While I absolutely think Trump wants to annex us, I also don't expect him to do so using military means. He may be crazy, but he is not entirely stupid -- he knows that militarily invading a peaceful neighbouring country is unacceptable by today's standards. So he is only going to try to bend us to his will through other non-military means.

I also make it a point to remind myself that at least roughly 1/2 of the American population do not like what Trump is doing, and I definitely do not consider these Americans to be the enemy. In fact, a lot of them are friends. For some of us, they are family. Some people make this too black and white, and they label the whole US as the villain with a broad stroke when conflict happens.

That said, Trump and his gov are definitely the enemy.

Japan seems to be the popular choice recently.

Yes, it's important to recognize that not all Americans are the enemy and indeed, many of them are vocal about how sorry they are we have been treated this way. But we as a country would be wise to strengthen both our ties to other friendly countries as well as our defensive capabilities should the worst case scenario come to fruition. When you have a leader who praises other dictators and also treats invaded countries the way they have, you have to consider all possibilities.

Go to La Paz or something. Similar climate, half the price. Fucking love La Paz.

Palm Springs with our dollar is spicy right now.

What’s interesting in Palm Springs anyway? It’s all old gay dudes, widowers and date shakes lol

Golf and cool architecture. That's about it.

I've never heard of anyone our age thinking about vacationing in Palm Springs?? Seems like a place you would have visited in the 70s... or if you're in your 70s.

I find moderately affluent white people with young kids LOVE going to Palm Springs. The kind that just wants to sit by the pool sipping beer/margaritas while the kids paddle around. I have a few of that type of friend who go there pretty regularly.

I spent this past new year in Palm Springs - it was my first time visiting and loved the architecture, cars, and warm weather during the day. I also wasn't expecting to see a ton of BC and Alberta plates while I was there :lol

I'd love to revisit again - it was an easy and laid back place.

Joshua tree national park is pretty cool to visit. But yeah I never saw the appeal of palm springs unless you like golf or clothing optional gay friendly resorts lol

Don't shit on Palm Springs :lol

Ya it's for old white people and fags, but I'm fairly young and I've gone there a number of times with girlfriends. Before our dollar was total shit, it wasn't a bad spot for a quick vacation.

It's always warm, never rains, so like Phoenix, you're guaranteed good weather. Back in the 2010s it was fairly cheap in terms of accommodation (good resort deals), food and cocktails we cheap too. They have some good Tiki bar spots there, Joshua Tree, Thousand Palms are good for some hikes, great restaurants.

It's pretty much one of the quicker flights for an easy winter chill out in the sun. You're only a couple hours from LA too, so we'd usually do one drive to see some comedy at The Store, or hit up a Lakers game when staying there.

The drive back is great at 2AM, no ones on the highway, you can fucking rip it back to Palm Springs pretty fast.

Yeah, Palm Springs is for affluent people (or people pretending to be) with kids. It's definitely a destination in the mom-fluencer community.

I was looking at direct flight destinations with a resort-style hotel and Palm Springs popped into my radar. They have a hotel called, "Grand Hyatt Indian Wells Resort & Villas" which seems to have everything. Multiple pools, lazy river, water slides, etc. Also, the flights were only 3h, which is awesome when flying with kids.

I'm a sucker for a warm climate that has a nice hotel and great amenities. With the kids being younger, all-inclusives are typically the easiest. We've done Mexico and Hawaii a bunch over the years, so I wanted to look at other options.

I guess it'll be Mexico exclusively for the next four years... ugh. Poor us, lol.

Speaking of vacations...

my cousins and i were planning to take our parents to Vegas but not anymore.

Besides the trade war aspect of things do you folks even feel safe travelling into the states? Even blue states? They're rounding up legal immigrants now - folks with green cards too. Folks are increasingly openly racist and it's not like gun violence isn't an ever present threat.

There's not a G7 country that's as randomly dangerous as the US right now.

I am a white, so I'd doubt I'd get hassled, but it does seem pretty random now. That woman from BC being detained (she was going to sort out work documents so a little different from a random visitor) seems very heavy handed. Like being detained in a room with 100s of other people short on basic necessities and shitting in an open room in a prison toilet isnt my idea of a fucking good time, so even though the likelihood is basically zero, any shred of possibility of that happening is pretty unappealing. Besides that fuck that shithole country, it's pretty easy to not go.

Maybe it's a marketing thing. Like now they can have all that in the background of a 30 second commercial spot while voiceover, "should've gone with the GOLD card."

she seemed like a well to do type and part time actress. if white/pretty priveledge didn't help her, i figure it's gg for the rest of us and playing a bit of russian roulette

mind you it seems like the stories of canadian/europeans are around visas so if you have a passport/nexus would you be subject to this treatment? i dunno but i dunno if i want to try and found out

what's scary about her case is she was transferred and "in the system" where i think you can be lost, reminds me of that netflix show orange is the new black where wealthy white lady was accidentally imprisoned for months before people sorted it out.

There's a crazy show about a real story of that happening in an Aussie immigrant detention centre. But the woman had some sort of memory loss relating to an injury or something and she was essentially missing in the system for nearly a year.

Indian Wells is a great area with all the fancy resorts and golf courses, and you're right beside the mountains, makes for a great backdrop.

That's why I recommend La Paz, very similar desert-like climate with mountains, not humid. A little more annoying flying down as opposed to Palm Springs, though.

I am still seeing non-white people traveling to Seattle, San Fran, LA, Hawaii, etc. for vacation in my social media feed, and I don't really see any safety or border pass through concerns if you are just going there for vacation. And Canada-US cross-border travels have only been down by 20 - 30%? That means there is still a lot of cross border travels happening now. There is no need to be worried if you are just heading down to a West Coast state (or Hawaii).

I still have no desire to travel to the US in the foreseeable future though. And if work wants to send me down to the US for a conference or anything, I'm gonna try very hard to weasel out of it.

No plans of going down to the States this year, although I do have to grab a package in Blaine this week :lol

We were planning to do a stint in Phoenix or Honolulu for 4 months starting January 2026, but that might get scrapped.

If you're worried about visiting the States as a Canadian for a trip, you're being hyperbolic, I'd say you have nothing to worry about from a safety perspective.

It's like all the news about airplane crashes as of late, are you suddenly not going to fly because the media has suddenly gotten a hardon reporting about it?

LOL, I thought La Paz was like an hour from Palm Springs... It's in BOLIVIA... haha yeah that's not happening for us. We have two young boys under four.

Is Bolivia even safe? I'm pretty ignorant of S. America

No, northern Mexico, Baja California Sur :lol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Paz...California_Sur

It's north of Cabo.