Author: ICI

ici-logo-quail-and-text

Do California cities have to fly the U.S. flag?

ICI March 27, 2025

California’s state flag is a powerful symbol of resistance and unity in the face of a cruel, lawless presidential administration. Across California, people have been starting to take down their U.S. flags and fly the California flag instead.

What if Californians want our elected local governments to do the same thing?

At a first glance, they can’t; state law mandates all government offices have to fly the U.S. flag. But this law doesn’t apply in all cases. And it definitely doesn’t say we have to fly the U.S. flag right-side up!

casey-stengel-arguing

Connecting California: California should force Trump to kick us out of country

ICI February 23, 2025

Joe Mathews: How do you get yourself thrown out of a ballgame? The late Hall of Fame manager Casey Stengel, who was ejected from 40 major league games, believed in persistence and obnoxiousness: “You just gotta argue with the umpire until he gets tired of listening to you.”

How do you get your state thrown out of the country? If Californians want independence from the United States, they should follow the strategy of Stengel, who made his home in Glendale.

Inside the California Supreme Courts

Courthouse News: Breaking up is hard to do: California secession movement pushes forward on ballot question

ICI January 30, 2025

Alan Riquelmy: A poll released this month and commissioned by the Independent California Institute — which stated that its first principle is for California to become a “fully functioning sovereign and autonomous nation” — offers some support for secessionists.

According to the poll, 61% of respondents said the state would be better off if it peacefully seceded, and 63% supported using “hardball” tactics to gain autonomy.

LA Fire Dept fights Palisades Fire

Connecting California: Did the L.A. Fires Start in D.C?

ICI January 30, 2025

Joe Mathews: The flames that leveled Pacific Palisades and Malibu are believed to have started in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, managed by the National Park Service. (That’s you!).

The blaze that turned Altadena to ash burned through the Angeles National Forest, managed by the U.S. Forest Service, which is part of the United States (you again!) Department of Agriculture.

california-state-capital

Press Release: 66% of Californians want an autonomy commission. It shouldn’t take an initiative to get them one.

ICI January 27, 2025

Carlsbad, CA: 61% of Californians said they would be better off California if peacefully seceded from the U.S. at some point in the next ten years, in a poll conducted in the weeks before Inauguration Day. This is the highest favorability towards secession ever recorded in a California poll.

two Canada geese in flight

CalMatters: If California split from the US and became a nation, it would be comparable to Canada

ICI January 24, 2025

Legendary California reporter Dan Walters covers our poll for CalMatters:

The transcontinental sniping raises an old question: Could California sever ties with the United States and once again become an independent country? The San Diego County-based Independent California Institute thinks so.