The platforms listed side by side ties expats with either fairshare/terrorism/corruption/criminality/evasion/cracking down whilst the other focuses upon constitutional rights and the ability for overseas Americans to lead normal lives. Consider the expat-relevant platforms in regards to the Congressional and Presidential choices.
(No relevant information found yet from the Libertarian or Green party)
The platform gives direct information as to what the two parties think of us.
I wonder what the Democrats abroad think of this. Or are they still at the “The Stepford Wives” movie?
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/12/19/democrats-abroad-are-like-the-stepford-wives/
No, they’re all pissing and moaning about whether or not Kaepernick, some no-name NFL player for the 49ers was right to object to standing over the National Anthem and the Flag. Fucking idiots; the lot of ’em.
My response:
Perhaps we should ask that veteran who stated “I never signed up to protect a song, but I signed up to protect the right to protest and free speech.” if he objects to extraterritorial taxation and supports the rights of those Americans who are living abroad that are being taxed without benefit by the United States Government to live their lives as they choose. Oops. That would be in contravention of Art. 88 (Contemptuous Words) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice to be critical of government decisions!
If one looks back in the history of the birth of the United States, one sees the violent revolution of the 13 Colonies against the British Empire; just for being assessed a tax and forced to conscript in the Royal Navy. Extraterritorial taxation without benefit from the British Empire. Fast forward 241 years later and the United States is assessing its “colonists” (expat Americans around the world) extraterritorial taxes, much like what Americans revolted for impacting their freedom and their rights to choose to live WHERE they want, HOW they want in a foreign country and on top of that for no benefits other than to serve YOU homelanders and PAY for YOUR STUFF! And then they assess a $2350 fee to EXPATRIATE!
A bit more important than whether a person sits or stands for a piece of FABRIC or an EX-BRITISH DRINKING SONG!!!
EDITED:
Perhaps we should ask that veteran who stated “I never signed up to protect a song, but I signed up to protect the right to protest and free speech.” if he objects to extraterritorial taxation and supports the rights of those Americans who are living abroad that are being taxed without benefit by the United States Government to live their lives as they choose. Oops. That would be in contravention of Art. 88 (Contemptuous Words) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice to be critical of government decisions!
If one looks back in the history of the birth of the United States, one sees the violent revolution of the 13 Colonies against the British Empire; just for being assessed a tax and forced to conscript in the Royal Navy. Extraterritorial taxation without benefit from the British Empire. Fast forward 241 years later and the United States is assessing its “colonists” (expat Americans around the world) extraterritorial taxes and conscripting foreign born children as US citizens (if by some chance that one of their parents were born on American soil), much like what Americans revolted for back in 1775, impacting their freedom and their rights to choose to live WHERE they want, HOW they want in a foreign country and on top of that for no benefits other than to serve YOU homelanders and PAY for YOUR STUFF! Ain’t Citizenship Based Taxation fun? You get to STEAL money from those who actually WORKED for it…and get no benefits from the home state. Hope you all FUCKING WELL SLEEP SOUNDLY. And then they assess a $2350 fee to EXPATRIATE when expats object to being FLEECED like somebody being held up at gunpoint in a Compton alley!!!
I’d say that problem is quite a bit more important than whether a person sits or stands for a piece of FABRIC or an EX-BRITISH DRINKING SONG!!! You say you fought for freedom? Well your freedoms are taking a header down the fucking shitcan and you’re all screaming about whether or not some NFL player sits or stands for a fucking FLAG or a bloody SONG!!!
THEY MAKE ME FUCKING SICK TO MY STOMACH!
It is amazing that anybody is willing to consider RBT. I was told time and again this would NEVER happen. That only other ideas- like same country exception- would work. That nobody in the government would want to change the system. So that really is astounding, and I still wonder why this possibility never came to anybody before now? Why has RBT never been even considered up till today? Is it a business decision? Because I heard that other countries in the world left their own form of CBT long ago ( Japan for example) because they found out it hindered business. Well- all the inversions are certainly part of that.
But aside from that, sadly, I just read an article on Trump written by a psychiatrist, who said that Trump definitely suffered from a personality disorder. I was especially interested because my own family is fraught with PDs. I don`t speak with maybe 85% of them anymore. They are so abusive! And the psychiatrist wrote that PDs have no insight into their own person. Zero introspective abilities. That he worked in group therapy situations and if there was somebody with a PD, then the whole group therapeutic process would be ruined. He also was a consultant for work teams in hospitals- doctors or nurses etc. And if there were ever bigger problems in those teams, it again was always somebody with a PD who was unable to see that failures or mistakes were not the fault of somebody ELSE. And he also wrote that for family members or friends there are only 2 options: submission or leave. That is absolutely true. I submitted most of my life, then I started therapy and argued my lips blue to no avail, and finally I left for my own sanity. I just dont see somebody like Trump leading the most powerful country in the world. That is by far more dangerous for the whole world than the problems we are having with FATCA. I am just terrifically sad that the Republicans dont have a better candidate.
Hey, I’ll tell y’all what’s wrong with people who vote Democratic from abroad (like me). It’s the effin GOP. Do you think for a minute that having been backstabbed by a Dem congress & president with FATCA we are happy? So what’s the first thing you do, you look to change your vote. Should be easy, who likes Hillary much anyway, most of us dropped her for Obama last time, and some of us voted Bernie this time (ok, ok, yeah). Clinton foundation receiving money from Saudis (note that Bush was considered part of the family by the Saudis), emails, etc. OK. Easy to not vote for Hillary and vote for some sense on the FATCA situation.
Hard to take another look at G. W. Bush’s party, but hey, let’s look again.
Well, what we see is Dubya’s completely bonkers GOP now looks “normal” compared to today’s. Jeez! Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Dubya himself actually look somewhat civilized comparted to The Donald. WTF? As for Congress…
OK, OK, hold your nose, right? Time to vote for the GOP anyway… Wait: Trump?! Climate change denial?! Wall?! Etc, etc.
Believe me, many of us would have voted GOP this time, even while remaining Democrats at heart. We’d have loved to. Craved for it. But it’s just not possible. I just cannot become a single-issue voter when so much else is at stake. Heck, many homeland GOPers feel that way too!
BUT, maybe I would… if I had the slightest hope that the GOP would actually tackle this issue. Sure, the lip service is ok, at least buried in the platform. But by that measure isn’t DA for RBT? Ha ha, right? GOP won’t budge.
So, I’m ready to be convinced, to listen, and I may even forget to vote, but I doubt someone will convince me that voting the big R up and down the ticket is the right thing to do AND will specifically and predictibly help us poor USPs abroad.
@Polly: “I am just terrifically sad that the Republicans don’t have a better candidate.”
@Fred: “Believe me, many of us would have voted GOP this time, even while remaining Democrats at heart. We’d have loved to. Craved for it.”
My sentiments exactly. Despite the prevailing group-think around here, these are perfectly valid and rational perspectives that I believe have been entirely too absent from Brock during this election cycle. As I expressed on a different thread last night (and this one being a more appropriate place for it):
DA supports SCE, which enforces CBT. One cannot support RBT and SCE at the same time!
I think that the idea that the most important thing in the coming election is to keep Trump out of the White House, greatly underestimates how dangerous Hillary Clinton is. She has a proven track record of warmongering and influence peddling.
If given two highly unsuitable candidates for president, perhaps we can be forgiven for voting for the candidate whose party’s platform doesn’t treat us like a criminal.
But I won’t be voting. The democrat currently occupying the White House made sure of that.
Bubblebustin: in an imperfect world yes, one can support SCE (I don’t) as a lesser evil, and easily attainable, while considering RBT to be the ultimate (but difficult to achieve) goal.
The only issue is whether supporting SCE will hamper the goal of eliminating RBT. One could argue the contrary, that SCE is a step towards recognizing that Jane Doe in Costa Rica be left alone and have only to deal with Costa Rica if her life and business is there. SCE would start by at least letting her bank normally. Obviously RBT would be much better.
Regarding DNC vs RNC rhetoric about FATCA, it’s a relief not to be voting there. I agree both Trump and Clinton are dangerous. Obama also assured that I will never vote in US again.
What surprises the hell out of me is the fact that people are so addicted to being on the “winning team” that they won’t even consider weakening the strangle-hold that these two major parties.
Two potentially viable candidates are Jill Stein (for Liberals) and Gary Johnson (for Conservatives) yet people are brainwashed by media and by their own stubborn biases to vote for only the two major parties which has now created the gong-show that we’re seeing now.
The goal needs to be the weakening of the powers of the two major parties to force them to come up with more suitable candidates in 2020 – to send them a message that you, as voters, are no longer going to take this kind of stupidity. Secondly, the goal needs to be the elimination of the Electoral College which everyone knows skews the vote in favor of only the two major parties – in otherwords…blatant corruption and an unfair advantage for either Democrats or Republicans only.
As I said before in another post a long time ago:
If Americans really cared what happens to their country; they should be panicking and voting Libertarian or Green right now. The Republicans voted in a psychopathic narcissist to lead their party and the Democrats elected a lying sociopath. And people are saying “Choose the lesser evil.” Do they consider the tidal wave they would cause if every single intelligent voter voted for a major third party – either Libertarian or Green? But then again I have no faith in the intelligence of the American populace who have been spoon-fed cultish Amereligion since they were born. The country of greed and idiocy and this 2016 Presidential election proves it to a tee.
That’s all I’m going to say about this election and let me make a prediction: Either way the chips fall; better dig a nuclear proof bunker. The fallout isn’t going to be pretty.
The Democrat’s proposal of the so-called SCE is a disingenuous distraction. It helps preserve FATCA more than providing relief for expats.
Psychopath vs. sociopath: all paths lead to renunciation.
@Deckard
“Faustian bargain”
Like that!
Psychopath vs. sociopath: path-illogical
Animal: voting for Nader allowed Bush to steal the 2000 election (i.e. election would have been harder to steal without Nader’s distraction). Wonder how those voters felt when Iraq was invaded because the neo-cons had decided to try nation building and W wanted revenge for Dad. Highly unlikely Gore would have invaded Iraq. This from someone who abstained that year and thought there was no difference btw Gore & Bush.
Multiple parties doesn’t lead to better governance, see Spain, Israel, Belgium, …
What the eff would an elected independent do to govern without a party apparatus in Congress???? Imagine the current congress with a naive independent president. Jeez.
Yes it would be better if we all took care of the planet and loved our neigbors and voted Stein or Johnson, plagued by their own issues by the way, but it’s not going to happen anytime soon.
Actually, I believe that the best thing for the USA would be to have a President that was NOT a member of any political party at all. This would help remove the mindless partisanship from U.S. politics.
George Washington was one of the first to see the dangers of the political parties.
http://ivn.us/2012/07/18/george-washington-on-political-parties/
“However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
Notice that his speech begins with “Friends AND Citizens”. Perhaps he foresaw that the United States would evolve to the point where “friends” and “citizens” would be mutually exclusive groups?
The Democrats “donkey” symbol has been shown to be an “a$$” representing “ass”-inine policies, and promoting people who kiss Hillary’s a$$. The party had a chance to make the primary fair and unbiased toward Sanders voters and reform the party and put the people first, but instead they rigged it for Hillary and the Elites. Sanders was anti-Wall Street corruption; Hillary and Bill get massive speaking fees from Wall Street. Sanders was anti-TPP; Hillary and her running mate are pro-TPP. Notice that Sanders has gone back to his Senate job as an INDEPENDENT.
The Donald won an uphill battle against the Elites to get the candidacy. He is probably a narcissist, but I doubt he has a serious psychotic disorder because many people in business admire him, and ALL four grown kids adore him and work closely with him, despite the fact that he divorced their mothers. Several rival primary Republican candidates and pro-Democrat pundits have commented how impressed they are with his grown sons and daughters. The oldest ones have a greater moral compass than Chelsea, since she is in the spurious Clinton Foundation, whereas Trump kids understand charity means charity and not an cover to skim of lot of the money donated for themselves. (Eric Trump, who heads a charity, made a point of explaining this).
BILLIONS of dollars donated for Haiti through the Clinton Foundation never made it to Haiti. This is inexcusable. Haitians are the most impoverished people on this side of the globe and the Clintons made huge amounts of money off of their tragedy. They are the reverse Robin Hood, getting money from rich and poor to make the very rich richer.
NO ONE can run the country alone. Trump has picked a calm, steady, respected Conservative former House rep and governor for his running mate. He knows how to raise competent children who can run successful businesses, and pick competent people to get jobs done. His focus will be on negotiating trade deals, putting Americans back to work again, and rebuilding the infrastructure. His only major foreign policy is to defeat ISIS (which is a bipartisan goal) and to restrict the influx of immigrants or visas from certain countries. We won’t see him in GW Bush’s footsteps, stirring up wars that will send immigrants fleeing. The fact that he does NOT have GW Bush’s endorsement NOR the endorsement of war-mongerer Paul Wolfowitz speaks volumes.
Jill Stein and Gary Johnson are not likely to win, but they would certainly not be fomenting wars and abusing the powers of POTUS like Hillary would. I would be thrilled to see either one of them beat out Hillary.
“Imagine the current congress with a naive independent president.”
That’s because you’ve got a country 340M strong equipped with a bunch of brainwashed idiots who vote either donkey or elephant based on who kissed what baby last week and who don’t give a flying fuck about anything other than the latest Hollywood distraction.
And the rest of the world has to wonder about your country’s idiocy and the fact that you have NUCLEAR weapons. Does that sound about right to you?
@Jan
Thanks for reminding me to do my daily face-palm ritual. I’m good now until tomorrow.
I
AGREE
WITH
FRED.
Translated from the article by the psychiatrist:
(Trump) is a very egocentric, extremely “fixated on seeking admiration” type of person who displays striking features in his personality. Trump has a very special way of communicating with others. He never really answers questions or opposing arguments but always answers slightly to the side. With this behaviour he constantly devalues his conversational partner. It is difficult to impossible to actually have a conversation with someone like this or hold a dialogue. He lectures instead, and this most often in aggressive and offensive ways. Trump projects his own aggressions outward and thereby constantly creates the impression that others are fighting with him.
It is indisputable that Trump has a personality disorder.
One has to be careful about making diagnoses from a distance. I use the material I have witnessed from seeing him on television and articles I have read about him. I have watched him very closely from the media and witnessed one behaviour which is typical of personality disorders: that in different situations and facing various challenges and demands his response is always the same. At first I was fascinated. Then watching him get rid of one republican running mate after another was astounding. But then I realised this is a very dangerous man who I would never wish to see as the american president.
What makes him dangerous? His tendency to dramatise and react with extreme severity and lack of regard for others when faced with threats. Such a person is incapable of making compromises or reacting levelheaded in difficult situations.
I have guests to cannot continue but need I write more?
@Deckard1138
“Thanks for reminding me to do my daily face-palm ritual. I’m good now until tomorrow.”
The feeling is mutual especially when I see the pro-Hillary/Democrat types claim that a Trump Presidency would bring WW3, while forgetting that Hillary is a neocon herself.,
A Trump Presidency will most likely ruin the US economy and that is none of my concern.
A Hillary Presidency will not only create turmoil round the world, but will turn the FATCA screws even tighter. So please don’t complain if that happens because you get the government you deserve.