A "Plan B" for Catastrophe

It's not just for pregnancy, but for all emergencies

Professor Timothy Snyder has recently said in an article called Decapitation Strike, that “This is no longer a post-electoral moment.  It is a pre-catastrophic moment.”

Professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat shares that she wrote in the May 2024 New Republic edition that, “The fascists believed that you have to destroy to create, and this is what a second Trump administration would do,” as she points out that Russell Vought being appointed to led the Office of Management and Budget, the chapter that he wrote about, in her Substack Lucid, is evidence that Project 2025 really is Trump’s plan for government.

If we are to presume that this is true. If we believe that Project 2025 is really going to come about, then we should be preparing alternate plans for our lives. In fact, I imagine that many Trump voters are assuming their lives will be better now, so their alternate plan will be to enjoy life more. I will also assume that unless a Trump voter wrote or was behind Project 2025, they don’t know what is in it. I think for most Americans, Plan A is to stay put and keep on living life as you have been.  I am recommending that everyone also have at least a Plan B in case the incoming administration ushers in catastrophe. Catastrophe is woven into every piece of Project 2025, and that warrants being prepared. The choices are staying in place and preparing to be safe and resist, or it could be moving from a Red State to a Blue State and preparing to join them in resisting, or, if you feel too vulnerable then you might consider moving abroad and help the resistance from there. In each case, you have around 2 months to plan before a very different administration will be ushered in.

When one is staying in place one has to have access to information. Not only should you be choosing your sources carefully, but you should be figuring out how you might access these news and information sources if the platforms they are on get shut down by the incoming administration. Right now I would say you should see what alternatives you can have to your email, and messaging systems that are platformed with US companies, and also do these companies support Trump. I am not saying Musk will convince Trump to shut down Blue Sky, or will be spying on your gmail, but I would think it is at least a possibility. Then you should be finding out what plans the media that you are accessing has made for deplatforming from the USA. Secondly, if you belong to a vulnerable group (and really, who doesn’t?) you should be thinking about extra precautions you can take. Jessica Valenti has the Substack Abortion, Every Day. As a woman of child bearing years, you should be following people who can keep you informed on what is going on with birth control and abortion that you can trust. She suggests stocking up now on what Birth control you can (like condoms) and also the Abortion pills. You might also want to consider what contraceptive methods are going to be easiest to stockpile or renew if they become illegal. If you are transgender it is recommended that you stock up now on medications to continue your treatments. Everyone should be forming support communities if you are not in one. I recommend Indivisible: A Practical Guide to Democracy on the Brink for help organizing your communities of support and resistance.

While immigrants who are targeted for action on the first day of the incoming administration, trans people, and women of child bearing years are two of the most obviously targeted groups, other groups are vulnerable as well. Parents, what will you do if your child’s school is shut down or taken over by Christian Nationalist curriculum? You have a couple of months to organize your school parents groups now to plan what you want to fight for. If you are a teacher you have to wonder what sort of rules and curriculum will be imposed on you, if your school will be defunded, and if your union will be made illegal or at least union actions will be. If you are a librarian you have to worry about the impending onslaught of books banning making your job miserable and dangerous. If you are a doctor you have to wonder if you can practice your profession ethically, and if there will be resources for you, and protections for your work. If you are a university student you should consider how you are going to finance your education if you have been relying on government loans, once those are gone. If you are a university professor you will have to consider whether you can continue your research, or teaching the way you want to. If you are retired you have to worry what will you do if medicare is privatized and social security is reduced. That is the same for anyone with a disability. It was already difficult enough for my cousin to fill out the paperwork for disability support for her Multiple Sclerosis, requiring help from family members, with strict deadlines. Unfortunately we lost her this past summer. She is spared from seeing the new administration come back in, and also the potential loss of life saving supports. I recommend reading the chapters of Project 2025 that affect the parts of your life that you want to hold on to and are willing to fight for. Not everything is covered, but a lot is. Andra Watkins, whose Substack is newly named, “For A Time Such as This” is giving advice on what she calls Purposeful Disengagement as a way to resist. She is an expert on Project 2025, and on Christian Nationalism, and decoding the Christian Nationalist messages embedded in Project 2025, since that is who it is written by and for.

If you are determined to stay where you are, then a you need to figure out if that is no matter what, like people who do not leave their homes when they are in the eye of a storm and want to ride it out, or whether there is a Red Line that if crossed means you are willing to uproot yourself because life where you are will no longer be acceptable. You can fight for your community and country from afar. Your Plan B might be a plan to move from a Red State to a Blue State where governors are planning to stand up to the incoming authoritarian regime and protect their people. Red States will not stay as they are, but will more quickly implement the plans outlined in Project 2025. Most have already started. We are looking at the government planning on shutting down the Department of Education (DOE). Special Education will to to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which they also plan to close and turn into the Department of Life. Regular Education will be under The Department of Labor(DOL), along with plans to make it easier for youth to work including in dangerous jobs, and for employees to transition to being contractors responsible for their own benefits such as health care, pension, sick and vacation pay. Retirement looks shaky as well. If medicare, which is under HHS, is privatized, then it seems that it will be more expensive and cover less. That is true of social security as well. Apparently what they would do with Social Security was so controversial they just mentioned it as something that they did not have time to cover. That in and of itself is suspicious.

If you move to another state, you are going to have to uproot your life. Friends of mine moved to Texas to escape the taxes they were paying in California. However, they considered their quality of life in Texas low enough that they moved back to California after 2 years. There are things worse than high taxes, like no connection to your neighbors. Even though they had family in Texas they did not really find community where they were living. They can afford to do this because one of them works from home.

If your life is comfortable now, you will have to use your imagination and figure out where your red line is at the conditions that you are willing to tear yourself from the life you have built just as catastrophic storms and fires do this to people too. What do you need to do for your mental health and physical well being? Where can you have shelter, find work, and take care of yourself and your family? Do you have daughters? How safe will they be where you live? Is there access to women’s health care, abortion and birth control? Do you have transgender children? How safe will they be where you live? Are you retired? Are you living in a flood or fire zone? As Trump comes into office there are plans for FEMA to be greatly reduced. With this it would only pay a small portion of the costs of help and damages in case of a natural catastrophe such as a hurricane or deluge leading to flooding, or for fires. The incoming government wants communities to pay for their own catastrophes. They also do not plan to support people socially and will no longer provide government backed flood insurance.

On top of all that the government will not be doing, there will also be fewer people available to help. This incoming administration plans to deport many of the immigrants who work on disaster clean up and rebuilding, or lock them up in camps/prisons. They plan to shut down the National Weather Service and NOAA so there will be no records kept on disasters, and no warning system for tornados and hurricanes and other bad weather, meaning the devastation we are having now will be greatly increased with fewer resources to help people. I am also wondering how this will work for the shipping and aviation industries. The changes will be drastic and they want to implement them lickety-split before people have a chance to realize what hit them and before the mid-term elections in 2026.

Leaving the USA might be another Plan B or for some even a Plan C. Millions of Americans live abroad. I am currently one of them, although I still live back and forth between the US and Germany. How many people live abroad is unclear because there is no clearinghouse for keeping track of this data. If you are an immigrant your home country may not be an option but another country might be, particularly if you have learned English while in the US. If you are a dual citizen your other country may be a natural destination. Otherwise, Mexico seems to be the country of first choice for Americans. That might be because Mexicans who have acquired US citizenship while living in the US, return home when they retire. Also, it attracts other retirees because the climate is nice and the cost of living is lower. Canada is the second most chosen country for US citizens. I believe it is harder to get into Canada unless you have one of the skills they are looking for, are going to university, or are retiring with a large enough income to be accepted. These are all things to pursue because you do not need to learn another language. It will be important to keep an eye on the policies of the US under the incoming administration and how they are relating to other countries. Visa situations often change when countries have hostile relationships with each other.

Go Abroad lists several countries where they claim it is easy to get a work visa. Typically you will need to secure a job first. That is the hard part. However, Europe and many Asian countries have a decreasing population and if you look for jobs in countries that have shortages in your field or there is work you would be willing to do, then you should be looking into it. Just as many people who immigrate to the US have to struggle when they come to the US to get acclimated and increase their standard of living, you may need to do this too and yet immigrants do this all the time. We can do the same.

When you move to another country, you will face different challenges. You will have to get legal permission to enter so you generally will need to have a visa that relates to your purpose. If you can avoid entering a country with a tourist visa by having a job in the US that you can do from anywhere, or securing employment in your destination country, or admission to a university spot or a year long language program, or a volunteer position, or have a business you can take with you, it will be easier. You have to look for places where you are likely to get permanent residency.

A couple who are friends moved to Lisbon, Portugal last fall. Portugal is considered easy to enter. Neither of them speaks Portuguese but he speaks Hindi and she speaks German. They have started learning Portuguese. He works online for a tech company in Chicago, and she is starting a health consultancy, however since they just had a child, her plans are on hold. They made the leap because they had friends who had moved there that they had visited. They just wanted to be in a less violent place before having children. They rented an apartment while looking for a house. They got their permanent residency in about 3-4 months. That is fast. In Germany you are eligible after working here for 48 months. When we visited our friends in Lisbon in the Spring, it was rainy most days with occasional sunshine. They told us that it had been rainy all year, and their friends said it was an unusually rainy year. Our towels in the Airbnb took 24 hours to dry before then being used again. We never got the bath mat dry for 2 weeks. I could not help but wonder whether the unusual amount of rain is becoming usual as the planet heats up. We still enjoyed our time there.

In addition to bringing skills from your profession you bring English language skills, which can be used to earn money abroad in non-English speaking countries. A friend’s daughter went to Berlin to do college voluntary field work last winter. She was not paid, but did get to teach English to immigrant women. She really enjoyed it and went back there to work over her summer break. Germany has an extensive Volunteer program that one can apply for from the USA. If you have chosen a place to volunteer, you will then be granted a visa. That has to be negotiated from abroad. The Program is through the Federal Government Department called Bundesampt für Familie und zivilgesellschaftlichen Aufgaben (Federal Department for Families and Social service Assignments). Here is how they say they will support you in the job.

Pedagogical support

• A skilled employee looks after the volunteer at their place of assignment

• Volunteers receive free seminars.

Pocket Money

• The volunteers receive an agreed amount of pocket money; the highest amount is currently 604 euro. Work clothes, board, travel expenses and lodgings or commensurate financial compensation may be provided.

Social Security

• The volunteers are treated in a similar way to trainees as regards social security. Contributions to pension, accident, health, nursing and unemployment insurance are paid by the place of assignment.

Reference

• Upon completing the Federal Volunteer Service, volunteers receive a qualified reference.

An American expat couple have been posting videos on how to integrate yourself into Germany. They call themselves TheBlack Forest Family. They have a link to a many different topics like retiring, or studying (she did her PhD in Germany) and A Comprehensive Guide on Finding Jobs in Germany for Foreigners (2024).

A friend who has been teaching abroad in many different countries since she finished graduate school with a certificate to teach English as a Second Language, a good skill to take abroad, has retired in Spain. She and her husband were in their 50s. They made enough money in the UAE to get a home in Spain in a less expensive region and by living a modest lifestyle they no longer need to work. Her husband is from Scotland, and they are both fluent in Spanish. A challenge of moving abroad is to find work if you do not have a job you can work from home, and also a place to live. Some of the hot countries for Expats are also experiencing some pushback as their housing is snatched up by immigrants who can afford to pay more. They are being pushed out of the communities they grew up in and consider theirs, by the rising number of immigrants. So, you have to be sensitive to how you live in a new place either in the US or abroad. You need to integrate yourself into a society which may be a little different or a lot.

Germany is a country that encourages students to do a gap year of either volunteer service or to go abroad and volunteer. Common jobs are in child care, and working with seniors. My daughter has a good friend in Austria who is taking a year to work in child care. I have 2 German nieces that went abroad. One came to the US to live with us and worked in a day care center. Another went to Australia through an AuPair Program and worked as a nanny. The daughter of one family friend went to Israel to work with seniors on a Kibbutz. Another friend’s daughter went to Nepal for half a year and Costa Rica for half a year and worked in day care centers in both countries. All of them gained confidence from negotiating life in another country, and they gained language skills, as well as a more diverse understanding of the world. These programs are available to Americans too, as well as opportunities to teach English Abroad. International Volunteer Headquarters recommends programs in several countries. However, I am not endorsing any of the programs in links I have presented. You will have to do your own research. Still, this is an action you can take that is forward looking.

There will always be special considerations for your unique circumstances. You cannot wait to get a work visa, or you are transgender and want to know where you can be legally allowed to be yourself and get supports you need, or a woman who wants to know where you will be able to get abortion if you need to have one, you can research these. In fact, for both women and men it is under question whether there will still be birth control in the new administration. There is an opportunity to work abroad without a visa, depending on the country. Go Abroad suggests that you can participate in work exchanges, become a digital nomad, work on a cruise ship, or score a working holiday visa.

Your considerations will be to find a society that will be safer for you. So, if you are transgender Expatsi recommends these countries for Transgender people, which is not an exhaustive list. There is a handbook in Germany for LBGTQIA+ people which says that Trans rights are protected for all living in Germany. That does not mean everyone is tolerant, just that the society as a whole is. Countries where abortion is legal are growing in number, which is ironic as the USA, which had the most progressive abortion laws is backsliding. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, the USA and 3 other countries have reduced their abortion access. Those are Poland, Nicaragua and El Salvador. Are women coming from these countries to the USA? I don’t know. If you want to have a more full health care access, you should look elsewhere.

So there are many considerations, and fortunately in these next 2 months this information is still at your fingertips. Even if you are sure that you will never leave, it is a good idea to have a Plan B, if not for yourself, for your family members who are more vulnerable. A Plan B might be to stay and resist as well. Again, when I was doing political action in the US, such as protesting governmental actions, we alway agreed ahead of time who would be willing to be arrested and those people might do acts of resistance that were more risky, like blocking a road, or trespassing to stop some action. However, any resistance can face risks. I would look at Russia and Hungary as examples to understand more thoroughly how people are resisting in countries that Trump considers to be models of how a country should be run. He has also admired China, and North Korea’s even though these countries are viewed as hostile countries in Project 2025. It is often easier to do the things you need to do when you resist if you have thought of a way out and a red line, than if you take a stand that nothing will sway you. In that way, you do not feel trapped with your choices, but feel that you are in control of your destiny. Keeping sane and strong is important.