John Oliver just did a piece on Italy's upcoming elections.  In fact the Italian election is all over the news right now.  They're all right.  Most of the politicians running for office are dismal and the system is a hot mess but that's not the complete story.  Oliver emphasized the right wingers who sadly, as right-wing as they seem here, would be pretty mainstream in the US.  Oliver didn't mention the myriad of center left and left-wing parties.  And there are the anarchists and communists and green parties etc.  There have certainly been protests.  The anti-fascists are marching against the fascists and the center-right are marching against the current government.  The biggest issue is that there are 600,000 recent African immigrants in the country and if 10 percent of them have criminal intent, that is a lot.  As the economy is slow Italians resent the fact that millions of euro are going to house, feed, clothe and provide phones for all of these refugees.  And yet, there has been only one major act of violence against them, a shooting in central Italy by a white supremacist nutcase that injured six and killed none.  It shocked the nation.  Unemployment in young people is very high and the national debt is huge.  And why is it huge?  Because in the midst of all this chaos, the country still manages to provide the essentials to it's residents.  Housing, education and healthcare.  Add the fact that food is cheap and what else do you need?  So life goes on.  Gun deaths are very rare and mostly limited to the mafia, both perps and victims.  Were there just ONE school mass killing like the one in Florida here, the entire country would be on the streets.  This place is a political, bureaucratic clusterfuck and that's not going to change.  But sadly, with the state of affairs in the US right now, I have to ask myself what's worse?  I know that I would not want to have a kid in school there, where here they'd be perfectly safe.  I would be terrified of being without health insurance and becoming seriously ill there.  Here, I'm covered.  Gays can marry and adopt,  renewable energy and infrastructure are greatly invested in and there ain't no nukes.  There are no redneck governors making life a nightmare for anyone who isn't a conservative white male.  I bitch and complain simply because I can.  I miss Maine terribly.  But seeing from here what the US is becoming is heartbreaking.  I pray that when the time comes for me to plop my retired backside down in one place that it can be stateside but right now, this place isn't looking too bad.  Just sayin'.  xxoo me