Granting statehood to D.C. is the right thing to do and it would also give us this bomb-ass flag. pic.twitter.com/9zQVBRYv37
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) June 26, 2020
… Just as soon as we succeed in turfing out the GOP racists currently supporting the Oval Office Squatter. Goals!
US House will vote on Washington, DC, statehood next week.
Pelosi: "We prepare to fight a historic injustice by passing legislation to finally grant the District of Columbia statehood …we will continue our work to protect every Americans' right to be heard at the ballot box." pic.twitter.com/DB8fa8AK27
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 16, 2020
DC should be a state. Pass it on. https://t.co/xUJ1sud76f
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 25, 2020
House Democrats passed a bill to make Washington, D.C., the 51st U.S. state. The bill is unlikely to advance in the Republican-led Senate https://t.co/i2NFmJ3Qko pic.twitter.com/7AECStMktu
— Reuters (@Reuters) June 27, 2020
Karen Tumulty, at the Washington Post — “Why the lopsided House vote in favor of D.C. statehood was so historic”:
Before Friday, the last time Congress considered the question of the District of Columbia becoming a state was 27 years ago. The measure failed in 1993 by nearly a 2-to-1 margin, with all but one House Republican and 40 percent of the Democrats voting against.
So the lopsided House vote in favor of D.C. statehood on Friday was a historic one, illuminating both the politically and racially charged moment that we are in and forces that have building for decades.
It passed along party lines, 232 to 180, with Rep. Collin C. Peterson, a Democrat from a conservative district in Minnesota, the only one in the chamber to break ranks and join the Republicans in opposition.
“I was born without representation, but I swear — I will not die without representation,” D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, a Democrat and a fifth-generation Washingtonian, said shortly after the vote…
Though the measure has 40 Democratic co-sponsors in the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said it will not reach the floor. Even if Democrats win control in November, as looks increasingly possible, it’s unclear that statehood could garner the 60 votes it would need to overcome a filibuster…
(IMO, if we break McConnell’s majority, it won’t be all that hard to peel off some of the GOP cowards looking to get out from under the wreckage.)
DC’s residential population has been more than 30% black since the antebellum period and majority black since the 50s but the movement for statehood started getting taken seriously not two whole years after gentrification made that number tick down to 49%
— Climate Doomer (@MenshevikM) June 25, 2020
And of course the Republicans, inside and out of Congress, immediately leapt to announce their allegiance to racism…
Republicans loath representative democracy https://t.co/3Jl3KzmwvA
— AdotSad (@AdotSad) June 26, 2020
The "vulgar majority of urbanites" lots of telling on themselves about DC Statehood on the right today. pic.twitter.com/qAjYhI8jo5
— staying home stan account (@Convolutedname) June 25, 2020
historians have spent years arguing that racism as an ideology leads white people to actively worsen their own conditions if it hurts black people a bit more, and these guys are literally saying they’d rather not have full rights if it means their own building staff won't either
— Climate Doomer (@MenshevikM) June 25, 2020
"Evacuate? And let that vulgar majority rule?" pic.twitter.com/q5FG8GD9ai
— Xenocrypt (@xenocryptsite) June 25, 2020
Bonus material (he doesn’t deserve a post of his own, frankly): Tom Cotton steps up with a career-making speech! — if you assume that his future ‘career’ lies with the Wingnut Wurlitzer, not in vulgar majoritarian polics:
Is there any area in which Tom Cotton is not a bobble-throated slapdick? https://t.co/tICigbLZRj
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) June 25, 2020
Also want to be clear that by "grotesque" I mean straight up unapologetic racist
— Rebecca Traister (@rtraister) June 25, 2020
Tom Cotton is a stupid racist and people who pretend otherwise likely are too.
That’s it. That’s the tweet.
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) June 25, 2020
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) June 25, 2020
1/2 Re-up w current data: Perhaps most odious part of Tom Cotton’s speech on DC was “Would you trust Mayor Bowser to keep Washington safe?”
In fact:
-DC initially hit hard, w other Eastern cities;
-Strong control measures;
-Rate moving *down* since mid-May;
-Compare trend in AR pic.twitter.com/wAp5EoBhjr— James Fallows (@JamesFallows) June 26, 2020
Wyoming sends out a press release: We don’t even know this Tom Cotton person!
Are you a logger, or does Tom Cotton think you shouldn’t vote? Alexandra Petri @petridishes explores some distinctions that the Founders may have missed. @postopinions https://t.co/D1aIndDAI7
— Fred Hiatt (@hiattf) June 26, 2020
Baud
I expect this will be on the rotating tag soon.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Do you want me to add it to the nominations list?
edit: I see from the previous thread that the answer is yes.
Baud
@WaterGirl: Do phrases have to be formally nominated?
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
I think there has to be a convention.
gwangung
@WaterGirl: How could it NOT?
JMG
Fuck ’em. Make DC a state. Make Cambridge a state. Make Madison a state. Make Austin a state. The guardrails are gone, so drive like it.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Can I be a superdelegate?
WaterGirl
@Baud: Yes! This is one area where Cole has declared that he is the decider.
Calouste
Keep the filibuster, or get two extra Democratic seats in the Senate. I don’t think that’s going to be a hard choice for a Democratic majority.
WaterGirl
@Baud:
I say yes to that.
NotMax
51 states, 50 state capitals?
;)
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Maybe we could make Hawaii a state. :-)
Omnes Omnibus
@JMG: That would put me far too close to the levers of power than anyone should be comfortable with.
hitchhiker
If you haven’t seen it, Alexandra Petri’s brilliant reply to Senator Tom Cotton is perfection.
Cotton made a speech the other day trying to ‘splain how it was right that Wyoming needs to be a state and DC does not.
Petri:
It’s terrific to see these idiots mocked so effectively.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/26/are-you-logger-or-does-tom-cotton-think-you-shouldnt-vote/
NotMax
@WaterGirl
That’s crazy talk!
:)
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: Thread won.
HumboldtBlue
Can we remember Puerto Rico for statehood as well?
I don’t want to over-egg the pudding — a deed I can claim without reservation, I have never done — but Puerto Rico has as many citizens as Delaware, Wyoming and Idaho (something like that) and really needs to be a part of the Union.
Baud
@HumboldtBlue:
Have the Puerto Ricans settled on that for themselves?
Omnes Omnibus
@hitchhiker: Blessed are the cheese makers?
Elizabelle
Alexandra Petri, on Tom Cotton’s latest on “real Americans” (ie. loggers, miners, and construction workers) — and note that Cotton left out 2nd amendment potato field guardians:
Are you a logger, or does Tom Cotton think you shouldn’t vote?
NotMax
As we already have a Washington state, to avoid confusion what would it be called?
Districtia doesn’t cut it.
Kent
@HumboldtBlue: I’m all in favor of Puerto Rican statehood. My vague recollection is that in the past a majority of Puerto Ricans favored maintaining their existing status in which they used to have some economic advantages that no longer exist. I don’t know how the opinion polls in Puerto Rico stand now. But if they want it them I’m all in favor. If, alternatively they wanted independence then I could support that too.
HumboldtBlue
@Baud:
Good point, but I’m thinking that after more than two years without basic infrastructure and services now may be the time to bring the wobblers across the fence.
gwangung
@NotMax: State of Columbia sounds fine.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: hahaha
ET
I have lived in DC and have been very surprised about how much play this is getting.
It is a perennial issue amongst DC residents who have been here more than a few years, but outside of the District boundary in “real” America? Not so much.
I know this dies in the Senate because Republicans and McMcConnell, but still, how many people in the US now know DC residents – residents of the nation’s Capitol – don’t have real representation in Congress?
Most still don’t know we didn’t run our own city, have a mayor and non voting deligate until the early 70’s. Out budget still goes through Congress and we pay taxes. It is arcane and embarrassing. Sure it is racist AF, but it also about people not caring that people who live IN THE NATION’S CAPITOL have always been second class citizens even before slavery was abolished.
Kent
@NotMax: We have north and south Carolina. North and South Dakota. and also Virginia and West Virginia.
No reason we can’t have Washington and East Washington.
Or maybe better just to call it Columbia. Although the reference to Columbus is problematic today.
Maybe we just need a naming competition.
Elizabelle
@NotMax: And I guess “Columbia” is out, after the events of recent weeks.
(Richmond VA’s Christopher Columbus statue ended up in a lake.)
NotMax
@gwangung
Columbus is culturally on the outs.
Nominations are open.
Potomaco?
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: This might just be her best column yet. And there are a lot of good ones to choose from. But damn, she nails this one.
Kent
@NotMax: According to Wikipedia:
WaterGirl
@NotMax: DC. Then no one even needs to decide what the two-initial state letters will be.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@gwangung:
That’s what we used to say when I lived there in the 80s, but now that there’s more general awareness of the deep awfulness of C. Columbus, it might be problematic. To say the least.
Omnes Omnibus
My high school teams were the Lumberjacks, and I lettered in two sports. Per Tom Cotton, can I vote?*
*Psst. Hey, Tom, I am a white guy.**
** But I vote for Democrats.
Martin
Tom Cotton noted that DC is only the 20th largest city in America and on those grounds undeserving of statehood. I would counter that we should give 2 senators to each of the 20 largest cities if we’re free to hand them out so casually to large expanses of land with few people.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: D.C. Bitches!
MisterForkbeard
@NotMax: I think we should just rub it in Republican faces and call it “BlackPeopleGotSenatorsNowYouAssholes”.
Maybe “Representationland”. I’d go with “FuckTrumpistan” but I don’t want that assholes name anywhere in my country.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
I really liked the symmetry of that 7×7 star flag. Just sayin’.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Already owned by the comic book company.
;)
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
I’m sure he’s exploring the lake, looking for India.
MisterForkbeard
@Martin: Hey, I’m cool if we just remove senators from barren states. Oh. AND give DC statehood and representation.
Kent
No, not true at all. The Republican party will just have to learn to appeal to non-white people [gasp! shudder!] .
Or is Rish saying that is simply a bridge too far to contemplate?
Dorothy A. Winsor
Trump’s abuse of DC during the protests really demonstrated why it needs to be a state. There are other reasons too, of course, but his control over the District was abusive.
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl: She placed Cotton firmly among racists without ever using any variation of that word.
Alexandra Petri deserves a Pulitzer, young as she is.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: So you’re really saying that if we add DC and Puerto Rico, we have to give up Hawaii?
Martin
@NotMax: I would go with Patawomeck. Hardly the first state named after the indigenous people who lived there.
Raven
@Omnes Omnibus: yes indeed
Mallard Filmore
@Baud:
HumboldtBlue
@Kent: @Baud:
A quick scan reveals that voters supported statehood in 2017 but the poll was boycotted by those who want other options and refuse to honor language that places PR as a colony and who want a free state.
Kent
Or, allocate them proportionately. Small states would get 1 senator. California would get …
40 million / 330 million = 12% x 100 Senators = 12 Senators
ET
Washington used to have distinct places – Georgetown, the city of Washington (Old City if you look at the property assessments) , Alexandria, and Anacostia. Then there was the rest of the District unaffiliated with those places. Don’t ask the various time periods (Alexandria along with the part of the district on the VA side was retrosceeded before the Civil War), but those distinct places went away and the whole kit and caboodle became the City of Washington.
The federal lands along the Mall could stay Washington. The rest could become Columbia (for continuity).
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: Wherever CC went, Richmond’s other “problematic” statues are soon to follow. How soon, cannot say.
The judge who granted the injunction against removing RE Lee clearly hears hoof beats coming for Washington and Jefferson, but that seems to be quite a different issue.
namekarB
Loggers in Wyoming? Cotton needs some school’n. The Wyoming State Tree is the telephone pole.
Villago Delenda Est
@hitchhiker: Tom Cotton doesn’t know jack shit about working. He was an officer in the Army. Ask any NCO about that.
danielx
@WaterGirl:
Then we can expect to see “Fuck These Guys” as a tagline soon?
Benw
@NotMax: Obama State.
Fuck the rascists. Stick the knife all the way in
Haydnseek
@NotMax: “Districtia” sounds like one of those medications that are endlessly hyped on TV, with a list of horrible side effects as long as your arm.
Gary K
Once upon a time I gave some thought to how one might arrange 51 stars in the “union” (as that section of the US flag is called). If anyone cares to see the design, it’s described on pages 170 & 171 in this article:
The College Mathematics Journal
Vol. 34, No. 2 (Mar., 2003), pp. 168-172 (5 pages)
You’ll find it seems to be behind a paywall at JSTOR, but one can see 10 articles per month for free. Please forgive my garbling of US history there: Alaska preceded Hawaii.
HumboldtBlue
@Kent:
I saw that one earlier and I like it.
WaterGirl
@Benw: ObamaLand
Dorothy A. Winsor
How about Columbia?
WaterGirl
@danielx: Maybe! I just added it to the list, but I predict that he will nix it, in spite of those being his own words.
Martin
@Benw: Peoples Republic of Obama. Do it right.
namekarB
@HumboldtBlue:
Well this is a slippery slope. What next? Mariana Islands? Guam? Oh wait, I like those ideas. While we are at it, lets split off the northern part of California. There would be Baja California below the border, California in what is now SoCal and the new state of Alta California
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Rick Wilson/The Lincoln Project just dropped a hammer & sickle on Dump (video)
danielx
@Kent:
Republicans will never be in the majority in the United States Senate.”
and what a delightful state of affairs that would be.
NotMax
I suppose Washy McWashface is an automatic no.
More’s the pity.
:)
Martin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: We’re in a bit of an atoning for colonialism moment, so I would argue that we should put aside all of the settlers.
Over half of our states (including yours!) were named after the indigenous people that lived there. That seems like a better tradition to continue.
Martin
@namekarB: Please don’t. We like being one state.
Another Scott
@Gary K: Haven’t seen your paper yet (thanks for the pointer). It looks like EHN found a rectangular variation that works:
51 star flag.
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@Gary K
Part of the thinking behind having both Alaska and Hawaii admitted was because of (so-called) balance.
It was presumed as a political given that Alaska would forever elect D senators and Hawaii would elect R ones in perpetuity.
Didn’t quite work out that way, needless to say.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: Columbia.
Anne Laurie
@Kent: So — we call it the Douglass Commonwealth, in honor of Frederick Douglass. And that keeps the DC initials, which saves a lot of retroactive editing.
WaterGirl
It’s very early, but I need to get up at 6 am to pick the cherries from my tree before it gets hot enough to boil water on the pavement, which looks to be about 8am
So it’s PJs and bed for me, listening to a podcast that will hopefully lull me to sleep.
Benw
@WaterGirl: @Martin: word!
Yutsano
@Martin: I have zero issue renaming Washington state as Cascadia.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Wait, you live in Wisconsin and you’re not a cheesemaker?
Anonymous At Work
I disagree with adding DC as a state. As has been listed elsewhere, a state cannot cede territory without approval. Congress controls DC. Ergo, rather than make DC a state, I would propose making it 50 states and calling a Constitutional Convention. While Congress is at it, see if anyone can persuade the Obamas to get a house in one of the 50 states of DC. Senator Obama and Senator Obama…has a nice ring, right?
Why kinda troll when you troll so hard, you can roast the billygoats gruff?
Kent
Hey… U-Dub grad here. Don’t you be messing with my W.
Mike in DC
If Puerto Rico votes for statehood, we could add them too. +4 to the Senate, +4 or 5 to the House. It would offset the GOP’s structural advantage in the upper chamber, and make their recapture of it that much more difficult. Indeed, if we got rid of the filibuster and got out the vote for the midterms, it’s conceivable we could hold Congress for a long time.
CarolPW
@Yutsano:
Lots of us on the east side are too far away to connect with that name. Columbia (as in river) takes in the bulk of the acreage but not population. Rainier might do it; not close to lots of people but on a clear day can be seen by much of the state.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Haydnseek:
Which sometimes includes your arm falling off.
HumboldtBlue
@namekarB:
Why can’t we start with Puerto Rico and go from there? I fully support Puerto Ricans deciding what’s best for them and actively support that process.
It’s worth a discussion at least, isn’t it?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin: Yeah, and splitting the state means talking about water, we don’t want to go there.
Amir Khalid
George Washington and Christopher Columbus, the most obvious choices, are both problematic namesakes for the 51st state. It’s much too soon to rename DC after President Obama, and the man himself would find it embarrassing. On the other hand, my name is not problematic, nor would I be embarrassed to have an American state named after me. So I volunteer to donate my name to the new state.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@NotMax:
Washington would just double as the national and state capitol, wouldn’t it?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent: Yutsy’s a Coug, what’d you expect.
BillinGlendaleCA, UW’85
prostratedragon
@Haydnseek: Or else the name of the syndrome that afflicts so many who live in the Village atmosphere there.
Gvg
Columbia used to be pictured as a woman, in Greek/Roman garb. I am not quite sure what the source of that myths was but it’s not Columbus.
without having heard from Purto Ricans, I have thought since the hurricane, that they need to become a state. They are too powerless without the vote. Choosing independence …seems economically unwise but maybe they want to try it. That would complicate things for all the American citizens who didn’t want to become non Americans. Some would have to go back and a large number would immigrate. Intimidating problems IMO. Well after we get rid of Trump we need to ask.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Amir Khalid:
Just name it the State of Columbia. Columbia doesn’t come from Columbus’ name, but the female personification of the United States.
I think Ohio’s state capitol should be renamed Columbia tbh
?BillinGlendaleCA
@CarolPW: Rainier, I like it; there was even a beer.
Ken
@HumboldtBlue: Puerto Rico could easily come in as two or more states. A law in the 19th century set the minimum population for a state at 60,000. There’s also the historical precedent of the Dakota admission.
Martin
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Well, that sort of implies that NorCal should STFU. We really need to talk about water either way. Honestly, if we can keep pushing out renewables in state, and particularly if we can get over this technological hump with offshore wind, or build out geo, we can do cheap desalination.
The state has the potential to meet 200% of the state power need through either offshore wind or geo, and both work 24/7. We have an abundance of blessings here, and they lead to a solution on water.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ken:
I’m gonna start pushing for the State of Glendale!
Amir Khalid
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
And why is her name Columbia?
Llelldorin
I love how it simply doesn’t occur to Republicans at all that they might try to campaign for the new Senate seats, or try to moderate their platform to attract their votes. No… there’s something about the district’s voters that they simply can’t put their finger on that makes them unamenable to persuasion. I wonder what it might be?
Ken
@?BillinGlendaleCA:To me, the scariest warning is “women should not handle the pills”, which IIRC was for a hair-loss medication. On the other hand I’m only bemused by the anti-anxiety medication where one side effect is increased anxiety.
Kay
Absolutely I will! :)
Trump Twitter is mad at Lindsey Graham but I can’t figure out why.
Villago Delenda Est
@CarolPW: North Oregon.
That should stir up a killer hornets’ nest.
Benw
Omg how did I not immediately post this! Critical information on renaming things, from TMBG:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0JhC3LO0-8
Llelldorin
@?BillinGlendaleCA: No Great State of South Pasadena, sadly; we’ll have to join a larger state like the Great State of Pasadena or the Commonwealth of Alhambra.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin: Ya know, it’s amazing how many LADWP trucks you see in the Owens Valley.
Steeplejack (phone)
@hitchhiker:
I liked this part:
Martin
@Amir Khalid: The US has a general tradition of not naming major things after people until they’ve died, with the exception of naval vessels and airports. You can’t put people on money until they’ve died, or until recently on stamps.
Gary K
@Another Scott: Yeah, that version was proposed by Robert Heft, who designed the 50-star model we’ve been using for most of my lifetime. Note that (regarding just the centers of the stars) it doesn’t have rotational symmetry, which I think is a desirable feature.
HumboldtBlue
@Ken: @Amir Khalid:
The stuff you learn on this blog.
And if they’re gonna name a state after Amir I guarantee you I get to be a fucking Senator.
I know how to get a response and it ain’t guitar lessons.
Mike in NC
I really like having 50 states. It’s a nice round number. Maybe admit DC as a state and have Alabama and Mississippi merged as Alasippi or some such shit. Not like there is a dime’s worth of difference between them already.
Villago Delenda Est
@prostratedragon: Broder?
Martin
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Be careful, The Villages is nearly large enough to qualify. Don’t want to empower those folks with a pair of senators.
bucachon
@HumboldtBlue: greetings from Puerto Rico , please no. Washington DC is to say the least contiguous with the us. In fact surrounded by it AND a part of us society. 51st state now. Puerto Rico is not the same society as the us. We’re not. Statehood for pr is the culmination of the invasion, military occupation, and cultural imperialism of the us. When pr was invaded by the us (plus Cuba and the Philippines etc), anti-imperialists fought it. We should still be fighting it today. We’ll still be friends tho.
Yutsano
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I fart in both of your general directions. Nothing says the schools have to change their names. Although that would be slightly awkward. Cascadia State University has a nice ring to it.
MisterForkbeard
We’re naming states after bottled water now?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Amir Khalid:
Oh shit you’re right, from Wiki:
Martin
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You’d be surprised how many you find in Utah.
Patricia Kayden
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@bucachon:
It would be foolish for PR to go completely independent.
Jackie
@Kent: I live in Eastern Washington – right on the Columbia River. Not the Potamic?
SectionH
@Yutsano @CarolPW @?BillinGlendaleCA :
How about Subductia?
Oookay, never mind.
Redshift
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Could be. Most likely there will still be a federal district, it’ll just be a lot smaller and probably no one will live there, so Washington could be separate from the District of Columbia, but people might find that confusing.
Before DC was completely urbanized, there were separate towns within it. You can look up postmarks from Georgetown, DC and Alexandria, DC (before it was retroceded to Virginia.) So it’ll be interesting to see if the new state does designate a capital, or just makes it the whole city/state.
Barbara
@Martin: I had jokingly suggested Prius to my husband (every third car in the area is a Prius) but if we are thinking geographic landmarks, Anacostia is the river that is mostly in DC. Potomac goes through Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland. And it’s a nice name.
Martin
Reports a civilian opened fire on protesters in Louisville. Hope our people there are okay.
HumboldtBlue
@bucachon:
I hear you, please keep us informed on how it goes.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
They’re just now figuring this out? Lindsay Graham had his head up McCain’s ass for like 30 years before Trump came along. The guy only wants to stay relevant and keep his power as part of the World’s Greatest Deliberative Country Club
Mike in DC
@bucachon:
Hawaii was a different culture too. I don’t see a problem with holding a referendum on it. If they want independence or to stick with the status quo, that’s cool too.
Barbara
@bucachon: It will always be up to the people of PR.
Martin
Video shows a guy in shorts with what looks like two pistols shooing into a full park of protestors.
Achrachno
@Mike in NC: It’d be better just to have one Dakota — two of the least populous states and created by political shenanigans anyway. Put it back the way it was.
Martin
Aaaand, 2 dead and 4 wounded when a guy drove into a Walmart distribution facility up near Redding, CA and started shooting with an AR-style weapon.
Boy, we’re really having a week.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
I hope our resident lawyer in Louisville is ok. Can’t remember his nym at the moment
Feathers
Cutting up states into smaller states is a losing proposition for the Dems. The rural/urban divide is real. Once you’ve split one blue state into two, it would be hard not to let ten red states become twenty.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ken: Obviously you need to watch some segments of Dr. Stephen Colbert DFA from Prescot Pharmaceuticals.
Kay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Trumpin’ Jack Flash Flag of United States#MAGA either is or says he is a Marine so he’s very upset about this Putin story. Which is fake news, BTW.
Trump (supposedly) loving the military is a big part of MAGAWorld. This will upset them.
Uncle Cosmo
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Problem with “Columbia” inter alia is the community of Columbia with ~100,000 residents (second largest in the state of MD) only ~20 miles NE of the DC line, which celebrated its golden jubilee in 2017.
I would support “Federalia” or some other change rung on the notion that it essentially encompasses the seat of the Federal government. (We should probably allow the Mall, White House, Washington Monument, Lincoln/Jefferson Memorials and other Federal edifices with no resident population some sort of extraterritorial status like the Pope’s four churches outside Vatican City.)
Achrachno
@Yutsano: I believe there have been several votes and it has usually come out 1) commonwealth, 2) statehood, 3}independence. Right? I’m OK with whatever Puerto Ricans decide, but I don’t like having colonies very much. Can we move things to 1 or 3?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
I’d like to think it will upset some of them. A bunch will probably just blame the “deep state” for not informing Trump sooner or something and isn’t his fault. Because nothing is ever his fault and he’s always a victim
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin: Probably never go to Utah again, too far for the old Prius.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Yutsano:
Might want to talk to your doc about that before your eviction.
Omnes Omnibus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: One set of great=grandparents lost their dairy farm around 1930. That is as close to cheesemaking as I get.
HumboldtBlue
Got it, new DC state name:
COITUS
Capital of Independence, The United States.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Redshift: There is the City and County of San Francisco.
Kay
Here’s a shocker- the horribly corrupt Barr runs a completely captured DOJ who now do political prosecutions:
Gross. It’s just shameful that more of them don’t resign and then speak out. Jesus Christ. These people are supposed to be professional advocates. They can’t even defend their own institution from the repulsive, sleazy Barr.
MisterForkbeard
I’m not super into the Great Orange Satan, but there’s an excellent rundown on Biden’s response to the russian bounty revelations, including a video speech.
It’s a good response. I hope he keeps up on it: https://m.dailykos.com/stories/1956457
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Uncle Cosmo: We do have cities named Washington as well as a State.
Patricia Kayden
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
That’s such a fucking stretch. Fuck Bill Barr
MisterForkbeard
@HumboldtBlue: You win the thread.
@Kay: I am extremely unsurprised. The ridiculous silence after what Barr did to the Mueller Report was example enough.
HumboldtBlue
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
There’s Philadelphia County and the City of Philadelphia.
On another note entirely, here’s what it looks for Black folks at work for the Democrats.
Feathers
@Uncle Cosmo: Not a problem, there’s “Little” Washington in Virginia. The Little is unofficial, but on all the road signs. Columbia would just always be Columbia, MD. They should change their name anyway. #teamReston
Redshift
@Uncle Cosmo:
Umm, no. I am not a DC resident, but I grew up across the river, and I can assure you that any name that implies there’s nothing here but the federal government is going to a non-starter. The attitude that everyone is transient/”nobody is really from there” isn’t quite as widespread as it used to be, but it’s still really annoying.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
And in New York City, Manhattan island (plus a few small islets and, IIRC, Marble Hill across the river) is New York county in New York state.
Kay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Why are they even involved? They protest on a bridge and the US Attorney gets involved because the protestors may or may not have diverted truck traffic by being there?
If they need something to do I have a suggestion- they could investigate and prosecute some white collar crime. They can start with money laundering in the Trump Family and Trump campaign. They’ll need a huge team just for that case. They better hurry. The crooks are getting away.
Kent
No not Rainier. The mountain was named after this guy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Rainier who was a British real admiral and friend of the explorer George Vancouver. Peter Rainier never even explored the Pacific much less ever set foot in Washington and has no connection to the state. Talk about white privilege to have a state named after you when you never came within 3000 miles of it.
If you want to rename it after the mountain, then at least use the original native name for it which is Tahoma. In fact, there is an off and on again movement in Washington to rename the mountain Mt. Tahoma. The same effort was successful in Alaska with the re-naming of Mt. McKinley to Denali.
Achrachno
@Feathers: There is a minimum population size issue. Can’t cut Wyoming because it’s barely “legal” for admission as a whole, but we could make a lot of states out of CA. I do not advocate that though we do need to find a way to make the senate more representative.
The county I live in is more populous than about 15 of the states, but I have to share 2 senators with the rest of CA.
Feathers
They could call the new state George, still named after Washington.
I should just go to bed already.
Uncle Cosmo
But we don’t have two major population centers within 20 miles of one another both named “Columbia”. JFC, imagine the road signs. Imagine the accidents as out-of-towners try to figure out which is the one they want to reach…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: There’s a Nevada County in California(it also borders the State of Nevada).
Another Scott
@Uncle Cosmo: I think “Ellington” has a nice ring to it. (After “Duke” who was born there. (Douglass was born in Maryland.))
Not for me to decide, fortunately!
Cheers,
Scott.
namekarB
@Yutsano:
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Peoples Republic of Berkeley
Redshift
@?BillinGlendaleCA: And Los Angeles, but that’s not exactly the same as a city and state. Nor is a county and city having the same name exactly like a state and city completely overlapping in territory.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
They’d have to investigate and prosecute themselves if they did that. Shill Barr is the Boss of White Collar Criminals
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Aren’t Molotov Cocktails protected under the 2nd and 21st Amendments, as well as the Ribbentrop Pact.
Kent
So was every state, originally.
Alaska was Aleut in the west, Inupiat/Yupik in the north, Athabaskan in the center, and Tlingit/Haida in the southeast. And Russian for a spell as well.
The American Southwest is a complicated jumble of cultural and political histories.
Puerto Rican culture is already deeply American. The more relevant question is where does Puerto Rico want to go from here.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Redshift: Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles are different, LA County is much, much larger. I live in the City of Glendale in LA County. The City and County of San Francisco are the same entity and the same size.
namekarB
As long as we are tinkering with states, we need to tweak some state borders
https://xkcd.com/1902/
Uncle Cosmo
Then you can fucking well be annoyed & stay annoyed. I had ample opportunity over 40 years to take reasonably lucrative jobs down by the District & I turned every one of them down because I didn’t care to live anywhere my neighbors moved in & moved away before I could even meet them.
DC is the only significant US city where the middle class is effectively nonexistent because there’s nothing for ordinary folks to do there other than serve the politicos, lobbyists, grifters, media loudmouths and Beltway bandits putsching & tschoving for front teat on the Federal sow, and of course the tourists… I support DC statehood because taxation without representation is abominable, but beyond that…
Matt McIrvin
@HumboldtBlue: The problem with Puerto Rico statehood is that there are three options with significant popular support–statehood, independence, and status quo–and none has a majority. The independence faction was the smallest of the three factions and before Trump, it seemed like support for independence was dropping, but Trump gave it a huge shot in the arm by being a racist asshole and trying to destroy Puerto Rico.
There have been multiple referenda held, but they never seem to show a clear majority for any position. The last referendum on the subject was overwhelmingly won by the statehood faction, but it was because everyone else boycotted the vote over objections to how it was being held.
Another Scott
@Uncle Cosmo: Atlantans figured that out with all the “Peachtree” variations (Street, Road, West, Lane, Avenue, etc., etc.). It’s not that difficult.
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Redshift:
Huh. Didn’t know that. Would the federal district encompass the National Mall and government buildings in Washington?
Kent
There is already a Georgetown within Washington DC. Although named after King George and not George Washington. But the state of Georgetown does have a nice ring to it. And we already have Georgetown University so we are good there.
joel hanes
@MisterForkbeard:
I think we should just rub it in Republican faces and call it “BlackPeopleGotSenatorsNowYouAssholes”.
Two proposals:
In accordance with MFB’s idea above, we should name it “Chisholm“. I’d be good with a statue of Shirley Chisholm, too.
Or, since there’s already a state named for Washington, the new state should be named “Lincoln”
Omnes Omnibus
@Uncle Cosmo: Kansas City.
Kent
Sounds like a poster child opportunity for ranked choice voting.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Living in SoCal, what’s your opinion on the hypothetical combining of San Diego and Los Angeles into “San Angeles”? It’s got a nice ring to it. And it would fit the dystopian times we live in
Another Scott
@namekarB: (The hover text is oddly appropriate, also too.)
Cheers,
Scott.
namekarB
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Not to overlook the several little (Bell) and not so little cities surrounded by the City of Los Angeles. Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, San Fernando, Culver City and Santa Monica
prostratedragon
@Uncle Cosmo: Indiana, Pennsylvania; Wyoming, Michigan, etc.
Reminds me of a story about a traveller hurrying to catch a flight from LA up to the Bay area on some urgent business, only to learn about an hour later that the New Zealand pronunciation of one of its principal cities is “Oakland.”
patrick II
I we’re going for one of the founding fathers names for the new state, I’d go to Franklin.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Hard NO on that.
BBA
The proposed “State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth” is awful, I’m sorry. Hopefully it’s just a placeholder and the confusion with the greater Salish Sea region get resolved soon, I’d hate to be stuck with that mouthful. “State of Douglass City” or just “Douglass Commonwealth” sounds better.
And the rump District of Columbia is unnecessary – for ten years we had the seat of government in one of the States, we can do it again.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@patrick II: Adams would also work and it could be named for both father and son(both Presidents).
smike
@Redshift: Okay, I’ll have some of what you are having. I want to see a city overlapping a state and/or territory, as long as it’s not painful.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Fun fact, Los Angeles and San Diego Counties do not share a common border.
sphouch
Anybody who knows the history better than I can correct me, but my rudimentary understanding of the District of Columbia was that it was originally going to be a township sized donation of land from Maryland and Virginia, and while Maryland held their end of the deal, Virginia reneged, which is why DC isn’t a square.
If my understanding is correct, then essentially the area known as Washington D.C. essentially is comprised of land ceded to the Federal Government from Maryland. And if that’s correct, then I think the Republicans who oppose statehood are missing out on a (more valid) argument that the land should be ceded back to Maryland than to be established as an independent 51st state, or at least it should be offered back to Maryland who would hold the hypothetical “right of first refusal.”
Another Scott
@sphouch: Virginia got Arlington back via “retrocession”. Maryland doesn’t want the rest of DC back – it would throw a monkey-wrench into state politics, among other things.
Statehood for DC really is the best solution, and I say that as someone formerly a fan of retrocession to Maryland.
The District has suffered too long for lack of representation and lack of ability to control its own destiny. (Yeah, there were issues with Mayor for Life Barry, but that was long ago.) The people there need statehood.
Cheers,
Scott.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Don’t blame you. It doesn’t really make sense in the original Spanish for one: “Saint Angels”.
Llelldorin
@MisterForkbeard:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra,_California
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Found this alternate proposal on Wiki:
Then again, having an additional two senators for the Dems sounds much better. The Republicans in the early 2000s were always trying to give representation to DC residents without granting statehood
Another Scott
Cheers,
Scott.
Kent
retrocesion to Maryland has long been discussed and would be extremely unpopular within DC for a variety of reasons:
https://ggwash.org/view/62321/topic-of-the-week-eeeeverybodys-got-an-opinion-about-retrocession
It would be opposed by about 90% of the population of DC, so not exactly in the spirit of self-determination.
sphouch
@Another Scott: Thanks Scott. I don’t dispute the call for statehood or inclusion, strictly considering what stands as a more logical argument than wholesale opposition to statehood on part of the Republicans who oppose it. “The District should go back to Maryland” falls under the Republican talking point mantra of “it just makes sense,” without doing the thing that probably makes more sense (i.e. a 51st state).
John Revolta
@Kay: Trouble is, the more people that resign from Government positions now, the more guys like Barr get to hire their own toadies and lickspittles. We need to keep people in that oppose these fascists- a lot of them are standing up against tough odds to avoid complete surrender of their departments.
Wag
I know that I’m late to the thread, but I would propose naming the new stare after the president who saved the Union. Lincolnia has an interesting ring, and would rub the racist Southern noses in the fact of statehood.
MisterForkbeard
@Llelldorin: So we already named a city after a water bottle brand? Got it. :)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Llelldorin: Former home of Phil Spector(he’s moved).
Kent
Bullshit. I lived and worked in DC for over two years. Well actually l lived in DC and worked in Silver Spring.
DC has plenty of middle class culture and long-term residents. It’s really no different from living in say San Francisco or Manhattan. Which also have lots of transient residents. What it doesn’t have is lots of suburbs with soccer moms and such. Well, it does have those in Bethesda and Arlington, they just aren’t in DC.
N M
@Kay: it’s this tweet by Lafy G that has MAGAworld upset: https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1276887393694556161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Anya
@zhena gogolia: who are the delegates?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kent:
What do you think of the District of Columbia Voting Rights Restoration Act of 2004? Of the popularity of something like it in DC? To me, it sounds like a sop. It wouldn’t really give DC more autonomy or control over it’s own affairs
moonbat
Name it Jordan after Barbara Jordan. That chick was righteous. Or name it Powhatan, you know, after someone who was actually native to the region.
Feathers
@Another Scott: I’m from Alexandria. The retrocession happened before the Civil War because the Southern states wanted two more pro-slavery representatives in the House, which the added population would bring. The people who lived in Alexandria and Arlington wanted it because the Virginia delegation in Congress would fuck with any improvements on the Virginia side of the river because Virginia proper didn’t want any competition. There were also fears that slavery would be banned in DC and Alexandria was a major slave market.
Mixing DC and Maryland today would be a mess.
I didn’t go to bed, my new suggestion is that DC take its best neighborhood name: Foggy Bottom.
But seriously, the residents of DC should vote on a name. Not a ridiculous online thing, but a committee coming up with a few and then a vote, with a second vote a year later to confirm.
Anya
@Kay: I remember when all those former DOJ folks assured us that these were strong and they were committed to the rule of law and respect for the institution but they were all proven wrong. I am still amazed at how fast Trump has subjugated both the DOJ and the intelligence community. We were lead to believe there were guardrails but clearly there is none. The only thing saving us from a complete authoritarianism is Trump’s incompetence and his tenancy to hire low quality underlings.
Hoppie
Laws in the state of Maryland are (or at least used to be) prefaced by: “Be it enacted for the counties of the state of Maryland and the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore”, using the official name.
Villago Delenda Est
@N M: Just below that is a tweet from Uday about “you can’t fix stupid”.
My irony meter is pegged.
SectionH
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Let me put it the nicest way I can: Fuck off with that crap.
That “Thank [diety/dieties of your choice] for Pendleton” is a real thing. At least for us slackers here in San Diego.
PJ
@Uncle Cosmo: go fuck yourself, you fucking asshole! DC is filled with lots of hardworking people, many of whom are born and raised there (and needless to say, most of whom are African-American), and it doesn’t need bigoted ignoramuses like yourself making life more difficult for everyone who wants to live a decent life there.
PJ
@Kent: No.
PJ
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Republicans were never thinking about giving voting representation to the citizens of DC because the citizens of DC were mostly black and would never vote Republican.
Amir Khalid
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I hear he’s living in a big house now.
PJ
@Kent: did anyone ever take a poll about retrocession (there was obviously never a referendum)? The readers of a YIMBY blog are, I don’t think, any representation of what DC citizens want. DC and Maryland law are essentially the same (while the law of Virginia is very different), so a merger would not be difficult from a legal standpoint. The biggest obstacle to retrocession is MD, which has no desire to take on the financial burden of DC, or the political weight that would draw power from Baltimore.
scav
@Uncle Cosmo: So, nobody but the middle class (defined narrowly by you to exclude at least federal employees or politically-adjacent occupations) are ordinary people? Well, you do certainly fit in with the loggers and construction workers and fishermen theme.
Kent
I don’t really know the answers to any of these questions. I now live in the other Washington. But I do know my long-time DC friends on facebook are extremely opposed to retrocession. DC has a culture very separate from MD. And while the legal system may be similar (I don’t know this myself) the tax system is very different. But my impression is that the idea is very unpopular in DC, which should carry some weight if we are all about self-determination.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: Yup, a bigger house than he had in Alhambra.
sdhays
I’ve lived in the area for over 10 years and I don’t know what you’re talking about. The federal government is the major employer here, but the political part of it is very small. Lot’s of “middle class” jobs working for the federal government, and those are the kind of jobs people take and keep for the rest of their lives.
Maybe it was different 40 years ago, but it would be a mistake to believe that’s the way it is now.
NotMax
Heck, just name it Fifty-one.
;)
PJ
@Kent: I don’t know your friends, but I lived in DC for 15 years, and the culture in DC was essentially the same as in PG or Montgomery Counties, except for the obvious city/suburb divide. People worked in one place and lived in another. PG is where middle class black families would move out to when they got enough money. There were plenty of go-go or punk bands living in MD, and as far as food or other aspects of culture, it’s basically the same. Crossing the Potomac to Arlington or Alexandria, on the other hand, is stepping into the Confederacy.
Matt McIrvin
@Kent: You could do ranked choice voting, or any number of things, but you can’t force the losers to accept the legitimacy of the process, which is the real sticking point. I don’t think the situation is going to be resolved until one of the three choices actually has a solid 50%+ popular majority, rather than just a plurality of Condorcet pair preferences or whatever
The dynamics of the whole situation are weird in that on the mainland, liberals tend to be enthusiastic about PR statehood and just assume that PR would be safe Democratic votes, but in Puerto Rico, the pro-statehood party is more or less a right-wing party and nominally allied with the mainland Republicans. The *Republican* Party is the one that’s had a Puerto Rico statehood plank in its platform for ages (the Democrats just say it should be up to the Puerto Ricans).
PJ
@sdhays: it wasn’t different 40 years ago. There is a transient population because it is a major city and the capital of the US, but there has always been a large middle class population, many of whom work for the federal government, but many of whom work in other businesses. But working for the federal government was historically a way for working class blacks to enter the middle class after WWII since the federal government desegregated before private businesses were required to.
gwangung
I don’t know how folks can say there isn’t a middle class population that stays around. Aside from the large federal bureaucracy that, of course, persists, there’s a large economy that revolves around catering to the needs of that workforce, like plumbers, contractors, groceries, retail, etc. And there’s the economy and support for THOSE workers.
PJ
The biggest problem to making DC a state is revenue. If Republicans have any say in it, they will cut off federal payments to the District as soon as it becomes a state. DC has very little land mass compared to other states, and federal property cannot be taxed, which removes the most valuable properties from the tax rolls. And income of federal workers can only be taxed if they live in DC. The income tax can be raised, but if you raise it too high, people or businesses will move to VA or MD.
Kent
My friends are mostly white former Peace Corps volunteers who moved there for careers or education after returning from Guatemala.
One is a married gay woman. She and her wife work in the DC schools and have two kids in the DC schools.
One is a single gay guy who teaches in Anacostia.
One is married to a woman from Costa Rica and they live in Mount Pleasant where there are lots of Salvadoran restaurants. He works for an international non-profit. She does something for a software company.
Several are older work colleagues from NOAA who work in Silver Spring but live up in the NW quadrant at the north end of Rock Creek Park and across the border from Silver Spring.
One is my former Peace Corps site-mate who is married and lives up in Friendship Heights. He owns a flower importing business with his brother. They distribute imported flowers from mostly Colombia all up and down the mid-Atlantic from warehouses in Silver Spring. His wife is an attorney.
And my former landlords in Dupont Circle (I rented their basement). He is a correspondent for ABC news and his wife is a small-time real estate developer and art collector. Basically a DC gentrifier.
All of them have lived there for at least 2 decades or more. All of them are middle/class or professional class except for my landlords who were 1%-ers.
When I lived there I left my car in Seattle and lived in Dupont Circle so mostly did city stuff. Only times I ever got down to places like Alexandria was if I took the bike trails across the bridge. When I wanted to escape on weekends I either traveled with friends out to Rehoboth to spend the weekend on the shore or took the train up to Manhattan. I guess we would sometimes drive over to hike in the Blue Ridge mountains. But we never actually stopped to check out the VA burbs.
I guess I did know more people who lived in Bethesda and Silver Spring than across in VA but that was most likely because I worked for NOAA in Silver Spring.
It has been nearly 20 years since I lived in DC but my impression is that the northern VA suburbs like Arlington are basically the reason that VA has flipped blue. So it can’t be that much “old Confederacy” at least today.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kent:
What’s the difference between middle class and professional class?
Feathers
@PJ: It’s not stepping into Arlington and Alexandria that’s the difference, it’s going beyond there into Fairfax. It’s truly amazing that 150 years later you can still tell when you are crossing Union lines. It gets much, much whiter. Arlington and Alexandria aren’t PG county, but they aren’t Fairfax. Note, I’m talking about the actual city of Alexandria, not the chunk of Fairfax County that calls itself Alexandria. That is just bullshit. If that’s what you are talking about, yeah, it’s confederate.
I may live in Boston now, but my family is four generations worth of middle class in DC and the Maryland and Virginia suburbs.
James E Powell
@Baud:
@Kent:
This is a thorny issue, but people who are born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens. Those people are not a “them” they are “us” only with reduced rights because they are not considered white people.
We do not have provisions for taking that US citizenship away from people, nor have we ever allowed whole territories to renounce that status en masse, nor has the United States ever given up pieces of itself. If the citizens of Puerto Rico can decide to do that and leave the United States, why can’t Mississippi?
Is statehood somehow an imposition that is worse than the current colonial status?
Kent
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
@Kent:
Money. A lot of professional class are really in the top 10% which is nowhere near the middle. But they mostly think they are still middle class.
School teachers are middle class. An attorney married to a surgeon with kids in private schools and a beach house in Costa Rica I would call professional class. They are nowhere close to “middle”
Anyway, that’s just my own categorization. I refuse to go along with the American affection of calling anyone with less wealth than a hedge fund billionaire as “middle class”
PJ
@Kent: NoVa has become more blue, but it was, and I would guess still is, a considerably more racist place than the MD suburbs (which can be plenty racist themselves), particularly once you get outside of Arlington or Alexandria, and people do still carry guns around. I met too many white people in VA who were afraid to go to DC because they couldn’t take their gun with them, or because of “all the crime” (aka “all the black people”).
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kent:
Thanks! So professional class can also mean “upper middle class”? Or is that another category separate from professional class?
Feathers
@PJ: But if they become a state, DC will regain the right to set their own taxes, and will probably begin taxing the income of all DC workers, including non-residents, like the rest of the states do. There will still need to be some sort of payment from the federal government to cover the municipal services DC will serve to the federal buildings.
PJ
@Feathers: no, you’re right, Arlington and Alexandria are suburban but culturally not so different from Montgomery County or PG. but I would meet people from outer Nova who would astonish me with their ignorance and fear. (Not that ignorance and fear didn’t exist in DC, and god knows the Eastern Shore and Southern MD can be plenty racist, but it was really an “Oh, this is really the South” moment when I would meet some Virginians.)
patrick II
D.C. should be named Tubman, Martin, Franklin, King or Steph (the greatest shooter ever)
PJ
@Feathers: DC would have to have a compact with VA and MD to do that. Which isn’t impossible but it’s something VA and MD don’t want to do because it would cut into their revenue. But even if they can tax everyone who works in DC, will that be enough money? DC always had budget problems when I lived there and there is no cash cow, like DE has with incorporations. It would be a real city-state, and I can’t think of any models for that in US history.
SectionH
@Kent: That definition works for me. I mean teachers aren’t “professionals” right? I mean, they’re not remotely well-paid enough to get recognized as professionals.
— daughter/granddaughter/niece/grandniece of teachers
Fuckit. Journalists used to be smokin’, hard drinkin’ sorta scum of the earth. But somehow although they got less hard workin’ they’re “professionals.”
Kent
Sure, if you like. I’m not trying to adhere to exact definitions or classifications. I’m just trying to distinguish actual normal middle class folks (most of my extended family) from affluent professional types. I know both types of folks in DC.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@James E Powell:
People have been de-naturalized, if you lie on your application for citizenship. Nazi’s have been de-naturalized.
The Philippians were a US territory and a US commonwealth prior to independence.
Steeplejack
@Gvg:
Columbia as the female representation of America definitely gets its name from Columbus. Wikipedia:
Kent
I’m a teacher and they way I get treated professionally by my employer and society is not remotely in the same universe as my wife who is a physician. There is a reason why teachers are unionized and doctors are not.
When I do mandatory professional development it is in the school cafeteria on cafeteria benches and if we are lucky they might serve donuts. We sign in and out on time sheets or we don’t get our hours. When my wife does professional development it is at an all expense-paid 5-star resort in Costa Rica and the spouse tags along for free. No one notices or cares if she skips a morning session to lie on the beach.
I mean sure teaching is a profession and teachers call themselves professionals. But you aren’t getting into the country club or buying a vacation house on a teacher’s salary.
Steeplejack
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
See above.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Replied before reading rest of thread.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack: I hate when that happens.
SectionH
@Kent: That was sorta my point. It doesn’t do any good to talk about fucked up societal priorities, so I just get sarcastic. I know you’re a teacher, :-) It’s a gene I didn’t inherit. I got through an MA in English and finally woke up and said Fuck NO, this is not me. My son did inherit the teaching gene, but luckily he went into IT (it could have been worse, he wanted to major in Physics) and he’s definitely “a professional.”
James E Powell
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
The U.S. government can revoke naturalization, but Puerto Ricans are not naturalized citizens.
There’s quite a legal history and at times it’s like colonial metaphysics. But it was always the stated policy of the US government that the Philippines were being administered with the intention of eventual independence. The people there were never U.S. citizens.
What’s the downside of statehood?
PJ
@James E Powell: never getting independence.
And having to pay federal income tax.
James E Powell
@PJ:
Didn’t the confederates have the same issue with U.S. statehood?
smike
@patrick II: Why not just call it DC – not District of Columbia – just DC? I think it works.
Kent
Or we can go full Prince.
“The State Formerly Known as DC”
PJ
@James E Powell: the Confederacy, as a political entity, was not colonized by the US, though some of its supporters would wish one to think that. I’m Amy event, the US policy has been, in my lifetime at least, that if PR wishes to become independent, it can, but so far no referendum has been decided in favor of it.
PJ
@Kent: None of these recommendations have improved upon Chocolate City.
James E Powell
@PJ:
A very big turnout for statehood three years ago.
smike
@Kent: I like it!
Uncle Cosmo
@Omnes Omnibus: BFD. At least half the nation outside the two states in question thinks the team that won the Super Bowl last year plays in Kansas. And it doesn’t much matter, because no one goes there – either “there” – by choice anyway. They’re either stuck there by the accident of birth or sentenced there by a nasty quirk of fate.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Screw the beer, there are those awesome cherries!
tybee
@Kent: I worked for NOAA in Silver Spring.
did you know an Ed Johnson at NOAA?
J R in WV
@PJ:
No wonder my younger bother lived there when he worked in DC. Though, actually, his work was just across the Potomac River, so it would have been stupid for him to locate in Maryland
Regarding a name for the new state created from the District of Columbia, how about a founder still held in high regard: Benjamin Franklin? Either name would be a good name for a state.
He was a diplomat, a writer, a publisher and an early scientist, and I don’t believe he was a slave holder ever, nor a genocidal maniac about the Native Americans.
J R in WV
@SectionH:
You can say that again! Especially the hard drinkin’ parts, loudly a couple of times. I bet every toilet tank in Granddad’s newspaper plant business had a whiskey bottle stashed in it!! Every one! That building was closed up around the late 1970s, still standing with the heat on because it’s filled up with lead contamination, and other serious chemistry, and I would bet there are STILL bottles of booze hidden away in nooks and crannies. My family was out of there about 1975, shortly after granddad passed long after a major stroke.
I have heard that printers and reporters were so inclined to drink hard because that helped deal with the symptoms of lead poisoning, although that may be apocryphal. I only worked around the composing room, which with the press room was where the lead was processed, for about 2 years, so I may have escaped without much damage.
My dad was an editor, the managing editor. but his little corner office was directly the largest pot of molten lead in the whole plant, on the ground floor of the press room. Had to have been many tons of lead in that sucker! Was HOT in the summertime, too!!