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marmar

(79,195 posts) Mon Dec 29, 2025, 07:47 AM Monday

A brain drain is coming for America -- and it's going to be catastrophic

A brain drain is coming for America — and it’s going to be catastrophic
From social media to immigration offices, a new phrase is becoming more and more popular: ‘The new American Dream is leaving America.’ Holly Baxter reports on parents, students, professors, and retirees, all of whom are planning to say goodbye to US in the near future

(Independent UK) Online, Alyssa Bolaños is a magnet for outrage.

“Will be hilarious when you move back,” someone commented on the video she posted a month after arriving in Uruguay with her husband and two kids. “No way I’d raise my kids under that,” another replied to a video she posted of shopping malls in the South American country.

Bolaños didn’t mince her words in response: “Too bad for your kids. Have fun with them getting shot at school in the U.S.”

....(snip)....

Bolaños was comfortable in her immigration job for years. She felt that she was mainly helping out families who were trying to improve their lives and navigate a difficult system. But then, during the first Trump administration, things started to change.

“I left the field because of the policies he was putting in place,” she says. How she saw those policies playing out on the ground began to affect both her mental and physical health. “My whole family’s immigrants,” she adds. “So I really went into it wanting to help people like our family.” In the end, she walked away feeling “defeated and just broken down.” She still offers her services freelance to families who need it, but she knew by the end of the first four years of Trump that she never wanted to work in an official capacity for the United States again.

....(snip)....

Bolaños gets a lot of criticism online, as well as a lot of support. She often gets angry DM’s from Americans who want to either let her know that she’ll come crawling back eventually or that they’re glad liberals like her are leaving. But just as often, she hears from people who are also planning to move their families out of the United States. “We’re out as of Jan 2nd and cannot wait to exit this hellscape,” wrote one commenter when Bolaños announced their plans at the beginning of the year. ................(more)

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/america-brain-drain-trump-us-immigration-b2851223.html

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A brain drain is coming for America -- and it's going to be catastrophic (Original Post) marmar Monday OP

There is no guarantee that our vote will count, as it should, slightlv Monday #1

slightlv

(7,430 posts)

1. There is no guarantee that our vote will count, as it should,

Reply to marmar (Original post)

Mon Dec 29, 2025, 09:21 PM

Monday

or that we'll have a "free and fair" election. I hate to say this about my country, because I've never missed a voting experience. I've always voted in person, no matter how unhandy it was for me at the time... I saw it not only as casting a vote for who would lead offices of this country, but also as a time to meet and talk with my neighbors, some of whom I only ever saw at the polls!

These days, tho... cheating is rampant... and the ways to cheat are what's competitive, not the offices. Can one party out cheat the other? I want to say there's never been any cheating on the part of the Democratic Party, but with what we're up against with the Repugs and their myriad and rampant ways of cheating, in a way that makes me sad, too. But I think there's a lot of people out here like me... who believe in voting and believe that ALL citizens are required to vote their conscience, no exceptions. Laws must be made that make voting EASIER for all people. That may mean a day national "voting day" where all businesses are closed or employees are rotated half on call and half off so that they can vote easily. It also means MORE help for the disabled. In this country, as of today, I also feel it requires investigation prior to voting, and monitoring while voting occurs. Laws which MAGA have seen fit to do away with on their side, but not ours... such as signs and campaigning within a certain number of feet of polling places, must once again be enforced for all. And MAGA isn't going to like that... they'll scream bloody murder that it's another form of censorship and victimhood. But we... Democrats and Independents and open minded Republicans... are going to have to learn to tune out their crocodile tears. This is where outside monitoring could help, IMO.

I've been saying for years the brain drain for America is going to be horrible because of Trump. Hell, if I was younger, stronger, and still working I'd have been gone before now. Today, I tend to feel more panic about living here than hope. That's not a good attitude, IMO, even while I work to try to change it.

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