I do have to stick up for Californians on the forum in that Texas also wanted to secede during the last administration, so the point is that secession (for a single state) is stupid.
If CA were to secede, they better not even think about putting "Republic" anywhere in their name.
Back to the ports, all the West Coast ports are at max, so it would take many years to expand other ports to make up for the loss of the CA ports. Time is the enemy in that case. Not long after 9/11, I participated in an exercise run by Homeland regarding a terrorist attack on LA/LB that blocked the port for an estimated 1-2 months. Major loss of income aside, the projected shortages to the interior of the country were very significant.
That is why I continue to contend that if this slight chance were to happen, the US wouldn't allow it without some contingencies regarding port cities for commerce and military operations. Having nearly 2/3 of the West coast of the US, including the Southern coastal border, in the hands of commies would be very bad for national security. Especially because there is really nowhere on the Southern Oregon coast to establish a significant naval presence. Newport is probably as close as you could get for handling larger warships, and you would be pretty limited there. Next stop Portland. I suppose you could go to primarily submarine defense for that area. I have no expertise, so don't know if that would fly from an operational perspective.
