(Mods: that auto-suggested title is different from the one on on the page itself, but it’s honestly a better headline in terms of the article’s contents. Let me know if i need to change it.)

On Thursday, Rep. Andy Harris told Newsmax that money for wildfire aid isn’t a priority for Republicans because “we just put more money into FEMA before we left for the Christmas holidays,” and the Maryland Republican claimed that Los Angeles “mishandled the fire department so egregiously that they ought to bear some of the burden for that rebuilding.”

  • errer@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    California should just secede. I’m not joking, what’s the point of funneling money to other states that don’t care about human rights, don’t come to our aid when we need it, and happily siphon all our tax dollars but fight any reciprocation? California could absolutely succeed as a sovereign nation.

    • CaptnNMorgan@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      It would be nice, but unless California has a militia on the same level as the US military, it wouldn’t end well

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        While I agree it would go poorly, the way this would happen in theory is that the state would take their contributions to the federal military with them, and for California that would be a pretty sizeable chunk. So it’s not just local police and national guard.

        • CaptnNMorgan@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          This is very interesting. It’s my understanding that a lot of grunts in the military are big fans of Trump, so wouldn’t that throw a wrench in the gear? Even if that isn’t the case, the military falls under the executive branch, the president is their commander in chief. What does that mean when a state seceeds?

          • jj4211@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            I think another complicating factor is that military folks are moved around so much that they wouldn’t have the same loyalty to wherever they happen to be. So it’s likely to be quite bad, just staying that generally the military itself would split.

            As to technically reporting to the president, well all bets would be off, since the act of secession is already a rejection of the current government and rule of law. There wasn’t any legal framework for the revolutionary war nor the civil war to happen, and yet they did.

            Despite all this technicality, I’d really not want to see the nightmare of how this would play out in practice. Of course I could not see it happening until the GOP got too greedy and fully shut down elections or go too far away from free and fair elections. Ultimately confidence in elections serves as a release valve for anger with the government, and messing with that invites disaster.

    • slickgoat@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I’m not an American, but I heard that if California was a separate country it would be one of the top wealthiest countries in the world. The rest of the US is a tick on your butt. NY excepted.

      I may be wrong.

    • BassTurd@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      We shit on Texas everytime they talk about seceding. Don’t be as dumb as those people.

      • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        California has the fifth largest economy in the world, Texas has half the GDP of California and still manages to post a net loss.

        There’s a reason we clown on Texas about it and that reason is because Texas quite literally cannot survive on its own but screeches constantly about threatening secession. California on the other hand would survive just fine without a single one of the entire rest of the States but they don’t constantly remind everyone of that fact.

        Texas gets made fun of for it because the answer to “Well what would you do without Texas, huh???” is… I’d pay less taxes because Texas wouldn’t be sucking down a bunch of surplus anymore.

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        That’s generally because it’s ridiculous and often right in the heels of some big illustration of how Texas benefits from the other states.

        If the federal government did withhold aid, then that would perhaps be part of a scenario where California is tossing money at a government that will not reciprocate.

        Now it may be premature, as this might just be posturing and even if they made it rough, there is every reason to hope that in 2 years than shift . But if this was a real and durable situation, I could see it being their only path to get some more negotiating power.

        • BassTurd@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          I do agree with the sentiment and all of the points are valid. I think talking about it as secession detracts from those points. Highlighting that California pays in way more than it takes is important especially in the context of not receiving aid for malicious reasons.

      • Alenalda@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Hasn’t Texas changed hands several times. It was it’s own country at one point. It was part of Mexico now part of the US. Texas is a clown show for many reasons.

    • Matriks404@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Can’t they just not recognize the federal government? Should just make their own (maybe other states would participate as well). It wouldn’t be seceding, but they would de facto work as a separate political entity. That is unless they get raided of course.

      • Jode
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        3 days ago

        unless they get raided

        You should see how many icbm’s are parked along the coast of California…