Police state: the walls are closing in

[Jason Harvestdancer]

I started a police state thread on the prior version, iidb, and filled it with stories I thought relevant. Now I see a relevant set of stories, one news and two opinion, that make a good introduction to starting one here.

Top lawmaker wants corporate tax loophole 'plugged now

Immediate government action is needed to stop U.S. corporations from avoiding federal taxes by shifting their tax domiciles overseas through deals known as inversions, the head of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee said on Tuesday. Nine inversion deals have been agreed to this year by companies ranging from banana distributor Chiquita Brands International Inc to drugmaker AbbVie Inc and more are being considered. The transactions are setting a record pace since the first inversion was done 32 years ago. Washington is increasingly concerned about this. 'Let's work together to immediately cool down the inversion fever ... The inversion loophole needs to be plugged now,' said Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, finance committee chairman, at a hearing.

Parasite panic

Have you ever spotted a fat, juicy, satisfied blood sucking tick firmly attached to your dog, and pulled it off with a pair of tweezers watching its legs flailing about wildly before you dispatched it? That's what parasites do when you suddenly deprive them of their hosts. They panic. And that's just what the alarmed parasitical politicians in Washington are doing today as they rush to decide what to do about America's corporate 'hosts' that are fed up with over taxation and are moving overseas to avoid it.

“Economic Patriotism”: The Last Refuge of a Tax Scoundrel

It is true that the corporate-state alliance has been strained by the panoply of neoliberal economic policies. But 'globalization' requires doing away with borders only very selectively, when it suits corporate purposes. The American superstate and its international 'trade partners' are more than willing to ignore borders when corporations benefit by moving goods from low-cost labor centers to high-profit sales centers. But that same state and those same partners consider borders of paramount importance when it comes to capturing the tax revenue that pays for all the perks their corporate symbiotes depend on for their continued existence.

 

[ksen]

Can this thread also encompass the vast, privately owned surveillance/tracking systems too?

 

[Nice Squirrel]

What are you talking about Frank...er ksen? Private companies need to share data.

 

[NobleSavage]

I'm not sure how you get from tax loophole to police state?

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

OP Title doesn't get addressed in OP text. The police state is on the rise, but the OP is talking about something else entirely.

Meanwhile, talking about police state, Stoke City just got a former high prospect transfer from Barcelona. The Potter fans are definitely positive about this season.

 

[Keith&Co.]

I'm not sure how you get from tax loophole to police state?

The government is alarmed at the amount of money that they're not able to tax due to companies using the law to their advantage. So they will change legislation to close the loophole the same way ticks would burn down cities if they could, forcing the hosts they want to parasitize out into the woods where the ticks can suck their blood.

The fact that the state wants companies that do business in the US, that take advantage of business opportunities and markets in the US, to pay taxes upon the business actually done in the states, and want to legislate to 'make it so,' that's just like a tyrant using riot police to silence dissent with firehoses and riot guns.

 

[Kharakov]

What, are you talking about how everyone watches everyone now?

http://www.copwatch.org/

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Double Standard in Alabama: Both Major Parties Miss Ballot Deadlines But Will Be on Ballot Anyway

The ballots of two counties in Alabama could be missing both Republican and Democrat candidates after both parties missed the deadline to certify their candidates with the probate judge.

Despite missing the deadline, both the Republican and Democrat Party will be on the ballot in Novemeber according to Marshall county Constitution Party’s facebook page.

Apparently Alabama’s law only applies to everyone except the two major parties. Joshua Cassity, Chairman of the Constitution Party of Alabama told BenSwann.com’s Joshua Cook that there is definitely a double standard here.

It should be noted that in 2004, the Republican Party missed the filing deadline on some states that Bush carried. They filed so late because they wanted to move their 2004 convention to as close to 9/11 as possible for symbolic reasons. Had the law been enforced Kerry would have become president.

It should also be noted that in the 2008 election cycle there were 3rd party candidates qualified for some ballots that were left off due to typographical error. When they petitioned a judge to fix the ballot, he ruled that it wasn't worth the expense.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Police Officer: 'if you don’t want to get shot...just do what I tell you.'

'If you don't want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground,' warns Officer Sunil Dutta of the Los Angeles Police Department, 'just do what I tell you.' The thing is, Officer Dutta (pictured) is also an Adjunct Professor of Homeland Security and Criminal Justice at Colorado Technical University. And he uttered those words not in the heat of the moment, but in an opinion piece in the Washington Post responding to widespread criticism of police attitudes and tactics currently on display in Ferguson, Missouri, but increasingly common nationwide.

Rapists and muggers also say it will hurt less if you don't resist.

Most field stops are complete in minutes. How difficult is it to cooperate for that long?

Another quote that could come from a mugger or a rapist.

 

[thief of fire]

How the Swiss react to police brutality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jagvYIMJyzU

Not to mention China.
China: “Violent Government Thugs” Beaten To Death By Angry Crowds After They Killed A Man Documenting Their Brutality

 

[Canard DuJour]

I'm not sure how you get from tax loophole to police state?

The government is alarmed at the amount of money that they're not able to tax due to companies using the law to their advantage. So they will change legislation to close the loophole the same way ticks would burn down cities if they could, forcing the hosts they want to parasitize out into the woods where the ticks can suck their blood.

The fact that the state wants companies that do business in the US, that take advantage of business opportunities and markets in the US, to pay taxes upon the business actually done in the states, and want to legislate to 'make it so,' that's just like a tyrant using riot police to silence dissent with firehoses and riot guns.

Of course. And all it'll take to convince regular folks of it is enough links to hysterical crank bloggers foaming at the mouth about the plight of transnational corporations.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Woman Charged With Hate Crime for Anti-NYPD Graffitti

If I were to call you a bully, it would be protected speech. If I were to spraypaint that same sentiment on public property, it would be vandalism. And if I were to turn that sentiment toward the New York Police Department (NYPD)? Apparently, it would be a hate crime. That's the charge leveled against Rosella Best, a 36-year-old Brooklyn woman who spraypainted messages such as "NYPD pick on the harmless" around Williamsburg.

Other messages, which Best spraypainted on cop cars and one elementary-school wall, included "Nazis=NYPD"; "NYPD pick on the innocent"; and (my personal favorite) "a wrongful arrest is a crime."

Our graffiti justice warrior was caught on camera and arrested. But instead of charging her with "defacement of property" or merely "criminal mischief," the NYPD booked her on the more severe charge of criminal mischeif as a hate crime, plus aggravated harassment.

I would say this seems like good evidence that the NYPD does, indeed, "pick on the harmless"—but I don't need a federal hate crime task force coming after me. You just keep doing you, NYPD.

Yes, our brave and fearless defenders of public order are not only terrified of cameras, not only terrified of people not automatically adopting an attitude of subservience, but now want "being a cop" to be a special protected class along with race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Because just as a person has no choice about their race, gender, and sexual orientation, one is apparently born a cop and has no say in the matter.

How noble of them.

By the way, I'm not defending graffiti. I shouldn't have to point that out, but around here I do have to point that out.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Goodness help me... this story has so little legs in the media, I had to read the NY Post! *ick*

Cop-hating and anti-Semitic remarks were plastered on vans and scooters near the school, the sources said.

The only remark that parallels such a thing is Nazis=NYPD, but that isn't an anti-Semitic statement, in fact, it'd be the opposite.

 

[Nexus]

Yes, our brave and fearless defenders of public order are not only terrified of cameras, not only terrified of people not automatically adopting an attitude of subservience, but now want "being a cop" to be a special protected class along with race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Because just as a person has no choice about their race, gender, and sexual orientation, one is apparently born a cop and has no say in the matter.

A case like this illustrates why a jury system is good despite bad verdicts sometimes. Jury nullification is the only real power citizens have on politics in this country at this time.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Yes, our brave and fearless defenders of public order are not only terrified of cameras, not only terrified of people not automatically adopting an attitude of subservience, but now want "being a cop" to be a special protected class along with race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. Because just as a person has no choice about their race, gender, and sexual orientation, one is apparently born a cop and has no say in the matter.

A case like this illustrates why a jury system is good despite bad verdicts sometimes. Jury nullification is the only real power citizens have on politics in this country at this time.

Nullification? Nullification is over a law that actually exists and ignoring it. The attorney would have to actually demonstrate that hate speech actually covers cops and then what she stated was hate speech. I don't think the law says this at all.

 

[untermensche]

I don't know if this thread is more chicken little or the boy who cried wolf?

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

I don't know if this thread is more chicken little or the boy who cried wolf?

Because the only issues of authoritarianism are when a employer purchases labor from an employee?

 

[untermensche]

I don't know if this thread is more chicken little or the boy who cried wolf?

Because the only issues of authoritarianism are when a employer purchases labor from an employee?

What corporate managers do with the money they steal from workers is important to me.

But I don't cry for the thieves because they want even more.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Employer: If you work X amount of hours, I'll pay you Y wage.
Employee: That sounds fair to me.

(some time later)

Employee: I worked X amount of hours.
Employer: Here is your Y wage.
untermensche: Stop! Thief! Robber!

 

[Ford]

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvKIWjnEPNY[/YOUTUBE]


"You're fooling yourself...we're living in a dictatorship!"