Also, does all this checking happen offline before entry or do they analyse and then pick you up for questioning if they find something questionable? It all sounds very East German.
For those in countries with a Visa waiver arrangement (as I am), it kind of defeats the purpose.
One last thing: I did chuckle when he mentioned it would take some months for the regulations to come into force due to the Paperwork Reduction Act.
I've also been to a few other semi-totalitarian countries in the past, the most extreme of which would have been East Germany, and that was less painful to get into than the US.
But that it was simpler in East Germany says a lot.
America, you need to sort your shit out yesterday.
Also, what does the pride flag have anything to do with it?
The thing with East Germany was that they were concerned about people wanting to get out, not people coming in. So they scanned the vehicle for contraband goods going in and concealed people coming out, but apart from that it was just standard Soviet-bloc bureaucracy. The other thing was that, even though it was a somewhat totalitarian state they played by the rules, as a visitor unless you did something outrageously stupid nothing was going to happen to you. I had a camera on my lap and had been taking photos of the border installations, a border guard saw me holding the camera and said something like "you're not taking photos are you?" - "no, just changing the film" - "well, OK then".