How often does talk end up in action? Texas periodically threatens to secede from the union. California ants to split in two parts. What if?

If it actually happened what would it take? Texas gone and California split in two? We'd still have 50 states though I don't think that's a magic number necessarily.

Talk talk talk talk talk talk talk. How often is it the precursor to ACTION and how often does it lead to a dead end?