(AP) Americans will be getting extra time to prepare their taxes. The Internal Revenue Service says it’s delaying the traditional tax filing deadline from April 15 until May 17.
The IRS announced the decision Wednesday and said it would provide further guidance in the coming days. The move provides more breathing room for taxpayers and the IRS alike to cope with changes brought on by the pandemic.
“The IRS wants to continue to do everything possible to help taxpayers navigate the unusual circumstances related to the pandemic, while also working on important tax administration responsibilities,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement.
The decision postpones when individual taxpayers must file their return and when their payment is due. The IRS said taxpayers who owe money would not face any further penalties or interest if they pay by May 17. The new deadline also applies to individuals who pay self-employment tax.
Taxpayers do not need to take any action to take advantage of the new deadline. Those who need more time beyond May 17 can request an extension until October 15.
The new deadline does not apply to estimated tax payments that are due on April 15; those remain due by that day.
The decision to extend the deadline comes after an intense year for the chronically underfunded IRS. The pandemic hit in the middle of last year’s tax filing season, setting the agency back in terms of processing. The IRS has also been a key player in doling out government relief payments, and is currently helping to send out the third round of payments in the middle of the current tax filing season.
Additionally, the extension gives the IRS time to issue guidance on recent tax law changes. The American Rescue Plan excludes the first $10,200 of unemployment benefits from federal taxes for those making less than $150,000.
“Never before has the law changed so substantially in the middle of tax filing season,” Patrick Thomas, director of Notre Dame Law School’s Tax Clinic, said in a statement.
The IRS must issue guidance for taxpayers and tax preparers alike as millions of returns already filed likely do not account for this change.
A number of lawmakers and professionals from the tax community have urged the tax filing season be extended to accommodate for these pressures. The House Ways and Means Committee applauded the move.
“This extension is absolutely necessary to give Americans some needed flexibility in a time of unprecedented crisis,” said Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass. and Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-N.J., chairman of the panel’s oversight subcommittee.
Rettig is expected to speak to the committee tomorrow about how the IRS is managing this filing season and the need for this extension.
The IRS continues to urge people to file as soon as possible, particularly those who are owed refunds. In some cases filing will help taxpayers more quickly get any remaining relief payments they are entitled to.
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AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger contributed to this report from Washington.
Adam Kredo(Free Beacon) An entire panel of Democratic candidates for Virginia governor endorsed the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement during a Tuesday evening debate.
Each of the candidates participating in the virtual Virginia’s People’s Debate promised to buck pressure from pro-Israel groups that want to see the state outlaw the BDS movement due to its association with virulent anti-Israel figures and terrorist groups operating abroad. Some states have already approved legislation that prevents the government from allocating taxpayer dollars to any group that supports or works with the BDS movement. Virginia lawmakers shot down a similar law in 2016 and 2017.
Former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, a Clinton ally widely seen as the frontrunner in the race, did not participate in the forum but has come out in the past against the BDS movement. He was 1 of 50 governors to endorse an anti-BDS campaign organized by the American Jewish Committee. He did not respond to Washington Free Beacon requests for comment on the debate and his current view of the BDS movement.
Those candidates hoping to beat out McAuliffe took a decidedly different approach Tuesday evening when they were asked a loaded question by the debate moderator about how they would approach the BDS movement, which was described as “a form of peaceful protest to secure Palestinian rights and pressure Israel to comply with international law.”
State senator Jennifer McClellan said that, as the child of parents who participated in the American civil rights movement, “I will not do anything, anything that will criminalize that behavior and movement. I will be a brick wall against any efforts to criminalize that activity.”
Delegate Lee Carter, an avowed socialist, went even further. He said that Virginia should not be a home to the Virginia Israel Advisory Board, a small local group that fosters investments in Israel, America’s closest ally in the Middle East.
“I am a supporter of the BDS movement,” Carter said. “I believe the human rights abuses that are being inflicted upon the Palestinian people are among the worst currently ongoing in the world.”
Former delegate Jennifer Carroll said that “criminalizing BDS is unconstitutional” and that she would block any effort aimed at reducing the BDS movement’s footprint in the commonwealth.
Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax took a similar stance.
At least one Republican running for the office described the positions offered by his Democratic challengers as “scary.”
“This is scary and dangerous,” GOP candidate Pete Synder tweeted. “More proof that those in charge in Richmond and those Dems running for Governor are simply out of the mainstream. They are extremists. On many issues.”
Lenox Hill Hospital holds a national reputation for outstanding patient care and innovative medical and surgical treatments. It is consistently ranked among the nation’s best hospitals by the U.S. News & World Report. For 2020-21, it was listed as one the top 10 hospitals in the state of New York and ranked among the nation’s best for ear, nose and throat; diabetes and endocrinology; and neurology and neurosurgery. In addition, the hospital received “high performing” designations from U.S. News for its performance in gastroenterology and GI surgery; geriatrics; nephrology; orthopedics; pulmonology; and urology.
Lenox Hill recently received the rare and coveted Magnetstatus for its commitment to nursing excellence and dedication to the highest quality of patient care. The prestigious international designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) has been achieved by only eight percent of hospitals worldwide. The hospital has also been granted premier accreditation by the Commission on Cancer (CoC)for meeting national quality cancer care standards in 34 key areas and for maintaining excellence in the delivery of comprehensive, patient-centered oncology care. Lenox Hill’s cancer program offers a broad array of oncology services in more than a dozen clinical specialties and a vast multidisciplinary network of specialized clinicians throughout Manhattan.
To honor its commitment to delivering premier clinical care, Lenox Hill has made major investments in recruiting nationally recognized physicians, including numerous prominent oncology experts. The hospital is also dedicated to expanding and enhancing its clinical programs. It has recently established a brand-new midwifery program as a supplemental obstetrical service for maternity patients. The program, a first-of-its-kind for Lenox Hill, offers the full scope of comprehensive, personalized well-woman care options to ensure safety and comfort, as well as to minimize complications during pregnancy and delivery.
Northwell Health is planning a majorrevitalization of Lenox Hill to be prepared to efficiently deliver the next generation of care and effectively adapt to the changes in modern medicine. The goal is to create a renovated, modernized facility that will feature all private patient rooms, an expanded emergency department, new surgical suites and other clinical spaces, and a dedicated mother-baby hospital with its own separate entrance. As Northwell Health’s flagship hospital in Manhattan, Lenox Hill has delivered world-class clinical care for more than 160 years and currently treats more than 163,000 patients annually. Northwell Health has invested more than $200 million in capital improvements since Lenox Hill Hospital joined the 23-hospital health system in 2010.
The hospital’s neurosurgery team was recently the subject of the highly-acclaimed Netflix docudrama “Lenox Hill.”
The authoritarian government of China on Wednesday reportedly ordered state television not to carry the Academy Awards ceremony next month, because one of the films nominated for an Oscar is about the Hong Kong protest movement.
The thin-skinned Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is also nursing a grudge against Chloe Zhao, director of Best Picture nominee Nomadland, because she criticized the Party several years ago.
The film that reportedly got the Oscars banned from Chinese television is Do Not Split, a short documentary about the Hong Kong protests of 2019 directed by Anders Hammer of Norway. The 35-minute feature traces the protests from their origins as pushback against a controversial extradition law to China’s imposition of a tyrannical “national security law” on Hong Kong last summer, effectively criminalizing political dissent and crushing the city’s limited autonomy.
Hammer told the Hong Kong Free Press on Wednesday his goal was to “capture the intensity of the streets in Hong Kong as the young protesters were risking everything in a fight for their future.”
“This uprising started as demonstrations against a proposed extradition bill, which could have allowed people to be sent to Mainland China for trial. Soon it developed into a broader protest campaign for basic human rights, and hopefully the Oscars nomination can contribute to creating attention around how important it is that these human rights are not suppressed,” he said.
The CCP, which is very eager to demonstrate that human rights can be suppressed without any meaningful opposition from the free world, railed against the Oscar committee for daring to nominate Do Not Split in a frothing editorial at the state-run Global Times on Wednesday.
The Global Times hissed that Hammer’s film “lacks artistry and is full of biased political stances,” accused the Oscars of becoming “political tools,” and warned that giving an award to Do Not Split could “hurt Chinese audiences’ feelings and may lead to a heavy loss in the Chinese film market, which exceeded North America to be the largest box office market in the world for the first time last year.”
The Communist paper advised Hollywood to learn its lesson from the National Basketball Association, which humbled itself before the CCP after now-former Houston Rockets manager Daryl Morey dared to express sympathy with the Hong Kong protesters.
As for Chloe Zhao, Deadline reported she was “initially heralded in China after the success of Nomadland at Venice, but that reception turned sour when comments she made in a 2013 interview resurfaced.”
Watch below:
In an interview that has since been deleted from the Internet, the Beijing-born Zhao reportedly described China as “a place where there are lies everywhere.” She also supposedly told an Australian interviewer in 2020 that she is “now an American” after living in the U.S. for 20 years, but this remark was later dismissed as a typographical error, and Zhao actually said she is “not an American.”
These comments were enough to get Zhao headlines like “From the Pride of China to Disgracing China in a Few Short Days,” coupled with a burst of hatred from some quarters of Chinese social media, although others applauded her for making Nomadland because it supposedly exposes the “declining U.S. and the evils of a capitalist system.”
Zhao has been tapped to direct a big Marvel superhero film, The Eternals, and the Chinese box office is vital for turning a profit on such enormous projects, suggesting Hollywood will likely find a way to return her to the Communist Party’s good graces.
Deadline saw signs that Zhao will probably weather the scorn of the CCP and emerge relatively unscathed, perhaps after making a few gestures of submission and fealty, because the CCP loves the idea of Chinese directors prospering in Hollywood, and the Politburo likes how Nomadland makes capitalism look horrifying. Anders Hammer, on the other hand, probably shouldn’t hold his breath waiting for Disney to offer him the next Thor movie.
Democrat hypocrisy has been on display for years, with recent offenses involving Democrat leaders breaching pandemic rules that apparently apply to the masses but not to the Marie Antoinettes imposing the rules on the rest of us. There are also more subtle examples of Democrats picking and choosing when rules should apply and when they should not.
Following the science is a big one that we’ve seen Democrats flout for years. While they scare the country into submission lest climate change destroys the world in a few years, they fly in their private jets around the globe dictating the climate change rules that everyone else must follow. Science prescribes that schools are safe to open and should be open for the health and welfare of students. Democrats’ benefactors, the teachers’ unions, don’t like that idea, so Democrat leaders send their kids to private schools while the rest of the nations’ children suffer and fall behind.
Science dictates that there are two sexes, yet Democrats impose their bizarre notion on the 99.4% of the country who are not transgender that “gender identity” is fluid. They rule that boys may compete against girls in women-only sports programs while also using female bathrooms and locker rooms. One of the vilest Democrat policies is legislating abortion on demand up to delivery.
More recently, Democrats have stepped into the untenable position of insisting on spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a seemingly permanent (and hideous) fence around the Capitol Building while defunding and shutting down the construction of our southern border wall. The rationale is clear: lawmakers require protection from American citizens, including all of their constituents, who are no longer permitted to exercise their First Amendment right to petition the government. On the other hand, American citizens, in the infinite wisdom of the Democrats, do not require, nor are they entitled to, protection from illegal aliens who are streaming into the country in numbers we have not seen in a long time.
Once again, Democrats are putting their self-serving interests above the safety and welfare of the American people who elected them and to whom they answer. To them, the Capitol fence is all a political ploy to keep Americans hating Trump and his supporters, while the southern border wall is billed as a Trump-era xenophobic, cruel, and unnecessary expenditure (that had prevented future Democrat voters from entering the country in large numbers).
Keep in mind that Pelosi and the Democrats turned down offers to bring in the National Guard on January 6 as well as during the summer, when Democrat mayors and governors refused National Guard troops while their cities were burning during the Black Lives Matter protests. Trump was pilloried for even making the offer, and a New York Times editor was basically fired for publishing Senator Tom Cotton’s opinion piece supporting the idea. Yet now that the Democrats have decided they like the idea of a police state when they’re in control of the federal government, the National Guard is all the rage.
As we listen to Democrats’ lame justification for building fencing around their workplace based on faux fears of insurrection, they ignore the country’s borders, leaving them open for illegal entry by the likes of drug-runners, coyotes, and human-traffickers, unaccompanied children, terrorists, and violent gang members. The hypocrisy runs even farther as we learn that hundreds of these illegal migrants are testing positive for COVID-19 and yet are still being released to wander about the country, spreading a disease that has shut down the entire world. In particular, many Americans have been subject to complete lockdowns due to unfounded fears of viral spread by mostly Democrat lawmakers, resulting in businesses destroyed and the economy in ruins. Yet those fears are simply ignored for the sake of bringing in as many new Democrat voters as possible — the vast majority of whom will receive welfare, Medicare, Obamacare, and other free stuff.
It is difficult not to feel disgust with the blatant hypocrisy emanating from the party that looks down on the rest of Americans as deplorables, Neanderthals, lying dog-faced pony soldiers, people who cling to guns and religion, or whatever other condescending description they choose to label Americans who disagree with them and whom they haven’t quite figured out how to cancel.
The irony is that for almost two decades, Democrats have criticized Israel for building a security fence in order to protect its citizens from terrorists and suicide bombers who were committing acts of violence on an almost daily basis around the country. After decades of murders, Israel was forced to finally build a security barrier in order to protect all Israelis. The Israeli government didn’t build a fence around the Knesset to protect only lawmakers; it chose to protect its entire citizenry rather than an elite few.
No matter — liberal Americans, social justice warriors, and many Democrats to this day continue to argue over the morality and necessity of Israel’s security barrier, claiming that it violates Palestinian human rights, while failing to consider the right of Israelis to live without fear of a suicide bomber murdering them and their families. At least Democrats are being consistent in not giving a damn about the safety of American citizens while they cheer on open borders and unimpeded immigration. As long as the fence exists to protect them, who cares about the rest of us?
The awful truth is that the Democrats are lying to the American public about what’s happening at our southern border while also lying about what’s happening in D.C. While Biden tries to hide the border mess by silencing senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security, established in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to help protect our homeland, Pelosi plays up the threat to the Capitol from the deplorables who voted for Trump. The woman who views Trump and Republican lawmakers as “domestic enemies” and “enemies of the state” is now establishing commissions and infrastructure to confront white supremacists and what she calls domestic terrorism. Keep in mind that the Democrats remained silent for months watching Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioters tear up our cities as they lied to the American public, claiming that it was all just a bunch of “peaceful protests,” and ignoring the innocent Americans who lost their businesses and livelihoods while facing violence daily.
As long as Democrats keep dividing the country, actually inciting riots and mobs as they did last summer, and lying about what the real danger to our country is, we can expect more barbed wire and National Guards, as we’re seeing in Minneapolis. Democrats like walls when they protect them, the rest of us be damned.
These double-standards are getting old. If we had a media establishment with real journalists rather than just a bunch of operatives who play in the Democrats’ echo chamber of lies and manipulation, these policies would be forced to end. Instead, our borders are open, with Lord knows who and what streaming in, but the Democrats could not care less because they’re safe and they see the glory days of forever holding the reins of power.
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy nominee Colin Kahl (YouTube/Senator Tom Cotton/Screenshot
By David Isaac, World Israel News
“Pro-Israel groups launch blitz against Kahl nomination for top Pentagon job,” read the Jewish News Syndicate headline on March 15.
The headline isn’t untrue.
The problem is that there were just two groups, one of them Christian. How’s that line go again “If I am not for myself…”?
There should have been a chorus of protest from the American Jewish establishment leading up to the March 4 Senate hearings on Colin Kahl’s nomination for Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.
It’s an important job. As The Wall Street Journal noted, “While the Secretary of Defense handles high-level defense politics, and the deputy secretary manages the department day-to-day, the undersecretary plays the leading role setting strategy — including representing the department at National Security Council deputies meetings.”
Yet AIPAC was AWOL. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s excuse is it doesn’t take positions on presidential nominations.
If you’re the largest pro-Israel lobby in America and you can’t call out nominees espousing anti-Israel policies, what can you do? Kahl typifies such policies. It should be right in AIPAC’s bailiwick. As it likes to say, “policy over partisanship.”
The ZOA’s Mort Klein tells us the real reason for their silence is that “Many Jewish groups don’t want to criticize the Biden administration nominees fearing this would reduce the chances (1) they will be invited to meetings with White House officials and (2) those officials will agree to attend the events or webinars of Jewish groups.
“Access for its own sake is enough for some Jewish groups. Others actually support the far-left, hostile-to-Israel policies of these nominees,” Klein said.
“While we generally respect the president’s right to nominate who he sees fit, Colin Kahl’s nomination is beyond the pale,” said CUFI Co-Founder Pastor John Hagee.
CUFI calls Kahl “a serial Iran appeaser” with ties to pro-Iranian groups in the U.S. He “has even claimed that Iran has a right to enrich uranium,” it noted, despite Iran’s status as the world’s premier terror sponsor.
CUFI launched an ad campaign in a half dozen West Virginia newspapers earlier this week to put pressure on Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who has been waffling on whether to support Kahl.
The ZOA also condemned Kahl’s “extremely concerning record of advocating pro-Iranian regime positions.”
The ZOA notes that as former deputy assistant to President Barack Obama and National Security Advisor to then-Vice President Joe Biden, Kahl played a key role in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
The Iran deal, as we know, was a disaster. It didn’t even pretend to stop Iran’s race for a bomb. Its “sunset clauses” were like a countdown for Iran going nuclear.
Kahl has espoused other positions harmful to Israel. The ZOA reminds us that it was Kahl who co-wrote the 2012 Democratic platform which omitted the statement that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. The omission led to an embarrassing reversal for the Democratic party which was forced to reinsert the line.
Kahl defended himself at the time, saying “Nobody can read the Democratic platform on Israel and come away with the sense that it’s not pro-Israel. It’s extraordinarily pro-Israel.”
Someone needs to hand Kahl a dictionary so he can look up “pro-Israel.”
Others have noted Kahl’s consistency as a false prophet. Among his mispredictions was his opposition to moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, which he said would lead to a “third intifada” and weaken America’s position in the Middle East. Two years later we celebrated the Abraham Accords.
Republicans raked Kahl over the coals at his hearing at the Senate Armed Services Committee two weeks ago, grilling him on his uncanny ability to get it wrong. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Kahl isn’t.
The Wall Street Journal found Kahl’s nomination serious enough to weigh in, noting how he had predicted that the billions Obama sent to Iran would be used to buy butter not guns. Iran’s well-armed terror proxies say different.
It’s not yet known if Kahl will be confirmed. What we do know is that if he isn’t, it won’t be thanks to the American Jewish establishment.
David Isaac is managing editor of World Israel News.
Candace Owens says she is suing rapper Cardi B for defamation following a heated exchange on Twitter, in which the rapper posted a fake tweet depicting Owens saying that her husband cheated on her with her brother.
“Just spoke with my family. I am 100% suing Cardi for that nonsense. You can’t just start throwing out wild lies against private members of my family because you’re upset someone called your out on your degenerate performance,” Owens tweeted.
Owens took to Twitter on Tuesday to tell rapper Cardi B that her performance at the Grammy Awards on Sunday night was “grotesque,” adding that “there’s no person in America” wishing “their daughters turn out like you.” Owens and Cardi B engaged in a heated Twitter exchange, in which the rapper shamed the conservative commentator for making her husband a sandwich.
“Matter fact I’m just going to thank Candy. She put my performance on Fox News giving it more views that boosted the views on YouTube and is counting towards my streams and sales,” Cardi B tweeted. “STREAM UP AND WAP .REMEMBER GROWN PARENTS ONLY YOU CAN MONITOR WHAT YOUR KIDS WATCH NO1 ELSE.”
Watch below:
Owens reacted by clarifying that she doesn’t take issue with the rapper’s success, but rather with Cardi B “being used to encourage young women to strip themselves of dignity.”
Cardi B responded by shaming Owens for making her “white” husband a sandwich while she was nine months pregnant.
“And black women should be more like you? After all the fighting for equality and freedom they should be submissive to a white a man after years of abuse & rape making them a sandwich while pregnant cause in your words ‘that’s what a woman should do’? Interesting,” Cardi B tweeted.
“If you think making your husband a sandwich is a sin, but popping your vagina into another woman’s vagina in front of the world is power — you are a lost soul,” Owens reacted.
The Twitter exchange continued before Cardi B eventually mentioned that Owens had previously said she watched her in VH1’s Love & Hip Hop, and thought that the rapper had potential.
“You’re all over the place trying to make people look at anything but the issue at hand,” Owens reacted. “Your performance was grotesque. This is not about love & hip hop. This is not about my husband’s sandwich. This is about you & the vulgarity that you espouse that is ruinous to our youth.”
“Millions of young girls follow you. At your best, you are self-deprecating and humorous. At your worst, you are naked, shoving your vagina into another woman’s vagina while thrusting atop her. You were at your worst on the Grammy stage. Do better @iamcardib,” Owens concluded.
Cardi B reacted to Owens’ criticism of her by posting a fake tweet depicting Owens saying that her husband cheated on her with her brother. Cardi B took down the series of tweets.
“Not you talking about two women thrusting their vaginas together while your husband and brother slap cocks and balls together. WELL WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! wow,” the rapper wrote, alongside the photoshopped Owens tweet In a later response to Cardi B, Owens suggested that she may see the rapper in court for defamation.
Cardi B performed a rendition of her hit song, “Wet Ass Pu@@y” (WAP) on Sunday night at the Grammys alongside fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion, in which the two were seen thrusting their genitals at each other.
In 2019, Cardi B attacked the New York Police Department, telling it to “motherf@cking suck a fart and suffocate on it” after the NYPD allegedly convinced a Brownsville school to cancel a giveaway hosted by her friend Star Brim. That same year, Cardi B expressed her admiration for Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) for president, claiming, “I’m really sad how we let him down in 2016.”
Hollywood celebrities are rushing to blame the shooting deaths of eight people in the Atlanta area on anti-Asian racism, despite the police indicating that race wasn’t the motive. According to a law enforcement official, the suspect has claimed the shootings at three massage parlors were related to an apparent sex addiction and his desire to eliminate his sexual temptations.
President Joe Biden refrained from rushing to judgment when reporters asked him about the shooting. “I am making no connection at this moment on the motivation of the killer,” he told reporters Wednesday in the Oval Office. “I’m waiting for an answer as the investigation proceeds from the FBI and the Justice Department.”
Stars including Chelsea Handler, George Takei, and Rob Reiner joined the stampede to blame the shootings on racism, with many using the hashtags #StopAAPIHate and #StopAsianHate. Some celebrities even blamed Republicans and Donald Trump.
“I’m sorry, but the deaths of over half a million Americans, the deadly seditious insurrection, the murders of Asian-Americans all lay at the feet of Donald J. Trump,” Reiner tweeted.
“It would be a good time for Republicans to stand up and recognize the terrible impact Trump has had when people are murdered as a result of the words of Donald Trump,” Chelsea Handler tweeted.
Robert Aaron Long, 21, has been arrested on suspicion of killing eight people at three massage parlors late Tuesday in the Atlanta area. Six of the eight victims were Asian, according to reports.
On Wednesday, Sheriff Frank Reynolds of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office said the suspect has claimed the shootings weren’t racially motivated and that he targeted the parlors because of an apparent sex addiction. “He apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction,” Reynolds said, adding that the parlors represented “a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate.”
The suspect was reportedly arrested en route to Florida, with the intention of targeting porn companies.
Despite these statements, Hollywood celebrities are aggressively pushing unsubstantiated claims that the shooter acted out of racism against Asians. Some stars used the shootings to score political points against conservatives.
The Mindy Project star Mindy Kaling claimed the violence was a result of the “normalizing of anti-Asian hate speech in the past year.”
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay urged people to “examine stereotypes you hold about Asian people” and “work to dismantle that within yourself.
Star Trek actor George Takei blamed House GOP members, saying that the use of the term “China Virus” has led to physical violence.
Comedian Chelsea Handler blamed Republicans as well as Donald Trump
Rob Reiner singled out Donald Trump to blame for the shootings.
Bravo’s Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi also used the shootings to attack Trump, claiming the alleged shooter was influenced by the former president.
Actor-director and Disney’s Pinocchio writer Chris Weitz claimed without evidence that “it was clearly a hate crime.”
My Big Fat Greek Wedding star Nia Vardalos claimed that the shooting was a hate crime targeting Asian people.
Other stars who labeled the shootings as manifestations of anti-Asian racism include Debra Messing, Susan Sarandon, Alyssa Milano, Amber Tamblyn, Waand Viola Davis.
In a recent op-ed, Dylan Williams of J Street called on the Biden administration to “rebuild the U.S. relationship with moderate Palestinian leaders.”
Since presumably J Street would not claim that the leaders of the genocidal Hamas terrorist group are “moderate,” then the “moderate Palestinian leaders” Williams and J Street have in mind must be Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas and those around him.
Less than three years ago — on April 30, 2018 — Abbas stood before the Palestine National Council’s opening session (PNC) and delivered a blatantly antisemitic speech.
Abbas stated that Jews have “no historical ties” to the Land of Israel because they are actually descendants of the Turkish Khazar tribe (a bizarre and long-discredited conspiracy theory)
Also, Abbas said that there has never been an antisemitic incident against Jews in Arab countries — “Not even once,” he declared. “Do you think I’m exaggerating? I challenge you [to find] even one incident against Jews in over 1,400 years.”
Abbas’ previous claims about the Holocaust — described in detail in his 1982 doctoral dissertation and subsequent book — include that only a few hundred thousand, not six million, Jews were killed by the Nazis; and that David Ben-Gurion collaborated with the Nazis to kill Jews, to garner world sympathy for creating a Jewish state.
What did J Street — which now speaks of “moderate Palestinian leaders” — say about Abbas’ speech? In a May 1, 2018, press release, J Street said that it “strongly condemns remarks made by President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday that featured absurd antisemitic tropes and deeply offensive comments on the history of the Jewish people and Israel.” J Street called Abbas’ speech “incendiary” and argued that “there is absolutely no excuse” for what he said.
If, less than three years ago, Abbas was — according to J Street — an antisemite, how is he now a “moderate”? Does antisemitism have a shelf life and an expiration date? Or does J Street simply wait until everybody has forgotten about Abbas’ speech so that it can resume calling him “moderate” to advance the Palestinian cause?
And is J Street simply hoping that the rest of us will not notice that under Abbas, antisemitism still fills the PA-controlled media and school textbooks? Or does J Street acknowledge that Abbas is still an antisemite? And if so, where are those mysterious, unnamed “moderate Palestinian leaders” to whom Dylan Williams referred and whom J Street wants the US to shower with financial aid and political support?
J Street’s May 2018 condemnation of Abbas was a rare and impressive criticism of a figure whom J Street had almost never previously criticized.
Publicly challenging a leader whose policies you generally support is never easy. At the time, some skeptics, myself included, wondered if the condemnation was sincere or was just a quick gesture intended to make J Street look reasonable but with no intention of actually confronting Palestinian antisemitism.
If J Street wants the Jewish community to believe that its opposition to Palestinian antisemitism is sincere, it must insist that Abbas officially recant his speech, withdraw his antisemitic book from circulation, and eliminate antisemitic statements from the PA-controlled media and schools.
When I say “recant,” I don’t mean a mealy-mouthed statement like the one Abbas issued in 2018, following the international uproar over his antisemitic remarks. “If people were offended by my statement in front of the PNC, especially people of the Jewish faith, I apologize to them,” Abbas said.
That wasn’t a genuine apology. Not even close. The problem with Abbas’ speech was not that some people took offense (as if they were being thin-skinned and overreacting); the problem is that what Abbas said about Jews was wrong, vile, and bigoted. That’s what Abbas has to admit and recant. Admitting he was wrong is vitally important to send a message to the Palestinian public that the antisemitic lies they have been hearing all these years — in their leader’s speeches and books and in their media and schools — were wrong.
Only when the Palestinians, starting with their leaders, genuinely give up their antisemitism can we take seriously claims by Dylan Williams and J Street that “moderate Palestinian leaders” exist with whom the United States should interact.
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Moshe Phillips is the national director of Herut North America’s U.S. division. A Zionist Organization of which The Lid is an active member. Why don’t you join us? More information is available at www.herutna.org.
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Jeff Note: J Street is the Washington, D.C., based “Jewish” faux Zionist groups created specifically to attack the Jewish State. It was founded with seed money from George Soros; J Street had minimal legitimacy in the Jewish Community but was promoted by Barack Obama as an important organization because it supported his anti-Israel positions. It was founded in 2008 and markets itself as a kind of left-wing AIPAC. From its very beginning, the group goes out of its way to emphasize its motto of “pro-Israel, pro-peace. The motto is a lie. To quote Professor Alan Dershowitz in the film “The J Street Challenge,” J Street is “neither pro-Israel nor pro-peace.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin recalled the country’s ambassador to the U.S. Wednesday, hours after President Joe Biden called Putin a “killer” without a human soul.
Biden’s comments came on the heels of a report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) detailing both Russian and Iranian efforts to influence the 2020 election. The Kremlin ordered ambassador Anatoly Antonov to return to Russia from Washington, D.C. for “consultations” on how to address the spiraling relations with the U.S. (RELATED: Biden’s Intel Chief Releases 2020 Election Report Confirming Russian And Iranian Interference)
“We are interested in preventing their irreversible degradation if the Americans are aware of the associated risks,” Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Axios.
The Biden administration has vowed consequences for Russia both for its election interference and its SolarWinds hack of U.S. agencies and more than 100 major companies. Biden has not detailed what form those consequences might take, however.
The ODNI report concurred with a Trump-era report on Russia and Iran’s interference efforts, but appeared to contradict the previous administration’s finding that China was engaging in efforts to prevent President Donald Trump’s reelection.
“We assess that China prefers that President Trump – whom Beijing sees as unpredictable – does not win reelection,” the Trump administration’s assessment claimed. “China has been expanding its influence efforts ahead of November 2020 to shape the policy environment in the United States, pressure political figures it views as opposed to China’s interests, and deflect and counter criticism of China.”
Biden’s ODNI now says with “high confidence” that China didn’t deploy any attempts to influence the election for either candidate. The report notes, however, that the National Intelligence Officer for Cyber believes with “moderate confidence” that “China did take some steps to try to undermine former President Trump’s reelection.”
Trump warned that the wave of migration will “destroy our country” if we don’t do something about it, during a Fox News interview.
“[Lopez Obrador] is a great gentleman. We had a very good relationship. They had 28,000 soldiers on our border while we were building the wall … and they were also stopping them at their northern border by Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala,” Trump said.
“Today, they are coming in. You take a look. They are coming in from foreign countries. I see they are coming in from Yemen. They are coming in from the Middle East. They are coming in from everywhere,” he said. “They are dropping them off and they are pouring into our country. It is a disgrace.”
“They are going to destroy our country if we don’t do something about it.”
“Frankly, our country can’t handle [the increase in migrants]. It is a crisis like we have rarely had and certainly we have never had on the border. But it is going to get much worse.”
Meanwhile, in an interview with ABC News, President Joe Biden acknowledged that the situation at the border is deteriorating, and delivered the following message to migrants seeking entry illegally into the US.’
“Yes, I can say quite clearly: Don’t come over…Don’t leave your town or city or community.”
Beforehand, Biden dismissed the notion that he had somehow encouraged migrants to flood over the border with his rollback of Trump’s tough-on-immigration policies.
French Culture Roselyne Bachelot gestures as she stays next to a oil painting by Gustav Klimt painted between in 1905 called "Rosebushes under the Trees," during a ceremony at the Orsay museum in Paris, Monday, March 15, 2021. The French government hands over a Klimt painting to the grandchildren of the holocaust victim Nora Stiasny stolen by the Nazis during World War II. (Alain Jocard/Pool Photo via AP)
(AP) — The French government announced Monday that it will return a Nazi-looted Gustav Klimt landscape painting to its rightful owners more than 80 years after it was stolen from a Jewish family in Austria in 1938.
The colorful 1905 oil work by the Austrian symbolist painter titled “Rosebushes under the Trees” has been hanging in Paris’ Musee d’Orsay museum for decades.
French Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin told a Paris news conference that “the decision to return a major work from the public collections illustrates our commitment to the duty of justice and reparation vis-à-vis plundered families.”
The oil work will be returned to the family of Nora Stiasny, a Holocaust victim who was dispossessed during a forced sale in August 1938.
Bachelot-Narquin said that French authorities hadn’t initially identified the painting as being stolen by the Nazis, and its provenance only recently came to light after French government-led investigations on the issue.
“It is in recent years that the true origin of the painting has been established,” she said, adding that it was “the only Gustav Klimt painting owned by France.”
“‘Rosebushes under the Trees’” is a testament to the lives that a criminal will has stubbornly sought to eliminate.”
Thousands of artworks looted by the Nazis across Europe wound up in French museums after the Allies defeated Nazi Germany in 1945. Though many have been returned, French authorities have stepped up efforts in recent years to find homes for the scores of hanging heirlooms that remain unclaimed.
A political group generously funded by a Walmart heir who is the world’s ninth richest person is pumping money into a City Council special election in one of the city’s poorest areas, campaign records show.
And Alice Walton isn’t the only monied outsider plunging into a Bronx race: Big real estate is also throwing cash around in two borough contests — with the combined outside spending rivaling the sums raised by candidates within the city’s tightly restricted campaign finance system.
The pair of nonpartisan special elections in the north and central Bronx is scheduled for March 23. Early in-person and absentee voting have already begun.
New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany, backed by charter school advocate Walton, has spent more than $75,000 on mailers, internet video ads and live phone calls to boost candidate John Sanchez. He’s running among 10 candidates for the District 15 seat formerly occupied by U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres.
Walton, an art collector originally from Arkansas, is the richest woman in the world, according to Forbes, which puts her net worth at $54.4 billion.
The Walton Family Foundation did not respond to THE CITY’s request for comment.
The $800,000 contributed by Walton to New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany appears to be her first investment in local New York City elections.
Walton has no record of donations in city elections prior to this race, but the 71-year-old daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton has given more than $1.2 million to New York State pro-charter groups, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s campaign fund and Democratic committees since 2015.
Real Estate Ties
Sanchez distanced himself from Alice Walton’s involvement.
“I can’t speak as to why any group or PAC is getting involved in this race or how they choose to get involved,” Sanchez told THE CITY in a statement via a spokesperson. “It is important to keep in mind that independent expenditures are not campaign contributions. I have neither accepted nor solicited any support from these groups.”
John Sanchez For NY/FacebookJohn Sanchez is running for City Council in The Bronx.
A State Board of Election filing shows New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany was registered by Jenny Sedlis, executive director of the New York charter school advocacy group StudentsFirst.
Sanchez, most recently district manager for Bronx Community Board 6, worked for a different charter school organization, according to his LinkedIn profile, after serving as deputy chief of staff for now-former Bronx Assemblymember Michael Blake.
In a statement, Sedlis said: “StudentsFirstNY supports the candidates we believe will stand up for public school students and have the most impact on improving education in New York.”
Another group, Voters of NYC, Inc., is also backing Sanchez as well as Eric Dinowitz, who’s running in Riverdale’s 11th District. The group has spent about $34,000 boosting Dinowitz and $43,000 on Sanchez, Campaign Finance Board records show.
CFB records reveal multiple contributions to Voters of NYC totaling $185,000 from real estate firms, including $100,000 from WLZ Properties, Inc. — a company associated with powerhouse developer William Lie Zeckendorf.
Spurning Support
Dinowitz said that he doesn’t hold any allegiance to real estate groups.
“The real estate interests behind this mailer obviously don’t know me very well. I don’t want or need the support of anyone who doesn’t share my values — and that means anyone in real estate,” Dinowitz told THE CITY in a statement.
“I’m a proud labor candidate and a neighborhood candidate –– and that means I will always stand 100% with tenants, coop owners, homeowners, seniors and working families, and look forward to fighting on the Council for stronger rent laws, protecting those facing eviction, and opposing overdevelopment,” he added.
Voters of NYC was registered with the state Board of Elections by Jeffrey Leb, the same consultant who launched the independent spending committee Common Sense NYC.
Leb’s Common Sense group spent more than $200,000 to influence a Queens special election this winter and has raised nearly $1.5 million — including $1 million from real estate magnate Stephen Ross, CEO of Related Companies.
“We think the future of NYC literally hangs in the balance and such a small number of voters usually decide the governance of the city,” Leb told THE CITY in a statement. “People are concerned and want to raise awareness of these elections and the issues they’re about. A city-wide recovery is going to require qualified public officials who have a positive vision for New York’s future, and that’s what we’re focused on.”
Most of the Common Sense NYC spending in the Queens contest went to promoting former Councilmember James Gennaro and attacking left-wing rival Moumita Ahmed. Gennaro won the eight-candidate special election outright.
lev radin/ShutterstockStephen Ross attends the opening of the The Edge observation deck at the Hudson Yards, March 11, 2020.
The independent expenditures raised eyebrows for election integrity advocates.
“Voters need to hear directly from the candidates,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause NY. “And the problem with this with outsized spending by PACs, is that you have outside voices basically interfering in the communication between voters and candidates.”
“The public financing system is designed to allow candidates to communicate directly to voters, and we believe that is the best type of election communication,” she added.
Ranked-Choice Wrinkle
Under New York City’s new ranked-choice system, if no candidate gets 50% of the vote in a special, primary or general local election, the Board of Elections will tally additional choices made by voters. That means that coaxing voters to put additional names on their ballots could help decide the races.
Low turnout and Dinowitz’s name recognition — he is the son of longtime Bronx Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz — could help carry him to victory among six candidates and avoid a runoff.
But the crowded race for the 15th District is more wide open.
Among the candidates are Elisa Crespo, a former aide to Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., and Ischia Bravo, former executive director of the Bronx Democratic County Committee. Other hopefuls include Kenny Agosto, a former aide to state Sen. Jamaal T. Bailey, and Oswald Feliz, a state committeemember.
Four candidates, including Sanchez, have unlocked more than $135,000 each in public matching funds under a system that matches some dollars eight to one, CFB filings show. Sanchez has garnered more money from private donations than any other candidate, with $62,343. Paired with his publicly matched funds, that put his spending at nearly $132,000, according to those same filings.
Just two other candidates, Bravo and Feliz, have spent more. Sanchez has the second-most cash on hand, behind Latchmi Gopal, who has only spent $17,404 compared to Sanchez’s six-figure expenditures.
A Crowded PAC
The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision allows outside spending groups — familiarly known as Super PACs — to raise and devote unlimited sums to influence elections, provided that they do not coordinate with the candidates or campaigns.
Laborers PAC, which is funded by the Mason Tenders union, contributed $5,000 to Bravo, Sanchez’s rival in the 15th District, and $8,000 to Eric Dinowitz in the 11th District.
Our City, a left-leaning super PAC, endorsed Sanchez rival Elisa Crespo this week and pledged to spend “in the mid-five figures” for advertisements in the final week of the special election, Norwood News reported.
While donors to federal super PACs may remain anonymous, spawning the term “dark money,” New York City requires disclosure of donors, including the top three donors on mailers and other voter communications.
The independent expenditure group also got involved in a December special election where it spent $70,165 on mailers, radio ads, robocalls and sweatshirts to support now-Councilmember Kevin Riley. By contrast, all the candidates combined raised only about a combined $78,000, and received an additional $190,000 in public matching funds.
Riley won that election outright, garnering 68.1% of the vote — just 4,879 votes — in the Dec. 22 special election.
Riley, a former aide to Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, was elected to fill the seat vacated by former Councilmember Andy King, who was expelled from the chamber last October over alleged ethics violations.
Though Riley was backed by his former boss and several labor unions, a dismal turnout in that special election may have helped him secure his victory: Just over 7,000 people cast their ballots in that race, out of more than 95,000 who were eligible.
Riley’s current term ends at the end of the calendar year, but if keeps his seat in the June primary and the November general elections, he would serve a new term beginning in 2022.
Mixed Messages
Voters receiving mailers or seeing internet ads for Sanchez or Dinowitz are seeing messages that depart from the sponsors’ usual priorities.
“HOUSING IS A HUMAN RIGHT,” reads a mailer from New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany, the charter school group, quoting Sanchez. “Housing is a basic need and any efforts to prevent people from decent housing is an unacceptable civil rights violation.”
New Yorkers for a Balanced AlbanyThe group New Yorkers for a Balanced Albany paid for a campaign mailer promoting John Sanchez’s City Council run.
Sanchez brushed off questions about whether or not voters should be concerned about real estate ties given the source of the mailers.
“For voters who might feel uneasy about any expenditures from real estate groups, my record supporting tenants and calling out racist zoning practices speaks for itself,” said Sanchez, a founding board member of the tenant watchdog group Housing Rights Initiative.
That group recently sued 88 landlords they allege discriminated against applicants with housing vouchers. Sanchez has pledged to increase protections for housing voucher recipients, expanding Section 8 and increasing the value of municipal rent supplements.
Other Walton-funded Super PAC promotions for Sanchez highlight his advocacy on jobs and COVID relief. None mention education or charter schools.
“I have been transparent with respect to supporting parents and families who want a choice as to what school to send their children, whether that be a traditional public school, charter, parochial or private school,” Sanchez said in a statement. “For too long, we have been told that living in certain ZIP codes means that we have to accept whatever is available even if that means failing schools with few opportunities. I reject this narrative.”
One Dinowitz mailer sponsored by Zeckendorf and other real estate players highlights his stances on education, transit, immigration, ethics, parks, senior citizens, COVID recovery and disabilities justice — with no mention of housing. The other trumpets politician and labor union endorsements.
Voters of NYC, Inc.The independent group Voters of NYC, Inc., paid for a flyer promoting Eric Dinowitz’ Bronx City Council run.
Kingsbridge Heights resident Jack Marth was taken aback when he received a pro-Dinowitz mailer paid for by Voters of NYC last week.
“Why is big real estate supporting Eric?” Marth, who intends to vote for Dinowitz rival Mino Lora, wondered in a tweet.
“Any candidate who gets this kind of help and isn’t openly denouncing it, I think, does not believe in the kind of campaign finance reform we need to have more honest, fair, transparent, democratic elections that reflect the will of the voters and not the will of real estate interests,” Marth told THE CITY.
“Big money in politics is bad,” he said. “And it just offends me that these big money, billionaire, real estate people are trying to insert themselves into my local election.”
THE CITY is an independent, nonprofit news outlet dedicated to hard-hitting reporting that serves the people of New York.
CBS News reports U.S. Border Patrol officials are holding more than 13,000 unaccompanied migrant children in custody along the Rio Grande. Many are being held for at least five days — well beyond the 72-hour legal limit.
CBS News Correspondent Mirey Villarreal reported from the Texas-Mexico border that officials are holding more than 13,000 unaccompanied alien children in Border Patrol facilities designed for adults. Many of the children are being held for at least five days. Courts previously imposed a limit of 72 hours on how long unaccompanied children could be held without being released to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Breitbart’s Randy Clark first reported on the Biden Administration illegally holding these minors in jail cells built to hold adults beyond the 72-hour limit. “Despite the opening of a new facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, Border Patrol facilities continue to experience overcrowding not seen since the 2019 migrant crisis,” Clark wrote.
While the Biden Administration calls the migrant surge a “challenging situation,” and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says the situation is “under control,” local law enforcement officials in the Rio Grande Valley are calling it a “full-blown crisis,” Villarreal reported.
In her report, Villarreal talked to a 10-year-old Honduran boy who made the journey to the Texas border without any family and was walking alone when she found him.
The situation is something President Joe Biden has seen before. In June 2014, during the Obama/Biden administration, Breitbart Texas Managing Editor Brandon Darby published leaked photos of migrant children being packed into filthy jail cells. The revelation of the children being held in deplorable conditions shocked the world and shifted the discussion of illegal immigration in the United States.
During the Trump administration in April 2018, Breitbart Texas again reported the increasing numbers of unaccompanied children crossing the border.
With only 4,171 unaccompanied minors crossing the entire southwest border with Mexico that month, DHS Press Secretary Tyler Q. Houlton said, “The crisis at our Southwest border is real. The number of illegal border crossings during the month of March shows an urgent need to address the ongoing situation at the border.”
In February 2021, Border Patrol agents apprehended 18,945 unaccompanied minors (7,056 in Texas sectors alone) and the Biden Administration scrambles to catch up with the situation they say is “under control.”
DHS Secretary Mayorkas appeared before the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday morning, Breitbart News reported. The secretary refused, once again, to call the situation a “crisis.” Rather he said the department faces a “difficult situation.”
(AP) A white man accused of killing eight people, most of whom were of Asian descent, at massage parlors in the Atlanta area told police the attack was not racially motivated and that he potentially had a “sexual addiction,” officials said Wednesday.
Still, authorities said they were investigating whether the deaths were hate crimes amid concerns over a wave of attacks on Asian Americans. Six of the victims were identified as Asian and seven were women.
Officials did not say that Robert Aaron Long, 21, ever went to the parlors where the shootings occurred. They also said he was planning to go to Florida in a plot to attack “some type of porn industry.”
“He made indicators that he has some issues, potentially sexual addiction, and may have frequented some of these places in the past,” said Sheriff Frank Reynolds, of Cherokee County, where one of the targeted businesses was.
He said it was too early to tell if it was racially motivated — “but the indicators right now are it may not be.” He added: “We believe that he frequented these places in the past and maybe have been lashing out.”
The attack was the sixth mass killing this year in the U.S., and the deadliest since the August 2019 Dayton killing that took the lives of nine people, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today, and Northeastern University. It follows a lull during the pandemic in 2020 that had the smallest number mass killings in more than a decade. The database tracks mass killings defined as four or more dead, not including the shooter.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said that regardless of the shooter’s motivation, “it is unacceptable, it is hateful, and it has to stop.”
The attacks began Tuesday evening, when five people were shot at Youngs Asian Massage Parlor near Woodstock, about 30 miles north of Atlanta, Cherokee County Sheriff’s spokesman Capt. Jay Baker said. Two people died at the scene, and three were taken to a hospital where two died, Baker said.
About an hour later, police responding to a call about a robbery found three women dead from apparent gunshot wounds at Gold Spa near Atlanta’s Buckhead area, where tattoo parlors and strip clubs are just blocks away from mansions and skyscrapers in one of the last ungentrified holdouts in that part of the city. Officers then learned of a call reporting shots fired across the street, at Aromatherapy Spa, and found another woman apparently shot dead.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden has been briefed on the “horrific shootings” and would receive an update later Wednesday from Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray. The FBI is assisting Atlanta and Cherokee County authorities in the investigation.
Vice President Kamala Harris expressed support to the Asian American community after the “tragic” shooting, as she sent condolences to the victims’ families.
“We’re not yet clear about the motive. But I do want to say to our Asian American community that we stand with you and understand how this has frightened and shocked and outraged all people,” said Harris, who is the first Black and South Asian woman to hold the office of vice president.
Over the past year, thousands of incidents of abuse have been reported to an anti-hate group that tracks incidents against Asian Americans, and hate crimes, in general, are at the highest level in more than a decade.
“We are heartbroken by these acts of violence,” Asian Americans Advancing Justice — Atlanta said in a statement. “While the details of the shootings are still emerging, the broader context cannot be ignored. The shootings happened under the trauma of increasing violence against Asian Americans nationwide, fueled by white supremacy and systemic racism.”
Police in Atlanta and other major cities deplored the killings, and some said they would increase patrols in Asian American communities. Seattle’s mayor said “the violence in Atlanta was an act of hate,” and San Francisco police tweeted #StopAsianHate. The New York City Police counterterrorism unit said it was on alert for similar attacks.
Surveillance video recorded a man pulling up to the Cherokee County business about 10 minutes before the attack there, and the same car was spotted outside the Atlanta businesses, authorities said. A manhunt was launched, and Long was taken into custody in Crisp County, about 150 miles south of Atlanta, Baker said.
Rita Barron, the store manager of a business neighboring Youngs in Cherokee County, said a bullet was shot through their shared wall. She said that security footage of the parking lot showed the gunman had been sitting outside in his car for about an hour just watching the stores.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry earlier said that its diplomats in Atlanta have confirmed with police that four of the victims who died were women of Korean descent. The ministry said its Consulate General in Atlanta is trying to confirm the nationality of the women.
Crisp County Sheriff Billy Hancock said in a video posted on Facebook that his deputies and state troopers were notified Tuesday night that a murder suspect out of north Georgia was headed their way. Deputies and troopers set up along the interstate and “made contact with the suspect,” he said.
A state trooper performed a PIT, or pursuit intervention technique, maneuver, “which caused the vehicle to spin out of control,” Hancock said. Long was then taken into custody “without incident.”
Crisp County sheriff’s spokeswoman Haley Wade said Wednesday morning that Long, who is white, is no longer in their custody and that her office has turned over its information to the other Georgia agencies and the FBI.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is in South Korea meeting with Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong, mentioned the killings during an opening statement.
“We are horrified by this violence which has no place in America or anywhere,” he said.
Melissa DeRosa, secretary to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Photo Credit: AP
Edited by: TJVNews.com
Since New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has come under fire for alleged sexual misconduct with a number of women who have accused him of harassment, many have wondered just how this kind of disturbing behavior could have been allowed to continue, under the noses of those who worked so closely with the governor.
Just who are Andrew Cuomo’s accomplices? Who are the people that lurk behind the scenes and essentially serve as enablers for him? Were any of his staff involved in covering up Cuomo’s illicit behavior?
The Governor’s cabinet consists of the following people. They comprise the executive chamber and the heads of the various departments of the government of New York.
Larry Schwartz, a longtime adviser to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
Making headlines on Monday was the Cuomo administration’s “vaccine czar” Larry Schwartz. Having the complete operational authority of the state’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution, Schwartz is clearly in a powerful position. As such, it has been reported that Schwartz recently made calls to county officials in New York to determine their level of loyalty or non-loyalty to the governor.
According to a recent report on NPR, local officials in New York who spoke to the media outlet viewed the calls from Schwartz as an implicit threat. This essentially translates into a retribution of sorts, meaning that if one were to voice displeasure with the governor, then the punishment would be that the Covid-19 vaccine for their county would be turned off.
“I’m afraid of that man,” one local official said, according to the NPR report. “Why in God’s name would that man have called? People were terrified.”
NPR reported that the calls made by Schwartz first became public in The Washington Post. Schwartz told the paper that the calls were made in a capacity unrelated to his role in vaccine distribution and that vaccine distribution was not influenced by politics. “Nobody indicated that they were uncomfortable or that they did not want to talk to me,” he told the Washington Post.
NPR reported that during regular conference calls with more than 100 county officials and staff, Schwartz would routinely refer to the vaccine as his own: “If I have extra vaccine.” If there were extra doses available and executives wanted access to them, this official told NPR that Schwartz would say: “Send me an email and I’ll consider it.”
The Secretary to the Governor is Melissa DeRosa. If the name sounds at all familiar, she is the one who told state legislators during the video meeting that Governor Cuomo’s office had intentionally lied about the numbers of patients who died of coronavirus in the year 2020 at various nursing homes around the city and state. Ms. DeRosa admitted that a lie needed to be constructed about the real numbers of Covid deaths because the actual numbers were beyond staggering.
Additionally, it was the Governor who signed off on the fateful decision of March 25th that allowed recovering coronavirus patients to be placed in nursing homes with a predominantly elderly patient population. Ms. DeRosa also said that the governor’s office was terrified over the prospect that the then Trump administration may indeed carry out their threat to launch a Department of Justice investigation into the nursing home deaths and that criminal charges may have been filed.
Linda Lacewell is alleged to have directed the removal of COVID-19 deaths from the report.
Linda Lacewell, the head of New York’s Department of Financial Services, is one of the three top Cuomo aides accused of changing a report to conceal the real number of deaths in the state’s nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to The New York Times. Lacewell is alleged to have directed the removal of COVID-19 deaths from the report, the New York Post reported.
Ms. Lacewell previously served as Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Governor. In that role, she oversaw Executive Chamber operations, as well as ethics and law enforcement matters.
Prior to serving as the executive director of a cancer foundation initiative in Culver City, California Lacewell was a Chief Risk Officer and Counselor to Governor Cuomo where she built and implemented the first statewide system for ethics, risk and compliance in agencies and authorities.
She serves as an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law, teaching ethics in government, and previously served as an adjunct professor of law at Fordham University School of Law, teaching international criminal law.
Kelly Cummings serves as Director of State Operations and Infrastructure. Previously, she served as Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Cuomo. Prior to working in the Governor’s administration, she served as the Director of Communications for the Senate Majority. In that position she managed overall communications and press for the Senate Majority Conference and acted as chief spokesperson for the Senate Majority Leader. In her more than 20 years in the State Legislature, Ms. Cummings has held a number of communications and policy positions in both the Senate and Assembly.
Kelly Cummings serves as Director of State Operations and Infrastructure. Previously, she served as Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to Governor Cuomo. Prior to working in the Governor’s administration, she served as the Director of Communications for the Senate Majority. Photo Credit: Twitter
Ms. Cummings previously served as director of policy development for the Senate Minority where she assisted senators and their staff in developing, drafting and publicizing new legislative initiatives. Prior to that, Ms. Cummings was chief of staff to Senator Charles Fuschillo where she managed operations, developed legislation and directed press and communications.
Michael Kopy, a longtime state police supervisor and former volunteer fire chief in Mamaroneck, was named the new director of emergency management for the office of Gov. Cuomo in January of 2019. Kopy’s job is one of three leadership roles carved out of the Office of State Operations as Cuomo began his third term.
Last week, the New York Post reported that Cuomo’s top lawyer, Kumiki Gibson announced that she was leaving her post after less than two years on the job. This marked the latest resignation in a wave of departures from the administration.
Kumiki Gibson, counsel for Cuomo has left her post. Photo Credit: Pinterest
Gibson has served as counsel to the governor, Cuomo’s chief lawyer, since September 2019. Friday, March 12th was her last day on the job as she prepares to take a job in the non-profit sector. “I informed the Executive Chamber a month ago that I planned to leave State service and have accepted a position at a nationally prominent not-for-profit organization,” Gibson said in a statement, as was reported by the Post.
On March 8th, Cuomo announced that Beth Garvey has been appointed Acting Counsel to the Governor. Ms. Garvey replaces Kumiki Gibson who has served in this position since 2019 and has accepted a new position in the non-profit sector.
“Beth Garvey is a true public servant and a brilliant legal mind who has been an integral member of this administration since she joined it,” Governor Cuomo said. “As we start to turn the corner on this pandemic, much work remains to reopen this state as safely and swiftly as we can and I thank Beth for her past and future work on behalf of all New Yorkers. Beth is one of the hardest working, most effective public servants in State government, and New Yorkers are fortunate to have her serve in this role. I also commend Kumiki Gibson for her hard work, dedication and service to the people of this great state and wish her only the best as she begins this new chapter.”
Since 2019, Ms. Garvey has served as Special Counsel and Senior Advisor to the Governor, responsible for the Governor’s budget, legislative and policy priorities. In this new role, she will continue to be responsible for these priorities, as well as serve as Chief Counsel to the Governor.
Robert Mujica. Jr. is the NY Budget Director.
Robert Mujica, Jr was appointed Director of the Budget by Governor Andrew Cuomo and began serving on January 14, 2016. He is responsible for the overall development and management of the State’s fiscal policy, including overseeing the preparation of budget recommendations for all State agencies and programs, economic and revenue forecasting, tax policy, fiscal planning, capital financing and management of the State’s debt portfolio.
Prior to his appointment, Mr. Mujica was Chief of Staff to the Temporary President and Majority Leader of the Senate and concurrently served as the Secretary to the Senate Finance Committee. For two decades, Mr. Mujica advised various elected and other government officials in New York on State budget, fiscal and policy issues.
A May 31, 2020 report by CityandState.com said that “Mujica has capitalized on a unique blend of fiscal know-how and political savvy to quietly become one of the most powerful figures in New York politics. But with the state now tumbling into its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Mujica has been tasked with assembling a package of cuts to close a multibillion-dollar shortfall – and he’ll likely have to use every budget trick he ever learned to get it done.”
Timothy Hartz was appointed as Director of Executive Operations by Cuomo in January of 2019. Prior to his position in the Cuomo administration, Hartz most recently served as a Special Assistant to President Obama and Deputy Director of Advance Operations for the White House. Previously, he served as the Director of Priority Placement with the Presidential Personnel Office and as the Director of Operations for the Department of the Interior.
In January of 2019, Cuomo’s so-called energy czar — recruited in the wake of Hurricane Sandy to reshape the state’s electric grid — announced plans to step down from that role, according to an article on the Politico web site.
Richard Kauffman has served as New York’s top energy official, coordinating the state’s disparate energy agencies and playing a key role in making and implementing policy since 2013. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Richard Kauffman has served as New York’s top energy official, coordinating the state’s disparate energy agencies and playing a key role in making and implementing policy since 2013. Kauffman remained the chairman of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, but no longer played the role of top energy official for the Cuomo administration.
Lt Gov Kathy Hochul has not commented on the Cuomo scandal. Photo Credit: Twitter
Andrew Cuomo’s Lieutenant Governor is Kathy Hochul, former United States Representative from New York’s 26th district. Hochul replaced the previous Lieutenant Governor, Robert Duffy, the former Mayor of Rochester.
Hochul addressed the governor’s situation in a statement last week . According to a WSJ report, she said then that she had confidence in an independent review of the accusations overseen by state Attorney General Letitia James.
An independent review of the accusations against Cuomo are being overseen by NYS Attorney General Letitia James. Photo Credit: ag.ny.gov
The WSJ also reported that according to people that have spoken with Hochul as well as state and local officials, Hochul has not issued a definitive statement or opnion on Cuomo’s situation. One person who spoke to her said she didn’t feel it would be her place to weigh in. “She basically is saying that she’s the last person who should offer an opinion on this because she would appear to be self-interested,” the person said.
On Tuesday, however, Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, the Democratic primary candidate for NYC Comptroller, called on Cuomo to step aside and allow Hochul to take charge of the state budget negotiations immediately, rather than wait until the Assembly votes on impeachment.
“Yesterday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said that Governor Cuomo should ‘get the hell out of the way’ of the important work of governing. I agree, but would go one step further and say that Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul must be allowed to assume the duties of governor effective immediately,” said Caruso-Cabrera, who on Friday called for the resignation of Governor Cuomo and top aides Melissa DeRosa and Rich Azzopardi.
“Obviously, the best thing for New York is for the Governor to resign, but since it is clear he is not going to do that, and an impeachment vote is still weeks away, having him step aside so that Lt. Governor Hochul can lead the critical budget negotiations in the meantime is the next best thing. We cannot have a Governor who is fixated with his own political survival instead of doing what is best for New York.”
With state budget negations poised to begin, Caruso-Cabrera argued that having Governor Cuomo step aside and allowing Lt. Governor Hochul to assume the duties of governor immediately is the best way forward, given that the Governor has rebuffed calls to resign from Majority Leader Schumer and Sen. Gillibrand, most of New York’s congressional delegation, and the majority of Democrats in the state legislature.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, center, State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker is at left and Beth Garvey, special counsel to the governor, is at right. Photo Credit: Governor’s Office
“Due to the distractions caused by the numerous accusations leveled at the governor, and investigations underway, it is clear that Governor Cuomo is unable to fulfill the requirements of the job at a time when we have an impending state budget deadline, an economic recovery that is fragile at best, and a vaccine rollout that is far from complete,” said Caruso-Cabrera, pointing to a provision within the state constitution that stipulates is that if a governor is not able to discharge their duties, the lieutenant governor takes over in an acting capacity.
“Now more than ever, New York needs a strong, steady, and undistracted leader at the helm. I urge the Governor to resign, but he must at the very least step aside and let Lt. Governor Hochul lead the budget negotiations for the good of the state,” Caruso-Cabrera concluded.
(Additional reporting and research by Fern Sidman)
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