Is Putin trying to create division in California?

[Initech]

Please tell me I'm not crazy but I have noticed a sharp division among people I know who keep repeating the talking point about how people are going to be "leaving California in droves" over things like taxes and immigration. I know people who are actually leaving this state because California is "too liberal". I don't know if Putin is going to try and strike my state in the November election but deep down I have this gut feeling that he's going to attempt something. because we have nearly all districts running for Congress as well as our governor's office is up for grabs. And the GOP has been desperately trying to flip this state for decades. Where I live we have a guy who is overwhelmingly trying to convince the Trumpanzees that he's the "Pro-Trump Conservative" and with all the Trump fans where I live, he will at least make a dent, but I hope he doesn't become my district's representative.

But what I really want to know is - where is this talking point coming from? Is it AM radio, Fox News, Facebook / Twitter propaganda or a combination of all of them? I feel like there's going to be even further division created in November and it's going to get so much worse before it gets better.

[Tavarious Jackson]

1. YES

CALEXIT was a Putin hit job

[DetlefK]

2. +1

[Johonny]

6. +1

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. On a progressive chat I go to I heard many of them touting the CalExit idea,

I worked as hard as I could to explain to them why that is bad and who is behind it.

The GOP managed to get an open primary system in CA which can and will help everyone BUT mainstream democrats. Common sense explains why that is if one thinks it thru.

But, I bet many here will argue with me on that one. sigh

I think the fox KGB GOP job to make the truth unsavory and credible sources non credible, worked. I think we might be in trouble, for instance there is NO reason the dems shouldnt win both house and senate, and if they dont, it means many are at work against us.

[ansible]

4. Where in California are you?

Bay Area? Socal? There's quite a huge difference in the various regions of California when it comes to politics.

[Initech]

5. I'm in So Cal.

Bright red blip on an otherwise blue map. You would think it is rural Alabama here.

[Anon-C]

7. +1!

[Initech]

8. I live right next to Dana Rohrabacher's district if that's any indication!

So many Fox bots and MAGAts here!

[Dave Starsky]

10. Orange County has always been a right-wing nuthouse.

Remember Wally George?

[rufus dog]

11. You in CA 45?

[Initech]

13. No CA-39

[Dave Starsky]

9. Oh, hell, yes, he is!

California has the fifth largest economy in THE WORLD, just behind Germany! Do you think he's not going to fuck with that?

Putin's objective is to get the rest of the world to tear themselves apart in order to elevate Russia, and thereby himself. He is leveraging bot farms and trolls on social media like no one has ever conceived of in order to make this happen. And he's succeeding spectacularly. His own puppet heads our government's Executive branch.

[wonkwest]

12. Cost of living is becoming very much a thing

I live in S.F., however, so I'm probably biased there. But I've known a not minor amount of people who wanted to get out because they wanted to own their own homes and to start families.

CalExit has been a thing for decades. It comes up now and then. Probably more strongly in recent years because the state has become super-majority Democratic, and the interior and northern counties don't like that one bit. The thought that their lives are being controlled by "coastal types" whose lives reflect theirs not at all rankles.

It's not the most uncommon thing in states with large urban centers and vast tracts of rural population.

Unless Putin engineered this all twenty years ago, I doubt it has much to do with him.