Living Elsewhere Story

There's a study that was done, which basically says that half of all Americans would be interested in moving overseas (meaning another country).   There was one shocker attached to this study.....this wasn't really attached to a political motive, it's just that people had this interest in going elsewhere.

The thing is.....this is just a thought process that people have.  They go off on some trip to Ireland or the Philippines....then they get some thought that it'd be great to just go permanently there. It's like some guy taking the wife to the isle of Aruba for a week, and they both get this funny idea that it'd be terrific to live on some island.  Military folks go off on career 'tours' and get all enchanted about Italy, Turkey or Iceland....then for years, they daydream about moving elsewhere.

I once spent seventy-two hours in Ireland.  I returned and for years had this vision of living in Ireland.  I can say after two weeks of driving around New Zealand in 2017, I felt that 'thrill' over the idea of staying there.  The two weeks I spent on Crete in the 1990s?  That went in the same direction. 

But after reading this article on the study....I came back to this one phrase...."would be interested".  It doesn't mean they will move....just that they fantasize about this idea and discuss it occasionally at the water-cooler with other co-workers or neighbors.  I worked with a guy who spent four years living in Japan.  He could sit and spend hours chatting over Japan and all the 'wonders' (which included Sake, and Highballs (Japanese soda mixed with whiskey).  He was overly enchanted with Japan....to the extent that he'd probably even be willing to live under bridges there as a welfare case, if he had the chance.

Here's the thing....you can ask a hundred people around age 25 about this 'movement' idea to another country, and fifty-percent might suggest they'd like to up and move beyond the US border.  So you go and look for the guy or gal forty years later, and 99-percent are still living within the US.  Oh, they might have moved from Texas to Idaho, or from Florida to Michigan....some might have three to five times.  But there's just not that many folks that moved beyond the border.   So what this study really touched on....was the fantasy involved.

Back in 1982, I sat one evening and watched the movie 'Summer Lovers'.  It's a marginal two-star movie about some American young couple who goes off to Greece and ends up in some threesome deal with another woman.  I barely remembered any of the script....but the whole landscape of Greece was spilled out out on a large screen, and for years....I had this vision of leaving all things behind and moving to Greece. 

People are just that way....most everyone has that fantasy place they'd like to live. 

Shutdown 2019?

What I see happening:

1.  The Senate right now doesn't have the votes to pass the budget. 

2.  We will arrive at early January with a new House and no budget. 

3.  Around 23 January (four weeks of shutdown), Pelosi will go on a massive blame-discussion....finding that nothing has changed with the President.

4.  Around early Feb, Amazon will have a job-fair in Arlington....finding 50,000 government employees interested in quitting their gov't job and joining Amazon.  At least ten-thousand will be offered a salary within 10-percent of their government salary, and depart for Amazon in Arlington.  Another 2,000 government employees will be picked up for the NY City Amazon operation. 

5.  By late Feb, near day sixty, Democrats will be in chaos and wanting Pelosi replaced.  Her House Speaker job will end by 2nd week of March.  A deal will be made for half the five billion to be funded in 2019, and half in 2020. 

6.  The twelve-thousand government folks who departed for Amazon?  Their positions for the most part won't be filled. 

7.  Less than 300 miles of the Trump-Wall will be built in 2019.