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“Together, these piecemeal measures have taken on a significance greater than their individual parts — a fundamental shift in the relationship between California and its residents who live in the country illegally. The various benefits, rights and protections add up to something experts liken to a kind of California citizenship.” Melanie Mason, Los Angeles Times, August 11, 2015

 

“The secession movement in California has been around a long time, but Donald Trump’s win has made enough people in the state angry enough that seceding might be doable. As many have pointed out, if it weren’t for California, Donald Trump would have won the national popular vote. Hillary’s margin of victory in the west coast state was the largest victory margin since 1936.

 

“There’s a group in California called The Yes California Independence Campaign – or just Yes California – who think it might actually be possible this time.

 

“The pro-secession group filed paperwork last month for a ballot measure in 2018. People would vote on whether or not to remove language in the state constitution that currently binds California to the United States. The Los Angeles Daily News reported:

 

“If its ballot measure succeeds, Yes California would pursue a 2019 vote to declare the state’s independence.” Philip Hodges, Eagle Rising 12/27/2016

 

If California became an independent country, it would be the seventh largest economy in the world, bigger than France's. With that said, the United States Federal government owns 47.7 percent of California's land. According to Deseret News, the twenty-six (26) Federal parks and National Forests accounts for one and a half trillion dollars ($1.5 Trillion) a year in tourism dollars alone. This doesn't even include the military bases, or the Indian reservations (sovereign nations under treaty). Many of the military operations are critical to U.S. international policy, Camp Pendleton Marine Base and San Diego Naval Bases come to mind. If California were to successfully secede, it would be a huge economic and military disaster for the rest of the country.

 

Keeping all that in mind, California has passed so many laws to not just care for illegal immigrants, but to actually attract them, that despite the fact that more American citizens are leaving California than moving to the Golden State, the total population continues to grow. The LA Times has a series of articles talking about how GOP presence in the state has so thoroughly collapsed that laws giving illegal aliens preferential treatment over American citizens pass the legislature and are signed by the Governor with no political rancor or even comment. California is a de facto one-party state, looking more like Venezuela, before reality struck, every day. 

 

Picture the scenario: President Trump cuts off funding to sanctuary cities. In California that would be most of the cities in the state. San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco come to mind (San Diego hasn’t declared itself a sanctuary city, but it’s understood SDPD won’t contact any Federal agencies in the event of the arrest of a suspected illegal.) Most of these cities are dependent on Federal and state grants to exist. I contend those outside funds merely bloat these cities’ bureaucracies as well as their egos, but what will be cut is road maintenance and emergency services. The media will blame Trump and the Federal government. Alternate media will blame California. Governor Brown will find ways to retaliate. Most of this will be in non-cooperation with Federal agencies. In his blustery way, Trump will counter that all those cities have to do to get refunded will be to cooperate with Federal law enforcement. In most of the country, this will sound reasonable. In California, it won’t even be considered. 

 

 At some point, Trump-led Republicans will stop Federal funding to California. They can point to the legalization of marijuana as violating Federal law. This could be appealing, in that it also is a warning, and threat, to all the other states that have defied Federal law. Road maintenance funds being held back would be devastating for California. In a state where the vast majority of the population gets around by freeways, Federal property maintained by the states, the freeways and the California economy starts suffering immediately. Brown blames Trump, Trump blames California’s refusal to obey Federal law.

 

California secessionists contend that California’s tax base is siphoned off to the Federal government to fund red states. This is one of those points that, while occasionally contested, is a sacred mantra for Liberals. 

 

In this scenario, nobody blinks, but even if Trump gives ground, (Brown won’t, Brown can’t.) in 2018, a ballot initiative appears that would change the language in the California Constitution that binds California to the United States. With the political situation in California, and with Trump pouring gas on the Proverbial, it passes, setting California to secede by 2019. American citizens that can, start leaving California. Those that can’t start arguing for plebiscites county by county. Even if San Diego County voted for the secessionist language initiative, it would not vote to secede as a county. Of the eleven major military bases in California, six of them are in San Diego, employing thousands of civilians, and a major contribution to the county economy. 

 

Brown calls on all California-based corporations to stop paying Federal taxes, and to start paying it to the California tax board. Silicon Valley and Hollywood immediately agree. Other corporations start considering the feasibility of leaving California. 

 

Immigrant activists have proposed for years that non-citizens over the age of eighteen have the right to vote. At first this will only be threatened. It is the equivalent of setting off a nuclear bomb. As the LA Times article above points out, since 2015, illegal aliens have been granted a quasi-citizenship in California. Giving them the vote would be the final step to making U.S. citizenship in the state a second class status. 

 

Leftist activists pour into California. Many take over Federal lands, National parks and forests, and Occupy War Street starts setting up tents on military reservations throughout the state. Though for the most part non-violent, clashes between base security and the Occupiers escalate. 

 

The commanding general of the California National Guard reports to Governor Brown requesting instructions, and is told to stand by for orders. Individual Guardsmen and officers report to U.S. military bases, seeking both orders and asylum. 

 

The main-stream media, while blaming the entire situation on Trump, nonetheless step back from supporting those calling for Secession, urging both sides to find common ground.

 

Trump orders all military bases to secure themselves. Base commanders order their personnel to bring their families onto the bases. The disruption causes major distress on both the military personnel as well as the local economies. San Diego and possibly Imperial County declare themselves at odds with the initiative just passed and call upon the U.S. military to secure the county borders to insure that they remain a part of the Union, their status as either territories of the Unites States or a new state with a new legislature. Trump orders Marines from Camp Pendleton and Quantico to secure all military bases in California as well as a perimeter around the bases. Other Federal properties are lost to different Occupiers. Chaos ensues. National Parks like Yosemite and Death Valley, now ‘Peoples’ Parks’, become unavailable to tourists or anyone else. Across the country, violent protests grow into riots. Orange County petitions to be included in the new State of Southern California, followed by Riverside County. 

 

Trump declares martial law. 

 

Assuming no other states declare their willingness to secede from the Union, more Leftists desert the U.S. for California. Interstates 8, 10 and 40 have bumper to bumper traffic in and out of California. Californians still loyal to the United States flee with everything they can carry, Leftist activists from every other state going to join the Revolution pack the west-bound. Leftist Activists set up out-bound roadblocks demanding an exit fee from those fleeing, to pay for what the fleers "Have Looted From The People." Violence ensues. The CHP and other state agencies are overwhelmed. 

 

The New Black Panther Party, the Nation of Islam, Black Lives Matter and other black nationalists set up their own country in Oakland. Though Governor Brown and the California legislature praise this, events are moving so fast most legislators can't grasp the new reality, and don’t seem to realize control of the state is spiraling out of their grasp. It comes as a huge shock when China, Russia and ISIS recognize California as a separate country and offer financial and military assistance. The U.N. attempts to declare California a new and separate country, but the U.S. vetoes the declaration, agreeing to a carefully worded emergency resolution.

 

Some of the most outspoken California politicians start trying to back away, arguing that California should be looking for compromise. Vigilantes from Oakland as well as Earth First arrest and execute several of these politicians, declaring them traitors. The last of the opposition to secession flee the state.

 

Secession fever finally spreads north into Washington and Oregon. While the Federal government is unable to safely move in California, with the interference of the state and local governments, Federal law agencies arrest secessionists in states other than California en mass. FEMA is pressed into setting up camps in the Nevada desert to hold the thousands of would-be traitors.

 

With the 2020 Presidential election looming, what remains of the California government passes legislation giving all California residents over the age of 18 the right to vote, no matter their American citizen status. The Federal Election Board declares any election in California null and void. California's 55 electoral votes will not be counted in the Presidential election.

 

President Brown declares California a free and sovereign nation, proclaiming that all foreign agents cease all illegal attempts to enforce foreign laws, and register with the California government as foreign agents, or leave the state. Environmentalist declare that they have siezed the U.S. property in California in the Name of Mother Gaia. President Brown praises their initiative. La Raza, MEChA, and the Reconquistas as well as Mexican gangs sieze control of downtown Los Angeles, declaring it now the Republic of Atzlan, loyal to the government in Sacramento. Brown declares Los Angeles a 'Freed City'. The Muslim Brotherhood sieze control of the Port of Los Angeles, declaring it is now under Sharia. Atzlan forces clash with the Muslim Brotherhood. Gays across California arm themselves and form into 'village militias' as violence against gays grows. Brown calls for 'diversity and tolerance in the name of peace'. As the state dissolves into feuding bands of Leftists, more people flee the state, leaving behind businesses and homes as anarchy and violence spreads.

 

The commanding general of the California National Guard, not waiting for Brown, orders all his remaining forces to swear allegiance to the Sovereign Republic of California, or leave the state. More units and individuals desert and either report to U.S. military bases in California, or leave the new republic entirely. The Commanding General calls upon all loyal Californians to report to recruitment sights he sets up all over the state. The Free Republic of Oakland swears allegiance to the new California, and fields the first of many militia units ready to fight for California’s independence. China quietly presses Brown to accept military arms and advisors, and actively starts supplying the Free Republic of Oakland with light arms and at least some advisors.  

 

Brown declares martial law, and all privately owned firearms illegal. He orders all California sheriffs to identify and disarm all residents in their counties. The vast majority of sheriffs are so overwhelmed, they have no resources and no inclination to send their deputies up against armed insurrectionists. Many of those same armed gangs contend they are now militias in the People’s Army of California. Meanwhile, Brown seems unaware of the Southern counties having seceded from California.

 

The drug cartels, seriously hurt by the loss of revenue since the legalization of marijuana in so many U.S. states, belatedly move into California with the idea of seizing territory. San Diego and Imperial Counties, being up against the Baja California border, are the first disputed territory to be invaded. The counties' police departments dissolve under the pressure. The county governments beg the U.S. military to act in defense of the border.

 

The Marines and Naval forces moves with decisive fury, not waiting for directions from Washington, and crush every armed group of civilians they come across. The Cleveland National Forest is seized from the relatively peaceful Occupiers with brutal precision. The media, having stepped away from supporting the California Leftists, now declare the crushing of pro-secessionist groups as ‘overkill’.

 

The governments of Baja California contend that American troops crossed into Mexican territory chasing down Occupiers. The Mexican government files protests and begins to mobilize its military forces. 

 

Trump orders all loyal Americans to report with their own arms and ammunition to military bases in the disputed territories to form an Army of Last Resort.

 

The Second Civil War has only just begun.