CalExit leader applies for Russian citizenship; California secession was yet another Russian plot

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In the days after Donald Trump was named the winner of the 2016 presidential election, a movement perked up in oddly swift and organized fashion called “CalExit.” The official sentiment was that the liberal state of California should secede from the union, and leave the more conservative portions of the United States behind. But what has long been suspected was all but confirmed today: the CalExit movement was yet another Russian plot to divide the U.S. against itself.

All along, the leader of the CalExit movement – a man named Louis J. Marinelli – has rather bizarrely been operating out of Russia and not even trying to hide his location. There have also been various claims that Russia was funding his CalExit movement. But the movement has been losing popular support as Donald Trump has become more scandalized and unpopular, giving Californians hope that he may not be able to carry out the worst of his agenda, and that he may not last in office at all. Hence any motivation to secede, even in symbolic fashion, has faded. Accordingly, Marinelli gave up today and withdrew the CalExit petition – and then he announced he’s applying for citizenship in Russia.

This surreal development is being reported in multiple places today, ranging from Salon (link) to Business Insider (link), and is based on a statement that Marinelli released himself – in which he declared that “I have found in Russia a new happiness.” This is of course coming even as several key players in the Donald Trump campaign have been revealed to have been colluding with the Kremlin regularly during the campaign, pointing to the entire Trump campaign having been a Russian plot against the United States.

While it’s not proven that Russia funded the CalExit movement, what is documented is that Kremlin-funded media outlets such as Russia Today were among the first to give coverage to the movement (source). Thus it’s clear that the Kremlin was involved with CalExit, and attempting to propagate it, from the very start. Now that the leader of CalExit is attempting to become a Russian citizen, a reasonable person would conclude that the California secession movement was likely a Kremlin effort to begin with. And the Kremlin’s only motivation would have been to cause further internal division within the United States. Contribute to Palmer Report

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