "English only" and other anti-brown laws around the country targeting immigrants and Latino citizens.
Though, hasn't Puerto Rico itself voted multiple times not to become a state? Yeah, it's been over 10 years since the last vote and recent polling has been fairly even along the 'eh who cares not like they want us' or 'no fuck em' lines, and if we actually show 'hey why don't you come on in and get actual representation' to them, I'm sure they may be more positive to the idea.
So right now it's looking decent but any poll isn't a good gauge until we can get some US side reaching out to them. Not to mention the American racist. I can't even imagine what people would do if Puerto Rico actually became a state. I'm pretty sure that people in the south are still calling for the deportation of Puertoriquenos. And if they did, just imagine the tea bagger shit storm, a Hispanic state where white people can't try to force the browns out. It's their nightmare come to life.
Oh Glen Beck, you're such a moron...
So how did the voting go down yesterday in allowing Puerto Ricans to decide their own political future and relationship with the United States? The vote was 223 to 169. Rep Louse Slaughter, D-N.Y. voted present. The Republicans attempted to add provisions to the legislation that would have made English the official language of a potential Puerto Rican state.
Yes, that's right. Every Hispanic Republican is human garbage. There is no denying that. they are literally trash.