Tina Turner Latest to Renounce US Citizenship

The famous threatened to leave when Bush was president, but apparently some actually are leaving the country—even renouncing their citizenship—while Obama’s in charge.

Tina Turner is the latest to return her U.S. passport. She will become citizen of Switzerland where she’s been living since 1995. It should be noted that the United States and Switzerland do allow dual citizenship.

Last year, Eduardo Saverin, a co-founder of Facebook, renounced his U.S. Citizenship, prior to the initial public offering of Facebook, to reduce his tax liability. He had moved to Singapore in 2011, where there is no capital gains tax.

According to a Bloomberg article on Severin’s move, “A record 1,780 gave up their U.S. passports last year (2011) compared with 235 in 2008, according to government records.”

During the reelection campaign of President George W. Bush in 2004, Alec Baldwin, director Robert Altman, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, among others, threatened to leave the USA if President George Bush was elected. None of them acted on it, however, and some backpedaled to "clarify" their position after Bush was reelected.

The United States is not the only country where the wealthy are leaving their homeland to avoid oppressive government taxation. After the Socialist French government went to raise the their top tax rate from 41 percent to 75 percent for top earners, film star Gerard Depardieu threatened to renounce his French citizenship and planned to move to Belgium. He ended up being granted Russian citizenship by a special decree from Russian President Vladimir Putin, bypassing the usual citizenship process because of his "outstanding services to cinematography." Russia has a flat income-tax rate of 13 percent. The French plan has been struck down by France's highest court for now, but lawmakers are working on a way to reinstate it.

Elderly Dissidents Rounded Up at Pro-Kremlin Rally

Dozens of anti-Kremlin protesters were detained, including several elderly and one dressed as Father Frost (Russia's version of Santa Claus), at a rally held by pro-Kremlin activists. One elderly woman, 82 and dressed as Father Frost's assistant, Snegurochka, was led away by riot police along with 30-50 others. The group had been denied permission to hold a protest during the pro-government rally. The Pro-Kremlin celebrators, Young Russia, accused the opposition of Western funding. Young Russia issued a statement declaring, "Bad Santa arrived from abroad to steal our holiday."

The protesters named Putin as the cause of an ongoing clampdown on civil liberties in Russia. Putin was president from 2000-2008. Since 2008 elections he is the current Prime Minister of Russia, nominated to the post by the new President, Dmitry Medvedev. During his time in the KGB, Putin served as Fifth Directorate of the KGB, which combated political dissent in the Soviet Union.