Domestic Passports?

by JASmius



Kinda says it all, doesn't it?

One of the hallmarks of totalitarian societies throughout the twentieth century (and now, clearly, into the twenty-first) was that freedom of movement within them was strictly and harshly curtailed by the government.  If you wanted to go anywhere internally, you had to have your "papers," and they had to be "in order" as the government defined it in order to be released on your harried way.  It was true in Nazi Germany, it was true in the Soviet Union, it remains true in Red China, in Iran, probably in today's Russia, etc.  It's one of the hallmarks of tyranny: the government fears the people, so the government must crack down on and control the populace.

Is this starting to sound eerily familiar?:

In October 2020, the hassle factor for domestic air travel may increase. Soon, your State’s driver’s license may not be enough to get you through security and on board. In fact, the Los Angeles Times reports that twenty-six States – including California – do not meet federal regulations. There is an extension of time for these States, through October 10th, 2016. But after that, there is worry that your U.S. passport may be needed. [emphasis added]

Show of hands: How many of you even have a passport?  Logically, you would only need one if you have ever traveled abroad, right?  My daughter has one because she went on two short-term missionary trips to Brazil several years ago.  The only other country I've ever visited is Canada, and that was back in 2002 before they started requiring passports to go there.  Consequently, at the age of 51, I have to this day never procured a passport, because I have never needed one.

I don't know if Washington is one of the twenty-six States whose personal ID credentials have been designated "not up to snuff" by the feds [UPDATE: It is], and as things stand for me personally, I have no need to leave my house on most days, much less my town or my State.  But if I ever do, I may will have to update my "papers".

Now, there is a reprieve until January 22nd, 2018. Homeland Security [Commissar] Jeh Johnson has issued a statement that, until then, residents of all States can continue to use their State driver’s license for domestic air travel. But by October 1st, 2020, every air traveler will need a Real-ID-compliant license, or another acceptable form of federal ID for domestic travel. The Real ID Act created a national standard for State-issued IDs. Some States initially refused to comply, fearing that the federal government would make a national database of citizens. [emphasis added]

Which is, of course, precisely what they're intent on doing, not even cloaking it behind the laughable fiction for this Regime of "fighting terrorism".  And from that emphasized modifier above, I'm taking it to mean that "some" States have since knuckled under rather than rebelling and nullifying Real-ID.

And yes, as you probably already suspected, Real-ID has not just sharp teeth, but poison-filled fangs, courtesy of our old friends at the IRS:

[T]he rise of the passport’s importance coincides uncannily with a new law giving the IRS power to revoke passports. Plainly, the easy answer to travel worries may be to dig out your passport, and they are already often in evidence in domestic air check in lines. But what if your passport is cancelled because you owe the IRS?

I'd imagine the answer to that question is that your ass isn't going anywhere.  You will be under "home State arrest".  And we all know how reasonable and easy to deal with the IRS is, right?

The noose of tyranny continues to tighten, my fellow prisoners.  And given the direction of the presidential campaign in both parties, a loosening is not in the offing anytime soon.