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International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

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Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#301

Post by mamon »

mtempm wrote: post #269
microtonal wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had serious plans to go on holiday to the US this year. I have been in the US at least a dozen of times, and absolutely love the desert states, Oregon, and Washington. Entering the US was already a large hassle, but with Trump's travel bans, rumors of phone, laptop, and social media checks, we have decided to postpone our travel plans until the political/security climate improves. Semi-related: we were in the mark…

Trump is not that much worse than Obama, it's mostly the media, politicians, people in power that are able to convince you of that. Remember, Obama droppee 26,000 bombs on Muslims last year, but I bet you'd never heard about a single one. Climate Change is mostly about politics, just like the War on Poverty and War on Drugs. Yes it's real, just like people have real problems with poverty and drugs, but people starve…

Obama droppee 26,000 bombs on Muslims last year

Strange, for someone who received Nobel Peace Prize. To be fair, he received it just for being black, nothing else (it was just after he won his first term, he hadn't even had time to accomplish anything of significance).

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#302

Post by throw2016 »

This is just ugly. We have become a mirror image of what we claim to be against. No one in human history has woken up one day suddenly to totalitarianism but the process in undeniably well under way here.

The posturing and denial may continue for now but it is only a matter of time before the edifice of pretension falls on the weight of its own contradictions.

The soft power and moral credibility is gone. No one can take any US position on human rights seriously. What's left is force and brazen hypocrisy as we become more brazen building totalitarian infrastructure, go about destroying entire countries and putting millions of lives in disarray to pursue 'strategic objectives' or to put it simply make more money.

Internally it seems citizens don't care about privacy, spying, human rights or the destruction of other countries as long as the money is flowing. It keeps on becoming more and more egregious as more boundaries are crossed yet there is no citizen response. If there is a value system its certainly not visible. The government can do whatever it wants.

In the end we seem to have succeeded in building a commercial hub, not a country. Humanity and all that makes it wonderful beyond the practicality of making money will rest elsewhere.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#304

Post by GioM »

accountyaccount wrote: post #273
petre wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Ford Focus sold in Europe is assembled in Germany [1]. The current US border control security climate dates since the Obama Administration. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_of_Europe#Facilities

The personal device snooping is new.

No it's not. Just the widespread knowledge of it. Happened to a friend of mine >5 years ago.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#305

Post by dashundchen »

mamon wrote: post #293
Mithaldu wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 li…

It's one of many voter suppression tactics in urban areas.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/opinion/long-lines-at-min...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression_in_the_Unite...

Elections are mostly regulated at the state and county level, which causes a lot of disparities in registration law and polling place funding. Invariably every election during the non-stop coverage, you'll see the pictures of the long lines wrapped around blocks in cities throughout the country, but especially in Republican controlled swing states. I think it's an utter failure of our society that we can't hold elections with fair and accessible voting methods.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#306

Post by AngeloAnolin »

Kind of disheartening to read that (most) of the comments here diverted away from the topic of Basecamp's travel guide, which shows a lot of character from this company.

A company composed of a lot of remote workers outside US that definitely goes out of their way to have their employees come into the US for their business meetings is a keeper.

On a side note, I am a bit confused on a questionnaire asked at the Customs:

Here to do work? Nope! Here on business, meeting with Basecamp.

Wouldn't this be under the discretion of the customs officer to determine whether business meeting qualifies as work? I suppose that being on a business meeting with your company still predisposes the fact that you are technically still paid on those days that you are meeting with your company?

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#307

Post by bluejekyll »

mamon wrote: post #293
Mithaldu wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 li…

Sadly, yes, but it's not everywhere. Jerrymandering is used by both parties to lock-in districts for particular candidates. Then voter suppression is used to keep people away from the polls, mostly used by the old Jim Crowe states, this nonsense dates back to slavery from which the US is still recovering.

'Democracy in America', by Alexis de Tocqueville is still about as valid today as when it was written. In that he describes this scene where townspeople literally shoot at a farmer to keep him away from the polls. Not all that different than the gun toting individuals who show up to polling places today to 'protect' the vote.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#308

Post by teddyc »

mamon wrote: post #293
Mithaldu wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 li…

Yes, that is really how it is. State legislatures controlled by Republicans do everything in their power to disenfranchise minority voters. This includes gerrymandered districts, removing early voting days, not allowing early voting on Sundays, requiring an ID to vote, and calling into question the validity of the voter registration of minorities.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#310

Post by StavrosK »

Swizec wrote: post #300
StavrosK wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Huh, really? My experience was roughly the same, except the border officers were generally acting very serious, and the queue took 1-2 hours. I wish I could enter in 24 minutes.

No random searches here either, though, but I haven't been to the US for at least a year.

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