this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024
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[–] [email protected] 106 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (6 children)

No, this is what we do. 51=17x3. 52=26x2. 53, however is a prime number so it can't be divided.

We make PR a state, Guam, and DC.

AND WE BECOME.... One nation, indivisible.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 5 days ago

You have . . . a point.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Squish the Dakotas together and make PR a state, we wouldn't even need a new flag.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago
[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago (3 children)

No silly, we COMBINE some of the 18 low-population states so we can go back to 48! One nation 6x8, with a better balance in representation! Or 45 could be nice as well.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

overly positive elementary school teacher voice* "okay low pop states find your buddy." "to make it easier for some of you if your state starts with a cardinal direction congrats you've already got a preassigned merge buddy and new name!"... "ah no Kansas, 'Ar' is not a direction, you and Arkansas wont work you don't even share a border hun" "...unless" Kansouri-Oklasas

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Why combine extant states? Just pull a colonial Europe and draw a whole new map over it! Nuts to "natural boundaries" or "cultural similarities", everyone on the east coast from DC to King's Bay is now part of the State of Midlantic.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

Gerrymander the state borders!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

Just break a pool cue and force them to fight tbh

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

This needs to be a meme.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

No factors, still divisible.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I'm not sure that more than 50% of Puerto Rico wants to be a state.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 5 days ago (1 children)

They vote on it rather frequently. They do at the moment but it does waffle a bit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

The last vote had a very huge abstention ‘vote’, which was the only reason the ‘for’ vote out performed the ‘against’.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

What are the downsides to becoming a state?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Puerto Rico doesn't pay federal taxes

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

PR is so poor that very few there would pay income tax. The majority of people would actually receive money due to the EITC.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 days ago

God you can't even have colonies anymore, another victim of wokeness

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Until Puerto Rico is a state, I believe they shouldn't have to pay taxes. No taxation without representation.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 5 days ago

They are exempt from federal income tax.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 5 days ago (2 children)

My understanding is that many Puerto Ricans don't even want statehood.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 5 days ago (1 children)

About 50-60% want statehood, it’s the majority opinion, but a lot of people like not having income taxes

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

The last vote had a very huge abstention ‘vote’, which was the only reason the ‘for’ vote out performed the ‘against’.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

They just want independence iirc

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

That’s actually a pretty fringe belief on Puerto Rico

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 days ago (2 children)

They can become a state if they want to. They have voted against it in the past.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Their most recent vote in 2020 results in favor of statehood (not by much). However, Congress has to make it happen, not Puerto Rico.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago

came to say this. Its kinda their own fault. Which more than anything indicates how american they are.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago (4 children)

I honestly don’t think this would ever get support. Puerto Rico is very republican last I checked so dems aren’t exactly incentivized to vote it in. And republicans don’t want it because that would be fair treatment to a minority so

[–] [email protected] 41 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I’m more interested in PR having representation then how it affects my own opinions.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago

Yeah I agree, I meant more the actual lawmakers aren’t terribly incentivized

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

If they have enough people for four representatives, then if they stay a territory they ought to get more than the single delegate they have in the House. I don't even care if that would add more siding with Republicans, they deserve more than they have.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Irony of the situation that the same Republican Party hates Puerto Ricans so much. I hope PR folks understand that when repubes say migrants are rapists, druggists, and murderers they also mean you - even though you’re not migrants - MAGA doesn’t give a fuck to the fact that you’re citizens.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago (3 children)

"No no no....he's talking about Haitians, those savages.

We Puerto Ricans are the exemption. We're special."

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

We're the good ones

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

first they came for the LGBTQ and we said nothing for we were not them, then they came for the couch cushions and we laughed... wait.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

Which is why, like in all past state additions, you do it in a way that is balanced based on contemporary divides, like slave vs free states. Puerto Rico and DC at the same time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I don't think "very republican" is accurate but definitely not as left leaning as Dems like to believe. There is a deep seeded mistrust of government while at the same time high expectations of benefits from the government. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ So the bottom line is that you just can't tell which way they would go and that's not a gamble either party wants to take.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I am surprised conservatives don’t want to add PR as a state, Republicans would definitely get more reps voting along religious lines in congress

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

It's because racism

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Surprised at 18, but guess it's not that surprising.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago

It's not hard to beat Wyoming in population especially.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Didn't they recently vote to not become a state?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

If we really cared about PR we would have pushed for this a long time ago. This is news because of a joke but we live in the united states of amnesia, by next monday this will all be forgotten.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

why not oppose US colonialism and support Puerto Rican independence instead of statehood?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

What do the Puerto Ricans want?

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