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LeftCoastReader's avatar

Sounds like TSA employees are being treated like teachers, who often have to buy supplies out of their pocket for their students.

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Dee In The Peach's avatar

You would think that none of them depend on flight safety. It’s completely craven madness.

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Bob and Gayle's avatar

They don't. They fly private or government, not commercial (for the higher up deciders).

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Dee In The Peach's avatar

I was actually thinking congressmen and senators, who aren’t stopping this regime madness. Although I’m sure, the way they’re incompetent, that they could break things enough to even screw up private air travel. I think there was a close call with a private flight a couple of weeks ago. Probably a small plane.

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Lisa Jean Walker's avatar

The people who work for DOGE/U.S. Digital Service (I believe USDS is the official name) have names. I love this reporting (very effective, very upsetting, extremely infuriating, thus provoking my thoughts) but “they” is used too much. They, they, they. Who is “they” other than Musk. It’s too anonymous.

“They” are being paid with our tax dollars while working for/in collaboration with a government agency (USDS) so their names are our business. The Revolving Door Project is doing a series of blog posts about the individuals hired by the USDS (official name) to do Musk’s dirty work. Link below. TSA is not mentioned as a specific assignment for a Musk agent yet.

How can reporting start naming names to provide some accountability? I have noticed that Heather Cox Richardson uses Musk-agent names when she summarizes their activities. I bet they don’t like that being part of their Internet record. It will be there in the future when they may not want to be linked to this oligarch-led government debacle.

https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/search?keyword=Doge&type=blog-post&issue=doge&authorField=&startDate=&endDate=

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Katharine Evans's avatar

Why are "Live Chats" not recorded, and with transcripts,

not available if you don't hop on them while they're live?

Truly frustrating for this enthusiastic, paying supporter?

*** JEN, please respond!

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Patt Brower's avatar

Right under the video picture, on the right hand side is a little box that says Transcript. I also dislike listening and prefer reading, so finding that box was really helpful

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Susan F Harris's avatar

I also much prefer to read.

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Figment Of Imagination's avatar

Transcripts are available on the web version only. It is not automatically available on the mobile version. UNLESS, the person doing the video transcribes it when posting. And then it is referenced within the written post.

Everyone has a preference for how they receive their information. Don’t condemn other’s choices.

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Ann Jamieson's avatar

Have you ever seen trump with a pet?

No of course not. Any self respecting dog would bite him and cats would scratch the hell out of them.

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Pat Jeznach's avatar

Only that hair-pet

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MM Harris's avatar

lol

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Della Mae Johnston's avatar

Ah. You're forgetting about Ivanka...

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Pat Jeznach's avatar

Haha

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Nancy W's avatar

He talks about dogs disparagingly.

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Claudia A. Gray's avatar

The Trump regime seems to WANT to kill off as many people as possible. (Population control) They have no compassion for people or animals...includiing highly skilled people AND the TSA dogs! They keep proving they do not care about keeping us safe, feeding the poor, helping the sick, in every sector where the public is involved. Shades of DJT's Covid response. They want to thin the herd. They only care about money and themselves. Actions speak louder than words

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Jenny's avatar

Another absurd point in this "cost cutting" is that these dogs represent thousands of dollars per dog in training and acquisition costs. These are again dollars that have already been spent by the US taxpayers. These cuts are cruel and ultimately save us absolutely nothing. It's like deciding to cut the food and medical budget for soldiers on deployment, or the budget for gas and mechanics for military vehicles. And it is not just TSA dogs. They are also cutting the budget for the USDA specialized sniffer dogs who detect everything from (again) drugs to invasive species. Bill Murray had a good point: "I'm suspicious of people who don't like dogs, but I trust a dog when it doesn't like a person."

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Della Mae Johnston's avatar

'Trained attack dogs are not safe as family pets. While it is possible to train a dog to attack on command, some breeds are naturally better suited for this role. These dogs are not sociable and can be dangerous to humans and other living creatures.'

So, what will become of these dogs? Will some- or even many of them have to be euthanized? Not only a tragic outcome for an innocent animal merely doing what it was trained to do but an incredible waste of the cost of the dog, the cost of the time of training and upkeep of the dog and mostly, the life of an innocent animal.

But, Trump et al don't give a flying fig about the fate of the humans they're targeting so what do they care about animals? I guess Christie Nome isn't the only Republican who not only doesn't give a flying fig about humans but dogs, as well.

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Joanne Aitken's avatar

Agree that this is terrible and does nothing to keep us safe or save money but please don’t describe these dogs as pets. (Even though I’m sure they behave like our pets when they are on down-time.) They are highly trained, extremely valuable security professionals. I trust any dog’s neutral and fair nose over a human security person!

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Bob and Gayle's avatar

I strongly dislike videos... I don't like being talked at. I thought I'd be able to read the story, but found just a lede and the active link to the video. I'm regretting the decision to support The Contrarian.

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Terri Fujioka-Lilley's avatar

I hate having to watch videos also. That said, I’ve found there are transcripts linked to most of the videos (including this one) so we can just read the interviews. Hope it helps.

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Pam Birkenfeld's avatar

Come on, don’t cancel. The person who commented below you, Terri, found the solution

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Marliss Desens's avatar

Go to the right side, bottom of the video. On its far left is an icon of a piece of paper. Click on it, and you will get a transcript that you can read.

I find that The Contrarian has a good mix of video and written work.

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Comment deleted
Mar 17
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Della Mae Johnston's avatar

Then you're supporting Trump. Simple as that.

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Marsha Thrower's avatar

Seems like a premature action....transcripts are available....

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Susan Klinger's avatar

Just go to icon on the lower righthand part of the screen (just to the left of the CC for closed caption icon) and it should give you access to a transcript.

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Kat McConnell's avatar

Isn’t TSA under the Department of Homeland Security? This attack against dogs really stinks of Kristi Noem, a renowned dog killer.

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Cheryl Brewster's avatar

Some fact-checking is needed on this topic. It is NOT the National Explosives Detection Canine Team Program (including the dogs and their handlers) that was eliminated. It was the same federal credit card limits (same as have been applied throughout all agencies) that were applied. Typically persons with the need to purchase items for a federal program are granted federal credit cards (there is an extensive audit process for their use) to pay for these needed items. In the case of the TSA bomb-sniffing dogs handlers who had these credit cards, they were told that all items that they usually purchase such as vet-visits, food and kenneling fees were suspended. So yes, the handlers would need to pay for these items themselves (which is unacceptable).

In the Forest Service, wildfire employees to have credit cards becaue they have to travel at a moments notice when assigned to fight a fire, were also told that there credit cards were suspended and that they could only use them for purchases of $1.00 or less. This same issue has occurred throughout all of the Federal agencies.

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Joel Murphy's avatar

Do we need any more evidence that the president is a Russian asset? What else do you need to know?

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Debra A. Bickford's avatar

Careful. From what I can tell only partially true. Even so, partially tends to turn into totally with this administration 😳Snopes has an article

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Michelle Jordan's avatar

🤬🤬🤬🤬 my bite is pretty bad

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Rob Driscoll's avatar

I agree with everything discussed, except these dogs are not “pets”. They are public servants, being disrespected along with so many other pubic servants. I get that cruelty to “pets” invokes an extra sympathy and outrage, but I think it minimizes their contribution and importance and the disrespect this action represents. I realize you separately point out their contributions and importance.

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Paul Padyk's avatar

It is time to bring the word doge into common English usage, as in "The TSA dogs just got doged".

Doge:

verb -

1. to broadly but maliciously or cruelly cut or reduce services resulting in benefit to the cutter and profound injury to those dependent on the cut program.

2. to effect change without apparent insight into one's actions despite the objective contradiction of those actions to one's stated goals.

ex.: That program doesn't suit my needs so I doged it.

noun - an egomaniacal individual who perpetrates broad scale cuts to programs and services without regard for the long term effect.

ex.: The boss is a doge by his wanton disregard for the programs he has cut.

We all understand what this word means but please feel free to streamline these definitions and start using "doge" in your daily speech.

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