Last call from my family in Vienna......

[Teacher Terry]

IL., she found me and I sent her a bunch of pictures of my Dad and grandparents, shared family history etc. We both love to rescue animals and had in common many things. We were enjoying corresponding. I tried to get her to just email instead of messenger on Facebook but she didn't trust it was secure. Then my cousin was also excited and wanted to be her facebook friend and my cousin is very outspoken about politics. I warned everyone involved that we were polar opposites. I was knitting her a scarf in her favorite colors. I am very hurt and even if she changes her mind in the future I am done. I purposely didn't say anything about her posts but she could see mine and my cousins. It is really stupid.

[Yppej]

That was then, Bae, and this is now. I never have denied that Austria indeed has a dark and unsavory past....

But the vast majority of Austrians are not like this, thankfully

The vast majority of Austrians elected Kurt Waldheim, who knew and did not protest sending the Jewish community of Thessaloniki to Auschwitz when he served in the Nazi army in Greece. He also knew about German reprisals against partisans and did not speak up.

From the Wikipedia article on him, "Part of the reason [for the Waldheim Affair] ... was Austria's refusal to address its national role in the Holocaust.... Austria refused to pay compensation to Nazi victims, and from 1970 onwards refused to investigate Austrians who were senior Nazis. Stolen Jewish art remained public property until after the Waldheim affair."

[bae]

From the reports of the various interested agencies, Austria does not seem to be a paradise for LGBTQ people, or for people of non-Christian religions, or for people who, well, aren't quite as white as others. (*)

Damn good pastries though.

(*) Finland seemed much nicer on these issues, when I was hanging out there recently. Except for the bit about requiring sterilization if you are changing your gender.

[iris lilies]

From the reports of the various interested agencies, Austria does not seem to be a paradise for LGBTQ people, or for people of non-Christian religions, or for people who, well, aren't quite as white as others. (*)

Damn good pastries though.

(*) Finland seemed much nicer on these issues, when I was hanging out there recently. Except for the bit about requiring sterilization if you are changing your gender.

Your measures are flawed. It is about providing public healthcare that signals respect for human dignity. None of the rest of it seems to matter much.

[Teacher Terry]

Healthcare comes at a price for countries that provide it from higher taxes but I think we could do it as a country. No country is perfect and many are worse than here. There is no utopia.

[JaneV2.0]

We could certainly provide health care for our people, but we'd need to get the greed/profit factor out of it--huge markups for drugs and equipment, unnecessary private insurance, obscene salaries for CEOs, etc.

Bring tax rates back to where they should be and the military budget back to a reasonable level. There is plenty of money out there to work with.

I read that some Austrian politician wants Jews (and Muslims) to register for kosher meat. Just for old times' sake, I guess.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.c4674d00bbc9

I would agree that as long as humans are in charge, there will be no perfect state. But some are better than others, clearly.

[iris lilies]

Rob, I think it is better to make a plan for the future than to worry about it and complain and fret. Are your finances such that you could rent a place in Mexico for a year, try it out? Can you get a job there, or your husband, so that you guys would have income? I'd be nervous about moving there until I had rented and tried it all out.

Then, if life seemed better and more hopeful, I'd split to where it felt better and more hopeful. I honestly don't understand why the relatives in Austria's opinion counts so much, as they are not on the scene, unless you have decided to emigrate to Austria. Would that be a good alternative for you? Since you do have family there, and you like it already and feel a lot of loyalty to it?

It's not a good idea to live somewhere that you dislike so strongly. We're grappling with some of the same questions, although we like where we live, but want to move closer to family. I'm sick of looking and thinking about it, maybe we just need to do it.

Apparently, according to him, the anchor in the U.S. for Rob is his mother. She is a handy excuse for not fleeing today. But I say, she isnt exactly ancient, and she also hates America if I remember correctly, and when he started up with the obvious truths about America a few years ago here, the cold blooded observations doncha know, she was probably around my age. I am plenty capable of moving to a new place.

yeah, real concern for the danger of being in America would involve plans for evacuating my elderly mother. In fact, because she IS frail, I would probably get her out before the real shitstorm began. It is not too early to move her out and get safely settled.

[Teacher Terry]

I think the decision to move or not is his Mom’s decision and not Rob’s. Then of course you have to be able to afford to move.

[frugal-one]

Beyond Mr. Trump's performance in Helsinki (I'm so jealous of those folks with their better passports!!!) Mr. Trump was created quite a stir in the EU with his recent comment that the EU is a foe of the US. This comment was basically buried by the Orange Thug's performance in Helsinki but it was apparently not lost on citizens of the EU countries.

My relatives in Vienna are now even more worried for my safety and for the future of this country. Their logic is that Trump's words are going to cause consequences now and the EU will retaliate and things will escalate from there. My Cousin Astrid spent hours making an evacuation plan for me featuring flying out of North American through the airport in Mexico City - she doesn't even think I should leave North America through a US airport due to so many people around the world hating the United States now....she questions the safety of any US flight. The whole time I was on the phone with her I was thinking of several conservative posters here and a few scattered Trump supporters I have had the unfortunate luck to run across outside of the 85006.....it would be very illuminating for such people to hear this calm, educated, logical Austrian citizen cold bloodedly giving an accurate assessment of the United States and the unacceptable level of risk being a US citizen places you at. I don't believe many such people could handle such obvious reality, which I see as one of the chief problems the US faces - the need of so many of it's citizens to look the other way and live in denial. No country is worth this.....not even Austria. I'm so glad I know this and am guided by it. But I digress.

I told my Cousin all under this roof have bags packed and have no faith in American whatsoever and that anywhere I go the Austrian flag goes with me. This calmed her down a bit but my family is still worried. I guess this is unavoidable when you live in a sinking country with this caliber of non-leadership but you have family in a better country......they are going to see things as they really are, gloves off, and they are going to worry.

This is not going to end well, folks, is my take and my family not agrees with me but they said it first. I'd pack if you haven't already, and if you never have to run, nothing lost by having this done, right? Remember, those who fled Europe during WW2 lived to tell the tale...……..Rob

Bye

[iris lilies]

I think the decision to move or not is his Mom’s decision and not Rob’s. Then of course you have to be able to afford to move.

Oh, agreed! I just wonder why Rob’s mom is still in the U.S. since she seems to dislike it, distrust it, and be part and parcel with the Austrian relatives in mindset.

I would think she could flee pretty easily back to Austria. No money to move? Surely the sale of her belongings would fund a plane ticket, it aint that much. And once in the socialist paradise of Austria where human dignity is respected with gubmnt handouts, she would be all set with housing, food, income.