Louis Marinelli, the president of Yes California and a figurehead of the California separatist campaign sometimes called "CalExit," is exiting his own separatist movement. On Yes California's website, Marinelli, who has lived in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg since September with his wife Anastasia, writes that he plans to seek permanent residence there. What's more, "accordingly, as the author and architect of the Calexit ballot initiative petition which is currently circulating in California, it is only proper, given my intention to seek permanent residence in Russia and not return to California in the foreseeable future, to withdraw that petition from circulation," Marinelli writes. With no immediate plans to return to what he considers "occupied California," he will "continue to serve as the representative of the Republic of California to Russia." Thanks for your service.
Business Insider, who noted Marinelli's abrupt departure from his own separatist effort, recall that Marinelli originally campaigned for Senator Sanders in the US and ultimately cast his ballot for President Donald Trump. Now, apparently, he can no longer stomach life under the American flag. Odd.
"I have found in Russia a new happiness, a life without the albatross of frustration and resentment towards ones’ homeland, and a future detached from the partisan divisions and animosity that has thus far engulfed my entire adult life," Marinelli writes. "Consequently, if the people of Russia would be so kind as to welcome me here on a permanent basis, I intend to make Russia my new home."
If you were clinging to the empty ballot measure Marinelli has now swept from under your feet, don't worry too much. An equally naive plan is circulating for a 2018 mid-term election ballot splitting California in two between East and west California. A Chronicle op-ed this weekend was also floating an idea that California and Nevada join forces and elope together, but I don't see that lasting.
Related: Latest 'Calexit' Gambit: Split California Between East And West
