"Why do people hate us? We're just doing our jobs!"

Because part of your job is being a thief.

And on top of the theft, and "Screw actual criminals, these people are easier to mess with" attitude,
It is unclear whether structuring forfeiture cases make up a small or large percentage of all IRS forfeitures, because the IRS does not publish that information and denied FOIA requests to make it public.
Let's ask question: who the HELL is the IRS to not provide this information, and to tell FOIA requests "We won't tell you"?

I've asked it before: We're supposed to trust these bastards?  About anything?  Why?


Yale is no longer a university; it's an asylum being operated by inmates.
Yale is being sued for violating the Title IX rights of a male student accused of rape because it first punished him for writing an essay that called rape “an irrational act.”
...
Because Yale punished Doe even after the allegations against him collapsed, the university discriminated against him because of his sex in violation of Title IX, he argues.
Berkowitz says Yale has “reached a new low in the annals of campus policing of speech” if Doe’s claims are accurate:

Surely no female student would incur criticism, much less censorship or punishment, for providing weighty philosophical authority in support of the proposition that rape is wrong.
If Doe’s story is true, Yale is no longer satisfied in enforcing correct opinions. To utter the correct opinion, Yale also demands that you be the correct sex.

Well, the Rotary Club can kiss my ass.  Get this:
The decision itself, according to the document, was made by RI’s 19-member Board of Directors, four of whom are U.S. citizens, and all of whom were elected by RI’s membership. It acknowledges that RI’s constituent clubs were not involved in the decision, but claims that the board has the “basic responsibilit[y]” for RI’s “name and reputation.” 
I'd bet this involved "You Americans are irrational about guns, and we don't like it!" combined with "Oh yes, things are SO much better in other countries, so we should be more like them!"


Well, when your party bases everything on "Who's the biggest victim we support now?", this crap is what you get.

I repeat: Asset Forfeiture is theft under color of law

Under federal rules, transferred funds from the equitable sharing program cannot be used to pay the salaries and benefits of any law enforcement personnel. The guidelines state that the rule was made to ensure that the funds do not “influence, or appear to influence, law enforcement decisions.”

The transferred funds can be used in limited cases to pay for overtime, or an officer replacing current law enforcement personnel. The funds cannot be used to pay an officer’s full-time salary.

The auditors found $313,052 of the $378,720 transferred to other law enforcement agencies in the Pro-Active Criminal Enforcement (PACE) team was questionable.
...
The auditors found that the Henry County Sheriff’s Office used $178,328 of the transferred funds to pay for the salary and fringe benefit costs of a deputy assigned to the PACE team, with at least $40,875 considered to be unallowable.

They found the Greenfield Police Department did not have a separate accounting code for the transferred funds, so auditors were unable to see if the funds were being properly used.

They also found the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office used $91,562 of the transferred funds to pay for personnel costs and equipment, with at least $5,200 considered to be unallowable.

And, the audit found the Richmond Police Department used $125,819 in transferred funds to pay for the salary of an officer assigned to the PACE team, including $4,387 in overtime costs, but the auditors could not verify if the officer was ever hired by the department. They are questioning the remaining $121,432 as unallowable because the department did not comply with the laws on using equitable sharing funds for salary costs.
Thieves, hiding behind badges.

I'm glad they're not dropping the suit,

because A: these bastards need to be sued,  B: threatening their budget seems to be the only thing that gets their attention.


If this is true, there are a bunch of people at the VA who need to be decorating trees.
In my client’s situation, he handles all of his own finances. The VA does not dispute this. Rather, when I finally got a representative from the VA on the line, she informed us that the VA, on its own initiative, placed him into “supervised direct payment status”. When I inquired as to what “supervised direct payment status” was, the representative stated that it is where the veteran handles his/her own financial affairs but they “watch the veteran’s financial accounts.” While the VA contended that they sent out a letter about this status being imposed on my client, my client never received such a letter and they acknowledged that it does not mention anything about the loss of the veteran’s Second Amendment rights, but that the VA has been imposing such since 2013.

No due process is provided. The representative acknowledged that my client never received a hearing and that the determination that my client was incompetent was made solely by a VA official reviewing his case. She stated that he could have appealed the determination when he received the original letter, but the time has since past to appeal. Remember, this is the letter that my client never received and which makes no mention of the loss of one’s Second Amendment rights…

Among the reasons I call asset forfeiture 'theft under color of law',

Concerned by the lack of transparency surrounding the NYPD's civil forfeiture program, NYC councilmember Ritchie Torres introduced legislation this year that would require annual reports from the police department about how much money it seizes, but at Thursday's hearing, the NYPD said it has no technologically feasible way to track seized money that was ultimately not pursued through asset forfeiture. From The Village Voice:

"Attempts to perform the types of searches envisioned in the bill will lead to system crashes and significant delays during the intake and release process," said Assistant Deputy Commissioner Robert Messner, while testifying in front of the council's Public Safety Committee. "The only way the department could possibly comply with the bill would be a manual count of over half a million invoices each year."

When asked by councilmember Dan Garodnick whether the NYPD had come to the hearing with any sort of accounting for how much money it has seized from New Yorkers this past year, the NYPD higher-ups testifying simply answered "no."

This is bullshit.  From a clapped-out bull, at that.  They actually expect everyone to believe they don't keep track of this?  You've got two choices:
NYPD is lying
or
NYPD is run by incompetents.
Take your pick.

I'm going with the first choice.
...According to the scant records Bronx Defenders did manage to get back, the NYPD reported more than $6 million in revenue in 2013 from seized cash, forfeitures, and property sold at auction, and it had a balance of more than $68 million in seized currency in any given month of that year.
My guess is they're lying their ass off because they don't want to admit just how much money they're stealing; that's probably a big bite out of their budget, and they don't want to have to answer for it.

Wonder if some journalist will ask Clinton

just how much of her estate is shielded from that tax?*
Pushing class warfare, government confiscation and redistribution of wealth in a speech Thursday, Clinton argued that Trump’s proposed elimination of the federal estate tax is unfair to the “99.8% percent of Americans” who are not millionaires and billionaires.

“If you believe that he’s as wealthy as he says, that alone would save the Trump family $4 billion,” Clinton said. “So they get a $4 billion tax cut and 99.8 percent of Americans would get nothing.”
It's 'unfair' not to loot someone's estate after their death.  I will let Mr. Sowell respond:

*Stop laughing.  I know, if any of these journalists were actual reporters, it might happen.

Sounds like something the SJWs would try here

A MAN who famously stood up to the Munich shooter after he killed nine people is facing being charged by a prosecutor for insulting the killer.
...
What will be included in the charges remains to be established, as it whether they will be brought forward.

But Mr Weinzierl, suggested they could include “insults to the detriment of the dead.”
I suggest Mr.  Weinzierl is a friggin' idiot, and if he does this should be removed from office.


"The truth is what I say it is!"  At this point I don't know if she'd just lying, or if she actually believes herself when she does.


Gun bigot breaks Oregon law he supports, apparently without knowing it(which says something all by itself).  Now
"If the pastor is prosecuted, it will demonstrate the idiocy of the law and the people who passed it," [Oregon Firearms Federation Executive Director Kevin] Starrett told The Review on Wednesday. "If the pastor is not prosecuted, it will demonstrate that anti-gun liberals are above the law and it was only intended to hurt the average gun owner, against whom it could be selectively enforced."
And open things up for charges of selective prosecution, and that could become a circus.


Another demonstration of
Why asset forfeiture should be ended unless there's an actual conviction, and
Why some prosecutors should be thrown out of office.

A: Koskinen is either a liar, incompetent, or looking the other way

"If that case exists, then it's not following in the policy I've been advised," Koskinen testified, adding that he had "lengthy meetings with the senior leadership" of the IRS's criminal investigation division and was assured that employees were trained in and advised about the new policy.
Yet they kept doing it anyway.  Right.
B: Can you say 'extortion'?
Two months ago, the government offered McLellan 50 percent of his money back and warned him against chasing publicity, even going so far as to suggest it would rile people inside the IRS and could hurt his chances of seeing his cash again, his attorneys said.
Yeah, extortion is the right word.  Committed under color of law by thieves with federal ID.

In this instance I'm betting on either 'liar' or 'looking the other way'. 

On SJWs and language

How can I teach my students to write decently when the English language has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Academic-Industrial Complex? Our language used to belong to all its speakers and readers and writers. But in the 1970s and ’80s, arrogant ideologues began recasting English into heavy artillery to defend the borders of the New Feminist state. In consequence we have all got used to sentences where puffed-up words like “chairperson” and “humankind” strut and preen, where he-or-she’s keep bashing into surrounding phrases like bumper cars and related deformities blossom like blisters; they are all markers of an epoch-making victory of propaganda over common sense.
And when someone spouts "PRIVILEGE!" at you,
Call: “Check your privilege!”
Response: “What you call ‘privilege’ is just me being better than you.”


Apparently, telling the .gov not to loot what you worked your life to build is 'creating an aristocracy'. 

So "Now that you're dead, we're going to steal a third of your estate" is fairness, or something.


Hope! and Change!!
Yesterday, President Barack Obama announced that the United States would be removing Cuba from the U.S. State Sponsors of Terror list as part of his push to normalize relations with the communist dictatorship. But just hours later, a terror group long fostered by Cuba — even today, the Castro brothers are harboring several wanted members of the group — murdered 10 Colombian soldiers and wounded 17 others in a terror attack on a military base.

District of Columbia PD: equivalent to a third-world bunch of uniformed clowns

constantly on the take.  Or just plain stealing.

D.C. police have made plans for millions of dollars in anticipated proceeds from future civil seizures of cash and property, even though federal guidelines say “agencies may not commit” to such spending in advance, documents show.

The city’s proposed budget and financial plan for fiscal 2015 includes about $2.7 million for the District police department’s “special purpose fund” through 2018. The fund covers payments for informants and rewards.

Theft under color of law. Run by thieves pretending to be lawmen.

More on the theft under color of law known as asset seizure Link fixed

The effort succeeded, but it had an impact that has been largely hidden from public view: the spread of an aggressive brand of policing that has spurred the seizure of hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from motorists and others not charged with crimes, a Washington Post investigation found. Thousands of people have been forced to fight legal battles that can last more than a year to get their money back.
And pay attention to this:
Behind the rise in seizures is a little-known cottage industry of private police-training firms that teach the techniques of “highway interdiction” to departments across the country.
To quote Jamie, "Well, THERE'S your problem!"  A big part of it.

One of those firms created a private intelligence network known as Black Asphalt Electronic Networking & Notification System that enabled police nationwide to share detailed reports about American motorists — criminals and the innocent alike — including their Social Security numbers, addresses and identifying tattoos, as well as hunches about which drivers to stop.
Really?  Cops posting that information on a PRIVATE network to be spread around?  How the hell is this legal?

So if you've got a safety deposit box or some other property,

you'd better make sure it's still there.
San Francisco resident Carla Ruff's safe-deposit box was drilled, seized, and turned over to the state of California, marked "owner unknown."

"I was appalled," Ruff said. "I felt violated."

Unknown? Carla's name was right on documents in the box at the Noe Valley Bank of America location. So was her address -- a house about six blocks from the bank. Carla had a checking account at the bank, too -- still does -- and receives regular statements. Plus, she has receipts showing she's the kind of person who paid her box rental fee. And yet, she says nobody ever notified her.
...
To make matters worse, Ruff discovered the loss when she went to her box to retrieve important paperwork she needed because her husband was dying. Those papers had been shredded.

And that's not all. Her great-grandmother's precious natural pearls and other jewelry had been auctioned off. They were sold for just $1,800, even though they were appraised for $82,500.
Lots of other cases of theft by government. Which is exactly what this is.

Oh, her bank?
Bank of America told ABC News it deeply regrets the situation and appreciates the difficulty of what Mrs. Ruff was going through. The bank has reached a settlement with Ruff and continues to update its unclaimed property procedures as laws change.
Well, considering the bank HAD her name and address AND knew she had a current account and DIDN'T BOTHER to try to contact her... I'll bet they did 'reach a settlement', considering their part in this theft.

And here's yet another case of theft by government

under cover of "It's for teh CHILDREN, and your own good!"
Have you heard of the “Great Outdoors Initiative”? Chances are, you haven’t. But across the country, White House officials have been meeting quietly with environmental groups to map out government plans for acquiring untold millions of acres of both public and private land. It’s another stealthy power grab through executive order that promises to radically transform the American way of life.
...
The federal government, as the memo boasted, is the nation’s “largest land manager.” It already owns roughly one of every three acres in the United States. This is apparently not enough. At a “listening session” in New Hampshire last week, government bureaucrats trained their sights on millions of private forest land throughout the New England region. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack crusaded for “the need for additional attention to the Land and Water Conservation Fund — and the need to promptly support full funding of that fund.”

Couple of days ago had a post on the Death Tax

Here's some more. In particular, the thoughts of the socialists at Daily Kos:
And the difference between 45% above estates of $3.5 million and 55% of estates above $1 million? An estimated $234 billion in revenue over the next 10 years. That’s the gift which the Congress is giving to the rich, a gift which could pay for healthcare, or to eliminate the budget deficits of all the states, or any number of things which would benefit tens of millions of people, rather than the tiny number of people who are actually affected by this tax.
Note the 'gift' bullshit. So you work your ass off all your life, succeed, and these clowns think that you passing your estate to your family or whoever is a 'gift' the government 'gives' to them.

This is exactly the kind of word-twisting bullcrap I hate: you giving your kids something you worked for is a 'gift from government' if they don't tax the life out of it. And no, I can't spell the sound I made after writing that.

These bastards either do not consider or WILL not consider just what people can do with that money: start a business or invest in one, expand one already there, things that build companies AND MAKE JOBS; I guess they don't consider it a real gain if the government isn't in total control of it.

Look at these two comments:
*Whatever your parents estate is comprised off they acquired those material goods by exploiting a social and economic infrastructure that the society as a whole created. They did not simply take dirt and logs and create 3.5 mil + in assets.

*Somebody must pay– someone has to give up something in order for America to get out of this mess. It has to be the rich. And we in the middle class should force them.
Asshole number one: the vast majority of people who make millionaire in this country start out with little or nothing: they DO build that fortune by hard work. A concept you seem unfamiliar with.
Asshole number two: your attitude of someone else paying for everything is in large part what got us into this mess, and you think further armed robbery and extortion will help? Moron.

This is the kind of crap we're facing: clowns who think they have some divine right to have government loot you if you happen to have more than they do.