Be careful what you say
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I just listened to a lengthy post by a young Canadian woman who was flying into the State to for a friend's birthday party. She was pulled aside and was asked for her phone. The agent asked more questions that anyone has likely any of us - and very intrusive. The agent found some intimate photos of her and her boyfriend. She spent 7 hours in detention and was refused entry because the agent decided she was an escort. She looked nothing like Melania.
The handful of Canadians (and folks from other nations) who might have thought of visiting the US - ain't gonna be coming. The ill will from other such pro-US initiatives is such that Canada, Europe and China could remove tariffs - and no one will be buying anything US. The US may become one giant Amish community in few years.
@kluurs said in Be careful what you say:
The handful of Canadians (and folks from other nations) who might have thought of visiting the US - ain't gonna be coming. The ill will from other such pro-US initiatives is such that Canada, Europe and China could remove tariffs - and no one will be buying anything US. The US may become one giant Amish community in few years.
Seems to me the MAGA true believers will be happy to have a locked down, isolated America; one free from any and all foreigners.
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I've just decided this morning that I am going to do the travel I was planning to do over the next year. One trip to the Yukon, another to Bhutan. Have to, while I have the resources and the physical capacity still (the later may be questionable). I'll be 70 next February and it will be the 30th anniversary of when Mr Pique and I met next March.
If this ridiculousness is still going on, I will put my electronics, including my phone, in a bank lock box here at home, and get a burner phone for travel. Both trips are for extremely remote areas on horseback, so I'm going to go full Luddite, if I can manage it.
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I've just decided this morning that I am going to do the travel I was planning to do over the next year. One trip to the Yukon, another to Bhutan. Have to, while I have the resources and the physical capacity still (the later may be questionable). I'll be 70 next February and it will be the 30th anniversary of when Mr Pique and I met next March.
If this ridiculousness is still going on, I will put my electronics, including my phone, in a bank lock box here at home, and get a burner phone for travel. Both trips are for extremely remote areas on horseback, so I'm going to go full Luddite, if I can manage it.
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@kluurs I think everyone would be wise to come up with a Plan B. I don't want to plan to leave my country, but yes, by February I think it's going to be one of two things--either the Resistance is gaining ground or has even overthrown this nightmare, or, we are in what looks like the USSR. Except with raging capitalism.
The billionaires have decided that democracy is very inconvenient for them. How we take our power back is the dilemma to work out asap.
My own Plan B: I'm making tiny, incremental progress towards obtaining a European passport by right of descent. One major hurdle I just overcame a day ago--I got a photograph of my grandmother's birth record from 1897 and now know I can get a certified copy from the historical archives. For a long time I was pretty sure I would never find it.
Of course, Europe may fall to Russia, the way things are going. Then maybe on my European passport I can gain residency in Canada as a refugee.
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Years ago, I got to meet Paul Gastris as he was an invited speaker to one of the associations I worked with. He was smart and funny - and had delightful anecdotes of his time as Bill Clinton's chief speechwriter. The hopeful part of his talk was that the founding fathers of the country made it challenging to effect big change in the country - much like turning a huge tanker at sea. Sadly, I don't think he, like all of us, didn't think something like Trump would be possible.
His first term he had the kinds of people that might challenge bad ideas. This term, if he wants demonstrators shot in the legs, there鈥檚 a very good chance of that happening. We may see Elon Musk integrate AI to search the web to identify "traitors". Trump has historically weaponized the legal system against people - innocent people. It isn't a reach to think of him weaponizing the full resources of the government to stifle opposition. It's clear that big tech read the writing on the wall - and felt the safest course was to bow and pledge fealty to the new king.
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When I moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, less than a year ago, I could never have imagined that writing a critical piece about the US government could put me at risk of deportation, threatening the life and career I鈥檝e built here. But today, that threat is very real.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/29/trump-ice-deportation-universities
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News about and for green card holders. It鈥檚 just a link to a bunch of articles; I didn鈥檛 go though them in detail and am just posting the link to a Google News search.
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Deleting apps may not help. They can demand access to a foreign citizen鈥檚 Facebook and Twitter accounts as a condition of entry, even if it鈥檚 not on your phone.
And it鈥檇 be even worse to lie and say you don鈥檛 have an account, and then get caught.
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Deleting apps may not help. They can demand access to a foreign citizen鈥檚 Facebook and Twitter accounts as a condition of entry, even if it鈥檚 not on your phone.
And it鈥檇 be even worse to lie and say you don鈥檛 have an account, and then get caught.
@Quirt-Evans said in Be careful what you say:
And it鈥檇 be even worse to lie and say you don鈥檛 have an account, and then get caught.
That was what I was thinking.
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The Intercept had a good overview, too.
One I hadn't thought of:
Protect Your Contacts
Don鈥檛 forget to make sure you also protect any sensitive contacts. Go through your contacts lists and remove any persons whose affiliation with you may potentially cause issues; for instance, if you have the names of activists, human rights defenders, or other sensitive sources. You could even export and then delete your entire contacts list and restore it later.
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Then there's this story of a journalist, US citizen, and his border crossing experience. Scary as hell.
