President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Heck, I was on a charter flight in 2003 less than two years post 9/11. I was yelling at whatever version of TSA there was then when we had to go through what I considered overkill search. "We chartered the plane. Everyone knows everyone. We aren't terrorists!"

I just don't have a good track record when it comes to dealing with government authorities, I suppose.

 

I discovered quickly after 9/11 that TSA singles out overdressed white people for extra patdowns.

Ever since, I wore the rattiest T-shirt and shorts I own for flying — and never once had an issue.

 

Word.

 

When Russian ships are in the Gulf of Mexico, feel free to be as aggressive as you want.

 

Uhhh, you know how far Russia is from the Arabian Sea, right? This wasn't some operation conducted off the Russian coast.

 

TSA employees are the most joyless people I've seen in my life.
The guy plucking out spent pisscakes from the high school restroom urinals is more grateful for his lot in life than these assholes.
"Well they have a tough job." Fuck them. I didn't ask them to crawl out from whatever rock they dwelt to play mall cop for Uncle Sam.

 

Careful. I had a TSA employee as a roommate at a stop not too long ago. By any measure, a really decent guy and the TSA gig are thankless.

I can understand if they were irritating. They absconded with a small Swiss Army knife off my key ring once, running off as if they heard it ticking. The opportunity for being overly dramatic can easily present itself, I suppose.

The ones at the little two-gate regional airport right near me has plenty of nice people who will help anyone who isn't being antagonistic. Some of them at JFK can be a little more salty, but in their defense, they deal with more people during most 10-minute spans than those at the nearby regional airport deal with all day.

 

I cannot forgive them for the utter shit they gave me over transporting my game system during a holidays trip home several years back.
I don't care what their mandate is. There's a way to talk to people. They are in the people business. They need to act like it.
They hate their jobs? Go get another one, the labor economy's roaring.

 

I'll be as aggressive as I want, if I know the leader of the opposing nation is a poodle puppy whose nose the leader of my nation can rub in shit any time he feels like it.

 

That they pat people down is just a "bonus." People would be irritated if they were delayed five minutes to get to their gate to hear a pitch about magazine sales, a religion, a new investment opportunity etc. I've figured the TSA is mainly there to give people a sense of security more than actual security - so they'll keep boarding planes.
The sad part is - there is no security for trains, or a bus or a boat. It isn't about the passengers surviving a terror act - its to protect people on the ground from being targeted from the air.

 

I understand that they have a job which is thankless and try to be as courteous as I can when I fly. However, on a couple of occasions, I’ve been pulled aside and have had the most miserable experience. I generally travel with both my iPad and my laptop and at some point I thought that I read that the rule changed and you had to take the iPad out of your carryon. I asked the TSA employee before I put my items to be scanned if I had to take my iPad out and she said that I did not. Well, that’s not what the rule was and I they ended up going through my bag and asking me a bunch of questions. The supervisor came over and insultingly asked me if I knew how to read and if I could follow directions. I explained that I asked the first employee about the iPad and he called me a liar. I asked for him to write down his name and the name of the other employee so I could complain on the TSA website. He asked if I had been drinking (I was not) and why I was using profanity (I had not and was overly please/thank you). Eventually another supervisor came over and they let me go.

Another time, the scanner indicated that I had something metallic near my pants pocket. I didn’t (my pockets were empty) and they gave me the full pat down. They asked me why I set off the scanner and I said that I had no idea. After a couple of more minutes of questioning I mentioned that I had recently started taking a potassium phosphate supplement because I get leg cramps — I have had leg cramps for 30 years and nothing has seemed to work. The supervisor comes over and starts asking me if I really had leg cramps. I said that I had and had tried everything. He said that he didn’t believe me. I asked him why I would make that up and if he didn’t believe me, to call over Mrs W., who was waiting for me. He said that if I really had leg cramps, Gatorade and bananas is all that I needed. I explained that they didn’t work for me and he said that I was lying. I asked him why would I lie about that and he stared at me for like a minute and finally let me go.

 

I'm sure the majority of TSA employees are fine people and do their job the right way.
Then you get the jerks who want to act like Gestapo for whatever reason.
The biggest problem is the TSA itself. It's unnecessary. Walk through a metal detector, fine. Put your bag on a scanner, fine. I really don't even mind putting the contents of my pockets in a bowl to go through. Taking off your belt and shoes is idiotic. Limiting the toiletries you can have is dumb. I really don't like not being able to lock my big luggage to prevent airport people from stealing things. The harassment when you don't bow to TSA like sheep is too much to take.
Pretty soon, you have to have a little gold star on your driver's license to prove that it's legit.