Just a quick post to draw readers attention to this latest commentary by Naomi Wolf at the Guardian.
“The US is sleepwalking into becoming a police state, where, like a pre-Magna Carta monarch, the president can lock up anyone.”
“Overstated? Let’s be clear: the NDAA grants the president the power to kidnap any American anywhere in the United States and hold him or her in prison forever without trial. The president’s own signing statement, incredibly, confirmed that he had that power. ”
As Andy Sundberg said, who alerted me to this post this morning,
This is as shocking as it is depressing. The clock keeps ticking, the laws become ever more draconian, and no one in Washington seems to be even aware of what they are putting in place which will lead our noble little liberal democratic republican experiment right over the cliff.
How in the world did we get here so quickly, and so effortlessly? Doesn’t anyone give a damn anymore??
So, the lost of freedom is more than just the new world financial order that FATCA/DATCA brings us. It is more than just OVDP/OVDI penalties and FBAR/8939 forms. I think we can begin to line up all the acronyms into a cryptic march down the slippery slope of “you pick your term”.
But don’t bother me, I need to catch up on my Justin Beaver Youtube channel. 🙂
Could the nation-wide push for for-profit prisons in the US have something to do with NDAA? Gotta have somewhere to put all those political dissidents, no?
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/2/17/florida_lawmakers_defeat_prison_privatization_amid
Because the majority of my personal income comes from selling to American customers, I prided myself on knowing how the American mindset works … I even admired it. Working with American customers prior to 2008 used to leave me breathless on a daily basis and often working until at least 8PM (many of my customers are in California, while I’m near Toronto).
But what’s been happening in the last 4 years has thoroughly shocked and disappointed me and I’ve finally given up on the idea that they can make a quick and triumphant return.
Nobody would be happier than I if the US economy were to suddenly rebound but watching the current administration and Congress drive the US over a cliff has left me hopeless. How’s that for hope and change? 4 more years of this would make you want to slit your wrists.
I swear when the recovery does come I won’t believe that it can last. I’ll be saving every dollar in anticipation for the next Great Recession. I have been permanently changed. No more insane shopping sprees through Europe for me!
“But a constitution of government once changed from freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”
– John Adams
From a quick search:
NATCA: National Air Traffic Controllers Association
or
NATCA: North American Trap Collectors Association
What is NATCA? I can’t figure out what the post is referring to. Did you mean DATCA (Which I believe is the domestic version of FATCA)?
Otherwise great post! I think that America is headed into dangerous territory and declining quicker than it should to maintain global equilibrium. Once the dollar is no longer the reserve currency I expect the US to collapse, followed by riots and unrest, which will be conveniently followed by mass arrests invoking the NDAA? Pre-Meditated I wonder?
Sorry… Don. thanks for being my editor!
Mistype. I was in a hurry to get outside and paint before the weather closes in. I meant DATCA, or my shortcut for the domestic version of FATCA that the IRS is trying to impose on all US banks! Thanks for catching that.
@Just Me
No problem!…I’m not one to normally nit-pick, but I just wanted to make sure that “NATCA” wasn’t some new financially ruinous acronym that I just hadn’t yet had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with!
@Don…
Nitpicking is good! I welcome it. 🙂
What scares me most is: This law is passed saying one thing, but later enforced to achieve completely unrelated political or other means. That is exactly what IRS has been doing with FBAR. The intention of FBAR to catch terrorists and money laundering of criminals living in mainland USA, but now IRS is using FBAR to confiscate portion of savings of dual-citizens (even though they don’t owe any taxes due to 1116 and 2555 exemptions).
And let me nitpick as well. For the love of God, it’s *DUAL* CITIZEN.
Duel = gun fight. 🙂
India,
the USA loves accepting donations. I think the people involved in creating entities with the purpose of defrauding the US government deserve what they get. But notice — there have been zero cases that involve someone who lives legally in another country. The US Government is extremely cheeky, but at least their actions seem to acknowledge that the country where you live deserves the tax money first. If you want to donate to America, feel free. They can sure find a fast way to spend your money.
I can see in the future, it is not the US talking about building a fence on the south of the border to prevent flood of illegal Mexicans.. but it is Canada that will have to build a fence on its south border to stop flood Americans.
US is heading to a third world country…
ij, that is if the US doesn’t decide to simply annex Canada. Lots of natural resources here to exploit, after all.
What I find particularly chilling in the legislation is the use of the term ” covered person” meaning anyone the President or whoever has his delegated authority deems to be a “threat to the security of the homeland.”
The last time I saw the expression “covered person” I believe it was in the instructions for IRS Form 8854. Nasty pattern, that.
To find historical similarities to the reach of NDAA, more recent than what the Magna Carta was all about seven or eight centuries ago, you only have to look at Nazi Germany and the former Soviet Union, especially (but not exclusively) under Stalin.
Stalin and Hitler are not role models I would have hoped Obama and 95% of the US Congress would adopt, but it seems they are. (And it’s both parties and both houses of Congress that did this, Obama had actually threatened to veto this but then he chickened out on New Year’s Eve and signed. What and who changed his mind, and why? Whatever it was, the man has no backbone and can’t be trusted.)
This isn’t the America I grew up in or learned about in school. It’s not my country any more, and I thank God for that. But I fear for my family members who are going to have to live under the yoke of this outrage.
@Schubert, I think these new laws granting the president Stalanistic- powers are a real disgrace. Obama never rescinded ANY of the powers given to him through Bush. That counry has forgotten where it came from. I don’t want to be associated with that place. Period.
@ij – northern fence.. I doubt it. Americans are taught from a young age that Canada and Europe are “2nd world countries” and the rest of the world is “3rd world”. I know 2nd word doesn’t exist, but I can not recall ANY teacher from kindergarten to MBA saying that another country is at the same level as the USA. So Americans are brainwashed. Good thing for them: they don’t have to spend the money erecting a fence!
Canada needs that fence! Watch a good apocalyptic movie like George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead and get told where escape to freedom leads … North of the border!
@geez: You said: For the love of God, it’s *DUAL* CITIZEN.
Duel = gun fight. 🙂
Unfortunately, Duel is what it has become. US has put itself in a duel with any and all dual citizens, including those of us who were told decades ago we were no longer US citizens and those who simply had the misfortune to be born to someone born in U.S. !)
The problem is, US has the guns (Right to Bear Arms must be protected at all costs, of course!)
@Blaze,@geeez
I will send two boys (they are also “duel citizen”) to join your army to defend Canada.
Now I have to brainwash them at home “you are born Canadians !!!”
“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”
– George Orwell
USA #1? 40 Embarrassing Things That America Is The Best In The World At:
http://lewrockwell.com/rep3/is-america-number-one.html
Beware of Double Taxation of Foreign Profits
http://www.forbes.com/sites/lowellyoder/2012/03/06/beware-of-double-taxation-of-foreign-profits/
The above new Forbes article shows just how desperate the IRS is getting. It’s a corrupt organization that makes up new rules so they can double tax corporations … I’m not talking about the normal double taxation that happens through their high corporate tax rate.
The US is at war with the entire world but instead of an army of soldiers they are using the IRS to attack. This war is not going to end anytime soon.
We won’t get any sympathy from the IRS, we’re collateral damage of a tax army that is invading the world.
And now there is the “National Defense Resources Preparedness” Executive order from Friday….
Are you aware of this…?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/03/16/executive-order-national-defense-resources-preparedness
Now this has started some emails around the internet, and posting like this one from Sovereign man below.
Is this hyperbolic, or reasoned assessment?
http://www.sovereignman.com/expat/what-is-president-obama-so-afraid-of/
or this from Hot Air a better assessment?
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/03/18/national-defense-resources-preparedness-executive-order-power-grab-or-update/
Snopes says the claims of unprecedented powers are False.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/ndrp.asp
I am just putting this up here for you to read and decide if this is much ado about nothing…..?
.
NDAA blocked by Federal Court? Was anybody aware of this?
Pingback: The Isaac Brock Society - NDAA Blocked by Federal Court?
@Jefferson…
Thanks Jefferson, I had not heard that but I am falling behind on current news. Let’s hope this stops it in its tracks. Thanks.