Oh look, we already had this dumb conversation and you didn't learn anything then because you sheepishly assume anything the government says (in this case, "TSA keeps us safe") is automatically true.

Who pays for it and how much isn't really the point though is it.

The point is this disgusting over-reaction and misuse of power shouldn't have happened in the first place. After they assaulted her she was also locked up in jail for 24 hours apparently. I mean what the **** is wrong with these people?

Standard cop behaviour. The alternative is admitting that they did something wrong. Once they injured her, they needed to press charges to cover their asses.

Got patted down at Logan airport. Something on my jeans got flagged in the x-ray machine. I could see it was all red around my crotch on the monitor. The lady says "please wait" and tells me nothing else. I stand there awkwardly then a guy comes over with a wand. He says I can do it here or go into a private room. I tell him to just get it over with I don't care. He touches my ass and my inner thigh then wands my hands.

Was trying to figure out why my jeans would be flagged. It was either from fireworks or cigarettes. I don't smoke that often but me and my friend had some special cigarettes which I think may have done it.

Are you talking about the booth-like machine that you hold your hands up and it swooshes around you? These don't detect residue of substances.

I got "randomly" selected to go through the rapeyscanner this afternoon, it flagged my jeans right above my crotch as well. The dude just told me to pull my pants up and they scanned again and I got the OK.

It could just be that your boxers were wadded up.

What kind of weirdos sign up for a job that requires fondling people all day.

I don't know but I'll guess there is an unusual number of early 80's vans in the employee parking lot.

oh ok didn't know that. I've gone through the x-ray no problem before so idk why my saggy pants were an issue now. Could be it though. But if it was my saggy pants why did he scan my hands with a wand?

Also on way to airport my parents told me they got stuff through. Apparently my dad got a knife through and my mom got a full bottle of water lol

There's no logic to it. Something beeped, ergo wand.

I'm not one of those "what are you worried about if you have nothing to hide?" people, but as a fearful flyer in the first place, I have no problem being subjected to airport screening. It makes me feel safer.

That said, I find security at airports to be pretty lax. AFAIK TSA pre-checks are supposed to be random (like 1 in 6?), but I seem to get it almost 50% of the time! I'm certainly not complaining, but that seems too much.

So yeah, I'm one of those people who are like by all means. Dust my my laptop and tablet. Here are my shoes. Pat me down all you want. Grope or look at my junk (you'll only be impressed -lol). Whatever makes flying safer is fine with me. But I also fully understand why people would have a problem with it. I'm scared as it is of crashing due to mechanical or human failure. Being blown out of the sky bc someone sneaks a bomb on board is just one more thing to worry about.

Forgot to mention about before I even got to security. The ticketing area was more of a concern to me than anything else. It was a somewhat confined area completely packed with people. It was chaos, people all over place and some fighting with self ticket kiosks.

If isis wanted to make a point, one guy with a bomb or gun would have a field day. Similar to what happened in Brussels. There may have been security but I don't remember seeing any.

Update: International travel from one of the chosen countries that cannot take laptops on board (in my case, Turkey) is a cluster****. Of course not everyone got the memo, or those who had didn't realize their DSLR or tablets would also be banned. It is not just a laptop ban. Pretty much anything with a circuit board that is bigger than a cell phone is out. To enforce this, they are making everyone line up an hour before boarding, itself an hour before departure, so that they can give everyone a pat down and go through everyone's bags by hand. Electronic contraband gets wrapped up in bubble wrap, some stickers stuck on it, and then shoved into a box before heading to the hold. I got through about 20 minutes faster than MrsWookie, because the pat downs are sex segregated, and the women's line dragged terribly. I expect international travel to America to be especially popular if this laptop ban is extended to every country. If you are flying out of a laptop ban country to the US, check everything electronic except for your phone, and show up to the airport at the barest minimum 3 hrs before departure.

Speaking of laptop bans

https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/29/1...tional-flights

Really ****ing annoying.

I've got at least four trips abroad remaining this year (3 to EU, 1 to Asia) and I'll probably cancel them all if this goes full-bore.

A) I don't check bags. I don't even know what I would put my laptop in if I had to check it. I have a pretty sturdy foam thing I can slip into my backpack if I had to check, but I can't really "lock" my backpack in any secure manner. This is going to be a field day for malicious luggage handlers.

B) data security is a huge concern for a lot of companies. If you're halfway competent, it's not too hard to keep all your files on a USB thumb drive or in drop box and just wipe your laptop before crossing borders but for morons this is going to open up a huge corporate espionage risk.

C) most importantly, having to spend that much time in the airport is a huge turnoff to me.

BTW if you're into one-bag travel, this is what I use: https://www.tombihn.com/collections/...nt=16392317767

Is there actually a legitimate threat that this policy greatly mitigates that couldn't be addressed in some other less PITA manner?

A) This is my primary concern. Not all TSA agents are honest and a TSA lock won't do **** since they have the universal key that can open it.

Thing is that anti-theft programs such as Prey exist to minimize damage that could be done if it is stolen. If not, you can track the IP and general location of logons with websites like Facebook and Gmail. Of course, you can use Find My Mac if you have one of those.

B) Use DBAN (Darin's Boot And Nuke) before flying. Wipes your system so thoroughly that no data can be recovered.

C) Yeah. I hate flying as it is. Flying into and out of America is 100 times worse than flying into any country I've been to.

Fly into and out of Canada first?

Or maybe Mexico for people in SoCal.

PVN

How are you going on long, international trips with such a small bag? Do you just go super minimal on clothing and only bring the pair of shoes you wear to the airport?

With respect to the bolded part, many companies with data security concerns don't allow employees to use drop box or removable USB drives because that's just another source of data security risks. For business travel, this kind of policy is a real pain in the ass.

I totally believe that they have real intelligence that terrorists have developed bombs that can be concealed in laptops. That doesn't surprise me at all. I'm confused why the bombs are so much more dangerous as carry-ons rather than checked baggage. Surely if they can make a laptop bomb they can detonate it remotely. Is it that the bombs are small, and thus must be detonated in a specific place like next to a window or something? I'm probably missing something obvious here.

The brain bag is like 36 liters, it's not a small bag. I can get my taplop and doodads in and still have room for a week's worth of clothes, but I usually will do laundry on a trip if I'm gone more than three days so I don't even need to carry that much. I don't usually take more than one pair of shoes but I have sneakers that are pretty compact if I need more than one pair (always wear the heavier/bulkier shoes on the plane obv).

They're going to start once their employees are forcibly separated from their laptops.

USB devices are obviously a huge threat vector. Dropbox much less so. I'm guessing most anti-dropbox policies are written by people who only have a superficial understanding of security. It's not ideal but it's almost certainly safer than a lot of ways to store files that are probably "approved".

Donald Trump in the White House has foreign tourists saying, "Thanks, but no thanks," on travel to the United States.

International tourism in the U.S. is down by as much as 16% since October 2016, according to a new analysis from Foursquare. While the data doesn't pinpoint the exact cause of the decline, there is little doubt the president's rhetoric on immigration and controversial travel ban are at least partially to blame. And the dip in travel to the U.S. could have big implications for a number of U.S. industries and the economy at large.

Foursquare looked at America's market share of international travel -- as in, the U.S. as a destination versus the rest of the world. It analyzed foot traffic trails on more than 50 million global users in over 150 countries.

It found that the U.S.'s market share of international travel fell by 6% year-over-year in October and continued to decrease through March 2016, when it dropped by 16% year-over-year. Currently, there is no sign of recovery in the data