Argentina releases list of 12,000 Nazis to Simon Wiesenthal Center

An Argentine investigator, Pedro Filipuzzi, has shared a list of some 12,000 names of Nazis in Argentina with the Simon Wisenthal Center.

The list, found in Interior Ministry archives in Buenos Aires, was originally prepared by Argentina's Special Commission to Research Anti-Argentine Activities, based a raid on the now-defunct German Union of Labor Syndicates.

The country's Lower House of Congress studied the findings in 1941-43, and printed a report that included details on Nazi bank transfers from Argentina to Switzerland.

Many of those listed had contributed to one or more bank accounts at the Schweizerische Kreditanstalt, which became Credit Suisse.

Following a Standard Oil-backed coup in 1930, Argentina was ruled by two right-wing regimes who welcomed a growing Nazi presence in Argentina.

The 1938 election of centrist anti-Nazi President Roberto Ortiz, was followed by the establishment of the Special Commission - principally to de-Nazify Argentina.

There were 1,400 members of the NSDAP/AO (the Nazi Party Foreign Organization) in Argentina in 1938 - with 12,000 supporters of the (the German Union of Labor Syndicates) front group, and an additional 8,000 affiliated to other Nazi organizations.

The Special Commission's files were burned after a nationalist, 1943 coup. Up to 10,000 Nazis (mainly SS officers) escaped to South America following World War II.

At: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/wiesenthal-center-reveals-names-of-1200-nazis-that-fled-to-argentina.phtml

Argentine researcher Pedro Filipuzzi (left), with the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Director of International Relations, Ariel Gelblung (a fellow Argentine).

Filipuzzi found the list, compiled by the Argentine government in 1941-43 as part of a de-Nazification effort, in Interior Ministry files.

Some 6 million Europeans and Middle-Easterners emigrated to Argentina between 1880 and 1930 - among them 124,000 Germans. Many supported Hitler during the 1930s and '40s.

The list includes few if any post-war Nazi escapees - but rather German-Argentines who belonged to a pro-Nazi front group.

Vulture fund billionaire Paul Singer seeks Twitter takeover

A battle of the billionaires may be starting at Twitter.

Hedge funder Paul Singer has taken in a stake in the social media company—and now wants to replace Jack Dorsey as Twitter CEO and grab four board seats.

Dorsey is an unconventional CEO, splitting his time running both $26 billion (market cap) Twitter and $36 billion Square, the digital payments company. This arrangement is part of the reason that Singer’s Cayman Islands-based firm Elliott Management (NML) is pushing for change.

Singer’s been a busy guy lately. Over the past year, he’s built up a $25 billion stake in SoftBank after its WeWork investment decimated its shares and one in AT&T.

Singer, 75, who founded NML in 1977, is one of Wall Street’s most revered —and feared— investors.

In the past, his adversaries have been entire countries, most famously a years-long campaign to get Argentina to pay up on bonds NML bought from resellers on pennies on the dollar. Singer and the other holdouts largely won that fight - netting NML an estimated 1,180% payout in 2016.

At: https://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2020/02/29/twitters-jack-dorsey-has-a-new-nemesis-hedge-fund-billionaire-paul-singer/

Cayman Island vulture fund boss and GOP mega-donor Paul Singer.

The $2.4 billion his NML hedge fund netted from Argentina in 2016 (on a $200 million black market bond purchase) may go toward buying a controlling stake in Twitter, if he gets his way.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is seeking to stop the vulture fund billionaire.

James Lipton, 'Actors Studio' host, dead at 93

"Inside the Actors Studio" host and veteran TV writer James Lipton has died. He was 93.

Lipton passed away peacefully Monday morning at his New York City home. His wife, Kedakai Turner, tells TMZ James had been battling bladder cancer. She adds: "There are so many James Lipton stories but I’m sure he would like to be remembered as someone who loved what he did and had tremendous respect for all the people he worked with."

The man had a storied career in and around television and film - as well as executive producer of President Jimmy Carter's Inaugural gala in 1977.

Lipton served as the Dean Emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University in NYC for several years. He was probably best known for spearheading his famous talk show, "Inside the Actors Studio" - where he interviewed actors, big and small, to pick their brains about the craft.

It was filmed in front of a live audience full of student actors, some of whom got a chance to ask questions from time to time. He started the show in 1994 and finally retired in 2018 after 22 seasons.

The program continues to this day.

At: https://www.tmz.com/2020/03/02/inside-the-actors-studio-james-lipton-dead-dies-age-93/

James Lipton, 1926-2020.

"I criticize those critics. The reason being that they're doing one of the worst things that ever can be done to an actor - which is to say: Look, you do what we like you to do or else."

Ken Cuccinelli unlawfully appointed to lead US immigration agency, judge rules

Source: The Guardian

A federal judge has ruled that Ken Cuccinelli was unlawfully appointed to lead US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and as a result lacked the authority to give asylum seekers less time to prepare for initial screening interviews.

Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general and an immigration hardliner, was named to a new position of “principal deputy director” in June, which made him acting director because Lee Francis Cissna had just resigned.

The agency grants green cards and other visas and oversees asylum officers.

The US district judge Randolph Moss in Washington found Cuccinelli’s appointment violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, a 1998 law governing who is eligible to lead federal agencies in an acting capacity.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/02/ken-cuccinelli-unlawfully-appointed-federal-judge