PARADIGM SHIFT & THE AGE OF OBAMA: The Precursors To The End Of The United States Corporation And The White Supremacy Paradigm - A RECORD NUMBER Of U.S. Citizens And Green-Card Holders Cut Ties And Renounce Citizenship In 2015; 560 PERCENTAGE Increase From The Bush Administration; President Obama Launches New Effort To Help More Immigrants Become U.S. Citizens!

(Photo credit: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg)

February 7, 2016 - UNITED STATES - Once again, the number of Americans renouncing U.S. citizenship has gone up, up 560% from its Bush administration high. In 2015, there were approximately 4,300 expatriations according to the published names of individuals who renounced. The name and shame list is published quarterly, with the most recent three-month total being 1,058. That brings the total to 4,279 for 2015.

These numbers seem tiny compared to the influx of immigrants. Yet expatriations have historically been much lower. Moreover, the published list is also incomplete, with many not counted. Surprisingly, no one seems to know exactly how big the real number is, even though the IRS and FBI both track Americans who renounce citizenship. There is no single explanation, though with global tax reporting and FATCA, the list of the individuals who renounce keeps increasing,

2014 was also a record year with 3,415 published expatriates. The reasons that Americans renouncing citizenship is at an all-time high can be over family, tax and legal complications. Dual citizenship isn’t always possible, as this infographic from MoveHub shows. Some countries make citizens pay a fee to hand in their passport. Some countries have no fee, but America’s $2,350 fee is more than twenty times the average level in other high-income countries.

Many now find America’s global income tax compliance and disclosure laws to be a burden, some say downright oppressive. No group is more severely impacted than U.S. persons living abroad, who can be pariahs shunned by banks for daily banking activities. For those living and working in foreign countries, it is almost a given that they must report and pay tax where they live. But they must also continue to file taxes in the U.S.

What’s more, U.S. reporting is based on their worldwide income, even though they are paying taxes in the country where they live. Many can claim a foreign tax credit on their U.S. returns, but it generally does not eliminate all double taxes. These rules have long been in effect, but enforcement was historically less of a concern with expats. Today, enforcement fears are palpable. Moreover, the annual foreign bank account reports known as FBARs carry civil and criminal penalties all out of proportion to tax violations. Even civil penalties can quickly consume the balance of an account.

FATCA has ramped up worldwide and requires an annual Form 8938 filing if foreign assets meet a threshold. Foreign banks are sufficiently worried about keeping the IRS happy that many simply do not want American account holders. Still, leaving America can be costly. To exit, you generally must prove 5 years of IRS tax compliance. Plus, if you have a net worth greater than $2 million or have average annual net income tax for the 5 previous years of $160,000 or more, you can pay an exit tax.

It is a capital gain tax as if you sold your property when you left. Long-term residents giving up a Green Card can be required to pay the exit tax too. No one wants to pay an exit tax if they can avoid it. Sometimes planning and valuations can reduce or even eliminate the tax. But taxed or not, many still seem to be headed for the exits. Last year, dual citizens in Canada trying to shed their U.S. citizenship created a backlog at the U.S. consulate in Toronto. President Obama has joked about his birth certificate, but accidental American status is no joke. Many end up in untenable financial situations.

The U.S. has been criticized for hiking its fee to renounce by 422% to $2,350. Previously, there was a $450 fee to renounce, and no fee to relinquish. But the precise difference between the two procedures was often confused. Presently, the $2,350 fee is supposed to apply either way. That was a hike from $450 to $2,350 for renouncing, and an even steeper hike–from zero to $2,350–for relinquishment. The U.S. State Department said raising the fee was about demand and paperwork, but American expatriations still grew even after the increase. - Forbes.

Obama Has Launched a New Effort to Help More Immigrants Become US Citizens

Immigrants take the Oath of Allegiance during a naturalization ceremony in Washington DC on August 28, 2015. (Photo by Michael Reynolds/EPA)

A federal task force created by President Barack Obama to increase the number of immigrants that become naturalized US citizens just kicked off a national tour in Los Angeles, launching a politically controversial effort seen by some conservatives as a way to enroll more Democratic-leaning Hispanic voters for upcoming elections.

Senior White House advisors and members of the Task Force on New Americans met on Friday with LA Mayor Eric Garcetti and local leaders who have been trying to help 750,000 eligible immigrants across the greater LA area gain citizenship.

The task force was created in November, 2014, as part of the president's executive actions on immigration, with the stated goals of increasing funding for programs that help naturalize immigrants, working with city and state governments to increase their ability to help with the process, and to "celebrate 'New Americans,'" according to a 2015 White House report.

The visit to LA comes amid a push by the task force to highlight how some cities and states across the country have opened government offices specifically to help "integrate" immigrants. New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Michigan have all opened Offices for New Americans, while Chicago, LA, New York, and Boston are among the cities that have local offices devoted to the cause, according to the report.

Jared Sanchez of the University of Southern California's Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration said the task force is, in some ways, looking to follow the lead of the cities who have already started this work. The meeting Friday in California will highlight efforts to expand access to healthcare, driver's licenses, and college for immigrants, as well as non-profit programs in LA that help individuals apply for citizenship and study for the test, the mayor's office told the Los Angeles Times. The office did not respond to VICE News' request for comment.

"The groundswell is really coming from city level," Sanchez said. "For the federal government, the most important thing to notice is these city offices and groups on the ground already doing the work."

City workers and non-profit groups have stepped up their efforts to reach out to immigrants to explain the benefits of naturalizing: earnings increase 8 to 11 percent after the first three years of citizenship, and individuals can find a more stable sense of place, as well as earning the right to vote in their community, Sanchez said.

"Of course there are the civic benefits: increasing voting, increasing the electorate, especially around upcoming elections, which explains why there's such a focus on naturalizing immigrants now," he added.

Immigrants with lawful permanent resident status — meaning they hold a green card — are eligible to become citizens after five years, or three years if they are married to a US citizen. The programs do not apply to the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants estimated to be living in the United States illegally. Obama has taken executive actions to shield as many as 5 million undocumented individuals from deportation, but the move has been challenged by 26 states in a lawsuit that will be heard by the Supreme Court later this year.

Total deportations in the US have dropped 42 percent since 2012 under the Obama administration, a reversal from Obama's first two years in office, when more immigrants were deported than in any year under George W. Bush. Recently, however, US immigration authorities began rounding up dozens of Central American families who had arrived since May 2014 and who were denied asylum after claiming to have fled violence in their homeland.

Activists suggested that the raids — which were highly publicized and widely criticized by many on the left — were intended to show that the Obama administration is not soft on immigration ahead of the 2016 presidential election, in which Republican candidates have lambasted their Democratic counterparts for their stances on immigration. In particular, GOP candidates and other party leaders have slammed Obama's executive actions.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz called Obama's program to shield young immigrants from deportation "lawless" and "wrong," and claimed that the president has "no legal authority to do what he's doing." Florida Senator Marco Rubio said he "would love to defund the immigration order," while frontrunner Donald Trump has vowed to deport all of the undocumented people in the US and build a giant wall along the US-Mexico border, a project he claims would be paid for by Mexico.

The GOP's bluster has largely ignored the fact that there are millions of legal immigrants in the US, including many that will gain citizenship and become voters in the coming years. The US issues about 1.1 million green cards each year, and the Census Bureau found that by the year 2023, there will be 51 million immigrants in the US, accounting for one in seven US residents.

In LA, task force officials and the mayor met with immigration experts from USC to learn how to effectively reach out to immigrants and help them begin the citizenship process. Sanchez and other researchers at USC have found that a lack of clear information, language barriers, and an ambivalence about putting down roots in the US can often prevent immigrants from initiating the naturalization process, as well as the $685 naturalization fee.

The federal government's infusion of cash into local and state programs could help them waive the fee as well as increase awareness and accessible information, Sanchez said. The task force will meet with other cities around the country to discuss funding and support in during the spring of 2016, according to its 2015 report. - Vice.

THE AGE OF OBAMA: Precursors To Collapse Of The United States Corporation - Americans Renouncing Citizenship Up 221 PERCENT, All Aboard The FATCA Express!

February 10, 2014 - UNITED STATES - America is a great land and lures immigrants worldwide, yet record numbers of U.S. citizens and permanent residents are giving up their citizenship or residency. For all the immigrant arrivals the trickle the other direction is increasing. The number is still small, with the “published” expatriates for the quarter 630 for the last quarter of 2013.

That brings the total number to 2,999 for all of 2013. The previous record high for a year was 1,781 set in 2011. It’s a 221% increase over the 932 who left in 2012. You can call it a shaming or a public record, but the Treasury Department is required to publish a quarterly list of Americans who renounced their U.S. Citizenship or terminated their long-term U.S. residency. The public outing puts Americans on notice who relinquished their rights.

Those seem like tiny numbers, yet the total thus far for 2013 is 2,369. See Number of Taxpayers Who Renounced U.S. Citizenship Skyrockets to All-Time Record High, quoting Andrew Mitchel. Under U.S. tax law, it is not relevant why someone expatriates. Whether the expatriation was motivated by tax avoidance or something else used to matter, but the law was changed in 2004.

Since then, the tax and other consequences do not depend on why one leaves. Yet after Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin departed permanently for Singapore with his Facebook IPO riches, there was an angry backlash. Mr. Saverin’s post-Facebook fly-away prompted such outrage that Senators Chuck Schumer and Bob Casey introduced a bill to double the exit tax to 30% for anyone leaving the U.S. for tax reasons.

So far, that bill remains unpassed. Meantime, are people following Tina Turner’s lead? No, and not Eduardo Saverin’s either. Most expatriations are probably motivated primarily by factors such as family and convenience. Many people like Ms. Turner have built a life somewhere else and may not plan to need a U.S. passport.

Complex or costly taxes can help sway a decision but are often only one factor. Although statistics are not available for why people say a final good-bye, many now find America’s global income tax compliance and disclosure laws inconvenient and nettlesome. Some go so far as to say that the U.S. tax and disclosure laws are downright oppressive.

No group is more severely impacted than U.S. persons living abroad. For those living and working in foreign countries, it is almost a given that they must report and pay tax where they live. But they must also continue to file taxes in the U.S. What’s more, U.S. reporting is based on their worldwide income, even though they are paying taxes in the country where they live.

Many can claim a foreign tax credit on their U.S. returns, but it generally does not eliminate all double taxes. These rules have long been in effect, but enforcement was historically less of a concern with expats. Today, enforcement fears are palpable.

Moreover, the annual foreign bank account reports known as FBAR forms carry civil and criminal penalties all out of proportion to tax violations. The penalties for failure to file these forms, civil and criminal, are severe. Even civil penalties can quickly consume the balance of an account.

The coup de grace is FATCA, which is ramping up now worldwide. It requires an annual Form 8938 to be filed with income tax returns for foreign assets meeting a threshold. And foreign banks are sufficiently worried about keeping the IRS happy that many simply do not want American account holders. Americans abroad can be pariahs shunned by banks for daily banking activities.

Even Canada has now agreed to turn over data to the U.S., though many in Canada are hopping mad about it. See Canada Signs U.S. FATCA Deal, IRS To Get Data. Still, leaving America can have a special tax cost. To exit, you generally must prove 5 years of tax compliance in the U.S. Plus, if you have a net worth greater than $2 million or have average annual net income tax for the 5 previous years of $155,000 or more (that’s tax, not income), you pay an exit tax.

The theory of the exit tax is that is the last chance the U.S. has of taxing you. It is a capital gain tax as if you sold your property when you left. At least there’s an exemption of $668,000.

Citizens aren’t the only ones to suffer. Long-term residents giving up a Green Card can be required to pay the tax too. See High Cost To Go Green: Giving Up A Green Card. A decision to expatriate should never be taken lightly. Taxes or no, it can be a big step. And around the world, more people are talking about taking this giant leap. - Forbes.

BIG BROTHER NOW: The Rise Of The Machines And The Global Police State - Justice Department Memo Reveals Legal Case For Drone Strikes On Americans!

February 05, 2013 - UNITED STATES - A confidential Justice Department memo concludes that the U.S. government can order the killing of American citizens if they are believed to be “senior operational leaders” of al-Qaida or “an associated force” -- even if there is no intelligence indicating they are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S.  The 16-page memo, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News, provides new details about the legal reasoning behind one of the Obama administration’s most secretive and controversial polices: its dramatically increased use of drone strikes against al-Qaida suspects, including those aimed at American citizens, such as the  September 2011 strike in Yemen that killed alleged al-Qaida operatives Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. Both were U.S. citizens who had never been indicted by the U.S. government nor charged with any crimes. 

The secrecy surrounding such strikes is fast emerging as a central issue in this week’s hearing of White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, a key architect of the drone campaign, to be CIA director.  Brennan was the first administration official to publicly acknowledge drone strikes in a speech last year, calling them “consistent with the inherent right of self-defense.” In a separate talk at the Northwestern University Law School in March, Attorney General Eric Holder specifically endorsed the constitutionality of targeted killings of Americans, saying they could be justified if government officials determine the target poses  “an imminent threat of violent attack.” But the confidential Justice Department “white paper” introduces a more expansive definition of self-defense or imminent attack than described  by Brennan or Holder in their public speeches.  It refers, for example, to what it calls a “broader concept of imminence” than actual intelligence about any ongoing plot against the U.S. homeland.  Instead, it says,  an “informed, high-level” official of the U.S. government may determine that the targeted American  has been “recently” involved in “activities” posing a threat of a violent attack and “there is  no evidence suggesting that he has renounced or abandoned such activities.” The memo does not define “recently” or “activities.”

Read the entire 'white paper' on drone strikes on Americans

 As in Holder’s speech, the confidential memo lays out a three-part test that would make targeted killings of American lawful:  In addition to the suspect being an imminent threat, capture of the target must be “infeasible, and the strike must be conducted according to “law of war principles.” But the memo elaborates on some of these factors in ways that go beyond what the attorney general said publicly. For example, it states that U.S. officials may consider whether an attempted capture of a suspect  would pose an “undue risk” to U.S. personnel involved in such an operation. If so, U.S. officials could determine that the capture operation of the targeted American would not be feasible, making it lawful for the U.S. government to order a killing instead, the memo concludes. The undated memo is entitled “Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al Qa’ida or An Associated Force.”  It was provided to members of the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees in June by administration officials on the condition that it be kept confidential and  not discussed publicly. “This is a chilling document,” said Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the ACLU, which is suing to obtain administration memos about the targeted killing of Americans.  “Basically, it argues that the government has the right to carry out the extrajudicial killing of an American citizen. … It recognizes some limits on the authority it sets out, but the limits are elastic and vaguely defined, and it’s easy to see how they could be manipulated.” - NBC News.

WATCH: Michael Isikoff, national investigative correspondent for NBC News, talks with Rachel Maddow about a newly obtained, confidential Department of Justice white paper that hints at the details of a secret White House memo that explains the legal justifications for targeted drone strikes that kill Americans without trial in the name of national security.