#the united states doesn't even just do that on foreign soil

[madamepestilence]

"The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."

- Thucydides

"The Good War on Terror" written by Christopher Hayes.

I will be producing a print 'zine of this in the coming months. Join my Monthly 'Zine Club to get the first copies automatically sent your way!

[therobotmonster]

The Fae Thought He Had Her, but She's Had Lots of Practice

Actual Title: "On Foreign Soil."

The fae was having a grand old time with his latest toy. Mortals were easily befuddled with the magic of contract-and-courtesy. He'd taken pretty much all he could from the family: several names, the mother's attention, the son's concept of friendship... Even the life of the father.

He'd taken that one taking just the right moment of his time, the one where he moved just out of the oncoming car's path. That also took out the youngest daughter and making a new neverwas to lurk in the pockets of lost time around the home.

The tricks made him strong. The sense of betrayal and regret humans had when they realized how screwed they truly were was like honey: rich, sweet, and immune to spoilage. If anything, in the last sixty-some-odd years he'd been home the humans had gotten more petulant and even easier to trick.

It was a veritable buffet.

So when the eldest daughter returned home from college, he expected her to be easy pickings. The young were always foolish and prideful, and very often rude. They gave him so many opportunities.

So when she threw open the door, and stared at him with cold green eyes, he immediately laughed in delight. His face took on a distinctively 'David Bowiesq' aspect, a trick he found worked well the last time he'd been to the mortal lands.

"Oh, hello. May I have your name, lass?" He cooed in a cocky-yet-soothing voice.

"My name is Alex, and no." She said.

He raised a brow. She was canny, or at least half-canny. She knew enough to object to him taking it. Still, she had answered, and by the laws of the fae, the latter objection did not override the former offer.

So why wasn't he Alex now?

It was odd, but sometimes mortals were a little resistant to magic. He worried for a moment she was a skeptic, but she couldn't be. Her response meant she knew, or at least suspected, what he was. Moreover, he didn't feel the painful chill and sluggishness empiressence caused, nor the crushing weight of the explicable upon his bird-hollow bones.

No, she was just lucky, or was carrying an iron horseshoe, nothing he couldn't handle in his, or someone else's sleep.

"And what the fuck are you calling yourself, asshole?"

He blinked.

The impudence hit him like a slap. She'd just given him the opening to do anything he wanted, but the raw temerity of the insult, it's artless crudeness, it's utter lack of respect stunned him too much to enjoy it. His rage and petulance rushed into the hole left by his shock, and he sputtered.

"You rude little beast, you have no idea what you've brought upon yourself!"

He raised one pale hand, the flesh fading from it to leave nothing but blackened bone, and he pointed the index finger at her in a silent gesture. He let fly his curse. Not just any curse, but his, the one he had made for just such an occasion.

Alex stared at him. Arms crossed. Her hair was the color of the fae's own rage.

"What's the matter, cat got your brain?"

The fae's confidence wavered and the flesh returned to his hand.

"Where are the spiders?" He said. "There... there ought to be spiders! There should be spiders!"

She rolled her eyes.

"You broke the laws of courtesy and decorum! I can do as I please as a wronged noble! You should be spiders!"

"Whose laws?" It was Alex's turn to smile.

"Why, the only ones that matter, the laws of Faerie, as laid down by Oberon and Tita-"

"And Titsforbrains, yeah. I was five once and I can read. I know your dumb politics. Slight problem. Where are you now?"

"The mortal realm?"

"More specifically?"

"The Earth. The United States."

"Exactly." Alex smiled. "And while you might come the land of the platonic ideal of inbred nepobabies, in the United States of America, no law says I can't call a fuckface a fuckface. Fuckface."

The fae tried a different curse, yet Alex was not being twisted into any sort of goat, ironic or otherwise. "But, that doesn't matter! We're a higher form of being, our laws override yours."

"No they don't." Alex said with a confidence reserved for honey badgers and humans of age three. "Now undo all your bullshit and get out of my house."

"Nuh-uh!" The Fae's cocky smirk returned. With a flourish, he pulled out a deed. "It's my house, I got it off your mother, fair-and-square. She traded it for the heart your little brother so foolishly traded me. So you should get out of MY house."

"Contracts signed under duress are non-enforceable." She said in a bored, dismissive tone.

The Fae started to object, but the contract was already crumbling into dried daffodil petals in his hand. He tried to pretend this wasn't terrifying. Inexplicable happenings were supposed to be caused by him, not happen to him. "Are you a wizard?"

"Don't be stupid. I just know my rights." She said. "I'm betting you didn't disclose the full terms of the contracts either?"

The Fae shook his head, more from fear than as a response to the question. Of course he hadn't. If the mortals didn't do their due diligence and couldn't read Linear-B, that wasn't his fau-

The thirty years he stole from the youngest boy ripped themselves out of his body. A half dozen other deals began popping at the seams.

"How are you doing this?" He gasped.

"I'm not doing it. You are. You're idiot who runs on rules and laws who decided to come scam innocent people for your own profit and amusement."

"But it always worked before-" The Fae ran his mind through all his previous romps. Every single human had whined and begged about how unfair things were. Why was this one different?

He ran through those memories again. They were among his favorites so it was easy for him to see every detail. An old man trying to argue Fae law with him. A shepherd girl trying to use her own word games to trap him. A hippie saying almost the exact same words about non-enforceable contracts.

Almost.

He ran through the memories again and again. Always impressed or terrified or blinded by greed, the mortals always argued on his terms, always went back to his wording of the deal or contract, always appealed to the laws of his people and his own noble position.

None of them had ever argued jurisdiction. Once one of them had, it applied, not just now, not just to these toys, but retroactively, and, from how it felt, with interest.

"Oh." Was all the Fae could say.

"Yes. 'Oh.'" Alex smiled like the cat that ate the proverbial canary. "Children can't sign contracts, either, you know."

Everything the Fae had done to the boy snapped back at once. It felt like every seventh tendon in his body had been snipped simultaneously with tiny scissors.

"Nor can someone sign away the right to kill them to someone else, or sell themselves or others into slavery."

Alex's father reappeared in the living room, looking dazed. In his lap was Alex's youngest sister, now remembered by all present as a person that existed. The return of the father's moment was a minor loss, but there was one less neverwas in the Castle of Paradox, and the Baron would blame him for its unmaking.

"Also, names aren't transferable between people, nor are they the whole and sum of a person's identity in this country. The closest thing we have to that is a social security number. And if you steal one of those, well, identity theft is a crime here."

Mr. Baxter, Mrs. Baxter, Julie and Sam's lights all turned on at once, though they were still groggy and half-asleep and would be for hours to come.

A fortune in names, first, middle, last, with nicknames and pet-names and all between, all vanished from the Fae's purse. He could feel its lightness in his pocket.

The Fae turned on his heels. "I fear I must take my leave, so sorry for the inconvenience!"

He was halfway to the door. The impact on the back of his skull knocked him forward off his feet, sending him slamming into the polished wood floor. The projectile that laid him out bounced and landed by his head.

He'd been right about her having an iron horseshoe.

"You don't get to walk away." She said. He felt her steel-toed boot, soles made of entirely synthetic rubber and cleats of cold steel, press against the base of his spine. His hollow, bird-bone spine. "You don't get to fuck with people, say 'my bad' when you get caught, and run."

"Y-your law!" He gasped. He felt his bones cracking. He wanted to turn into something else but he couldn't focus. She was pressing down harder now, because she was half-kneeling. Her hand picked up the fallen horseshoe. "You have to let me go, or arrest me, turn me over to your police, right? You can't just murder me!"

"What are you?"

"I- I'm a Faerie of Arcadia, a sub-Prince of the House of-"

"So not a human. And not an animal." She kept him pinned.

"No!" He growled. Blood the color of an oil slick on the highway began to fill his mouth. The pain made him forget his fear for a moment, and he bared his true face, something between a bug, a wax store mannequin, and a pug-dog. "We-we're a higher form of life! Far beyond anything this miserable pile of dung you call a planet has to offer! You will pay for this impertinence the moment you break the law that holds me!"

"You're a lot of things. A bully, a pest, a liar. But you're not human. And you're not an animal. In fact, as far as the laws of this land are concerned, you aren't real."

Alex lifted her boot to kick him onto his back, then pinned him again.

"Th-then you can't kill me!" He laughs. "You can't kill something that's not real! You've trapped yourself! You'll have to let me go!"

"You haven't been to our 'pile of dung' in some time have you?" Alex asked. She nodded to a strange white book-shaped object that sat unopened, upright, next to the television, next to a pair of white and black crescent-moon shaped objects studded with small white and black buttons.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

--

Six hours later, a notification popped up on Alex's dorm room computer.

[papirouge]

The difference between our Western society and the Chinese Communist Party is that AMERICANS FOUGHT AMERICANS to free slaves! What other country, especially in its infancy, would do something so selfless? None.

And the genocide of native Americans is an elementary school understanding at best. Native Americans fought and killed for land looong before any Europeans arrived. Terrible acts were committed against a considerable amount of Natives, but our country acknowledges that. Humankind began in Africa, meaning we've been fighting over territory for thousands of years, yet the United States is the only guilty party?

To be honest, I can't even read the rest of the nonsense you wrote. You're a brainwashed fool if you want to pretend The United States of America is comparable to China or any of the other hell holes anti-thiests create. I've met many refugees of these momsterous dictators and you know what? They'd laugh at your ignorant ass for even pretending you know what it's like to live outside of privilege and insult their new home.

I pray you wake up cuz it ain't cute.

I literally brought up a list of all the crimes and illegal wars that the US ALL AROUND THE WORLD and you're right there "bUt AmERicans fOughT otHeR aMerIcaNs!!!" GIRL? BYE.

And as far as I know, the main victims of the Chinese Communist party ARE Chinese too so I really don't get what you're trying to do here. China has yet to do all the mess the USA did beyond their own border to whole different countries & citizens, and that's the tea.

And you know DAMN WELL that Americans freeing slaves was NOT selfless for slavery system was already being overshadowed by the emerging industrial technology ; soon enough, slaves wouldn't be as much profitable. There was ALSO an economic in this while endeavor. If freeing slaves was based entirely in a "selfless" human move, then the nice nation that fred slaves wouldn't be so quick to put up an aparteid system to keep the negroes at bay and treat them like second class citizens.

Native fighting for land before Europeans colonized them doesn't justify their genocide, genius. ALL CIVILIZATIONS always had internal war and conflict. I HATE how USAmerican bring this argument à la "see? Natives were a bunch of savage killing each other! They HAD to be conquered/civilized" when EUROPE has been the stage of the TWO deadliest and most extensive wars in modern human history (that happened in the span of a few decades!!!) and I hardly see these people advocate to see Europeans "civilized" or colonized 🤔 ....It's almost when wars become a problem when non White entertain them 🤔

So yeah, while no country is above reproach, the least thing should be to not throw stones while living in a house made of glass.

And there's a difference between "fighting for land" and genociding entire civilizations to make place, anon. That's what the USA did. And yes, that's quite exceptional of you, so don't be shook to be set apart for your "outstanding" History.

And please stop with that silly "i kNow rEfuGeE fRoM vErY bAd cOuNtRy ThAt wOuLd LaUgH aY yOuT IgnOrAnT AsS" line when you know DAMN WELL they would agree with me that American genocide and war crimes are awful LMAO You just made up your mind that I was somehow defending tyrannical systems or that they were nice place to live when I never said that. You're just yet yankee Westerner trying to gaslight a foreigner descendan of first gen immigrants basically stating blanket statement about how the USA are perceived by most of the world, that it's "western mentality".

The only person needing to wake up here is you ; if you're Christian you have to know that pleading allegiance to worldly things is pointless. Look at yourself, getting defensive about a country founded by satanists and freemasons, established on a soil soaked with the blood of genocide, and built by the labor and sacrifice of slavery. The USA will be destroyed, along with the whole as we know it. It's not worth the hassle. I am not here to be cute, I am here to get real.

[xtruss]

Restrictions Leave US Travelers ‘High and Dry’

— Stacey Lastoe, CNN • Updated 27th June 2020

(CNN) — In downtown Buffalo, New York, crossing the border into Ontario, Canada, used to be as easy as driving one mile across the Peace Bridge over the Niagara River. But that's now a forbidden route.

In the coronavirus era, New York residents and out-of-state road trippers aren't allowed to cross the border for leisure travel.

US citizens have been shut out of their neighboring country to the north and a slew of nations around the world. The latest travel news affecting Americans: The European Union is considering blocking travelers from areas with severe Covid-19 outbreaks after it opens it borders on July 1.

Since the United States has more confirmed coronavirus cases than anywhere else in the world, with numbers increasing in some states each day, US travelers are unlikely to be allowed in any time soon.

"The US's chances are close to zero," an EU diplomat told CNN. "With their infection rates ... not even they can believe in that possibility."

As long as the US-Canada border remains closed, visiting Niagara Falls in Ontario won't be possible for US citizens. (LARS HAGBERG/AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

Although potential travel bubbles are being discussed all over the world -- Fiji is the latest in talks to join one with Australia and New Zealand -- the United States has yet to form or join a bubble.

Where does this new world order leave US citizens with a penchant for travel?

Nostalgic for the pre-Covid days when a US passport promised access to much of the world? Anxious of how they'll be perceived -- and received -- by foreign countries when restrictions are eventually loosened?

The future of travel for Americans, and whether they'll be welcome again as tourists, is not clear; in many ways, it's a moot point for as long as travel to certain regions is prohibited.

Uninvited

As many Americans eschew air travel and instead take to the road, they won't be taking the road into Canada. Indeed, travel restrictions for US passport holders at this time far outnumbers the travel possibilities.

And for many people, that's just how it should be.

A trip through Canada is unlikely to be a summer vacation option for Americans while the Covid-19 outbreak in the US continues to swell. )Courtesy Via Rail Canada)

Colleen Friesen, who lives in a small resort town in British Columbia, hopes the US-Canadian border stays closed.

"The majority of Canadians are strongly against allowing Americans into the country due to the US's rampant infection rate. Although some states seem to be managing the pandemic, when we see news of Oklahoma allowing an indoor rally, we just shake our collective heads," Friesen tells CNN Travel via email.

Stacey McKenna, who is based in Colorado, isn't ready to think about international travel of any kind right now, though she stipulates that it's partially because the places on her radar "are extremely vulnerable economically and geographically," and she wouldn't be willing to risk exposing anyone.

"I think if I reach a place where I feel international (or even air) travel would be appropriate, then I'll start asking myself if I think I'd be welcome."

For New York-based travel writer Juliet Izon, who canceled a summer vacation in Italy months ago when there was still a glimmer of hope that things might resume, seeing where the United States is compared with other countries is disheartening and depressing.

Izon believes she'll take the trip to Italy one day but says, "I wouldn't be surprised if in certain countries if they don't allow Americans in for a while or a really strict quarantine for years to come," adding that the United States' handling of Covid-19 was likely to be "another black mark against us."

The other? The state of US politics.

Friesen, who says she appreciates her country's politicians taking a backseat to the scientific and medical community, is scared of the way the virus in the United States "has become politicized."

France is moving through stages of reopening, but US citizens are not yet on the list of countries who can visit. (BERTRAND GUAY/AFP via Getty Images)

But one EU diplomat ,who spoke to CNN earlier in the week on condition of anonymity, calls the US-EU travel decision a very sensitive issue and insists "it is only ever about health."

"For sure, you can see not being on the list as something political, when one country is allowed in and another is not, but this is a misrepresentation of what we are doing. We are looking to open our borders, this is a positive step."

In spite of this statement and the EU diplomat's insistence that "we want people to come," the much-changed travel landscape has some people concerned.

"Rather than thinking about the near future of travel, I've been pondering how all of this will affect xenophobia more generally," says McKenna.

A Holistic Experience

Dennis Geronimus, New York University art history associate professor and chair, has historically combined business and leisure travel, often to Italy. He is not personally concerned about how he'll be received when he travels internationally again -- and he's someone who'll likely be able to travel on certain foreign soils well before other Americans.

This is in large part because of the nature of his travel. Geronimus is typically hosted by international colleagues and admits that it is "different than going on vacation somewhere not knowing anyone and then just diving into the culture and going to see the sites and seeing other foreigners at the sites as well."

At this time, American travelers can't go to Italy and cities such as Rome (above), at least not for pure leisure travel. (ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images)

There are steps Geronimus could take now to potentially be granted access forbidden to US leisure travelers, though he'd still be subject to the quarantine.

In any event, though he'd like to see the Raphael exhibition in Rome and collaborate with colleagues in Italy, he's not planning a trip to the region anytime soon.

It might be deemed essential, but Geronimus doesn't see it as essential enough. Instead, the professor would prefer to focus on the measures needed to resume on-site classes at NYU this fall.

Likewise, McKenna, whose background is in medical anthropology and public health, is thinking about other, bigger things: "I'll be honest. I haven't even gotten to the question of whether I think I would feel welcome as an American" since international travel is just not appropriate right now.

Says US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, "We've been working with countries all across the world, including our friends in Europe and the EU proper to determine how it is we can best safely reopen international travel. It's important for the United States to get Europeans the capacity to travel back to the United States."

Safety First

It's not about Americans, per se, says New Zealander Elen Turner, though it's hard to ignore the restrictions impacting them along with the number of confirmed Covid deaths and cases.

"I think once the borders reopen properly, New Zealanders will be as welcoming of Americans as they will be with any other travelers," Turner says.

But Friesen, who is troubled by the United States' handling of the pandemic, says, "Given the push back on the pandemic protocols we've seen in the US, we just don't believe that Americans will do the right thing."

As stories of Americans refusing to wear masks -- not even on an airplane in at least one case -- and not practicing social distancing surface, Friesen's skepticism may be justifiable.

While New Zealand may form a travel bubble with Australia, it's unlikely Americans will be allowed in any time soon. (Courtesy Shutterstock)

However, for so many people CNN Travel spoke with, the health and safety of others -- and doing what's right -- is paramount.

Chicago-based photographer and writer Joshua Mellin says: "I think to travel internationally for leisure right now demonstrates a total lack of care, you deserve whatever stares you get."

Mellin adds: "I'm personally of the mind we're all global citizens, but there's still a reality you're not entitled access to a foreign country, you're granted entry."

When it comes to granting foreigners entry, Turner would be comfortable taking cues from the New Zealand government. Right now, returning New Zealand citizens must quarantine for two weeks upon arrival, and no one else is allowed in.

If, down the line, the quarantine was applied to all visitors to New Zealand, what then?

"So if that was to be extended to all arrivals then I think New Zealanders would be fine with that because generally, our government has handled the pandemic well and there's a high degree of trust in them," Turner says.

She adds, however, that she doesn't see this happening, does not envision a New Zealand opening itself up to foreigners until quarantine is no longer necessary.

The idea of a pre-holiday quarantine is the subject of scrutiny anyway.

Last month, when the concept was gaining steam, Alison Hickey, president of Kensington Tours, told CNN Travel "we would not recommend traveling to a destination that has implemented a 14-day self-quarantine requirement."

'We're Reopening'

While enforced quarantines will deter many a traveler, other regions with no quarantines in effect might entice them.

From Mexico and the Caribbean to Turkey, tourist spots around the world are opening back up and encouraging visitors to boot.

US travelers can fly to Mexico, but for many, the risks aren't worth it. Pictured: Parroquia de San Miguell Arcángel in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. (Shutterstock)

Whether hotel promotions or upgrades or relaxed policies on cancellation, the sweet chorus of "we are opening" could potentially jump start what has been a very dark period in the tourism sector.

But just because The Maldives, a luxury destination, is ready to welcome back all visitors with no restrictions (there are also no visa requirements or additional fees), how many US citizens are ready to go?

For many of the US travelers that CNN Travel spoke to for this story, being welcomed or feeling welcome in another country is beside the point.

The danger of exposure and of being exposed looms. And then there's the fear of being stuck somewhere far away.

Elizabeth Lavis, who is originally from upstate New York, found herself scrambling to get out of Vietnam in March amid the outbreak and sudden stringent travel restrictions. That ordeal and what's transpired with the coronavirus since have made Lavis reluctant to go far away from home for the foreseeable future.

California-based writer Melanie Haikan would like to go to Costa Rica at some point and is only eyeing places that are eager for visitors. (Nell Lewis)

California resident Melanie Haiken expresses a desire to help struggling economies as a tourist and is already thinking about her future travels, which include places not so close to home: "As to international travel, I would be ready to travel again in August, but would want to go places that are eager for visitors. I have my eye on Guatemala and Costa Rica, Turkey and Jordan, Scotland, Estonia, and a few other places that seem likely candidates based both on safety and how much their economies depend on tourism."

Turkey, it would seem, is a likely candidate. On June 19, Turkish Airlines relaunched two North American routes to Istanbul with two others (Miami and Los Angeles) following on June 22 and 24 respectively. By late July, three additional US hubs will be operating flights to Turkey.

Any EU travel ban could change things, but as of June 23, when CNN spoke to Connecticut-based Caryn B. Davis about her upcoming trip to the Azores in Portugal, the travel journalist said she is still planning on going, hopefully in the next six weeks.

Pompeo expressed the importance of the economy in travel between the US and the EU, saying "It's important for the United States to get Europeans the capacity to travel back to the United States. It's important, very important for the Europeans to fully reconnect with the American economy as well."

But until safety concerns can be adequately addressed, Mellin doesn't think anyone, US citizen or not, should be going anywhere.

"There's a responsibility of showing respect for other people and places as a traveler that starts at home and is inherently broken by visiting another country during a global pandemic."

But in fact, international travel may resume sooner rather than later in some currently off-limits places. "I'm confident in the coming weeks we'll figure that out as between not only the United States and the EU, but the United States and other parts of the world, too," Pompeo said.

As to what it'll be like?

"I think if anything, when we do travel, it's certainly my hope that we bring that sense of, I guess, empathy to wherever we're going ... ," Geronimus says.

— CNN's James Frater, Michael Conte and Luke McGee contributed reporting to this story.