Civil Asset Forfeiture

Ocasio-Cortez Appears On ‘The Price Is Right,’ Guesses Everything Is Free--Headline from Babylon Bee

Chris a lot better yesterday.

As if we don't have enough problems, the U.S. Senate will soon have an Environmental Justice Caucus, to be chaired by three Democrats: Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Tom Carper of Delaware and Cory Booker of New Jersey. Environmental Justice, no less.

I've never read this: In other words, to make the wiretaps appear to be legitimate, GCHQ and others were quietly and off-the-record approached by Brennan and associates over their fears of what a Trump presidency might mean. The British responded by initiating wiretaps that were then used by Brennan to justify further investigation of Trump’s associates. It was all neatly done and constituted completely illegal spying on American citizens by the U.S. government.

The British support of the operation was coordinated by the then-director of GCHQ Robert Hannigan who has since been forced to resign. 

Warren Buffett, the man behind a print-media empire that includes the Buffalo News and Omaha World-Herald, doesn’t think most newspapers can be saved. By 2016, the newspaper industry’s ad revenue was nearly a third of what it was a decade before, falling to $18 billion from $49 billion, according to Pew Research Center. “It upsets the people in the newsroom to talk that way, but the ads were the most important editorial content from the standpoint of the reader,” Buffett said.

More predictions by geniuses in 1970:

1. In January 1970, Life reported, “Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half….”

2. Ehrlich sketched out his most alarmist scenario for the 1970 Earth Day issue of The Progressive, assuring readers that between 1980 and 1989, some 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans, would perish in the “Great Die-Off.”

3. Ecologist Kenneth Watt told Time that, “At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it’s only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable.”

Here's a shocker: Legendary reporter Bob Woodward said Sunday that the FBI and CIA’s reliance on the Steele dossier “needs to be investigated” now that the Mueller report has undercut many of the salacious document’s claims.

Showing downward trends in US temperatures over the last 100 years, especially since the 1930s:

Intellectuals, educators and politicians promised that sticking it to the rich was the path to socialist paradise. As government intervention in the economy—particularly through price and exchange controls—damaged living standards, Venezuelans voted for more of it. Little did they know that by targeting the rights of successful entrepreneurs in the name of social justice, they were setting up the country to fail.--O'Grady

This is the anniversary of the first day of the Easter Rebellion in Dublin, 116. 

                                            Civil Asset Forfeiture

Civil asset forfeiture is a practice that allows law enforcement to seize money and property from someone suspected of wrongdoing, but who has not yet been charged with a crime. Many are never charged with a crime and even still find it difficult, if not impossible, to get their seized property back.

At the heart of this practice rests the belief that a person’s property can be charged with a crime, even if the person themselves have not been formally charged or convicted. And the precedent for this was set in medieval England. During this time, if a person was killed by an object or weapon, that item was essentially charged with murder and forfeited to the British Crown. Initially, the item was sold and the money received was given to charitable organizations. Eventually, though, the monarchy began keeping the money for itself. And thus, the very dangerous precedent of civil asset forfeiture was set, and it would later greatly impact the American founding.

The Navigation Act of 1600, part of the broader Navigation Acts, mandated that any ship bringing cargo into the “New World” had to first go through British checkpoints for inspection. Additionally, any cargo ship leaving the American colonies with goods was also required to be checked before continuing on to its destination. The purpose of these inspections, of course, was to ensure that the Crown got its cut of the loot.

Americans were outraged at the taxation policies and unwilling to convict their fellow citizens under the law.  But by charging the property, and not the “pirates” with a crime, the Brits had found a loophole.

Recognizing that enforcing these policies through port inspections was going to be more difficult than initially expected, Britain began incentivizing captains and crews of the Royal Navy, and other agents of the state, to do their dirty work for them. In exchange for their services, those willing to enforce the rules were allowed to keep the seized ships as prizes, which only made the practice more appealing and, thus, more widespread. The Navigation Acts were one of the grievances that finally led the colonists to revolt against the Crown with the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. 

But governments, like people, can rise above principles when money is involved and this country now uses the same technique with criminal cases, particularly drug trafficking.

(from Hunter)