[conspire] OT (geopolitics) So much winning

[Josef Grosch]

On 2/22/25 09:21, Steve Litt wrote:
> Josef Grosch said on Sat, 22 Feb 2025 09:11:48 -0800
>
>> On 2/22/25 08:18, Steve Litt wrote:
>>> Rev Anon said on Thu, 20 Feb 2025 09:08:12 -0800
>>>   
>>>> We were warned for years.  Back when the voting rights bill got
>>>> zeroed by an ass senator from WV, we knew this was coming.  Greg
>>>> Palast documented the millions who got their ballots purged putting
>>>> Republicans in charge.  (there's a little known government agency
>>>> that counts such things as purged ballots)  C'est la vie. Democracy
>>>> is over get used to it.  Perhaps the view looks dark but we can
>>>> hope the west coast will unite and secede from the fascist new fed?
>>>>   West coast exit!  Get your pitch-forks ready!
>>> This is a serious question: Does California have nuclear weapons? If
>>> you do, you can secede at will. If you don't, LA, SF, Long Beach and
>>> San Diego will get nuked the moment of secession. It's not necessary
>>> to have 5MT city busters, if you can deliver 40KT to Texas cities,
>>> that's good enough for a peaceful secession.
>>>   
>> tl;dr
>>
>> Sorry, this ignores a simple fact, nuclear explosions tend to do
>> serious damage to the place that the explosion happened, not to
>> mention the people. The value of California is the 40 million people,
>> the infrastructure, and the value AKA GDP it generates. If California
>> were a nation it would have the 4th or 5th largest economy, depend on
>> the numbers you are looking at. A couple of nuclear blasts and we have
>> an economy that would make Somalia look prosperous. The ports at Long
>> Beach and Los Angeles have over 17 million TEUs
>> (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-foot_equivalent_unit) coming
>> through every year. Take that out and a major piece of the US economy
>> goes to shit.
> Do you seriously think the Republicans would care one bit about taking
> out the 4th largest economy? If they can't have California, nobody will.
> They regularly operate against the needs of the United States, this
> would be no different.
They care very much about the tax money we send to Washington. Without 
our money there is a much bigger hole in the federal budget and red 
states like Alabama and Mississippi would have to raise taxes in order 
to keep up the pathetic services they currently have.  If you remember, 
during the first Trump administration, they capped the amount of 
mortgage interest that could be written off on federal taxes at 
$10,000.00. Before there was no limit. This move was specifically aimed 
at California which has some of the highest housing prices in the 
country. The amount I could write off on my taxes was cut in half. Trump 
and the MAGA GOP hate California but they are johnny on the spot to 
collect our money.
> Hence my question: Does California have nuclear weapons and a delivery
> mechanism?
>
The point of nuclear weapons is deterrence, you don't actually want to 
use the damn things. If you do, you now have a choice.

A) Walk away from the place you just destroyed, never to return. Of 
course chances are what you get is a failed state. WAY MORE trouble then 
it is worth.

B) Commit to spending multiple tens of trillions of dollars over the 
next 30 to 40 years to rebuild a place you just destroyed because a 
group of people you don't like told you to fuck off.

Either way the chance of nuclear weapons going off is as close to zero 
as to make no difference.


Josef


-- 
Josef Grosch       | Another day closer |
jgrosch at gmail.com  | to Redwood Heaven  | Berkeley, Ca.