the Puerto Ricans need social justice first!!!















K&R. Thanks for posting!

to be allowed to become its own country - once we pay for the decades of colonialisation and destruction of its economy caused by the exceptional USofA.

I was scratching my head at that post until I saw the sarcasm tag.

I agree that what we're doing to PR is nothing but criminal, but haven't there been referendums to decide if they want to declare independence, remain a territory of the US or enter the US as a state?

within the US orbit. Only @ 5% voted for independence iirc.

I guess I am struck today at the hundreds of posts attacking Bernie Sanders because he's supposedly not into racial issues enough, and prioritizes economic issues.

Yet here's this OP, (which will most likely drop with a fraction of the views and recs) which is a perfect storm as 25% of PR's population are people of color yet social justice (independence, racism, etc) is a complete non-issue for them while economic issues are paramount.

So Bernie's damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. Puerto Ricans desperately need financial reforms, it's what they want but Bernie's comments about that situation will inevitably be used as a cudgel by AAs as evidence of Bernie being too singularly focused (again!) on economics.

Just discouraged I guess. Sorry @ (almost ) fooling you!

simply because you don't understand how race is always the predominant factor in determining our interactions with larger society. Of course economics is important, but when you're half afraid to drive to the grocery store because you are wary of the police officer tailing you, economics kinda takes a back seat (and I'm speaking from personal experience).

When your day suddenly becomes soured after some silly white woman locks her car doors when you pass her parked car on the way into the QT station before work, you're not really thinking much about economics at that time. You're annoyed, insulted and wanting to curse someone out. Unless you're a Black male who's experienced that, you probably won't know how that feels or how it takes something out of you emotionally, even before you start work.

We don't need people like you getting mad at us because racial issues are always front and center in our lives, because they are. The Black community experiences worse economic outcomes too often because of our race (not getting hired for having a "Black" name, for example) for it not to take a primary position over Wall Street.

Bernie is not higher in the polls right now against Hillary because many Black folk still think the Clintons were/are good people, so it's up to Bernie to change that. He is off to a good start and picking up some good endorsements (from Cornel West, Keith Ellison, etc.) but seeing comments such as yours starts to make me think you're as much an enemy as any given Republican is. Bernie is going to need as much Black and Latino support as he he can get if he wants to defeat Hillary in the primaries, and you're not helping him at all.

so please stop assuming things.

If you're unaware of the hundreds of posts, today alone, slamming Sanders for not caring enough about black issues, and focusing too much on economic justice, then I advise you to stop and read for a few minutes.

My point was simply that for Puerto Rico, their biggest concerns ARE economic. NOT racism or social justice issues. That's just a fact. It's very different than mainland US. But Bernie Sanders will be slammed by AAs (again) for focusing exclusively on the PR economic issues.

I'm not mad. I'm sad really. I said as much ("Im discouraged&quot . I hate to see a good man's solid civil rights record maligned.

you're going to end up being identified as whatever your non-white half is (assuming white is one of them). You can call yourself what you want, but if someone see's a Black person, you're going to get treated like you. Tiger Woods thought he "Cablinasian" until Fuzzy Zoeller made jokes about him eating chicken and watermelon.

I'm sure the people of Puerto Rico are aware that the horrible way they are being treated and taken advantage of is completely influenced by the way they are viewed racially. Predominantly Black Detroit saw its residents being forced to suffer having their water turned, and that I'm absolutely 100% certain that would not have been done to a city full of white people. It absolutely would not have happened. Just like the vultures who celebrated Katrina and the way it cleared New Orleans of many Black people to make way for their developments, you have the same vultures attempting to do the same to PR because no one really gives a shit if people of color suffer, and everyone knows that.

Racism doesn't stop at the borders of the continental US.

Again, stop assuming.

My only points:

1.Puerto Ricans don't see social justice issues as a primary or even secondary issue.

2. Puerto Ricans DO see economic issues as paramount in their lives

3. Bernie Sanders will unjustifiably be smeared (imo) as focusing "solely" on economic issues by many AAs because of his attacks on vulture funds and the economic devastation they've wrought in PR.

You're arguing things that I'm not even disputing - yes black people are correct to be outraged over the racism, their treatment, societal white privilege etc etc etc - all of it I 100% agree with you (and so does Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton).

Vulture funds by their nature are fairly colorblind - they seek and need poverty to exploit. What's happening in Puerto Rico isn't because of PR's racial make-up, it's happening because vulture funds are allowed to run rampant over communities. Period. PR's unique status as an American territory means they're American citizens without real access to the halls of power - they have no representation in Congress, no electoral votes etc.

The only way they get exposure and potential action for their plight is when people like Sanders and Warren speak out about it.

It's great they did! I applaud it! But I'm cynical after reading the posts in GDP distorting Sanders' record with the AA community that there will be anything like fairness about his comments.

The farther from actual democracy we get the more the 1% will crack down on minorities. It's the 1% that is the enemy of those fighting for social justice. They may promise social justice but if we all end up in poverty (as we are headed) there will be no social justice for anyone. Claiming that progressives don't want social justice is a strawman argument.

How ridiculous to disparage progressives for trying to save everyone in the 99% and then turning to the 1% for a weak promise of a little social justice at the expense of economic justice.

You can also go old-school and end your message with "/s" . . .

but I was feeling devilish at that moment...

Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, things that help regular people.

They run our government, bankrupt the world economy, then have their bought and paid for politicians bail them out. They will suck us all dry and have us starving so they can buy their 10th vacation home and snap up all of the bargains in real estate caused by their fraud!

will let these sociopaths run wild until we are all in debtor's prison or cleaning these assholes' windows and toilets for cash under the table.

Bernie or Bust!

I never get to fish enough! Salt or freshwater it doesn't matter!

what about pension funds who invest in Puerto Rican municipal bonds? Should they get repaid?

Defaults are normally followed by restructuring, whereby bondholders agree to a haircut (a cut in principal, usually 25% - but sometimes all the way up to 75%) so that they may at least be repaid in part. And because haircuts result in higher interest, the affected bondholders often make out even better than they would have otherwise, if they hold on to the bonds long enough.

There's a problem: vulture funds.

In the past, bondholders were protected by the legal principle of Champerty - which basically prohibits bad-faith bond purchases by a small minority who intend to sue for more later. But thanks to Judge Thomas Greasa (who would be but a minor local judge would it not be that his district is Wall Street), this is no longer so - at least in the U.S.

Now, a money laundry based in the Cayman Islands can literally buy one bond note, after the default; hold it for a year or two while the restructuring is negotiated; and just as the legitimate bondholders are about to resume getting paid, sue for some astronomical amount (1,600%, sometimes more). And you get nothing until they get their ransom.

Nice work if you can get it.

that these nice 1%ers have another way to vacuum money from people who are both poor and desperate?

Thank you for this explanation...

This is something all Democrats should stand against, and not only for the reasons we just discussed.

As if all that weren't enough, vulture funds have become among the top contributors to the GOP: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/07/paul-singer-elliott-republican-fundraiser

No surprise there.

Every Dem should be reading about creatures like Singer...

But probably not on the same pace they thought, or that the vulture funds want.

money into a slot machine and lose, do you expect to get paid back?

expect their losses to be covered and they ALWAYS are. Socialism for the rich, the sharpest edge of capitalism up the asses of everyone else. It's the capitalist way.

and people always lose?

Instead of being bailed out they should take a loss. That's how free markets are SUPPOSED to work.

Once again Sanders and Warren do us proud.

Instead we get the 5th or 6th Benghazi contrived "scandal" hearings.

From day one I have found that disturbing . . .

Not only that, but the right arrow is GOP red, and stamped on top of the color of the Democrats. I mean they could have used an outlined white arrow, or maybe two shades of blue, or something other than that. It makes you wonder whether there is an inside joke there meant only for a reassurance to the puppet master elites, or simply an ignorance at how that could be interpreted.

what you think it does. Subtle, eh?

when that ridiculous logo was introduced. We were told that an arrow pointing right was actually an arrow pointing forward

Capitalize the profits and socialize the loss.

I would SOOOO love to see the MSM start talking about the inconsistencies in the socialism/capitalism logic these bottom feeders use.

If Bernie could coax Elizabeth to run with him, what a dynamite ticket that would be with a majority of 75,000,000 millennials voting furiously for them! But alas, Warren does have good and proper reasons - she knows she would do far more good in Congress than as Vice-President.

Hopefully she will, it would help a lot.

For vulture capitalists... You are terrorists.

Bernie respectfully played #2 in this combo as he should, in spite of his deep much-more-senior background of finance and economics. Elizabeth has the knowledge, the chops, the persuasion and the logic to lead, and Bernie played "team" all the way.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/10/22/uk-usa-puertorico-treasury-analysis-idUKKCN0SG00Q20151022

Too many vowels, you see.

"Treasury needs to step up and show more leadership here," Warren said. "When the banks were in trouble, Treasury did a lot more than just bail them out. Treasury stretched the limits of its authority to make sure that the banks stayed afloat. It helped broker deals between banks. It applied pressure to get parties to accept deals they may not have liked very much."

Thanks for the thread, azmom.

""They want Puerto Rico to raise taxes, cut health care, fire teachers, cut pensions, sell off $4 billion worth of government buildings, privatize public ports, close neighborhood schools and cut support for the University of Puerto Rico, all so these vulture funds can squeeze out more profit," Warren noted."

We voted in people for the past 40 years who have done this to the rest of the people in the other states, why not fuck these people over too?

Equality...