... in the NYT (in a very early article), some official was cited with concerns about US visa/travel restrictions.

I happen to know people from non visa waiver countries who looked into visiting the US. They have to personally interview at an US embassy, just for a short trip to visit friends/family.

That's something virtually no one is talking about. Some of the post 9/11 immigration policies are a disaster for the US. I wonder whether that has played a role here, too, among other IOC politics.

Chicago is not too blame, I'd guess. It's pretty awesome, I lived there 3 years of my life. Yes, there is some corruption, but all in all, it's a city that works, with great architecture. And sure, half the town is impoverished - but that applies to very many US cities, and to Rio as well.

Actually, the truly interesting thing is how engrossed people are in this particular round of Olympics host selection.

Suddenly everyone is an expert on the selection process. Everyone has an opinion about it. Everyone is treating it like a massive deal.

It's been hilarious to watch.

Part of it comes from President Obama's injecting himself into the whole thing -- that certainly increased the attention and added political drama to the whole affair. But mostly, I think, it's a product of the information age: We coalesce around news stories and current events with an intensity and volume never before witnessed in history. Everyone is privy now to so much information, and so the chatter just kind of feeds on itself, building and building and building into a massive crescendo.

The result is that certain stories seem to get amplified in magnitude, well beyond their perceived importance in the past. We had never collectively cared this much about the selection of an Olympics city. The vote has never brought the world to a momentary halt like this. But you'd never know it from the atmosphere of the past few days, which has implicitly treated it as if it's always been this way.

It's all kind of bizarrely fascinating.