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NY sees $1.6 Billion less in tax revenue from real estate deals

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By Hellen Zaboulani

Data revealing 2020’s real estate deals is ready, and it does not paint a pretty picture.

The year end totals show there were roughly $47.1 billion worth of residential and investment sales in New York in 2020, down 46% compared with 2019, according to a report from the Real Estate Board of New York. Friday’s report shows that the sales brought in an estimated $2.7 billion in tax revenue for the city and state, a 36 percent drop from the year before. That means the decline in real estate sales cost the city and state a combined decline of $1.6 billion in tax revenue, during the pandemic. “With this full scope of real estate activity in 2020, we can fully see the devastating economic impact the Covid pandemic has had on New York,” REBNY President James Whelan said in a statement. “Our city and state are in dire need for the new federal administration to step in with a stimulus package—including state and local aid, rent relief and unemployment benefits—that addresses our economy and helps all New Yorkers out of this crisis.”

As per Crain’s NY, the report divulges that there were a total of 28,187 investment and residential sales in 2020, down 39 percent from the year before. This made the city about $1.9 billion in tax revenue, and brought the state about $786 million in tax revenue for the state, down 38% and 32%, respectively.

There were a total of 2,579 investment sale transactions in 2020, down 20% from the previous year. As per the report, the Investment sales were worth some $21.4 billion and brought in roughly $1.4 billion in taxes last year, down 48% from 2019. In the residential market, activity was also slow, with 25,608 deals made worth roughly $25.7 billion, which brought in roughly $1.3 billion in tax revenue.

A decline in prices also led to the depressed figures in residential sales for the city. Even though in Brooklyn and Queens median sales prices reached record highs during the fourth quarter, in Manhattan median sales prices fell by 4.5 percent quarter over quarter, as per reports from Douglas Elliman. “Because of prices that are lower,” Douglas Elliman CEO Dottie Herman said, “we’re seeing some young people now who were not able to afford the city be able to come in.”

Hawaiian-Jewish Surfing Star Makua Rothman Sets Record for Riding the Tallest Wave

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AP

By: TJVNews.com

Hawaiian-Jewish surfing star Makua Rothman may have successfully ridden the largest recorded wave in the history of the sport, estimated to be at least 100 feet tall, according to a JTA report.

It was on January 16th, now known as Super Swell Saturday, when Rothman, 36,  the Oahu North Shore native was where he definitely wanted to be. The veteran surfer was riding the biggest waves of an epic 2020-21 winter season in Maui with his fellow big-wave surfers, Rothman mastered the ride on “Jaws” – better known as the Himalayan waves of Peahi.

Rothman posted video of the achievement from last Saturday on his YouTube page on Wednesday. Among those riding the gargantuan waves with Rothman were such legendary pros as Ian Walsh, Garrett McNamara, Kai Lenny and Billy Kemper. It was reported, however, that Rothman rode a monster of a wave that some estimated at 100 feet and was the biggest wave ever ridden in Hawaii. Suffice it to say that the surfing world and major media outlets were stunned by this phenomenal accomplishment after a video aired on TMZ.

It appears that Rothman broke his own personal record which he set when he was only 18. At that time, he successfully rode the 66-foot Peahi wave and won the XXL Awards in 2002.

In the days that followed his record riding wave 10 days ago, Rothman said, “I didn’t actually know how big it was when I was riding it, but I could tell it was a special wave, it felt different. Those waves, they create their own wind, their own ecosystem, they have things that aren’t on the normal-size wave: bumps as big as cars on their face.”

JTA reported that Rothman has a Jewish father and a Hawaiian mother and hails from Kahuku, Hawaii. Judaism was not a significant part of his life as a child, but he told the San Diego Jewish World in 2009 that he was drawing closer to the faith.

“God is the ocean. God is the air. God is the sun … Every time I’m out there I give thanks,” he said, according to the JTA report.

Rothman is considered one of the best surfers in the world and started to ride waves when he was only two years old, according to the JTA report. In addition to his passion for surfing, Rothman is also musically inclined and as a professional has toured with Jewish beat box star Mattisyahu as well as Bob Marley’s former backing band, known as The Wailers, as was reported by JTA.

Moreover, JTA reported that Rothman is also friends with an early Jewish pioneer of the sport, Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz. It was he who helped popularize it in Israel. Paskowitz brought a young Rothman to Israel for a surfing event that brought Jewish and Arab Israelis together on the waves, as was reported by JTA.

 

 

Tishman Speyer tower at Hudson Yards set to reach Milestone

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Tishman Speyer’.com

By Hadassa Kalatizadeh
The Spiral, Tishman Speyer’s 1,041-foot-tall Tower at Hudson Yards, will top off on Tuesday. The $3.7 billion, 66-story skyscraper, beribboned with cascading, landscaped terraces and hanging gardens will reach milestone heights. The supertall building’s design not only makes the building stand out, but also provides tenants on each floor with outdoor terrace space. As reported by the NY Post, CEO Rob Speyer, who has been heading the development, says the even better accomplishment is having Pfizer Inc signed as an office tenant. “Pfizer’s team are the true heroes of COVID,” Speyer said. “We couldn’t be prouder.
The pharmaceutical giant which churned out a COVID-19 vaccine in record time, signed on back in the summer of 2018, taking on a lease for 800,000 square feet. “We were proud when we first signed the lease with them,” he said. “Now we’re over the moon.” Pfizer is currently occupying a few older buildings in the East 40s, and plans to consolidate its offices when the Spiral is ready.

The Spiral boasts a total of roughly 2.85 million square feet, which is slated to open in the spring of 2022. The tower at 66 Hudson Blvd encompasses the entire block bounded by 10th Avenue and the Hudson Boulevard, and by West 34th and 35th streets. Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group architects, the tower will have spiraling rings of greenery, which will give the supertall glass tower a soft garden look.

In 2018, after Pfizer signed on right before ground breaking, two other large tenants signed on, namely Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and AllianceBernstein. Those three sign-ons together brought the Spiral to just over 50 percent leased. Filling up the rest of the building might prove difficult now that the pandemic has devastated the commercial real estate market.
Last week, Speyer voiced confidence though, in an interview with The Post. “We’re over 50 percent leased, and we have more than a year and a half to deliver,” he said. “We have several conversations going with companies that are broadly representative of the city’s commerce.” Speyer said they have not lowered the asking rents but indicated they would be open to negotiating a “fair deal for everyone.” “Remember, many companies have delayed [real-estate] decisions pending the resolution of the pandemic.” said Speyer. “That naturally creates pent-up demand.” Speyer expressed hope that by September, if the virus can be contained, there can be a strong increase in leasing volume.

Saks Fifth Avenue May Try to Spin Off Dot-Com Business with IPO

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By Benyamin Davidsons

Saks Fifth Avenue, the iconic retailer, may be trying to spin off its dot-com business with a possible initial public offering this year.

The luxury department store chain, owned by Toronto-based Hudson’s Bay Co., left the Toronto Stock Exchange in March to become a privately held company. As reported by the NY Post, now the company management has readied information for investors to consider in preparation for an IPO for Saks.com. The efforts are in their “early days,” a source told the Post.

Such an endeavour would separate the 40 Saks Fifth Avenue retail stores from the company’s $1 billion digital business, at a time when the online business has been booming with people staying home due to the pandemic. While brick and mortar stores, in general, have suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic, sales at Saks.com have increased by “double digits.”

“People were buying things in the height of the pandemic that there was no absolute functional end use for, but they love the fashion,” said Saks Fifth Avenue Chief Executive Marc Metrick. “I think what we learned is [consumers] view luxury as the comfort food of retail. … It was their way to feel — it was something so much more and so much deeper than a pair of shoes.” “Why else would you buy 110-millimeter pumps … from a from a luxury brand, when you’re working at home and on Zoom all day?” Metrick added. “You do it because you love fashion, and it’s your Oreo cookie. It’s your — something that’s going to make you feel better.”

HBC executive chairman Richard Baker, who owns a majority stake Saks Fifth Avenue, has spoken about a spinoff of Saks.com since 2017. HBC also owns 106 Saks Off Fifth stores. “Saks.com significant value,” said retail consultant Gerald Storch, who is a former CEO of HBC. “But pulling off such an IPO is quite difficult and unprecedented.”

An exclusive agreement would still keep the separated entities tied together, if the IPO goes through, reported Women’s Wear Daily. A spinoff would still present difficulties for the company to provide incentives “for the sales staff to treat sales at the stores and the Internet the same,” and determining the commission pricing on those sales, Storch said. He also added that Saks chief executive Metrick would be the most probable candidate to run the dot-com company, if it were to go public.
HBC declined to comment to the Post.

Have covid, will travel: Israeli reporter discovers fake negative corona test results for sale

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By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

An investigation by Kan News Sunday has revealed that a fake negative Covid-19 test result is just a few clicks away on your phone or computer, and cheap at that.

Finding a bot on Telegram called “Corona test results,” the reporter sent a false name, date of birth, passport and ID numbers, and paid a £ 25 fee (about 110 shekels) to a bitcoin wallet. A fake clearance arrived just a few minutes later, supposedly from Poriyah Hospital in Tiberias. A receipt duly followed from a company called Elastic-fantastic.

Many countries now require that people entering their borders need to have proof dated within 72 hours of travel that they are not infected by the coronavirus. The demand for this basic level of protection has led criminal minds to figure out how to profit off those who need to travel, don’t like waiting in line or for results that can take a day to arrive, or, in the worst case scenario, may be positive for the disease.

The Israeli police arrested four people in September on suspicion of running a similar operation, but that may only be the tip of the iceberg. A Kan investigator found someone to put together a fake test result, in this case for a fictitious Israeli returning from Dubai.

In that case, the counterfeiter said that he would need a real corona certificate in order to do a mock-up.

It was an even simpler task if the traveler was ill, with a positive test in hand, she was told.

“That’s the easiest,” the criminal told the reporter. “Send me the form and I’ll change it to be negative… As it is, this test is as reliable as sh**.”

When she expressed nervousness about the fake form passing muster in the airport, he told her that the airport authorities “wouldn’t check the form because you are an Israeli citizen.”

Former senior police investigator Dr. Susie Ben Baruch told Kan News that once the special “green passports” allowing people to travel because they have had the vaccine become commonplace, a way must be found to detect counterfeits.

“We have to sit down immediately and solve the problem of how this green passport will contain some kind of sign to show that it’s fake or real, like there are in our banknotes, like we have in our ID cards,” she said.

DeBlasio, Stringer & Trustees Announce Estimated $4B Divestment from Fossil Fuels

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The mayor and the comptroller. (Photo: NYC Mayor’s Office)

Edited by: TJVNews.com

Mayor Bill de Blasio, Comptroller Scott M. Stringer, along with trustees of two of the City’s pension funds, on Monday announced these funds have voted to divest their portfolios of estimated $4 billion from securities related to fossil fuel companies.

The divestment, expected to be one of the largest in the world, will address the significant financial and environmental risks that these fossil fuel holdings pose to the funds and to our planet.  In 2018, New York City became the first major city in the nation to commit to divesting major public pension funds from fossil fuel reserve companies. Since the initial announcement hundreds of other institutions, governments, and entities have joined this commitment. The City also partnered with C40 and London to engage other cities to pursue fossil fuel divestment.

 

“Fossil fuels are not only bad for our planet and our frontline communities, they are a bad investment,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Our first-in-the-nation divestment is literally putting money where our mouth is when it comes to climate change. Divestment is a bold investment in our children and grandchildren, and our planet. I applaud the trustees, advocates and experts for their hard work, and I look forward to seeing more cities around the world join this call for change.”

 

“Climate change is the fight of our lives, and we must face it head on with everything we’ve got – for our planet, for our children, and for our retirees,” said New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer. “Since we announced our first-in-the-nation divestment goal, the urgent environmental and financial risks of climate change have only grown more clear. New York City is leading the way forward because we know the future is on the side of clean energy – not big polluters. I’m proud of the trustees, advocates and investment experts who worked with us to ensure a fiscally prudent and environmentally responsible divestment process and a greener future for generations to come.”

 

The New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS) and New York City Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) voted to approve divestments today and the New York City Board of Education Retirement System (BERS) is expected to move forward on a divestment vote imminently. Securities were identified based on demonstrated risk from fossil fuel reserves and business activity, and the trustees will continue to evaluate risk in their portfolios to determine additional actions as warranted. The names of companies and the final scope of the divestment will be released following the sale of all targeted securities, which will be completed in a prudent manner to achieve best execution. The divestment is expected to be complete within the original five year timeline. The announcement by the Mayor, Comptroller, and Trustees follows an extensive and thorough fiduciary process to prudently assess the portfolio’s exposure to fossil fuel stranded asset risk and industry decline and other financial risks stemming from climate change.

 

In January 2018, the trustees announced a goal to divest from fossil fuel reserve owners within five years, consistent with fiduciary duty. The Systems retained independent investment consultants who conducted investment analyses showing the risks posed by fossil fuel companies and the prudent nature of the divestment actions adopted by the Boards.

 

In September 2018, the Mayor and Comptroller also jointly announced a goal of doubling the pension funds’ investments in climate solutions from 1% to 2%, or about $4 billion within 3 years. Climate solutions include renewable energy, climate infrastructure, green real estate, and other investments that will help achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. The City is on track to achieve this goal.

 

Henry Garrido, Executive Director, District Council 37, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, said, “As NYCERS Trustee and Executive Director of District Council 37, New York City’s largest municipal union, I am proud to vote today with Mayor de Blasio, Comptroller Stringer, and my fellow NYCERS Trustees in support of divestiture from fossil fuel stocks.  District Council 37 has been an integral part of a very careful, thorough and deliberate process to identify the most prudent path to move NYCERS away from fossil fuel holdings, and invest in clean, renewable energy and the new technologies that we must embrace for our future.  Our goal throughout was to proceed in a manner that protected NYCERS’ assets and the retirement security of our many thousands of members.  NYCERS voted today to embrace the future and a better life for us all.”

 

Teamsters Local 237 President Gregory Floyd said, “After careful study and consideration of the NYCERS Board’s recent draft proposal concerning divestment of fossil fuels from the NYCERS portfolio. We at Teamsters Local 237 have concluded that, under the current proposal, we can confidently support a vote to divest from fossil fuel holdings in the NYCERS portfolio, and most importantly do so without an adverse effect on the pension fund.”

 

UFT President Michael Mulgrew said, “The world economy and our pension investments need to focus on the future, while fossil fuels are the energy sources of the past.  After extensive study and consultation with outside experts, the TRS Board has determined that the best strategy for our members will be to divest in the next three years more than $1.5 billion — the majority — of our fossil fuel holdings, and to do so in a way that will protect the financial strength of the overall fund.”

 

Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams said, “With today’s NYCERS vote, we are at last achieving the goal set forward to divest from fossil fuel owners and advance a new commitment to green energy solutions. We have a responsibility in New York to pursue sustainable futures for both our pensions and our planet, and together with my appointee to the Board, I am proud to take this step for financial and environmental health and responsibility.”

 

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said, “I’m proud to cast my vote for a more sustainable portfolio and a healthier planet. Divesting from fossil fuels is a move that has been a long time coming, and it is a reflection of our pension trustees’ collective commitment to environmental responsibility.”

 

Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, Jr. said, “Climate change continues to impact us all, but that means New York City continues to be a leader in protecting our environment. Today’s vote adopting a plan to fully divest from fossil fuel companies is a step in the right direction. This is a smart long-term investment strategy on behalf of pension members, and hopefully other cities follow suit. I thank Mayor de Blasio and Comptroller Stringer for their work and the pension funds for their commitment and contribution to making the five boroughs greener.”

 

“Divesting from fossil fuels and investing in climate solutions will accelerate our economic recovery by creating good-paying jobs in clean energy, resilient infrastructure, and environmental justice,” said Daniel Zarrilli, New York City’s Chief Climate Policy Advisor. “Three years ago, New York City took the bold step of committing to divest itself from fossil fuels. After a rigorous process, today’s vote to approve the divestment plan represents real global leadership that will spur other cities and investors to step up to stop funding the cause of our climate crisis.  Congratulations to the pension trustees for taking this bold and necessary action. This is how we secure a livable climate for the next generation and end the age of fossil fuels for good.”

 

Comptroller Stringer serves as the investment advisor to, and custodian and a trustee of, the New York City Pension Funds.

 

In addition to Comptroller Stringer, the participating New York City Pension Funds’ trustees are:

 

New York City Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS): New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer; Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Representative, John Adler (Chair); New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams; Borough Presidents: Gale Brewer (Manhattan), Donovan Richards (Queens), Eric Adams (Brooklyn), James Oddo (Staten Island), and Ruben Diaz, Jr. (Bronx); Henry Garrido, Executive Director, District Council 37, AFSCME; Tony Utano, President Transport Workers Union Local 100; Gregory Floyd, President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 237.

 

Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS): New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer; Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Appointee, John Adler; Chancellor’s Representative, Lindsey Oates, New York City Department of Education; Natalie Green Giles; and Debra Penny (Chair), Thomas Brown and David Kazansky, all of the United Federation of Teachers.

 

 

America’s ‘Great Purge’ (and Israel)

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By Caroline Glick

 U.S. President Joe Biden and the small crowd assembled on the Washington Mall for his inauguration on Wednesday celebrated the event as “democracy’s day.” But in truth, the state of democracy in America today is nothing to celebrate.

The talking heads on TV, Democrats and a smattering of anti-Trump Republicans insist that the fault for all of America’s political woes lies with former president Donald Trump and the senators and congressmen who joined him in questioning the results of the election in several swing states. For refusing to set aside evidence of widespread election fraud, they stand accused of inciting an insurrection and so endangering the foundations of American democracy.

Trump was impeached for his statements at the Jan. 6 rally, and Democrat lawmakers are calling for senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley to be expelled from the Senate for questioning the electoral college votes from states with widespread allegations of election fraud.

The accusers forget conveniently that Democrat leaders from Nancy Pelosi to Hillary Clinton have insisted since November 2016 that Trump’s electoral victory was “illegitimate” and that the job of good Americans was to “resist” his “regime.” They forget as well that Democrat lawmakers objected to the certification of the electoral college ballots in 2016. And when their objections failed to overturn the election results, a protest broke out in the visitors’ gallery of the Capitol. Several protesters were arrested.

No one in the media or in the coastal elite ever accused Pelosi and Clinton of inciting an insurrection, even as hundreds of thousands of protesters filled the streets demanding that Trump be overthrown.

Republicans still unafraid of being called domestic terrorists and insurrectionists insist that if the violent protesters in the Capitol on Jan. 6 were insurrectionists, their “insurrection” was but a pale glimmer of the insurrection mounted in the streets of America’s cities throughout the spring and summer, with the enthusiastic support and financial backing of Democrat leaders and their corporate sponsors. Seven hundred police officers were injured, dozens of citizens were killed and tens of thousands of businesses were destroyed and vandalized during the Antifa and BlackLivesMatter riots. Property damage and losses were assessed at $2 billion. Government buildings were besieged, burned to the ground and vandalized.

The truth is that both Democrats and Republicans are wrong. Politicians from all sides and at all levels of government have long questioned election results. And no matter how strident their rejection of the results may have been, their actions never undermined America’s democratic foundations.

Likewise, America has been the site of mass protests since before the Revolution. The right to protest is considered so sacred that it is protected in the First Amendment to the Constitution. There are laws governing where the line between protests and lawbreaking lies. And policing protests is as American as the protests themselves. Protests do not threaten American democracy.

The great danger to American democracy is not to be found in the streets. It is certainly not to be found in politicians debating how votes were counted and collected.

The grave danger to American democracy emanates from the unprecedented fusion between the Democratic Party and corporate America. Political philosopher Angelo Codevilla referred to this unity of forces as a ruling “oligarchy” that is replacing the American Republic.

The emerging “oligarchy” is currently enacting something that can rightly be dubbed “The Great Purge.”

The Great Purge, an event without precedent in American history, isn’t about one side seizing the levers of power. It is about one side denying the other side the right to even vie for power.

The purpose of purge is not to replace Trump loyalists with Biden loyalists in positions of power. Such replacement happens as a matter of course every time a new administration comes into office. The purpose of the purge is to “cancel” the Republican Party and its voters as a legitimate political force and so transform the United States into something approaching a one-party system. To achieve this goal, the Democrats in government and their partners in the corporate and big tech media are using their power to repress, silence, ruin and criminalize tens of millions of private citizens for the “crime” of supporting Trump and the Republican Party.

The Big Tech giants’ coordinated cancellation of all of Trump’s social media accounts almost simultaneously was the opening gambit. It was rapidly followed by Congress’s light-speed impeachment of Trump for his alleged role in fomenting the violent protest at the Capitol. Like the social media ban, the impeachment flew through with no debate, no due process and no evidence, through the good offices of Democrat lawmakers and their Republican allies who wish to make an example out of Trump. There is every reason to believe that in the coming months and years, the members of the ruling class will continue to abuse their power to destroy Trump, whether by bankrupting him or prosecuting him. They must continue to pursue him. For if he perseveres, then they will have failed.

At some point in the near future, Trump will face a Senate trial. As he left the White House on Wednesday morning, Trump had yet to secure legal counsel for the trial. The reason he has no lawyers doesn’t owe to a sudden shortage of good defense attorneys in Washington. It owes to fear of the purge. Qualified lawyers are afraid to represent him.

And they should be.

Cleta Mitchell has long been a fixture in Washington legal circles. A senior partner at the Foley and Lardner law firm, Mitchell was a member of Trump’s legal team in his electoral challenges in Georgia. When word got out that she was representing him, Democrat operatives from the Lincoln Project began threatening her firm with a client walkout.

The day after the Lincoln Project began threatening the firm’s business, Mitchell announced her resignation. Within an hour of her announcement, all mention of Mitchell was scrubbed from the firm’s website. One of Washington’s top attorneys had been “cancelled.”

Weeks before, the Lincoln Project did the same thing to two other law firms whose partners were representing Trump’s legal challenges to the Pennsylvania election results. The attorneys saved themselves from immediate cancellation by immediately cancelling their representation of the president of the United States.

Since Jan. 6, petitions of lawyers and law students demanding that senators Cruz and Hawley be disbarred for lawfully challenging the electoral college votes of disputed states have garnered thousands of signatures. Harvard students are demanding the university withdraw the degrees of Trump advisers and political allies.

Regular Americans who participated in the protests—outside and inside the Capitol—are also being purged. Doctors, lawyers, state lawmakers, policemen and others whose only “crime” was being present have lost their jobs after being “outed.”

Therese Duke, a nurse’s assistant from Massachusetts, was one of those “purged.” Duke participated in a protest on Jan. 5—the night before the Capitol siege—at Freedom Plaza in Washington. She was videoed as she wept, with blood flowing down her face after being punched by a policewoman. Duke’s daughter, a member of the “woke” revolution, outed her mother in a leering post on Twitter. The next day, Duke was fired from her job at University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Care. She told a local newspaper that she doesn’t believe she will be able to get another job.

As bad as things are becoming in the private sector, the smoke signals being sent out of Washington are even more alarming. Since Jan. 6, Democrat lawmakers have been preparing legislation that would apply counter-terror laws passed to fight foreign terror groups abroad to investigating and fighting Americans suspected of membership in “domestic terror groups.” Former military, law enforcement and intelligence leaders are pushing for such a move.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan, spent the past year campaigning against Trump. Last week McChrystal told Yahoo News, “I see a similar dynamic in the evolution of al-Qaeda in Iraq, where a whole generation of angry Arab youth with very poor prospects followed a powerful leader who promised to take them back in time to a better place, and he led them to embrace an ideology that justified their violence. This is now happening in America.”

Former CIA director John Brennan then detailed who the enemy is. Aside from Trump and “lawmakers,” Brennan said the new enemy comprises “an unholy alliance of religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, nativists and even libertarians.”

Former FBI director James Comey made the goal of the purge explicit. “The Republican Party needs to be burned down or changed,” he told The Guardian.

He figures people would be happy to go along with that.

“Who would want to be part of an organization that at its core is built on lies and racism and know-nothingism? It’s just not a healthy political organization,” he said.

Unfortunately for Israelis, this isn’t just America’s problem. Thanks to New Hope Party chairman Gideon Sa’ar, Israel is now importing some of the instigators of the purge. Sa’ar has reportedly hired four founders of the Lincoln Project to run his campaign against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud ahead of the March elections.

The Lincoln Project is run by former Republicans who have devoted the last four years of their lives to helping Democrats by demonizing Trump, Republicans and Republican voters. Their efforts met with negligible success in the 2020 elections. Trump increased his vote total by 11 million over 2016.

Trump didn’t lose because Republicans stopped supporting him. He lost because the Democrats massively increased their voter base. The Lincoln Project’s performance was so dismal that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez demanded that it give its outstanding funds—raised from Democrat donors—to Democrat organs that had actually won the election.

But since its election failure, the Lincoln Project has come into its own. When Ocasio-Cortez said Democrats should make a database of Trump administration officials to prepare a blacklist, she was pilloried as a totalitarian. But when the “former Republicans” from the Lincoln Project said they were compiling such a list, it went over without protest. And ever since, the Lincoln Project has led the way in blacklisting and cancelling everyone from Trump’s attorneys to hotels and vacation websites that served Trump supporters who came to Washington on Jan. 6. It is now calling for the firing of everyone from a county election board chairwoman in Georgia to Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

For four years, Israelis have gasped at the similarities between the Israeli left’s unrelenting efforts to destroy Netanyahu, in partnership with the media and the legal fraternity, and the efforts of their American counterparts to destroy Trump.

Sa’ar decision to integrate the instigators of America’s great purge—a purge that is already endangering the democratic order of the most powerful democracy on earth—into Israel’s political bloodstream bodes ill for Israel’s future. And it most certainly tells us something alarming about the direction Sa’ar is interested in taking the country, if his campaign to become the next prime minister succeeds.

Caroline Glick is an award-winning columnist and author of “The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East.

This article first appeared in Israel Hayom

ABC News Panelist Panelist Matthew Dowd Compares End of Trump Presidency To End Of Nazi Germany

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(TJVNEWS.COM) Mainstream media talking heads are not ready to stop defaming and slandering former President Trump. The latest unhinged punditry came from ABC’s Matthew Dowd


ABC News directly compared the end of President Trump’s term in office to the end of fascism in Nazi Germany after World War Two and suggested that Joe Biden’s administration is akin to the government that formed in Japan after imperial rule there was overturned.

Panelist Matthew Dowd made the comparison, also throwing in apartheid South Africa for good measure.

Dowd suggested that “other countries have gone through this before, Germany, Japan, South Africa, and the thing before you get to reconciliation and healing, you have some element of truth and accountability in this.”

“And even besides those foreign country examples, we have an example in our country during reconstruction in the aftermath of the Civil War when we went through — we were supposed to go through a process of truth and accountability and changing the nature of what went on,” he said.

Apollo CEO Leon Black Steps Down Over $150 Million Payment To Epstein

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screen shot

Mary Margaret Olohan(DCNF)

Apollo Global Management Inc.’s CEO Leon Black will step down after an independent review exposed Black’s massive payments to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The months-long review deemed the payments justified, though they were larger than authorities expected, the Wall Street Journal reported. Conducted by Dechert LLP, the review also did not find any evidence that Black had been involved in Epstein’s criminal activities, according to the WSJ.

“In short, there is no question that Epstein performed substantive work for Black and that Black genuinely believed that Epstein was extremely smart, capable, and saved him substantial amounts of money,” the report said, according to the WSJ.

Epstein died of apparent suicide in a federal jail in New York City in August 2019 after he was arrested the previous summer.

Black had paid Epstein over $150 million for advice on both trust and estate tax planning, the WSJ reported, numbers that are much more than was previously reported.

The Apollo CEO pledged to donate $200 million of his family’s wealth to women’s initiatives, according to the publication, and will step down on or before his 70th birthday in late July. He will retain his role as chairman.

The move comes after a number of institutions said they would pause their investments with Apollo after the New York Times reported that Black had paid Epstein at least $50 million — prompting Black to call for a review of his relationship with the convicted sex offender, the WSJ reported.

Black’s last payment to Epstein was in April 2017, according to the publication. Their relationship reportedly deteriorated after a fee dispute in 2016.

“It is important to emphasize that both Apollo and I condemn Mr. Epstein’s reprehensible conduct in the strongest possible terms, and, as I have previously stated, I deeply regret having had any involvement with Mr. Epstein,” Black wrote in a letter to Apollo’s fund investors.

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Joe Biden Issues Travel Ban on South Africa; Reinstates Europe, Brazil Bans

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EU press image

JOHN BINDER

President Joe Biden has issued a travel ban on South Africa, stopping most immigration to the United States from the country, and reinstated bans on Europe and Brazil to slow the spread of the Chinese coronavirus.

Biden, who once referred to President Trump’s travel ban on China as “hysterical xenophobic,” has issued a travel ban on South Africa as variants of the coronavirus spread in the country. Likewise, Biden has reinstated travel bans on Europe and Brazil, which Trump had ended after lobbying from the U.S. airline industry.

The bans will halt most immigration from South Africa, Europe, and Brazil, the order states [emphasis added]:

I have determined that it is in the interests of the United States to take action to restrict and suspend the entry into the United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, of noncitizens of the United States (“noncitizens”) who were physically present within the Schengen Area, the United Kingdom (excluding overseas territories outside of Europe), the Republic of Ireland, the Federative Republic of Brazil, and the Republic of South Africa during the 14-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States.
Based on developments with respect to the variants and the continued spread of the disease, CDC has reexamined its policies on international travel and, after reviewing the public health situations within the Schengen Area, the United Kingdom (excluding overseas territories outside of Europe), the Republic of Ireland, the Federative Republic of Brazil, and the Republic of South Africa, has concluded that continued and further measures are required to protect the public health from travelers entering the United States from those jurisdictions.

The bans are in addition to those already in place on Iran and China, which experts said have immensely helped to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The World Health Organization (W.H.O.), reports revealed, sought to stop experts from recommending travel bans.

In a press conference on Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended the Biden administration’s travel bans after previously suggesting Trump’s orders were rooted in xenophobia and racism.

“He also, though, has supported — and he himself, even before, or we did, I should say, even before he was inaugurated, steps, travel restrictions, in order to keep the American people safe to ensure that we are getting the pandemic under control,” Psaki said.

“That’s been part of his policy. But he was critical of the former president for having a policy that was not more comprehensive than travel restrictions,” Psaki continued. And he conveyed at the time, and more recently, the importance of having a multifaceted approach … not just travel restrictions.”

Breitbart

Alan Dershowitz: I’d Defend Giuliani to ‘Depths of My Being’

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UNITED STATES - NOVEMBER 19: Rudolph Giuliani, attorney for President Donald Trump, conducts a news conference at the Republican National Committee, on lawsuits regarding the outcome of the 2020 presidential election on Thursday, November 19, 2020. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

By Eric Mack(NEWSMAX)

The hunt to cancel anything and anyone tied to the Trump administration is modern-day McCarthyism, particularly when it applies to efforts to disbar lawyer Rudy Giuliani, according constitutional legal expert Alan Dershowitz.

“It’s McCarthyism: I grew up during McCarthyism when the lawyers were being disbarred for representing clients that people didn’t like,” Dershowitz told Sunday’s “The Cats Roundtable” WABC 770 AM-N.Y. “Rudy is a lawyer, and that’s what he supposed to do. And if his client says, ‘challenge the election,’ he challenges the election.

“If you don’t agree with his analysis, answer it in the court of public opinion, but don’t disbar him.”

There is a political double standard at play here, Dershowitz added to host John Catsimatidis.

“Are we going to disbar Adam Schiff?” he asked. “Adam Schiff got on the floor of the Senate and the House and lied through his teeth about a range of things, including Russian collusion, and including me.”

It is an assault not just on free speech and the legal profession, but the Constitution itself, Dershowitz continued.

“When we start going after lawyers who are representing clients, we’re really undercutting the Constitution,” Dershowitz said. “I hope the bar association thinks differently about it.

“If it doesn’t, I will help Rudy. I will help defend him. I will be a witness for him. I’ve known Rudy for 45 years. We disagree about almost everything. And yet, I would defend him to the depths of my being for being a lawyer.”

Dershowitz, author of “Cancel Culture: The Latest Attack on Free Speech and Due Process,” fears the censorship is a slippery slope that endangers Americans’ civil liberties.

“I think we’re going through a terrible, terrible time with freedom of speech,” he concluded. “And I think the social media are not doing the right thing by censoring.”

CNN’s Jim Acosta: Conservative News “Represent Existential Threat To This Country”

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(TJVNEWS.COM) CNN correspondent Jim Acosta melted down Sunday over Donald Trump and exploding conservative media, calling them an “existential threat” to America.

“I do think what this country faces right now, and, you know I describe it as the disinformation industrial complex,” Acosta said.

“And that is, you know, Trump and his people, conservative outlets like Fox News, and then conservative websites and organizations aligned with the president and conservative platforms.”

“These three pillars of this disinformation industrial complex essentially help put Trump in power, kept him in power, sustained his grip on the Republican Party, and it remains a threat to our democracy,” the activist correspondent continued. “It is the reason why hundreds of Trump supporters storming the Capitol on January 6th.”

Acosta then called for more censorship against his competition and other organizations with views he doesn’t agree with.

“And until that poison, that toxin is drained from the national political discourse in this country, I do think that these forces represent a potentially existential threat to this country,” he concluded.

Lawmakers Want NYC Nursing Homes to Serve as Vaccine Hubs

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FILE - In this April 17, 2020, file photo, emergency medical workers arrive at Cobble Hill Health Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York. New York state is now reporting more than 1,700 previously undisclosed deaths at nursing homes and adult care facilities as the state faces scrutiny over how it’s protected vulnerable residents during the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

By: Ilana Siyance

 

Elderly citizens are having trouble finding an appointment for the potentially life-saving Covid-19 immunization.

 

As reported by the NY Post, a  group of 27 City Council members are pushing the city to utilize senior centers as vaccination hubs for the elderly.  On Friday, the bi-partisan group of lawmakers penned a letter to Mayor de Blasio,  urging the use of the hundreds of NYC senior centers as hubs for COVID-19 inoculation.  “Senior centers are already a trusted lifeline for many elderly New Yorkers, providing them with social interaction and information,” says the letter, written by Queens Democrat Robert Holden.

 

Scores of NYC seniors, who are eligible for the shot, say they can’t find an appointment for the COVID-19 vaccine, and complained about the online sign up process.  “I am computer savvy, but there’s people my age that have no clue about getting online and making an appointment. All these people are being left out,” said Frank Rodgers, 71, of Staten Island.

 

Lawmakers say the nursing homes should be able to take their own appointments and administer the vaccines to local elders, rather than directing seniors to jump over multiple obstacles online or by phone.  “While many seniors do not necessarily have access to the Internet, they are in frequent contact with their local center,” the councilmembers’ letter says.  “This would allow the centers to communicate with seniors very effectively and arrange appointments for them to receive the lifesaving vaccine in a familiar, comfortable environment.”

 

Seniors seeking assistance getting an appointment for the Covid-19 vaccine can reach a group of volunteers who can help by calling 501-510-0251 or emailing  [email protected].  Tech savvy Good Samaritans can also call the number to join as a volunteer in the effort to get eldery residents appointments.

 

In the meantime, a Queens nursing home withheld the vaccine from its own rehab patients.  Councilman Holden says his 96-year-old mother was sent to Dry Harbor Nursing Home in Middle Village, some four months ago to recover from a fall. He says his mom has since tested positive there for the Coronavirus.  Some 43 other residents there also tested positive for COVID-19 since Dec. 22.  Before Christmas, the nursing facility chose to only vaccinate its long-term residents, but not patients admitted for short-term care following discharge from hospitals.

 

“It doesn’t make any sense to leave patients out. They’re just as vulnerable as permanent residents,” Holden told The Post. “It’s in the best interest of the nursing home to vaccinate everyone so there’s not a spread.”  Holden said there was no evidence that the nursing-home lacked enough doses to  vaccinate everyone at the 360-bed facility.

 

UAE approves new embassy in Tel Aviv

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UAE cabinet meeting, Jan. 24, 2012. (WAM Emirates News Agency)
By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

The government of the United Arab Emirates on Sunday approved a decision to establish an embassy in Tel Aviv.

The move comes after the two countries signed the historic Abraham Accords at the White House in September followed by ratifying full diplomatic ties in October.

“The Council of Ministers approves … the establishment of the UAE embassy in Tel Aviv in the State of Israel,” the UAE tweeted on its official government account.

During an official visit to Israel in November, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani announced the opening of embassies in each other’s countries.

The two Gulf Arab nations will join Egypt and Jordan, two of Israel’s immediate neighbors that established embassies in Tel Aviv following their own peace treaties with the Jewish State.

After the signing of the the Abraham Accords, Sudan announced the establishment of ties with Israel, and last month Morocco decided to established formal relations. Informal ties that existed for decades between Morocco and Israel were broken off by Rabat in 2000. An estimated quarter of Israel’s 9.3 million population are Moroccan Jews or their descendants, and many senior Israeli government members hail from the northwestern African nation.

Since inking the Abraham Accords, Israel and the UAE have been involved in a whirlwind of economic and diplomatic moves to cement the relations and fire up trade. Those deals include a $3 billion regional development fund, an agreement worth up to $150 for Israeli trade fairs being held in Dubai, and Israeli acquiescence to an American deal to sell $35 billion in advanced weaponry to the Gulf nation.

On Sunday, in another move to cement ties, Israel’s postal service began service to the UAE, making it possible to send and receive letters and parcels. Other Arab states in the region still do not accept mail to or from Israel.

“The relationship that is being forged between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and the connection between the postal administrations, will make it possible to strengthen trade ties between the two countries,” said Danny Goldstein, CEO of Israel Post.

NYC Neighborhood Fighting to Save Site Connected with Underground Railroad

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- A two story house at Riverside Drive and 159th Street has become a matter of controversy. The site has preliminary city approval for demolition of the structure, and to build a 13-story, 46-unit condo building. Photo Credit: Berenice Abbott/ NYPL

By Hellen Zaboulani

A two story house at Riverside Drive and 159th Street has become a matter of controversy.  The site has preliminary city approval for demolition of the structure, and to build a 13-story, 46-unit condo building.

As reported by the NY Post, preservationists, historians, local politicians and neighbors are opposed, saying that the site may have once been a stop on New York’s Underground Railroad.  The now run-down building was once home to abolitionist and sugar refinery magnate, Dennis Harris, and he may have utilized the site to help bounty-hunted southern slaves to steamboat their way to freedom.    The groups are fighting to save the site from the wrecking ball, and then hope to have it restored  to its original, Italianate elegance from the mid-1850s.

“It’s beyond frustrating because you feel the history when you stand there,” Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer told The Post. “You can feel these abolitionists who really did try to get slaves freed. You can feel it. And the idea of tearing it down for a 13-story building that means nothing is heart-wrenching,” she said.

The local community board and the Upper Riverside Residents Alliance have lobbied City Hall and enlisted historians to document the building’s significance.

Brewer, along with State Sen. Robert Jackson, Assemblyman Al Taylor and Council Member Mark Levine, say they will keep lobbying the city and Landmarks Commission to preserve the property.  The problem is that most of the time, in order for a place to be landmarked, it needs to look like that which is being preserved.  Last month, the commission rejected the pleas, saying that the building now looks nothing like it did 170 years ago, when Harris lived there.   “Staff review of 857 Riverside Drive determined that it does not appear to retain the integrity necessary for consideration as an individual landmark due to the extensive modifications that have been made to the house and its architectural details,” commission chair Sarah Carroll wrote on Dec. 28.

“Dennis Harris, who built the house, was an abolitionist of the caliber of John Brown. It’s unlikely that if he used his other properties that he didn’t use this one,” said Harlem historian and preservationist Michael Henry Adams.  “Well, creating luxury housing for rich white people and almost no affordable housing doesn’t cut it,” he added.

New building owner Sigmund Freund and developer Michael Petrokansky did not immediately return requests for comment from The Post.

 

Bklyn’s Hipster Crowd Gets Pushed Out by Increase in Luxury Developments

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Photo Credit: Wikipedia.com

By Hadassa Kalatizadeh

 

Brooklyn’s Williamsburg once had hamlets that allowed a hip younger generation to enjoy their own lot of paradise.  In 2019, Maria Rivera-Diaz, a 31-year old lawyer and student moved from Atlanta to NY, searching for someplace “cool and artsy” to call home, she told the NY Post.   East Williamsburg, a neighborhood that was for decades known for its creative class culture, seemed to answer the calling for her and other millennials.  “[I wanted] a less densely populated area with a younger crowd, a more hipster vibe and more divey bars,” Rivera-Diaz said.   She found a new home on the western corner of Metropolitan Avenue near the Grand Avenue L train stop, in a neighborhood far from the East River.

 

Her side of Brooklyn was once larger with many edgy Bohemian perks, thrift shops and dive bars.  Now, it seems to some, as though the Big Apple is spreading out and swallowing her neighborhood too.  The affordable hip homes are being replaced by billion-dollar developments and luxury apartment towers with posh amenities. To accommodate the new upscale residents, the waterfront streets and being filled by banks and big-name franchises.

 

With the onset of the pandemic, many have been leaving Manhattan in search for a less crowded place to live with more outdoor space.  This has led to more Williamsburg developments, and milennials now feel like they are being crowded out.  “The mall-ification of Williamsburg with massive towers and huge buildings, a lot of people didn’t come to Brooklyn for that,” said Molly Franklin, a Corcoran realtor with experience in the neighborhood. “The creative class started moving south and east.”

 

As reported by the NY Post, new and pre-development boutique condo buildings are popping up left and right — including at 175 Jackson, 52 Maspeth and 83 Humboldt.  The asking prices range from $650,000 to $1.9 million, no longer budget-friendly for hip youngsters.  The median ask in East Williamsburg is now $1.12 million, getting close to the $1.3 ask in Williamsburg.  New rental buildings have recently risen up in the area too, including the 116-unit building at 222 Johnson by Bushwick Avenue, and the 35-unit Milo at 885 Grand in East Williamsburg.  The median asking rent in East Williamsburg is now about $2,800, edging closer to the $3,000 ask in traditional Williamsburg, as per StreetEasy.