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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TobagoJack who wrote (131101)	2/27/2017 7:00:36 PM
From: ggersh	1 Recommendation Recommended By bruiser98 Respond to of 217542

robots don't need this, nor do they purchase goods globalresearch.ca

To: TobagoJack who wrote (131101)	2/28/2017 1:07:16 AM
From: Elroy Jetson	Respond to of 217542

It's amazing to see Cuctoms Agents acting like assholes again. The last time I ever experienced such mouthy and rude border agents was in 1983 and 1984. Reagan was President and the economy sucked for many around the world. I returned from Mexico with 12 huge boxes and handed my declaration Customs Officer about 35, black, not happy. An older Customs Officer about 55 stood behind him. He asked for my receipts and after giving them a cursory glance he claimed all my receipts were fake. Something I'd read in a Customs pamphlet click into mind, and I asked him, "Are you actually trying to claim these are all fine originals?" He instantly responded. "Yes of course." I replied, "I'm sure you know all fine originals are duty-free." And the 35 year old Customs guy lurched forward like he was going to punch me, and the older officer grabbed him firmly by the shoulder and shook his head no, and told me I was cleared. The next year in England a Customs and Duties Officer read every page of my Passport asking me tons of question about who I knew in England blah, blah, blah. He then stamped my Passport with a huge black stamp taking up two pages which stated I wasn't permitted to work in the UK and warned me of the severe penalties if I was caught working. I was startled but asked him, "What is wrong with you?" Grim and unhappy, suspicious anyone traveling. My only other bad experience was on that same trip with an East German Stassi Border Guard, but seriously everyone in the world expected the Stassi to act like assholes. As your train crossed into East Germany at Marienborn all the West German employees would exit and East Germans took their place. Once they searched the interior and exterior of the train with dogs, as if anyone on the planet was trying to break into East Germany, they made a big show of locking all of the doors on the train. Thirty minutes later A Stassi Border Clown wearing a wooden box on his chest entered out compartment and yelled in a loud voice, "Passkontrolle, fahrkarte bitte!" He opened a swing-down door on the box on his chest and stamped each of the German Passports. When I handed him mine, he switched to English and asked me, "Where are you traveling to?" probably to just to show off he understood English. But now I was not in the mood for this. I asked him, "Let's see, I'm in a locked compartment in a train headed for West Berlin - where do you think I'm traveling to?" A German grandmother in the train compartment with me looked very seriously at me while she shook her head and hands no. The Stassi agent stamped my Passport and angrily clicked his little chest box shut and left, relocking our compartment door again. She told me, "Don't fuck with these people. They can be seriously bad news." It took her advice when I left West Berlin through Check Point Charlie to see some of the East. I had traveled before than and extensively since then, but I never again ran into Border Agents who were rude like some were in 1983 and 1984. Now, more than 30 years later it looks like we're in for another episode of rude US Customs employees and in retaliation rude Border people around the world. Although I understand our agents were not friendly after 9/11 if you weren't an American. I guess the world moves through cycles.

To: TobagoJack who wrote (131101)	2/28/2017 1:23:35 AM
From: Elroy Jetson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 217542

Actually there was another officious Border woman in the Venice airport in 1989, but that was just a typical Italian "work slow-down". Something idiot Italians do in place of a strike. The one woman agent about 35 meticulously looked at every single stamp on every single page of everyone's Passport, giving each Passport and incredible 5 minute review, even examining the bindings. There were 50 people ahead of us so I sat down on my suitcase and took out a book. People around me asked what was happening, so I told them in a loud voice, "This is Italy. It's just some idiotic work action where they're "working slow" to demonstrate why Italy is the most backward nation in Europe. They're going to be assholes through the entire process, so find a comfortable place to sit down." The Italian Customs woman glared at me and snapped closed the Passport in her hand and walked back into her office." Seconds later 3 other Italian Customs agents came out of the office and quickly cleared everyone with the perfunctory "Welcome to Italy" and Passport stamp. People around me were giving me thumbs up saying, "Looks like you got that fixed." So it is possible to embarrass officious cretins out of acting like jackasses if you approach it right. I already knew that game from other trips dealing with businesses and services in Italy. It's like the French SNCF window-woman who slamed down the shutter on her window mid-sentence exactly when her lunch break began. It startled a poor couple from Kansas so I had to explain France to them.