"I missed you in New York!" "No, you didn't. I didn't go. I'm not setting foot in your country again while he's there."
A friend of mine from the Baden-Württemberg area was not at a convention I always go to in January in Manhattan. He's in his mid-seventies, so I was worried there might have been a sudden health issue. But I just saw him in Berlin a couple of days ago, and he is fine. We don't have a lot in common, but about 25 years ago, his then-girlfriend had some rare form of cancer which was, at the time, being most successfully treated by some doctors in Moscow. He asked if I had any contacts in Moscow that could help him. I did, she went, and was cured. We have been fairly close ever since.
But this time, the situation in the USA just became too much for him. He said, he was sorry, but no reasonable European could make the trip to the USA if it wasn't necessary, and he didn't consider it to be necessary. After all these decades, I thought he was so laid back that nothing could spook him to this degree. Apparently the answer to that is "almost nothing." These stories are not merely theoretical tales made up by AI for youtube entertainment.
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The so-called Internet Research Agency at Ulitsa Savushkina 55 in SPB was under the control of his rival, and has since been dismantled, but cyber disinformation units of the GRU, such directorates 74455 and 26165, are certainly going full blast. Especially for one busy fighting a hot war on one border, it is not remotely feasible economically for Putin to consider a shooting war elsewhere for the moment. A cyber campaign, especially if augmented with an infusion of cash here and there, is a very economical way to wage combat without risking losses or detection. When I get the chance, I read the comments section of a few US sources like the Washington Post, and there are always dozens or more pro-Trump/Anti-Democratic posts by oddball names who leave out articles (i.e. a, an, the), or don't use the verb "to be" in the present tense, or forget to say "of" when it's warranted, such as "basket full apples" instead of "basket full OF apples"
. These are hallmarks of Russian, and are among the most common mistakes Russians make when trying to write in English.
I have to think they are involved in planting other stories/movements, such as Pizzagate, or Brexit. They serve no one, and are negative to everyone. Very cost efficient--lots of damage at virtually no cost. Let the gullibility of the population do the rest of the work for you. It's what I would do in Putin's shoes, and just what a wily ex-КГБ officer would dream up.
to hold anti Epstein, anti Tariffman, anti American rallies so huge our news media would cover it.
Let MAGAts see the world is not happy with what's going on in this Country. 
It's just that our M$M chooses not to show them.
The younger members of my family have given me strict orders
never to be anywhere near ICE officials.
They know how I feel about the gd Nazi bastards and I will speak my mind. 
But I would like to see my aunt.
She is still of sound mind, though body is not so great.
One of the younger people in the family is a crackerjack attorney.
Maybe I will drag her along. She will handcuff me to the car if need be.
from anywhere ELSE in the world, if they have 2 brain cells to rub together....
And YES, I couldn't consider it 'safe' either,
for any U.S. citizen who resides in U.S. territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, WHATEVER)
to visit any of the 50 United States---
--since U.S. citizens are being shot here!
WELL, I'LL BE DAMNED----
I wouldn't consider it 'safe' either,
for ANY citizens of the 50 U.S. states to return here, either,
if they are currently in some other country---- see the reason above!
Pretend-President DrippyAss has been VERY SUCCESSFUL
in making it SUCK to be an American just now--- or anybody IN America,
SO that explains why practically nobody is trying to come here over the past year!
(Meanwhile, many farms can't get labor, and food prices will continue to rise!)
and 'High-Chair Hitler' certainly hasn't been improving that economy...
I spent some time in various areas of New York state,
on a family camping-travel vacation in the mid-1970's in my youth...
We visited various historical battlefields and venues,
Gettysburg PA, Independence Hall in Philadelphia PA,
Jamestown, colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown and Richmond VA---
(where I was still wearing my 'Union Army" cap purchased in Gettysburg,
and sundry southerners asked me "are you a Yankee?"
when it should have been obvious! LOL)
((and now it seems that this question was meant to intimidate me,
but I was too young to discern that properly, about 11 years old but already a fan of U.S. history,
and merely answered honestly, 'yes I guess I am'! ))
Anyway, back to New York City---
I guess we viewed it from across the river,
but both of my parents said,
'we can't drive into that city while pulling a popup-camper trailer'!
LOL 
We did camp in the 'Finger Lakes' region, as I recall....
Also visited 'Fort Niagara' in the westernmost portion of the state---
which also has one of the oldest surviving buildings in North America,
originally build by the French I think--- the barracks building of the fort!
(sometime around 1703 as I recall it as it was taught to me---)
ANYWAY, that was a GREAT TRIP---
although my slightly older sister did not enjoy it AT ALL---
except for the part where she carried our pet miniature schnauzer
onto a subway from New Jersey to Philadelphia,
in a backpack!
Think that whole vacation was in 1974