California secession supporters file new initiative
BY REID WILSON – 02/15/18 03:32 PM EST 775
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California secession supporters file new initiative
© Getty Images
Activists who want California to leave the United States have filed papers to set in motion a process they hope would end with Golden State voters deciding whether to secede in 2021.

This is the second attempt at a “Calexit,” as supporters call their effort. The first measure died last year during the signature-gathering process.

Secession supporters, who say the Trump administration is specifically targeting their state, will begin gathering signatures to qualify a ballot question in 2020. That initiative would ask voters whether to hold a secession vote — and, if it passes, that vote would take place May 4, 2021.

The secession vote would instruct the state legislature to formally declare California’s independence from the United States.

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Backers of the measure marched from the state Capitol in Sacramento to Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s (D) office on Wednesday, waving signs that read “It’s Time For A Divorce” and “Irreconcilable Differences.” At Becerra’s office, they formally filed the papers necessary to begin gathering signatures for the 2020 ballot.

Supporters of secession are the latest in a long line of activists who have pushed for California to leave the United States. Since 1859, a decade after California joined the union, more than 200 different groups have tried to force either secession or partition, splitting the state into several smaller states, according to the Los Angeles Times.

But in an age of Russian interference in American politics, the secession movement has sparked concerns that outsiders might try to influence the debate. A Russian-linked Twitter bot that tweeted in support of leaving the U.S. was one of those shut down by Twitter last November, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, reporting testimony the company provided to Congress.

The sponsor of the referendum, Louis Marinelli, dropped last year’s effort after admitting he was living in Russia at the time. Marinelli says he has moved back to the United States, and he was present when supporters filed paperwork with Becerra’s office this week.

Steve Bannon Thinks California Will Secede From The United States In 10 To 15 Years
BY ANNIE LLOYD IN NEWS ON OCT 21, 2017 12:06 PM

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Steve Bannon. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Steve Bannon spoke at the California GOP Convention in Anaheim Friday night, using his 40-minute speech to criticize the Republicans’ approach to winning California, claiming that unless Republicans won back the state, “10 or 15 years from now the folks in Silicon Valley and the progressive left in this state is going to try to secede from the union.”
The L.A. Times reports Bannon made this comment while mentioning the number of California-based progressive efforts to counteract President Trump’s administration, including the recent passing of the nation’s most comprehensive so-called “sanctuary state” bill. “We have a problem with understanding how to win. Nothing else matters,” he told the convention attendees.
He also took time to find fault in two major California industries: Hollywood and Silicon Valley. SFGate reports Bannon criticized trade deals with China, claiming China “‘gamed’ international trade deals that helped ‘Silicon Valley, Wall Street, Hollywood and Washington, D.C.'” He derided Silicon Valley in particular, calling the tech community “lords” and claiming the top-earners in tech “think they get a special deal” where they participate in a “free society” while the rest of the country is left responsible for defending the country’s values, according to SFGate.
He related these criticisms to his calls for “economic nationalism,” which he claims has nothing to do with “your race, your color, your gender, your religion, your ethnicity, your sexual preference,” according to CNN. “It’s about one thing — are you a citizen of the United States of America?,” he said.
California has an enormous population of immigrants, both undocumented and documented, so Bannon’s calls for “economic nationalism” would exclude a large portion of California workers. This anti-immigrant rhetoric has cost the California GOP voters in the past; in 1994, California Republicans supported the controversial Proposition 187, which rendered undocumented immigrants ineligible for public benefits, and public support for the party began slipping significantly. Currently, only 29% of registered voters in California are registered Republican.
Hillary Clinton won the state by over four million votes last November. Among the counties that went blue was Orange County, where Anaheim is located. It was the first time the county went Democrat in a presidential election since 1936.
Bannon’s prediction of California seceding from the Union is not unheard of. Immediately after the election, the organization Yes California championed the #CalExit movement, calling for California to become its own independent nation. Rumors of the movement’s connections to Russia led skeptics to question its supposed progressive origins, but other secession groups have sprung up in its wake. The state also has a long history of trying to split in two or break off from the country entirely, well before President Trump took office.