transportation

I can just see some DHS dipshit with an 8th grade education, two DUI’s and a restraining order after beating up his girlfriend going, “Dude, check this out,” while trying to use his new death laser to cut a minivan in half to grab a toddler.

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— TBogg+ (@tbogg.bsky.social) February 11, 2026 at 10:04 PM

Our Trump Era version of Poe’s Law: Any snark about Trump-related events is all too liable to be mere reporting…

Wow, quite a story behind the surprise shutdown of El Paso's airport.

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— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) February 14, 2026 at 10:45 PM

Per the NYTimes, “Inside the Debacle That Led to the Closure of El Paso’s Airspace” [gift link]:

Last spring, in the early months of Steve Feinberg’s tenure as deputy defense secretary, Pentagon staff members briefed him on plans to employ new high-energy laser weapons to take out drones being used by Mexican cartels to smuggle drugs across the southern U.S. border.

But their use was conditioned on getting a green light from aviation safety officials.

The law, the staff members at the Pentagon explained to him, required extensive coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Department, which could slow the testing of the system. Transportation officials could even block the system’s use if they determined that it posed risks to aviation safety.

Two people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss sensitive matters, said they recalled that Mr. Feinberg felt the Pentagon had the authority to proceed anyway. Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman, denied their account, saying it was “a total fabrication.”…

Now the question of whether the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security followed proper procedures and the law in deploying the laser weapon has become a flashpoint within the Trump administration. Working alongside military personnel, agents from Customs and Border Protection, which is part of the Homeland Security Department, used the weapon this week not far from El Paso International Airport, prompting fury inside the F.A.A. and a brief shutdown of the airport and airspace in that region.

Late Tuesday night, the F.A.A. administrator, Bryan Bedford, caught off guard that the system was being used without authorization and concerned for public safety, believed he had little choice but to close the airspace for 10 days, according to more than a half-dozen people. It was an extraordinary decision that surprised the flying public and local officials.

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Open Thread: The GOP Fustercluck in El PasoPost + Comments (51)