Phasing Out

While on the non-existing topic of Luis "The Larva" Fortuño's leadership, Let's consider what will happen if--as expected--The Larva never reaches pupa stage, or does and and never emerges from his cocoon.

Phase 1: With The Larva making a fetish of weak-willed decision-making and side-stepping intra-party confrontation, We can expect three results:

1) A paralyzed government: Similar to what The Jellyfish and the legislative Fools put Us through, We'll see a government unwilling to move forward because it would mean the loss of political face to one side or the other. Imagine a country where the overall welfare (pun not intended) of the people takes a deep backseat to politics. Well, We're one of those countries.

2) A weakened economic infrastructure: Since the government here is the prime mover of economic factors, a senescent government is a dead end for economic prosperity. The only favorable light We'll see is that gas prices and power bill rates will drop a bit, but that's not because of anything The Larva or the Fools do.

3) An increase in corruption: There is no doubt that the level of corruption has been steady--so to speak--in the past few years. Why will it spike now? Because the opportunities to game the system are worth more now. We've basically had 2, maybe 3 years of inertia, and to people who have money and want to make more of it in Puerto Rico, the "easy" option  is  to pay to cut through the ever-growing pile of crap the government keeps throwing in Our paths. And, Let's face it: The statehood party has an institutional bias towards being corrupt because that's how they made things "work" under Pedro Stupid Rosselló.

Phase 2: The Larva finds himself increasingly dependent on Head Beggar in Washington Pedro "What? Me Hurry?" Pierluisi, who is an avowed Democrat, in contrast to The Larva who is an avowed "Limbaugh is a liberal" Republican.

As The Larva's scant power wanes even further, his meal ticket will become the Head Beggar, since that is the (pitiful) job The Larva "knows" how to do and because Congress will be more willing to listen to a Democrat than to a Christian right wing neocon. That is, if they listen to anything at all concerning Puerto Rico.

We'll know We've hit Phase 1 full-force when the senate (no capital letters until they earn them) guts some of The Larva's Cabinet nominees and force-feeds him the candidates they want to approve and when the poppycock bond ratings once again list Us as a declining credit risk. In other words, We'll be reliving the basic clash of 2005. (We'll find out about the corruption in 2010-2011...)

And We'll know We've hit Phase 2 when the Head Beggar announces some "major" pittance thrown down at Us, not through La Fortaleza, the ungovernor's mansion, but through tthe senate and the house of Even More Fools.

At that point, We can begin looking at a familiar Phase 3: Sticking Our heads even deeper in the sand.

The Jenius Has Spoken.