flatdawgs

I know! 74 EV (Texas plus FL = 70)

Ardbeg Alligator here

No damn Chili's here and I can't make it to Spoklahoma. I couldn't even find any frozen Chili's crap in 3 different grocery stores. But - I'll raise a toast to YGIFS from a local variant and pour out a bit in honor of all y'all who are blessed by the proximity of a Chili's. Solidarity! ✊️

The world is definitely watching. I am watching RTP3 (Portugal) covering the election live, commentary and all. With very few exceptions (the Chega party idiots) they want the same result most of us do.

Square Cow Fun Bar!

Yeah, was going to mention I'd been there and it takes place in a meeting room in the old late-1800s The Balsams resort, lots of photos of earlier election days, pols who had visited, and old result sheets on the walls, then turned it on and it was in somebody's living room this year (apparently the resort is getting renovated). Oh well.

Fortunately, that won't be an issue for him come Wednesday.

I love my state. Even though we don't have Chili's.

These are common values of humanity. This phrasing has always pissed me off (not directed at you, Mole, just 40 years of propaganda).

So, all this talk of Chili's and I got to thinking - here on the Surl I'm in Virtual Texas, but in my very blue corner of this country that is my home, there are no Chili's. None. None in WA or in OR. Zero. (No Bennigans either.) So - you can talk all the rah-rah Kamala progressive liberal stuff you want, but keep that in mind before you make Bah Gawd Texas into a progressive hellstate bereft of Chili's. You have been warned....

This is why, at our best, there is no place like the US in the world. Should I decide to stay here, that's a huge reason why (along with the natural beauty here). Just take food - you may be in a place somewhere else in the world that has a simply astounding cuisine; there are many of those of course. But, when you're there, that's pretty much all you're gonna get. Theyve been doing it for thousands of years and it's exquisite, but that's the bulk of your options. Here even smaller cities and big towns have a diversity of choice that only the biggest cities elsewhere in the world can try to match. That goes along with the diversity of our people, which is the greatest thing we offer the world. To hell with all of these people trying to destroy that. Plus we have Chili's. And/or Bennigans.

Good on ya, seriously. You're going into it with the right perspective (and we did very few favors to many of the Pacific island peoples after the war - throw on that pile our still shameful refusal to fully recognize the Philippine Scouts for what they did under occupation as well). Melanesia is a fascinating place; i slightly preferred Vanuatu to the Solomons, save for the war history, but both amazing people and places. Maybe you'll be the one to make a difference there. it's sad to me to see China making inroads in a place that holds some of our most sacred ground (Guadalcanal, for others reading). Love Troost - worked with his mom many years ago, although never met him. Funny guy and good writer who slayed some demons along the way. His description of Tarawa is spot on, BTW.

No worries - I didn't take it that way at all!

Definitely better on another thread, although there are always these sentiments when stuff goes off the rails, as we see in this thread. My personal experiences in Portugal have been different; Portugal, like much of Europe, has been going through a lot of stress re housing, and Americans are actually a pretty small part of that. A lot of the angst in Europe is directed at tourists in places like Barcelona and Venice (although living in Seattle I laugh a bit as we get nearly as many tourists as Barca and all within about 3 months, and we don't hate you). I do speak some Portuguese, which does help, but that falls under the "give a tiny shit about our culture and we will be extremely happy with you." I just get teased because what I speak - or try to - is Brazilian Portuguese. Thanks for the kind words.

You can definitely detach more when you expatriate, because those aren't "your people" doing this crazy shit - until, of course, you've made it your home, and then they are. I'm definitely not opposed to the expat life at all; my posts re Portugal out front shoulda told ya, and my sister and her family have lived in London for 20 years and have dual citizenship (note - to me the UK is definitely a grass is greener thing and I'd personally not consider it, but to each their own). By all means look into it as the adventure that it is, and if you go into it that way, to a place and culture that really speaks to you, you'll have success.

Serious question, from someone who's been to most of these island countries (Polynesia/Micronesia/Melanesia all) - do you have a specific game plan as to how to obtain residency in any of them? If not, you'll find that it's nearly impossible and for a very good reason - there is an extreme scarcity of resources for their own people, let alone folks who see the swaying palm trees, beaches, and lagoons and think "paradise!" and have since the Bounty mutineers decided they wanted to go back to Tahiti. You'll find some of the loveliest people anywhere out there - and you'll also find that as happy as they are to see you, they're at least as happy when you go. Go out to say, Tarawa in Kiribati (I know you're familiar with that particular island's place in history) and see what a shitshow the i-Kiribati themselves have made it. Hell, even as an American citizen you can't just pick up and move to one of the American territories like you can to Hawai'i. A further aside to the expat life in general - and there's several on the board who can attest to this - you will be much more successful in your quest to find the right place for you if you aren't doing it just to flee somewhere else. Everywhere on Earth has their share of problems, assholes, and greedy shitbags who will happily give you a big "Fuck you!" to your face. Generally speaking, like here, it's 30-40% and that's easily borne out looking at election results (Europe is a great example of this). The Solomon Islands, for example, are a freaking mess between the pro-Western and pro-Chinese factions, both of whom just see them as strategic and don't give a rat's ass about them. In Fiji, the Fijian native population and those of Indian descent brought by the British cordially hate one another (I was there when a coup occurred, which was fun). It goes on and on no matter where you are. Doesn't mean there aren't great places - I've looked at many - but there's no perfect place where you can avoid the troglodytes and venality that are a function of being human. I know your affinity for that part of the world - we have a similar love of history - and I truly wish you luck in finding the right place, and one where you'll be able to relocate. I just hope that it's an "eyes wide open" move. Being an expat can be really, really hard without that.

Good on ya! Looks like we voted pretty much the same (and yes, the sticker is cool) - the initiatives are definitely ratfuckery but as usual I think the electorate here will see through it. Bob Ferguson is a pretty good dude, or at least he was when he was my neighborhood's county council rep years ago; Reichert is dumb as a sack of hammers although I don't think terribly MAGA. I'm a bit concerned about how far behind the vote counts are from 2020 (especially regarding WA-03, which we may lose), but there seems to be a slight improvement over the past couple of days.

This in effect isn't true, although it's technically not called that any more. The parameters are the same (again, with the caveat that the investment in real estate route, which was by far the easiest, is now gone). For other investment pathways still available, you would still apply the same way as before but the visa technically transfers into a D2 entrepreneurship visa. The Golden Visa stay and investment requirements remain what they've been; you do not need to fulfill the standard D2 requirements. The issue with all this is that SEF (now AIMA, the immigration agency) has a long backlog that they are trying to work through. The D7 passive income and D8 digital nomad visas are much cheaper and easier to obtain, but you must be in country a minimum of 181 days/year whereas the Golden Visa is 7 (note again that the standard D2 visa has different requirements than that). With all of these visas you have the opportunity to switch to a permanent residency visa or obtain citizenship after 5 years. (probably a better topic for a thread in food and travel. Perhaps I'll see some of you in country someday)

Yes, that's one of the paths. You have to prove concept, yadda yadda, but it's fairly straightforward, as is just investing in Portuguese funds/securities (not a huge value play, to say the least). Hopefully none of this gets pushed to the front burner Tuesday evening (I don't think it will, but I live in super blue land).

wheelhouse

New government changed the rules, although there may be some new programs I'd be very interested in should they come up. Real estate no longer counts. May just end up retiring and doing the D7 visa instead and not worrying about the investment strategies. There's a house just outside of Tavira I really want to have a look at... need to get back there again.

I have a Tuesday am conference call with my Portuguese attorney - wasn't set up for election day specifically; she set it up and I'm sure there'll be non-Americans on it - but always nice to go over my options again.

I'm rather partial to the whole "secret ballot" thing, so nah. Around here (WA) and as far as I can tell in other VBM states, there is no identifying info on the ballot itself. You sign the exterior (mailing) envelope, which is checked at the county election department, then the envelope is piled up with all the other ones to be opened and the ballot removed from the security envelope inside. The ballots are then processed in large groups. Prior to the ballot being removed from the mailing envelope, yes, they can find your ballot, but once it's taken out they can't. A ballot cast in person of course does not have the signed mailing envelope and so can't be identified at any point. The ballots themselves are identical. This story is poorly written as no ballot has identifying info, VBM or in-person, and the story states otherwise. It appears the election officials did not get adequate proof of citizenship to register the student and he should never have been allowed to vote in the first place. That sort of thing could happen anywhere; fortunately it is exceedingly rare.

Not interesting in so far that the Seattle Times endorsed Harris, but it should be noted that the Blethen family (owners of the paper; Frank wrote this endorsement) are by no means liberal/progressive; they're just not MAGA. The Times has forever been a bulwark of old-school conservative white suburbanism in this area, and the Blethen family has trailed behind the continued leftward movement of the suburbs here (except Alaska, which is Seattle's conservative suburb, heh - IYKYK). I did like the "Hell, yes!" headline, however. Good to see them take a firm stance in their endorsement.

nvm - 2024 primary vs 2020 general - i completely misunderstood you. Post deleted, user banned.