The U.S. flag features 50 stars of equal size, one for each state. In reality, states are so unequal that just nine of them comprise about 51% of the United States’ population.
Category: Issues
Parent Category for policy areas (e.g. Environment)
Connecting California: California should force Trump to kick us out of country
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.
Fire and Flood: Federal Interference Wastes California’s Water Resources
On January 31, 2025, Mr. Donald Trump ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release millions of gallons of water from Northern California dams “Fire and Flood: Federal Interference Wastes California’s Water Resources”
California Focus: Will Trump Moves Boost California Secession Sentiment?
Thomas Elias: For every action, says one principle of both physics and politics, there is a reaction. So when President Donald Trump threatened to put conditions on disaster aid in the wake of California’s unprecedented January firestorms, there was a reaction.
Courthouse News: Breaking up is hard to do: California secession movement pushes forward on ballot question
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.
Connecting California: Did the L.A. Fires Start in D.C?
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.
The Bulwark: Extorting With Disaster: Why Stop At California?
Jill Lawrence: California is an easy target, but it’s far more than that. It would be comparable to Canada if it were its own country, and that is not as far-fetched as it seems. A poll released January 19, as Trump was about to take office, showed 61 percent of Californians favor a peaceful “Calexit” and 77 percent said California should control its state borders “more like a country.” A few days later, as Trump was about to visit, the California secretary of state cleared a petition drive to get a secession proposal onto the 2028 ballot.
Trump wants to be the president who annexed Greenland and Canada, not the one who lost California. If there’s a lesson here, it may be make love, not war, and stop referring to the governor as “Gavin Newscum.” Trump has a country. The question is whether he can keep it.
Press Release: 66% of Californians want an autonomy commission. It shouldn’t take an initiative to get them one.
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.
CalMatters: If California split from the US and became a nation, it would be comparable to Canada
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.
Poll fact sheet: YOU ARE NOT ALONE
A very simple fact sheet with highlights from the January 2025 Independent California Poll. Perfect for printing and distributing at rallies, farmer’s markets, and other “Poll fact sheet: YOU ARE NOT ALONE”