Posts by Donna James5

Mark Moore2 said:Haha, spot on. Their parents own the rentals and these kids just coast as life coaches. Exactly. You see them everywhere. From what I've seen, they're basically local Californians from the West Coast. Total materialists...

One upside to all these people moving in is that they brought a bit of that patriotic fervor with them. In my neck of the woods, we've had plenty of John Wicks and Canadian Americans move in. They're hard workers and they're proud, which is fine by me...
Meanwhile, us locals are just like, "Yeah, we're Americans, whatever." Who cares...

Depends on what kind of mixes you mean. Most mixed marriages just end up with a sense of nostalgia for the old ways and the Republic of Texas...

From what I have observed, it is driving us into the ground. This is especially true since we had those Texans and Canadian Americans move in; it has been nothing but trouble.
🙂

Mark Moore2 said:True. Friendlier than our local lazybones back home... 😁
I don't have an issue with it either if it ends up like you said. Which happens plenty in places like coastal California over the last 40 years or so. Foreign workers, tourists marrying locals... it happens.
But then again, you can look at it how she took a potential job away from a local lady, and there's always a chance she brings part of her family along, bringing in more people looking to push their own local agendas.

Basically, if any of us moved abroad, we wouldn't go to a place where we'd only make an extra hundred bucks. If you're gonna move, do it right.
Case in point: I personally know two Italians and one German who married into it and moved here... 🤔

I prefer not to view it through that cynical lens because there are far too many entitled individuals out there who already possess an abundance of wealth and find everything beneath them. Given that they rarely actually work since they don't need to—with parents typically owning eight or ten vacation rentals, leaving the children to pursue "careers" as life consultants or ski instructors if they feel the urge to "labor hard"...

Regarding this matter, I am actually quite pleased that California is such a colorful melting pot; I believe the region has truly flourished thanks to those who have arrived from all corners of the globe.
Ultimately, however, things will likely play out exactly as I previously noted.

Just look around you; most of the loudest "patriots" in our vicinity are actually members of mixed families or recent transplants...

Steven Murphy2 said:Look, if I didn't have some kind of decent savings account tucked away, I’d basically be funding my entire coffee habit on Broadway $17 just to blow through my cash in a single weekend. Man, I remember back in the day when you could grab a beer for what, maybe two bucks? $8.25 Or even something like a cheap soda $6.00 for that kind of change. Now? These prices are clearly rigged for tourists, while Americans are stuck working their tails off just to serve them on our own coast. It’s a joke. On one hand, you've got the visitors, and on the other, you're listening to broke locals whining because they can't make ends meet. Like, seriously—if they try to charge me $4 $5.25 for a basic beer in the middle of winter, but I'm pulling in maybe $15 an hour $4.75... forget it. I'm not even thinking about heading down to the coast. If our vacation window is only 5 to 10 days, we're basically screwed for the year.

Hold on, why would anyone bother grabbing a coffee on Broadway? That wouldn't even cross my mind. I’d much rather take a stroll down Broadway during the off-season.
My preferred spot in Monterey costs $4.00, and a coffee is 7 bucks. Even when I venture outside my usual haunts, I rarely spend more than 15.
Just thirty yards further toward the water, everything doubles in price. Actually, it’s worse than that—it hits 25.

Mark Moore2 said:Personally, I don't care one bit. It doesn't help me that Maistre hotels and restaurants are packed by April. I'm just looking out for the little guy...
If I remember right, you're up north near the border, so thanks to being close to Italy, you guys stay pretty busy even in winter...

Seems like the main goal for our politicians is just pulling labor from the old America. The language is similar and the pay is lower than ours. I've already noticed some women with dual citizenship working in supermarkets and camps...
Not sure how good that is for us... 🤔

With 35% of our workforce sitting on the sidelines, it's no big deal if wages jump by 30%. If a seasonal worker could pull $5,000 or $6,000, everyone would be lining up...
Because honestly, even at that rate, everybody wins...

Wait, though—what's the actual standard of living in the Czech Republic? What's the purchasing power like?...

I have nothing against the Mexican women. From what I’ve encountered in retail settings, they tend to be polite and pleasant, making them highly desirable employees. And if a woman finds happiness here, why shouldn't she stay and raise little Americans? 🙂

The standard of living in the Czech Republic is currently somewhat better than ours. Prices are generally lower—both for groceries and utilities. In my estimation, our 1,000 dollars would go about as far as 1,100 or even 1,200 there.
However, it isn't worth moving there just to end up with the same result.
An Ukrainian man there is likely working for 400 dollars anyway, and there are probably half a million of them by now...

Richard Wilson4 said:You're looking at this all wrong.

Even if the languages were similar, you still have to put in the work to learn them. And let's be real, wages in America are way too low to motivate anyone to pick up a new tongue.

It’s like asking why Americans don't move to the Czech Republic—which has a pretty decent economy—instead of heading to Ireland or Germany.
Sure, for us Americans, picking up Czech might be easier, but nobody's doing it. Nobody's even going to do it. People stick to English and maybe a little German since that's what we get in school.

I have an acquaintance, a Bulgarian woman. Do you know how long it took her to adjust and pick up American English? A mere three months!
As for the question of why we don't move to the Czech Republic, the reality is that their unemployment rate sits at 4%, and quite frankly, their salaries are lower than ours.

Unless, of course, you happen to be a top-tier specialist whom they are desperate to recruit.

Nicholas Nguyen said:Bulgarians, being part of the European Union, aren't exactly lining up to grind here for 12 to 14 hours a day just to make $3,500 or $4,000 on minimum wage plus tips. Why sleep on a floor when they can just hop over to any other EU nation and find better work?

So, who's left to fill the labor gap?
It’s mostly just people from Canada, though even their interest in working in the States is drying up.
Mexicans or Mexicans certainly aren't interested in waiting tables along the coast.

You are overlooking one fundamental issue: language. To secure a job in any corner of the European Union, you generally need to speak the local tongue.
Have you ever actually spent time in Bulgaria? If you had, you would realize that their proficiency in foreign languages remains somewhat limited. Consequently, they don't struggle much with American. Of course, I am not suggesting a million people will descend upon us, but a thousand could arrive without any difficulty at all.

As for Mexicans and Mexicans, you are mistaken. I was recently in Mexico speaking with individuals who are officially registered as earning a mere $250, under the unspoken agreement that the boss returns $50 or even $70 when payday rolls around.
Do you have any idea what that equates to???
It's practically nothing. They are working for peanuts.
To them, $3,500 plus housing and food sounds like a fortune.

Mark Moore2 said:But it’s never been this easy to find a job in July or August. Right now, if you want a gig, you can get one. It used to be everything was already snapped up by March or April.
The pay you pull in three months of work is a joke—won't even keep you out of the gutter.
When I worked the season, I was pulling in about $6.00 during the summer 🙄
And what happens in the winter?

California has nothing, absolutely nothing, besides the summer rush and "no vacancy" signs. I guess that's just life here...

In my neck of the woods, the first guests arrive even before Easter and stay through New Year's Day. February and March are essentially a wasteland, though even then, there are always those clever enough to find a way to make a buck.

Regarding this year specifically, you are correct that it is the first time one can actually find work this late in the game.

Personally, I don't believe there is any reason to panic. The market will eventually correct itself. I am banking on some sort of compromise involving modest wage increases—just enough to avoid confusion—alongside the importation of labor for 2018.

The situation isn't nearly as catastrophic as the headlines suggest. At my workplace, more than half the staff are "permanent" seasonal workers, so things haven't shifted all that drastically.

Of course, naturally, my ideal scenario would be seeing our own people get raises, but it is unlikely that will be the sole focus...

I suspect they will have no trouble finding workers in Bulgaria, and if they streamline work permits for Mexicans, you could see half of North Mexico arriving next year.

Lastly, one shouldn't forget that unemployment in the Czech Republic sits at 4%, and they are working for lower wages than we are.
Therefore,... considering who is currently running the show around here, it is quite difficult to expect any significant wage hikes...

feralnomad35 said:So, have you guys noticed those total exaggerations about record-breaking heatwaves lately? It honestly feels like they’re just trying to manufacture some kind of hype to trick everyone into booking a last-minute trip to the coast.

Just look at the forecasts for a second—they’ll predict the most hellish week of heat ever, claiming temps will hit the low 90s, but then half the week ends up being nothing but rain...

That isn't quite the issue; rather, the sheer volume of clicks drives the constant coverage of extreme weather. In this landscape, nothing is allowed to be ordinary. Everything must be sensationalized—the biggest, the smallest, the "never before seen"—simply because that is what triggers engagement and keeps people clicking.
It is quite pathetic.
Forbes is particularly distasteful in this regard, though I suppose many other outlets aren't much better...

nimbleridge5 said:It’s honestly kind of pathetic when people brag about things they didn't actually build, and let's face it, tourism is pretty much the only thing keeping the American economy afloat right now. But even then, it isn't because of any real talent or hard work from our side; if anything, we're succeeding despite ourselves! Given how fast we're seeing everything paved over with concrete, the endless sprawl of vacation rentals, and those shady laws passed by politicians who clearly don't care, I honestly think tourism will eventually just sink to the same level as everything else in this country.
It doesn't even really make me angry anymore, it just makes me feel deeply sad that the one industry actually thriving in America is the one thing most Americans had absolutely nothing to do with helping grow. And if you want to talk about how messy things are, you could say we only got a temporary reprieve because some neighboring regional powers essentially gave us a ten-year grace period before their own policies would have forced us to ruin our coastline too. 😁
Just take all that self-congratulation, throw in a bunch of mainstream media headlines hyping up these wannabe celebrities visiting the coast, and you get this nauseating cocktail of inferiority complexes, fake glamour, vanity, and pure arrogance that lacks any actual merit. It’s a truly revolting mix that perfectly captures the current mindset of this nation.

The media simply reports on what captures the public's attention.
What I am curious about is how you would personally attempt to frame our coastline as something genuinely interesting.
This nauseating cocktail and the national paradigm—at least regarding tourism—is hardly anything that distinguishes us from any other nation caught in the same cycle.

And just as an aside: the alternative isn't hosting Buxtehude at Madison Square Garden or a Dutch musical counterpoint in Saint Dominic cathedral; the alternative is simply gnawing on tree roots.

Mark Moore2 said:Basically, right now, the payoff is pretty weak. (Unless you're the one renting out the property)
There’s been a massive shift with the workforce and regular people. Before 2013, those seasonal workers coming in from the Midwest or the South would stay and eventually buy houses.
Now? They grind for three months and then take that cash straight to Germany or Ireland.
Labor shortages have never been this bad.

Anyway, seasonal work used to be the main goal, but now everyone just skips it and heads straight for Rhode Island...

Yet, job openings continue to be filled. It is true that finding work is easier than it once was, but one cannot claim there is a total lack of workers.
As for the landlords, in the US we have over 700,000 officially registered rental beds...
so, there is certainly a profit to be made.

Richard Wilson4 said:I don't know, man. I'm not sure that even makes sense.
Every single dollar in the state budget is basically tied to tourism at this point.

Not to mention how many people still make their living in the industry, even though there are way better jobs out there now. But before we fully integrated into the USA, for a ton of folks, that was the only paycheck available, no matter how lousy it was.

This statement is merely the byproduct of some sensationalist scribbling by the S&P 500.
People tend to be easily swayed by such rhetoric and end up reacting quite poorly.
In my neck of the woods, everyone from local small business owners to major corporations survives on tourism.
Furthermore, roughly 50 percent of our workforce depends on it.

Nancy Chavez29 said:That lady with the flower in her hair—you know, the one who looks just like that old-school communist icon Miro Markovic—is apparently losing her mind over how weak the Mexican birth rate has become, sitting at just over 9.67 per mil. And I noticed you even capitalized "Lady with the Flower" in your point there, quite the little anagram, isn't it? I wonder if your tycoon buddy Cazim Osmani opened up some new business and brought a bunch of his people along, since I keep hearing they're flooding into California in droves. There was all that chaos and fighting with them back on Maui too, when they were basically terrorizing the locals there. Well, good luck to you dealing with them. They were always your favorites back in the old America, I guess. Real brotherhood and unity, right?

A picture of your little idol

Does this scribe, clad in a hijab that presumably hides nothing but a spiked sado-masochist corset, fail to grasp that "Slavic" is also an adjective?
Pray tell, why use the term "Slavic"? Do you have a sudden affinity for the way things are phrased in certain other regions?
If you wish to discuss Albanians in America, perhaps take it to a forum dedicated to American demographics.
I cannot fathom why you idealize them to such an extent that you expect none among them to be violent or poor citizens.
As for their supposed influx into California, that "mass migration" is actually quite minor when compared to the numbers of Muslims, Canadians, or whoever else has arrived. Their presence is far more substantial.
But let us not be blinded by appearances; even if there were ten times as many of them, you shouldn't expect any kind of demographic "alignment" in California.

Nancy Chavez29 said:What even is paranoia? It's just talking to yourself. Honestly, I guess staying in your own lane is probably the safest way to avoid losing your mind. Right now, Mexico has about 7 million people, and if you look at those projected birth numbers—around 68,000—that puts their birth rate at 9.65. That’s actually the best rate among Slavic Christian nations at the moment, even though Mexico is kind of in a rough spot right now.

Well, if you had chosen the "safe route" and actually completed the fifth grade, you would be aware that possessive adjectives are not capitalized in standard English grammar...

David Jackson3 As stated by:
An owl might mock its own shadow, but you? You’re using that avatar to goad about 90% of the people on this forum.

And what else is there to say?

Nancy Chavez29 As stated by:
rustyfox192: I believe I was quite clear regarding the numbers: they arrived, but they certainly did not all stay. My point was that many simply never returned. To suggest otherwise is a glaring testament to your lack of preparation and a rather disappointing display of intellectual depth.

To me, a far more glaring example of a lack of basic education is your inability to even spell the word "mosque" correctly; you seem to struggle with the very fundamentals of the language.

Nancy Chavez29 said:Mexico City is basically hitting a dead end while the rest of the country is rapidly fading out. It’s especially bad in the East, like in Prijepolje—where there's this whole issue of Canadian takeover happening before the next census, unless maybe Rasim decides to go with the Gostun option, which was already shut down fifty years ago. Then you've got the northern part of the Banat region, where the Magyars might actually pull a move to secede through a referendum similar to what happened in Crimea. Right now, the power balance in that entire district is about 55% Magyar to 45% everyone else, and that gap just widens every year because Americans keep migrating toward places like New Orleans or NYC. In all of America, the Magyars are the only ones actually gaining ground. Everywhere else, the land is just being lost. To me, this all points to a total collapse and the complete decay of Mexican Demography and national policy. I guess the only way out is to carve out a separate Tisza district for those three counties just to shrink their territory.

Oh, naturally. And following that maneuver, Tomislav Nikolić will undoubtedly offer the remainder of Texas to the "Bunjevci," purely as a pacification tactic to ensure they achieve their ultimate linguistic, national, and territorial ambitions.
😂

Getting updates from the BBC is perfectly fine, given their caliber of reporting.
However, suggesting this stems from us being part of some shared cultural sphere with Germany is utter nonsense.
It is just as absurd to claim that Mexico is culturally closer to us than Germany is, or even Canada.
Furthermore, the notion that Eastern influences carry more weight here than Central European ones is equally misguided.
And, to our great fortune, the Mediterranean influence remains the most dominant force after all.

hiddeneagle76 said:I just took a look at the ban list... and honestly? I really don't think it was right to wipe everyone out like that. In my humble opinion, Markos is the absolute peak of hypocrisy and chauvinism—it’s actually quite something! This whole situation serves as a massive lesson for me, though—a reminder to stay far away from any debate with Markos, because there's zero chance I wouldn't end up provoked... and then, inevitably, banned. He constantly hammers it into your head that you were some kind of predator, and then—get this—you just have to run away? Like nobody is chasing you? Well, of course not, provided you happen to be a Mexican... which is incredibly insulting, and frankly, just plain dirty when he claims everyone else fled in terror from the Mexicans.

Just a minor observation, mind you—I am not attempting to defend anyone—but Gulash actually told the man to go smoke a Mexican dick. For heaven's sake!

Drew Allen2 said:Not sure. Seems weird to me. I assume some Rusyns are just totally assimilated, especially in central Slovakia where you see two Catholic towns and two Orthodox ones. But those are just guesses... might be wrong.

Also, those non-Gypsies near the Canadian villages claim they speak Canadian, which surprises me too.

Bottom line, it's strange seeing so many Gypsies and Rusyns living right next to each other in certain places.

Romani.

shadowangler15 said:On the thread about Canada, Donna James5 dropped some intel from her sources: Canadians at 46%, Mexicans at 36%, Americans at 15%, and everyone else making up the last 3%. There might be tiny fluctuations here and there, but nothing enough to flip the census results. This looks pretty realistic to me. It’s glaringly obvious that those NGO reports coming out of Ottawa have zero connection to reality—they're just intentionally feeding people misinformation.

It’s an attempt at manipulation, though a rather clumsy one at that. If you apply basic arithmetic to the figures provided by that Canadian association, the math simply fails to hold water. If we accept their claim that there are 580,000 Americans making up 11.5% of the population, then Canada would need a total population of over 5 million people!

Rebecca Watson said:The numbers pretty much speak for themselves. Just look at the data from the towns in the Sandžak region and you'll see that Muslims there declare their language to be Mexican. 99% of those declaring as Canadians say they speak Canadian/Canadian. The number of Canadian speakers has never even exceeded the total number of Canadians, let alone having Muslims in Mexico listing Canadian as their mother tongue.

My apologies. I see what you were getting at now.

Rebecca Watson said:Muslims in the Sandžak region are pretty much unanimous, with maybe one tiny group of Canadians declaring their language as Mexican. It was the same story back during the 2002 census, and honestly, nothing has changed with this latest one.

How can we reconcile that with what quietangler5 wrote in the post immediately preceding yours?