It's Not News, It's Crap, And My Brethren (Refuse To) Know It

About every 3 months, someone criticizes Me for not watching local news, listening to local talk radio shows and/or not reading a local paper in print or digital format. I don't bother with any of it so that 95-98% of the year, I promenade through life in quieter contemplation of more important things. Which is pretty much everything.

Now some people might think But the news is about important stuff. (Yes, these are the kind of people who would say "important stuff." Therefore, I pity them, but I keep a poker face.) My cogent and erudite response to that is: It's all crap.

Period.

Example: A good friend and colleague of Mine, someone who I often disagree with, but find his positions largely defensible and understandable, swears that one can only understand Puerto Rico by listening to talk radio and reading the daily papers. He has a minor point: if you want to know how and why My Island is being screwed like a cheap whore in a crack house, then yes, you do need to listen to local asshats and read the sophomoric words written by local asswipes. (There are exceptions in both categories, but they don't even achieve a Pareto Rule level of 20%, falling closer to 10%, if that.) But if you want to grok My Island, to see beyond the crapfest slung daily, you have no other choice but to avoid the local media.

I'm on record, several times, as calling Our level of """journalism""" essentially sheep-like, with more similarities to sheep dung than to the woolly beast itself. Take TV news, please. (Ba-dum-bum!) Anchors here are like anchors in the U.S of part of A.: photogenic monkeys plastered in make-up. The field reporters are often stupid enough to start grazing if they fall on a lawn, but make up for their lack of intellect by being willing puppets to whatever power-that-be wants to play them. Again, there are exceptions, but the ones I can pinpoint to on My Island are no longer with the major TV stations, plying their trade on much smaller newscasts and on websites, distant from the masses.

If there's a category that defines crap, at every imaginable level, it is pundits, the folks lumped together as so-called so-called so-called experts, three magnitudes removed from any type of intelligence higher than that shown by retarded weasels with alcohol poisoning. These wretched morons, on TV, radio and in newspaper columns, are incapable of stringing coherent thoughts together unless it is in service of some controlling agenda, whether it is related to party politics, political agendas or socioeconomic objectives that the "haves" want to impose on the "have nots."

Now I'm implying that there is some sort of mindfulness behind all this, and that's correct. But it doesn't appear n the media, at least not directly ad not often. No, the public role of the media is to shovel crap in massive quantities at the gaping maws of mindless indifference that constitutes the greater majority of My Brethren. Folks who slap on talk radio in the morning, peruse the paper during the day (to avoid work and/or stay current with gossip) and then watch TV news in the evening. Whatever that percentage is, and it's well above 50% of Our adults, it's nothing more than a misinformed herd of passive beasts causing all of Us long-term harm. And if you think "misinformed herd of passive beasts" is harsh, My first draft read "walking bags of useless stupid shit," so, yeah, I have a gentle side.

For the past two years, I've kept track of predictions that My friend and colleague have made about local issues, from taxes and prices to status debates and political machinations. We sat down recently to go over the list, and after agreeing on 27 topics We had made some sort of prediction on, We verified who was closer to the actual end result.

No surprise: I was closer on 18 to his 9. It should be noted that on purely economic issues, We were both right on 6 of 9 predictions, albeit different ones. But in political matters, I was more prescient on 12 of 19, while he was on point on only three, even though he claims to be non-partisan and thus "objective" in his evaluation of political arguments.

Is he going to stop listening to talk radio? No. But I got him to admit that he often listens because it "entertains" him more than it informs him.

One down, about a million and a half to go.

Crap.



The Jenius Has Spoken.


[Update: 6 December 2014: Via Eric Zuesse, of Washington's Blog, this scythe to the collective sheep-brain: the media in the U.S. of part of A. is extremely controlled.]

Observations On 3 Men I See Almost Every Day

There are three men I see almost every day. One of them, the one I encounter most often, spends 9-14 hours a day at the light near McDonald's, asking for money. He is invariably polite, fairly well-dressed in skateboarder faux-chic and offers quick advice, such as "Drive calmly" and "See the good around you." He is an admitted drug addict, looks the part, and I suspect he's using again.

The second sits on steps outside a couple of local stores night after night and aggressively asks for a quarter or half a dollar. He acts churlish if you give him a soft answer. There are no needle tracks on his arms, he seems well-fed and healthy, his eyes and skin are clear. If prompted to speak, he will quickly shift from a hard tone to a wheedling nasal whine, the proto-bully quickly morphing into victim mode. He once tried to block My path to re-ask for a dollar. I was carrying several small bags after leaving the drug store and maybe based on that, he made a move at Me. I dropped the bags and took a step forward. His eyes locked with Mine and he took off, nearly getting creamed by a passing car. He doesn't talk to Me anymore.

The third appears at the light where Our local two large supermarkets intersect with a hardware store. He is very quiet, rarely speaking. Tall, he looks like a junior college shooting guard. He wears a cap and fairly fashionable sneakers. He makes eye contact with about half the people in cars, but never reacts when he gets ignored or turned down. He'll spend 2-3 hours a day at that, sometimes skipping a day, but usually not more than 2 in a row.

I'm sure the first one, call him Juan, is essentially homeless. However, he bathes twice a day, using a friend's house for that. The second guy, call him Edward, is not homeless, but he pretends to be. He has keys in his pocket and I once saw him use one of them to enter a local apartment building. The third guy, call him Luis, is not homeless. He lives across from the local gun range, the one that punctuates My days with distant pop-pop-pop or rattatatatat sounds from morning to night.

Are they lazy? Not really. They seem to work hard for their money, to almost-quote a disco goddess. Juan sometimes sells produce at "his" light, or hands out flyers, scrupulously limiting the handouts to one per person. Edward acts like work is punishment. Luis seems indifferent to work or anything other than his own thoughts.

Are they addicts? Juan was and probably has fallen back into that lifestyle. (Yes, it is a lifestyle, based on choice. Not a good one, but a choice nonetheless.) Edward and Luis don't fit the profile, at least physically. I'd say the odds are against either one being addicted to illegal drugs.

Are they useless? Most of the arguments against helping the homeless or those begging at large are based on (a) they deserve their situation, (b) they could get out of it if they wanted to and (c) they are simply parasites seeking more to freeload on. All three arguments are wrong, as most blanket statements tend to be.

No one "deserves" anything: it is either earned or imposed. Does a person "deserve" cancer, even if they smoke 2 packs a day? Actions and decisions have consequences, and many of them are accidental. Yes, you are more likely to end up homeless if you are an addict, but did the person "deserve" to be an addict?

The problem with "deserve" is that it implies a direct causal relationship where none might exist. Most people who end up homeless do so from events far beyond their control, so no, they didn't generally "deserve' it.

Unless they've been out there, living on the streets, a person will have no idea how hard it is to get out of that situation. When survival becomes the primary daily activity, how and where to get food, water, shelter and comfort (if possible), notions of "upward progress" are not options. Even if you wanted to climb out of that abyss and live a "normal" life, you would find it hard to take care of yourself, search for a job, rent an apartment or do any of the myriad things a person takes for granted when survival is not an immediate concern.

As for parasites, there is a large degree of that in folks who panhandle and beg. But job and work options are often denied to people who most need it because they look slovenly (having no place for shelter and to bathe does have its consequences),.have no permanent address or valid I.D. and have difficulty adhering to a schedule since, you know, surviving on the streets is not exactly subject to workshift patterns.

Does this excuse someone like Edward? Hell no. He's a punk with the chutzpah to con money out of people rather than making a living. I don't know about Luis, but I know Juan will work if you ask him to. I've seen it several times and he delivers to the best of his ability every time. But he won't accept being treated like a bum. He was selling newspapers for two weeks and the agent tried to keep the gas money Juan earned  (about $22 all told) because, of course, Juan doesn't own a car. So Juan quit.

If you react like Juan should have kept his trap shut and thus keep his menial job, you are a blithering idiot. Would you have taken that "deal"? Of course not. You won't let someone brazenly steal your money like that. And if you say "Yes, I would have," you are both a blithering idiot and a liar.

Our problem with the homeless, the panhandlers and the beggars is not them: it's Us. We act like their situation is a personal failing when in fact, it is Our collective failure as a society. We have failed to provide enough opportunities, enough support, for everyone to find their path to stability.

Can We "save" everyone? Hell no. Some people are self-destructive and there's nothing We can do to stop someone who simply insists on wrecking their life with alcohol (by far the most common addiction), drugs, violence, video games or any other of the thousands of potential obsessions humans can focus on.

But We can help more of Us by developing the kind of society that fosters self-growth, self-motivation and rewards honest effort fairly. Yes, I know I'm asking for My Island to change almost exponentially, but asking for less is part of the problem: We ask for less because We really don't think We deserve more.

That sucks.

As for what I'll do with the three guys I've mentioned: I'll still give Juan rides to and from his friend's house when the opportunity arises and maybe buy him a burger on the days he's selling produce; I'll wat to see of Edward is anything but a punk, and I'll watch Luis a couple of times to see what his deal is.

Can I help more than I am doing now? Certainly. Do I want to? Depends on what's needed and how much effort I have to make to pitch in and lend a hand. No one can truly help another if that help exceeds the capacity for helping. In other words, if it doesn't cost Me much, I'll make the effort.

It won't be enough, I know, but at least it's honest.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

Some Things Gotta Be Said

Long. Live. Stupidity.

However:

Example the First: The "Proto-Weasel," Our misbegotten ungovernor Alejandro García, is uncaptain of a badly-sinking ship, with Us as the long-suffering passengers. The Proto-Weasel, whose face always looks like he really wants to be evil but his mommy won't let him, allegedly hand-picked a wormy Cabinet from the dregs of pseudo-talented parasites and is now watching as plenty of them are running away so fast the vacuum threatens to suck the paint off La Fortaleza. The stupidity is rampant, but just thinking that one can "fix Puerto Rico" or "make a real difference" simply by occupying the now-ungovernor's mansion is hubris at best and sub-zero IQ at worst.


Example the Second: Speaking of sub-standard IQs, enter one Ricky "Fraud Frat" Rosselló, son of the infamous corruptiongovernor Pedro "Liar Liar" Rosselló. Like smegma from a peter (or in this case, from a pedro), Reeky is a pusbag. I don't give a rat's (f)Reeky atriopore for what goes on in the bootlicking excuse called the statehood party, but the fetid rise of Reeky Fraud Frat needs to be placed in context.

A thumbnail run of the last 5 sorry wretches stinking up La Fortaleza looks like this:

1) Pedro the Liar: Pediatric surgeon, major health agency director.
2) Sila the Quitter: Mayor of San Juan, Secretary of State, major agency director.
3) Aníbal the Jellyfish: Lawyer, representative in the House, Head Beggar in Washington.
4) Luis the Larva: Lawyer, multi-agency director, Head Beggar in Washington.
5) Alejandro the Proto-Weasel: J.D. degree, Senator and major agency director.

All of those on the list, regardless of how feckless and criminal their tenures in office were (right, Liar and Jellyfish?) came in having established themselves as somewhat useful, as having at least tried to prove themselves openly. Furthermore, they came in directly beholden to a legacy that they at least said they respected. In other words, they may have been parasitic scum, but they had certain (minimal) standards.

Now Reeky Fraud Rat skitters in. His academic degree is suspect, the """paper""" he """"""wrote"""""" was merely a case of "he was a grad monkey pair of hands," he gets a cushy job at the Medical Center for which he was as qualified as Bob the Builder and it has become obvious that Reeky Fraud does not have and will not have any standard except himself.

So answer this: what could a fetid pus-addled rodent (sorry rodents) like Reeky want with La Fortaleza?

Only one thing: whatever it can get as fast as it can get it. Fuck everything else.

And the stupid excuse for a stupid party will do the stupid thing and put the stupid Reeky Fraud Rat in position to do Us stupid all the way to where the Sun was never meant to shine.


Example the Third: Because Our """journalists""" deserve that respectable title exactly as much as hyena spit does, a mini-herd of them jumped on a lickpittle hatchet job about My Island called something like "Puerto Rico: Zombie Island. This piece of shit portrays Us as swamped up to Our necks in drugs, that We are so zonked out that Our population is at risk of dying in a generation, all of it couched in language so ponderously hyperbolic and crass that if it had been about ANY other topic, My Brethren would have giggled and hooted. But because it was about Us, and We ferociously lust for any attention, even hyperbolically-stupid bullshit like this "special report" ("special" as in "Special Olympics"), first a """news team""" jumped on it with all hooves and even had the unmitigated idiocy of claiming that they had asked the ungovernor to comment on their scum-sucking wallowfest, To the Proto-Weasel's credit, he passed.

Now if he just passed out permanently, then We got something good.

So after seven and a half months, the ability to just let stupidity slide by unremarked runs out. Not that stupidity will ever end, but there's only so much of it a Jenius can take before the keyboard needs to be pecked at to keep the record straight.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

The "Who Cares?" Investor Weighs In

Found this on a blog called WikiRating.

If you want the short version, skip the italics to My conclusion.

Puerto Rico Rating Downgrades: Enron Redux?
Posted on February 12, 2014  by Marc Joffe  

 On November 28, 2001 Enron lost its investment grade credit rating. Four days later, the company filed for bankruptcy. Those awaiting a similar collapse after Puerto Rico’s descent into junk bond territory last week will have to wait a lot longer to see the Commonwealth’s financial denouement.
 The relatively slow motion nature of Puerto Rico’s fiscal collapse – if, in fact, one is occurring – underscores the differences between various classes of public sector and private sector debt. It also speaks to changes in market conditions.

 As with the 2011 S&P downgrade of the US, rating agency actions had little impact on Commonwealth yields. The New York Times reported last Wednesday that the investors had shrugged off the S&P action. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Puerto Rico General Obligation debt traded at a lower yield after the Moody’s follow-on downgrade than it had earlier in the week.

 The limited impact of the ratings downgrades might be attributed to market discounting – since the rating agency actions were widely anticipated. It could also speak to the greatly reduced reputation rating agencies enjoy in the aftermath of the Enron/Worldcom scandals of the early “aughts” and the subprime fiasco of 2008.

 Unlike Enron, Puerto Rico can operate for some time without capital markets access. The Commonwealth can get by without financing because its fiscal deficits are relatively low and its debt is predominantly long term. It thus does not need that much new cash to finance ongoing operations or to roll over previous bond issues.

 But, sooner or later, Puerto Rico will have to bring new issues to market, and many doubt whether investors will be around when it does. Commonwealth-related debt accounts for about 2% of overall US municipal bonds outstanding and its fall from investment grade leaves many traditional investors out of the running. So it would appear that there is a lot of debt and not much appetite.

 In my view, this analysis misses some key institutional developments. Hedge funds and certain other classes of investors can traverse multiple markets. Further, Asian investors have accumulated billions of savings and remain on the lookout for alternatives to low yielding US Treasuries. So the constituency for Puerto Rico debt is not merely the $3.7 trillion municipal market, but a much larger audience especially if the price is right.

 Puerto Rico debt is now trading at yields much higher than that of Italy, Spain and Portugal – and is roughly on a par with Greece. In contrast to Greece, Puerto Rico is not a serial defaulter. In fact, it is part of an asset class – US state and territorial bonds – that has not seen a default in over 80 years. Further, the last default – of Arkansas in 1933 – ended in a full recovery for investors. So, from an international perspective, Puerto Rico bonds appear to offer good relative value.

 Thus if new Puerto Rico bonds are offered at 8% or 9%, I expect that they will find a bid. While coupons at that level are not fiscally sustainable, the fact that most Puerto Rico government debt is long dated means that Commonwealth interest expenses as a proportion of revenue will remain low relative to previous default cases.

 Unlike Enron or another private company, a US sub sovereign like Puerto Rico has secure revenue sources in the form of taxes and federal assistance. As Detroit has shown, insolvency is ultimately possible, but the path to ruin for a public sector debt issuer is usually a long one.


Okay, here's the skinny: it doesn't matter a farthing that Puerto Rico's debt makes it an economic example of "fiscal crisis." What really matters is that you can keep buying Our fucking bonds and make money!

The reality of Our situation is a stagnant economy racing to a collapse. But for wikiboy and his ilk, it's a profit-making bonanza!

So the solution is--obviously--switch sides! Right, wikiboy?

My valentine to y'all: Switch sides, Brethren!

After all, We got the "Who cares?" part down pat...



The Jenius Has Spoken.

What Our Indifference Hath Wrought

What were you doing Saturday? Do you remember? Maybe it was fun.

Here's what The New York Times did, a piece titled "Economy and Crime Spur New Puerto Rican Exodus."

A few fillips from said piece:

* Our debt exploding to over $70 billion (it was under $28 billion in 2008).
* A downgrade of the bond-based debt to junk by Standard & Poor's and Moody's.
* Unemployment listed at 15.4%, which is as accurate as saying I'm 2'8" tall (I'm 5'10").
* Rapidly-rising cost of living, especially in terms of utilities.
* Lousy public schools.
* Rising crime.
* A pathetically-limited workforce. (The article doesn't note that the government accounts for almost 40% of all direct and indirect labor on the Island.)
* Increasing exodus, causing about a 14% population drop in the past decade.
* Increased taxes hitting small and medium-sized businesses hardest.
* A per capita income of $15,200, lower than it was in 2008 and less than half of Mississippi's.

Now if you read--or will read--My previous post, and the whore-mongered piece it is based on, you might see some of the same fillips in that """report""" as in the article. So why was I so negatively harsh on Meacham the Bicho and will be appropriately neutral on Times correspondent Lizette Alvarez?

Because Ms. Alvarez stuck to the facts while Carl El Pendejo Republicano is trying to stick it to Us.

Look, I won't argue the facts. My Island is ears-deep in a shithole and no amount of demagoguery is going to erase that reality. But being stuck in a horrible situation is a far cry from saying that those who seek to remove themselves from it will fuck up another country.

Carl's mom may be Chilean and he may speak fluent Spanish, but that doesn't give Carl Mama-Bicho any special insight to what We are in Puerto Rico, who We are as Puerto Ricans or what We are capable of as individuals or a people looking to make progress. He is entitled to his opinion, but when he acts to make that opinion some sort of policy prediction and hires a spineless troll to try to give it legitimacy, he is wrong, he is an asshole and he is worthy only of Our most blistering contempt.

As for the spineless troll cum economist-for-hire Joaquín Villamil, the sooner he drowns in his own slippery scum, the better.

Beyond that, here's the bottom line: We are in this shithole because We let it happen. I repeat: We. Let. It. Happen. It's Our fault. 

We let the Fools play Us and far too many of Us cheered them on. We let the Fools rob Us of Our present and future and cheered on the ones We saw as being "Our thieves" and voted against those We saw as "their thieves." 

We bought the shit sandwich that government jobs were economic growth and that party politics mean more than economic and social progress. And We allowed a double-handful of blood-sucking parasites to multiply into a veritable army of insatiable leeches gnawing at every level of society.

We let it happen. Our bad.

But that doesn't mean that We are now in the business of being drug-addled criminals, Carlambetranca. As Ms. Alvarez noted in her article, much of Our recent exodus is from the middle-class and with professional occupations. People who take their kids and parents and are moving to the States with what little money they can recover from selling in a true buyer's market. Folks who want to build, to create, to forge a new life for themselves and the next generation. People who simply want the chance to do what they were trained, educated and prepared for. 

Will as many as one million of My Brethren leave Puerto Rico, flooding into states beyond Florida, Texas, New York and New Jersey? It's possible. Not likely, but possible.

And will this influx be a crime wave smacking the U.S. of part of A. shores like a hurricane?

No. 

It will be an influx of people focused on making a better life because there's a chance, a decent chance, that things will get better in 10-12 years and coming back to the Island will then become a reasonable option. It happened before: the 1940s-1950s exodus of Puerto Ricans to the States is the example--the only example that matters. The situation is virtually the same, a mass of workers looking to create a stronger and brighter future for themselves. The vast majority of these folks aimed to work and most of them made their mark in a positive fashion. To ignore that historical tendency is to be willfully blind.

Then again, willfully blind is the default ocular stance of Republicans like Carl "Mamao" Meacham.

And sadly, of Us when it comes to making sure the Fools aren't raping what We have and need for a better future.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

Beware Our Cooties

"But the Puerto Rican economy does matter for the United States—and particularly for U.S. security. Given the island’s proximity and ties to the United States—not to mention the perennial (and highly controversial) debate over Puerto Rico’s status as a U.S. commonwealth and the ease of entering the United States once on the island—drug trafficking and violent crime in Puerto Rico have direct implications for U.S. security policy in the region. In the absence of a healthy economy and given the shrinking private sector in Puerto Rico, the growth of informal activities—drug trafficking and organized crime chief among them—is the unfortunate consequence."

That little fillip comes from a recent publication titled "Shit! The 'Ricans Are Comin'!" The actual title of the butt-wiper is "Why Puerto Rico's Economy Matters for U.S. Security," written by local economist José Villamil and with a forward by the above-quoted Carl Meacham.

The report was issued in last week just as the junk-bond bomb of Our overwhelming debt was starting to become a palpable reality to folks who are too dense to absorb news other than from Our gossip-rag media, lamebrain talk radio or the corner bar.

The report itself is a typical Villamil production: up-to-date with data, leaning more on style than substance and the finest expression of the economist-as-whore. When you pay Villamil to write a report for you, he writes the report you want. Satisfying clients is very high on the Villamil short-list of priorities.

As an example of his sloppiness as window tint, here's this quote, from page 5: "Even this complacency came to an abrupt end in 2005, when rating agencies raised an alarm concerning the high level of appropriations debt with no source of repayment. And in May of the following year, the Puerto Rican government had to close for two weeks because of budgetary difficulties."

Notice how the bond debt crisis is juxtaposed directly with the government shutdown, a gross over-simplification of what was undeniably a party politics shitfest between a dickhead governor and a dickhead senate president. (No. No capital letters for these assholes.) Was the debt part of the problem? Yes. But the shutdown was totally unnecessary and caused mainly by an infantile bout of dick-swinging between guys with microcephaly and micropenises.

But of course, what Carl pays for, Carl gets. He wants to paint a picture of Puerto Rico as a rogue narco-estadolibreasociado whose millions of cocaine-infested criminals are poised to swarm the pristine shores of the U.S. of part of A. in a mindless rampage of raping and pillaging. It will come as no surprise to smart folks that Carl is a true-blue Republican. Or as their ilk is known in Jeniusville, a dickwad.

Carlitos, whose mom is Chilean, speaks fluent Spanish, so I can make My point to him in a language We both can enjoy: Cágate en tu madre, cabrón.

Google Translate for the rest of you.



The Jenius Has Spoken. 

 

  

Choking Our Information Stirrer-Straw

Look what I just found: an executive order that seeks to centralize all--ALL--digital information sources and services of Our hideous shitfest of a government under one shitpile, the Office of Management and Budget.

Really.

Now I'm not going to sit here on what was supposed to be My week off and tell you that Our digital information system is A+. Or C+. Or even D+. It's more like a D--, but it is making progress. Here are some highlights, in just 7 months:

* Oracle contract reduction cost from $33 million to $16 million.

* Mobile phone compatibility (finally) for government webpages.

* The discovery and elimination of over 64,000 viruses infecting government computers, most of them originating in Russia and China.

* A centralized portal for government tech projects, to avoid waste through repetition or needless redundancy.

* Coordination of agency groups for enhanced inter-agency communication and collaboration.

* Database contract cost reductions, the first ever.

* A Tech Summit, the first such high-profile event in Puerto Rico.

* The implementation of transparency and open source software as the official policy of the government.


In the words of a Mythbuster, "There's your problem!" This power ploy by the OMB--OGP in Spanish, as in Over-Grown Pus-heads--is pretty transparent, seeking as it does to quash not only the notion of "open government data," but also that of "open source software." The order issued would consolidate all purchasing power and purchasing-related decisions into the hands of the OMB, leaving the tech experts as before, "advisors" with the power of watching their best efforts be derailed.

I can practically smell the crabbed hands of Micropore and Bore-acle in this mess.

Now I'm not a techie. Can't program an 8-track to record a video for My Nokia. But I do understand one thing: change hurts. But change is needed, and in Our tech environment, it is absolutely necessary. The change coming out of the technology director's office is a breath of fresh air for two very basic, very cogent reasons:

1) True techies are finally in charge of tech development and policies, and...

2) The established providers are being shown up for what they are: money-grubbing, bribing apes.

Okay, not convinced? Then look at it from another direction, in step-by-step fashion:

Step 1: The current (faux)governor, Alejandro García, "The Ova," made transparency and open source a commitment of his (faux)administration.

Step 2: The OMB Director, one Carlos "¿Quéseyo?" Rivas, decides to unilaterally erase that policy, effective December 15th, 2013.

Carlos ¿Quéseyo? Rivas

Now, analyze:

* Did The Ova decide the policy's time was ova, uh, I mean, over? If so, he is now several parsecs further from considering the potential of maybe having a spinal cord than he was before.

* Has ¿Quéseyo? decided that The Ova is too soft to stop him? In so much hot water that he'll crack before taking action? That The Ova is fried from too many problems and nowhere near enough solutions? Or is it that ¿Quéseyo? thinks The Ova is ultimately a chicken?

* Yes, I enjoyed writing all that.

You see, this 3-page document is not just another dosage of stiff toilet paper, this is a battle for the type of government We will have. On one side sits a group of tech experts who want to implement best practices and truly place Puerto Rico at the forefront of tech innovation. On the other side, you have whores. Nothing more, nothing less.

I know what side I'm on, and there's only side to be on. The days when whores run rampant on Our dollars should have ended long ago. Transparency is a sure way of starting to run them off.

So Let's make sure they stay on the run.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

We Were Screwed, Then The Rapists Showed Up

Ronald Reagan, second banana to a chimp for most of his life, once said, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"

Screw that. They're still true, but they've been replaced by "You're bankrupt and Wall Street will help fix that."

So combine the two, the federal government shoving Wall Street at a problem, and you have the current "Huzzah!" moment Puerto Rico is going through.

 "But, Jenius," some of you will say, "it's just the feds coming in to set things straight. Who said anything about Wall Street?"

I did, I do and there's no hiding it. The federal government is trying to head off the financial collapse of Puerto Rico and who knows more about financial collapses than the banksters of the Street?

Look, We are bankrupt. Our debt and debt service are beyond Our current and estimated future capacity to repay. Anyone who argues the contrary is an idiot or ignorant of the facts. Puerto Rico's bond rating has not been properly classified as "junk" because there's too many billions of dollars of Our debt running around in too many pension funds and investment pools.

Yes, Puerto Rico, through bankster-like mismanagement and greed, has become "too big to fail." Woo.

And hoo.

The feds may have ordered the "rescue mission," but the banksters are going to do the actual """work""", and if history is any sort of teacher--and it is--We're about to get raped. Oh, not immediately, of course not, that would be counterproductive. No, the rape will be delayed, to a time well after the money-grubbing forced "pawing foreplay" has properly run its course. Then, when the banksters and their cronies, both federal and local, have had their fill of easy pickings, then We'll experience the full effect. Think of it as going roofied, by command.

But by then, the feds and the banksters and most of the local vermin will have moved on, to another target.

It's not called a "SWAT team" for nothing.

And yes, "rape" is a harsh and horrible word. But Puerto Rico is about to be forced, compelled and obligated to perform solely to please someone else's idea of "satisfaction." We will ultimately get nothing out of the "rescue the Island's financial status" process except a loss of self, an image tainted by contempt and lasting pain. That is economic rape.

We can demand transparency in the process. We won't get it.

We can demand a greater say in the process. We won't get it.

We can demand more control over Our economy. We won't get it.

We can demand to be left alone to solve it Ourselves. Nobody will believe Us.

We won't get any of the above because We haven't got the guts, brains or will to demand any of it. And even if We did, We'd get nothing.

What We'll get, is shafted. Economically stripped and plundered like a Roman vestal by rampaging Visigoths wearing $2,000 suits and the moral IQ of a lead bullet.

They'll get what they want. We'll just get older. And more screwed.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

Solving Puerto Rico 003: Raúl Colón

Serial entrepreneur and young father Raúl Colón has a varied background. On top of that, he is a passionate advocate of and for Puerto Rico. Our Solving Puerto Rico vidcast crept over the 30-minute mark because Raúl unleashes ideas a mile a minute and I saw no need to stem such a favorable tide.

You can see the the interview here, or click below.

For Raúl, a social change is needed, a building of trust between individuals and organizations, so that We come together rather than dedicate Ourselves to wretched in-fighting. It's about time We realized that We don't live in a zero-sum world, but We are responsible for the zero-sum society We live in.

[In strict order, Raúl's was vidcast 004, but I want to bookend Marcos Polanco and Ramphis Castro over the next two weeks. Continuity-obsessed fans can watch them in chronological order, to avoid any severe and debilitating stress My decision may cause them.]

*****

As a follow-up to Solving Puerto Rico 001, with Luis Herrero, his idea was to change the incentives in the education system to provide a greater level of support to school principals. It is beyond discussion that the educational system We have is a failure. And yet as a system, it sustains itself, so whatever incentives the system has must be working. That the system's goals are not what We want them to be is the issue, so I start by asking: who benefits from the current (fetid) educational system's incentives?

At a general level, the Department of (Mis)Education's personnel structure is about a 51/49 ratio, with the higher number being administrators or some such crap. (I'm taking the high road here, obviously.) That looks pretty bad, when one considers that an educational system should have more educators than a mere "less than half."

But a closer look reveals that in terms of personnel compensation, the ratio in percentages is closer to 66/34, in other words, the pay scale for crap exceeds that of teachers/ (Again, I'm on the high road here.) Even a third grade (math teacher) student can see that 51/49 does not equal 66/34.

Drilling a little deeper, with what little statistics the department provides (data from 2009 and not online as far as I could find), you'll see that on the administrative side, almost 23% of the total payroll goes to "consultants." A simple calculation (66 X .227) will show that almost 15% of the department's total payroll goes to outsiders, folks who neither teach in a classroom or directly support those who do.

"So what?" you say. "Teachers can't work alone." Granted, but when the average teacher salary barely cracks $21,000 on average, you'll note that the average consultant salary averages $79,000.

Uh-oh. Crap be expensive.

So Let's just look at that angle. The system knows it gets many millions of dollars, from both local (it is the largest single departmental budget in PR) and federal funding. Instead of focusing the department on education, the system looks inward to create boondoggles for political cronies. The incentives are not geared to "education," but "profiteering," on the form of increased bureaucracy (more people doing crap) and sweetheart deals, which include consulting and "services." Have you ever wondered why the local department of education doesn't keep accurate statistics? Now you know why.

You want proof? Our educational system was pretty much under federal government control for several years because from 1992-2008, it was a morass of corruption and fraud. It isn't much better now, but at least We no longer have the feds probing every orifice.

When education spirals downward year after year, and corruption and fraud rise over the same period, it is obvious what the incentives of the system support. So Luis Herrero's idea of changing the incentives of the system to foster stronger community schools is a great idea. It aligns the system's goals with its primary mission, whereas before the goal was "lip service to education" and the mission was "grab as much as you can before they catch on."

The educational system works as a partnership platform for back-scratching-cum-profiteering, acronym F.E.L.O.N.S. Seems appropriate that the acronym begins with the exact letter grade the system has earned for over two generations of ill-served students, parents and teachers.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

Time To Renew

Yeah, The Jenius is back

It's been over 10 months since I wrote My last post, and I didn't think it would mark the beginning of a long hiatus. It just simply happened, as a certain level of ennui and dissatisfaction reached a tipping point.

Doesn't mean I stopped caring or giving a damn about My Island. I just...went away, to do other things.

But a headline today proved to be another tipping point, as several weeks of pondering were coming together. Here it be:  How Wall Street Fed Puerto Rico's $70 Billion Debt Binge.

Courtesy of Bloomberg.com, Let's pause a moment and look at that headline:

1) "Wall Street": The code word here is "banksters."

2) "Fed": Ah, the banksters in cahoots with...

3) "Puerto Rico": Aw shit.

4) "$70 Billion": Now hardly anyone can actually imagine what 70 freaking billion dollars really is. Maybe Bill Gates, for whom the sum is "My next round number up." But almost everyone understands that 70 billion dollars is a freaking huge amount of money that they don't have. Hits you in the ol' bread basket, it does, pun intended.

5) "Debt Binge": Aw shit again. Now We're out-of-control mother-bleepin' fellow crooks with the freaking banksters. Yee. And haw.

You want the lowlights? Glad you didn't ask:

* Puerto Rico more than doubled its borrowing in the municipal bond market since 2004. To the average Brethren out there, let Me parse that for you: Both retarded political parties mucking up Our present and future added to that doubling, and "borrowing" you freakazoids doesn't mean "free ride," it means "debt." As in "crushing amount of it." How bad, you don't ask?

* "(T)he government kept selling enough bonds to saddle each man, woman and child with $19,000 in debt." You got $19,000 to pay your share of debt you don't care about and most likely didn't get but a few dollars' worth of services from? Me neither.

* Here's a fun stat: Over 77% of the muni funds in the U.S. of part of A. have investments in Puerto Rican bonds. "Too big to fail," anyone? Uh, think again.

* "Neither a U.S. state nor a sovereign nation, Puerto Rico and its debt-issuing agencies, such as the Aqueduct and Sewer Authority, aren’t eligible to file for bankruptcy the way Detroit and Jefferson County, Alabama, have. It must pay its debts or default." How do you like them aguacates, huh? Hey, statehooders, wanna make this your rallying cry for admission into the 50 Club? "We want the right to say We're fucking broke!"

* Oh, and what does "default" mean? Bottom line: We pay creditors through the nose, until Our brains are slop and Our innards are squeezed dry. Why? "Puerto Rico’s constitution guarantees that holders of general-obligation bonds are paid before any other creditors." And who could be listed as one of those "other creditors"? You and Me.

* Rescue plan? Puh-lease. "President Barack Obama’s administration isn’t moving to aid the commonwealth." And why should it? Yeah, $70 billion is a lot of money, but compared to the trillion-dollar fake meltdown-cum-bailout, it's a fart in a shitpile. And don't forget the previous paragraph: Our Constitution guarantees payment. You think the U.S. of part of A. isn't going to enforce that clause to the utmost limit? Here's the chaser: "The U.S. Treasury also said it isn’t taking any special measures."

* Tidbits tossed in, like sand in pus-flavored Jell-o: "Puerto Rico’s population has shrunk 4 percent since 2004 to 3.67 million, according to U.S. Census data... More than a quarter of the population depends on food stamps... Per-capita income of $15,000 is one-third the U.S. average... Labor-force participation rate of 35 percent for those age 16 to 24 is among the lowest in the world (My emphasis)... An unemployment rate of 13.9 percent, almost double the U.S. rate of 7.3 percent... Emigration is increasing... Rising crime is also persuading people to leave (as the) homicide rate is about 27 for every 100,000 people, compared with the U.S. average of 4.7... Puerto Rico’s leaders haven’t done enough to make local industry competitive in the global economy and are instead counting on tax incentives or other assistance from Washington to protect businesses."


Still with Me? Kudos.

Does any of this surprise you? If you're one of My Brethren, is anything mentioned above a true surprise to you?

Why? Why are We so accepting that this is the way things are and will be?

Well I didn't come back to keep yapping about what's wrong with Us and Our Island. I think I've covered that crap beyond the point of nausea. 

The next step is coming up.

And it won't take 10 months to happen. I guarantee it.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

Statehood For Puerto Rico? Nuh-uh

I'll give you a hint about where this post is going: the first title for it was "Statehood For Puerto Rico? Fuck Off."

Based on the overhyped, overwrought and oversold November 6th referendum, the White House hand an online petition going asking if statehood for Puerto Rico should be considered. I would have added the words "seriously" and "by Congress," but that's just Me: I'm a stickler for actually saying what I mean and doing what I say. I'm funny that way.

In all, the petition had a target number of signatures it needed to make it "official," as in "We'll write up something and give it to someone who will forward it to some person," but--and you know where I'm headed with this--the petition failed to reach its goal and the White House shut the "offer" down. Closed. Cerrado. Fuck off.

Now it's true that a ton of people, a majority I would say, don't believe that online petitions, even from the White House, are truly tools of democracy. On the other hand (a phrase replaced nowadays by "Having said that," which is moronic use of English along the lines of "At this point in time" for "Now." which would make "nowadays" be "atthispointintimedays"...) online petitions have forced policy changes, the reversing of corporate decisions and--yes--swayed referenda. So even if most online petitions are useless, there is plenty of evidence that if you care enough, they can be useful.

Obviously, statehooders don't care enough. And neither do the potential statehood approvers at the government and citizen levels. And this second group, the most important one? They've never cared. Never will, either.

The problem with statehooders--aside from their obvious lack of self-respect, national pride and ignorance about the country they slobber to join--is that they truly, deep down, want the U.S. of part of A. to impose statehood, to simply say "You are mine, now" in the way a stupid addle-headed useless gash of a girl moons over a glittery pasty-faced gutless douchebag vampire. Statehooders don't want to make statehood happen, they want it to happen in the pseudo-magical way that boons are dispensed in fairy tales.

Now here's the thing: that paragraph above, with minor changes, applies to another of Our groups on "political activism":

The problem with independentistas--aside from their obvious lack of self-discipline, cowardice of convictions and total ignorance about the country We could create--is that they truly, deep down, want the U.S. of part of A. to impose independence, to simply say "You are not mine, now" in the way a stupid addle-headed useless gash of a girl moons over a glittery pasty-faced gutless douchebag vampire. Independentistas don't want to make independence happen, they want it to happen in the pseudo-magical way that boons are dispensed in fairy tales.

And yes, some independentistas will say "We have heroes who fought for independence!", but I'll retort that "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent" and point out that if criminals--people who preyed upon their own brethren--are your heroes, you need new heroes. Or decapitation.

So.

What are the odds now that statehood will be seriously placed before Congress, what with the """61%""" support in the November 6 referendum, which melts to 45% in the light of objective reality? 10-to-1? 25-to-1?

Allow Me to toss this out: how about 50-t0-1?

HAHAHahahahahahahanochanceinhell



The Jenius Has Spoken.

Innovate? Hell No, Imitate!

Recently-elected (faux)governor Larva Lite--uh, AGaPito...--uh, let Me try again... Alejandro García is working hard----to "reinvent government." Sounds good. Worthy goal. I'd tip My hat to him if I wore one. (That's funny if you know Me.) Let's give him a hand!

Across the face. As in bitch-slap. Because even a Larva Lite knows that this whole "reinventing government" shtick is older than dirt and just as smart. It's a publicity stunt with the agility of a pre-Ramses I mummy...tightly wrapped.

No, it's not about innovation. If We had the capacity to innovate, to truly be creative about reinventing what passes for government, We'd have a penthouse rather than an outhouse. The fact is, We have the creative capacity of a brain-damaged lizard when it comes to making Our government "better": Our lizard-brain jerkwads and fanatical stupidity make government "better" only for greedy assholes who smarmily fuck the rest of Us.

Yeah, that's the kiddie version. You should have read the adult version...

So screw all this hullabaloo about "reinventing" Our government. Larva Lite might as well try to make giraffes sing La Traviata or reunite missing socks with their lonely left-behind sad socks. (That made Me giggle on a couple of levels...) On a scale of "Done" to "Not a fucking chance in hell," Larva Lite is so far from "Done" he'd need the Hubble to even see the outer edges of "Not a fucking chance in hell."

So what is your suggestion, O Jenius of the Potty Mouth? This: imitate.

Two examples. The first is Germany, home of beer, Wienerschnitzel and Wagner's comic touch. Here's their claim for imitation: "Germany says it will achieve (this year) a fully balanced budget across all layers of government this year thanks to a resilient economy, low unemployment, higher tax revenues and low borrowing costs."

Bam! Done. Look at that list! "Fully-balanced budget." "All layers of government." "Resilient economy." "Low unemployment." "Higher tax revenues." "LOW BORROWING COSTS!"

Holy shit. That's like, made-to-order for Us!

What? You don't think that's possible? That list is too, well, pastel en el cielo for Us?

Ukrainian Prime Minister, not half-assed Nazi salute.

Agreed. Larva Lite can only do what a Larva Lite can (barely) do.

So here's what he and his ilk should imitate: Entire Ukraine government resigns.

Yup. They up and quit. Took a look in the proverbial mirror, saw the shitstorm they were in and decided to just turn tail and get the hell out of Donetsk.

Can't blame them. It's the right thing to do. Let other people take over, you know, smart, dedicated, results-focused, talented people. Let the cream rise to the challenge rather than dropping dregs on dregs.

And to those who say We should wait until Larva Lite and his ilk actually get into government before telling them--or demanding--that they quit, here's My response: they won't make a positive difference. Our government is wrecked, no matter who paws the steering wheel and grinds the gears.

I wish We were headed for Germany's example, but the fact is, the Ukraine shows Us Our best path.


I wonder how you say "Ay bendito" in Russian...



The Jenius Has Spoken.

The Big Lie, Or "61%" Of Statehood

"On June 15, 2009, the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization approved a draft resolution calling on the Government of the United States to expedite a process that would allow the Puerto Rican people to exercise fully their inalienable right to self-determination and independence. Subsequent actions by the governments of the United States and Puerto Rico paved the way for the Puerto Rican status referendum, 2012, scheduled to be held on 6 November 2012."

Okay, Wikipedia is far from the end-all and be-all of reliability, but this brief paragraph manages to confuse an already muddled issue. To wit: "Subsequent actions by the governments of the United States and Puerto Rico paved the way for the Puerto Rican status referendum, 2012, scheduled to be held on 6 November 2012." What amounted to "U.S. government action" was a barely-mumbled "Go ahead." Nothing more. But it sure sounds like the U.S. of part of A. was fully on-board, huh?

Now Let's go to the "Recent Developments" section of the Puerto Rico entry, where We'll find the Big Lie: "For the first question, 54 percent voted against the current Commonwealth status, and in the second question, over 61 percent favored statehood."

As an Anonymous commenter said about My post "33.1% Statehood = Nothing":

"(At the time of the comment) 1,730,245 people voted in the 1st question. In the second question, 802,179 voted for statehood. Therefore you need to divide 802,179 by 1,730,245 to get the % of voters that wanted statehood, which equals ~46%." (Emphasis Mine.)

Anonymous was spot-on, with less than 46% statehood "support". Where did the 61% come from? From the enormous dropoff between the first tier of votes  (Yes/No to current status, with over 1.74 million votes) to the status options, where only 1.3 million votes were cast. Yes, over 480,000 people left the second tier blank, or in My case, wrote IMPOSSIBLE across all three options.

[Note: I wrote a lengthy response for the Comments section of that post where I (a) acknowledge that 33.1% is NOT the right figure and (b) indicate that I was trying to play the "numbers lie" that the statehooders were trying to pull, only I did a poor job of giving that context in the post. Where that comment went, I have no idea. But the gist of it is repeated here.]

So the true percentage of statehood votes can be calculated: how many votes for statehood divided by the total number of NO votes. And that comes out to about 45.6% or less.

Not a mandate by ANY stretch of the imagination and another bitter defeat to shove down statehooders' throats. Although given their losing record on Election Day, their throats are way over-jammed with defeat.

So what the statehood party did was to quickly embrace "The Big Lie." Grab a number that somehow puts the best face on denying reality and run with it. For recent expertise on this propaganda technique, reference FoxNews(hit); for historical perspective, track down one Joseph Goebbels.

What it all boils down to is knowingly lying loudly and repeating the lie as often as possible to make people believe it is the truth. 

But it didn't take long for media outlets to catch on that "61%" was another example of--in Twain's words--"Lies, damn lies and statistics." From ABCNews to Yahoo! to The Huffington Post and even some dim-bulb backwater like Red State figured out that, no, Puerto Rico had not asked for statehood; that in fact, it hadn't even come close, since after all, the referendum or plebiscite or whatever was non-binding. Again.

And yet...they kept repeating The Big Lie, that "61%" that made it all seem like Puerto Rico was marching on Congress to pound the doors down with their "Our statehood demand." Dramatic story. Stirs emotions, both pro and con. Is all a lie.

The goal of The Big Lie is to frame context, to force-fit an issue in an angle and perspective that benefits the propagandist. It is a deliberate distortion, a bare-faced fib aimed at tricking the unwary, the mentally lazy, the largely-indifferent and inflame the fanatical base. That's why it works: because most of Us fall into one or more of those categories. Harsh, but true.

Ultimately, The Big Lie either becomes its own reality--see FoxNews(hit) and the "America" they present--or comes crashing into Truth and pops like a soap bubble. Either way, The Big Lie is a short-term strategy, aimed at tilting a battlefield to preserve or extend or steal an advantage. It cannot win a war, much less when the battlefield, like Ours, is neither defined nor powered by will.

For The Big Lie to work, it has to matter to enough people to act upon it, rightly or wrongly. When it comes to Our status, We don't care enough to want to act, even to make a firm decision, much less see it through. And when it comes to statehood, well, neither We nor the U.S. of part of A. gives anything close to a damn about it. If anything, too many of Us are willing to debase themselves to achieve "dignity" and "self-respect," a Big Lie that has led to the "61%" Big Lie...that will lead to another in this chain of political fibs.



The Jenius Has Spoken.


[Update: 15 Nov 2012: U.S. of part of A. Republicans in the House are "doubting" the plebiscite results, basically doing the "When you make up your minds" shuffle-dance that's been the staple cover-up for decades.  Sadly, the only men that can dance well enough to hide the truth are named Astaire or Kelly. And they're dead.]

Stephenson Billings: This Is Your Life

Stephenson Billings, an anonymous coward, laughingly describes himself this way: "Investigative Journalist, Motivational Children's Party Entertainer and Antique Soda Bottle Collector all in one special, blessed package!" 

He pecks at a keyboard for The Daily Bleach, a satirical website filled with useless content aimed at distorting minds, and ChristWire, The Daily Bleach's retarded step-brother. From his faux biography, We get that Stephenson Billings--the homunuclus with no first name--was "Born Again in the Blood of the Lamb at the age of 33. 'I didn’t realize how hurt, how wrong I was until Jesus reached out and drew me close,' Stephenson has noted. 'He held me and I wept, I wept such hot, messy tears like a child.'"

Apparently this homoerotic fantasy was his interview entry to ChristWire, for Stephenson-in-hiding has proceeded to muck up screens there and at his other part-time latrine with articles that run the gamut from stupid and racist to racist and stupid.

His versatility eventually focused on Puerto Rico--or as he spells it, "Peurto Rico"--in an attempt to be satirical about the Island's non-request for statehood, based on a non-result from non-aware losers. Stephenson's article redefines crap to the extent that crap itself is insulted by being compared to Stephenson Billings...and his writings.

After glancing through the article and making peace with the new, lower, more disgusting definition of crap, I decided to respond. So here now, Stephenson Billings, This Is Your Life:

Stand-in for a coward

Stephenson, I fully expect to read about your arrest and trial for collecting child pornography, which, sadly, will interrupt your daily ritual of ass-fucking yourself with your favorite antique bottles, several of which are actually old maple syrup jugs from Eastern Vermont. Your lack of success is evident in that you'd rather use a 4-word Orwellian double-speak lie rather than "clown," which is intrinsically more accurate.

Your inability to write with any sense of style bespeaks of a wasted 7th grade education and an early marriage, most likely to a first cousin or half-sister, thus depriving you of any semblance of higher (for your tribe) education. It might also explain why you butt-fuck yourself with bottles as this early departure from school may have been caused by the unexpected death of your daddy, your first lover.

As for the self-proclaimed lie of "Investigative Journalist," it is also obvious that whatever investigations you undertake are of the "imagination slash animal porn" variety, ones where you greedily inhale a horse cock to satisfy Freudian urges you cannot even begin to fathom.

On the "journalist" side, your obvious ignorance of spell-check means you write your love letters to the stable denizens up the road from your hovel along the lines of "Fukc me horsy."

I applaud your attempt at satirical humor in the same way I applaud a monkey in a business suit: cute, but stupid and the monkey still plays with its shit. I suggest a new career for you in the field of security, where you use your ass and mouth as vaults to hide the dissected sex organs of random farm animals your wife/half-sister has fucked for the satisfaction you cannot give her. You'd get a kick out of it, I know, plus you'd be concealing evidence of your crimes of passion.

And yes, you are "blessed," in the exact same way a wet turd is "damp." Take pride in what little you can, Stephenson Billings, for it is so very little.


All in satirical fun, right?

Riiiight.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

Thoughts On Statehood...

...that aren't Mine. Here, for the unwashed, uninformed and unimpressive statehooders that insist on begging/whining for inclusion in the U.S. of part of A., is a sample (errors and all) of comments from a Yahoo! News article about the recent plebiscite:

Discombobulation Incorpor... • 5 mins ago  
The majority of the residents on the island are under some sort of government help (just like the Puerto Ricans in N.Y. City). Even among other Spanish speaking nationalities, Puerto Ricans are considered "lazy" and "inefficient". They're dominance of the Spanish language is considered the worst.  

David • 5 mins ago
Just what the US needs; an island that has 13% unemployment!  

Antoni • 5 mins ago
THATS ALL WE NEED - MORE CRIMINALS

OU812 • 6 mins ago
Do I get to vote not to let them become a state? 1 Million new liberals looking for the next government check.

H • 6 mins ago
great 437,000 more people on welfare we have to pay for

Mack • 8 mins ago
Hey...here we go again. Just what we need to stabilyze the economy. A few more million people on food stamps!!!!

Robert • 9 mins ago
Why would they want Statehood??? They have all the benefits without the Taxes!!!

Bolden • 10 mins ago
Thanks, but we don't need MORE division. Cut them loose and let them be a free independent nation of the Caribbean.

PaulS • 10 mins ago
I have always felt that Puerto Ricans wish to have all the benefits of statehood without any of the obligations and duties, i.e. the way things are now.

Coigne • 13 mins ago
This is crazy. We don't need to incorporate non-English speaking countries into our union. What for? Divorce Puerto Rico and let it find it's own way among the Spanish Cultural heritage of Latin America. It is our decision to make.

Charles H • 15 mins ago
why would we want the toilet bowl of the world to be a state? Isn't there enough of them here already. Selling drugs, stealing and breeding like roaches.  


Now one can say that these comments--many of them blatantly racist and stupid--are not an accurate reflection of what all "Americans" feel about Puerto Rico becoming the 51st state. That would be correct. Many people in the States actually believe Puerto Rico can and should become a State.

But they aren't--by ANY stretch of the imagination--a majority. 

Look at those comments above. They represent ignorance and indifference of and to Puerto Rico. The comments may not represent the majority, but the attitudes most definitely do.

Remember, it takes 38 States to approve a new one, a super-majority of 75%. To most "Americans," Puerto Rico is a tiny infrequent blip on their U.S.-of-part-of-A.-centric view of the world, one that is myopic about anything other than "U.S.A.!"  To a majority of the population, Puerto Rico is simply not something they think about at all, or give a damn about.

But if the topic of statehood for the Island comes in, they will. And what do you think will be their reaction after years of ignorance and indifference to Us, Brethren?

Read those comments and tell Me--with a straight face--that they won't have a significant impact on forming public opinion. Read them and tell Me that a smear campaign--a Republican Party specialty--won't make the idea of statehood for Puerto Rico tantamount to treason, fiscal disaster, unwanted miscegenation and pandering to welfare bums. Tell Me there won't be an overtly racist knee-jerk reaction by many who are forced to come face-to-face with the possibility of Us becoming the 51st state. Go ahead: tell Me.

It won't matter if you do, because you'll be wrong. You can deny it by being willfully blind or criminally stupid, but you'd be wrong anyway. This isn't about Me or any of Us feeling "like a victim": it's about people reacting to a concept by making a snap judgment on it. Human nature being what it is, that snap judgment will be hard to change and will carry enormous weight for years to come.

Oh, you want proof? Okay. Do a little Googling to find out what "Americans" thought of Puerto Ricans circa 1898-1908, Our first decade together. Go ahead. Then stick this in your pipe dream and smoke it: when it comes to statehood for Puerto Rico, it's been 114 years and counting.



The Jenius Has Spoken.


[Update: 9 Nov 2012: Over at the Latino Rebels Facebook page, I've been exchanging barbs with some spineless grub named Julio Fig Figueroa, a statehood supporter. Yes, I understand that most of you knew what he was after "spineless grub." I'm consistent that way.]

[Update: 10 Nov 2012: And the stupidity, the racially-oriented gut-level shit-for-brains stupidity continues, even under the lying guise of """satire""". I won't even bother giving the title, to avoid adding to the Google juice, but stop a moment, statehooders, and notice how quickly and how vitriolic this response is. Your party lies about "statehood winning" and the response has covered the gamut from "No, not really" to "Uh-uh" to "Fuck y'all brownies." Are you listening? Have you ever listened? That's the root of My problem with your "kneeling/open-mouthed/servile" stance: it lacks any sense of dignity, integrity and self-respect. And yes, I am implying exactly what that stance implies. Deal.]

33.1% Statehood = Nothing

Yeah, some people won, some people lost in yesterday's elections. Big boo-hoo either way because the system--like Our economy--is broke, so We end up picking dregs no matter who We choose.

The news aside from parasites was that in the two-tiered Yes/No """status""" plebiscite, the current status was "ejected" by 54% of the voters, leading to a second result where statehood was "selected" by 61.3% of those same voters. (Numbers still not official.)

Seeing as The Larva was fired and the statehood party was dumped from several major positions, their lame-brained focus will be on how statehood "won" the plebiscite. Two objections make this a """win""" rather than a "win", and in the Jenius' Thesaurus, based on hard-nosed objectivity, a """win""" is exactly a loss.

First objection: The numbers say statehood is a minority position. Do the math. No, really, do it. At the first level, Yes or No, the rejection of the current status gained 54% of the vote. A majority, indeed, but not a super-majority. From that 54%, some 61.3% chose statehood as their preferred new status. Woo. And hoo. What it really means is that 33.1% of Our voters support statehood: 54 x 61.3 = 33.1%.

There's no other way to look at it. Screw around all you like with that 61.3%, but that number won't fly: the number that will is 33%. Guaranteed.

Second objection: This plebiscite--like the others--was non-binding. Hey! Let's hold a beauty pageant and count the votes and then give no prizes! Yay! Only instead of a beauty pageant, We get a freak show that even P.T. Barnum would have blanched at selling more than once. In a desperate move to bolster his precarious position, The Larva came up with this scheme, hoping the statehood vote in the plebiscite would spill over to the general vote and give him four more years to (non)govern.

Didn't work. He was fired anyway and may have done more harm to the silly statehood whining than any of his predecessors. All in all, a very typical Larva sequence.

There are two more takeaways from this pathetic plebiscite that, in fact, carry more weight, but are bound to get short shrift:

1) The "commonwealth myth" is dead. The idea, the very very stupid idea, that Our current status is "dignified" and "worthy" is dead. It was fatally wounded in the 1980s and lingered like a brainless cockroach until yesterday, when the open rejection of it was made manifest. We are a colony, plain and simple, and the commonwealth status We have makes Us so. To state otherwise is to be dumber than flat-earthers who believe in creationism... and there's already way too many of those idiots around.

2) When it comes to independence, We are tit-sucking toddlers. I used to say We were teenagers, but the fact is that Our reaction to standing on Our own two feet and tackling the world on Our terms is exactly that of terrified toddlers who haven't learned to walk and are still sucking tit. Only Uncle Sam's tits don't give milk, so I can tell you exactly what body part of Uncle Sam's body We suck to make him and Us happy.

That's why the 33.1% """statehood support""" number equals nothing. We still suck Uncle Sam's co--congressional funding, incapable of believing in Ourselves, unable to muster the integrity to stand up to him and say "Screw you, I'm doing this My way," oblivious to the 114-year-and-counting message of "We don't want you" and playing little plebiscite games to amuse the masses while the parasites suck Us dry.

It may be "Our national sport," but We suck at politics because We suck at being adults in politics. At its most base, at its worst, politics is about greed and power-mongering. That's where We live, like pigs in shit. The highest level in politics is nation-building, the forging of a stronger future for almost everyone. We simply never get there. Never have, and based on the miserable moronic plebiscite vote, We never will.

Bring on Larva Lite and his parasites. The loathsome cycle of Our national Special Olympics for scared babies is about to begin again.



The Jenius Has Spoken.


[Update: 8 Nov 2012: From ABC News, a clear-eyed look at the blatant lie that is "statehood won", as propagated by Liars Central, a.k.a., the statehood party. And for a revealing discussion that (a) predicted this report and (b) reveals how My post and its reactions gave context to My writing and the plebiscite's results, check out the Comments section. Yeah, We're on it.]

[Update: 16 Nov 2012: Three more analyses, one of which, surprisingly, barely even bothers to look at the issue. The superficial one is from the otherwise reliable Economist. A deep dissection smack-down of the numbers comes from the Movimiento Independentista Nacional Hostosiano (better English users than the statehood party...by far) and the third from ProEnglish, calling the vote "rigged." Discuss amongst yourselves.]

Burning Our Trash & Our Cash

Energy Answers, a company seeking to build a waste-to-energy plant in Arecibo, has just been handed a sweetheart deal that involves Our taxes, Our power bills and the verb "fornicate" in ample measures.

I won't belabor the point; the facts speak for themselves. Energy Answers gets to build its plant and the 30-year contract specifies that:

1) The government is obligated to provide Energy Answers enough garbage to be profitable. Now, sure, Our government (and Our society) produces enough garbage to sink an Island, but "obligated"? When the State serves the Corporation, it is Fascism. And no, the article doesn't state that the amount of trash ensures profitability, but do you think Energy Answers would ask for anything less? Unlike Our government, they are greedy, but not stupid.

2)  Energy Answers will raise electrical rates by 8-20% over current rates. Now, the fact is, Energy Answers may raise the rates, but the real power--pun intended--to do this rests with the Puerto Rico Electrical Power Authority, THIEF. They have a complete monopoly over the transmission of electricity over the established infrastructure, so if anyone is going to raise the rates, it will be THIEF.

Disclosure: I worked a waste-to-energy project earlier this year with a Texas-based company. Their contract with THIEF specified selling the electricity at 15 cents a kWh, where THIEF would then sell it at 26-29 cents. I doubt Energy Answers is getting more than 19 cents and thus there is NO REASON for THIEF to raise its rates. None except that they are a monopoly, are going broke and the dealmakers with Energy Answers are cackling thieves on their way out to live off Our dollars.

3) If a municipality doesn't pay its power usage, Energy Answers can obligate the government to collect the payment from the municipality itself or its residents. When the State serves as bill collector for the Corporation, there is only ONE word for that: Fascism.

4) Energy Answers can raise its rates by 2.5% yearly and the government can only stop the rate increase if it is deemed "highly unreasonable." Whatever the fuck that means. Remember, the power authority is a government-owned utility, a de facto monopoly. When the State hands over control of tis resources to the Corporation, that is Fascism.

5) The Environmental Quality Board, Our local "protection agency" that is neither environmental, nor quality nor even a board, is forcing municipalities to close their waste landfills ahead of schedule and blocking any effort to extend their use, even when such extensions are completely legal. Why? Because extending the use of landfills reduces the amount of trash that can be funneled to Energy Answers. When the State becomes the legal violator in favor of the Corporation, that is Fascism.

6) In fact, the contract has Our government serving as guarantor for Energy Answers' financing of the plant, to the tune of no less than $500 million.

To wit: Our government is guaranteeing investment money, raw materials to achieve profitability, rate increases to sustain profitability, debt collection to maintain profitability and illegally blocking competition to guarantee profitability to a corporation. That, My Brethren, is a textbook example of Fascism.

And here's the kicker: the deal was put together by one Jorge San Miguel, party platform director in 2008 and 2012 for...the statehood party...currently gutting Our government. 

Whee!

But Let's not forget that Energy Answers is not stupid. They wangled some support from the other side as well, as their Communications Director is one José Julio Aparicio, internal auditor of the commonwealth party. There's enough thieving for everyone to join the pillaging!

We do have a trash problem in Puerto Rico. There's hardly any more space to dump it in. Our electrical grid is barely competent enough to hold its own and can't help Us grow as it should. Yes, these are all problems.

But.

These problems cannot be allowed to be """solved""" by forcing Us, the taxpayers and consumers, to pay for the financing, pay for the trash hauling minimum, pay the increased rates, pay for municipalities' non-payments, pay for illegally blocking other solutions and pay for the reckless looting of Our pockets by vermin whose total value is less than that of a cockroach's fetid fart.

People, I keep telling you: The only way to put an end to this is either with ballots or with bullets. A rabid predator is a savage beast who can only grasp one concept in its disease-addled brain: pain means death.

Unless We hurt these beasts--hurt them badly, even fatally--they will continue to rape Our pockets, Our present and Our future.

They are burning Our trash and Our cash. It is way past time We burn them. To ash.



The Jenius Has Spoken.