Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone said in a statement that Riverside, Imperial, San Diego, Orange, San Bernardino, Kings, Kern, Fresno, Tulare, Inyo, Madera, Mariposa and Mono counties should form a new state of South California.
“Our taxes are too high, our schools don’t educate our children well enough, unions and other special interests have more clout in the Legislature than the general public,” Stone said in his statement.
This came on the day Gov. Jerry Brown signed budget legislation that will divert about $14 million in 2011-12 vehicle license fee revenue from four new Riverside County cities.
In an unofficial CBS news poll, 88 % of the respondents like the idea, but I see some problems with it coming to fruition.
For those unfamiliar with California, the counties named above constitute the largest and most populous chunk of 'Red' California, the part of the state outside Los Angeles and the Bay Area that mostly votes Republican. There's absolutely no way that the existing Democrat power structure in 'Blue' California would allow its tax base to be eroded in this manner or allow the creation of a new jurisdiction that would put two new Republican Senators in Washington, and the Obama White House would likely do everything short of military occupation to help them prevent it. There are a great many states with a similar configurations to California..a large Red state area dominated politically by a small urban Blue colony that feeds off them, and the last thing the Obama Administration would want is for folks in places like southern Illinois or eastern Washington to start getting ideas.
A similar scenario occurred when the San Fernando Valley attempted to secede from the City of Los Angeles, with the city pulling out every trick in the book to keep their tax base intact and their cash cow securely attached.
Blue California will likewise do whatever's necessary to hang on to its own cash cows...disallowing petition signatures for a referendum, excessively valuing state assets to make the cost of 'divorce' obscenely high, threatening to cut off services and divert revenues to other parts of the state, whatever it takes.
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10 comments:
"There are a great many states with a similar configurations to California..."
Orygun comes to mind...
By this argument, Lincoln should have let the south secede?
I gotta say, though, it is pretty convincing. Democracy is the will of the people.
Please correct me if my memory fails me, but on one of the occasions that I lived in Calif, an old neighbour assured me that the Calif legislature once passed a bill permitting a partition of the state, but then the bill vanished at fed level, owing to a war ( possibly the US Civil War ), & that there also was a humourous far N Cal & SW Oregon secession effort which was becoming serious just before Pearl Harbour.
Off subject : having been away on business for about 4 months, my newspaper reading has been in sporadic, hit-or-miss just before hitting-the-hay mode or fashion. There was a mention, en passant, about an Iraqui colonel which heroically supplied licence plate numbers of cars visiting the terrorist Salami Ben Laden's palatial compound. I thought it said that the good man had been apprehended by the Iraqui security people & had disappeared. I believe in catching up with your columns of 4 months during my reading of 3 insomniac mornings ( yes, I have just read 4 months of your wonderful, superb, & prodigious site, including all comments, in order to catch up! ; prodigious : you must have newspaper ink running in your veins, for you marry quality to quantity ), & I know that you also broached the subject with the same info. Are there any up-dates ? I fear that he may be dead. Is anyone taking up his case ? Amnesty International, perhaps ? The State Dept, maybe ?
Ironically, I have to dash again on Thurs & will be gone for a week, or, perhaps, a fortnight, maybe, depending on the business negotiations' complexity, but then I shall endeavour to be less of a stranger, but if you should know anything re that poor man whose fate haunts me, please do comment with utmost celerity.
I was literally at ' L'autre bout de monde ', with due apologies to Emily Loizeau. Ooops, I've done it again ! A short letter which has evolved into a long essay ( channelling a former occupation, I fear ). If I'd more time, I should have made this letter far shorter !
respectfully,
m
I'm sorry, but did I write Iraqui earlier ? I meant, of course, Pakistanee ( Pakistanian ? Pakistanie ? ). I thought he was reported to be a colonel. ( Time-zone shift fatigue in operation. )
Hello M,
Nice to here from you again..bienvenue sur ce côté du monde.
All five of the Pakistani informants who helped the CIA finger OBL are still imprisoned by the Pakistani government on charges of espionage as I write this.
Regards,
Rob
Thanks for the quick reply ! All 5 of those heroic informants are in my prayers.
Have just noted the French you employed ... je vous en remercie ( I thank you for it ). & you are absolutely correct : it is "du" monde, not my languorous, sleepy "de". ( That'll be a lesson to me to not write nor proofread when I can barely keep the eyes open ! ) Do you know, I think that all the Spanish I'm encountering on a diurnal basis is insensibly affecting my French ! Every regular business day on my drive to or from the office, depending on my route, I see multitudes of Spanish signs, particularly & especially, ' Reparacion De Frenos ' & ' Venta De ' this & 'Venta De ' that. Sometimes, a Spanish word even sneeks stealthily into my French vocabulary. I'm wondering, demographically speaking, if the real fight will be betwixt the Mexicans & the Mahometans mid-century for the US. If that should be the case, then suddenly I am even more for Shakira & Paulina Rubio & Thalia ( ay, ay, ay !) & Laura Pausini & the diverse, different ' Claudia ' s. In fact, non-Spanish parents may soon wish to name their children Mercedes & Taco & change their family names to Gomez & Gonzales ( Gonzalez ? ) & Sanchez.
We're only an election away from the point of no return. If it is not too late. Dick Morris' site, though, reports some encouraging developments re ratings of prez popularity. ( Dick Morris, Charles Krauthammer, Joshuapundit : I feel as if I've joined an intellectual Republican Jewish fan club ! Must be the literary aspect. The kids at the office have this phrase ' paradigm shift ' which they say describes my dilemma : a shifting political mise-en-scene, viz, a shifting of terminological background scenery. They keep telling me that I' not a liberal. What happened ? I know I was one in the 60s. My politics haven't changed. I'm still against the Vietnam War. Oh, well. )
Have to pack. Ciao !
respectfully, what was my moniker, my handle, here ? Well, I have it written down somewhere, or I'll recall by the next visit ! )
"M" works for me, but I believe you used to refer to yourself as 'Dragon/Dinosaur' if you are whom I think you are.
Have a great trip.
Regards,
Rob
Dec 2013 up-date :
had intended to include Alejandra Guzman in the Spanish list ... please forgive me, chica ( she's a really nice lady in person, too ! )
--dragon/dinosaur
oh, & I had intended to include Mariana Garza, too. Apologies, chica ! My mind's memory for names is like a sieve. ( 1 of the Spanish girls at the office tells me that she was once in a band with Rubio, though I have no familiarity with that era ) . This will be my last comment at this ancient thread. Promise. Just tidying up. --d/d
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