S03.E10: Puerto Rico

[Athena]

Segments: President Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom, Norway Minister of Migration's policies on asylum seekers, Puerto Rican government-debt crisis

[mojoween]

Best end to a long segment EVER. Love love love. If I could impact anything, I would totally welcome Lin-Manuel Miranda to sing in my living room.

[ebk57]

I would seriously bail out Puerto Rico myself if it would get me tickets to Hamilton.  

[possibilities]

This is the country we are: a place where artists need to go on tv and beg for the government (of the people, for the people) to do something about an emergency.

[LADreamr]

This is the country we are: a place where artists need to go on tv and beg for the government (of the people, for the people) to do something about an emergency.

Nothing to add; I just felt this bore repeating.

[attica]

What also bears repeating: Fuck Strom Thurmond.

 

I've been seeing those ads play for a week or so, and they're so obviously rube-mongering that I wondered what moneyed interest was footing the bill. So I'm happy that John coughed it out for me.

[Primetimer]

Are we about to learn the limits of what a bribe of Hamilton tickets can achieve?

Read the story

[Jamoche]

What also bears repeating: Fuck Strom Thurmond.

 

I've been seeing those ads play for a week or so, and they're so obviously rube-mongering that I wondered what moneyed interest was footing the bill. So I'm happy that John coughed it out for me.

Is there ever anything even slightly non-evil associated with the term "hedge fund"?

[Sharpie66]

Miranda and Hamilton got my rap-hating 75-year-old mother to fall in love when I showed her the footage of him singing "Alexander Hamilton" at the White House. I first showed her the version on YouTube with the lyrics, so she could follow along, and then she wanted to see the actual footage of L-MM singing, so I pulled that up. Afterwards, she was all "Wow, what do I have to do to see that play?!?"

[purist]

I really loved the passion with which Ollie delivered the story on Puerto Rico. He seemed to get more and more worked up as it went on, until he was just about vibrating with rage. And then the magnificent finale with Lin-Manuel Miranda! Bravo, show.

[mojoween]

The DVR cut out right when John was walking over to thank Lin and shake his hand, was there anything else after that?

And seriously, how lucky were the people in John's audience to get tickets on THAT day?

Edited April 25, 2016 by mojoween

[IvySpice]

LMM keeps being a national treasure. That was SO GOOD. I can't even come up with clever things to say about it. It's just TOO GOOD.

[tenativelyyours]

First I have to say I'm going to see Hamilton and this just made me all kinds of giddy.    And we have been told we get to go back stage because the people taking me apparently are big donors to keep some schools open.  I had no idea,  In fact I had no idea how bad the crisis was in Puerto Rico.  I'm stunned and embarrassed.  (and I'm giddy and I haven't liked a musical since The Book of Mormon)

 

Also outraged.  It is ridiculous we have let things reach this point.  It's hard to even wrap my head around the fact this started back in 2006.  Ten years we have let this go.  Even with the economic collapse there is no excuse.

 

The Norwegian optics.  Is there no one there in that administration that went 'ya know, this might not be the best way of doing things'.

 

Fuck you Saudi Arabia.  And newsflash.  You think you can play wait and see until January?  You are almost as stupid as a floating cheeto suit.  The next person in office no matter who they are is going in with one main plan and one main plan only.  Getting re-elected.  Well in Bernie's case maybe living to be re-elected.  You really think with ISIL still an issue and your own brand of being cozy with extremism when it suits you coupled with the crassness and self-serving element of U.S. politics will automatically help you?  you might find yourself lower down the scale of importance come January.  I doubt you will be higher.  Talk about slicing your nose off to spite your face.

 

As for the royals.  I am a little fuzzy in a warm good way how much I do think the Queen likes the Obamas.  But I also wonder how much the royals think they need American tourist dollars.  Dang they are playing hard. 

 

Well that and Prince William had to go to seed in record time for any man.  I get that part of the allure was his position and his mother.  But really.  President Obama has aged incredibly in eight years but he has also gotten better looking like some men do and that little flash of image with William and it made that poor inbred royal look like a rabbit who broke most of his teeth on a frozen carrot he couldn't wait to thaw. 

[trow125]

This was a great explainer on the topic of Puerto Rico. It's something I had heard about but didn't understand until last night.

 

Also, coincidentally, my sister-in-law called me this morning to let me know she could get "Hamilton" tickets for... $850 a piece. She deals with a lot of concierges and had promised to look into it for me, in case I felt like flying to NY this summer. Sorry, but unless a giant bag of cash drops from the sky into my backyard, I don't think that will be happening! Those lucky Congresspeople, getting invited by LMM himself. (And lucky YOU, tenativelyyours!)

[Hanahope]

I almost wonder how many people seriously considered running for Congress now that they know Hamilton tickets are a perk.

[peeayebee]

(And lucky YOU, tenativelyyours!)

Yes indeed. I'm sorry, trow125, so couldn't make that happen. Lack of money stinks.

 

Speaking of which, Puerto Rico. I admit I didn't know what was going on there. I just get so pissed at people looking for any way to evade taxes and/or make money.

 

My guess about Strom Thurmond is that he didn't think Puerto Ricans could be trusted to be responsible with money, so he decided they couldn't file for bankruptcy. What other reason could there be?

 

Prince George is so so so cute. Love that pic of him shaking the President's hand. BTW, does anyone else think he looks like Louie Anderson?

[Victor the Crab]

Great performance by Lin-Manuel Miranda in support of Puerto Rico. As for the play itself, everytime I hear or read about someone wanting tickets to Hamilton, my initial response is "People want tickets to go to Hamilton, Ontario, just south of Toronto?" Too bad Rick Mercer's show is off for the season. He would have had fun with that.

 

Oh, and a big fuck you to Strom Thurmond, that racist piece of shit!

[maraleia]

 

Prince George is so so so cute. Love that pic of him shaking the President's hand. BTW, does anyone else think he looks like Louie Anderson?

Everyone on twitter was saying he looks like a mini Winston Churchill with hair.

[OneWhoLurks]

Quote

 

Oliver said "we know that Thurmond proposed" the text that stripped Puerto Rico of the right to let municipalities and public utilities declare bankruptcy. There is no question that Thurmond introduced the amendment with that change.

So technically, he did propose it. But there’s no evidence that he came up with the idea, and experts question that he understood the significance of the change that would follow.

The statement is accurate but requires some additional information. We rate this claim Mostly True.

 

Mystery: Strom Thurmond, Puerto Rico and bankruptcy protection

ETA:
 

Quote

 

Norway’s first minister for immigration and integration Sylvi Listhaug (FRP), arguably aiming to feel the migrant crisis literally on her skin, went on a cruise to Mediterranean Sea. There she was taken picture of, while gently floating on the surface in a “pumpkin suit”, using John Oliver’s expression. This way, many thought, she attempted to feel what it is to be a refugee, possibly, in order to use this experience in her job as an immigrant minister afterwards. 

[...]

However, Listhaug said that her jumping into the water was done not to feel the refugee crisis, but because the crew of the rescue boat Peter Henry von Koss outside Lesbos asked her if she wanted to look at their work and to be “rescued” from the water.

[...]

The criticism against Listhaug is not limited to Oliver. The images and footage of the stunt sparked uproar also on social media.

Karin Andersen, from the Socialist Left Party, suggested the minister to open her window to  know what it’s like to be homeless, while other social media users proposed her to close her eyes to experience blindness or sit on a chair for five minutes to know what it’s like to be paralysed.

Listhaug is Norway’s first immigration minister since the department was founded in December 2015.

 

Immigration Minister of Norway Sylvi Listhaug Severely Mocked

Edited April 28, 2016 by OneWhoLurks

[stillshimpy]

Have a wonderful time, tentativelyyours!  That sounds like it will be an unforgettable event.  

Like everyone else in America, or nearly everyone, I would make many a bargain with a variety of devils to get tickets to Hamilton.  Even the biggest devil posse among us: Congress.  

I'm also terribly chagrined to admit that I had no idea what was going on in Puerto Rico.  None.  So I spent the entire episode with my jaw inelegantly hanging because the poverty rate is beyond astounding.  

Also, what the fuck was with the Elysium-level of tourism video?  I'm terrified that there is a person among us in this world who could watch that horrible, condescending, exploitative Let's-Remake-a-Raj-shall-we? commercial and not commence showering for the rest of the day, knowing that the stain on your conscience is unlikely to wash away.  

Among every other fucked up thing about that, I couldn't help but wonder, "Who the hell directed that thing?"  as well as realizing that the actors in that are likely scrambling around, trying to pay for their necessities like the rest of the planet.  Was everybody involved at the production level just projectile vomiting at the end of every day?  It would seem like it. 

Sometimes John will cover something that is so difficult to contemplate, it makes me want to immediately crawl under the covers with an economy sized bottle of Valerian Root and not emerge for a period of time approaching at least a week. 

Strom Thurmond was both evil and pure shit, I shouldn't be surprised by how awful his legacy truly is, yet I continue to be.  

One of the things that Steven Hawking is purported to have said is that we know time travel isn't possible, because we aren't overrun with tourists from the future.  

I submit to you that Strom Thurmond's continued existence in the timeline of history is further proof.  Ugh.  

And because it can't be said enough: poor Puerto Rico.  I just can't even imagine the desperation that must accompany having to turn to congress, fucking congress, for aid because they are the only hope.  Congress and hope are usually unmixy things.  Prove me wrong, Congress.  Bring it.  

This is the country we are: a place where artists need to go on tv and beg for the government (of the people, for the people) to do something about an emergency.

And offer goods in exchange, no less.  I know, it was a joke.  It also wasn't a joke, because man, if I could get my hands on Hamilton tickets I'd actually throw them into the "Oh please, for once in recent memory, do something in the best interest of the actual people" bribery pot.  

[OneWhoLurks]

Quote

 

Puerto Rico will default on a $422 million bond payment for its Government Development Bank, escalating what is turning into the biggest crisis ever in the $3.7 trillion market that U.S. state and local entities use to access financing.

Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla invoked a debt moratorium law approved last month, saying during a televised address Sunday that the commonwealth needs to focus on providing essential services. The bank, already operating under an emergency period, had until the end of Monday to make the payment. The Government Development Bank reached a tentative framework agreement with investors who hold $900 million of its debt late Sunday under which creditors would accept a potential haircut, leaving them 47 cents on the dollar of the face value of their original securities, the bank said in a statement. The parties agreed to keep discussions out of court while they negotiate.

 

Puerto Rico Will Default on Government Development Bank Debt

[OneWhoLurks]

Quote

 

Back in 1898, when the United States defeated Spain in a war over Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines, the Spanish government asked about the money it was owed by Cuba, approximately $400 million.

The U.S. delegation responded that Cuba owed nothing, given that the Caribbean island nation had been ruled by an undemocratic, unaccountable colonial power.

In other words, the U.S. government declared that debts under colonialism are not valid, that only a free and sovereign people can assume responsibility for a debt. In fact, this negotiation between the United States and Spain led legal scholars to formulate the concept of odious debt.

[...]

Residents of Puerto Rico have no presidential vote, no representation in Congress, and cannot join international organizations such as the United Nations. If that’s not colonialism, what is?

In fact, we can rightfully argue that the United States owes Puerto Rico reparations.

In June, the United Nations Decolonization Committee will review Puerto Rico’s case once more. We should all take the opportunity to tell the U.N., the Obama administration and the world: Puerto Rico is a colony of the United States; therefore, Puerto Rico owes nothing.

 

Ruiz: Puerto Rico doesn't owe anything to U.S.

[OneWhoLurks]

Quote

Congress’ most recent Puerto Rico bill, which would create a new process that could enable the island to enter court-supervised debt restructuring, has prompted some to express their concerns over the bill. And Lin-Manuel Miranda is joining in.

Lin-Manuel Miranda Wants More From Congress’ Proposed Puerto Rico Bill

ETA:

Quote

You recently appeared on John Oliver's show and did a song about the Puerto Rican debt crisis. Do you hear stories from family in Puerto Rico about how bad things are right now?
Yeah. I mean, it's just, everyone's broke. My uncle is a pastor at a church and they were robbed a couple of years ago at gunpoint as they were counting the collection plate. My cousin is graduating with a degree in engineering and he cannot find work on the island. His sister is pre-med, and she's going to be moving here. And those are the people who need to be staying on the island! But there's nothing for them.

'Hamilton' Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Rolling Stone Interview

Edited June 2, 2016 by OneWhoLurks

[OneWhoLurks]

Quote

 

Asked about his involvement in the endless presidential race, Miranda said that he preferred to put his focus on issues where he feels he can have a direct impact.

“I understand that I have this weird megaphone right now,” he said, “and I also understand that it’s more powerful if I use it sparingly.” Making Puerto Rico “part of the conversation” is one project he and his wife are passionate about: “There’s no better way to do that than to get on John Oliver’s show,” he noted, “because those videos are viral the next morning on your Facebook.” The legislation regarding bots — automated online ticket vacuums that were the subject of his recent New York Times Op-Ed column — is “being discussed today” in the New York State legislature. “In terms of the upcoming election,” Miranda said, “I’m going to be trying to get out the Latino vote as hard as possible. It’s very clear that Latinos interests ar bound up in voting this year, and I’ll leave it at that.”

 

‘Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda On Merchandising, Tours And Getting Out The Latino Vote