United States Presidential & Congressional Election 2024

you send? you can ask them to learn new things. and while they are training and learning someone has to replace the work they used to do. but they can decline and then you might have best/brightest or just merely the willing. and then they leave and you are back to zero in-house knowledge and are down a bus for longer bc no one knows how to work on the eBus. also factor in the group is unionized and has protections. at the least, you have to hire a whole new person or two in and that costs money to do it (and hope they stay).

the service team at the district isn’t as motivated to shift their hands-on knowledge like a private mechanic shop would be. so the district would have to add people to bridge it and in the short term that only adds to the cost and counts against the long-term efficiency (if there is some) of the eBus.

Gosh I wonder how they coped when they converted from horse and carriage?

It will take time, sure, but people will retire and there’ll be more and more people with the expertise in the new technology. I think it’s going to be much shorter than 50 years though.

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yeah. who knows. I don’t think the employees are against it. but the reality is that while joe is learning Ebus stuff and working on 1 bus, whatever he used to do isn’t being done so someone has to be hired in to do it. that incremental cost of personnel is attributed for now to the switch and is money they’d prefer not to spend until they have to. i suspect they would wait until they have to replace n buses at the same time where n is enough to keep a person actually busy. but they will need someone skilled right away to work on them the week they get them in.

My daughter had that a few years ago. She finally got her address changed on her bank statement and went down and got them to print one out. When she took it in to the DMV they told her it had to be one that she had received through the mail. She did eventually get her license but it was quite the ordeal.

Well, i did that. And i printed it on a color laser printer, and folded it in thirds to make it look like it was an ā€œoriginalā€. I felt a little silly, until i spoke with a friend whose application was rejected because they recognized that she’d printed the bill herself. She printed it again, folded it in thirds, and created an envelope that it plausibly could have come in. She succeeded in her second attempt.

The rules are quite clear, if totally unenforceable, that printing an online bill isn’t adequate, and you need an original that was actually mailed to you. Because otherwise, how is it proof of address? It’s just proof that you claimed to someone else you gave that address. (Although not accepting photocopies is just silly.)

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I think there is likely going to be a bit of an exodus of Americans over the next few years leaving abroad.

Military is now discussing what they would do if Trump issued them illegal and/or controversial orders.

With Schedule F he can fire just about anybody he wants and install an apparatchik in his place.

ā€œWe were supposed to fight for people who couldn’t fight for themselves. We were supposed to fight for Willy.ā€

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I’m guessing all but the smallest school districts are buying more than one bus at a time.

And Joe didn’t forget how to work on diesel engines because he went to the EV bus maintenance class over the summer when school wasn’t in session and the district’s bussing needs were minimal. He can still work on the older busses.

Huh. I admit the utility bill thing is a bit foreign to me.

When I moved to Oregon all they wanted was a postmarked envelope. They told me to literally mail myself a completely empty envelope. So I did and the BMV or DMV or whatever they call it in that state took it no problem.

In my current state I can’t recall what they required but it wasn’t a problem. When I move it seems like it always takes a couple of cycles to get online billing set up so there’s usually a statement of some sort laying around. If nothing else banks usually mail you a letter saying ā€œthis is to confirm that we’re switching you to paperlessā€. I’m not sure I’ve ever faked it, unless you call mailing myself an empty envelope ā€œfaking itā€.

When I moved to Oregon I crashed with my cousin for a few months so I legit had no utilities in my name. I definitely wanted the driver’s license right away because Oregon residents don’t have to pay Washington sales tax and I was going to Washington quite a bit and their sales tax was in excess of 9%, so it was a material difference.

But I mailed the empty envelope from work to my cousin’s place and they accepted that as proof of residence.

It is not very difficult to establish an address as long as the person living there lets you do it. The empty envelope thing seems a bit sketchy since all it really takes is someone to open your mailbox and collect it after it is delivered.

ā€œThe United States Post Office delivered these letters to Santa Claus here to this court roomā€¦ā€

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I hadn’t moved in years, and I’d also switched to paperless bills long ago. I didn’t have that kind of document lying around. I don’t think mailing an envelope to yourself is fake, but it isn’t among the forms of ā€œproof of residenceā€ that my state allows. There’s a list of mostly official documents that qualify, and i needed two. I found an old ā€œexplanation of benefitsā€ letter lying around (it was less than a year old, so probably it qualified) and i faked my bank statement.

I also had trouble proving what my SS number is. All my SSN-related documents (like W2s) only showed the last 4 digits. And i lost my physical SS card when i was 16. Which suggests that this is the first time in my life anyone needed proof of my SSN. I ended up getting a new SS card solely for this purpose. The funny thing is that the SS card is just a piece of printed cardboard, and if i didn’t mind breaking the law, i bet i could counterfeit one pretty easily.

Pretty unhappy about the whole real id thing, but i thought it best to get it before the election, in case things get ugly

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Have you not changed jobs since you were 16?

Seems like employers always need my Social Security card.

They’ve always needed my SSN, but the evidence suggests that they were satisfied with my writing it down, and didn’t need the card. Banks, too.

I’ve had to prove my legality to work in the US for decades, but the passport does that.

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My experience is the same as Lucy’s. The only time I ever lost a wallet was as a teenager and it contained my SS card. I have never needed to have a physical card since.

I have thought I should get a replacement card, particularly before I become eligible for SS retirement benefits.

ETA: I just requested a replacement SS card online. I figured no better time to do it than while I was thinking about it.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/opinion/trump-wins-harris-loses.html

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Employers need proof of employment eligibility. Which a SS card can satisfy, but so can a birth certificate, along with a drivers license. Or a passport can satisfy both identity and employment eligibility at the same time, so that’s always what I’ve used.

I don’t have a NYT sub anymore, but I agree with the headline.

I would modify it to say that he’s a large part of who we are.

The majority of voters did not vote for Trump in 2024. The lack of meaningful primaries for the democrats made it difficult for the nominee to make themselves known to the electorate, especially the working class.

Democrats definitely need a lot of work but only need a 2% shift. That being said, the next GOP nominee for president may be more formidable than Trump.

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