JULY 1, 2021
THURSDAY 
PROGRESSIVE OPINION AND NEWS
 
 
RECENT SCAPEGOATING AND BULLYING OF JEWISH PEOPLE, AGAIN, IS IN THE NEWS TODAY. THAT HUMAN CHARACTERISTIC IS ONE OF THE MOST DEPRESSING SUBJECTS I EVER READ ABOUT. IT ALSO GOES AGAINST ALL OTHER RACIAL GROUPS AS WELL, OF COURSE, BUT THE JEWISH PEOPLE ARE THE FOREFATHERS OF CHRISTIANITY, WHICH SHOULD GIVE US SOME LOYALTY TO THEM RATHER THAN HATRED. IN THIS CASE A JEWISH MAN WAS ATTACKED WITH A BASEBALL BAT. IT IS REALLY DIFFICULT SOMETIMES TO DRAW A DISTINCTION BETWEEN INSANITY AND PURE EVIL.
 
THE WORD SHOAH, WHICH APPEARS IN THIS ARTICLE, IS THE HEBREW WORD FOR HOLOCAUST.
 

 https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/01/europe/european-antisemitism-pandemic/index.html  
A hate-filled attack made a grandson of Holocaust survivors understand their experience a little more. But he decided to buck their advice
By Antonia Mortensen, Melissa Bell and Saskya Vandoorne, CNN
Updated 4:00 PM ET, Thu July 1, 2021

 
VIDEO -- Rising European anti-Semitism blamed on lockdowns, 05:27, source CNN
 
"Being physically attacked is a different dimension than being verbally attacked, which I am used to because anti-Semitism has risen in the last year."
 
Violence and oppression against Jews and their faith has been a constant in Europe, but recorded incidents of anti-Semitism have been on an alarming rise, partly fueled by lockdowns to stop the spread of coronavirus.
 
In Rosen's home of Austria, there has been the highest number of anti-Semitic attacks since the country started recording them 19 years ago.
 
Benjamin Nägele, secretary general of Jewish Communities Austria, said its figures showed a 6.4% rise in reports of anti-Semitic incidents in 2020, even though he says many people do not report every time someone uses a slur against them.
 
PHOTOGRAPH -- Men worship at the Stadttempel synagogue in Vienna. There are about 15,000 Jews in Austria, down from an estimated 220,000 before the rise of Hitler.
 
"We've seen a worrying trend not only in Austria, but throughout Europe when it comes to anti-Semitism, he said.
 
Nägele said the verbal aggression comes first because it is so easy, especially online. "You can do it anonymously. You can do it a lot of times without fearing any prosecution," he said. "And then you get encouraged to do it more, to be more aggressive, to actually add insult to injury and, at some point, get so radicalized that you then transfer it to the real world."
 
Coronavirus conspiracies
 
Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Commission's anti-Semitism coordinator, said the issues were ancient but there had been a new impetus to some of the hate.
 
"Anti-Semitic conspiracy myths have been there for centuries," she told CNN. "Whenever there is a pandemic, they have come to the fore again. What we see is that, for example, during Covid, anti-Semitic tropes and conspiracy myths have increased significantly on social platforms."
 
As people marched in protest against strict lockdowns imposed by their leaders, the German RIAS organization, which tracks anti-Semitism, noted Jewish tropes among the placards.
 
At one event in Bavaria, RIAS said, demonstrators held up a photomontage of people being forcibly vaccinated by people wearing uniforms bearing what looked like a Star of David and the word "Zion."
 
PHOTOGRAPH -- Demonstrations against pandemic lockdowns and this year's violence between Israel and Hamas have seen anti-Semitic protest signs, the German watchdog RIAS says.
 
In another case in Berlin, a man appeared to accept the false conspiracy theory that the pandemic was caused by Jews, shouting at two identifiably Jewish pedestrians, "Are you not ashamed, what you did, you Jews?" RIAS reported.
 
More than a quarter of the anti-Semitic incidents documented were related directly to the coronavirus, the group said in its annual report.
 
The violence between Israel and Hamas in May this year again fueled anti-Jewish sentiment in Germany, RIAS found, with all Jews being targeted for the actions of Israel's government and military.
 
"Stop doing what Hitler did to you," read one sign in English held up during a pro-Palestinian march in Berlin, the group said.
 
Benjamin Ward, deputy director in Human Rights Watch's Europe division, agreed that anti-Semitism was often cyclical and propelled by events in the Middle East. But he added, "If we look more broadly at the phenomenon of anti-Semitism in Europe, we see that it's much older and also much wider. it's really a European issue."
 
PHOTOGRAPH -- Jewish cemeteries, like this one in Berlin, are often desecrated, including with Nazi symbols.
 
Across Europe, anti-Semitic attacks have been rising for years. France has seen numerous attacks -- in 2012, three children and a teacher were gunned down at a Jewish school in Toulouse; in 2015, four people were shot dead and others held hostage in a kosher supermarket in Paris; in 2018, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor was killed when she was stabbed 11 times and then had her Paris apartment set on fire.
 
Jewish cemeteries from France to Poland are regularly desecrated, and nine out of 10 European Jews believe that anti-Semitism is on the rise, according to a survey by the European Commission.
 
Different ways to deal with hate
 
In Brussels, Rabbi Albert Guigui is one of those responding by trying to hide his very identity, to look less Jewish.
 
"Of course, I wear a yarmulke at home, but outside I prefer to cover my head less conspicuously," he said, talking of the baseball cap he dons most days. "It's not healthy to live in an atmosphere of fear and where you feel hunted."
 
As those with living memory of the Holocaust pass away, Guigui worries more hate will come.
 
RELATED ARTICLE -- Not just neo-Nazis with tiki torches: Why Jewish students say they also fear cloaked anti-Semitism
 
"There is concern precisely because there is no longer that barrier of memory," he said. "Before, people couldn't openly express their anti-Semitism because the memory of the Holocaust was there to remind people where such words lead. Now there's been a liberation of the very speech that generates acts."
 
Back in Austria, Karoline Edtstadler, the country's minister for the EU, said the government was worried because although it was trying to tackle the upsurge in anti-Jewish hate, the numbers of incidents online and in real life kept rising.
 
"The positive thing, of course, is we have to foster Jewish life," she said.
 
That's the new tactic of Rosen, who's bucking the advice of his grandparents and choosing to stand tall as a member of Austria's Jewish community, that now stands at about 15,000 people, a fraction of the 220,000 Jews estimated to have lived in Austria before the rise of Hitler.
 
He says his grandparents' approach of keeping a low profile after the Holocaust, or Shoah, was understandable but misguided, and it was time to show and introduce others to Jewish life and traditions.
 
"The post-Shoah society of Jews often thought that being silent, not being too loud, would lead to a higher acceptance of Jews in the main society," he explained, before saying that clearly did not work.
 
"I will tell my son or young Jewish people to proud of being Jewish and not to be silent."
 
Journalist Adam Berry contributed to this story. 
 
 
SO MANY PEOPLE ARE SHORT OF MONEY SINCE THE COVID RELATED UNEMPLOYMENT, THIS MUST BE EXCRUCIATING FOR THOSE WHO ARE NOT IN THE 1%.
 

 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tax-refund-delay-irs-backlog-35-million/  
Still waiting for a tax refund? IRS backlog has grown to 35 million returns
BY AIMEE PICCHI
JULY 1, 2021 / 3:05 PM / MONEYWATCH

 
VIDEO – CBS THIS MORNING, JILL SCHLESINGER, CHILD TAX CREDIT, 04:23 MIN.   
 
A growing backlog of unprocessed tax returns now stands at 35 million, creating ongoing refund delays for millions of taxpayers, the National Taxpayer Advocate said in a recent report. That represents an increase in the IRS' backlog of unprocessed returns from May, when it was holding 31 million returns.
 
Some taxpayers have recently told CBS MoneyWatch they have been waiting months for their refunds, and have been unable to learn when their tax return might be processed or when they can expect to receive their refund. As the typical refund stands at more than $2,800 per taxpayer, a delay could cause financial hardship, especially for the many households that rely on their refunds to pay bills.
 
The backlog at the IRS comes after a "perfect storm" that created "perhaps the most challenging filing season taxpayers, tax professionals and the IRS have ever experienced," wrote National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins in the Wednesday report. The pandemic caused the IRS to shut down some of its operations, while it was also given more responsibility from Congress through several new tax initiatives, such as the three rounds of stimulus checks that were distributed by the tax agency.
 
"The impact of the pandemic on IRS operations — and therefore on taxpayers — has been significant," Collins noted. "The IRS's historically high number of returns requiring manual review means that most individual taxpayers in this group and many business taxpayers will not receive timely refunds."
 
Some people may be able to weather the delay, Collins noted, but it could "impose significant financial hardships" on low-income taxpayers and small businesses without much wiggle room, she said.
 
The backlog of returns represents a fourfold increase from two years earlier, prior to the pandemic, the report noted. Unfortunately, taxpayers won't receive their returns until the IRS is able to manually process those 35 million returns that are awaiting review, she added.

Why the delays?
The unprecedented backlog started in March 2020, when the pandemic caused the IRS to shut down its offices for health and safety reasons — during the middle of tax season for 2019 tax returns. Paper tax returns filed for the 2019 tax year were stored in trailers until IRS employees could get to them.
 
At the start of the tax season in 2021, the IRS was still working through those paper returns from the 2019 tax year. That meant it was already dealing with an existing backlog when it began accepting 2020 tax returns in February.
 
At the same time, the IRS is coping with tax changes passed into law by Congress this year. Many of these changes relate to pandemic-relief efforts, such as the Recovery Rebate Credit, which allows people to claim additional stimulus money if they received too little. But if taxpayers filled out this credit incorrectly, their forms are flagged for manual review by IRS staff, which has added to the backlog.
 
New provisions for the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit are also causing snags in the system, since the government stimulus package signed into law in December came too late for the IRS to adjust its forms and computer systems.
 
The stimulus package's provisions allow taxpayers to claim the credits based on their 2019 income instead of their 2020 income if that would have been more favorable to them — but such "look backs" require IRS employees to verify 2019 incomes.
 
All of those issues, and more, have caused the "unprecedented number of returns requiring manual review, slowing the issuance of refunds," Collins noted.
 
Backlog requires manual processing
Manual processing of 35 million returns in the IRS' backlog requires an IRS employee to review or check each one before it can move to the next step, Collins noted.
 
The backlog includes:
*16.8 million paper tax returns that need to be processed
*15.8 million returns that were suspended for further review
*2.7 million amended returns that still need to be processed
 
Of the 15.8 million returns that need further review, more than 10 million were pulled because of an error, which could be as simple as an addition or subtraction mistake. Nevertheless, an IRS employee must manually review each of these returns to check the errors and address them, Collins noted.
 
But "large numbers" of returns flagged for errors relate to the tax credit "look back" issue, as well as discrepancies between the Recovery Rebate Credit claimed by the taxpayer and the IRS' own records. This could happen, for example, if a taxpayer didn't accurately recall the amount of stimulus money they received and put down the wrong number, Collins said.
 
Phone assistance not a "luxury"
With so many returns backed up at the IRS, it may be no surprise that the number of calls to the IRS and visits to its website jumped this year — with the number of calls jumping to four times what the agency received in 2020, Collins said.
 
At the peak of the filing season this year, the IRS was receiving about 1,500 calls a second, Collins added.
 
The IRS couldn't keep up with the demand, resulting in "historically poor service," her report stated.
 
For instance, the toll-free number for individual income tax services received 85 million calls, but only 3% of callers reached a customer service rep, she noted. Collins also singled out the "Where's my refund" tool on the IRS website as needing improvement, noting that in many cases the tool doesn't provide an estimate of when a taxpayer might get their refund or explanation for the holdup.
 
"From the taxpayer's perspective, the inability of the IRS to answer calls or provide answers causes frustration and undermines a fundamental taxpayer right — namely, the right to be informed," Collins said, adding that she urges Congress to increase funding for the IRS to improve its ability to answer and handle calls.
 
She added, "In my view, phone assistance is not merely an option or a luxury."
 
First published on July 1, 2021 / 3:05 PM
© 2021 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. 
 
 
MORE HEARTRENDING NEWS IN A TRAGIC SITUATION
 

 https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-surfside-building-collapse-health-coronavirus-pandemic-38c5a0b9b062ed57e304f850255427bf
Safety concerns halt rescue efforts at condo collapse site
By TERRY SPENCER
26 minutes ago [JULY 1, 2021]

 
PHOTOGRAPHS -- 1 of 13, A parked crane sits beside the still standing section of Champlain Towers South, which partially collapsed last Thursday, as rescue efforts on the rubble below were paused out of concern about the stability of the remaining structure, Thursday, July 1, 2021, in Surfside, Fla. Scores of residents are still missing one week after the seaside condominium building partially collapsed. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
 
SURFSIDE, Fla. (AP) — Rescue efforts at the site of a partially collapsed Florida condominium building were halted Thursday out of concern about the stability of the remaining structure after crews noticed widening cracks and up to a foot of movement in a large column, officials said.
 
The stoppage that began shortly after 2 a.m. threatened to keep search teams off the rubble pile for an unknown period and dim hopes for finding anyone alive in the debris a week after the tower came down.
 
The rescue operations were called off on the same day that President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited the devastated community.
 
The collapse of the 12-story Champlain Towers South beachfront condominium killed at least 18 people and left 145 missing. Hundreds of search-and-rescue personnel have painstakingly searched the pancaked rubble for potential signs of life, but no one has been rescued since the first hours after the collapse.
 
“This is life and death,” Biden said during a briefing. “We can do it, just the simple act of everyone doing what needs to be done, makes a difference.”
 
“There’s gonna be a lot of pain and anxiety and suffering and even the need for psychological help in the days and months that follow,” he said. “And so, we’re not going anywhere.”
 
The president was expected to meet later with first responders and family members of those affected by the collapse before delivering remarks Thursday afternoon.
 
Rescue work was halted after crews noticed several expansions in cracks they had been monitoring. They also observed 6 to 12 inches of movement in a large column hanging from the structure “that could fall and cause damage to support columns” in the underground parking garage, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky said.
 
In addition, they noticed movement in the debris pile and slight movement in some concrete floor slabs “that could cause additional failure of the building,” he said.
 
Officials will work with structural engineers and other experts to “develop options” to continue rescue operations, Cominsky said.
 
Biden’s visit “will have no impact on what happens at the site,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told a news conference.
 
“The search-and-rescue operation will continue as soon as it is safe to do so. The only reason for this pause is concerns about the standing structure,” she said.
 
Gov. Ron DeSantis said state engineers, the fire department and county officials are exploring options on how to deal with the structural concerns.
 
“Obviously, we believe that continuing searching is very, very important,” DeSantis said, adding that the state will ”provide whatever resources they need” to allow the search to continue.
 
Cominsky confirmed Thursday that workers tried to rescue a woman shortly after the building collapsed when they heard a voice in the rubble.
 
“We were searching for a female voice ... we heard for several hours, and eventually we didn’t hear her voice anymore,” he said.
 
Cominsky said they continued searching. “Unfortunately, we didn’t have success on that,” he said.
 
The cause of the collapse is under investigation. A 2018 engineering report found that the building’s ground-floor pool deck was resting on a concrete slab that had “major structural damage” and needed extensive repairs. The report also found “abundant cracking” of concrete columns, beams and walls in the parking garage.
 
Just two months before the building came down, the president of its board wrote a letter to residents saying that structural problems identified in the 2018 inspection had “gotten significantly worse” and that major repairs would cost at least $15.5 million. With bids for the work still pending, the building suddenly collapsed last Thursday.
 
Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami and Bobby Caina Calvan in Tallahassee, Florida, contributed to this report.
 
  
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