With Trump’s win Silicon Valley investors start losing their damn minds

We’re only hours into what is a now Donald J. Trump’s ascendancy to the Presidency and already Silicon Valley’s investor class is losing its collective damn mind.

TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington had it just about right when he retweeted the Drudge Report.

Drudge headline “Silicon Sultans Shit Themselves” – which is pretty much what I’m seeing in my Twitter feed.

— Michael Arrington (@arrington) November 9, 2016

A Trump win is antithetical to a Silicon Valley culture that prides itself on (rigthtly or wrongly) on meritocracy, openness, and rationality. Beyond that, many in the Valley have a problem with Trump’s blatant bigotry, misogyny, xenophobia, and homophobia.

By far the craziest response has come from two of the Valley’s more respected new investors.

Shervin Peshivar and Dave Morin are already (half-jokingly?) calling for California’s secession. And Peshivar is looking to fund the movement.

In an impassioned Tweet storm, Peshivar called for California’s secession.

1/ If Trump wins I am announcing and funding a legitimate campaign for California to become its own nation.

— Shervin #VOTE (@shervin) November 9, 2016

3/It’s the most patriotic thing we can do. Country is at serious crossroads.
We can reenter the union after California becomes a nation.

— Shervin #VOTE (@shervin) November 9, 2016

4/As 6th largest economy in world, economic engine of nation, provider of a large % of federal budget, California carries a lot of weight.

— Shervin #VOTE (@shervin) November 9, 2016

5/We need to have serious national dialogue about our culture, values & rampant sexism, racism and hate that Trump campaign has exposed.

— Shervin #VOTE (@shervin) November 9, 2016

And apparently Dave Morin has Peshivar’s back on this one.

@shervin I was literally just going to tweet this. I’m in and will partner with you on it.

— DAVE MORIN (@davemorin) November 9, 2016

I’ve reached out to Peshivar on Twitter and email will see what he has to say.

Meanwhile, Buzzfeed’s legal editor has investigated the possibilities of secession… prompted by Peshivar’s suggestion.

The answer to the question of whether a California could actually leave the union? A resounding, “Maybe?”

Former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said no, when the question was posed to him. He wrote:

“If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede. (Hence, in the Pledge of Allegiance, ‘one Nation, indivisible.’) Secondly, I find it difficult to envision who the parties to this lawsuit might be. Is the State suing the United States for a declaratory judgment? But the United States cannot be sued without its consent, and it has not consented to this sort of suit.”

But noted law professor Eugene Volokh thinks that Peshivar may have some standing, even though Volokh thought the idea was “pretty empty posturing”.

Buzzfeed’s editor quots Volokh saying:

“If in 2065 Alaska, California, Hawaii, or Texas (just to consider some examples) assert a right to secede, the argument that ‘in 1865, the victorious Union government concluded that no state has a right to secede in opposition to the wishes of the Union, so therefore you lack such a right’ will have precisely the weight that the Americans of 2065 will choose to give it — which should be very little.

“And beyond that, even if there is some precedent of some sort properly set by the Civil War (and I continue to disagree that there is), any such precedent can’t tell us much about consensual secession.