After the U.S. State Department issued its latest travel advisory on Mexico, I started wondering what the bleep is going on in Washington.

Over the past week it’s become increasingly clear that the Make-America-Great president holds a deep grudge against this country and many other so-called “shithole” third world nations. Although Mexico was not mentioned in accounts of the now infamous closed-door meeting at the White House, there is no doubt that the country ranks high on Mr Trump’s black list. It was confirmed on Thursday when he fired off an early morning tweet that read: “We need the wall to help stop the flow of drugs from Mexico, now rate the number one most dangerous country in the world.”

Seriously, Sir?  More dangerous than nuclear-armed North Korea? Or Iran and any number of lands in the Middle East? Should travelers worry more about the risks of visiting any place in Mexico compared to say attending a concert in Las Vegas or a church service in Texas?

I’m no fool. It’s obviously a strategy aimed at pressuring the Congress and Senate to approve billions of dollars to build The Wall in a trade-off to scratch draconian measures against Dreamers.

So while I’m getting all worked up about the presidential bloviating, other expats here seem to be taking the dire travel advisory in stride. The topic barely made a blip on local social media. Posters seem far more concerned about animals in distress, chances of accidently creaming motorcycles out on our congested highway, where to get a vacuum cleaner repaired and what store has the best selection and cheapest buys on imported grocery items.

Newcomers, equally blasé about criminal violence and mayhem in Mexico, continue arriving in droves even if that means getting here might involve a pass through one of the state’s the U.S. government labels as Level 4-DO NOT TRAVEL zones.

Granted, the travel advisory rates Chapala, Ajijic, Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta as relatively safe destinations in Jalisco, while warning to “reconsider travel” to other parts of the state where “violent crime and gang activity are common.” However, the State Department currently prohibits U.S. government employees from traveling to areas bordering Michoacán and Zacatecas or stopping for any reason in the lakeshore towns of Ocotlán and La Barca.

While I acknowledge that the murder rate has been on an upswing in the Guadalajara metro area and Mexico as a whole, it is a known fact that foreigners are not known to be targets for kidnappers and hitmen and they rarely get caught in the crossfire. In contrast, innocent victims are commonly gunned down in the all too frequent mass shootings and drive-by homicides going on north of the border.

That probably explains why foreigners in these parts are not in a state of panic over the official posturing by bureaucrats in Foggy Bottom. Most have tuned out, contented to live easy here in the perfect model of Margaritaville. Guess that’s my cue to follow their lead, pour myself a big shot of ta-kill-ya and chill out.