Homeland Insecurity to the world: don't come here for a vacation. The world: OK, we won't.
My German son-in-law, a German citizen who spent a lot of his undergrad time in the USA, and has made himself a big wad of that which Republicans worship more than anything else (money), just tried to get his ESTA renewed. He balked when he was required to submit the last five years of his online activity (WTF?? How is he, or ANYONE, supposed to "furnish" that? And even if he does, how do we assemble enough government people to review it?). He said that if he wants to visit the States, he is willing to answer questions that make sense, not furnish his whole online life, which as a practicing attorney, would violate his professional ethics code.
So far, he has put his plans to come to the US this summer on ice (small i). My wife renewed her ESTA status JUST before these new rules went into effect. If she hadn't, I might have found myself spending five weeks by myself on Cape Cod this summer. OK, obviously not, but I would have been royally pissed at having to find something else at this late date.
This has had a predictable effect on bookings for the USA this coming summer. An article in the Düsseldorf paper today said that travel agents here in Germany have reported a double digit decrease in the number of bookings for the United States for the coming summer, and that could grow as the season draws closer.
Inflation in the USA was also cited as a reason for the drop in bookings. Statistics saying that U.S. inflation is increasing are being given more weight than claims by Republicans that it isn't. Is there anything the Republicans are doing right, other than not turning left at a "right turn only" street sign?
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