Currently, 30 States have put forth petitions to secede from the United States.

[LunarSage]

"I'll have a steak.  Medium rare."

[KennethNoisewater]

I say let them become their own country.  Let's end all the crap and make it a blue country and a red country.  I am all for it.  Because when they do, the breakout looks like this (and yes I was just bored enough one night to go down this rabbit hole and put it together) And this is after flipping Indiana and North Carolina.  Hell I would give them Florida just to make drawing the borders that much easier:

% GDP
Blue: 67.46%
Red:  32.53%

Number of the top 100 universities in the country
Blue: 76
Red:  24

Total number of Fortune 500 companies
Blue: 359
Red:  141

Total population (and this is after the great migration to the sun belt)
Blue:  198,129,430
Red:   113,462,550

Percentage of that population in poverty:
Blue: 11%
Red:  14%

Number of states listed as one of the 10 poorest in the country:
Blue: 1
Red:  9

Number of states listed as one of the 10 most obese in the country:
Blue: 1
Red:  9

Number of States listed as one of the 10 least educated in the country:
Blue: 1
Red: 9

So please please please lets do this.  I might be a little sad about the loss of great cities like Atlanta, St. Louis, New Orleans or Boise, but let them drown in their own misery of obesity, lack of education, extreme poverty, smaller tax base (and thats not even counting how many of those retired residents are part of that number), and an insignificant economy (where nearly 1/4 of that is made up by Texas alone).  I will add my name to their petitions for them just to get them the hell out quicker.  As demonstrated by some of these numbers, clearly Republican politics are serving them really well.

[payne]

TBH, I wouldn't trust what The Examiner says, they tend to spin the truth. A lot.

[Oniya]

Apologies for this, but - well, MATH.

Number of that population in poverty (rounded up to a whole person):
Blue:  198,129,430*11%=21794238
Red:   113,462,550*14%=15884757

[KennethNoisewater]

What about the math? 1. it is correct.  2. having 6 million more in poverty when you have over 85 million more residents to offset that is a good thing.  It is a lower ratio of residents who live below the poverty line.  It isnt about the pure number it is about the percentage.

[Oniya]

Most people don't have the same affinity for math that I do.  Hence, the apologies for all the eyes glazing over. :D

Yes, the ratio is important, but it's still 6 million more human beings.  Of course, considering the other factors of Red vs. Blue, that raw number might be more easily reduced after the division.

[Secretwriter]

StoreHouse of Useless Trivia  <---  *eyes glaze over*

[Funguy81]

It looks like the fortune five hundred companies are based in those blue states. Are they red companies in blue states, or really blue companies.

[ShadowFox89]

 It's just people blowing smoke out their asses, really.

Other governors, perhaps sensing the overall "non-starter-ness" of seceding from the United States, have also publicly declined to support these secession petitions. "I don’t think that’s a valid option for Tennessee," said Tennesee Gov. Bill Haslam. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley released a long statement through a spokeswoman in which he reiterated his belief in "one nation under God" and that "states can be great laboratories of change."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/secession-50-states-_n_2131447.html

[TheGlyphstone]

There is probably a fourteen-syllable German word that precisely captures the combination of juvenile whining, sour grapes and goofy anti-government fervor that drove an infinitesimal number of Americans to submit and support these petitions, but the word that the kids in America use to describe this is "butthurt."

[Oniya]

If there isn't, I'm sure one can be invented.  Although, limiting it to 14 syllables might cramp the style.

[As Day Fades]

Living in NJ, it made me blink a few times to see my state listed among the names...and then facepalm. Considering the Democrats won the state(by a huge margin), it's clear that this is a special type of butthurt -- the handful of people putting this together are apparently too ignorant to understand how dumb they are.

Pettiness liek whoa.

[Secretwriter]

On my face book I posted something about removing me from friends lists if someone signed one of the petitions because I have issues with being friends with idiots. 

[Callie Del Noire]

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/establish-new-legal-system-motorcycle-riding-judges-who-serve-police-judge-jury-and-executioner-all/QS9sBWBc

oh-kay..

[ShadowFox89]

Viral marketing for Judge Dredd?

[Lux12]

Wow.People will petition for anything won't they? Petitioning for a dystopian tomorrow. Well at least it's rather original.

[loki]

All the bashing aside, doesn't this scare anyone? I'll admit that I didn't vote for Obama, but this? Our 'one nation under god' is dividing, and the sad part about it is that most youths today don't know history well enough to stop it from repeating.

If you look at what Hitler did, he took over the youth and got his army to destroy. I have a friend, whom is almost thirty, who actually told me that she didn't believe that the holocaust happened. I must of just stared at her for a minute without being able to say anything. Add that with the new reports about collage students that don't know much history, unless they are history majors, and I see a scary trend happening.

First, the holocaust didn't happen. Next, the hardships of slaves are never talked about in schools anymore. Then, we were never attacked on our own soil???

Throughout out history, things repeated themselves because people either, didn't learn from before, or weren't told what really happened and repeated it. This uprising, even as impossible as it is, should scare people. This country is going to spit again or fall because it will refuse to join together and work for the greater good.

It will be a sad day when a country that is so nationally mixed falls because of a unwillingness to put differences aside, stop blaming others and take responsibility, and work together for the hope of all young ones that are being born now.

[LunarSage]

The nation isn't dividing.  Those petition idiots make up less than 1% of the. United States population.  I wouldn't worry, myself.

[Vekseid]

1% would be three million.

Since there's no real limit on how much or often one person can 'sign', it's more like 1% of 1%.

[Oniya]

And young people are actually getting out and doing something.  In the wake of Sandy, the OWS crew got out to people that the Red Cross and FEMA hadn't even stopped to check on.  I read something about them setting up a 'registry' so that needed items could be more easily gathered and gotten to the right places.  There's even a group starting an organization that purchases debts the way collectors do, but then 'passes that savings' on to the person who owes the debt.

I used to think I was born a decade or so late.  Now I'm thinking I might have been early.

[Moraline]

1% would be three million.

Since there's no real limit on how much or often one person can 'sign', it's more like 1% of 1%.

Not to mention that you don't even have to be a US citizen to sign.

I signed the Judge Dredd petition. That would be totally badass!

[LunarSage]

1% would be three million.

Since there's no real limit on how much or often one person can 'sign', it's more like 1% of 1%.

Well I was being generous and assuming 25,000 signatures per state, which I know very unlikely.

[Stattick]

Well I was being generous and assuming 25,000 signatures per state, which I know very unlikely.

A lot of the same people signed the petitions for multiple states too. It's a scam by a few crazy nutballs.

[kckolbe]

The only state able to break away is Texas, and even then Demographically it is turning into a blue state. So unless they wish to risk an internal civil war upon themselves, they aren't going anywhere.

Well, many people say this, and it is very misleading.  Texas has no special dispensation to secede.  They do, however, retain the right to divide into separate states, each of which qualifying for admittance into the union.  There are several theories as to how that can be interpreted into secession, as new states could be formed and then refuse to join, as the clause states that they qualify for admission, not that they require admission.

Additionally, Tom DeLay brought up an interesting theory of dividing Texas into 5 states, draw up to all still be Republican, and to do so while the Democrats control the Senate.  Once this happens, the new states send their constitutionally granted senators to the Senate, where they will likely be blocked or at least postponed as this will unseat the Democrats majority.  Once this happens, secede citing "denial of representation."  Scary, and with a lot of variables, but definitely the kind of shenanigans that could happen.

Alternatively, one could simply state that the constitution does not grant the federal government the power to prevent secession, and that all powers not explicitly granted to the federal government remain with the states.

Texas actually has its own independent power grid (thank you History Channel).  That makes it the only state on the list that I give even a moment's consideration to, as far as going through with it.

Thank you for saying it.

...and the same week, the people of Puerto Rico vote yes for aiming to join the U.S. as the 51st state.

I know.  If Texas leaves and Puerto Rico joins, we can keep our flag as is.  That's just economical.

[Will]

Actually till Lincoln used the Emancipation Proclaimation it had very little to do with Slacery. States Rights were a primary issue.

But the particular State's Right in question was slavery.  State sovereignty was just a facade, a justification, just like "No taxation without representation" was a justification for wanting independence.