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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."
This is a little dramatic.
I'll be these same people pointed and laughed when Texans said the same thing.
-- Will program for bandwidth
It has to suck after you make all these of those "donations" and get nothing back in return.
They are doing everything, EVERY. GOD. DAMNED. thing they said would be unacceptable for Trump supporters to do if Hillary won.
They have NO self awareness, NONE.
If California becomes a country, presumably one with an open southern border and an H-1B peonage system of its own, it would have to implement some form of defense department. Would it have electric dirigible aircraft, wind-powered missiles and a Department Of Hugging It Out?
You pushed for Clinton, even though Sanders was a better candidate. What did you expect?
Be seeing you...
Trump would throw a wrench into their cheap labor and displacing jobs. Threatens their business models.
I was under the impression that the secession from the Union thing was settled back in the 1860's. If I recall a few million Americans died in the process.
SV already seceded by hiding $2 Trillion dollars outside of the USA despite living off of incredible amounts of tax assistance and infrastructure.
CA wouldn't know how to survive without tax welfare.
As much as I despise Donald Trump, seeing these haughty Progressives eat a buffet of crows warms the cockles of my heart.
For the last 90 years, the Ivy League-armed technocrats of the Progressive apparatus have waged a relentless war against state sovereignty in their march to greater political and economic consolidation in D.C. and NYC. Only the "leadership" from the PhDs in D.C. matter, plebs. We'll control your healthcare, collude with the media to control the agenda, concentrate more power in the unelected bureaucracy that grows like a weed in Northern Virginia, and then call anyone who supports states' rights (aka federalism aka competitive sovereignty) a racist or neo-Confederate.
Fuck you. You made this bed. Now lie in it. Enjoy Trump turning the gun of the federal leviathan you created right in your face. Applauding for Obama's "I'm going it alone" screed when the Democrats lost Congress doesn't seem like a wise precedent now does it? But let's be honest: you only like democracy when it goes your way, otherwise you pout.
By the way, these same Silicon Valley assholes and California Democrats have made fun of Northern California's "State of Jefferson" secession movement for decades.
Seeing the Obama elitists go down in flames in Congress and the executive puts a big ol' smile on my face. The next blow against these Silicon Valley fucks will be the bursting of the zero percent interest rate bubble blown by the Fed (another wonderful gift from the Progressives), which will wipe out the GAAP non-profitable bullshit "app" companies in the Valley. (This is probably why they hate Trump, though: he's mentioned that we're in a bubble and it's the Fed's fault.)
Truthfully, though, the Democratic party and the country would be better off if they did leave. As long as the Dems in the Bay Area foist Pelosi, Boxer, and Harris on the rest of the republic, the party will be repugnant to most of the Rust Belt and places like New Hampshire, where citizens still value freedom and being left the fuck alone.
... some high-profile technologists were already calling for California to secede from the United States.
It's nice to see they've remained well-rooted in reality.
#DeleteChrome
" despite living off of incredible amounts of tax assistance and infrastructure."
= You have no idea of the math involved. SV has contributed many hundreds of times more than it has received in government assistance, unless you have your official GOP calculator handy with some actual facts. Compared to the GOP's pet coal/oil industry or almost anything else, SV has been wildly profitable per invested dollar. You're ridiculously uninformed, but that appears to be in fashion now, good for you!
Wow.
The protest in NYC is pretty big.
Regarding California, after it seceeds, where will they get water?
Shervin Pishevar, born in Iran. You know going forward with this idea he is only helping to strengthen trump's supporters idea that we are being invaded by Asians, Latinos and middle-easterners that care nothing about our history or country??
And reports of teargas being used on protesters in Oakland!
It's going to be a long night.
(After weeks of being told to accept the election outcome, anything else is an attack on democracy. Sheesh!)
Of course the whole US back then had a population less than California today.
The working-age male population in the South was worse than decimated.
It turns out that it is easier to secede from the Soviet Union than the United States. The Hotel California can never leave.
Anything posted in the immediate aftermath of the election is part of coping, so I take this sort of thing with a great heaping helping of salt. The right wing did it when Obama was elected, after all, and outside some squawking about birth certificates nothing came of it.
Whether or not it sputters out in this case depends on what happens in the first three to six months after Trump takes office. If he ends up more moderate than he was on the campaign trail, then things will almost certainly continue on as usual (so to speak). We'll probably see some regressive tax policy changes and erosion of various minority and women's rights, but nothing too catastrophic. The poor will get poorer, the rich will get richer, and the environment will continue to get worse at the same rate it is today.
Alone, those things aren't enough to spur serious action.
If, however, he manages to convince the Senate and Congress to go along with some of his wackier campaign promises, then there's a very real chance things could get serious quickly.
- If he trashes too many social support nets, then all bets are off. If you and your family are starving, you'll do pretty much anything to get food, and if it happens in bulk you have the spark of revolution on your hands. Throw a heavy-handed response to rioting and you have martyrs and a circle of escalating violence.
- If he makes enough blatantly discriminatory changes and gets them through a stacked Supreme Court, he could provoke enough ire to prompt serious nonviolent secession talk. If, for example, he bans all Muslims or Mexicans from entering the country, and his ban survives a supreme court challenge, California will look long and hard at the idea of leaving because there's a large enough majority of people that don't agree with that kind of action here to support that.
If all he does is chip away at the progress made in the last ten or twenty years, he'll be fine. If he starts taking a pickaxe to things that have been part of America for the last sixty or seventy, all bets are off.
Never underestimate the stupidity inherent in all human beings.
*RANT ON*
Its getting tiring, this shrill end of the world, he/she said something bad so I have to cry now nonsense. I could say something coherent about words not hurting but i'm ranting so another time.
And then, when I read an article like this all I can think about is 'them'(and if I wasn't ranting I would say all people who dont get their way, not just 1 side or another), saying 'BOO HOO, we didn't get our way so now we are going to kick down the sand castle and take all our toys'.
Sound like a bunch of smug self righteous children, grow up.
200+ years of history and not everyone got their way every time, sometimes you have to play the long game and put in the real work.
*RANT OFF*
That felt good, thanks for listening.
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.
Just give California back to the Mexicans.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
You know it is up to each state to decide how to apportion their Electoral College votes. Only two states use proportional voting. The other 48 have "winner take all".
That's what doesn't seem fair, not the Electoral College system itself.
That said, there is a procedure to change the system, but it involves getting 38 states to agree to start the process...
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
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 can't believe what gigantic babies they are. What, did they expect that for the rest of their natural lives, that they would win every single election, ever? Apparently so.
And now, that their side lost, instead of moving forward, they are bawling like infants and want to quit. We saw this with Brexit as well. Highly educated people, professionals, and they just pitched a shit-fit because they lost. I couldn't believe the rage that Ph.D's were capable of. But they sure can lecture everyone else about how we have to accept it when things go their way.
Democracy is awesome.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
If Texas didn't secede after Obama got elected, I am sure a bunch of spoiled silicon valley plutocrats won't either. They should buy more electric cars or whatever is far-left equivalent to guns&ammo.
If you supported Trump kindly go fuck yourself, and I'll take the moderation results of this post. If not then I apologize to you, but not the man who decided to run a campaign based on sowing as much hatred as absolutely possible.
This is what happens when you run that kind of campaign.
We didn't protest when Barack Obama was elected. Twice.
Here's some observations about the protests:
You're being manipulated.
You'd better do some research. California is one of ONLY 3 states to give more to the US federal government than it receives. Without California's MASSIVE tech and Agricultural industries the US GDP will take a double digit drop, creating an economic hit similar to the great depression and the banking crash. If California were a nation it would rank 6th in the world GDP.
https://www.google.com/#q=stat...
https://wallethub.com/edu/stat...
http://www.motherjones.com/pol...
All that said I can't argue the wacko part, nor would the US government even begin to allow one of the states to succeed from the union. That was established a long time ago by the confederate states, Texas, and Utah.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
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.
Yes, I get it. You don't like Trump. I don't like Trump either.
There was a lot of bluster and bitching but Texas didn't really try to secede from the Union when Obama was elected or re-elected and they dislike Obama as much as you dislike Trump.
Stop throwing a fucking tantrum and grow up.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
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!
Yes, California still sends more tax money to the Federal government than it gets back in benefits.
By government-dependency rankings, it is near the bottom. 2016 numbers:
https://wallethub.com/edu/stat...
You are welcome on my lawn.
Or the tech companies could move to Canada. The Ottawa valley as well as the Kitchener-Waterloo has a lot of tech startups as well as established companies who are well established. Both of the areas have well respected Canadian universities resident there so the is a good talent pool. And there is the Toronto/Mississauga area which offers the same. Canada has a lot to offer, no Trump-like entities in our political spectrum (thank God) so its something to think about. We would love to have you here, to be part of our sophisticated and affluent society. Just saying :)
We the North :)
Clive DaSilva Email: clive.dasilva@gmail.com Ubuntu 18.10 Kernel 4.18
I'm wondering then why we have West Virginia...
This is California. You're Canada. Forget about the culture shock, it's the weather shock that will kill us off!
As another poster mentioned, it's been done with West Virginia, but I think California would have much bigger shit than the law to deal with if it split off:
- Most of its essential resources come from neighboring states. 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. Perhaps draw more power away from the more rural regions and charge them more money? Speak of which...
- Most of the landmass of California is in fact very red. They'd probably be able to take the major cities with them, but I can pretty much guarantee that the majority of the residents outside of those areas wouldn't be on board with this. But what do we need all of those rednecks for right? Well, you need farmland and farmers to eat.
This shit needs to just stop. Every god damn election there's this stupid talk about either going to Canada or seceding, and it's all a bunch of stupid bullshit, and I'm sick of it.
Besides, Shervin Pishevar is a first generation Iranian immigrant. Coming over here and then just demanding that we split up the country just because he doesn't like its politics is a real asshole move, and it's exactly this kind of asshole attitude that got an asshole like Trump elected.
I'm not trying to be rude or attack you but I just don't understand those claims. I honestly feel a business as usual candidate like Hillary, which admittedly is not my favorite concept, is FAR superior to some one with zero experience, a clear temperament problem, a crush on America's nation state enemies, threatens to sue anyone who questions him while threatening to loosen America's libel laws and thus reign in freedom of the press, and a tax plan that is clearly designed to enrich the wealthy while bankrupting the country.
I honestly can't think of a more objectionable candidate than Trump.
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
Printed signs in the span of a day? You're right, that's some sci-fi stuff right there! There's no way 21st technology could make a printed sign in less than a weak!
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
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.
The only culture the US has is an amalgamation of the cultures of previous immigrants. Like every culture, basically, because immigration is not a phenomenon of modern times or certain places. It's a force of nature as much as tectonics.
Hell, America basically eats more Pizza than Italy, you write basically in greek letters and you count arabic numbers. Your medicine is based on latin words as is law. The primary religions in your country have their origin in Germany as does your beloved beer, wven though you perverted that ad absurdum.
Preserving culture is like trying to keep the flu virus from mutating...
Build nukes. In California. Riiight. Add to the fact that building anything in that benighted state requires ten years of "environmental impact" studies and bribing of the California Coastal Commission...
This secession talk is a wee bit childish. Here's what Hillary Clinton had to say this morning about a Trump presidency:
"Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead."
I hope her supporters take a cue from her and start behaving with some class and dignity.
I'm wondering then why we have West Virginia...
The state of West Virginia (aka Kanawha), was formed when Virginia seceded from the union prior to the Civil war. During that time there were 2 legislatures that claimed to represent all of Virginia. The legislature that didn't support succession voted to approve to split the state and this was approved by the US Congress compliant with Article 4 of the constitution.
In the case of California, I don't think the legislators that represent the central counties in the CA state legislature, nor do I think the US Congress would approve splitting the state. This comes up in Texas all the time, and the same thing is likely the limiting factor. In any case, it seems totally unlikely that the Congressional representatives of small states would ever agree to splitting a large state to help it gain more representatives in the Senate.
Asswipe, the Alien and Sedition Acts wouldn't speak to this situation. But no one worth mentioning doubts the invalidity of the Acts under the First Amendment. See, e.g., New York Times v. Sullivan (376 U.S. 254, 276) (1964) "Although the Sedition Act was never tested in this Court, the attack upon its validity has carried the day in the court of history" (Moreover, the Sedition Act expired by it own terms on March 3 1801.)
The law is not an ass. No really.
"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.
Fucking hell guys, no wonder racism and sexism is so rife over there. A lot of you guys seem to be most interested in figuring what group a person is and then using that alone to determine friend or foe. It's akin to two little kids in the park both shouting "no, you're the poopypants" That's how the rest of the world sees it. Fucking cut it out and grow up. For the good of all of us.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
Silicon Valley can just threaten to cut off the US's Netflix, and the whole thing will be over without a shot being fired.
You are welcome on my lawn.