Trump's Card

[ursus arctos]

That's part of it, but not all of it.

In the case of Texas, you had the energy and chemical industries pleading for Jones Act relief. In Florida, you had lots of people that Trump knows and hangs out with doing the same. In both cases, you had states that he won. All of that very easily overcame the opposition from the shipping interests that love the Jones Act.

Puerto Rico is solidly Democratic and has zero electoral votes, so that initially gave the Administration a bone to throw to those interests (until 45 noticed that he was getting bad press personally out of it).

There are also strange political dynamics arising from the fact that much of Puerto Rico's debt is now in the hands of distressed debt investors (aka vulture funds) whose interests don't align with those of the population as a whole.

[Tubby Isaacs]

[Amor de Cosmos]

Ha ha! Mr Brummer should talk to a few Republican congressmen.

[Ginger Yellow]

Nobody could have predicted that a candidate who campaigned on a mercantilist platform, who said NAFTA was the worst deal ever, and whose second slogan was America First would get in a trade dispute with a NAFTA country!

[Tubby Isaacs]

I like the bit where he says "I assumed he just meant China".

[San Bernardhinault]

Who'd have thought that foreigners might include us...

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I mean we all knew He was going to crack down on the Mexicans. But I too thought it was inconceivable that he would attack a fellow NAFTA country like Canada. I mean They've got a big free trade agreement with canada. Called NAFTA.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Where's Nigel Farage? Can't find any reference on Twitter to this.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm not asking anybody to find him for me. Rhetorical question, right?

[Amor de Cosmos]

He was talking to Steve Bannon in Alabama yesterday.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm sure he was livid- livid- about Boeing behind the scenes.

You should have seen him in there. He was like Nick Clegg in the Coalition.

[Sam]

There are also strange political dynamics arising from the fact that much of Puerto Rico's debt is now in the hands of distressed debt investors (aka vulture funds) whose interests don't align with those of the population as a whole.

Finally a political-financial term I can understand!

[Amor de Cosmos]

...and the NAFTA talks continue to go swimmingly.

[Hot Pepsi]

That's part of it, but not all of it.

In the case of Texas, you had the energy and chemical industries pleading for Jones Act relief. In Florida, you had lots of people that Trump knows and hangs out with doing the same. In both cases, you had states that he won. All of that very easily overcame the opposition from the shipping interests that love the Jones Act.

Puerto Rico is solidly Democratic and has zero electoral votes, so that initially gave the Administration a bone to throw to those interests (until 45 noticed that he was getting bad press personally out of it).

There are also strange political dynamics arising from the fact that much of Puerto Rico's debt is now in the hands of distressed debt investors (aka vulture funds) whose interests don't align with those of the population as a whole.

Here's a dumb question:

Why does PR put up with it's current status? IIRC, they've had chances to vote for either independence or to try for statehood and they vote for the status quo, which seems like the worst of the three options.

[Sam]

Puerto Ricans themselves have voted not to put up with its current status. The issue I think is that the US Congress won't start the ball rolling towards giving it statehood, perhaps partly because the Republicans are reluctant to allow what would probably be another fairly safe Democrat state in.

I'm remembering this from two or three YouTube videos I've watched in the past, so might not have all the, erm, fine detail correct there.

[Hot Pepsi]

Oh, I thought they voted against seeking statehood a while back. But maybe it's more complicated than that.

PR does count as a separate country in international sports - most notably baseball, but their players count as US players for the purposes of the MLB draft. FYI

[San Bernardhinault]

A couple of new things around over the last couple of days.

First up is Tom Price taking a ton of private jets all over the place where there were commercial planes but he couldn't be arsed, at a cost to the taxpayer of $300k. Don't believe the bullshit about him paying it back, either. He's paying back "his seat". He chartered the whole plane each time, but is in fact only paying back about 20% of the total because his aides ended up flying with him. He has more than enough money to be able to pay it back, though, because he's an utterly terrible human being who made tons of money through insider trading on health stocks while he was on the house health committee.

Trump is said to be livid, but I don't know if that's just for show. It would be interesting if Price did get sacked, because he's the one who actually cares about ripping apart the ACA. A less insanely dogmatic HHS sec might match Trump better, and be more inclined to dealmaking than destroying everything. But, who knows...

Meanwhile, the Whitehouse has released the bare bones of a tax plan. Of all the weird things in it, the weirdest - for a tax cutting budget - is that it increases the bottom rate from 10% to 12%. I'm sure it's not enough to make much difference, but surely the optics of increasing taxes on the poorest while slashing them for the richest is just utterly daft. It's not the usual way of sneaking taxes on the poor - it's in the basic income tax rates. (Terrible news for me and Ursus, too, is that states with high state income taxes will end up paying much more because they plan to remove the state tax deduction - but that's just bad for rich blue states, not actually shoot-yourself-in-the-foot stuff like the increase in the bottom rate of income tax).

[Sam]

According to Wikipedia, in 2012 a referendum resulted in a 54% vote for a change to the status quo, though what that change was was split between statehood, free association and independence. In June this year, a referendum on statehood was held and the vote was 97% in favour(!), but the turnout was only 23%.

[Satchmo Distel]

What are the chances of the Trump tax planning getting passed?

[Amor de Cosmos]

The Democrats could — and probably will — do a lot worse.

[Levin]

It's trivial but they don't rhyme do they?

I'm probably wrong as I'm trying to read a translation of Yevgeny Onegin and I keep giving an extra syllable to Iambic tetrameter.

[Hot Pepsi]

According to Wikipedia, in 2012 a referendum resulted in a 54% vote for a change to the status quo, though what that change was was split between statehood, free association and independence. In June this year, a referendum on statehood was held and the vote was 97% in favour(!), but the turnout was only 23%.

That makes more sense. I must have misremembered what I read. If PR can ever get back on its feet, maybe its shoddy treatment will inspire more Puerto Ricans to have an opinion one way or the other.
As a baseball fan and as an American who is terrified for the future, I want them to be a state. But it's up to them, of course. And I don't know how the GOP will ever let it happen. I don't recall the constitutional process.*

What is "free association?" Everyone just goes to a public forum and does slam poetry?

* It's been said that one of the best things Canada could do for the world is somehow ask to be annexed into the US. It would probably save us from conservatism.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Whoever he/she is they can fuck right off.

[Billy Casper]

Has Hillary actually ruled herself out from running again?

[Lang Spoon]

The Eastern seaboard down to Baltimore and the NW and California applying to join Canada would be worth a chuckle though.