USCE 2023: Please let them shove a camera up your butt

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Young Freud: Nov 26, 2006

JonathonSpectre posted:

Happy Victory at Gettysburg day everybody! On the afternoon of July 3 the Battle of Gettysburg ended in a crushing rebel defeat when the brilliant military genius R.E. Lee decided to slowly march across a mile-wide+ field that every gun in the Army of the Potomac was sighted on. Somehow, despite the fact that Lee was an unbeatable genius this giant block of racist traitors got turned into red mist and screams in the course of about 90 minutes on 03 July 1863.

Let's all take a minute and watch the complete destruction of 15,000+ rebels and the end of R.E. Lee's reputation as some sort of unbeatable savant. If you have autoplay on you can just click the first one, but I'll link them all individually in case you want to go back and watch any of the slo-mo shots of dying rebels flying through the air or Lee's bumbling "all my fault" speech at the end to his ragged remnants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC7bYDBj_eA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2ptN5K4Vy8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3GGgcgDXFk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09m4X5FG5vc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI2eq-Tr358

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnFk3lnDShc

And maybe raise a glass or BBQ a dog today or tomorrow in honor of America's forgotten hero, victor of Gettysburg and slayer of Lee's reputation, George Meade, imo the best general of the Civil War.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Meade

Oh also this happened tomorrow morning, kind of what the boxing guys call a 1-2 combo:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Vicksburg#Capture

In these lost, late days, we can all learn something from the Grand Army of the Republic. Don't lose heart! Don't stop fighting! You don't win every fight, and sometimes you get whipped. But fight on!

We beat them in 1865, we beat them in 1945, and we'll beat them now!

How do you post all those clips from the Gettysburg movie and include the best one...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGv1VKAybcI
"General Picket, sir. You must look to your division."
"General Lee, I have no division."

Can you believe they named a U.S. military installation after Pickett? The military recently renamed it to Fort Barfoot, but why would they name a base after a loser like Pickett in the first place, outside it's a base in Virginia and he came from Virginia?

# ? Jul 3, 2023 21:33

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# ? May 26, 2024 16:54

Byzantine: Sep 1, 2007

Willa Rogers posted:

Just think if all of our votes counted and we had free healthcare for all.

Can't happen with the Confederacy still lodged in the country like a tumor.

# ? Jul 3, 2023 21:47

Edgar Allen Ho: Apr 3, 2017; by sebmojo

Willa Rogers posted:

Just think if all of our votes counted and we had free healthcare for all.

gently caress, that sounds nice

happy almost fourth

# ? Jul 3, 2023 21:58

Gumball Gumption: Jan 7, 2012

Byzantine posted:

Just think if Texas and Florida were in a different country and unable to influence American politics.

Imagine if some sort of opposition party actually tried in those states

# ? Jul 3, 2023 22:02

Byzantine: Sep 1, 2007

Gumball Gumption posted:

Imagine if some sort of opposition party actually tried in those states

I'm sorry, but please try to keep your musings to the realm of vaguely plausible.

# ? Jul 3, 2023 22:06

World Famous W: May 25, 2007; BAAAAAAAAAAAA

Edgar Allen Ho posted:

gently caress, that sounds nice

happy almost fourth

buy some fireworks and blow up the sky everyone

# ? Jul 3, 2023 22:07

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

The travel rebound is affecting the issuance & renewal of passports, which are now experiencing record wait times, according to the AP. Highlights bolded instead of restated.

quote:

Seeking a valid U.S. passport for that 2023 trip? Buckle up, wishful traveler, for a very different journey before you step anywhere near an airport.

A much-feared backup of U.S passport applications has smashed into a wall of government bureaucracy as worldwide travel rebounds toward record pre-pandemic levels � with too few humans to handle the load. The result, say aspiring travelers in the U.S. and around the world, is a maddening pre-travel purgatory defined, at best, by costly uncertainty.

With family dreams and big money on the line, passport seekers describe a slow-motion agony of waiting, worrying, holding the line, refreshing the screen, complaining to Congress, paying extra fees and following incorrect directions. Some applicants are buying additional plane tickets to snag in-process passports where they sit � in other cities � in time to make the flights they booked in the first place.

So grim is the outlook that U.S. officials aren�t even denying the problem or predicting when it will ease. They�re blaming the epic wait times on lingering pandemic -related staffing shortages and a pause of online processing this year. That�s left the passport agency flooded with a record-busting 500,000 applications a week. The deluge is on-track to top last year�s 22 million passports issued, the State Department says.

Stories from applicants and interviews by The Associated Press depict a system of crisis management, in which the agencies are prioritizing urgent cases such as applicants traveling for reasons of �life or death� and those whose travel is only a few days off. For everyone else, the options are few and expensive.

So, 2023 traveler, if you still need a valid U.S. passport, prepare for an unplanned excursion into the nightmare zone.

�PLENTY OF TIME� TO �WE�LL STILL BE OK� TO BIG PROBLEMS

It was early March when Dallas-area florist Ginger Collier applied for four passports ahead of a family vacation at the end of June. The clerk, she said, estimated wait times at eight to 11 weeks. They�d have their passports a month before they needed them. �Plenty of time,� Collier recalled thinking.

Then the State Department upped the wait time for a regular passport to as much as 13 weeks. �We�ll still be okay,� she thought.

At T-minus two weeks to travel, this was her assessment: �I can�t sleep.� This after months of calling, holding, pressing refresh on a website, trying her member of Congress � and stressing as the departure date loomed. Failure to obtain the family�s passports would mean losing $4,000, she said, as well as the chance to meet one of her sons in Italy after a study-abroad semester.

�My nerves are shot, because I may not be able to get to him,� she said. She calls the toll-free number every day, holds for as much as 90 minutes to be told � at best � that she might be able to get a required appointment at passport offices in other states.

�I can�t afford four more plane tickets anywhere in the United States to get a passport when I applied in plenty of time,� she said. �How about they just process my passports?�

THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT HAS A CULPRIT: COVID

By March, concerned travelers began asking for answers and then demanding help, including from their representatives in the House and Senate, who widely reported at hearings this year that they were receiving more complaints from constituents on passport delays than any other issue.

The U.S. secretary of state had an answer, of a sort.

�With COVID, the bottom basically dropped out of the system,� Antony Blinken told a House subcommittee March 23. When demand for travel all but disappeared during the pandemic, he said, the government let contractors go and reassigned staff that had been dedicated to handling passports.

Around the same time, the government also halted an online renewal system �to make sure that we can fine tune it and improve it,� Blinken said. He said the department is hiring agents as quickly as possible, opening more appointments and trying to address the crisis in other ways.

Passport applicants lit up social media groups, toll-free numbers and lawmakers� phone lines with questions, appeals for advice and cries for help. Facebook and WhatsApp groups bristled with reports of bewilderment and fury. Reddit published eye-watering diaries, some more than 1,000 words long, of application dates, deposits submitted, contacts made, time on hold, money spent and appeals for advice.

It was 1952 when a law required, for the first time, passports for every U.S. traveler abroad, even in peacetime. Now, passports are processed at centers around the country and printed at secure facilities in Washington, D.C. and Mississippi, according to the Government Printing Office.

But the number of Americans holding valid U.S. passports has grown at roughly 10% faster than the population over the past three decades, according to Jay Zagorsky, an economist at Boston University�s Questrom School of Business.

After passport delays derailed his own plans to travel to London earlier this year, Zagorsky found that the number of U.S. passports per American has soared from about three per 100 people in 1989 to nearly 46 per 100 people in 2022. Americans, it turns out, are on the move.

�As a society gets richer,� says Zagorsky, �the people in that society say, �I want to visit the rest of the world.��

FOR AMERICANS AND OTHERS ABROAD, IT�S NO PICNIC EITHER

At U.S. consulates overseas, the quest for U.S. visas and passports isn�t much brighter.

On a day in June, people in New Delhi could expect to wait 451 days for a visa interview, according to the website. Those in Sao Paulo could plan on waiting more than 600 days. Aspiring travelers in Mexico City were waiting about 750 days; in Bogota, Colombia, it was 801 days.

In Israel, the need is especially acute. More than 200,000 people with citizenship in both countries live in Israel. It�s one appointment per person, even for newborns, who must have both parents involved in the process, before traveling to the United States.

Batsheva Gutterman started looking for three appointments immediately after she had a baby in December, with an eye toward attending a family celebration in July, in Raleigh, N.C.

Her quest for three passports stretched from January to June, days before travel. And it only resolved after Gutterman payed a small fee to join a WhatsApp group that alerted her to new appointments, which stay available for only a few seconds. She ultimately got three appointments on three consecutive days � bureaucracy embodied.

�We had to drive the entire family with three small children, an hour-and-a-half to Tel Aviv three days in a row, taking off work and school,� she said. �This makes me incredibly uneasy having a baby in Israel as an American citizen, knowing there is no way I can fly with that baby until we get lucky with an appointment.�

Recently, there appeared to be some progress. The wait for an appointment for a renewed U.S. passport stood at 360 days on June 8. On July 2, the wait was down to 90 days, according to the web site.

FRUSTRATING TALES EMERGE FROM THE TRENCHES

Back in the U.S., Marni Larsen of Holladay, Utah, stood in line in Los Angeles, California, on June 14, in hopes of snagging her son�s passport. That way, she hoped, the pair could meet the rest of their family, who had already left as scheduled for Europe, for a long-planned vacation.

She�d applied for her son�s passport two months earlier and spent weeks checking for updates online or through a frustrating call system. As the mid-June vacation loomed, Larsen reached out to Sen. Mitt Romney �s office, where one of four people he says is assigned full-time to passport issues were able to track down the document in New Orleans.

It was supposed to be shipped to Los Angeles, where she got an appointment to retrieve it. That meant Larsen had to buy new tickets for herself and her son to Los Angeles and reroute their trip from there to Rome. All on a bet that her son�s passport was indeed shipped as promised.

�We are just waiting in this massive line of tons of people,� Larsen said. �It�s just been a nightmare.�

They succeeded. But not everyone has been so lucky.

Miranda Richter applied in person to renew passports for herself and her husband, as well as apply a new one on Feb. 9 for a trip with their neighbors to Croatia on June 6. She ended up canceling, losing more than $1,000.

Her timeline went like this: Passports for her husband and daughter arrived in 11 weeks, while Richter�s photo was rejected. On May 4, she sent in a new one via priority mail. Then she paid a rush fee of $79, which was never charged to her credit card. Between May 30 and June 2, four days before travel, Richter and her husband spent more than 12 hours on the national passport line while also calling their congressman, senators and third-party couriers.

Finally, she showed up in person at the federal building in downtown Houston, 30 minutes before the passport office opened. Richter said there were at least 100 people in line.

�The security guard asked when is my appointment, and I burst out in tears,� she recalls. She couldn�t get one. �It didn�t work.�

FINALLY: A HAPPY ENDING

�I just got my passports!� Ginger Collier texts.

She ended up showing up at the passport office in Dallas with her daughter-in-law at 6:30 a.m. and being sorted into groups and lined up against walls. Finally they were called to a window, where the agent was �super nice� and pulled all four of the family�s applications � paperwork that had been sitting in the office since March 17. More than seven hours later, the two left the office with directions to pick up their passports the next day.

They did � with four days to spare.

�What a ridiculous process,� Collier says. Nevertheless, the reunion with her son in Italy was sweet. She texted last week: �It was the best hug ever!�

I'm glad I renewed mine online during the first year of the pandemic; even with the government pretty much shut down I got back my new one in about a month.

Have any of you experienced the sort of delays covered in the story?

# ? Jul 3, 2023 22:50

Queering Wheel: Jun 18, 2011

I applied for a passport in early May, but I don't actually need to travel right now so I'm not really worried about the wait. Just getting one in case the 2024 election goes badly and I need to loving run away to not get genocided. Fun!

# ? Jul 3, 2023 23:14

hattersmad: Feb 21, 2015; In this style, 10/6

We recently had to renew my daughter�s passport, and it took about 8 weeks with expedited service. We submitted the application in March.

# ? Jul 3, 2023 23:15

Judgy Fucker: Mar 24, 2006

hattersmad posted:

We recently had to renew my daughter�s passport, and it took about 8 weeks with expedited service. We submitted the application in March.

We�ve done expedited processing before (pre-Pandemic) and it was less than 2 weeks, so a fourfold increase in the wait time for the fast upcharge.

# ? Jul 3, 2023 23:19

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

I was confused by this bit in the AP story:

quote:

Around the same time, the government also halted an online renewal system �to make sure that we can fine tune it and improve it,� Blinken said.

Is that spook-speak for saying the site was insecure or something? Because I'd think that the "improvements" could've been made over the last several months by now.

# ? Jul 3, 2023 23:38

koolkal: Oct 21, 2008; this thread maybe doesnt have room for 2 green xbox one avs

Willa Rogers posted:

I was confused by this bit in the AP story:

Is that spook-speak for saying the site was insecure or something? Because I'd think that the "improvements" could've been made over the last several months by now.

Some more details on that blurb:

quote:

He noted that the department had launched a pilot online renewal platform so Americans who already have a passport can renew online, but it has "now halted it to make sure that we can fine tune it and improve it before we roll it out in a bigger way."

"We expect that 65% of renewal customers for passports will be able to do so online once this program is fully up and running," Blinken said.

"I think it's really important that we be as clear and transparent as possible with people who are looking for passports to know what they can expect," he said.

On visas, Blinken said delays have begun to improve. The priority is the categories "for students, for temporary workers, for business travelers, maritime crews," he said, noting, "we've tried to make sure that they are served and we are at pre-pandemic levels or better in those categories."

https://www.mynbc5.com/article/blinken-state-department-unprecedented-demand-passports/43402921

# ? Jul 4, 2023 01:38

Kalli: Jun 2, 2001

Biden's decided to nominate Elliott Abrams to the Public Diplomacy Commission.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/03/politics/elliott-abrams-public-diplomacy-nomination/index.html

quote:

The commission �appraises the US Government activities intended to understand, inform, and influence foreign publics� and �may assemble and disseminate information and issue reports and other publications to the Secretary of State, the President, and the Congress,� according to the State Department.

Current members include Sim Farar, the managing member of JDF Investments Company; William Hybl, former special counsel to Reagan; and Anne Terman Wedner, a political organizer and former foreign service officer � four seats on the commission remained vacant as of March 2023, according to the National Archives.

Abrams of course was on Venezuela under Trump, and is a convicted felon, but hey anytime you can get someone who cheers on child rapists for freedom in El Salvador, you get your man!

Anne Wedner is a "donor outreach coordinator" married to a vulture fund guy who's also done some work in Venezuela in the past, I'm sure great things are coming!

# ? Jul 4, 2023 02:18

Charlz Guybon: Nov 16, 2010

Meatball posted:

Bush won because he was someone you could get a beer with, DeSantis comes off as the RA who would rat you out and expect to be thanked for it.

Wasn't that literally Pence?

# ? Jul 4, 2023 02:28

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

lmao, I'm so old I remember when Elliott Abrams was a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal, which is why he's a convicted felon.

The ghouls keep managing to switch in & out of government no matter which party is in charge of Congress & the presidency.

koolkal posted:

Some more details on that blurb:

https://www.mynbc5.com/article/blinken-state-department-unprecedented-demand-passports/43402921

Thanks! Blinken does sound kind of vague, though, as if he's not being entirely clear on the reasons for the slow rollout.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 02:29

Charlz Guybon: Nov 16, 2010

JonathonSpectre posted:

George Meade, imo the best general of the Civil War.

Let's not go crazy here. Grant, Sherman and Thomas were all better.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 02:31

Nucleic Acids: Apr 10, 2007

Kalli posted:

Biden's decided to nominate Elliott Abrams to the Public Diplomacy Commission.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/03/politics/elliott-abrams-public-diplomacy-nomination/index.html

Abrams of course was on Venezuela under Trump, and is a convicted felon, but hey anytime you can get someone who cheers on child rapists for freedom in El Salvador, you get your man!

Anne Wedner is a "donor outreach coordinator" married to a vulture fund guy who's also done some work in Venezuela in the past, I'm sure great things are coming!

It�s quite clear that intervention in Latin America will continue under Biden as under past administrations.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 02:31

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

Nucleic Acids posted:

It�s quite clear that intervention in Latin America will continue under Biden as under past administrations.

I mean, the State Dept. barely changed its web pages on Venezuela from what they were under Trump & still considers Guiado the president.

But yeah: Appointing Abrams is further confirmation.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 02:41

drawkcab si eman ym: Jan 2, 2006

Willa Rogers posted:

I mean, the State Dept. barely changed its web pages on Venezuela from what they were under Trump & still considers Guiado the president.

But yeah: Appointing Abrams is further confirmation.

Lawler, Dave (4 January 2023). "U.S. no longer recognizes Guaid� as Venezuela's president, Biden official confirms". Axios. Retrieved 5 January 2023.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 03:55

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

Wow, I guess that was because the opposition party in Venezuela voted him out the prior month, but I thought it would've made bigger news given the bipartisan U.S. push to label Guaid� as Venezuela's "real" president.

quote:

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) � For three years, Juan Guaid� led the Venezuelan opposition�s efforts to bring about new elections and remove socialist President Nicol�s Maduro.

But on Friday, dozens of politicians who once backed Guaid� voted in favor of removing the 39-year-old engineer and replacing his U.S.-supported �interim government� with a committee to oversee presidential primaries next year and protect the nation�s assets abroad.

The vote reflects a changing balance of power within the opposition, which is trying to find new ways to connect with voters ahead of the nation�s 2024 presidential election.

Three of Venezuela�s four main opposition parties backed the proposal to remove Guaid�, who was supported only by his own Popular Will party.

After the vote, Guaid� said the move would create a �power vacuum� that could encourage more foreign nations to recognize the Maduro administration.

�If there is no interim government, who will they recognize in its place,� he said. �Today we have jumped into the abyss. And given up on an important tool in our struggle.�

Guaido�s opponents said new ways of connecting with voters should be found. The interim government has no sway over local institutions and is unable to provide basic services, with some Venezuelans mocking it as a �fake� government.

�It�s with a heavy heart that I make this vote,� said Luis Silva, a member of the Democratic Action party who participated in the online session for the vote. �We haven�t been able to come up with a unanimous decision, but we need to look for new strategies.�

Daniel Varnagy, a political science professor at Simon Bolivar University in Caracas, said the opposition had generated high expectations under Guaid�s leadership but then failed to keep its promises to people yearning for a change in Venezuela�s governance.

�He promised to cease (Maduro�s) usurpation, lead a transition and organize fair elections, and none of that happened,� Varnagy said.

Guaid� rose to leadership of the opposition in 2019 when he was president of the then opposition-controlled legislature, which had begun its five-year term in 2015 after what many observers considered Venezuela�s last fair elections. It was the last instution not controlled by Maduro�s socialists.

The National Assembly argued Maduro won his second presidential term illegally in 2018 because his main rivals were banned from running. So the opposition legislators created an �interim government,� headed by Guaid�, that was meant to last until Maduro stepped down and free elections could be held.

Guaid� organized protests in Venezuela, snuck out of the country for an international tour and was recognized as the nation�s legitimate leader by the United States and dozens of European and Latin American governments that rejected Maduro�s rule.

His interim administration was also given control of Venezuelan government assets abroad that had been frozen, including Citgo, the Houston-based oil refiner.

But the Guaid�-led opposition failed to win over the Venezuelan military or the nation�s courts to its side, while Maduro�s administration faced down street demonstrations and tightened its grip even more on the South American nation.

The failure to drive out Maduro frustrated Venezuelans, who are struggling with high inflation, food shortages and the lowest wages in South America � hardships that prodded millions of people to migrate in recent years.

In a poll taken by Venezuela�s Andres Bello University in November, only 6 percent of Venezuelans said they would vote for Guaid� if he participated in presidential primaries next year while a few other opposition leaders got bigger numbers.

Guaid�s influence has also diminished since late 2020, when the National Assembly that elected him as interim president was replaced by new legislators chosen in elections boycotted by opposition parties.

Many members of the 2015 National Assembly are now in exile, but they continue to claim to be Venezuela�s legitimate legislative branch and hold online meetings in which they make decisions on issues involving the �interim government.�

On Friday, 72 of the 109 former legislators who participated in the online session voted in favor of a measure calling for replacing Guaid�s interim administration with a committee made up of several opposition leaders.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-09/us-takes-custody-of-venezuela-embassy-in-wake-of-guaido-vote

I guess the U.S. didn't want to fess up to their fucky-wucky after all these years.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 04:27

Willa Rogers: Mar 11, 2005

Lol, looks like the U.S. still won't recognize Maduro, though.

quote:

The US assumed control of all of Venezuela�s diplomatic properties as of Feb. 6, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information isn�t yet public. A State Department spokesperson confirmed that the agency had taken stewardship of the property and will keep control of it until Venezuela has a new diplomatic mission.

Closing Venezuela�s diplomatic mission is the latest fallout from the opposition�s decision to oust Guaid� and close his so-called interim government, which was recognized by the US and included foreign ambassadors. In December, opposition lawmakers voted him out. Guaid�s ambassador to the US left his post shortly thereafter.

Lawmakers have not chosen a new interim government, raising question about who will represent the opposition in foreign countries. For the past four years, Washington called Guaid� Venezuela�s rightful leader and gave diplomatic status to his envoy, Carlos Vecchio. Guaid�s administration, which existed in parallel to President Nicol�s Maduro�s government in Caracas, was also given control of foreign assets, including management of US oil refiner Citgo Petroleum Corp.�s parent company. The US does not recognize Maduro�s government either.

After removing Guaid�, opposition lawmakers did appoint a representative to the US, Fernando Blasi, who had served as Vecchio�s commercial attach�. But Blasi wasn�t given diplomatic status by the US because he was not appointed by a president, the people said.

Blasi and a group of at least a dozen people were still working out of the embassy and diplomatic residences this week. On Wednesday, they were denied entry to the buildings. In January, they were given 30 days to sort out their immigration status, the people said.

The representatives were told the US would take custody of the embassy, a diplomatic residence and at least two other buildings in Washington as well as at least one building in New York, the people said.

Vecchio last week turned over the keys to the buildings to the opposition-led National Assembly�s assets council, of which Blasi is a member.

The Biden administration has said it will continue to recognize the National Assembly after Guaid� was removed and that it still considered Maduro �illegitimate.� The National Assembly, which first convened in 2015, is the last democratically elected institution in Venezuela, the US has said.

https://news.yahoo.com/us-takes-custody-venezuela-embassy-031431156.html

So who's going to be the new pet puppet president? :allears:

# ? Jul 4, 2023 04:30

ANIME AKBAR: Jan 25, 2007; afu~

Willa Rogers posted:

The travel rebound is affecting the issuance & renewal of passports, which are now experiencing record wait times, according to the AP. Highlights bolded instead of restated.

I'm glad I renewed mine online during the first year of the pandemic; even with the government pretty much shut down I got back my new one in about a month.

Have any of you experienced the sort of delays covered in the story?

Just a friendly PSA: Never, under any circumstance, try and use a third party service to "expedite" or "rush" a US passport renewal. These services used to take advantage of the online renewal system, using bots to reserve slots and scalp them to desperate travelers. But when the online system was shut down, these services basically lost their ability to game the system. However, as of a year ago they were still making insane promises of <2 week turnaround on passport renewal. Even if the services managed to reserve a bunch of Urgent Appointment slots, renewing via that path requires the traveler to show up in person at the passport agency. Their promises are simply impossible to fulfill.

Every single person I've known who has tried one of these services since 2020 had their passport held ransom. All of them ultimately had to go the "normal" renewal route, usually after paying hundreds in extra "fees" just to get their passport back.

ANIME AKBAR fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Jul 4, 2023

# ? Jul 4, 2023 14:14

Sax Mortar: Aug 24, 2004

I did the online renewal earlier this year in a window. I applied in January and got it 3 months later.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 14:45

Failed Imagineer: Sep 22, 2018

Passport renewal takes about 48 hours in my country, and you don't have to send off poo poo, just pay €75 online.

America sounds cool too, tho

# ? Jul 4, 2023 14:50

Nosre: Apr 16, 2002

Failed Imagineer posted:

Passport renewal takes about 48 hours in my country, and you don't have to send off poo poo, just pay €75 online.

America sounds cool too, tho

And passports are easy compared to filing our taxes

# ? Jul 4, 2023 14:55

Edgar Allen Ho: Apr 3, 2017; by sebmojo

Failed Imagineer posted:

Passport renewal takes about 48 hours in my country, and you don't have to send off poo poo, just pay €75 online.

America sounds cool too, tho

MY WIFE became a US citizen, applied for, and got a physical US passport in about 36 hours, same time as I renewed mine and got the same

these brilliant strats do require you actually care about your US passport instead of it being like "well might go to London next year, prolly time to renew this thing maybe"

i mean lmao usa so dum

# ? Jul 4, 2023 15:13

Mr. Smile Face Hat: Sep 15, 2003; Praise be to China's Covid-Zero Policy

Failed Imagineer posted:

Passport renewal takes about 48 hours in my country, and you don't have to send off poo poo, just pay €75 online.

America sounds cool too, tho

How cool, and I've lived in a country it took 6 weeks, could only be done in person and no notifications were sent whatsoever.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 15:18

Mooseontheloose: May 13, 2003

As a reminder if you are having renewal issues, call your local representatives office they might be able to help.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 15:22

PT6A: Jan 5, 2006; Public school teachers are callous dictators who won't lift a finger to stop children from peeing in my plane

In Canada, since COVID, anything that requires processing paperwork has taken forever. Multiple ministries, different fields, everything's just ground more or less to a halt. Current estimates are things might get caught up by 2026.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 15:24

Gumball Gumption: Jan 7, 2012

Kalli posted:

Biden's decided to nominate Elliott Abrams to the Public Diplomacy Commission.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/03/politics/elliott-abrams-public-diplomacy-nomination/index.html

Abrams of course was on Venezuela under Trump, and is a convicted felon, but hey anytime you can get someone who cheers on child rapists for freedom in El Salvador, you get your man!

Anne Wedner is a "donor outreach coordinator" married to a vulture fund guy who's also done some work in Venezuela in the past, I'm sure great things are coming!

That's grim. War crime and South American intervention continues to be a bipartisan project.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 15:33

ANIME AKBAR: Jan 25, 2007; afu~

Sax Mortar posted:

I did the online renewal earlier this year in a window. I applied in January and got it 3 months later.

Yeah online renewal was available as a pilot program between August 2022 and March 2023, but isn't available right now. Current plan is to restart it by end of 2023 but who the hell knows.

I'm betting one of the major hurdles they're facing is how to offer a useful service which can't be abused by expediting scams.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 16:04

Atahualpa: Aug 18, 2015; A lucky bird.

Edgar Allen Ho posted:

MY WIFE became a US citizen, applied for, and got a physical US passport in about 36 hours, same time as I renewed mine and got the same

these brilliant strats do require you actually care about your US passport instead of it being like "well might go to London next year, prolly time to renew this thing maybe"

i mean lmao usa so dum

What strats would those be, exactly? I feel like I'm missing :thejoke:

here because this essentially reads like "I did the exact same thing other people being discussed did and got lucky*, guess they should have cared harder. :smug:

".

*Just as an example of one possible factor outside the control of applicants that could explain why you had a different experience, if it's anything like green cards then which office your application gets routed to can make a huge difference in how long it takes to get processed.

Also, if to defend the US's system you have to frame it as a matter of personal irresponsibility for someone to apply for a passport a year in advance of when they expect to need then that kind of does seem like "lmao usa so dum" is entirely appropriate.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 16:13

Goatse James Bond: Mar 28, 2010; If you see me posting please remind me that I have Charlie Work in the reports forum to do instead

Nucleic Acids posted:

It�s quite clear that intervention in Latin America will continue under Biden as under past administrations.

The Biden administration not only didn't coup or lawfare Lula, they told Bolsonaro and the Brazilian military not to.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 16:14

ninjahedgehog: Feb 17, 2011; It's time to kick the tires and light the fires, Big Bird.

Mooseontheloose posted:

As a reminder if you are having renewal issues, call your local representatives office they might be able to help.

100% endorse this -- last year my passport didn't show up on time and the useless customer service people told me it wasn't officially considered a problem until I was two weeks away from my travel date and thus declined to give me a tracking number. So I called back then, and the dude finally gave me the tracking number, and turns out it showed up a month before that, according to the USPS, but I never got it so I assume it was stolen. At this point it was far, far too late to get a new passport through normal channels in time for my trip, but if that dumb rear end in a top hat on the first phone call had just given me the number when I asked for it I could have applied for a reissue :argh:

So I called up Ed Markey's office and once they were bullying the State Department for me, the reissue showed up in three days.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 16:33

FlamingLiberal: Jan 18, 2009; Would you like to play a game?

ANIME AKBAR posted:

Just a friendly PSA: Never, under any circumstance, try and use a third party service to "expedite" or "rush" a US passport renewal. These services used to take advantage of the online renewal system, using bots to reserve slots and scalp them to desperate travelers. But when the online system was shut down, these services basically lost their ability to game the system. However, as of a year ago they were still making insane promises of <2 week turnaround on passport renewal. Even if the services managed to reserve a bunch of Urgent Appointment slots, renewing via that path requires the traveler to show up in person at the passport agency. Their promises are simply impossible to fulfill.

Every single person I've known who has tried one of these services since 2020 had their passport held ransom. All of them ultimately had to go the "normal" renewal route, usually after paying hundreds in extra "fees" just to get their passport back.

I can confirm...I used to do passport acceptance and we would have people come in all the time having paid a bunch of fees to random people for nothing, since there is no way to pay upfront for a passport legitimately

# ? Jul 4, 2023 16:56

Tiny Timbs: Sep 6, 2008

Atahualpa posted:

What strats would those be, exactly? I feel like I'm missing here because this essentially reads like "I did the exact same thing other people being discussed did and got lucky*, guess they should have cared harder. ".

Maybe they showed up at the bureaucrat�s house

# ? Jul 4, 2023 17:04

WarpedLichen: Aug 14, 2008

ninjahedgehog posted:

100% endorse this -- last year my passport didn't show up on time and the useless customer service people told me it wasn't officially considered a problem until I was two weeks away from my travel date and thus declined to give me a tracking number. So I called back then, and the dude finally gave me the tracking number, and turns out it showed up a month before that, according to the USPS, but I never got it so I assume it was stolen. At this point it was far, far too late to get a new passport through normal channels in time for my trip, but if that dumb rear end in a top hat on the first phone call had just given me the number when I asked for it I could have applied for a reissue

So I called up Ed Markey's office and once they were bullying the State Department for me, the reissue showed up in three days.

One of my aunts had a problem with her passport where they spelled her name wrong. The options the robodialer and website gave were to mail it back in and wait 3 months. The local passport office said appointments necessary, but no way to make appointments. The listed phone number went straight to a robodialer.

She just drove in without an appointment and got a new passport that day. It really feels like we're living in some Kafka hell world sometimes.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 17:16

Jen heir rick: Aug 4, 2004; when a woman says something's not funny, you better not laugh your ass off

Kalli posted:

Biden's decided to nominate Elliott Abrams to the Public Diplomacy Commission.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/03/politics/elliott-abrams-public-diplomacy-nomination/index.html

Abrams of course was on Venezuela under Trump, and is a convicted felon, but hey anytime you can get someone who cheers on child rapists for freedom in El Salvador, you get your man!

Anne Wedner is a "donor outreach coordinator" married to a vulture fund guy who's also done some work in Venezuela in the past, I'm sure great things are coming!

So does anyone want to take a stab at defending or explaining this poo poo? Cause why the gently caress would Biden nominate this guy? As far as I know this guy should be in jail and shouldn�t be anywhere near any levers of power.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 18:36

Discendo Vox: Mar 21, 2013; We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

Jen heir rick posted:

So does anyone want to take a stab at defending or explaining this poo poo? Cause why the gently caress would Biden nominate this guy? As far as I know this guy should be in jail and shouldn�t be anywhere near any levers of power.

You may want to rethink how you phrase requests for information, so that people who can provide that information will feel less like they are walking into your fist.

Some potential factors involved: The board in question appears to be a do-little entity that primarily puts its name on an annual report. The board positions require Senate approval and have to be bipartisan, meaning that in function at least 3 are approved by the Republicans (and, in function, the Republicans backchannel who the nominees are).

This sort of thing is common for any of these entities that require bipartisan membership: in practice, it paralyzes them on issues that aren't bipartisan (and it lets deliberately credulous reporters generate shocking headlines).

The organization charter is here: https://www.state.gov/charter-u-s-advisory-commission-on-public-diplomacy/

Discendo Vox fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Jul 4, 2023

# ? Jul 4, 2023 18:42

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# ? May 26, 2024 16:54

Gumball Gumption: Jan 7, 2012

See, you're being manipulated by reporters into being upset a war criminal is on a do nothing committee.

# ? Jul 4, 2023 18:53

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > USCE 2023: Please let them shove a camera up your butt

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