MONEY CAN'T BUY HAPPINESS ..... BUT IT CAN BUY A GOOD TIME

Wall Street gone wild: Bankers spend big bucks on nights of debauchery 

 

By Michael Kaplan

 

 

New York Post

April 9, 2022

 

 

 

Young Wall Street princes are out on the prowl for fleshy fun in Manhattan

 

New York men who own penthouses have a lot of pent-up energy. And they’re ready and raring to release it.

Right now, as the pandemic eases and Wall Street bonuses are through the roof, finance-world princes — flush with cash — are out on the prowl for fleshy fun.

Take last month when a group of rowdy Deutsche Bank employees was axed after expensing the firm more than $1,000 for a night of naughtiness at Sapphire, a Midtown gentlemen’s club. The offense might sound outrageous, but their debauchery is hardly an isolated incident.

“Most people have lost two years of their lives due to COVID,” a nightlife insider told The Post. “They’re looking to make up for lost time. They have more money to spend than they know what to do with. I have a feeling that 2022 is going to be 2006 on steroids.”

The increased appetite for adult shenanigans has helped make Somewhere Nowhere, which opened last July on the 38^th floor of the Renaissance Chelsea hotel, a prime nightclub destination for the rich and horny finance crowd.

“Having fun on a hotel property is an asset at a time when people crave being in rooms with beautiful women,” the insider said. “Wall Street guys party upstairs, they meet girls and go right down to one of the hotel rooms. I’ve seen guys bring girls down, do what they do and then come back up solo. They want to keep the night going.”

 

Strip clubs like Sapphire are raking in cash as entertainment expense accounts are back for Wall Street high-rollers

 

The scene is hopping at Valbella, in Midtown, which, after 5 p.m. attracts flocks of guys from Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Bank of America. With people working at home some days and spending others at the office, manager/wine-director Elio Papa told The Post, “Thursday is the new Friday.”

He explains that the finance hotshots tend to favor the elite bourbon Pappy Van Winkle. “We’re only allocated one bottle per year and it goes for $380 per shot,” Papa said. “Luckily we stashed some during Covid. So Covid was good for something.”

Flush with cash, the Wall Streeters are looking for girls to hook up with

 

With all the wild after-hours antics, it’s no wonder then that the number of would-be Wall Streeters is swelling: a record-setting 236,000 college students applied for internships at Goldman Sachs. The money is good and so is the cash-fueled lifestyle that comes with a career on the Street – or even adjacent to it. The founder of a publicly traded sports betting site is said to have blown some $250,000 on a birthday party at Cathedrale (entertainment reportedly included aerial acrobats with A-Trak and Zack Bia in the DJ booth).

Then there are the gilded nights that, these days, pass as run-of-the-mill.

“I had a private equity guy who was throwing his girlfriend’s 30^th birthday party,” Beni Metsch, head of VIP services for The Blond, told The Post. “It didn’t matter if the budget was $5,000 or $20,000. But ultimately, he did 20 people for $15,000. The girl was happy. Everybody was happy. Nobody had to wait outside. They had 1942 [Don Julio tequila] and bottles of Dom Perignon” — brought to the table by cocktail waitresses after Metsch personally settled them in. “They didn’t want anything out of the ordinary.”

Sometimes, though, when young Wall Streeters sit at opposing tables, things get competitive. “We had a champagne war two weeks ago,” Richie Romero, managing-partner of Nebula, told The Post. “One guy sees the parade of cocktail waitresses, bringing bottles to the table, maybe with the ‘Rocky’ theme playing and girls run to the table. The guy single-picks and shoos away whoever he doesn’t want. Egos get bruised and it’s revenge of the broker. Then the other guy wants to outdo him and it goes back and forth. They were both over $30,000 or $40,000 that night.”

 

In a “champagne war,” rival tables of Wall Streeters try to outdo each other by ordering expensive bottles of French bubbly 

 

Who won the war? “We did,” said Romero. “And it’s going on more than ever.”

Expense accounts are back in play. For some two years, due to pandemic fears, Wall Streeters were not allowed to entertain, and that put a crimp in the lifestyle. “When bankers took me out, I had to pick up tabs,” said a client. “Now the entertainment budgets are back and they are making up for lost time. It’s $12,000 dinners at Hawksmoor with $2,500 bottles of Chateau Margaux.”

Those very same high-rollers are also being courted by the clubs where they blow thousands on a single night. “We brought in our big Wall Street clients who spend a lot of money and gifted them a bottle of Louis XIII cognac,” Sameer Qureshi, co-owner of Somewhere Nowhere told The Post. “It had been aged for 100 years, went for $45,000 and is extremely rare. We paired it with caviar and served it. Representatives from the [liquor] company hand delivered the bottle and it had to be consumed while they were there – but that was not a problem.”

 

At Somewhere Nowhere, finance dudes sometimes meet a girl, take her to the hotel downstairs for sex, then come right back up to the club to party more

 

As for the Deutsche Bank firings, a consultant with one of Manhattan’s splashier jiggle joints told The Post that a night of lap dances does not need to end with pink slips.

“The adult clubs are all 60/40,” the consultant said, referring to the fact that only 40 percent of the strip joint can be devoted to topless dancing. “So they all have restaurants and corporate cards can be charged to the restaurant component” – regardless of where the money actually went.

Or else they can make like some of their stock-slinging bros and skip the g-string formalities altogether. They just need to know where to go. A source inside the nightclub world told The Post that a venerable Italian restaurant in Soho “is the definitive place to go if you are a Wall Street guy with a bonus of $500,000 or more who wants a young prostitute.” He added, “You go there and see very attractive women sitting alone or with equally attractive friends or with less attractive men and you might wonder what the connection is. It’s an extremely deliberate kind of matchmaking and is booming right now.”

 

Cathedrale may look unassuming, but patrons drop big bucks here

 

Asked how such an evening might go down, the source gave a real example.

“A Wall Street guy asked my friend for a girl to bring to St. Barts,” he said. “He was pre-qualified with an ID check — they don’t want guys who are stretched financially — and a meal at the restaurant. That way he meets the girl, she meets him and they both know who they are going with. In the end, he winds up spending $25,000 on the trip and $10,000 on the girl for a long weekend. Sometimes, they come back to New York and continue dating.”

Summing up these “Pretty Woman”-style arrangements — though he could be speaking for all the riches from the current Wall Street gold rush — the source said, “It’s a pretty good deal for everyone.”

LUNACY: MURDERER SUES FOR RELEASE UNDER NO-BAIL LAW

Accused NYC killer sues after judge keeps him in jail 

 

By Kathianne Boniello

 

New York Post 

April 9, 2022

 

 

Accused killer John Spry is suing after a judge ordered him held behind bars 

 

A Manhattan judge didn’t clearly explain why she kept an accused murderer behind bars, so his lawyer has gone to court to get him freed under New York’s bail reform laws — a move one critic labeled as “lunacy.”

John Spry, 31, “laid in wait” for his victim in the Feb. 1 shooting, said prosecutors, who called the killing a “planned execution” and sought to have the suspect remanded without bail, according to a court transcript.

Judge Ann Scherzer listened as prosecutors described the allegations against Spry — who they said put a stolen license plate on his girlfriend’s car and drove from Queens to Manhattan’s Washington Houses to shoot Davantay Butts — and to his attorney, Michelle Villasenor-Grant, who pushed for his release.

But Scherzer sent Spry back to jail after the March hearing without explanation, setting his next court date for May 3. Spry’s lawyer now claims the judge’s ruling was “an abuse of discretion” and violated the state’s bail reform law.

The judge made her decision without determining if Spry was a “flight risk,” without considering “less restrictive alternatives” such as electronic monitoring, and “without explaining her decision,” according to Villasenor-Grant in a Manhattan Supreme Court petition seeking her client’s release.

“The court shall explain its choice of release, release with conditions, bail or remand on the record or in writing,” part of the bail reform law cited in the court filing specifies.

 

                       

Judge Ann Scherzer (above) is being accused of violating the state’s bail reform law by John Spry’s lawyer

 

The legal filing reflects “a consistent, steady move in the direction of ultimately holding no one accountable,” said Eugene O’Donnell of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “It’s a further step on the road of lunacy that we’ve been on.”

“It’s crazy,” said former NYPD Detective Joseph Giacalone. “It just goes to show you how much the defense attorneys are gaming the system on this. … It’s just ridiculous the state of affairs that we’re in now.”

Spry faces 15-to-25 years in prison on the second-degree murder charge. He was also hit with assault and weapons charges, and pleaded not guilty.

He has “significant community ties,” including a 1-year-old daughter, and shouldn’t be “subjected [to] the risk of serious injury, illness, or death that is incarceration at Rikers currently threatens,” the lawyer claims in court papers.

“This man is simply not going to discard and leave his baby and flee. He is going to stay here and fight this case,” said Villasenor-Grant.

The shooting came amid a spate of violence in Harlem, and a push to revise the state’s much-criticized bail reform law. Recent data from the NYPD showed a 37 percent spike in major crimes citywide.

It’s unclear what sparked the killing, but prosecutors said Spry followed Butts, 26, as the victim left around 11 a.m. with some friends to buy shoes, waited for him to come back out of the store and crossed the street to shoot Butts in the back in broad daylight.

One of the bullets hit a woman int the arm, records show. Spry allegedly kept shooting as Butts, a reputed member of the Broad Day Shooters gang, was on the ground, then ran to his idling car and drove back to Queens. 

 

Spry “laid in wait” for his victim in the Feb. 1, 2022 shooting, prosecutors allege 

 

He has at least two felony convictions, including a drug possession case in which he was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison, and one for attempted criminal possession of a weapon in 2012, for which he was sentenced to two years in prison, and has had his parole revoked in the past, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office told Scherzer, according to the transcript.

The lawyer, who works for Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, argued in the lawsuit bail should be set at $50,000 cash or $100,000 bond.

DOG WALKER WANTS DOGNAPPER WHO SHOT HIM AND WAS MISTAKENLY RELEASED, TO TURN HIMSELF IN

Lady Gaga dog walker Ryan Fischer concerned after alleged shooter free 

 

By Kerry J. Byrne

 

New York Post

April 9, 2022

 

 

Lady Gaga's dog walker Ryan Fischer said he's "deeply concerned" after his alleged shooter was mistakenly released from jail 

 

 

Lady Gaga’s dogwalker is calling on his alleged shooter to face the music after he was mistakenly freed from a Los Angeles jail because of a “clerical error.”

“While I’m deeply concerned at the events that led to his release, I’m confident law enforcement will rectify the error,” Ryan Fischer wrote Friday on Instagram.

James Howard Jackson, 19, is one of three men accused of shooting and robbing Fischer in February 2021. He was released from custody on Wednesday after records mistakenly showed the charges against him were dropped, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

 

Fischer was shot and robbed while walking the pop singer’s French Bulldogs last year in Los Angeles

 

Lady Gaga said her “heart is sick” after the theft of her dogs last year

 

 

“I ask for Mr. Jackson to turn himself over to the authorities, so resolution to the crime committed against me runs its course, whatever the courts determine that outcome to be,” Fischer wrote.

Fischer was shot in the chest and suffered a collapsed lung in the attack, which was caught on video. Lady Gaga’s bulldogs Koji and Gustav were taken by the assailants.

Jackson was arrested in April 2021 along with Jaylin White and Lafayette Whaley. Each man was charged with attempted murder and robbery in the dogs-for-cash scheme. The trio of hoodlums was apparently unaware that Lady Gaga owned the dogs, police said.

 

                                  

                                 The Post’s Feb. 26, 2021 cover

 

Two other people, Jennifer McBride and Harold White, were charged as accessories to the crime, officials said.

The group allegedly recruited McBride to act as the good Samaritan after Lady Gaga offered a $500,000 reward for the pups. McBride arrived at an LAPD station claiming she had found the two dogs, police said. She was never given the award after officials became suspicious of her story.

Gaga, meanwhile, was reunited with her dogs as cops pieced the story together, connecting McBride with the others.

The superstar performer said at the time her “heart is sick” after the dognapping.

JUST ANOTHER ROUTINE DAY ON THE SUBWAY

4 unruly teens beat, slash man on NYC train 

 

By Amanda Woods

 

New York Post

April 8, 2022

 

 

The four culprits got off the train at Cathedral Parkway in Morningside Heights

 

Four ski mask-wearing teens pummeled and slashed a straphanger who confronted them on an Upper Manhattan train this week, cops said Friday. 

The 48-year-old victim was riding a northbound B train around 4:20 p.m. Wednesday when he encountered the group of rowdy teen boys, who are believed to be around 16 or 17, police said. 

As the train barreled down the tracks, one of the teens stepped on the man’s foot, sparking an argument, cops said. 

The group of suspects then punched the rider in the face and arms – and cut him on the forehead with an unknown sharp object, police said. 

The crew got off the train at Cathedral Parkway-110th Street in Morningside Heights, cops said. 

Video released early Friday shows the teens, wearing ski masks, leaving the station through the turnstile. 

The victim was taken to BronxCare Health System, where he was treated and released.

The incident came days after a man struck a 37-year-old female MTA booth attendant in Brooklyn, unprovoked; and a week after a 45-year-old woman was slashed in the face during a dispute inside a Bronx station, cops said.

DUMB AMD DUMBER ..... BIDEN AND HARRIS: WHICH ONE IS WHICH?

Biden turns to Kamala and tells her she is the 'the first really smart decision I made in this administration'

 

By Morgan Phillips 

Daily Mail

April 8, 2-22

              'Thank you, Kamala, thank you, thank you, thank you. The first really smart decision I made in this administration,' he said, turning towards the VP during a celebration for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson being confirmed to the Supreme Court

 

President Biden in a made-for-TV sweet moment called Vice President Kamala Harris the first 'really smart decision' he made in his presidency as he spoke during a celebration for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson being confirmed to the Supreme Court. 

Harris introduced him as she told of the 'deep sense of pride and joy' she felt watching the votes roll in to confirm Jackson to the high court. 

             'We are standing here in great part because of one President Joe Biden and because of Joe Biden's vision and leadership and commitment a lifelong commitment to building a better America,' Vice President Kamala Harris said before Biden took the stage outside the White House

 

'We are standing here in great part because of one President Joe Biden and because of Joe Biden's vision and leadership and commitment a lifelong commitment to building a better America,' the vice president said before Biden took the stage outside the White House. 

Biden's remarks could have been an attempt to undercut reports of tension and frustration between the offices of the West Wing. 

Thank you, Kamala, thank you, thank you, thank you. The first really smart decision I made in this administration,' he said, turning towards the VP.

'My name is Joe Biden, please sit down. I'm Jill's husband and Naomi Biden's grandfather,' he said, eliciting a chuckle from the crowd. 

He praised the confirmation of Jackson: 'This is going to let so much sun shine on so many young women, so many young black women, so many minorities.'

Biden's remarks could have been an attempt to undercut reports of tension and frustration between the offices of the West Wing.

New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns write in their new upcoming book This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future that the first minority and female vice president felt belittled by Biden's white staff. 

'Some of Harris's advisers believed the president's almost entirely white inner circle did not show the vice president the respect she deserved,' they wrote.

'Harris worried that Biden's staff looked down on her; she fixated on real and perceived snubs in ways the West Wing found tedious,' they added, according to excerpts published by Politico last month.

                       

 Harris even sent out chief of staff Tina Fluornoy to scold Biden's staffers for not standing up when she entered the room, the way they do for the president. 'The vice president took it as a sign of disrespect,' according to the book.

Biden tasked Harris with addressing immigration – and the vice president took her opportunities to share her dissatisfaction with the role.

According to the book, Harris' aides felt that the task of addressing the southern border crisis, in any way, was politically undesirable and wanted the vice president to have a more softball foreign policy assignment – like overseeing relations with Nordic countries.

'Staff floated the possibility of the vice president overseeing relations with the Nordic countries — a low-risk diplomatic assignment that might have helped Harris get adjusted to the international stage in welcoming venues like Oslo and Copenhagen,' the authors wrote.

They added that the prospect of overseeing Nordic countries was 'rejected' by White House aides and even 'privately mocked.'

'More irritating to Biden aides was when they learned the vice president wanted to plan a major speech to outline her view of foreign policy,' they added in the book. 'Biden aides vetoed the idea.'

The border crisis was transferred from Biden's portfolio to Harris' shortly after inauguration.

Harris' team quickly rejected the classification of 'border czar', making sure that it was known she was only looking at root causes of migration in Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Martin and Burns write that Harris does 'not hesitate to chide Biden for characterizing her assignment' in terms of addressing immigration.

Then amid leaked reports of chaos, toxicity and dysfunction in the VP's office, Biden himself called in his staff and threatened to fire anyone who went to the press with damaging information.

The president reportedly hauled staffers into the Oval Office in after a story emerged in the outlet in June painting Harris' office as an 'abusive environment.'

Biden warned senior staff that if 'he found that any of them was stirring up negative stories about the vice president' then 'they would quickly be former staff.'

The book describes the pair's relationship as 'friendly but not close.'

'Their weekly lunches lacked a real depth of personal and political intimacy,' the authors wrote -- a notable departure from the president's characteristic warmth.

THE WORST CLERICAL ERROR IN A PRISON SYSTEM IS THE ONE THAT RESULTS IN THE WRONG INMATE GETTING RELEASED

Man accused of shooting Lady Gaga’s dog walker released from prison by mistake 

 

By Patrick Reilly

 

New York Post

April 8, 2022

 

 

Lady Gaga's dogs Asia, Gustav, Koji. One of the men who robbed and shot her dogwalker was released from prison due to a clerical error

 

The man who shot Lady Gaga’s dog walker last year was released from jail due to a clerical error, NBC Los Angeles reported.

James Howard Jackson, 18, one of three men charged in the shooting and robbery of dog walker Ryan Fischer, was released from court on Wednesday after records showed the charges against him were dropped.

 

James Howard Jackson, 18, who has been accused of shooting Lady Gaga's dogwalker last year, is being sought by the authorities in Los Angeles after he was mistakenly released from jail on Wednesday

 

According to the LA County District Attorney’s Office, the dismissed charges were supposed to have been replaced by a superseding grand jury indictment unsealed during Wednesday’s hearing. However, it seems the superseding case was not entered against Jackson, sources familiar with the case told NBCLA.

Jackson was arrested in April 2021 along with Jaylin White, 19, and Lafayette Whaley, 27. Each was charged with attempted murder and robbery for the dogs-for-cash scheme, according to prosecutors.

Two others — Jennifer McBride, 50, and Harold White — were charged as accessories to the crime, officials said. All of the suspects, except for McBride, reportedly have gang connections.

 

Lady Gaga’s dog walker Ryan Fischer was hospitalized after the shooting

 

Police said at the time of their arrest that the suspects were not aware Lady Gaga owned the dogs.

They snagged two of Gaga’s dogs and Fischer was seriously hurt in the violent robbery during which Jackson shot him in the chest.

After Lady Gaga offered a $500,000 reward for the pups “with no questions asked”, the group recruited McBride to act as the  “hero” to show up at a LAPD station with the dogs claiming she had found the two pups. She was never given the award after officials became suspicious of her story.

Gaga, meanwhile, was reunited with her dogs as cops pieced the story together, connecting McBride with the others.

Fischer suffered serious injuries including a collapsed lung and was hospitalized for nearly a month. He’s since said he’s traumatized by the experience. 

 

Lady Gaga’s Dog is picked up by her Bodyguard at the Hollywood LAPD Station after an earlier shooting in Hollywood where her Dog walker was robbed and shot multiple times.

NYPD COPS PARTNER WITH OTHER NYC DEPARTMENTS TO TACKLE HOMELESSNESS AND CRIME

NYPD deploys business improvement team to clean up Midtown streets 

 

By Larry Celona and Patrick Reilly

 

New York Post

April 7, 2022

 

 

The new unit has been actively addressing quality of life issues in the city since Mar. 1, 2022

 

 

The NYPD has deployed a business improvement team in Manhattan to tackle surging homelessness and crime in response to complaints from Midtown merchants.

The new unit of over 30 cops has been out on the streets addressing quality of life issues since March 1 to make the areas “clean, safe and accessible for shoppers, tourists and people going to work,” a police source said.

It was formed after officials from Madison Square Garden, 34th Street, Soho and Times Square businesses complained about the deteriorating conditions in the area.

The cops have partnered with the city’s Department of Health, Department of Homeless Services, Sanitation, Parks and Recreation, MTA and Consumer Affairs who all respond to complaints with the police. 

The unit will attempt to tackle the issues plaguing the area, including soaring homelessness and crimes such as shoplifting, property damage, drug use in the street, assaults, panhandling, illegal vending of counterfeit merchandise, obstructing sidewalks, pedestrian pathways, bike lanes, sources said. 

The business improvement districts, community boards and local politicians can directly contact the unit, which will be working seven days a week handling 311 and 911 calls. The officers have been trained in crisis intervention and enforcing vendor rules.

 

NYPD will address several issues and complaints to make business owners feel safer

 

The unit has visited over 100 homeless encampments, collaborating with other agencies to remove them as Mayor Eric Adams has vowed to clear the encampments across the Big Apple. 

They have spoken with over 300 homeless people individually to offer them services, again collaborating with other agencies, the source said. Several went to the hospitals for medical treatment.

On Wednesday, seven people were arrested when NYPD officers and city sanitation workers broke up a homeless encampment in the East Village.

Many of the complaints from businesses have been for people urinating in the street, shoplifting and using drugs and drinking in public. So far, they have given out over 150 summonses for urinating and drinking, a police source said.

 

The unit will tackle increasing homelessness, shoplifting and illegal vending

 

They have also made over a dozen arrests for shoplifting. 

“A lot of the shoplifters are the same people we see doing drugs in the street,” said a Manhattan cop. “When the stores tell us about shoplifters we get their picture and hand it out to the cops so when they see them they can a  make an arrest”

The cops have visited over 100 vendors selling counterfeit goods with the Department of Consumer Affairs and confiscated over 40 stations, the source said.

Similar police units — the homeless services and peddler’s unit — were disbanded in July 2020 amid the momentum of the Defund the Police movement. 

Midtown businesses penned a letter in late March to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul demanding state help with the rampant homelessness and crime in Manhattan’s Midtown South district  — the 14-block stretch from 30th to 44th streets between Ninth and Madison avenues — which has seen a dramatic spike in crime of over 55% year to date, according to police data.

Murders in the neighborhood are up more than 33%, rapes are up more than 34% and robberies are up a staggering 60% according to the latest figures.

ISRAEL'S GOVERNMENT, A PATCHWORK OF DIVERSE POLITICAL PARTIES, IS BECOMING UNGLUED

“Netanyahu was shocked, but I am at peace”

Coalition defector explains why she could no longer stomach “erosion of Jewish identity” under current government

 

By Ryan Jones

 

Israel Today

April 8, 2022 

Right-wing voters earlier this week called on coalition whip Idit Silman to "redeem herself with a single act." In their eyes, she did just that days later by defecting to Netanyahu's opposition

 

It was bound to happen. It was a notable achievement bringing together such disparate political parties to form Israel’s current unity government. But as many predicted, it just couldn’t last.

At the outset, the right-wing, centrist, left-wing and Islamist parties that make up the coalition agreed to avoid sensitive policy matters, and to instead focus on the broader issues of governing the nation, such as passing generally-acceptable national budgets and fighting COVID-19.

But that was easier said than done.

 

 

For many of these parties, their positions on those sensitive matters are part of their DNA, their very raison d’être as a political faction.

Take for instance the varied ways in which they relate to the biblical heartland. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s party Yamina is seen as the “settlers’ party,” the representative and champion of the hundreds of thousands of Jews living in Judea and Samaria.

But over the past year, Bennett began relating to these lands using the terminology of his more left-leaning coalition partners, “the West Bank.”

Idit Silman, the coalition whip whose abrupt defection has thrown the government into turmoil, cited this as one of the reasons for her move, which she says came as a surprise to everyone, including opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

Silman told the Hebrew-language news portal Zman Yisrael that she could no longer stomach the “erosion of Jewish identity. I saw it time and time again. After comes the erosion of values. Prime Minister Bennett talking about the ‘West Bank,’ wow. If I’m for the ‘West Bank,’ I’ll join Yesh Atid,” the centrist party of Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

She said the more publicized row with Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz (of the ultra-secular Meretz party) over allowing hametz (leavened products) into public hospitals during Passover “was just the final straw.”

The writing was on the wall

It was a noble idea to bring together parties with different views and ideas to jointly run the country, though some see it as nothing more than a power grab. Ultimately it doesn’t matter, because it was never going to work, not long-term.

There’s no way to avoid those aforementioned sensitive issues forever, especially not in the Jewish state, and there was no possibility of any party compromising on or abandoning their core beliefs.

To use the above example, Yamina sees Judea and Samaria as the divine inheritance of the Jewish people. Meretz sees the Jewish presence there as an illegal occupation.

Those two positions cannot be reconciled. Nor can the position of the right-wing parties that Jewish tradition and religion should guide the state’s laws be reconciled with the left-wing insistence that this amounts to “religious coercion” that must be rooted out if Israel is to be a democratic state.

What now?

With Silman’s defection to the opposition, Bennett’s government lost its one-seat majority in Knesset. And there are concerns that additional members of Yamina will follow Silman’s example, leaving the prime minister with a parliamentary minority.

The current possibilities are:

1. The government hobbles along until March 2023, when it must pass the next national budget. Doing so will be all but impossible, and the Knesset will automatically dissolve, resulting in new elections.
2. New elections are called now, either voluntarily or as the result of a vote of no-confidence. But polls show the outcome will be similar to the last election, leaving neither side with a clear path to majority rule.
3. The right-wing parties currently in the unity government put aside their disdain for Netanyahu and join his Likud party in forming a new government now, within the current Knesset.

Silman believes that third option is now a possibility.

Two of the right-wing parties in the government, Bennett’s Yamina and the New Hope party of Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar, ran on platforms focused on removing Netanyahu from power. But now, a year into the unity government, polls show that both parties will struggle to pass the electoral threshold in a new election.

The right-wing constituency does not seem to think either party is worthy of continuing to represent them. If one had to guess, this is likely due to the same reasons that led Silman to exit the coalition, namely an erosion of what the right-wing voter base sees as the Zionist foundation of the Jewish state of Israel.

Bringing down what many right-wing voters see as an illegitimate left-leaning government and helping to establish a right-wing government with a firm majority could restore credibility and support to both Yamina and New Hope.

Will this happen? Hard to say. Both Bennett and Sa’ar previously insisted that their own personal political survival was not of great concern to them. Time will soon tell how true they are to their word.

THE ARMY RESPONDS TO A DEADLY TERROR ATTACK IN TEL AVIV AND TERMINATED THE PALESTINIAN SHOOTER AT A MOSQUE IN JAFFA

Israeli Commandoes Hunt Prey on the Streets of Tel Aviv

IDF Special Forces deployed to help police find Palestinian terrorist who killed two and wounded seven in Thursday shooting attack

 

Israel Today 

April 8, 2022 

IDF commandoes deploy to the streets of Tel Aviv to hunt the perpetrator of Thursday's terrorist shooting

 

In most Western nations its a sign that something has gone terribly wrong when military forces, and in particular commando units, are deployed to civilian areas. In some places like America, it’s simply not done, no matter the circumstances.

But that was the scene in Tel Aviv on Thursday night after a Palestinian terrorist killed two people and wounding at least seven more before escaping the scene of the attack.

Later identified as Ra’ad Hazem, a 28-year-old Palestinian from Jenin, the shooter opened fire at a bar on the crowded Dizengoff Street in central Tel Aviv. He then quickly fled before security forces could arrive, thus sparking a night-long manhunt through the densely-populated metropolis.

 

The scene of the attack in crowded central Tel Aviv, made more chaotic by the fact the terrorists was still at large

 

With Police overwhelmed by the effort, and officials seeking to urgently bring the incident to a close before anyone else was hurt, the army was called in to help.

And not just the army. Along with Border Police officers and other soldiers, IDF commandoes were deployed from Israel’s top two elite units – Sayeret Matkat, a special reconnaissance and counter-terror unit that is the equivalent of the US Army’s Delta Force; and Shaldag, an Israel Air Force special forces unit that is the equivalent of the British Army’s Special Air Services (SAS).

 

Police and military units coordinate their efforts to find the shooter and put an end to the terror attack

 

After long hours of searching, the terrorist was finally found when soldiers arrived at a mosque in Jaffa to review security camera footage. Hazem was killed during a brief exchange of fire with the Israeli forces.

Officials later reported that Hazem did not appear to have any organizational ties, though Hamas and Islamic Jihad openly celebrated his heinous actions in the Gaza Strip.

RACIST COPS STOPPING SOME BLACK FOLKS FROM ONLY TRYING TO EARN A LIVING

Shoplifters busted after nabbing $70K in merchandise in Soho boutique heist: police 

 

By Tina Moore

 

New York Post

April 7, 2022

 

 

NYPD cops attempting to arrest two women and a man accused of robbing more than $70,000 in luxury goods from Kirna Zabete

 

Video shows the moment a trio of thieves had their getaway foiled by NYPD officers after stealing more than $70,000 in pricey goods from a Soho boutique Sunday, police said.

The video posted on TikTok shows cops beating on the windows of the crew’s Dodge Charger with their batons and eventually arresting two women and a man who attempted to get away in the vehicle, according to police.

The stop came a short time after the three suspects allegedly went into Kirna Zabete at 477 Broome Street and “removed items from the display cases and racks,” the NYPD said. The threesome then ran out of the store and jumped into the Charger.

“When officers attempted to conduct a lawful car stop, the vehicle refused to pull over and recklessly drove through traffic,” an NYPD statement said.

The thieves stole a Dior jacket, Dior pants, Gucci jackets, Gucci pants, Sacai jackets, a Bottega crossbody and a Bottega Jodie bag worth a total of $14,400.

Driver Janavia Marable, 29, Brianna Grier, 27, and Jahil Pamplin, 29, were all charged with grand larceny, reckless endangerment, fleeing an officer and resisting arrest. They are all from Newark, NJ.

 

The group of alleged thieves apparently swiped multiple pants, jackets and hoodies from luxury brands from the Soho boutique

 

Cops said it wasn’t the first time the women struck at the same store.

The females were also charged with robbery for an incident that occurred around 4 p.m. Feb. 6 at the shop.

That time, four suspects entered the location and removed 26 handbags with an approximate value of $50,000.

 

The three robbery suspects were from New Jersey, according to police. 

 

One of the thieves in that incident flashed a gun in his waistband when he was approached by a store employee, cops said. The suspects fled the location in two white SUVs in an unknown direction.

The investigation is continuing

WHAT THE DO-GOODERS HAVE LEFT IN THEIR WAKE

Crime Jumps 36.5 Percent in New York City as Bail Laws Shape Gubernatorial Race

 

By Nick Gilbertson 

Breitbart

April 7, 2022

 

 

 

Overall index crime in New York City jumped a staggering 36.5 percent last month compared to March of 2021 as the state’s soft on crime bail laws begin to shape the 2022 gubernatorial race.

There were 1267 robberies city-wide in March, which is a 48.4 percent leap from the 854 robberies in March of 2021, while the city tallied 1044 grand larcenies auto, a 59.4 percent climb from last year, the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) crime statistics show.

Similarly, burglaries jumped 40 percent – 1326 in March 2022 vs. 947 in March 2021 – and there were 4078 instances of grand larceny, a 40.5 percent increase from 2902 in March 2021.

Felony assaults also saw an uptick. There were 1992 instances of felony assault last month, a 17.5 percent climb from 1696 in March 2021.

Transit crims saw a staggering 52.5 percent jump as well, as subway crimes, including a hammer attack, slashings, and beatings, made headlines last month. Some 78 percent of New York City office workers, who commute to work, said public transit safety has declined compared to pre-pandemic days, while 82 percent of them say the issue of homelessness has worsened on the transit system, a Morning Consult poll showed.

 

A New York City Police Department officer and a subway conductor look down the subway platform at the Grand Central Terminal subway station

 

Moreover, hate crimes – especially against Jewish people – have seen an alarming jump. Overall, hate crimes increased 16 percent in March, with Jews being the most targeted group. There were 23 hate crimes committed against Jewish people, nearly a 100 percent increase from the 12 in March of last year. The second most targeted group was Asians, who were the victims of 17 hate crimes.

In 2019, New York’s disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signed legislation into law allowing “suspects accused of second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, child sex crimes, and making threats of terrorism to walk free from jail without ever having to post bail,” Breitbart News reported.

“Coinciding with the state law is New York City’s Supervised Release Program, which allows thousands of criminal suspects to be released following their arrests without having to post bail or be monitored by social workers,” Breitbart News continued.

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), who assumed office following Cuomo’s resignation, has proposed minor changes to the laws in the form of allowing judges to establish bail based on a defendant’s criminal past and making bail eligible for repeat offenders and gun-related crimes. Still, far-left jailbreak organizations – including those linked to Mark Zuckerberg and Geroge Soros – are lobbying against her proposals to ensure the laws go unchanged.

 

New York Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during a Covid-19 press conference on February 09, 2022 in New York City

 

Breitbart News noted:

A number of jailbreak organizations — including the Soros-linked Center for American Progress, the Center for Popular Democracy, United We Dream, and MoveOn, as well as the Zuckerberg-linked FWD.us — are lobbying New York lawmakers to oppose any changes to the bail reform law.

“We are very troubled by recent proposals from Governor Kathy Hochul that would increase incarceration and racial disparities and undo years of work towards ending the criminalization of poverty and children,” the groups said in a letter.

The letter continued:

Mass incarceration was born of hasty political posturing and the fallacy that we can have justice or safety, but not both. Mass incarceration delivered generations of harm to the same Black, brown, poor, and immigrant communities hardest hit by crime without delivering them more safety. [Emphasis added]

That is why we are calling upon Governor Hochul, Lieutenant Governor Benjamin, and legislative leaders to protect bail, discovery, and Raise the Age reforms. [Emphasis added]

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) who is a gubernatorial candidate in New York’s upcoming election, slammed the state’s bail reform laws in February, WSHU reported.

“Instead of handcuffing our criminals we’re handcuffing justice, we’re handcuffing our judges, we’re handcuffing police, we’re cuffing law abiding New Yorkers in order to secure our streets we have to put community way over criminals,” Zeldin said.

GOV. ABBOTT: HERE JOE, YOU WANT 'EM, YOU GOT 'EM

Texas will try to ship illegal immigrants to D.C., governor says 

 

By Stephen Dinan  

 

The Washington Times 

April 6, 2022  

 

 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a policy directive Wednesday that said his state will send willing undocumented immigrants to Washington, DC.

 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants the illegal immigrants who are caught and released by federal agents into his state to be quickly shipped straight to Washington, seeking to bring the pain of border communities straight to the doorstep of the Biden administration.

The Republican governor said the transport would be “voluntary,” and it’s too early to guess how many migrants will be interested — or how much capacity Texas will have, given the tens of thousands of migrants expected to reach the state each week in the near future.

Mr. Abbott said his plan was made necessary by President Biden’s decision to end the pandemic border shutdown policy, known as Title 42, which analysts say will open floodgates for a record-breaking surge of illegal immigrants.

Mr. Abbott called that part of the Biden administration‘s “open-border policies” and said his state has to step in to do something.

Mr. Abbott called that part of the Biden administration‘s “open-border policies” and said his state has to step in to do something.

“With the end of Title 42 expulsions looming next month, Texas will immediately begin taking unprecedented action to do what no state has done in American history to secure our border,” he said.

He signed a directive Wednesday to the Texas Division of Emergency Management ordering the procurement of buses, planes or other ways of “evacuating” migrants from the state. And he asked local officials to alert the state to where Homeland Security is dropping illegal immigrants off so the state can be on hand to offer them a ride.

Mr. Abbott also said the state Department of Public Safety is erecting boat blockades and putting up razor wire at low-water crossings to try to deter people from coming across the Rio Grande, which largely tracks the U.S.-Mexico boundary.

State troopers and the Texas National Guard will also be outfitted with riot gear to deal with potential violence from groups of migrants, the governor’s office said.

Under Title 42, in place since the start of the pandemic, illegal immigrants are deemed a vector for COVID-19, and can be immediately expelled without giving them a chance to make iffy asylum claims or other demands to be let in.

Under the Trump administration, perhaps 90% of illegal border jumpers were expelled under Title 42. The rate under the Biden administration is about 50% — and the number of people trying to cross has surged as more people are successful.

With Title 42 ending May 23, Homeland Security says it is bracing for as many as a half-million illegal immigrants a month. That would obliterate all previous records.

Immigrant-rights advocates say Title 42 has condemned legitimate asylum seekers to violence in Mexico when they are sent back across the line.

The Biden administration, meanwhile, says the pandemic has receded enough that illegal immigrants should be allowed to make asylum claims unfettered by COVID restrictions.

Immigration groups blasted Mr. Abbott‘s plan Wednesday.

The League of United Latin American Citizens said the governor is violating the Constitution by meddling in a national issue.

“It is mean-spirited to use refugees’ lives to manipulate public opinion,” said Domingo Garcia, LULAC’s national president.

Mr. Abbott, in addition to measures targeting illegal immigration, also said he would stiffen the state’s safety inspections for cross-border commercial vehicles. The governor acknowledged that might delay cargo coming across.

Todd Bensman, a Texas-based fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, said that while Mr. Abbott didn’t cast the inspections as a threat to Mexico, officials below the border may take it that way — and it may prod Mexico to do more to stop the flow of illegal immigrants.

President Trump used similar economic threats to enlist Mexico to help solve the 2019 border surge, but the Biden administration backed away from those threats, Mr. Bensman said.

PUTIN'S ENERGY WEAPON, BIDEN'S IMMIGRATION POLICY, AND THE CANCEL CULTURE

Commentary from the Post editors

 

Post Editorial Board 

 

New York Post

April 6, 2022

 

 

Putin’s Energy Grab

“There is more than one way to dominate Ukraine,” warns David Knight Legg at The Wall Street Journal. Conventional wisdom says Vladimir Putin “has foolishly overreached,” but “under cover of the wider conflict,” he’s “taking full control of Ukraine’s vast, extremely valuable energy assets and intends to integrate them into the Russian supply chain on which Europe now depends.” Indeed, “this war is, or will default to, an energy heist.” If Putin keeps the territory he’s grabbed, he’ll “control all of Ukraine’s offshore oil, its critical ports on the Azov Sea, the Kerch Strait, 80% of the Black Sea coastline and all critical energy-processing and shipping infrastructure.”

 

Joe’s Mess Sure Looks Intentional

“It has become clear over the past 14 months that the Biden administration has no interest in securing the border,” Chad Wolfe charges at the Washington Examiner. Its ending of Title 42 guarantees “an additional surge of illegal immigrants” after a year that “saw the highest number of illegal apprehensions on record.” And it’s “committed millions in taxpayer dollars to provide legal representation for migrants challenging their removal from the U.S.” The prez’s new budget plan “commits $4.5 billion in legal defense for illegal immigrants over the next 10 years.” And a recent shift in who judges asylum claims “will likely result in greater numbers of illegal immigrants with dubious claims of asylum being ushered into the U.S.” Sure looks like “chaos” by “deliberate design.”

 

Princeton’s Cancel-Culture Sellout

“Last December, Princeton University was slated to host an exhibition of 19th-century Jewish American artwork provided by Leonard Milberg,” notes Reason’s Robby Soave. But school officials objected to “the inclusion of artwork by two 19th-century Jewish Americans who had served as soldiers in the Confederate army during the Civil War,” and Milberg promptly pulled out. Why? Because it would have been impossible “to have an accurate show about 19th-century Jewish American art” without those artists. Yet “history is filled with flawed people who nevertheless made important contributions to literature, art, science and philosophy.” And the art had nothing to do with the Confederacy, but the university surrendered to its vice provost for “institutional equity and diversity” anyway, and “a vital learning moment was lost.”

QUESTIONING ANY THING ABOUT BLM OR ITS LEADERS IS RACIST ..... SO SAYS ITS MARXIST FOUNDER

Why did BLM pay $5.8m for mansion was bought for $3.1m a few days earlier? Patrisse Cullors calls question RACIST

Cullors, who resigned in May 2021, said that the New York Magazine's investigation about the property purchase is 'a despicable abuse of a platform' 

 

By Divya Kishore 

 

meaww

April 7, 2022

 

 

               Patrisse Cullors, an avowed Marxist and founder of BLM, came under fire last year for a slew of high-profile property purchases. She resigned after facing backlash from critics and supporters

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: A luxurious Los Angeles mansion’s purchase by the BLM foundation has raised some serious questions after it emerged that its price apparently increased by $2.7 million in just a few days after being bought for $3.1 million initially by a real estate developer. As per reports, the ​​6,500 square-foot, six-bedroom property in Studio City was first bought by Dyane Pascall, who was working for BLM founder Patrisse Cullors and her partner, on October 21, 2020 for $3.1 million.

However, six days later, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) bought it for $5.8 million in cash, without providing any explanation regarding the sudden price increase. Not just that, the mansion built in 1936 is also apparently 257.43 percent “more expensive” than other properties in the area. It was bought days after the foundation received $66.5 million in donations after the tragic death of Geroge Floyd in May 2020.

 

            The luxurious seven-bedroom, 6,500-square foot $6million Los Angeles mansion was reportedly purchased with Black Lives Matter donations

 

Tom Anderson, director of the government integrity project at the National Legal and Policy Center, said: “A review of property assessment records show the value of the mansion BLMGNF purchased skyrocketed while all the neighboring properties saw an average of less than a five percent increase. This raises serious questions concerning the purchase price of the house and the way the transaction was handled through cash and a shadowy LLC.”

The revelation was first reportedly brought to light by the New York Magazine that has now been called out by Cullors, who on Wednesday, April 6, said that the doubt and criticism were “racist and sexist”. She also reportedly defended the non-disclosure of property’s purchase by saying it’s a “safe space” for black activists and thought leaders that needed renovation.

Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Melina Abdullah, allegedly laid out $6million to buy a 6500-square foot Southern California mansion (seen in background). The money came from donations BLM received

Slamming the New York Magazine’s investigation, Cullors, who resigned from her BLMGNF position of executive director in May 2021, reportedly said it’s “a despicable abuse of a platform that's intended to provide truthful information to the public”. She also blasted the author of the piece and stated that the article was “filled with misinformation, innuendo, and incendiary opinions.”

In a statement shared on her Instagram page, Cullors wrote, “Journalism is supposed to mitigate harm and inform our communities. That fact that a reputable publication would allow a reporter, with a proven and very public bias against me and other Black leaders, to write a piece filled with misinformation, innuendo and incendiary opinions, is disheartening and unacceptable. To clarify again, the property the reporter addressed was purchased in 2020 as a space where those within the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) and broader movement community could work, create content, host meetings and foster creativity.”

She continued: “Although I cannot speak to how BLMGNF uses the property currently as I left the organization last year in May, it was purchased to be a safe space for Black people in the community. The reason it wasn’t announced prior is not nefarious as the headline infers, the property needed repairs and renovation. I do not own the property, have never lived there,” before adding: “Nevertheless, this will soon be made clear upon the release of the BLM 990s. To those within our movement and others who have looked to me for leadership, I’m sorry you have consistently had to engage with this kind of hateful and erroneous content. I admittedly have not always responded and I know my silence has contributed to doubt. I apologize if it has caused you harm of any kind.”