Sunday, December 25, 2011
Trump Family Christmas - December 25, 2011
Ivanka Trump Kushner's conversion to Orthodox Judaism was sponsored and granted by Rabbi Hershel Schechter ( pictured below) of Yeshiva University and Kollel Elyon under the auspices of the Rabbinical Council of America -- "L'hagdil Torah Ul'hadira!
http://www.celebritytweet.com/IvankaTrump/link/150945948179234816/
What does this have to do with anything Jewish?
ReplyDelete....doesn't Ivanka know that Jews, ESPECIALLY Orthodox Jews, even if they're very Modern Orthodox, do NOT "celebrate" or rejoice in Christmas as a holiday?
ReplyDeleteHunukkah's only "advantage" to Jews is mostly commercial, to have increased business revenue, but on a personal, theological "religious" level mentioning or celebrating Xmas so flauntingly on TV, with a big Xmas tree as a backdrop yet, is big No-No!
And sheesh, not one word about about your new religion's most special holiday of Hannukah that you could just as easily have mentioned. Then again, maybe you were just too chicken to go head to head with your former family? Oh, and you do know that a true convert to Judaism no longer considers one's biological family as true "family" right?
Although to be fair to you you did look very uneasy in this video clip from Fox news, and you're saved by your legs and face (naturally) otherwise your facial expression does betray anxiety and your body language seems uneasy and stiff.
Maybe you were contemplating speaking your true mind but were to scared of your Dad "The Donald"? Who knows?
What's up Mrs. Ivanka, umm Yael, Kushner, does Jared's family know about this seeming public backsliding on your part?
You joined the Jewish people with an "Orthodox" conversion and at the least you owe us an explanation why you have stooped to do this Xmas video (an apology would be nice too). What if the topic of Jesus or his birthplace or the "Nativity" or the New Testament were mentioned would you have nodded in agreement to that as well?
You cannot have it both ways at the end of the day!
Please stop skating on thin ice, it's too hair-raising and it's bound to backfire on you and your husband, and the rabbis who oversaw your conversion sooner or later.
Have a Happy Hunukkah!
No doubt "blessed" by the "reverend" Moon as even South Korean bigs go North to pay their "respects" and homage to the killer kims............
ReplyDeleteWhat's going now on the "hermit kingdom" of North Korea makes the old Yiddish Potemkin village of Chelm" seem like a bastion of rationality and sanity. Who ever heard of three generations of one communist ruling family succeeding each other as if they were "Bourbon kings"???:
The Associated Press:
"Kim Jong Il's son strengthens power with new post
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korea identified Kim Jong Il's son as head of a top ruling party body Monday, a post that gives him authority over political matters in addition to the military control attributed to him in recent days.
Kim Jong Un has rapidly gained prominence since the death of his father on Dec. 17, with the state media showering new titles on him almost daily.
On Saturday, state media referred to the younger Kim as "supreme leader" of North Korea's 1.2 million-strong armed forces and said the military's top leaders had pledged their loyalty to him. On Monday, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper described him as head of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party — a post that appears to make him the top official in the ruling party.
Kim Jong Il, who ruled North Korea for 17 years, wielded power as head of three main state organs: the Workers' Party, the Korean People's Army and the National Defense Commission. His father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung remains the nation's "eternal president" long after his 1994 death.
The Kim family has extended its control over the country of 24 million people to a third generation with Kim Jong Un, who is in his late 20s and was revealed last year as his father's choice among three sons for successor.
He was named a vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party, but was expected to ascend to new military and political posts while being groomed to become the next leader.
Monday's reference to his new title was in commentary in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Workers' Party, urging soldiers to dedicate their lives "to protect the party's Central Committee headed by respected Comrade Kim Jong Un." The editorial called on the people to become "eternal revolutionary comrades" with Kim Jong Un, "the sun of the 21st century."...
North Korea refers to Kim Il Sung as the "sun" of the nation and his birthday is celebrated as the "Day of the Sun," and state media have sought to emphasize Kim Jong Un's role in carrying out the Kim family legacy throughout his succession movement.
His titles are slight variations of those held by his father, but appear to carry the same weight. It was unclear whether the nation's constitution had been changed to reflect the transfer of leadership as when Kim Jong Il took power after his father's death.
A day earlier, state TV showed footage of Kim Jong Un's uncle and key patron, Jang Song Thaek, in a military uniform with a general's insignia. It was the first time that Jang, who was promoted last year to vice chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party along with Kim Jong Un, was shown on state TV in military garb...
South Koreans were among the mourners in Pyongyang. The widow of former President Kim Dae-jung, who held a landmark summit with Kim Jong Il in 2000, and Hyundai Group Chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, whose late husband had ties to the North, each led delegations that drove across the heavily fortified border to Pyongyang...
The Korean peninsula remains in a technical state of war because the three-year Korean war ended in a truce in 1953, not a peace treaty."
The Independent:
ReplyDelete"Largest protest since collapse of Soviet Union rocks Russia
Simon Shuster | Moscow | Monday 26 December 2011
Russia's leadership was forced to defend its legitimacy yesterday after about 100,000 demonstrators rallied in central Moscow to demand democratic reform and fair elections in the largest wave of popular dissent since the fall of the Soviet Union.
The rally on Moscow's Sakharov Avenue on Saturday was the fourth and by far the biggest of the mass demonstrations provoked by the parliamentary vote held on 4 December. The ruling United Russia party, led by the Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, held on to a slim majority in parliament in those elections, but the results have been tainted by claims of wholesale fraud.
The demonstrators stood for hours in sub-zero weather on Saturday listening to a line-up of speakers as diverse as the crowd itself, including TV celebrities, writers, musicians, politicians, scientists and a jailed dissident whose video message was broadcast on a giant screen beside the stage.
"The people are waking up," said Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of the Left Front opposition group who was arrested on the day of the elections as he heading to a rally. "The people have stopped putting up with this humiliating regime."
The name given to the demonstration – "For Fair Elections" – was also its main demand, suggesting a growing desire for the return of true democracy, not the "managed democracy" crafted under Mr Putin's 12-year rule.
The government has only three months before the 4 March presidential elections, when Mr Putin will seek to return for a third term as president. That mantle had been handed to Dmitry Medvedev, with Mr Putin taking the number two role, but few questioned where the real power lay.
With no viable competitors, Mr Putin is likely to win, but the legitimacy of his mandate could be eroded by the ongoing tide of discontent. His approval ratings have fallen to historic lows, with one survey this month by the independent Levada Centre showing that only 36 per cent of voters are behind Mr Putin.
In response to the crisis of legitimacy, the government has scrambled to offer reforms in the hope of placating the opposition. On Friday, the Kremlin introduced laws into parliament that would make it easier for new opposition parties to take part in elections.
A source in the United Russia party, who spoke to The Independent after the rally on Saturday, said the government planned to engineer opposition parties to fill in the political spectrum and soak up opposition votes.
"We have to take drastic action," he said. "We've missed our chance to learn how to work with the people and calm them down. We urgently have to open up the system." "
Here's something you may have missed, well-known New York State Senator Carl Kruger busted for corruption. Now it comes out that he was also a closet gay all the while he went about faking it as the representative of family values posing a million times with old ladies and nice people of all sorts in constant junk mail touting his deeds. Oh well. He was well well-connected to all the Flatbush machers who backed Chucky Schumer, then on to Schumer's lackey Anthony "masturbate online" Weiner and now they latch on to rich fat cat Catholic uncle Bob Turner to protect their gelt from taxes. But don't worry, the Flatbush machers are sure to come up with a "new" front man to help them in their cause, now everyone's a "Republican" it seems....
ReplyDeleteYou know it's serious if it took none other than Ben Brafman to help this poor loser out, and it's still not guaranteed that he'll stay out of jail. Maybe he can be placed in Otisville with some of his old Brooklyn pals doing time there:
From Wikipedia:
"Carl Kruger (born December 3, 1949) is an American politician, a Democrat who represented District 27 in the New York State Senate, which comprises Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend, Bergen Beach, Mill Basin, and Midwood, among other neighborhoods found within his native Brooklyn. Kruger surrendered to authorities on March 10, 2011 to face federal charges of bribery. He pleaded guilty on December 20, 2011. Just prior to doing so, he submitted a letter of resignation to the State Senate..."
The New York Post:
ReplyDelete"‘Poor’ old Kruger
Bentley-boy con: I’m broke
By RICH CALDER, JOSH MARGOLIN and BOB FREDERICKS
Updated December 22, 2011
He claims he’s a man of no means — but insiders say he has hidden his wealth by laundering it through friends.
Disgraced ex-state Sen. Carl Kruger will have to forfeit up to $450,000 to the feds after pleading guilty to bribery charges, even though his lawyer claims Kruger is pretty much broke.
“Despite all of the stories to the contrary, Sen. Kruger personally has always maintained a very modest lifestyle,” attorney Ben Brafman said yesterday. “Other than his state salary and state pension, he has no other assets whatsoever.”
But Democratic operatives in Brooklyn claimed yesterday that Kruger excelled in hiding his assets through the person he trusted most — his co-defendant and lover, Michael Turano.
[Photo caption: WEALTH OF DECEPTION: A Bentley (right) sits at the home of ex-state Sen. Carl Kruger (left) and boyfriend Michael Turano, who were convicted in a bribe scheme.]
“It’s no secret the house, the Bentley and most of the other things were his. He laid the money out and everyone knows it. Anyone could put assets under the names of others,” said one operative. “The question is: How did he fool everyone by putting everything in other people’s names?”
Another source added that Kruger has a long history of driving fancy leased cars, patronizing pricey restaurants and taking lavish trips with Turano.
“He was never afraid to spend money, but he was not a stupid man,” the second source said. “He knew how to hide things, and it paid off. The day has arrived and he’s gotten caught, but he doesn’t have to give up his assets because they are registered under someone else.”
Public records show that Kruger, 62, owns no real estate.
But he lives with Turano, 50, a gynecologist, in a garish, $1.8 million waterfront mansion in Mill Basin that the doctor owns with his physician-brother, Gerard Turano.
The Turanos’ assets include a 39-foot yacht, a $200,000 2000 Bentley leased by Gerard, and a $75,000 2010 Mercedes S550 registered in Michael’s name.
The Bentley would be off limits to feds looking to seize assets — even though Kruger and Michael Turano were known to use the luxury sedan — because it’s leased in Gerard Turano’s name, sources said.
The crooked Brooklyn pol had been pulling down a $79,500 Senate salary sweetened until this year by a stipend — known as a lulu — of up to $34,000 a year for being chairman of the Finance Committee. That ended when the GOP won control of the Senate.
He remains eligible for a state pension of about $60,000 a year because the state Constitution prohibits cutting benefits to anyone who paid into the retirement system.
Kruger also rented apartments in Brooklyn and Albany, records show, and owns a 2008 Cadillac DTS.
Brafman said final financial arrangements will be worked out with prosecutors before Kruger is sentenced in April.
Brafman stressed that the amount Kruger has to repay “could be considerably less.”
Michael Turano, who also pleaded guilty Tuesday, faces up to $450,000 in forfeitures plus a possible $125,000 fine.
Kruger and Turano blubbered uncontrollably when entering their guilty pleas to taking nearly a half-million dollars in bribes.
Kruger faces at least nine years behind bars, while Turano faces up to five years.
Meanwhile, Turano’s mother, Dorothy, was notably absent at last night’s meeting of Brooklyn Community Board 18, where she is a district manager.
The chairman said she was on vacation and would return after New Year’s Day."
You're not going to see this in the Modiah or Yated or Mishpacha!:
ReplyDeleteHow come all the anti gay Haredi and Orthodox guys who were in cahoots with ex NY state senator Carl Kruger "forgot" to check out Kruger himself who was living with a male lover in the laps of luxury?
Proves once again, that "politics makes for some strange bed-fellows" (pun intended and how apt!)
New York Jewish Week:
"N.Y. Lawmaker Carl Kruger Quits Over Bribery Charges
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
JTA
A New York lawmaker who had strong Orthodox Jewish backing because he rejected a gay rights initiative quit after pleading guilty to charges that he funneled bribes through his gay partner.
State Sen. Carl Kruger, a conservative Democrat who has held his Brooklyn seat since 1994 and was one finance chairman, resigned Tuesday just before pleading guilty to laundering up to $1 million from lobbyists through Michael Turano, a real estate agent described by prosecutors as Kruger's "intimate associate" and housemate.
"I accept responsibility for my actions and am truly sorry for my conduct,” Kruger was quoted by the New York Daily News as telling the court.
Kruger, who is Jewish, earned plaudits from the Orthodox community in 2009 for voting against a gay marriage bill, telling the Orthodox Hamodia newspaper at the time, "When it becomes an emotional, gut-wrenching issue, when it cuts through the fabric of traditions and values, then I have my community as the cornerstone of my decision."
The resignation will set off a scramble to capture the open seat that is bound to be hard-fought and closely watched given the small margin by which Republicans control the Senate. It may also affect the way a redistricting commission redraws the Senate district map. Analysts see recent Orthodox politically conservative voting patterns in Brooklyn as creating unprecedented opportunity for Republican gains.
Likely candidates include two Russian American lawyers, Democrat Igor Oberman and Republican David... "
Haaretz:
ReplyDelete"The life of a rabbi: diamonds, suits and Hamptons summers
Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto, adviser to the rich and famous, says allegations are lies by former worker trying to extort him.
By Shuki Sadeh
20.12.11
Among the posh crowd who summer in the Hamptons, on Long Island, is one of Israel's most prominent rabbis, Yoshiyahu Pinto. Pinto heads up Shuva Israel, an international network of charities, yeshivas and other religious institutions. In August 2008 and in April 2009 he stayed at rented accommodations at 29 Lily Pond Lane, for which his nonprofit organization paid $70,000 and $40,000, respectively. The second stay was just one week.
Why did a nonprofit dedicated to religious study pay to rent a home in the Hamptons for its head? That's just one of many questions that Pinto's critics in Israel and the United States are asking. Pinto's lifestyle does not suit a rabbi, certainly not one who heads a charity, they say.
[Photo caption: Pinto, second from left, officiates at a ceremony hailing politician Binyamin Ben-Eliezer’s restored health. In center: businessman Ilan Ben-Dov. Ben-Eliezer is on the far right.]
Pinto told Israel's Channel 2 television this week that he was facing an extortion attempt that involved the publication of all these details about his life.
The rabbi has built a name for himself as advisor to the rich and famous, in spiritual as well as business affairs. He reportedly advised Ilan Ben Dov in the latter's acquisition of a share in Manhattan's Lipstick Building, as well as control of Partner Communications (Orange)."
"The life of a rabbi: diamonds, suits and Hamptons summers
ReplyDeletePinto recently denied to associates that he ever offered business advice, yet documents that TheMarker's has obtained show the picture is not so clear. Shuva Israel had a clear relationship with the Israeli expatriate Haim Revah's company Metropolitan Real Estate Investors, which owns a share in the Lipstick Building. For a while the nonprofit was housed in Metropolitan's offices.
Metropolitan, which invests in real estate for its customers, at one time presented Pinto as an adviser. The company stated in a letter to a potential customer that the rabbi would determine what share of profits the potential customer would receive. And in January 2009, Metropolitan President Jacob Abikzer asked the company's contact in Russia to transfer $50,000 to a New York bank account registered to the rabbi's wife, Deborah Pinto.
Associates of Pinto said neither he nor his wife ever had a business relationship with Metropolitan. They said both are on the Shuva Israel payroll exclusively.
Revah did not respond to a request for comment.
There are other questions hovering over Pinto, who splits his time between Ashdod and New York. Documents obtained by TheMarker indicate that in May 2009 his organization paid $110,000 for three pieces of diamond jewelry at a Madison Avenue store.
Another document shows a $50,000 purchase of watches at a Jacob and Co. store in Manhattan. This week, Channel 2 reported that the nonprofit spent a total of $600,000 on watches. Other receipts show it spent $9,300 on suits for Pinto."
"The life of a rabbi: diamonds, suits and Hamptons summers
ReplyDeleteBlessing for $6,000
Even without the jewelry Pinto's lifestyle could be considered ostentatious. He lives in an NIS 11 million mansion on the Ashdod beach that Jay Schottenstein, the Jewish-American owner of American Eagle Outfitters, bought for him. The rabbi is registered as having residential rights to the home. He maintains a central Manhattan townhouse that is registered to the nonprofit.
Pinto makes frequent flight, nearly always in first class, to teach at Shuva Israel's centers in Argentina, Bulgaria, Miami, Los Angeles and other locations.
He recently told associates that everything being published about him lately was part of an extortion attempt by a former volunteer involved in the nonprofit's finances and administration - areas Pinto says he never handled. The ex-volunteer embezzled millions of dollars from the nonprofit, causing it financial problems, Pinto reportedly said.
He reportedly said the FBI and the international and serious crimes unit of the Israel Police have been investigating the case for a year and a half. The Israel Police denied the existence of any such investigation.
Pinto reportedly said the former volunteer was friends with a New York media professional, and that the two were attempting to extort the nonprofit and businessmen close to Pinto. The two threatened to publish intimate details about Pinto and his wife, and to slander them in the U.S. media, Pinto reportedly said.
Pinto has been the subject of critical news articles in the American Jewish media. In March the Jewish Daily Forward reported that his nonprofit was in financial trouble. Pinto told associates that the former volunteer purchased the watches and other jewelry for his own family and had rented the Hamptons home even after Pinto was offered free accommodations elsewhere.
As for why Pinto stayed at the expensive home, Pinto's associates said he wanted to be near his wealthy donors.
Sources in New York who are familiar with Pinto's accusations and his alleged extorters said the rabbi's claims are unfounded. A former employee of the nonprofit said Pinto blamed the organization's financial irregularities on people he fought with.
At least one former employee said the nonprofit was aggressively in pursuing donations from American businessmen.
"I know one very successful U.S. businessman who received a blessing from Pinto," said someone who formerly worked with Pinto in New York. "The following day his representatives showed up at the businessman's office and asked for a donation. 'No problem,' he said, and wrote them a $500 check. But they responded, 'The minimum donation is $6,000.' He called me and said, 'What the hell is going on here,'" the source said.
Associates of the rabbi said in response that if these stories were accurate they were perpetrated by the former volunteer, without Pinto's knowledge."
"The life of a rabbi: diamonds, suits and Hamptons summers
ReplyDeleteJerusalem of gold
Pinto, 39, is popular among the general public as well as Israel's movers and shakers, and has also worked his way into the Jewish business community in the United States.
His closest associates from Israel's business community are Ben Dov and Jacky Ben Zaken. Yitzhak Tshuva, Nochi Dankner and Shari Arison, among other business powerhouses, are known to visit him. He has also received visits from politicians including Yisrael Katz, Tzipi Livni, Eli Yishai, Uzi Landau, Isaac Herzog, Yoel Hasson and Shaul Mofaz.
For someone who says he doesn't consume media, Pinto also has quite a lot of well-placed associates in journalism.
Pinto told associates that he intends to contend for the post of Israeli chief Sephardi rabbi in about a year, "to continue my work as a rabbi and my good works," he reportedly told them.
The first sign that something was amiss in the rabbi's life came in August, when a dispute with his father-in-law, Argentina Chief Rabbi Shlomo Ben Hamo, came to light. That in itself was unusual in the Haredi world.
In a declaration to the Jerusalem District Court Ben Hamo said his daughter Deborah [Pinto's wife] had asked him to open a bank account in Argentina for her and her husband. Money to buy a $1.1 million luxury home in the Jerusalem of Gold project, in downtown Jerusalem, was deposited into the account, he said.
Ben Hamo's statement was filed in response to a lawsuit against him by project developer Yoram Shechter, who claimed Ben Hamo owed him $722,000 on the apartment.
Ben Hamo told the court his daughter and her husband were the apartment's true owners. He said Deborah had pressured him into signing as a guarantor for their loan.
He told the court he made a deal with them and with Shechter in 2007 and that the father-daughter relationship had only declined since then.
"I was the target of insults and threats. In retrospect, it became clear to me that all this happened so that I could be exploited and Rabbi Pinto's money could be laundered," he wrote.
In September a compromise was reached: The apartment would be registered in the Pintos' name, and Ben Hamo would retract his accusations of money-laundering. Associates of Pinto called the decision a major victory, but figures close to Ben Hamo said he, too, got exactly what he wanted - the court ruled the apartment was not his.
The affair has since caught the attention of the Israel Tax Authority, which is reviewing the court documents but said it has not launched a criminal investigation against Pinto.
Pinto told associates this week that he has nothing to fear because both the U.S. and Israeli tax authorities received all of the nonprofit's paperwork as part of their investigation into the extortion affair."
Salt Lake Tribune:
ReplyDelete"Iran’s navy begins drill in international waters, close to U.S. vessels
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
The Associated Press
Dec 24 2011
TEHRAN, Iran. Iran’s navy began a 10-day drill Saturday in international waters near the strategic oil route that passes through the Strait of Hormuz.
The exercises, dubbed "Velayat 90," could bring Iranian ships into proximity with U.S. Navy vessels in the area.
The war games cover a 1,250-mile (2,000-kilometer) stretch of sea off the Strait of Hormuz, northern parts of the Indian Ocean and into the Gulf of Aden, near the entrance to the Red Sea, state TV reported.
The drill will be Iran’s latest show of strength in the face of mounting international criticism over its controversial nuclear program, which the West fears is aimed at developing atomic weapons. Tehran denies those charges, insisting the program is for peaceful purposes only.
Navy chief Adm. Habibollah Sayyari said Iran is holding the drill to show off its prowess and defense capabilities.
"To show off its might, the navy needs to be present in international waters. It’s necessary to demonstrate the navy’s defense capabilities," state TV quoted Sayyari as saying.
The Strait of Hormuz is of strategic significance as the passageway for about a third of the world’s oil tanker traffic. Beyond it lie vast bodies of water, including the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The U.S. Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet is also active in the area, as are warships of several other countries that patrol for pirates there.
Both the U.S. and Israel have not ruled out a military option against Iran over its nuclear program. Iranian hard-liners have come out with occasional threats that Tehran would seal off the key waterway if the U.S. or Israel moved against the country’s nuclear facilities.
Iran regularly holds war games and has also been active in fighting piracy in the Gulf of Aden.
Sayyari said submarines, surface-to-sea missile systems, missile-launching vessels, torpedoes and drones will be employed in the maneuvers."
Vegas Inc.com:
ReplyDelete"Nevada homeowners file class-action lawsuit over foreclosure robosignings
By Steve Green
21 December 2011
[Photo caption: Nevada posted the nation’s highest foreclosure rate for the 52nd straight month with one in 97 housing units receiving a foreclosure notice in April.]
Lender Processing Services Inc., the company targeted by Nevada’s attorney general in a foreclosure robosigning investigation, has been hit with a class-action lawsuit filed by Las Vegas and Henderson homeowners.
Jacksonville, Fla.-based LPS, one of the nation’s largest foreclosure processors, has insisted its robosigning problems in Nevada involved mere paperwork issues, have been addressed and did not involve wrongful foreclosures.
But Tuesday’s homeowner lawsuit said LPS’s use of “forged, fraudulent and/or erroneous” foreclosure documents tainted the foreclosure process to the point where LPS and banks it worked with “did not have authority to foreclose or to continue with the foreclosure process.”
The suit filed in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas alleges violations of Nevada’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, seeks to block pending foreclosures involving allegedly forged LPS documents and seeks unspecified damages for completed foreclosures.
Besides the Nevada attorney general’s lawsuit filed against LPS last week alleging widespread fraud in its foreclosure paperwork operations, criminal charges have been filed in Las Vegas against two LPS officers and four notaries in what state prosecutors call a scheme in which thousands of foreclosure documents were tainted by forged signatures and bogus notarizations.
Also named as defendants in Tuesday’s class-action lawsuit were lenders and foreclosure trustees that work with LPS. They are Bank of America, its subsidiary ReconTrust Co.; IndyMac Mortgage Services, a division of OneWest Bank; and Regional Service Corp., which acts as a foreclosure trustee.
Tuesdays lawsuit was filed by five homeowners and is proposed as a class action representing “countless” more plaintiffs, likely thousands. Four of the named homeowners face foreclosure and the fifth has been foreclosed on, the suit says.
The proposed class of plaintiffs is defined as borrowers in Nevada who received foreclosure documents, called notices of default, “that were improperly executed by LPS, its predecessors or its subsidiaries.”
Tuesday’s lawsuit seeks a court declaration that LPS and its codefendants violated Nevada’s law governing foreclosure proceedings “in that they proceeded with the foreclosure process despite relying upon forged and falsified notices of default.”
“Plaintiffs and consumers have paid the ultimate price through bankruptcies, evictions and foreclosures that were predicated upon false, forged, fraudulent and/or inaccurate documents,” the lawsuit charges.
The suit also seeks a declaration that the notices of default issued by LPS “are null and void” and asks for an injunction blocking LPS and the codefendants from proceeding with the allegedly tainted foreclosures.
“Plaintiffs’ properties face foreclosure as a result of defendants violations of NRS 107.080 (the foreclosure law),” the suit says.
The suit also seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages and attorney’s fees. It was filed by attorneys at the Las Vegas law firm Callister & Associates LLC.
An LPS spokesman said the company had no immediate comment on Tuesday's lawsuit but reiterated its earlier statement: "LPS acknowledges the signing procedures on some of these documents were flawed; however, the company also believes these documents were properly authorized and their recording did not result in a wrongful foreclosure." "
http://benatlas.com/2011/01/the-subliminal-legacy-of-the-al-capone-of-st-paul-leon-gleckma/
ReplyDeleteFor the readers of Failed Messiah, a tell all about it's author Shmarya Rosenberg.
Ben Atlas, a brilliant architect who graduated Pratt, has designed important landmarks like the Harvard conservatory. He officially stopped blogging less than a week ago. He is a former BT back off the derech, who like Shmarya once experimented with Lubavitch. He learned in Morristown for a while and may have been there long enough to get semicha. Unlike you know who, he works for a living so that he does not have to shnorr from people.
ReplyDeleteWhen Atlas was more frum he blogged as Tzemach Atlas at Mentalblog. If I recall correctly he was the first blogger to have exposed Leib Tropper as being up to no good and was expelled from an EJF conference went he tried to investigate in person.
ZVI ZAHLER DIED ON CHANUKAH F-O-U-R YEARS AGO (2008). THE PEDOPHILE NIRC RABBI MOSHE EISEMANN HAS BEEN CREDITED WITH HIS DEATH. SINCE ZVI'S DEATH THAT SICKO HAS WRITTEN SIX BOOKS, LAUNCHED A NEW WEBSITE HTTP://DIGGINGDEEPERJEWISH.ORG, AND KEPT MOLESTING YOUNGSTERS AT HIS APARTMENT ON YESHIVA LANE. NO REMORSE! NO PUNISHMENT OR LAICIZING EITHER! TODAY EVERY NATION IN THE WORLD STEPS FORWARD TO OVERTHROW TYRANTS AND DICTATORS BUT JEWS JUST SHUT UP. THAT SILENCE HAS TO BE B-R-O-K-E-N-!
ReplyDeleteOk, I'm being very serious. I have a close friend who has a friend that knows Matis Weinberg very well. This person I do not know, but is apparently very stable and reliable and this person says that they don't believe the allegations against Matis. Is it possible he is merely a scapegoat that NIRC (and YU) can hold up and say that they are tough on molestors, or do we know beyond a shadow of a doubt as to his guilt. This person would have no reason to protect Matis, in fact would have more reason to be anti Weinberg, Matis, Simcha and all the rest.
ReplyDeleteEven while still Tzemach Atlas blogging at Mentalblog he was no longer frum. In 2007 he went to a dance club and snapped a bunch of pictures of Rivka Rokeach having a blast. He has a Mentalblog post with all the pictures and commentary. Yes, she was that big name in shidduchim in Boro Park for decades. She finally got married but maybe both the marriage & her frumkeit didn't work out if she is out clubbing. And she is old now but still looks pretty young. In the comments, when Atlas is asked about her, he relates that Shmarya bragged to him years ago that he scored a date with her.
ReplyDeleteitchiemayer,
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of YTT guys who swear that Kolko cannot be a molester and they are being honest. Once Kolko knew he was under scrutiny, he was much more careful who he chose to molest instead of being indiscriminate. He could put on a good act to whoever he wasn't molesting and Kolko is not even the smartest and so can any other smart molester.
So what does that tell you about Matis Weinberg who is absolutely brilliant? There is also a pattern of aberrant behavior in the Weinberg family.
Did you know that one of the daughters of R' Nissan Alpert ztl disappeared without a trace many years ago?
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if she may have been molested by the Tendlers just like the Schisgal girls probably were.
I was not aware that R' Nissan's daughter went missing....but I am absolutely aware what happened to the Shisgal girls and so is Moshe Dovid Tendler.
ReplyDeleteJWB has been posting rants lately alleging that R' Moishe himself was aware of molesters that he did nothing about. There is no way R' Moishe would do nothing. I think JWB has gone off the deep end. This is similar to the garbage on the internet blaming R' Yaakov for all kinds of things he knew nothing about.
ReplyDeleteIt was a 2nd daughter of R' Nissan involved in a messy divorce that pitted Belsky against Yankel Reisman.
ReplyDeleteThat was in the day when Belsky still had a good enough reputation to round up over 100 signatures. After he got burned with this story, he could only find 11 idiot nobodies to sign the bittul kiddushin.
Belsky started off against Reisman by ganging up with Rav Scheinberg & R' Reuvein Feinstein. Belsky's shver Rav Pam also joined at first but backed out without publicly coming out against his own eidim.
Aron Schechter jumped into the fray and almost got Reisman kicked out of the Agudah. Reisman was finally saved when R' Feivel Cohen convinced Rav Elyashev that Belsky is full of it. Rav Elyashev then warned Schechter to back off and a bunch of 5 Towns baal habatim warned Shmuel "Boom Boom" Bloom that they will skin him alive if Reisman is thrown out of the Agudah.
What Belsky-Scheinberg-Reuvein F were trying to do is force Reisman to go their beis din only. There is no such din in Shulchan Aruch and this is similar to Belsky fixing dinei Torah like he did against Eli Greenwald and like he does all the time with Mendel Epstein.
At least Mordechai Tendler showered with women. A Boston TV station is now reporting that Philly yeshiva talmid Stanley Levitt was taking his boy victims in the shower with him.
ReplyDeleteStanley Levitt went to Philly at a time that a lot of other weird and controversial Lubavitchers did. I wonder what the big attraction was to Philly for Lubies. Don Yoel Levy from OK Kashrus went there and so did a strange out of town Lubavitcher rabbi who struggles to get a minyan for davening. He sits around bitching all day that he is upset he learned by R' Elya and attacks everyone in the yeshivishe velt except for a few characters who he drays pshat somehow admired the Rebbe. He has a fantasy that R' Beinush Finkel ztl was one of them. I asked around and some Briskers finally figured out where he comes up with this nonsense which left them laughing in stitches. R' Beinush would daven every morning by the Kosel kevasikin. On the way to the kosel there are some Lubies who play tapes of the Rebbe's farbrengens. So R' Beinush would sometimes stop for a second and hear a snippet of the tape.
ReplyDelete"Belsky's shver Rav Pam also joined at first but backed out without publicly coming out against his own eidim."
ReplyDelete*
Rav Pam z"tl did not have any daughters -- I knew how Rav Pam felt about Belsky - he was horrified about Belsky's involvement and leadership in every rebbes' strike at the mesifta, and his hooliginism in bes din, and literally terrorizing the rebbes that refused to join the srikes for bitul Torah --- although they needed the money desperately.
The Jewish world looks the way it does because we have Belskys as rosh yeshivas and poskim.
I was surprised when I heard that Belsky would be an eidim by Rav Pam but that's what the guys in Yankel Reisman's shul say.
ReplyDeleteThe Savitskys have been spreading propaganda around that Rav Elyashev backs Belsky on anything he does so dont believe the rumors that he had a problem with Belsky letting a married girl go on shidduchim with bochurim. The actual facts don't matter to them like that Rav Elyashev tells visiting rabbonim that Belsky can't be trusted for anything. It's modenna that they back up Belsky with Rav Elyashev of all people when they don't like Rav Elyashev because he once worked for the Rabbanut.
ReplyDeleteBelsky terrorized his way up the ladder in YTV. For years he could not even walk into the beis medrash except on Yomim Noraim. If Savitsky and Reisman did not vigorously and publicly back him, they'd be shoveling zevel for the sanitation dept. in a heartbeat.
ReplyDeleteWhen rabbonim confront Belsky about all the letters and teshuvos against him from kimat the entire spectrum of gedolim in EY & USA, this is what he does ...
ReplyDeleteRav Doniel Eidensohn wrote on his website that when he asked Belsky to his face, Belsky burst out laughing and told him there is a well known troublemaker who is putting out ziyuf against him.
What can you do when this is the same corrupt dor when Bill Clinton can also laugh anything off and get away with it.
This is fest! There is more yeshivishe raid on this blog than in my newspaper! Ooops! Never mind, ich hob gornisht gezogt!
ReplyDeleteGet the shovels out because in a few days is the Torah Vodaas Shabbos in the 5 Towns. They couldn't come for years because of what they did to Y. Reisman but they are sticking their toes in the water again. They wouldn't dare step foot in Y. Reisman's Agudah but the shul is letting in Fishel Schachter from the YTV high school to speak.
ReplyDeleteThey are trying to cash in on the succe$$ of the BMG 5 Towns Shabbos. They took out big newspaper ads with pictures of Belsky, Sruly Reisman, Savitsky and Rav Wolfson.
Chaim Berlin also had to stay out for years but started sneaking back after Rav Groner's son opened a shul in Rockaway.
Scroll down the sidebar towards the end -- 5 years ago I called Belsky the most dangerous man to Klal Yisroel!
ReplyDelete"I called Belsky the most dangerous man to Klal Yisroel!"
ReplyDeleteVhen I hiring "enforcers" I only getting da best!
YTT Misnaged - I agree with what you say, but I was just very surprised by this person that stands behind him....very, very surprised. This person acknowledges the obvious that the Weinbergs are way off, but insists that Matis is innocent.
ReplyDelete"Belsky started off against Reisman by ganging up with Rav Scheinberg & R' Reuvein Feinstein...Aron Schechter jumped into the fray and almost got Reisman kicked out of the Agudah. Reisman was finally saved when R' Feivel Cohen convinced Rav Elyashev that Belsky is full of it. Rav Elyashev then warned Schechter to back off and a bunch of 5 Towns baal habatim warned Shmuel "Boom Boom" Bloom that they will skin him alive if Reisman is thrown out of the Agudah."
ReplyDeleteAron Shechter is no friend of Belsky. He has gone head to head with him on other dinei Torah. It's like a merry-go-round as the rabbonim beat up on each other driven by one thing and one thing only, which balebos is shmeering them and which one are the chanfening. They all have their eyes on the bottom line and they all have senses keener than sharks, and lots of spies and informants in the field who have their own agendas, when it comes to knowing where the money trail comes from or where the path to it lies.
It can only be surmised that Shechter, leshitaso, hates Rabbi Yaakov Reisman because Reisman is an eidim of Rav Mordechai Gifter ZT"L who was hated by Shechter, going back to the times of Rav Hutner. Rav Gifter was a man of the people, he could speak better than any of them, he was listened to by the outside world and he was popular with the out-of-town crowd because he came from out of town and Telz was in Cleveland which is shpitz out of town. Rav Gifter was doing mofsim in Waterbury CN long before the CB crowd got there!!! He was the maaseh avos for them there!
Another thing that Aron Shechter hates is that Rav Gifter holds the title and is the reigning champ for the heavy-weight title of "first American born Rosh Yeshiva and Gadol" the thing that Shechter prides himself in, after the title of the chief thief who stole the title of Rav Hutner's chief "talmid muvhak" from everyone else using flattery, cunning, endurance, manipulation, terror tactics, and always that toothy fake smile of his, and a long list of dirty tricks that makes Tricky Dick Nixon look like an amateur. But he cannot last forever as he fumbles and stumbles around refusing to use a cane preferring two human "canes" on either side as if he were "Moshe's hands" being "up-held" by his aides. Who's he fooling?
R' Aron Schechter actually told Bungalow Putz Neuhoff to forget what Belsky told him and knock it off with his anti-UOJ obsession. The Bungalow Putz shared this with his friend Gilligan Student. Gilligan told over the story in a public place and was upset that it made it on to this blog, arguing it was not for public consumption.
ReplyDeleteThere are other American born roshei yeshiva that are even older than Rav Gifter. R' Avigdor Miller was a Mashgiach which is sort of the same as rosh yeshiva. There was the rosh yeshiva of Mountain Dale, R' Yehuda Davis. They both went by boat to learn in Slabodka. I think Rav Yoffee was also an American who learned in Kaminetz. He was rosh yeshiva in Kansas City which only existed for 5 years starting in 1955.
ReplyDeleteJWB says:
ReplyDelete>Anonymous said...
>JWB has been posting rants lately
>alleging that R' Moishe himself was
>aware of molesters that he did
>nothing about. There is no way R'
>Moishe would do nothing. I think JWB
>has gone off the deep end. This is
>similar to the garbage on the
>internet blaming R' Yaakov for all
>kinds of things he knew nothing
>about.
>12:44 PM, December 28, 2011
Actually, I've been saying it for several years. So has Shmarya. I've fact checked and it is accurate. If you doubt me ask Shmarya. UOJ also knows the score. R'Moishe was aware of a pedophile and actively disuaded survivors from reporting to the police while trying to have the pedophile's family quietly get him help. It failed. Thanks to R'Moishe many more children were molested. I can't help you with your false hero worship. I am more interested with truth then R'Moishe's false legacy. His real legacy includes his grandchildren (enough said). Also, his sons knew about Kolko and were silent as more children were molested.
As to Rav Moshe's real legacy:
R. J. David Bleich’s recent article in Tradition (p. 88):
Given the overwhelming consensus among latter-day authorities affirming the prohibition against drinking wine touched by a Sabbath-violator, Iggerot Moshe‘s position is surprising, to say the least. Moreover, the thesis developed in that responsum stands in sharp contradiction to Iggerot Moshe‘s earlier-cited multiple statements affirming the prohibition. Perplexed by Rabbi Feinstein’s sup rising volte face, Rabbi Genut turned to a long-time, but unnamed, disciple of Rabbi Feinstein for clarification. Rabbi Genut quotes the disciple’s reply in which the latter writes that “it is known to me that many of the responsa [included in the posthumously-published eighth volume of Iggerot Moshe] were not before the eyes of my master and teacher… and there is also doubt with regard to many responsa in the seventh volume.”
_____________________________________
Of course I was saying this almost a decade ago and gave materials to Luke Ford that confirmed the problems with the 7th volume.
JWB says:
ReplyDeletehttp://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2007/02/rabbi_dovid_fei.html
Shmarya:
This, I believe, is because their father, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, supposedly held going to police was always wrong because it would violate the prohibition of mesira. Rav Moshe himself had credible evidence of sexual abuse against children perpetrated by an authority figure in the haredi community. He railed privately against the abuser, urged the abuser's family to deal with the abuser, but did not call police or allow others to call police. That abuser raped children and continued to do so until non-Jewish victims went to the police.
Dovid Feinstein's view – that a beit din should first decide on the guilt or innocence of the abuser – is foolish. Beit dins have no investigatory or police powers. Rabbis are not trained in investigation. It is a recipe for covering up abuse – and Dovid Feinstein knows this.
I think most would agree that Shmarya's biases preclude his credibility, especially where even he starts off by saying "supposedly".
ReplyDeleteIt sounds though that he is talking about R' Moshe "supposedly" being involved in the Mondrowitz case.
Mondrowitz escaped in the 1980s, at a time when R' Moshe's health was deteriorating until his demise in 1986. I doubt that he was involved in either the Mondrowitz or Kolko cases, or at least not with a full capacity to properly decide.
Should R' Moshe have known about the Tendlers? If you anything about how Moses carried on like a clown in front of his shver, I will assume the insidious details were hidden from him.
UOJ once answered a direct question posed by a reader about R' Moshe, to say he has "no knowledge of any cover up involvement" by R' Moshe himself.
R' Moshe's sons are of course not R' Moshe.
I think I know what Shmarya is doing in this case. Out of ignorance he is shtelling tzu a different psak of R' Moishe that is apples & oranges. Shmarya never learned in a real yeshiva and displays surprising ignorance even for someone who learned such a long time in BT & Lubavitch yeshivos. You see this all the time when he tries to translate from seforim. Even his basic laining and Ivra is deficient.
ReplyDeleteIn the early stages of the first Leib Pinter scandal at "Bnei Torah", the government cornered some of Pinter's employees and demanded they squeal on him, they refused on R' Moishe's say so. They were briefly jailed, ranging from a few days to weeks when they were let go as it was clear their incarceration would not make them "sing". There is a legitimate machlokes in halacha if you can squeal on dina demalchusa issues BEFORE it it is clear it will become a full blown chilul Hashem. IF it was at the point already where sitting Senators were going to jail for taking Pinter's bribes and the White House was already discussing the bum in emergency meetings, then there is a chiyuv lechol hadayos to HAND OVER Pinter even if they will execute him. This is why Rav Sternbuch yelled at the Agudah fressers for shielding cop killer Martin Grossman, because what they did is a perversion of halacha and one that puts Jews at risk from angry goyim.
So Shmarya is misapplying R' Moishe's mesirah psak for fraud to apply to child molesting which is dinei nefoshos.
I must have missed Shmarya ganging up on Rav Moishe Feinstein. Isn't that odd, being that in his early days on the blog he would contrast R' Moishe's compassion for Falashas against the Lubavitcher Rebbe's disinterest. That should have put R' Moishe in Shmarya's good book in perpetuity.
ReplyDeleteIt would seem that even benevolence towards Colored folk only goes so far if you are an Orthodox rabbinical leader!
It is a testament to Donald Trump’s greatness that in an America filled with Kardashians, Jersey Shore and Michael Bay, he still manages to stand out as a complete and utter phony.
ReplyDeleteTrump got his start, like most of the phonies on this list, by investing in real-estate with his rich daddy. He eventually spun this venture into retarded catch phrases and gigantic money-losing phallic emblems to himself. After promoting himself and losing hundreds of millions of investors dollars, Trumps favorite activity is talking about how much money he has. This started way back in the 90s, when Trump started bragging about being worth a cool billion, despite having less money then you probably do now.
Forbes recently valued him at around $200 million in net worth, which is certainly no figure to sneeze at.
(SNEEZE- UOJ)
Donald Trump, however, has no problem shaking his stick at that number, brazenly claiming that he’s worth $7 billion. With a “b”. According to Trump, all those extra zeroes are the result of his “brand” which he values at around $3 billion and the rest of us value at “oh ew. ewwwww. grooooosssss.”
To round the shameless self-promotion off, Trump decided recently he wanted to be the almost-republican nominee.
He shot to the top of the running with his ceaseless attacks on Obama’s claims of citizenship. When asked about the quasi-racist nature of his ultimately failed campaign, the Donald kept it classy and replied, “I’ve always had a great relationship with the blacks.”
READ MORE:
http://www.businesspundit.com/the-5-phoniest-entrepreneurs/
That Arab Spring is giving me the warm and fuzzies:
ReplyDeleteCAIRO--Egyptian security forces seized computers, printers and documents from offices of at least 17 human-rights organizations Thursday, including three U.S.-based groups, adding new tensions to fraying ties between Egypt's interim military leadership and its allies in Washington.
Egypt's military leadership has repeatedly blamed the country's continuing violent protests on what they call a foreign-borne conspiracy aimed at creating chaos and undermining the Egyptian state. Thursday's raids appear to have backed the accusations with action.
Special forces units of the Egyptian military, accompanied by state prosecutors and uniformed and plain-clothes police officers, searched non-governmental organization offices in Cairo and other Egyptian cities. As they seized documents and hardware from NGO offices, security officers forbade the organizations' employeees from leaving or making phone calls.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204720204577128490261141970.html?mod=djemTEW_t