[quote=spdrun]Can California leave the US so they’re not stuck propping up Mississippi and Oklahoma?[/quote]Umm, I don’t know about MS but OK doesn’t need “propping up” by the likes of over-indebted Californians and their over-indebted state gubment. They’re doing fine by themselves, in spite of having several populous communities in the path of “Tornado Alley.” Oklahomans are a very hardy and resourceful bunch of folks who have been getting along fine for years … that is until “Obamacare” came on board and caused several of their major insurance carriers to leave the state and many of their urban-based medical providers to drop out of the exchange-carrier network. But at least they weren’t stupid enough (as Cali was) to adopt “enhanced Medicaid.” A large portion of the state’s residents are eligible to access medical care through the IHS (approx 550-600K people), including their many, modern IHS and tribally funded hospitals and clinics.
And OK has only been fighting a “meth scourge” in its eastern (rural) parts of the state because when all the East SD County meth labs were raided and busted up by the SDSO in combination with the NTF and DEA back in ’98-99, a lot of those lab operators were subsequently found guilty of felonies and sent off to prison. When they were released (5-12 years later), they ALL defected to OK, AR and MO to ply their usual trade (yes, people, that same trade which they just did major time for in CA) in heavily wooded areas where policing was thin. These states don’t have the multi-agency policing resources as does the “police state” we all know and love as San Diego County, CA (an int’l border county). This lack of coordinated law enforcement has allowed OK’s makeshift meth labs to operate largely underground for years whilst insidiously polluting OK’s many streams, rivers and lakes. Most of these labs aren’t caught until they catch fire or until the teachers of the children who are living in them turn their student’s injuries over to social service agencies.
Instead of “feeling sorry” for Oklahomans, you Piggs would do better to instead ask themselves how this happened and WHO was/is responsible for it!
As a public service, the IHS is picking up most of the slack in attempt to detox/rehab OK/AR/MO rural meth addicts (whether they are eligible to access IHS … or not).
Do NOT feel sorry for Oklahomans, please. They’re fine and they’re dealing as they always have and always will. A very large portion of OK adults are also collecting off gas and oil leases for life (quarterly, biannually or annually) which they “inherited” (in addition to their employment and pension incomes). When they die, their heirs will do same. Many of them actually feel sorry for us … for the day-to-day conditions we urban Californians must deal with just to get thru life. The vast majority of “Okies” like to come to Cali for a vacation to see the sights but they wouldn’t want to live here. You can trust me on that :=0
