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Thursday, May 16, 2013

Political Assassination Prevented In Rome As Unemployed Man Tries To "Shoot Politicians"

by Tyler Durden

While suicides out of desperation had long been a tragic, if recurring, staple in depressionary Europe, so far popular anger had been directed at within, with few if any murderous outbursts targeted at other people, and certainly not at politicians (or financiers). This obviously has been a critical aspect of the current economic collapse in Europe - one needs but recall that it was a political assassination that sparked World War I in Sarajevo, and indirectly, via the Weimar collapse of Germany, set the stage for World War II, leading to the death of tens of millions around the globe. Today we came close. As the AP reports, during today's swearing in ceremony of Italy's new pseudo-technocrat yet anti-austerity government which has the blessings of Berlusconi, an "unemployed Italian gunman shot and seriously wounded two policemen Sunday in a square outside the premier's office in Rome, but he "wanted to shoot politicians," Rome prosecutor Pierfilippo Laviani said.

"Shots rang out in Chigi Square near a busy shopping and strolling area shortly after 11:30 a.m. just as Italy's new government -- Premier Enrico Letta and his new ministers -- were taking their oaths at the Quirinal presidential office, about a half-mile away. The suspected gunman, dressed in a dark business suit, was immediately grabbed by other police in the square, wrestled to the ground and taken away. Laviani, who later questioned the alleged assailant, said the man "wanted to shoot politicians, but given that he couldn't reach any, he shot the Carabinieri" police. Laviani added that the man "confessed everything," but didn't appear mentally unbalanced."

From AP:

The shooting "was the tragic gesture of an unemployed man," Interior Minister Angelino Alfano also told reporters after briefing Letta and his new Cabinet about the attack.
...
Alfano said the alleged gunman -- 49-year-old Luigi Preiti -- wanted to kill himself after the shooting but ran out of bullets. He said six shots were fired.
Italian media reports said the assailant was from southern Calabria and had lived for several years in northern Italy before moving back to Calabria after his marriage fell apart.
Sky TG24 TV quoted the man's brother as saying the alleged attacker had lost his job in a construction firm and was upset over marital problems.

This time only innocent policemen were shot. What about next time? Surely the socio-economic situation of the assailant is not in any way unique in Italy or any other depressionary European countries, of which there are many. And it doesn't take much for any one person, hope crushed and money gone, to go so far beyond the metaphorical ledge, that they are willing to die but not before taking some politicians with them.

A woman passing by during the shooting was also slightly injured, Rome's mayor said. It was unclear if she was grazed by a bullet or hurt in the panic sparked by the gunfire.
It was not immediately clear if the shooting outside the Chigi Palace, which houses the premier's office and other government offices, was timed to coincide with the swearing-in ceremony. But tensions have been running high in Italy following inconclusive elections in February that left the country mired in political deadlock amid a deep recession.
The 46-year-old Letta nailed down a coalition deal only a day ago between two bitter political enemies -- his center-left forces and the conservative bloc of ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
Reporters inside the Chigi Palace press office heard the shots and raced outside. An AP television producer saw the two wounded Carabinieri officers in the square outside the palace. One of them lay on the pavement with blood pouring out of his neck.
...
Security was immediately stepped up near key venues in the Italian capital, but Alfano said authorities were not worried about related attacks.
"The general situation of public order is not causing any worry," he said. "Our initial investigation indicates the incident is due to an isolated gesture, although further investigations are being carried out."
Doctors at Rome's Umberto I Polyclinic said the more seriously injured of the two police officers was a 50-year-old brigadier. They told reporters that a bullet had entered the right side of the officer's neck, damaged his spinal column and was lodged near his shoulder.
The doctors said it wasn't yet known if the spinal column injury had caused any paralysis.
The other victim was a 30-year-old officer who was shot in the leg and had suffered a fracture, hospital officials said.
Preiti was taken to another Rome hospital. News reports said a protective collar was seen around the man's neck.
An aide to Foreign Minister Emma Bonino told reporters at the presidential palace that the new Cabinet members were kept briefly inside for security reasons until it was clear there was no immediate danger.
The new Cabinet ministers were seen smiling in a group photo as news of the shooting broke and it was apparent they weren't immediately aware of the attack.
"The news arrived after the swearing-in," said Dario Franceschini, one of the new ministers. `'Premier Letta is following the situation."
Metal fencing closes off Chigi Square, which flanks Via del Corso, one of Rome's most popular streets with strollers. The public can cross the square by showing identification, and sometimes people can cross it without being stopped. It was unclear if the assailant had asked permission to enter the square.
Rome was jammed Sunday with tourists and residents enjoying a warm sunny morning on the last day of a four-day weekend.

All of this goes back to the bigger picture: for now the myth of the solvent welfare state, both in Europe and the US, has been successful at keeping the broader population within acceptable limits of docility, with only occasional bursts of murderous rage, either accompanied by terrorist intentions or not. Yet as every passing day demonstrates to the public that just like the stock market and the global economy, so too the welfare net is one big ponzi which is just as insolvent as every other aspect of the "developed" west, how long before political assassination attempts either in Rome, or everywhere else where a demoralized public just sees no other way out, become the norm?

And how many policemen will be taken down as they protect a regime which has no other mathematical option but to fail?

Finally, as noted earlier, it was a political assassination that set off the WWI dominoes some 100 years ago.

Will this time not be any different either as history once again repeats itself?

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No charges for NYPD cops filmed punching, pepper-spraying Occupy protesters

by RT

Two New York City Police officers will not face charges after the Manhattan District Attorney decided that widely circulated videos of them punching and pepper-spraying protesters amounted to insufficient evidence that they had done so.

Anthony Bologna, the now-infamous NYPD inspector, was filmed in September 2011 spraying a group of female Occupy Wall Street protestors who had already been isolated and immobilized by a screen held by other officers. The video, which received well over a million views online and was skewered on late night television, became emblematic of the brutality endured by OWS demonstrators who found themselves on the receiving end of aggressive police tactics.

In the same statement, quietly issued on the Friday that came at the end of the heavy news week that included the Boston Marathon bombings, the District Attorney's Office announced no charges would be filed against Deputy Inspector Johnny Cardonna. Cardonna was filmed in October 2011 punching protestor Felix Rivera-Pitra seemingly without provocation.

"The District Attorney's Office has concluded, after a thorough investigation, that we cannot prove these allegations criminally beyond a reasonable doubt," said Erin M. Duggan, the chief spokeswoman for District Attorney Cy Vance. "We have informed the Police Department, the complainants, and the City of our decision."

Cardonna was not disciplined by the NYPD for his actions, while Bologna was stripped of 10 vacation days and reassigned to a post on Staten Island. Bologna is also being sued in a civil court by the nonviolent women he pepper-sprayed, where he'll be represented by city lawyers, according to DNA Info.

"It was clear from the evidence that their actions were not justified," a "source with knowledge of the prosecutor's decision" told Gothamist. "These two were on-duty members of law enforcement, reacting during a chaotic scene that included much more than the short video clips that most people have seen.

Shortly after the second incident the NYPD claimed that Rivera-Pitra had tried to elbow Cardonna before the police officer lunged at him. Rivera-Pitra, whose earring was torn off in the assault, later came forward to advise Cardonna to get tested for HIV.

While some media outlets have implied that the DA's refusal to pursue both officers indicates professional favoritism, law experts said the decision could be based on the difficulty of prosecuting cops in American courts. Former Manhattan prosecutor Thomas J. Curran, speaking to The New York Times, admitted that it's difficult for prosecutors to convict police personnel because using force is "part of their job."

"The use of force would have to be a complete departure from any legitimate police activity," said Curran, who now practices as a defense lawyer. "You'd have to show an intent to assault, and you have to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt, as opposed to using force as allowed pursuant to police activity. It's very difficult to do."

But that refusal to hold police accountable is what still surprised Kaylee Dedrick nearly two years after she was pepper-sprayed by Inspector Bologna. Dedrick's lawyer told the Times that the DA's decision was "cowardly and despicable."

"Part of me expected that he wouldn't be prosecuted, but I'm still pretty shocked, with all the evidence against him," Dedrick said.

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Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Video Shows Chase That Clearwater Police Say Didn't Happen

William R. Levesque, Times Staff Writer

TAMPA ? Clearwater police officials insist one of their officers ended a high-speed chase of Keith Williamson before the motorcyclist was killed in a Feb. 20 crash on the Courtney Campbell Parkway.

"When it was evident that the vehicle was not going to stop, (the officer) called it off," Clearwater police spokeswoman Elizabeth Watts told the Tampa Bay Times in a Feb. 22 story.

On Friday, Watts reaffirmed, "This was not a chase."

But the dashboard video in the unmarked Clearwater police car that tried to stop Williamson shows Officer Nicholas Giordano was right behind Williamson with his car's flashing blue lights and siren engaged just a second or two before the fatal crash.

The video appears to contradict statements by Clearwater police to media outlets in the days after the crash and shows that the chase may have violated the department's policy on ending pursuits that do not involve violent felonies.

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Monday, May 13, 2013

16-Year-Old Girl Arrested and Charged With a Felony For Science Project Mistake

No one was hurt. Nothing was damaged. The criminalization of school kids has gone too far.

A Florida teen with an exemplary record is facing federal charges after conducting what a classmate calls "a science project gone bad."

16-year-old Kiera Wilmot is accused of mixing housing chemicals in a small water bottle at Bartow High School, causing the cap to fly off and produce a bit of smoke. The experiment was conducted outdoors, no property was damaged, and no one was injured.

Not long after Wilmot's experiment, authorities arrested her and charged her with "possession/discharge of a weapon on school property and discharging a destructive device," according to WTSP-TV. The school district proceeded to expel Wilmot for handling the "dangerous weapon," also known as a water bottle. She will have to complete her high school education through an expulsion program.

Friends and staffers, including the school principal, came to Wilmot's defense, telling media that authorities arrested an upstanding student who meant no harm.

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"From [the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations'] work, an evil thesis emerged: Through the use of terror, man can be reduced to a childlike and submissive state, in which his powers of reason are clouded, and in which his emotional response to various situations and stimuli can become predictable, or in Tavistockian terms, ?profitable.? By controlling the levels of anxiety, it is possible to induce a similar state in large groups of people, whose behavior can then be controlled and manipulated by the oligarchical forces for whom Tavistock worked."

-- L. Wolfe, ?Brainwashing: How The British Use The Media for Mass Psychological Warfare?. The American Almanac, May 5, 1997.

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Bill Maher & Jimmy Kimmel Agree US 'Becoming A Police State'

Chris | InformationLiberation

Bill Maher commenting on the police's reaction to the Boston bombings points out how the US is now police state, to which Jimmy Kimmel and another guest agree.

His other two guests, a random politician and a news media propagandist, say it's a "balance" between liberty and security, and even say the police state is what caught the suspects. What caught the suspects was the general public's tips, the police state actually did nothing but threaten innocent people and didn't even prevent the bombing in the first place, which is the supposed goal of having so much "security."

Fact is there is no "balance" between liberty and security, it's either have liberty and free market in security with real incentives to keep people safe, or have no liberty and a monopolist provider of "security" which not only has little to no incentive to keep people safe, but every incentive not to keep people safe so as to justify larger budgets and greater personal power.

There is no "balance," and Bill is entirely wrong and his astute guest entirely right that there is no need for police at all.
_
Chris runs the website InformationLiberation.com, you can read more of his writings here. Follow infolib on twitter here.

Becoming? That word is misleading, suggests that we don't live in a police state.

2 weeks ago, the programming tools began locking the gates at my childrens' school. I asked them why this was necessary. They responded with "because of the school shootings."

me: "so, we need to lock down our kids in prison, in a country that programs them to believe that freedom is worth killing and dying for?"

of course, their response was the usual one - theatrics included: "DO YOU WANT YOUR CHILDREN TO DIE?!!"

me: "no, i want them to live, it's hard to do that in a prison."

Sorry but Bill is a bought and paid for hypocrite. You can't complain about a police state and be anti-second amendment. Fuck Bill. And that stupid fat black idiot: "Look how fast they caught those guys because of the technology"...... They were patsies. They knew where they were the whole time. All that technology didn't stop the bombers, did it? As with the school shooters and any other "terrorist" action, they did not expect to survive anyway.

The USA IS a police state and no longer a free country. Your 2nd Amendment BS will not change that. If you think it will, you're part of the problem.

Please the bombing is a hoax and Bill Maher is a Jew anti-second amendment hypocrite. @17444 - Bill Maher is a gun owner and there for a supporter of the second amendment. He was raised Irish Catholic, but later in life chose against organized religion, which he views as a bureacracy. Why would you even drag religion into your point?

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Sunday, May 12, 2013

Colo. Politicians Threaten to Repeal Marijuana Legalization If Voters Don't Approve High Taxes

Chris | InformationLiberation

Politicians in Colorado are threatening voters they'll repeal the legalization of marijuana unless they approve an outrageously high 30% tax rate on the sale of the plant.

Via KKTV:

Marijuana legalization may have received more votes from Coloradans than President Obama--who carried the state--but some lawmakers are still mulling over a repeal.
As the debate over how to tax marijuana rages on, sister station KCNC reports that a draft bill floating around the Capitol proposes repealing recreational marijuana if voters don't approve a 15 percent excise tax on retail pot and a 15 percent marijuana sales tax.[...]
Some lawmakers argue that the purpose of legalizing marijuana was to bring more revenue into the state, particularly for education, and that if it's not accomplishing that it shouldn't be legal.

In other words, your freedoms are only permitted so long as they provide the state with revenue.
_
Chris runs the website InformationLiberation.com, you can read more of his writings here. Follow infolib on twitter here.

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So why didn't they do this before? LOL! I kid you not, the verification code for this post is FUCKW Hehe, yikes, I assure you it's random :) ! Why not implement taxes on ski lifts or something? You know, they are a gateway for people to enjoy their vacations and all. Plus, they're more dangerous to your health than cannabis will ever be...

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Saturday, May 11, 2013

If It Moves, Tax It

by Jeffrey Tucker

A contributing factor in the rise of Internet commerce, a feature that gave it a kick-start, was that you didn?t have to pay sales tax on what you purchased out of state. Ah, the glory days of the 2000s, when you could order anything and, for once in your life, not get hammered by the government. It was not a free market, but freer than most anything else you could find.

This is a major factor in why, despite every prediction that it could never work, Internet commerce rose from the ashes of the dot-com crash to become a huge and growing profit center today.

Alas, those days seem to be coming to an end. And why? Because the U.S. Congress is highly sympathetic to the plight of its state-based cousins, who are starved for money. As a proposed fix, Congress is suggesting a new innovation. Congress wants to give the OK to states that want to take your money.

Here is one argument you will not hear in the debate over taxing Internet sales: This will be good for the business climate. Instead, the debating points concern how much revenue it will raise for states, how onerous the burden will be for small business, whether it is ?fair? to brick-and-mortar shops to pay and for online sellers not to pay, and so on.

The real issue ? whether this is good for business and prosperity ? is not even on the table.

Will taxing all Internet purchases harm business, harm job creation, harm the profitability of those who have seized on digital venues as a viable commercial space? Of course it will. There can be no doubt. The question then becomes: Why is the political class interested in unleashing state legislatures to collect sales tax when it is so obviously harmful to prosperity?

Maybe the answer is obvious, but it still needs to be said. Despite the stump rhetoric, the political class is not interested in fostering a vibrant commercial life to help you and me get by in this world. Instead, it is interested in extracting as much revenue as possible from the existing commercial environment. The government elites want their cut, regardless of the consequences.

You can learn something about the way the world works just by watching the way this legislation is coming down the pike. Here we are, still in a deeply struggling economic environment. Young people have a hard time getting jobs. Growth rates are anemic. Families are still smarting from the surprise payroll tax increase earlier this year.

Online commerce ? with low startup costs and a potentially unlimited market ? actually represents a ray of hope. This is especially true for young and tech-savvy people.

So what do the politicians do? They plot another hammer blow. Even by old-fashioned Keynesian standards, this is the worst possible time to enable vast tax increases across all states that hit millions of people. But economic rationality is not high on the list of values held by Capitol Hill.

What does this say about whole libraries full of books that instruct the political class on how to foster the well-being of society? What does this say about the hundreds of well-worked-out theories of how the government can manage the economy in the best possible way? What does this say about the oceans of policy reports that presume that the political class has the best interests of the public in mind?

If it is true that political actors only want to get the government?s beak wet and otherwise don?t care a flying fig about the consequences for you and me, many theorists are going to have to go back to the drawing board. The bulk of writing on political economy over the last hundred years might as well be pulped.

There is also an interesting dynamic taking place in terms of those pushing for the change to allow states in which there is no physical presence of the relevant Internet retailer to tax purchase. The world?s largest and most successful Internet retailer, Amazon.com, is backing the change, and paying politicians left and right to go along.

Why? Here, we need to understand something about way regulations are used as a competitive tool in the world of enterprise. The larger the business, the more it is in a position to absorb new regulatory costs. The regulations will invariably hurt the little guy more than the big guy. Therefore, even though the big guy is paying more, the regulations end up working as a kind of subsidy to keep competition at bay.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Big Business and Big Government work together. Does that sound like a wacky conspiracy theory? It shouldn?t. The reality goes back at least 100 years. Big Business was a huge supporter of the Progressive Era regulations of food and safety, the New Deal?s interventions on prices and labor, the Great Society medical expansions, protectionism during the 1980s, and almost every other major intervention in free enterprise in the annals of history.

Sometimes the biggest enemies of capitalism are not socialists, but the capitalists themselves. They don?t like capitalism because they don?t like competition, because it threatens their business and their profits. A real free market has winners coming and going. But a heavily regulated markets entrenches elites who are working with the political establishment.

You might think that this would cause left liberals pause, but apparently not.

Here is what the blog at National Public Radio said about an Internet sales tax:

?Collecting state and local sales tax all around the country would require a fair bit of effort on the part of online retailers, because sales tax rules vary from state to state. That?s not a huge deal for a giant company like Amazon, but it would be more of a burden for smaller online retailers. From Amazon?s point of view, that?s a good thing ? it makes life harder for Amazon?s smaller competitors.
?That?s why big businesses, despite what they may say, often like regulations. They make life harder for small, would-be competitors.?

The Amazon sales tax case is complicated by the fact that it is already mostly paying these taxes because many states started interpreting the law to mean that if there is a warehouse in the state, it is subject to tax. Amazon has warehouses all over the world so that it can offer same-day delivery. That allows it to go after physical stores with even greater intensity.

The average eBay mom and pop is not going to be in a position to file tax statements to every state where it shipped goods. Amazon will be there to not only comply, but have the competitive edge on everyone. The battle between Amazon and eBay has been so intense that the Internet Association has refused to take a position.

This is how business becomes cartelized. There is still competition, but it is not on a level playing field. You have to be heavily capitalized just to get your foot in the door. Then people look at the configuration of the remaining industries and scream, ?Hey, business is too big and too powerful!? But they don?t discover the reason. It is too far back in time. And the cause and effect is too opaque to the casual observer.

It?s not hard to imagine the consequences. There will be fewer startups because the accounting costs of filing with states every month will be too daunting. Consumers will start looking at overseas merchants to buy their goods ? as they are already doing for cigarettes, prescription drugs, and electronics. Digital currencies will help facilitate this move.

Meanwhile, the domestic market using government currency will be dominated by just a few players.

Everyone these days is sitting around regretting the way the recession just goes on and on, seemingly without end. If you are looking for the answer, look to Capitol Hill. Every time free enterprise tries to come up for air, the Congress and the regulators are there to put it underwater again.
_
Jeffrey Tucker is the publisher and executive editor of Laissez-Faire Books, the Primus inter pares of the Laissez Faire Club, and the author of Bourbon for Breakfast: Living Outside the Statist Quo, It's a Jetsons World: Private Miracles and Public Crimes, and A Beautiful Anarchy: How to Build Your Own Civilization in the Digital Age, among thousands of articles. Click to sign up for his free daily letter. Email him: tucker@lfb.org | Facebook | Twitter | Google

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