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De Blasio and 59 Democrats demand Cuomo’s resignation

By
Sholom Schreirber
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The odds are slim for Gov. Cuomo being impeached (AP)

UPDATE

Sara Carter reported:

Mayor Bill de Blasio, assemblywoman Jessica González-Rojas (D-NY) and over 55 additional New York legislatures are calling for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation because of ongoing sexual harassment allegations and a cover-up of Covid death data by his administration.

A resolution to impeach Cuomo was introduced earlier this week by Republican members of the Assembly. Minority Leader Will Barclay said that “we believe the time has come” to impeach the New York Gov.

Under the New York Constitution, an impeachment of Cuomo would require a simple majority vote of the 150-member state Assembly, which is currently composed of 106 Democrats, 43 Republicans and one independent.

Associated Press reported:

 

(AP) — A group of 59 Democratic state legislators demanded New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation Thursday in the wake of an allegation that he groped an aide at the Executive Mansion last year.

The letter released by the group comes as Cuomo’s grip on power in the state appeared increasingly tenuous. The top Democrat in the state Assembly, Speaker Carl Heastie, said he will meet with members in conference today on “potential paths forward” in light of mounting allegations.

In New York, the Assembly is the legislative house that could move to impeach Cuomo, who has faced multiple allegations that he made the workplace an uncomfortable place for young women with sexually suggestive remarks and behavior, including unwanted touching and a kiss.

The Times Union of Albany reported Wednesday that an unidentified aide had claimed Cuomo reached under her shirt and fondled her after summoning her to his official residence.

 

Nineteen senators and 40 Assembly members said in a letter Thursday that it was time for Cuomo to go.

“In light of the Governor’s admission of inappropriate behavior and the findings of altered data on nursing home COVID-19 deaths he has lost the confidence of the public and the state legislature, rendering him ineffective in this time of most urgent need,” the letter said. “It is time for Governor Cuomo to resign.”

Cuomo has repeatedly said he won’t resign and urged the public to await the outcome of an investigation of his conduct by state Attorney General Letitia James. Cuomo’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Cuomo has denied inappropriately touching anyone but has said he is sorry if he made anyone uncomfortable and didn’t intend to do so.

In the newest allegation against Cuomo, the Times Union of Albany reported that the governor had summoned the aide to his Albany mansion, saying he needed help with his cellphone. After she arrived, Cuomo closed the door, reached under her shirt and fondled her, the newspaper reported.

The newspaper’s reporting was based on an unidentified source with knowledge of the woman’s accusation, who said she first told the story to someone on Cuomo’s staff in recent days. The newspaper hadn’t spoken to the woman and didn’t identify her.

“I have never done anything like this,” Cuomo said through a spokesperson Wednesday evening.

“The details of this report are gut-wrenching,” Cuomo said, adding that he would not speak to the specifics of this or any other allegation, given an ongoing investigation overseen by the state attorney general.

Several other women who worked for the governor in Albany or during his time in former President Bill Clinton’s Cabinet, and one who met him briefly at a wedding, have also complained of inappropriate conduct.

The state Assembly has 150 members. It could convene an impeachment trial against Cuomo with a simple majority vote. Until the new allegations surfaced, most of its members appeared to be leaning against trying to convene an impeachment or demanding Cuomo’s resignation until the attorney general’s investigation was complete.

The state Senate, which would join with members of the state’s top appeals court to hold an impeachment trial, has 63 members.

Where Are Developers & Real Estate Titans Going Wrong in Efforts to Yield Favorable Results in the Upcoming NYC Mayoral Primary?

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0

By: TJVNews.com  

As the New York City mayoral race heats up and the crowd of candidates continues to see exponential growth, it now appears that a group of high powered developers and professional real estate tycoons and jumping into the mix.

Before placing a glaring spotlight on the objectives of these developers, it is noteworthy to examine those on the other side of the race.

A large percentage of candidates that have thrown their proverbial hats in the ring embody the political philosophies of the progressive movement . As such, they have the financial backing provided by left leaning and liberal donators as well as organizations that subscribe to their agenda. The proof in the pudding can be seen in the fact that the PACs that are keeping them afloat are generating unheard of amounts of cash.

In addition, these candidates also have their ground game honed into a science, with highly successful voter outreach and are staffed by grassroots organizers who come with vast experience in creating solid ties with an already sympathetic media.

These candidates want to defund the police, staunchly oppose gentrification of any kind, impose stiff taxes on the middle class, promote the goals of political radicalism through their unyielding support of the Black Lives Matter movement and Antida, keep our schools closed while pandering to the UFT and preventing job growth and economic recovery by preventing  businesses such as Amazon from coming to New York.

At this juncture, such pro-business developers as billionaire Stephen Ross, who put his money behind Hudson Yards and other spectacular ventures are now taking the lead in committing tens of millions of dollars in an effort to persuade moderate Democrats to vote in the June primary. In an e-mail sent to like minded colleagues, Ross (who is the chairman and founder of Related Companies), placed a strong emphasis on his belief that the “winner of the Democratic primary for mayor in June will decide if NYC will rebound or languish.”

Of course, Ross wants to convince those in ear shot of his letter that a pro-business mayor would strive to magnify the power of capitalism and thusly, would thwart attempts to keep the woke, cancel culture generation that are wedded to a Bernie Sanders style of economic socialism from destroying what remains of this beleaguered city.

While not supporting a particular candidate so early in this horse race, Ross wrote in his e-mail that, “This is truly the most important election of our lifetime and in NYC’s history. Fortunately, we can do something to change the future course of the city we love.”

Ross remains acutely aware that the future of his Hudson Yards which is the largest private development in American history, on Manhattan’s West Side is inextricably tied to the city’s economic recovery. And so do the people he is writing to in order to solicit generous donations to his PAC.

Yet and still, Ross, who is also a major investor in Equinox and has held a fundraiser for former President Trump in 2019, remains a pariah to the media and the enigmatic Deep State. Anyone is who a white, heterosexual businessman will surely be viciously targeted by the media as the ultimate bogeyman. Anyone who supports the growth of business through real estate or in the financial sector will now become cannon fodder in the current political zeitgeist. An unbreakable bond of support exists between such organizations as the Democratic Socialists of America (who unapologetically threw their full throated support behind AOC and ran a list of candidates who did remarkably well in the last election) and the powers that be in government and the fourth estate.

Even though Wall Street has exhorted their employees to choose a party affiliation in order to counteract the colossal strength of the far left in the Democratic party and to tip the balance in the upcoming election, their road to a possible victory will be an arduous one to say the least.

Ross, however, is not alone. James Dolan, the head of Madison Square Garden, has created his own super PAC in order to provide support to moderate, pro-business Democrat. An effort was recently made by venture capitalist, Lisa Blau to persuade Republicans to switch parties so they could vote in the Democratic primary.

While their motives may be laudable, the fact is that Ross and his acolytes can donate hundreds of millions of dollars into the coffers of their preferred candidates, but it won’t make lick of difference.

What stands as impediments to their objectives? Firstly, these developers have dismissed the power of the media by refusing to connect with local media outlets, be they print or electronic. Let’s just remember that political neophyte, Bob Turner, a cable executive from Queens won a congressional seat as a Republican over a decade ago, thanks to the invaluable help of local media such as the Jewish Voice newspaper who consistently propped up his campaign as he battled a well funded opponent.

Their cavalier attitude towards supporting community and ethnic newspapers will be their tragic demise. Also, it is important to remember that these developers have all but ignored the fact that their community outreach is essentially non-existent.

This translates into a ground game that is totally feckless, unless they enlist cadres of volunteers to register voters, to knock on doors, to engage in daily phone banking, to send out snail mail material and thrice a day e-mails explaining their positions on the issues. They also need to have their representatives play a participatory role in local town halls, at houses of worship, schools and community centers.

Without the essential assistance of local media and intensely engaging the diverse communities that make up this city, then any amount of money will not achieve favorable results.

Wake up, Mr. Ross!! Now is the time to take the bull by the horns, to reorganize your priorities and to speak to the people who will cast their votes and ultimately save this city.

Royal Response Fails To End Anger Over Meghan Racism Claims

By
Sholom Schreirber
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(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

(AP) — Buckingham Palace’s statement on Prince Harry and Meghan’s allegations or racism and mistreatment has failed to quiet the controversy, with some observers criticizing the royal family for failing to forcefully condemn racism and suggesting that the couple’s version of events may not be accurate.

“Too little, too late” was the verdict of royal commentator Peter Hunt, who also criticized the palace’s 61-word statement for saying the issue would be dealt with privately as a family matter.

“This delayed, tame statement went for predictability when unpredictability — stepping out of the Windsor comfort zone — was what was needed,” Hunt wrote on the website of the influential British magazine The Spectator.

The statement, issued on behalf the queen, was released 36 hours after Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah Winfrey was broadcast in the United States.

“The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan,” the palace said. “The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.’’

The comments were the palace’s first word since the interview rocked the royal family — and touched off conversations around the world about racism, mental health and even the relationship between Britain and its former colonies.

In the interview, Meghan, who is biracial, described feeling so isolated and miserable inside the royal family that she had suicidal thoughts, yet when she asked for mental health assistance from the palace’s human resources staff, she was told they couldn’t help because she wasn’t a paid employee. She also said Harry told her there were “concerns and conversations” about the color of her baby’s skin when she was pregnant with her son, Archie.

The interview, seen by some 50 million people worldwide, has divided opinions around the world.

Many people have backed Meghan, saying the allegations demonstrate the need for change inside an institution that hasn’t kept pace with the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements. Others stand behind the royal family, criticizing the couple for making their damning allegations at a time when Harry’s 99-year-old grandfather, Prince Philip, remains hospitalized in London after a heart procedure.

Anna Whitelock, director of the Centre for the Study of Modern Monarchy at Royal Holloway, University of London, said the palace’s brief message had “hardened the lines” between people who believe the monarchy is an outdated bastion of inherited white privilege and those who see it as cherished national institution.

Fallout from the interview is likely to only fuel the debate over the future of the monarchy and its role both in Britain and the other countries around the world for which the queen serves as head of state, Whitelock said. The queen remains the head of state for 15 countries, most of which were once part of the British Empire, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and island nations in the Caribbean.

“That’s a debate that’s been held in check, in large part, given the length of the queen’s reign and in respect to her and the role that she’s played,” Whitelock said. “But it’s going to happen, and it’s just a question of when, not if.”

After Harry and Meghan married in May 2018 at Windsor Castle, the royal family seemed to welcome Meghan, a glamorous former TV star, and the couple were seen as providing a fresh young face for the monarchy of an increasingly multicultural nation.

It didn’t take long for the fairytale to unravel. The couple stepped away from royal duties last year and eventually settled in California, saying they wanted to escape racist coverage and unwanted intrusions on their privacy by the British media.

The interview especially struck a chord with many Black people in Britain, some of whom were not satisfied with the palace’s remarks. Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a Black member of Parliament from the opposition Labour Party, said Buckingham Palace should have directly condemned racism.

“The monarchy is a public institution that receives public money and any criticism of the institution should really be met with a forceful response from the institution about what they are going to do,’’ Ribeiro-Addy told the BBC. “We expect (that) of any institution. Why not the monarchy, why not the palace?”

Opinion: Turner Classic Movies surrenders to the woke vampires

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
Vivien Leigh in “Gone with the Wind” (Wikimedia Commons)

By Lou Aguilar, American Spectator

About 15 years ago, my younger brother, George, looked over my DVD collection of classic movies, including Gone with the Wind, The Searchers, and Animal House, and said, “You know, pretty soon you won’t need any of these. You’ll be able to download every one of them off the internet.”

George was proved right technologically, but what he couldn’t predict was that cancel culture would target those films. No one could in 2006. Now I, like many other naïve movie lovers, regret having discarded my hard copies of the titles and am racing to replace them before they get erased.

I recalled that moment last Thursday when watching the premiere of Turner Classic Movies’ (TCM) ill-advised March series “Reframed: Classic Films in the Rearview Mirror” featuring Gone with the Wind (1939), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and Rope (1948).

With the series, TCM hopes to continue its only raison d’être — presenting screen masterworks — yet protect itself from modern woke vampires bloated with fresh blood — Dr. Seuss’s and Mr. Potato Head’s. Other classics to be deconstructed for anti-wokeness include Woman of the Year (1942), Gunga Din (1939), and The Searchers (1956). TCM declares its intent in a ghastly website statement

“Many of the beloved classics that we enjoy on TCM have stood the test of time in several ways, nevertheless when viewed by contemporary standards, certain aspects of these films can be troubling and problematic. This month, we are looking at a collection of such movies and we’ll explore their history, consider their cultural context and discuss how these movies can be reframed so that future generations will keep their legacy alive.”

 

That the announcement is typical progressive drivel becomes obvious in the first sentence. Because “the beloved classics” clearly “have stood the test of time,” the phrase “in several ways” signifies nothing. Neither does “when viewed by contemporary standards,” nor the utterly insipid “certain aspects of these films can be troubling.” Hey, welcome to art, snowflakes. The sentence ends with the ultimate vague yet loaded word, “problematic.”

The second sentence is even more offensive to TCM viewers. The last thing they need is liberal movie hosts explaining the “cultural context” and “refram[ing]” these films to “keep their legacy alive.” They tune into TCM instead of modern cable dreck precisely to escape politically correct propaganda and spend a couple of hours with a story, time, and place they can appreciate, and as a break from their day-to-day labors.

They don’t need to be told that slavery was bad to enjoy Gone with the Wind, or that kidnapping women is an improper way to provide Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. And they just might enjoy how the lumberjack brothers try to gently romance their abductees with song and dance until the women reciprocate, without feminists blaming Stockholm Syndrome.

Yet TCM felt the need to deprive them of these pleasures by throwing its cinematic treasures under the bus, beginning with the first film on the program, Gone with the Wind.

Reframed co-hostess Jacqueline Stewart explained why TCM’s sister network HBO Max had recruited her to make the perennial favorite acceptable: “HBO Max was concerned, like so many organizations, so many media companies, about what it would look like for them presenting a film that so obviously was supporting a kind of white supremacist view. It’s a film that celebrates the Confederacy as this kind of long-lost world of chivalry associated with a fantasy of what the slave system was like in the pre-bellum South.”

Almost everything Stewart said about the film was wrong. The movie does not support a white supremacist view or “a fantasy of the slave system” but accurately reflects the historic tragedy of one race “owning” members of another. As for “a long lost world of chivalry,” the hero of the story, Rhett Butler, harpoons the Confederacy as a fools’ paradise early on (“All we’ve got is cotton, slaves, and arrogance.”) And the South pays a heavy price for its hubris in the same movie. Again, great art cannot be deconstructed to politically correct bullet points.

Helpful or irritating?

When introducing the second film on the program, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Reframed cohost Dave Karger began with the poor salesmanship of dampening customer enthusiasm for the product: “I don’t feel that we’re here to throw shame on any of these movies, particularly one that’s as fun as Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. But I think when you look at a movie through a 2021 point of view, it’s helpful to be just a little bit critical about it and give some context about the time it was made.”

Why it’s helpful instead of irritating, Karger didn’t say. Viewers don’t need him or his colleagues to understand the context about the time this, or any other movie, was made. Karger’s co-hostess, Alicia Malone, unwittingly made that very point.

“When we look at this film, we’re looking at it with a modern lens,” she said. “But we also know that it was created in 1954. During the 1950s, we know there were a lot of messages in movies for women to stay home, to be mothers, to be good wives. And then the film is also set in the 1850s, when of course that was the job of women when men went out to settle the land.” She was right on both counts.

In other words, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers does not need to be reframed. What’s more, a lot of women today agree with that 1950s message about stay-at-home wives and prefer movies that deliver it. For who’s to say the 2021 progressive lens is correct? Maybe years from now, people will look at Reframed and scoff at the hosts’ smug criticism of wiser minds than theirs.

Just maybe John Ford knew what he was doing about racial prejudice when he created Ethan Edwards, an Indian-hating psychopath, and cast John Wayne to play him in The Searchers. And maybe a single scene where Wayne cradles the Comanche-raised Natalie Wood in his arms instead of killing her like he had intended is more powerful than any reframing.

Report: Cuomo groped female aide in governor’s residence

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
(Office of the NY Governor via AP)

(AP) — An aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he groped her in the governor’s residence, a newspaper reported Wednesday, in the most serious allegation made yet by a series of women against the embattled Democrat.

The Times Union of Albany reported that the woman, who it did not name, was alone with Cuomo late last year when he closed the door, reached under her shirt and fondled her. The newspaper’s reporting is based on an unidentified source with direct knowledge of the woman’s accusation. The governor had summoned her to the Executive Mansion in Albany, saying he needed help with his cellphone, the newspaper reported.

“I have never done anything like this,” Cuomo said through a spokesperson Wednesday evening.

“The details of this report are gut-wrenching,” Cuomo said, adding that he would not speak to the specifics of this or any other allegation, given an ongoing investigation overseen by the state attorney general.

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan said in a statement Wednesday night that no criminal complaint had been filed by the alleged victim to the Albany Police Department.

The three-term governor faces harassment allegations from several other women and increasingly urgent calls for his resignation or impeachment from at least some fellow Democrats. Cuomo has repeatedly said he won’t resign.

“He’s openly said he will not resign. And with further mounting allegations that are deeply credible, we are in a position now where I think we should impeach,” said Assembly member Jessica González-Rojas, a Democrat who had previously pushed for his resignation.

The woman whose account was reported by the Times Union said Cuomo had touched her and made flirtatious comments on multiple occasions. According to the newspaper, her allegations came to light as Cuomo staffers watched the governor’s March 3 news conference, his first after a new round of sexual harassment claims made in late February.

In it, he denied ever touching a woman inappropriately. The aide subsequently became emotional, and told a female supervisor who approached her about her encounters with the governor. At least one supervisor reported the allegation to an attorney in the governor’s office Monday, the newspaper reported.

Prior to Wednesday’s report, the allegations against Cuomo include a combination of claims that he made the workplace an uncomfortable place for young women, ranging from flirtatious comments to a nonconsensual kiss.

At least five accusers — Charlotte Bennett, Lindsey Boylan, Ana Liss, Karen Hinton and the latest accuser — worked for the governor in Albany or during his time in President Bill Clinton’s Cabinet. Another, Anna Ruch, told The New York Times that she met Cuomo at a friend’s wedding.

Bennett’s attorney, Debra Katz, said in a statement released Wednesday evening that the latest allegations are “eerily similar” to the former aide’s own story.

 

Bennett, 25, has said she was summoned to the Capitol on a weekend and left alone with Cuomo, who asked her for help with his cellphone. She has said Cuomo asked about her sex life and asked if she would be open to a relationship with an older man. Bennett did not allege that Cuomo tried to grope her.

“The Governor’s sexual harassment, which Charlotte Bennett reported, was buried by his aides and never properly investigated,” Katz’s statement said. “Because of their enablement, another young woman was left in harm’s way.”

Cuomo has denied inappropriately touching anyone, but has said he is sorry if he made anyone uncomfortable and didn’t intend to do so.

State Attorney General Letitia James has put together an investigative team to probe Cuomo’s workplace conduct. The governor has called on lawmakers and the public to await the results of that investigation. Federal investigators are also scrutinizing how his administration handled data concerning COVID-19 outbreaks at nursing homes.

Cuomo has been under fire for weeks, beginning with revelations that his administration withheld details from the public about the pandemic’s death toll among residents in state nursing homes. Scrutiny of the governor — who received accolades during the height of the coronavirus pandemic for leadership that yielded a book deal and calls for a national political career — intensified when former adviser Boylan, 36, reiterated harassment claims made in December, fleshing them out in a late February blog post.

It was unclear how much the latest allegation would further erode Cuomo’s support in the Legislature. While several state legislators from both parties have called for Cuomo’s resignation or impeachment, most had indicated they will wait for the probe’s conclusion.

Assembly member Pat Fahy, who had joined a group of female lawmakers urging New York to wait for the investigation to pass judgment on Cuomo, said she’s now “torn” and plans to decide in the morning whether she’ll call on him to resign.

“I don’t think he’s going to resign,” the Democrat said. “But if all of this is true, If the investigation comes out saying this is credible, these are true, these have merit, I don’t see how he can’t.”

Others who had previously called for Cuomo’s impeachment reiterated their calls for him to go.

“How can we allow this man to lead our state? We must impeach,” Democratic Assemblymember Zohran Kwame Mamdani tweeted Wednesday night.

Republican Assembly member Mike Lawler on Twitter called Cuomo “a sexual predator” who should be charged.

___

Sen reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Michael Hill contributed to this report from Albany.

NBA player uses anti-Semitic slur during livestream

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
Miami Heat forward Meyers Leonard at basket in NBA basketball game, Dec 14, 2019. (AP/Michael Ainsworth)

By Joseph Wolkin, World Israel News

Miami Heat player Meyers Leonard, 29, is coming under fire after using the anti-Semitic “K” word while playing “Call of Duty: Warzone” this week.

“F—–g cowards, don’t f—–g snipe at me you f—–g k— b—-,” Leonard shouted on a live stream via Twitch.

Leonard’s tirade rapidly spread across social media, forcing the Miami Heat and the NBA to take action. On Wednesday morning, the Heat announced Leonard is on leave from the team.

“The words used by Meyers Leonard were wrong and we will not tolerate hateful language from anyone associated with our franchise,” the Heat said in a press release

“To hear it from a Miami Heat player is especially disappointing and hurtful to all those who work here, as well as the larger South Florida, Miami Heat and NBA communities. Meyers Leonard will be away from the team indefinitely. The Miami Heat will cooperate with the NBA while it conducts its investigation.”

When users tried to let Twitch moderators know about Leonard’s use of the anti-Semitic slur, the moderators attempted to silence them, according to Defector.com.

Leonard eventually issued a written apology.

“I am deeply sorry for using an anti-Semitic slur during a livestream yesterday,” Leonard said in the statement.

“While I didn’t know what the word meant at the time, my ignorance about its history and how offensive it is to the Jewish community is absolutely not an excuse and I was just wrong. I am now more aware of its meaning and I am committed to properly seeking out people who can help educate me about this type of hate and how we can fight it.”

“I acknowledge my own mistake and there’s no running from something like this that is so hurtful to someone else,” Leonard added.

“This is not a proper representation of who I am and I want to apologize to the Arisons, my teammates, coaches, front office and everyone associated with the Miami Heat organization, to my family, to our loyal fans, and to others in the Jewish community who I have hurt. I promise to do better and know that my future actions will be more powerful than my use of this word.”

While the NBA said it “unequivocally condemns all forms of hate speech,” no major NBA players came forward to condemn Leonard’s comments.

Julian Edelman, the Jewish NFL wide receiver who plays for the New England Patriots, issued a public letter to Leonard. In the letter, Edelman not only invited Leonard to learn about why his use of the anti-Semitic slur is wrong but to see what a Shabbat dinner is like as well.

“Most likely, you weren’t trying to hurt anyone or even profile Jews in your comment,” Edelman said. “That’s what makes it so destructive. When someone intends to be hateful, it’s usually met with great resistance. Casual ignorance is harder to combat and has greater reach, especially when you command great influence. Hate is like a virus. Even accidentally, it can rapidly spread.”

Cancel Jews culture: Police to probe terror-supporting Arab school in Jerusalem

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
Students at the Refugees Elementary School in eastern Jerusalem. (Facebook/Refugees Elementary School/Screenshot)

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

The Ministry of Education filed a police complaint on Wednesday against an Arab eastern Jerusalem school that held a “Palestinian Martyrs’ Day” celebration, sparking concerns about children being exposed to anti-Israel incitement.

In late January 2021, students at the Wakf-run Refugees Elementary School were asked to prepare memorial presentations for Palestinian terrorists, referred to as martyrs, including songs and poetry.

A Facebook post from the school showed that Baha Aliyan was one of the terrorists commemorated by the students.

Aliyan perpetrated an October 2015 terror attack on a Jerusalem bus that killed three people. He was killed by security forces during the incident.

After learning about the event, Likud MK Amit Halevi sent an open letter to Education Minister Yoav Galant to shut down the school.

The letter, which was also addressed to Public Security Minister Amir Ohana, Shabak head Nadav Argaman, and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, said that the school must be closed in order to prevent future terrorist attacks.

“These examples of educating young children to [support] terrorism and subversion against the state must be aggressively [stopped], since they create a dangerous and violent future that we must interrupt at the beginning,” he wrote, adding that he was shocked that anti-Israel incitement “takes place in broad daylight, in the capital of Israel.”

The complaint filed by Education Minister Yoav Galant asks the police to investigate the school’s principals and teachers for incitement.

“We will not allow an educational institution to incite against the State of Israel and encourage violence,” Galant said in a statement.

“The law applies to every institution [in Israel], even those that are not under the responsibility of the Education Ministry, as in the case of the east Jerusalem Refugees Elementary School.”

The move to file the complaint was welcomed by right-wing NGO Your Jerusalem, which focuses on issues of sovereignty and terrorism in the capital.

“I am glad that the Minister of Education, MK Yoav Gallant, has decided to investigate the incitement at the school in east Jerusalem,” Maor Tzemach, chairman of Your Jerusalem, told WIN.

“Israel must respond resolutely to incitement, school principals and teachers promoting incitement must be prosecuted, and schools, where there is incitement, must be closed.”

‘Malgorithm’: Group claims Instagram promotes conspiracy theories

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0

By Josh Plank, World Israel News

The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) published the findings of a new study Tuesday concluding that Big Tech censorship has not gone far enough and that Facebook-owned Instagram should do more to rein in misinformation.

According to the CCDH report, “Malgorithm,” Instagram’s algorithm has made recommendations to users that include “dangerous misinformation” about Covid-19, vaccines, election results, and conspiracy theories.

“We share the goal of reducing the spread of misinformation, but this research is five months out of date and uses an extremely small sample size of just 104 posts,” Facebook said in response to the report.

“This is in stark contrast to the 12 million pieces of harmful misinformation related to vaccines and Covid-19 we’ve removed from Facebook and Instagram since the start of the pandemic,” the statement said.

Facebook said that it has directed people to government websites more than 10 million times. “We’re also working on improvements to Instagram Search, to make accounts that discourage vaccines harder to find,” the statement said.

 

In one portion of the CCDH study, four volunteers followed 10 Instagram accounts that were said to promote anti-vaccine content. In September and October of last year, the volunteers received 30 recommendations identified by CCDH as containing “misinformation or hatred.”

“Of those 30 recommendations, 19 primarily contained misinformation about Covid, while nine concerned misinformation about vaccines and two promoted elements of the QAnon conspiracy theory. Two of the posts volunteers identified contained anti-Semitic imagery,” the report said.

Of the anti-Semitic images, “The first uses the Israeli flag to imply that Jews control the government, while the second, from a different account, uses the flag to link Israel to mask-wearing.”

The CCDH recommended that Instagram stop suggesting content to users “until it can show that it is no longer promoting dangerous misinformation.”

The organization recommended that Instagram exclude posts about Covid, vaccines, or contentious elections; maintain a blacklist of accounts known to spread misinformation; remove verified status from known anti-vaxxers; and display corrective posts to users exposed to misinformation.

“Should social media companies continue their pattern of negligence, governments must use every power – including new legislation, fines, and criminal prosecutions – to stop the harms being created. Lies cost lives,” said Imran Ahmed, CEO of CCDH.

Ahmed, who was active in Britain’s left-leaning Labour Party before founding the CCDH, is co-author of the book The New Serfdom: The Triumph of Conservative Ideas and How to Defeat Them.

Fauci’s NIH Funded Wuhan Bat-COVID Experiments According to New Book

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0

(TJVNEWS) Washington Post‘s Josh Rogin wrote a new book which the popular blog Zero Hedge described:

The  new book; “Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the Twenty-First Century,” where he offers a 10,000-foot view of the evidence implicating the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, while also confirming that the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) – headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci, “had funded a number of projects that involved WIV scientists, including much of the Wuhan lab’s work with bat coronaviruses.”

The Wuhan Institute of Virology had openly participated in gain-of-function research in partnership with U.S. universities and institutions. But the official told me the U.S. government had evidence that Chinese labs were performing gain-of-function research on a much larger scale than was publicly disclosed, meaning they were taking more risks in more labs than anyone outside China was aware of. This insight, in turn, fed into the lab-accident hypothesis in a new and troubling way. -Josh Rogin book excerpt, section of the book  via Politico

“This was just a peek under a curtain of an entire galaxy of activity, including labs and military labs in Beijing and Wuhan playing around with coronaviruses in ACE2 mice in unsafe labs,” a senior US official told Rogin. “It suggests we are getting a peek at a body of activity that isn’t understood in the West or even has precedent here.”

As a result of China’spattern of deception and obfuscation,’ about their COVID research, some Trump administration officials became increasingly convinced that CCP officials were manipulating scientific data to fit their narrative. The problem, however, is that there was so little transparency from Beijing that it was impossible for US officials to prove whether SARS-CoV-2 came from a Chinese lab or not.

“If there was a smoking gun, the CCP [Communist Party of China] buried it along with anyone who would dare speak up about it,” a US official told Rogin. “We’ll probably never be able to prove it one way or the other, which was Beijing’s goal all along.”

Read the entire excerpt here.

Also of note last April, Josh Rogin revealed(LINK) that in January 2018, the US Embassy in Beijing “took the unusual step of repeatedly sending US science diplomats to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV),” and subsequently sent two official warnings back to Washington about “inadequate safety at the lab.”

Knowing this documented evidence, it is astonishing that the belief that COVID came from the Wuhan lab is still considered a baseless conspiracy theory.

Here is the Amazon description  of this interesting new book from a very credible writer, Josh Rogin

The explosive, behind-the-scenes story of Donald Trump’s high-stakes confrontation with Beijing, from an award-winning Washington Post columnist and peerless observer of the U.S.–China relationship

There was no calm before the storm. Donald Trump’s surprise electoral victory shattered the fragile understanding between Washington and Beijing, putting the most important relationship of the twenty-first century in the hands of a novice who had bitterly attacked China from the campaign trail. Almost as soon as he entered office, Trump brought to a boil the long-simmering rivalry between the two countries, while also striking up a “friendship” with Chinese president Xi Jinping — whose manipulations of his American counterpart would undermine the White House’s already disjointed response to the historic challenge of a rising China. All the while, Trump’s own officials fought to steer U.S. policy from within.

By the time the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in Wuhan, Trump’s love-hate relationship with Xi had sparked a trade war, while Xi’s aggression had pushed the world to the brink of a new Cold War. But their quarrel had also forced a long-overdue reckoning within the United States over China’s audacious foreign-influence operations, horrific human rights abuses, and creeping digital despotism. Ironically, this awakening was one of the biggest foreign-policy victories of Trump’s fractious term in office.

​Filled with shocking revelations drawn from Josh Rogin’s unparalleled access to top U.S. officials from the White House and deep within the country’s foreign policy machine, Chaos Under Heaven reveals an administration at war with itself during perhaps our most urgent hour.

The Streets Of U.S. Cities Descend Into Chaos As Criminals Brazenly Hunt For New Victims In Broad Daylight

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
Not only will 2020 be remembered as the year of coronavirus, but tragically, violent crime has skyrocketed in just about every part of the country.

The thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted on a daily basis is steadily disappearing all around us.  As I write this article, hordes of criminal predators are roaming the streets of major U.S. cities searching for their next victims.  Even when crime rates were high in the 1970s and 1980s, most of the time you would be okay as long as you were inside by nightfall.  But in 2021, criminals are so unconcerned about the police that they are brazenly committing crimes in broad daylight.  When KPIX 5 reporter Don Ford went to do a report on the horrible crime wave that had hit one troubled section of San Francisco, he got robbed too…

On Wednesday afternoon, the smash-and-grabs turned into armed robbery. KPIX 5 reporter Don Ford was on the story Tuesday and again on Wednesday, and was preparing to interview nearby homeowners when a white luxury sedan with four men inside pulled up.

This happened right in the middle of the day.  A vehicle pulled up to where Ford was conducting an interview, three criminals jumped out, and one of them put a Glock right in his face…

“The car came up here while we were about to do an interview, three guys jumped out,” said Ford. “One had a gun and put in my face and said, ‘We’re taking the camera.’”
The whole encounter with a Glock in his face took less than a minute. “My whole thought at the moment was be calm. Let’s not get this guy excited. He’s got the gun. I don’t. So you take you the camera. It’s yours Buddy.”

Since this is a high-profile case, I am sure that the overwhelmed police in San Francisco will “look into” this incident.

But of course, there are thousands of other crimes being committed in San Francisco on a daily basis, and the police are never able to solve most of those either.

Brazen daylight crimes are being committed on the other side of the country as well.  For example, two criminal predators recently attacked a 61-year-old man on a Bronx sidewalk, and video footage shows that bystanders just kept “walking by the entire time”…

Police released a shocking video showing a man being attacked and robbed in the middle of the day on a Bronx sidewalk.  People are seen walking by the entire time.
The NYPD says it happened just before 2 p.m. on Monday on White Plains Rd. in the Wakefield section.

Old people are being targeted because they are easy prey.

In this instance, what the two criminals were really after was cold, hard cash…

Two men walked up to the 61-year-old man and demanded cash.
One of them pushed the victim and knocked him to the ground. The other man stomped on his face. Both men searched the victim’s pockets, punched the victim in the head, and stole $817 before taking off.

As crime rates have soared, New York and other big cities have slashed police budgets.

Needless to say, that has not worked out very well.  Sadly, the truth is that the police do not control the streets of many U.S. cities at this point.

In New York, the spike in crime has been unprecedented.  Just check out these numbers…

New York City in 2020 experienced an unprecedented one-year increase in homicides and shootings. Through December 27, 2020, the number of murders was up 41 percent from 2019 and 53 percent from 2018. Shooting victims were up 103 percent from 2019 and 109 percent from 2018; shooting incidents rose 97 percent and 104 percent. In gang-ridden precincts, the spike was even more startling. In Brooklyn’s Brownsville and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods, there were 170 percent more shooting victims in 2020 than in 2019 and 151 percent more shooting incidents. Murder was up 94 percent in these parts of Brooklyn.

Gangs have such free reign in the streets that they have begun “tagging” thousands of buildings in NYC in order to show their domination of certain areas.

On Wednesday, the NYPD announced a “major clean-up operation” in an attempt to do something about all of the graffiti…

New York City has been blighted by graffiti leaving some areas of the Big Apple ‘looking like war zones’ reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s, leading to a barrage of vandalism complaints.
As part of a major clean-up operation announced on Wednesday, NYPD officers will examine graffiti tags for clues about gang activity in the city after the department said it had received over 6,000 complaints in 2020 alone.

Of course, it is a whole lot easier to spray on graffiti than it is to remove it, and unless the NYPD starts arresting people they are going to be fighting a losing battle.

Unfortunately, prosecutors are going soft on crime all over the nation.  For example, dozens of violent terrorists that have been involved in the rioting, looting and arson in downtown Portland have had their cases completely dismissed…

Federal prosecutors have dismissed more than one-third of cases stemming from last summer’s violent protests in downtown Portland, when protesters clashed with federal agents. KGW reviewed federal court records and found 31 of the 90 protest cases have been dismissed by the U.S. Department of Justice, including a mix of misdemeanor and felony charges.
Some of the most serious charges dropped include four defendants charged with assaulting a federal officer, which is a felony. More than half of the dropped charges were “dismissed with prejudice,” which several former federal prosecutors described as extremely rare. “Dismissed with prejudice” means the case can’t be brought back to court.

I was absolutely stunned when I read that.

Hardly anyone ever gets arrested during the endless violence in Portland anyway, and so it is disheartening to learn that many of those that do actually get arrested end up going free.

And of course most of them will soon be back among the protesters.

As our major cities continue to descend into madness, the mass exodus that we are witnessing out of our major cities is likely to accelerate even more.

We have entered a period of time when civil unrest is going to be a permanent part of our lives, and what we have experienced so far is just the beginning.

As economic conditions continue to deteriorate, our young people are going to become even more frustrated and even more desperate.

As I have always said, desperate people do desperate things, and now horrific crimes are regularly happening in broad daylight all over the country.

 

About the Author: My name is Michael Snyder and my brand new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available on Amazon.com.  In addition to my new book, I have written four others that are available on Amazon.com including The Beginning Of The End, Get Prepared Now, and Living A Life That Really Matters. (#CommissionsEarned)  By purchasing the books you help to support the work that my wife and I are doing, and by giving it to others you help to multiply the impact that we are having on people all over the globe.  I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News

House Passes $1.9T Spending Bill in Biden’s First Signature Win

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
AP

By Eric Mack (NEWSMAX)

The Democrat-led House passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan on Wednesday on the strength of its slim majority, 220-211, setting President Joe Biden up for a signing Friday after his first prime-time address Thursday night.

House and Senate Republicans have unanimously opposed the package, calling it a bloated bill crammed with liberal policies at a time the COVID-19 pandemic is becoming manageable and the economic downturn might be easing. One Democrat voted against the bill, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine.

“This legislation is about giving the backbone of this nation – the essential workers, the working people who built this country, the people who keep this country going – a fighting chance,” Biden said in a statement released shortly after the bill passed the House.

An SSRS Poll released Wednesday found 61% of Americans approve of the bill, however, and many U.S. households will get money after it is signed into law.

The bill provides up to $1,400 in direct payments to many Americans, extends emergency unemployment benefits, and allocates hundreds of billions for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments and to schools, state and local governments, and ailing industries from airlines to concert halls. An eligible family of 4, for example, gets $5,600 in a direct payment, which could come days after Biden’s signature.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at the daily press briefing on Wednesday that Biden plans to travel the country to promote the spending programs before returning to the White House on Friday to officially sign the bill.

The $1.9 trillion in spending amounts to $5,487 per American, Republicans noted during a 2-hour debate that dragged to around 3 hours.

Republicans also argued just 9% of the spending is targeted for COVID-19 relief and a large portion of the $1.9 trillion is deferred, diminishing the Democrats’ argument this relief is immediate and urgently needed.

In addition to massive payments to schools – without forcing them to return to in-person learning, Republicans lamented – included in the bill are expanded tax credits during the next year for children, child care and family leave plus spending for renters, feeding programs and people’s utility bills. Also, there is aid for farmers of color and pension systems, and subsidies for consumers buying health insurance and states expanding Medicaid coverage for lower earners.

“It’s a remarkable, historic, transformative piece of legislation which goes a very long way to crushing the virus and solving our economic crisis,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Tuesday.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, R-Ga., used a procedural tactic to delay the final debate on the bill Wednesday, calling for a vote to adjourn and forcing all 438 members to cast a vote to keep the House in session.

Frustrated members, including 41 Republicans, struck down her motion in a 149-235 vote.

Greene tweeted:

“I just called for a Motion To Adjourn to stop Congress from passing the $1.9 trillion spending bill. The GOP should be fighting to stop it. Unfortunately some Republicans are voting with Democrats to continue business as usual.”

For Biden and Democrats, the bill is essentially a canvas on which they have painted their core beliefs — that government programs can be a benefit, not a bane, to millions of people and that spending huge sums on such efforts can be a cure, not a curse.

They were also empowered by three dynamics: their unfettered control of the White House and Congress, polls showing robust support for Biden’s approach and a moment when most voters, and many politicians on both sides of the aisle, care little that the national debt is soaring toward $22 trillion.

But despite passing its own massive bills during the Trump administration, the GOP used the very expansiveness of the American Rescue Plan as a chief talking point.

“It’s not focused on COVID relief,” No. 2 House GOP leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said. “It’s focused on pushing more of the far-left agenda.”

Republicans noted there is still $1 trillion left unspent from the past bipartisan COVID-19 relief bills passed during Trump’s tenure.

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found last week 70% of Americans back Biden’s response to the virus, including a hefty 44% of Republicans.

Yet the bill’s pathway has underscored Democrats’ challenges as they seek to build a legislative record to persuade voters to keep them running Congress in next year’s midterm elections.

Democrats control the Senate, split 50-50, only because Vice President Kamala Harris gives them the winning vote in tied roll calls. They have just a 10-vote advantage in the House.

Moderates forced tightened eligibility for the $1,400 stimulus checks, now phased out completely for individuals earning at least $80,000 and couples making $160,000 or more. The House’s initial extension of the soon-to-end $400 weekly emergency jobless payments, paid on top of state benefits, was trimmed by the Senate to $300 and will now stop in early September.

Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate West Virginia Democrat, was a leading holdout in the middle of talks that resulted in curbing all of those initiatives. The Senate approved the bill on a party-line 50-49 vote Saturday.

Dropping the minimum-wage boost was “infuriating,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chair of the roughly 100-member Congressional Progressive Caucus. But she called the overall bill “incredibly bold,” adding, “It hits all of our progressive priorities — putting money in people’s pockets, shots in arms, unemployment insurance, child care, schools.”

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

At Chauvin trial, some in jury pool have sharp views on case

By
Sholom Schreirber
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In this image from video, defendant and former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, right, listens as Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill presides over pretrial motions before jury selection Tuesday, March 9, 2021 at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis. Chauvin is charged in the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd. (Court TV, via AP, Pool

(AP) — The long process of jury selection for a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd’s death began Tuesday with three jurors picked and six others in the pool dismissed, including some who said they would not be able to set aside their views on what happened.

One woman who was dismissed said: “I definitely have strong opinions about the case. I think I can try to be impartial — I don’t know that I can promise impartiality.”

The three jurors who were selected — two men and one woman — all said they had heard some details about the case against Derek Chauvin but would be able to put aside what they heard or opinions they had formed and make a decision based on evidence in court. One of the selected jurors said he hadn’t seen the widely-viewed bystander video of Floyd’s arrest at all, while the others described seeing it minimally.

One woman who saw the video said she doesn’t understand why Chauvin didn’t get up when Floyd said he couldn’t breathe.

“That’s not fair because we are humans, you know?” she said. She too was dismissed.

The exchanges between potential jurors, attorneys and the judge illustrate the challenges in seating a jury in such a well-known case. In addition to asking questions about their ability to keep an open mind, attorneys asked about how they resolve conflicts, their views on the criminal justice system, and whether they felt safe serving on the jury. One potential juror expressed anxiety over the divisiveness of the case, while another feared his family could be targeted; both were dismissed.

Cahill set aside at least three weeks for jury selection. Opening statements are scheduled no sooner than March 29.

Chauvin is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death, and jury selection is proceeding despite uncertainty over whether a third-degree murder charge will be added. The state has asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals to stop proceedings until that’s resolved, which could mean a delay of weeks or months.

Floyd was declared dead on May 25 after Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against the Black man’s neck for about nine minutes. Floyd’s death sparked violent protests in Minneapolis and beyond, leading to a nationwide reckoning on race.

Chauvin and three other officers were fired; the others face an August trial on aiding and abetting charges.

 

The first man who was selected to serve on the jury, a chemist who says he works to find facts and thinks analytically, said he has never watched the video of Floyd’s arrest but that he has seen a still image from it. When asked if he could decide the case based on the evidence, he said, “I’d rely on what I hear in court.”

The man, whom prosecutors said identifies as white, said he supports the Black Lives Matter movement but views the organization itself unfavorably. He also has an unfavorable view of the Blue Lives Matter movement. He said everyone should matter the same.

“The whole point of that is that all lives should matter equally, and that should include police,” he said.

The races of the second and third jurors selected were not made clear in court.

A woman who was selected described herself as a “go-with-the-flow” person who could talk with anyone about anything. The woman, who is related to a police officer in greater Minnesota, said she initially had a negative perception of Chauvin because of what she saw in the bystander video, but said she doesn’t know him and could be proven wrong.

“That video just makes you sad,” said the woman. “Nobody wants to see somebody die, whether it was his fault or not.”

She said there could be many reasons why Chauvin would pin Floyd to the ground, and that while she has heard Floyd had drugs in his system when he died, she understands that may not have been a factor in his death.

The third juror selected, an auditor, also told the court he would be open-minded. When asked how he resolves conflicts on teams at work, he said: “We use more facts over emotions in those cases.”

Chauvin’s attorney, Eric Nelson, exercised two of his 15 peremptory challenges on potential jurors who identify as Hispanic, which led prosecutors to object that the jurors were being rejected because of their race. Cahill disagreed, noting that the second Hispanic juror to be dismissed had martial arts experience and referred to Chauvin’s restraint as an “illegal” move. The judge also said that man made it clear he would stick to his opinions until someone told him otherwise, improperly shifting the burden of proof to the defense.

Cahill ruled on several pretrial motions Tuesday, setting parameters for trial testimony. Among them, Cahill said jurors will hear when Chauvin stopped working for the police department, but not that he was fired or that the city made a “substantial offer” to settle a lawsuit from Floyd’s family. Those details won’t be allowed because they could imply guilt, Cahill said.

Minneapolis City Attorney Jim Rowader said the city made an offer to the Floyd family last summer that was rejected. He didn’t provide details. A message left with an attorney for the Floyd family hasn’t been returned.

Cahill also ruled that a firefighter, who can be heard in the bystander video urging the officers to check Floyd’s pulse, will be allowed to testify about what she saw and whether she thought medical intervention was needed. But she won’t be allowed to speculate that she could have saved Floyd if she had intervened. Testimony about what training Chauvin received will be allowed.

Mainstream Media Fails to Provide TV Coverage of 6th Cuomo Accuser

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
In this April 18, 2020 photo provided by the Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, Gov. Cuomo provides a coronavirus update during a press conference in the Red Room at the State Capitol in Albany. (Mike Groll/Office of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo via AP)

After a sixth woman accused New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment, many media outlets chose to avoid mentioning the new developments in their on-air news coverage Tuesday night, Fox News notes.

The Albany Times Union broke the news of the sixth accusation Tuesday afternoon. The woman, an unnamed member of Cuomo’s staff, alleged that the Democrat governor touched her inappropriately last year at the Executive Mansion. The woman did not file a formal complaint with the governor’s office, but other Executive Chamber employees reported her allegations to the governor’s counsel.

Cuomo claimed to be unaware of the new accusation during his daily news briefing Tuesday, which took place an hour after the report was published.

“As I said last week, this is very simple, I never touched anyone inappropriately,” he said. “I never made any inappropriate advances … no one ever told me at the time that I made them feel uncomfortable. Obviously, there are people who said after the fact they felt uncomfortable.”

Fox News covered the new allegation later Tuesday, but anchors on CNN, including Jake Tapper and Wolf Blitzer, and MSNBC, such as Rachel Maddow, failed to mention the development as controversies over sexual harassment and nursing home deaths continue to expand. Maddow, Grabien transcripts show, has not mentioned Cuomo over the past 10 weeks despite the growing scandals, Fox News notes.

ABC, CBS, and NBC also failed to mention the new sexual misconduct accusation hours after the claims were brought to light.

CNN, in particular, has faced scrutiny over its past coverage of Cuomo by his younger brother, Chris Cuomo, a CNN anchor who hosts “Cuomo Prime Time.” As the governor withheld the true number of COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes in New York, critics say his brother treated him with kid gloves and avoided the controversy, instead choosing to focus on trivial topics and joke around.

The five other women who have made accusations against Cuomo are Lindsey Boylan, Charlotte Bennett, Anna Ruch, Karen Hinton, and Ana Liss.

Boylan, 36, a former aide to the governor, accused him of “sexual harassment and bullying” during the time she worked for him, and Bennett, 25, another former aide, said Cuomo asked her questions about her sex life and whether she had sex with older men.

Ruch, 33, accused Cuomo of putting his hands on her lower back and asking to kiss her at a wedding in 2019, and Hinton, who was formerly a press aide for the governor, said he asked her to his hotel room after a work event in 2000. And Liss, a former police and operations aide, alleged that Cuomo once asked if she had a boyfriend and touched her lower back at a reception.

The New York governor on Monday said he would not step down over recent allegations of sexual harassment, despite prominent Democrats, including state Senate Majority Leader Andrew Stewart-Cousins, calling for him to do so.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is currently leading investigations into the sexual harassment and nursing home death toll scandals, and Cuomo is calling for others to wait for the investigation to be completed before passing judgment.  (NEWSMAX)

Swiss People Vote for ‘Burqa Ban’ in National Referendum

By
Sholom Schreirber
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A poster supporting the initiative 'Yes to a ban on covering the face' is displayed at the village Buochs, Switzerland, Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021. At a time when seemingly everyone in Europe is wearing masks to battle COVID-19, the Swiss go to the polls Sunday March 7, 2021, to vote on a long-laid proposal to ban face-coverings like niqabs and burqas worn by some Muslim women or by protesters in ski masks or bandannas. (UrsFlueeler/Keystone via AP)

(AP) – Swiss voters narrowly approved a proposal to ban face coverings, both the niqabs and burqas worn by a few Muslim women in the country and the ski masks and bandannas used by protesters.

The measure will outlaw covering one’s face in public places like restaurants, sports stadiums, public transport or simply walking in the street. It foresees exceptions at religious sites and for security or health reasons, such as face masks people are wearing now to protect against COVID-19, as well as for traditional Carnival celebrations. Authorities have two years to draw up detailed legislation.

Two Swiss cantons, or states, Ticino and St. Gallen, already have similar legislation that foresees fines for transgressions. National legislation will put Switzerland in line with countries such as Belgium and France that have already enacted similar measures.

The Swiss government had opposed the measure as excessive, arguing that full-face coverings are a “marginal phenomenon.” It argued that the ban could harm tourism – most Muslim women who wear such veils in Switzerland are visitors from well-heeled Persian Gulf states, who are often drawn to Swiss lakeside cities.

Experts estimate that at most a few dozen Muslim women wear full-face coverings in the country of 8.5 million people.

Supporters of the proposal, which came to a vote five years after it was launched, argued that the full-face coverings symbolize the repression of women and said the measure is needed to uphold a basic principle that faces should be shown in a free society like Switzerland’s.

In the end, 51.2 per cent of voters supported the plan. There were majorities against it in six of Switzerland’s 26 cantons – among them those that include the country’s three biggest cities, Zurich, Geneva, and Basel, and the capital, Bern. SRF public television reported that voters in several popular tourist destinations including Interlaken, Lucerne and Zermatt rejected it.

Backers included the nationalist Swiss People’s Party, which is the strongest in parliament. The committee that launched the proposal is led by a lawmaker from the party, Walter Wobmann, and also initiated a ban on the construction of new minarets that voters approved in 2009.

A coalition of left-leaning parties that opposes the proposal put up signs ahead of the referendum that read: “Absurd. Useless. Islamophobic.”

Wobmann told SRF that the initiative addressed both “a symbol of a completely different system of values … extremely radical Islam” and security against “hooligans.” He said that “this has nothing to do with symbolic politics.”

Voters had their say on two other issues Sunday. They clearly rejected a proposed voluntary “e-ID” to improve the security of online transactions – an idea that ran afoul of privacy advocates, as it would have been issued by private companies – and narrowly approved a free-trade deal with Indonesia.

THE WEAPONIZATION OF THE TERM “FAR RIGHT”

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
AP

Shane J. Coules

Economist Thomas Sowell once said that the word ‘racism’ is like ketchup: it can be put on practically anything. Today, since Robin DiAngelo et al have decided that all white people are racist, it could be argued that the word has lost some of its power; if we’re all racist, then calling us just that isn’t particularly effective. And if we’re all unconsciously racist, perhaps we’re all victims, and thus should be the target of sympathy, not anger. Or not: Ms. DiAngelo’s and her anti-racist disciples’ claptrap has been brilliantly taken apart by the esteemed linguist and author John McWhorter.

But the term far-right hasn’t been watered down nearly as much as the ‘r’ word. And when most people hear far-right, they likely think of Nazi flags, white supremacists, ultranationalists, etc. So, if you are eager to wound an individual’s or a group’s reputation, the term is most certainly a useful one.

Indeed, like its close cousin – the neologism ‘alt right’ – far-right has become an effective tool for those in the media and politics, used to discredit and smear people who they consider a threat, or with whom they merely disagree. A recent example of this is the anti-lockdown protests that took place in Dublin, Ireland on February 27, 2021.

Dublin Drama

Reports have varied, but anywhere from 400 to 4,000 people took to the streets of Dublin to demonstrate against what have been considered the most draconian lockdowns in Europe. This third Irish lockdown has been enforced since late December and may last until June. When one reckless individual at the protest decided to point fireworks at the Irish police (An Garda Síochána, or ‘the Guards’), unfortunately, further violence broke out. Predictably, the ugly scenes that followed dominated the news headlines, rather than the core issue: people protesting against their de facto mass incarceration, and the collateral damage caused by continual lockdowns.

Papers pounced, using loaded language like “anti-lockdown protesters stormed Dublin city centre.” One elected Irish official referred to the protest as a ‘riot’. And the always-effective smear would soon be utilized, too. Extra.ie proclaimed “far right thugs attacked frontline Gardai policing an illegal protest.” The Irish Mirror declared “far right anti-lockdown protesters thronged the city flouting Covid-19 restrictions.”

How reporters managed to sit down with protesters and learn about their respective political leanings is not only incredibly admirable – it is journalism of the highest standard. Of course, these journalists did no such thing. Were some of those in attendance right wing? Yes. That a) doesn’t necessarily make them far right, and b) doesn’t warrant labelling the protest a ‘far-right demonstration’ like some Irish politicians have. A significant number of Irish citizens decided to stand up and speak out against what is widely considered a cruel lockdown. That doesn’t make all of them extremists. Quite the opposite: it is likely that many are desperate and feel that protesting is their only option.

Interestingly, in videos posted online, Irish Republican flags can also be seen among the crowds in attendance. Irish Republicans tend to lean left on the political compass, and often describe themselves as socialists, in keeping with the political leanings of the leaders of the Easter Rising. The likely reality is that the people protesting came from different political backgrounds, and many – if not most – were probably apolitical, like the majority of people tend to be. By using the term far-right to describe the march, reporters and politicians are smearing the ordinary, non-violent people who have genuine concerns about the latest level-5 lockdown: a 5km travel limit, no guests on private or rented property, no family gatherings in any setting, the forced long-term closure of “non-essential” businesses, and fines and/or jail time for some who break the rules.

“Far Right” as an Ad-Hominen

No matter how rational or cogent one’s arguments are, the term formerly reserved for fascists and neo-Nazis will always be on standby, ready to be used by the writer or politician taking aim. Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson – a man who has lectured on fascist and socialist totalitarianism – has been referred to by critics as “a far-right boogeyman riding the wave of a misogynistic backlash.”

YouTube has given a platform to progressive, socialist, communist, anarchist, conservative, classically liberal, libertarian, and centrist voices. But according to an academic paper released last year, most YouTubers are far right. The Southern Poverty Law Centre has painted Sam Harris – a self-described liberal – as “a gateway to the alt (far) right.” Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro has recently been called a “far right gadfly” by the ‘youth culture’ magazine Uproxx. For those who don’t know, Mr. Shapiro is Jewish; Jews and neo-Nazis tend not to get on very well. But that doesn’t really matter, because according to Wikipedia – with its approximately 46 million articles accessed by 1.4 billion unique devices every month – far-right politics includes ideologies or organizations “that feature aspects of chauvinist, xenophobic, theocratic, racist, homophobic, transphobic, or reactionary views.” Good luck finding widespread agreement on what constitutes each of those terms. In any case, with such a wide net, it shouldn’t be difficult to lump people and groups under the undesirable umbrella.

Given how the term far right is beginning to be spread like ketchup, perhaps it will soon lose its effectiveness in smearing individuals and groups. But as the above example of the Dublin anti-lockdown protest shows, it is still a useful weapon used by the media and political establishment; tarnish aspects of a protest as far right, and you essentially tarnish the entire protest – one that was reasonably justifiable.

The sooner all of us smell the BS, the better; with such broad, divisive, and potentially damaging terms used so liberally against individuals and groups, rational dialogue between people who disagree may become even more of a rarity.

Families Who Lost Seniors in NY Nursing Homes Want Cuomo to Pay

By
Sholom Schreirber
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0
Governor Cuomo is questioned for finding the time to write a book during the height of a global health crisis at a rally for grieving families of nursing home COVID-19 victims outside the Cobble Hill Health Center in Brooklyn last October. (AP)

By Eric Mack(NEWSMAX)

Family members of New York seniors who died of COVID-19 are calling for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to donate the proceeds from the book he wrote touting his pandemic response.

“The best-case scenario is the profits go to a fund for the grieving families,” Daniel Arbeeny told Fox News. “There should be a fund set up.”

Arbeeny said his 89-year-old father died because the coronavirus was introduced into his nursing home. Cuomo mandated that long-term care facilities take in COVID-19 patients, despite early intelligence saying the elderly were the most vulnerable to severe cases.

Amid the public’s economic and medical travails, Cuomo wrote a book on his response: “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

“On Page 334, Cuomo writes that New York was No. 46 out of 50 in the nation when it comes to a percentage of deaths in nursing homes; that’s an absolute lie,” Peter Arbeeny, the brother, told Fox News. “He insulted my family, he insulted my intelligence, he insulted the entire city by coming out with a book. That was my call to action.”

The book deal was for a tidy seven-figure sum, according to Vanity Fair, which called it a “blockbuster” amount.

“Losing, in New York State, 15,000 of our most vulnerable and cherished residents, family members, we need a memorial, and that should go to fund the memorial,” Daniel Arbeeny told Fox News.

“A book publisher paid him seven figures and that was all based on a lie. So his pandemic response caused the deaths of thousands of nursing home patients that don’t have a voice.”

In the face of a federal investigation into Cuomo’s administration amid reports of a cover-up of death totals from long-term care facilities, Crown Publishing Group said it has “paused active support” for the book, according to Fox News.

“I think it would be nice if the money was donated for a fund for families that are dealing with hardship,” Grace Colucci told Fox News, “not necessarily just grieving families.”

Colucci’s father, 89, died of COVID-19 in a New York nursing home last spring.

“A lot of families in New York City have lost their livelihoods,” Colucci told Fox News. “I actually lost my job last week. They had to lay a number of people off because of the difficulties – they’re struggling with COVID.”

Colucci said Cuomo’s book “should be moved to the fiction section,” calling for an investigation into his administration’s culpability and negligence.

“Especially when the only thing that was known from the beginning was that COVID was more dangerous to the elderly and the immune-deficient,” she told Fox News. “Do I think he deserved a seven-figure book deal? Not on the basis of what the book’s about.”

Sales of Cuomo’s book have fallen since the reports of his administration’s alleged cover-up; the price was dropped from $30 to $18 on Amazon, according to the report.

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