We have previously discussed the meltdown at airports due to the latest failure of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Passengers are being asked to show up hours in advance and many are missing their flights due to endless lines. Now, thousands of bags have been lost due to a “technical problems” at TSA. The lack of any accountability for the ongoing failures at TSA is the latest evidence of the disconnect between citizens and their government.
At airports like Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina lines are now commonly three hours. It is a disgrace and, on one day, some 600 passengers missed their flights. In Chicago’s Midway airport, passengers faced a line that stretched beyond sight and beyond the time for their flights. The reaction was not pretty.
Then there is the failure of TSA computer system. More than 3,000 checked bags were lost in Phoenix on Thursday because of a problem with a screening system at Sky Harbor International Airport. TSA spokesman Nico Melendez simply said “TSA is experiencing significant, unprecedented technical issues with its computer server allowing the automated screening of checked bags for explosives.” Despite a hearing this week, TSA continues to treat its obvious incompetence like people complaining about the weather. We have become accustomed to the lowest level of performance from the TSA and other federal agencies. It is the passivity of a public that no longer views itself as having any voice or expectation in good government. We just stand in lines of hours while paying billions for substandard government services.
If TSA were a private business, it would not last a month before being forced into insolvency. However performance is not a measure applied to the government. TSA is fast becoming the ultimate example of an agency that performs at a minimal level despite billions in federal funds. The only good thing is that, while standing around in endless lines, citizens have a chance to contemplate that question.
Sounds like TSA is trying to get travelers to pony up cash for that fast check-in program.
Security Theater has it’s costs. Yes lines…and billions of dollars in vested interests, keeping us…mmmm…safe. If the so-called “powers that be” want to “keep us safe” maybe they could turn their attention to the quarter million people careless killed in preventable hospital errors.
Just more signs on the roadway of America’s descent…
If TSA screening is indeed “security theater”, then an alternative purpose for the process might be to establish a choke point to gather data on travelers. The NSA, et al, must obtain information on names, dates, destinations and much more. Do you think that the naked screening images are truly deleted? Everything is saved for later forensic analysis.
J
I am not blaming the TSA blunder on underfunding, that technique only applies to things the regressives DON’T like.
Regressives love the TSA because it reinforces fear and mindless terror in the hearts and weak minds of their constituents. This allows them to spend trillions of dollars on wasteful equipment, programs, and projects–military and civilian, and to line their pockets and those of their donors. They didn’t underfund the TSA, they over-funded it, and they don’t actually give a damn about whether it runs right or not. It’s a front for stealing more billions.
And yes, the Dems play along with the stock investments and exceptions.
Philly T correctly noted that Sen. Mitch McConnell’s net worth is c. $24 million, which he attributes to “regressive Republican politics”.
It’s worth noting that former Sen. John Kerry’s net worth also “skyrocketed” to c. $200 million on his meager government salary as Senator and Sec. Of State.
Marrying into money is not an exclusive Democratic or Republican characteristic, so if innuendos are to be made by partisan hacks about “unexplained” jumps in net worth, let’s look at the whole picture.
It’s amazing to me that the very people that denigrate government for domestic actions (and there are many reasons to do so) give them such a wide berth when it comes to our militaristic adventures.
Too blind to see that they are one and the same? Too easy to complain about the losers at DHS and TSA while ignoring our military’s quest?
Lord, please save us from our own wrath.