Really? That quick?

From my blog:

Nov. 9 – The Day After. Remember that movie? Total devastation. I shut down the exchange I call the grouplet since talking politics is pointless now. I thought I’d end this log by sharing a few things friends and I talked about today. We lay in bed sleepless going over countries we could move to. I discussed with friends how the administration will face hundreds of thousands of highly professional bureaucrats who will clog up any attempt to act unconstitutionally, the military most prominently – they will not allow the administration to endanger national security and can disobey unlawful orders.

In addition to government offices we have many institutions like the Bar Association, the Chambers of Commerce, unions, universities, the AMA, and so on which will act as a counter force. It reminds me of intense arguments with teachers that they owed their professional standards before they owed anything to the board that pays them; doctors don’t do surgery b/c a hospital admin says so (usually…. I hope). So that is a kind of firewall (better than Pennsylvania, I hope).

Then we have regional issues. I have no idea how this might work, but I know California could combine with Oregon and Washington to form an economic block which could be transformed into a semi-political block. The key would be to refuse federal funds. Without funding, the administration would not have nearly the clout over the state governments. Should other economic regions like the East Coast, New England down through North Carolina, and the upper Midwest do the same, the federal government might be stiffed as much as possible so money would remain in the region. The administration would then need to fund all those red states that depend on federal money and they would become an albatross around the neck of the administration. The administration would neglect them, leading to unrest.

How a regional breakup would be accomplished I cannot say, nor can I say what the consequences would be, but it would be less drastic than secession and would simply recognize an already existing situation. As those regions thrived, people would want to move there but perhaps some means could be found to institute some sort of vagrancy law which would require people to take jobs the state would allocate. The point would be to keep people from flowing into prosperous regions from the red states unless they offered something the way the people flowing over the border from Mexico did.

If the Trump administration survived long enough to cut funding for research, education, and development, countries like India would be huge magnets for American talent. English is usually the lingua franca and American colonies of tech workers and workers in other cognitive fields would flow in just as many Europeans are now taking jobs in India. Such a brain drain would force a recalibration of thinking on the part of those who favor a Trump approach to economic development and foreign policy.

OK. That’s the end for me. Politics over.

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OK, I’m crazy. My speculations are ridiculous. Yet I read:

Joint Statement from California Legislative Leaders on Result of Presidential Election

We will be reaching out to federal, state and local officials to evaluate how a Trump Presidency will potentially impact federal funding of ongoing state programs, job-creating investments reliant on foreign trade, and federal enforcement of laws affecting the rights of people living in our state. We will maximize the time during the presidential transition to defend our accomplishments using every tool at our disposal.

Hmmm, that was quick.

Here’s the url to the Nov. 9 statement of the CA legislative leaders :

http://sd24.senate.ca.gov/news/2016-11-09-joint-statement-california-legislative-leaders-result-presidential-election

 

Thanks to John Dixon for that.

Patrick Barrett

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