Ok, not football at all, but it matters, eventually.

[MrsORichSenior_]

FWIW Spaldy.......

Fair point Spaldy given with skin on the ground from you......... and appreciated.

My observation was in tamden with dealings I also have had with several staff of companies from within the United States with interests in France....... usually via visa applications for internships and graduates wanting relevant experience into having stronger trade and investment ties.
Some 5,000 U.S. firms are operating in France right now having been induced in by various regional incentives....... so my opinions voiced knew that you would be enticed into a comment response as I was interested to hear it from somebody also within an American community........ warts and all..... which you kindly provided.

Phoenix I was briefed...... is rapidly emerging as a vibrant and promising tech hub, into captivating entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts alike of which provided me some interesting translation work regarding why foks chose France for work experience to engage into via the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company Airbus setup..... I was helping out.
..... also dealt with hi-tech firms in Salt Lake City of Utah and Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania which all appear to offer a very highly skilled tech labour force for my clients in France.
...... so my input maybe had bias from the 'suits' I deal with which was thrown into the thread mix and the younger students views expressed on living in the USA of today while working in France for said tech companies hiring and training them was on the whole with the same opinion of the tourists of various ages and backgrounds I come across.

As ever....... an interesting perspective given from you which I appreciated and will take on board....... as you quite rightly stated media is not always offering consistent balanced views today.

MOT

[spaldy]

Mrs O,

I suspect that with your broader life experiences of the world compared to my rather parochial existence others might think we are worlds apart in our views. However, it's been my experience that many of us just want to go about our lives and be left alone. The sides are not nearly as different as our rulers would have us believe. There are some hard core ideologues that are almost incorrigible and others that really are just evil or sociopathic but the majority of people, once you get to know them individually are fine to be around.

Phoenix is a wonderful city. They have one huge, huge problem looming. Water. There is not enough of it and there is no easy fix. It's the type of issue that requires a big thinking approach that requires compromise and working with many groups of people and states. The water right agreements in place were negotiated in the post civil war days (1800's) when the area was almost unpopulated and focused on agriculture. it's exactly the type of thing that the federal government should be working on but instead they are too busy on social engineering exercises. at some point it will be an insurmountable problem that will require crisis solutions/decisions rather than a calculated approach. Energy is also an emerging crisis in the desert southwest/california areas.

I also enjoy the perspective of others than my view of the world. I appreciate your insight and view of things. It's too easy these days to get insular. Social media instead of broadening the world has, instead, created a make believe world where the only people that we associate have the same views as they do. That extends to everything from sports, politics, business and culture.