Former Pennsylvania police officer officer, Larry Hohol, has produced a video which exposes corruption in State of Pennsylvania regarding the case of New Yorker Robert Leone.
My plea with those who are planning to visit the United State that you realize that there are far greater risks with that country than just simply your fear of the IRS. The corruption is becoming systemic. At the end of the video, Mr. Hohol compares Pennsylvania to a Third World country. I laughed with bitter chagrin when he said that. Does anyone here believe that the United States isn’t already a police state?
[As a concession to Just Me’s being startled by the graphic photo of Robert Leone, I’ve moved the embed of the youtube video to after the “read more” click; Warning the video is somewhat graphic and violent, and the material may shock your pro-American sensibilities]
Well, I see that I’m going to have to write up a full post on why the case of Robert Leone is not just some isolated police brutality case, but evidence of systemic arrogance and abuse within the overall justice system of the United States–that this makes it an issue that deeply concerns ME, if not some of you others, because I am the ringleader here. Some of you who visit the US freely (Sally) or who now live in US jurisdiction now may feel that I am being a crank–but perhaps you should also listen to Russ Hunt on the radio program that since he heard about these tax issues a year ago, he has intentionally avoided the United States out of fear. Russ is a university professor. Is he a nut job?
These are not the words of some crank–or perhaps you should have figured out a long time ago that I am a crank, a nutcase living in Canada who thinks that justice in the United States is no longer possible, for me, and a million other Canadian residents who happen to be American citizens. When the IRS threatens you with fines of 385% of your financial financial wealth and wishes to lure you into an OVDI program? Is justice possible? Do you ever get the feeling that the reason more people are not in prison in the United States is because the entire population can’t fit in the limit space in the prisons? Because with the laws the way they are set up and those who police the population being arrogant, everyone would eventually be in prison. Some of them deserve to be in prison. Like the guy who imported prawns in a plastic bags instead of boxes. Or Conrad Black, who moved boxes out of his Ontario office, and that was caught, can you believe it, on security cameras.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/whistleblower-tsa-deliberately-hiring-psychopathic-criminals.html
“Explaining how his job involved filing reports on other TSA screeners
who didn’t follow procedure, “Rob” expressed his alarm at the fact that
criminals were being hired who exhibited the behavior of “psycopaths.”
“We have a program in the state of Rhode Island where we take
prisoners who are out for non violent drug offenses and everything else –
basically sociopaths – and we’re sending them to a ten day course and
getting them out in uniform out checking people,” said the
whistleblower.
Rob added that people who seemed professional were disregarded in
favor of applicants who had criminal records and displayed a tendency
for megalomania and power trip behavior.
“If they have a background and it’s something like violence or
abusing authority we put them right in, we put them guys on the floor
first day,” said Rob, adding he was also encouraged to hire Iraq war
veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“It’s all about the power trip, it’s all about having people bug
their eyes out at the public and getting the public conditioned to the
fact that the police state is coming,” he added, noting how TSA
screeners were directed to stick their chests out and “eyeball people.”
Yes Christophe, lets pretend that the only problem is with one small IRS program that disadvantages US/Canadian dual citizens.
@Petros,
OK, I know this site is your “baby” and thus its your rules. Nevertheless, I would like to ask you to please calm down.
About police brutality — of course when police officers step out of line, they ought to be punished appropriately. But the only way to PREVENT (or at least reduce) police brutality is appropriate standards and training beforehand. If the training and standards are missing, then brutality will often occur when the situation is “right”. And the only brutal officers that might get punished are those that get “caught”. Without standards and training, there is more likelihood of a coverup if things get out of hand, because punishment seems inappropriate to the police. If people are in a position of power without adequate guidance, things can go quite badly. While Americans do do this (Abu Ghraib for example), the US has no monopoly on this kind of behavior. It is normal psychology. (http://www.lucifereffect.com/)
On the new health care bill in the US – Before you jump to conclusions you should actually READ the law. Americans living abroad won’t have to pay because they are presumed to be “covered by insurance”. Have a look at the links here: http://www.aca.ch/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=521&Itemid=51 (Note that we have ACA to thank for this. In the original draft, Congress had forgotten that some Americans live in the civilized world, where mandatory universal health insurance has been in force for decades, or over a century in the case of Germany.)
I think it will be more productive if the Isaac Brock Society doesn’t get distracted by “shit happens in America” or “America is evil” type issues. Instead the Society should focus on issues peculiar to US persons living abroad. Besides the FBAR, FATCA, OVDI “bait and switch” mess, that would be the outrageous proposals about passports. (On the latter, there’s at least a temporary reprieve: http://www.aca.ch/joomla/index.php?)option=com_content&task=view&id=519&Itemid=132)
If we want our ex-homeland to see the light, we have to convince them. This is not easy. Attack is not convincing if you’re dealing with a powerful opponent. And convincing is not easy if the opponent is both clueless about our reality and motivated to show success in catching “rich tax cheats”.
If we accuse IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman of being a ax murderer, he and everyone else will know that is not true. That would seem outrageous. If we do that, no one will listen to us. We will have disqualified ourselves.
Once again, I realize the Isaac Brock Society is your party. If you want to continue with “ax murderer” type accusations, that’s your prerogative. Sally will pack her bags, get out and stay out.
Sally,
(who is happy that her former home might finally get reasonable health care policy)
I don’t think anyone has labelled Shulman an ax murderer. I think we may have suggested Timothy Geithner is a tax evader, but that’s a documented fact. Yet, Shulman and Geithner have the audacity to call us tax cheats just because we choose to live, work, save, invest and have average lives outside of US.
In any case, USA is not Mayberry any more (if it ever was). Andy Griffiths died today.
Sally, I hope you will hang in. There is usually good discussion here, although sometimes it gets somewhat testy.
@Sally, Thanks for the admonition to calm down.
As for the Obamacare, expats will be expected to pay the special taxes that have been implemented to pay for it: we may not have to have individual coverage and pay the penalty, but we will have to pay the extra taxes. As I said, I don’t really care what health care they have in the United States, provided that they pay for it themselves. Well, that’s not going to happen because US deficit spending is also a hidden tax on foreigners.
As for the Isaac Brock Society blog, it is forum that I administrate but is done on behalf of others. I created the website at the behest of a group of six Canadians who were participants at the Expat Forum. One of the reasons that we left that forum is that the moderators there had decided very clearly for us what the parameters of our conversation should be. Clearly, this post would have been strictly off limits. Indeed, it was a similar sort of question–regarding how the United States was becoming a police state–that the moderators shut down. So I will have to disagree that the parameters of the Isaac Brock Society must be so narrowly defined as you have suggested. I will quote from a post that I wrote about the experience at the Expat Forum and why we started this site (please note the boldface letters is a reference to a thread which in my view differs little from this thread):
Thus, the current thread is not outside of the scope of our interests at the Isaac Brock Society, as we created this site, ostensibly to be able to say unpopular things about the USA and to be able to criticize its laws suspending constitutional rights. Moreover, we had to create this site so that moderators at the Expat Forum could not decide for us what we could talk about.
Larry Hohol who made the video numerous times mentions that the police did tactics which were a violation of their training. Training is no solution; they are already receiving proper police training.
I know that it is always a temptation to make straw man arguments, but please consider what I’ve said here. I have not said that Dennis Shulman is an ax-murderer or anything like it. I have argued that the United States has become a police state. This video shows why having a police state is not a good idea–because police states punish innocent people, and they punish guilty people well beyond what they merit for their crimes and because police states have no regard for the rights of citizens or for universal human rights. We expats have also become victims of this police state which is trying to reach outside its borders into the jurisdiction of other sovereign countries.
Furthermore, I will repeat myself: these issues are highly relevant for expats. If you consider that basic constitutional and human rights of Robert Leone have been systematically abused by the justice system, then you might understand why the United States has systematically abused the constitutional rights (see side bar) and universal human rights of expats, it is because the United States government and many local and state governments no longer understand basic human and constitutional rights. This is a serious problem. The officers of the law should understand and enforce the basics of the law. If they are too stupid or corrupt to understand these, then the US citizen has no protection and is suffering under the same sort of abuse that people suffered under totalitarian regimes throughout history. Rarely do such abuses start all at once. They come in the form of creep–that’s why the analogy of the boiled frog is appropriate. And that is why we should pay close attention to all the Robert Leones out there.
Peter, FWIW, I agree with Sally & Christophe. We need to stay focused on immigration and residency-based taxation. I can find at least one Leone story per WEEK, but crazy stuff also happens in other countriees too (like quick shots to the head that I have seen here… sorry for the graphic nature!).
This is not exclusively an American problem, but rather a problem for most Western socities. The whole notion of letting some bloke have so much power should be reviewed by most countries because it’s clearly not working.
The best thing, ** IMHO **, is to focus on issues that affect us directly: immigration and taxes, and avoid all of this “sovereign” stuff or highlighting every fault with the US when many faults also exist elsewhere. Just my 2 centavos…
OK Petros, if the idea is just to whine about all injustices occurring in or perpetrated by the USA, while ignoring all other injustices in the world, I suppose I misunderstood the purpose of the forum. I thought it was a forum for the special interests of US persons abroad who were having trouble with the misguided treatment by the IRS and Congress. (Maybe you should change the misleading motto…)
Unfocussed whining doesn’t make sense to me.
Anyway, its your party. I guess I’ll get my coat and go home.
Sally.
@Geeez, Which bloke with too much power are you talking about? The guy who broke his hand hitting Leone, or the five or so other guys that participated in the beating? Or was it the guy who was supposed to investigate, from the Pennsylvania police’s bureau of integrity and professional standards; or the District of Attorney who took the case to trial; or was the bloke the judge who tried Leone’s case. You find one Leone a week where you live? Well that’s a great reason not to visit, sorry. I’ve never been anywhere that this is a regular occurrence, at least to my knowledge. I guess this seems like big deal to me because I don’t have cable TV or something.
Listen, let’s say one of us decides to take his case to the courts–to defy the law, and if charged with a crime like FBAR to take it to the courts–I mean and we are going to fund him with the 20 million he needs to take it all the way to the SCOTUS, right? He’s been charged with FBAR, unjustly. So they take my arguments on the right hand column, that say you know, that every single one of our constitutional rights have been obliterated, 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th, by unconstitutional demands for taxation without representation, general warrant FBARs in violation of 4th Amendment, 5th amendment presumption of innocence, etc. The only catch is that person actually has to appear in the United States and stand before the judge. Well, the answer is, not I. I don’t want to be Robert Leone, Conrad Black, Martha Stewart, etc.
So ignore this story. I urge you. Just walk on, pay no attention to any media sources. Don’t connect the dots. But one question I asked Sally is, Do you really think it’s safe for me to enter the US? She said probably. Well, I don’t like my chances. Do I need to explain why?
Several other posts like this have appeared at Isaac Brock, and this is not the first. Here are some other posts that might have to do with the US as a police state, show the US in a negatvie light, show Canadian patriotism, or are otherwise unrelated to US tax, citizenship, FBAR or FATCA. The shocking nature of the video of Robert Leones reaches a new height of provocation, yet we have discussed these issues before, if only in abstract:
Civil Forfeiture and Boiled FrogsRCMP ‘to ease Canadians into the idea’ of U.S. agents in CanadaGo back to Canada, you hoser93-Year-Old Tennessee Woman Who Cleaned State Capitol For 30 Years Denied Voter IDUS bullies the EU into sharing passenger dataBlame Canada : Who is next in the United States grab for power?October to March: US government borrows 53 cents on every dollar in "budget"U.S. CensorshipCivil disobedience in the face of desperate government: John Rubino videoTake the Money and Run…for officeFederal appeals court challenges ObamaA behind-the-scenes look at how a government might work at connecting an activist group with a terrorist one, by Chris HedgesThe Ever Increasing Police StateToronto tempts bankers tense about Volcker rule – Even the banks want out of the U.S.An Historical Primer for the War of 1812The New US Trade "Task Force": Levelling the playing field or lashing out?Where is America headed?From the Globe …It's more important that the guilty be punished than the innocent be free – what would John Adams say?Who Won The War of 1812?Is the US going to collapse by 2025?The US is Morphing Into East Berlin, by Monty PelerinI breathed a sigh of relief that Reuters didn't mention people who renounce their citizenshipWelcome to the United States: Lesson I. Watch what you tweetTen Reasons the United States is no longer the land of the Free: Washington PostThe War of 1812 is Canada's Fourth of JulyWhy the Patriot Act Means That Patriots Must ActThe polemic of this thread highlights a fascinating question that every United States person abroad invariably decides for themselves: Does the US act out of evil or stupidity when setting its policies.
I suspect a little of both.
@Sally, Perhaps you did miss a little what we have intended to do here. We intended to have a open conversation about the problems that we are having with the United States extra-territorial overreach–we who are abroad who are also US citizens, possibly deemed as US citizens, and former citizens. Here is what we have put together as our purpose:
This is a battle. It is with the fattest most spoiled country in the world, with corruption that is on the largest scale ever. It is corrupted by money. It is corrupted by violence. And it is corrupted by law enforcement that ignores the constitutional rights of the people that it is paid to protect.
This is not a safe conversation. You have come along and joined in occasionally, and we are very grateful indeed for your participation–especially for your discussion of your own case in the OVDI. As Blaze said, we will be sorry to see you go. But your leaving, can’t stop this conversation. I don’t control it either. I’ve only provided the platform on which it takes place. It is not “my party” in that sense. Please stop accusing me of that. I have only provided a thread here that discusses the unjust beating and incarceration of young man in the state of Pennsylvania, and I have had argued that it relates to our issues. Yet I find it sad that the only argument I see that it doesn’t relate to our issues are pretty weak: the classic, you are going to be seen as cranks (i.e., ad hominem); or you are saying that Douglas Shulman is ax murderer (straw man); you’re whining about the US; or finally, this shouldn’t be part of the conversation at all (censorship); such things happen in other countries (well actually, no one has provided me a recent analogous example of this happening in Canada where I live); and finally, I’m leaving if you don’t stop talking about this. Yet still, it is not satisfying to me. I cannot shake my conclusion that it is safe for me to enter the United States; it is dangerous for me, as dangerous perhaps as it was for Robert Leone to stray into the State of Pennsylvania in his ride in his car the night he was arrested.
This is a real issue for me, whether you want to accept it or no. I do believe it is, for now, foolish for me to enter the United States. As an investor, I try to assess and reduce my risks. For me, the risk is too high.
Wellington: I’m not sure which frightens me more, evil or stupidity. Unfortunately the two tend to combine into the mother of all horror shows.
Petros: I’m with you. Single-String Sally has one good tune, and is welcome to play it solo any old time, but the band is way more raucous.
Let’s keep perspective. This is a Police State, in case we need a reminder.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/03/world/meast/syria-torture-report/index.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18684443
And even in Australia and New Zealand, I can pull reports of police brutality. It happens everywhere, and so let’s move on …
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/oct2011/melb-o22.shtml
http://www.republican.co.nz/New%20Zealand%20Police.html
@Just Me, As far as I know, I have not broken any laws in New Zealand. For what it is worth, Syria is a terrorist nation. To say that I’m saying something like, “United States is like Syria” is simply not true.
The issue for me is this: I have been treated with a presumption of guilt by the United States and threatened with imprisonment and severe fines of 385% of my wealth. I did not find a way to compliance such as what you did, so that you could live in the United States, i.e., pay 25K in fines reduced from 173K thanks to the tax advocate, pay lawyers, pay accountants, to come into compliance. Your story, among several others that I read at Phil Hodgen, were a warning to me. For if they treated those who entered an amnesty program so harshly then how much more would they treat a noisy or quiet disclosure with severity–outside an amnesty program. Yet we are learning that IRS treats more leniently those who are outside the program–yet still I do not trust the IRS.
Now the country that has presumed me to be guilty asks me to fess up and hand over 27.5% of my wealth or risk 383% fines outside the program. How would my life be better if the United States succeeded in doing that? I am not experiencing protection from the United States at all. The UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS THE BIGGEST THREAT IN THE ENTIRE WORLD TO MY WELL BEING AND SECURITY. You ask me to move on, stop talking about the Robert Leones. You say bad stuff happens in New Zealand–well, I’m sure there are forums for that crap. We are talking about the abuse of the United States on its citizens and the corruption of the state power in the United States. That is part of the discussion. Besides, there are many Canadians here on this forum. Canadians are deeply affected by these issues–something like 90% of the Canadian population lives within 100 miles of the US border. I think New Zealand is a bit farther away, last I checked.
I’m a little surprised by your reaction. A couple of the posts listed above, about the US as a police state, were threads originated by you.
*Petros, Why attack Just Me? He has worked tirelessly for us. Let’s move on from this topic. Let it go!
Don’t want to stir the pot more than necessary, but actually “police state” doesn’t equate to brutal dictatorship as Just Me writes.
A police state can also occur in a representative democracy like the US. Gonzolo Lira wrote an interesting post in case anyone is interested. See the Wikipedia definition for details.
The United States really is a police state. Sorry folks. I think this should at least be recognized. Problem is, it’s like the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing…. the US has always set itself up as the shining City on the Hill and a beacon for world freedom. But the facts don’t fit the fiction anymore. The sovereign has fewer legal constraints than ever to do as it pleases.
I guess I’m a crank for asserting this, but that’s fine. It took me a long time to recognize the problem and become one 😉
Of course, this is outside of what this blog is or should be. It’s up to Petros and the other founding fathers/mothers to determine that.
Having said that, although I sympathize with the comments from Petros, ConfederateH, et. al., Issac Brock is really THE place on the internet for US expat tax issues — as far as I’m aware.
The evolution of the US into a police state/fascist dictatorship is more than adequately covered in places like Prison Planet.
Thus, it would be shame (think of it as brand dilution), if this site were to adopt a heavy focus on issues such as police brutality, or say, corruption of the financial world.
Just sayin’.
@Petros.
I take your point, but I just think you are going a bit overboard with your paranoia and your pictures. America is hardly a police state for god’s sake. This crap happens everywhere in the world!!! EVERYWHERE, even there in Canada! Did you know that Canadian Customs officials can be pretty insolent too, as they were to me in my border crossing last week. I won’t extrapolate that to all Canadians! Nor will I issue warnings to other Americans heading north. Actually, I told my wife they were acting like the Yanks! Must have been working too closely together there at the border. LOL.
There is a lot to criticize America for, and warn about, and I do. However, if you want to warn Canadians, then also warn them stay out of inland Mexico on their next flight south where they might get beheaded in some drug gang violence which America’s drug habit and War on Drugs is responsible for of course! Maybe we should also post some pictures of beheadings to make the warning more graphic! I just didn’t think this was necessary, and frankly, the picture you posted startled me. I might have been more tolerant of just the written warning without the bloodied face.
As Sally said, it is your blog, so you can do as you wish. I was invited here, which I appreciate. I have enjoyed contributing. But, if are to start down this path of almost sensational postings with pictures, then I think we are getting too far off subject. If it drives a Sally away, then I think we may lose the plot.
I guess we will agree to disagree.
@Cornwallis: You saw my response as an “attack”? I didn’t attack, I responded. Just Me is my friend; he’s here because we invited to join us here and participate. He’s been absolutely brilliant too. I agree.
@ Just Me; Well first of all, it is not “my blog”, because I am a member of the Isaac Brock Society, as an informal association, but not the owner. The fact is that there are 38 people who have been authorized as authors and who can thus begin a new thread. As for the “picture”, I posted an investigative youtube video by former Pennsylvania police officer. The video embedded with that picture.
I have give quite substantial reasons why I see that this relates to the subject of this blog, and explain why we have the freedom to make such posts. In return, I get called a paranoid and a crank. This is an attempt to steer the conversation towards a more pleasant direction.
And I actually totally disagree with the statement that this stuff happens everywhere. Police brutality can occur everywhere, but this is not just a story of police brutality. It is a story of systemic corruption within the entire system. If it had been a story of a rogue cop and his partner, that would be one thing. Did you watch the video? I will never drive through the state of Pennsylvania nor allow a family member to do that.
Yet Syria has not threatened me with financial ruin. Neither has New Zealand. And this comes down to an interesting conundrum.
Why indeed if I am “paranoid” about the United States, do you all feel you need to hush it up? Who are you trying to impress? You folks are saying it dilutes the product. Well I gave a long list of posts above that deal with anti-America sentiments or claim that the US has become a police state, or portray the United States a unilateral bully in the
world, including two by Just Me (
Ten Reasons the United States is no longer the land of the Free: Washington Posthe sees a connection by adding FATCA to a long lists of freedoms lost;Where is America headed?, he cites a Naomi Klein article that says:Why is it that this albeit unpleasant post is now the subject of such objections? I am not making an assertion that Just Me has never made. He repeats the accusation that the US is a police state; he makes the connection to issues at the Isaac Brock Society. Now he and others are trying to put pressure on me not to give expression to my actual fear of entering the United States. What have I done except give a concrete example of the unconstitutional detention of an actual citizen of the United States with a name, who was tortured and now remains in custody? I surprised that some of you folks want to trivialize my concerns and fears by calling it paranoia.
Is it because Sally said she is leaving because of this post? If I were to allow that to make me take down this post, how is Sally better than an Expat Forum moderator.
On two other occasions, I’ve had to write furiously to defend this blog’s anti-censorship policy. This is the first time I’ve had to defend my own post.
Petros: Is it because Sally said she is leaving because of this post? If I were to allow that to make me take down this post, how is Sally better than an Expat Forum moderator.
I’m not sure if that’s a genuine question or a rhetorical one, but I’ll take a stab. The difference is that of censorship versus selection. Expat Forum mods exercise unilateral control via authority; if they don’t like it they exorcise posts, and that’s that. Sally voiced a viewpoint, but she can neither remove your post nor make you remove it.
For what it’s worth, I agree with her. I’m not particularly against US bashing (deserved or even otherwise!) and I entirely sympathize with your views here. I worry however that the “brand dilution” referred to earlier might turn off new visitors who could otherwise benefit greatly from the accumulated knowledge here. This site is one of the few bright spots in a general cesspit of misleading, bad, and wrong information for US expats, dual citizens and the like, and credit to you for creating it. It’d be a shame to see it veer away from a laser focus on our one common difficulty.
As to whether I’m being paranoid, a person who is in the United States as a guest, such as what I would be if ever I were to venture South, what would I face? Sympathy or antipathy? Please look again at my post about the comment stream at McClatchy? What if I am detained by border guards or police and they find out who I am, the guy you know who renounced his US citizenship to save money? In a short time, I was called a tax cheat, greedy, treasonous, and lazy coward. Now suppose I fall into the hands of the Pennsylvania police or the like. Do you think that this lazy coward, treasonous greedy tax cheat will receive treatment more lenient than some fellow who was just on a joy ride with his car one evening, Mr. Robert Leone? I am watching how the authorities treat people in the United States, the TFSA, the Department of Agriculture, the Tobacco, Firearms and Alcohol, the FBI, the IRS (with shotguns), and I am saying that I think I would be taking on too much risk. These are not the words of a crank or a paranoid, but an investor, a risk taker.
For those who think I’m diluting the message, I have news for you. This is part of the message of the Isaac Brock Society. Injustice towards expats. I wish I could travel to the United States, but even Roger Conklin has told me to avoid it. Steven J. Mopsick has said that I am a likely target of investigation by the IRS, at very least I would be on their watch list. And in order to preserve my constitutional rights, I have pleaded the Fifth Amendment on my tax forms. Some cowboy in the US may want to arrest me and see if they can get more information on why I pleaded the Fifth on my tax forms.
Setting aside the passions of the moment about the direction of America today, it is good on the 4th of July to pause and re-listen to these words from the Declaration of Independence. America may have lost its way, and it may be all that Petros charges, but these words are still an inspiration to all of us that wished it could more closely align its current policies with what we think it was founded to create…
Stated: The Declaration Of Independence
http://www.npr.org/2012/07/04/156191910/stated-the-declaration-of-independence
While we’re at it, here is the Isaac Brock declaration of Independence, 2012:
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/02/24/2012-declaration-of-independence/
We are certainly less independent as we should. Yesterday I got a bill from Kaiser of $25. I went to annual physical and it should be 100% covered. But they changed it to be an office visit. I was not sick, and I have not been sick for the last 6 plus years. I go to have annual physical once a year . But this time, they decided to bill me $25.
I would boycott any health insurance plan. And I could bring them on their knees to beg me to join. But now this new Obamacare will punish me through tax.
When you go to shopping, you have the power to buy or not to buy. When a patient goes to see a doctor, he/she should decide it is an office visit (when she/he is sick) or an annual physical if it is a routine check.
We are not so independent thanks to our growing bigger/bigger government — and these greedy health insurance.
The American Dream discussed http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2012/07/04/redesigning-the-american-dream/
Got my coat and am on my way out the door…
@Petros: If you still think this story is on-topic, you might consider changing the motto
from “Liberty and justice for all US persons abroad”
to “Miscellaneous complaints by US persons abroad about various injustices perpetrated by any kind of government employee in the United States (and not anywhere else)”
Just an idea, in the interest of “truth in advertising”. Have fun at your party.
Sally