Stop U.S. travel; Canadian grocery stores

American Border Detentions

🇨🇦 Canada is really pissed off. Many are in shock, especially our Canadian tourist detained by ICE. [my post: U.S. is Detaining Visitors]. The good news is that Alexis Eagles, mother of detained Jasmine Mooney, reports that Jasmine is finally home. A user on Bluesky has been tracking incidents.

1. Assistant professor on an H-1B visa from 🇱🇧 Lebanon

2. A Green Card holder from 🇩🇪 Germany living in New Hampshire

3. Two tourists from 🇩🇪 Germany

4. Business consultant from 🇨🇦 Canada, Jasmine Mooney (home after 2 weeks)

5. Student from 🇸🇾 Syria with Green Card

6. Tourist from 🇩🇪 Germany on B2 visa, detained, degraded and deported

7. Tourist from 🇬🇧 UK, Becky Burke cartoonist

8. Fulbright student from 🇮🇳 India

9. Cree composer, Andrew Balfour, from 🇨🇦 Canada, denied entry to perform at Carnegie Hall.

10. LGBTQ asylum seeker from Venezuela 🇻🇪

11. A pair of musicians from N.S. were detained. A 🇨🇦 touring folk duo, Cassie and Maggie MacDonald, with friends and family in U.S., stopped by arrogant state troopers. Worried about them pushing fentanyl. 

12. French researcher detained March 9th. 

🇩🇪 Germany has travel warnings for LGBTQ+ travelers going to the U.S. 

Two more people with valid passports, have been detained in the U.S. I am posting this here, because I know that Americans aren't getting this news, judging by my small blog readership. Foreign governments cannot do anything. More snowbirds are selling property in Florida. Fewer Canadians (↓ 40%) are traveling to the U.S. In normal times, when Americans weren't afraid of others, people with VISA issues would simply be turned away and sent home. Now they are arrested, and dumped in a for-profit jail.

Even Americans are being targeted. He is doing it by invoking the rarely-used Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

1. Milwaukee mother deported to Laos
2. 48 New Mexico residents have disappeared
3. One landed immigrant, with a Michael Jordan tattoo, sent to Guantanamo

If it was about money:

🇨🇦 Buy Canadian

🛒Canadians are roaming grocery store aisles, reading labels to figure out country origins. One consumer advocate has been advocating that we turn packages or cans upside down to show other shoppers that these are US products. It sure saves people time as we avoid them.

It's not just Canada, either. 🇩🇰 Denmark and 🇸🇪 Sweden:

'Danish Viking blood is boiling'

The administration is getting away with it using a 1798 law that dates back to old wars.

Social Security Cuts

This poor man in Seattle lost his Nov, Dec., Jan., and Feb. Social Security payments. Once you are declared dead, you cannot apply for a loan as they eliminate his credit rating. He says the phone calls (hours waiting)  and then the line ups to clear it up take hours with employee cuts.

Rain, lightning, NOAA

Puttering along through the last of winter. We expected 25mm rain, but that didn't materialize Saturday. It's pouring Sunday morning. 

Aster, Jordan, and Papa went to a local parking lot to view the blood worm moon! They took a mattress and blankets. Mama is working her buns off these days both at work, and home, and took a pass. Sleep is pretty important. 

I woke at 2 a.m. coughing, looked out all our windows, and couldn't see the moon. It's not visible until later in the wee hours. I didn't want to risk cats getting out, plus it was chilly. 

I sat outside and read in the sunshine on Friday. It was lovely. My spider is back, however!

Information, data, knowledge 

AI research is problematic! I mentioned this to Joe. This was an interesting study that compared various platform AI results. I feel badly for teachers. We work so hard for kids to critically reflect on things they read. 

Measles in Canada over the years after vaccines:

Our snow is nearly gone, but the rain will do it in. The sun warms the tree and the deer have been happy in the sun. 

With all the firings at NOAA, fired employees are telling their stories. One, a meteorologist for 10 years, warns that there will be hell to pay. We know that investing in information people rely on for safety and prevention of deaths will be a dark price to pay. All these skills and techniques, institutional knowledge, will be lost. 

NOAA

This is a lightning map. It is shocking, the number of lightning strikes. Over 5000 in one grid.

Dozens have been killed (our CBC had a good article) in the tornados. It is gruesome.

They don't know what they don't know, these people. The oligarchs want to make money, but this is costing regular folks dearly. That is their bottom line.

"The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast." - Oscar Wilde 

Joe fed 16 deer on Friday and Saturday mornings.

 

 

U.S. is Detaining Visitors

UPDATE March 22 – another one. This time a green card holder

Immigration Issue

 Yes, ICE employees are taking visitors to for-profit detainment facilities. They are treating them inhumanely, with strip searches, limited food, lights on 24/7, and falsely incarcerating them. Normally, when a tourist is inadmissible to a country, they offer to let them rescind their entry. Not so in this day and age. They are rounded up and sent to jail. 

They are in a room with 30 women, no blankets, little food, and much discomfort. Talk about an undeveloped country.

 German Tourists Detained for Weeks, Then Deported From U.S.

 Dad of detained US tourist urges care on visa requirements (UK citizen Becky Burke)

And a Canadian Woman: Jasmine Mooney.

Her mother is beside herself. I cannot link to the Facebook post, but they are hoping to get her home. Her story is on YouTube, put in chains, whisked away to Arizona. The mother says they've booked a flight home for her, and while ICE doesn't give permission until the last moment, they are hopeful.

Another Canadian refused entry into the U.S. This time, they put him on a flight back to Toronto, at least. The Jay Treaty stipulates that First Nations can travel freely between Canada and the U.S. Andrew Balfour is both a musician and 

A traveler with a green card is detained, and hospitalized.

Senior described Schmidt being “violently interrogated” at Logan Airport for hours, and being stripped naked, put in a cold shower by two officials, and being put back onto a chair." 

She said Schmidt told her immigration agents pressured him to give up his green card. She said he was placed on a mat in a bright room with other people at the airport, with little food or water, suffered sleep deprivation, and was denied access to his medication for anxiety and depression.

Crumbly world

This isn't totally random! These are things Joe and I have talked about. I am usually on my laptop, he on his iPad. We're getting increasingly agitated with the horrible things happening to people. 

Our culture, traditions, and values are different north of the border. The US owned newspapers are shaped by American owners.

These Words Are Disappearing in the New Trump Administration – can you imagine? 

This is the result of randomly firing people. Not only are they unemployed, but citizens who have paid their dues are suffering.

For those who haven't visited it, this is a typical part of the border between Canada and the US. A clear cut is all that is there in some spots. Our kids went for a walk when they were out west with family. The only way to patrol these is with helicopters, truthfully.

A family nearly froze crossing into Canada

The US Navy is still out there protecting the Black Sea.

After Ukraine had its Starlink communications (paid for by Poland) cut off by Musk, they've been bombing Moscow with drones. 

March 11, 2025:

About those tariffs...