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Silicon Valley Investors Call For California To Secede From the US After Trump Win (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: As Donald Trump's shock election victory reverberated around Silicon Valley late on Tuesday night, some high-profile technologists were already calling for California to secede from the United States. The broader west coast is a stronghold for the Democrats, and significantly more politically progressive and racially diverse than large swathes of central U.S. California is also the biggest economy in the U.S. and the sixth largest in the world with a gross state product of $2.496 trillion for 2015, according to the IMF. The campaign for independence -- variously dubbed Calexit, Califrexit and Caleavefornia -- has been regarded as a fringe movement. But support was revitalized by influential Uber investor and Hyperloop co-founder Shervin Pishevar, in a series of tweets announcing his plans to fund a "legitimate campaign for California to become its own nation" -- posted even before the full results were in. A few hours later, Hillary Clinton conceded the election to Trump, and Pishevar told CNBC that he was serious about Calexit. "It's the most patriotic thing I can do," he said, adding that the resulting nation would be called New California. "We can re-enter the union after California becomes a nation. As the sixth largest economy in the world, the economic engine of the nation and provider of a large percentage of the federal budget, California carries a lot of weight," he said. Pishevar was supported by others in Silicon Valley. Angel investor Jason Calacanis said that California succession would be simple in the wake of both Brexit and a Trump win. Evan Low, a Democrat serving in the California state assembly, said that he'd support the introduction of a bill to start the independence process. The proposal illustrates the technology industry's frustration with Trump over his repeated criticisms of Silicon Valley companies. Trump has said in the past that he would make Apple build computers in the U.S. He also thinks Amazon CEO "Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post to exert political power and avoid paying taxes, and claimed that Mark Zuckerberg's push for specialist immigration would actually decrease opportunities for American women and minorities." In July, 145 technology leaders wrote in an open letter about how "Trump would be a disaster for innovation."
California is a NET CONTRIBUTOR to the federal government.
For the typical /. reader, this means Californians pay more in federal taxes than they get back from the federal government.
Somebody has to pay for the food stamps all those met addicted red state degenerates receive.
A United States Congress without the wacko democratic representatives (Pelosi) and senators (Feinstein) from California in it can only be a massive improvement for the rest of us.
Let California secede and try to pay for all of it's socialist programs and "porous borders" through it's failing tax base and deficit-ridden state budgets. How long will that last?
Pay??? You do realize that California, along with almost every other democratic stronghold, contributes huge amounts of tax money to poorer states? Californians would have significantly more money on their budget, enough that they'd be able to implement their policies and probably cut taxes at the same time. I agree though, if the west and northeast coasts succeed, we'd all get an opportunity to finally see how the two parties float their sides, and I personally wouldn't mind to see my taxes support my own state, not some farmer in Nebraska.
"Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
I think it has a lot less to do with losing - the left has lost before, after all - but with who it lost to and what that person has indicated he wants to do to the nation.
Both sides have to deal with losing and the pain of seeing one's own view of what the nation should be ignored or overruled. That's part and parcel of politics, and has been for... well, as long as there have been opposing views. I see a lot of people worried that the changes Trump wants to implement will result in their direct loss of life and liberty.
If, for example, Trump follows through with his promise to deport all illegal residents, the fourteen year old sister of a friend of mine will lose her mother. She doesn't have Mexican citizenship, and her mother doesn't have U.S. citizenship. If he follows through with his campaign promises to roll back LGBT rights, then some of my friends may no longer be counted as married. If he follows through with his ban on Muslims, several of my classmates that are here on scholarships may be forced to return to their countries of origin instead of applying for citizenship like they planned on doing. If he stacks the supreme court and overturns Roe vs. Wade, many women will die due to seeking unsafe and back-alley abortions. If he repeals Obamacare, I will lose health insurance, and as a type 1 diabetic that's kind of a big deal for me.
So it's not just losing, its the very real possibility of having families broken apart, futures ruined, and lived destroyed. That's why many liberals and centrists are appalled at Trump's victory.
Never underestimate the stupidity inherent in all human beings.
California is the 8th largest economy in the world. Jesus Christ the political right is populated by some real halfwits.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
You're aware that California grows 2/3 of the US crops?
You must mean 2/3 of the crop species. California only produces about 11% of the food grown in the US (by value) and has more than 12% of the population. Iowa has less than a tenth as many people and produces more than 2/3 the crop value that Cali does. 'You', or rather the state you're in, produce a variety of fruits and veggies. But the grain and grain-fed meat that make up the bulk of what people in the US eat comes from the Midwest.
A better plan would be to break California into multiple smaller states (say 10) based on population centers to increase the number of left leaning US Senators.
Can't do that.
New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new States shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.
Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I didn't (and don't) support Trump. But presumably she's in this position because her parents entered the U.S. illegally and she was born in the U.S., thus granting her U.S. citizenship by birth? The remedy in her case is:
These things have a procedure you're supposed to follow before you're supposed to enter the country. Just because she finds herself screwed because she (or her parents) tried to cheat and violated that procedure doesn't entitle her to a sympathy waiver when others are all required to follow the same legal procedure. It's disingenuous to try to blame the system or Trump for being cruel to her situation, when her situation is entirely her parents' creation.
Nearly my entire extended family was granted green cards and eventually U.S. citizenship via the latter process. Took a few years, but this is one of the more accessible means of obtaining a green card. She's fortunate that she even has U.S. citizenship. The U.S. is one of the few countries which grants citizenship just because you happen to be born on U.S. soil. Yes her mother will have to leave the U.S. while she waits for the visa application to be processed. No that is not the fault of the U.S., since she wasn't supposed to be in the country in the first place. Immigration is a stickler about this - even U.S. citizens who get married and apply for their spouse to get citizenship are required to have the spouse first leave the country and wait until the spouse visa application is approved.
I don't have a problem with illegal immigrants as people. One of the hardest workers I've ever met turned out to be in the country illegally. But it makes little sense to have more lenient rules for obtaining citizenship for people who entered the country illegally, than for people trying to enter the country legally and following the proper procedure. That would destroy any motivation to even try to follow the legal procedure.
Hell, Arizona alone (which Californian politicians often scoff at) provides California with 25% of its electricity. I'm curious how Silicon Valley would deal with that.
We'd probably turn the nukes back on. San Onofre has been sitting idle for half a decade now. We'd probably invent new nuclear reactors, too; get some molten salt thorium reactors up and running. Barring that, Mr. Musk lives in Cali, so maybe we'd just get Solar Panels on every roof and batteries in every garage. Or turn to tidal, since we have all that coastline to play with.
Most of the landmass of California is in fact very red.
Most of the landmass of EVERY place is very red, because that tends to be the space without any people in it. Either farmers (as you point out) with a single family living on 100+ acres, or far far right conservatives living in the boonies of the deserts or high up in the Appalachian mountains with all the guns they can muster and the nearest neighbor 10 miles away. Liberals tends toward cities and other people, where they make things like computers, medicine, solar panels and interracial porn.
This signature is false.
"California is one of ONLY 3 states to give more to the US federal government than it receives."
Not even close. https://visualeconomics.credit...
California is one of 17 states, not just 3, that gives more than it receives. California ranks 8th among those 17. It is not one of only three, it's not even in the top three.
"You'd better do some research."
So should you.
It's an issue because CA has blocked up-river reservoir projects that would let the up-river states retain more of their share of the water for their use as guaranteed by the compact. But if CA left the Union, we could reduce the outflow at lake Powell and again at lake Meade and severely curtail the flow of water to CA. At that point the water could go to Nevada or AZ for use, and CO could then go ahead with their reservoirs and thus use more of the water which is mostly from CO UT and WY Mountains. Also AZ could grow more produce with more of the water thus replacing what CA has been growing.
I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
he did suggest that all Muslims be registered on a database and carry special ID cards like Jews in WW2 Europe.
once more into the breach