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Trump’s America


tx 3 putt

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3 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Can give you the scoop on how to do it in the UK.  It's functionally all online....which is a royal pain in the ass.  We bought a flat in Scotland.  The boy was there, so he was our "boots on the ground" to visit and inspect, decide this is the one, etc.  But you have to have a UK bank account to proceed.  And there are only so many banks that will work with non-UK residents.  We went with a very large UK bank.  Lots of back-and-forth, and multiple layers of security and confirmation, which got hung up because they needed to text confirmation to my phone, but for some reason, texts to AT&T devices just wouldn't go through.  After HOURS on the phone with customer service (all long distance calls -- they don't have a WhatsApp number or anything like that), someone finally figured out that if they deleted my phone number, the confirmation would go to my email. Worked like a charm after that.

Then, there are limits as to how much money you can move in and out per day (something like £25k).  So, had to pay for things in traunches.

And buying property over there is a very different process.  Have to have a solicitor, PLUS we needed a realtor because we were not versed in all the processes.  Had to spend some money on her, but she was worth it.  Local council taxes have to be navigated, all kinds of other stuff, and then there are the hassles of owning property remotely (that's an issue anywhere -- if you own a home in another city or state, it's an issue).

But eventually, we intend to have a working batch of cash and a piece of real property in another country.  And part of the reasoning is yeah, "just in case."

Portugal is somewhat similar re banking (I have an account in a Portuguese bank). One advantage of course is that Portugal is part of the EU and so everything is portable between EU countries - same with mobile phones, etc.

In Portugal you must first obtain a NIF (Número de Identificação Fiscal or tax ID number). This requires a bunch of paperwork including a background check here and a narrative stating where all your funds are sourced from. It was time-consuming although not particularly challenging. I highly recommend obtaining a local immigration attorney to assist with everything - mine is reasonably priced and extremely helpful.

Note that many banks in the EU and elsewhere overseas will not take American clients due to the long reach of US financial laws.

The political situation here had nothing to do with my starting this process - what's left of my family live in/are citizens of the UK, 2.5 hours from Faro rather than 9 from Seattle, and I speak some Portuguese - and at the moment I keep less than $10k in my account there to avoid the annoying US FBAR reporting requirements.

Residency is a completely different kettle of fish; there are several possibilities depending on how long you wish to remain in country each year. Like here, it's 5 years minimum temporary residency before you can apply for permanent residency or citizenship. You need the NIF and bank account for any of the residency visas.

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7 minutes ago, wood said:

These appointments are nuts, even for Trump. Utter freakshow.

I'm not saying this is what's happening here, but if the Russians had run a 50 year sleeper program to take over the White House and the cabinet, it seems like it would look a lot like we're seeing here, except it probably wouldn't be so obvious and ham-fisted. This is weird, wild stuff ... and just like his campaign, you couldn't make this shit up. If you were writing a political thriller, even if you did imagine this stuff, you'd never write it, because you'd think "I can't write that, because it's so stupid that people would just stop reading".

 

he’s appointing the ultimate ‘yes’ men 

the next time he talks about dropping a nuke in a hurricane, all he’ll hear is ‘fuck yes !’

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I’ve been thinking this afternoon about whether or not we will see a bunch of brain drain from federal agencies under Trump 2.0. Not the Elon “efficiency” shit, but just plain old career bureaucrats that see someone like Gaetz becoming their new boss and say “nah, fuck this” and bail. Not sure what career opportunities those types of people can parlay from being a bureaucrat so that might have an impact. It also strikes me that this result might entirely be an intended consequence as part of the P2025 playbook to stock federal agencies with blind loyalists.

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Just now, tx 3 putt said:

 

he’s appointing the ultimate ‘yes’ men 

the next time he talks about dropping a nuke in a hurricane, all he’ll hear is ‘fuck yes !’

100%. I remember back in the day in the fire department when the Chief of the department appointed a Lieutenant to Assistant Chief of the Fire Department, skipping 4 or 5 ranks. Everyone's immediate reaction was the same. Sure would be a helluva fall from Asst. Chief pay back to Lt. pay, right? Better do what the man says, or else.

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23 minutes ago, wood said:

These appointments are nuts, even for Trump. Utter freakshow.

I'm not saying this is what's happening here, but if the Russians had run a 50 year sleeper program to take over the White House and the cabinet, it seems like it would look a lot like we're seeing here, except it probably wouldn't be so obvious and ham-fisted. This is weird, wild stuff ... and just like his campaign, you couldn't make this shit up. If you were writing a political thriller, even if you did imagine this stuff, you'd never write it, because you'd think "I can't write that, because it's so stupid that people would just stop reading".

November 18, 1956 ...

“We will take America without firing a shot. We do not have to invade the U.S. We will destroy you from within.”

- Nikita Khrushchev

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1 hour ago, wood said:

These appointments are nuts, even for Trump. Utter freakshow.

I'm not saying this is what's happening here, but if the Russians had run a 50 year sleeper program to take over the White House and the cabinet, it seems like it would look a lot like we're seeing here, except it probably wouldn't be so obvious and ham-fisted. This is weird, wild stuff ... and just like his campaign, you couldn't make this shit up. If you were writing a political thriller, even if you did imagine this stuff, you'd never write it, because you'd think "I can't write that, because it's so stupid that people would just stop reading".

If you showed these results to republicans in the 1980s, they wouldn't even believe you. If you were able to convince them that this is their future, they would be horrified and disgusted at what we've become. Now? Cool, cool. 

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55 minutes ago, DixonHur said:

November 18, 1956 ...

“We will take America without firing a shot. We do not have to invade the U.S. We will destroy you from within.”

- Nikita Khrushchev

Yeah, well, we have the toilets. Checkmate!

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Who survives this? Assuming this is not the full Brisket scenario - who comes out of this kinda ok? Business owners? Top 5%? Just the billionaires?

*Brisket scenario - full on nuke war, so we all are fucked.


Also - what countries do we take down with us? As we go a lot of the world goes.

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did someone on here say they'd gotten a letter from JPMorgan recommending or advising something about moving things to cash? 🤔

the way the last 10 days have gone for me that absolutely could have been a fever dream/nightmare 😜... am i the only one that saw that?

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1 hour ago, royiv said:

I’ve been thinking this afternoon about whether or not we will see a bunch of brain drain from federal agencies under Trump 2.0. Not the Elon “efficiency” shit, but just plain old career bureaucrats that see someone like Gaetz becoming their new boss and say “nah, fuck this” and bail. Not sure what career opportunities those types of people can parlay from being a bureaucrat so that might have an impact. It also strikes me that this result might entirely be an intended consequence as part of the P2025 playbook to stock federal agencies with blind loyalists.

Going to be a huge waive of retirements. 

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7 minutes ago, mchookem said:

did someone on here say they'd gotten a letter from JPMorgan recommending or advising something about moving things to cash? 🤔

the way the last 10 days have gone for me that absolutely could have been a fever dream/nightmare 😜... am i the only one that saw that?

Sounds like a good way for JPMorgan to very quickly go under so I would guess fever dream. 

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Oh.  The fucking.  Irony.

Remember when Michelle Obama championed better nutrition in schools, and it was BIG BROTHER COMMUNISM SHE IS EVIL AND MUST BE STOPPED???  That was the fucking chorus we heard from Republicans for....well, going on 14 years now?

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The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act changed nutrition standards for the National School Lunch Program by requiring that schools serve more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fat-free and/or low-fat milk more frequently and less starchy vegetables or foods high in sodium and trans fat. The Obama-era policy has since seen a series of rollback measures.

Let's check out the news today.  Now that we live in Trumpland, which is truly the bastion of freedom and opportunity and no regulations and AIN'T NO GOVERNMENT GONNA TELL US WHAT TO DO OUR KIDS SHOULD DO AND EAT WHATEVER THEY WANT BECAUSE FREEDOM!....let's pop over to the news: https://www.kvue.com/article/news/politics/texas-legislature/kelloggs-cereal-ban-texas-legislature-schools/269-fa20f916-5f4a-457f-aecd-c40dab3f80ca

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During that meeting, HumanCo founder and CEO Jason Karp testified, pushing for Texas to ban Kellogg's "and any other anti-American companies" from public entities, including schools statewide. 

"Very few Americans know that Kellogg's sells a safer version of their cereals, without artificial food dyes or carcinogenic preservatives, in other countries," Karp said. 

According to Karp, Kellogg's claims "American children prefer the brighter colors, and they will continue selling the more toxic version," as long as current laws are unchanged. 

So far, Karp said he and a group of fellow advocates have collected more than 450,000 signatures pushing Kellogg's to use safer ingredients in the U.S.  

A video of Karp was posted Wednesday to Instagram by Truvani founder Vani Hari and has already received thousands of comments and reactions. 

"BIG FOOD WATCH OUT. We have a revolution here," Hari wrote in the post's caption. "We will hit this issue from every single angle possible. We cannot be stopped."

During the committee meeting, State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham) also shared concerns about companies using different ingredients in the U.S. versus overseas. 

"Why are foods in Europe different than foods in America, but we have the same companies making it?" She asked.

The fucking idiocy.  It is infinite.

Is having healthier food in schools bad policy?  YES.  100%.  IT IS THE WORST THING EVER, AND A SYMPTOM OF THE DEATH OF THE REPUBLIC!  I mean, ummm.....if a Democrat proposes it.

But if a Republican proposes it, well, we're just gonna MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN!  LOOK AT ME WITH MY BRILLIANT IDEA!

This country is too stupid to go on.  I'm now on board with the MAGAs.  Burn the whole fucking thing down.  Why lament the immolation of something this gut-numbingly stupid?

 

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3 minutes ago, Red Five said:

Sounds like a good way for JPMorgan to very quickly go under so I would guess fever dream. 

that's what i was thinking...maybe it was just for that poster's accounts or something.  or yeah, traumatic fever dream on my part lol

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5 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

This country is too stupid to go on.  I'm now on board with the MAGAs.  Burn the whole fucking thing down.  Why lament the immolation of something this gut-numbingly stupid?

 

 

hmm-suspect.gif

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1 hour ago, Red Five said:

If you showed these results to republicans in the 1980s, they wouldn't even believe you. If you were able to convince them that this is their future, they would be horrified and disgusted at what we've become. Now? Cool, cool. 

100% this. Throughout all of this I keep thinking back to some of the real shitty assholes we've had in various high positions of power who would never, at least not so openly, flaunt basically every law or structure we have in place to limit their powers. For sure, some have tried to 'paint outside the lines', to much lesser degrees than what we're seeing now, but even then, they attempted to hide it and still weren't trying to, effectively, fundamentally destroy the Union. Much or all of what this crew openly says they'll do is stuff that none of those assholes would have even tried in secret. 

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1 hour ago, Bateshorn said:

Going to be a huge waive of retirements. 

Already hearing about it. Mainly from State, DHS and USAID contacts. All asking how to get into the civilian world. Now wait for all the colonels. That will be fun.

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1 hour ago, The Original Greaser Bob said:

"Chill bitches.  I got yo back."

susan-collins.jpg

 

And the rumors have come out today with Susan Rice considering challenging her.

 

This with what Axlrod said yesterday makes me want to punch things.

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6 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Yep.  The boy had a similar pain in the ass when he moved to the UK, as did the daughter.  Was MUCH easier to open an account when she moved to Canada (walked over to the RBC branch, opened a student account with her, done deal).  Germany was a similar pain in the ass when the boy lived there.  One thing we encouraged them to do was to KEEP all those accounts active, forever.  Daughter keeps a low balance in her RBC account.  Boy kept his German account, and now he's back over there for a year, so it's active again (although he doesn't ever have that much money in it, so not reportable).

We had to report our UK account starting last year.  We also have a separate account for German expenses that we need to report next year (they require a "blocked bank account" with sufficient funds to support the student for the year).  But our family rule is "keep every bank account in every country active."  It's just a nice hedge to have a quick and easy way to move money in or out of any country as pressing needs may arise.

Yeah, if we have tariff-based inflation, then it will ripple globally for sure.

So, speaking as a fairly financially-illiterate person, I'm sure there are downsides to having to report that account. What are they?

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9 minutes ago, wood said:

So, speaking as a fairly financially-illiterate person, I'm sure there are downsides to having to report that account. What are they?

The reg is really to track drug money.  As I do not traffic in narcotics (if you're a cop, you have to tell me), I'm not overly concerned.  I don't necessarily like the gov't knowing that I have a large account elsewhere, but if it ever gets hairy enough to be a problem....it'll be hairy enough for me to GTFO anyway.

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4 hours ago, royiv said:

I’ve been thinking this afternoon about whether or not we will see a bunch of brain drain from federal agencies under Trump 2.0. Not the Elon “efficiency” shit, but just plain old career bureaucrats that see someone like Gaetz becoming their new boss and say “nah, fuck this” and bail. Not sure what career opportunities those types of people can parlay from being a bureaucrat so that might have an impact. It also strikes me that this result might entirely be an intended consequence as part of the P2025 playbook to stock federal agencies with blind loyalists.

One of original brain drains was after WWII when the scientists left the government and went to the private sector.  Lots of innovation and product development occurred so maybe this is a good thing?

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7 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

The reg is really to track drug money.  As I do not traffic in narcotics (if you're a cop, you have to tell me), I'm not overly concerned.  I don't necessarily like the gov't knowing that I have a large account elsewhere, but if it ever gets hairy enough to be a problem....it'll be hairy enough for me to GTFO anyway.

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2 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

He’s not joking and anyone who thinks he won’t do everything he can to remain in power for the rest of his life just hasn’t been paying attention. 

I’d like to see him try. No really. Not because I think Congress would stop him. But someone would. 

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