February 28, 2018
By: Linda Case Gibbons, Esq.
It wasn't such a hot idea in 1861, but it might just fit the bill today.
Secession.
In 1860, eleven states in the Deep South decided they were unable to remain within the Union: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas, forming the Confederate States of America.
Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia joined them after the War began with the firing on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861.
It was about slavery and cotton. But the main reason was an election. The election of President Abraham Lincoln.
It's the same reason California has its undies in a bundle today. President Trump.
In our country's Civil War, we tragically lost 600,000 fellow Americans. For California to secede today, the state has only two choices: Fight, or get the rest of the country to agree to say Adios: That would require three-quarters of the states to ratify, and a constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds vote in Congress.
Can it happen? Hard to say.
Given the fact that the residents of California's Tinseltown despise President Trump, sheer hatred could fuel the movement. As far as, "Does the rest of the country want it?" Hell, yes! They're California Weary.
This Sunday the Academy Awards will bombard us with still more Anti-Trumpisms, courtesy of Jimmy Kimmel, and we'll get to see what Hollywood considers good cinema and the ideas that have made California what it is.
Award nominations include a movie about love between an underage boy and a man;
A woman pursuing the rape of her daughter, while ranting against a racist cop, ranting against a Catholic priest, and comparing Catholic priests to the Crips and the Bloods;
And a Fish-Man in explicit love with a woman, a film that is now facing copyright infringement charges from the estate of Pulitzer-Prize-winning playwright Paul Zindel.
It don't get no better than this.
"How do I want thee to secede? Let me count the ways."
Well, there's Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters and Adam Schiff. And Jerry. He's been at the helm in California for four split terms, and the only good decision he ever made was to date Linda Ronstadt.
Jerry's term is nearly over. At the DNC Convention he humbly compared his impending retirement to that of a Roman statesman, "A fellow named Cincinnatus who saved the Republic, and then went back to the plow."
Says it all. About Jerry.
Jerry hates Trump, and even hired Eric Holder, who hates Trump, to battle Trump for whatever the president does that California doesn't like.
They hate Trump, yet, when the state-owned Oroville Dam's spillways collapsed, after the state of California didn't repair and maintain them, the governor was not above asking the president for financial aid.
These, hatred for the president; policies that made the state into a Sanctuary State to protect its 2.3 million undocumented immigrants; and Hollywood actors who think and say they know better than the rest of us boobs. These make it super easy to let California leave.
Just this week, Libby Schaaf, the mayor of Oakland, California, a self-proclaimed Sanctuary City, proudly announced she had alerted illegal immigrant felons in her community that ICE was coming.
Isn't that treason? Or maybe just plain stupid?
But why pick on just California? That's like shooting fish in a barrel. While Secession is on the table, why not get rid of Illinois, too?
Rahm Emanuel's stellar term as mayor of Chicago is coming to end. With a 25 percent approval rating for his High Crime and Misdemeanors mayoralty, 650 murders to date this year, and a $50 billion debt, yep, he's still gonna' run.
And since none of this transfers well into a campaign slogan, Mayor Rahm has decided to cull votes from the 250,000 illegal immigrants living in Illinois, by issuing "ID cards" to "residents," including illegals.
Presentation of the card allows its holder to "check books out of the local library," Democratic Chicago Alderman Ameya Pawar says, and to vote, which he doesn't say.
Voter fraud? Sounds like it. But how else is the mayor to win? Or the Democrats in 2018?
Meanwhile, back in California, the "Cal-Exit" movement has bogged down. Supporters can't decide what their new nation's stand will be about vaccines, while some might urge them to mull over how to pay the $23 billion it spends to support California's illegal immigrant population.
It will be tough to see California leave the nest, history and memories of the Gold Rush and all.
And Obama's Presidential Library in Chicago, that Toddling Town, and hometown to Obama and Al Capone, would undoubtedly take a hit if Illinois were to follow suit.
But somehow, I have a sneaky suspicion the United States will manage to muddle on through without these places of "Sanctuary."
Hold the line, America.