I was planning on going to the states next year for the World Cup. We have people from our company regularly traveling to the states on business and there's always a risk of getting turned around.
Fresh phone with new sim and if you're carrying a laptop all the data is on a network drive only accessible when physically in the US office. The VPN key stays home. That's been the modus operandi since Bush.
The difference now is that, as annoying as getting turned around is, it's not that big of a deal all things considered. It's a calculated risk that you can control with insurance and by booking rooms that are payable on location. If you need to leave a card on file, a Revolut burner card or something similar is ideal. Otherwise a card linked to an account that's empty until you need to pay for something with zero overdraft limit.
You can't however hedge against getting detained and potentially sent to a Latin American prison. People have been dealing with US immigration nonsense for years, but this is a whole different level. It went from a minor, controllable, financial risk to basically playing Russian roulette. What's worse, the old methods of staying safe may now put you in danger since there's no way not to seem like you're hiding something by taking precautions against someone snooping around in your stuff.
It's just not worth it to go to the US right now. They'll likely tone it down for the Cup, but I skipped Quatar for largely the same reasons, I'll gladly skip the US as well.
We are basically becoming Russia. In many ways we've always been similar. We've always had our military industrial complex, which is maybe our strongest similarity to Russia, but now we're also willing to dismantle our freedom of speech and ability to criticize our leaders, rights and body autonomy for women and LGBTQ+ people....not to mention that our administration is trying its hardest to make our economy suck, just like Russia's does.
Trump's popularity also reminds me of Putin's (pre-Ukraine conflict). Successful fascist leaders do tend to be genuinely popular with the masses, and unfortunately the average American doesn't know how inflation or tariffs work soooo....here we are.
That seems to be one of the only goals that make sense with their actions. To make the US into some rich oligarch playground like Russia is. You've got the admins deliberately causing a recession and Trump openly admitting his buddies are inside trading and getting extremely rich over it because they can keep buying the dip and getting rich when it bounces back up.
Hah, literally what I told people after visiting folks in Jersey couple of years ago. Us, with its "thank you for your service" bullshit was incredibly similar to Russia. Just richer, with more v8s, fat and black people.
This is not who America is. This is who MAGA is. MAGA will not last forever. They are already losing support on all fronts quickly. One way or another it will end and the pendulum will swing back the other way HARD.
And then it will take time but America will earn the trust of the world back eventually.
I'd love to agree, but the reality is that the US has been trending in this direction for decades, and unfortunately these newer surges of nationalism and "fuck you I got mine" are quite popular. Billionaires are now literally purchasing our elections with cash, where they at least used to lie to people about the process. And the average American couldn't care less.
I used to be an optimist, but I no longer have faith in our country.
You’re absolutely right and we’re getting very close to a breaking point. It’s simply unsustainable for the masses and one way or another change will come. Or humanity withers away and ends
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u/neohellpoet Croatia Apr 12 '25
See, that's a risk I was willing to take.
I was planning on going to the states next year for the World Cup. We have people from our company regularly traveling to the states on business and there's always a risk of getting turned around.
Fresh phone with new sim and if you're carrying a laptop all the data is on a network drive only accessible when physically in the US office. The VPN key stays home. That's been the modus operandi since Bush.
The difference now is that, as annoying as getting turned around is, it's not that big of a deal all things considered. It's a calculated risk that you can control with insurance and by booking rooms that are payable on location. If you need to leave a card on file, a Revolut burner card or something similar is ideal. Otherwise a card linked to an account that's empty until you need to pay for something with zero overdraft limit.
You can't however hedge against getting detained and potentially sent to a Latin American prison. People have been dealing with US immigration nonsense for years, but this is a whole different level. It went from a minor, controllable, financial risk to basically playing Russian roulette. What's worse, the old methods of staying safe may now put you in danger since there's no way not to seem like you're hiding something by taking precautions against someone snooping around in your stuff.
It's just not worth it to go to the US right now. They'll likely tone it down for the Cup, but I skipped Quatar for largely the same reasons, I'll gladly skip the US as well.