The TSA's 25 "viper" teams — for Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response — have run more than 9,300 unannounced checkpoints and other search operations in the last year. Department of Homeland Security officials have asked Congress for funding to add 12 more teams next year.But here is the thing: They don't do a goddamned bit of good and even the TSA acknowledges that their main function is security theater:
TSA officials say they have no proof that the roving viper teams have foiled any terrorist plots or thwarted any major threat to public safety. But they argue that the random nature of the searches and the presence of armed officers serve as a deterrent and bolster public confidence.Fucking great, a Potemkin Village security organization.
The difference between Catherine the Great and our politicians is that Catherine the Great was nobody's fool, while the vast majority of our politicians are nothing but fools. Other than a few outliers on the left and the right, such as Bernie Sanders and Ron Paul, none of them are going to challenge our Great National Security State. Because if they cut it back and Something Bad Happens, they will be blamed. But they know that other than a relative handful of Americans, nobody is complaining very much as the security apparatus in this country slowly strips away our rights and liberties.
(H/T)
2 comments:
The whole TSA is a giant waste of taxpayer money, a new govt. agency that is now dedicated to increasing it's own budget every year with no regard for fiscal responsibility. Just like every other govt. agency out there. We need to get rid of TSA. DEA, ATF, and we could probably consolidate a few others and even add a few more to the list.
Thing is, the TSA has nothing to do with security, other than security for our ruling oligarchs. The whole point of the TSA is to condition people to unhesitantly hand over their papers upon request of The State, rather than anything dealing with terrorism. It's security theatre, sure, but security theatre with a point -- to condition Americans to unhesitatingly comply with whatever ridiculous things our oligarchs come up with, eventually to include things that are bad for us and good for the oligarchs, and the thing is, the majority of Americans will *welcome* it at that point because they're so conditioned into unhesitating obedience.
So it goes in Soviet America...
- Badtux the Sovok Penguin
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