The Bern Identity
- Thread starter nitro
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In a move i'm sure the bernie crowd would approve here in the US, too, the Italian courts have just ruled that if you steal because you are hungry, it is not a crime. And a criminal's sentence was vacated.
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• Theft Of Sausage And Cheese By Hungry Homeless Man ‘Not A Crime’ (G.)
Italy’s highest court has ruled that the theft of a sausage and piece of cheese by a homeless man in 2011 did not constitute a crime because he was in desperate need of nourishment. The high court judges in the court of cassation found that Roman Ostriakov, a young homeless man who had bought a bag of breadsticks from a supermarket but had slipped a wurstel – a small sausage – and cheese into his pocket, had acted out of an immediate need by stealing a minimal amount of food, and therefore had not committed a crime. The case, which drew comparisons to the story of Jean Valjean, the hero of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, was hailed in some media reports as an act of humanity at a time when hundreds of Italians are being added to the roster of the country’s “hungry” every day, despite improvements in the economy.
One columnist writing in La Stampa said that, for supreme court judges, the right to survive still trumped property rights, a fact that would be considered “blasphemy in America”. But others commented that the case highlighted Italy’s notoriously inefficient legal system, in which the theft of food valued at about €4.70 (£3.70) was the subject of a three-part trial – the first hearing, the appeal, and the final supreme court ruling – to determine whether the defendant had in fact committed a crime. “Yes, you read that right,” an opinion column in Corriere della Sera said, “in a country with a burden of €60bn in corruption per year, it took three degrees of proceedings to determine ‘this was not a crime’.”
Ostriakov, who was described as a homeless 30-year-old from Ukraine, had been sentenced to six months in jail and a €100 fine by a lower court in Genoa, but that punishment was vacated by the supreme court. “The supreme court has established a sacrosanct principle: a small theft because of hunger is in no way comparable to an act of delinquency, because the need to feed justifies the fact,” said Carlo Rienzi, president of Codacons, an environmental and consumer rights group, told Il Mesaggero. “In recent years the economic crisis has increased dramatically the number of citizens, especially the elderly, forced to steal in supermarkets to be able to make ends meet.”
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• Theft Of Sausage And Cheese By Hungry Homeless Man ‘Not A Crime’ (G.)
Italy’s highest court has ruled that the theft of a sausage and piece of cheese by a homeless man in 2011 did not constitute a crime because he was in desperate need of nourishment. The high court judges in the court of cassation found that Roman Ostriakov, a young homeless man who had bought a bag of breadsticks from a supermarket but had slipped a wurstel – a small sausage – and cheese into his pocket, had acted out of an immediate need by stealing a minimal amount of food, and therefore had not committed a crime. The case, which drew comparisons to the story of Jean Valjean, the hero of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, was hailed in some media reports as an act of humanity at a time when hundreds of Italians are being added to the roster of the country’s “hungry” every day, despite improvements in the economy.
One columnist writing in La Stampa said that, for supreme court judges, the right to survive still trumped property rights, a fact that would be considered “blasphemy in America”. But others commented that the case highlighted Italy’s notoriously inefficient legal system, in which the theft of food valued at about €4.70 (£3.70) was the subject of a three-part trial – the first hearing, the appeal, and the final supreme court ruling – to determine whether the defendant had in fact committed a crime. “Yes, you read that right,” an opinion column in Corriere della Sera said, “in a country with a burden of €60bn in corruption per year, it took three degrees of proceedings to determine ‘this was not a crime’.”
Ostriakov, who was described as a homeless 30-year-old from Ukraine, had been sentenced to six months in jail and a €100 fine by a lower court in Genoa, but that punishment was vacated by the supreme court. “The supreme court has established a sacrosanct principle: a small theft because of hunger is in no way comparable to an act of delinquency, because the need to feed justifies the fact,” said Carlo Rienzi, president of Codacons, an environmental and consumer rights group, told Il Mesaggero. “In recent years the economic crisis has increased dramatically the number of citizens, especially the elderly, forced to steal in supermarkets to be able to make ends meet.”
I don't disagree with what van Jones is saying. But let me ask the following question:
If what the rest of Washington is doing is working so great why:
- Is our infrastructure third world?
- Are states after state broke to the point they can't even keep schools open?
- Are vet suicide rates so high?
- Are there so many disenfranchised people that can't hope to find work?
- Is the government locked to the point nothing ever happens?
- Higher education costs accelerated many times the inflation rate?
- Are there so many divisions in this country that every single day people are killing each other over nothing?
- The wage and ownership gap the worst it has ever been?
- Continued massive illegal immigration that is driving wages lower here?
- Health care costs continue to sky rocket out of control?
- Government pandering to lobbies whose interests are in direct contradiction to the american citizens?
- Drug abuse so high that entire states are at epidemic levels?
- $17 Trillion in debt with nothing to show for it?
- Government so corrupt and out of touch they can't even guarantee safe drinking water?
- Trillions of dollars spent on endless wars, for what exactly again?
You see van Jones, you are saying that people shouldn't want Trump because we will then get a bunch of Jesus lovers in the Supreme Court, that Trump will wreck havoc on Muslims and Mexicans and immigrants in general, and that LGBT people can or can't get married or go this bathroom or that one?
This is the argument? WHO THE FUCK IN TEN TRILLION YEARS CARES IN COMPARISON TO PEOPLE'S EVERYDAY PROBLEMS LISTED ABOVE? It is you that is out of touch.
Listen to me and listen to me VERY carefully. People are tired of being told they are Americans, when in fact it is them and us. People are tired of stepping up to the plate being down 10 runs in the seventh inning before they are even born. People are tired of paying all these taxes so that other countries can have better education, better standards of living, better and cheaper access to health care, and in general are treated with respect. In general, people are tired of having being shat on continuously BY THE ESTABLISHMENT, rightly or wrongly it doesn't matter. Perception is that is what is far more important than fact. But one wonders how perception is slowly becoming fact.
Now, do __I__ want Trump as president? No, I don't for a second believe that some rich guy has my interest or the interest of the general population at heart. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if people called in favors with Trump in the WH. He says he has no SuperPAC that is his master, but he has lots of buddies he can take care of at the expense of the American people.
Nor can I ever vote for someone that thinks that Human Forced Global Warming is a Chinese hoax.
But far worse than anything else, with Trump, it isn't the known unknowns that is the problem, it is the unknown unknowns. I think having a hot head in the White House just raises the risk of something of geopolitical consequences very bad happening and we have someone with no experience other than making real estate deals. And by definition, since these are unknown unknowns, what else haven't I thought of? Makes me sleep well at night.
If Trump is as bad as people say, he will probably be in office for two years before being impeached. Lacking that, he will be a one term president, with the GOP being destroyed beyond recognition.
But my question is, how can it get worse with or without Trump?
I say, let's play ball.
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It is funny how history plays out. Jesus was crucified by the Romans, now Rome is the center of Christianity.
Black people can point almost directly to Clinton law making for incarcerating their young to unprecedented levels, but it is Clinton that gets the black vote over Bernie Sanders.
Human logic is something to behold.
Black people can point almost directly to Clinton law making for incarcerating their young to unprecedented levels, but it is Clinton that gets the black vote over Bernie Sanders.
Human logic is something to behold.
"Blacks" are being practical. Who really thinks Bernie's "swing for the seats" strategy could work in today's partisan environment? "Republican lawmakers dismiss Obama's, 'the sky is blue' statement."
excellent questions - great rant... but we hope your concerns about Trump turn out to be mostly incorrect.
Warren pledges to 'fight my heart out' to defeat Trump
Sen. Elizabeth Warren went after Donald Trump on Twitter Tuesday night, shortly after the GOP front-runner won the Indiana primary and became the Republican Party's presumptive nominee.
Warren, an outspoken critic of Trump, quickly launched a multitweet attack...
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...art-out-to-defeat-trump/ar-BBsCHBv?li=BBnb7Kz
Sen. Elizabeth Warren went after Donald Trump on Twitter Tuesday night, shortly after the GOP front-runner won the Indiana primary and became the Republican Party's presumptive nominee.
Warren, an outspoken critic of Trump, quickly launched a multitweet attack...
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...art-out-to-defeat-trump/ar-BBsCHBv?li=BBnb7Kz
True, but that kind of "America is ruined" is taken for granted otherwise, say, when someone here is attacking dems.