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FBI, EPA, and Treasury told Citibank to freeze funds to claw back climate money

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Re: FBI, EPA, and Treasury told Citibank to freeze funds to claw back climate money

#41

Post by chaos_agent »

pjc50 wrote: post #15
Terr_ wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to try and revert something from under the previous administration More-importantly, it's nowhere close to "normal" try-to-reverts, where one President tries to replace an equally "soft" policy put in place by another President. Here the newly-installed crooks are trying to deny a hard "money shall be spent on X" law passed by Congress , which is an unconstitutional attempt to seize the "power of the purse". Same l…

> as if Trump declared people on his Friends List were exempt from taxes I'll pencil that in for April. After all, the president can direct who is and is not prosecuted..

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Re: FBI, EPA, and Treasury told Citibank to freeze funds to claw back climate money

#42

Post by llamaimperative »

9283409232 wrote: post #13

Some information from the linked document about the non-profits that are being targeted. > 2. Conflicts of Interest and Political Favoritism > A $2 billion grant was awarded to Power Forward Communities, a new nonprofit with ties to Stacey Abrams, despite reporting only $100 in total revenue in 2023 > Young, Gifted & Green was awarded $20 million, even though its CEO applied for funding while serving on the White Hou…

“Ties to Stacey Abrams”, by the way, is that she is an advisor to one of the five organizations that founded Power Forward Communities…

I.e. that a community organizer was involved in a community organization…

Re: FBI, EPA, and Treasury told Citibank to freeze funds to claw back climate money

#43

Post by narutosasuke »

9283409232 wrote: post #13

Some information from the linked document about the non-profits that are being targeted. > 2. Conflicts of Interest and Political Favoritism > A $2 billion grant was awarded to Power Forward Communities, a new nonprofit with ties to Stacey Abrams, despite reporting only $100 in total revenue in 2023 > Young, Gifted & Green was awarded $20 million, even though its CEO applied for funding while serving on the White Hou…

Power Forward Communities: A coalition of five nonprofit organizations — Enterprise Community Partners, Habitat for Humanity International, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Rewiring America and United Way Worldwide.

Abrams' connection to Power Forward Communities, is through Rewiring America, one of the five organizations that leads the program.

That seems pretty weak. No idea what the other group is but I mean if the above is what's being lead with, I don't find myself concerned. Looks more like working your way backwards from "I don't want this money spent so I will find whatever connection I can to corruption"

Re: FBI, EPA, and Treasury told Citibank to freeze funds to claw back climate money

#44

Post by chaos_agent »

Huntsecker wrote: post #7

daily stories coming from the US are pretty crazy, FBI being used as a tool to try and revert something from under the previous administration. Feels like whatever balances and checks that should be in place to stop an autocracy are missing

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Re: FBI, EPA, and Treasury told Citibank to freeze funds to claw back climate money

#45

Post by llamaimperative »

londons_explore wrote: post #35
crypto_is_king wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Both sides of the political divide attempt to funnel taxpayers money into their own interests, which are often thinly veiled ways to get taxpayer money into their own pockets. This is nothing new. Whenever there is a change of admin, the new admin attempts to claw back or redirect money the old admin directed to their own pockets. This is also nothing new. What's new this year is people are talking about it.

If both sides do it, then they should be able to publish better evidence than Stacey Abrams’ “ties” to Power Forward Communities.

The fact that all the DOGE and DOGE-adjacent claims of fraud have been so shamefully weak has actually reduced my confidence that the alleged behavior is actually widespread at all.

Re: FBI, EPA, and Treasury told Citibank to freeze funds to claw back climate money

#46

Post by koolba »

tokioyoyo wrote: post #38
crypto_is_king wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

My take is, either everyone should be allowed to scam, or nobody. It sounds very stupid, but I don’t like it when people in power give preference to their own scams. Obviously I want no scams, but the US has chosen administration that is ok with insider scams. So as an outsider, I’d rather see equality instead.

[flagged]

Re: FBI, EPA, and Treasury told Citibank to freeze funds to claw back climate money

#47

Post by fabian2k »

crypto_is_king wrote: post #24
9283409232 wrote: post #13

Some information from the linked document about the non-profits that are being targeted. > 2. Conflicts of Interest and Political Favoritism > A $2 billion grant was awarded to Power Forward Communities, a new nonprofit with ties to Stacey Abrams, despite reporting only $100 in total revenue in 2023 > Young, Gifted & Green was awarded $20 million, even though its CEO applied for funding while serving on the White Hou…

[flagged]

I don't think you can reasonably expect the claims by this administration to be true. There are far too many examples where they claimed fraud without any evidence.

Re: FBI, EPA, and Treasury told Citibank to freeze funds to claw back climate money

#48

Post by londons_explore »

llamaimperative wrote: post #45
londons_explore wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both sides of the political divide attempt to funnel taxpayers money into their own interests, which are often thinly veiled ways to get taxpayer money into their own pockets. This is nothing new. Whenever there is a change of admin, the new admin attempts to claw back or redirect money the old admin directed to their own pockets. This is also nothing new. What's new this year is people are talking about it.

If both sides do it, then they should be able to publish better evidence than Stacey Abrams’ “ties” to Power Forward Communities. The fact that all the DOGE and DOGE-adjacent claims of fraud have been so shamefully weak has actually reduced my confidence that the alleged behavior is actually widespread at all.

My guess is because it isn't textbook fraud. Everything is being done legally and by the book. But the money is still ending up in the pockets of friends by making sure it's friends NGO's that know and meet the exact requirements.

Afterwards, any investigation will find that a fair dispersement process was done, and this NGO just happened to hit every requirement perfectly whilst all others didn't meet some requirement.

Re: FBI, EPA, and Treasury told Citibank to freeze funds to claw back climate money

#49

Post by michaelt »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #11
gamblor956 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The judge can request that the lawyers involved lose their admission to practice in federal court for serious ethical violations like the ones here. However, this very rarely happens except in the most egregious cases where the lawyer is usually also disbarred for their conduct (i.e., Guiliani) so it's not a meaningful disciplinary measure.

Is it just custom not to exercise it? Why do these judges allow people to show up to court and make exceptionally stupid arguments?

As I understand it, in an "adversarial" legal system, each side is represented by a lawyer who is obliged to put forward the strongest argument they can; then the court decides between the arguments. And so even incredibly guilty people are entitled to have a lawyer on their side, lawyering as effectively as they can.

So to them, there's no shame in representing an asshole and advancing a terrible argument, if that's what their client wants.

What's more, generally you don't become a judge without being a lawyer for a few decades first. And they know what class solidarity is. Why would they be overly harsh with their colleagues and friends, if nothing explicitly demands they do so?

Pretty much every legal case ends involves at least one side ending up unhappy. And pretty much every legal case involves at least one person who's happy to make legal threats. I'd wager many lawyers have someone threaten to get them disbarred a few times a year. It'd be difficult for the legal system to function if getting people disbarred was easy.

Re: FBI, EPA, and Treasury told Citibank to freeze funds to claw back climate money

#50

Post by decremental »

a4aur5uiu wrote: post #19
Alupis wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because you are unhappy with how things are being governed doesn't mean democracy is failing, etc. We just had an election, and the current administration won. Midterms are just around the corner. This is exactly how things are supposed to work.

He's literally dissolving, dismantling, and undermining the systems that you're claiming are "working". And federal judges are deciding cases along strict party lines, which is a pretty clear demonstration that they're utterly ignoring the actual written words of the law. And Congress has completely given away their intended control of federal spending. So let's cut the shit. You like Trump and you want this to conti…

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