Those travelling to the US will now have to submit social media, email & phone numbers

Wrathy wrote:Can't say I'm hugely fond of this to be honest.

As part of the Pokemon cards hobby I need to visit the USA at least once a year (potentially more, as I'd like to play a couple more events there next season if possible) for the World Championships, so it's not something that ever won't affect me. Fortunately, I don't actually do anything on the internet other than talk about the Pokemon cards hobby, so I doubt they'll have any reason to do more than skim over it. But the shift from meaningless shouting to the void towards something governments actively analyse is not one I like. It's one step closer to actively persecuting wrongthink.

Peter Crisp wrote:

Wrathy wrote:Can't say I'm hugely fond of this to be honest.

As part of the Pokemon cards hobby I need to visit the USA at least once a year (potentially more, as I'd like to play a couple more events there next season if possible) for the World Championships, so it's not something that ever won't affect me. Fortunately, I don't actually do anything on the internet other than talk about the Pokemon cards hobby, so I doubt they'll have any reason to do more than skim over it. But the shift from meaningless shouting to the void towards something governments actively analyse is not one I like. It's one step closer to actively persecuting wrongthink.

I think the problem people have is we can never really tell what's likely to get someone into trouble when they get into reviewing social media.
People could be stopped from going for what other people who are merely facebook friends have said.

Ironhide wrote:

Peter Crisp wrote:

Wrathy wrote:Can't say I'm hugely fond of this to be honest.

As part of the Pokemon cards hobby I need to visit the USA at least once a year (potentially more, as I'd like to play a couple more events there next season if possible) for the World Championships, so it's not something that ever won't affect me. Fortunately, I don't actually do anything on the internet other than talk about the Pokemon cards hobby, so I doubt they'll have any reason to do more than skim over it. But the shift from meaningless shouting to the void towards something governments actively analyse is not one I like. It's one step closer to actively persecuting wrongthink.

I think the problem people have is we can never really tell what's likely to get someone into trouble when they get into reviewing social media.
People could be stopped from going for what other people who are merely facebook friends have said.

I think it's quite a worrying development and one of the reasons why I'm glad I don't post anything on social media sites (GRcade doesn't court right?).

A 1984 style future is very possible now that Big Brother (or Sister for that matter) is watching.

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:

Corazon de Leon wrote:

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:The only place I've actually been to in the USA is Miami and honestly it smelled of piss everywhere and at one point I saw a homeless woman's hairy vagina while she was bent over literally just in the middle of the street having a gushing piss. There were people out of their minds on who knows what begging for money everywhere.

I got chatting to quite a few Americans during my time over there and it was staggering how all they wanted to talk about was how much money they earn, how much their families earn and how awful it must be for me to have to pay for immigrants to use the NHS.

I still really want to explore over there a lot more, but I'll be aiming for the west coast.

We’ve had wildly different experiences of the States.

Having said that Miami is absolutely not on my list of places to go anytime soon. It seems to be the American equivalent of Magaluf. Even it’s depiction in films(Bad Boys ) just makes it look gaudy and vile.

Oh I absolutely have not had enough experience there to form a full opinion. I was at a pretty posh event over the course of a fortnight that was essentially full of rich white people. No wonder I only seemed to bump into snobby racist pricks .

First choice for me over there would be to do something like land in San Francisco and maybe drive down the coast to San Diego.

What would your recommendation be?

captain red dog wrote:Not a good move, although I don't think the vast majority of people would fall foul of the law. However the 1st amendment probably doesn't apply to non US citizens so there is scope for arbitrary declining of entry.

Other nations needs to retaliate with these rules. I think my esta cost £20 last time I went to the US, so I'd hope the UK and EU would apply a similar charge to US citizens coming to UK/Europe.

The US and Trump only seem to take notice when money is at stake.

OrangeRKN wrote:I would love to visit the US, but the actual process already sounded terrible. This will make it even worse

Tomous wrote:

OrangeRKN wrote:I would love to visit the US, but the actual process already sounded terrible. This will make it even worse

Assuming you can go through the ESTA Waivee programme it’s really easy. Simple online application and costs $10-$20 from memory.

This change looks like it’s for visa applications only and the ESTA lets you visit for up to 90 days without needing one.

Woman stripped and jailed amid rise in US airport arrests

A young British woman was strip-searched and held in a Texas prison for three days without her migraine medication after she was arrested in a crackdown by immigration officials.

Sophie Frampton, 30, of Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, had gone to visit her American boyfriend in June last year but was detained and deported. Hers was one of 315 immigration arrests reported to British consulates in America in 2018.

She contacted The Times after reading about Isaac Roblett, 24, from Hastings, East Sussex who was deported from Chicago when immigration officials seized his phone and interpreted a text as an indication he intended to stay.

The 30-year-old was on her fourth visit to the country in 11 months to see her partner Zaid Khayat, 25, but admitted there had been a change to her address since she had applied for her Esta.

Ms Frampton claims she was handcuffed and driven to jail, told to strip and kept in a cell without her migraine medicine.

She also claims she was unable to use the toilet in her cell.

OrangeRKN wrote:

Tomous wrote:

OrangeRKN wrote:I would love to visit the US, but the actual process already sounded terrible. This will make it even worse

Assuming you can go through the ESTA Waivee programme it’s really easy. Simple online application and costs $10-$20 from memory.

This change looks like it’s for visa applications only and the ESTA lets you visit for up to 90 days without needing one.

Just going through the airport sounds bad enough tbh

OrangeRKN wrote:

Tomous wrote:

OrangeRKN wrote:I would love to visit the US, but the actual process already sounded terrible. This will make it even worse

Assuming you can go through the ESTA Waivee programme it’s really easy. Simple online application and costs $10-$20 from memory.

This change looks like it’s for visa applications only and the ESTA lets you visit for up to 90 days without needing one.

Just going through the airport sounds bad enough tbh

Corazon de Leon wrote:

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:

Corazon de Leon wrote:

Oblomov Boblomov wrote:The only place I've actually been to in the USA is Miami and honestly it smelled of piss everywhere and at one point I saw a homeless woman's hairy vagina while she was bent over literally just in the middle of the street having a gushing piss. There were people out of their minds on who knows what begging for money everywhere.

I got chatting to quite a few Americans during my time over there and it was staggering how all they wanted to talk about was how much money they earn, how much their families earn and how awful it must be for me to have to pay for immigrants to use the NHS.

I still really want to explore over there a lot more, but I'll be aiming for the west coast.

We’ve had wildly different experiences of the States.

Having said that Miami is absolutely not on my list of places to go anytime soon. It seems to be the American equivalent of Magaluf. Even it’s depiction in films(Bad Boys ) just makes it look gaudy and vile.

Oh I absolutely have not had enough experience there to form a full opinion. I was at a pretty posh event over the course of a fortnight that was essentially full of rich white people. No wonder I only seemed to bump into snobby racist pricks .

First choice for me over there would be to do something like land in San Francisco and maybe drive down the coast to San Diego.

What would your recommendation be?

Exactly what you suggest.

We did a road trip down from San Francisco to LA a few years ago and it was genuinely brilliant. I loved California.

Ad7 wrote:Brag pics:

Ad7 wrote: