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

Zaichik wrote:Russia have been asking for social media account information for a few years already.

So?

Corazon de Leon wrote:This will be the new normal soon enough. My prediction is that the UK will have adopted the same policy for visa applicants within the next eighteen months. Which is really very worrying given my wife-to-be will need to renew hers in January.

Bunni wrote:Last time I went to America I was livid that they didn’t have toilets between getting off the plane d getting out of immigration. When three large planes land at the same time and there’s 7 processing staff, I nearly ruptured my bladder trying to hold it in. (Also I don’t pee on planes so had actually been holding from Glasgow) They better employ more staff to carry out these checks as I’m sure much suspicious behaviour can be accounted for by how agitated folk get waiting for strawberry floating hours to get to their holiday.

Where did you fly into? There’s *definitely* a toilet in JFK, I know that much. Also how the strawberry float did you make it to Japan without poisoning yourself if you don’t pee on planes?

Nursing bladder.

poshrule_uk wrote:

Zaichik wrote:Russia have been asking for social media account information for a few years already.

Don't Russia also take your DNA?

They take your fingerprints when you apply for a visa. No idea what they do with them because there's no check when you enter the country.

Drumstick wrote:I don't intend to travel to the US for work, study, leisure or for any other reason for a long, long time.

strawberry floating dump of a place.

It's not though is it? Some of the most beautiful places I've been to in my life are in the US.

Drumstick wrote:I don't intend to travel to the US for work, study, leisure or for any other reason for a long, long time.

strawberry floating dump of a place.

Have you actually been to the US before?

I took issue with that as well but didn’t want to say anything because my obvious bias would show through, and I know full well that Drumstick means the people, not the scenery. I also think I’ve made my views on the danger of generalisation pretty clear too.

The thing is, 95% of all Americans, and just about every one I’ve ever met, have been kind, courteous and helpful to a fault. As a country, it’s absolutely stunning, there can’t be many countries on the planet with such a wide variety of natural phenomena from swampland to prairies to golden beaches to snowy climates to giant redwood forests.

But the mind-blowing arrogance, stupidity and paranoia of the top tier of American society continues to give the entire country, for all its incredible aspects, a bad reputation. And that won’t change anytime soon.

Fairly obvious what Drumstick is talking about. The US has got more in common with a third world country than being the land of the free.

I won't go back there until Trump has gone.

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.

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.

Dual wrote:Fairly obvious what Drumstick is talking about. The US has got more in common with a third world country than being the land of the free.

I won't go back there until Trump has gone.

Can’t disagree with this really.

I do not want to ever go to the US. Much too fashy for me. If I didn't live in the UK I'd probably never visit here either.

I loved New York when I went there, and most of the locals we spoke to seemed fine.

Passport control at JFK was strawberry floating horrific, though, not helped by the staff on the plane incorrectly telling us that is we had ESTA visas, we didn't need to complete the landing cards, so we ended up having to step out of line to fill them out at the desk. Several planes had arrived at similar times, and there must have been about 3 or 4 people at the desks, so it took nearly 3 hours just to get through.

Corazon de Leon wrote:I took issue with that as well but didn’t want to say anything because my obvious bias would show through, and I know full well that Drumstick means the people, not the scenery. I also think I’ve made my views on the danger of generalisation pretty clear too.

The thing is, 95% of all Americans, and just about every one I’ve ever met, have been kind, courteous and helpful to a fault. As a country, it’s absolutely stunning, there can’t be many countries on the planet with such a wide variety of natural phenomena from swampland to prairies to golden beaches to snowy climates to giant redwood forests.

But the mind-blowing arrogance, stupidity and paranoia of the top tier of American society continues to give the entire country, for all its incredible aspects, a bad reputation. And that won’t change anytime soon.

It does seem to be that US conservatives do overpower everything.
They seem to have this hatred for the poor and working class (even if they themselves are poor or working class) and think a lack of money is a personal choice than people make by being lazy. At the same time they feel the need to protect the ultra wealthy from taxes or being called mean names because they obviously can't defend themselves and think anyone who has any liberal tendencies must be mentally ill.

All that matters to them is work (the fabled US work ethic) and even something as benign as maternity leave should is something they despise.

As you say they're also hugely paranoid and think everyone is a potential killer and that prison is the best place for huge chinks of society.

It's a shame really as I actually think some conservative ideas have merit but they see zero room for compromise on anything as they fear any show of weakness.

Snowcannon wrote:Have you actually been to the US before?

Yes.

Ad7 wrote:

Drumstick wrote:I don't intend to travel to the US for work, study, leisure or for any other reason for a long, long time.

strawberry floating dump of a place.

It's not though is it? Some of the most beautiful places I've been to in my life are in the US.

The part you have bolded is a meme which I actually thought you started. No, the places aren't dumps. But I disagree so strongly with their current politics and the direction the country is moving that right now I don't want to go there and won't be for the foreseeable future.

Ah ok fair enough. Starting memes I don't remember

Ad7 wrote:Ah ok fair enough. Starting memes I don't remember

wot r u liek pmsl

Ad7 wrote:Ah ok fair enough. Starting memes I don't remember

Who's responsible this?

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?

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.

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.