fourthwaveska

You’ve reminded me of that xray spex song, “I live off you”.

She just gave you an icy look of doom.

Nope. Nada. None. Zilch.

But enjoy singing some bad national anthem and crying while waving a flag or maybe killing someone who disrespects your flag, or whatever it is the patriotic kids do today.

We really have no country or stable home right now. Once we get to Spain we will love being there, but we will still hold no sense of patriotism.

I'm not willing to fight, murder, or die for a nation. Some people are wired that way, violent ideation of being a hero, dying for god and country or whatever, but it ain't me.

I’m guessing you have never volunteered at a refugee camp?

Would you like to? I ask in all seriousness. The UN has several programs which are basically refugee tourism.

Like missionary work but without forcing them to get baptized for their supper.

I did it in Turkey 6 years ago. Imagine 5 miles of tents in any direction. Most people who were there then are still there now.

> Obama invaded Syria "in the name of Christ and oil profits"? That justification was a myth, even when the Trotskyites-cum-Conservatives asserted it as truth 15 years ago.

Citation needed.

Hmm. So it is OK for me to say make all of my money in San Francisco then go buy property in much poorer Detroit?

Now what if about 1/3 of that income came from my wife who is from a poorer country than Spain?

Damn. Maybe I should tell the IRS that I’m an oil company instead of an expat.

I just realized, I never mentioned Bush, you did. See, I didn't even have to mention Bush, just his legacy, and you instantly knew what I was referencing.

My life experiences have made me incapable of empathizing with this view. My fellow citizens have never had my back, and I disagree with most everything they hold dear, as they disagree with most everything about me.

I don't hate America or its people, I'm just not that into them.

Patriotic people love to tell others "If you don't love America, leave it". Well, as my patriotic act to those great patriotic Americans .. I left.

> Please don't take this personnaly as I'm not targeting you specifically with my comment: but I don't know how I feel about wealthy foreigners coming to a place, buy property and extract rent from locals, who may not even be able to afford ownership in the first place.

Weird statement. Don't worry, I wouldn't take your uncertainty about your own feelings personally.

However, I do understand you, and this is something we've struggled with. My wife is a Turk, and at first when we realized "hey, if we sell my house in Mendocino, we can live like princes in Istanbul, or kings on the Aegean", and once that novelty wore off, we decided that we weren't those people.

The argument itself can apply to anywhere. In San Francisco, I spent 10 years living in illegal punk warehouses where I was not a gentrifier, but then I spent 10 years living in Oakland, where I was a gentrifier, even though I'm from California.

Where does the line get drawn? Is it OK to have the $$ to buy a nicer place anywhere in my own country? What about my home state?

We still struggle with this question a lot.

Sure by these measures I'm rich, but I don't feel that way. Our current income isn't really indicative of the whole picture. Since I was diagnosed as Bi-Polar 20 years ago, I have averaged 2 months of unemployment per year, and just spent 13 months without income due to my inability to cope with the stress of the world.

Today I'm rich. Tomorrow I could be living in a van for 6 months like I did after the 2001 bubble burst.

Summers really are lovely there. Now that I'm finally vaccinated I'm hoping to go spend 3-4 weeks hopping back and forth between Fano/Esbjerg and Copenhagen. My treat to myself after over a year of Covid-induced unemployment now that I'm vaccinated and working again.