Category Archives: Leaving the USA for Good

In an unprecedented time of turmoil and political chaos creating personal conflicts and public confusion, increasing numbers of Americans are considering moving out of their country for a better, more peaceful life … and to enjoy a higher standard of living at lower costs. The U.S. State Department, in fact, estimates that 9 million Americans were living abroad in 2016. And the emigrant exodus is rising!

Every year, more Americans leave the USA to seek better lives elsewhere. The “New World” has become old and decayed to many and they’ve chosen to reside abroad for any number of reasons–personal, political, financial, family, health, retirement, etc.

Gallup reports in its January 2019 survey that an astounding number of Americans want to leave the USA permanently. As noted in the UK’s *Daily Mail newspaper:

• A record 16% of Americans wanted to move out of the country in 2018;
• Wanting to flee the country is significantly higher under Donald Trump than past presidents;
• The desire to leave the USA permanently fell along gender lines, with 20% of women vs. 13% of men wanting out;
• Younger people were more likely to consider packing their bags: 30% of those aged 15-29 said they hoped to leave the country permanently.

Making a Difference from Abroad

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“But, you left.”

“It’s not your country. You don’t live here anymore.”

“Why do you even care?”

“Anyway, what can you do from over there?”

For one reason or another, sooner or later, directly or indirectly, expats and immigrants are bound to hear comments such as these … especially on Facebook … because people don’t understand our decision or desire to live outside the USA.

Some people don’t; others won’t; many just can’t.

Yet estimates put the number of USA citizens residing internationally between six and nine million. According to a January 2019 Gallup poll, that number is increasing, as the emigrant exodus continues to climb under the Trump Administration.

Ironically, we left a country in the throes of battles over immigrants … to find ourselves now as the immigrants in another land: for many of us, that’s Portugal and/or Spain!

Moving elsewhere doesn’t sever one’s ties to the motherland. We can cut the umbilical cord; but never will we be detached from cares and concerns about our country, no matter where we may live. We remain U.S. citizens, albeit residing officially outside the USA.

Some people want nothing more to do with the increasingly belligerent partisan politics in the USA (or the UK … and elsewhere, for that matter). Others, however, are every bit as involved and engaged in the battle to form a “more perfect union” from this side of the great divide.

To answer those questions posed at the beginning of this post, expats actually can make a real difference in the USA from abroad:

 Contributing our time, talents, and resources to people and organizations we believe can make things better;

 Volunteering our efforts to help staff offices, make calls, translate, or moderate online forums dealing with citizenship matters;

 Writing letters to the editors of newspapers and magazines, websites and blogs, based in the USA and worldwide;

 Posting, commenting, responding, and sharing diplomatically on the “social” media;

 Sending emails and faxes to our “representatives” in the USA, informing them of our perspectives regarding matters of consequence and importance;

 Joining and participating in expat groups that represent our interests … maybe, even marching and rallying to show our solidarity with others who believe as we do;

 Most importantly, however: voting and doing everything possible to encourage others – whether in the USA or living abroad – to register and vote, too.

We’re involved “back home” as registered overseas voters.

Registering to vote overseas really is quite easy:

Simply go to either the website established by federal law, fvap.gov, or the Democratic Vote from Abroad’s website (votefromabroad.org) and register. They’ll take care of the rest.

According to USA law, Americans abroad continue to vote in the last jurisdiction where they lived and were registered to vote.

For us, every time there’s an election in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, we receive a ballot attached to an email from the city’s Clerk of the Court. We complete our ballots and mail them back (well before the designated deadline!) to Sturgeon Bay. By law, our ballots must be counted with all those during “early” voting and/or on Election Day.

“You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy,” is a statement published over one hundred years ago in The Country Gentleman’s May 16, 1914 issue.

Truer, more relevant words have yet to be written (or spoken) for those of us living internationally.

Shared here are personal observations, experiences, and happenstance that actually occurred to us as we moved from the USA to begin a new life in Portugal and Spain. Collected and compiled in EXPAT: Leaving the USA for Good, the book is available in hardcover, paperback, and eBook editions from Amazon and most online booksellers.

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Tips on Gratuities

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Now, here’s a sensitive topic if there ever was one: tipping.

That extra “something” provided to (certain) people who provide services to us: waiters and waitresses, barbers and hair stylists, guides, helpers and assistants working for contractors you’re paying directly.

I’ve asked the question(s) many times of lots of people. And plenty, in turn, have asked me: Do you tip? Who(m)? Where? How much?

Unlike USA workers in some industries and trades, tips aren’t necessarily expected by their counterparts in Portugal and Spain.

But they’re surely appreciated … especially if unanticipated.

There’s a theoretical irony here in that a “tip,” according to reasonable references, was originally given “to insure promptness.” Promptness? Doesn’t that go against the grain here in Portugal and Spain?

But the reasons for gracious tipping these days go well beyond timing and promptness. They’re about the quality of service we receive.

Regardless of where they’re working or what they’re doing in their jobs, my understanding is that Portuguese and Spanish workers are entitled, at least, to the prevailing minimum wage. Restaurant workers in Spain receive at least the minimum wage, known as the Salario Mínimo Interprofesional (SMI), which is set by the government and applies to all workers regardless of their sector, age, or gender. In 2025, the annual minimum wage is €16,576 (US $19,429.56), distributed in 14 payments. Restaurant workers in Portugal are also legally entitled to the national minimum wage, €870 ($1,019.77) per month in 2025.

Not so in the “colonies,” where restaurant and salon workers (among others) are paid a lower minimum wage, often not even earning a living wage that covers the basic costs of a life. For them, tips comprise a substantial portion of their income.

Despite the lower costs of some products and services here on the Iberia peninsula, I couldn’t live on those wages. Could you?

So, yes, I tip. Because I feel good when I can help and give a little extra.

But only for good and/or special service. And, usually, not to the owner or proprietor of a business, even if s/he is the one who is serving me … although, contrary to the conventional rule not to, I do tip taxi drivers who help me load and unload lots of baggage to and from airports.

Not everyone tips. They just don’t believe in it, as it’s not part of their culture, upbringing, and overall formation. If and when they do tip, it’s typically given as a token—but appreciated nonetheless.

Tipping has been one of those difficult adjustments for me to make, now that we live in Portugal and Spain.

While I am tempted to use the same rule of thumb that guided my gratuities in the USA – 20% for good service, 10-15% for acceptable, less for less – I am seeing how awkward even appreciative workers here may feel and react when given a tip based on these percentages.

On my restaurant tab of, say, 20 Euros, most service staff are delighted to receive a one Euro tip … they seem uncomfortable accepting three euros (15%) or four (20%). Evidently, the rule of thumb is 5% in restaurants here and 10% only if lots of plates are being changed. Similarly, my barber is very grateful when I give him (or her) a 50 cent or one euro tip on a charge ranging from €6-14. More often than not, a few coins are appropriate and thankfully welcomed. Especially for beer or wine, coffee, and “raciones” (tapas).

When you do tip, try to leave it directly for those who have served you. In cash (or coins), not on credit or debit cards, whose transaction fees and merchant charges will be deducted from your largesse.

Ultimately, tipping – like most perks and bonuses – is a judgment call.

There’s no right or wrong, no rules or standards set in stone.


My advice about tipping, therefore, is to do what feels right for you. Tip or don’t tip, whenever, wherever, whatever you believe is appropriate.

Shared here are personal observations, experiences, and happenstance that actually occurred to us as we moved from the USA to begin a new life in Portugal and Spain. Collected and compiled in EXPAT: Leaving the USA for Good, the book is available in hardcover, paperback, and eBook editions from Amazon and most online booksellers.

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Supermarket Sweepstakes: Grocery Shopping in Iberia

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Since we all don’t live on “quintas” and grow our own food, or belong to co-ops where we share that food with others (who share theirs with us), we are among those who purchase our food – along with personal products and household supplies – at local shops, grocery stores, and super/markets.

In Spain, every town of any size has at least one major supermarket (in addition to specialty shops: fruit and vegetable stands, butchers, bakers and bread shops, fish mongers, corner markets inserted between “bazaars,” delicacy shops that we’d call delicatessens or delis in the USA … although their foodstuffs are totally different).

Olvera, our hometown in southern Spain, has two: Dia (Distribuidora Internacional de Alimentación) which is known by its Minipreço (“Low price”) brand name in Portugal … and Mercadona, a larger, full-service supermarket with everything departmentalized under one roof, and an annoying jingle that gets under your skin, erupting when one showers, shaves, drives, or otherwise isn’t thinking about grocery shopping.

Few Portuguese villages have such supermarkets. Instead, the “corner” market is where one shops when you run out of something essential or forgot to buy it while at a city-sized supermarket. And when you want fresh rolls or bread baked that day (two lunch rolls are €0.32). Or when you want to shoot the breeze, brushing up on your Portuguese with neighbors who are also there buying a thing or two.

But for major shopping excursions and expeditions here, most head to Castelo Branco’s industrial zone, where no fewer than five major supermarket chains have staked out territory alongside warehouse-size specialty stores selling breads, cheeses, fruits, and everything your pets and animals could possibly need (Agriloja).

We do our food and supply shopping weekly at these super/markets, visiting one or more frequently. Often back-to-back, on the same day.

While all of these mega-markets sell the same things (more-or-less), we’ve developed preferences for this place and that, according to the specific objects of our desire.

I suspect that what follows will promptly provoke passionate debate and dissension but, hopefully, discussion and dialogue as well … as we share our secret appetites and pleasures for where we consider certain “bests” in the food chain(s) can be bought and found.

If empirical research is to be believed, first among equals is Auchan (aka previously as Jumbo), the anchor store at one of our two major malls here in Castelo Branco.

According to DECO, Portugal’s largest (nonprofit) consumer association that’s been accorded “public utility” status, after analyzing almost 600 supermarkets in 70 countries, Jumbo was found to have the lowest prices of all large chain stores—especially in central Portugal. Further, the consumer watchdog’s research highlighted that Jumbo’s prices tend to be best across-the-board in terms of both fresh and frozen products, groceries, personal care, and household products.

The study found that “Jumbo was top of the table when it comes to cheap prices,” as reported the English online weekly Portugal News. “It was the number one choice for many shoppers in areas including Aveiro, Coimbra, Leiria, Lisbon, Setúbal, and Viseu.”

I can understand that: we relate Jumbo/Auchan to the ubiquitous discount Walmart Supercenters spread throughout the USA.

To realistically reflect the shopping tendencies of Portuguese families, Deco’s research put together a “hamper” comprising 243 products: 38% were a store’s own-brand products and 62% were branded.

We shop regularly at Auchan and, while we find that it’s the greatest numerator and common denominator in terms of one-stop shopping, we aren’t always thrilled with our purchases. To be fair, Auchan is the only place that carries our preferred Noir dark chocolate; and its own mouthwash – at one-third the cost – comes closest to the world’s leading brands in terms of swig and bang for the buck. Auchan seems to have a larger, consistent selection of “international” foods, and is the only place we’ve yet found for Ricotta cheese to make lasagna.

Trailing a close second to Auchan/Jumbo in Deco’s ratings is Continente, where “prices are, on average, two percent more expensive than Jumbo.”

While we sometimes do our weekly shopping at the Continente mini-mall outside Castelo Branco’s industrial zone, we’re not that impressed. Except on some of the special deals offered – like tables and chairs – in front of the store itself. This particular Continente appears to have very narrow aisles and rows, compounded by the number of shopping carts left unattended while customers head for items located in other aisles. We find the largest selection of paper goods at Continente (especially boxed tissues), and it’s the only place nearby where big people who like and use it can buy Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder.

On the other side of the industrial zone is our other major mall, where Pingo Doce (“Sweet Drop”) supermarket serves as its anchor store. Contrary to Deco’s research – which found Pingo’s prices, on average, six percent higher than Jumbo’s – we think much of the inventory at Pingo costs less. Do we do our major shopping there? No. But we do, especially, appreciate Pingo Doce’s pre-prepared, ready-to-eat servings from its café bar and (when available), its chicken and/or tuna spread submarine sandwiches. Hey, can you even buy the fixings of these tasty foot-longers for just €1.79 … let alone, spend time fixing them?

Largely due to “the prices of their fresh fruits and vegetables” and meat and fish supplied by external companies, and “therefore higher prices,” Deco’s survey found Intermarché, Minipreço, and Lidl to be the most expensive supermarkets.

But we believe that depends on what you’re looking to buy and spend.

Take Lidl, for instance.

Nowhere else – not at Jumbo, Continente, Pingo Doce, Minipreço, or Intermarché – could we find such a vast variety of freshly-baked breads and bread products (like the “misto” croissants of ham and cheese, or the chorizo-filled rolls), cooked on premises and put out, piping hot, while you’re standing there. At lower prices than anywhere else. We think the cuts of meat at Lidl are butchered and cut closer to “American-style” than anywhere else.

At Lidl, I can buy “real” orange juice from the freezer case, similar to Tropicana and Florida’s Natural brands back in the USA. Elsewhere, the orange juice is made from concentrate, sold in boxes or containers displayed on the shelves, and tastes more like Tang orange drink than real juice (zumo). The store’s “Diez” cosmetics, groceries, and other products give the competition a marathon for our money.

What’s more, shopping at Lidl is like going on a treasure hunt: you’ll never know what you’ll find – clothing to small appliances, hardware to DVDs and CDs – in its bin aisles. It’s the closest we’ve come to finding close-outs carried by the likes of TJ Maxx, Tuesday Morning, or Big Lots here today, gone tomorrow, in Castelo Branco.

So much for plugging Lidl … except to say that we truly dislike shopping there. Every Lidl we’ve been to feels cramped, dirty, and takes forever to check out (as there’s usually only one, maybe two cashier lines open). During these times of pandemic pandemonium, it appears that other grocery chains take greater care in social distancing (at least on the conveyer belts) and sanitizing the credit card terminals than does Lidl.

The only Aldi we’ve been to, Portalegre’s, in many ways is similar to Lidl. According to what we’ve been told, it’s the only place where real sour cream is readily accessible!

Contrary to Deco’s claims, we’ve found the best buys and lowest prices on certain items – store-brand cleaning products and supplies, even wines at times – at Minipreço, directly opposite Continente. It’s not a place to wander up and down the aisles. You can’t. But to run in and pick up certain cheaply-priced items, Minipreço can’t be beat.

(Unless, of course, Auchan, Continente, or Lidl have those items on sale.)

And then there’s Intermarché, part of the Minipreço and Lidl troika.

I’m here to tell you that, yes, it is higher priced! And that you’d better be careful when buying items promoted as “on sale” as, all too often, what rings up at the register is the regular, not sales, price of items. Quite a few times, we have had to point out the disparity to the cashier, showing her the product’s price as listed in its weekly sales flyer.

Yet, ironically, we spend more of our time and money at Intermarché than at all of the other supermarkets.

One reason is its location: Yes, there’s an Intermarché (attached to its sibling, BricoMarché) in Castelo Branco’s industrial zone. But the one in Alcains is much closer to us and it’s far more convenient to run out for something we “need” (or forgot) when the destination is ten minutes, not thirty, away.

Results of Deco’s recent research were released in early June 2018. Two types of consumers were profiled in the study: those who spend €150 a month on shopping, and those whose monthly shopping costs up to €400. “Those who spend more also save more,” it concluded.

Russ and I do spend more than €400 each month on our supermarket shopping, so we should have saved enough to be able to enjoy eating out at one of the area’s fine dining establishments.

Not now, of course. But sometime later.

Shared here are personal observations, experiences, and happenstance that actually occurred to us as we moved from the USA to begin a new life in Portugal and Spain. Collected and compiled in EXPAT: Leaving the USA for Good, the book is available in hardcover, paperback, and eBook editions from Amazon and most online booksellers.

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Expat, Immigrant, Fugitive, Refugee

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I was wrong.

A subject of white privilege, I liked the sound of “expat” much better than “immigrant.” One had panache, cachet, a spirited sense of ennui and adventure; the other conjured up black and white images of poor, huddled masses needing to be purified in the melting pot purée.

When we first arrived from the USA to retire in Portugal and Spain, I self-identified as an expat … assuming it meant nothing more (or less) than an American abroad living in another country for an extended period of time.

From time to time, I was challenged and corrected on my presumption: “Expats are here for a time or a purpose—a couple of months or years, studying or traveling or working. But, they then return home.”

Immigrants, on the other hand, have no plans for returning whence they came: they’re looking forward rather than backward, their feet firmly planted and taking root in another country.

A classic case of denotation v. connotation: it’s all about innuendo and intention!

Travel isn’t just about the destination (immigrants and refugees). Getting away is a way of life for millions of people who take breaks for self-indulgence, employment opportunities, cultural enrichment, education, and other pursuits (expats).

Personally, we had no intention of returning to the USA when we finally left early in 2017. Retirement and our future now depend on how the European Union (Schengen Area) treats us, not the capricious whims or executive orders and authoritarian decrees resulting from the [s]election of Donald Trump & Company.

What began as a knife cut to our soul soon led to ever more blood-letting—a lethal wound to our morals, values, and democracy. Reading the handwriting on the wall, we fled for our lives.

Fugitives!

Under Trump and the GOP, the United States had become a rogue nation, perhaps the world’s most powerful country to possess a massive arsenal of weapons of mass destruction commanded by a delusional despot who flaunts his favoritism, white nationalism, personal profiteering, and cruel inhumanity towards others.

Even before Trump, the United States had long been involved in violating others. In Korea. Vietnam. Chile. Libya. Iraq. Afghanistan. Syria. Venezuela. Cuba. Haiti. Panama. Nicaragua. Iran. And elsewhere, when the USA believed regime change to be in its best interests.

The path to “greatness” included savage treatment and banishment of Native Americans; ownership of other people as personal property; denigrating migrant workers who its landowners depended for hard work; establishing internment camps for people with slanted eyes; and, more recently, isolating immigrants from their families—deporting many, while caging children in abominable conditions.

One of the world’s three top carbon-producing countries, the USA’s involvement with the Paris Climate Agreement was rescinded by Trump, while a do-nothing-but-placate-patronage Congress allowed the USA to withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council … its commitments to NATO … the nuclear agreement negotiated with Iran … the World Health Organization … and its Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia.

Meanwhile, through tariffs, sanctions, and boycotts, Trump & Company wreaked havoc with international currencies and global economics. Although the stock market continues to be artificially stimulated by Federal Reserve appointees, the country racked up its largest deficit ever. Unemployment has broken all-time records. Health has taken a backseat to business, whether or not as usual, with profits more important than people.

Dividing the country and decimating its heritage has a questionable president turning his personal paranoia into public policy. Trump and his cohorts in cahoots prosper, as unqualified money-makers come and go through the executive branch’s revolving door … while vital positions remain vacant because of political carnage and lack of loyalty discords.

Manipulating the resources and personnel of the U.S. government, Donald Trump has proven himself to be an accelerating existential threat to the rest of the world and the planet we inhabit. Especially in his irresponsible handling of the international Covid-19 pandemic.

Beyond the World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, wealthy individuals like Lisbon-based Madonna (committing one million euros to the cause), world leaders – from the European Union, as well as non-EU countries Britain, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Canada, South Africa, and dozens of other countries – joined the virtual event, pledging $8 billion to research, manufacture, and distribute a possible vaccine and treatment to protect us from the Covid-19 virus.

But not the United States of America, whose muzzling of people with expertise and shunning rejection of global efforts to conquer the virus have alienated it further and farther from the rest of the world, while creating chaos and confusion from the federal level … leaving states and localities to stitch together a mish-mash of conflicting priorities which, ultimately, boil down to wealth vs. health.

“Chronic ills – a corrupt political class, a sclerotic bureaucracy, a heartless economy, a divided and distracted public – had gone untreated for years. We had learned to live, uncomfortably, with the symptoms,” writes George Packer in June’s issue of The Atlantic.

Violence, hatred, and malice are the chalice of communion among fanatics and their fans, flaming the fires of discontent.

Emboldened by the tone and tenor of tweets from the bully pulpit, the ugly American is – once again – rearing its head … with increasing violence, attacks, and confrontations against minorities and the marginalized: Immigrants. Black and brown skinned people. LGBT individuals and communities. Jews. Muslims. Asian-Americans. People who speak different languages. In other words, the “others.”
But the world no longer will stand by, shaking its head and wagging tongues, as Atlas shrugs and walks away carelessly.

New models on how to reopen European travel have no room for American tourists in the foreseeable future. The European Union’s “Europe Needs a Break” guidelines recommend replacing travel bans with what it’s calling “targeted restrictions” based on contagion levels.

International travelers from the USA and other countries that haven’t upheld safety standards on par with Europe’s won’t be allowed into the EU anytime soon for anything but essential reasons.

We’re not tourists, but are glad that we left the USA when we did.

Rather than expat or immigrant, we now see ourselves as refugees.

A refugee is someone who, due to a well-founded fear of persecution, war or violence, feels forced to flee his or her homeland. To qualify as a refugee, a person must have solid grounds of a “well-founded fear” that they are facing real danger. Moreover, refugees should fear oppression, hostility, and/or violence so badly that it forces them to leave their country of origin and seek sanctuary elsewhere.

Elsewhere for us is Portugal. And Spain.

Shared here are personal observations, experiences, and happenstance that actually occurred to us as we moved from the USA to begin a new life in Portugal and Spain. Collected and compiled in EXPAT: Leaving the USA for Good, the book is available in hardcover, paperback, and eBook editions from Amazon and most online booksellers.

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

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Remembrances of Things Past: Moments of Hope in the Madness

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Remember that scene from the 1976 movie Network, when news anchor Howard Beale (Peter Finch) cried, “We know things are bad — worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is: ‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.’ Well, I’m not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get MAD! I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first, you’ve got to get mad! You’ve got to say: ‘I’m a human being, goddammit! My life has value!’ So, I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out, and yell: I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”?

The murder of George Floyd by the foot of a Minneapolis cop while his buddies stood by nonchalantly gives rise to similar feelings of shock, grief, and anger … provoking our collective conscience, triggering marches and protests across the country and around the world.

Say some of their names: George Floyd. Rodney King. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. Eric Garner. Michael Brown. Tamir Rice. Freddie Gray. Sandra Bland. Philandro Castle. All African-Americans offed by white police officers. Let’s not forget others, like Trayvon Martin, murdered by self-appointed racist vigilantes. Each was a human whose life was taken prematurely and unjustly by powers-that-be.

Remember Rev. Al Sharpton’s words at Floyd’s funeral – “I can’t breathe” and “get your knee off our necks” – which painted a plaintive picture of the systemic racism, police brutality, cover-ups, and injustice suffered by Floyd, black people … and other American minorities?

George Floyd personifies the plight of black people in the USA. But he also reflects the oppression of all scapegoats, underdogs and social outcasts: Native Americans and indigenous people. Immigrants. Hispanics and Asians. Women. Jews and Muslims. LGBT persons. The poor, homeless, hungry, infirm, widows and orphans, even “middle-class” Americans unable to afford basic health care or better educate their children.

A pandemic has killed more than 110,000 people in three months in the USA. The economy is in recession, with tens of millions out of work. Protests against racial injustice in policing have broken out in hundreds of cities and towns across the country, with some provoking outrageous acts of police brutality and the risk of contributing to a resurgence of the coronavirus. At the center of the maelstrom is an incompetent, capricious, malicious president who cares about nothing but acting tough, protecting himself, and dividing the country.

Yesterday (June 9), Trump tweeted, “Buffalo protestor shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?”

A set-up? Trump doesn’t know the meaning of “provocateur,” let alone how to spell it correctly. Whoever helped him write this conspiratorial message was determined to cast suspicion on a senior citizen we saw violently treated, head bleeding, and left fallen on the street. And then some …

When Trump’s guardian gatekeepers used weapons of warfare to clear the street by Lafayette Park of peaceful protestors for a photo op – just after he’d pontificated in the Rose Garden about weak governors and mayors needing to do away with demonstrators and “dominate” the streets – a few respected leaders had seen, heard, and experienced enough.

It was then, perhaps, that marches and moments became a movement—a referendum on Trump’s administration, Republican senators, and the soul of a nation:

• Colin Powell, former Secretary of State under President George W. Bush, announced that the president “has drifted away” from the Constitution and that he “lies all the time.”

• Trump’s own top military brass –Secretary of Defense Mark Eper and Mark Milley, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – spoke up and out, knowing well their Trumpian consequences.

• The defense secretary insisted military personnel “be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations.”

• Milley, the nation’s top general and most senior military officer, reminded his soldiers of the rights of their fellow citizens to free assembly, adding: “We all committed our lives to the idea that is America–we will stay true to that oath and the American people.”

• But it was Trump’s former secretary of defense, James Mattis, whose rebuke cut deepest: “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people,” said Mattis. “Instead, he tries to divide us … We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.”

The president wanted to fire Defense Secretary Mark Esper for not supporting his idea to use active-duty troops to quell protests; meanwhile, Trump Jr’s hunting trip in Mongolia last year cost American taxpayers nearly $77,000 in Secret Service costs alone.

Trump has gone too far, crossing the threshold of our national breaking point, publicly cursing those who (hitherto) had protected and shielded him—like his first former chief of staff, John Kelly, who said “I agree” with Mattis about Trump: “We need to look harder at who we elect.”

It was an “emperor-has-no-clothes” moment that prompted Senator Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) to admit she was considering not voting for Trump and suggest that other Senate Republicans felt the same way.

Remember Watergate?

The impeachment process against Richard Nixon began in the U.S. House of Representatives on October 30, 1973, following a series of high-level resignations and firings widely referred to as the “Saturday Night Massacre.” On May 9, formal impeachment hearings began, culminating July 27–30, 1974, when the Democratic-led Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment, charging the president with obstruction of justice in attempting to impede the investigation; abuse of power by using the office of the presidency to unlawfully use federal agencies to violate the constitutional rights of citizens and interfere with lawful investigations; and Contempt of Congress by refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas.

Sound familiar?

Republican congressional leaders met with Nixon, informing him that his impeachment and removal were all but certain. Thereupon, he resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974, before the full House could vote on the articles of impeachment.

In the case of the United States v. Donald Trump, however, the full House voted to impeach him. In fact and indeed, he was impeached.

While lamenting white supremacy, police brutality, and a system that denigrates black Americans like George Floyd, demonstrations are “moments” of national consensus, in effect, about the role Trump has played and his culpability in inciting human rights violations.

Let’s hope that a number of senators will recognize and repent of their wrong-doing and complicity by remaining silent. Maybe they’ll, too, take a walk to the White House and bring an end to this dreadful mess.

Remember Martha Mitchell, the wife of U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell under President Nixon, who became a controversial figure with her outspoken comments about the government during the Watergate scandal? Nixon selected her husband to head the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) for his 1972 campaign. During the campaign, however, Martha Mitchell began complaining to the media that the campaign had engaged in “dirty tricks” to win the election.

Remember A Warning, last year’s Washington tell-it titled book? Written by “Anonymous,” who’s still a top White House insider, the candid 2019 exposé of the Trump administration authored by someone described as a “senior Trump administration official” was a sensational follow-up to an anonymous op-ed piece the NY Times published in September 2018. Many inside and out of government have played guessing games, trying to identify the author.

My own hunch? Kellyanne Conway.

The mother of four married to anti-Trump activist attorney George Conway, a conservative co-founder of the Liberty Foundation seeking to bring Trump to justice, she can’t be as dumb as she comes across; hopefully, there’s more sense and sensibility – patriotism – to her than meets the eye.

Remember, more recently, when Twitter began fact-checking and flagging Trump’s tweets for false, misleading, and/or potentially violence-provoking content … while also providing links to more objective and factual information?

These remembrances of things past prompt some conclusions:

“Black Lives Matter” must be more than a catch phrase to which we give lip service. Yet it hasn’t – nowhere nearly enough! – and now requires assertive declaration, assessing people beyond the color of their skin, where they come from, or their lingo and language.

For me, the people’s uprising is a beginning, a beacon of hope.

Actually, a glimmer to hold onto that hope still springs eternal!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwMVMbmQBug



Shared here are personal observations, experiences, and happenstance that actually occurred to us as we moved from the USA to begin a new life in Portugal and Spain. Collected and compiled in EXPAT: Leaving the USA for Good, the book is available in hardcover, paperback, and eBook editions from Amazon and most online booksellers.

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Of Human Bondage

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What is it about mankind that causes us to exert our superiority by forcing others into servitude, slavery, bondage … to inhabit a lesser, parasitic, symbiotic status?

After watching Netflix’s documentary, Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, I felt wretched.

Wretched. Disgusted. Ashamed. Despondent. Dirty. Guilty.

Not just because of this arrogant man who considered himself privileged and entitled; but, because of the entitlement that’s engendered part and parcel of our heritage and history.

The four-episode miniseries chronicled an arrogant, egotistical, self-serving man without any moral compass, who – through money, manipulation, and blackmail – became a billionaire with all the trappings that designation implies: rich, powerful, connected colleagues and “pals,” who enabled and empowered his human trafficking of underage girls—hundreds of them in Palm Beach, New York, his private Virgin island, Paris and Spain … catering to the most base and primal human degradations through a network of the rich, famous, and powerful around the globe.

What began with disgust for such a loathsome man, quickly gained traction with the personal involvement and of other well-known figures, all of whom denied any wrongdoing whatsoever.

Why did Bill Clinton lie about being hosted by Epstein, when eyewitness accounts placed him on Epstein´s private island, as well as plenty of free trips on Epstein´s private jet(s)? Why did Prince Andrew maintain he had “no recollection” of intimacy with at least one adolescent girl younger than his own daughters, when rumors of his predatory sexual appetites had been circulating for years? And Donald Trump: who among us would expect anything other than lies and denials, claiming he´d had nothing to do with Epstein for “more than 15 years,” when the record clearly shows otherwise?

But this is bigger and more important than a story about one man, his accomplices, and victims—it’s the history of us all, taking and maltreating that which isn’t ours: body snatching and sharing.

It’s all about human trafficking.

“Human trafficking is the trade of humans for the purpose of forced labor, sexual slavery, or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others,” states Wikipedia.

It’s as old as the battles for superiority between Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Esau, Peter and Paul, Joseph and his brothers—who sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt and into servitude.

Remember the anecdote about Moses being told from a burning bush to go before Pharaoh and insist that he let those who had emigrated to Egypt at the beckoning of Joseph – but later were held in bondage, enslaved to do the ruler’s bidding – to “let my people go!”? Read all about it in Exodus, the second book of the Bible.”

From “In the beginning …” to its last “Amen,” the Bible is filled with episodes of social injustices—including killing men, raping women, abusing children, and carrying them off to foreign lands.

“To the victor go the spoils.”

That could have been the “vicar,” as well.

How many people were tortured, persecuted, killed, and enslaved during the Crusades and the Christian Inquisition? Yet, to this day, our hymnals are filled with rousing renditions of “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” “Lift High the Cross,” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

How many youngsters have been sexually abused by pedophile priests, while the institutional hierarchy closed its eyes and ears? Don’t think just the Catholic church at fault. Almost daily, we learn of hypocritical evangelicals grandstanding on social media and broadcasts against the “heinous sin of homosexuality,” while they’re pandering to their own libidos on sites like “Grindr.”

Until they´re caught …

Wherever there’s warfare, human bondage and trafficking are sure to follow. History is replete with such accounts.

From its earliest days, USA colonists confiscated the land of Native Americans, banishing them to ghettos referred to as “reservations.” Slavery, our national sin, was followed by lynchings, rapes, and denial of rights to people of color—who continue to be treated unfairly and unequally. The Brits are complicit in slave-trading, too.

Which is why, indeed, “Black lives (must) matter!”

Elsewhere, European and international elite politicians, judges, and celebrities are alleged pedophiles who buy children from a “child supermarket” disguised as an orphanage in Portugal.

“Portugal is a pedophiles’ paradise,” said Pedro Namora, a Casa Pia orphan who witnessed 11 rapes on fellow orphans and now a lawyer campaigning on behalf of the Casa Pia victims. “If all the names come out, this will be an earthquake in Portugal. There is a massive, sophisticated network at play here–stretching from the government to the judiciary and the police.”

“The network is enormous and extremely powerful. There are magistrates, ambassadors, police, politicians–all have procured children from Casa Pia. It is extremely difficult to break this down. These people cover for each other because if one is arrested, they all are arrested. They don’t want anyone to know.”

Human trafficking also includes treating people inhumanely … as in the garment “sweat shops” where many perished, or in coal country where many miners contract, suffer, and die from “black lung disease.” Unions played an important advocacy role.

Immigrants who used to be welcomed to our melting pot are now eschewed and spit out, their children separated from them at the border and held hostage in crates and unsafe, unsanitary conditions. Only if we “need” them to trample down the grapes of wrath or do work few Americans are willing to do, are they abided.

Nations rising against each other, corrupt institutions, atrocities in the name of religion, powerful people and corporate criminals with big bucks used to buy and sell other people – especially women and children – as something that’s owned (property or chattel), traded, and abused are fountainheads for human misery and trafficking.

But human trafficking also hits much closer to home.

A friend in an industrial city north of Chicago co-founded and serves as executive director of Fight to End Exploitation, whose purpose is to end human trafficking in Wisconsin. Formerly known as the Racine Coalition Against Human Trafficking, it is a “network of local resources collaborating to increase communication among providers, identify gaps in services for victims, and prevent conditions that foster human trafficking in Wisconsin.”

No, we´re not in Kansas anymore.

Nor can we make believe this barbaric activity doesn’t exist.

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