46.3 F
New York
Thursday, April 18, 2024
type here...
Home Blog Page 1617

Trump rejects Dems’ request to testify at impeachment trial

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

(AP) — House Democrats on Thursday asked Donald Trump to testify under oath for his Senate impeachment trial, challenging him to respond to their charge that he incited a violent mob to storm the Capitol. A Trump adviser said the former president won’t testify.

Although Democrats might not have the power to force Trump’s testimony, the request from House impeachment managers is part of their overall effort to put the violent events of Jan. 6 on the record for history and hold him accountable for his words. Democrats will look to use his refusal to testify against him as they argue that the ex-president has avoided responsibility for his actions.

Hours after the Democrats’ request was revealed, Trump adviser Jason Miller dismissed the trial as “an unconstitutional proceeding” and said the former president would not testify. Separately, Trump’s lawyers denounced the request as a “public relations stunt.”

 

The impeachment trial starts Feb. 9. Trump, the first president to be impeached twice, is charged with inciting an insurrection on Jan. 6, when a mob of his supporters broke into the Capitol to interrupt the electoral vote count. Five people died. Before the riot, Trump had told his supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn his election defeat.

Democrats have said a trial is necessary to provide a final measure of accountability for the attack. If Trump is convicted, the Senate could hold a second vote to disqualify him from seeking office again.

In the letter to the former president and his attorneys, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, one of the impeachment managers, asked that Trump explain why he and his team have disputed key factual allegations at the center of their case. He asked that Trump provide testimony about his conduct “either before or during the Senate impeachment trial,” and under cross-examination, as early as Monday, Feb. 8, and not later than Thursday, Feb. 11.

The request from Raskin cites the words of Trump’s own attorneys, who in a legal brief earlier this week not only denied that Trump had incited the riot but also asserted that he had “performed admirably in his role as president, at all times doing what he thought was in the best interests of the American people.”

 

With that argument, Raskin said, Trump had questioned critical facts in the case “notwithstanding the clear and overwhelming evidence of your constitutional offense.” He said Trump should be able to testify now that he is no longer president.

Trump attorneys Bruce Castor and David Schoen responded hours later that the letter proves that Democrats “cannot prove your allegations” and that an impeachment trial is too serious “to try to play these games.”

 

The back-and-forth continued Thursday evening when Raskin said Trump’s refusal to testify “speaks volumes and plainly establishes an adverse inference supporting his guilt.”

“Any official accused of inciting armed violence against the government of the United States should welcome the chance to testify openly and honestly — that is, if the official had a defense,” he said in a statement.

Defense lawyers, and many Senate Republicans, have argued that the trial is unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office, even though he was impeached while he was still president. In a test vote in the Senate last week, 45 Republicans voted for an effort to dismiss the trial on those grounds.

Democrats say the Republicans are arguing process because they can’t defend the former president’s actions, and they point to the many legal scholars who have said the trial is on firm constitutional ground.

Raskin said in the letter that if Trump refuses to appear, the managers will use his refusal against him in the trial — a similar argument put forth by House Democrats in last year’s impeachment trial, when many Trump officials ignored subpoenas. Trump was eventually acquitted of two charges that he abused his presidential powers by pressuring the Ukrainian government to investigate now-President Joe Biden.

The impeachment managers do not have the authority to subpoena witnesses now since the House has already voted to impeach him. The Senate could vote to subpoena Trump, or any other witnesses, on a simple majority vote during the trial. On Thursday, senators in both parties made it clear they would be reluctant to do so.

Shortly after Raskin’s letter was made public, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said it would be a “terrible idea” for Trump to testify. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Trump’s statements before and after the attack on the Capitol “are the most powerful evidence. His own words incriminate him. They show his guilty intent.”

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s closest GOP allies, said he thought the letter was a “political ploy” and noted that Democrats didn’t invite or subpoena Trump to testify before the House voted to impeach him on Jan. 13.

Asked if he thinks Trump will testify, Graham said it would be a “bad idea.”

“I don’t think that would be in anybody’s interest,” he said.

___

Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.

FOUNDER OF $90 MILLION CRYPTOCURRENCY HEDGE FUND CHARGED WITH SECURITIES FRAUD AND PLEADS GUILTY IN FEDERAL COURT

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
AP

Audrey Strauss, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Peter C. Fitzhugh, Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), announced that STEFAN HE QIN, the founder of the Virgil Sigma Fund LP (“Virgil Sigma”) and the VQR Multistrategy Fund LP (“VQR”), a pair of cryptocurrency hedge funds in New York, New York, with over $100 million in investments, was charged with one count of securities fraud and pled guilty today in Manhattan federal court.  For years, QIN stole investor money from Virgil Sigma and, in December 2020, QIN tried to steal investor money from VQR to pay back his investors in Virgil Sigma.  QIN pled guilty today before United States District Judge Valerie Caproni.

 

U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said:  “Stefan He Qin drained almost all of the assets from the $90 million cryptocurrency fund he owned, stealing investors’ money, spending it on indulgences and speculative personal investments, and lying to investors about the performance of the fund and what he had done with their money.  Then, as he further admitted today, Qin attempted to steal money from another fund he controlled to meet redemption demands of the defrauded investors in the former fund.  The whole house of cards has been revealed, and Qin now awaits sentencing for his brazen thievery.”

 

HSI Special Agent in Charge Peter C. Fitzhugh said:  “Virgil Sigma and VQR, two multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency investment funds, were revealed to be slush funds for Qin to live his extravagant lifestyle.  Qin orchestrated this reprehensible criminal scheme for many years, making misrepresentations and false promises that coaxed investors into pouring millions of dollars into fraudulent cryptocurrency firms, all the while stealing the hard-earned money of his investors.  Furthermore, Qin mastered the art of trickery by representing these firms as profitable investment strategies so more victims fell to his tactics and were defrauded of nearly $100 million.  The HSI New York El Dorado Task Force, with our incredible law enforcement partnerships, are committed to aggressively pursue fraud in all forms, regardless of how elaborate and profitable these schemes appear.  In today’s technological world, there are increasingly more opportunities for fraudsters to take advantage of people, and with Qin pleading guilty to his deceitful acts, HSI and our partners remind those who attempt to defraud victims in any manner, your fraud will be uncovered and you will be brought to justice.”

 

According to the Information and statements made in open court:

 

Background

 

STEFAN HE QIN is a 24-year-old Australian national.  Between 2017 through 2020, QIN owned and controlled two cryptocurrency investment funds, Virgil Sigma and VQR, both of which were located in New York, New York.  Since its creation, Virgil Sigma purported to employ a strategy to earn profits from arbitrage opportunities in the cryptocurrency market, specifically, by using a trading algorithm to take advantage of price differences for a number of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and others, in approximately 40 different exchanges around the world, including three exchanges located in the United States.  This strategy was touted by QIN to the investing public as “market-neutral,” meaning the fund was not exposed to any risk from the price of cryptocurrency moving up or down and therefore provided a relatively safe and liquid investment.  QIN exercised day-to-day control over Virgil Sigma and was responsible for tracking the fund’s balances at different trading exchanges, designing the algorithms to implement arbitrage trading, and preparing monthly investor statements.  QIN also regularly participated in calls with Virgil Sigma investors and other forms of public communication where he touted the growth and success of Virgil Sigma.  Until recently, Virgil Sigma purported to have over $90 million under management from dozens of investors, including many in the United States.  According to its public marketing materials, Virgil Sigma has been profitable in every month from August 2016 to the present, with the sole exception of March 2017.

 

In or about February 2020, QIN founded VQR.  VQR employed a variety of trading strategies and was poised to make or lose money based on the fluctuations in the value of cryptocurrency and was not market neutral.  QIN was the sole owner of VQR’s general partner, but was not involved in VQR’s day-to-day operations.  Instead, VQR had its own trading staff, including a head trader (the “Head Trader”) and other investment professionals.  Until recently, VQR had at least approximately $24 million under management from investors.

 

Qin’s Scheme to Steal Assets from Virgil Sigma

 

Since 2017, QIN engaged in a scheme to steal assets from Virgil Sigma and defraud its investors.  Rather than investing the fund’s assets in a cryptocurrency arbitrage trading strategy as advertised, QIN embezzled investor capital from Virgil Sigma and used the funds for purposes other than the purported arbitrage trading strategy, including: (a) using a substantial portion of investor capital stolen from Virgil Sigma to pay for personal expenses such as food, services, and rent for a penthouse apartment in New York, New York; (b) using a substantial portion of investor capital from Virgil Sigma to make personal, often illiquid, investments in other entities that had nothing to do with cryptocurrencies (for example, in or about October 2018, QIN invested hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen from Virgil Sigma in a real estate investment); and (c) using a substantial portion of investor capital from Virgil Sigma to invest in crypto-assets that had nothing to do with the fund’s stated arbitrage strategy (or example, in or about 2018, QIN invested funds from Virgil Sigma in certain initial coin offerings, a speculative form of investing in new issues of cryptocurrency).  As a result of these and other fraudulent activities, QIN dissipated nearly all of the investor capital in Virgil Sigma.

 

In the course of stealing assets from Virgil Sigma, QIN regularly lied to the fund’s investors about the value, location, and status of their investment capital.  These lies included an array of investor and public communications, including:

 

(a) QIN prepared and disseminated monthly statements to investors purporting to record the value of their holdings in Virgil Sigma.  The amounts recorded in these statements did not accurately reflect the results of cryptocurrency trading.  Instead, the amounts were made up by QIN and did not disclose the dissipation of assets by QIN.

 

(b) QIN also periodically prepared marketing materials for the investing public, including summary reports known as “tear sheets” that fraudulently reported that Virgil Sigma was earning remarkable profits, often with double-digit returns in a single month, month after month.  For example, in or about February and in or about April 2017, QIN falsely reported that Virgil Sigma had earned 48.7% and 35.5% returns, respectively.

 

(c) On an annual basis, QIN prepared spreadsheets that purported to show Virgil Sigma’s balances at the approximately 40 exchanges where Virgil Sigma purportedly traded in order to prepare tax forms for the fund’s investors, also known as schedule K-1s.  As QIN well knew, however, these spreadsheets and the resulting schedule K-1s were false and substantially overstated Virgil Sigma’s balances and trading activity on the exchanges.

 

As a result of QIN’s lies about the activity and success of Virgil Sigma in these and other communications, QIN was able to steadily attract new capital to Virgil Sigma thereby (a) ensuring that he was able to pay off investors’ redemption requests, and (b) projecting to the public the appearance of continued growth.  For example, after QIN and the purported success of his fund were profiled in the Wall Street Journal in or about February 2018, Virgil Sigma experienced substantial growth as new investors flocked to the fund.

 

Qin Attempts to Steal Assets from VQR to Pay Virgil Sigma Investors

 

In the summer of 2020, QIN was having difficulty meeting redemption requests from investors in Virgil Sigma.  In order to access funds to make those redemptions, and in order to conceal his fraudulent activities described above, QIN attempted to steal investor capital from VQR to pay redemptions to Virgil Sigma investors.  After a few Virgil Sigma investors requested redemptions that Virgil Sigma could not pay, QIN convinced those investors that rather than redeem the funds outright, the investors would agree to have the funds withdrawn from Virgil Sigma and transferred into an investment in VQR.  After months passed and no funds were transferred to VQR, QIN falsely told these investors that he had requested the transfer of funds from Virgil Sigma, but that the transfer was delayed because of an intermediary bank.  QIN showed some of these investors wire transfer requests in order to bolster the impression that QIN was in fact trying to transfer the funds from Virgil Sigma to VQR.  Virgil Sigma’s bank could not, however, effectuate these wire transfers because QIN had dissipated all of Virgil Sigma’s assets.

 

In or about December 2020, faced with additional redemption requests that he could not meet, QIN demanded that the Head Trader at VQR wind down all trading positions at VQR and transfer a portion of the funds to QIN so that QIN could use that money to pay off these redemptions to Virgil Sigma investors.  QIN issued the demand even though the Head Trader advised QIN that closing out VQR’s then-current trading positions, rather than holding those positions in accordance with VQR’s directional trading strategy, would result in losses to VQR’s investors.  In the course of those conversations, QIN threatened that if the Head Trader did not sufficiently expedite that process, QIN, as the sole owner of VQR’s general partner, would need to take over control of all of VQR’s accounts in order to access the funds.  At QIN’s direction, the Head Trader accordingly closed out VQR’s positions and turned over access to VQR’s trading accounts to QIN.  QIN subsequently attempted to take control of VQR’s assets in order to enable QIN to meet certain Virgil Sigma investor redemption requests.

 

*                *                *

 

QIN, 24, pled guilty to one count of securities fraud.  This charge carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison.  The maximum potential sentence in this case is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge. Sentencing has been scheduled for May 20, 2021.

 

Ms. Strauss praised the work of Homeland Security Investigations.  She further thanked the Securities and Exchange Commission for its cooperation and assistance in this investigation.

 

This case is being handled by the Office’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Tracer is in charge of the prosecution.

Jeremy Corbyn’s Brother Arrested for Auschwitz Anti-Vaccine Poster

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
Jeremy Corbyn's brother Piers (L) (Victoria Jones/PA via AP); an Auschwitz anti-vaccine poster connected with Piers Corbyn (R) (Jewish News/screenshot).

By United with Israel Staff

Former United Kingdom Labour Party head Jeremy Corbyn’s brother Piers was arrested in late January for posters bearing his name that criticize vaccines using an image of the Auschwitz death camp, where the Nazis slaughtered close to a million Jews during the Holocaust.

Piers’ brother, Jeremy Corbyn, was forced to step down from his post as head of Labour after getting trounced in national elections following an anti-Semitism scandal that rocked the very core of his far-left faction.

Piers Corbyn is an anti-vaccination activist and “came up with the ‘concept idea’ for the poster which depicts Auschwitz, but changes its infamous phrase at its gate from ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’, meaning ‘work sets you free’, to ‘vaccines are safe path to freedom,’” Jewish News reported.

“Police confirmed ‘officers investigating reports of malicious material in the form of a leaflet being circulated in south London in late January have made two arrests,’” Jewish News added, referring to the Corbyn arrest.

The report continued, “The leaflet contained material that appeared to compare the Covid-19 vaccination program with the Holocaust.”

Another member of the Labour party, Neil Coyle, reported the leaflet to the police, commenting he was “absolutely sickened by anti-vax conspiracy theory crackpot leaflets put through some doors in SE17 today.”

Under Jeremy Corbyn’s stewardship, the Labour party committed “unlawful harassment” against Jews, according to a 130-page report by the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHCR).

Corbyn flat out denied the EHRC’s findings and blamed a “political conspiracy” for the investigation, prompting his suspension from the party, though he was reinstated in short order.

The anti-Semitism that festered on Corbyn’s watch did not evade reproach from some of the biggest leaders in the Jewish community.

The late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who served as the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain for 22 years, wrote of Corbyn in 2019, “Under his leadership, and the semi-respectable sheen of anti-Zionism — let’s have a Rainbow Nation with Hamas! — the poison spreads. The libel that the Jews are the enemy of everything holy (formerly Christ, now socialism) has returned.”

In a 2018 interview with The New Statesman, Rabbi Sacks warned that Corbyn gives “support to racists, terrorists and dealers of hate, who want to kill Jews and remove Israel from the map,” adding that the Labour leader uses “the language of classic pre-war European anti-Semitism.”

The ‘battery fairy’ and other delusions in the demand to replace gasoline powered vehicles with electric cars and trucks

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
Photo credit: Felix Cramer - creative commons

By Thomas Lifson(American Thinker)

I continue to be amazed that serious people think that gasoline-powered vehicles can be completely replaced by electric vehicles in a decade-and-a-half and that this would be a good thing, even if possible. Under threat of government action, however, the world’s major auto manufacturers are falling in line boosting production of plug-in models, and upstart Tesla Motors is now the world’s most valuable auto manufacture, based on the value of its capital stock issued and in the public’s hands. Mary T. Barra, CEO of General Motors, has pledged to sell only zero emission vehicles by 2035.  That would meet the deadline imposed by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who signed an executive order banning the sale of internal combustion vehicles in the nation’s largest car market by 2035.

 

Charging electrric cars at work makes sense, as it rquires several hours. But what if you want to drive on a long trip?

Photo credit: Felix Cramer CC-BY-SA 2.0 license

GM, rescued from liquidation courtesy of US taxpayers (and bondholders who were cheated out of their place in line as creditors by the Obama administration), may simply be sucking up to governmental power. But Akio Toyoda, CEO of Toyota Motors, the world’s largest (or second largest, depending on the year). and grandson of the automaker’s founder, has spoken out and called out fallacy of thinking that this is possible or desirable. [I must here disclose that I was a consultant for a Toyota company for several years, but that all my comments on the company here are based on publicly available information.]

According to this account in CarBuzz:

As the grandson of Toyota founder, Kiichiro Toyoda, the scion was raised surrounded by all aspects of the auto industry and his business acumen is second to none. So when he had some harsh words for electric vehicles at the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association end-of-year press conference last week, people took notice.
The Wall Street Journal was in attendance and noted the CEO’s disdain for EVs boils down to his belief they’ll ruin businesses, require massive investments, and even emit more carbon dioxide than combustion-engined vehicles. “The current business model of the car industry is going to collapse,” he said. “The more EVs we build, the worse carbon dioxide gets… When politicians are out there saying, ‘Let’s get rid of all cars using gasoline,’ do they understand this?”

Studies detailing the carbon emissions necessary to manufacture an electric vehicle reveal that on a net basis, there are more emissions for vehicle bought and used for its expected lifetime, than would be generated by buying and using a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle.

Toyota can certainly make electric powered vehicles. It introduced the hybrid Prius, after all, and has a strong position in that market. Toyota’s mastery of the discipline of mass production of vehicles is such that it could do well no matter what power source is used. But the costs of complete conversion to electricity-powered vehicles are mind boggling.

Where will all, the electricity needed to power to entire fleet of cars in the US (or Japan) come from? Despite the fantasies of greenies, it won’t be from windmills or solar farms. They are too unreliable, take up too much land, and cost too much. Right now, it is coal and natural gas that produce the most electricity at the most reasonable cost.  And they emit CO2. Plus, there is considerable loss of power due to resistance in the transmission lines, requiring an even greater amount of gross power before the net power reaches the battery in the vehicle, charging at the user’s home ort some other location.  Nuclear power does offer some potential, but how many people want to live near the hundreds and hundreds of nuclear power plants that would be required to fuel the nation’s vehicles?

Then there is the small matter of batteries. The very large batteries needed for electric cars use lots of expensive lithium (and some other rare elements) whose supply is limited, and whose mining requires lots of scarce water. In fact, powering the world’s vehicles by battery is simply impossible, given the limited world supply of lithium, as this clever post by Powerline’s Steve Hayward makes clear. The title gives away the punchline:

WHO WILL TELL THE GREENS THERE IS NO BATTERY FAIRY?
For the longest while I have been asking, “Where do environmentalists and Democrats think all these batteries for our oil-free transportation fleet are going to come from?” It seems they think there is a Battery Fairy out there somewhere who will magically supply the ginormous battery capacity, and additional supply of electricity to charge them, in order to deliver us to our blessed fossil-fuel-free future.
He cites an article in Wired, The Spiraling Environmental Cost of our Lithium Battery Addiction:
But there’s a problem. As the world scrambles to replace fossil fuels with clean energy, the environmental impact of finding all the lithium required to enable that transformation could become a serious issue in its own right. “One of the biggest environmental problems caused by our endless hunger for the latest and smartest devices is a growing mineral crisis, particularly those needed to make our batteries,” says Christina Valimaki an analyst at Elsevier. . .
It’s a relatively cheap and effective process, but it uses a lot of water – approximately 500,000 gallons per tonne of lithium. In Chile’s Salar de Atacama, mining activities consumed 65 per cent of the region’s water. That is having a big impact on local farmers – who grow quinoa and herd llamas – in an area where some communities already have to get water driven in from elsewhere. . .
Two other key ingredients, cobalt and nickel, are more in danger of creating a bottleneck in the move towards electric vehicles, and at a potentially huge environmental cost. Cobalt is found in huge quantities right across the Democratic Republic of Congo and central Africa, and hardly anywhere else. The price has quadrupled in the last two years.

I am glad that some grownups are pointing out that the electric vehicle conversion emperor has no clothes on. But that hasn’t stopped governments, manufacturers, and investors from pretending that electric vehicles are our only future.

As Herbert Stein famously said, “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” We’re only beginning to discover that about pipe dreams of an all-electric vehicle future.

 

Nursing Home Deaths in NY Ignite Debate on Increase of Staff to Patient Ratios

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
This repeated call for a substantial increase in staffing at nursing homes was reiterated in a report released last week by New York State Attorney General Letitia James. Her report, entitled, “Nursing Homes’ Response to COVID-19” was released on January 28th. Photo Credit: AP

By: Fern Sidman

 

In light of the continuing controversy surrounding the deaths of over 10,000 nursing home patients in New York State during the early months of the coronavirus, legislators are now pushing forth a bill that would require nursing homes and hospitals to follow specific ratios of nurses to patients. Increasing the number of staff members at all nursing care and skilled care facilities in the state has been strongly advocated by health care unions.

This repeated call for a substantial increase in staffing at nursing homes was reiterated in a report released last week by New York State Attorney General Letitia James. Her report, entitled, “Nursing Homes’ Response to COVID-19” was released on January 28th.

The report, which is predicated on ongoing investigations into the matter since March of 2020, concluded that “a larger number of nursing home residents died from COVID-19 than the New York State Department of Health’s (DOH) published nursing home data reflected and may have been undercounted by as much as 50 percent.”

The report added that “the investigations also revealed that nursing homes’ lack of compliance with infection control protocols put residents at increased risk of harm, and facilities that had lower pre-pandemic staffing ratings had higher COVID-19 fatality rates.”

The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) is the only law enforcement agency in the state specifically mandated to investigate and prosecute abuse and neglect of residents in nursing homes. In early March, OAG received and began to investigate allegations and indications of COVID-19-related neglect of residents in nursing homes.

“As the pandemic and our investigations continue, it is imperative that we understand why the residents of nursing homes in New York unnecessarily suffered at such an alarming rate,” said Attorney General James. “While we cannot bring back the individuals we lost to this crisis, this report seeks to offer transparency that the public deserves and to spur increased action to protect our most vulnerable residents. Nursing homes residents and workers deserve to live and work in safe environments, and I will continue to work hard to safeguard this basic right during this precarious time.”

The WSJ reported that the bill which was approved on Tuesday by the state Assembly’s health committee said it would “require hospitals to develop staffing plans that met minimum ratios between nurses and patients in various kinds of settings, like intensive care or surgical units. Nursing homes would need to submit plans that show residents are receiving more than four hours of staff care a day.”

New York law requires a nursing home provide “sufficient nursing staff and related services to attain or maintain the highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being,” as was reported by the WSJ.

Currently, state and federal laws mandate that nursing homes have at least one registered nurse or licensed practical nurse on call 24 hours a day, plus one RN for eight hours and an RN serving as director of nursing, as was reported by the WSJ.

According to a survey conducted by Charlene Harrington, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, more than half of U.S. states set minimum hours of contact between nursing-home staff and residents or mandate a minimum number of caregivers in proportion to residents.

Because of concerns about increased costs, associations representing hospitals and nursing homes oppose the New York legislation, as was reported by the WSJ. They assert that recruiting the required amount of staff to meet the levels that the bill calls for would be difficult.

A source close to the nursing home industry, who spoke to the Jewish Voice on the condition of anonymity said, “It’s pretty straight forward as it pertains to nursing home policy. Their objective is to provide the least service possible for the most money possible. The astronomical costs of residing in nursing homes and what it means to patients and their families are of no concern to the owners of these facilities. Nursing homes are a gold mine for owners and they make it their business to implement cost cutting policies at every turn, even if that means that patients get very little or no care at all.”

Those advocating for the bill such as nurses unions say that the measure would “reduce fatigue and burnout among health-care workers and improve patient outcomes,” according to the WSJ report. They said the experience of the Covid-19 pandemic showed the consequences of inadequate staffing, the report continued.

Speaking to the WSJ, Pat Kane, executive director of the New York State Nurses Association union said , “What we want to do is provide care that is consistent with our professional standard.”

The WSJ reported that Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, a Democrat from Sullivan County and a registered nurse, said the increased cost of hiring staff would be eventually offset by lower costs from better patient outcomes and lower turnover among nurses.

Brian Conway, a spokesman for the Greater New York Hospital Association told the WSJ that, “We have the deepest respect and admiration for our RNs, but forced nurse staffing ratios would undermine real-time patient care decisions, deny hospitals the flexibility they need to respond to emergencies such as Covid-19, and disrupt team-based care by crowding out other essential members of the health-care team.”

 

Feature Documentary About Fashion Designer Elie Tahari to be Released in March

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0

Edited by; TJVNews.com

Fashion Designer and Mogul Elie Tahari, has been living the American Dream for more than 50 years. He came to New York in 1971 with less than $100 in his pocket, slept on benches in Central Park, and went on to build a billion dollar fashion empire.

“The United States of Elie Tahari” is the first documentary ever produced about Elie Tahari, filmed during 2020. Directed & Produced by David Serero, this highly anticipated documentary tells the life of Elie Tahari from his birth and origins (born in Israel with Iranian parents) throughout all of his achievements and legacy. Part of the documentary is also dedicated to Tahari’s creative process and endurance in the fashion world. Several fashion personalities such as Fern Mallis (aka the Godmother of Fashion), Fashion designers Nicole Miller and Dennis Basso, Arthur S. Levine, WallStreet Journal Fashion Journalist Terri Agins, Instagram influencer Julia Kananovich, artist Lynna Davis, Disco music, models, Studio 54 and more, are part of this documentary, from which the trailer is released today.

« In this documentary, you’ll discover the whole inspiring story of Elie Tahari and his fashion world and process, as rarely shown before. David Serero added, « I want this film to be loved by fashion lovers and connoisseurs, as well as the ones who are not familiar with that important artistic environment. This documentary is educative, inspiring, and a celebration! You’ll feel joining a large party! said Serero. Elie Tahari is the definition of courage, determination, kindness, and…chutzpah! His parents fled Iran and moved to Israel, where he lived in a refugee camp Ma’Abarot’, then moved to New York without speaking English and has contributed to the New York fashion life for more than 40 years with his iconic and visionary signatures such as the Tube Top, the Woman Suit and more. »

About ELIE TAHARI

For more than 40 years, Elie Tahari’s keen understanding of fashion and design has ensured him a unique position in the luxury world. The internationally-renowned brand has a global presence on five continents and is sold in over 600 stores in over 40 countries. The brand has expanded to include women’s shoes, sunglasses and accessories, and menswear and has come to define modern sophistication with the designers inspired collections of understated grace and elegance.

At the start of the 1970s, Elie Tahari emigrated from Israel to the United States and began working in New York City’s garment center while moonlighting at a boutique in Greenwich Village. After he succeeded in popularizing the tube top, Tahari began designing his eponymous label Tahari in 1973. In the following years, Elie Tahari opened his first boutique on Madison Avenue, posted the company’s first billboard in New York City, and held his first fashion show at Studio 54.

In the 1980s, Tahari expanded in the eighties, turning his attention to the tailored suit that helped define a decade. His first advertisements appeared in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.

In 1989 his first shop in Bloomingdales NYC opened, followed by Saks Fifth Avenue, and Tahari was named one of Crain’s most successful 40 under 40.

In the 1990s, Elie Tahari began the decade with his first cover of Women’s Wear Daily featuring a Tahari wool suit highlighted as the season’s trend and is admitted to the Council of Fashion Designers of America. The brand moves into new headquarters in the Grace building on West 42nd Street and is now carried by all major department stores. Tahari initiated a significant expansion campaign including licensing and international sales.

Television Networks also started to take notice of the brand with pieces from the collection being showcased on Ally McBeal, The X files and Will & Grace. Tahari was the featured designer in the annual Macy’s Passport fashion show in Los Angeles, which helps to raise over 2 million dollars for AIDS research, and was invited to the White House to meet with President Clinton. In 1997 Tahari became the founding partner and creative director of Theory and designed his own label.

In 2002 the company name was changed from Tahari to Elie Tahari, and the designer purchased 510 Fifth Avenue, which became the brand’s design center. Tahari opened freestanding boutiques in Soho, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Boston, East Hampton’s Main Street, and Boca Raton, Florida.

The company continued its global expansion in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East and opened freestanding boutiques in Istanbul, Turkey, and Dubai, as well as US boutiques in Newport Beach, California, Washington, D.C., Dallas, and a pop-up store at 510 5th Avenue, named The Vault as well as the E-commerce site elietahari.com. To mark the brand’s 40th anniversary, Tahari created a capsule collection “Elie Tahari 1974,” which featured updated silhouettes from the brands four decades in fashion.

Mayor Bloomberg proclaimed September 4th, 2013 “Elie Tahari Day,” honoring his 40 years in business. Fashion Group International honored the designer with a Brand Vision award, and Tahari served as a guest judge on Project Runway All-Stars for three seasons. In 2014 the designer launched eyewear, home, and the Elie Tahari Sport collection and partnered with photographer Steven Klein to shoot the brand’s ad campaigns.

In 2020, he received the Pomegranate Award from the New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.

About DAVID SERERO

David Serero is a critically acclaimed and awards-winner opera singer, actor, director, and producer. He has performed more than 2,500 performances in more than 45 countries, directed and produced nearly 100 theatrical productions, starred in over 100 films and TV series, recorded and produced over 100 albums and, played more than 50 lead and title roles (in several languages) from the opera, theatre, and musical repertoire. In New York, he starred Off-Broadway as iconic roles such as Shylock, Cyrano, Othello, Barabas, Yiddish King Lear, Don Giovanni, Figaro, Romeo, Nabucco, as well as new works such as Napoleon by Kubrick, Queen Esther, Anne Frank a Musical, among others. In his native Paris, he also starred as Don Quixote (Man of La Mancha) and Happy Mac (Beggar’s Holiday by Duke Ellington).

He entered the prestigious Who’s Who America for demonstrating outstanding achievements in the entertainment world and for the betterment of contemporary society. In 2019, he received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, the Morocco Day Distinguished Achievement Award, the Trophy of the Culture of Morocco, and named among the fifteen most influential Moroccans worldwide by Morocco’s airline Royal Air Maroc. David is a member of the Recording Academy and the Television Academy and a voting member of both the Grammys and Emmys. In 2020, David Serero received the Award for Diversity by the UNESCO in Paris and became an Honorary Member of the United Nations of Arts and Science. He has conducted over 1,000 interviews on his iHeart Radio show. He won the 2020 BroadwayWorld Awards for Best Performer of the decade, Best Producer of a Musical and of a Play of the decade. www.davidserero.com

Former Shin Bet Chief Calls For Israel To ‘Initiate Military Operations Against Iran’

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0

(JNS) – In light of Iran’s fast-moving efforts to develop a nuclear bomb, Likud MK and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Avi Dichter, a former director of the Shin Bet, has called to “initiate serious operational moves, in the Israel Defense Forces in particular.”

The comments followed an Israel Hayom report that the International Atomic Energy Agency had also found that Iran was systematically violating the agreement and getting closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon.

According to Dichter, the lack of a U.S. response under former President Donald Trump to the massive Iranian attack on Saudi oil facilities in 2019 taught the Iranians that there would be no price to pay for ramping up their aggression in any arena, and “instilled in them the belief that under a Biden administration, they could achieve more.”

As a result of U.S. restraint, Dichter said, the Iranians accelerated their deployment of militias, construction of long-range missiles and uranium enrichment.

“They’re already doing a lot, with the knowledge of the IAEA, not to mention intelligence agencies, including ours.”

Given the Americans’ approach, Dichter warned, Israel must prepare for military action.

“In the 1990s, the U.S. fell asleep at the wheel and we got a North Korea with significant nuclear weapons. In that case, Israel could watch as the tragedy unfolded from the sidelines. If, God forbid, the American guard falls asleep on Iran, the Israeli bystander must not stand idly by again,” he said.

Nadav Tamir, executive director of Israel’s branch of the left-wing organization J Street, countered that “since the Trump administration’s unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear accord, Iran is on a trajectory of enriching uranium at a dangerous rate. We must remember that before the U.S. withdrawal, the IAEA determined Iran was adhering to the limits set by the accord.”

He said, “In the absence of diplomacy, Iranians will suffer, but it won’t be translated into a change in policy. Upon a return to the accord, the Biden administration intends to focus on the issue of ballistic missiles and Iran’s regional subversion.”

Supreme Court Denies Heirs’ Claim to Nazi Obtained Art

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
The U.S. Supreme Court is seen Tuesday, June 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

 

By Brian Trusdell (NEWSMAX)

Jews who had property taken from them or coerced into selling it by Nazi Germany in the 1930s cannot sue in U.S. federal court to reclaim the property for its modern-day value, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.

The unanimous ruling Wednesday came in the reported $250 million medieval Christian art collection known as the Welfenschatz and was based on ”sovereign immunity,” which bars American courts from intervening in cases between foreign governments and their citizens.

The case, Federal Republic of Germany v. Philipp, involved heirs of the owners of the collection, who claim their ancestors were coerced into selling the art at a third of the value in 1935. When the U.S. Army conquered Germany to end World War II, it took possession of the Welfenschatz and eventually turned it over to the new German government.

The heirs argued that their claim is exempt from sovereign immunity’s ”domestic takings” law because it was ”property taken in violation of international law.”

But the court disagreed.

”This ‘domestic takings rule’ assumes that what a country does to property belonging to its own citizens within its own borders is not the subject of international law,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court.

”We have recognized that United States law governs domestically but does not rule the world.”

Roberts did offer the heirs another chance by sending the case back to the district court, saying it was not ruling on the heirs’ additional claim that their ancestors were not citizens of Germany at the time.

Omar’s anti-Semitism makes her unfit for House committees, Republicans say

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
AP

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

House Republicans have launched an effort to oust Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from her Committee assignments, “in light of conduct she has exhibited,” reported Fox News.

Reps. Brian Babin (R-TX), Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Jody Hice (R-GA), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Ronny Jackson (R-TX) argue that Omar’s repeated anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements make her unfit for her job.

The move comes on the heels of a Democrat-led effort to expel newcomer Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) from Congress after she “liked” social media posts stating that a number of U.S. mass shootings were staged.

A member of the progressive “Squad,” Omar’s past statements have earned her criticism from Jewish groups, Republicans, and even some of her left-wing allies.

Former Grand Wizard of the KKK David Duke praised Omar in March 2019, saying he was “elated” by her ability to bring discussion of “Jewish power and the Jewish elite” to the forefront of public debate.

Stopantisemitism.org bestowed Omar with the title “2019 Anti-Semite of the year” for claiming that Israel’s supporters are forcing U.S. lawmakers to pledge “allegiance to a foreign country,” equating a boycott of Israel with a boycott of Nazi Germany, and alleging that U.S. Jews are nefariously “buying” political influence.

”Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel,” she tweeted in August 2012. The tweet rose to prominence years later after her election, and Omar defended the tweet in an interview.

“What is really important to me is that people recognize that there is a difference between criticizing a military action by a government that has exercised really oppressive policies and being offensive or attacking particular people of faith,” she told CNN.

During her July 2020 re-election campaign, Omar’s tactics against her fellow Democrat challenger, attorney Antone Melton-Meaux, were widely condemned as relying on anti-Semitic tropes.

Vice News published Omar’s flyer, which pointed large donations to Melton-Meaux from Jews. The flyer noted that one was made by “Michael in Scarsdale, New York,” a town known for having a large Jewish population.

“It’s a common campaign tactic for progressives to attack their moderate foes for taking big corporate money. But by solely mentioning Jewish donors by name while painting Melton-Meaux as being in their ‘pocket’ to do their bidding on financial issues, her campaign’s mailer makes an argument that critics see as an anti-Semitic trope — especially in light of her string of previous controversial remarks about Israel,” Vice reported.

In November 2020, Omar accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” after the Jewish state demolished temporary Palestinian structures which were illegally built in the middle of an IDF firing range.

House Strips Marjorie Taylor Greene of Her Committee Assignments

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., walks back to her office after speaking on the floor of the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

SEAN MORAN

The House passed a resolution Thursday to strip Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) of her committee assignments.

The House adopted H. Res. 72, which would strip Greene of her committee assignments in Congress’s lower chamber. The resolution passed with 230 votes in favor and 199 votes against the measure.

Reports suggest that 11 Republicans voted in favor of the measure. The 11 Republicans reportedly include:

House Democrats moved to strip her of her committee assignments after House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) condemned her past controversial and conspiratorial remarks.

“Her past comments now have much greater meaning. Marjorie recognized this in our conversation. I hold her to her word, as well as her actions going forward,” McCarthy said.

Greene’s controversial remarks included screenshots by which she expressed her belief that the Parkland school shooting was a “false flag” operation.

Ahead of the vote, Greene apologized for her former beliefs and said that her past comments do not represent her.

She added that Democrats have pushed “conspiracy theories,” such as the idea that Donald Trump colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 presidential election.

Greene then charged that while she has apologized for her past actions, many lawmakers have supported riots that have harmed Americans.

For instance, then-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) praised the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which raised money to provide bonds for violent criminals in Minneapolis. Taylor Geen said:

If this Congress is to tolerate members that condoned riots, that have hurt American people, attacked police officers, occupied federal property, burned businesses and cities, but yet wants to condemn me and crucify me in the public square for words that I said and I regret a few years ago, then I think we’re in a real big problem, a very big problem.

Republicans remain concerned over creating the precedent of stripping a lawmaker’s assignments for remarks he or she made before she entered Congress.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) mentioned ahead of the vote that he has two issues with the resolution.

Massie wrote:

Today’s resolution against my colleague
@RepMTG
is ludicrous for at least two reasons: 1. It fails to mention any specific infraction she has allegedly committed. 2. It quotes a rule that applies to members, not to citizens. This is a sham. The Democrats will regret it.

Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), a freshman congressman, said in a statement after the vote:

Removing Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committees is an unprecedented power grab by Democrats.
This is just another attempt to expand their radical left agenda — until they have silenced all counter viewpoints. Speaker Pelosi has taken no action on the countless divisive, violent and anti-semitic remarks hurled by her own party.
Right now, Democrats control the House, the Senate, and the White House – if they wanted to deliver positive results for the American people, they could.
Democrats don’t want to govern, they want to rule and clamp down on any dissent to their radical agenda.
Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-GA) said in a statement after the vote:
Congress has not – and should not – remove the responsibility of holding Members accountable from the people of their Congressional districts. This is a slippery slope to a new standard by which Members will be judged: not by their constituents, not by the Ethics Committee, but by the political games and power dynamics of the majority party.
 …
Today’s actions serve to fan the flames of division with this unprecedented and hypocritical abuse of power.

He added, “Now is the time to focus on creating jobs, rebuilding our communities, and kick-starting our economy.”

Breitbart

State Supreme Court Rules in Favor of NY State Senator Tedisco, Empire Center, on Cuomo Nursing Home COVID Cover-Up

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
Photo Credit: AP
(NY SENATE) Judge gives Cuomo Administration 5 business days to respond to Empire Center/Tedisco FOIL request lawsuit and release full COVID-19 nursing home data; grants Tedisco’s application to appear as “amicus curiae” on lawsuit; orders state to pay Center’s fees

New York State Supreme Court Justice Kimberly A. O’Connor ruled in favor of the Empire Center for Public Policy and Senator Jim Tedisco’s (R,C-Glenville) lawsuit on behalf of the thousands of families who lost loved ones to COVID-19 in state-regulated nursing homes, against the Cuomo Administration and the New York State Department of Health (DOH) to publicly release data related to the deaths of nursing home residents who were transferred to hospitals last year and died from the coronavirus.

In September, Senator Tedisco filed an amicus brief to the Empire Center for Public Policy’s lawsuit against the DOH for its refusal to release records showing the full count of coronavirus deaths among nursing home residents.  The DOH has delayed the Empire Center and Tedisco’s request for the data three times.

Justice O’Connor’s ruling today directs the DOH to disclose the requested information within 5 business days. O’Connor granted Senator Tedisco’s application to appear as “amicus curiae” on the Empire Center’s lawsuit. The Court also ordered the state to pay for the Empire Center’s legal fees.

The lawsuit sought the release of Health Emergency Response Data System (HERDS) data regularly submitted to DOH by facilities throughout the state. DOH through HERDS collects daily numbers of confirmed and presumed COVID deaths that take place inside and outside nursing homes and assisted care facilities.

“Clearly the best disinfectant is sunlight. Governor Cuomo’s coronavirus cover-up is crumbling down.  Last week, the Attorney General issued a scathing report that begun to lift the Cuomo Administration’s veil of secrecy that was hiding the real number of nursing home residents who died from COVID-19. It’s obvious that the Governor’s six-month cover-up and refusal to give us these numbers shows he felt they mattered so he could hide any blame. History has shown that the cover-up is often worse than what’s being covered-up. Sadly, a lack of transparency has been a hallmark of this Administration. I want to thank Justice O’Connor for her ruling that demonstrates that this nursing home data is public information and the people have a right to know what their government is doing,” said Senator Tedisco.

Senator Tedisco also has authored and sponsors legislation with Majority Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim (S.8756/A.10857) for an independent, bipartisan state commission with subpoena power to fully investigate these nursing home deaths. s

ANDREW YANG GOT IT RIGHT ON BDS

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
AP

by Stephen H. Norwood and Rafael Medoff

We’re used to politicians mangling history, whether out of carelessness or partisanship. So it was a breath of fresh air when New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang recently shared a powerful historical truth about people who boycott Jews.

Yang has been pilloried by supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. But he got it right. “A Yang administration will push back against the BDS movement, which singles out Israel for unfair economic punishment,” he wrote in The Forward. And then came his most controversial — but most important — sentence: “BDS [is] rooted in antisemitic thought and history, hearkening back to fascist boycotts of Jewish businesses…”

The best known “fascist boycott” against Jews was waged by the government of Nazi Germany, beginning with a one-day nationwide action, on April 1, 1933, shortly after Hitler’s rise to power. Throughout the Reich on that day, stormtroopers were stationed at entrances to Jewish stores and offices, and above the doors they posted a yellow circle — the medieval symbol associating Jews with gold and prostitution. The boycott was intended to demonstrate that the Nazis could readily threaten Jews’ economic survival. In subsequent years, the Nazis avidly enforced local boycotts of Jewish-owned businesses across Germany.

Elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe during the same period, anti-Semitic political parties and grassroots movements promoted anti-Jewish boycotts, although generally they were local initiatives, lacking the imprimatur of government approval. A notable exception was Poland, where, beginning in 1936, Prime Minister Felicjan Skladkowski openly endorsed “economic struggle” against Polish Jews.

Here in the United States, the pro-Nazi German American Bund and the neofascist Christian Front organized and aggressively promoted boycotts of Jewish stores. The Friends of the New Germany, from which the Bund evolved, originated the boycott in 1934, establishing a German-American Business League to promote and police it.

In the heavily German-American neighborhood of Yorkville, in upper Manhattan, Jewish business “are boycotted quite as thoroughly as in Germany,” the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that spring. A Jewish bookseller told the JTA his sales “have fallen off almost one hundred percent.” Previously, his business was so successful that there were “frequent robberies.” But now, “not even the burglars come any more.”

To intimidate non-Jewish shopkeepers, those who failed to pledge loyalty to the boycott had their front window “marked with large swastikas;” in many cases, “the Hitlerite insignia has been cut into the bay windows of the stores, apparently with a diamond.”

Over the next several years, in New York and Boston, the Christian Front, organized by followers of the anti-Semitic Catholic priest Charles Coughlin, distributed guides for shoppers identifying stores not owned by Jews. These guides carried the statement that “Christ Himself” sponsored the anti-Jewish boycott. The Christian Front posted fliers featuring Nazi-style anti-Semitic imagery in subway stations and on shop windows and buildings, urging passersby to boycott Jewish stores and to “Buy Christian.” These fliers included genocidal threats, such as “Destroy the Jews!” and “Kill the kike vermin!—Wake up Christians!”

As in Germany, the boycott and the circulation of anti-Semitic propaganda precipitated frequent violent attacks on Jews in the streets and parks of Boston and New York, on Jews’ homes and stores, and the desecration of Jewish cemeteries. Commentators referred to these attacks as “mini-pogroms.” They reached a peak during World War II, but continued for several years after the end of the war.

Obviously, there are many differences between the anti-Jewish boycotts of the 1930s and the BDS campaigns of our own time. Yet we dare not ignore the parallels.
Today’s BDS advocates heatedly deny that they are fascists or anti-Semites. They claim they are “only” boycotting Israelis, not Jews. Likewise, advocates of “partial” BDS say they are boycotting “only” Israeli settlers, not residents of Israeli towns within the pre-1967 areas.
If that were true, the BDS movement would boycott Israeli Arabs as well as Israeli Jews. And the “partial boycotters” would target Israeli Arab residents of communities beyond the pre-1967 lines. They would also refrain from boycotting foreign-born Jewish “settlers” who are not Israeli citizens.

Have you ever heard of BDS activists boycotting Israeli Arabs in general, or Israeli Arab residents of settlements or exempting non-Israeli settlers? We haven’t. The reason is simple: they are targeting Jews. And that makes their actions uncomfortably similar to the behavior of the fascists to whom Andrew Yang referred.

Dr. Norwood is Professor of History and Judaic Studies at the University of Oklahoma; his latest book, which is in press, is “Prologue to Annihilation: Ordinary American and British Jews Challenge the Third Reich.”

Dr. Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies; his most recent book is “The Jews Should Keep Quiet: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and the Holocaust.”

Embarrassed After #AlexandriaOcasioSmollet Trends on Twitter, AOC Urges Her Supporters to Report Mocking Tweeters

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
AP

TVNNEWS.COM-

Information liberation pointed out:

Democratic Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez emailed her supporters on Wednesday night to encourage them to mass-report everyone who tweeted #AlexandriaOcasioSmollet, a hashtag making fun of her for claiming she “narrowly” escaped “death” during the Capitol protests despite not even being in the Capitol building.

TJV and numerous others reported yesterday that noted that “insurrectionists” never made it to the hall where AOC’s office is located and the congresswoman was actually in a separate building when the U.S. Capitol building was breached on Jan. 6.

While the Cannon Building (location of Cortez’s office ) and the capital are connected via tunnels, the rioters never made it near the tunnels nor the cannon building. After this was exposed thousands upon thousands of Twitter users began mocking the young socialist for exaggerating the alleged terror she faced the day of the riots.

The wise-cracking Twitter personalities began comparing AOC to actor Jessie Smollett. who claimed he was attacked by MAGA hat-wearing “white supremacists” on a winter night 2019  in Chicago when in reality the actor hired two Nigerian twin brothers to fake the hate crime. The media bought the entire story and Smollett was on the TV weaving a false story of angry white Trump supporters, brutally beating Smollett, who is a gay, black man.

AOC having none of this reached out to her political allies and urged them to take to Twitter and report users for making fun of her. AOC clearly exaggerated the dangers she faced and left out details as to the actual proximity between her office and the capitol where the riots occurred. Smollett’s hate crime hoax was clearly a politically motivated event, so was AOC’s exaggerated tales of right-wing terror knocking on her office door.

 

Smartmatic Sues Fox News, Giuliani And Powell For $2.7 Billion Over Voting Machine Fraud Claims

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0

(TJVNEWS) Voting software company Smartmatic has filed a $2.7 billion libel suit against Fox News, three Fox hosts – Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro – as well as lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell over what the firm claims are knowingly false claims about former President Donald Trump’s election loss, CNBC reports. The lawsuit accuses the defendants of executing a coordinated disinformation campaign aimed at convincing the public of rampant election fraud.

The suit accuses the defendants of falsely saying or implying that Smartmatic’s election technology and software was comprised or hacked during the 2020 election, among other false claims.

Smartmatic scoffed at Trump’s claims that there was widespread fraud and manipulation of voting machines that led to an undercount of Trump votes and an overcount of ballots for Biden. The company’s attorneys said they have counted “dozens” of references to what they describe as the smear campaign on Fox News. That these claims were made repeatedly and echoed by the channel’s news staff is evidence that Fox News was actively plotting with Giuliani and Powell to disseminate the conspiracy, said Smartmatic’s attorney J. Erik Connolly.

The full lawsuit is below:

House Impeachment Managers Ask Trump to Testify Under Oath

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
AP.

(NEWSMAX) House impeachment managers are asking former President Donald Trump  to provide testimony under oath about his conduct before the violent breach of the Capitol in rioting on Jan. 6.

In a letter to Trump Thursday, lead Impeachment Manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., asked Trump to provide testimony under oath, either before or during the Senate impeachment trial, about his conduct on the day of the attack on the Capitol.

The letter says he must explain why he and his lawyers have disputed key factual allegations at the center of the case.

“In light of your disputing these factual allegations, I write to invite you to provide testimony under oath, either before or during the Senate impeachment trial, concerning your conduct on January 6, 2021. We would propose that you provide your testimony (of course including cross-examination) as early as Monday, February 8, 2021, and not later than Thursday, February 11, 2021. We would be pleased to arrange such testimony at a mutually convenient time and place,” the letter says.

Raskin wrote that if Trump refuses to testify, his refusal will be used against him in the trial – a similar argument put forth by House Democrats in last year’s impeachment trial, when many Trump officials ignored subpoenas.

“Indeed, whereas a sitting president might raise concerns about distraction from their official duties, that concern is obviously inapplicable here,” Raskin wrote.

The impeachment trial of Trump, the first U.S. president to face such a trial twice, is expected to begin next week.

Trump, who has argued that he lost the presidential election due to rampant electoral fraud, a charge he has continued to tout throughout the impeachment, urged supporters to fight at a rally before the storming of the Capitol. Five people, including a Capitol Police officer, died during the riot.

A Trump adviser did not immediately return a message seeking comment about the managers’ letter.

This report contains material from Reuters and The Associated Press.

Candida Auris- Deadly Bacteria CDC Warns Could Be the Next Pandemic

By
Sholom Schreirber
-
0
ucsfhealth.org

(TJVNEWS.COM) Candida Auris is the “perfect pathogen,” scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, theorizing that the yeast-like fungal infection could be the cause of the next pandemic.

Should the fungus enter the bloodstream, it will almost certainly become fatal, the CDC wrote

From CDC:

Can a person die from infection with C. Auris?

Yes. Invasive infections with any Candida species can be fatal. We don’t know if patients with invasive C. Auris infection are more likely to die than patients with other invasive Candida infections. Based on information from a limited number of patients, 30–60% of people with C. Auris infections have died. However, many of these people had other serious illnesses that also increased their risk of death.

How does C. Auris spread?

C. Auris can spread in healthcare settings through contact with contaminated environmental surfaces or equipment, or from person to person. More work is needed to further understand how it spreads.

 

First identified in 2009, Candida Auris is almost impervious to antifungal drugs, London’s Imperial College epidemiologist Johanna Rhodes told New Scientist

“One of the things that make Candida Auris so scary is the fact it can linger on inanimate surfaces for long periods and withstand whatever you throw at it,” Rhodes said.

1...1,6161,6171,618...2,277Page 1,617 of 2,277
DONATE NOW
Subscribe Now

© The Jewish Voice. All rights reserved.

Website managed by Napollo

About Us

Popular Category

Editor Picks