Eh, it's a fun thing to think about, especially knowing it will never happen. Texas fantasizes about it all the time. Every few months there's some kind of map being posted here about how to split the US into different countries or re-draw the state borders or some other fantasy map. It's just a fun daydream.

I live in Michigan and several times we've had people from the Upper Peninsula try to get support for them to create a new state, ignoring the fact that they would be creating one of the poorest, most uneducated, and most unpopulated states, and it'd never be allowed.

It's a symbolic gesture to say "I don't agree with X policy". the UP of Michigan does it to protest Lansing tax policies, Texas does it to protest liberal federal policies, California does it to protest right-wing federal policies. And everyone knows full well it won't go any farther than a protest.

That time is very interesting to study. The economics of it are mind-bending. I think California has a ways to go before it becomes that economically powerful.

"in 1860, the value of the slaves was “roughly three times greater than the total amount invested in banks,” and it was “equal to about seven times the total value of all currency in circulation in the country, three times the value of the entire livestock population, twelve times the value of the entire U.S. "

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cro...

> To even entertain the idea that secession would not result in a mass amounts of destruction death exemplifies the Bay area bubble mentality.

Why? There's no reason secession has to be a violent affair. Very recently we almost saw Scotland succeed in a perfectly peaceful way and we're now witnessing the UK do the same.