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TSA will require separate screenings for electronics larger than a cell phone

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Re: TSA will require separate screenings for electronics larger than a cell phone

#61

Post by [deleted] »

pc86 wrote: post #59
mnm1 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To whom does the $85 for TSA pre-check go? Seems like a racket that, like most other things in this country, is aimed mainly at the poor. Pay more, get through. Can't pay? Fuck you.

Well, pre-check does actually require a human being to do something with your application and work to happen on the part of the government. I'd rather the folks requesting the service pay for that than the taxpayers as a whole. Don't ascribe to classist malice what is simply a fee for service.

[deleted]

Re: TSA will require separate screenings for electronics larger than a cell phone

#62

Post by mnm1 »

technofiend wrote: post #56
mnm1 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To whom does the $85 for TSA pre-check go? Seems like a racket that, like most other things in this country, is aimed mainly at the poor. Pay more, get through. Can't pay? Fuck you.

I'm not sure I really agree - if you're poor, how many international flights are you making per year? This seems like a tax targeting those who can most afford it rather than least.

This applies to all flights. Considering that airline tickets are quite cheap, Amtrak lines are likely to be closing down outside the NE Corridor, and the TSA is just security-theatre at best, it seems like a pretty shitty thing to charge for.

Re: TSA will require separate screenings for electronics larger than a cell phone

#63

Post by orclev »

pc86 wrote: post #60
deathanatos wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One bin for each laptop, tablet, phone, etc would be madness. The current case, in every airport I've traversed, was each laptop in a separate bin. I believe I stumbled through an airport "piloting" this program (BOS) as we had to remove tablets, too. We were not told "everything larger than a phone", we were told "laptops and tablets" — all in separate bins. It took five bins to get through. "Piloting" new securit…

Do you think it would be any faster if you had to "check" your carry on at check-in, they were all scanned asynchronously from you actually going through security, and you pick up the bag on the other side in a mini baggage claim scenario? I know baggage claim proper is generally a madhouse, but if it's just literally going through a wall to allow the actual security screening to happen faster, I think it could be fa…

Considering I trust the average TSA employee about as much as a junky I found on a street corner, no way am I letting my electronics out of my sight. I already take them all on as carry on specifically to keep the TSA from stealing them, moving to a system like this would mean I couldn't travel with electronics (other than the exempted cell phone) anymore since there's like a 25% chance that the TSA will decide to swipe it.

Re: TSA will require separate screenings for electronics larger than a cell phone

#64

Post by orclev »

grandalf wrote: post #58
javajosh wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's strange to me that we screen for weapons at all, other than explosives. The cabin is sealed. There is a marshal on the plane to limit gun/box-cutter level damage. At that point the plane itself is no more dangerous (actually considerably less dangerous) than an ordinary subway car. With explosives, I've always thought an internal smuggle would work the best. I mean, you're going to suicide anyway, so why not sti…

I agree. I think that the threat posed by weapons was already fully mitigated on the day of 9/11 when the passengers on the last aircraft tackled the hijackers in spite of the box cutters. All this with no marshal, no sealed cabin door, etc. The airport screening stuff has been a fiasco that is far more political and psychological than based on actual risk reduction, and the additional cost and time it takes to go th…

I honestly don't understand what the motive for the TSA is. I mean, yes it's security theater and political "we must do something" in action, but it doesn't seem like that's enough to justify the continued stupidly of that organization. The best guess I have at this point is that the combination of a convenient jobs program that isn't republican kryptonite, plus convenient pork projects (hello body scanners), with the added bonus of a perpetual excuse to eliminate personal freedoms and drum up the boogeyman man of terrorism whenever it's convenient is just too tempting to let go.

Re: TSA will require separate screenings for electronics larger than a cell phone

#65

Post by bjpbakker »

technofiend wrote: post #18

>Of course, those enrolled in the TSA’s Precheck program will not have to remove their oversized electronics, due to their willingness to trade their fingerprints (and $85) for speedier screening. The TSA notes that Precheck is now available at 200 airports nationwide, up from 180 at the start of the year. Despite the snark, precheck is worth the money if you're a regular domestic traveler as are the trusted traveler…

Because if you can pay $85 you can for sure be trusted, right?

It may be just me with a European perspective, but from where I am sitting that is completely ridiculous.

Re: TSA will require separate screenings for electronics larger than a cell phone

#66

Post by mmjaa »

technofiend wrote: post #18

>Of course, those enrolled in the TSA’s Precheck program will not have to remove their oversized electronics, due to their willingness to trade their fingerprints (and $85) for speedier screening. The TSA notes that Precheck is now available at 200 airports nationwide, up from 180 at the start of the year. Despite the snark, precheck is worth the money if you're a regular domestic traveler as are the trusted traveler…

You are literally arguing that people should pay for their own oppression.

Honestly, and I ask with sincerity as the answer is important to me, does that not bear at least a little upon your conscience?

Re: TSA will require separate screenings for electronics larger than a cell phone

#67

Post by xaqfox »

dungle6 wrote: post #39
technofiend wrote: post #18

>Of course, those enrolled in the TSA’s Precheck program will not have to remove their oversized electronics, due to their willingness to trade their fingerprints (and $85) for speedier screening. The TSA notes that Precheck is now available at 200 airports nationwide, up from 180 at the start of the year. Despite the snark, precheck is worth the money if you're a regular domestic traveler as are the trusted traveler…

I have NEXUS and I agree it is worth it. But the relevant question is that TSA pre is not difficult to get. If someone (US citizen or PR with relatively clean record) wants to blow up a plane with themselves on it then I don't see how TSA pre stops them.

More like a pristine record. I guess the admin assumes the terrorists work their way up to that point from other "gateway crimes".

Re: TSA will require separate screenings for electronics larger than a cell phone

#68

Post by cylinder »

frik wrote: post #26
cylinder wrote: post #8

Their own separate bin? I'm interpreting this to mean, electronics in their own bin, together, is fine. One bin for each laptop, tablet, phone, etc would be madness. However, I don't think a laptop and an iPad will fit into one bin without overlapping each other. So now we are at probably four bins per person including their carry-on bag as a "bin." This is really ridiculous and will lead to even longer, more chaotic…

> However, I don't think a laptop and an iPad will fit into one bin without overlapping each other. Not a problem in US, the X-ray devices show the operator a view X, Y and Z axis so sandwich isn't a problem. And if there is an uncertainty, it can be checked manually. A separate bin per bigger device would increase the queue length.

Tsa has not allowed items on top of the laptops for a long time and this has been heavily enforced ime.

Re: TSA will require separate screenings for electronics larger than a cell phone

#69

Post by jdavis703 »

mnm1 wrote: post #32
technofiend wrote: post #18

>Of course, those enrolled in the TSA’s Precheck program will not have to remove their oversized electronics, due to their willingness to trade their fingerprints (and $85) for speedier screening. The TSA notes that Precheck is now available at 200 airports nationwide, up from 180 at the start of the year. Despite the snark, precheck is worth the money if you're a regular domestic traveler as are the trusted traveler…

To whom does the $85 for TSA pre-check go? Seems like a racket that, like most other things in this country, is aimed mainly at the poor. Pay more, get through. Can't pay? Fuck you.

It goes to running an extensive background check and doing an in-person interview and sending out paper letters and cards, staffing separate lanes etc.

Re: TSA will require separate screenings for electronics larger than a cell phone

#70

Post by Sukotto »

It's amazing the immediate, viscerally angry, reaction I have the moment I see "TSA" in an article headline.

I can't think of any other organization that evokes that near-rage quite as fast or as strong. Even Immigration doesn't seem as hateful.

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