The very bad reason Jeff Sessions is ‘very unhappy’

www.Washingtontonpost.com ^ | 12/25/2016 | George F. Will

[Forgotten Amendments]

Nationwide, proceeds from sales of seized property (homes, cars, etc.) go to the seizers. And under a federal program, state and local law enforcement can partner with federal authorities in forfeiture and reap up to 80 percent of the proceeds. This is called — more Orwellian newspeak — “equitable sharing.”

No crime had been committed in the Sourovelises’ house, but the title of the case against them was Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. 12011 Ferndale St. Somehow, a crime had been committed by the house. In civil forfeiture, it suffices that property is suspected of having been involved in a crime. Once seized, the property’s owners bear the burden of proving their property’s innocence. “Sentence first — verdict afterwards,” says the queen in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”

[Bubba Gump Shrimp]

“Appointing Free Masons to positions of authority is always a gross mistake.”
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.
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ummm, OK

[nathanbedford]

George Will should be banned from this site.

Why this obsession to keep conservatives ignorant of opinions you do not like, and of opinion makers you do not like?

Does it come from a fear that they are better reasoned? Are you afraid that conservative values are too weak to withstand the onslaught of contrary opinions? Do you need redundant reinforcement of your pre-set convictions? Do you not trust fellow conservatives to read, contemplate and come to their own reasoned conservative conclusions without the deadening hand of your censorship? Do you fear that this forum is too ignorant, too shallow, too week, and too stupid to deal with conservative heresy, apostasy or error on the merits without the ad hominem attacks and without the zot vigilantes? What are you afraid of?

If these opinions were in written form instead of in the digital world, would you burn them? Would you burn the opinion makers? Or would you in this modern, enlightened digital age only zot them to outer cyber darkness?

What is the difference in principle, apart from state vs. private action, from the move towards censorship in Europe or the recent failed attempt by the Obama administration to impose censorship through the FCC?

I have been zotted three times so you might discount my views as over-the-top by resorting to the ad hominem(as I have no doubt you will), or you might consider whether this thread has spent most of its energy denigrating George Will rather than dealing with the merits of his argument.

[Popman]

Bmk

[Vigilanteman]

What's the obsession with Free Masons.

I have a few associates in this organization, almost all good conservatives.

From what little I know about it, they dress in silly clothes and hold silly ceremonies. Seems pretty harmless to me.

[Popman]

So if your post is correct, I don’t doubt it is, Will is using dated and old information to besmirch Sessions...

Will could just as easily wrote a damning article about state/federal abuse of drug seizures without bringing Sessions into it...

Though I would like to know Sessions position on it outside of what Will implies...

[Tucker39]

Apparently it has never occurred to George the HE and his thinking could be wrong; bassackwards, in fact?

[Nifster]

He was very specific under what conditions seizure should occur....it included a judicial proceeding....which all too often does not happen.

Be very careful what you believe from the left

[Popman]

Appointing Free Masons to positions of authority is always a gross mistake.

Considering many of our founding fathers were Free Masons, I don't see why that's a gross mistake?

[HenpeckedCon]

or you might consider whether this thread has spent most of its energy denigrating George Will rather than dealing with the merits of his argument.

_______________________________________

IMHO, there really is no argument. George Will is an a$$hole.
There are no merits to wanting Hillary Clinton win 50 states to teach us a lesson about how PE Trump isn’t a “real conservative.” Face facts, Cruz would have never won PA, WI & MI. Never ever.

[sauropod]

bkmk

[elcid1970]

Masons hold the Koran and Bhaghavad-Gita as co-equal to the Bible. That sounds pretty silly, indeed. Just like their aprons.

[Avalon Memories]

HOWEVER, George Will is not a trustworthy source for anything

Absolutely true. He is the most smug, elitist, condescending, arrogant, narrow-minded, know-it-all talking head there is among a "profession" chock full of such people.

I can't stand anything about him -- not his voice; not his looks; not the way he dresses; and most especially not his long-winded expositions on just about every topic.

[dangus]

The great long anecdote doesn’t match Sessions’ defense of civil forfeiture. Will suggests Sessions is wrong about what
T civil forfeiture is; perhaps instead, he should look for common ground. I agree with Sessions’ argumentation; if that doesn’t match the Pennsylvania practices, let’s make sure Pennsylvania comes into line with our next AG’s interpretation of what is legally defensible.

The government Should be able to seize profits from criminal activity; if the Pennsylvania family was not part of the criminal activity, they shouldn’t be included.

The burden of proof Should be lower, once it established that a crime has been committed by those whose property is seized. It would be absurd to establish reasonable doubt standards for each possession. But the story doesn’t tell ANY reason to believe the house was even the property of the guilty. Or was Will hiding something from us?

Lastly, there must be a judge and a fair hearing; what Will describes is not such a case.

[exDemMom]

At a 2015 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on forfeiture abuses, one senator said “taking and seizing and forfeiting, through a government judicial process, illegal gains from criminal enterprises is not wrong,” and neither is law enforcement enriching itself from this.

And further down, this:

IJ’s Robert Everett Johnson notes that this senator missed a few salient points: In civil forfeiture there usually is no proper “judicial process.”

In other words, this whole article is built on a straw man, in which the target's position is misrepresented, and the arguer then makes the case against the misrepresentation.

The article quotes Senator Sessions as actually saying "through a government judicial process" and then goes on to argue that he advocates for seizure without process. Since the article is based on a strawman, there is really no need to read more.

[exDemMom]

George Will is a hateful NeverTrumper who called for Republicans to vote for Hillary to make Trump lose in all 50 states to teach Trump supporters a lesson

Yep, destroying the USA and setting off WWIII (with nukes), as Hillary was eager to do, would certainly have taught *me* a lesson for supporting Trump.

/s

[Liz]

Obama forced banks to give millions in penalties to La Raza and ACORN (for voter registration initiatives and other voter fraud schemes).

The details:

Obama and Congressional Democrats----with a huge assist from then-AG Eric Holder----have given NeighborWorks America (formerly ACORN) and La Raza a huge funding source of tax dollars to achieve Obama's dream of a permanent Democrat majority.

Obama/Holder/Dems are forcing taxpayers via DOJ litigation WRT bank settlements----into paying off these nefarious organizations.

DOJ went after CitiCorp and ordered them to pay $50 million to La Raza and NeighborWorks America as part of the settlement.

Another clause in the agreement makes it possible for La Raza and NeighborWorks America to rake in even larger amounts of money.

Of the remaining money the banks needed to pay in settlements, the banks were able to contribute additional money to La Raza and NeighborWorks America. For every dollar they contribute, it reduces their debt to the government by 2 dollars. That’s some mighty powerful incentive to give generously.

==================================================

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling have questioned why this money was sent to the ACORN clone and the blood-thirsty LaRaza----rather than to the alleged victims of the bank’s crime. The administration of course declined to answer.

Here's part of the Congressmen's letter to Holder: “It seems that the alleged victims are not the primary beneficiaries of these multi-billion dollar settlements. Instead, the terms in the Justice Department’s two latest settlements look less like consumer relief and more like a scheme to funnel money to politically favored special interest groups.”

“This makes donations to activist groups far more attractive to banks than providing direct relief to injured consumers. As a result, the settlements appear to serve as a vehicle for funding activist groups rather than as a means of securing relief for consumers actually harmed.”

=====================================

Can Obama say kickback?

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Obama bullied bank to pay racial settlement without proof: report
NY Post ^ | 2/7/2016 | Paul Sperry / FR Posted by DCdude

Newly uncovered internal memos reveal the Obama administration knowingly exaggerated charges of racial discrimination in probes of Ally Bank and other defendants in the $900 billion car-lending business as part of a racial justice campaign that's looking more like a massive government extortion and shakedown operation

Obama's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has reached more than $220 million in settlements with several auto lenders since the agency launched its anti- discrimination crusade against the industry in 2013. Several other banks are under active investigation. That's despite the fact that the CFPB had no actual complaints of racial discrimination--- it was all just based on half-baked statistics.

A 23-page internal report detailing CFPB's strategy for going after lenders shows why these companies are forking over millions of dollars in restitution and fines to the government despite denying any wrongdoing.

CFPB applied the screws to Ally, saying it had statistical evidence showing its participating dealers were œmarking up loan prices for blacks and Hispanics vs. whites (by an average of $3 a month). Ally fought back, insisting non-discriminatory factors, such as credit history, down payments, trade-ins, promotions and rate- shopping, explained differences in loan pricing. After conducting a preliminary regression analysis, the bank found these factors alone accounted for at least 70 percent of the “racial disparities” the government was claiming.

CFPB admits in the memo that it never considered these or other legitimate business aspects of the car deals it investigated

Also in its initial rebuttal, Ally complained CFPB's entire case was based on disparate impact statistics, not actual complaints by consumers, and that those estimates relied on guesswork about the race of the borrowers. (The auto industry does not report borrower race, so CFPB tried to ID race by last name and ZIP code, a so-called proxy method that is wildly inaccurate.)

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...

[gunsequalfreedom]

I hate it when people say consider the source. Most often it is used to deflect from consideration of the point being raised. It is a BS argument. Sorry if that sounds overly harsh in response to you post. You just struck a pet peeve of mine.

[RegulatorCountry]

A lot of drug warriors fell for the logic of penalizing drug dealers by seizing their property. Where they failed was envisioning just how corrupting this power would be, and that it’s just not Constitutional, no matter how well-intended or how much actual drug dealers should be penalized. It was ripe for abuse and has been grossly abused. No more civil asset forfeiture without a fair trial by jury and a conviction.

I hope Jeff Sessions has disavowed any advocacy of this practice; if not, there’s no time like the present. Time has told the tale, it was the wrong thing to do, no matter what the intention might have been at the time.

[jmaroneps37]

And what Will has to say is important because......?

[TheNext]

REVERSE FORFEITURE

The State steals the property of drug dealers. The dealer is now an agent of the State. The State now becomes the dealers profiting from the illegal sales. Judges and lawyers are now drug dealers.

The true victim should sue the Judge and Lawyer for illegal drug profiting, the judge and lawyer should be jailed, but only after their assets and homes seized.

Their homes are used in the commission of a crime. Many folks can pass that law.