Alex Newman writes:
It broke Ruth Freeborn’s heart to give up her U.S. citizenship that fateful day last year. Unfortunately for the Oklahoma native, though, it was either that, or her family. Ruth’s Canadian husband of 33 years, who earns all of the middle-class family’s income, “simply could not go along with this situation,” she explained. “To find myself suddenly not able to live, bank, save or to keep peace in my marriage while being American at the same time was shocking at first and deeply disturbing to me.”
Read the entire article here: http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/item/17986-the-dark-road-the-worst-tax-law-you-ve-never-heard-about://
Thanks — and so do you. You don’t know how many times you make me chuckle when I don’t feel like it. (But really, that is what I am in the news articles. Only you and others here know any more than that — the most important that I’m not going to quietly fade away from the fight.)
Thanks, Calgary411. I’m glad I’ve made you smile when you maybe needed to the most.
The Stunning Metamorphosis Of An “Obama Girl”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-04-09/stunning-metamorphosis-obama-girl
“And this is Carey Wedler now, grown up, who has finally “googled the news”, and having seen through the lies, realizes that Obama has “become exactly like the George Bush” that she “used to so vitriolically hate.”
Below are some of her observations on all the “mayhem and crime” committed by the president:
You bailed out bankers and placed them in your cabinet.
You placed Monsanto in charge of your FDA
You helped out pharmaceutical and health insurance companies with Obamacare
You expanded Bush’s wars and started new ones with drones branding yourself a humanitarian war monger
You bragged about crippling sanctions against Iran though they directly affected civilians
You extended the patriot act and asserted your right to spy on the American people
You asserted your right to detain them without trial
You seized the authority to assassinate Americans without providing any evidence of their guilt or offering them due process of law
You viciously punish journalists and pursue whistleblowers who expose your crimes though you vowed to protect them when you were running for office
You arm Al Qaeda insurgents and refused to close Guantanamo, and you along with congress have criminalized protest
And still you have the audacity to scold dictators about democracy, protests and freedom
Her conclusion:
Mr. Obama – you are the biggest fraud that has ever been perpetrated on the American people and it’s been a long time since I bought into it so I think it’s about time to burn your shirt.”
When media approaches me it is through twitter, except this time when Alex emailed me. If you have other stories or angles you want covered, twitter seems to be a place media reaches out to people. I have also told each and every journalist that this *and much worse* is happening to thousands of people and said that I am luckier than many as I am out of it now *almost*. I have referred to others situations when speaking with all of them. I too think my particular renunciation story is REALLY old hat for this venue. I have also thought frequently when I do media if it always needs to be republished here as truly it is the same story? You all have read it over and over but, others haven’t so I can still tell it and you don’t HAVE to read it at Brock every time if it is not useful *again*..lmao! I’ve had all those questions go through my mind too for quite some time now. I do feel media will grow sick of the same story. It’s only normal they would and yet I still occasionally am contacted. WSJ, Reuters, NPR, CBC radio, Occupy.com, Global, McClatchy, The New American, Zoomer *did they ever publish?*, others I can’t remember.. Yep, with the same renunciation experience! If they ask though, I’ll do it again. But really it’s a five minute flash in the pan and so I am really encouraging MANY others to please speak up if asked. Media seems to want the personal interest angle. Or maybe that’s all they want from me since that certainly is all I’d have to give them. It’s been quite a journey to figure out for myself if this does any good or not for others. I think it does and that others should be engaged by any media showing FATCA up for the harm it can do.
I LIKE to see this in the news every single day. It needs to stay front and centre from EVERY angle possible. We have a handful of you brave souls coming out to speak to the media but, more coming forward would be great! Many of you in the shadows have talents that could be so helpful. Lynne, Victoria and so many of you are great writers! I hope there will be more and ever expanding talents brought here. More people helped. More willing to speak up. All these articles are whatever angle they take is outreach in a way that cannot be done without media.
I knew Alex was doing this but, not when it would be published and I am amazed at how well he writes and am extremely grateful to him. He goes into great detail on everything wrong with FATCA not just the renunciations but, so much more…. I have mentioned to a few people some time ago that I am not sure I should be telling what I have experienced due to FATCA with media anymore in emails but, hadn’t said that to everyone at Brock these being personal doubts until now.,.. I have decided that I’m not going to say “no” if approached further for the simple fact that so many, many people do not think this applies to them, that it won’t happen to them. That it is too outlandish. I hope they will see an average person doing nothing wrong who had this happen to them and then look at their own situation and investigate. Some will blow it off and call me a traitor and others will say “Well, our situation may be worse! We should find out.” and hopefully they will be helped and in turn get into this fight. Others I hope not affected will see maybe FATCA isn’t the way to go after all. By the end of summer…look out.
Actually the part about the renunciation is only a small part but, the rest I don’t discuss in detail and won’t, the hurt it has caused siblings, my father, divisions, arguments, the issues with my son in full as that is private and so much more.
Many new comers have been brought into this by reading or hearing all our stories. I’ve heard over and over “I saw it on the news on t.v. or I head it on the radio, I read it in an article” when people call me or email me. * no such thing as bad press* if it reaches at least one person each time who can push back with us, who will then also speak out on both sides of that border.
That’s the only goal for me anyway and frankly, yes, I’m rather sick of myself telling that story again and again…it’s all I got and it’s not fun sharing it with the world as I have feelings about it that I’d rather others not be given the opportunity to scrutinize or judge. I feel I now have zero privacy left and I am usually a very private person.. As some of you well know when you do this you also hang yourself out there for criticism. Nasty phone calls, horrible remarks, assumptions about why you may or may not being doing it and perhaps if you are even telling the truth or if you are to be dismissed entirely since it’s okay for a few thousand to go under the bus in the name of catching “tax cheats” ..not fun but…I got sick of being afraid and am not going to stop speaking out..if I feel it may still help..for a while. Besides, I can’t contribute what Allison does not being a professional or what any of you do not being in your situation and certainly not having the skills some of you have!!. Pacifica your mind is like a steal trap. Tricia you keep such detailed notes and I am such a slob with my note keeping. All these things together are important. Bring what you can and what you have.
I can’t tell someone else’s story and there’s only a small part of mine I’m willing to go into. Unless I make things up because revisiting isn’t that wonderful an experience. And some in my family will be so pleased when I don”t tell it in media anymore! LOL I feel strongly about others out there being able to identify, or waking up and jumping in, getting help, then helping. If in the process some POL out there who engineered FATCA has to be shown up for what they doing, or if some person who thinks we are all rich tax cheats reads and changes their mind then it’s all worth it in the end. Hopefully, each time it brings new energies to this site and Maple, new efforts. The more press the more help with a Charter Challenge and the more people can start to take action on their own situations. Yet at some point that story will not be useful to Brock any longer and that time may well be now. That’s all good with me. I’ll still tell it when asked if it is useful somewhere to someone.
Calgary, don’t think anyone thinks you are “that poor woman” I think they see you as that STRONG and BRAVE woman. Your story has probably helped so many out there in your situation. People who may read here every day and now feel helped, who will jump in more bravely later but, who certainly would view you as an outspoken advocate. Someone they are thankful to for speaking out. It has also helped to spur many to join this fight in ways you know and in some you probably will never know.
Pols in the U.S. and in Canada cannot hide from what is written in black and white. They ought to be shamed publicly and right now only a few can come forward or will do so. I hope that turns into a tsunami before long and then you nor I will need to retell a thing. There will be literally hundreds fed up and willing to talk. *fingers crossed* but, first they have to be reached. My experience was being in terror of being in the media and then one of you did it first and that made me brave…sort of. So, perhaps I feel others may be encouraged. Maybe those in the U.S., average every day people reading that will find it so insane and horrible they too will want to change FATCA. Maybe the letters, media, contacts with MP’s can all work together to grow this to put a stop to FATCA before a lot more people are harmed by it. That’s all I can hope for. It will not affect me personally if FATCA is changed or not as I am out of the danger it brings now and only await my CLN. We saw the impact today when an MP took some of those personal stories and used them to speak out about those individuals and in doing so certainly got his point across in an effective manner.
Your story, or mine or Petros, or anyone else’s here is not just about what is happening to us here at Brock. It’s about the many who haven’t heard about this yet and will identify. We haven’t hit July yet or what is to come after that. One can only hope all our media engagement spurs more into action. I am so hoping for thousands to come and bring new efforts, new energies and yes, new stories to share with the media so it doesn’t appear that these outrages are only happening to a small group when we fully know that is not the case. Perhaps this will bring a much bigger public push back? Perhaps they’ll be so engaged as to donate to the Charter Challenge and stop this insanity here in Canada. If it only brings one dollar per new person, it’s worth it. If you’re out there and still silent there is so much you can do by coming forward for yourself and others. In a different world this is the sort of experience I’d never share with anyone other than the most trusted and supportive friends or family.
My real and only goal is that others will be helped and at the same time work to engage governments on another level. I don’t think these two things are mutually exclusive. I try to work this on more than one front when possible. Unlike those who crafted FATCA I have done a “cost/benefit” analysis on whether or not I should keep telling my renunciation story from several perspectives. For now, the benefits for others stuck in this trap and perhaps those looking to help fight it outweighed the cost, at least that is the motivation. Or maybe just to make someone else who felt as I did at the time not feel so alone with it.
Having said that if I do speak to media again and you are all sick to death of me…LOLOL! Then please don’t publish *republish* my renunciation story here again. Hopefully that won’t be necessary to even have to consider, since I’m counting on a whole lot of you still silent out there to come from the shadows and be the ones to answer those media calls. To help with this effort. “Seen?” as they say in Jamaica.
@AtticusinCanada
I have found some figures from an archived section of the StatCan website that demonstrate that people in Canada who were born in the U.S. are not terribly wealthy. The data are a bit old (from 2005), but quite interesting. According to StatCan, the average total income in 2005 for people in Canada who were born in the U.S. was C$44,930; however, averages can be affected by really high incomes (for example, if Bill Gates and Warren Buffet moved up to Canada, the number would go up dramatically but the typical U.S.-born person wouldn’t be any better off). The median, the income of the person right in the middle of the income distribution is a better measure and that was C$29,267. This means half of U.S.-born people had a total income less that C$29,267 in 2005, which doesn’t seem like that much.
As far as citizenship goes, the StatCan data also show that 140,710 of the 250,540 U.S.-born people in Canada considered themselves to be solely Canadian. It is a bit of a monster URL unfortunately.
Of course, the biggest block of U.S.-born people outside the U.S. is in Mexico, which has three times as many U.S. born residents as Canada. These are not snowbirds since less that 10% seem to be living on visas of any sort. ,Mexican Americans may not be wealthy as a group but some could be looking at potentially massive fines. Why couldn’t FATCA at least have based the fine on the tax owed? The controlled foreign corporation fines and even the FBAR fines could create havoc in Mexico. I have just had a look at the IRS website and a surprising number of forms don’t seem to have a Spanish version. I hope the Dominicans in Rangel’s district realise what he has done to them and vote him out of office.
@Atticus,
We need more CANADIAN media to pick up on this FATCA fiasco, and not so much from a ‘why I renounced US citizenship’ or ‘how to renounce US citizenship’ perspective, but from a ‘Canada is throwing 1 million CANADIANs under the bus’ perspective. I sent Patrick Cain the link to Angus’s speech. Patrick has been sympathetic to our cause. Hopefully, he will see that he can really take it to a level that will PISS off the Canadian public big time. That’s what we need!
I think people blaming Obama for all of this are just as blind as people who blame Republicans for everything.
The problem sits much deeper than political parties and administrations.
Just now in looking at these articles and posts, I am reading about the problems and unfairness of the Bank Securities Act of 1933 (under the “New Deal” by FDR, Democrat) and Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 (Richard Nixon, Republican) and USA PATRIOT Act (George W. Bush, Republican).
The real problem lies with the American Government, and how it is misaligned with the American people. Likewise, it is about falsehood, secrecy and brainwashing. So that part of it is about the American people failing to demand and obtain honesty (partly due to their gullibility) from the U.S. Government.
@Whitekat, Yes, more Canadian media is a good thing too and is needed badly. I didn’t think one precluded the other. Engage them on twitter or they will engage you I believe. Good that you contacted Cain.
@Publius that’s great data. Thank you!
@Blackpoplar
Obama as a candidate supported Levin’s legislation on tax havens, which was a much more targeted piece of legislation and wouldn’t have hit Canada so hard, although U.S. persons in Switzerland would have still have suffered. Obama could have decided not to sign the HIRE Act, but that would not have probably gone down well given the unemployment rate. That is why I blame certain Democrats in the House and Senate for creating this monstrosity.
FATCA gets the focus because it makes everything that came before it enforceable. Until FATCA came along, Congress would put harmful provisions into legislation, but it would not necessarily affect the unaware citizen abroad. Now it does.
@Atticus, I don’t think one precludes the other either, just saying that we are Canadians while living in Canada, not Americans, and USA has shown us that they could give two S&!ts about those of us living outside its borders, other than to use birth in USA as an excuse to force us to pay for their debt problems. Our main hope, as Canadians, I think, is to get the message out to the Canadian public, that Canadians are getting shafted by their own government who instead of protecting us from a foreign government, is handing us over on a silver platter whilst saying its no big deal, just an information exchange. Meanwhile, CRA has shut down its online tax reporting system due to a security breach.
@Atticus, I haven’t used twitter yet, but still have managed to engage some media via emails and phone conversations. I am afraid if I start tweeting, I will spend even MORE time on this FATCA obsession than I already do. The dog and cat hair floating around me is really starting to become annoying.
Just in case people were looking for companies to boycott: (I say that anyone who supported Obama (the architect of the legislation that brought FATCA into play is equally to blame as Obama himself).
These companies supported Obama’s re-election bid in 2012 and have contributed to his continued destruction of the US economy – not that past presidents have been any better.
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/contrib.php?id=N00009638
@Whitekat, oh you have the pet hair issue going on too? Glad to know I’m not the only one! You didn’t sign up for twitter?? Because someone with your handle and name started following me today. :S
Actually I had hoped to still engage R.O. AARO and ACA to a degree in order to get maximum push on this. I’ll go from every single angle possible until it’s no longer possible. Every dime that might be included in the Charter Challenge from every quarter in the world is where I want to aim including here of course!
SO many people are going to be so damaged come July. Very worried. That definition of “U.S. person” is so wide sweeping…horrible. horrible. Really concerned about some older folks, one who had heart surgery last year, another who had a liver transplant recently and folks in Patricia’s position who will find out soon..and many, many more in each one of their lives this is going to just wreck havoc .at least we are armed and informed here long ago. As bad as it is some are lucky here to know where they stand for so long. Taking phone calls has still been heart breaking. If the Canadian government won’t stop this then it’s a Charter Challenge and all the critical mass that will require must be brought to bear.