this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024
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Progressive Politics

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Just take statehood away from North Dakota and give it to PR so we can keep the number of stars and stripes.

[–] captain_aggravated 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Number of stripes isn't going to change; it'll stay at 13.

50 stars is boomer shit. Time for 51.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 week ago

Change the number of stripes, too. Add blue stripes, turn the red stripes pink, and ditch the Bald Eagle for a shark.

Only then will America truly be Woke.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

North Dakota isn't real anyway.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

But South Manitoba is.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

West Virginia is an illegal state

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

That's actually an interesting question. SCOTUS kinda dodged answering it, though there's a 1970 decision that seems to imply they accept WV's validity. The ultimate question comes down to if states that left to form the Confederacy were still US states during that period, because that determines whether or not the clause in the Constitution about creating a state from territory held by another state applies. If Virginia was under the US Constitution during the Civil War then yeah, WV is an illegal state.

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

And North Carolina and South Carolina while we're at it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

That would make space for DC statehood as well.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

South Dakota is cool so they can just be in charge of ND from now on.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Having lived in both, sounds like ND would be the only one benefitting there. Have Noem and Burgum fight for which state has the power.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

ND is a shithole with an insignificant population, its the capital of the US in terms of wild dogs and birth defects correlating with flare stack methane emissions.

The best part of ND would be the natives, but given their sovereignty they won't be affected by the changeover.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

ND rates high in birth defects? I didn't know that. I tried looking up data, but everything from CDC, March of Dimes, and studies done by ND universities put the state about dead center among other states. Do you have a link about this statistic? I would like to learn more.

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

AFAIK there is no study comparing the rates of birth defects in new births every year by state, though just about every state tracks it, rather most states only get rated by number of infant mortalities which is a different stat: only 1 in 4 fatalities are from birth defects.

My comment was just a big sharp jab at North Dakota for its policies, but if there was any truth to it that was because of methane emissions correlating highly. ND has the second largerst emissions per capita in 2017 according to World Research Institute and those emissions are further concentrated to specific counties involved in the oilfield. Articles talking about emissions impacts on public health like This One point out that 80% of Fracking is done in Texas and North Dakota, and articles like This Other Article which also mentions North Dakota specifically. NRDC also has a write up about reduced weight as a result of emissions and exposure, and it again mentions North Dakota by name.

Unfortunately, though, no. I don't have data to back up my earlier claim.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Oh no problem, I wasn't trying to play gotcha. But thanks for this info. I don't know much about ND.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

Add DC and make it an even 52

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Combine the Dakotas. Combine Montana and Wyoming. Make Puerto Rico a state. Return the vast majority of the District of Columbia back to Virginia and Maryland, save a core that actually contains the Capitol, White House, etc (to retain the point - which was that the seat of federal government is not subject to any state).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

I think you underestimate the political power Wyoming wields. For a clue, take a look at one of Wyoming's largest industries.