I've thought about leaving too. Ironically my partner's family immigrated to the US. We've traveled throughout Europe and there are parts of northern Italy that call to me as well as Glastonbury in England. Then there was Switzerland where the cities are very clean but demonstrations in Zurich because there wasn't enough housing for the young. France is beautiful but not being a city person the south of France in the mountains would be a great spot. Of course the French don't really like Americans.

Then there was Germany which is also well kept. Berlin was very interesting especially when the wall first came down. I remember walking into one toy shop where the toys were made out of wood and being impressed with the craftsmanship. On one side of the Berlin wall the walls were filled with graffiti and the other side the military were in their towers with rifles ready to shoot anyone who crossed the border. This was two weeks before the wall coming down.

At that time we rode a train through East Berlin that was bare bones when it came to comfort and saw armed guards with dogs at each of the stations. Ironically in souther Mexico there were also armed guards with what looked like machine guns at the airports. Made me glad to get back into the US.

What the US Congress along with Presidents who by-pass Congress with their Executive Orders is doing to the US is sickening. They have sold out middle America. That's the long and short of it.

We did think about Australia but had friends who came back not too happy about the gun laws down there and how government was butting into their private lives.

I tend to enjoy the tropics higher up in the mountains. However, other family members enjoy the seasons and want to go back where it snows. I'd rather go to Ecuador if leaving the US. Only I just read yesterday out US factions is attempting to destabilizing that country and where the president is afraid he will be assassinated by a US faction.

All-in-all there are many beautiful places in the world to live and politics almost always drives people away to find somewhere else where they can live more freely. I remember driving to Budapest and thought to myself, this landscape reminds me of the Sacramento, California area. The only real difference was politics.

Cities do have their conveniences but for the most part I find them trying. I don't like the traffic, density and these days rudeness. Rural areas are much more relaxing and folks tend to look out for one another, However in a lot of the smaller rural towns one is almost always considered an outsider unless they were born there. It takes a certain type of personality that prefers being away from cities and living out in the countryside somewhere. Generally people have to be comfortable with themselves and not need all that external city-life stimulation. In the US there are miles and miles of vacant land. Folks who enjoy being self-sustaining do better in those types of environments.

I think what many folks are disgusted with these days in the US is politics and how our Congress now supports the oligarchy - not the citizens. Hence the citizens are becoming slaves to taxes and paying off debts (bailing out the bansters) they didn't even incur. Now that sucks.