We have to remember that United States law code only applies to little people like you and me, but not to big important people like Hillary Clinton:

This is an illustration of Petros Principle 12: The criminals are in DC.

Kinds of Trolls

Typical trolls:  These are people who troll for the fun of it. Perhaps they get their  jollies out of contradicting others on social media. Perhaps they enjoy arguments with people they disagree with. Perhaps their personal ideology compels them to find people to contradict, like a vegan in a meat-eaters group (yes, I’ve seen this).

Spammers:  Spammers are robots or people that leave messages in social media. They post click bait to spread malware or to bring traffic to a website or a product that they are trying to promote. Most often spammers never engage in the discussion, though their comments are designed to look like they are actually interacting with your content: “Hey great post! Thanks for the help.” Or, “Sorry you don’t know how to write. I could give you some pointers to make your website better.” Our spam filter discards hundreds of these messages everyday, but a few manage to get through

Condors:  One type of troll is a real person who is dropping by to let people know that he’s got a book for sale or he’s available for business. At Isaac Brock we get compliance condors who are essentially fishing for business. We have had cases where readers here at Isaac Brock have engaged the services of such an expert, only to inform us later that they felt ill-served. So generally, we have mixed feelings about people from the compliance industry: in some cases, they may share arcane knowledge that might be useful for the purposes of this blog. On the other hand, we cannot vouch for their services, and we recognize in some cases these people are able to get what amounts to free advertising at Brock. We have never received a penny from a condor in the form of payment, commission or kickback. The same was not true at the Expat Forum, where compliance condors had to pay to play. At the Expat Forum, however, the condors began to control the agenda, and the forum moderators removed several threads with thousands of comments. Isaac Brock, by contrast, has never received any funding from advertisers, and we only rarely censor comments, and we almost never remove posts.

Astroturfers: The main distinction between the typical troll and the astroturfer is the lack of transparency.  Astroturfers troll with a hidden agenda. So for example, a pharmaceutical company may pay an astroturfer to visit social media to defend their products. At Isaac Brock Society we have had cases of astroturfers–one confirmed case, but only because the condor who posted with a second identity lacked the sophistication to use a second IP address for his alter ego. The alter ego of this compliance condor came on to reprimand Petros for his hostility against the condor in an attempt to generate sympathy for himself. Those were in the early days of the Isaac Brock Society. From that day forward, we have been suspicious about astroturfing and have tried to learn more about the phenomenon.

Modus Operandi of trolls especially astroturfers

The astroturfer doesn’t have to use anything approaching a real argument and it is perhaps counter-productive to engage the main points of the original post. It suffices to sow discord and doubt. Sometimes, an astroturfer can take a  know-it-all approach while always resting on conventional opinion, attempting to discredit the author through accusations of extremism, lack of knowledge or expertise, or mental instability (such as accusing the author of anger). Because the astroturfer sometimes relies on conventional wisdom, an air of paternalism will replace actual rational debate.

Astroturfers also use multiple identities because one of their main goals is to make it look like their views arise from the grass roots. Hence the name astroturf–it is a fake grass roots movement. Indeed, Adam Bienkov writes:

As reported by the Guardian, some big companies now use sophisticated “persona management software” to create armies of virtual astroturfers, complete with fake IP addresses, non-political interests and online histories. Authentic-looking profiles are generated automatically and developed for months or years before being brought into use for a political or corporate campaign. As the software improves, these astroturf armies will become increasingly difficult to spot, and the future of open debate online could become increasingly perilous.

Who might be astroturfing at Isaac Brock?

Since we do not require that people provide a real name or even a real e-mail address, it is absurdly easy for an astroturfer to assume an alias, create a persona, and begin to post comments. We allow this because it permits people who are intimidated by the IRS to feel the courage to comment. But it isn’t paranoid to believe that astroturfers are also coming to Isaac Brock to sow discord and doubt. We are a true grass roots movement which is challenging the triumvirate of  government, finance, and compliance industries. In my own posts in particular, especially by setting down Petros Principles, I have questioned the legitimacy of the triumvirate. Hence, it is in their financial interests to monitor and even astroturf at Isaac Brock Society. We are talking about industries with very deep pockets.

Conclusion

We must always be on our guard. Astroturfers do not reveal their conflicts of interest.  Since astroturfers may go to elaborate lengths to create fake identities, we must be suspicious of those who challenge the core of our approach–especially when it is a first time poster (though there may even be some who have been with us for a long time). We should be sophisticated when using social media and never allow astroturfers to sway our opinions.

In my view the burden of proof is on the person who has the alias. I am suspicious of anyone who comes onto this blog for the first time just to contradict me. Therefore, if someone talks like a condor, the burden of proof is on them to prove that they are not one–at least for me. Obviously others have shown that they think that they can trust anyone who comes onto Isaac Brock  to contradict Petros–and that Petros shouldn’t expect such people to have to prove themselves. However, anyone who wishes to attack me should at least be as transparent as I am–my blogging alias is a thin veneer over a real person.

Petros Principle 12: The criminals are in DC

Psalm 10.1-2 (RSV)

Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees,
and the writers who keep writing oppression,
to turn aside the needy from justice
and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
that widows may be their spoil,
and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

Psalm 94:20-23 (RSV)

Can wicked rulers be allied with thee,
who frame mischief by statute?
They band together against the life of the righteous,
and condemn the innocent to death.
But the LORD has become my stronghold,
and my God the rock of my refuge.
He will bring back on them their iniquity
and wipe them out for their wickedness;
the LORD our God will wipe them out.

Commentary:

Often people assume that FATCA was about catching wealthy Homelanders who were putting their money in offshore accounts to avoid paying taxes. But in the above video, it comes out of the horse’s mouth what FATCA is all about by design–“far reaching steps to catch overseas tax cheats”–not tax cheats who have their money overseas–the adjective “overseas” modifies the noun “tax cheats”. The manner in which FATCA has been implemented has shown that the intention was always to snare innocent so-called Americans abroad.

Democrats Abroad have attempted to get a same country exemption for expats, but the regulators have not simply been slow to make it happen but have stonewalled. So we should please stop saying that the intention of FATCA was to catch Homelanders putting their money in banks abroad. The intention has always been to catch innocent people.  Moreover, the repeated petitions to find relief from FATCA and FBAR have fallen on deaf ears, showing that the US government is run by sociopaths who have no empathy for the people they are destroying.

One reason that an unjust law is no law (PP7) is because it will punish innocent behaviour. So a person living in Canada who works, opens bank accounts, invests in investment vehicles, who owns a personal corporation, who abides by the Canadian tax code, is an innocent person, full stop. That person is not a “tax cheat”. Thus, FATCA is itself a crime because of its criminalization of innocent behaviour.

Psalms 10 and 94 (cited above) show that it has long been recognized that evil rulers can create unjust statutes which criminalize innocent people. The Psalms invoke God himself to deal ever so severely with such wicked rulers. In several comments on my last post, a certain Jay said that lying to authorities is unethical. In his view, expats must only fill out good faith forms to the IRS. And yet doing that very thing has exposed not a few innocent people to the full brunt of bad laws and has turned them into victims. Evidently, Jay’s ethics do not conform to  this ancient traditional view of law. In my view, Petros Principles are an ethical response to unjust laws, by providing wisdom by which innocent people may protect themselves and find the least bad solution in the face of laws designed to criminalize them.

The true criminals are the makers and enforcers of laws like FATCA. Such people cannot withstand scrutiny. The following documentary, Clinton Cash,  sheds light on a criminal couple in DC who have gamed the system to make for themselves hundreds of millions. And such people have the audacity to come after my meager savings?

Previous Discussions

Human rights trump money: Why We must say no to FATCA
Ignorance is an excuse in the case of FBAR
The Real Intent of #FATCA: You are not “Collateral Damage” — You are the Target

Previous Petros Principles:

(1) What the IRS can’t know unless you tell them can’t hurt you.
(2) Fear makes the IRS more dangerous than it really is.
(3) Haste is the devil.
(4) Those most hurt by the IRS’s persecution of expats have engaged the services of cross-border compliance condors.
(5) Those least hurt have done nothing.
(6) Home is where you live.
(7) An unjust law is no law.
(8) Don’t feed the beast.
(9) Do the minimum in trying to achieve the least bad outcome.
(10) Lying to prevent a crime is a virtue.
(11) Cynical derision of Homelanders is healthy.

About: Petros is the alias of the founding administrator of the Isaac Brock Society. Petros Principles are guidelines that have helped him and others deal with the United States’ world-wide tax invasion.

NB: Please note that neither I nor any member of ADCS-ADSC, ADCT, or the Isaac Brock Society Committee support any political candidate mentioned in this article or its description. I am posting it because it contains important information about international efforts against FATCA. If you have any issues with this post, kindly contact the Brock Committee. Please avoid divisive, attacking comments. Thank you.
 
reposted in its entirety with permission of the author
 

Now That It’s Clear the U.S. Will Not ‘Reciprocate’ on FATCA, Will ‘Partner’ Countries Wise Up?
 
Jim Jatras
 
As I have warned for several years now (for example, see with respect to Europe, Canada, and Cayman), “partner” governments signing legally defective “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act” (FATCA) “intergovernmental agreements” (IGAs) under “promises” from the U.S. Treasury Department that the U.S. would provide reciprocal information from domestic American institutions was at best a long shot, more likely just a deception. Almost three years ago, in July 2013, Florida Congressman Bill Posey made it clear requests for legislative authority to provide “reciprocity” were dead on arrival.

Yet foreign governments have continued to deceive themselves – or their publics, or both – that American participation in a global GATCA, or intergovernmental “automatic exchange of information” (AEOI), “disclosure of corporate beneficial ownership,” and a “common reporting standards” (CRS) regime, probably under OECD auspices, were just around the corner . . .

Well, it isn’t. Period. Full stop.
Continue reading →

SUN Aug 7-LONDON UK-"Have you received a #FATCA letter? Intl Hall Mtg Rm-Landsdowne Terrace-Russell Tube Stn 2-4pm https://t.co/9MwpNh6KDR

— Patricia Moon (@nobledreamer16) August 3, 2016

New this year in the U.S. assault on people and countries outside its borders, is the “second wave” of reporting – the “entity” reporting. This is nothing less than every financial entity – any corporation, non-profit corporation, your Canadian controlled-private corporation (CCPC), any fund with shareholders-is fair game for an associated financial lender, bank etc to ask:

“Who are your clients, shareholders? Are they, or have they ever been, U.S. citizens?”

When: Sunday,August 7, 2016 time 2:00 – 4:00 pm
Where: University of London International Hall Meeting Room, Landsdowne Terrace, London WC1N 1AS UK – 150m walk
from Russell Square Tube Station MAP
Admission: £15 payable in cash at the door
Who: John Richardson, B.A., LL.B., J.D. (Of the bars of Ontario, New York and Massachusetts), Toronto citizenship lawyer and Co-chair of the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty and the Alliance for the Defeat of Citizenship Taxation.   citizenshipsolutions.ca

Information presented is NOT intended or offered as legal or accounting advice specific to your situation.

 (10) Lying to prevent a crime is a virtue.

Commentary: USA citizenship-based taxation is a crime when applied to people living outside the USA jurisdiction. It is theft at multiple levels: (1) It is territorial theft of another country’s tax base. (2) It is theft to tax a person without representation. (3) It is theft to tax a person for the benefit of others. Furthermore, many of the reporting requirements of FATCA and FBAR cause crimes to be committed. The government of Canada, e.g., has committed a crime by sending the bank account information of Canadian residents and ciitzens to the IRS–it is national origin discrimination which is forbidden in the charter of rights, and it is a violation of their right to privacy.

It may be necessary to lie to prevent the IRS and one’s own local government from committing crimes. One may have to lie to a bank about where one was born. One may have to omit details when filling out forms.

While lying to prevent a crime is a virtue, lying to cover up a crime is politics as usual.

Previous Discussion:
Rahab’s renunciation of citizenship–Was she a harlot, liar, traitor and tax cheat or a heroine of faith?
California genocide and the Indian Tax Revolt of 1851
Fair tax, unfair tax: or When is it paying my fair share?
Is it taxation without representation if you can vote? Damn right!

Previous Petros Principles:

(1) What the IRS can’t know unless you tell them can’t hurt you.
(2) Fear makes the IRS more dangerous than it really is.
(3) Haste is the devil.
(4) Those most hurt by the IRS’s persecution of expats have engaged the services of cross-border compliance condors.
(5) Those least hurt have done nothing.
(6) Home is where you live.
(7) An unjust law is no law.
(8) Don’t feed the beast.
(9) Do the minimum in trying to achieve the least bad outcome.
(10) Lying to prevent a crime is a virtue.
(11) Cynical derision of Homelanders is healthy.

About: Petros is the alias of the founding administrator of the Isaac Brock Society. Petros Principles are guidelines that have helped him and others deal with the United States’ world-wide tax invasion.

(11) Cynical derision of Homelanders is healthy.

At Isaac Brock Society, we have always been not a little irreverent when it comes to discussing the USA’s international tax invasion. Eventually when we meet real Homelanders online or in person, we realize that they suffer from a type of sociopathy that we do well to criticize, deride, and even to spoof.

The coming election in the USA is a choice between a narcissist and a sociopath, a swindler and an influence peddler, a compulsive liar and a pathological liar. The Homelanders are bitterly dividing themselves between these two candidates. In my lifetime, I’ve never seen two such ill-suited people as candidates for the POTUS, and it seems like destiny would force Homelanders to choose between one of these two. Most Homelanders are short-sighted to the point of believing that, if they vote for another party, it means throwing their vote away.

The Republican Party platform is admittedly saying that it will eliminate FATCA and CBT. This is our issue–so if you are inclined to vote on our issues, it seems that there is a clear choice. But I caution against putting faith in either the Republicans or the Democrats. What we have learned in this battle thus far is that we must come up with our own personal solutions because our governments in our home countries have been derelict in protecting our freedoms, and the political leaders in the USA are only concerned about winning over the sentiments of Homelanders. Both candidates are demagogues whose only real concern is to appeal to Homelanders. Neither gives a rat’s ass about us. And so it is clear that there is no real political solution, and our only hope in coming together is to fight this in the courts.

I appreciate Patricia Moon’s  post yesterday about Donald Trump. It was interesting how a satirical post could be so easily believed (I believed it). The ensuing discussion was passionate–and that quickened me  and got me to thinking about some of my favoritest posts that I’ve written for Isaac Brock–irreverent, biting, cynical, satirical; in some cases we have successfully compared the USA to the worst examples of government tyranny in history, and this usually causes an uproar, and some people admittedly have left us. But uncensored derision is part of the DNA of this website, and I do not see that changing.

Previous Derisive Posts (Warning: some of these could come true in our lifetime):

Both our forefathers were slaves: When is a comparison correct and when isn’t it?
Santa Clause arrested on Christmas Eve
The FATCA star: a design suggestion
What would happen if Indonesia reclaimed its most famous former citizenship?
The accidental Kenyan: What would happen if the African nation copied U.S. tax policy? by Don Whiteley
The “Property of the USA” tattoo
Shulman and Flaherty Summit Ends: IRS and CRA to merge

Previous Petros Principles

(1) What the IRS can’t know unless you tell them can’t hurt you.
(2) Fear makes the IRS more dangerous than it really is.
(3) Haste is the devil.
(4) Those most hurt by the IRS’s persecution of expats have engaged the services of cross-border compliance condors.
(5) Those least hurt have done nothing.
(6) Home is where you live.
(7) An unjust law is no law.
(8) Don’t feed the beast.
(9) Do the minimum in trying to achieve the least bad outcome.
(10) coming soon

reposted from Virginia La Torre Jeker ‘s site

Americans Abroad-IRS to be Audited!https://t.co/9wjgfjJR0d

The IRS will soon be audited. Shoe's on the other foot! pic.twitter.com/1FkV3uLBoP

— V. La Torre Jeker JD (@VLJeker) July 17, 2016

Americans Abroad, IRS to be Audited
 
July 17, 2016

Maybe it’s time for the shoe to be on the other foot.

A new tax watchdog group, the Tax Revolution Institute (TRI) believes that the problems with the US tax system “demand nothing short of revolutionary change.” TRI has commenced a major effort to independently audit the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), with the help of all interested taxpayers.

TRI is a nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based group, with its nonprofit status currently pending. TRI plans to conduct an “audit” of the IRS, in part, by collecting personal experiences from taxpayers detailing their encounters with the IRS. TRI is “committed to promoting transparency, accountability and integrity at all levels of the US tax system, while researching and developing simple and innovative tax reform solutions to advance freedom and prosperity for all Americans.” As part of its efforts, TRI will also examine the IRS’ employees, work culture, finances, policies and enforcement as well as taxpayer advice given by the IRS. “[T]hrough FOIA requests, briefings, testimonies, advocacy, research studies, white papers, and educational programs, TRI will expose corruption, fraud, and incompetence within the US tax system.” TRI plans to “provide educational tools and resources for tax accountability to policy makers, grassroots organizations, and the American public”.

You can make your voice be heard. Visit TRI’s website. Americans abroad who are experiencing hosts of problems caused by FATCA and citizenship-based taxation can use TRI as a platform for getting their views known and hopefully, acted on!

 
Audit IRS
 
 
Many Americans believe the IRS should be subject to an independent audit. We agree.

We are conducting the first ever independent audit of the IRS, and we need your help.

The Audit will examine all areas of :

The IRS’ treatment of individual taxpayers
The IRS’ treatment of small businesses
The IRS’ expectations of its employees
The IRS’ work culture
The IRS’ handling of its finances
Advice given to taxpayers by the IRS
IRS policy and enforcement
… and more

Click here to read Audit IRS Key Issues List

Every year, the IRS touches the lives of 246.23 million Americans who file tax returns, and has a much greater effect on the lives of the million or so Americans who are subjected to audits.

At any time, the IRS can demand up to six years of accurate financial information. Failure to provide this information can result in large fines and penalties, even in the absence of due legal process.

Unfortunately, the IRS does not meet the standards of transparency that it enforces on others. Lacking public oversight or accountability, the agency has frequently denied requests for information, ignored subpoenas and destroyed records. It has also been found to provide misleading and inaccurate information in response to legal requests.

Anything you share with us will be kept in the strictest confidence. We never publish personally identifying information. We also offer assistance to individuals who have been victimized by un-professionalism or corruption within the IRS. Just check the “I need help” box when completing the form.

Thank you for help.

To learn more about the people conducting this audit visit:

Tax Revolution