The fact is, I didn\u2019t do much about my upcoming Portugal trip yesterday.\u00a0 I was busy tending to the more mundane aspects of my life \u2013 mowing the lawn, etc. \u2013 and didn\u2019t get much done.\u00a0 And, of course, there is the recurring thought in the back of my mind, \u201cShould I really do this in a time when the Delta variant is wreaking havoc everywhere?\u201d\u00a0 Then I read something and it kind of jarred me back to reality and the little voice in my head came back with a resounding and emphatic \u201cyes!\u201d\u00a0 I still understand that this whole COVID thing can cause things to change rapidly and I know that all of my planning is subject to change and\/or cancellation at a moments notice but for now I will press ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two things happened yesterday that reinforced my belief that it is time to continue this exploration of becoming a full or parttime expat.\u00a0 First of all, I finished the book, \u201cI Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump\u2019s Catastrophic Final Year\u201d, by Pulitzer Prize winning authors, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker.\u00a0 As I stated in a previous post, anyone who believes that Trump is in any way, shape or form qualified to be president, should read this book.\u00a0 It paints a devastating picture of this narcissistic, vengeful and frankly, not very intelligent man and the chaotic and reckless way he makes decisions.\u00a0 It was truly frightening.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to the dangers that Trump himself poses, he has surrounded himself with a whole cadre of truly frightening people.\u00a0 Don\u2019t forget that around 20 of Trump\u2019s associates have been indicted since he took office and now that the tax returns from the Trump organization are being scrutinized by prosecutors, I\u2019d be willing to bet huge sums of money that there are more indictments to come.\u00a0\u00a0 The book truly reads like Tony Soprano took over as president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m sure there are those who read some of my blog posts last year when I was railing against Trump and wondering why I\u2019m continuing now even though he is out of office.\u00a0 After all, Biden is president, Trump no longer has access to Twitter and Facebook, Democrats control the House and the Senate so what is there to worry about?\u00a0 Which leads me to the second thing I read which helped calm my concerns about moving down this expatriation path now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I saw an interview with Richard Hasen, a law professor at University of California Irvine, in which he said he was \u201cscared shitless\u201d thinking about the 2024 elections. \u00a0It went on to explain that given all of the voter laws being passed in Republican-controlled states it is entirely possible that the popular vote in a state could go one way and if the state legislature does not agree with the choice of the people, they will have the ability to override it.\u00a0 This is exactly what Trump was asking states like Arizona and Georgia to do in this last election.\u00a0\u00a0 This is without precedent in this country, but could very well happen in the 2024 presidential election.\u00a0 The very thought of that should scare the shit out of any citizen of this country who believes in the Constitution and the very foundations of democratic rule.\u00a0 The fact is, I have voiced the very same concerns raised by Hasen and so his interview really hit home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A large number of Republicans seem to have bought into \u2018The Big Lie\u2019 and believe that Joe Biden was not legitimately elected and the election was \u2018stolen\u2019 from Trump in spite of zero credible supporting evidence and losing multiple lawsuits across the country.\u00a0 This has all of the makings for another, even more volatile election cycle next time around.\u00a0\u00a0 And while I fully support the prosecution of anyone who participated in the January 6th<\/sup> attack on the Capitol, my guess is that even those convicted of felonies will emerge and be better armed, better organized and primed for even more violence in 2024.\u00a0 \u00a0All one has to do is review Hitler\u2019s rise to power (Wikipedia summary included below) to understand that the undermining of democracy does not normally occur overnight.\u00a0 It happens over a period of years.\u00a0 Trump may or may not run in 2024 but the radicalization of the Republican Party will not stop and it is quite likely that whoever the Republicans field as their presidential candidate in 2024 will be more \u2018Trump\u2019 than Trump. \u00a0And unless the Federal government enacts legislation to counter all of the anti-democratic election laws being passed at the state level, the Republicans will reclaim the White House \u2013 fairly or unfairly. \u00a0As I have said previously, anyone who thinks, \u201cthis could never happen in America\u201d is not paying attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAdolf Hitler\u2019s rise to power<\/strong>\u00a0began in\u00a0Germany<\/a>\u00a0in September 1919 when\u00a0Hitler<\/a>\u00a0joined the political party then known as the\u00a0Deutsche Arbeiterpartei<\/a><\/em>\u00a0\u2013 DAP (German Workers\u2019 Party). The name was changed in 1920 to the\u00a0Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers\u2019 Party, commonly known as the\u00a0Nazi Party<\/a>). It was\u00a0anti-Marxist<\/a>\u00a0and opposed to the democratic post-war government of the\u00a0Weimar Republic<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Treaty of Versailles<\/a>, advocating extreme nationalism and\u00a0Pan-Germanism<\/a>\u00a0as well as virulent\u00a0anti-Semitism<\/a>. Hitler attained power in March 1933, after the\u00a0Reichstag<\/a>\u00a0adopted the\u00a0Enabling Act of 1933<\/a>\u00a0in that month, giving expanded authority. President\u00a0Paul von Hindenburg<\/a>\u00a0had already appointed Hitler as\u00a0Chancellor<\/a>\u00a0on 30 January 1933 after a series of parliamentary elections and associated backroom intrigues. The Enabling Act\u00a0\u2013 when used ruthlessly and with authority\u00a0\u2013 virtually assured that Hitler could thereafter constitutionally exercise dictatorial power without legal objection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hitler rose to a place of prominence in the early years of the party. Being one of its best speakers, he was made leader after he threatened to leave otherwise. He was aided in part by his willingness to use violence in advancing his political objectives and to recruit party members who were willing to do the same. The\u00a0Beer Hall Putsch<\/a>\u00a0in November 1923 and the later release of his book\u00a0Mein Kampf<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(My Struggle<\/em>) expanded Hitler\u2019s audience. In the mid-1920s, the party engaged in electoral battles in which Hitler participated as a speaker and organizer,[a]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0as well as in street battles and violence between the\u00a0Communist\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0Rotfrontk\u00e4mpferbund<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and the Nazis\u2019\u00a0Sturmabteilung<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(SA). Through the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Nazis gathered enough electoral support to become the largest political party in the Reichstag, and Hitler\u2019s blend of political acuity, deceptiveness, and cunning converted the party\u2019s non-majority<\/a>\u00a0but\u00a0plurality<\/a>\u00a0status into effective governing power in the ailing Weimar Republic of 1933.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once in power, the Nazis created a mythology surrounding their rise to power, and they described the period that roughly corresponds to the scope of this article as either the\u00a0Kampfzeit<\/em>\u00a0(the time of struggle) or the\u00a0Kampfjahre<\/em>\u00a0(years of struggle).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The fact is, I didn\u2019t do much about my upcoming Portugal trip yesterday.\u00a0 I was busy tending to the more mundane aspects of my life \u2013 mowing the lawn, etc. \u2013 and didn\u2019t get much done.\u00a0 And, of course, there is the recurring thought in the back of my mind, \u201cShould I really do this … Continue reading August 6, 2021<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7FBZO-ov","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1520,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519\/revisions\/1520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bikingwithmike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}