Hot off the press from Phil Hodgen!! – Is this what one would expect from a narcissist?
The Internal Revenue Code uses the word “expatriate” to specifically refer to someone who goes through a process of terminating U.S. citizenship or permanent resident status. This is what you will find in Sections 877 and 877A of the Internal Revenue Code. Yes, it is a lazy and ego-centric way for the U.S. government to approach the world: “A word means only what we say it means.”
In an early post: Nationalistic Narcissism and U.S. citizenship – Being a U.S. citizen is like having a narcissist for a parent – I suggested that the United States is a narcissist. On the most minimal level, narcissism includes the belief that everything and everybody should revolve around the narcissist. Anybody who has ever known a narcissist knows that narcissists do not recognize personal boundaries. To put it another way, a narcissist sees everybody as an extension of the narcissist – i.e cannot accept that other people are autonomous individuals. Although I am not suggesting that Wikipedia is extremely authoritative, I note the following comment:
According to Hotchkiss,[8]narcissists do not recognize that they have boundaries and that others are separate and are not extensions of themselves. Others either exist to meet their needs or may as well not exist at all. Those who provide narcissistic supply to the narcissist will be treated as if they are part of the narcissist and be expected to live up to those expectations. In the mind of a narcissist there is no boundary between self and other.
As one ex put it, “If you had firm boundaries in the face of a narcissist, the relationship wouldn’t last”.[9]
Narcissistic people cannot see others as autonomous individuals. Narcissistic countries cannot see other countries as autonomous, sovereign countries. As a narcissistic country, the United States does not and cannot treat other countries as sovereign countries. There are many examples which include:
1. Sending drones into the airspace of other sovereign nations and killing people within those borders – Welcome to the world of the “Obama Kill List”
2. Citizenship-based taxation which “loots the treasuries” of other sovereign nations – for an example of “looting”, see how a PFIC works. Citizenship-based taxation may be a violation of international law.
3. The requirements of Mr. FBAR which require the disclosure of private information of both U.S. and non-U.S. citizens to the U.S.
4. FATCA which is designed to force foreign banks to comply with IRS requirements and comply with those requirements at the expense of the local bank.
5. The extraterritorial application of U.S. law to other sovereign nations – which the U.S. allows to the extent that it is authorized by Congress
A few nights I watched Piers Morgan interview former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura. He made the point that under no circumstances would the U.S. allow other countries enter its airspace with drones designed to kill people within the borders of the U.S.
The conduct of the Unites States of America is premised on one simple principle:
Do what I say and NOT what I do! – AKA Hypocrisy Inc.
Amazingly – and just on cue – while I was writing this post – the following tweet appeared:
Sovereign Man identifies one example. There are so many examples of U.S. hypocrisy that it is impossible to list them.
How else can one explain that the U.S. imposes the tyranny of citizenship-based taxation on its own citizens, but the U.S. supports a UN resolution to sanction Eritrea for the same thing?
How else can one explain that the U.S. attempts to impose the Jackson-Vanek Act on other nations, but does not comply with it itself? (The Jackson-Vanek Act disallows normal trade relations with non-market economy countries which “impose more than a nominal tax on emigration or … on any citizen as a consequence of the desire of such citizen to emigrate”.) The U.S. imposts a massive exit tax on its citizens.
Living with the Narcissist
As many Marines would day:
“The difficult we do today, the impossible takes a little longer!”
Kris Kristofferson once said that the United States is the biggest problem in the world. A narcissist does not see others as independent autonomous beings. Since true friendship presumes respect for the dignity of the other, it is difficult for a narcissist to have friends. In the same way that it is difficult for a narcissistic person to have friends, it is difficult for a narcissistic country to have friends. There is no doubt that the U.S. is a narcissist. Although it is possible for a narcissist to be liked, it is unlikely. A narcissist would have to work extra hard to be liked.
It follows as both a matter of logic and fact that, there are many people and countries who do not like the U.S. To be fair, every country is disliked by somebody. But, for many people and countries, it it is NOT sufficient to simply “not like” the U.S. There are many who actively hate the U.S. Now to be clear, to “not like” somebody is a thought. To “hate” somebody or something is an emotion. In the final analysis, “hatred” is a very damaging emotion and particularly damaging to the person who is the hater. It is an emotion that must be overcome. To use the language of Coretta Scott King:
“Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.”
Since 2011 the United States has been preoccupied with people who “hate” America. The U.S. is willing to spend lots of energy and money defending itself from people who (according to the U.S.) hate it. The U.S. seems to have no interest in understanding – as was analyzed by Sardar and Davies in their excellent book – Why People Hate America. Yet, the U.S.has spent untold amounts of money in wars and homeland security (whatever that is). Wars and security cost lots and lots of money. The best financial investment in the future of America would to become more liked in the world. To be “better liked” necessitates recognizing the sovereignty of other nations. The U.S. seems (like most narcissists) to believe that they are liked. Not so!!
U.S. behavior and foreign policy seems to recognize only two kinds of countries:
1. Those countries where it feels that it is to its advantage to do things to; and
2. Those countries where it feels that it is to its advantage to do things for.
The world is “black and white” and from a U.S. perspective, “You’re either with us or you’re with the terrorists (whoever these terrorists may be). (These two extremes are also characteristic of people suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder.)
Sooner or later the rest of the world will say “enough is enough”. FATCA is a huge problem for the rest of the world. The rest of the world should simply swallow the “short term pain” of not complying with FATCA in exchange for the “long term gain” of being free of the world’s biggest narcissist! Sooner or later the link to the narcissist must be broken.
Why not start now?
This is the first of a series of posts where I will suggest how the world in general and Canada in particular should “deal with the narcissist”.
Stop citizenship-based taxation – Repeal FATCA
U.S. Persons Abroad - Members of a Unique Tax, Form and Penalty Club 
A most apt analogy and excellent commentary!
Tautology (rhetoric), using different words to say the same thing, or a series of self-reinforcing statements that cannot be disproved because they depend on the assumption that they are already correct.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tautology
The whole U.S. tax system is one big “tautology”. By its very nature there is no escape from a tautology and so no matter the amount of evidence that we my try to amass against citizenship based taxation it will never register in the minds of the U.S. Congressman or resident citizen.
Maybe it’s time for another (Boston)TEA PARTY; Taxation without representation. Because unless you have had the ‘pleasure’ of visiting a U.S. Embassy – then, only can you understand how very little you mean to the the mechanics of the government as a whole. And I don’t appreciate being used as chattel, nor being made to feel like i am a thief……..in this whole process. Eventually my money makes it’s way back to the USA – and hence it is taxed on anything and everything I might engage there. Whether I buy a pack of gum at the local gas station (and am taxed) or a house, and everything else in-between. I had the opportunity to stay in the states and go onto unemployment benefits…….like many……(something that I am well entitled to, since again I am mandated to paying into that system) I chose to work ……But this obsession with my money – how much of it I have – the tax credit……(that apparently according to family/friends in the USA makes me very rich!)…..I don’t use the infrastructure, air, water etc…..in the USA So, anything over the tax credit amount is taxed. Why? because I carry a US passport…….? That instrument puts me in more danger than not, on this side of the world. And trust me, the US government will NOT BAIL ME OUT OF ANYWHERE, AT THEIR EXPENSE. i.e. Lebanon 4-5 years ago…….Every government in the world took their citizens out of that war arena……..except the US. I walked out in the middle of a ‘town-hall’ mtg held at the US Embassy in Kabul back in 2006, (after the whole city was subject to civil unrest the day before) because we were told in this public forum by the Ambassador that we were all there under our own volitiion, and that the US government WOULD NOT secure any citizens that were in the country by choice. That if there was immienent danger, we could come into the compound, at the most. I lived an hour away… So I can easily understand why the new norm may be to renounce one’s citizenship. It is an option! (And you know how Americans LOVER THEIR OPTIONS!) Let the U.S. Congressman and resident citizen chew on that! And they always have the option to live on the economy as I have in Afghanistan. Then they might appreciate my (small) efforts in the reconstruction of Afghanistan – an effort that took American initiative, hard work and commitment in supporting the USG’s program. P.S. I am sure there are people taking advantage, sure too there are drug cartels utilizing the system………but I can tell you too that the thinking process here is that “why not go for GOLD” – and just get every expat out there – to pay more taxes…….That’s the stigma, so now I am a thief……..How easy the common American is to influence.