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TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

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Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know, I can't believe they refuse to pass the bill that would fund TSA. Wait a minute, I'm getting additional information....you're not gonna believe this, but Republicans have been voting for it. I wonder who the holdup is, then....

In the Senate. You are correct. The Speaker of the House is a toady who is held in line in the house by a small cabal of super MAGA people. Given some of his unusual personal situations, (for one, he supposedly has no bank account or financial assets) there’s likely a blackmail situation. His supine nature is also probably the strategy for the “3rd term” loophole.

>Given some of his unusual personal situations, (for one, he supposedly has no bank account or financial assets) there’s likely a blackmail situation

1. source on the bank account claim?

2. I don't think you need to involve theories that he's being financially blackmailed, when it's pretty clear that Trump has a tight grip over the Republican party, and isn't afraid to attack or back primary challengers for Republicans that he doesn't agree with, eg. Thomas Massie.

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#72

I don’t even understand why this is an issue, because TSA screening is funded through user fees. There’s a line item of $5.60 per one-way ticket for exactly this that’s separate from airfare and other fees. ( https://www.tsa.gov/for-industry/security-fees ) If this is so, why does Congress have to fund the program? Why not pass the funds through directly to the agency?

The question itself feels like it calls for "Schoolhouse Rock" level basics about how the federal government works. The federal government does not work like a private escrow account where a fee collected for X automatically goes to Y. Tax revenue comes in to the Treasury, and Congress decides what agencies are allowed to spend. So even if TSA screening is funded in part by a per-ticket user fee, TSA still does not g…

[deleted]

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#73
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why won’t Republicans agree to the reforms? Seems like a pretty reasonable ask from the Democrats to restore law enforcement norms that reflect a civil society.

>Why won’t Republicans agree to the reforms? Doesn't that mean statements like "Republicans are working hard to abuse people" are just a long winded way of saying "grr I hate Republicans"? It doesn't matter who's doing the blocking, because your side is always right and Fighting For The People™, and the other side are just obstructionists blocking reasonable reforms?

Would you mind answering the question, please, instead of embarking on a side quest?

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#74

I don’t even understand why this is an issue, because TSA screening is funded through user fees. There’s a line item of $5.60 per one-way ticket for exactly this that’s separate from airfare and other fees. ( https://www.tsa.gov/for-industry/security-fees ) If this is so, why does Congress have to fund the program? Why not pass the funds through directly to the agency?

If you scroll down on the page, it'll show that the user fees only offset ~20% of the overall security expenses. In addition, most fees (including most of the TSA fee) collected by the US Federal government isn't earmarked - it just goes into the general fund. More breakdown here: https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/23/us/tsa-funding-security-fees-...

Thanks!

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#75

In Indian temples line-sitters are very common. Many queues are 5+ hours long.

Fascinating. Is there something specific about those temples that draws the crowds, like something akin to a famous cathedral? Must worship take place in a temple? I don't know how the religion works but did get to visit a local temple once with some coworkers and enjoyed the atmosphere.

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#76
post #3

https://archive.ph/cwDaq (No account needed)

I have been kind of experimenting with using single archive pages for archive.is /.ph/.today links and then experimenting with either putting these on my github pages (and then archiving) just for more preservation purposes.

Today I wanted to try something different so I used singlefile to make a html and then make pdf file from that html and uploaded it to archive.org

https://archive.org/details/tsa-lines-are-so-out-of-control-...

I don't wish to have news articles in my github as it clutters or I am not sure how these laws might follow (there is definitely a reason as to why archive.is creator is anonymous) and so I am looking for more anonymous ways to upload (my main intentions are that archive.ph can be nice but I feel like its not validated within wikipedia/all the controversies it has and I am just experimenting with things right now)

I have also uploaded this on catbox.moe (https://files.catbox.moe/mt9sus.html) but it has plain/text content-type, does anyone know a more anonymous content-type plain/text -> html where I can upload things perhaps, I have thoughts about creating something like this (where people can give links to text .html files and I can then display the html) but I am also a bit worried that it might be used for nefarious purposes.

I am not sure what I should do actually about it, I like thinking about archiving though, but anything other than archive.org like archive.is, can only function best if they are anonymous and I am not really anonymous/intend to be.

This makes me sympathetic of them against the journalist who tried to dox them but also I kind of understand that journalist tried approaching first from a more curiosity, maybe a threat-actor model, I had done something like this once to a service because I wanted to know if govt.'s would be able to catch them or not (they had a reddit proxy) and I found that they had their opsec secure and I was really impressed but I sometimes wonder, if the journalist also did something like this and the archive.is owner felt like it was a threat to archive and decided to ddos and all the things that followed, I sort of understand both the perspectives, so it just makes me sad as how this ended up folding up.

(This comment might've been more relevant within the archive.is drama hackernews thread but I think that its long gone and I was still forming my opinion on all of this which clearly has some nuance)

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#77

I don’t even understand why this is an issue, because TSA screening is funded through user fees. There’s a line item of $5.60 per one-way ticket for exactly this that’s separate from airfare and other fees. ( https://www.tsa.gov/for-industry/security-fees ) If this is so, why does Congress have to fund the program? Why not pass the funds through directly to the agency?

The question itself feels like it calls for "Schoolhouse Rock" level basics about how the federal government works. The federal government does not work like a private escrow account where a fee collected for X automatically goes to Y. Tax revenue comes in to the Treasury, and Congress decides what agencies are allowed to spend. So even if TSA screening is funded in part by a per-ticket user fee, TSA still does not g…

You’re right that that’s the default state. However, Congress could have set things up such that the fees would pass through to TSA’s budget (i.e. earmarked) but chose not to.

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just bipartisan. That bill was unanimously passed in the Senate.

Negative. It was passed with unanimous consent, there was only maybe five people there. I think that's a big difference between "passed" which gives the connotation that people actually voted on it, "unanimous consent" of the present. It was also at 2 o'clock in the morning

You make this sound like it was a democrat plot, it was not.

Thune, the republican senate majority leader, was the one that put up the unanimous consent motion.

There were more than just 5 people there. Though it was late at night.

You can't push something through unanimous consent if there's not a quorum. That requires at least 51% of each party to be present.

Now, it's possible they waited until some of the big objectors to the bill fell asleep or left. But, that doesn't really change the fact that Thune pushed this through.

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#79
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Why won’t Republicans agree to the reforms? Doesn't that mean statements like "Republicans are working hard to abuse people" are just a long winded way of saying "grr I hate Republicans"? It doesn't matter who's doing the blocking, because your side is always right and Fighting For The People™, and the other side are just obstructionists blocking reasonable reforms?

Would you mind answering the question, please, instead of embarking on a side quest?

>Would you mind answering the question, please, instead of embarking on a side quest?

Funny you're accusing me of derailing the topic when in my initial comment I specifically mentioned I wasn't interested in arguing over the merits of those reforms

>[...] Even if you're sympathetic to those reforms [...]

And for the record, in case you wanted to interpret my refusal of discussing that topic as some sort of sign I'm against them: I'm not. I just believe the topic has been discussed to death and there's no point relitigating it.

Re: TSA lines are so out of control that travelers are hiring line-sitters

#80
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind answering the question, please, instead of embarking on a side quest?

>Would you mind answering the question, please, instead of embarking on a side quest? Funny you're accusing me of derailing the topic when in my initial comment I specifically mentioned I wasn't interested in arguing over the merits of those reforms >[...] Even if you're sympathetic to those reforms [...] And for the record, in case you wanted to interpret my refusal of discussing that topic as some sort of sign I'm…

Then why are you even participating in the discussion? You can’t have your cake and eat it, too. Don’t enter a ring if you can’t take a punch.
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