Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

112 thoughts on “Surveys, Petitions, Submissions – Let Them Know What You Think!”

  2. “…FATCA is not paranoia. It is a real threat and a real problem.”

    FATCA and the other AEOI regimes are certainly a very real problem for some countries. Not for Canada or the other IGA1 countries. No doubt if the IRS wants information about US citizens in any country with one of those handy mutual information sharing treaty articles – especially Canada – it only has to ask. No need to toil through mountains of pointless bank balances.

    The IGA1 legislation does of course cause bank access problems for US citizens in some countries — but not in Canada. US citizens in Canada don’t seem to have much to fear from America or Canada, apart from the pointless automatic reporting. Canada may in fact be the last remaining country in the world where dual citizen status isn’t risky.

    Which, of course, is a good thing, not a bad thing. Enjoy! 🙂

  3. @Plaxy

    At this point you are either:

    1. commenting just for the sake of commenting and sending words without meaning into cyber-space; and/or

    2. You are using the comment section at Brock to kind of “think out loud”.

    “Comments” should be completed thoughts and not exercises for the purpose of completing thoughts.

    At a bare minimum your recent example of “keyboard connected to the ongoing thought process” fails to distinguish between how FATCA may impact the country as a whole and how it may impact the residents of those countries.

    FATCA is a problem for all countries and for all people for a very simple reason. The reason is that a hostile power is forcibly exercising jurisdiction over the country and its residents. Furthermore, (as usual) the expression of your random “thoughts” doesn’t allow for the possibility of change/evolution over time. You seem to think that “whatever is happening today” is necessarily what will be “happening tomorrow”. (Which among other things is completely inconsistent with the FATCA regime.)

    You close with with the absolutely ridiculous (and offensive to people who have been impacted by this) statement:

    The IGA1 legislation does of course cause bank access problems for US citizens in some countries — but not in Canada. US citizens in Canada don’t seem to have much to fear from America or Canada, apart from the pointless automatic reporting. Canada may in fact be the last remaining country in the world where dual citizen status isn’t risky

    .

    Obviously things could never change – right Plaxy?

    The simple FACT is that:

    Canadians are asked to document whether or not they are U.S. citizens when they open bank accounts.

    Canadians do receive FATCA letters inquiring about their possible U.S.citizenship.

    Canadians are hassled constantly by investment advisers who are seeking information about their citizenship.

    Canadians are being sent letters by accounting firms asking about their citizenship.

    Canadians are being frightened into expensive compliance initiatives.

    Canadians die and when they die they have to worry about a possible U.S. place of birth becoming known.

    Canadians of U.S. origin have to spend their time and emotional energy worrying about themselves and their families.

    Only on Planet Plaxy (where if it doesn’t affect Plaxy it’s not real) is this somehow not a problem.

  4. “You are using the comment section at Brock to kind of “think out loud”.”

    Correct. And very interesting it has been.

  5. @Plaxy

    “You are using the comment section at Brock to kind of “think out loud”.”

    Correct. And very interesting it has been.

    Glad we agree that your purpose in commenting on Brock includes “thinking out loud”.

    The rest of my comment is based on your agreement, that your purpose in commenting, is “thinking out loud”.

    Far too many comments: Your propensity to “think out loud” is largely responsible for your excessive number of comments. Because your comments are “thinking out loud”, your comments often contain partial, incomplete, contradictory and often (frankly ridiculous) /statements. This exacerbates the extent to which many of your comments are irrelevant to the thread. This particular thread is an example. The thread is no longer about petitions, surveys, etc. The thread is now about “What’s happening on Planet Plaxy”.

    Domination of the side bar: As others have pointed out the sheer number of comments dominates the side bar. If people come to Brock and they are interested in seeing who comments, they seen a disproportionate amount of Plaxy. It makes it very hard to see comments (and there are fewer and fewer of them) left by others.

    Destroying the value of the threads: Barbara (before leaving Brock) referred to the “formerly useful threads”. Why “formerly useful”? Because, the threads are slowing being overrun with irrelevant chat and comments that exit only to facilitate “thinking out loud”..

    Frustrating the purpose of Brock for newcomers: People come to Brock because they are either in personal distress or because they want to begin learning about certain topics. The continual irrelevant chatter is obstructing their purpose on both counts. People do not come to Brock to learn about what’s happening on “Planet Plaxy” – to experience “thinking out loud”.

    As has been sometimes implied and sometimes directly stated this is destroying the value of the Isaac Brock Society as a research tool for people who want to learn about these important issues.

    Some (but not all) people have been driven away from Brock: People have left Brock because of this and have made it clear that they have left Brock because of this.

    In conclusion: if you personally believe that the Isaac Brock Society has value and purpose, then please stop using Brock as a vehicle for your personal “thinking out loud” and stop leaving so many comments.

  8. Not sure where to put this but Democrats Abroad is asking for input for the party platform.
    One can send a brief video about taxes.

    Part of the message is here. Apologies to moderators if they have to repost or reformat.

    Go to https://www.stories.demconvention.com/
    2. Register for an online account
    3. Upload your video testimonial in support for Residency Based Taxation using a smartphone with a video camera
    4. Once you upload your video, copy the URL website link and email it to
    TaxationTF@democratsabroad.org – THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT STEP! DON’T FORGET TO DO THIS!
    5. Follow these tips to create a video testimonial that will grab the attention of the Democratic Party’s Platform Drafting Committee:
    • Keep your video short! 1-2 minutes are best.
    • Record from a well-lit space without music or background noise (and make sure your lens is
    clean). If you can, ask another person to stand and record the video of you at eye level.
    • The video should be focused on your face from your chest up, similar to what it looks like when
    you get your passport picture taken.
    • If you’re recording from a mobile device, please position it horizontally.
    • Please keep your tone and language respectful.
    • The video should only talk about one issue you care about most, so only talk about Residency
    Based Taxation in this case.
    • Here’s an example of a testimonial video so you can get an idea of what you’re aiming for
    https://youtu.be/PIIBPHH-d8s?t=121

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