Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 402 posts

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#291

Post by refurb »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #146
woof wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A large number of Democrats voted for Trump by not voting at all. They made a choice to let Trump win, just to tell Hillary (and the Democratic Party) that they didn't like her! https://www.forbes.com/sites/omribenshahar/2016/11/17/the-no...

This ignores the other parties, which can explain most of the disparity. In Michigan, other candidates got about 1% of the vote in 12 and 5% in 16. Even if it helped Trump win, labeling them "spoilers" just ensures that our terrible system will have this happen again.

Is the system terrible because the person you wanted to win didn't?

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#292

Post by SimbaOnSteroids »

icebraining wrote: post #162
sgift wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why exactly would this be the case? As far as I can see most people don't live in this two cities? And saying the US system "was designed to avoid the concentration of power" sounds like a sad joke from an European perspective (First-past-post-system, extreme presidential powers etc.)

Most people do live in a small number of counties (~146 in ~3000). The US system is essentially designed to distribute voting power over land, rather than per capita.

It was designed to distribute votes to slave owners in order to appease the southern states. It was never about protecting small states or distributing over land.

When the constitution was first signed if votes had been distributed by population the Southern states would have essentially never had a voice, which was a non-starter for them. Considering that these states were also the economic power houses of the US, not including them was also a non-starter. The electoral college coupled with the 3/5ths compromise was the eventual solution to this problem.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#293

Post by mamon »

Mithaldu wrote: post #243
microtonal wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So only about 27% of all eligible voters actually voted for Trump. The remaining 43% voted for 'I'll take whoever wins'. So, ~72% of the eligible voters can be held accountable for him becoming president. Those are the rules for democracy, so he is the legitimately elected president. Definitely, it is legitimate, even if we don't like the outcome ;).

> The remaining 43% voted for 'I'll take whoever wins'. Or they lived in some of those insane regions where only a single voting office served thousands of people and couldn't affording standing outside for 8+ hours, or they couldn't get a tuesday off (sane countries allot a whole weekend for voting), or they couldn't afford to get sufficient id to satisfy their state's demands. (Yes, i know, mail-in voting is a thin…

only a single voting office served thousands of people and couldn't affording standing outside for 8+ hours

Really, that's how it is in US? Any semi-decent country is responsible for creating comfortable conditions for anyone to vote.

Here in Poland there were 28k voting offices for 30 million of potential voters, so there's on average little more than 1k voters per office. It is almost impossible to be waiting in line for more than 5-10 minutes, even in the most crowded offices.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#294

Post by sbov »

panglott wrote: post #256
averagewall wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He won according to the system that's been in place for 100-200 years. You don't get to support it until it works against you and then complain about it.

The electoral college system has obviously been a terrible idea for years. Plenty of people also vocally complained about it in 2000, for example. But changing it requires changing the Constitution, which requires a supermajority of state legislatures—and the electoral college shifts power from citizens and the federal government to states.

It actually doesn't require changing the Constitution. States are allowed to allocate votes however they want. Several states have passed laws that say: when enough states pass a similar law to determine the presidency, all of our electoral college votes will go to the winner of the national popular vote.

This hack lowers the barrier, but not by enough, at least yet.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#295

Post by [deleted] »

rurban wrote: post #76
imron wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't expect it to get any better once Trump leaves office. This madness didn't begin with him and it won't end with him either.

And don't forget: Many people voted for Trump to restore the legal and democratic system in the US. As the lesser evil. Same as with Obama. He promised the same. It didn't happen. Both went 180 degree immediately after the election. For the reality check: The big airports in the South and North are well known as extremely racist and strict with their "work vs business" checks for decades. What's new are the unconstit…

[deleted]

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#296

Post by ajdlinux »

pcurve wrote: post #143
emeidi wrote: post #111

I've traveled from Zürich to Los Angeles on Good Friday (April 14, 2017) for leisure - my first visit since February 2016 and thus my first trip to Trump's 'murrica. I was joined with my dad who recently retired and never has left the continent - his first long haul flight and first time to the US. I feared and prepared for the worst and I even was debating about leaving my iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air at home to avo…

" a friendly immigration officer" I've never seen this one in the U.S. or anywhere else. I think they are trained to be neutral or even aloof.

I've usually found Australian customs to be fairly friendly whenever I've been returning home - though these days they make me use the automated passport gates so I don't talk to them at all...

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#297

Post by js8 »

staticelf wrote: post #290
js8 wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I decided not to bring a computer at all I also prefer travel without much electronics, since it's easy to get it lost or stolen. But it's not always an option - if you're traveling for business, you have to take the computer, and also everybody has a smartphone these days. > I just state that people seem to hype the evilness of the border control. Maybe to you it seems like a hype. But I was born in totalitarian c…

I do feel that way though. I wouldn't want my devices to be searched and is the only reason why I didn't bring my laptop. Trust me, I am against searching peoples computers and private lives as much as anyone but I still think it's a bit blown out of proportion.

Fair enough. I have two questions, then:

1. Don't you think that to decide not to take electronic devices in 21st century for travel is a reaction that is out of proportions? It's pretty drastic measure, if you ask me.

2. How are the foreigners to change U.S. government's mind, if not by "blowing it out of proportions"? What other recourse is there?

Maybe for U.S. citizens, and especially those that have to do with the tourism or international business or academia, yeah, it sucks that it's "blown out of proportions". But see - they are the citizens, they can pressure their government to take strong stance on the issue and forbid these practices as totalitarian (and obviously useless - no combination of bits on my phone or computer is by itself going to harm anyone).

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#298

Post by bluejekyll »

Canada wrote: post #197
beedogs wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The current US border control security climate dates since the Obama Administration. That is demonstrably and absolutely false.

Yeah, travel to and inside the US really started to suck during the first term of the GWB administration.

To point out the obvious, that was when 9/11 happened.

Most of this stuff is a reaction to that, and it still lingers.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#299

Post by jsutton »

ChrisBland wrote: post #270
maxerickson wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obama never tried to revoke visas while the people holding them were in the air. I think there can also be a big shift in who is given a visa, without there being much visibility. Time will tell. That's not part of the entry procedure but is part of border policy more generally.

I really try to avoid political discussions on HN, as I dislike both of the major parties. I would suggest you read a book called 'Operation Troy', what Obama did IMO is much worse than revoking a visa, he extrajudicially killed an american citizen with a drone strike not in the field of battle.

You avoid political discussions by bringing up a completely unrelated subject that attributes negatively to an ex president?

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#300

Post by Swizec »

StavrosK wrote: post #55
SCdF wrote: post #20

Just don't travel there. I'm sure I'd be fine: I've been fine a dozen times before. That was before they decided that it was OK to demand passwords and so on. Maybe now it would be worse. Or maybe my skin colour lets me off the hook. Regardless, I'd rather just not waste jet fuel on flying to a place that treats anyone this way. Your phone/tablet/laptop is, for better or worse, a gateway to your entire life. It conta…

People who have recently travelled to the US, what's the probability that you will be asked to unlock your stuff and have random employees search through it? Is it something that happens a lot?

I've entered the US dozens of times. Visa waiver, 6 month visa, multi year visa.

Never been asked to show electronics. Never been to a special room. Most of the time they ask one or two questions, take my fingerprints, and welcome me to the country.

Now that my passport has a US address in it, even though I'm technically not a resident, they politely say "Welcome Back".

Last time I entered was on Monday. The lady was extremely polite, even smalltalked a bit while the computer was giving her trouble because my visa is in an old passport and my new passport is 7 days old. Guess she had to sync up the system.

Time from entering the queue to being in the country was 24 minutes. I ran a stopwatch.

That said, my visa process did involve checking my social accounts and internet activity because I explicitly listed it as an argument for why I qualify for an O-1.

Anecdata, I know. But that's my experience. I'm white and from eastern-ish europe.

Post reply on HN