We all knew this was coming sooner or later . I mean this war shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone that has been here since GodMother Marietta (GRHS) started the Death Tax for Detroit.

Delirium, I tend to disagree with you on this point...

I think the biggest difference, as Godfather Lucretia pointed out already, was that it went beyond just not having the power to enforce the tax, but that he lacked the diplomacy that Godmother Marietta had. Marietta had both power and grace. While I always viewed Pedro as a powerful man, he was a little more rough-around-the-edges than his predecessor. That is not meant to be a jab at the deceased Godfather Pedro, but simply pointing out that PedroRourke had a different personality type and alternate way of doing business. Unfortunately for the city of Detroit it was a difference in style that Godfather Lucretia found disagreeable.

But since we bring up Marietta, I think another thing that should be pointed out is that of the people I am in contact with in my day-to-day operations, people were quite suprised, and some even a bit outraged over the fact that the Death Tax was being enforced after Godmother Marietta's retirement. I think Friends of Ours truly thought there would be at the very least a little altering done to it. The DT Tax was very steep, and left cities in somewhat of a lose-lose situation whether they paid it or not. My father used to come home and complain that he had to keep an extra 400k on hand every time he took out a contracted hit on some bum, just in case the target showed up in Detroit. While subtle, that was a form of extortion. The only hint of any relief in the tax came in the form of an announcement saying that those who did a certain amount of gambling at Godfather Pedro's casino might catch a break in the tax. The response to that was overwhelmingly negative, with the exception of Godmother Scipita and the obvious exception of the residents of DT. Of course, you wouldn't hear any negative reactions to it by standing on the streets, but what you hear on 'the streets' and 'word on the street' are two very different things.

Don't get me wrong, the Tax was a brilliant idea, and it was in a city where a steep tax was worth paying due to the large homeless population there. I doubt any Mafioso worth his or her salt would frown upon the subtle extortion aspect of the tax either. Extortion is a way of life for us. But at the same time, (and much to your point, Delirium) I have a hard time understanding how somebody could be confused as to why actions were taken against the city of Detroit today. The answer should be pretty clear. It's Cosa Nostra.

Bottom line, DT enforced the Death Tax because they could. And they did so until they couldn't. That's just business.

I was pleasantly surprised to come to work today to notice all the dead people littering the streets of Detroit. It made me very happy. Seriously, I might have even pee'd a little bit. The question is not "Why was it done?", but rather "Why wasn't it done SOONER?".

As has been stated throughout this discussion, if you are going to impose a tax on other families, you had damn well better be able to enforce it. There is a good reason why there was a long span in between successful taxes from Sims to Anita. It takes a lot of power to enforce something that imposes a detriment on other families.

The problem lately is that crewleaders have just nodded their heads and paid whatever was demanded of them, while forgetting the nature of our business. The key concept of POWER comes into play here. You can do anything you are able to get away with. If you can't get away with it, you better not do it. Pedro tried to do something that he couldn't get away with, and as I stated, it's odd that he wasn't killed sooner. This is beside the fact that he was depressingly unworthy of his position. I know that street presence is not the be-all and end-all of leadership, but come on, 25 fucking appearances when he became a godfather? And how many of those were in his HQ?

Lucretia did a wonderful thing here. I find it laughable that anyone would suggest it was an overreaction. There is a philosophy that runs in my bloodline, it goes something like this: "One of my gangsters is more valuable to me than fifty of your Consiglieres". You can translate that to money, if you would like. My two million per week is more valuable to me than your sorry ass pathetic life. And the lives of everyone else who resides in your city. Fuck them all.

There was one time that an outspoken runt named Mr DW was in a family ran by my ancestor Piggeh. Mr DW did not know when to shut up, but boy was he ever entertaining. Well, one day the lovable scamp decided to make a grand speech detailing the inadequacies of a particular mong CL named Giorgio who ran a family in Las Vegas. The de facto head of LV at the time demanded DW's death. DW was just a gangster, but his life was more valuable to the old Pig than the entire city of LV. Why? Because LV was not his. Mr DW was his. What I have is more valuable to me than what you have. So, instead of killing DW for disrespect, the old pig shot the CL in the face who demanded his members death.

Problem solved.

That is a great illustration of the concept of power in Cosa Nostra. It brings me joy to see Lucretia understand it so well, as shown by her actions.

It brings me greater joy to see everyone in Detroit dead.

Yay

I am curious Godtucker Lucretia as to what course of action you believe should be taken to avoid the New York tax?

*cough*

If I may...

Brother, go back and read my previous lesson on the exercise of power. Clearly, New York has the power to enforce a tax. Detroit did not.

The sooner you fucktards start to learn these basic concepts, the sooner you will stop getting killed for making stupid business decisions.

Let me clarify for you Brutus seeing as you need a guiding hand to the obvious...

What happens when Godtucker Lucretia decides she is too powerful to pay the taxes as set out by New York?

Is it not in the interests of New york, or all the other 8 cities to act now, before the Godtucker becomes too powerful?

As far as the New York tax goes, that matter has been dealt with privately between me and Godfather Deimne on a basis acceptable to both parties. It should be noted that while I was attempting to negotiate with Pedro and being snubbed, the head of New York was most pleasant to deal with on such business matters. The details need not concern you further than that.

Using that logic, wouldn't it be in the interests of New York, or all the other cities, to kill everyone before they become too powerful?

There's a difference between making a business decision to protect your financial interests, and being paranoid about what might happen far down the line.

There is also a difference between being paranoid and learning from the past.

Would you expect the other cities to simply disregard this action as something that could never happen to them?

You are going to have to make a coherent argument if you expect to successfully portray Lucretia as making anything other than a wise business move. You have not done that yet. Your first argument was that Lucretia should be killed by New York before attacks our own city. That argument completely ignored the fact that it would be counterproductive of New York to kill its sources of revenue for fear that they might be attacked for collecting the revenue.

Your second argument, if you want to call it that, did not even make any sense. "Would you expect the other cities to simply disregard this action as something that could never happen to them?".  Please, what in the fuck are you talking about? For this to happen to them, first they would need to be charging a comparable tax or doing something else which served a detriment to LV. Second, they would need to be doing so without having the power to enforce it. Third, they would need to overstep their bounds by so much that it was a better option for LV to use force rather than diplomacy.

If that "other city" happened to be New York, I believe I already mentioned that New York could enforce its tax. It would also make no sense to kill off our sources of revenue before they get too powerful to attack us (for collecting the revenue!).

So, really, go back to the drawing board. You are drawing blanks here in your attempt to find fault, hypocrisy, or blame. Accept the fact that your father's family got killed because they were not savvy enough to understand power politics.

That's the price you pay for living the life, Brother. If you are not always looking over your shoulder, then you must not be doing anything right.

Well I'll be a monkeys uncle... literally, damn monkeys all over the place here in New York.

What thoughtful insight you have provided here Brother. If only I'd thought of it myself. I'm so glad that someone is here to look out for the best interests of New York, as we're obviously incapable of doing it ourselves.

Please get to work on drawing up ze war plans, submit them in triplicate to both myself and Brutus and we'll get to work on dispatching of everyone post haste.

Assuming the sarcasm was noted by all, he decides to continue on a more serious point.

As for the New York tax, I have no concerns what so ever in relation to it and my current customers. The tax is set at a level which provides excellent value for money, it is handled in a very efficient manner so as not to cause frustration to our business associates and through a combination of the diplomacy, a large posse of burly locals (read: Brutus), an even larger posse of bodyguards and a really really big gun... we have no fears about where we stand.

Well, other than the sekrit underground group headed up by SpaceMountain and Hoopi with the single aim of a grand mutany. Fear not, we have covertly infiltrated it and Brutus will inform me of their sekrit plans any day now. Ooops, I've said too much.

It is a common trait for someone in power to seek to remove anyone that could potentially be a threat. The end result of this, you convert people who aren't threats into people who are. You turn friends into enemies and, at the end of the day, you look back at your decisions as the blood drains from your body and you take your last breaths. Killing out of fear or paranoia isn't a sign of power, it's one of weakness. Each leader will and must make their own calls, but I'd rather not fall victim to an insecurity in myself which leads me to war for nothing more than fear. It's just not who I am and certainly someone I hope I never become.

Hoopi catches the tail end of Deimne's comment and the smug grin on his admittedly gorgeous face turns to a far more nervous look. Being quick thinking and very, very, very...very intelligent, he lets out a cough that masks his words.

Abort, SpaceMountain. ABORT.

He wanders on, whistling his way down the road, the smug grin re-appearing as he makes his way to GaryBusey's lab to pick up some of the recently discovered Cetamine (sic). Busey was reknowned for his work with drugs, and he'd come up with a new development in his labs; one that was simply sterling on the hallucinogenic front. He was at the frontier of 1930s illegality, so he was.

Believe me, I wish SpaceMountain was aborted a very long time ago.