What The F**k? Unfortunately appalling as such an onerous requirement is it gets worse. They want more, and it’s downright frightening to think about.
Travelers from 42 countries eligible for the visa waiver program would be impacted by the proposal, which aims to collect “baseline biographic data” through the addition of several “high value data fields.”
Visitors could be asked to provide their telephone numbers used in the last five years, email addresses used in the last 10 years, in addition to IP addresses and metadata from electronically submitted photos.
As the pundit noted what people should focus on is the attempt to grab (and use god knows how) some personally identifying data on anyone who wants to come here. A tourist wanting to visit a Disney theme park. Someone wanting to visit DC itself which has so much to see. Someone wanting to hit Vegas. Or visit one of our fantastic National Parks. Or go skiing. Or attend (or speak at) a conference. Or attend college or graduate school. You get the idea.
Granted that last one would require providing a lot of information anyway but social media history? I wonder how many foreign students will leave after finals this semester and never return? That’s an economic hit many a university can’t afford. Not to mention foreign athletes playing sports here, or professional athletes. Think about Trump and his golf. Is he going to exempt pro golfers from all this if they want to play in the United States?
I could go on a real rant about all this that would last into the evening. I’ll limit myself to pointing out a couple of things. Trump has often whined over the fact that people from certain countries, as in white Europeans especially from ‘Scandinavia’ wondering why they don’t want to immigrate to the U.S. Well, the fact that on about any measure you care to name they are better off than in the U.S. might have something to do with it. So there aren’t as many people who are filthy rich like here, and/or the chances of becoming so aren’t that great. The average person does better than the average person here, and people might not get filthy rich but a fair number are in fact rich.
Still, this country has had a special place in the minds of people from around the world. Just as there are places overseas many of us would like to visit and experience there is a ton of the same here. We have a large country that has been blessed in more ways than we’ve been (mostly self) cursed. There’s an abundance of natural beauty to be taken in, and plenty of man-made attractions too. All it has taken before is having enough money to buy a ticket to travel here and obtain lodging and pay any fees etc.
Now, Trump would have people turn over all kinds of private information for the privilege of coming to spend their tourist dollars here. Or fulfill a short-term work gig. Or attend a conference or even be a presenter at one. It’s the pre-WWII isolationists wet-dream on steroid because most foreigners will stay home, or visit other places.
For the moment the 60 day period for public comment is open before this “We’re Mur-i-Kun and you ain’t so stay the f**k out” rule could go into effect. Hopefully the backlash will be such that the proposal will be abandoned. But we should all be angry it’s even being tried.
It’s one more sign to the world that they American they’d known all their lives is no more. We are so filled with asshats someone like Trump and another gang of that persons version of Trumpkins can slither and slime their way into power every four years. The vision that once existed is gone and won’t be rebuilt in my lifetime, if ever. The best we can do is defeat this and other Trump crap and make a show of doing so. Let the world know there are more of us than the MAGAs and we are fighting like hell to drive them back under the slimy rocks in the polluted stream they came from.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
The hospitality industry must be thrilled. As Ursula points out, this is 1984 become real.
So, visitors have to provide 5 years’ worth of social media, um, what exactly? All the video content they may have watched and/or created for YouTube and TikTok and Instagram? All the posts and likes/follows from Twitter and Facebook and Drumpf’s very own Bullsh!t AntiSocial?
And who’s going to be reviewing all this information and when is it supposed to be “provided?” And I can just imagine all these foreign visitors who post content in languages other than English.
You’re correct of course it’s an impossible task to sort through all that which is the point. It gives cover for “reasons” as to why people will be denied entry. And sets up a nice black market for buying entry. More grift for Trump.
they’ve already been loiking at people’s pists when they come here and have denied entry to people with posts critical of trump.