State Dept States Obvious On Travel
Yankee maybe stay home!
The president fucked around and Americans abroad might find out.
That’s the gist of a blanket warning from the State Department last week urging citizens living or traveling overseas to keep their heads on a swivel now that everyone hates the US after Commander Bonespurs started WWIII on a whim:
The Department of State advises Americans worldwide, and especially in the Middle East, to exercise increased caution. Americans abroad should follow the guidance in security alerts issued by the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate. Periodic airspace closures may cause travel disruptions. U.S. diplomatic facilities, including outside the Middle East, have been targeted. Groups supportive of Iran may target other U.S. interests overseas or locations associated with the United States and/or Americans throughout the world.
It took Foggy Bottom two days to make this ass-covering alert after Iran explicitly said they plan to hit tourist hot spots in retaliation, but at least they’re doing due diligence by warning inattentive Americans of the peril they’re in thanks to Dear Leader’s “little excursion.” It’s not like they’re going to hear about it on Fox News.
Diplomatic facilities are already being targeted around the world, including the US Consulate in Toronto that was shot up in the middle of the night three weeks ago. Nobody has claimed responsibility, and it’s at least possible the culprits were aiming at the Starbucks nearby and missed, not unlike the Pentagon’s oopsie of repeatedly bombing a girls’ elementary school for the crime of being located near an old naval base.
The Ontario outpost was also ground zero for a No Tyrants Day rally yesterday, our equivalent of No Kings Day thanks to Canada having an actual king as head of state to make it weird.
Previous ones haven’t been nearly as big or fun as those south of the border, and the whole country has been on a low-key “fuck Trump” simmer for over a year. But while the boycott against trips to the US shows no sign of easing anytime soon, y’all are coming up here like we still good.
Stats Canada says February saw a six percent increase in visits from the same month a year ago, and I’ve a front-row seat to the new relationship through a gig driving a small passenger ferry in Vancouver. Summers are particularly busy for Alaskan cruise ship season, which attracts an older and wealthier crowd still open to taking post-pandemic vacations on giant floating petri dishes, so MAGA in our midst is a given even if they leave the swag at home.
It’s also easier to blend in than it is in other English-speaking countries but a giveaway is using credit cards instead of trying to figure out our Monopoly money, and I’ve spent the past year pointedly asking (white) American passengers: “So, whereabouts in the US are you visiting us from today?” Which used to be standard as a friendly conversation starter but now seems a loaded question.
Canadians are mostly too polite to say anything but the new dynamic bubbling under the surface is hard to miss. Take this graffiti at the Olympic Village station that city workers still haven’t gotten around to removing after several months:
Or this dilapidated sailboat flying Old Glory upside down in distress that I often pass closely just to see the reactions.
This recent chat with an older couple in a full boat complaining about ice storms at home sums it up:
ME: “From Michigan, eh? I visited Detroit for the first time last year after a friend moved there from Montana. I read somewhere that your governor had to go to the White House to ask for FEMA funding after it?”
OLD GUY: “God I hate that woman!”
ME: “Oh. But you must be glad she at least didn’t get kidnapped by terrorists a few years ago, right?”
He seemed surprised I knew Gretchen Whitmer’s name and was about to say more but his wife — much better at reading the room — sent a death stare to shut the hell up, and the boat continued in silence the rest of the way. Trump’s name never came up.
The world may not be rolling out the welcome mat the way it used to but one beneficiary of the new world order is Japan, which saw nearly three million Americans visit in 2024 — up by a third from the previous year and a 58 percent increase compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Part of this is because greenbacks still go further like they do in Canada but a wildcard could be the Japanese concept of omotenashi — meaning wholehearted hospitality without judgment. There’s also a shared love of baseball, hot dogs, Disneyland, and radioactive monsters who enjoy flattening cities, so you can see the appeal.
Jesus may not be big in Japan but Steven Seagal will vouch for them. Just don’t mention the war.
[PBS / CBC / The Guardian / Montecristo / Blueskies]
We are watching Schitt's Creek on my Substack for Series Sundays. This is my first watch. We are on episode 3. Fuck, but Catherine O'Hara is amazing. I am laughing my butt off.
So MAGA shits on the rest of the world but then expects to be welcomed when they go look for the Starbucks in Rome or something?