US Five Oregon Counties Vote to Secede and Join Idaho

Originally written by Michael Patrick Leahy on May 19, 2021

Five rural Oregon counties voted on Tuesday to secede from the state of Oregon and join the state of Idaho.

The Idaho Statesman reported:

Thousands of people in eastern Oregon voted Tuesday for their elected officials to consider ditching their state and becoming part of Idaho.
Voters in Sherman, Lake, Grant, Baker and Malheur counties all voted for ballot measures that would lead to them becoming Idahoans. People in Union and Jefferson counties had already voted in favor during the November election. . .
The vote is only the first step of the “Greater Idaho” project, which would allow some Oregon counties to join a state that advocates say more closely aligns with their political preferences.

Breitbart News reported in April that a political action committee and a new 501 c 4 non profit group are driving efforts that will allow rural counties in Oregon to join Idaho:

Move Oregon’s Border is a Political Action Committee formed in 2019 that focuses on Oregon ballot initiatives. In March, Move Oregon’s Border founder Michael McCarter announced the establishment of a 501 c 4, Citizens for Greater Idaho, which will focus “on Idaho, Oregon, and beyond, to support the vision of Move Oregon’s Border.” . . .
Petitions gathered by Move Oregon’s Border have forced the placement of ballot initiatives to change the border between Oregon and Idaho for consideration by voters in nine Oregon counties.
Ballot initiatives to change the border between Oregon and Idaho have already been voted on in four Oregon counties. Two counties (Union and Jefferson) voted in favor of moving the border in November, while two additional counties (Douglas and Wallowa) voted against changing the border.
On May 18, the ballot initiative to change the border between Oregon and Idaho will be voted on in five additional counties: Baker, Lake, Grant, Malheur, and Sherman.
“Move Oregon’s Border continues to collect signatures in seven other counties where no vote has occurred yet: Curry, Josephine, Jackson, Klamath, Harney, Morrow, and Umatilla counties,” the group’s website states.

Move Oregon’s Border founder and president of Citizens for Greater Idaho Mike McCarter said in a statement released on the group’s website on Wednesday:

This election proves that rural Oregon wants out of Oregon. If Oregon really believes in liberal values such as self-determination, the Legislature won’t hold our counties captive against our will. If we’re allowed to vote for which government officials we want, we should be allowed to vote for which government we want as well.

The statement added:

The election results this week were much stronger than the results in November. “We got on the ballot too early in those counties, before voters had heard of the idea, and before we could educate them on the benefits of joining Idaho, and before we had money for ads. The results this week prove that we were right to spend a little money on educating the voters in these counties. We only spent a tenth of the spending per voter that a typical state senator campaign spends, but it was enough. Now we need to raise funds for the next counties. Greater Idaho will be on the ballot in Douglas, Harney, and probably several other counties where citizens are still collecting signatures or asking county commissioners to put it on the ballot,” McCarter said. “Crook County commissioners invited us to a meeting next week to discuss putting it on the ballot.”
In Oregon, several state legislators have been quoted in the press in support of the border relocation. Reasons the Oregon Legislature should want to let rural Oregon join Idaho were given by McCarter: “In 2019, the average northwestern Oregonian wage-earner subsidized eastern/southern Oregon counties by $367 per year. Are they willing to keep paying that, just so that Oregon looks big on a map? Letting these counties go would mean the Oregon Legislature would avoid gridlock when Republican legislators walk out to try to deny a quorum. We list more reasons at greateridaho.org”

“The signature-gathering effort ‘to gain political refuge from blue states, was hampered last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it’s now picking up some momentum. Several prominent elected officials in Idaho, including Gov. Brad Little, have expressed support for the movement,” Oregon Live reported on Wednesday.

[SOURCE]
[ARCHIVE]

 

[FM Bradley]

If Washington State had a little sister, it would be Oregon.

If Washington sent Oregon to the store with $10 to buy a pack of cigarettes, Oregon would come back owing someone $5, eating a candy bar, and pregnant.

 

[CDWLTY]

That water bit is especially infuriating. Especially when you get to the bullshit Hershey did, how many cities sold water rights to CA without telling anyone, and all that fun shit.

The other export is power. Oregon and Southern WA specificially send power to CA.

I remember during the brownouts back in the 2000's, it was a $500 fine to have your porch light on after dark, but you turned on TV, and fucking LA and SF and shit were lit up like Christmas Day, while we're being reminded to save power because the CA electrical grid is in trouble.

The fact that SoCal is like a leech on every state around them, hell, some as far away as Washington, should tell everyone that the CA experiment has failed. But, no, gotta keep giving them cheap power, cheap water.

Cut them off?! And where would I get my marvel movies from? Are you saying you want to shut down the only queer and trans friendly movie industry in the world?!?!?!

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

It's cheaper for Commiefornia (and most importantly, isn't in their backyard) to keep leaching water and power from other states. Desalination especially, it's several times more expensive (per gallon) to desalinate water (no matter where you get the power) than it is to simply move it from somewhere else.

California is the ultimate case of "have your cake and eat it." They want an ultra-progressive society that's tolerant to everyone (especially the homeless and drug addicts), gives lots of free stuff to people in need, and protects the environment. But they also want a society that's high-tech and modern, preserves all sorts of beautiful landscapes (including manmade ones like those pretty eucalyptus trees), keeps taxes (especially property taxes!) as low as possible, and produces all the food and wine they'll ever need. So you get cities full of drug addicts and homeless camps, illegal immigrants (who allegedly work as migrants) get free shit everywhere and commit all the crime they feel like, the state burns down every August/September or so, they have rolling brownouts, their school system is on par with Mississippi, they gouge the taxes out of people anyway because the state's broke, etc. And they can't fix it because it requires endless "impact studies" (8-9 figures right there) and usually it doesn't get built anyway because some local group sues to block it or it's going to harm some endangered frog or whatever.

People always thought the South or West Virginia is "Third World America", but the closest thing to it is going to be the West Coast (aka Brazil or Mexico with slightly more English speakers) at this rate given the "feel-good" policies progressivism is based on.

The West Coast already IS the Third World America, when you adjust for cost of living the GDP per capita of California and Oregon is so pathetic that Oregon is the second poorest (after Hawaii) in the country and California ties with Arkansas.

 

[Mr. Bung]

Then, to make it worse, you have the fact that the almond orchards take up SHITLOADS of fucking water, which in the 2010's was diverted from orange and peach orchards and NorCal ranches/farms to feed the almond groves so people can have almond milk.

Why would anyone even WANT to drink almond milk? It tastes like absolute shit.

 

[knobslobbin]

Just more conservatives screaming but won't actually do anything. The courts will ignore it or proclaim it illegal.

When will the conservatives learn that violent revolution is the only way left?

Maybe another peaceful protest and they'll finally give you back your freedom. oy vey

 

[Jaimas]

That water bit is especially infuriating. Especially when you get to the bullshit Hershey did, how many cities sold water rights to CA without telling anyone, and all that fun shit.

The other export is power. Oregon and Southern WA specificially send power to CA.

I remember during the brownouts back in the 2000's, it was a $500 fine to have your porch light on after dark, but you turned on TV, and fucking LA and SF and shit were lit up like Christmas Day, while we're being reminded to save power because the CA electrical grid is in trouble.

The fact that SoCal is like a leech on every state around them, hell, some as far away as Washington, should tell everyone that the CA experiment has failed. But, no, gotta keep giving them cheap power, cheap water.

It gets so much worse when you factor in the mismanagement.

Remember the drought crisis a few years back, where it was argued California needed even more water and power to fight wildfires due to a water shortage? That shortage specifically happened because California's big cities decided, apropos of nothing, that it didn't need additional resevoirs or recharge zones - despite the fact that California, that year, had a fucking record-setting rainy season. Rural California knew this needed to happen - they were just repeatedly countermanded by retard-land.

In short, if it had done what basically every other fucking state with a similar climate does, that entire disaster would have been averted.

There is galactic levels of incompetence, and then there's whatever the fuck California is.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

The West Coast already IS the Third World America, when you adjust for cost of living the GDP per capita of California and Oregon is so pathetic that Oregon is the second poorest (after Hawaii) in the country and California ties with Arkansas.

I thought Oregon was second after Alabama? Or was that another metric of poverty? All I know is that Oregon has been incredibly fucked by shipping the industrial jobs overseas and then marketing the state as a cheap, hip place to live which resulted in some of the most incredibly stupid policies in the entire country. Like banning logging in forests that were set up by the logging company as a timber plantation, so it gets overgrown as hell with brush instead of being harvested like was planned, and then it burns half the state down. Or letting Portland be Portland and have weekly riots during the entirety of Trump's presidency. Like every state has dumb politics and retard politicians, but I think Oregon might win the award for the worst. Especially since the alternative in Oregon is Bundy-style lolbertarians but at least those guys are harmless except for the occasional meth lab explosion.

Now my favorite factoid about the West Coast being a shithole is those lists about the states with the worst schools. It's predictably Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama, etc. and then right above that smack in the list of Southern states is California.

Why would anyone even WANT to drink almond milk? It tastes like absolute shit.

Drinking milk is white supremacy, so better drink fake milk marketed for faggy vegans instead. Funny how the same crowd who's so concerned for the environment drinks garbage like that which sucks up water like nothing else.

 

[Spasticus Autisticus]

That looks beautiful. Also what was the reasoning behind the Montana-Idaho border, that shit is horrendous.

It follows the continental divide along the Bitterroot Mountains.

Sort of. The Continental Divide diverges from the Bitterroots near Lost Trail Pass and then goes east. The Continental Divide was the original ID-MT border, which would have put Missoula and Butte in Idaho. But after lobbying by MT residents, the Chief Justice of the Idaho Territorial Supreme Court ruled that the border would follow the entire Bitterroots. I've heard different reasons why, one being that the journey across the mountains to Boise was too treacherous in winter, and another that Montanans wanted a part of the gold mining activity going on there. Then there were a bunch of political backroom dealings that went on that ended up creating the narrow northern panhandle, which almost became part of WA. There's lots of articles out there about this topic, I don't know which ones are the most accurate.

 

[FEETLOAF]

Then there were a bunch of political backroom dealings that went on that ended up creating the narrow northern panhandle, which almost became part of WA.

I read that the panhandle exists because the surveyors got lost and didn't feel like going out again to map it properly.

 

[Niggernerd]

Imagine being such a shit state the majority of your counties want to leave

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I thought Oregon was second after Alabama? Or was that another metric of poverty? All I know is that Oregon has been incredibly fucked by shipping the industrial jobs overseas and then marketing the state as a cheap, hip place to live which resulted in some of the most incredibly stupid policies in the entire country. Like banning logging in forests that were set up by the logging company as a timber plantation, so it gets overgrown as hell with brush instead of being harvested like was planned, and then it burns half the state down. Or letting Portland be Portland and have weekly riots during the entirety of Trump's presidency. Like every state has dumb politics and retard politicians, but I think Oregon might win the award for the worst. Especially since the alternative in Oregon is Bundy-style lolbertarians but at least those guys are harmless except for the occasional meth lab explosion.

Now my favorite factoid about the West Coast being a shithole is those lists about the states with the worst schools. It's predictably Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama, etc. and then right above that smack in the list of Southern states is California.

Drinking milk is white supremacy, so better drink fake milk marketed for faggy vegans instead. Funny how the same crowd who's so concerned for the environment drinks garbage like that which sucks up water like nothing else.

I got to looking it up and some lists have different orderings. I took GDP per capita and divided by this cost of living index (divided by 100):

https://worldpopulationreview.com/en/state-rankings/cost-of-living-index-by-state

But some measurements of it have different ways/numbers of cost of living, or different criteria for income. Mine was just a brief play at trying to create a state version of PPP adjusted GDP per capita. Either way, suffice it to say that you can get a different ordering, but the magnitude of the change is still pretty massive. It basically compresses state incomes (they're a lot more similar, implying fundamental productivity isn't that different across the country), with the West and Midwest becoming relatively rich and the Northeast and West Coast becoming relatively poor like the South.

Oddly, Washington has a very favorable cost of living compared to the other West Coast states.

 

[ColtWalker1847]

Probably a computer reconstruction, like this:
Ver archivo adjunto 2189923

As a geology nerd, I hate this.

Ver archivo adjunto 2189932
I like maps.

Better but not much. Where is Siletzia?

Just more conservatives screaming but won't actually do anything. The courts will ignore it or proclaim it illegal.

When will the conservatives learn that violent revolution is the only way left?

Maybe another peaceful protest and they'll finally give you back your freedom. oy vey

They ain't doing anything because nobody is actually doing anything to them. The pain is being inflicted on other blue urban hive dwellers or global corporations. Fuck 'em. If/when any of this lands outside of there it ends quick because conservatives aren't having it where they live.

There was this whole thing last year where trolls on facebook would make fake antifa accounts and say they were going to riot in various deep red dens to cause a panic of conservitards and various other right wingnuts where they showed up toting ARs patrolling downtown to "keep them out".

What you are asking is conservatives taking the fight to them. However, most people are sensibly letting live and let live. They see that it is all a political work to get us all polarized because 2020 was an election year. At least on some level.

 

[StevieLasVegas]

Why would anyone even WANT to drink almond milk? It tastes like absolute shit.

My dad does only because when he was diagnosed with diabetes, a doctor told him to switch to it from 1%.

...only to be told by the next doctor that saw him for a check up months later he didn't need to do it at all

 

[Shield Breaker]

As a geology nerd, I hate this.

It is part of a series of maps made by a geological professor.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

The West Coast already IS the Third World America, when you adjust for cost of living the GDP per capita of California and Oregon is so pathetic that Oregon is the second poorest (after Hawaii) in the country and California ties with Arkansas.

I guess it won't be long before Mississippi will laugh at California and Oregon.

 

[knobslobbin]

They ain't doing anything because nobody is actually doing anything to them

The blatantly fraudulent elections counts as having their right to vote stripped of them. That's why a peaceful solution is no longer possible. I guess there is a very slim chance that elections get cleaned up, but let's be real here the GOP and DNC are both against meaningful election reform.

Good luck to the people of Oregon trying to break away from the crazy.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

Nothing will come of this, and I think everybody knows it.

Staten Island couldn't even secede from New York City, and set themselves up as a separate city. Note that they weren't trying to join New Jersey or some such thing, they just wanted out of NYC. Still didn't happen. Despite borough residents being overwhelmingly in favor of it.

The Seldom-Heard Story Of New York City’s Forgotten Stepchild

 

[ColtWalker1847]

It is part of a series of maps made by a geological professor.

Ah. He has the timing different and stuck with a lot of the older (20 year old) thinking.

 

[make_it_so]

Just more conservatives screaming but won't actually do anything. The courts will ignore it or proclaim it illegal.

When will the conservatives learn that violent revolution is the only way left?

Maybe another peaceful protest and they'll finally give you back your freedom. oy vey

"How do you do fellow dissidents?"

 

[Random Internet Person]

Just more conservatives screaming but won't actually do anything. The courts will ignore it or proclaim it illegal.

When will the conservatives learn that violent revolution is the only way left?

Maybe another peaceful protest and they'll finally give you back your freedom. oy vey

I'm sorry 2020 didn't see the powder keg explode like you wanted. Most people just never want to be in Kyle Rittenhouse's position, not even Kyle himself.