Author: mwmiller2@outlook.com

Hopefully third time is a charm. I just checked in for my flight to New York which is the first leg of my trip to Portugal. I am ‘wheels up’ from Bozeman tomorrow on my third try to go explore Portugal as a potential place to live for a while. I will be stopping in New York overnight and then heading for Lisbon the next night where, if all goes well, I will meet up with my girlfriend, Barb, Thursday evening. She is flying from Phoenix and, although we are both connecting through Heathrow, we arrive and depart at different times on different airlines and will hopefully land within about 1 1/2 hours of each other in Lisbon to start this adventure. “How did that happen?”, you ask.

Since I hope to be posting things to this blog about our adventure, I thought it might be a good idea to start at the beginning. I believe in previous postings on this blog I have mentioned my desire to go explore places outside the United States as possible places to move. I have looked at a number of places but finally made plans to go to Portugal back in 2020. And then COVID hit and we all know how international travel came to a screeching halt!!

During the pandemic, I had joined an organization, International Living, that publishes a magazine and is a resource for those who are currently expats or are contemplating moving overseas. They advertised they were hosting a three-day conference in Las Vegas in February of this year and there would be representatives from many different countries making presentations and available to talk to. In addition, there were representatives from insurance companies, banks, realtors, etc all whose focus was supporting expats.

Even though I had already made plans to go to Portugal for an exploratory trip in April, I decided to attend because I was still thinking about other places like Costa Rica, Panama and France. I thought it would be a good opportunity to get some information in a short amount of time and for minimal cost. It is pretty easy to get to Las Vegas from Bozeman so off I went.

After the session on Saturday, there was a cocktail reception which I decided to attend. I had spoken with a few people at the conference at told them about my upcoming trip to Portugal. When I arrived at the reception, I ran into someone I had been talking to and they introduced me to Barb who was thinking about moving to Portugal when she retired.

Barb and I chatted a bit and since I was leaving for Portugal fairly soon and she hadn’t yet finalized her plans, she asked if I’d pass along any information I gleaned from my trip. I said that I would be happy to do that. The next day, I saw her in the conference room and went to give her my email and blog per our conversation the evening before. I asked her if she’s like to grab some lunch and we went to a nearby restaurant in the hotel where the conference was being held and had a nice chat.

After the conference ended, we emailed back and forth a few times as I was getting ready for my trip. And then – I had a major knee injury and had to have expedited surgery at the beginning of April to fix my knee. (I’m one of the few people on the planet who can break an artificial knee!!) When I first saw the orthopedist, I told him that I was due to leave for Portugal in 10 days and he just looked at me and said, “You’re not going anywhere,” and proceeded to tell me how badly I had screwed up my knee and what they were going to have to do to fix it! Strike two!

I told Barb that her ‘scout’ was going to have to postpone the trip. By that time, she was planning her own trip with a friend. During my recovery, we kept in touch via email and the occasional phone call. We seemed to have a lot in common and, at some point, we decided to try Zoom and began having our weekly ‘Zoom dates.’ It was a pretty radical move for a couple of senior citizens (she’s actually 8 years less senior than I am!) As Barb and I continued to have our weekly Zoom date, I was planning a trip to Southern California and suggested I take a detour through Arizona so we could see each other in person.

We had a great time in Phoenix, and I invited her up to Montana around Labor Day. She had never been to Montana and flew up for a 6 day stay. Once again, we had a great time and realized that we had a lot in common. I had already replanned my trip to Portugal to coincide with my visit to New York at Thanksgiving and she had scheduled her trip at a slightly different time, but we initially decided to meet up in Portugal when it turned out we were going to be in the same city at the same time.

As we continued to get to know each other through our Zoom dates, daily texting and phone calls, she decided to change her plans to sync up with my trip so we could go to Portugal together. So, as crazy as it sounds, spending 18 days together in Portugal will be our third ‘date’ of being physically in the same place. We both laugh about it and understand that travelling internationally can be stressful on any relationship, so we know this will be a good ‘stress test.’ That said, we are confident that we will have a great time, particularly since we have a common objective – narrow down which part of the country we’d like to move to.

Assuming we are still speaking at the end of our 18 day ‘date’ (I’m sure we will be!) and we really like Portugal, we will begin the somewhat daunting process of relocating. There are a lot of moving parts given that we live 1,000 miles apart and each have a house to sell. In addition, Barb has constraints due to work commitments and her two dogs. I have a different set of constraints such as when I want to put my house on the market. Also, the process of getting an extended stay visa in Portugal is a lengthy ‘adventure,’ and means giving up your passport for 3 to 4 months while that process is being worked. That said, many people have successfully navigated this maze and there are very robust expat communities in Portugal with many resources to help with the process. We’ll see!!

A year ago, neither Barb nor I were looking for a relationship and yet, here we are, heading off to explore Portugal together. It just goes to show, it’s never too late and sometimes you just need to take some action, e.g. go to a conference; ask a stranger to lunch – and be open to whatever happens! Let the adventure begin. Stay tuned.

This is just a test blog, more or less, using my iPad and keyboard to make sure everything works before I head over the pond to Portugal in a few days.

Things are moving along and, if Barb and I like what we see and experience in Portugal, we will start the very challenging process of applying for long term visas. One of the most challenging parts of the whole process is that you have to be in your home country (or at least out of Portugal) when you apply for the long term visa. However, in order to apply for a long term visa, you have to show you have at least a one year lease for a place in Portugal. It is quite common to have to pay for a lease on a property in Portugal for 3 to 5 months while your visa is being processed here in the States before you can actually move to Portugal.

And that is only step one. Once you are in Portugal with your long stay visa, you have to have an appointment with a government entity, the SEF, in order to finalize your residency permit/status. They are quite backed up these days so until that appointment occurs, you are basically trapped in Portugal. Those appointments now can be 7 or 8 months out. It’s a bit of a conundrum but people get through it and I’m sure we will as well.

The good news is, there is a very robust expat community in Portugal with all kinds of online forums with helpful hints as to how to navigate the process. Even so, when you factor in selling houses, applying for visas, moving, etc, I think 2023 will be a challenging year!!

We have completed step 1 which was to request an NIF which is essentially a Portuguese tax ID number. It is required to open a bank account and a bank account is required to apply for a long term visa/residency. We both just received those so the next step will be to open bank accounts in Portugal.

This upcoming trip is basically to get the lay of the land and see which part of the country we might want to park in. We have some initial ideas but those could change. We are anticipating probably another trip next year to focus on the area where we decide to live with the idea of signing a lease on a condo/apartment/house. Once that is done, let the visa process begin.

I have already met with a realtor here in Bozeman so i have some idea of what my place is worth in today’s market. The big question will be, what will the market look like next year when I decide to pull the trigger.

That’s about it for today. I just wanted to see if this works since I intend to be blogging during our travels. Stay tuned. We will be arriving in Lisbon a week from today.

It’s a good time to be going to Europe given the current exchange rate.  I have never seen it at this level.  Right now, 1 Euro equals about 98 US cents.  As recently as a year ago, 1 Euro was worth almost $1.20.  That’s a pretty staggering change in the exchange rate to the benefit of Americans going to Europe.   Our dollars will go a lot farther now than they would have a year ago. 

One of the things that is required to apply for a long term (D7) visa in Portugal is an NIF number.  It is essentially a tax ID number and is required to purchase houses, cars, open bank accounts, etc.  I have already applied for an NIF and hope to receive it prior to leaving for Portugal in about a month.  If I receive it, I may look into opening a bank account in Portugal this trip just to have it available for future trips and certainly for the move, assuming all goes according to plan.   Given the opportunity to buy cheap Euros now, it might not be a bad idea.  (Except for additional reporting requirements when I file my taxes!)

As I was contemplating making this move, I knew I’d have to make sure all of my documents were up to date.  I checked my Global Entry card and found out it was going to expire soon.  I downloaded the renewal application and sent it off.  Then I got to looking at my passport.  I used to travel all the time for work and my passport was always somewhat worn and filled with additional pages that had been inserted.  My latest passport was issued in 2014 and was going to expire in 2024. It was very strange because the passport was like new.  I have only made one international trip since I retired in 2015 and that was my trip to New Zealand and Australia.   However, given that I hope to be living overseas then, I didn’t want to have to deal with renewing my passport while living abroad so I decided to go ahead and renew it. 

I had submitted the renewal for my Global Entry card using my old passport number.  I thought this might mess things up, but my renewed Global Entry card showed up while my passport renewal application was still in work.  Once I got my new passport, I had to log on to the Global Entry website and manually input my new passport information.  However, it now appears that all of my documents are synced up and I’m ready to fly.

I remembered from the International Living Conference someone had said that some car rental companies in Portugal have age restrictions on being able to rent a car.  Some companies apparently have restrictions for people over 70 years of age.  They also said that an International Drivers License is required in Portugal.  I called the rental company that I have the car reserved with in Portugal and asked them directly if there were any issues given my age.  They told me there were no issues, so it appears that my age won’t be a problem.  Of course, things could always change when we get to the rental counter, in which case, Barb will be doing all of the driving!!  LOL!  I’m sure it will all work out but there is no doubt, based upon past experience, that flexibility and adaptability are keys to surviving overseas

I checked my international drivers license and found out that it too had expired.  They are only good for a year.  Fortunately, now that we are more or less past the pandemic, the AAA offices are open again and issuing International Drivers Licenses.  I trundled on down to the local office and am now in possession of a new International Drivers License. 

The fact is, I don’t believe I have ever been asked for an International Driver License or, if I have, it has been so infrequent that I have forgotten.  All of the documents say that it is required in Portugal so, for $20 it seems like pretty good insurance to avoid a crisis. 

 As this adventure draws closer it seems like every time we get an answer to one question, two more pop up.  We are still not 100 percent clear on the process and timeline associated with applying for a long term (D7) visa.  That said, there are companies available to help with that process.  One of the nice things about belonging to a group like International Living is that they have an extensive network of expats who are more than willing to answer questions and provide referrals to all kinds of services to help with visas, real estate leases and purchases, and even things like how to move your pets overseas.  (Barb has two dogs!)

No doubt there will be many hiccups and challenges along the way as we look forward to trying to establish residency in another country while simultaneously trying to divest property and set up things in the United States to support living overseas as an expat.  Its all part of the adventure.  The fact is that thousands of people have done exactly what we are planning to do so its not like we are setting out to be Lewis and Clark embarking on a journey into completely unknown territory.  We fully expect to draw heavily upon the advice and expertise of all those who have gone before. 

Like I said yesterday, when people ask, “Why are you doing this?”, my response is simply, “Why not?”

There are a lot of things to consider when deciding to move overseas.  And we keep uncovering new little ‘details and questions.  One of the first questions that I get asked when someone finds out that I am contemplating moving overseas is, “Do you plan to sell your house or lease it out?”  It’s a great question and one over which I have pondered a great deal. 

On the one hand, given the real estate market in Bozeman, I know that I could lease my home for a very good price.  Any lease agreement would be at least 2 ½ to 3 times my mortgage payment.  So, even factoring in property management costs, etc., it would provide a nice monthly stipend.  However, the flip side is, do I really want to be a landlord operating from 6,000 miles away? No matter how carefully tenants are screened, there is always the chance that the property could get trashed, or you end up with a deadbeat who won’t pay.  After weighing all of the factors, I am strongly leaning toward selling my current house.

Knowing what I know now, perhaps I should have sold it at the beginning of the year when the market in Bozeman was superheated.  It has cooled down significantly and I’m sure it will be cool next year as well.  The fact is, I will probably not be able to get the same price next year as I could have gotten this year.  That said, I still think the best strategy for me at this point is to sell.  I really have no intention of living in Montana again, so it seems kind of pointless to keep a place here.  On the other hand, if the market were to really tank between now and when I intend to sell, I might rethink that decision.  We’ll see.

The flip side of this question is, “Do you plan to buy a house in Portugal?”  The answer, at least in the short term is ‘no’.   I say ‘no’ for two reasons.  First of all, neither Barb nor myself have ever been to Portugal and this trip we are taking in a few weeks is just to do some initial exploratory work.  Portugal is a relatively small country.  You can drive from top to bottom in 7 hours and drive across it in less than 3 hours.  That said, there are significant differences in the climate up north near and down south in the Algarve.  We are also going at a time of year that is ‘off season’ for tourists. 

On our upcoming trip, we plan to explore several areas of the country but given the limited amount of time we will have, it would be difficult to make a definitive decision about where exactly to live long term.  The plan, assuming we like the country after our upcoming trip, is to start the process of getting long term visas and then once those are obtained, find an Airbnb for 3 or 4 months.  We’ll use that time to more thoroughly explore the short list of places we like and, hopefully, find something suitable to lease for a year or two.

The other reason to not buy a home right away is that we may decide, at some point in the future, that we want to go explore somewhere else – France, Spain, Croatia, Uruguay (don’t laugh, it’s supposed to be very nice!!) etc. – and it would be a lot easier to pick up stakes and move without being encumbered by a house.   Who knows, we may change our minds, find an ‘ideal’ spot someplace in Portugal and decide to buy a home.  Everything is up in the air right now and I guess that’s why they call it an adventure!!    

At a macro level, the plan is ‘go to Portugal to see if we like it and if we do, sell the houses and find a long-term rental somewhere in Portugal.’  Right now, that is about the extent of the plan. 

Another question that comes up is, “Do you speak Portuguese?”  The answer is ‘no’ but I am learning.  The fact is that it is possible to get along in Portugal without learning any Portuguese.  There are robust expat communities is several places in Portugal and in those areas and in the tourist areas, many locals speak English.  That said, I believe it only right to learn to speak at least some Portuguese, so I will continue to plod away realizing that I will always sound like an American trying to speak Portuguese.

I have found that when I tell people I am contemplating doing something like this, they basically fall into two categories – those that are very supportive and even sometimes jealous and those who think I am absolutely crazy!  My usual response is, “What’s the worst thing that can happen?”  I suppose Putin could declare war on all of Europe while we’re there but then again, Yellowstone could blow up while I’m living in Montana!   Realistically, the most likely worst case is, we move overseas for a while, decide it’s not our cup of tea, move back to the US and find a place to live.  On the plus side, it’s like, why the hell not?  I’m a great believer in getting outside one’s comfort zone and having adventures!  This is just another adventure! 

It’s been about a month since I posted anything.  I needed to take a break from the politics partly for my sanity and partly because I felt like I was saying the same thing over and over again.  That said, I am going to try to change gears a little bit and use this blog to chronicle the next few months which will hopefully culminate in moving overseas to start another adventure.  I won’t promise to not occasionally interject a political opinion or polemic, but I think with people like Heather Cox Richardson¹ posting daily, well researched, and scholarly pieces on today’s political climate, those interested in politics can follow her.  The link to her blog is below.

I have made no secret in some of my previous blogs of my desire to move overseas for a couple of different reasons.  The current political climate and what lies ahead for 2024 and beyond is certainly a factor.  However, a desire for a different lifestyle and just undertaking a new adventure are also very strong reasons. 

The first question that I had to wrestle with was ‘where?’.  Where should I move?  My ex-wife, Francine (still a good friend), and I lived in France for 7 months many years ago, so France has always had a soft spot in my heart.  I also looked at Costa Rica, Panama and Portugal.  Costa Rica and Panama were both appealing for different reasons but I’m not really a ‘hot, humid, tropical’ kind of a guy so that was a concern.  After thinking about everything, Portugal seemed like a good choice.

There were a number of things that ultimately led me to think Portugal might be the best place to at least start.  First of all, getting from Western Europe to Boston where my daughter, Jordan, is going to school is about as easy as getting from Bozeman to Boston.  That was important.  Secondly, once one becomes a long-term resident of Portugal, you have easy access to all 26 countries in the European Schengen zone.  That seemed like a nice plus.  In addition, Portugal has world class, affordable healthcare and is rated as one of the safest countries in the world.  There are also several places in Portugal that have robust expat populations.  Although costs have been increasing there, it is still affordable, and it just seemed like a good place to start.

This plan had been gestating in my mind for a while and I had actually made plans to travel to Portugal to check it out a couple of years ago – and then COVID hit!!  My life, like everyone else’s life was put on hold.  When things started to open up again, I decided to get serious about making this move so I did two things.  I rescheduled my scouting trip to Portugal for April 2022, and I decided to attend a conference sponsored by the organization, International Living, in Las Vegas in February 2022.

The International Living conference took place over three days and there were speakers who were living in many, many different countries talking about the pluses and minuses of where they had chosen to call home.  It provided a great opportunity to get information about a lot of different countries in a short amount of time.  In addition, there were experts who talked about overseas medical insurance, banking, and just about any topic you can imagine having to do with moving overseas.

It just so happened, at a cocktail reception sponsored by the organization one evening, I began talking to a lady from Arizona, Barb, who was also contemplating moving to Portugal when she retired in the next couple of years.  We didn’t talk for a long time but had a nice chat.  I saw her in the convention hall the next day and at lunch time, I asked her if she’d like to have lunch.  We had lunch and I told her I was due to go to Portugal in April and would be blogging about my experience.  She said she was also planning a trip and would like to hear about my experience.  I gave her my blog and we exchanged emails.  She had to get back to Phoenix later that afternoon and we parted company.

Subsequently, we exchanged a few emails and about a month before I was due to leave on my trip to Portugal, I injured my knee quite badly and required surgery.  The trip to Portugal was once again postponed.  During this time, Barb and I continued emailing and then we started having Zoom calls.  The more we talked, the more it seemed like we had a lot in common.  In July I had planned to take a trip to Southern California and as Barb and I talked more, I decided to detour through Phoenix to see how we got along in person.  We had a great time.

I invited her up to Montana since she’d never been.  She flew up here the first week of September and spent 5 days here.  We had a great time.  She had originally planned to go to Portugal with a friend in October and it looked like our trips were going to overlap so we had agreed to get together in a place called Caldas da Rainha in Portugal.  As we got to know one another we thought it would be fun to spend more time together in Portugal.  Ultimately, she made the decision to change her plans for Portugal and now we are going together. 

It just goes to show that sometimes you just need to take that first step because you never know where it is going to lead.  Had I never gone to the conference in Las Vegas or decided to take a detour through Phoenix, the upcoming adventure would be much different.  Now I am going with a beautiful lady who has very similar thoughts and values.  Where will this adventure lead – no idea!  We are meeting at the Lisbon airport in a little over a month for the beginning of what will technically be our third in-person date!! (Although the first two lasted for multiple days each!)  Fortunately, we’re both old enough to where we don’t really give a damn what anyone thinks.  We plan to have a great adventure – and who knows where it will lead.  The goal for both of us is to be living in Portugal in about a year and use that as a base for more adventures to come.  Stay tuned! 

Hopefully this blog will chronicle this adventure with all of the ups and downs and twists and turns.  Perhaps it will even inspire someone else to take off on their own adventure, whatever that might be.  It’s never too late!

1.  Blog for Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American

A man is known by the company he keeps.  That is an old proverb but there is a certain truth to it.   The CFO of the Trump Organization, Alan Weisselberg, pled guilty to 15 felonies yesterday having to do with unreported tax on perks that he received from the Trump organization.  He will serve a small amount of jail time, pay a fine of over $2 million and has agreed to testify in the upcoming case against the Trump organization.  If I were Eric and Don Jr. Trump, I would be very nervous.

Weisselberg has lots of company.  He was the 11^th person in Trump’s orbit to have been indicted and found guilty of crimes.  Most of us go through life with little, if any, interaction with felons, but Trump seems to be constantly surrounding himself with them.   Perhaps some of these people didn’t set out to commit crimes but they probably got caught up in the tangled and warped web of Trump world and eventually took a fall for the boss.

As a recap, the people who have been associated with Trump in one way or another, and who have been charged with or convicted of crimes are:

1. Steve Bannon – charged with fraud in connection with fund raising scheme for Trump’s border wall
2. Tom Barrack – charged with seven counts having to do with being an unregistered foreign agent working on behalf of the U.A.E.
3. Elliot Broidy – Pleaded guilty in Oct. 2020 to engaging in illegal lobbying effort to stop an investigation into a Malaysian investment fund
4. Michael Cohen – Trump’s former personal attorney.  Pleaded guilty to a variety of crimes, most notably those about hush money payments to two women
5. Michael Flynn – Former National Security Advisor for Trump; pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI; was pardoned by Trump
6. Rick Gates – Former deputy campaign manager; pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting Paul Manafort conceal $75 million in foreign bank accounts
7. Paul Manafort – Pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy against the US and one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.  Sentenced to 47 months in prison.  Pardoned by Trump after serving two years
8. George Nader – Informal policy advisor to Trump.  Pleaded guilty to two counts of sex crimes involving minors.
9. George Papadopoulos – Convicted of lying to investigators about his Russian contacts.  Pardoned by Trump
10. Roger Stone – Convicted of lying to Congress and threatening witnesses.  Pardoned by Trump
11. Alan Weisselberg – Pled guilty to 15 felonies for tax evasion.

There will be more.  Rudy Giuliani has been told he is the target of a criminal investigation related to the effort to overturn the election results in Georgia.  An indictment is likely.

Who knows what will come out of the case against the Trump organization with Weisselberg set to testify.  He certainly knows where all of the skeletons are buried.  Like I said, if I were Eric and Don Jr. I’d be pretty nervous right now.  My guess is that Weisselberg may come to the realization that, given his age, it’s probably not worth dying in jail to protect Trump Inc.! 

Given this track record, one has to wonder why anyone would want to get anywhere near Trumpland.  It seems like the closer you get to Trump, the higher the probability that you will eventually be indicted on some crime and possibly end up in jail.  Of course, looking at the list, many of these people probably didn’t have the best moral compass to begin with and once they landed in Trumpland, they were able to engage in their worst instincts because everyone else around them was engaged in equally nefarious acts.  Unsavory characters tend to hang out with unsavory characters. 

There is no doubt that the number of people in the Trump orbit to be indicted will increase given the number of investigations that are currently in progress.  Will these investigations eventually reach Trump himself?  We can only hope! 

Most Presidential libraries have displays depicting various things from their time in office.  There is an old Air Force One aircraft at the Reagan Presidential Library.  Perhaps at the Trump presidential library (although I have heard of no plans for one) there will be a replica of a federal prison cell with all of the Trump associates who have been indicted lining the wall!!  What a legacy and a sad commentary on the part of the American electorate that continue to support this man.

1. 11 Trump associates have now been charged with crimes. 11! | CNN Politics

It is being reported that Trump is considering releasing the surveillance tapes from the period covering the time the FBI was at Mar a Lago executing the search warrant.  If he does this, and he probably will, it is sure to inflame his well-armed based.  There were already reports of armed Trump idiots parading in front of the FBI office in Phoenix.  Surely, if the tape is released it will be played and replayed on all conservative and right wind media outlets with the sole purpose of stirring things up regardless of what they say the stated intent is.  It would essentially be like Trump’s speech before the march on the Capitol.

Will all of this provoke another Jan. 6^th or at least attacks on FBI and other government officials?  It very well could.  Trump instigated the attack of the U.S. Capitol on January 6^th and then sat on his butt while his supporters violently attacked police officers and the Capitol, all the while shouting, “Hang Mike Pence.”   If there is violence, any blood shed will be the sole responsibility of Trump, just like the blood spilled during the January 6^th insurrection.  Does Trump care – absolutely not!  The man has no soul.

I finished the article in The Atlantic about the Zero Tolerance policy implemented by the Trump administration that resulted in at least 4,000 children being separated from their families.  Some have still not been reunited.  The article documents unending examples of blatant incompetence but worse yet, profiles people who were absolutely heartless in the implementation of the policy supported by Trump which resulted in a huge disaster of human suffering and government waste.  There is great fear amongst many of the people who lived through this very sad moment in American history that, short of Congressional action, if Trump returns to the White House, it will be done all over again because that’s what Trump wants.  Again, the man has no soul.

It is truly depressing for me when I think of all of the people who have bought into the ‘Make American Great’ nonsense when the simple fact is, Donald J. Trump does not give one whit about America.  Like I said, he is a soulless man who has zero empathy for anyone.  It has been written multiple times about Trump’s narcissism.  Lack of empathy is one of the characteristics of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).

I have written about this before a long time ago, but perhaps its time for a reminder.  The characteristics of someone suffering from NPD are¹:

1. Grandiose Sense of Self-Importance
2. Preoccupation of fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty or ideal love
3. Belief that he or she is special and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people or institutions
4. Need for excessive admiration
5. Sense of entitlement
6. Interpersonally exploitative behavior (i.e., use other people as tools)
7. Lack of empathy
8. Envy or others or belief that others are envious of him or her
9. Demonstration of arrogant and haughty behaviors of attitudes
10. Identity (what others think of you)
11. Self-direction (driven by desire to prove they are better than others)
12. Intimacy (only able to develop superficial relationships)

If Trump doesn’t check all of these boxes, I don’t know who does. 

The sooner all of the Trumplicans understand that Trump is not interested in Making America Great, he is simply interested in Making Trump Great and whatever the cost in human lives, undermining Democracy, or anything else, he is willing to pay.  The question is, are the majority of Americans really willing to pay the price for the dubious privilege of kneeling at Trump’s feet and living under Trump’s thumb? I certainly am not.

Just for curiosity, I Googled ‘Famous People with Narcissistic Personality Disorder’ and the first two people on the list were Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.  I found another list that had Joseph Mengele (former Nazi who was known as the Angel of Death).  There were also a bunch of celebrities, but they can’t do much damage to an entire country.  Hitler, Stalin, Mengele and Trump?  A different story.   

All signs point to the fact that Trump should never be near the levers of power again.  All the signs were probably there for Hitler and Stalin as well – and look what happened.  That should scare the crap out of you!  Unfortunately, just like what happened in Germany and Russia with Hitler and Stalin, by the time people realize how dangerous a man Trump is, it will be too late. 

1. The 13 Traits of a Narcissist | Psychology Today

As expected, Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney lost her seat in the House, which is yet another very sad commentary on the state of American politics.  It means, in short, that Wyoming is no longer a Republican state, it is a state voting for the authoritarianism and idol worship of Trump.   My guess is that Montana will not be far behind.  After all, in the last election, the Trumplicans virtually swept the ballot in Montana, so the state is now solidly in the ‘red’ column. It is very depressing that these same people are totally blind to the danger looming on the horizon if they continue down this path.

Given that Cheney voted with Trump 90% of the time, I can say without equivocation that I disagree with her on many policy issues.  That said, I have tremendous respect for her because, frankly, she has more integrity, balls and real patriotism than almost everyone currently associated with the Republican party with a few exceptions like Representative Adam Kinzinger.   The fact is, the Republican party that Liz Cheney has been a stalwart of her entire political career, no longer exists.  It is now simply a cult dedicated to the authoritarian whims and political revenge of Donald J. Trump.  In spite of the logo, this will not Make America Great!  If allowed to continue unchecked, it will be the end of democracy in America.  I don’t believe that is hyperbole, I believe it is a fact. 

If Trump is allowed to return to power, wasting resources on political revenge is only one of the many things that will contribute to the weakening of this country.  I am in the midst of reading an article in The Atlantic written by Caitlin Dickerson,” “We Need To Take Away Children.”; The secret history of the U.S.Government’s family separation policy.””  This is the longest article The Atlantic has ever published.  It runs almost 40 pages, and I am about 75% of the way through it.  It is a detailed account, backed up by interviews and documents received through FOIA requests, of the conscious policy enacted during the Trump administration to forcibly separate children from their parents as an immigration enforcement mechanism.

As distasteful and abhorrent such a policy is, the article is really describing an example of what happens when you have some authoritarian figure like Trump willing to install loyalists to carry out policies that are not well thought out.  We all know now that the child separation policy was, not only inhumane, but was a total logistical disaster and a huge waste of government monetary and human resources. 

The Trump acolytes like Stephen Miller and Jeff Sessions kept pushing to have this zero-tolerance policy implemented in spite of huge pushback from experts across the board from multiple different government agencies. 

It’s easy to say, “We Need to Take Away Children,” and think that is a great strategy to discourage people from seeking asylum in the United States.  However, there are major questions that never got answered as the push to implement this policy as finalized.  What mechanism would be in place to ensure children could eventually be reunited with their parents – None!  Are there facilities sufficient to house the huge influx of expected detainees – No!  Are there enough Border Patrol agents and prosecutors to handle all of these immigration cases – No!  Is there a sufficient transportation mechanism in place to transport all of these parents and children to where they are being taken – No!   None of these questions and many, many more were addressed, and it turned out to be a complete and utter disaster, not to mention a huge stain on the reputation of the United States who is always preaching ‘human rights’ to other countries.

This is the kind of thing that awaits the country if the Trumplicans regain power in 2024.  The government experts and career people in virtually every government agency will be replaced by people whose only qualification is loyalty to one man.  I predict policy upon policy will get enacted without sufficient analysis about the longer-term consequences and it will lead to disaster upon disaster just like the Zero Tolerance policy that led to the disastrous child separation policy.  Does anyone really think that will Make America Great?  It will result in a huge waste of government resources.

The real irony is that all of these people who are supporting Trumplicans will likely get screwed.  Trump and his cronies will get wealthier.  The Trumplicans will more than likely slash taxes so the wealthy can get wealthier.  They will then slash government programs that many of his supporters depend upon because of lower revenue coming into the government coffers.  Or worse yet, they will decide that privatization is the more efficient option and start down that path.  The only people who will benefit from this will be the people at the top.  In Russia, they call them oligarchs!   That’s where we’re headed folks if these people who continue to support Trump don’t wake up and smell the coffee! 

I wonder what kind of a crime Trump would have to commit before some of his Republican acolytes would finally abandon him.  He once stated that he could shoot someone in the middle of 5^th Avenue in New York and get away with it!  It certainly appears to be true sometimes, although the noose does appear to be tightening somewhat. 

Some of the Republicans who are coming to his defense are just making moronic statements.  I heard one Republican state that they weren’t even sure the information was properly classified, as if that is a justification for stashing away boxes of classified documents.  Once again, there is a process for downgrading or declassifying documents and if you have a document labelled “Top Secret/SCI” you damned well better handle it in the appropriate manner until it is properly, and legally, downgraded or declassified. 

No individual has the authority to just pick up a document like that and say to themselves, “I think this is classified incorrectly so I’m not going to treat it with the proper caveats.”  That makes about as much sense as deciding that, even though the speed limit in a given neighborhood is posted as 35 mph, you individually have the right to decide the speed limit on the street is improper and so you drive 60 mph down the street.  Try making that argument to the judge! These people who are offering these kinds of arguments in defense of Trump are complete idiots.

There is so much misinformation being thrown around out there that it is just ridiculous and, at time, irresponsible. I saw an article that talked about the number of people who have been granted Top Secret clearances. I think the number was something like 1.2 million.   If that were the end of the story, that would be pretty shocking. However, the part of this that seems to get left out is that fact that just because someone has a Top-Secret clearance does NOT mean they have immediate access to anything, and everything labelled Top Secret.  There is also the ‘Need To Know’ part of the equation.

I worked with tons of people who had Top Secret clearances and very often, they did not have access to documents and information that I had access to because they did not have a ‘Need To Know.’  The information I had was not germane to their jobs.  Likewise, they had access to information that I did not because I did not have a ‘Need To Know’ what they were working on.  There seems to be this misunderstanding out there that a ‘Top Secret’ clearance gives you access to everything labelled ‘Top Secret.’  That is simply not true.

Many are screaming for the public release of the affidavit that was used to justify the search warrant. The DOJ is resisting this stating,

“Disclosure of the government’s affidavit at this stage would also likely chill future cooperation by witnesses whose assistance may be sought as this investigation progresses, as well as in other high-profile investigations.  “The fact that this investigation implicates highly classified materials further underscores the need to protect the integrity of the investigation and exacerbates the potential harm if information is disclosed to the public prematurely or improperly.”¹

The part of this statement that I particularly like is the line about the ‘future cooperation of witnesses.’  It was reported that the FBI got the search warrant for the search at Mar a Lago based, in part, upon a tip.  That means that someone very close to Trump is talking to the FBI.  Trump and his acolytes probably want the affidavit released so they know who the rat is.  Given the very sensitive nature of the classified information and the need to protect witnesses, I hope that the court sides with the DOJ and keeps the affidavit under seal for the time being.

I would suspect a lot of people who have been staunch Trump defenders are starting to get a bit nervous.  Rudy Giuliani has been told he the target of a criminal investigation into Trump’s effort to overturn the election in Georgia.  Lindsay Graham has been ordered to testify in the same case.  No doubt there will be a lot of bluster and talk about taking the fifth or never flipping on Trump.  As you recall, that’s exactly what Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, said until he found himself staring at the underside of the Trump bus and then he sang like a canary. 

We know from the reporting surrounding the FBI search warrant that someone tipped them off.  It seems perhaps the USS Trump is starting to take on water.  I think it will be extremely amusing to see which rats bail first and decide they’d prefer the view from under the Trump bus rather than at the bottom of the sea (or in a Federal prison cell) when the ship finally sinks.  Some people think Trump is untouchable.  Some people claimed the Titanic was unsinkable! This document investigation might very well be Trump’s iceberg!

1. DOJ opposes making public details in Mar-a-Lago search warrant’s probable cause affidavit | CNN Politics

The hole for Trump just keeps getting deeper and deeper, in spite of what is being reported on Fox News and other conservative media outlets.  Their programming would have you believe that the search warrant at Mar a Lago was just some ‘fly-by-night operation cooked up by the FBI and the Democrats.  As is typical in ‘Trump-land’, facts are just ignored.  The conservative media and many Republican politicians are fanning the flames of ‘the base’ and the threats of violence against the FBI and other government institutions have increased dramatically.  This is beyond irresponsible. 

Earlier this year, the National Archives, whose job it is to archive ALL presidential material requested that information that Trump had taken to Mar a Lago be returned.  Trump sent a tranche of documents back.  The government had information that more documents remained at Mar a Lago so they issued a subpoena in June of this year.  Mar a Lago was visited by a small group of FBI agents and more documents were found and taken.  It is being reported that a Trump lawyer certified, in writing, at that time that ALL documents requested in the subpoena had been returned.

We now know that was not true.  I have a feeling the attorney who signed that certification may be joining the growing group of people who are looking at the underside of the Trump bus.  Presumably, if it can be proved that he/she knowingly lied when he/she signed that certification, criminal charges may be a possibility, along with the possibility of disbarment.  You can bet that Trump certainly won’t go out on a limb to defend that person.

Trump had multiple chances to return the documents that he illegally had in his possession and yet, he failed to comply with the initial request and the subsequent subpoena.  So, any reporting that this search warrant on Trump’s residence was some random, rogue activity meant to harass the former president is pure bullshit.  He committed a crime by removing the documents in the first place.  He committed another crime by failing to comply with a legally issued subpoena.  Then are the crimes associated with the illegal possession and handling of extremely sensitive classified documents. 

It is highly unlikely that anyone at Mar a Lago has the appropriate clearances to be anywhere close to the documents that were seized.  As I stated yesterday, Trump’s security clearance was revoked by Biden when he took office.  Past presidents are sometimes extended clearances as a courtesy after they leave office, but it is completely at the discretion of the new president.  After the January 6^th coup attempt, Biden really had no choice but to revoke Trump’s clearance.  You certainly don’t want a guy who essentially tried to overthrow a duly elected government holding any kind of security clearance.  I would assume that clearances for Jared Kushner and Ivanka were also revoked.  Normally, when you now longer have a need to access classified information, you are debriefed, and your clearance revoked.  Like I said, it is highly unlikely that anyone at Mar a Lago had the appropriate clearances to deal with these documents.  Crime upon crime upon crime!! 

I personally believe, the FBI knows more than they are letting on and the search warrant was just trying to get information to corroborate what they already suspect or perhaps already know to be true.   I believe they are concerned that classified information was passed on to unauthorized persons and quite possibly foreigners which is why the counter espionage folks were involved. 

It is no secret that Trump was pushing to give nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia, possibly even nuclear weapons to counter the nuclear threat from Iran.   Magically, after Trump left office and his close advisors, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, stepped down as well, the Saudis dumped $2 Billion into Kushner’s fledgling investment firm within 6 months of their departure from the Whitehouse.  Coincidence? – Maybe.  Maybe not.  Given that Kushner, like his father-in-law is not known as a particularly astute investor and businessman, it does seem strange.

The point is, highly classified information was found at Mar a Lago that should not have been there under any circumstances.  It could not have gotten there by accident as I have explained previously.  All of the people involved in this had to know they were breaking the law.  So, it begs the question, why?  This investigation is not about some stray documents missing from the National Archives.  This investigation is about answering the question “why?” 

Why was this done and who was meant to see this information?  I suspect that it will take a while to get the answers to these questions.  I am sure, however, if and when these questions are answered, it will send shock waves through the country and possibly the world.  I know that sounds very sensationalistic and I could be completely off base.  But given that Trump already tried to instigate a coup, would anyone really be surprised if he passed highly sensitive, highly classified information off to someone who shouldn’t have it?  It sure as hell wouldn’t shock me!   People often compare Trump to Putin, Hitler, or Viktor Orban.  It might turn out that the more appropriate comparison would be Benedict Arnold!  Time will tell.