Among the folks using the White House’s We the People petition site to seek independence from the United States is Kevin Baugh, "president" of the “micronation” of Molossia.
Molossia consists of Baugh’s home and yard and is entirely surrounded by the state of Nevada. Baugh declared the property a micronation and himself president in 1998. The nation has a currency pegged to the value of chocolate chip cookie dough and broomball is the national sport, according to a Chicago Tribune story on Molossia’s 10th anniversary.
In a 2006 NPR interview, a Lonely Planet writer who’d visited a number of micronations called Molossia the “most delightful” and described it as Baugh’s hobby “taken to the Nth degree.”
Baugh’s petition, which had received 180 signatures by noon Friday, is considerably less hostile to the United States and its current leadership than the slew of secession petitions that started rolling into We the People from residents of all 50 states in the wake of President Obama’s reelection in November. He seeks merely to “formalize” Molossia’s “current peaceful and fruitful relationship” with the United States.
U.S. officials may wish to be wary of this seemingly peaceful claim, however. Molossia has apparently been at war with the now-defunct East Germany since 1983 and Baugh was briefly ousted from leadership by the nation of Kickassia in 2010.
Joseph Marks
Joseph Marks covers government technology issues, social media, Gov 2.0 and global Internet freedom for Nextgov. He previously reported on federal litigation and legal policy for Law360 and on local, state and regional issues for two Midwestern newspapers. He also interned for Congressional Quarterly’s Homeland Security section and the Associated Press’s Jerusalem Bureau. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s in international affairs from Georgetown.
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