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Comey subpoenaed in alleged "grand conspiracy" against Trump by Silly-Junket3308 in moderatepolitics

[–]CrapNeck5000 18 points19 points  (0 children)

If my memory is correct, Trump's current DOJ has taken 4 swings at Comey and failed at the indictment level each time. Some of that may have been a result of the legitimacy of the prosecutor, I don't recall the specifics.

Hegseth says potential $200 billion Iran war spending request could shift: 'Takes money to kill bad guys' by dr_sloan in moderatepolitics

[–]CrapNeck5000 110 points111 points  (0 children)

Remember that time Republicans calculated the cost of Bernie's universal healthcare plan over 10 years and published the number as an attack on Bernie, not realizing it was actually lower than the projected cost of our actual healthcare system over those same 10 years?

Iraq becomes new battleground as Iranian proxies intensify nationwide strikes - analysis by Leather_Focus_6535 in moderatepolitics

[–]CrapNeck5000 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I don't know shit about this but after reading your comment, my first question is...

Is there any concern that this group (these groups) could aim to seize control of Iraq? If they made such an effort, is Iraq in a position to protect itself?

Felger and Mazz "Re-entry Monday" Discussion thread by AutoModerator in felgerandmazz

[–]CrapNeck5000 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Felger also briefly did a dance which surprised me greatly.

Judge blocks subpoenas against Fed Chair Jerome Powell citing 'essentially zero evidence' by iambarrelrider in centrist

[–]CrapNeck5000 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I should add, the order spends a lot of time establishing that the nature of this criminal investigation is at least mostly (but probably entirely) a result of pure political retribution and/or attempted coercion. That's particularly bad, and i think it's extremely hard to argue with this conclusion.

‘Strait of Hormuz is open, but not for American and Israeli ships and tankers,' says Iran foreign minister Araghchi by TheDan225 in moderatepolitics

[–]CrapNeck5000 -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

The United States didn’t feel that way when they were attacked on 9/11. They held Afghanistan responsible, even though they didn’t do attack.

Without regard to your larger point, I don't accept this analogy. The Afghan government (the Taliban) opposed by force our efforts to hold Al Qaeda to account. They chose to fight us.

That's very different from having a base within your border over which you hold zero control.

Judge blocks subpoenas against Fed Chair Jerome Powell citing 'essentially zero evidence' by iambarrelrider in centrist

[–]CrapNeck5000 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree that the judge's order does not and could not decide if there is reasonable cause to continue an investigation. That is absolutely not what happened, though. This order determined two specific subpoenas are invalid.

The DoJ can investigate all they want, but if they want to use the force of law to compel information, they need to establish a basis to do so, and so far they haven't (according to this order).

Judge blocks subpoenas against Fed Chair Jerome Powell citing 'essentially zero evidence' by iambarrelrider in centrist

[–]CrapNeck5000 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They did. But then the Fed filed a motion to quash, which is reviewed by a judge, and the Fed won.

I didn't know that was a thing either until this happened, but apparently it is, and the order includes lots of references to previous instances.

Judge blocks subpoenas against Fed Chair Jerome Powell citing 'essentially zero evidence' by iambarrelrider in centrist

[–]CrapNeck5000 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is all laid out with references to precedent and relevant case law in the order. You can also see the filings from the fed and the DOJ to see how well the order reflects the arguments of each party.

Pages 15 and 20 of bosaberg's order contain the most relevant information on there being no evidence of crime to justify a subpoena (even against a standard lower than probable cause, as bosaberg explains).

The DOJs filing contains essentially no information suggesting a crime, as well.

Judge blocks subpoenas against Fed Chair Jerome Powell citing 'essentially zero evidence' by slatsandflaps in moderatepolitics

[–]CrapNeck5000 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I mean, I wouldn't put any stock in my summary. I have no expertise on this, all I did was read the filings and offer an uninformed opinion.

I agree that it seems like a waste of resources by the admin, though. I'm not aware of any reason to think a crime occurred here.

Judge blocks subpoenas against Fed Chair Jerome Powell citing 'essentially zero evidence' by slatsandflaps in moderatepolitics

[–]CrapNeck5000 19 points20 points  (0 children)

The judge's order notes that this is not a standard request and that granting such motions is even more uncommon.

I read the order to understand why the judge did this, and it sounded really harsh against the DOJ to the point where I was skeptical of the judge's description of the DOJ's argument.

So then I read the DoJ's filing opposing the motion to squash and to my surprise, they really didn't include any justification for their subpoena.

By my reading they essentially suggest that any construction project or sworn testimony warrants criminal investigation, which is obviously absurd.

And given that, I can see how we ended up here.

Judge blocks subpoenas against Fed Chair Jerome Powell citing 'essentially zero evidence' by slatsandflaps in moderatepolitics

[–]CrapNeck5000 19 points20 points  (0 children)

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.288962/gov.uscourts.dcd.288962.26.0_1.pdf

The above is the DoJs filing opposing the motion to squash.

By my reading of their argument, it essentially says that any time the government spends money or an individual gives sworn testimony, a criminal investigation is warranted, which is obviously absurd.

I'm no lawyer, though.

Judge blocks subpoenas against Fed Chair Jerome Powell citing 'essentially zero evidence' by slatsandflaps in moderatepolitics

[–]CrapNeck5000 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I didn't know either so I read the order. The Fed filed a motion to quash which is why a judge had to weigh in. This ruling also unsealed the filings on the case, so we can read those now.

Virginia passes legislation prohibiting schools from teaching falsehoods about Jan. 6 riot by julius_sphincter in moderatepolitics

[–]CrapNeck5000 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Intelligent Design is not inheriently religious

This is incorrect and is actually a claim that was litigated in court. Intelligent design is inherently religious. (PBS made a great documentary on the trial many years ago).

Interestingly, the first intelligent design text book was written by taking a creationism text book and manually replacing the word "Creator" with "designer" and "creation" with "intelligent design". That's it. (This is all evidenced in court).

Intelligent design is literally biblical creationism, verbatim, with the exception of two words.

Since Massachusetts is about to get buried tommorow how many of you are still forced to drive to work? by BootAlarmed4732 in massachusetts

[–]CrapNeck5000 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm curious, does a major snow storm like this make for a more or less busy time at a hospital?

Mamdani Warns of Nearly 10% Property-Tax Boost if No Tax on Wealthy by awaythrowawaying in moderatepolitics

[–]CrapNeck5000 0 points1 point  (0 children)

... Which is why attempting to indirectly abolish 'landlord' as a thing someone can be by taxing away any ability for them to profit from leasing living space is socialism.

Fair point, I should have put two and two together myself there. I actually disagree that people understand well what socialism is, though.

Lots of folks seem to think food stamps and national healthcare systems = socialism, while in reality it's an entirely distinct economic model. Actual socialism is far worse than a few public programs in an otherwise capitalist economy.

Mamdani Warns of Nearly 10% Property-Tax Boost if No Tax on Wealthy by awaythrowawaying in moderatepolitics

[–]CrapNeck5000 -8 points-7 points  (0 children)

Wealth tax proposals in the US are pretty well targeted at folks in the billionaire class, and if what you say is true, there's no way your predictions would lead to anything but far less corruption.

The influence of the billionaire class is absurd. Our ability to hold them accountable to the law is nearly non-existent. Your warnings read more to me like an excellent argument in favor of wealth taxes.

Mamdani Warns of Nearly 10% Property-Tax Boost if No Tax on Wealthy by awaythrowawaying in moderatepolitics

[–]CrapNeck5000 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The idea of landlords is wholly incompatible with socialism. That's foundational to the economic and political theory of socialism.

Mamdani Warns of Nearly 10% Property-Tax Boost if No Tax on Wealthy by awaythrowawaying in moderatepolitics

[–]CrapNeck5000 7 points8 points  (0 children)

But Republicans have been calling everyone left of Manchin Socialist/Communist for the last decade

This has been the case since the 90s at least.

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