On 1 July, J.A. Terranson wrote...
For those of you who may have missed it, today was the first day of the new "Real ID Act", a/k/a, the American Nazification Papers Act. I wouldn't have know myself except that I recently moved, and wanted to exchange my current Illinois drivers license for a Missouri one. If they federales are going to make it so difficult, one might as well start a new identity.
How does one go about constructing a new identity now? Birth certificate. What kind of certification are they looking for? The state seal? That's easy enough to fake. Do they do verification? How much? What if it comes back negative? What's their response to, "The state records must be screwed up?" That's a plausible excuse for anyone who can claim to be born before modern computerization... at least anyone no longer in HS. What are the ID requirements for getting a SSN? Since it's goal is to con SSN holders into paying their "fair share" of tax revenue, the gov can't be too picky. Once one have those two, one can get a passport, no? Aren't those three items are acceptable proof of identify for a DL?