I was in my 50s in 2016, but my wife and I pulled up our stakes and left the United States. It cost us most of what we were worth, but I never regretted it.

I'm a very optimistic person - often too much so. But in the 2010s I realized that I couldn't even come up with an optimistic scenario where the US recovered and improved.

The Obama Administration was my last straw, because this was as good as we were going to get: I realized the US would never have proper healthcare, never stop invading foreign countries on lying pretexts, and particularly, never ever ever stop expanding its use of fossil fuels.

Of course, Trump was far worse; W was far worse; but alternating mediocre and terrible leaders is not going to fix things.

I'm now looking out at the rain falling on an Amsterdam canal and wondering how I was so lucky.

I feel bad for Americans, but my political views, like "single payer" medical care is good, or that starting endless unjust wars based on lies and losing every one of them is bad for everyone, made me a laughingstock in the United States - views that are boring and unremarkable here in Europe.

Centuries of genocide and one-sided wars, mostly against people of color; an obsession with fossil fuels and ever-increasing consumption; and no hope of change in sight from either R or D, and little interest from most of its citizens in fixing matters. So I harden my heart.