• Riskable@programming.dev
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    12 hours ago

    Why compare ICE to TSA? TSA was always “paid to stand three” (and look like they’re doing something useful). How about:

    ICE is paid to hurt innocent people and the economy in general while there’s…

    • FEMA workers who are out there actually helping people who really need it.
    • CISA employees who are actively engaged in fighting information security incidents. Probably the biggest impact of all government employees if they just stopped showing up for work!
    • Civilian Coast Guard employees who actually make it possible for things like search and rescue operations to function.

    …who are not getting paid.

    Aside: Seriously, the CISA folks need to start being treated like they’re holding the nuclear football. With the (unbelievablly stupid) Iran war going on, they’re what’s standing between infrastructure that works and suddenly having millions of Americans without power, water, or say, having a damn burst (which can happen if the right SCADA systems get taken over!).

    • manxu@piefed.social
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      12 hours ago

      Great comment! Tiny observation:

      ICE is paid to hurt […] the economy in general

      ICE is paid to hurt Democrat cities mostly, and those that didn’t pledge allegiance to the right person. If their methods had been applied in general, there would be a lot of MAGA malcontent.

    • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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      10 hours ago

      TSA was always “paid to stand three” (and look like they’re doing something useful).

      It was mainly created as a last ditch effort to keep the airlines a float after 9/11. A lot of people might be too young to remember, but a large chunk of the population stopped flying out of fear after 9/11. So the government basically created the TSA out of thin air to keep the airlines privatized.

      Now we’re just stuck paying for security theater and securing airline profit margins.

      • verdigris@lemmy.ml
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        10 hours ago

        Even if this was the intention, which I would love a source for, that was never the practical effect. It was security theater from day zero and the only people who it made feel safer were the hyperxenophobic chuds who were yelling at anyone with vaguely brown skin in the weeks after 9/11.

        Any attempt to whitewash the TSA is bullshit. All of DHS is government overreach.

        • TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today
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          5 hours ago

          I don’t know what kind of source you are asking for, I don’t have a quote of Bush admitting to conspiring with airline executives or anything. But it’s pretty clear why the security theater was created in the first place if you read between the lines of Studies like this.

          It was security theater from day zero

          It being used to bail out the airlines doesn’t preclude it from being security theater. The airlines going under was the reason the theater was needed in the first place.

          only people who it made feel safer were the hyperxenophobic chuds who were yelling at anyone with vaguely brown skin in the weeks after 9/11

          You mean 90% of American citizens?

          Any attempt to whitewash the TSA is bullshit

          I don’t see how Bush socializing the security cost for private corporations is being interpreted as white washing?