Hello All,

As David Crosby once sang, “It’s been a long time gone.” And it will be even longer till “the dawning.” Assuming there is a dawning.

It is mid-November 2024, so I don’t think I need to elaborate on the last two sentences. So I won’t. At this point, I’ve run out of nouns and adjectives. I’m done. Miglustan (Lakota Sioux for “I’m finished”).

In the past eight-plus years I’ve often asked myself if I’m unpatriotic. Not that I even know what the word “patriot” means anymore, since it is now being defined in umpteen strange ways. A lot of folks, particularly conservatives, view patriotism as an all-or-nothing concept. One has to love everything about America (at least, everything that doesn’t hint of liberalism). Otherwise, one is unpatriotic. Of course, I’ve never bought into this narrow and narrow-minded definition.

I believe there are degrees of patriotism; that it ebbs and flows. There are some things I love about America—and am thankful for—and other things I hate. Currently, there seem to be more things about this country that I hate.

(The invective “hate” is tossed around so cavalierly now, I should have probably picked another term. But it’s a one-syllable word even the most intellectually deprived American understands, so I’ll stick with it.)

But for the sake of argument, let’s assume patriotism is a static thing. Am I unpatriotic because I strongly criticize the country, and am now thinking of leaving? (Not that it matters, because, like Samuel Johnson, I consider patriotism the “last refuge of a scoundrel,” and I see a lot of mock-patriot scoundrels around me now who even the most indifferent Founding Father would find reprehensible.) But I’ve decided the answer is “No.”

If I was unpatriotic, I wouldn’t be so angry, confused, appalled, hurt, and disgusted, and I wouldn’t be thinking of moving my wife and me to another country, or countries, to escape what I see as a nation slipping further into a sewer. If I was unpatriotic, I just wouldn’t care. Maybe not even vote, like, what…one-third of the country? My tax dollars already get channeled into government programs I disagree with. So, now they will be going into programs that make me want to literally puke? Not if I can help it, Donny-boy.

***

I’m not sure it will happen. Becoming an American expatriate, that is. Due to grandkids, I still have to get my wife entirely on board (she’s partially there). There are a lot of obstacles and paperwork. But I’m checking into it. And one of the oases of decency and sanity I recently discovered is a newsletter called Brent and Michael are Going Places. Brent and Michael are a husband-and-husband team who left the states the day after It was elected in 2016. They’re digital nomads, and also really nice fellows with loads of experience regarding everything about expat-ing. They’ve given me a free annual subscription to their great newsletter on the condition I merely plug them!

In a country where the dollar sign should replace the bald eagle as a national symbol (note the obnoxious ads that WordPress sticks in here), it doesn’t get much friendlier than that.

There are several different options toward leaving the country, and the one Brent and Michael chose—becoming “digital nomads”—allows one to stay out of the U.S. indefinitely through travel without going through citizenship hassles: three months here, six months there…even ducking back into America to visit loved ones and briefly take the pulse of the country (currently at 47 beats per minute and sinking rapidly).

Yeah, we’ll still have to pay taxes to a corrupt government, unfortunately. They get you coming, and they get you going. But there are ways to minimize that anguish.

Brent and Michael explain everything under the Mediterranean sun: health insurance, visas, taxes, buying and renting, investments, food, transportation, culture…going bald. Right now they’re in Bristol, England. Anyway, the link to their site is: brentandmichaelaregoingplaces.com.

***

That’s about it, fellow Americans and non-Americans. It’s been 10 months since my last post, so thanks to those of you who might still be hanging around. Not sure if it will be another 10 months. Whatever—and despite the traumas this country has gone through and will be going through—life is nonetheless good for me and mine. Unlike many in this lopsided, exploitative capitalistic country, where billionaires get richer and the rest of us struggle, we’re at least privileged enough to be able to even consider relocation. And we’ve got our health and each other, which, when you get down to it, are the most important things.

As Ringo always says: Peace and Love.

P.S. The vast majority of readers in the past have been mature and civil, even if they may not agree with me. But there’s always that occasional asshole, and there seem to be more and more as time passes. (Gee, wonder why.) So if anyone desires to trash me because of what I’ve written—while you may retain one of the things I still love about America, which is freedom of speech—I also have the freedom to trash your trash.