Is the reason for the evaporation of tourist dollars, as suggested at left, that the U.S. has long wait times for visas? “Border friction, whatever exactly that means?

How about this? Our country is among the most reviled on Earth.

I’m reminded of a Canadian woman I met a few days ago who was in town for a wedding, who told me that she never would have considered for a second stepping foot in the United States were it not to be a part of her cousin’s daughter’s marriage service.

“I’m leaving on the first plane tomorrow morning, and I hope never to return.”

The True Reason for Negative Growth in U.S. Tourism

I met a woman from Minneapolis this morning, appeared to be in her 70s, grandmother of six, who was in town for an annual family gathering.  I mentioned that I thought it was a shame that such a productive, peace-loving and beautiful city as hers had been through such intense violence.

She replied that that ICE is essentially a terrorist organization. “They’ll grab some random protestor, throw him in a snowbank and publicly spit on him, just to show the crowd who’s in charge.”

Trump’s America.

“They’re gone now, but there’s no guarantee that they won’t come back,” she said.

ICE in Minneapolis

One of the more bizarre aspects of life in America today is our government’s obsession with inserting itself into meaningless parts of our lives.

Why does the Pentagon have a list of religions it recognizes?

Who could possibly give a s*** as to which ones are on that list?

Focusing on Things that Matter