And Justice For None

Somewhere there's a T-shirt that reads: "If you want peace, work for justice."

The Puerto Rican version would be: "If you want a piece of the loot, work for Justice."

The justice system We have is composed of three main parts: law enforcement, the court system and the penal system. Let's examine each one, briefly:

Law enforcement: Subject to FBI raids and U.S. of part of A. Justice Department investigations. Plural on both accounts.

Court system: Plagued by political cronyism, sloppy legal "work" and inexperienced (and uncaring) prosecutors, leading to a 21% drop in crime charges filed, at a time when major crimes have increased close to 31%.

Penal system: Overcrowded, under control of local gangs, used as political muscle (the statehood party knows all about this) and riddled with drugs and their related violence.

Now before I go on, let Me say something to those who dismiss all this with a casual "It's those drug folks killing each other over there, that's all." My response: Shut your fucking piehole. One, because you are definitely taking the easy, lazy, scummy way out of not thinking about what's going on. Two, because you're too stupid and too lazy to realize that on an island, everybody is connected to everybody else...per force. Your refusal to acknowledge that is as idiotic as saying "The gangrene in my foot is just an infection over there." You and your attitude make Me want to puke. In your face. Twice.

It isn't an "over there," caserío y barriada de mala muerte problem. It isn't about puntos or bichotes: it's about all of Us. Here's a brief breakdown:

Why did the FBI have to engage in a huge police raid here? Because the level of corruption in the police force and the local Justice Department meant that We couldn't do it Ourselves.

Where did this level of corruption come from? The drug trade and political cronysim. Proof? Prosecutors, judges and high-ranking police officers have long been selected by political affiliation more than by merit. Toss in millions of dollars in drug money with self-serving rapacious vermin who owe no allegiance to anything even remotely resemblimng a value or an ideal and you have...corruption. Deep and broad.

Where do these cancerous worlds of drugs, influence and violence come together? In the "Justice" system, where cops on low pay take payments for protection, prosecutors kiss ass ro engage in political favoritism, judges make rulings based on dollars and cents rather than legal precedents and prisons become centers of influence to put more lipstick on the leprous pig it all is.

So you have drug dealers cozying up to elected officials who use the police to monitor their illegal business while prosecutors are slotted into jobs as favors and ordered to waste their time in frenzied political persecution and judges look the other way when facts tell them to stare at the Truth, their angle of look-away directly related to monetary gain they enjoy in doing so.

Justice is not blind here, not even close. It has eyes and hands everywhere, perverted from a system of checks to a cash-based free-for-all. You might think it's all happening "over there," but think about how far "over there" is when you hear about a shooting in a shopping center you visit, or in front of a restaurant you like, or when a cop pulls you aside for no reason you can discern. Because at that point, "over there" is "right here," and do you trust the Justice system We've allowed to rot to treat you fairly?

If you do, you're headed for a huge, maybe even fatal, disappointment.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

We're #1! We're #1! (In Corruption)

Riding the crest of public corruption, Puerto Rico cements its place as #1 with an astonishing 130 corruption convictions--convictions, people--in 2011. That works out to almost 11 a month, or almost 3 a week, making Us the absolute bomb when it comes to being jackass thieves in public """service""".

This little nauseating factoid is contained in the U.S. of part of A. Justice Department's Division of Public Integrity report for 2011. (HTML here; PDF here). Now Let's look more closely at this, shall We?

It wasn't easy to get to 130 in one year. No señor. We had to push the envelope and redefine scumbucket by lifting Our annual count from 17 in 2010 to that magnificent 130 last year. How impressive was Our criminal victory? As defined by the USDoJ, the second-place district--Maryland--had 58 convictions and 3rd place--Eastern Virginia--had 57. Pikers! Even adding up their scurrilous crimes We got them beat 130-115! ¡Yo Soy Boricua Pa' Que Tú Lo Sepas!

Another point of putrefied pride for Us: since 2002, only two times has a district reached the triple-digit level in convictions for one year. And yes, you guessed it! We won that too! In 2002, We got Our asses nailed 101 times, a veritable "leap to another level" that took Us years to surpass. But it did set the bar out of reach for anyone but Us.

Oh, and statehooders? Don't go crowing that that happened during Sila "Quitter" Calderón's (partial)administration and that it means populares were getting nailed. Do a little research (have your dog teach you how) and you'll find that was the year of the Stupid Rosselló "Cavalcade of Criminals." Funny how you forgot that, isn't it? Even your dog is laughing at you.

Now, Let's stop looking at the past and look to the future. We can't rest on Our latrines, so We have to find a new goal. If We take the conviction rate by state-level instead of districts, We learn that since 2002, California has been killing Us 665-396, Texas is clobbering Us 635-396, Florida's walloping Us 618-396, New York's winning 553-396, Pennsylvania outscores Us 518-396, Illinois is handing Us Our hats 490-396, Ohio's outpacing Us 475-396, New Jersey (New Jersey!) is ahead 429-396 and Louisiana just clipped Us at the finish 403-396. Damn.

We can't allow that to continue. You mean to tell Me We're getting outscored by the alien likes of California, the wrinkly geezers in Florida, lowbrow guidos from New Jersey and mossy swamp critters from Louisiana? No señor.

So do We focus on sheer numbers? Well, We do have two 100+ years under Our corrupt belts, so We can certainly crank out several more and leave them all in the dust. But that would be asking so much more of Our disgusting vermin, part of a dwindling population of roughly 3.7 million, to take on the likes of the 7 most-populous states and 2 outliars--I mean, outliers.

Based on population, here are the convictions-per-residents of the Top 10 Corruption Bungholes:

California: 1-in-56,030
Texas: 1-in-39,528
Florida: 1-in-30,421
New York: 1-in-35,081
Pennsylvania: 1-in-24,517
Illinois: 1-in-26,122
Ohio: 1-in-24,421
New Jersey: 1-in-20,513
Louisiana: 1-in-11,166
PUERTO RICO: 1-in-9,343

Oh yeah! Number One, Baby! ¡Yo Soy Boricua Pa' Que Tú Lo Sepas! Here's the thing: with a proven performance level of 130 a year, or even staying at Our Top 2 Years' Average of 115.5, We can surpass California's mush-headed amateurs just by staying at Our current level of public thievery, fraud, graft and malfeasance! Hell, We can even drop 30% off Our current pace and still kick California's New Age smoking, plastic surgery-infested, techno-babble roulette-poking ass from here to Canada.

Why? Because We got the putrid talent and have yet to tap into the 1-in-5,000 range, where Our numbers would jump to levels that not even the U.S. of part of A. Congress could ever hope to match (unless every member were Republican, but in that case, they'd steal from each other.)

And speaking of Our numbers and where they come from, here's a list of highly-questionable contracts, breaching ethics, nepotism, legality and common sense, that are part of this (non)administration within the legislative assembly. Let Me point out that at the bottom of the list (literally) is one Christian "Chemito El Pendejito" Soto, son of a mayor and brother of a senator, who was """earning"""" $3,000 (more than twice Our average income per capita) as an """advisor""" to a security commission. "Was," because he was arrested for selling drugs and will apparently plead guilty.

In another related story, a senate employee working with senate president Thomas "Mad Dog" Rivera was arrested for--uh-huh--selling drugs. Funny how this time, the "Mad Dog" ain't barking...

So you see, My Brethren, We are definitely on the right path to not only hold on to the Annual #1 Bunghole of Public Corruption Award, We are setting the stage to take over the Bunghole of the Decade Leaden Shaft from those addle-headed twinkies in California.

Oh yeah. ¡Yo Soy Boricua Pa' Que Tú Lo Sepas!




The Jenius Has Spoken.

Vote Or Shut Up...Not

Through some concatenation of idiocy, composed of 34% stupidity, 18% ignorance, 22% illogic and 26% moral turpitude, a campaign was launched that told Us--straight up--to "Vota o Quédate Callao"--"Vote or Shut Up."

Do tell.

Actually, a truer translation would be "Vote or Keep Quiet," but the sentiment of "Shut Up" is clearly indicated and shoved down Our throats. I won't forget that in My response.

The problem with this kind of campaign is that it uses a very Republican (as in "GOP") technique--gross oversimplification--to create a false dichotomy, an unrealistic "black or white" option set. Gross oversimplification does to rational arguments what performing brain surgery with a golf club does, so it's up to Us to set the record straight.

First: Voting is a right. It might actually be a duty, but it is defined as a right and as such, a person has the option to decline to use it. One can abstain from voting and that in itself is a decision within the parameters of a democratic process.

Second: Voting and "speaking up " are two different rights. The idea that one's right to free speech, to lob verbal grenades at the rotting vermin We elect and the ugly-ass problems they don't solve and actually create, is inextricably linked to voting is beyond ludicrous: it is criminally stupid.

Let's see if the "logical" structure holds up: Vote or lose your property. You have the right to property, so connect voting to property and We can turn the next election into an eminent domain orgy! There is no logic or rational connection in "vote or shut up," but that hasn't stopped these brain-dead pigs from squealing it over and over again.

Third: "Speaking up" will happen anyway. The notion that by not voting a person simply has to shut up has all the basis in reality that the Book of Mormon has (and no, I don't mean the Tony Award-winning musical.) Even if a person doesn't actually think the very flawed premise through, they will grasp that (A) Who will know if I voted or not? [more on this point below] and (B) Who's going to make Me shut up?

Expanding point A, yes, there is a record of who voted. But who knows if vociferous citizen The Jenius (for example) voted in 2012? And will they be around every time I bitch-slap ignorance and thievery to scream "He didn't vote!"?

No.

The underlying message of this campaign is not a reinforcement of democracy. It isn't meant to build awareness of a citizen's rights and the power/responsibility duet they represent. Uh-uh. The purpose of this campaign is to continue to imply that the power is not Ours: it's theirs. "Theirs" being the people We elect, the people We vote for, the people who are fucking supposed to WORK FOR US.

Any wonder the whole false dichotomy/rancid pig squeal campaign has the support of every local party, also known as "Tweedledumb, Tweedledumber and the 4 Mental & Moral Dwarfs"?

And because you simply have to talk back to these pig squealers in a way their microscopic proto-brains can understand, here's My response to "Vota o Quédate Callao": Mámenmelo y Quédense Callaos.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

El Vocero: A Bloody Tampon

Free press. The Fourth Estate. The Voice of the People. The Watchful Eye. The Preserver of Democracy. When it comes to what the power of the press is in Our society, the ideal is clear: it holds the power of government in check.

Somehow, for local rag El Vocero, that phrase became "It gets checks from government powers."

El Vocero is a """newspaper""" that was launched in the 1970s as the then-most extreme example of "populist" press, often equated with yellow journalism. Featuring graphic photos of dead bodies on the front page and several more in its interior pages, El Vocero was often described as "dripping blood if you squeezed it." For years, it kept its reputation as a blood-rag and in that interim, it became the highest-selling Puerto Rican paper in New York.

Misery sells.

In the 1990s, local """newspaper""" mogul, the Ferré-Rangel cartel, owners of El Nuevo Día, launched a "lighter" """newspaper", Primera Hora. (A "lighter" version of El Nuevo Día would be like finding a lighter version of a fart.) Aimed at a younger crowd and focused on "don't read," Primera Hora started to erode El Vocero's local advertising base. That along with undue and unethical pressure in ad agencies by the Ferré-Rangel cartel practically killed El Vocero, who tried to erase its bloody image and become a newspaper, for once.

For a time, they succeeded. For a time.

As the economy worsened and the Ferré-Rangel cartel played faster and looser with circulation numbers, sales data and ethical breaches, topped by a strike that further gutted the rag, El Vocero ended up being printed on shitty leftover El Nuevo Día paper and on their presses.

With the comatose state of The San Juan Star, the only English-language daily, the """newspaper""" field in Puerto Rico was reduced to El Nuevo Día and Primera Hora, two sides of the same turd. And Primera Hora was gutted of its senior (read: higher salaried) journalists in order to pump up the chance of selling the Ferré-Rangel puppy trainers to a Chilean company.

So.

What happens when El Vocero, the erstwhile blood-red rag, reappears as a daily, with a suspiciously blue tinge...given away FREE...and all of that based on having received some $20 million in government contracts, incentives and advertising?

El Vocero had a $14.5 million debt with the local government, now run by a (non)administration leaking blood like a late-stage Ebola patient. So in the kind of illegal legerdemain that makes the statehood blue the color of theft, the suddenly 5 new companies that broke off from the original El Vocero rathole are now swimming in money...that comes from Our taxes.

In short, El Vocero was rolled up and jammed into a bleeding hole to try to stop the hemorrhaging of a failed (non)administration. What was once a bloody rag is now a bloody tampon.

Speaking of which, the president of this new conglomerate for theft is one Peter W. Miller, who is an attorney/consultant and under contract as an advisor to senate president Thomas "Mad Dog" Rivera. Bloody hell.

Furthermore, the illegally-fired workers from the strike have yet to be paid their Court-sentenced salaries and benefits. Apparently the 1-to-6 move-to-loot-Our-taxes is being used to also avoid paying what the workers earned twice over.

And this, sad to say, is business as usual on My Island. A theft-crazed political party uses tax monies to crap out a sweetheart deal for a political crony, then uses that property--which should be a bastion of Truth--to spew rot like some sort of overflowing, over-pressurized sewage system. And if in the process these thieves, these disgusting vermin, can also screw workers from their earned pay, well that's just even better.

A word to El Vocero: tampons are not permanent. You will be discarded, rightly, and with extreme distaste. As for Peter: you are one, small and crabbed. And to the pus-infested seepage called the statehood party: gangrene stinks. The only cure at that point is amputation, fire...or death.



The Jenius Has Spoken.


[Update: 2 Oct 2012: As a new free daily paper hits Our streets, here's a look at the "splash webpage" of El Vocero, clearly defining what its true agenda is. You don't have to be up on all Our political nuances to see the crock of bullshit for what it is. And for those of you who told Me I was attacking statehooders and El Vocero because I'm biased, bite Me.] 

[Update: 19 Oct 2012: San Juan Mayor Jorge "Sniffy" Santini, is linked to a scheme of pardoning tax debts for Caribbean International News Corporation--"owners" of El Vocero--in exchange for ad space. Our tax dollars tossed away for Sniffy's ad space...and maybe a little nose party for the, you know, down times.]

My Vote In November: Pepe Le Pew

Back in November of 2008, I stepped into a voting booth made of brown wrapping paper, masking tape and what appeared to be rat shit and smacked My 3 vari-colored table-cloth-sized ballots on the narrow ledge, made from splintery cast-off wood that might have been used to build temporary huts for the Viet Cong during the War.

I grabbed the first ballot, the one where We as happy-go-lucky residents of My Island get to vote for the person who will take his shit and shits to La Fortaleza and the person who will get on an airplane, fly his skanky ass to Washington D.C. and there proceed to do everything possible to act without dignity or self-respect and beg like a krocodil-addled street turd for money.

I pulled out a Sharpie--black, medium-tip if you have to know--and wrote in "Spongebob Squarepants" for governor and "Pepe Le Pew" for Head Beggar. (That We tend to call that skank in D.C. "resident commissioner" is willful denial of reality on Our part...)

As for the other two ballots, I wrote "Mierda" on one and "Más Mierda" on the other. Didn't care which one had which phrase. Still don't. Capped My Sharpie, gathered the three sheets, stepped out of the paper box, crumpled the ballots into wads and shoved them into their respective boxes. Got dirty looks from several people. Pretended to spit to make them look away.

You can take this description as My definition of utter and complete contempt for the wretched refuse We have as political vermin and you'd be right. You can also take it as My not-too-subtle vain chest-thumping of flicking My nose at the system. You'd be right. I'm not above petty symbolism if it tickles My fancy. But you must take this anecdote seriously, because it will be repeated--with a minor variation--in 2012.

To some people, My votes for Spongebob and Pepe Le Pew were "wasted." My thoughtful response to that is that those people are shitheads. To people like that, who think a vote is "wasted" unless it happens to be for the winning party/candidate/societal chancre, the whole democratic process is too complex for them to ever understand. A vote for anyone--anyone--in an election is just as valid as a vote for anyone else. Why, shitheads? Because a vote is a tally, a marker that says "I think this." And it counts.

Believing that a thought concretized as a vote is "wasted" is like believing that a donation to a cause is useless unless it is "big." But unlike donations, which come in different values, a vote's value is level across all such choices. (Or should be, except when Republicans fuck around with the system. Right Florida? Right Ohio?)

So: voting for Spongebob and Pepe Le Pew were perfectly legitimate, and I might add, perfectly accurate votes. You see, in modern democracies, and We barely have one, voters are often choosing an "image," a carefully-crafted bunch of lies meant to galvanize the already-convinced to get their asses out there and vote, while trying to lure "independents" (actually, the "indifferent") to make a mark under a certain name or symbol. Despite tons of lip service by lots of My Brethren that they are "voting by candidates and not by parties," the evidence is that they are lying: straight-party line voting still dominates Our wretched excuse for elections, which means We are electing a monolithic herd of disease-addled cooties every time around.

My vote for Spongebob was because of his image as a hard-working, caring, optimistic, generous and fun-loving character who incidentally still has more backbone than either Aníbal "The Jellyfish" Acevedo and Luis "The Larva" Fortuño. (Clarifying for statehooders: sponges do not have spines. That's the joke, see? Fuck it; have your dog explain it to you.)

My vote for Pepe Le Pew was also based on character, the eternal romantic, always optimistic, who will do whatever is in his power to woo his paramour, no matter how obvious and desperate said paramour's rejection becomes. When you consider that since 1898 We have been trying to "woo" the U.S. of part of A. to "make Us yours", and that their treatment of Us amounts to the same "Buzz off! You stink!" acrimony We see with Pepe Le Pew, then who else should We send to D.C. if not someone who knows exactly what that's like and soldiers on anyway?

"But Jenius," one of you will say, "You voted for cartoon characters. Cartoon characters can't hold public office!"

Yes they can. Are you going to tell Me that The Larva, Gluttonny, the Mad Dog and the whole fucking menagerie of parasitic vermin We have in government are actually better than cartoon characters? Hell, for one thing, cartoon characters would be smarter and cost Us far FAR less than these walking pusbags.

I deliberated for a few hours (yes, hours; like you've even come close to thinking seriously about your voting choices for 10 minutes) and decided that this year, I'm writing a big bold "Pepe Le Pew" for governor. For one, it's time We had an openly-defined skunk in La Fortaleza. For another, We need his kind of obsessive attention focused on Us, on wooing Us away from the endless waves of supercilious and incredibly pestiferous caca We endure daily and charm Us into believing that (A) La Fortaleza actually does care about Us and (B) that life with Pepe will be an improvement over dealing with hyenas, rats, snakes, weasels, cockroaches, silverfish, fleas, ticks, lice and tapeworms.

I haven't decided on My vote for Head Beggar except that I'll change his title to "Ass-Kissing Beggar" from now on. "Head" is too good a word to waste on offal.

As for the other two ballots of elected officials and the 27 or so other pieces of wasteful turd-baskets The Larva is tossing into the mix to create the biggest possible election shit stew in Our history, I'll cover each one with a choice insult, crude, sarcastic and aimed to insult anyone who reads it.

And that's how you make a vote really count.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

A 40-Year Flying Fuck

Our International Airport, named after a 4-term governor who cemented Our colonial status with semantics, yet showed other political leaders that power is not really the end-all of politics, was privatized in a Public-Private Alliance (PPA) in July, barely a month ago.

And as it stands right now, that deal is costing Us about $1.08 billion, just up front. But that's just the tip of the reaming, as it will almost certainly cost Us almost twice that much every year for the next 40--FORTY, the Big 4-Oh--years.

You gotta hand it to The Larva and his parasitic horde: they fucked Us on land (everything they do plus the GasoDildo), fucked Us on water (both as surface and service) and By Mercury's Flapping Testicles, they are fucking Us in the air, too.

Yes, We are being given a flying fuck. Details ahead, lacking any tinge of eroticism.

The winning bid--or more correctly, the chosen bid--features Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (ASUR), a Mexican-based firm as equal partners with Holdstar Capital IV, a New York-based investment firm, operating locally as Aerostar Airport Holdings. Their bid was for $669.4 million.

Now pause a second. Over a 40 year lease, that bid basically represents "rent". Right? Right. So that means that Aerostar is paying $16.74 million (rounding up) a year to take over the Luis Muñoz Marín Airport. Seems a trifle low, given the size and transport rate of the Airport...

But wait! The deal is actually paying $494.7 million in debt amortization, with $174.7 million in rent and "entry fee". So really, the Aerostar rent payment is $4.37 million (rounding up)...a year. For an international airport servicing 14 airlines and some 4.8 million passengers and thousands of metric tons of cargo a year.

How/Where/Why are We being fucked? Look again at the deal: $494.7 million in debt amortization. This would be good fiscal policy, paying down massive debt first, if the amount of money received was truly fair compensation for the value of the Airport.

Hint: It isn't. Not. Even. Close.

How much is the LMM Airport worth? According to economist José Antonio Herrero, an analysis in July 2012 of the current revenue stream generated yearly by the Airport puts the value at $1.752 billion. So the supposed $669.4 million "winning bid" is 39% of the current revenue stream, but looked at closely, what has happened is that Aerostar has locked down an airport generating $1.75 billion a year for $4.37 million.

"But, Jenius," some of you will say, "what about Aerostar's $494.7 million in debt amortization? That's cash money Uncle Sam greenback dollar bucks We get, right?"

Wrong.  Amortization means that Aerostar assumes that amount of debt and agrees to pay it off over time. And where the fuck do you think they will get the money to pay off that debt schedule?

From an airport worth $1.75 billion a year, locked up for $4.37 million a year...for 40 fucking years.

What is going on here? The Larva's parasitic pack of parasitic thieves has cut a deal where some particularly toxic form of debt (toxic in the sense that some or many of them could be hauled into a court over it someday) is sanitized and the clean-up gang is set to really clean up for the next 40 years. 

The Larva's parasitic horde doesn't give a flying fuck about the next 40 years; they don't even give a flying fuck about next year 'cause they know next year ain't happenin' for them. No, they care about using Our resources to finance their corruption and then lining up next year, as "civilians", to collect more fraud-generated monies by the opportunistic cabals they set up.

But in the meantime, the 40-year flying fuck We are getting has just begun.


The Jenius Has Spoken.



[Update: 31 August 2012: And they slip it in...]

The Last Colony...Yawn

Over at Kickstarter, a dazzling example of Web-based business development that transcends computers and broadband, a man by the name of Juan Agustín Márquez is seeking $77,000 to do a political documentary about Puerto Rico, to be titled "The Last Colony."

Now Márquez is a successful non-fiction filmmakerhttp://juan.mixform.com/, an Emmy-winner for his documentary "100,000," on Our horrible plague of abandoned dogs. He also did "Los 17," a film about 17 students , along with teachers, parents and the community, taking on the challenge of saving their public high school from closure by dramatically raising their test scores. This film and its story was a presentation at the San Juan TEDx conference in November 2011.

So Márquez has the chops to go on Kickstarter and make a decent effort at collecting the $77,000 he's budgeted for the documentary. In his favor, using Kickstarter shows self-confidence and frees him up from "strings-attached" money which normally comes from corporate sponsors, and in the case of political topics, pinheads.

It is obvious that Márquez is blazing his own path and looking to do important projects, developing his skills and occupying ever-higher plateaus in his chosen fields. Good. That's what he should do and I believe his future successes will greatly exceed his current impressive successes. But as for "The Last Colony"...

I don't care. Not a whit.

Hope he makes it happen, which means I hope he gets enough pledged money by September 22nd to go out and do the documentary he wants to do. But I won't give him a dollar and when--I firmly believe when--he finishes it, I won't care to see it.

To Me, the bottom line about the documentary topic--and rest assured, We are a colony--is that it's importance is disconnected between reality and opinion. In reality, Our status is important: it underlies the fundamental positions We can have as a nation on the geopolitical stage. But in Our minds, in Puerto Rico and the U.S. of part of A.--Our status is unimportant, merely an ugly tool used by pandering thieves to whack other idiots over the head with.

And since reality is ultimately created by Our minds, Our status is thus--yawn--unimportant.

Because We and "They" don't care about it.

We don't care 'cause We got dollars and welfare and a false sense of security and Wal-mart and Burger King and flat-screen TVs and don't need passports to "know" Disney and the Bronx and...whatever.

And "They" don't care because they make dollars off of Us by making an island client use only their shipping and buy primarily their products from their stores and their companies while employing Us at lower wages and keeping Us from dealing with anyone else...whatever.

Can We change that? Hell yeah. We could have--We can--anytime since the Jones Act of 1917, that made Us conditional U.S. of part of A. citizens (Congress can revoke Ours, but not "Theirs") and locked Us into economic straitjackets in exchange for Our men being sent to the front lines in World War I and every war since.

We could have changed that before We "negotiated" a status with all the trappings of a colony but the name, stretching the term "commonwealth" (that Massachusetts uses) to disguise "colony," a bit like saying "politician" to disguise "crook."

We could have changed it with any referendum--including the one coming up in November--by insisting that it be binding, bringing "Them" and Us to the table as equals. We could have changed it by voting overwhelmingly for one "solution" or another, understanding that the current status is a colony, statehood is ONLY up to "Them" and that independence is not suicide, as too many of Us stupidly believe.

We could have changed it simply by having the courage, dignity and vision to say to "Them": Enough. This is Our time to take the world stage on Our own terms. And if they balked, We could have changed that by simply having the courage, dignity and vision to assert a simple: You can't stop Me.

We could have, We can, but We haven't and We won't. The status will remain a faux issue in the hands of microcephalic and immoral dirtbags that so many of Us cheer on because they are "My side", failing to grasp that the vermin are only out for themselves.

A documentary to make Our status "part of the national conversation"? Noble goal, but ultimately out of the reach of anyone, be it Márquez, Fellini, Welles or Kurosawa. It's not a matter of talent: it's a matter of indifference. Unless a documentary shows a hideous injustice of torn and mutilated bodies, broken buildings and abject despair, it won't evince the emotional reaction needed to launch a truly meaningful discussion.


Our status doesn't have the torn and mutilated bodies of a genocide or war zone...but it has murder victims in the thousands. Our status doesn't have broken buildings from bombs and bullets, but it has broken buildings housing poverty unlike any in the U.S. of part of A. And in Our status, the faces of abject despair are not the beaming slack-jawed bovine squeals of party supporters waving a blue, red, green or some other colored flag en masse like crazed monkeys, but the scattered thoughtful miens of Our folks who know We are trapped and don't have the collective will to escape.

So good luck, Mr. Márquez. You won't need it to make the documentary; you'll need it--and much much more--to achieve your ultimate goal.

Yawn.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

Do You Feel Lucky?

The title is best-known as a line from "Dirty Harry," that quintessential 70s flick featuring a less-wrinkled Clint Eastwood, gritted teeth and such. He utters it as he--the San Francisco rogue cop who's a loose cannon no one can control and stays on the force because he's so awesomely copperific...yadayadayada--points a .44 Magnum at some low-life's face, letting the perp know that although bullets were fired from said gun, there might or might not be another one ready to fire.

Of course, the punk don't feel lucky, man, and Harry don't get to blow the low-life to Pasadena or El Segundo, depending on which way the wind is blowing. And We all know the punk was right: it's too big a gamble on mere luck when your life is at stake.

But.

Take murder in Puerto Rico. (No, I will not do the Henny Youngman line...please.) As of June 2012, there were approximately 2,280 unsolved murders committed in the past 4 years alone. That averages out to about 570 a year...on an Island averaging almost 1,000 murders annually over the same time period.

First conclusion? That roughly 58% of Our murders are going unsolved.

Second conclusion? There's a lot of punks who are feeling increasingly lucky.

Now I'm not saying the solution is to put .44 Magnums in the faces of every perp or suspect around. No, We should do that to every craven parasitic politician We have until they get it through their nanoparticle brains that the crime wave is literally killing Us.

Like with every growing trend for an erstwhile forbidden behavior, the more unsolved murders (or rapes or robberies or fraud and corruption processes) We experience, the easier it becomes for others to do the same and up the ante. It's a feedback loop to Hell.

In terms of murders, as the numbers rose to surpass 1,100 in 2011 and will match that in 2012, what We are seeing is the shredding of Our society by bullet-flinging animals and the largely abusive, corruption-riddled police force that can't stop them. Can't or won't, out of personal gain, indifference or following orders.

(Yes, I said following orders. There's a really good chance that the crimes We see hitting Our communities are aided and abetted for personal and political gains. Thus, there could be orders to "let it happen". Counter-intuitive? Think this: We have a Republican (non)governor intent on making a name for himself as a "conservative's conservative" and the deepest federal funding pockets he can readily access are for fighting "the drug war." Think about it, although certainly rampant incompetence could easily lead to the exact same result as what We have now.)

Given that there have been thousands of murders in the past 4 years, do you feel lucky? That you haven't been targeted, or that you have and escaped? Is this feeling of "being lucky" something new, from the last couple of years, or--sorry--something you'll have in mind from this point on?

On the other hand, Brethren Mine, when faced with a situation where murder is an option--and you know you can imagine those easily nowadays--is said potential murder an act that scares the bejeezus out of you with the threat of capture and punishment? Or does your mind wander to the "easy" paths of getting away with it? And does that surprise you...enough?

Because when to comes to this rampant and growing crime environment We wallow in, it boils down to that simple question: Do you feel lucky?

Because everything you do after pondering it will depend on your answer. You know it will.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

Bail Reform? No Way

On Sunday, My Brethren will vote on whether the current bail system should be reformed. The current system--under Constitutional protection--grants bail to every accused person, regardless of what crime they have been charged with. The suggested reform would eliminate bail on certain charges and leave it to a judge to determine whether bail should be allowed in other cases.

(There's another referendum vote going on this Sunday as well, concerning the swampy cesspool of shitheads We call the legislature. Since that vote will be non-binding, it's merely a political hack's desperate attempt to curry favor with My Brethren, and by political hack I mean the (non)governor, Luis "The Larva" Fortuño...long may he slime.)

Now the standard in the U.S. of part of A. is that bail can be optional. Supporters of this bail reform point to that as a reason for Us to do the same. Well, the U.S. of part of A. also has folks going into schools and gunning people down; should We do that, too?

And no, My argument is not specious. Just because something is "done in the U.S. of part of A." doesn't make it automatically the standard. In this case--as in many others--it specifically makes it "the standard We should avoid." Simple reason: the U.S. of part of A. has the largest prison population in the world AND the highest per capita of its population in prison. 

Nifty, huh? World leader and all that shit!

Bail is not an isolated process: it is part of the judicial system. What does it say about a judicial system that consistently and systematically seeks to put more and more people in jail? Is this a judicial system or is it a dominance system?

If it is a judicial system and the results are the largest prison population in history, what does it say about the society that harbors and uses it? Conclusion: that the society cares nothing about justice and cares only about punishment. That means it is a despotic society seeking to impose dominance on certain elements within it. Therefore, what the U.S of part of A. has is not a judicial system: it has a dominance system.

And the evidence bears this out. Clearly and unequivocally.

Blacks and Hispanics are far more likely to end up in jail than Whites, despite the fact that the overall crime rate amongst races in the U.S. of part of A. is similar...and has been for several decades.

Here are some numbers:

--Hispanics: 16.3% of the 2010 national population; 20.6% of the prison population.

--Blacks: including Hispanic Blacks, 13.6% of the national population; 39.4% of the prison population.

--Arrests: According to a Department of Justice statistics report (later removed), "...77.2 percent of all persons arrested were White or Hispanic, 20.3 percent of people arrested for offending were Black or Black and Hispanic; and the remaining 2.4 percent were of other races."

So, in terms of arrests: 77.2% are White/Hispanic, with 20.3% being Black/Hispanic. The estimated percentage of Whites arrested on all charges is 53.4%, and although Hispanics and Blacks only make up 29.9% of the total population, they account for 61% of the total prison population. 

Whites make up about 53.4% of all arrests, yet make up less than 34% of the prison population. (Other races are arrested/incarcerated, too.)

How is this disparity achieved? By converting the judicial system into a dominance system. It begins with bail and ends with sentencing.

But don't do it openly. Give it a catchy name, like "The War on Drugs." Since 1980, the prison population has quadrupled, primarily linked to the possession and use of drugs (not trafficking, which accounts for less than 29% of all sentencing.) And who amongst the racial groups have been slammed into jail more often than not, despite the fact that--again--the arrests rates amongst the races are almost the same?

You got it.

(For you statehooders: Blacks/Hispanics go to jail far more often than Whites, although the arrest rate for drug possession/use is virtually equal amongst all three races.)

The first step to making the dominance system work is to deny a person accused of a crime (real or imaginary) the chance to properly defend themselves. That means sending them to jail, under control of the penal system, where their actions and reputation are severely curtailed. And the easiest way to do that is by denying bail.

Any "reform" that seeks to curtail a right is a process aimed at eliminating as much of that right as possible. Think about it and you will see how that path has led to the current fascism-trumping-rights system We see in the U.S. of part of A. Under the pretense of "security" or "public good", human hyenas skulk. Their goal is not "security" or "public good": it is "their security" and "their good at your expense."

The only rational, reasonable and responsible vote possible this Sunday is "No" to the so-called bail reform. The Larva's witless gambit is another step in the wrong direction. It makes Us put Our faith on a judicial system made up of a police force so corrupt it could not even police itself and on a legal bureaucracy so corrupt and inept it too has been targeted for investigation by outsiders. 

Furthermore, it makes Us put Our faith on a political system so disgustingly vile, so nauseatingly corrupt and so horrendously stupid, that doing so would be clear grounds for arrest. And incarceration...without bail.




The Jenius Has Spoken.

[Update: 17 August 2012: From The Miami Herald.com, a post titled "Puerto Rico: Visions of a Police State." Of course it supports My point: I'm right.]

The Larva = Rampant Idiocy Plus

An """advisor""" to Our outhouse of representatives tweets that Obama should "take (Michelle) to your homeland, Kenya" because that's where he was "borned." She defends herself from charges of making a racist comment by later tweeting that her "most beloved nieces are black" and that she is "anti-Obama" and as such she fights him "with all my heart and passion, as a descendant of Germans!"

As a fellow boricua descendant of Germans, shut the fuck up, Fotze.

When asked about the controversy, numbnuts nongovernor Luis "The Larva" Fortuño said he didn't know anything about it. Despite it involving a leading advisor to the president of the outhouse, a key advisor to the party he ostensibly is the leader of and amidst a media storm emerging from media he claims to "dominate."

On another front, a contractor is fired from building a vocational school. The contractor claims he was dismissed because he refused to raise campaign funds for The Larva's flight from La Fortaleza. The Larva the goes on TV--on a show with the intellectual, moral and ethical values of a thieving crack whore on crocodil who spits on blind orphans--and claims that the firing was forced by the bond company.

The president of the bond company, United Surety & Indemnity Corporation, states that what The Larva said is categorically false, adding that "(W)e never get involved in the process of declaring a contractor as non-compliant; we can't do it, we don't want to and we aren't interested in doing so."

Now there's idiocy and then there's rampant idiocy. The advisor, it of the racist ilk, is an idiot. To expose your idiocy and racism in a public forum--and Twitter is not just "your followers," moron--is idiotic; to do so as a public employee is doubly so. To continue to expose your lack of intellectual and moral acumen is rampant idiocy. And to actively state your position that you want your country to become a part of another and not know how to conjugate a simple verb in their language is simply too much to be borne(d). That level of idiocy is called "statehooder".

That The Larva claimed to know nothing about the tweet controversy is idiotic. To do so in the midst of an election run-up period is doubly so, compounded by his cowardly non-reaction to the racist and erroneous statement made by the idiotic advisor. To then enter another fray, on what amounts to a gossip show run by a moral and mental defective of less social value than dog poop, indicates that the charges leveled against you have some truth to them, which makes the action rampant idiocy. But then to lie like a thieving bitch and make the situation worse, well, that level of idiocy is called "statehooder."

In this battle to the bottom between rampant idiots, The Larva is the clear and biggest loser, slamming into rock bottom way ahead of the barbarian (more accurate description than you know). A racist advisor, a stupid parasite in Our government, is bad; that the so-called "leader" of her party and her government makes 3 idiotic moves to her 2...well, that's clearly worse.

So Let's write "The Larva: R.I.P."

Yeah, I know: I was about to cheer wildly, too, but I momentarily forgot I meant it as "The Larva: Rampant Idiocy Plus."

But there's hope We can soon see what made Us want to cheer so much...



The Jenius Has Spoken.

Can We Decline If We Aren't "Up"?

"(P)ublic and commercial services work badly, the average person is becoming poorer rather than richer, the economy has been pulled horribly out of shape and government in the widest sense is hopelessly dysfunctional, with different branches of the state frequently at loggerheads with one another.”

Yeah, welcome to My Island...England? Okay, the quote above is from this book review in The Economist, the magazine Our """leaders""" should read if they knew how to read. Fact is, they can't, so they don't.

The book's premise is that England could have a Third World economy by 2014(!) based on the quoted description above. Now I've argued (way back in 2005) that We were not a Third World country, but could become one...and so We have. Don't agree? Then answer this:

Question the First: Are Our public services better now than in 2005? Or 1995? Or 1975?

Question the Second: Are We getting richer, as in increased income per capita in real dollars, not inflation-adjusted accounting smoke?

Question the Third--World (sorry, had to do it): Is Our economy in better shape than in 2005? Or 1995? Or even 1975?

Question the Fourth: Is Our government less bureaucratic and less contentious, thus more effective than it was before?

The answer to all four questions is a resounding "No." You can argue the points if you're a pluperfect moron or worse, a member of the misnamed LIBREInitiative, a group with an extra B and R in their names for reasons that have to do with abject idiocy.

Now in the case of England, they were once an empire, so it is appropriate to say they are and have been in frank decline for decades. But can We say We are in decline? For doesn't "decline" imply that there was an "up" and thus one is headed "down"?

The way I see it, We are in a black hole, where up/down mean nothing because We've long been sucked into a hellacious sucking nadir. We can't be in decline because We flatlined into sheer suckitude (yes, that's a word; I used it, it's a word) about 20 years ago and all We've done since is corkscrew around in swampy suckiness.

So yes, We are a Third World economy because We have allowed Our """leaders""" to shred what solid economic foundations We had through serial incompetence and prolonged graft, power-up the "government as nepotism central" surge to mollycoddle almost 30% of Our "workforce," allow national debt to pile up to the tune of over $60 billion in a country that produces about $57 billion...and where 64% of the profits We produce--at least--are sent out to the U.S. of part of A.

When you have a weak economy propped up and abused by an outside nation, governed through patronage, nepotism and graft, with the "haves" becoming a smaller, more powerful group and the "have nots" becoming the vast majority and where a clear majority of business profits leave the nation to line the pockets of the dominant country, you have a colony. Pure and simple.

And when the colony is stuck in a black hole of suckitude, it is nothing more than a Third World country.

We aren't going "down": We are are already there. Which means We have a huge potential to go "up." If We choose.

And as I said in 2005: We must choose.


The Jenius Has Spoken.

Puerto Rico Needs Me

Go ahead: read the title again. "Typical Jenius," you might say, "As self-centered as ever." Maybe you shake your head. "Thinks that all this messed-up Island needs is Him! Like He's going to wave some sort of Jenius wand and fix it all!"

Yes, I do have a magic Jenius wand and yes I do think I could eventually fix what's wrong with My Island, but it would take the kind of dictatorial effort that is (a) anathema to My general inclinations and (b) ridiculous to think could ever come true.

No, I mean what the title says: Puerto Rico Needs Me...referring to You.

You who sees what the problems are and are already hard at work making solutions happen.

You who sees what the problems are and can spare the brain-time to seek solutions.

You who can see the problems and can spare the time to tell others where the solutions are coming together.

You who can perceive the problems and wish with all your heart that someone would let you help with the solutions.

You who perceive the problems and would help if a practical solution would be presented to you.

You who perceive the problems and would help only when its convenient, meaning when your chips are in the fire...as they are or soon will be.

And you who only occasionally perceives a problem, but gets all riled up about it and wants to do something now. You at least have a form of monkey-rage that can be useful, if properly guided.

As for the rest of you, those who perceive the problems and shrug their shoulders, shake their heads or make plans to live in Orlando, We don't need you. Those of you who perceive the problems and are waiting for "someone" to fix them, We don't want you. If the "someone" you expect to fix the problem is from the U.S. of part of A., do Us a favor and drop dead. And if you don't perceive any problems, but complain and moan and bitch that everything sucks while cashing your unearned checks...well, I already suggested another group drop dead, so why be redundant?

It is an inescapable fact: We are Puerto Rico, We are Our problem and thus We need Us to solve it. Too few of Us see that, fewer if Us accept this basic Truth and woefully--pitifully--very few of Us are trying.


But We are trying. It is a hard thing to do, this saving of a nation from itself, from its indifferences and biases and venalities. Nobody has to do it, but all of Us are required to.


The Jenius Has Spoken.

Whiny Bag Of Shit

Long-time readers of The Jenius will remember--despite their best efforts, I assume--the myriad stupidities of former senator Jorge "Il Castrao" De Castro, a pathetic sub-weasel waste of space who "defied" the FBI when he was under investigation and is now a convicted criminal facing even more charges.

In his pitiful defense efforts, Il Castrao is whining--again--that he ratted on everybody he could way back in 2008 and that nothing, but nothing, has been done to these other people. He even points out that his current tax evasion charges should be dismissed because he brought them to the Justice Department's attention.

Oh. In other words, I told you I committed a whole slew of crimes, so you can't prosecute me on all of them because, well, you know, I'm already going to prison.

What a moron. Want to parade your """innocence""" in front of the feds now, O Castrated One?

So who's on the shit list Il Castrao threw to the feds?

--Businessmen such as Antonio Luis Ferré, president of El Nuevo Día, the largest newspaper chain in Puerto Rico; Jaime Fonalledas, president of Plaza Las Americas, the largest mall empire in Puerto Rico and highly-prominent corporate leaders such as Arturo Díaz, Miguel Vázquez Deynes and Rolando Cabral.

--Political figures such as ex-(out)house members Edwin Mundo and Angel Cintrón (currently highly-paid """government consultants"""; prominent lobbyists Alfredo Escalera and Guillermo Zúñiga; former senate president and now secretary of state(lessness) Kenneth McClintock and even current (non)governor Luis "The Larva" Fortuño.

There are more names, as many as 90 more, including The Larva's wife (she of the $500,00 annual income from a law firm that does the majority of mortgage closings on the Island...since 2008), current senators and representatives, advisors at the highest level and whatnot.

A cursory reading of the testimony Il Castrao spews leaves you with only two possible impressions: either he has a very vivid imagination...or he is telling the truth.

The devil, as they say, is in the details. And Il Castrao, pursued and persecuted for prosecution on so many fronts, spilled verbiage like Niagara Falls. He dropped names, dates, times, amounts, connections, events, activities, habits, routines and assignations like there was no tomorrow...and there wasn't. Not for him. For you see, he'd been under investigation for at least 2 years, amassing an evidence file with over 13,000 items (phone calls, e-mails, videos, etc.)

Let's take this one step at a time: Is it any surprise that given the weight of evidence and his public attitude of defiance and smarmy, shit-eating grins, that Il Castrao is going to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law? Nuh-uh.

And is it any surprise that despite his many claims, the verbal diarrhea flung by the pathetic Il Castrao has yet to culminate in another series of charges? No, not really.

There is a precedent here, one where a stupid, greedy, feckless bag of shit goes nuts raking in ill-gotten gains, dipping fingers in practically every corruption pie the statehood party ("Bakers of Large-Scale Corruption Since 1992!") could develop and then spilling his shitty guts when caught, only to discover that the (corruption) party turns its back on him and nothing much happens after that.

The precedent was then-secretary of (mis)eduction Victor "Delictor" Fajardo, going from fundraiser to felon. Did his lengthy accusations lead anywhere else? Not immediately.

Let Us remember that Delictor was part of the Pedro Stupid Rosselló (mis)administrations, 8 years so filthy in graft that no less a public entity than El Nuevo Día labeled them "the most corrupt in Puerto Rico's history" in a fiery editorial signed by...Antonio Luis Ferré.

Yes, the same guy accused by Il Castrao of paying about $10,000 a month to the party. You see, there's corruption and then there's corruption, at last that's how "Tony Two-Faced" appears to see it.

Is there evidence to substantiate Il Castrao's claims? Maybe, but the feds wouldn't sit on hard evidence for very long. To be able to nail more prominent local people would be a two-fold godsend involving crime-busting and power-mongering. The feds love that shit and would do everything they can to play that game over and over and over.

So the conclusion is: wait and see. Il Castrao, like every moral defective in history, is more likely to lie when the chips are down, but even a stupid animal like him knows when to fight to survive. Il Castrao was caught as blatantly red-handed as can be and his days as the defiant walking bag of shit have now been limited to being a whiny bag of shit.

But that doesn't mean he's wrong about his fellow fecal-filled future felons. It just means that, unlike Il Castrao, their time hasn't come. Yet.



The Jenius Has Spoken.

Fortuño = Panderer = Slut

A mental, emotional and moral defective straps on a gas mask and a bullet-proof vest, arming itself with a shotgun, an AK-47 and two handguns. This wretched piece of filth bursts into a movie theater, throws tear gas at the premiere crowd and then proceeds to shoot at them, killing 12 and wounding several dozen. At least one of the fatalities is a child.

Some 2750 miles away, a mental, emotional and moral defective decides that this is the perfect opportunity to grandstand, to pander, to suck up to its own fantasies about who they serve and declares 5 days of mourning for the victims in a Denver movie theater.

Having declared nothing--not a fucking thing--for the 19 killed on its own island last weekend.

The Denver walking bag of hyena shit doesn't deserve to be named here. Our walking bag of horseshit does: (non)governor Luis "The Larva" Fortuño, he of the insipid mind and invisible talent. Not one week removed from being (a useless) part of a major crime summit here--one involving several Federal agencies, such as the FBI, National and Homeland Security--The Larva "acts" now not to curtail crime or offer solutions, but to pander.

Pandering, at its most basic, is what a pimp does, a lowlife living off the efforts of others by catering to base desires.

That fits The Larva to a T.  Witness the free-for-all money grab he has the pea-brained nerve to call "Our government."

Pandering also refers to brown-nosing, sucking up, seeking to curry favor through obsequiousness and flattery, relying on hypocritically empty words and gestures to attract positive attention and gain results based on nothing but self-interest.

That fits The Larva to a T. But who is he trying to impress, this spastic trash heap of uselessness?

Republicans. Namely the right-wing style-over-substance idiots who are trying like hell to keep running the GOP like the iceberg ran the Titanic.

Doubt it? Okay, follow Me:

--Declaring 5 days of mourning is not a common act. What happened in Denver is a horrible tragedy, but is it any worse than 19 dead in one weekend in your own fucking back yard? And this after a year in which over 1,100 people were killed, a record in your own fucking back yard?

--Will the 5 days of mourning really express Our solidarity with the folks who lost loved ones and friends in Denver? In a small way, yes, but not when Our own deaths are not only higher in total, but literally closer to home. The Denver killings were the result of crime, so saying--as The Larva's ass-mouth fart does--that their crime "deserves" 5 days of mourning is also saying that Our crime is not worth that much to The Larva and his ilk. That, in fact, The Larva and his ilk care more about Denver than Us. And no, this isn't some whiny form of inferiority complex: it is the only conclusion to be drawn after 3 1/2 years of The Larva's arm's length (non)treatment of the crime surge under his watch.

--So if the 5 days of mourning are not meant to impress Us or really express any extensive and deep solidarity in Our name, that leaves only one reason: public profile in the U.S. of part of A. And the primary--hint and pun intended--reason for this bag of horseshit to take a public stance like this now is to attract mainland party attention. Period. 

Not that The Larva is actually worth true consideration, but has the Republican Mormon with millions to hide, Mitt "The NitWit" Romney, picked a running mate yet? (Side note: In 2008, then-candidate John McCain could've picked Romney, but after the background investigation--including taxes--McCain chose Alaska governor Sarah Palin. We all know how that turned out, but doesn't that speak volumes about Romney?)

Now I would love--like I love pepperoni pizza and Slim Jims--for Romney to short-list The Larva as a running mate. Love it! Not only would it confirm how fucking stupid Romney is and how deranged and desperate the GOP is, it would also confirm My conclusion here. As I have a habit of being right, I'd be able to continue My long-established habit.

But even if Romney doesn't short-sell--er, sorry, I've Bain, I mean, I've been having troubles with My keyboard--even if Romney doesn't short-list The Larva, his pandering will be noticed, this bare-faced, shameless attempt to whitewash his reputation "over there" from the roundly-deserved shit-headed reputation he has earned here. For a party that suckles so avidly at the ulcerous teats of misinformation and framing, The Larva just got himself a few brownie(nose) points.

The thing is, the difference between a panderer and a slut is who sells what. A panderer sells others; a slut sells himself. It's ridiculously obvious where The Larva lies on that scale.


The Jenius Has Spoken.

The Larva Gives Us Cancer

Doctor comes up to you and says "You have cancer." Serious news with deep and far-reaching implications and you feel...something. Sadness, fear, rage, desperation, need, hope, doubt...

Doctor comes up to you and says "The guy next to you has cancer." Be honest: you don't really care, not that much. Not as much as if it were you that got the diagnosis. Not unless the guy next to you is your father, son, brother, best friend...something like that. Otherwise, you react with a bland "Okay" and move on.

Be honest: it's what most of Us would do.

But what about the person to whom the doctor says "You have cancer" and that person says "Okay" and continues his moseying along unperturbed. Deluded? In deep denial? Stupid? Insane? Any of those would apply, but you wouldn't think the person was "right in the head," would you?

Let Me introduce the pitiful excuse for a (non)governor ("Long May He Waffle And Duck Eggs!") Luis "The Larva" Fortuño, he of the pencil-neck geek physique and equally-pathetic intellectual muscle. The Larva has reacted to the downgrading of Puerto Rico's bonds--that his (non)administration used to shove Us into Our deepest debt ever--with a terse "No big deal." This after crowing like an emasculated rooster that Our bonds had "reached their highest rating in 35 years."

For the uninformed, known around here as "statehooders," downgrading a bond means it is a riskier investment and in order for it to be held or sold, a higher interest rate has to be paid. In short, the downgrading is going to cost Us--not The Larva--a ton of money. A $16 billion tumor is now metastasizing and he can't give a fuck.

But even a nano-brained parasite like The Larva has the basal instinct of needing to feed, so his public "Don't give a shit" stance isn't echoed by actions. To wit:

--The Puerto Rico Electrical Power Authority (abbreviation: DILDO) is doing everything in its power (yeah, "power") to keep its fuel surcharge high in order to keep supporting the massive bond issues it has made during this (non)administration. However, political reality means they've announced a "rate drop" for September...in time for the elections.

--The IVU Loto, a lottery based on your numbered sales tax receipt, is desperately trying to bolster its declining revenue by offering a car and 6 iPad giveaways every week. The bonds Moody's downgraded are exactly these (based on the sales tax revenue), and the downgrade was hinted at over four months ago.

Our debt equals Our Gross Domestic Product. That means We owe as much as We "make". If that were you, you'd be paying debts with every dollar you earn. Does that sound like a healthy arrangement to you?

If it does, you are too stupid to breed and should be euthanized.  Pity We didn't do that to The Larva back in 2008...because he isn't going to be paying anything for the cancer he's unleashed on Us.


The Jenius Has Spoken.


[Update: 23 July 2012: In this NotiCel article, it seems likely that Our government budgets in the near future will pay more in debt service than what it will invest in health and education. So now Our government is pretty much like many of Our families, paying off loans and interest from overspending and thus incapable of paying a medical plan or sending kids to something other than wretched public schools. The difference? Our families are ALSO paying for this government debt. I have to repeat this: the only good politician is a dead one. The sooner We make more good ones, the better.]

Relative Or Not, Poverty Is Real

Over at Microsoft Money there's a slideshow of the "Poorest County in Each State," using data from the Census Bureau. Short version: the poorest county in each state, based on median household income (MHI) have incomes ranging from $56,564 (Windham County, CT) to the lowest, $21,611, in Wilcox County, Alabama.

According to the Census Bureau, Puerto Rico's MHI in 2009 was $18,314. What this means is that the poorest county in the U.S. of part of A. has a roughly 16% higher MHI than Puerto Rico.

No surprise there. We know We don't have the income of Statesiders. But the deep individual economic problems We create for Ourselves stem from the notion that We do.


However, regardless of Our political status or lack thereof, Our economic status is basically one of playing "Monopoly" with 10s and 20s when "the other guys" are playing with 100s and 500s.

And that, My Brethren, is a sure-fire recipe for...problems.

Think about it: the poorest county in Connecticut has a median household income roughly 309% higher than Our MHI. The U.S of part of A. MHI average is $46,723 and the poverty level for a family of four is defined as $22,314.

Or exactly $4,000 more than Our MHI. Which means, you statistical freaks, that at the very least well over 50% of Our households are in poverty.

We knew that already. But the ramifications and implications, though clear, are being debated as if they involved differential equations and higher-order philosophy by lunkheads who can't read without moving their lips or add three single-digit numbers without a calculator.

The ramifications all stem from being the limited-resource stooge at a no-limit game. When "they" can play with everything they have and We can only play with what "they" allow us to, We lose. Eventually and every time. Doesn't really matter who "they" and "We" are: it's just a mathematical certainty when the game goes on long enough.


For the lunkheads, a translation: We are poor because We are playing their game, by their rules and accepting their control. If that sounds like I am accusing the U.S. of part of A. of being a bully, tyrannical and abusive, you are right.

But.

The implication is that if the game is rigged against Us--and it is--then the only two options are to either change the rules or change the game. Given Our situation, changing the rules could only happen if "they" allow it. They haven't and they won't: they are winning. Therefore the only rational, the only effective and the only pragmatic and dignified course of action is to change the game.
Meaning We tell "them" to take a flying leap at the freaking Moon and make Our own game, with rules more favorable to Our side and negotiated with other players in more equitable fashion.


For the lunkheads, a translation: If that sounds like I'm advocating independence for My Island, then what the hell took you so long?

Yet, as We know so very very very well, the notion of being an independent nation, of standing on Our own and shouldering the burdens and joys of Our development, facing the world as equals rather than as semi-obscure adjuncts of imperialism, that notion is as appealing to Us as jumping into a frying pan appeals to largemouth bass.

For the lunkheads, a clarification: Independence is not as agonizing and fatal as a frying pan is to a fish. You just think it is. That's why you're a lunkhead.

And that's why We continue to be poor: because We are playing a rigged game, with limited resources, with rules set to favor "them." And We are stupid enough to try to play the game "their" way.

Their poorest counties average roughly 180% more income than Our "richest" ones. And yet We supposedly play at the same table.

Lastly, for you lunkheads who fart "Well what about statehood to level the playing field?", let Me copy-paste this and have somebody with a modest 2-digit IQ explain it to you: "Changing the rules could only happen if "they" allow it. They haven't and they won't: they are winning."


Now shut up, lunkheads.



The Jenius Has Spoken.