U.S. Territories: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN people use it as a quick, entertaining primer on territory status, citizenship versus nationality, and voting rights.
What it is
A Last Week Tonight segment on how century-old Supreme Court decisions left U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico, Guam and American Samoa without meaningful representation. It mixes comedy with a history of their legal status.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2015 to 2019.
What Hacker News said
Recommends javiramos · 2017-10 · on “The Media Has Neglected Puerto Rico”
Puerto Rican here! In my opinion, these are two very good pieces to learn about Puerto Rico [1] [this video] [2] [LINK]
Recommends nickpsecurity · 2018-04 · on “ACE Submarine Cable Cut Impacts Ten Countries”
That's a harsh interpretation to make of dragonwriter's comment. I read it as a factual statement about what the U.S. does with colonies by someone that probably disagrees with the practice. That's also a charitable default. If anyone wants more info on the topic, John Oliver has a great, 13-min segment on U.S. territories along with the clearly-evil justifications for their situation. Wait till yall see the Supreme Court ruling. It should get way more attention in media discussions on this topic. His finale with America's Got Talent contestant is also an epic counter to that. [this video]
Cites i_don_t_know · 2015-06 · on “Show HN: Explore 16 Years of Green Card Applications”
Maybe it refers to US nationals as opposed to US citizens. For example, the people of American Samoa and Guam are US nationals but not US citizens, at least not automatically. But I don't know what all the differences between the two categories are. Reference: [this video]
Cites jack9 · 2016-03 · on “Can a 3-year old represent herself in immigration court? This judge thinks so”
There's one citizen type in-between the natural and naturalized (and below), it's the natural citizen in a US Territory. No votes for you. [this video]
Cites nickpsecurity · 2016-09 · on “Thousands of adoptees thought they were US citizens but learned they are not”
If they become citizens, they can vote. They might be likely as a whole to vote for or against things that bother certain groups in Congress. That by itself will be a reason for those parties to prevent them from being citizens. We see the same thing with the islanders. [this video]
Cites Keverw · 2019-10 · on “Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong”
The whole one China policy has always been confusing to me, but haven't done too much research. Taiwan, Hong Kong and China each have different entry requirements for example for visiting, yet they are supposed to be the same country? I guess it has to do with control after their civil war though, but confusing for people who haven't been following the whole story. They are not separate, yet they are separate is like some sort of double speak. But the US has some confusing things too going on, like people from American Samoa are considered US nationals but they aren't US Citizens. They still get US passports, but can't vote, etc. I guess they aren't technically citizens of any country then b