It's fascinating the country-ification happening with the US states as the political divide between the state level and federal level political perspectives grows wider. Much like California, Illinois plays a global scale when looked at in isolation (though at a smaller level than California). Its 1.14T GDP puts it around #20 worldwide for GDP when compared to other countries (just behind Saudi Arabia).
It'll be interesting to see what other states follow suit.
Massachusetts just signed an agreement with Denmark [1] covering several things. From their press release:
> Today, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey welcomed a delegation from Denmark for a series of meetings focused on strengthening the scientific, technological and commercial ties between Massachusetts and Denmark. During the visit, Governor Healey and Denmark’s Ambassador to the U.S. Jesper Møller Sørensen signed an economic partnership agreement, committing to work together to grow their leadership in life sciences, health care, biomanufacturing, advanced manufacturing, robotics and artificial intelligence.
Blue states combined are the second largest economy in the world, just ahead of China (3rd) but behind the US in totality. California alone is the fourth largest economy. Their economy would be worth about ~$15T. Combining resources is simply good policy imho.
Honestly, as someone who strongly believes in federalism and hates what our country turned into over the 20th century, I hope the trend continues. The federal government was never meant to have as much power as it took on during the FDR administration, and it's high time we reversed some of the affronts to the Constitution that happened back then. Hopefully things like this can be the first step.
Is this the point of the "states" in America, if the administration is a failure, states can basically secede and just get back to sensible governance / getting work done ?
There were a lot of reasons for keeping states as states when the US formed. Anything from fears of too much centralized power to being a compromise to get agreement from all of the states at the time. Secession wasn't one listed as a states right though, in either the original Articles of Confederation or in the Constitution.
Since then, the Supreme Court has consistently held it would effectively require a constitutional amendment defining secession for a state to be able to legally secede. So the realistic paths are still only "pretty much the whole country wants to dissolve and come up with something new instead" or "revolution".
Illinois has not joined the WHO, just this particular network. The US stopped paying dues to WHO when they left. There are no dues for joining this particular network. So there's the silver lining of being able to pick and choose the WHO components that fit your needs and budget.
It's fascinating the country-ification happening with the US states as the political divide between the state level and federal level political perspectives grows wider. Much like California, Illinois plays a global scale when looked at in isolation (though at a smaller level than California). Its 1.14T GDP puts it around #20 worldwide for GDP when compared to other countries (just behind Saudi Arabia).
It'll be interesting to see what other states follow suit.
Massachusetts just signed an agreement with Denmark [1] covering several things. From their press release:
> Today, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey welcomed a delegation from Denmark for a series of meetings focused on strengthening the scientific, technological and commercial ties between Massachusetts and Denmark. During the visit, Governor Healey and Denmark’s Ambassador to the U.S. Jesper Møller Sørensen signed an economic partnership agreement, committing to work together to grow their leadership in life sciences, health care, biomanufacturing, advanced manufacturing, robotics and artificial intelligence.
One of Russia's two big fantasies: the breakup of NATO and the balkanization of the US.
It’s going to lead to balkanization, and it seems at this point to be basically intentional.
Blue states combined are the second largest economy in the world, just ahead of China (3rd) but behind the US in totality. California alone is the fourth largest economy. Their economy would be worth about ~$15T. Combining resources is simply good policy imho.
Honestly, as someone who strongly believes in federalism and hates what our country turned into over the 20th century, I hope the trend continues. The federal government was never meant to have as much power as it took on during the FDR administration, and it's high time we reversed some of the affronts to the Constitution that happened back then. Hopefully things like this can be the first step.
Time for each state to get independent
Is this the point of the "states" in America, if the administration is a failure, states can basically secede and just get back to sensible governance / getting work done ?
There were a lot of reasons for keeping states as states when the US formed. Anything from fears of too much centralized power to being a compromise to get agreement from all of the states at the time. Secession wasn't one listed as a states right though, in either the original Articles of Confederation or in the Constitution.
Since then, the Supreme Court has consistently held it would effectively require a constitutional amendment defining secession for a state to be able to legally secede. So the realistic paths are still only "pretty much the whole country wants to dissolve and come up with something new instead" or "revolution".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secession_in_the_United_States...
Based on the events in the 2011 film Contagion, I think this is a smart move.
Is there any benefit to individual states joining the WHO in lieu of the federal government? As silver lining, I mean.
Illinois has not joined the WHO, just this particular network. The US stopped paying dues to WHO when they left. There are no dues for joining this particular network. So there's the silver lining of being able to pick and choose the WHO components that fit your needs and budget.
Improves detection and response around public health concerns. Current hot topics are measles [1] and syphilis [2] outbreaks.
[1] America’s Measles Crisis Is Spiraling - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2026-02-03/measle... | https://archive.today/XXYZt - February 3rd, 2026
[2] Syphilis Resurgence: Rising Rates, Public Health Challenges, and Future Strategies - https://www.infectiousdiseaseadvisor.com/features/syphilis-r... - September 26th, 2025