View Full Version : When did we become Communist Russia?
FromMyColdDeadHand
01-09-18, 15:22
I have a passport, my wife's is expired and she changed her name, so that is a wrinkle. Then we have the kids, so we both have to show up. She gets all the paper work and we go to turn it in, but the PO that is closest only works by appointment- something that isn't anywhere on the website and the phone number isn't manned or has a recording- it just rings. Appointments are a month out. My wife and I with the kids all available during business hours- or worse gov hours-- right.
WTF? I feel like this is communist Russia where we have to visit the commissar to get the paper to leave the country. And don't get me started that I have to go thru this riggamorle while millions cross the border and overstay visas and we do nothing.
Then we are planning some travel for Spring break and there is the whole pre-check thing. WTF. I have it and I start looking at how to get it for the kids and now I'm looking at actually how long mine will last. I started worrying that mine might expire soon, so I started to look at how to check that and it is a bunch of website BS. Can we have the people who do porn websites manage the govt websites?
All so I don't have to get fondled or zapped in my bare socks and someone, somewhere can see the mole on my back.
Papers, papers.
Hear, hear!
Very much agreed.
I live in a state I won't even be able to board an airplane anymore with just a drivers license. We will all need passports, mil, leo, or etc accepted identification.
I can get into Canada with it being "expanded" but can't fly to Vegas for the weekend.
Cause bureaucracy. Minnesota doesn't fit the "real-id" standards.
Again though, I can get into another effing country.
Last time I did a passport, my company paid for it. They use a passport agent in CA, though, so I had to use this sealed envelope process to deliver the paperwork since I was out of state and couldn't deliver it to the agent by hand.
The booger pickers at the local PO looked at me like I had a dick growing out of my head when I tried to explain to them what I needed. I ended up getting it taken care of at the county clerk's office. They were quick and professional and knew exactly what needed to be done. No appt needed either! Anyway, see if that's an option where you are.
And, yeah, we became USSA when our Dear Leaders passed the Papers Please (aka Patriot) Act back in 'Aught One. Bureaucrats gonna bureaucrat...Ain't shit you can do about it.
And I wouldn't be too excited about willingly forking over my kids fingerprints to .GOV just so the Airport monkeys will use the small anal probe...
So you bastages aint PATRIOTS?!
You dare question the United Stasi of Amerika?
How dare you! Such insolence!
I will notify my local Comrade Commissar of your hate speech and sedition.
More rations for me this month.
I hope you get sent to penal labor camps!
Come on guys, it isn't that hard. I am on 4th edition of my passport as the previous 3 were either full or were about to expire. I have never used a service and have always done it myself. Granted, I don't have kids that need thier first and admit that it would be a hassle if I had to do it on very short notice, but it really isn't that hard with a little planning.
How close is the next closest post office? Around here you can find one every 10 miles or sohttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180109/8ac25e4390f18c422aac93ba5f77e009.jpg
Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
I'm on my third. Did the first two at the regular PO. Took time, but not too much of a problem. The local PO's don't do it anymore because they opened some sort of giant, passport only, multimillion dollar government building. While it really really reminded me of something form 1984, it actually ran fairly smoothly and sensibly. There was some sort of info lady in front of the main lobby that was actually a helpful, and only a little loopy/goofy.
Having said that, I completely share your frustration with the over-reaching and non-sensical government crap.
FedEx forms, or prior passport with photos and check to main passport office in DC, pay the expedited service, have it back in less than a week.
How close is the next closest post office? Around here you can find one every 10 miles or so
Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
The two nearest to me- both 15 miles away.. don't do passports. The closest one that will do passports is 30 miles away, but their hours are so limited I couldn't get the whole family there at once. I finally just took a mini-vacation to the city 100 miles away with the sole purpose of getting our passports done. We started at 8am and finished by 3:00pm...
The two nearest to me- both 15 miles away.. don't do passports. The closest one that will do passports is 30 miles away, but their hours are so limited I couldn't get the whole family there at once. I finally just took a mini-vacation to the city 100 miles away with the sole purpose of getting our passports done. We started at 8am and finished by 3:00pm...6 hours for a sevral pictures and a same amount of forms?
I believe you can print them online but regardless I walked in filled out the pamphlet in about 5 minutes and had my picture taken.
Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
I got my passport renewed after expiration at the city hall in one of the little towns around here. Pretty seamless exercise. I picked up a passport card at the same time for an extra $30. My wife did the same but renewed by mail. Took a couple of weeks IIRC.
You can get your KTN and find out your TSA PreCheck expiration at https://universalenroll.dhs.gov/workflows?workflow=service-status&servicecode=11115V . I have that. My wife and I also both have CLEAR. That represents about a 30-second trip to the front of the TSA security line, based on fingerprints or iris scan. It's not valid at all airports, but works for the majority of places I fly to or from.
FromMyColdDeadHand
01-09-18, 21:51
Come on guys, it isn't that hard. I am on 4th edition of my passport as the previous 3 were either full or were about to expire. I have never used a service and have always done it myself. Granted, I don't have kids that need thier first and admit that it would be a hassle if I had to do it on very short notice, but it really isn't that hard with a little planning.
I travel 125k miles a year for work and can float a trip to Hawaii hotel/flight/car with the points I earn every year and my wife is a doc with full clinical load (about Q4) and head of her dept. My kids have no clue what a 40 hour work week looks like and if it weren’t for school, they wouldn’t have a clue what a ‘weekend’ was.
After our local PO said it was a month out, there is one day between now and March where she, the kids and I can go with out pulling them out of school.
I know the paper work hustle for passports. My extra pages passport is almost full, and thankfully I got 10 year China, India, and Brazil VISAs because those 1 year ones were killing my pages.
The pre-check is a bit hazy for me because United signed me up for it and I got GE on my own. I found my GE card and I’m good for awhile, but I’m still fuzzy on the GOES versus the other way of checking on it. The issue is to directly check on the pre-check there is language about innactiving your GOES account.
Sure, if it was a renewal, that is pretty straight forward. It is the rest of the family and the lack of flexibility on sign up times that is causing issues. The only other option mister postman said was a place that has 4 hour waits. With our scheduling, we might as well wait for a time slot.
How close is the next closest post office? Around here you can find one every 10 miles or sohttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180109/8ac25e4390f18c422aac93ba5f77e009.jpg
Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
I never renewed. That was the first time I got mine. 5 min paperwork, picture and done. Granted this was in 08 so things may have changed
Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
6 hours for a sevral pictures and a same amount of forms?
I believe you can print them online but regardless I walked in filled out the pamphlet in about 5 minutes and had my picture taken.
Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk8 am to 10am getting pictures taken.. 10am to 12noon waiting in line at the post office only to find out that the one person doing passports takes a 1/2 hour lunch.. 12:30 to 2:30 standing in line. Texted my wife to bring the kids in at 2:30... done at 3:00pm.. complete bullshit.
SomeOtherGuy
01-09-18, 22:47
I think OP's point is that we are all peasants to some giant, faceless and heartless "System". These days I'm not even sure if we even reach the peasant level - maybe livestock is a better word for it.
Yes, I have a passport, I've done renewals, I know how all that works and do intl travel somewhat regularly. It's just one example among many. And your application or renewal experience will TOTALLY depend on what agency you go through. I have found USPS rather unpleasant on this. My most recent experience was at a public library that was allowed to do passport applications, and they were pretty good to deal with. But why does a natural born citizen need special permission to leave the country anyway? (Realistically, that's what a passport is.) And why should it cost $100+ to get one and be some fragile booklet thing? (BTW I have a passport card too, but it's not valid for air travel which is >90% of my intl travel.)
Soviet Russia, the movie Brazil, 1984 etc... we're living parts of all.
But why does a natural born citizen need special permission to leave the country anyway?
You don't. You need a passport because the country you are going to requires it to get in, and then when you come back, the US needs it so you can get back in.
FromMyColdDeadHand
01-10-18, 07:33
You don't. You need a passport because the country you are going to requires it to get in, and then when you come back, the US needs it so you can get back in.
Bwaahhhhhh, haaa, haaaa, haaaa.
Thanks for a laugh to start the day.
As a Federal judge blocks Trump from enforcing the law.
SomeOtherGuy
01-10-18, 07:37
You don't. You need a passport because the country you are going to requires it to get in, and then when you come back, the US needs it so you can get back in.
If someone tells you "Leave any time you want, but you can never return unless you got my permission to leave before you left," are you free?
I think that the post office is the controlling agency for a state department document is suspect anyway....
As much as I would love to travel outside the US again, I doubt I will.
As a Federal judge blocks Trump from enforcing the law.
Reference?? I have had to show my US passport to reenter from Canada before Trump was even elected.
I never renewed. That was the first time I got mine. 5 min paperwork, picture and done. Granted this was in 08 so things may have changed
Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
Pretty much still that way in my experience. Many post offices will do passport applications, but it's part of the Federal bureaucracy so it's not convenient. OTOH, most county treasurer/auditor offices do passports. Last time I applied, I just downloaded and filled out the paperwork online, stopped at a Sears photo store on the way to the county treasurer's office. The photo took 5 minutes, the stop at the treasurer's office took 5 mintues...new passport and passport card showed up about 3 weeks later. I got the passport card because it works well for my out-of-country travel...Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda...don't need a passport. I also needed it because Minnesota was dragging their feet on the RealID-compliant driver's license and no way to know if they would pass that (they finally did). As it turns out, a RealID-compliant driver's license here costs about the same as a passport card. The passport card is good for 10 years, the driver's license good for 4 years.
The last time my mother renewed, they misspelled her last name. She has had a passport for decades. They acknowledged the error but still required her to dig up her birth certificate, marriage license and a pile of other documentation and ship them the originals before they would fix their error.
I think if you have TSA Pre it applies to your family members as well when you travel with them.
Dist. Expert 26
01-10-18, 12:27
Hey now. These laws are for your own good and the TSA is staffed with the finest Americans this country has to offer. Do you know how many terrorists they've caught since 9/11?!?!
Hey now. These laws are for your own good and the TSA is staffed with the finest Americans this country has to offer. Do you know how many terrorists they've caught since 9/11?!?!
In my best James Earl Jones doing a TAS commercial voice 'Caught or deterred?'
My bet is they've deterred gazillions of terrorist from their heinous deeds. Much the same way the Patriot Act has deterred millions of terrorists from checking out library books on bomb making.
If the Patriot had existed prior to 1994, Dennis Hopper wouldn't have been able to blow that shit up in Speed.
Just sayin'.
Dist. Expert 26
01-10-18, 13:08
In my best James Earl Jones doing a TAS commercial voice 'Caught or deterred?'
My bet is they've deterred gazillions of terrorist from their heinous deeds. Much the same way the Patriot Act has deterred millions of terrorists from checking out library books on bomb making.
If the Patriot had existed prior to 1994, Dennis Hopper wouldn't have been able to blow that shit up in Speed.
Just sayin'.
You know, I think I read somewhere that Bin Laden had recurring nightmares about security checkpoints ending the holy jihad.
FedEx forms, or prior passport with photos and check to main passport office in DC, pay the expedited service, have it back in less than a week.
Always pay for expedited service on passports.
sundance435
01-10-18, 13:52
You know, I think I read somewhere that Bin Laden had recurring nightmares about security checkpoints ending the holy jihad.
Just about the TSA "experience", not about being caught. Seriously though, it's easy to pic on the TSA because they really are, by and large, that bad.
Just about the TSA "experience", not about being caught. Seriously though, it's easy to pic on the TSA because they really are, by and large, that bad.
And half of them look like Coolio, so.....
I think if you have TSA Pre it applies to your family members as well when you travel with them.
Only family members 12 and under. If older than 12, they have to go through the regular line. However, I find that if I book the tickets (Delta) for my wife and me when we travel together, she virtually always gets PreCheck. Maybe that applies to the whole family if booked as a group. Delta tends to be pretty generous with PreCheck, I've found, and I don't really know how other airlines do it. Maybe they're more inclined to make the 13 year olds stand in line.
To answer the topic's question it started with the Reconstruction and got kicked into overdrive with FDR.
Averageman
01-10-18, 17:56
As we move toward a larger .gov we tend to hire in to the process people who can only thrive in a bureaucratic system.
By making their service to you, the tax payer increasingly difficult by layers of regulation, they appear more important. Rather than working to streamline and make systems and services more timely and efficient, it is better for them to bog you down in paperwork and regulations slowing the system and services down.
By creating this confusion and slow processing times they will be asked to explain to their upper management why the process takes so long. The standard answer is "We need more help."
This works two ways for them.
A) They don't have to work harder or faster or be more innovative in finding a solution, they will simply grow the system with new employee's.
B) This will insure the least efficient people will soon move toward middle management as they now have people to supervise.
No one at anytime is not going to accept the above system and require .gov people to work harder, be less lazy or be more efficient, that might cause someone to complain or go to HR about the offensive manager.
Therefore the answer for the last several decades has been to raise your taxes, slow down your services and require you to pay ever increasing fee's for things like postage and passports. Being the suckers we are, we accept that, pay up and wait longer for what we pay for.
It wouldn't take a lot to fix such systems, but it will never happen.
To answer the topic's question it started with the Reconstruction and got kicked into overdrive with FDR.
Lotta truth here....
LMT Shooter
01-10-18, 18:22
To answer the topic's question it started with the Reconstruction and got kicked into overdrive with FDR.
Long before that, we had the Alien and Sedition Acts. This is the way all governments work. Get into power, then seek too expand the reach of government power.
Don't worry, it's all for the greater good.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.