A suggestion if you're travelling overseas

[wiggs]

15. We have plenty of reasons to be cautious due to TSF, and I see lots of phone suggestions offered...but have we heard of

more than isolated/rare first hand accounts of US citizens without suspected criminal actions commonly being questioned, harassed, or detained at this point? Hundreds of thousands (maybe approaching millions?) of US citizens return each day from outside US borders so I would guess -- based on lack of everyday stories -- that 99.9% of them don't have phones confiscated or get detained. Almost everyone is anxious going through security now but have there been that many serious issues for citizens?

If TPTB are interested enough in my DU posts or small progressive donations, then they already know who I am and what I look like and where I'm going...having nothing to do with my phone. Then we are truly screwed.

If, by mid May, things get even weirder and more citizens come out with jackboot stories we will pull the plug on our short Europe trip but as of now I don't see that we should alter our normal travel habits...in fact, perhaps going on with our lives as before might be a better act of defiance. Similar to going to the recent protests...

I realize of course that there's nothing normal about 2025 and we are stunned on a daily basis...even very worried for a family member here legally but on student visa. And naturally worried/horrified for anyone who has come under the microscope of the authoritarians for no good reason other than name, skin color, lack of citizenship, and/or exercise of free speech.

I'll take my phone and laptop. Until events otherwise dictate which is not out of the question.