Fuck-em, I'm staying right here. This is my country, not theirs, and I will live and die here as a free man. I'm going to keep working on my informal local network of likeminded people, and my shtf-proof skills that I can market below the table. And if - at the end of the day - they are coming for me, I'm going to take as many of those motherfuckers with me as I can. I don't care about life if I can't live it.
It has come to this. If they are going to take my hard earned savings and ruin my children's future, then I am not going out without at least a few of them too.
My husband was the proudest "Granite Stater" you could ever find. Born and raised, always loved his home state.
When Slimy Bill won NH in the Presidential race, I told my beloved, "Sweetheart? Your state is gone..."
He insisted otherwise. He kept holding on...until the COVID op. He became so disgusted by the conduct of the State -- its Legislature, its town government, etc., -- never mind the one he calls a POS, Sununu.
Due to my bare face -- which I kept bare for the entire operation -- I was denied service in two places -- the Sephora store in the Cordova Mall in Pensacola, FL in Mar '21. I have not shopped at Sephora since either in-person or online. The other place? A coffee shop in Nashua in the state formerly known as "Live Free or Die." No coffee for you!
That infuriated my husband.
Doing something I never thought he'd do, we left New England in late 2021. Referring to his once-beloved home state, "You can have it."
They want the whole world anyhow. Once they take down America they can easily "penetrate" nations like Mexico and Hungary, or invade them directly with UN and CCP troops.
It's like the vietcong in the Vietnam war. They (the global scum) own the day, we (the locals) own the night. No matter what they do, they will never be able to eradicate us all.
They can say they own it all and put their name on a piece of paper by bribing some puppet to use "eminent domain." But as fat and doughy as Bill Gates is I don't see him walking around enjoying all that land he owns. Robin Hood didn't own Sherwood Forest after all. The important thing is staying fit and skilled enough to hunt and forage with your band.
For me, local, sustainable, organic and (relatively) affordable food is paramount. And we have it in spades in S.E. PA. We're supporting several Amish farmers, one of whom drops food off at our house for our like-minded herd-flatteners. It's all gonna come down to the Governors' race this fall. If we end up with Shapiro, Hungary here we come!
Fantastic set up Frank. You'll be great there. Nobody has a TV. No TV, no pandemics. I've always wanted to visit Amish country, in a 1969 Pontiac GTO 'judge'.
Former sister-in-law and her (now ex) husband were planning on living in the 30ft sailboat they bought in California, mid 1980’s. They did for a few years, north of San Diego. Made various shake-down short cruises to Mexico, Catalina, etc to get their sea legs. Then big plans and outfitting for a year and set sail for Fiji; ran into a Pacific blow, which they survived but the boat didn’t. There’s a lot of water out there, and lots of weather. Romantic, yes, but it ain’t all Margaritaville. Pirates, container vessels, corrupt customs officials were some of the stories I also heard. But, hey, better than 3 armed fools wanting 5 seconds to just “see your guns ‘n make sure they haven’t been tooken.” ATF? WTF!
Yes, it requires some captain skills, skipper training. Been following some YT channels of couples sailing around the world the past decade, some more than once. Some hairy situations from time-to-time, especially around certain waters, ecuador, indian ocean etc., but never seen a vessel taken by a storm. They have solid up to the second storm radar and forecasting to avoid those situations, but that sounds pretty bad and risky for an older and pretty small boat.
"Now ex husband"? Sounds like the pacific blow took out more than the vessel.
The ATF have apparently already seized all illegal firearms in criminal possession, so now they need some other work to do by violating multiple constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.
My wife watches DIY YouTube, and tells me how simple it is.
This was in the 80’s. They had lots of charts, a weather channel they could listen to, and a two-way radio to communicate with whoever was in the area and to call “Mayday…Mayday!” I forget the exact sequence. They had reefed the sails and were trying to motor into the wind; big waves coming overboard when motor quit. Rode it out till finally got towed back into Mexico. $$$$
They were probably stoned. They usually were. And don’t get me wrong; I love to sail and love the idea. Spent much time fantasizing about Down Under, back before it was run by prison guards, when we were venturing out of Boston Harbor in a J-24.
One used to be able to rent nice fitted out boats to island hop in the Caribbean. That may be a good way to test drive the notion. I took a water break to cool down this afternoon, and saw, on phone, that Brandon tested positive. When I went back to finish mowing, the premonition “They’re going to do him in” was hard to shake. Then I read your Stack, and bile’s coming up which is unusual for me.
"Tells me how simple it is." Hahha! Nice one. You got me good there.
I thought the boat was from the 80s and this happened post lockdown madness. Different time, but there's always risks today too especially if satellites get bombed or sun bursted. Having a full range of skills and training would be essential for any long journey. Did some sailing in the dalmatian islands with a friend who owns a charter service a few summers in a row, before they started their global full court press on us. One could sail the Dardanelles to Gibraltar and never hit the same anchorage twice over several years. No big storms, no pirates. Probably plenty of human trafficking boats, of Soros funded dinghies hitting sand in Spain.
They'll probably retire the old executive place holder one way or another soon. It doesn't really matter who or what they replace him with. We know who's really in charge, and they weren't on the ballot last time.
A brilliant roundup of what troubles awake people. Can we clone the Hungarian leader? We sure could do with some new genes in Australia too. Is it mandatory to have a parrot before heading out to sea?
Wow. Thank you. Opened my eyes to a lot of hard truths, and brought a lot of coherence to some of my inchoate thoughts. If I was 20 years younger, I'd be relocating now..or buying a live aboard boat.
At my age, the best I can hope for is to die in my sleep. And I miss having a dog. I think eventually they will make us eat them.
The US and all Western Democracies are over as we knew them.
Hang in there, Duchess. Demoralization is part of the plan. Go to the shelter and get that dog you want. You can spare the little guy a date with an even more lethal needle than Pfizer's and enjoy his/her/zhe (are there transgender pets?!?) company. Prepare for what's coming, but live your life. Take joy in the little pleasures--sunsets, beautiful flowers, the peace and tranquility of nature. Help others when the time comes.
If you're religious, remember that God is with us always, everywhere. If you're not, take pride in seeing the evil that so many others are blind to, and for not acquiescing to it.
They say you will eat literally anything if you're starving, so maybe I should be cautious about stating that I will NEVER eat bugs. However, I can state with 100% cast iron certainty that I will never, ever eat my dog (or anyone else's for that matter). If there's a scrap of food left in my house, it will go to the dogs. I'd rather starve than see them starve. The Chinese, the South Koreans, Philippinos and a few other sick countries choose to eat dogs, often stolen pets. What a way to repay 40,000 years of co-evolution and unstinting loyalty to humanity! No, dogs and people go back a LONG, long way and in my view, an essential part of being human is forming a bond with a dog. That's why 'they' are so keen to sever that long-standing relationship based on mutual cooperation which is now biologically and genetically imprinted into our very being. The same with farmed animals, though to a lesser extent. The climate crisis fanatics and eco-Nazis are very keen to see mainly carnivorous domestic dogs go extinct along with most of humanity - cos 'sustainability'. Any of those freaks coming for my dogs will personally go extinct before my pooches do, I can assure you!
The eco nazis are very anti-nature, anti-science, anti-humanity, anti-dog, anti-cow, anti-living beings. It's a destructive cult of misery and suffering filled with miserable and insufferable cultists.
According to the John Birch Society the globalists/Illuminati are not only opposed to individual nations but all belief in God. Maybe that's why they hate nature and male/female identities.
If I am hungry enough to eat bugs I will do so on my own terms. Hiding in the woods you can turn over any rotting log and find plenty of grubs underneath.
I have a list...I won't eat bugs, or dogs or cats or rabbits or octupus (I think they are intelligent alien beings :-)). Or anything I know personally!!!
Perhaps your next article could be about ways that the people who cannot leave due to economic and other reasons can fight to stop what's in the pipeline. The majority of people DO NOT want this but don't know how to fight, or even who to fight.
Case in point: many people are unhappy in California and New York, yet say they are not able to move to an adjacent state. If people can't move a few hundred miles, they most certainly won't be able to move 1,000 or more.
I can't fathom why anyone would be a prisoner in any one state other than unimaginable poverty in which case working hard, spending less, and planning ahead to make some moves to greener pastures is the only way they'll ever have a chance to fight anything.
Well, I have one very simple answer for you: it's very hard for people to leave a state when they have elderly parents that will NOT leave that need to be taken care of. It's easy to say "leave your parents behind" or "force your parents to leave as well," but those two things are extremely difficult to do for different reasons.
Elderly mother and a young granddaughter who is my world. Both need me. A circle of friends who give me joy. I think my state, Maryland, already Dem dominant, is about to get worse too...
Good essay, Great Citizen. Unfortunately, fleeing will only buy us a little bit of time, I fear. There was nowhere to run to when the Bolsheviks grabbed control 100 years ago, and it'll be a lot easier to suffocate pockets of resistance in the modern world than it was in backwards Russia back in the day.
Our lives are not going to play out the way we thought they would when we rang in the New Year in 2020. This next decade promises to be among the most dramatic in human history. We have to approach this crisis with the mindset that we have nothing to lose, because we truly will have nothing if this plays out the way it's been game planned. We are living in the "interesting times" of the Chinese curse.
Amen doc. Interesting times, but maybe still with different outcomes in different places, some better suited than others though not easy to gauge where and when. No matter what happens you'll stand your ground and be their huckleberry.
They will fail, ultimately, but much suffering awaits us in the years ahead. We just have to resist and outlast them, and your advice to flee to a community of like-minded individuals offers the best chance to do so.
I really enjoy your articles. You go where others fear to tread.
The methods used are different. But this only makes it more insidious. If Bolsheviks were running everywhere (Antifa soyboys are not the same!) there would be no doubt things were bad and more people would mount a resistance. Too many patriots think a Totalitarian takeover would be Red Dawn style. This was not what happened in Russia or China.
Unlike the USSR, this nightmare regime plans on killing or maiming most of its staunchest supporters. Including the armies and police. This will take some time.
Those at the top in complete control of everything are nihilists and parasites who invented little--nothing recently--and have gotten most of their wealth by acquiring others' property. Unsustainable.
Much, if not all of what you write is fundamental truth. Way back in the 70's I contemplated life on a sail boat, but then a young man's hormones interceded, and it did not happen. Now, at 75, I find myself in a pretty good situation in Texas, and don't see myself going anywhere else.
Putin made some observations in a speech the other day, talking about the big changes coming, It is interesting how the only anti Russian countries are part of the empire of lies. Most of what some call the global south ( making up the majority of the worlds population are having nothing to do with the sanctions currently killing the EU economy. He talked about true national sovereignty, and economic cooperation in the coming multi-polar world. If we are lucky, the west will collapse before some idiot Neocon pushes the button, and a much improved, peaceful world will emerge -- a world no longer bullied by those controlling the rules based liberal democracies of the west.
The next few years will be a struggle for us all, but I don't believe the globalist WEF crowd will succeed.
I hope to live long enough to see a new world emerge.
I hope you do too JVC. I hope we all do. But while you're around you've got a pretty good set up with that property, that rocking chair, that porch, and those beautiful Texas sunsets.
At this point, I wonder if we could vote to become a part of Hungary or Russia. I am fed to the back teeth with the US corrupt politicians and their selling us out to WEF and China. If I cannot have my country back (and it seems after the last election it is too late to even try), then can we a have a national referendum?
Thanks for this , really thought provoking piece. I wish I could bite the bullet and make my move , but will probably keep on picking up nickels in front of the steamroller until it is too late. With three kids -2 preteen and one teen it is so difficult to pull up stakes. Is it possible that they fail in their overweening plans or is that just denial on my part?
Wherever you go there YOU are. The package of rights one has an a citizen of the United States though frayed is distinctly superior to anyplace you can fly. Vaccines can be imposed on you globally but in the USA no, there are laws, and if your job says vaccinate you can quit. Arguably the best choice is that place called home. The frail liberty in the USA is absent in other nations. Here you can team up and find workarounds. Paradise it is not, but exile is not a mass solution. For perhaps a few thousand the ex-pat life can work. For a few million, never.
Superior package of rights? Privileges are all Americans can have anymore. Temporary privileges that the government can take away anytime it manufactures a crisis to create a hysteria or emergency.
Your are correct that expat life is not a solution for millions.
But I am an individual and I make my own decision. It can work for me....if anything works.
By all means let the millions of people who do not have the option of leaving the USA take the other option of banding together in one state and becoming a decisive local majority.
But I am not American...I do not have the option of making some kind of Alamo last stand in the USA even if I want to. I cannot even legally enter the USA as an unjabbed person. So I am moving to the country in Europe with the largest number of unvaxxed skeptics (Romania) and hoping things work out there.
Yes true. However if Russia goes for the juglar Romania may be dragged into conflict. At the least refugee flows. My sense is that in some ways the top down nature of power is increasingly Iron Fist. In every nation state. I looked in 2003 into ex-pat. France, Costa Rica, Mexico. Consulting my wallet and my revenue I decided that my rent controlled studio in San Francisco was unlikely to be improved. Then years later comes Covid and governments following orders decide to vaccinate and kill. Now in the States mere peons who are retired like me are untouched. The clerks and employees are not. Mike Adams of course in his book Ghost World opts for the rural survival strategy. Not my cup of coffee. So I monitor expat life and ponder life with cheap rent in an expensive city in a State that is decomposing as fast as the USA.
I have considered a scenario where hot war breaks out around Kalingrad (totally not in any way provoked by NATO forces of course) and the Baltics states, with extensive fighting in Poland, and Russia then decides to secure its southern flank by pushing south-west to a line between the Danube Delta and the Carpathians.
This is (supposedly, according to armchair pundits like Peter Zeihan) a defensible position that could be held with a relatively small force and free up the main forces for the real battle in Poland/Kalingrad.
The towns of Galați and Focșani would be on the Romanian front line. It is about 100km from the Carpathians to the Danube at this point so supposedly it is the logical place for Russia to "secure the flank". Assuming that even matters in the age of hypersonic missiles.
According to Western strategic thinkers Russia will be mad keen to advance to this bottleneck and hold it. But it is an equally good defensive line for Romanian and NATO forces. So the logical thing is for both sides to just put blocking forces there and send the rest to Poland.
So Romania being involved in a war...quite plausible. The Russians wanting to advance south of Galați.....for what purpose? If you have just established this fantastic defensive line at the point where the Carpathians are only 100km from the Danube delta, and meanwhile you have a whole series of problems around Kalingrad....maybe you are too busy trying to take the Baltic states so you have a land bridge to Kalingrad.
If there were a bunch of countries that offered better options than Romania then the possibility that there will be a trench warfare stalemate 200km from Bucharest would definitely put me off.
But frankly there aren't a lot of good options. Whatever kind of insanity or actual evil is happening with COVID worries me more. Compare the number killed by Russian shells and missiles over the last couple of years with the number killed by the spike protein.
I would consider myself safer in Bucharest with artillery fire being exchanged 200km away than I would in Melbourne or Christchurch, supposedly far away from the war...but which war? And what kind of war? What new insanity tomorrow?
Poland again. Have they not had enough of their warring neighbours? (and yes I realize that they got together with Lithuania at one stage for their own adventures in neighbouring countries)
I am in Bucharest. Cluj, Sibiu, Brasov look nice but I am not going for the small town strategy. I will be living in the capital near the embassy district and the lakes and parks of Sector 1... near the people who will bend the rules be exempt from the bullshit because they have connections.
You paint a bleak picture my friend. Unfortunately in this day and age you can run but you can not hide. I have been familiar with the prepper movement for many years as you can probably see by some of the sites that I follow and list.
James Wesley Rawles and the the American Redoubt as a place to go to is familiar to many preppers, but if it's familiar to preppers then don't you imagine it is being kept tabs on as well by the powers that be?
I Like your country analysis and I think as well that Hungary with Viktor Orbán in charge is certainly a temporary, viable option. But then again, they know this as well.
No, I think we are now at the point where we stay where we are at and defend what has always been are rights and piss on them just as Roger Daltrey does on Who's Next.
Let me add a few things about Hungary in order to dissolve the rosy illusions about it.
Orban is one of the Young Global Leaders (like Putin) and he cruelly enforced the "covid" theater with penalties for not wearing a muzzle in the street (!) that amounted to 30-50% of average worker's wages. He refused the globalists' 15% corporate tax (Hungary has a 9% corporate tax and a 27% VAT/Sales Tax and even basic foodstuff is taxed at 12%; small business taxes are so high that if entrepreneurs didn't cheat with their tax returns, they could keep only 3% of their profits), but only because he blackmailed the EU for 28 billion Euros in return. Corruption is rampant and it is everywhere.
The Hungarian government has an amazing number of trolls all over the Internet, spreading "good news" about the country. In the meanwhile, energy prices are doubling and food purchases are limited with government-mandated prices that are not feasible for farmers. Most people in the country are dirt poor and Gypsy crime is extremely high with about 800 thousand Gypsies in a population of 9.6 million, out of which up to two million don't even live in Hungary (emigrated or live in a neighboring country, but received citizenship from the Orban government around 2000, because the government wanted voters and the population decrease exceeded the sociological threshold of eventual extinction).
Moreover, don't even try to take a cab, if you don't speak Hungarian. Expect to be cheated everywhere and robbed, especially if you stay out at night.
I could keep going, but this much might suffice for the time being.
Everyone was a WEF "young global leader" at one point the past 40 years. See my posts about that from March. It doesn't mean anything anymore. There's nobody in business or government that didn't have their face on that website at some point in the past 40 years.
Corruption is everywhere Ray. It's out in the open for all to see. Name one industry that isn't totally corrupt in the west. Impossible.
Refusing the globalists' corporate tax rate of 15% was great. Proves my point. Low corporate taxes is good for attracting international companies. And good for him for blackmailing the EU for more money. You realize you're proving my points Ray? I'd do the same. Milk those idiots for every Euro possible.
VAT and taxes are high everywhere in Europe. It's not just Hungary so that can't be a consideration for anything. VAT is everywhere in Europe. Americans earning less than $115k don't pay income taxes living outside the US so VAT is nothing, especially when a 3 bedroom luxury apartment is under $800/month.
Energy prices are doubling everywhere so that's not an argument against Hungary, that's happening everywhere in Europe. This winter Hungary will be better positioned than Germany or half of western Europe to deal with the energy crisis. At least the gas taps will still flow and they have plenty of reserves. Nobody takes cabs in Europe anymore Ray. They use the EU equivalents of Uber, like Bolt etc. Can't get ripped off with an app that gives you the price ahead of time. But most people walk or take public transit 99% of the time anyway. Maybe they shouldn't with all those robbing gypsies around Hungary. How scary! Thanks for the very informative points. There's no perfect place anywhere but Hungary still tops my very short list of countries across the Atlantic.
Look, your article is excellent; my notes are not about contention. I simply have a lot of past and current knowledge of Hungary that I figured might be useful for those, who consider moving there. They won't be able to say they haven't been warned. I personally favor the idea of cleaning up the place, where I live.
Graduating from Schwab is a different story, especially when one looks at the results.
The corruption is Hungary is exceeded only in Ukraine.
Refusing raising corporate tax was necessary, because all other taxes and prices are so high that corporations couldn't operate with a profit in Hungary otherwise. Orban took the bribe that the Belarus President rejected ($900 million) and Orban set up the "covid" theater, poisoning two out of three of his people. The theater is still going strong, spiked with some forced "vaccinations."
All EU support money simply vanishes.
The 27% of VAT in Hungary beats everything else in the world. Prices in stores are the same as anywhere else in Europe, and even basic foodstuff for the poor is taxed. I haven't mentioned that personal income tax is there, but property tax is not, because Orban and his gang have been buying up the country ever since they first came to power in 1998 (and have been in power since 2006, changing the Constitution to their advantage multiple times; let me not get started on "fair" elections...). $800 a month is a lot, when the vast majority earns less than $300. I wouldn't call that nothing, because electricity, for one, is the second most expensive in Europe, while half of it comes from a nuclear plant that generates the cheapest possible electricity for HUF11.80/kWh. Russian natural gas is flowing to Hungary, but Orban basically raised the prices from HUF91 to $912 per cubic meter, while many Hungarians use it exclusively for heating and now it will cost about $300/mo for a 1,000 sq.ft house. How is that going to pan out? People will freeze to death or turn to crime. Is that enough argument against energy prices even for those, who can afford them? The following article about this is in Hungarian, but you can use a translation engine to read it:
The cab was only an example. I had the same bad luck in Prague at one point, when the driver charged me $30 for a quarter-mile five-minute ride. In Hungary, cab drivers used to use bear spray on tourists, who didn't pay the extortion money and called the police... Foreigners, naive ex-patriates included, are also targeted by con artists a lot, who act kind of like the Nigerian "prince," but it's mostly real-estate fraud, which is also rampant.
Hungary is also a hub for the Ukranian and Albanian human trafficking system. The police are paid off and protect the traffickers. It is quite dangerous for a "marketably" young and attractive person to be in Hungary.
Public transportation is extremely dangerous because of the gypsies whom the police don't even dare to touch. The gangs are organized and policemen don't want to be called "racists." The average person can't afford Uber etc., either. The place is dirt poor and no, people are not walking (they don't have the time); they take public transportation.
Going to a pub can be life-threatening. You get "invited" for a drink, which would be "too rude" to refuse. Next time you wake up, you realize you have been drugged, kicked around in the streets, and robbed. It happened to my friend from Ohio, who taught at a Hungarian university for a semester.
There are safe areas/neighborhoods in Hungary, which can go bad and extremely dangerous, if you are not familiar with the environment. Taking the wrong turn, just like in US cities, can be a bad idea. (These days, I'm happy I didn't buy my place in Atlanta, GA, but went for rural KY.) The resulting stress goes on all day, because public transportation nearly always crosses bad neighborhoods. Driving is like driving in NYC, not for the faint of heart, but still a lot safer than taking the bus or the subway (pickpockets are also everywhere, working in gangs).
More than anything, Hungary is so stressful that you can feel it in the air. It's surreal that people actually live there... Well, the US is now catching up. :)
I had some comparable opinion about Uruguay, but in the last two years, they were also part of the "covid" theater. It might be a good sign that about a week ago, a judge stopped the "vaccination" of young children and subpoenaed Pfizer for the contents of its vials and Pfizer preferred to leave the country. Also, people are quite poor there, too, but at least culturally more or less homogenous. Prices are still astronomical, because nearly everything is imported; too many middlemen. You really have to learn the special blend of Spanish spoken there and the diet has always been for beef-eaters. I'm wondering what's going to happen to all the cow fart there...
None of my research is based on locals or for locals so whatever might be expensive taxes or energy costs on a local salary is moot. It's all for expatriates with fixed, passive or WFH income. Foreigners have different fixed tax rates (or no taxes if you know how to work it and have an EU passport) VAT is the highest, but Sweden is close by along with Ireland, Portugal, Croatia, Greece, and it's just 3% more than Poland, where I've lived 8 of the past 20 years. You should see what gets taxed in France where I lived for three years. Totally insane. Also I don't buy or hoard crap I don't need. Two suitcases and two boxes of books for the past 25 years. Light, mobile, agile, flexible, no emotional attachment to things. The Roma population is concentrated highly in the east and northeast of the country. The areas I'm looking at have less than 1% Roma population, including Budapest, Pecs, Gyor. Human trafficking is everywhere in eastern and central Europe. There are women trafficked by gangs from Moldova and Ukraine and forced to be working slave girls in poland, Czechia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Germany, France, Spain, you name it. All police everywhere are on the take. Interpol does nothing. The EU and Europol are a joke. None of these issues, nor corruption can be a factor in anything, and some corruption is good. On the corruption index HU is far better than Ukraine and only slightly worse than Poland and Slovakia. It's about the same as Romania and is better than Serbia, so again, pretty moot. Poland has millions of new arrivals from Ukraine, a million where I live who don't seem to want to go back, with the coming winter, energy issues, massive inflation, unaffordable housing for Poles the stress factor is very high here now too. There's also cultural and demographic dispositions. Hungarians, Romanians, Poles, Serbs, all very different peoples so it just takes some desire to assimilate, learn the language, customs etc. I've been to Hungary many times and know people who live there so it won't be a shock. All the little social issues I already dealt with in Prague for three years, where some of it is far worse. The biggest issue is as you point out are energy costs, which are creeping into untenable territory long term. Bigger picture factors have to take precedent over everything else, but if things don't change on that front it won't be an economically viable option in which case Croatia or Serbia (maybe Romania) take the top position, but the interconnected globalized nature of things mean that no place will ever be bullet proof from the planned collapses and staying light and agile with no contracts or being tied down will be a must. It doesn't sound like any way to live, and it's certainly not for everyone, but I've already had a quarter century of practice. No flat or cell contract since 2008. 6 countries, 9 cities, 15 apartments, the stripped-down nomad life. If I ever decide to own anything it might be a sailboat, with 20mm gun turrets and an automatic margarita maker.
Serbia is Russia's best friend, so energy is not going to be a problem for a while.
Slovenia is perhaps the most civilized place around there. My second choice would be Croatia, but I might be biased, because my last name means "Croat" in Hungarian. (Last time I looked, there were 52 Ray Horvaths in the US.) Croatia has nice beaches, while Slovenia is It's mountaneous; two different climates. Slovenia's population is more homogenous, so cultural dissonances are less bothersome.
Love your boat! Hope to have a margarita with you on it one day! :) Making a living on a boat is a different story, especially after a central-bank-issued digital currency...
I looked into Uruguay but they seemed to have drunk the COVID KoolAid there, and there are huge import taxes on everything, enough to triple the cost of cars. Also very conformist leftist mentality from what I can tell. A pity as it has many good points.
Hungary was on my short list but taxes are higher than you would expect when you read the fine-print, and Orban seems to be playing the globalists and the Chinese against each other (promoted both Chinese and Western vaccines). He may genuinely care for his people but he has been forced to make a lot of compromises to survive, and also to thoroughly rig the local media and business community by installing his cronies in all the key positions ....which he has to do to fight globalist influence, but I think he is falling into the trap of becoming the monster he is fighting.
I have read a lot of forum posts from HUNGARIANS or people married to Hungarians saying that it would be a mistake to move there because the culture is aggressive and untrusting once you have been there long enough to see behind the facade.
Having said all that, Hungary may still be a reasonable option given that all the others are so bad!
For myself, I decided Romania would be easier because they speak a Romance language that resembles Italian or Spanish to a degree, the taxes are quiet low, and they have a low vaccination rate and lots of "conspiracy theorists" who are skeptical of government.....and a lot of people faked their vaccination apparently.
Only 10% signed up for a booster which is a positive sign.
Same impression about Uruguay, but I believe, they at least have gun ownership.
Orban lets the Chinese in, takes advantage of the Russians, and gets all the money he can get from the EU. Trust me, Hungarians don't see a penny back. He just raised the price of natural gas tenfold and the expenses didn't increase. He has given away most of what should belong to the people to his retainers and his buddies.
Romania has about a million Hungarians in Transsylvania (it used to be two million in 1920, when Romania occupied the place), but poverty and gypsies are everywhere there as well.
Romanian is definitely easier to learn than Hungarian and I wouldn't live in a country whose language I do not master. Worth finding out about regions with only a few gypsies and move to a sector, where the rich live (beware, because a lot of gypsies are rich, dressed up and behaving like an inner-city homie there :) ). The same thing can be done in Hungary, but Romania has a lot of mountains, making it easier to defend, if the people decide to stand up against UN troops. Here is about Canada:
I moved to Colombia and although the government was very covid compliant; long lockdowns, high vaccine uptake and vaccine passport bs I easily got hold of a “vaccine passport” it’s corrupt enough and geographically demanding enough to resist a comprehensive surveillance set up its affordable on an English language teachers salary. the people are kind and love foreigners from the west. I bought a 5 hectare mango farm 50km from Bogota very cheaply, most country people here saw through the covid bs and although many were coerced to take the vax it has seriously damaged vaccine uptake for all vaccines as everyone (here where they aren’t immersed in daily propaganda ) recognises the vaccines as bio weapons. People are even starting to cotton on in the cities too. You can get animals and grow your own food you don’t need any liscence a to be self sufficient my tax bill for the farm was about 300$ us for this year. Energy is still affordable. I live in Bogota and teach English language for a good salary while i prepare to move to the farm permanently, end of next year hopefully. It’s like Mexico but safer and cheaper,. worryingly the prime minister is a big climate fool and leftist; fortunately the country is vast and I think it’ll be complicated to herd the people to cities as part of the countries culture is the dream (and often reality ) of owning a farm / land and living in the countryside is a big part of the culture. I recommend it as a place to survive and even thrive in these dark times- it’s beautiful too!
I'm sure you speak the language. If I did, maybe, I would have accepted a university teaching position in Bogota about 15 years ago, but without the ability to communicate with the locals at a near-native level, I deemed the path laden with danger. Moreover, I am also a rural person these days, and I have no inclination to move to a city, which seems to match your progress down the road. Not sure how far to the south is safe moving for an American, either. Canadian might be alright.
Fuck-em, I'm staying right here. This is my country, not theirs, and I will live and die here as a free man. I'm going to keep working on my informal local network of likeminded people, and my shtf-proof skills that I can market below the table. And if - at the end of the day - they are coming for me, I'm going to take as many of those motherfuckers with me as I can. I don't care about life if I can't live it.
This. Freedom or Valhalla.
Not a metaphor.
It has come to this. If they are going to take my hard earned savings and ruin my children's future, then I am not going out without at least a few of them too.
Too bad Soros, Gates and Schwab won't come out to see us themselves.
New Hampshire's once great State motto---now retired---"LIVE FREE OR DIE"
DAMN RIGHT.
“Live Free or Kill Tyrants.”
My husband was the proudest "Granite Stater" you could ever find. Born and raised, always loved his home state.
When Slimy Bill won NH in the Presidential race, I told my beloved, "Sweetheart? Your state is gone..."
He insisted otherwise. He kept holding on...until the COVID op. He became so disgusted by the conduct of the State -- its Legislature, its town government, etc., -- never mind the one he calls a POS, Sununu.
Due to my bare face -- which I kept bare for the entire operation -- I was denied service in two places -- the Sephora store in the Cordova Mall in Pensacola, FL in Mar '21. I have not shopped at Sephora since either in-person or online. The other place? A coffee shop in Nashua in the state formerly known as "Live Free or Die." No coffee for you!
That infuriated my husband.
Doing something I never thought he'd do, we left New England in late 2021. Referring to his once-beloved home state, "You can have it."
That was true, but isn't New Hampshire lefty blue now?
“Now retired”
Hell yeah. Resist and be free.
They want the whole world anyhow. Once they take down America they can easily "penetrate" nations like Mexico and Hungary, or invade them directly with UN and CCP troops.
It's like the vietcong in the Vietnam war. They (the global scum) own the day, we (the locals) own the night. No matter what they do, they will never be able to eradicate us all.
They can say they own it all and put their name on a piece of paper by bribing some puppet to use "eminent domain." But as fat and doughy as Bill Gates is I don't see him walking around enjoying all that land he owns. Robin Hood didn't own Sherwood Forest after all. The important thing is staying fit and skilled enough to hunt and forage with your band.
That’s how I see it as well. Come and get me muthafukah!
Nice article. Good research. The US as we have known it, is over. Plan accordingly.
Too old to run---my plan is to die in my driveway---what's yours?
Too old too. I was planning on living in a house again with a dog. But I have been dithering about where.
Yep. Just my home and my dogs. That's what matters to me.
“Man’s Best Friend” for a reason.
People suck!🐕🐾💜
Falling Down - Michael Douglas movie
I'm thinking my hill to die on is my front or back door, depending on which direction they come from... LOL
🤣👏👍
Since I have limited funds and I will probably go it alone, I'm van shopping a bit. Wouldn't diesel be best since the fuel is a bit fkexible?
Excellent piece GS!
For me, local, sustainable, organic and (relatively) affordable food is paramount. And we have it in spades in S.E. PA. We're supporting several Amish farmers, one of whom drops food off at our house for our like-minded herd-flatteners. It's all gonna come down to the Governors' race this fall. If we end up with Shapiro, Hungary here we come!
Fantastic set up Frank. You'll be great there. Nobody has a TV. No TV, no pandemics. I've always wanted to visit Amish country, in a 1969 Pontiac GTO 'judge'.
https://youtu.be/Vz40dXTASDA
All US elections are now rigged---start packing.
Amazing people cannot see that, or want to know..they just refuse to beleive.
They refuse to care.
Most of my fellow patriots cannot.
۞
All elections are rigged, everywhere.
Read my comment on Hungary before falling for the deceptive international image of the country.
Just read it, crikey, here’s the link https://rayhorvaththesource.substack.com/p/is-hungary-under-orban-a-happy-place
Former sister-in-law and her (now ex) husband were planning on living in the 30ft sailboat they bought in California, mid 1980’s. They did for a few years, north of San Diego. Made various shake-down short cruises to Mexico, Catalina, etc to get their sea legs. Then big plans and outfitting for a year and set sail for Fiji; ran into a Pacific blow, which they survived but the boat didn’t. There’s a lot of water out there, and lots of weather. Romantic, yes, but it ain’t all Margaritaville. Pirates, container vessels, corrupt customs officials were some of the stories I also heard. But, hey, better than 3 armed fools wanting 5 seconds to just “see your guns ‘n make sure they haven’t been tooken.” ATF? WTF!
Yes, it requires some captain skills, skipper training. Been following some YT channels of couples sailing around the world the past decade, some more than once. Some hairy situations from time-to-time, especially around certain waters, ecuador, indian ocean etc., but never seen a vessel taken by a storm. They have solid up to the second storm radar and forecasting to avoid those situations, but that sounds pretty bad and risky for an older and pretty small boat.
"Now ex husband"? Sounds like the pacific blow took out more than the vessel.
The ATF have apparently already seized all illegal firearms in criminal possession, so now they need some other work to do by violating multiple constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.
My wife watches DIY YouTube, and tells me how simple it is.
This was in the 80’s. They had lots of charts, a weather channel they could listen to, and a two-way radio to communicate with whoever was in the area and to call “Mayday…Mayday!” I forget the exact sequence. They had reefed the sails and were trying to motor into the wind; big waves coming overboard when motor quit. Rode it out till finally got towed back into Mexico. $$$$
They were probably stoned. They usually were. And don’t get me wrong; I love to sail and love the idea. Spent much time fantasizing about Down Under, back before it was run by prison guards, when we were venturing out of Boston Harbor in a J-24.
One used to be able to rent nice fitted out boats to island hop in the Caribbean. That may be a good way to test drive the notion. I took a water break to cool down this afternoon, and saw, on phone, that Brandon tested positive. When I went back to finish mowing, the premonition “They’re going to do him in” was hard to shake. Then I read your Stack, and bile’s coming up which is unusual for me.
"Tells me how simple it is." Hahha! Nice one. You got me good there.
I thought the boat was from the 80s and this happened post lockdown madness. Different time, but there's always risks today too especially if satellites get bombed or sun bursted. Having a full range of skills and training would be essential for any long journey. Did some sailing in the dalmatian islands with a friend who owns a charter service a few summers in a row, before they started their global full court press on us. One could sail the Dardanelles to Gibraltar and never hit the same anchorage twice over several years. No big storms, no pirates. Probably plenty of human trafficking boats, of Soros funded dinghies hitting sand in Spain.
They'll probably retire the old executive place holder one way or another soon. It doesn't really matter who or what they replace him with. We know who's really in charge, and they weren't on the ballot last time.
Sorry. Probably the bile made me into the old dog in the manger who can't chew the grass. It's a fine dream, may be the best.
As for Joe, don't know why I even wrote it down or where it came from; it spooked me.
A brilliant roundup of what troubles awake people. Can we clone the Hungarian leader? We sure could do with some new genes in Australia too. Is it mandatory to have a parrot before heading out to sea?
Great idea if we're going to be doing any cloning.
Wow. Thank you. Opened my eyes to a lot of hard truths, and brought a lot of coherence to some of my inchoate thoughts. If I was 20 years younger, I'd be relocating now..or buying a live aboard boat.
At my age, the best I can hope for is to die in my sleep. And I miss having a dog. I think eventually they will make us eat them.
The US and all Western Democracies are over as we knew them.
Thank YOU for sharing.
Hang in there, Duchess. Demoralization is part of the plan. Go to the shelter and get that dog you want. You can spare the little guy a date with an even more lethal needle than Pfizer's and enjoy his/her/zhe (are there transgender pets?!?) company. Prepare for what's coming, but live your life. Take joy in the little pleasures--sunsets, beautiful flowers, the peace and tranquility of nature. Help others when the time comes.
If you're religious, remember that God is with us always, everywhere. If you're not, take pride in seeing the evil that so many others are blind to, and for not acquiescing to it.
They're called 'neutered' pets....
There are transgender pets like there are vegan cats. Fido is going to sniff that bitches' penis wether he likes it or not.
They say you will eat literally anything if you're starving, so maybe I should be cautious about stating that I will NEVER eat bugs. However, I can state with 100% cast iron certainty that I will never, ever eat my dog (or anyone else's for that matter). If there's a scrap of food left in my house, it will go to the dogs. I'd rather starve than see them starve. The Chinese, the South Koreans, Philippinos and a few other sick countries choose to eat dogs, often stolen pets. What a way to repay 40,000 years of co-evolution and unstinting loyalty to humanity! No, dogs and people go back a LONG, long way and in my view, an essential part of being human is forming a bond with a dog. That's why 'they' are so keen to sever that long-standing relationship based on mutual cooperation which is now biologically and genetically imprinted into our very being. The same with farmed animals, though to a lesser extent. The climate crisis fanatics and eco-Nazis are very keen to see mainly carnivorous domestic dogs go extinct along with most of humanity - cos 'sustainability'. Any of those freaks coming for my dogs will personally go extinct before my pooches do, I can assure you!
The eco nazis are very anti-nature, anti-science, anti-humanity, anti-dog, anti-cow, anti-living beings. It's a destructive cult of misery and suffering filled with miserable and insufferable cultists.
That about sums them up.
According to the John Birch Society the globalists/Illuminati are not only opposed to individual nations but all belief in God. Maybe that's why they hate nature and male/female identities.
If I am hungry enough to eat bugs I will do so on my own terms. Hiding in the woods you can turn over any rotting log and find plenty of grubs underneath.
"I think eventually they will make us eat them." 🤣🤣
I have a list...I won't eat bugs, or dogs or cats or rabbits or octupus (I think they are intelligent alien beings :-)). Or anything I know personally!!!
That's a good policy.
If God is a lobster, though, I might be in serious trouble!
Now that's funny! Lobster is my favorite food, too.
Perhaps your next article could be about ways that the people who cannot leave due to economic and other reasons can fight to stop what's in the pipeline. The majority of people DO NOT want this but don't know how to fight, or even who to fight.
Case in point: many people are unhappy in California and New York, yet say they are not able to move to an adjacent state. If people can't move a few hundred miles, they most certainly won't be able to move 1,000 or more.
I can't fathom why anyone would be a prisoner in any one state other than unimaginable poverty in which case working hard, spending less, and planning ahead to make some moves to greener pastures is the only way they'll ever have a chance to fight anything.
Well, I have one very simple answer for you: it's very hard for people to leave a state when they have elderly parents that will NOT leave that need to be taken care of. It's easy to say "leave your parents behind" or "force your parents to leave as well," but those two things are extremely difficult to do for different reasons.
those are two things that I would never do.
and just for what its worth, we lived in a small colonial town in central america for three years. Better to make your stand in America.
Elderly mother and a young granddaughter who is my world. Both need me. A circle of friends who give me joy. I think my state, Maryland, already Dem dominant, is about to get worse too...
I have a few ideas —
https://fatrabbitiron.substack.com/p/secede-vegetable-gardens-and-chest
https://fatrabbitiron.substack.com/p/secede-privacy-badger
https://fatrabbitiron.substack.com/p/secede-adblockplus
https://fatrabbitiron.substack.com/p/secede-duckduckgo-linux-and-smart
https://fatrabbitiron.substack.com/p/secede-social-media
https://fatrabbitiron.substack.com/p/secede-the-elements-and-the-organon
Good essay, Great Citizen. Unfortunately, fleeing will only buy us a little bit of time, I fear. There was nowhere to run to when the Bolsheviks grabbed control 100 years ago, and it'll be a lot easier to suffocate pockets of resistance in the modern world than it was in backwards Russia back in the day.
Our lives are not going to play out the way we thought they would when we rang in the New Year in 2020. This next decade promises to be among the most dramatic in human history. We have to approach this crisis with the mindset that we have nothing to lose, because we truly will have nothing if this plays out the way it's been game planned. We are living in the "interesting times" of the Chinese curse.
Amen doc. Interesting times, but maybe still with different outcomes in different places, some better suited than others though not easy to gauge where and when. No matter what happens you'll stand your ground and be their huckleberry.
Will do.
They will fail, ultimately, but much suffering awaits us in the years ahead. We just have to resist and outlast them, and your advice to flee to a community of like-minded individuals offers the best chance to do so.
I really enjoy your articles. You go where others fear to tread.
The methods used are different. But this only makes it more insidious. If Bolsheviks were running everywhere (Antifa soyboys are not the same!) there would be no doubt things were bad and more people would mount a resistance. Too many patriots think a Totalitarian takeover would be Red Dawn style. This was not what happened in Russia or China.
Unlike the USSR, this nightmare regime plans on killing or maiming most of its staunchest supporters. Including the armies and police. This will take some time.
Those at the top in complete control of everything are nihilists and parasites who invented little--nothing recently--and have gotten most of their wealth by acquiring others' property. Unsustainable.
Much, if not all of what you write is fundamental truth. Way back in the 70's I contemplated life on a sail boat, but then a young man's hormones interceded, and it did not happen. Now, at 75, I find myself in a pretty good situation in Texas, and don't see myself going anywhere else.
Putin made some observations in a speech the other day, talking about the big changes coming, It is interesting how the only anti Russian countries are part of the empire of lies. Most of what some call the global south ( making up the majority of the worlds population are having nothing to do with the sanctions currently killing the EU economy. He talked about true national sovereignty, and economic cooperation in the coming multi-polar world. If we are lucky, the west will collapse before some idiot Neocon pushes the button, and a much improved, peaceful world will emerge -- a world no longer bullied by those controlling the rules based liberal democracies of the west.
The next few years will be a struggle for us all, but I don't believe the globalist WEF crowd will succeed.
I hope to live long enough to see a new world emerge.
I hope you do too JVC. I hope we all do. But while you're around you've got a pretty good set up with that property, that rocking chair, that porch, and those beautiful Texas sunsets.
At this point, I wonder if we could vote to become a part of Hungary or Russia. I am fed to the back teeth with the US corrupt politicians and their selling us out to WEF and China. If I cannot have my country back (and it seems after the last election it is too late to even try), then can we a have a national referendum?
Thanks for this , really thought provoking piece. I wish I could bite the bullet and make my move , but will probably keep on picking up nickels in front of the steamroller until it is too late. With three kids -2 preteen and one teen it is so difficult to pull up stakes. Is it possible that they fail in their overweening plans or is that just denial on my part?
Wherever you go there YOU are. The package of rights one has an a citizen of the United States though frayed is distinctly superior to anyplace you can fly. Vaccines can be imposed on you globally but in the USA no, there are laws, and if your job says vaccinate you can quit. Arguably the best choice is that place called home. The frail liberty in the USA is absent in other nations. Here you can team up and find workarounds. Paradise it is not, but exile is not a mass solution. For perhaps a few thousand the ex-pat life can work. For a few million, never.
Superior package of rights? Privileges are all Americans can have anymore. Temporary privileges that the government can take away anytime it manufactures a crisis to create a hysteria or emergency.
And that is such a bitter pill for us to swallow. Those emergency powers...
Fear and false reasoning create the obedience. Too many people to preserve the job revenue and recreation consumers expect obey.
Avoid the hysterical folks. Maybe the masks are a good thing in showing who to avoid.
Your are correct that expat life is not a solution for millions.
But I am an individual and I make my own decision. It can work for me....if anything works.
By all means let the millions of people who do not have the option of leaving the USA take the other option of banding together in one state and becoming a decisive local majority.
But I am not American...I do not have the option of making some kind of Alamo last stand in the USA even if I want to. I cannot even legally enter the USA as an unjabbed person. So I am moving to the country in Europe with the largest number of unvaxxed skeptics (Romania) and hoping things work out there.
We already moved to Bucharest Romania, safe, good selection on organic food, very low property tax, 10% income tax
Have the exit strategy. War looks likely in Europe.
War is already underway, everywhere. It started in 2019. Governments against the people.
Yes true. However if Russia goes for the juglar Romania may be dragged into conflict. At the least refugee flows. My sense is that in some ways the top down nature of power is increasingly Iron Fist. In every nation state. I looked in 2003 into ex-pat. France, Costa Rica, Mexico. Consulting my wallet and my revenue I decided that my rent controlled studio in San Francisco was unlikely to be improved. Then years later comes Covid and governments following orders decide to vaccinate and kill. Now in the States mere peons who are retired like me are untouched. The clerks and employees are not. Mike Adams of course in his book Ghost World opts for the rural survival strategy. Not my cup of coffee. So I monitor expat life and ponder life with cheap rent in an expensive city in a State that is decomposing as fast as the USA.
I have considered a scenario where hot war breaks out around Kalingrad (totally not in any way provoked by NATO forces of course) and the Baltics states, with extensive fighting in Poland, and Russia then decides to secure its southern flank by pushing south-west to a line between the Danube Delta and the Carpathians.
This is (supposedly, according to armchair pundits like Peter Zeihan) a defensible position that could be held with a relatively small force and free up the main forces for the real battle in Poland/Kalingrad.
The towns of Galați and Focșani would be on the Romanian front line. It is about 100km from the Carpathians to the Danube at this point so supposedly it is the logical place for Russia to "secure the flank". Assuming that even matters in the age of hypersonic missiles.
According to Western strategic thinkers Russia will be mad keen to advance to this bottleneck and hold it. But it is an equally good defensive line for Romanian and NATO forces. So the logical thing is for both sides to just put blocking forces there and send the rest to Poland.
So Romania being involved in a war...quite plausible. The Russians wanting to advance south of Galați.....for what purpose? If you have just established this fantastic defensive line at the point where the Carpathians are only 100km from the Danube delta, and meanwhile you have a whole series of problems around Kalingrad....maybe you are too busy trying to take the Baltic states so you have a land bridge to Kalingrad.
If there were a bunch of countries that offered better options than Romania then the possibility that there will be a trench warfare stalemate 200km from Bucharest would definitely put me off.
But frankly there aren't a lot of good options. Whatever kind of insanity or actual evil is happening with COVID worries me more. Compare the number killed by Russian shells and missiles over the last couple of years with the number killed by the spike protein.
I would consider myself safer in Bucharest with artillery fire being exchanged 200km away than I would in Melbourne or Christchurch, supposedly far away from the war...but which war? And what kind of war? What new insanity tomorrow?
Every choice we make from now on is a gamble.
Poland again. Have they not had enough of their warring neighbours? (and yes I realize that they got together with Lithuania at one stage for their own adventures in neighbouring countries)
What cities are you considering in Romania? I've looked closely at three. None of them Bucharest.
I am in Bucharest. Cluj, Sibiu, Brasov look nice but I am not going for the small town strategy. I will be living in the capital near the embassy district and the lakes and parks of Sector 1... near the people who will bend the rules be exempt from the bullshit because they have connections.
Smart strategy. Some good poker rooms in Bucharest.
If the "government" doesn't honor them they are worthless. The only advantage we have are fellow patriots nearby. But only in certain areas.
Thanks Who’s Next 1971
Now if I could find my true Love
Move to Croatia or Mexico
As below so above
Great great info
Thank you. So, Hungary. What about Mexico?
The second half of this piece I published earlier this month has some thoughts on Mexico.
https://thegoodcitizen.substack.com/p/when-will-mexico-build-a-wall
Thanks.......
Read my comment on Hungary. Avoid at all cost! :)
Good article and will be linking tomorrow @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
You paint a bleak picture my friend. Unfortunately in this day and age you can run but you can not hide. I have been familiar with the prepper movement for many years as you can probably see by some of the sites that I follow and list.
James Wesley Rawles and the the American Redoubt as a place to go to is familiar to many preppers, but if it's familiar to preppers then don't you imagine it is being kept tabs on as well by the powers that be?
I Like your country analysis and I think as well that Hungary with Viktor Orbán in charge is certainly a temporary, viable option. But then again, they know this as well.
No, I think we are now at the point where we stay where we are at and defend what has always been are rights and piss on them just as Roger Daltrey does on Who's Next.
So come on, bring it on. Who's Next??????
Yes, there are things worth risking death for.
This is Brilliantly Written.
You're A Poet...
During Troubled Times,
A Bridge Above Waters,
Stirred...
(I just reached a certain-point,
Therein...
& Thought about THEM.
Then I Thought...
ABOUT YOU !)
So...Thank You, Citizen Man.
https://youtu.be/vf7To6vdg7A
Nice article!
Let me add a few things about Hungary in order to dissolve the rosy illusions about it.
Orban is one of the Young Global Leaders (like Putin) and he cruelly enforced the "covid" theater with penalties for not wearing a muzzle in the street (!) that amounted to 30-50% of average worker's wages. He refused the globalists' 15% corporate tax (Hungary has a 9% corporate tax and a 27% VAT/Sales Tax and even basic foodstuff is taxed at 12%; small business taxes are so high that if entrepreneurs didn't cheat with their tax returns, they could keep only 3% of their profits), but only because he blackmailed the EU for 28 billion Euros in return. Corruption is rampant and it is everywhere.
The Hungarian government has an amazing number of trolls all over the Internet, spreading "good news" about the country. In the meanwhile, energy prices are doubling and food purchases are limited with government-mandated prices that are not feasible for farmers. Most people in the country are dirt poor and Gypsy crime is extremely high with about 800 thousand Gypsies in a population of 9.6 million, out of which up to two million don't even live in Hungary (emigrated or live in a neighboring country, but received citizenship from the Orban government around 2000, because the government wanted voters and the population decrease exceeded the sociological threshold of eventual extinction).
Moreover, don't even try to take a cab, if you don't speak Hungarian. Expect to be cheated everywhere and robbed, especially if you stay out at night.
I could keep going, but this much might suffice for the time being.
Everyone was a WEF "young global leader" at one point the past 40 years. See my posts about that from March. It doesn't mean anything anymore. There's nobody in business or government that didn't have their face on that website at some point in the past 40 years.
Corruption is everywhere Ray. It's out in the open for all to see. Name one industry that isn't totally corrupt in the west. Impossible.
Refusing the globalists' corporate tax rate of 15% was great. Proves my point. Low corporate taxes is good for attracting international companies. And good for him for blackmailing the EU for more money. You realize you're proving my points Ray? I'd do the same. Milk those idiots for every Euro possible.
VAT and taxes are high everywhere in Europe. It's not just Hungary so that can't be a consideration for anything. VAT is everywhere in Europe. Americans earning less than $115k don't pay income taxes living outside the US so VAT is nothing, especially when a 3 bedroom luxury apartment is under $800/month.
Energy prices are doubling everywhere so that's not an argument against Hungary, that's happening everywhere in Europe. This winter Hungary will be better positioned than Germany or half of western Europe to deal with the energy crisis. At least the gas taps will still flow and they have plenty of reserves. Nobody takes cabs in Europe anymore Ray. They use the EU equivalents of Uber, like Bolt etc. Can't get ripped off with an app that gives you the price ahead of time. But most people walk or take public transit 99% of the time anyway. Maybe they shouldn't with all those robbing gypsies around Hungary. How scary! Thanks for the very informative points. There's no perfect place anywhere but Hungary still tops my very short list of countries across the Atlantic.
Look, your article is excellent; my notes are not about contention. I simply have a lot of past and current knowledge of Hungary that I figured might be useful for those, who consider moving there. They won't be able to say they haven't been warned. I personally favor the idea of cleaning up the place, where I live.
Graduating from Schwab is a different story, especially when one looks at the results.
The corruption is Hungary is exceeded only in Ukraine.
Refusing raising corporate tax was necessary, because all other taxes and prices are so high that corporations couldn't operate with a profit in Hungary otherwise. Orban took the bribe that the Belarus President rejected ($900 million) and Orban set up the "covid" theater, poisoning two out of three of his people. The theater is still going strong, spiked with some forced "vaccinations."
All EU support money simply vanishes.
The 27% of VAT in Hungary beats everything else in the world. Prices in stores are the same as anywhere else in Europe, and even basic foodstuff for the poor is taxed. I haven't mentioned that personal income tax is there, but property tax is not, because Orban and his gang have been buying up the country ever since they first came to power in 1998 (and have been in power since 2006, changing the Constitution to their advantage multiple times; let me not get started on "fair" elections...). $800 a month is a lot, when the vast majority earns less than $300. I wouldn't call that nothing, because electricity, for one, is the second most expensive in Europe, while half of it comes from a nuclear plant that generates the cheapest possible electricity for HUF11.80/kWh. Russian natural gas is flowing to Hungary, but Orban basically raised the prices from HUF91 to $912 per cubic meter, while many Hungarians use it exclusively for heating and now it will cost about $300/mo for a 1,000 sq.ft house. How is that going to pan out? People will freeze to death or turn to crime. Is that enough argument against energy prices even for those, who can afford them? The following article about this is in Hungarian, but you can use a translation engine to read it:
https://atlatszo.hu/adat/2022/07/19/van-ahol-kevesbe-vedtek-a-rezsit-a-vilagpiactol-megis-olcsobb-az-energia-mint-amit-a-kormany-allit/#
The cab was only an example. I had the same bad luck in Prague at one point, when the driver charged me $30 for a quarter-mile five-minute ride. In Hungary, cab drivers used to use bear spray on tourists, who didn't pay the extortion money and called the police... Foreigners, naive ex-patriates included, are also targeted by con artists a lot, who act kind of like the Nigerian "prince," but it's mostly real-estate fraud, which is also rampant.
Hungary is also a hub for the Ukranian and Albanian human trafficking system. The police are paid off and protect the traffickers. It is quite dangerous for a "marketably" young and attractive person to be in Hungary.
Public transportation is extremely dangerous because of the gypsies whom the police don't even dare to touch. The gangs are organized and policemen don't want to be called "racists." The average person can't afford Uber etc., either. The place is dirt poor and no, people are not walking (they don't have the time); they take public transportation.
Going to a pub can be life-threatening. You get "invited" for a drink, which would be "too rude" to refuse. Next time you wake up, you realize you have been drugged, kicked around in the streets, and robbed. It happened to my friend from Ohio, who taught at a Hungarian university for a semester.
There are safe areas/neighborhoods in Hungary, which can go bad and extremely dangerous, if you are not familiar with the environment. Taking the wrong turn, just like in US cities, can be a bad idea. (These days, I'm happy I didn't buy my place in Atlanta, GA, but went for rural KY.) The resulting stress goes on all day, because public transportation nearly always crosses bad neighborhoods. Driving is like driving in NYC, not for the faint of heart, but still a lot safer than taking the bus or the subway (pickpockets are also everywhere, working in gangs).
More than anything, Hungary is so stressful that you can feel it in the air. It's surreal that people actually live there... Well, the US is now catching up. :)
I had some comparable opinion about Uruguay, but in the last two years, they were also part of the "covid" theater. It might be a good sign that about a week ago, a judge stopped the "vaccination" of young children and subpoenaed Pfizer for the contents of its vials and Pfizer preferred to leave the country. Also, people are quite poor there, too, but at least culturally more or less homogenous. Prices are still astronomical, because nearly everything is imported; too many middlemen. You really have to learn the special blend of Spanish spoken there and the diet has always been for beef-eaters. I'm wondering what's going to happen to all the cow fart there...
None of my research is based on locals or for locals so whatever might be expensive taxes or energy costs on a local salary is moot. It's all for expatriates with fixed, passive or WFH income. Foreigners have different fixed tax rates (or no taxes if you know how to work it and have an EU passport) VAT is the highest, but Sweden is close by along with Ireland, Portugal, Croatia, Greece, and it's just 3% more than Poland, where I've lived 8 of the past 20 years. You should see what gets taxed in France where I lived for three years. Totally insane. Also I don't buy or hoard crap I don't need. Two suitcases and two boxes of books for the past 25 years. Light, mobile, agile, flexible, no emotional attachment to things. The Roma population is concentrated highly in the east and northeast of the country. The areas I'm looking at have less than 1% Roma population, including Budapest, Pecs, Gyor. Human trafficking is everywhere in eastern and central Europe. There are women trafficked by gangs from Moldova and Ukraine and forced to be working slave girls in poland, Czechia, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Germany, France, Spain, you name it. All police everywhere are on the take. Interpol does nothing. The EU and Europol are a joke. None of these issues, nor corruption can be a factor in anything, and some corruption is good. On the corruption index HU is far better than Ukraine and only slightly worse than Poland and Slovakia. It's about the same as Romania and is better than Serbia, so again, pretty moot. Poland has millions of new arrivals from Ukraine, a million where I live who don't seem to want to go back, with the coming winter, energy issues, massive inflation, unaffordable housing for Poles the stress factor is very high here now too. There's also cultural and demographic dispositions. Hungarians, Romanians, Poles, Serbs, all very different peoples so it just takes some desire to assimilate, learn the language, customs etc. I've been to Hungary many times and know people who live there so it won't be a shock. All the little social issues I already dealt with in Prague for three years, where some of it is far worse. The biggest issue is as you point out are energy costs, which are creeping into untenable territory long term. Bigger picture factors have to take precedent over everything else, but if things don't change on that front it won't be an economically viable option in which case Croatia or Serbia (maybe Romania) take the top position, but the interconnected globalized nature of things mean that no place will ever be bullet proof from the planned collapses and staying light and agile with no contracts or being tied down will be a must. It doesn't sound like any way to live, and it's certainly not for everyone, but I've already had a quarter century of practice. No flat or cell contract since 2008. 6 countries, 9 cities, 15 apartments, the stripped-down nomad life. If I ever decide to own anything it might be a sailboat, with 20mm gun turrets and an automatic margarita maker.
Sounds just about like my experience.
Serbia is Russia's best friend, so energy is not going to be a problem for a while.
Slovenia is perhaps the most civilized place around there. My second choice would be Croatia, but I might be biased, because my last name means "Croat" in Hungarian. (Last time I looked, there were 52 Ray Horvaths in the US.) Croatia has nice beaches, while Slovenia is It's mountaneous; two different climates. Slovenia's population is more homogenous, so cultural dissonances are less bothersome.
Love your boat! Hope to have a margarita with you on it one day! :) Making a living on a boat is a different story, especially after a central-bank-issued digital currency...
As you are saying, nothing is bulletproof.
I looked into Uruguay but they seemed to have drunk the COVID KoolAid there, and there are huge import taxes on everything, enough to triple the cost of cars. Also very conformist leftist mentality from what I can tell. A pity as it has many good points.
Hungary was on my short list but taxes are higher than you would expect when you read the fine-print, and Orban seems to be playing the globalists and the Chinese against each other (promoted both Chinese and Western vaccines). He may genuinely care for his people but he has been forced to make a lot of compromises to survive, and also to thoroughly rig the local media and business community by installing his cronies in all the key positions ....which he has to do to fight globalist influence, but I think he is falling into the trap of becoming the monster he is fighting.
I have read a lot of forum posts from HUNGARIANS or people married to Hungarians saying that it would be a mistake to move there because the culture is aggressive and untrusting once you have been there long enough to see behind the facade.
Having said all that, Hungary may still be a reasonable option given that all the others are so bad!
For myself, I decided Romania would be easier because they speak a Romance language that resembles Italian or Spanish to a degree, the taxes are quiet low, and they have a low vaccination rate and lots of "conspiracy theorists" who are skeptical of government.....and a lot of people faked their vaccination apparently.
Only 10% signed up for a booster which is a positive sign.
Same impression about Uruguay, but I believe, they at least have gun ownership.
Orban lets the Chinese in, takes advantage of the Russians, and gets all the money he can get from the EU. Trust me, Hungarians don't see a penny back. He just raised the price of natural gas tenfold and the expenses didn't increase. He has given away most of what should belong to the people to his retainers and his buddies.
Romania has about a million Hungarians in Transsylvania (it used to be two million in 1920, when Romania occupied the place), but poverty and gypsies are everywhere there as well.
Romanian is definitely easier to learn than Hungarian and I wouldn't live in a country whose language I do not master. Worth finding out about regions with only a few gypsies and move to a sector, where the rich live (beware, because a lot of gypsies are rich, dressed up and behaving like an inner-city homie there :) ). The same thing can be done in Hungary, but Romania has a lot of mountains, making it easier to defend, if the people decide to stand up against UN troops. Here is about Canada:
https://rayhorvaththesource.substack.com/p/international-mercenaries-occupying
I moved to Colombia and although the government was very covid compliant; long lockdowns, high vaccine uptake and vaccine passport bs I easily got hold of a “vaccine passport” it’s corrupt enough and geographically demanding enough to resist a comprehensive surveillance set up its affordable on an English language teachers salary. the people are kind and love foreigners from the west. I bought a 5 hectare mango farm 50km from Bogota very cheaply, most country people here saw through the covid bs and although many were coerced to take the vax it has seriously damaged vaccine uptake for all vaccines as everyone (here where they aren’t immersed in daily propaganda ) recognises the vaccines as bio weapons. People are even starting to cotton on in the cities too. You can get animals and grow your own food you don’t need any liscence a to be self sufficient my tax bill for the farm was about 300$ us for this year. Energy is still affordable. I live in Bogota and teach English language for a good salary while i prepare to move to the farm permanently, end of next year hopefully. It’s like Mexico but safer and cheaper,. worryingly the prime minister is a big climate fool and leftist; fortunately the country is vast and I think it’ll be complicated to herd the people to cities as part of the countries culture is the dream (and often reality ) of owning a farm / land and living in the countryside is a big part of the culture. I recommend it as a place to survive and even thrive in these dark times- it’s beautiful too!
I'm sure you speak the language. If I did, maybe, I would have accepted a university teaching position in Bogota about 15 years ago, but without the ability to communicate with the locals at a near-native level, I deemed the path laden with danger. Moreover, I am also a rural person these days, and I have no inclination to move to a city, which seems to match your progress down the road. Not sure how far to the south is safe moving for an American, either. Canadian might be alright.