I’ve been making contingency plans for leaving the country since the election. Last time around we moved to Prague. For the most part we enjoyed living there but it has its drawbacks. Like a language that I simply cannot wrap my brain around. Even our Czech veterinarian described it as “a VERY difficult language”. And if he has problems with it…
While I hope that we can eventually end up in Europe again (still a lot of countries we haven’t seen yet) I think the initial move is going to be to Costa Rica. Quicker, closer and generally a lower cost of living. I’m semi fluent in Spanish so at least we won’t be continually struggling to speak to people.
I kept hoping that it wouldn’t come to this, but the reality is frankly worse than I thought it could be. And these evil fucking people aren’t going to stop until they control everything and everyone. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point they try to stop people from leaving the country. I don’t intend to stick around long enough to find out.
Sold our condo. Renting to stay light on our feet. While I'm here, I'm glad to know that you're staying put for the time being. Your voice is important. I listened to your podcast today and you gave a very creative and cogent suggestion for the National Guard in DC. Dirty city? Grab a broom. Infrastructure crumbling? Patch the roads. Only a mind as nimble as yours can keep up with the madness and help us make some sense of it.
Trump creates problems that “only he can solve”. Creating crime, whether the crimes of citizens defending their own rights or that of kidnapping brown people and disappearing them, this is all quite true to his playbook. How they straight-face the crime of, um, assault by sandwich to a felony degree is one thing (and quite a sight to behold if you watch the presser) but chances are good something worse will happen that they can spin however they want because the media and a good deal of the citizenry alike have been primed for a decade to disbelieve almost everything at first look. At the start of 1.0 the Trump admin railed of a coming “race war” which, while not quite accurate (to their dismay I’m sure) this military presence and it’s inevitable consequences will be as close as they can get. And dollars to donuts it’ll be spun as “war” so the full throat of all branches of government can be engaged in shooting up the streets in its “defense”. The bigger question is what do we do then?
The disappearances of folks off the streets of Portland in 2020, along with the excuses that some people made for said disappearances, should have disabused everyone of the idea that it can't happen here. I don't say this to shame you or anyone else, but it's true never the less.
"I still don’t think we’ll go nearly that far. I can’t think that or I wouldn’t still be on these shores." Except it can go that far. History tells us exactly what happens when Willful ignorance takes the helm. The checks and balances you mention only hold when the body politic is willing to abide by it — which is no longer the case. I don't think most "Americans" even know what our founding philosophies were beyond trite phrases and catchy, hollow slogans.
Your economy is about to get really bad. A current big lie is that other countries are going to pay tariffs. So far importers have eaten a lot of the cost. For example, Ford reported a $2 billion tariff impact for the fist 2 quarters of 2025. That is going to end soon and consumers are going to feel the weight of tariffs. Compounding matters, crops are not being harvested and tourism and construction are down. Anyone (like me) who lived through the stagflation of the 70's will tell you it is bad and governments have to rely on their citizens to tough it out. There is no easy or magic fix to it.
Good post, sharing what many of us have been thinking.
I remain optimistic, but not blindly so. I would like to think that all of the good and capable people of this country (including attorneys) will prove an effective defense against the authoritarian aspirations of Trump and his vile co-conspirators.
I’m firmly on team Leave. My wife and I left the US seven years ago and have never regretted it, not for one minute. Yes, it’s hard to be away from family and friends, but the overall quality of life is still so much better. We happen to be in the Netherlands, but it seems that quality of life is there in most every other EU country we’ve visited. One of my cousins and her husband moved to Portugal last year and they are very happy.
The other day someone asked about how to deal with a country going fascist. I said that my grandparents dealt with it by moving to another country and their brothers dealt with it by being murdered. True story.
Ugh. Have you read this? A substack post about fascism. https://open.substack.com/pub/cmarmitage/p/i-researched-every-attempt-to-stop?r=f9kcy&utm_medium=ios
I’ve been making contingency plans for leaving the country since the election. Last time around we moved to Prague. For the most part we enjoyed living there but it has its drawbacks. Like a language that I simply cannot wrap my brain around. Even our Czech veterinarian described it as “a VERY difficult language”. And if he has problems with it…
While I hope that we can eventually end up in Europe again (still a lot of countries we haven’t seen yet) I think the initial move is going to be to Costa Rica. Quicker, closer and generally a lower cost of living. I’m semi fluent in Spanish so at least we won’t be continually struggling to speak to people.
I kept hoping that it wouldn’t come to this, but the reality is frankly worse than I thought it could be. And these evil fucking people aren’t going to stop until they control everything and everyone. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point they try to stop people from leaving the country. I don’t intend to stick around long enough to find out.
Mike, it's going to get worse than we think. Crazy as it sounds.
Sold our condo. Renting to stay light on our feet. While I'm here, I'm glad to know that you're staying put for the time being. Your voice is important. I listened to your podcast today and you gave a very creative and cogent suggestion for the National Guard in DC. Dirty city? Grab a broom. Infrastructure crumbling? Patch the roads. Only a mind as nimble as yours can keep up with the madness and help us make some sense of it.
Trump creates problems that “only he can solve”. Creating crime, whether the crimes of citizens defending their own rights or that of kidnapping brown people and disappearing them, this is all quite true to his playbook. How they straight-face the crime of, um, assault by sandwich to a felony degree is one thing (and quite a sight to behold if you watch the presser) but chances are good something worse will happen that they can spin however they want because the media and a good deal of the citizenry alike have been primed for a decade to disbelieve almost everything at first look. At the start of 1.0 the Trump admin railed of a coming “race war” which, while not quite accurate (to their dismay I’m sure) this military presence and it’s inevitable consequences will be as close as they can get. And dollars to donuts it’ll be spun as “war” so the full throat of all branches of government can be engaged in shooting up the streets in its “defense”. The bigger question is what do we do then?
The disappearances of folks off the streets of Portland in 2020, along with the excuses that some people made for said disappearances, should have disabused everyone of the idea that it can't happen here. I don't say this to shame you or anyone else, but it's true never the less.
"I still don’t think we’ll go nearly that far. I can’t think that or I wouldn’t still be on these shores." Except it can go that far. History tells us exactly what happens when Willful ignorance takes the helm. The checks and balances you mention only hold when the body politic is willing to abide by it — which is no longer the case. I don't think most "Americans" even know what our founding philosophies were beyond trite phrases and catchy, hollow slogans.
Your economy is about to get really bad. A current big lie is that other countries are going to pay tariffs. So far importers have eaten a lot of the cost. For example, Ford reported a $2 billion tariff impact for the fist 2 quarters of 2025. That is going to end soon and consumers are going to feel the weight of tariffs. Compounding matters, crops are not being harvested and tourism and construction are down. Anyone (like me) who lived through the stagflation of the 70's will tell you it is bad and governments have to rely on their citizens to tough it out. There is no easy or magic fix to it.
Good post, sharing what many of us have been thinking.
I remain optimistic, but not blindly so. I would like to think that all of the good and capable people of this country (including attorneys) will prove an effective defense against the authoritarian aspirations of Trump and his vile co-conspirators.
My wife and I have talked about bailing out, but we're getting old. Still thinking.
I would enjoy a piece from you about your deliberations: France, or the familiar?
More scary than ever. We agree it doesn’t look good, but we have to
keep good thoughts for our sanity. Best to the wife!!! ❤️🙏🍷🍷🍷
🙏🏻
I’m firmly on team Leave. My wife and I left the US seven years ago and have never regretted it, not for one minute. Yes, it’s hard to be away from family and friends, but the overall quality of life is still so much better. We happen to be in the Netherlands, but it seems that quality of life is there in most every other EU country we’ve visited. One of my cousins and her husband moved to Portugal last year and they are very happy.
Cmon over.
👍😡🤬🙏
The other day someone asked about how to deal with a country going fascist. I said that my grandparents dealt with it by moving to another country and their brothers dealt with it by being murdered. True story.
A horrifying moment of clarity.
I'm sorry for your family's losses, but glad your grandparents got out.
Thank you for mentioning the plight of trans folks in the US.
We started packing the moment I read Project 2025 almost 2 years ago, and we will never return.
But to be honest, I would have left 20 years ago if I'd had the means.