Are Civil Forfeiture Laws Basically Legalized Robbery?

Are Civil Forfeiture Laws Basically Legalized Robbery? | Intellectual Takeout
"A few years ago, The New Yorker published an article (“Taken”) detailing civil asset forfeiture abuses in America.
Sarah Stillman, a staff writer at the magazine and a visiting scholar at NYU, chronicled several examples of citizens stripped of cash, cars, and even homes even though they had not been charged with a crime.
The abuses were so egregious I found them difficult to believe.
Take the case of Jennifer Boatright, a waitress at a bar in Houston bar-and-grill.
She, her boyfriend, and her two children were driving down U.S. 59 near the Texas-Louisiana border when they were pulled over for driving in the left lane for a short while without passing.
Authorities asked to search the vehicle.
Permission was granted. No drugs were found, but some cash was, as was “a marbled-glass pipe that Boatright said was a gift for her sister-in-law.”
They were given a choice: 1) face felony charges of money laundering and child endangerment, “in which case they would go to jail and their children would be handed over to foster care,” or sign over the cash.
Which would you choose?
And there is the case of James Morrow, a factory worker who sliced chicken for a living. Via the New Yorker:
In August, 2007, [Tenaha, Texas] police pulled Morrow over for ‘driving too close to the white line,’ and took thirty-nine hundred dollars from him.
Morrow told Guillory that he was on his way to get dental work done at a Houston mall.
(The arresting officers said that his “stories of travel” were inconsistent, as was his account of how much money he had; they also said they detected the “odor of burned marijuana,” although no contraband was found in the car.)
Morrow, who is black, was taken to jail, where he pleaded with authorities to call his bank to see proof of his recent cash withdrawal. 
They declined.
Could law enforcement authorities really be taking the property of citizens who are not even charged with a crime let alone convicted of one? 
And could it be happening a grand scale?
The answer to both of those questions is yes..."

DHS Quietly Moving, Releasing Vanloads of Illegal Aliens Away from Border

DHS Quietly Moving, Releasing Vanloads of Illegal Aliens Away from Border - Judicial Watch:
"The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is quietly transporting illegal immigrants from the Mexican border to Phoenix and releasing them without proper processing or issuing court appearance documents, Border Patrol sources tell Judicial Watch.
The government classifies them as Other Than Mexican (OTM) and this week around 35 were transferred 116 miles north from Tucson to a Phoenix bus station where they went their separate way. Judicial Watch was present when one of the white vans carrying a group of OTMs arrived at the Phoenix Greyhound station on Buckeye Road.
The OTMs are from Honduras, Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala and Border Patrol officials say this week’s batch was in custody for a couple of days and ordered to call family members in the U.S. so they could purchase a bus ticket for their upcoming trip from Phoenix.
Authorities didn’t bother checking the identity of the U.S. relatives or if they’re in the country legally, according to a Border Patrol official directly involved in the matter.
American taxpayers pick up the fare for those who claim to have a “credible fear,” Border Patrol sources told JW.
None of the OTMs were issued official court appearance documents, but were told to “promise” they’d show up for a hearing when notified, said federal agents with firsthand knowledge of the operation..."

Lunch video-----WWII P-38 LIGHTNING FOOTAGE - FIGHTER KILLS IN EUROPE

Noon-toon

Teen Male Dominates Girls Track And Field | The Daily Caller

Teen Male Dominates Girls Track And Field | The Daily Caller:

"High school girls in Alaska are crying foul after a male sprinter took home all-state honors in girls’ track and field. According to local reports, it was the first time in Alaskan history that a male athlete competed in the girls’ state championships."

ISIS Announced Florida Threat THREE Days Ago: "We Will Attack Florida"

ISIS Announced Florida Threat THREE Days Ago: "We Will Attack Florida"
On Saturday night an Islamist extremist murdered 20 people at a “Pulse” gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
ISIS made a major declaration three days ago that it was targeting Florida.
Three days ago - Major Muslim ISIS Terrorists Makes Declaration To target Florida ...
Shoebat.com reported on the threat three days ago.
ISIS Muslim terrorists released a statement on their plan to attack Florida, and even put out a list with the names of people in Florida that they plan on killing.
According to one report:
"A pro-Isis group has released a hit list with the names of more than 8,000 people mostly Americans.
More than 600-people live in Florida, and one security expert believes that many of those targeted live in Palm Beach County and on the Treasure Coast.
The “United Cyber Caliphate” that hacked U.S. Central Command, 54,000 Twitter accounts and threatened President Barack Obama is the same pro-Isis group that’s reportedly created a “kill list” with the names, addresses and emails of thousands of civilian Americans.
Reports of the list came to light online when Vocativ reported the list was shared via the encrypted app, Telegram, and called on supporters to kill.
Former FBI agent-turned lawyer Stuart Kaplan says the threat is especially alarming, because the people on this list are civilians who don’t have the security necessary to protect themselves.
“It’s going to create some hysteria,” he said…"
Read on!

Founder of Judge Curiel's Group: Whites Should Go Back to Europe, CA To Be 'Hispanic State'

Founder of Judge Curiel's Group: Whites Should Go Back to Europe, CA To Be 'Hispanic State'
The lawyers’ association to which Judge Gonzalo Curiel belongs was co-founded by a man who publicly bragged about Hispanics taking over California and all of the state’s governmental institutions–and insisted that whites should go back to Europe. 
The group, the California La Raza Lawyers Association, has been widely defended as “not pro-Mexican” by mainstream media outlets, though the outlets failed to report the inflammatory statements of the man listed first as a founder, Mario Obledo.

A 2010 Snopes report asserts that the first-listed co-founder of Judge Curiel’s group, Obledo, made the statements. 
They reported:

Mario Obledo was a co-founder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) and the La Raza Lawyers of California bar association, and he formerly served as California’s Secretary of Health and Welfare. We don’t know exactly when and where he first made his controversial statement about California’s becoming a “Hispanic state,” but he has confirmed he said it at least twice: during an appearance on Ray Briem’s talk radio show in May or June of 1998, and again on Tom Leykis’ talk radio show:

Obledo: “We’re going to take over all the political institutions of California. In five years the Hispanics are going to be the majority population of this state.”

Caller: “You also made the statement that California is going to become a Hispanic state, and if anyone doesn’t like it, they should leave. Did you say that?”

Obledo: “I did. They ought to go back to Europe.”

Why Redistributive Policies Fail

Why Redistributive Policies Fail | Economics21:
"The issue of income inequality has dramatically shifted public attitudes toward economic and fiscal policy, and today dominates the national political debate.
Fueled by the works of economists such as Thomas Piketty, many have accepted as fact that 1) income inequality has increased dramatically, and 2) further redistributive policies must be undertaken to correct the disparity.
But this diagnosis and resulting prescription overlook a key contributor to earnings inequality: rapidly increasing health care costs.
Most previous analyses of inequality focused exclusively on comparing the earnings of lower- and higher-paid workers.
By failing to account for total compensation—including employer-provided health care benefits, which make up a far larger share of total compensation for lower earners than for higher earners—such analyses significantly inflated the perceived severity of workers’ earnings inequality.
This pervasive misperception continues to drive ineffective redistributive policies.
...Indeed, the fact that average employer costs for family health coverage exploded from around $4,200 in 1999 to nearly $11,800 in 2013 gives a reasonable explanation for why earnings have stagnated in recent years.
However, not every employee is affected in the same proportion by rising health costs.
For an employer, because of non-discrimination rules in the tax code, the dollar cost of health coverage is the same for low-paid full-time worker as for a high-paid worker. 
This means health care costs makes up a far larger share of total compensation for lower earners. Though rising health care costs eat away at earnings growth for everyone, the effects will be largest for the working middle classes because their health costs are so large relative to the rest of their compensation package.
As my study shows, the disparate effect of rising health care costs is not just theory.
From 1996 to 2008, I find that total compensation inequality did not change despite a significant increase in earnings inequality.
The difference between compensation and earnings inequality can almost wholly be attributed to surging health care costs..."

State Department Apparently Delaying Public Information Requests About Clinton’s Tenure Until After November | TheBlaze.com

State Department Apparently Delaying Public Information Requests About Clinton’s Tenure Until After November | TheBlaze.com:

"An International Business Times review of publicly available records requests using the government-transparency website MuckRock showed that “inquiries related to the Democratic presidential nominee are more likely to be delayed until after the election than other requests to the State Department.”

After Puerto Rico's collapse, is your city or state next?

After Puerto Rico's collapse, is your city or state next? - Watchdog.org:
"Which state or city is most likely to follow Puerto Rico’s example, and beg Congress for a legal mechanism to get out of its crushing bond and pension debts?
A detailed new study from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University gets us part of the way to an answer.
Puerto Rico’s finances are uniquely terrible, according to this study of state finances, ranking dead last in five major measurements of long- and short-term solvency.
But the worst-run states are much closer to Puerto Rico’s condition than they are to states with balanced budgets and reasonable debt.
With short-term budget troubles and colossal long-term debt, Kentucky, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, in particular, are much closer to the basket case economic condition of the Caribbean territory on the Mercatus fiscal health index than they are to states such as Texas, the Dakotas, Florida, or Nebraska, where budgets are balanced and public pension systems may yet be salvaged.
For example, Connecticut, which ranks 50th out of the states for fiscal health, has run up $67 billion in debt, compared to Puerto Rico’s $118 billion, while both have populations of around 3.6 million. But personal income in Puerto Rico is less than one-third of Connecticut’s.
If that seems reassuring, consider that the Nutmeg State’s debt figure grows to $124 billion if you recalculate pension debt, assuming it will all be paid — an assumption one no longer makes for Puerto Rico, which gave up on funding its pension system a decade ago and is now just draining the balance..."

History for June 12

History for June 12 - On-This-Day.com
David Rockefeller 1915 - Banker, Irwin Allen 1916 - Television and film producer, nicknamed "The Master of Disaster", George H.W. Bush 1924 - 41st President of the United States, father of President George W. Bush


Vic Damone 1928 - Singer,  (Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank) 1929 - Known for her diary which documented her experiences during World War II, Jim Nabors 1930 - Actor, singer ("Gomer Pyle, USMC")


1812 - Napoleon's invasion of Russia began.


1897 - Carl Elsener patented his penknife. The object later became known as the Swiss army knife.


1939 - The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was dedicated in Cooperstown, New York.


1963 - "Cleopatra" starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison, and Richard Burton premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City.


1963 - Civil rights leader Medgar Evers was fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson, MS.


1979 - Bryan Allen flew the Gossamer Albatross, man powered, across the English Channel.


1987 - U.S. President Reagan publicly challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. 


1991 - Russians went to the election polls and elected Boris N. Yeltsin as the president of their republic.

21 New ‘Clinton Cash’ Revelations That Have Imperiled Hillary Clinton’s Campaign - Breitbart

21 New ‘Clinton Cash’ Revelations That Have Imperiled Hillary Clinton’s Campaign - Breitbart:

"To date, Hillary Clinton has yet to substantively answer a single question from the mountain of Clinton Cash questions that continue to pile up with each passing day.

The result: according to Tuesday’s CNN poll, the “Clinton Cash Effect” has rendered Hillary Clinton historic new lows in her favorability with American voters.

Below we chronicle just 21 of the myriad Clinton Cash-related revelations that have emerged since the book’s publication—all of which have been confirmed and verified as accurate by national media organizations."

America-hating democrat-----Blue Angel Crash Leads San Francisco To Attempt Ban

Blue Angel Crash Leads San Francisco To Attempt Ban - World War Wings:
"What’s Next?
The tragic accident which cost  Blue Angel Captain Jeff Kuss his life last week is now now being used as a weapon against the Navy. Coming straight out of San Francisco District 11, a member of the board of supervisors by the name of John Avalos is calling for a ban on the Blue Angels flying over his city.
This isn’t the first time Alvaros waged war on the Blue Angels however.
Back in 2007 when another Blue Angel was killed in South Carolina, he helped draft a similar piece of legislation.
It never left the committee level.
“It’s about the terror that they cause in people when they strafe neighborhoods. 
That’s something I hear about all the time when Blue Angels fly overhead.”-Avalos
In light of recent events, he’s now using that to promote what would seem like impending doom.
He’s been quoted as saying that the Blue Angels “strafe neighborhoods” with their “killing machines.”
He obviously has a bone to pick with them..."

Silence is Consent | CAIR: TSA Can Only Pat Down NECK & HEAD of Muslim Women

Silence is Consent | CAIR: TSA Can Only Pat Down NECK & HEAD of Muslim Women
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has issued a travel notice to Muslim airline passengers, warning them that new regulations from the Transportation Security Administration violate certain religious rules.

According to CAIR, the TSA’s new “enhanced pat down” policy should be limited to searching only around Muslim women’s head and neck if they are wearing a hijab and that Muslims objecting to the enhanced full-body scans have the right to request the pat-down procedure be done in a private place.

From CAIR’s press release:

Special recommendations for Muslim women who wear hijab:

* If you are selected for secondary screening after you go through the metal detector and it does not go off, and “sss” is not written on your boarding pass, ask the TSA officer if the reason you are being selected is because of your head scarf.

* In this situation, you may be asked to submit to a pat-down or to go through a full body scanner. If you are selected for the scanner, you may ask to go through a pat-down instead.

* Before you are patted down, you should remind the TSA officer that they are only supposed to pat down the area in question, in this scenario, your head and neck. They SHOULD NOT subject you to a full-body or partial-body pat-down.

* You may ask to be taken to a private room for the pat-down procedure.

* Instead of the pat-down, you can always request to pat down your own scarf, including head and neck area, and have the officers perform a chemical swipe of your hands.

In February, the Figh Council of North America, a group of Islamic scholars, issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, that full-body scanners violate Islamic law..."

Islamic State Blows Up 2,500-Year-Old Nabu Temple

Islamic State Blows Up 2,500-Year-Old Nabu Temple:

"A new video making the rounds of Islamic State social media forums allegedly shows operatives of the terror state blowing up a 2,500-year-old temple to Nabu, the Babylonian god of wisdom, along with other historic sites near the captive Iraqi city of Mosul. The video ends with a threat to give the legendary pyramids of Egypt the same treatment.

Vocativ describes the ten-minute video as showing the demolition of the temple to Nabu, using powerful explosives. Nabu was one of the gods in the Babylonian civilization, which was a regional power from roughly 4,000 years ago to roughly 2,500 years ago. "

Missiles Everywhere

Missiles Everywhere | The Weekly Standard:
"Camp Shomera, on the Israel-Lebanon border
Hezbollah has a nasty collection of more than 130,000 rockets, missiles, and mortars aimed at Israel. 
This is a bigger arsenal than all NATO countries (except the United States) combined.
Why, a reasonable person might wonder, does Hezbollah need an offensive arsenal bigger than that of all Western Europe?
“You don't collect 130,000 missiles if you don't intend to use them," says Matthew Levitt, a counterterrorism expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Hezbollah is a well-funded, violently anti-Israel terrorist organization based in Lebanon and a puppet of the Iranian regime.
In Hezbollah's arsenal are about 700 long-range, high-payload rockets and missiles with names like Fateh-110 and Scud D.
They are capable of taking down entire buildings in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, wreaking havoc at Israel's major military bases, killing thousands of Israeli civilians, shutting down the nation's airports and ports, and taking out the electric grid.
And that's just in the first week..."

USDA Official Pleased That People Rely On Food Stamps

USDA Official Pleased That People Rely On Food Stamps :
"The head of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) is pleased at the number of people who relied on welfare to stay above the poverty line in 2015.
“Last year, SNAP kept at least 4.7 million Americans — including 2.1 million children — out of poverty,” agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack said in a press release announcing grant awards related to welfare support Wednesday.
...As part of the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive (FINI), authorized in the 2014 Farm Bill, the USDA gives money to “strengthen local and regional food systems” so SNAP recipients purchase fresh foods with their food stamps.
...“Programs like FINI build on the success we’ve seen with the use of healthy incentives and with many of the projects being run at farmers markets, we’re also helping to strengthen local and regional food systems,” Vilsack said in the statement..."

Lunch video-----Most DANGEROUS and STRANGEST AIRPORTS in the WORLD!

Noon-toon

Texas Valedictorian Reveals She's 'Undocumented,' Blames U.S., Blasts Trump in Graduation Speech

Texas Valedictorian Reveals She's 'Undocumented,' Blames U.S., Blasts Trump in Graduation Speech:

"A North Texas high school valedictorian gave quite a different kind of commencement speech at a graduation ceremony on Friday. She announced she was in the United States illegally, blamed the U.S. immigration system for her illegal status, and even took a few veiled swipes at the presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump.

McKinney Boyd High School valedictorian Larissa Martinez also mentioned she was Yale University bound when she stood before a packed auditorium and declared: “I am one of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the shadows of the United States.”

DEMOCRATS Erect TALL FENCE Around DNC Convention Center in Philly

DEMOCRATS Erect TALL FENCE Around DNC Convention Center in Philly
More hypocrisy…

Last week Democrat Hillary Clinton told Univision the US needs to build “a bridge not a wall” with Mexico.

But that was last week.
This week the Democrats are putting up a tall fence around the convention center in Philadelphia. 

But walls and fences don’t work, right?

Via Free Republic:

 Follow

HILLARY HIPS 4 TRUMP @Hadippa2

Democrats putting a TALL FENCE around the DNC Convention Center in Philly.

Hmmm. ObamaMotors ain't doin' so good-----The Car Brands With the Highest Maintenance Costs Over Time

The Car Brands With the Highest Maintenance Costs Over Time

Ten things your town needs to know as it is targeted for refugee resettlement « Refugee Resettlement Watch

Ten things your town needs to know as it is targeted for refugee resettlement « Refugee Resettlement Watch:

Ten things your town needs to know:

"As we have been writing ad nauseam lately, the Obama Administration is now out of the shadows with its plan to “seed” towns and cities across America with diversity.

Changing America by changing the people. President Barack Obama, flanked by Cecilia Muñoz, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, left, and senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett are changing the people by ‘planting’ immigrant “seedlings” in towns across America!

‘Seed’ is their word!  Your community is the soil into which the migrants of all sorts (legal and illegal) are being planted according to Obama’s Task Force on New Americans.   It begs the questions:  Are we being colonized?  Do they plan to replace us some day?  Sound far-fetched?  Knowing Obama, are you willing to gamble on that?

We have long maintained a ‘fact sheet’ about how the UN/US State Department’s Refugee Admissions and Resettlement Program works,click here to learn more.

But, I realized yesterday, while thinking about the newest proposed seed community*** in Rep. Trey Gowdy’s backyard in Spartanburg, SC, that we needed a quick primer on what elected officials and citizens should know if they are being pressured to ‘welcome the stranger‘ (this guilt-tripping language is one way they pressure your town!). Update: Gowdy lost, assuming he ever tried, and Spartanburg is now an established resettlement site.

So here are my Ten Things you need to know!

1)  In most cases, the United Nations is choosing our refugees.  Topping the list right now are Iraqis, Burmese, Congolese, Somalis and Bhutanese.  The UN is pressuring the US to take a large number, 10,000 or so, Syrians.  We are bringing in refugees from countries which hate us.  Your town does not get to choose who you get!  You will receive racially, culturally and religiously diverse people, usually very different from your local population and very different from each other.  That old ‘melting pot’ concept is dead because the numbers are too high.

2)  Often the US State Department’s chosen resettlement contractor for your town, sounds like a church group, or other benign-sounding non-profit.  They may have a religious-sounding name, but know that they are being paid by the head from the federal treasury to bring refugees to your town.  It is not the case that they are passing a plate on Sunday morning to pay for this very expensive program. Here are the nine major contractors which have 350 subcontractors working for them (headquartered in over 180 cities so far).
Read on!

Obama Warns: Manhattan Will Be ‘Underwater’ If We Don’t Act On Climate Change - Breitbart

Obama Warns: Manhattan Will Be ‘Underwater’ If We Don’t Act On Climate Change - Breitbart:

"President Barack Obama insists that Americans have to take climate change seriously, or else a key part of one the world’s greatest cities could end up underwater."