TSA? No, ICE.

The Democrats finally found a hill to die on in challenging Trump, and that expression seems to be slowly becoming literal.

The Democrats in Congress allowed much of the government to open, but they decided to draw the line on funding for the Department of Homeland Security, refusing to fund it until Trump and congressional Republicans reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), whose antics have scared the Shinola out of everyone and who have already been funded through the Enabling Act (also known as that one big beautiful bill). Though congressional leaders have cut a deal, Trump is refusing to sign any bill until the Suppression Against Voters Egregiously (SAVE) Act is passed.  As a result, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) isn't being funded and TSA agents are walking out of their jobs at airports.

So Trump had a stroke, though not one of genius.  He assigned ICE agents to the airports to handle the long and interminable backups at our airports.

Aside from a couple of anecdotal stories I've heard bout ICE agents tackling passengers (totally unconfirmed, though not implausible), ICE agents at airports haven't done anything outrageous.  In fact, they haven't done much at all, really.  They've mostly been handing out water bottles to people and directing them to the terminal food court. And, they've been showing up for their airport duties unmasked and undisguised.  

As of this writing, Senate Republican leader John Thune of South Dakota thinks he may have a deal that ends the standoff which Trump would support.  Until then, ICE is going to remain in the airports, and one must proceed at airports with what the late Alexander Haig once referred to as "careful caution."  It's best to cooperate with ICE as much as one possibly can, especially if they offer you a free water bottle, and not call any unwanted attention to oneself, the better to get on your flight with no trouble at all.  Especially if you're boarding an international flight.

But if ICE agents suddenly show up at airports dressed like ninja warriors, watch out.  They just might want to take you into that little room before you board that flight to London or Paris.  Because while Trump can't stop Americans form leaving the country, he can make it extremely difficult.  

Meanwhile, the Senate has confirmed Markwayne Mullin as the new Secretary of Homeland Security.  His biggest qualification for the job is being so stupid, belligerent and obnoxious that his fellow senators want him out of their chamber.  

You Are Not Free To Move About the World

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has a nice program for frequent international travelers who regularly use their frequent-flyer miles. It's the PreCheck and Global Entry system.  Having PreCheck and Global Entry privileges means you get to skip the lines at airports and go through with little if any trouble at all because you have proven that you are a  low-risk traveler someone who is not likely to set off a bomb in your shoe onboard the plane or hijack the plane and fly it into Mar-a-Lago. 

However, PreCheck and Global Entry is a privilege, not a right, and you can have your privilege revoked if the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) decides that you're an elevated risk to the safety of other travelers than previously believed due to violations of regulations, new criminal charges.  This means you have to go back to shuffling through standard security lines, though you can appeal DHS's decision.  In the meantime, should you travel abroad and return, you are not entitled to fast-track re-entry and you must have your travel papers processed through the standard lines.  Your traveler profile is no longer considered "low-risk" by federal authorities and you are subject to increased scrutiny.

And what could someone do to lose their low-risk traveler status?  Say something that offends Trump.  That's what happened  to Chris Krebs, who was Trump's director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in Trump's first term.  He had his travel privileges revoked this past April, and Trump ordered the revocation personally.  Why? Because Krebs declared in late 2020 that the presidential election that year, which Joe Biden won, had been fair and cleanly run, and that Trump lost fair and square.  Now whenever Chris Krebs travels abroad, getting back in the U.S. is much harder than it is for for others - that is, others who haven't posted a blog entry, a social-media meme, or a YouTube Video ridiculing Trump that Trump himself found while surfing the Net late at night.

Maybe when Krebs travels abroad again and gets stranded in Copenhagen or Vienna or some nice foreign capital like that, he should just rent himself an apartment, apply for asylum, and get himself a job cleaning offices.  Sort of like what happened to one Pyotr Vasilievich Mironov, a Russian diplomat who represented Czar Nicholas II in London in early 1917 and was in the middle of negotiating an arms deal with the British government when he and his family were stranded in England in the Russian Revolution.  Mironov and his family never returned to Russia; when it became apparent that Lenin was in charge and was preparing to take Russia out the ongoing war in Europe, the Mironovs stayed in London and Pyotr Mironov became a cab driver.  His son Vasily had a daughter, Ilyena, who was born in 1945.  You might know Pyotr Mironov's granddaughter by her anglicized name . . . Helen Mirren.

As long as Trump is in charge of These States, I can imagine several stranded American travelers abroad staying where they are elsewhere in the world, because cleaning offices and driving taxis are increasingly becoming preferable to high-level jobs in der Amerikanisches Reich.  For now, though, Trump has merely made it difficult for Americans traveling abroad to return home, not impossible.  Once he makes it impossible, the only thing left for him to do will be to make it impossible for people to . . . leave.

And that's when the fun begins.

Fly The Paranoid Skies

The Transportation Security Administration is stepping up its security measures to avoid a terrorist attack on airplanes by enforcing new and stricter searches at airports. Flyers now have two options - either get scanned with powerful X-ray cameras that see everything right down to your bloomers or get physically patted down on the verge of being groped by a security officer. Women have felt violated by the pat-downs, and even some men have felt so. Some men with dirty minds might look forward to being patted down be some cute female security officer; of course, what do they do if the female officer makes a Russian female shotputter look like a Victoria's Secret model? Run for the X-rays, no doubt!

The House of Representatives recently voted against funding the scanners because they are incredibly invasive and don't really help to keep us safe. The Homeland Security Department ignored he House action and spent stimulus money on scanners anyway. In a related story, one group has objected to the scanners and urged flyers on Thanksgiving weekend to boycott the X-rays and opt for the pat-downs, which would take longer and slow down the boarding process. That is exactly how they plan to make their point about the indignity of the security procedures at airports - by slowing things down. The pat-downs, though, are just as troublesome. One flyer who opted for the pat-down objected to the groping nature of the procedure; now the TSA is investigating him.

Most of the TSA's safeguards are pure theater with no real effectiveness, but TSA administrator John Pistole has declared he is not going to change the airport boarding security measures. So, unless your family lives less than a thousand miles away, there's no real transportation alternative to flying home for the holidays. It would take too long for many people to drive home, and Amtrak is unreliable through no fault of its own no matter what distance you travel. So anyone who complains about having to go through such stringent security at the airport should just get used to it. They're going to put up with it to fly out to see their parents for the holidays, and they're going to like it, because it beats the alternative - staying home and visiting the in-laws! :-D