I had a couple of my posts taken down by Keith Redmond at the American Expatriates Facebook Group.
The first made use of Lebron James comment, ‘I’m the best player in the world’.
I wrote, “Mirror Mirror on the wall, who is the best basketball player of them all?” Keith Redmond, the co-administrator of the Facebook group asked me what relevance it had to the group and I said it is analogous to American exceptionalism, “Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the most exceptional of them all?” It is really about the National Narcissistic Personality Disorder from which Americans suffer as a nation. It leads to the USA unilaterally imposing FATCA on the rest of the world as so beautifully captured in this video, which is still the best explanation of FATCA ever:
The second censored post reported on the State Department’s denunciation of Dominican Republic citing the United Nations human rights provisions. I said the USA was hypocritical because it violates the human rights of its own expats.
Then as Deedee Gierow, the Democrats Abroad co-administrator of the American Expatriates Facebook group, posted that she was sick and tired of all the bashing of the USA and that she, Keith and others were working very hard to lobby Washington (Facebook link). This solicited a discussion in which Redmond and Gierow heroically defended the purpose of the group and that they would henceforth delete any America-bashing content.
The American Expatriates group’s mission is to inform, educate, and provide the most up to date information regarding United States government policies affecting the lives of Americans living overseas. It is extremely important to mitigate the misconceptions about Americans living outside the United States vis-à-vis the public at large
It remains unclear to me how it is possible to have a group which discusses Citizenship Based Taxation and FATCA from an expat’s perspective without being anti-American. This is the conundrum–either the content is irrelevant (e.g., cookie recipes) or it is anti-American–e.g., discussions of the lives that are being ruined by FATCA and CBT. How do you stand by and allow innocent people to be destroyed by a foreign government and say positive things about that government?
There was some back and forth between myself and some of the other active members of the group, in which I learned that I am argumentative and offensive. Really? That really surprised me.
My third censored post was a comment: if we can’t really complain about how the USA is treating us, then we are supposed to be like a battered spouse, who quietly accepts abuse, and so I posted a link to the following page and suggested the situation was comparable to spousal abuse: Intimate Partner Violence Dynamics.
It seemed like Expat Forum deja vu, when I concluded that a censored forum is an oxymoron. So later when I suggested that some people would indeed leave the group because it wasn’t a safe place anymore, Redmond told me to leave. So I suppose my days are numbered.
I guess that is all I can write for now. My knee is bothering me and it is hard to stand up at my desk. In any case, it is good that some people are trying to lobby the US government, but I have no faith that that will change anything. So perhaps my cynicism and pessimism is not welcome in best of all worlds–but certainly not on certain “forums”. Cheers to you all.
@ @Barbara @Polly
it is the stages of grief and anger is one of those stages.
i to was a very angry person for about a year or so until i reached the acceptance stage. i made for me and me only what i feel was the best decision about this situation. i was angry about having to make said decision but once it was made and i accepted that it was made life got a whole lot better
hang in there it does get better. there is light at the end of the tunnel and it is not a train……
@ Steven
“Just tell your family and friends that it’s about time ALL americans started filing and paying taxes back to the countries their families originated from.
Only fair, isn’t it ?”
Oh, I have done just that. One responded, ” Don’t be silly!”. All others responded with blank and/or dumb looks. Not a single “Oh, I see yourpoint.” nor anything close.
@JapanT
I am not being fecetious at all I believe, I honestly think Ireland and Greece need to start taxing all those in the USA who are deemed to be Greek or Irish!!!
That includes John Kerry.
You’ll know you’re healed when you don’t need Isaac Brock Society anymore (but it’s good to come in for a check-up once in awhile), lol.
@ George
I am not a big fan of PM Abe but if I werehim, I summon Ambassador Kennedy and tell her that the US WILL NOT impose FATCA upon Japan nor any fines. If Kennedy does not “get it” I would tell her that if the US does, then we, Japan, will do the same to all Japanese, nisei, sansei, all decendants of Japan. There are many many more of them in the US than US persons in Japan, do the math Ambassador.
Further, we will confiscate all payments of all monies (royalties, etc) from US owned Japanese companies back to their patent companies in the US. We will also cease payment of all monies associated with hosting the US military and demand immediate payment of back rent due for the Embassy itself and take possession of the same if not paid in full immediately.
Friends do not extort friends, Ambassador Kennedy!
That’s what I would do if I were PM of Japan.
@Japan T
Yes I know, USA has the propaganda power to turn their citizens into blindfolded patriots. The US dollar is going to collapse very soon. The BRIC countries are ditching the US dollar and it looks loike Greece is going to join them.
When that happens, thos poor american homelanders won’t even know what hit them.
@ Steven
They won’t know what hit them but we will. A lotta good that’ll do us, but we will know.
#1. If the United States wants my wife’s FBARs, the Department of Treasury can go fuck themselves.
#2. If the United States IRS wants me to spend $2000/yr enlisting the help of a US CPA to do my wife’s tax returns, the IRS can go FUCK themselves.
#3. If the United States IRS wants to see MY returns (as a Canadian citizen) just because of a joint measly bank account, the IRS can go FUCK themselves, eh!?
#4. And Obama can bend over, stick his head up his ass and GO FUCK HIMSELF!!!
#5 And all Homelanders and Homelanders Abroad can go fuck themselves.
Does that make it absolutely clear? I’m not just angry at the United States and Homelanders/Homelanders Abroad, I’m FUCKING ENRAGED!!!
In fact, all I want to see is those Homelanders and Homelanders Abroad, take their wallets or purses and use the money that they were going to donate to their respective political parties, open their mouths wide, drop the money in and SWALLOW and I honest to god, hope they FUCKING CHOKE on it.
Call it vitriol, but that’s the point where I’m at; where I’m lashing out because nothing would give me more pleasure than to see that godforesaken, self-absorbed, narcissistic piece of shit nation that’s the United States go completely broke and turned into a wasteland.
Of course, that would be the fair thing to do… Unfortunately Americans at home wouldn’t go for it. Their excuses would be “Why the hell should I pay ~insert whatever country their families came from~? I don’t have anything to do with them. Why should they profit off my hard work…” Yeah…but they still expect those who have emigrated to those other countries to keep paying the US of A. Pot…meet Kettle.
Everyday, I wish that the United States would just disappear off the face of the planet. Every morning, I’m disappointed.
That’s a real good idea. I agree with you, up to a point. And, like FATCA, I would tell Prime Minister Abe to go “FUCK himself” as I am a sansei living in Canada who doesn’t deserve to be lumped in with those living in the Exceptional States of America.
Norman Diamond Just letting you know. My wife’s not Japanese (of American descent). She’s Irish-American from Texas, so she’d pretty much emasculate you verbally if you call her “cute”.
My apologies if I read your missive wrong. However I was seeing red at the presumptuousness of the Homelanders Abroad cabal at American Expatriates FB forum (they need to take themselves, hang themselves up on a bar and shake themselves until their brains fall out) and no matter which way I read it, it came out looking the way I saw it so I erupted.
@The Animal, Thank you for the clarification that Obama enacted FATCA in his first term, not his second. You are right. Please know whatever enthusiasm I had for him when he first became the first person of colour to be president and who had voted against the war in Iraq (unlike Hilary), has long since dissipated. To me, Obama ranks down among the worst presidents ever–right next to G W Bush.
I am not against regular, open-minded homelanders, only the vocal minority of close-minded people who are either unreasonably unsupportive of American-borns who move away from the homeland and/or those who are so far in bed with unjust politicians that they are practically an extension of them. I am feeling very anti-politician and anti-supporters-of-said-politicans who implement onerous rules no one expected AFTER they get in. They betray our trust; hence, they are traitors! Our new, youngest-premier-in-Canada (Gallant) is one of them, implementing things that came out of nowhere, that were never part of his platform pre-election. There are several studies showing the MOST desirable ways to generate money (such as installing toll booths at the provincial borders for incoming traffic), and instead of implementing any of those, he chose some of the WORST, such as piling debt onto university students and looting the elderly couple’s savings if a spouse needs nursing care. For years, there was a cap on what the spouse (or family) would contribute, and so, naturally, couples saved their money with that expectation. Now, what is the other spouse supposed to live on? Despicable!
One of the despicable things the US did, besides FATCA, is jacking up the fee for renunciation to @$3,000 Cdn. per person only a few weeks AFTER the US got every country’s IGA to go into effect July 1. They insisted everyone could renounce US citizenship if they didn’t want to file with the IRS (not counting, of course, those like Calgary411’s son who cannot); then they made it completely unaffordable, except for the wealthy. For a couple like my husband and me, that’s $6,000 Cdn. we can’t afford; never mind all the years of back-filing forms which wouldn’t come cheap. Despicable!
But I DON’T have homelander horror stories. I usually return to the US at least once every two years for extended family reasons, and last summer in Denver, I let everyone around me know about FATCA. They were appalled!! That said, my family members are NOT don’t-leave-the-US, starry-eyed types. I stayed with my sister who studied Spanish in Spain one year, her daughter did likewise. My brother was stationed with the Air Force in Europe for two years. They know what it’s like to live abroad. Another nephew still lives abroad and was visiting from teaching English in Asia (where he lives in an apt.). While his school helps its American ex-pat teachers deal with IRS returns, he realizes how awful it is for us who have a house in Canada and thus pay property taxes, provincial taxes, and federal taxes here. Everyone recognizes we shouldn’t have to shell out money to file with the IRS “abroad”. (They also recognize the US gov’t is completely dysfunctional, and disconnected from its people.) They let me know about the injustices around them. My sister’s family, for example, refuse to patronize IKEA because they don’t have to pay taxes because they’re registered as a charity. What is wrong with this picture? IKEA gets charity status in the good ol’ USA, but all of us who live and work and pay taxes in Canada should have our retirement savings and capital gains on our homes swallowed up by the IRS? Despicable!
Like your wife, we would have to pay thousands to prove we don’t owe taxes, so we have not let the IRS know we exist. We are trying to put our Canadian-born kids through university, that’s a higher priority than padding the pockets of compliance vultures because of despicable laws. We desperately hope the ADCS lawsuit succeeds!
@The_Animal
I was seeing red for quite some time after the AE forum on FB took the direction that it did, and I found it to be quite amazing, how, we could all be circling the toilet bowl, leaving streaks as we go, and still, be fucked over by those in the same bowl.
But you know what? It’s okay. Who cares? I’m executing my own exit plan from this situation, and in the end, I don’t even need them. What the hell have they done for me, anyway? So, while they’re being flushed down the toilet, I’ll be sitting outside of the bowl, smelling like a rose, and will soon be free of the taint of US personhood! Fuck them! Sauve Qui Peut!
What the hell do I have to be angry about, anymore? I’ve got it made! Come Fourth of July, I’m going to celebrate by burning a flag, drinking some Crown Royal, and just taking it easy, because it will all be over soon.
@ Japan T
“You would be surprised at the large number of homelanders, even from within my own family, who are enraged that my wife, Japanese and living in Japan, does not pay US income taxes. Why should she, in their view? She works for an “American” company in Japan. And this too came before FATCA.”
I found your post so sad, so hard to take in. Even members of your family are “enraged” that your Japanese wife doesn’t pay US income taxes? Seriously? Even though Japan is notorious for being an expensive place to live and the fact the Japan is still reeling from the horrible tsunami damage. Most of all, Japan is a sovereign nation, not an affiliated territory like Guam or Puerto Rico. Why on earth should the tax dollars of Japanese citizens living and working in Japan leave Japan? The concept actually goes against the foundation of the United States! Rebelling against taxation imposed by the British to be then spent in Britain was a major reason the Americans went to war against the British. When Americans celebrate the Fourth of July, they’re celebrating America declaring herself independent, no longer “belonging” to the British Empire and their laws and tax obligations. It should be considered UN-AMERICAN for America’s government to now act like King George III, imposing laws and taxes that interfere with other sovereign countries.
Amen, my friend. AMEN!
@The_Animal
IRS stands for International Robery Service
FATCA stands for Foreign Attack To Control All
Japan T hypothesized words to be used by Dishonest Abe:
“then we, Japan, will do the same to all Japanese, nisei, sansei, all decendants of Japan”
Unfortunately that isn’t possible. A Japanese person who takes another citizenship loses their Japanese citizenship (except if they commit mass murder and become president of Peru).
The_Animal wrote:
“Call it vitriol, but that’s the point where I’m at; where I’m lashing out because nothing would give me more pleasure than to see that godforesaken, self-absorbed, narcissistic piece of shit nation that’s the United States go completely broke and turned into a wasteland.”
Sure, so why did you lash out at people who agree with you? Twice?
For those who can’t explain to their homelander relatives or acquaintances how vile FATCA is, point them to this article:
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/06/06/the-accidental-kenyan-what-would-happen-if-the-african-nation-copied-u-s-tax-policy/
@ Jan
This anger towards my wife for not paying US income taxes because she works for a so called “American” company predates the tsunami and FATCA by many years. I am still shocked by it. First, for all the reasons you gave I could not, can not believe that any American could have such beliefs. Second, because the one who I remember the most saying this, though she was not alone in these sentiments, was my own mother.
As my understanding of the Constitution, our legal tradions behind our laws differ so much from my friends who sat within the same government classes that I did, I have long assumed that my understanding came from my parents.
I now do not know why my immediate response to my passport renewal application was, “What!?!? That violates the fourth ammendment!”. I have yet to meet, in person, anyone else you sees any problem at all with how State now shares all information with Treasury for law enforcement without probable cause nor warrant.
@ The Animal
Yes, in my mind I meant for Abe to mean only Japanese and Japanese decents in the US, a reciprocal policy towards the US only as it is only the US robbing Japan.
@Norman
Sure it’s possible. japan just need to change its laws and apply them retroactively as the States have. There are many people on this forum who renounced their USC only to have it reimposed upon them by the SCOTUS.
After that, very easy to impose on anyone with a Japanese surname.
@ Norm,
First, The Animal did apologize. As he said he was seeing red and misread your post.
I have sent the very article to friends and family in the States. Most couldn’t be bothered to read it. The few who did had a attitude of, “yeah, so what, it could never happen”.
I think among all the things at work the following are included. One the knowledge that the US has the power to impose its will on others and that other nations do not have the power to impose their will upon the US.
Another factor may be that they may also understand the injustice of all this but either can not bring themselves to get involved because they have their own troubles to deal with and/or are afraid of being targeted by various Fed agencies if they make themselves known. The US has become, like Japan, a nation that hammers down any nail that dares stand out.
@Steven TRACY…
The acronyms that you provided for IRS and FATCA are very fitting.
As I’ve said before: the IRS are nothing but government mandated thieves and FATCA is a declaration of financial war.
I apologize for not standing in solidarity with all of you more often, however my family has been doing an extended housecleaning. 15 years of house de-cluttering has my nerves frayed and my temper short. I’ve been chasing my kids around “teaching them” how to properly clean up their room. Something I should have tackled a helluva lot earlier but this FATCA has been frying my craw since I first learned about it in 2011.
As I’ve said before, I’m beyond pissed off and enraged, but like all of you, I have a life to lead and I refuse to let the United States dictate how they get their money (if they get any at all). My time is spent on helping my son grow with his hockey skills and my younger son with his artistic bent as well as raising my 5 year old daughter. My kids come first, second and third…and my wife with her education (received in Canada) is trying to get a better occupation (pharmacy tech) with regular hours (she works part-time right now) and I’m basically earning a pittance through photography with a back injury. My family needs whatever my wife earns so I couldn’t give a flying fuck about the United States wanting money.
In fact, I’ve told my wife that if we win the Lotto Max $50M, I will claim it under my name so that my family gets the benefit…and the US can go hang.
If I hit the Lotto Max, I’ll just give the winning ticket to my wife.