Thoughts on the Trump presidency

[Annetts key]

I've visited Singapore back around the year 2000 and didn't experience any problems. Of course, things may have changed since then. Even in the non tourist areas of the city, the locals were friendly.

I can't remember if I even saw any police. Passport control / customs was straightforward with no problems. Had more problems later that month when visiting Australia, the sniffer dogs found some apples and it was made very clear we had to either eat them before continuing or bin them! And we had lots of questions about where we lived and if we had been to any farms (due to the outbreak of Mad Cow Disease).

 

[Krokodil]

While it's a close-run thing (which is itself astonishing for the supposed "land of the free"), I can think of lots of countries that are at least as regressive as the US:

• China / Hong Kong with evidence of sentiments against the PRC government
• Turkey with evidence of posts insulting political leaders
• Saudi Arabia / UAE / Malaysia with evidence of belonging to or support for LGBTQ
• Pakistan with evidence of blasphemy
• Singapore / Indonesia with evidence of advocacy of recreational drug use
• UAE / Singapore / India with evidence of pornography / personal pornography

I fully agree that it's shocking that the US is on this list of countries, but unless you're prepared to write off all these countries (I am not!), it isn't really a burden to add the US to the list of countries requiring digital sanitation.

The thing is that the US president is of a much higher profile than the Turkish one (for example). I don't think that I've ever mentioned Erdogan on social media (well obviously I have now).

In any case, I have this month passed through Turkey twice. The immigration officer at Kapikule (the rail border) asked what the purpose of my visit was, whether it was my first visit etc. The young woman at Istanbul airport didn't ask anything; just swiped, stamped and returned it. As a British national I had no need for a visa, or a visa waiver so at no point was I asked to provide my social media details - never mind obliged to.

The US president on the other hand is very high profile, I have criticised him (and so have lots of people). And now they are making the social media question obligatory.

 

[martin butler]

I just find it very disturbing now that saying anything bad about the President of the US, is so damaging that its grounds to refuse entry when you have not committed any other crime, that legally would bar you from entry into the US, for example would saying He's not my king, bar you from entry to the UK?

Clearly our own head of state has a much thicker skin, but saying that, when he was a teen, he did as a joke, have the Yeoman Guard called out to prove to a friend, that he did have that power to do so,

 

[The exile]

I just find it very disturbing now that saying anything bad about the President of the US, is so damaging that its grounds to refuse entry when you have not committed any other crime, that legally would bar you from entry into the US, for example would saying He's not my king, bar you from entry to the UK?

Clearly our own head of state has a much thicker skin, but saying that, when he was a teen, he did as a joke, have the Yeoman Guard called out to prove to a friend, that he did have that power to do so,

One of the rarely stated advantages of having an unelected head of state in a modern (well…!) democracy is that they have very little actual power and very little legitimate claim to have any - but, by being there, they make it harder for anyone else to attain that position and “do a Trump”.

 

[nw1]

I can't remember if I even saw any police. Passport control / customs was straightforward with no problems. Had more problems later that month when visiting Australia, the sniffer dogs found some apples and it was made very clear we had to either eat them before continuing or bin them! And we had lots of questions about where we lived and if we had been to any farms (due to the outbreak of Mad Cow Disease).

Ironically I don't remember any particular worries at the border when visiting the US in 2002 not long after the foot-and-mouth outbreak. Foot-and-mouth was AFAIK considerably more infectious than mad cow disease - enough to basically lock down the countryside for about 3 months.

But perhaps sufficient time had passed. I wonder whether you would have encountered any difficulties if travelling abroad in 2001 due to foot-and-mouth concerns? I did go to Paris via Eurostar at the height of the outbreak in March and encountered no problems, we didn't have to cleanse our shoes on disinfectant mats for example, and certainly no questions from the border police at Waterloo (as was) about whether we'd visited any farms of late. But maybe the USA, being on an entirely separate continent, would have been more problematic?

 

[SuspectUsual]

The only trouble I've had at the US border was at Niagara in 2018 when we briefly left the US to go down to Niagara-On-The-Lake for an hour or so, and then reentered America. The guy on the crossing was a bit befuddled because (I think) there was some system glitch that meant our departure hadn't been recorded or hadn't updated, and it looked like we were trying to get into a country we were already in. Once we explained what we'd done he was OK with it and let us on our way

 

[The exile]

The roadblock on the Motorway on the Dutch / German border was quite interesting, IIRC. )supposed to be a reply to post 3665!)

 

[nw1]

As a British national I had no need for a visa, or a visa waiver so at no point was I asked to provide my social media details - never mind obliged to.

Turkey is thus easier to get into for UK citizens than it is for a stereotypical Westerner to visit most other stereotypically Western countries, including the UK. That's quite surprising in a way.

I was wondering how many countries in the world you can still visit with nothing more than a passport.

 

[Purple Train]

One of the rarely stated advantages of having an unelected head of state in a modern (well…!) democracy is that they have very little actual power and very little legitimate claim to have any - but, by being there, they make it harder for anyone else to attain that position and “do a Trump”.

Good point.

 

[Krokodil]

I wonder whether you would have encountered any difficulties if travelling abroad in 2001 due to foot-and-mouth concerns?

We travelled to Ireland then and my parents were made to pour away some milk.

That said, I've just had an email from Eurostar telling me that the British government have temporarily banned people from bringing in meat and dairy products.

Turkey is thus easier to get into for UK citizens than it is for a stereotypical Westerner to visit most other stereotypically Western countries, including the UK. That's quite surprising in a way.

I was wondering how many countries in the world you can still visit with nothing more than a passport.

I last visited as a 17 year old and there was some kind of sticker in my passport so something must have changed in the intervening decade (and a bit).

 

[edwin_m]

I last visited as a 17 year old and there was some kind of sticker in my passport so something must have changed in the intervening decade (and a bit).

I visited Turkey in 2012 and had to get a visa, which was basically paying £10 cash at the airport and getting a sticker.

 

[nw1]

I visited Turkey in 2012 and had to get a visa, which was basically paying £10 cash at the airport and getting a sticker.

Sounds quite a bureaucracy-free visa though!

 

[Buzby]

I visited Turkey in 2012 and had to get a visa, which was basically paying £10 cash at the airport and getting a sticker.

You can thank Thatcher for that. She hacked off Turkey and anyone who was transiting (staying less than 12 hours was exempt). Unusual in that they would accept a £10 note but NOT a Scottish one! Since we departed on a cruise ship, we just joined the ‘free’ line.

 

[najaB]

Unusual in that they would accept a £10 note but NOT a Scottish one!

Not that unusual really. I've found that Scottish notes are rarely accepted outside the UK simply because they are so uncommon.

 

[zero]

Sounds quite a bureaucracy-free visa though!

Around 2017 Turkey introduced an online visa. They continued to accept cash payments at airports, but it became more expensive than online. They then stopped accepting GBP and only sold visas in euros and USD.

They removed the visa requirement completely just as COVID hit.

AFAIK, when the £10 cash payment was in operation, it was only for British citizens. Others had to pay either €15 or US$20 depending on their passport with no option to choose, at least officially.

 

[Buzby]

Not that unusual really. I've found that Scottish notes are rarely accepted outside the UK simply because they are so uncommon.

Not that - it was because it was primarily a wind up for Thatcher (long before Trump came up with his idea of tariffs). Scottish notes weren’t all that uncommon as I recall a few travel exchange companies offered better rates when compared to Lizzie notes. (Antalya & Marmaris).

 

[Krokodil]

Sounds quite a bureaucracy-free visa though!

Rather unlike the Eritrean one!

 

[nlogax]

The only trouble I've had at the US border was at Niagara in 2018 when we briefly left the US to go down to Niagara-On-The-Lake for an hour or so, and then reentered America. The guy on the crossing was a bit befuddled because (I think) there was some system glitch that meant our departure hadn't been recorded or hadn't updated, and it looked like we were trying to get into a country we were already in. Once we explained what we'd done he was OK with it and let us on our way

Weirdly enough, similar here though many years previously. Got into Canada easily enough across Rainbow bridge. When leaving a few days later my UK friends who'd been visiting with me just trotted through the border with their green I-94Ws. I on the other hand, toting a shiny new green card, was pulled aside for an hour of waiting around and many questions before I was let back in.

 

[brad465]

This line from an FT opinion piece has to be the most succinct and fitting description of Trump's tariff policy:

It’s payback time for Trump’s tariff fiasco

The administration handing out refunds to Chinese companies will be a terrible look

www.ft.com

“It’s an illegal duty based on wrong-headed economics, it was ineptly designed and incompetently administered, sulkily reversed under belated legal duress and is giving a windfall to exactly the people it was designed to punish.”

 

[martin butler]

This line from an FT opinion piece has to be the most succinct and fitting description of Trump's tariff policy:

It’s payback time for Trump’s tariff fiasco

The administration handing out refunds to Chinese companies will be a terrible look

www.ft.com

It seems that everything Trump does has the opposite effect that it's meant to have, Let's hope he does keep it up by rigging the mid-terms, and it ends up with more people voting Democrat and them taking over both senate and house,

Then they can dismantle the administration by going after every one of trumps picks, impeaching, them and opening criminal cases against them, whilst leaving him floundering like a beached whale, utterly powerless, and then when the Republicans lose the presidency, then the FBI can start rounding up his enablers and the trails can start.

 

[dgl]

Your going to get companies who had to put up with the tariffs knowing that people will have no option but to buy their products potentially getting a windfall, as a consumer I would be annoyed that essentially I would have ended up giving companies extra money, that it turns out I didn't need too, that I probably won't see again.
A lot of companies will be loving this if they get the tariff payments back as they've now been given a decent chunk of change that is probably a decent amount more than the tariffs have cost them in price reductions and lost business.

 

[Krokodil]

It seems that everything Trump does has the opposite effect that it's meant to have, Let's hope he does keep it up by rigging the mid-terms, and it ends up with more people voting Democrat and them taking over both senate and house,

Unfortunately while the House is likely to change hands, I doubt that the Senate will - certainly not enough for a veto-proof majority or one that can follow an impeachment through to conviction.

Remember that only a third of the seats in the Senate would come up anyway and that the Senate seats currently up for grabs last came up for election in 2020 - when Trump was at the height of his last bout of unpopularity so many of the swing seats had already flipped blue. The Democrats (and allies) currently hold 47 seats, they need 67 for a veto-proof majority or to convict in an impeachment trial - 20 seats to flip when there are only 21 Republican-held seats available. It's the ones elected in 2024 that would really make the difference, but they won't come up until 2030. This year, one senate seat from each of the following states will come up:

Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Looking at that list, Susan Collins of Maine will hopefully go, likewise whoever stands to replace Thom Tillis of North Carolina, and maybe the Republicans might be chucked out of somewhere like Iowa too. That might cancel out the present majority but it's not enough to become a meaningful force for change.

 

[brad465]

A sign an attack on Iran might be imminent:

UK issues travel warning as Middle East crisis worsens

Foreign Office has told Britons to avoid "all but essential" travel to Israel and Palestine and Britain's embassy in Tehran is "temporarily closed".

news.sky.com

The UK government has withdrawn its staff from Iran.

It said the temporary precautionary measure has been taken due to the ongoing security situation.

At the US embassy in Jerusalem, non-emergency US staff and family have been told to leave Israel due to safety risks.

The embassy said on Friday that the US government may implement further restrictions on US personnel in Israel and advised its citizens to consider leaving while they can.

"Persons may wish to consider leaving Israel while commercial flights are available," it said.

Britain's foreign office also provided an update on Friday, with the travel warnings providing one of the strongest indications yet that a regional conflict could be imminent.

"Due to the ongoing security situation, we have taken the precautionary measure to temporarily withdraw UK staff from Iran," the UK government foreign travel advice website said.

 

[ainsworth74]

A sign an attack on Iran might be imminent:

UK issues travel warning as Middle East crisis worsens

Foreign Office has told Britons to avoid "all but essential" travel to Israel and Palestine and Britain's embassy in Tehran is "temporarily closed".

news.sky.com

Ah yeah that's not a good sign at all...

 

[martin butler]

They did not give me the peace prise, so I'm going to start a war

 

[dosxuk]

They did not give me the peace prise, so I'm going to start a war

The trump way would be to demand a peace prize because he averted the war between the US and Iran at the last moment.

 

[jon0844]

Is this the same Iran on the verge of building nuclear weapons that not so long ago had everything destroyed in one of the most successful bombing raids ever in the history of bombing raids? People had tears in their eyes as they told the President how amazing it was.

 

[martin butler]

Is this the same Iran on the verge of building nuclear weapons that not so long ago had everything destroyed in one of the most successful bombing raids ever in the history of bombing raids? People had tears in their eyes as they told the President how amazing it was.

Sounds like the reality is somewhat different than what Mr Trump hears, or imagines he hears,

 

[brad465]

Yep, it's happened:

Trump says ‘there will likely be more’ US deaths as Iran strikes to continue until ‘all’ goals achieved

Three American service members have been killed and casualties are reported in the UAE, Israel and Kuwait as Israel and Iran continue to trade strikes.

www.bbc.co.uk

Trump confirms US involved in attack on Iran
​

US President Donald Trump has posted an eight-minute video on his social media platform, Truth Social and confirms that the US was involved in the attack on Iran.

We are still listening to the video and Trump's full remarks and will update you soon.

 

[dgl]

What about the polls Mr. President?, look over there it's Iran...