WAR AGAINST ALL PUERTO RICANS
Revolution and Terror in America’s Colony
John Oliver and Lin-Manuel Miranda break the media silence on Puerto Rico
Throughout one of the greatest crises that Puerto Rico has ever faced, there has been a deafening silence from nearly every Puerto Rican “celebrity” on the planet. This silence was broken last night by Lin-Manuel Miranda and John Oliver.
They delivered a detailed and passionate summary of the crisis in Puerto Rico. You can see the entire video here…
In twenty-one minutes, John Oliver and Lin-Manuel Miranda did more for Puerto Rico than all the other “celebrities” put together…and not a moment too soon.
Congress is preparing a Financial Control Board, the FBI is starting to arrest independence activists, and Puerto Rico will default on a $422 million bond payment within a week.
Thank you to John Oliver and Lin-Manuel Miranda, for helping to inform the American public about Puerto Rico.
For a history of the War Against All Puerto Ricans, read the book…
Si prefiere ver la página web en español por favor visite: http://www.guerracontratodoslospuertorriquenos.com
WAR AGAINST ALL PUERTO RICANS 
Let me put this out as a bit of information. When Luis Fortuño took office as governor, the country had expressed in a referendum by a majority vote to change the current legislative system (senate/house rep.) to a single legislation format. Once he came into power, he ignored the will of the citizens and never acted upon the mandated results. It would have put out of a job quite a few crooks that are responsible for the current situation we experiment today. Add to that all the strangle holes the US has over the island. You be the judge.
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Ravee…
First of all, yours has to be the most misinformed commentaries here.
Now let’s see if I can relieve you of that very ugly and unflattering state of mind.
You say that “you won’t think there is an economic crisis at all” in Puerto Rico.
Well, if your view is that from a luxury hotel at a Hyatt, Hilton or Holiday Inn, then of course your perception would be just that. And if dining at luxury restaurants in the “El Condado” tourist strip, where “reality” is geared for tacky tourists in Hawaiian shirts or beer-stained “Hard Rock Café” T-shirts, who are looking to buy dashboard bobble-head ornaments of our Hula-Dancing “natives” or where they believe that they are having a “cultural” experience while grazing at McDonald’s or Pizza Hut’s all-you-can-eat salad bars, then you certainly would come away with your naïve impression. However, if you were rushed to any of the closed-down hospital emergency rooms with a 3rd degree sunburn you might have a different impression of just how much “spending and partying” we are NOT doing.
And if your children’s’ schools had been shut-down, you might also see just how much “in denial” we are about the current dismal fiscal situation on the Island.
And as for our “culture of rampant corruption”…let me take you back to 1898, when the US INVADED the Island without provocation of any kind and claimed it as a US “protectorate” and “territory” (aka “commonwealth/colony/concubine”). And I think you should be reminded that upon Uncle Sam’s invasion, privately-owned property was seized and handed-over to American warlords and THEIR “culture of rampant corruption”.
Even small family farms were seized and families that had labored for generations on the same plot of land were left homeless, without any source of food, income or sustenance. Get the picture yet? Even my great-grandfather who had arrived in the 1860s from Mallorca, Spain witnessed the day that the American “liberators” arrived to steal his crops, appropriate his Paso Fino horses and rape terrified school girls walking back from school.
And while there is certainly a definite element of political and thus economically-rooted corruption, the overwhelming majority of the people on the Island are NOT recipients of any of the American dollars that go into the pockets of a century’s worth of Island politicians who recognized early that they either danced to the tune of Uncle Sam’s piper or die of starvation.
The fact is that the shrinking middle class has more in common with their US-Mainland fellow-“citizens” in that regard and NOT with the very few greedy politicians who enrich themselves at the expense of the “average” Islander who DOES work and often at 2 and 3 jobs to send their kids to school, pay the OUTRAGEOUS and out-of-control utility bills or to just stay alive.
And while I’m on the subject of “corruption”, I will remind you that Islanders pay incredibly lop-sided and one-sided US-IMPOSED tariffs and taxes on everything from a can-opener to a car that they would NOT be subjected to on the US Mainland as other “citizens”.
And if you watch the John Oliver video you will learn just how much of that “culture of rampant corruption” has its VERY ugly roots reaching all the way to the White House and Wall Street, where president after president and corporate vulture after corporate vulture have DENIED us full citizenship and economic parity, except of course when our young people have been forced to DIE wearing US uniforms in WW1, WW2, Korean War, Vietnam War, Iraq Wars and every other “indefensible” US-initiated oil grab in the Middle East where our young people STILL are dying for the very US president that NO ONE on the Island has been allowed to vote for EVER in OVER A CENTURY!
Still want to talk about a “culture of rampant corruption”?
The average “citizen” in Puerto Rico DOES understand and takes responsibility for the current fiscal malaise of the Island. And they are not deluded into thinking that the Island’s corrupt leadership bears no responsibility, but they ALSO are cognizant that this “leadership” serves at the will and whim of a MUCH larger and more vicious master…the USA and the corporate slime that continues to be released on the Island to consume all of its fiscal, human and natural resources without impunity for over a CENTURY!
What we are in need of now is NOT a bail-out, but a recognition of the need for a debt re-structuring that ALL other 50 states would get as a matter of political and practical course, but that we are prohibited from attaining because of legally-mandated “laws” that unfairly single-out Puerto Rico for even MORE economic abuse. We are NOT asking for more bananas to make more platters of rum-drenched Bananas Foster with.
And as for our form of government, it was modeled after that of the US Congress and I don’t think I need to tell you that even in the States, that same model is fraught with dysfunction, deceit and duplicity. It’s not the best, but it’s the best we have right now and we are more than willing to adapt it when something better comes along.
Now go drink of our duty-free, ever-flowing Pina Colada fountains in Old San Juan and be sure to leave a tip for the waiters who are typically working 3 jobs to pay for graduate school in the US so they can one day return to the Island with their MBAs and PhDs to be “lazy and dance under limbo-sticks on the beach for the entertainment of American tourists who will ask him where they got their grass-skirts from or why they looks so white and not like the illegals who mow their lawns back on the US Mainland.
And I have written to you in English, my THIRD language after Spanish, my original language and Mandarin. And don’t make me tell you about how lazy I was when I worked for a head-of-state in the Middle East and spoke to him in Arabic.
As great-grandpa would often say…”mi’jo de bobo ni un pelo tengo”.
Now look that up and reconsider your arrogant and ignorant commentary.
You have NO idea who we are and what we have been put through for over a century. And “NO!” you won’t learn about us or our history from Hollywood movies about us as ghetto-bangers, drug addicts and whores swinging from fire-escapes in the ghettoes of NYC and “NO!” the Bronx is NOT the capitol of Puerto Rico and J-Low’s ass is NOT the governor either.
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This needs to be played over and over so the world can see that it’s the politicians again screwing their people.
Thank you John Oliver and Lin-Manuel.
Keep the message alive.
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It is not a bailout, the relief is going to come by helping PR restucturing the debt, starting by postponing the payment. That is NOT a bailout, PR are not asking nor receiving money from the US. How individual people manage their money has nothing to do with the government crisis. Still, it is the people who are running the country with all the taxes they pay. So if they want to be consumerist, that is up to them. IF YOU DON’t live in PR and you never have, you CANNOT talk about it. Because don’t know nothing about it.
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If you visit here, you wont think there is an economic crisis at all, what with people spending and partying as always. People here are super consumers, no matter where the money comes from. Add to this the culture of rampant corruption in the public and private sectors and the eerie silence of decent folks, it all makes sense as to why they are where they are. There is a denial factor when confronted that they brought this upon themselves. Is a bailout not a form of relief (maybe Lin knows something we dont)? As long as the people dont take full responsibility for what they got into, nothing will change. They are looking for people outside to blame.This small island 100 x 35 miles has 78 mayors, who are among the highest paid in the world, as are the congressmen/representatives and senators. They have the pleasure of a bi-cameral political system that the island does not need nor can afford, but the political system does not want to hear this. Ten years from now they will be back asking for help again. People are afraid to speak out for fear of political recriminations from the red or blue gang. To a certain extent this is a false fear that is comforting. The first step to recovery is to take full responsibility for a national debt incurred through massive public and private corruption.
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if the Great Roberto Clemente thee Greatest latino ball player ever to this day. wouldve been alive he wouldve spoke hard and push hard. j ho erik estrada jimmy smitts the mlb puerto rican ball players need to fukin speak . shout out to carmelo anthony true rican. where our hip hop people fat joe joell ortiz jim jones kevin gates tony touch swizz beats angie martinez just to name a few.
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What happen to the United States Subsidizing PR?
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BRILLIANT!!!!
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US owes us trillions of dollars abusing the colony for more than 100 years,with only paying us the 70 years of bombarding Culebra and Vieques we should be able to tell them ,now pay us the mony stel fron cabotage laws,custom,etc.When have you seen US make bad business,we are their captive market ranking 5 in the world,of curse is our problem ,we had permit it.In my opinion I will force them to pay what they owe us and let them go,they will not want to go,we represent good business and security in the region.they have to force us to decide politically,they are the intervention nation.Abusadores,no jodan mas.!
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Greg medina is right on target
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wow the power of the spoken word.well done.both.
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J-Low……………………………………………………….absent
Marc Anthony…………………………………………….absent
Rita Moreno………………………………………………absent
Ricky Martin………………………………………………absent
Sonio Sotomayor………………………………………..absent
Carlos Ponce……….’……………………………………absent
Benicio del Toro………………………………………….absent
Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Hollywood producer)…absent
Geraldo Rivera…………………………………………..absent
All too busy counting money when not abusing their illegal maids and pool-skimmers.
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@ PRpara Arriba…
In all fairness Calle 13’s lead-singer, Rene Perez-Joglar (el Residente) has been speaking-up about the current dismal fiscal situation in Puerto Rico and he has consistently criticized BOTH Insular Puerto Ricans and Mainland Pseudo Ricans for quite a while…WAAAAAAAAY before Miranda took off his powdered wig and interrupted his rap routines on Broadway or while minstrel-dancing at the White House.
And Oliver only recently decided to poke a stick in the eye of Wall Street carnivores who are salivating over the prime financial rump just waiting to be devoured in the Caribbean.
Meanwhile Obama has turned a deaf ear for 7.5 years to all Insular overtures to discuss the debt….apparently the only “La Tinos” he wants to entertain are ILLEGALS he can patronize with platters of Taco Bell in the Rose Garden as he and Michelle do “La Cucaracha” to a rap beat.
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Dr.Rex…as you can see the callous and cowardly silence of our “celebrities” is not going unnoticed.
Perhaps the next time we drop $20 on a J-Low or Marc Anthony CD of screaming, accompanied with a video of crotch thrusting and culo-slapping, we might want to think twice before we line their already-filled pockets.
And as for the Hollow-Wood “canto-payasos” all I can say is that their deafening silence will keep me from ever getting on line at the local Cine-Plex to see any of their typically patronizing, stereo-type-perpetuating visual trances of mediocrity passed-off as “cinematic art” about “La Tinos”…(eye-roll).
My cousin in San Patricio’s little Chihuahua, “Panchita” has more concern for Puerto Rico’s current political, fiscal and cosmic trauma. And unlike our “celebrities”, Panchita at least knows not to make a big “caca” in front of her fans, if she ever expects to see another piece of Brazo Gitano at Merri Chri-ma’ time.
Puerto Rico’s current malaise will pass, but we should NEVER forget the Pseudo-Ricans who remained silent despite having the ears and eyes of 100s of MILLIONS of fans around the planet.
Not even a YouTube video from any of these jerks! I guess that would require a hefty dose of “verguenza” and that is in very short supply for our “celebrities” as they labor over the color-scheme brochures for their next Bentley stretch limousine.
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What they need to do is start arresting all the corrupt officals that let this happen. How is it, that this was allowed to get this far, with all the resources that that island has. The us’ should not try to bail them out. Let them get off there ass and fix the problem them selves.
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I thought the same regarding what Lin Manuel is doing for PR vs the other artists and local politicians. He has to be included in the next edition of WAAPR book….
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How about a telethon? So everyone can help. We have such amazing stars….come let’s do the telethon to be shown all over the world!
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Pingback: To start the day …. “Thank you John Oliver … Thank you Lin-Manuel Miranda”!! | It Is What It Is
Thanks for telling it as it is.
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Meanwhile the very richly rewarded coterie of Pseudo-Ricans, which include J-Low, Marc-Anthony, Rita Moreno, Ricky Martin, Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Hollywood producer) continue in their SILENCE “Living La Vida Poca”.
As my Mallorca-born grandfather in San Sebastian would say if he were alive today…”esta gente son tan poca cosa, dio’ mio, que bochorno, pero ni un baile de muneca se pierden”.
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Thank you!
Gracias, Lin-Manuel.
Que Dios te Bendiga!
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This was great!
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sharing this on FB
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Puerto Rico is in trouble! It took a John Oliver, a British celebrity & a young New York born Puerto Rican, Lin-Manuel Miranda, to bring this much needed attention requesting help for the Island! The writers on this blog have been consistently asking “where are the PR celebrities”? I feel the same …. where are they? Puerto Rico needs all of you! Stand up for your country! Your voices are powerful … #HelpPuertoRico!!
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Very good and to the point!
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Great! Create a collective conscious on this detrimental situation.
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