Recent History

## California Free Union

**California** has the sixth largest economy in the world and a population larger than **Poland**. The **CFU** campaign argues that **California** suffers under federal overregulation, that the state contributes more federal tax than it receives in federal funding, that the state feels isolated from political power in **Washington D.C.**, and that there is a wide gap between the political and cultural differences of **California** and the rest of the country.

 There have been more than 200 proposals for the secession of **California** over the state’s history. The last instance of secession in the **United States** happened in 1861, when 11 states left the **Union** and formed the **Confederate States of America**. These states returned to the **Union** in 1865 after the **Confederacy** was defeated in the **American Civil War**. The **Supreme Court** decided in Texas v. White in 1869 that no state had the right to unilaterally leave the **Union**. Secession would thus require the approval of 38 state legislatures and two-thirds majorities in both the US House of Representatives and Senate, to pass a Constitutional amendment, as the Constitution provides no mechanism for state secession. Analysts consider **California’s** secession improbable. This does not seem to dissuade the members of **CFU**, however.

The hashtag **#CALEXIT** trended in social media as the campaign gained attention in the wake of the election of **DONALD TRUMP** to the presidency in November 2016; California gave **HILLARY CLINTON** 61.5% of the vote to Trump’s 33.2%. **CFU** campaign president **LOUIS J. MARINELLI** asserted this was evidence of the political divide between the state and nation, saying **California** is more progressive than the rest of the country and that **Californians** were offended by **Trump’s** statements about minorities.

On November 21, 2016, the **CFU** campaign submitted an initiative for signature gathering which, if passed by voters in November 2018, would repeal Article III, Section 1 of the **California** Constitution, which states **California** is “an inseparable part” of the **U.S.**, and require an independence plebiscite to be held on March 13, 2019 on the question of **California’s** independence, the passage of which would require at a minimum 50% voter turnout and 55% voting yes.

## Rise of the Aristocracy

Mayor **ED LEE**, though not officially a member of the **California Free Union** campaign, has been criticized by many to be sympathetic to campaign’s cause. One of Mayor **LEE’s** most damning soundbites his opponents use to link him to **CFU** is his tendency to refer to **Californians**—and **San Franciscans** in particular—as “progressive.”

Due to the mayor’s effective campaigning, three initiatives have defined his term.

* The **Climate Action Plan** (CAP) is a project wherein toxic emissions let into the atmosphere are being decreased through a combination of new emissions laws as well as new recycling and atmospheric cleansing processes. A highly visible result is the city’s reduced cloud cover at night. The project is headed up by several scientists in an effort to prove its technology and hopefully sell it to the rest of the world. Some critics argue that though the **CAP’s** goals are laudable, it is actually causing more harm to the environment than anything before it. To date, however, no evidence has been published to support this claim.

* By law, wealthy individuals and corporations with interests in the area are allowed to hire and maintain their own security forces. Examples of the firms who specialize in private security are: **AMERICAN HAWK SECURITY**, **CYPRESS PRIVATE SECURITY**, and the **PLATINUM PROTECTION GROUP**. This has caused some friction with local law enforcement accusing these private security firms of “stepping outside their authority.” To date all matters have been resolved amicably, however there does seem to be a trend toward private security superseding the authority of the police.

* The economy of the **Bay Area** has swelled in recent years in a menacing way: trade and power now has equal standing to raw currency. Those who do not have one of the three, and still wish to survive, can literally sell their livelihood for the protection of their “betters” through indentured servanthood.

## This Town Ain't Big Enough…

For the last ten years, since before **ED LEE** took office, **San Francisco** has not hosted any significant population of vampires—an odd occurrence considering most metropolitan centers worldwide are infested with these undead creatures. Although it is impossible to say exactly how, there is enough evidence to suggest that another supernatural party is responsible: a werewolf pack calling itself the **HARBINGERS OF DAY**.

The **HARBINGERS** are a pack of five werewolves, led by a **San Francisco** socialite known as **DAMIEN KINGSLEY**. Although the **FBI Office of Special Investigations** (OSI) has never been able to gather official evidence of the pack’s involvement in the vampire disappearance, most of our leads point in that direction. For years before the mass disappearance, **San Francisco** was riddled with vampires like any other metropolis, manipulating events from the shadows in an effort to forward their immortal agendas. Then the **HARBRINGERS** took residence in the city—an odd occurrence for any werewolf pack to claim territory among so many humans—and a bloody war began. Though outnumbered, the werewolves waged fierce and violent battles against anything or anyone that even hinted at an association with the vampires. They made deals with key government officials to “look the other way” and institute policies that would aid their war. The **OSI** during this time could only do what little it could to protect innocent bystanders from the ensuing slaughter. Fortunately, the **HARBRINGERS** were somewhat controlled in their actions, keeping the general citizenry ignorant of what was truly happening in the night around them.

A cessation of hostilities came literally overnight during a storm that blacked out the entire city and brought day-to-day business to a halt. When the storm cleared, however, there were no vampires to be found. Hundreds of calls were made to **Animal Control** during the days afterward reporting the sounds of dog howling, but nothing ever came of it and the howls died away soon thereafter.

The **HARBRINGERS** are still active in the city—the **OSI** tracks their movements when possible—but their activities are generally nonviolent, or at least they take pains to shelter the public from their violence.

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