First Amendment Activist is in Danger. Lakewood is a War Zone. Litvaks Attack Hassidim? A Load of Nonsense…

When Harming Another Becomes An Indoctrinated Acceptable Practice, Religious Belief Has Little Value

Published 5.13.21 10:33 am, edited 5.16.21 6:07pm

Dear Readers:

Before we begin, we had contemplated whiting out the faces of the children in the photos below. But they are published and we decided we would follow the lead of the publication. The children and parents, it would seem, take such pride in their behavior.

The story is not about the “Litvaks versus the Hasidim. That is a load of “Chara” put out as poor excuse to enshroud deeply violent behavior. The violence is against one family, that of First Amendment Activist. It is intended to shut him up. And, in our view, there is little difference between indoctrinating your children to violently terrorize a family or strapping a bomb to their waists and telling them to explode it where it can cause the most damage – all for a cause – religion.

We have relied on facts presented by First Amendment Activist, a fellow blogger and journalist looking out for the well-being of his friends, family and Jewish brethren in Lakewood, Toms River and Ocean County, New Jersey. A fact-check of FAA’s material is nothing if not accurate. Scary thing for a community that wants to keep its dirty laundry out of plain sight.

EVERYONE, bar none, should be thankful for his advocacy in New Jersey. What the protesters are doing is not a “great goal” as stated by a Rebbitzin in the article below. These children, encouraged by their parents, are treacherous savages trying to silence a blogger and activist.

First Amendment Activist is a deeply religious person, with a steady ethical and moral set of views and standards grounded in a belief in G-d, family and country. He should be declared a hero in his community. Instead, he is now being treated as a Pariah. Sadly, the hierarchy of police, government, the mayor, the governing bodies are doing nothing to assist him as he gets his house “egged” on a daily basis, as he gets ostracized and as his family gets threatened with violence. All in the name of G-d? No. All in the name of covering up crimes committed in the name of G-d. That is nothing if not G-dless.

The responsible parties of these children who find pleasure in violence, are parents who have taught their children that this behavior is okay, acceptable, if not encouraged. Religious, allegedly devout parents are teaching their children that violence is to be rewarded. The JNews which published this story has it all wrong. The “Litvaks versus the Hassidim” story is not the reason for these young thugs to behave as they are behaving.

Yes. The Litvaks and the Hassidim in Ocean County, generally and Lakewood, particularly, are not allied. They are engaged in their own version of a holy war. But the reality of the story has little to do with that battle. The story should have been focused on the utter savagery being imparted upon one family. It is covered under a shroud of this holy war. And that is a lie.

To the parents of the children pictured in the below, public clips, you should be ashamed of yourselves, teaching your children that “egging” houses, that calling someone a “moser” is okay. The children are dressed as G-d faring disciples. Sadly, the children suffer the sins of the parents and they are nothing, if not thugs and hoodlums bullying and endorsing violence.

Anti-Semitism? Might be Time for Our Jewish Brethren to Look in the Mirror

“Judaism and Zionism are Absolute Antonyms”

Posted 5.10.21 4:17pm

Dear Reader:

The above is on posters being held by some of the protesters in these videos.

Many of the ultra-Orthodox zealots in this video are funded by American Jewish counterparts. These are people who believe, from a fundamental perspective, in the destruction of the State of Israel. And, as the birth rate within the ultra-Orthodox community grows exponentially when compared to secular birth rates, once must wonder what happens when a majority of Israel’s Jews are opposed to the existence of the very state in which they live.

To the American supporters of these radical Jewish groups, who characterize every criticism as anti-Semitism, unwilling to stand up and say that this is not Judaism but something altogether foreign, you will have the inevitable destruction of the Jewish state as we know it today, sitting on your collective shoulders.

Protesters like those above are destructive to all Jewish identity, whether religious or secular. They are not tolerant of anything or anyone and yet, as American Jewish organizations fight anti-Semitism they refuse to question the integrity of the version of Judaism depicted above.

Mainstream Judaism does not support the view that “Judaism and Zionism are Absolute Antonyms.” Sadly, it might be time for organizations like Agudath Israel, the American Jewish Congress, the Jewish National Fund and others to speak out against the expression of “Judaism” in this video.

Crown Heights Chabad Lawyer to Plead Guilty

SCHEDULING ORDER as to Shimon Rosenfeld: The parties shall appear for a Guilty Plea via Video Remote on May 20, 2021 at 11:00 am. A link has been sent to all parties. Non party participants may dial into the conference at 11:00 a.m. on May 20, 2021, by dialing 1-650-479-3207 and entering pinn 160 000 0489. Ordered by Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto on 5/6/2021. (Williams-Jackson, Sandra) (Entered: 05/06/2021)Attachments area

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Senator Serino – Cuomo’s Revisionist History – Have you Considered His Nursing Home Conglomerate Donor Pool?

SERINO SLAMS GOVERNOR’S REVISIONIST HISTORY ON NURSING HOME DEATHS

SUE SERINO

April 29, 2021

• NURSING HOME DEATHS

HYDE PARK, NY – Senator Sue Serino released the following in response to comments made today by the Governor at a Buffalo event in relation to COVID-19 deaths in New York’s nursing homes:

“The Governor can rewrite history all he wants, but the truth is the only people who played politics when it came to hiding the number of nursing home deaths in New York State are the members of his Administration who have now been caught doing so for months.

I first called for a full investigation into the state’s overall handling of the COVID crisis in nursing homes on May 7, 2020—at a time when the Governor’s approval rating was through the roof—and most would argue it was actually politically unpopular to criticize anything his Administration was doing at the time. I did so because it was the right thing to do. Families who were losing loved ones deserved answers. Having access to the real number of deaths could have provided a more accurate picture of the pandemic’s impact, which could have helped us improve the state’s response and maybe even saved lives.

Time and again, the Governor clearly put politics—and profit—over the residents of these facilities. It’s not right, and we will not stop pushing for truthful answers and real accountability.”

When asked today why his Administration hid the accurate number of nursing home deaths for so long, the Governor claimed the issue was simply politicized. He continued to argue that withholding the data was about ‘accuracy.’

Senator Serino countered that point saying, “If they were so concerned about ‘accuracy,’ then they would have withheld all the numbers until they were properly audited. Instead, they were okay with publicly releasing a blatant undercount that fit the Administration’s own political narrative. An undercount the Governor publicly bragged about repeatedly. The hypocrisy is stunning. New Yorkers—especially these vulnerable residents and their loved ones—deserve so much better.”

Senator Serino is the Ranking Member of the Senate’s Aging Committee.

Senator O’Mara – Weekly Column, Gov. Cuomo – What about the Nursing Home Tragedy? AND OVERSIGHT??? Covid-19

Senator O’Mara’s weekly column ‘From the Capitol’ ~ for the week of May 10, 2021 ~ ‘No, governor, nursing homes tragedy not ‘smart'”

May 10, 2021

• COMBATING COVID-19 AND PROTECTING NEW YORKERS; PROTECTING NURSING HOME RESIDENTS

Senator O’Mara shares his weekly perspective on issues facing New York State government.Every available action needs to be taken to compel the governor and his inner circle to tell the truth and be held accountable. New Yorkers, in particular families who lost loved ones in nursing homes due to Cuomo’s fateful order, deserve nothing less.

Senator O’Mara offers his weekly perspective on many of the key challenges and issues facing the Legislature, as well as on legislative actions, local initiatives, state programs and policies, and more. Stop back every Monday for Senator O’Mara’s latest column…

This week, “No, governor, nursing homes tragedy not ‘smart'”

Here was the lead paragraph in a National Review article late last week following Governor Andrew Cuomo’s May 5th news conference: “New York governor Andrew Cuomo defended an executive order that may have exacerbated coronavirus outbreaks in state nursing homes as ‘smart’ from a ‘medical point of view.’”

Smart?

After all these months, when how Governor Cuomo and his inner circle addressed the COVID-19 pandemic in nursing homes has been defined by cover-ups, stonewalling, lies, and the like, and keeping in mind that the Cuomo administration is under federal investigation for its actions, the governor calls it “smart.”

Trust me, there’s another side to that story.

Recall that Governor Cuomo issued a March 25, 2020 directive requiring New York State nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients from hospitals into the homes. Last year’s March 25th directive would end up sending more than 9,000 COVID-positive patients into hundreds of nursing homes statewide, according to reporting from the Associated Press earlier this year, and likely contributed to thousands of deaths. Over 6,000 of those were new admissions to nursing homes, not readmissions as the Cuomo administration has tried to lead the public to believe.

Here’s how “smart” that action was considered at the time by many of the nation’s leading long-term care professionals.

The day after Governor Cuomo’s March 25 directive to nursing homes, on March 26, 2020, a prominent, national group of long-term care professionals denounced the directive and warned against it.

Specifically, the prominent, national medical professionals group American Medical Directors Association (AMDA)-The Society for Post-Acute Care and Long-Term Care (PALTC) Medicine released a statement that the Cuomo order was “over-reaching, not consistent with science…and beyond all, not in the least consistent with patient safety principles.” The group’s statement went on, “Rather than bullying nursing facilities and medical providers to make unsafe decisions, the State of New York would be wise to direct its energies at ensuring adequate personal protective equipment is available to all healthcare providers…developing a long-neglected healthcare workforce, and identifying and standing up alternative care sites.”

Three days later, on March 29, AMDA-PALTC was joined in another statement by the American Health Care Association (AHCA) and the National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL). The groups stated, “As organizations dedicated to preserving the safety of patients and residents in post-acute and long-term care settings including assisted living, we strongly object to this policy directive and approach…This is a short-term and short-sighted solution that will only add to the surge in COVID-19 patients…We understand the need for public health and elected officials to weigh the risks and benefits of their decisions…However, a blanket order for every nursing home in the state to accept all admissions from hospitals is not sound policy.” [Both statements can be viewed in full on the AMDA-PALTC website: paltc.org]

Despite these dire warnings from the medical community directly involved in the care of our state’s elderly nursing home residents this directive was left in place for more than 30 days, until May 10, 2020. During this period, in excess of 9,000 COVID-positive hospital patients were sent from hospitals into New York’s nursing homes. Over 6,000 of these patients were not in a nursing home prior to entering the hospital.

During a joint Senate-Assembly hearing on the nursing homes crisis on August 3, 2020, I directly asked Health Commissioner Howard Zucker if he had received and read the March 26 and March 29 statements. He denied knowledge of them.

I didn’t believe Commissioner Zucker on that day and I still don’t believe it. It is simply not credible that New York’s top health official would not have been informed on statements from leading medical professionals expressing their alarm at one of New York State’s key directives and its potential and alarming risk to the elderly and these residential facilities overall.

And I don’t believe that Governor Cuomo’s policy was “smart.”

If Governor Cuomo and his top lieutenants had heeded the warning from the experts on the front lines of nursing home care in America, thousands of nursing home residents would have at least been better protected. Many lives could have been saved. 

The question is no longer whether the Cuomo administration’s handling of the nursing homes tragedy was smart.

Instead, in my view and the view of many others, the question remains unanswered about why Governor Cuomo and his inner circle ignored the warnings from public health experts that their March 25 mandate to nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients was over-reaching, and not consistent with science or patient safety principles. 

It is just one of many unanswered questions that still demand to be pursued regarding the Cuomo administration’s nursing homes cover-up.

Governor Cuomo has tried to conceal the truth on the devastation of this crisis in our nursing homes and in other places, and it has caused great harm. Reports keep forcefully exposing the lies, cover-ups, and crimes.

Every available action needs to be taken to compel the governor and his inner circle to tell the truth and be held accountable. New Yorkers, in particular families who lost loved ones in nursing homes due to Cuomo’s fateful order, deserve nothing less.

What has Upside, REIT’s, JV’s, a $144,000 per Bed Price Tag and Depends Upon Vulnerable Human Capital? Read On…

Published: 5.7.21 at 4:07pm

Dear Reader:

When a change in ownership within some of the largest players in the nursing home industry is described in the news as a “blockbuster move”; and when an earnings call to investors raises the specter of “even further upside potential” without any mention of superior care, quality of life, increased standards, greater accountability and better medicine, it is not nursing care. It is a different animal altogether, the savage world of publicly traded horse-trading.

It is worth noting here, that some of the parties cited in the article below are owners and operators of some of the worst rated nursing and rehabilitation facilities throughout the United States. Thus, shareholders to whom this article was addressed, are to some extent investing in substandard care. That’s just one part of the human tragedy. Another part of the human tragedy, cited in an earlier article below, tacitly admits that one methodology for adding shareholder value is manipulating the more lucrative sides of benefits from acute care patients “who also come with more lucrative Medicare and private insurance coverage than the typical long-term nursing home resident on Medicaid.” Statements like that should upend the comfort of Medicare and private insurance carriers.

Chaim Stern – Steals Millions from His Own Workers and Blames a Substandard Education – Really?

Published 5.6.21

Dear Reader:

Almost as disturbing as the theft committed by an allegedly religious man stealing from his underpaid employees in a nursing home; is the “justification” used to manipulate the mercy of others, namely, a poor education. This excuse for bad behavior creates quite a conundrum.

The State of New York (and likely others to follow) has taken a laissez faire attitude about Yeshiva education, namely that parents should be permitted to choose if to educate (or deny education for) their children. If a Yeshiva educated child comes out with an extraordinary knowledge of Jewish law, little or no ability to properly speak English, little or no future prospects (except perhaps fraud – as Stern illustrates) New York deems this acceptable. Now, it would seem, that same disenfranchisement (educational neglect) is being used to justify and perhaps escape accountability for frauds committed by poorly educated but “observant” Jews.

Something is very wrong with this picture. Either Yesivah children must be educated in civics subjects (oh… and right versus wrong) or they must be held fully accountable when that inadequate education leads to a life of fraud, theft, money laundering, and the list… grows and grows. The Yeshiva community really should not be able to eat their rugalach and have it to.

Former nursing home owner gets 2.5 years in prison for stealing more than $4M from employees

A former Connecticut nursing home owner will spend the next 2 ^1/2 years in prison for stealing more than $4 million from staff members’ pension and health plans. 

Chaim Stern, 72, of Flushing, NY, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for embezzlement and tax offenses, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut announced this week. His prison time will be followed by three years of supervised release. 

Stern’s sentencing comes three months after he pleaded guilty to the crimes that hurt three Connecticut nursing homes and led to the closure of one of them. 

Because of Stern, the facilities failed to pay employment taxes and pay its shares of employment taxes between January 2017 and March 2018. Stern’s crimes resulted in a total tax loss of about $4.3 million.

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