A FEW YEARS ago—right before Covid hit—my girlfriend Owen and I were exploring Kathmandu, marking time while we waited for our Chinese Visas so we could enter Tibet.
The use of intimidation to block protest is well known. We are experiencing it now. The chilling effect of the detaining of Mahmoud Kahlil and Rumeysa Ozturk, among others, is doing just what the conservative implementers of Project 2025 want it to do. It now feels unsafe for anyone, American citizen or not, to consider crossing a US border. My phone and laptop are full of information critical of the regime now in power. The astonishing ineptitude of the Signal text chat revealing the details of an imminent military strike is sobering. The complete lack of any acknowledgement of error, of any consequences to any of the participants, or of the need for truth when speaking about it in any way, but particularly to congress under oath, is a terrifying reality about the everyday working of the government we have had in power for 66 days.
I don't feel safe here either and like you, wonder why anyone would want to visit the US now? Thank you for your clear-eyed description of where we are and how your experience with China, while visiting Tibet, reflects what we are beginning to experience in the US.
The use of intimidation to block protest is well known. We are experiencing it now. The chilling effect of the detaining of Mahmoud Kahlil and Rumeysa Ozturk, among others, is doing just what the conservative implementers of Project 2025 want it to do. It now feels unsafe for anyone, American citizen or not, to consider crossing a US border. My phone and laptop are full of information critical of the regime now in power. The astonishing ineptitude of the Signal text chat revealing the details of an imminent military strike is sobering. The complete lack of any acknowledgement of error, of any consequences to any of the participants, or of the need for truth when speaking about it in any way, but particularly to congress under oath, is a terrifying reality about the everyday working of the government we have had in power for 66 days.
Well said. Thank you, Katherine. It's astonishing.
I don't feel safe here either and like you, wonder why anyone would want to visit the US now? Thank you for your clear-eyed description of where we are and how your experience with China, while visiting Tibet, reflects what we are beginning to experience in the US.
A lot of us feel the same. And we never thought what’s happening could even be possible.
I never thought that I would see this in my lifetime.
Unimaginable...until now.
Yeah. I don’t know why anyone would even want to come here under current admin. 🤮
Visitors are literally not safe here. But we aren’t either.