r/politics • u/sweatycat New York • 20h ago

California to Negotiate Trade With Other Countries to Bypass Trump Tariffs

https://www.newsweek.com/california-newsom-trade-trump-tariffs-2055414
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u/Sudden-Investment 18h ago

In the non realistic fever dream of States seceding I always felt Colorado would get shafted since it struck in the middle of the US.

  • California, Oregon, Washington are fine since they have the Pacific Ocean.
  • Minnesota, Michigan, maybe Wisconsin all share a border with Canada to the North.
  • New York and many of the North East States either border Canada or the Atlantic Ocean.
  • Colorado borders all Deep Red States and New Mexico.

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u/AllRushMixTapes 18h ago

Colorado would be invaded because of the watershed. No way does the U.S. let us leave without a fight.

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u/headbangershappyhour 15h ago

In that case, CA would launch a counterattack into Southern NV/Northern AZ to capture the entire Hoover and Glen Canyon Dam infrastructure and all of the associated water distribution networks. That water is too important for Los Angeles and to bribe the central valley farmers to not revolt.

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u/TheBigWil 15h ago

Basically New Vegas, but without the cool stuff

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u/KasseanaTheGreat Iowa 15h ago

Maybe if Musk decides to double down on insisting it was actually a "Roman" salute it might literally just be New Vegas

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u/Spongebobgolf 14h ago

I was going to say, that sounds like some New Vegas shit right there

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u/Kind-Mountain-61 5h ago

That’s a reasonable fear for people of Arizona. If something goes sideways with the Hoover Dam, the rest of our watershed is gone. Phoenix depends on this water source. 

A few months without a steady flow of water equals five million residents exiting the state.

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u/Dorgamund 15h ago

It would have to go either way. If CO makes threats to the states downstream of the river, it could very likely drag those other states along.

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u/b34tn1k 18h ago

Three of those red states heavily rely on the Colorado River, maybe we turn off the faucet. I know it's not realistic but still

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u/ragnarokxg 18h ago

Colorado and New Mexico cutting off the water to the Colorado and Rio Grande rivers would hurt Arizona and Texas so bad.

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u/starmartyr Colorado 15h ago

Nevada as well. Las Vegas would be uninhabitable within weeks.

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u/Scott5114 Nevada 11h ago

Nevada depends so heavily on California agriculture that if California is out Nevada kind of has no choice but to go along with it.

Nevada also isn't (that kind of) stupid so I would imagine that you'd get a CO-NV water rights compact in place pretty quickly. NV really doesn't use a whole lot of Colorado River water since most of what we do use can be recycled fairly effectively. Las Vegas's net water usage is tiny for a city of our size.

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u/starmartyr Colorado 8h ago

The city is dependant on the Hoover Dam. Lake Mead is fed by the Colorado River. If there isn't enough water flowing into Lake Mead, it starts a short countdown before the city hits a permanent blackout.

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u/Scott5114 Nevada 6h ago

I know; I live here in Las Vegas. Our dependency on Lake Mead is why the governor of Nevada would be on the next flight to Denver to sort things out if it ever happened.

That being said, Nevada would be more interested in the water rights than the rights to the electricity from the dam (if that's what you're implying by the word blackout). Because Las Vegas only barely existed when the dam was built, we only get 25% of the electricity the dam generates, with 19% going to Arizona and the rest to California. Most of Las Vegas's power is supplied by natural gas and solar. Losing the power we do get from the dam would suck, but not anywhere nearly as badly as losing the water. NVEnergy could make up the difference eventually, but there's really no way to substitute the water supply (and if you somehow did you would fuck over the rest of the state).

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u/crankyrhino Texas 17h ago

Have you seen the Rio Grande lately? There's not much water there these days.

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u/bassman1805 16h ago

Yeah, so imagine how much worse it'd be if CO stopped giving a shit about the people downriver.

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u/sundvlsean 14h ago

AZ is a blue state once we deport all the retirees back to the Midwest.

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u/Watchakow 13h ago

Nah the Midwest doesn't want them, send them to Florida.

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u/ragnarokxg 18h ago

New Mexico and Colorado could help California annex Arizona.

Remember New Mexico has the bombs.

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u/yuriaoflondor 16h ago edited 16h ago

Worth pointing out that Wisconsin voted for Trump in 2024. Though it’s long been a swing state. And as a cheesehead myself… please for the love of god get me off Trump’s Wild Ride.

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u/Freshness518 16h ago

I feel like it wouldn't take much to convince Nevada to go as well. I bet Vegas would just follow the money. And if all the money just left, they would follow. A bunch of dirt poor desert ranchers in the north aren't going to hold much sway against the power and influence of billions of entertainment dollars once the direction of Vegas is different than theirs.

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u/sotfggyrdg 15h ago

I wish. I'm a bit skeptical though because there's a ton of California haters here in vegas, even among liberals. Lots of idiots like to blame all of Nevada's problems on California as well as having little brother syndrome to LA.

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u/TheWizardOfDeez 14h ago

Sounds like a great way to quickly educate them on how much better their lives are WITH California.

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u/sotfggyrdg 13h ago

Nevada and education go together like peanut butter and mayo

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u/Scott5114 Nevada 11h ago

Yeah, but those idiots aren't in corner offices on LVB. The execs know where the butter on their bread comes from—at one point Hornbuckle was trying to figure out a way for MGM to add a lane to I-15 in California because so much of their money comes from CA that I-15 traffic was costing them money. Segerblom and Lombardo aren't listening to random HOA dumbasses from Summerlin, they're going to do what LVB wants.

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u/Drak_is_Right 15h ago

Its hard to undersell just how big of a deal Great Lakes shipping (combined with the Mississippi-Ohio-Missouri) has been for the US. You have a 600 ft. vessels nearly a thousand miles from the sea.

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u/ankhes 12h ago

I think a lot of people don’t truly understand just how massive the Great Lakes are (especially Superior and Michigan) until they see them in person. As someone who was born and raised near the Pacific and now lives less than an hour from Lake Michigan, the latter behaves shockingly similar to the former.

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u/B_Type13X2 9h ago

As the bard sang, "Does anyone know where the love of god goes when the waves turn the minutes into hours?"

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u/B_Type13X2 9h ago

1000ft + actually and have since the 60's

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u/Scarecrow_Folk 15h ago

MN, MI and WI have international ports and sea access as well. 

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u/randypupjake California 16h ago

Either they would have to convince Arizona or convince Wyoming or Montana... (and they don't have to take all of it, just enough to be contiguous and form a border with Canada)

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u/thisTexanguy 15h ago

Could Wyoming even resist? There's barely anyone in the state.

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u/sundvlsean 14h ago

AZ is easy. Az would be a blue state if it wasn’t for all the snowbirds.

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u/-Darkslayer 14h ago

I find that hard to believe. We lost AZ by over 5 points in 2024, it wasn’t that close

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u/sundvlsean 13h ago

Dem Gov and both senators picked by AZ voters. Snowbirds and retiree’s and possibly some vote manipulation to get the state to go Trump

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u/digidi90 13h ago

It's not that bad; you can make a bridge to Old Mexico thru New Mexico with maybe an exit or two to Breaking Bad country.

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u/StygianSavior 10h ago

Colorado also has a ton of military infrastructure - NORAD, USNORTHCOMM, Space Force, etc.

Hard to see Washington DC letting that go without a fight.

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u/ROOFisonFIRE_usa 1h ago

It might a battle line, but everything between Colorado and California would fall in line pretty quick. SD, ND,NE, NM, WY, MT, NV, AZ not coming to invade. Those people are fairly reasonable to deal with and have an understanding amongst themselves.

KS, OK, TX... well thats another story...

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u/DeeLeetid 15h ago

I’m pretty sure I remember in the early 1990’s, the good people of Colorado turned out to basically say “go ahead and discriminate against gays”, which the supreme court overturned. And I’m certain that in 2006, Coloradans showed up to the polls there to agree (by a 10 point margin) to defining a marriage as between one man and one woman. I’m not convinced they wouldn’t be happier with their deep red neighbors when all is said and done.

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u/thefumingo Colorado 10h ago

Modern Colorado is very different than the CO of the 2000s.

Also, even blue CA passed gay discrimination in the 00s

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u/bigbadbradford 11h ago

Don’t leave us behind here in AZ. We’ll be blue once the boomers die.

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u/PenImpossible874 New York 10h ago

No you won't because all the racists in California keep moving there.