Puerto Rico

(ZHE) — Days after Hurricane Maria passed over the island and made its way west toward the Dominican Republican, Puerto Rico is still struggling with the initial response to the storm – rescuing people stranded in remote villages, and moving thousands into government shelters. Meanwhile the island’s first responders are making due without electricity, gas or cell phone service after the storm dealt a knockout blow to its infrastructure.

Size and strength of Hurricane Maria is being called “horrifying” as relentless and unprecedented hurricane season continues.

Monster storm slams into Dominica as it carves a path of destruction toward the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and other Caribbean islands still recovering from Hurricane Irma.

Irma is expected to maintain record-setting wind speed Thursday as it barrels toward Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas.

Slashing prices, offensive festivals and nuclear Harvey + this day in history w/Lenin shot and our song of the day by Warm Digits on your Morning Monarchy for August 30, 2017.

(ANTIMEDIA) Puerto Rico — “Two weeks after these observations, we realized that there were some very peculiar signals in the 10-minute dynamic spectrum that we obtained from Ross 128.”

The most striking feature of recent elections is not ‘who won or who lost’, nor is it the personalities, parties and programs. The dominant characteristic of the elections is the widespread repudiation of the electoral system, political campaigns, parties and candidates.
Across the world, majorities and pluralities of citizens of voting age refuse to even register to vote (unless obligated by law), refuse to turn out to vote (voter abstention), or vote against all the candidates (boycott by empty ballot and ballot spoilage).

Puerto Rico’s foreclosure rate has more than doubled in the last decade after the island faced a real-estate crash even worse than the one the Great Recession. Last month Puerto Rico declared bankruptcy on its $73b debt, the largest in U.S. history. This is definitely about politics.

Puerto Rican resident Maria Quinones looks carefully at her ballot with a magnifying glass before voting during the fifth referendum on the island’s status, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, June 11, 2017. (AP/Carlos Giusti)
 
On June 11, millions of Puerto Ricans will head to the polls to decide the political status of the Caribbean island.
Sunday’s two-part plebiscite, the fifth held since 1967, will decide the future of the unincorporated U.S. territory. Since 1898, Puerto Rico has functioned as a “commonwealth” of the U.S., essentially making it a colony of Washington.

The US Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has voted to become the 51st state of the USA after a referendum was held at the weekend over Puerto Rico’s future. Voters rejected calls to maintain the status quo as well as the option for Puerto Rico to become a sovereign state.
Although the referendum passed with an overwhelming majority, only 23% of eligible voters participated in the referendum.