So, the Federal Trusted Traveler Program. All the World's a Stage.
TSA Granting Expedited Security Checks To Entire Lines Of Travelers Undercuts Everything About Its Security Theater
by Tim Cushing, Tech Dirt
Wed, Jan 15th 2014 7:46am
The TSA finally appears to be doing something to trim down the runtime of security theater performances. The PreCheck program, which sold travelers' rights back to them for a smallish fee is now being applied randomly to people waiting in line. And not just certain somebodies as the TSA did randomly over the holiday season in an effort to appear slightly less annoying. A whole lot of somebodies, according to this report from The Consumerist.
...
While the TSA would probably prefer this random largesse to be greeted with relief and gratitude, its normal day-to-day enforcement of petty, illogical policies ensures that this sort of thing is only greeted with suspicion.
Let me get this straight. If you happen to be brown, and Islamic, it's cavity searches and the back of the bus for you; and if you're white and privileged...
Institutionalized racism is not just for Asian-Americans and the Irish anymore I guess.
Am I supposed to be happy living in a "homeland" that charges a fee for my Constitutional rights? Oh, I get it now, they're being "privatized" in our neo-Liberal paradise so our Corporatist idiot elites can suckle at the trickle down teats of the supply side.
Gee ek. Wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?
I'll let you in on a little secret. I'm always angry.
It's not easy being green. And irradiated by gamma rays that turn you into a super powered monster with no self control lest you think this an endorsement of a particular political party that must never be named (shhh.... Tom Riddle).
Rousing workers to seek higher wages
By Alana Semuels, Los Angeles Times
Sept. 10, 2013
LeGrand's grandmother, a postal worker, disliked unions.
She thought they didn't do much for their workers, despite collecting millions in dues. When LeGrand first received a text message from Zucker encouraging her to attend a unionizing meeting, her grandmother spoke up. No way should LeGrand go. She could lose her job, and then where would they be?
Grandmother and granddaughter argued in their two-bedroom apartment in an aging brick housing project in south Brooklyn. LeGrand knew the family needed her salary to help pay the $1,300-a-month rent, so she ignored Zucker's calls and tried to forget the talk about raising the minimum wage.
She had a lot to lose by attending a union-organizing meeting. In fast-food work, shifts are determined by managers. If she got involved, she could be labeled a troublemaker and given fewer shifts. Besides, who had time to go to weekly meetings to talk about doubling salaries — something that seemed highly unlikely?
...
When you make $300 a week, how can you ignore someone saying you can earn more money to better support your four-person household, maybe even get a bedroom of your own someday, and not have to share a room with your grandmother?
...
When Zucker asked LeGrand to recruit other workers, she hesitated. Many of her colleagues didn't want to get involved. One of her close friends at KFC stopped talking to her, tired of hearing about unions.
But at the weekly meetings with other workers, she saw more people getting involved in the movement and felt compelled to do something. LeGrand kept hearing co-workers talk about how hard it was to pay the bills, so she started turning those complaints into an argument for organizing. Can't afford the rent this month? Then why not attend a meeting that could help change that? When your pay is so low, what do you have to lose?
What indeed?
Next week's guests-
The Daily Show
* Monday 1/20: Marilynne Roach
* Tuesday 1/21: Theresa Payton
* Wednesday 1/22: Hari Sreenivasan
* Thursday 1/23: Anjan Sundaram
The Colbert Report
* Monday 1/20: Scott Stossel
* Tuesday 1/21: Michael Chabon, Mariel Hemingway
* Wednesday 1/22: Charles Duhigg
* Thursday 1/23: Patricia Churchland
Hint: GET SOME FUCKING WIKI PAGES!
Grrrrrrrr.