Tag: real id

Street Legal

I just spent an hour and a half or so at the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. The dreaded RMV.

My drivers license expired on my birthday, two days ago. I needed to renew it (which could be done online) and I also needed to upgrade to the stupid fascist federal RealID card bullshit (which could not be done online). I had an appointment for 3:30 so I was able to get into the office, but the lines were long and I didn’t actually get into to do my business until around 4:30. Once I was at the window though it went off without a hitch.

When I got home, there was a visitor standing next to our driveway.

Documentation Crunch Time

Remember back in the ’80s when all of those cold war movies showed the bad guys, the commies, stopping their poor oppressed citizens on the street and asking to see their papers? Remember how evil that felt? The poor saps having to cough up their legal documentation to the secret police at a moment’s notice?

I wonder why I have been thinking of that lately.

So a couple of weeks ago my US passport expired. My state drivers license is going to expire soon as well, and when I renew it I have to get the new federal “Real ID” because we live in a police state now. Unfortunately you need to have an appointment to setup the Real ID and a month ago when I booked one the best date I could get was after my license expires.

The good news is, my passport renewal went off without a hitch and I got it done WAY faster than I expected so I can use my new passport in the Real ID process. That’s cool. I wonder if I can renew my state drivers license first and then replace it a short time later with the federal document. I am guessing I would have to pay twice if I did that and I’ll be damned if I am going to give that tariffing fucker a penny more than I have to. Not that I am cynical about the collapse of my former country or anything. You know how it is.

Papers, please. Fucking authoritarian dictatorship fascist fucking fuckers.