Louisiana Separatist March in Atlanta
Some reports say as many as 30,000 protesters descended on Axis headquarters in Atlanta today to make their desires known.

While the movement has lost momentum in the public space over the past few years, the Louisiana Separatists have recently been more active. Just last week the Supreme Court refused to hear a case regarding the constitutionality of the Texas annexation. Similar cases have been refused at least a dozen times since the 2021 assimilation of the state into Texas. Chief Justice Roberts said in an interview that “this case was not sufficiently different from other cases to warrant a hearing by this court.”

The Separatist insist that Texas “hijacked” the state and are unlawful “overlords”. Nevertheless, conditions in the former state have improved dramatically. Since the assimilation unemployment is down 200%, crime is down 45%, and the new New Orleans Omni-Port held its grand opening last year.

The Separatists claim that Louisiana was stolen in a “hostile takeover” which started four years after New Orleans was destroyed by hurricane Katrina in 2005. At the time former President George W. Bush and an alliance of conservative leaders formed the movement that would eventually write the charter which would become the bill passed to annex the state twelve years later.

Conservatives claim that Louisiana was never able to recover from the loss of New Orleans, that corruption was out of control, and the annexation was the only way to save the former state from complete anarchy.

Three Arrested Crossing Red-line
In what is becoming a familiar headline, three people were arrested trying to cross the border between Texas and New Mexico last night. The interim Governor of New Mexico called the arrests unacceptable and urged the hold-out Progressive States to join the ongoing embargo of the Southern Axis states.

It is being reported that one of the three is a pregnant 17 year old, indicating that the three were likely seeking an abortion clinic to the West. The three will appear in a Houston court today and will likely be charged with a Red-line infraction. The first offence of the Red-line policy in Texas carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison. Since the tightening of the southern borders three years ago, there have been more than 1000 arrests in similar cases.

President Azzar immediately issued a statement calling for renewed Red-line talks and diplomacy. However, both the Free-Republicans (FRP) and the Unified Democrats (UDP) issued heated statements full of rhetoric and accusations. Other parties issued various statements ranging from neutral to the militant left-wing Common Front party calling for immediate withdrawal of statehood from Texas.

FRP senator Tom Roach called the situation a “grave outcome, directly attributable to the ongoing irresponsibility of the progressive states”. Mr. Roach went on to say that “the Red-line and its check-point system are crucial to protect the states loyal to the constitution and the truth from those that would bring back into the Axis the tide of position, death, and perversion they accept as ‘culture’, not to mention international and national terrorists.”

Meanwhile, the leading UDP Presidential hopeful Connecticut Governor Brock Jones claimed that “the Axis would like us to think that their savage polices and brutal repressions are the answer to all our collective challenges. They unfortunately are not the answer and in fact are the cause of many of our worst National issues.”

While the rhetoric flies, there are some facts that shed light on a possible reality. The Red-line continues to be a reality that both the Progressives and Conservatives embrace. While the UDP national-line is that the Red-line is a disgrace, all of the bordering UDP States have defeated measures to shut down the check-points on their side. Furthermore, UDP Chairwoman Franice Bowen is on record as follows: “the Red-line is a necessary evil at this point. While it is unfortunate that it was ever built, the reality is that it protects the more civilized states from the states that would devolve into an unenlightened and dangerous way of life.”

Many of the arrests at the Red-line are attributed to the abortion ban in the Southern Axis. After Mississippi closed its last abortion clinic in 2007 the trend spread to the other Southern states quickly. After the subsequent “tightening” of the Southern States borders and the establishment of the Axis, the border issue heated quickly. However, the arrests only began after the establishment of the checkpoints on both sides of the line between 2045 and 2048. The arrests are almost evenly attributable to the two sides, with the Axis patrol responsible for 515 and bordering Progressive states responsible for 497.