New York Small Estate: Fill & Download for Free

Having been a businessman myself for over 40 years and having read extensively about Donald Trump, I was initially in favor of a businessman in politics because we tend to know how to get things done. However, nothing really added up with Trump's businesses. Reading between the lines, at best something unethical was going on and at worst that something was completely illegal. Trump’s businesses from an outside perspective have lots of flash out front but no substance. I have found that whenever somebody puts a lot of effort into self promotion that there is usually a fake persona behind the curtain such as in the Wizard of Oz.After Trump failed miserably in the US, he became the perfect stooge for Russian intrigue where they typically give a little money and hold compromising dirt so they own your loyalty and receive great value for relatively small input of cash. Russia’s tiny investment in Donald Trump has yielded more than several divisions of infantry and a few squadrons of aircraft. Donald Trump has advanced Russian intentions farther than they could have dreamed.Trump’s false story was that he borrowed $1 million from his father and paid it back with interest but the reality was that his father gave him $443 million. The discrepancy between those two stories is the same discrepancy that you’ll see in Donald Trump‘s everyday statements. There is a wide difference between their reality and what he says.The New York Times is to be commended for the 6 person-years plus that they put into the story and it cannot be simply refuted by saying it’s all false news because if so, they will be attacked mercilessly by Mr. Trump. They will NOT be attacked in court because Trump knows they have their facts straight. Notice they are not alleging fraud but stating it WAS fraud and they cannot do that unless they can support all they’ve written.How much damage Donald Trump will do before he gets taken down? The corruption we can afford, his total incompetence, we cannot.I speak from experience. I have been infinitely more successful than Donald Trump. I’ve not broken any laws, have employed 50 Americans to make an ethical product with over 95% US content.

Where to start?Tax “evasion” is a crime. Tax “avoidance” is a tactic practiced by everyone who files itemized tax returns or who contributes to a tax-deferred savings plan. Do you, for example, participate in a 401(k) or IRA? If you own your home, do you deduct property taxes and mortgage interest? There is nothing to stop you from foregoing your deductions or taking a taxable distribution from your tax-deferred savings plan.CA and NY taxpayers cannot avoid State taxes merely by moving to another State. They must get their incomes from those other States as well. Someone who works in NYC but lives in NJ must first pay New York taxes which are then credited on the NJ filing.Many professional athletes reside in States without an income tax. Several members of the New York Yankees reside in Florida. They pay NY taxes on salaries earned during home games but not on games played in other States or on endorsement income.Retirees who worked in high-tax States often retire to States without income taxes (including FL and TX). In this fashion, their pensions are not subject to State income tax.The tax code is complicated. Tax payers who own rental property use the depreciation provisions to reduce their taxes. When the property is sold, tax is paid on the amounts previously taken as depreciation at capital gains rates. CA owners can utilize a so-called 1031 exchange to sell investment real estate in CA and buy “like kind” real estate in another State but without incurring CA capital gains tax. Taxpayers with long range plans can do this multiple times until the property passes into the owner’s estate without ever paying capital gains tax.NY is experiencing an alarming rise in violent crime including murder. Both NY and CA have encouraged a growing homelessness problem. Jails are used to house those who were formerly patients in psychiatric hospitals. This is not my idea of “socially just.”Already, a very small fraction of taxpayers are paying a very large share of State and local taxes. As taxpayers decamp to other States, the budgets are taking a beating. NY reported that it will have a deficit of $59 billion through 2022 (WSJ 10/21/2020, p.a2). Covid19 has exacerbated this problem but it has been building for several years.High income taxpayers have had enough. They might be willing to fund good schools, well staffed police forces and functional infrastructure. They are becoming increasingly unwilling to fund local governments that are committed to endless crusades against “climate change,” ever more generous union pensions and misguided tolerance of violent and destructive riots. Gov. Cuomo of NY said a few years ago that Republicans were “unwelcome”’in his State. Many have taken his advice and moved themselves - and their tax money - elsewhere.A few years ago, NJ tried to tax pensions paid to retirees who lived elsewhere (especially FL). Apparently, 9% income tax, 3% property tax, 6.625% sales tax, taxes on casino gambling and a lucrative lottery was not enough. Federal courts nixed NJ’s plan.No, NY and CA cannot sue States that “harbor” their tax refugees. And no, NY and CA can make no special claim to be “socially just.”Note added in proof (10/23/20): NJ plans to collect income taxes from Wall Street employees who are now working from home in NJ.N.J. could grab hundreds of millions in N.Y. income taxes paid by NYC employees now working at home in Jersey

2004 - Moving SouthI am a 40-year New Yorker and have always been the consummate story teller and ribald character that enjoyed being different and a social rebel that was activated into action by the 1960s Civil Rights movement. I worked for Jack Kennedy and met him when he visited with his followers in Norfolk in 1960. I went to the 1963 March on Washington and heard Martin Luther King make his "I have a dream speech" which thrilled me to end. It put goose bumps up my spine and invigorated me. One of the redeeming graces I found in Virginia was my five years of weekly hunting in Dismal Swamp and Fishing in Chesapeake Bay. In fact, I did become a southern "Good Ole Boy" swamp rat and died in the wool fisherman with my own boat. I shot so many deer they nick named me Daniel Boone. In 1969 I went to Woodstock and had a great time. I was a Hippy type, but without the long hair and drug use and outlandish behavior. I worked in Greenwich Village teaching graduate students at the New School and especially enjoyed the diverse academia and performing arts characters I socialized in Washington Square Park with actors, playwrights, university professors, and protestors of every stripe. It was strange, I was threatened by the Ku Klux Klan in Virginia for my Civil Rights activities, started packing my P38, and blessed for them in New York and got rid of all my many weapons. Two different worlds.I worked in Manhattan most of my life and loved the most exciting city in the world where you can become famous and rich there - I did the famous part but not the rich part, just did well. I found a new life there, coming from the 1960s segregated south to the land of intellectual and social freedoms. It was my epiphany, my transformational life experiences that kept surprising me with new options to live happily. What with its Greenwich Village ambiance of intelligent types, Times Square funkiness, and Mid Town Corporate career challenges, It will always be where my heart is, but New York City - the Big Apple - is a young man's City and very expensive, too stressful for a person in retirement, unless you are multimillionaires’ wealthy. New York has become too expensive and suffers extremely cold winters, which in my retirement old age, I cannot suffer anymore. Now I leave it for the south, hopefully, it has changed from its ultra conservative political and religious orientation . . . we will see.Moving South - Better Think About ItMore than any other part of America, the South stands apart. Millions of Northerners have migrated to it since the 1960s Civil Rights movement and Air conditioning . . . but Southerners they will not become. For this is still a place where you must be born there to feel it is your native ground. Overall, ultra conservative politics and religion define the south, with Mississippi being the most religious and poorest state. In fact, the top most religious states (all southern) are also the poorest, most obese, poorest schools, least educated, most racist with more drugs and criminals and backward than all the other states.But in retirement I did move south again. One of my daughters moved there into a nice multi cultural Atlanta suburb with a great school district (Lilburn) that seemed modernized and somewhat New York like. She got married and was raising a family, both she and her husband had good jobs, and it seemed the south had changed for the better . . . Hallelujah! Maybe I would move there too! I was old and retired, getting decrepit and cranky, hated New York's cold weather and exorbitant property taxes, and because it was cheaper and nicer than upstate NY.I have been house hunting in the Northeast section of the Atlanta metro area since last October. House hunting in the Atlanta area is like looking for candy in a candy store. Beautiful homes are all over the place, and new construction is the name of the game. It’s “building boom’ time in Atlanta and developments are going up by the thousands. We like Gwinnett County which is on the eastern side of Atlanta. It has about a million people, great schools, and is ultra modern with shopping and endless amenities.House hunting in the Atlanta area is like looking for candy in a candy store. Beautiful homes are all over the place, and new construction is the name of the game. The prices were going up as the real estate market got more and more people moving into the area. It’s “building boom’ time in Atlanta and developments are going up by the thousands. We like Gwinnett County which is on the eastern side of Atlanta. It has about a million people, great schools, and is ultra modern with shopping and endless amenities. Bettie and I looked at many new developments and liked them all. The further east we went toward the rural areas, the cheaper it got. Most homes we looked at were going for 130k to 150k (2004 prices - add another 80K now) and that would get you just about everything. The prices were going up as the real estate market got more and more people moving into the area.Our New House in Monroe, GAWe like the Snellville - Loganville - Monroe area located along Route 78. Someone told me about Monroe. They were build large ranch style homes with lots of upgrades. I went there and fell in love with a three-car garage, four bedrooms, great room and sun room, 2,800 square foot ranch. It had the open floor plan, all huge walk in closets, large rooms with ten to 12 foot ceilings, and a huge master bedroom with an adjoining en sweet for a five-point bathroom and room sized walk in closet. It had a sit down marble shower and double marble sinks. All this for 200k, a house that would cost more than 500k in Middletown, NY with property taxes of $14,000 year plus. We bought it and the closing will be in November at which time I will start to move our belongs in. In 2005 Bettie and I moved to Georgia too. Immediately we found the 'War' ain't over yet!This is a much bigger house than we owned in New York and the house feels and looks so different [and better], even with the same beat up old furniture. I restored all the furniture, beds and lamps to as new condition. It is gorgeous here in Georgia, and the weather has consistently been sunny and bright and in the low eighties. Our 70 home development is still building houses, so construction abounds around us. We are forty miles to downtown Atlanta and twenty miles to my daughter's house in Lilburn. We are right off Route 78 in the country close to the Walton County Seat and small City of Monroe. Horses, cows and farms are all around us, but developments are going in and in a few years, we will be just a rural farm area filled with new housing developments.I already have moved most of our things in. I still have several more pickup loads to go. I am amazed at my ability to drive these [many] 900 mile non stop trips to Atlanta without getting tired. I actually enjoy the 13 and ½ hour drive, especially through Virginia’s beautiful Shenandoah Valley. Moving was a lengthy process, one born of 27 years in the same house and the accumulation of tons of ‘Stuff.’ I took seven full pickup loads of ‘Stuff’ to the dump, but still packed hundreds of banana boxes and driving my trusty old F-150, made countless ‘stuff’ moving trips between New York and Atlanta. I also made one trip with a 26-foot rental truck loaded with furniture. I drove nonstop the 920 miles eight times and still can’t believe that I am capable of that long drive. But I really enjoyed the trips and always looked forward to the scintillating drive on Route 81 thru the extremely beautiful Shenandoah Valley. Now we are almost totally moved in but still have a few boxes to unpack.I am glad that we bought a house out in a rural area, away from congestion, but with the huge migration to our area, the peace and tranquility of rural living won’t last long. Remember, to make accurate comparisons, housing in Atlanta, Georgia is less than a third the price of Middletown, New York with a fifth of the taxes. Developments are going up all around us, mostly at higher price points than our own development. Right across the road from us a new development is going in the $350- 400K range. Their Community Center is being built now for a cost of $800,000. Our development started in the [K$] 140s, when we bought it was in the 160s, the sign now says the 190s, but you can’t buy anything now in our development (2018 prices) for less than $240,000. I read recently that the Atlanta statistical area consisting of 28 counties, have been and continue to be the largest and fastest growing real estate market in the USA. I believe it!Our town of Monroe is very nice and convenient to getting around as it is located at the intersection of multiple highways. Last year a Wal*Mart Super Center was built at that intersection, and a Home Depot Super Center [twice the average size] is just being finished now. Of course, the multitudes of restaurants and adjacent strip malls are going up there now too. Across the street from Wal*Mart a Walton County Regional Hospital is being built. Very soon, our rural area will look like Middletown’s miracle mile.Bettie and I have settled on a church that we really like and are thinking about joining it. It is the First Methodist Church in Monroe, it has a woman pastor and a congregation that simply over whelm one with greetings of welcoming love. Using small groups, we are now going through Rick Warren’s new book on “Community.” There were more than forty groups with an average of 10 people per group. All the churches we visited were great too, but there was something special about this church.First Baptist ChurchBettie and I just returned from church. We went to the First Baptist Church in downtown Monroe on McDaniel Street. It reminds me of our old church, First Congregational in Middletown, both being downtown with an older congregation, a huge organ and concert piano with formal [operatic] choir, and interested in supporting missions around the world. There the similarity ends. This church, although very old, is in pristine shape with modern lighting and sound systems. The membership is 900 plus strong with several services to accommodate all. The pews are filled with teenagers and young and older married couples and the elderly. The sermons are always Bible based and filled with stories on living ones life as a Christian disciple. As in the [other] Faith Baptist church we have been attending, the people are extremely friendly and generate a sincerely warm atmosphere but are extremely judgmental, always someone or something to complain about, now its homosexuals. I do miss the coffee and cake hour following the church service that I’ve learned to appreciate at First Congregational. But they are clear on their stand against Democrats, Abortion, homosexuals and women leading men. Ugh! Backward -?First Methodist ChurchBettie and I are still looking around for a church. We have visited two local Southern Baptist churches and were thrilled with them. Our only concern was the strict fundamentalism of the Southern Churches, particularly Faith Baptist. They are very critical of modernity. They don’t believe in women taking part in the service or leading men in any way. I did not have the chance yet to ask them how they felt about Indira Ghandi, Margaret Thatcher, Golda Mier, Condelizzi Rice, Hillary Clinton, or Joyce Meyer. Otherwise, this church was truly inspirational and got your blood flowing. First Baptist, the church similar to our First Congregational, is still on our radar screen.They have the same ‘women will not lead men’ but are struggling with it, there is a strong move to change this position within the church. We tried First Methodist which is located next to First Baptist in downtown Monroe. It is also a large facility with many out buildings with a beautiful campus of manicured green lawns. The Sunday Bettie and I attended the service, and they were being conducted by the youth pastor and his large flock of teenagers. The minute we sat down we were immediately surrounded by multiple parishioners who sat down to welcome us and spend a minute talking with us. During the meet and greet sessions of the service, dozens of additional people came over to welcome us. We were given a gift bag of goodies too. I must say, this is the friendliest church we have been to, and that is saying something as the Baptist churches we went too also inundated us with warming welcomes too. We continued to be delighted as we saw large numbers of young people conduct the service and the message of the youth pastor, a very dynamic man. He gave a slide show and presentation about their recent mission to Mexico where they built two small homes for poor people. Finally the pastor provided a message, and surprise, surprise . . . the Pastor is a woman!Discovering the Real SouthThe South was a much different place than I imagined. The church is the center of all social gathering whereas in New York there were dozens of venues to gather around. In NY we had block and Mall parties, functions at the town hall and lots of meetings at peoples home. The south wasn't the racist bastion of the Ku Klux Klan anymore - well, except for a few die hards - the deep south would always be a racist bastion - and it had a completely different world view than the North. Whereas the North was a basically agreeable and diverse place - everyone got along - it was a live and let live environment - very progressive, working into the 21st century with innovation and new ideas, the South was monolithic, very judgmental, regressive, and holding onto the 19th century. And definitely not a live and let live environment, there was always someone or something they didn't like - Democrats, homosexuals, immigrants, Yankees, Unions, Obama, Liberals, the Federal government . . . the list goes on.Bettie and I discovered that outside the Atlanta area the culture is still much like the Confederacy . . . ugh! Hard rock ultra conservative Republicans and damn proud of it but totally ignorant to the outside world. In other words, backward and wanting to live in the 19th century, afraid of modernity and thinking the worst dirty name is Liberal and even worse than that . . . Yankee; and even worse than that . . . damn Yankee - those devils from New York that want to change everything! Ugh! And to think I served in New York politics for 15 years as a conservative Republican which means in Georgia you are still a liberal and plus a damned Yankee too. Wonderful brain power here.A politician in Georgia gets elected by declaring them a Christian, being the most conservative with an AAA rating from the NRA. They do not discuss real issues like economics, trade or world relations at all, just vote on religious and social issues. Oh yeah, wanting to carry guns everywhere with no background checks, stopping abortion and putting homosexuals on a hit list are the only things they will talk about. So, you can see, for a New Yorker used to intelligent dialogue, I am way out of step here. When I ask the impact of technology on the economy, they look at me with a blank stare. HUH?The South used the evangelical church, its ultra conservative Republican politics and its innate fear of science and education as tools to keep their regressive world view in focus while the North used the strength of its innovation and diversity and modernity to push forward into the future. Whereas the North was suffering from old age, with cold and cranky winters and had few new housing developments and was killing development because of exorbitant taxes, the South was warm, the taxes were very low, housing development was all over the place, and the people were outwardly nice. It was great for retirement but not for a young person who wanted economic and social opportunity, or diversity of life styles with lots of adventure thrown in. Only the North could satisfy those creative high cultural urges.SouthernersI went to get my oil changed in my old F-150 at the oil change place on Route 11 next to the old Maxi Price Chevrolet building. The manager shook my hand and introduced himself using a strong southern accent starting out with Howdy and followed with a string of ‘You' alls’, Gosh Darns and a few “I’ll be danged!” He said it would take ten minutes so I used the time to start chatting with other customers. About that time, the manager, seeing my old New York oil change sticker, asked me about New York. “What was the South like compared to New York” he asked? I told him that Georgia, with its rolling hills and small towns, looked somewhat like upstate New York, but there were differences. New York is a mountain state filled with huge lakes and rivers. As soon as the other customers heard “New York” they started speaking loudly about their negative impression of the state. Southern people generally think New Yorkers are unpatriotic, un Godly and liberal. You hear the term socialist a lot. The pickup driver next to me was very vocal and he screamed “Liberals, taxes, regulations, and unions were killing New York!”He was very adamant, raising his voice and pointing his finger, saying New York is socialist. Gee whizzes! Sound like he means it. Other customers chirped in that they would never allow a New York style socialist government here in Georgia. Paranoid people? Finally, my oil was changed and again the manager shook hands with me. His innocent question had started a rabid conversation between me and other customers and he was afraid I was turned off by them. He was apologetic and very concerned that I got a good dose of Southern Hospitality from him.Down South, [almost] every man is conservative and has a Pickup Truck and a gun (just like upstate New York). The difference is world view and acceptance of modernity. The enormous increase in gas prices absolutely killed the SUV market, they can’t be sold even if you try giving them away, but pickup trucks are selling like wildfire. Regardless of high gas prices and low MPG from trucks, there was not even the slightest dent in pickup truck sales. Truck dealers here have them lined up by the hundreds and sell them out quickly using heavy discounting strategies. It’s a Southern Thing, but while driving through Monroe, men driving pickup trucks always give a hand wave to pedestrians and other vehicles. I think if I ever bought another car, I would not buy it here. There are mega auto malls all over the place, but you can’t actually look at a single vehicle, even though hundreds are scattered over huge parking lots, they are all locked up, and there are none in the vast but empty show rooms. The Atlanta area auto selling strategy is for you to acquire a sales person who will drive you around in a golf cart and with frequent trips to the office, to get keys to open vehicles up one at a time. I won’t buy a car that way! I like the idea of visiting a show room where cars are displayed for all to see, and being able to sit in them at my leisure, absorbing their feel and ambiance without the interference of a pestering sales person. Because our weather is so temperate motorcycles have always been very popular here. Now with expensive gas, they are increasing in population exponentially and I have been looking at Kawasaki and Yamaha cruisers. We will see!I voted early the other day and found that only Tea Party Republicans are on the ticket. This is a hundred per cent Republican area and doesn't tolerate any other ideas than the ultra conservative Tea Party messaging. I was dismayed. There was no competition, no diverse opinions, no debate of ideas, no exchange and understanding of differing values, just the ultra conservative one-dimensional mantra of the white southern political establishment, what a shame for the intelligent growth of the nation and for the existence of reasonable politics in Walton County, and so what we get is everyone marching to the same tune as defined by a body politic of undereducated, unsophisticated voters with one-dimensional world views and understanding of humanity and governance, all to be done by ultra conservative right wing politicians. Well, why is it I am surprised, advertisements would say I am a Christian and the most Conservative with an A1 rating from the NRA as that was the Holy Grail of Politics. There go freedom and our American dream of inclusion and rugged individualism and submission to the lowest common denominator.But it is much the same across the South, ever since the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement, Southern politics have been dominated by race and class with a different view of the world than the rest of the USA. It’s almost like Southerners want to be a nation unto themselves with their very own distinctive values.Today, ultra conservative Republicans dominate the Southern political landscape and they do not represent diversity, just evangelical religious ferocity, social conservatism, and anti federalism, they being deathly afraid of secularism and multi culturalism.There are enough Blacks and northern - more liberal immigrants - to make a fight for middle of the road politics, but it seems blacks do not vote in enough numbers, especially poor blacks, and there are many, who still feel disenfranchised from the system and stay away from the polls because no one speaks their - righteous - cause for them. The racial groups have been separated for so long that multi culturalism in the South is considered anathema because Southerners typically feel comfortable only with those like themselves, and are afraid of foreigners (non Southerners) while in New York (most extreme opposite example) multi culturalism is cherished as the “Identifying Character” of the city and what makes the City a great and most interesting place for business and social interactions.New York City may be the extreme example, but I think it represents what the USA fundamentally stands for, something for everyone, especially if you work hard for it. Since its founding, when the United States has encouraged immigration from all over the world and its population reflected every racial, ethnic, and all religious groups, and with almost all immigrants going to the North; it was found that keeping some populations separate from the main stream developed separate and disparate nationalistic goals and views of the world, so inclusion was a dominate belief of all Northern political parties. Historically, northern states have been more broad-minded in assimilating ethnic differences and now enjoy more social progress and less confrontational differences in opinion, in fact, because ethnic differences were diminished, the ethnic middle class has grown economically, even becoming wealthy, in those societies.But despite the founder’s intentions to separate church and state, religious conservatives are anxious to expand the power of religious organizations into the government in southern America, even if that means undermining basic principles of religious and personal freedoms. The South is the Bible Belt and significantly represents the ultra conservative right-wing Christian political groups who generally support very socially conservative policies that generally fall outside the current political and social main stream of the USA; which cause great consternating after so many liberating social causes have been achieved because of Supreme Court decisions and the social/economic modernity evolutions of the 21st century? They want to enshrine religious privilege in the government as a basic civil right.As an elected New York Republican, I haven’t found any southern platforms in the Republican party I agree with these days [too intolerant], and not in the national Democrat party [too socialist] either. Maybe we need a Third party, or is that the Libertarian in me? I don’t like the politics of the religious right, although I agree with many of their concerns, but social issues are not “Political” issues in my book. I am more concerned with the economy, personal freedoms, terrorism, trade policies, our place in the world, and being the country of opportunity for everyone. So here I am in La La land where everyone thinks the same and I have no real choices, and that is what I miss most about New York, that I had an endless variety of exhaustible choices, and intelligent ones too!Living in Monroe, GeorgiaWe have a nice new house with low taxes, better than we could afford in high cost / tax New York. Life here is slow, nothing ever goes on, neither Bettie nor I have good friends or activities here. It's a day to day boring existence of shopping, going to church, Bettie's Quilting, my volunteering and our charitable things. Ironically, the south is self righteously religious but judgmental and very hateful against many types of peopleI am constantly working on my memoirs, going over them again and again, adding, editing, embellishing [I do that really good] and come away with a feeling of thankfulness for the life I have led, and much of that being in New York. But, you know how it is, you easily forget the bad things and remember best the good things. Living in Georgia has been a great experience, with its warm weather, friendly folks, and inexpensive living, but my bygone agreeable memories come from working in Manhattan for thirty years, which was for me, a continuing ribald awakening where I enjoyed things most people don’t get to experience, was challenged in business and successful beyond anything my imagination could ever endure, and achieved things few do if they lived a hundred life times.Many of my Southern friends are absolutely amazed at my worldly stories, as they have never experienced anything like them. Mostly, they fear and dislike Northern lifestyles especially if exemplified by New York City. They have spent their lives being comfortable in safe situations, have not traveled, always taken the easy way, lived in a homogenous white society, feared multi cultural peoples, in fact many of them think living or working in New York has evil undertones, and are way beyond anything they can imagine. This is something Bettie and I still have in our reserved mind set which makes us unable to totally accept our new situation here in the South.I think many Southerners have a serious conflict in their past culture, they don’t as a rule, think Segregation was bad, while at the same time, they were very religious and let racial hatred run amuck. For the life of me, I don’t understand that dichotomy. There is no serious Ku Klux Klan activity in Georgia (but there is in Mississippi and Alabama), but after 450 years of southern association between blacks and whites, you could say, albeit the history is nasty (slavery and Jim Crow), they get along fairly well hereToday it's hot outside, been that way for the week, in the mid 90s, and nothing moves now. I have been to the development pool a few days to cool off, but mostly we stay inside and camp out from the scorching outside heat. Our daughter Judi and her family drove up to New York for the July 4th holidays, and Bettie and I are alone here. But we are always alone. No one comes over for a visit . . . I mean my daughter and them do, a few people for Thanksgiving, nothing like the 50 or so we got over in New York, but here in Monroe, no neighbors, only a few church friends. It's been like lonely this since we moved to Georgia, its nothing like New York where our house was the center of activities for the neighborhood, church and our many friends.I miss the intellectual and social diversity excitement of New York, but I wouldn't want to move back at this time of my life (early eighties). The south is an easier, warmer and a much cheaper place to live and that is the attraction for us (getting old and decrepit) retirees like me. Honestly, I love to sit on the front porch, take shots at raccoons with my 357, drink sweet tea on hot afternoons and moonshine on Saturday nights and commensurate with the good ole boys about the evil of us damn fucking Yankees. However, my red neck friends seem bound and determined to prevent me from living this idyllic life. Between their Confederate flags, white Christian Right churches, hating all us Yankees and our demented liberal values of personal freedom and appreciation for 'Live and Let Live' diversity, it couldn't be a nicer place.Am I a southerner yet? No and probably never will be. The culture is full of peace and quite, has no excitement, except for the yahoos at Sunday school; it's all just to backward for me to swallow. Even though New York taxes put me in the poor house, I miss the blood and guts of Manhattan, the pretty girls, intellectual conversations and crazy characters of Greenwich Village. I just can't get used to southern Republicans and their politicians, they don't think critically, they cater to the most base bigoted and fearful instincts of the electorate, they work hard being the most conservative, most religious, most judgmental and hating Obama the most and that gets them elected. Oh, and do they ever love their guns (well, I do too!). They care more about the second amendment than any of the others, especially the first which they seem to have forgotten about along with the concept of 'separation of church and state' embedded in our constitution. Makes me wonder how they get along in Washington or maybe that is what our congress is all about these days and why the legislative branch is so dysfunctional. But then I spent thirty some odd years working in Manhattan and there is too much "Live and Let Live" open-minded freedom oriented thinking in me. I am a New Yorker! .I know that if given a choice, and I lived my life over again, I would definitely still live and work in New York and think twice about moving south when I retired. In the Hudson Valley where I lived, there was just more freedom, with more religious, political and life style choices available, where people are not the same and think differently, and we celebrate the differences, and there is tons of fun, a thousand things to do.Yes, mother. The south is still backward but this time not based on race. They are ultra conservative Tea Party Trumpster evangelicals afraid of different types of people and progressive ideas, and are hung up on things like homosexuality, abortion, education, immigration, Mexicans, Yankees, New York values and science. Seems they don't understand and are afraid of high tech implications, the global economy and using government investments to help people and foster business. It's like they haven't joined the 21st century and don't want to. But white southerners are a dying breed, they suffer so much, what with their poverty and lack of education, obesity and nostalgia for a monolithic life long gone by.They have paranoiac fears that the USA is being over populated with browns, yellows, blacks and non evangelical Christians, so they invented this ultra conservative and Christian right wing, who are afraid of everything not white and call it the 'Tea Party' - which is only a southern manifestation of extremist politics.But what happened to my old Republican Party that was reasonable and balanced? They are in the north and west regions of the USA! Now the south is 'Hard rock ultra conservative Republican' and damn proud of it but so many can't pass a high school GED equivalency test. In other words, wanting to live in the 19th century, afraid of modernity, multiculturalism, denying science, and thinking the worst dirty name is Liberal and even worse than that . . . Yankee . . . and if you are from New York . . . Damn Yankee.Bettie and I have lived in Monroe, Georgia for thirteen years now and I have gotten used to it. Actually, I kind of like the area now, although compared to Atlanta proper, it still is a quiescent Confederacy; we are close to everything we need to do and you still see a few Confederate Flags around. I am going to get me a 'carry permit' - all my neighbors have one - all I need to do is buy a nice gun. I do like it here now, especially the Loganville and Lawrenceville communities which are our primary shopping destinations. They have that modern, homey and convenient feel I like and have Kroger's Grocery, Sam's Club and Goodwill, where we buy most of our clothes. Yes, folks, we are big time Goodwill shoppers and I get some great stuff at about $4 or less. Monroe is a small southern town that still retains its comfy and homey character, it is not slummy or decrepit even though its full of poor people, and is quite decent. There is a Home Depot and Wal*Mart here, tons of used car dealers, municipals building, groceries, strip malls and fast food places.Now I spend my time writing and in constant learning mode from the Internet and have written many stories about my worldly experiences and fun days in Georgia.