Trump Acquittal-More Motivated to Move Asia

[Forest Nymph]

I am More Motivated to Move to East Asia After the Trump Acquittal

I'm not in a hurry to leave the U.S. but now I'd like to get out of here. I thought briefly last year about living in China to teach English (still could, Hubei province is relatively small and I would rather live somewhere near Chengdu). I also am open to teaching in South Korea, Japan or Vietnam. I want to leave my country. I have known nothing but America, but right now I feel I'm being offered something between The Preppy Killer and The Omen.

I would really like to stay in California but I am honestly prepared to leave right now. I don't want to go to Seoul or Beijing so I'd be okay in a smaller city/town. I'm more interested in traditional culture and real people.

I'm realistically thinking about TEFL right now. My vegan activism is taking a backseat to my self-preservation, but there's activism to be done there as well?

Anyway, I'm gong to get my certification while I'm still in grad school so I have options. I hate the world.

 

[Mischief]

I'm not in a hurry to leave the U.S. but now I'd like to get out of here. I thought briefly last year about living in China to teach English (still could, Hubei province is relatively small and I would rather live somewhere near Chengdu). I also am open to teaching in South Korea, Japan or Vietnam. I want to leave my country. I have known nothing but America, but right now I feel I'm being offered something between The Preppy Killer and The Omen.

I would really like to stay in California but I am honestly prepared to leave right now. I don't want to go to Seoul or Beijing so I'd be okay in a smaller city/town. I'm more interested in traditional culture and real people.

I'm realistically thinking about TEFL right now. My vegan activism is taking a backseat to my self-preservation, but there's activism to be done there as well?

Anyway, I'm gong to get my certification while I'm still in grad school so I have options. I hate the world.

It is disheartening and depressing time for sure. We're making giant strides backwards.

 

[Nekodaiden]

As I live in Australia, and have for a substantial portion of my life now, occasionally when folks find out I'm from the USA they ask me what I think about the current president. I've been asked this about Trump, and basically I don't have much of an opinion, except for the things that stand out to me about him, some of his inflammatory comments and amusing tweets. Also, making war noises or sending drones to kill people, ugh. These make me think he's just another typical president, who's strings are pulled, like nearly every president, by the hidden government that rules the USA.

Then I read just the other day that he's raised tariffs a considerable amount. Now I'm not so sure he's a puppet. The previous presidents who've done this have been assassinated. Except for war machines, a great deal of the US's manufacturing base has gone to sh*t, and this is to be expected when "free trade" rules and corporations can get slave labor from outside the USA. Now I can't say I admire him overall, my opinion is largely uninformed, but I do know that unless he got "permission" from the real powers that be to raise tariffs, then he has some real balls. Making imports more expensive will definitely help the US's manufacturing base, if the legislation stands for any significant period and isn't overturned.

 

[Bob Who]

Making imports more expensive will definitely help the US's manufacturing base, if the legislation stands for any significant period and isn't overturned.

No, not really. US goods are not necessarily less expensive because often their prices have been raised to match that of imported products--though I can't attest to if that's done by the manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer, or combination of. Net result is the same. Even products made here often have imported materials or components. I also want to mention that a lot of the manufacturing infrastructure is now gone, along with the expertise. What the tariffs actually are is a national sales tax.

 

[Nekodaiden]

The manufacturing infrastructure has been disappearing gradually ever since the Wilson administration, which is when tariffs were substantially reduced, and the income tax put in it's place to replace the revenue missed by the Federal Government that came from the tariffs. Most of the presidents of the USA have been selling out the country in this way (making it weaker economically and more dependent on other nations for goods, goods bought with borrowed money) for a very long time. This is by the design of the people who really run the country (and most western countries), the people who hold the majority of shares in the private Federal Reserve Bank. Eventually with the huge amount of debt created under the system (which is issued as debt with interest, so can never be repaid), and made worse by the trillions in military spending, eventually the USA is going to be brought to it's knees and will be merged into whatever plan the money masters have for it.

If Trump is actually trying to turn this around, then I commend him for it. Most presidents who have tried are murdered for messing with the 'royalty' of Europe who has always hated the Independent nation that the US once was.

 

[Second Summer]

Trump's approval rating was measured at a personal best level the other day, I think at 49%. Yet this is a president who regularly tell bold-faced lies, and fires his advisors per Twitter post at break-neck frequency, to the point where he must now surely be surrounded by 'yes men' only. He's gone further than any other president in modern times in limiting legal and illegal immigration, especially from certain non-white countries, and supporting the anti-abortion lobby's work to limit women's reproductive rights. He bullies other nations, has identified the media as the enemy, has appointed clearly partisan supreme court judges, has limited the powers of the environment protection agency, and appears to doubt and deny human responsibility for climate change. He's turned the Republican party into the Trump party - anyone who opposes his agenda will fail re-election because Trump has such tremendous support from the party base due to his focus on their actual core concerns/fears. He's also attempted to repeal the Affordable Care Act - only partly successful in this endeavour so far, if I understand correctly. And of course he's fully on the side of the powerful US Israel lobby, even moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which gives him even more domestic support.

And the list goes on - this is clearly a president with very few moral scruples and a radically different agenda to that of any other president in recent times.

Trump may just be a symptom of the new era, I'm afraid. Leaders of similar authoritarian right-wing populist leanings have emerged and are successfully holding on to power around the globe: Erdogan in Turkey, Putin in Russia, Netanyahu in Israel, Johnson in the UK, Duterte in the Philippines, Bolsonaro in Brazil.

As for moving to east Asia, I'm not sure you'll necessarily find the politics of that region any more tasteful than the US. I'm no expert, and I've never been there. But I know China is an authoritarian state without even pretending to be a democracy. It's supposed to be socialist, but it seems those ideals have been largely abandoned. Vietnam is similar, I think. Myanmar is run by a junta. North Korea ... you don't want to go there! South Korea sounds hyper capitalist. There are parts of the region which sound nice - maybe Thailand or thereabouts.

Disclaimer: This post is obviously my personal opinion. I do not mind if there are others here with different views. Political discussion on Internet forums unfortunately has a tendency to create division and turn people off. While vegans and veganish people often feel more at home on the left side of the political spectrum, this is not the case for everyone. So please let's be extra careful to keep a civilised tone. Also, I'm not sure the OP intended to discuss politics too much anyway.

 

[Bob Who]

I was refering to infrastructure that disappeared in the last 10-20 years. Jobs that people who are still working would have lost. Some of these loses are due to the times, consumer demands change for many reasons, one factor is that many consumers are unwilling to spend more for an American product sometimes, it's not just price, perceived value or quality. Some of it has to do with sending manufacturing off shore.

In the US we have the best government that money can buy. It isn't just presidents who don't have the county's best interest at heart. Of course, reasonable people can have differing opinions on what is best for the country. In my opinion, we are not living in an age of reason.
I think trump and his supporters are trying to do something, but manufacturing is a red herring.

 

[Emma JC]

@Forest Nymph - as I am Canadian I am not as directly affected by this 'reality show' that you are experiencing except that I am fascinated by it and tend to follow it way too closely.

I spent a lot of time in my twenties and thirties travelling to many countries including some Arabic and North African countries. To Chile, to Spain, France, and other European countries and to non-resort area of the Bahamas. Also Mexico a couple of times.

I think it is vital that we travel and experience lives other than our privileged ones here as it expands us as humans and makes us much more compassionate, kind and tolerant. I have not travelled to Asia other than on brief turn-around flights as a flight attendant, however I worked with Thais and other nationalities while being a flight attendant based in Saudi Arabia. I would not exchange those experiences for 'all the tea in China' even though they were not always happy experiences.

So my suggestion would be that you do take an opportunity to travel and experience other cultures and then bring that experience back home, when you are ready, and help to make your country more tolerant and kind and compassionate. If everyone who is tolerant leaves then the tyrants win!

Sadly I will not step foot in the USA for the foreseeable future as I am heartbroken too by the divisiveness and lack of tolerance. I live just 50 miles from the border and have not stepped across since 2016.

Please keep us up to date with your decisions and take us with you if you go.

Emma JC

 

[violinisbae]

Why would you want to move to east Asia? It's very communist over there. Don't even think about moving to China or Russia. The Philippines is okay but not as great as America. I don't endorse moving, since I am a pro-Trumper, but you're better off moving to Canada.

 

[Lou]

I am More Motivated to Move to East Asia After the Trump Acquittal

Anyway, I'm gong to get my certification while I'm still in grad school so I have options. I hate the world.

Oh, wait is this one of the drunken sick posts I'm supposed to ignore?

Look into the Peace Corps too. Maybe the biggest regret I have is not joining the Peace Corps when i first got out of college.

I had a friend who between jobs joined Habitats for Humanity. I can't remember exactly where he went (maybe Thailand or Maylasia) but he liked it so much he never came back. I think he now works at an International or American School.

 

[Mischief]

Why would you want to move to east Asia? It's very communist over there. Don't even think about moving to China or Russia. The Philippines is okay but not as great as America. I don't endorse moving, since I am a pro-Trumper, but you're better off moving to Canada.

How can you be vegan and pro-trump? He's been busy dismantling every animal protection and environmental protection law and regulation he can find.

Does not compute - you must be exploding from the pressure of the cognitive dissonance.

 

[Andy_T]

All I can say to that is ... keep trying!!!!

 

[KLS52]

All I can say to that is ... keep trying!!!!

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I’m feeling pretty despondent about going another four years.

 

[Bob Who]

Lester Young is my Prez.

 

[Lou]

Trying to look on the bright side.

It could be that Trump is actually good for the Democratic party. Point of evidence - 2018 elections.

Here in California, especially in the Bay Area, Democrats have become a little lazy and too comfortable. We have had years of great governors. Good senators. Good congresswomen. Good mayors. And even 8 years of Obama. We go to the polls in November but that is about it.

Now we have a fire on our tail. (please picture Hobbes with his tail on fire). Before 2016, the last time I went to a protest or march was during the Vietnam War. (and that had to do a lot with self interest - afraid of dying in SE Asia. Oh and there were some good parties). Now I have been to all kinds of marches. Plus I meet monthly for postcard writing and contribute to democratic campaigns, Move On, and Indivisible. My district is completely blue. So I drove a couple hundred miles to Fresno to help campaign against Nunes. This year I'm putting my support for Kim Magone - who is running against Kevin Mccartney in Bakersfield.

 

[shyvas]

I’m feeling pretty despondent about going another four years.

So, what's the plan ?

 

[KLS52]

So, what's the plan ?

Be grateful I’m privileged enough to not suffer directly from his madness. Unless he really does mess with social security. I’m not sure how much of that is scare mongering.

 

[Bob Who]

Be grateful I’m privileged enough to not suffer directly from his madness. Unless he really does mess with social security. I’m not sure how much of that is scare mongering.

The following is just my opinion.

I think most people in this country look at what's going on in the light of , " It doesn't affect me." I'm curious how far it has to go before they realize that some of these things do indeed affect them, or will, and will it too late to do anything about it. How close is this country to the point of it no longer matters who you vote for, but rather who counts the votes? This is a point for personal reflection.

RE Social Security, I don't believe it is a scare tactic, what it seems to be is a constant proding of the populous , testing again and again for the time that resistance will be insufficient to allow them to take that away either in part or in whole.

In my case I'm not optimistic about it, actually not about the future in general , locally, nationally, or even the fate of our species. I must admit, history scares me--A LOT.

 

[peacefulveglady]

I am vegan and very anti Trump the ways he goes on Twitter attacking and Bullying people is crazy. I want a president that can do the job for the people and not for corporations and extreme rich people. I understand the concern to move however there are plenty of ways and possibilities here in the states to teach people to speak English .
I had been thinking of moving to another country but at the same time I was born and raised in the states.

 

[beancounter]

It will be painful, but the country will survive Trump.