Australian Jordan Mailata was fired up after an unnecessary late shot from New York’s Quincy Williams sent Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts crashing to the ground.
The Jets scored a 24-21 win over the Eagles in the pre-season game but coach Robert Saleh was left less than impressed by Williams’ cheap shot.
The incident, which happened in the first quarter, saw Hurts forced to scramble towards the sideline on a third-and-5 play for no gain.
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Williams though came charging towards Hurts, even with the Eagles quarterback clearly heading for the sideline, hitting him late and hard.
That was to the displeasure of Australian left tackle Mailata, who came running over to confront Williams, telling reporters post-game he was “seeing red” after the hit.
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni was also livid, with the Eagles awarded a 15-yard penalty which ultimately led to them scoring the opening touchdown of the game.
Jets coach Saleh admitted to reporters after the game that it was a bad look and something Williams needed to address.
“You know, it’s one thing to make a mistake in the game,” Saleh said, calling the hit ““egregiously awful”.
“It’s another thing to make a mistake that leads to points.”
Hurts was not injured by the shot, although the Jets will be sweating on quarterback Zach Wilson after he injured his right knee on a scramble in the first quarter.
Based on how Wilson went down, there was fear that he had torn his ACL, which would end his season.
But after the game, head coach Robert Saleh said initial tests indicated the ACL was intact, but nothing would be known with certainty until Wilson underwent an MRI exam on Saturday. Sources said the Jets had optimism that Wilson’s injury will only cause him to miss weeks and not months.
After initially being wrong on his diagnosis of tackle Mekhi Becton earlier in the week, Saleh chose his words carefully in the postgame press conference.
Zach Wilson walks to the locker room after an injury. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
“I’m always concerned until you get the final evaluation,” Saleh said. “We’ve walked off the field with very positive thoughts and it’s been opposite. We’ve walked off the field with bad initial readings and it’s been the opposite. I’m just going to let it play out and we’ll see [Saturday].”
The injury came on the Jets’ second drive of the game.
Saleh said Wilson “100 percent” should have gone out of bounds.
“It was tough, man to see a guy like that, a guy that you’ve got so much love for not just as a player but as a person to go down like that it was tough,” wide receiver Corey Davis said. “We do n’t know the extent of his injury to him but we just hope he’s all right.”
Wilson also injured his right knee last season as a rookie. That injury, a sprained PCL suffered on Oct. 24 at New England, cost Wilson four games. ESPN reported Friday that the Jets believe the new injury also may be to Wilson’s PCL.
The Jets have high hopes for Wilson in his second season after a disappointing rookie season. The entire offseason was about surrounding Wilson with better talent.
Zach Wilson failed to finish the game. (Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
For a while it looked like the lowlight of Wilson’s night would be an interception by Eagles linebacker Kyzir White that ended the Jets’ first drive of the game. Wilson went 3-for-5 for 23 yards and the interception before suffering the injury.
If Wilson is ruled out, the question will become whether the Jets will stick with veteran Joe Flacco as their starter or try to make a trade for 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, whom San Francisco has been trying to trade for months without finding a taker. Saleh and offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur were with Garoppolo for 3 ½ years in San Francisco.
“You guys know how I feel about Joe,” Saleh said of Flacco. “Everyone does, the whole world does. Joe is a phenomenal football player. He’s having a great camp and he’s got a juice left.”
Things got ugly for Ben Simmons in Philadelphia and if Kevin Durant is not careful, he could be heading down a similar path in Brooklyn — if he is not already.
But could that be all part of the Nets superstar’s master plan?
Well, Durant certainly got the NBA world talking earlier in the week then he issued an ultimatum that left Nets owner Joseph Tsai in a tricky situation.
Durant, who requested a trade in June, reportedly told Tsai he needs to choose between the 12-time All-Star and the pairing of head coach Steve Nash and GM Sean Marks.
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A subsequent report from The New York Post laid out Durant’s specific grievances with the team, including a lack of consultation over the Nets’ firing of assistant coach and director of player development Adam Harrington.
But not everyone in the NBA world seems to think that Durant actually wants Nash or Marks fired from the organization.
That is certainly the opinion of Fox Sports’ Nick Wright, who said on ‘The Herd’ with Colin Cowherd that Durant’s ultimatum is all about achieving one “single goal”.
“I don’t think Kevin Durant actually wants those guys fired,” Wright said.
“I think he just wants to be traded. I think if he wanted Sean Marks and Steve Nash fired, he would have gone to Joe Tsai a month ago when he did the trade demand and quietly and privately said: ‘Listen, if you don’t fire these guys, I’m going to demand a trade’.
“I read this differently than most. I read this as Kevin Durant asking for something he knew he would not get in order to make it untenable for them to bring him back because he was starting to get concerned they were actually going to bring him back.
“This was him upping the ante to a level that is pretty unprecedented. It’s why I think Durant understood Joe Tsai is not going to do it and they also, I don’t believe, can ask Steve Nash to now coach Kevin Durant. I think it was a really smart move if his single goal is to be traded and I think that is his single goal.
Could Kevin Durant be heading down a similar path to Ben Simmons? (Photo by Adam Hunger/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
You see, it is not like Durant has much leverage in this situation, as NBA front office insider John Hollinger explained in a recent article for The Athletic.
Hollinger pointed towards two numbers in particular to prove that point — 34 and four — Durant’s age and how many years he has left on his contract.
“Throwing both his coach and GM under the bus — in many cases for moves that came with a wink and nod from Durant’s camp — certainly makes it less likely the Nets will find it tenable to reunite everyone in the fall,” Hollinger wrote.
“Of course, this gambit offers no guarantees. The trade offers in front of the Nets today aren’t any different from the ones they rejected yesterday, and it’s not clear how or if Durant’s latest demand will compel action.”
What it could do though is lead to a similar situation to the one Simmons found himself in Philadelphia last year, although there are a few key differences as Hollinger also pointed out.
“Seemingly the sharpest arrow left in Durant’s quiver is pure hardball: a holdout, one that would cost him a chunk of his $44 million 2022-23 salary for every day he sat out,” he wrote.
“It would, ironically, be a near carbon-copy of the situation a year ago in Philadelphia with Durant’s occasional teammate Ben Simmons.
“Here’s the thing: The Nets are working on a different timeline than the Sixers were.”
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Hollinger is right. Philadelphia had to move relatively fast to capitalize on Joel Embiid’s prime and as such was more inclined to reach a swift resolution in the Simmons drama.
The same cannot be said for the Nets though, as Hollinger argued.
“If anything, they would seem to have the opposite motivation,” he wrote.
“Yes, Brooklyn’s first choice would be to run it back with Durant, Simmons and Kyrie Irving (or a suitable replacement). But in the absence of Durant, wouldn’t the Nets’ second choice be to tank the season and try again in 2024? And wouldn’t a Durant holdout do anything more than accelerate the Nets toward that endgame?
“Brooklyn’s best-case scenario may be waiting until midseason, when this summer’s free agents are eligible to be dealt with. It seems less likely they’d let a year of Durant’s contract wither on the vine at his age and wait until next offseason… but it ca n’t totally be ruled out either given the tanking incentive.
Durant has told Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai that he must choose between keeping Durant or head coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks, The Athletic reported on August 8, 2022. (Photo by ELSA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)Source: AFP
What was consistent among a host of voices in the NBA media landscape was a sense of uncertainty, not knowing what exactly was coming next, again similar to the Simmons saga.
“The whole situation is a mess, but the kind of mess Brooklyn might happily sweep under a rug and ignore, if only it could,” The Ringers Rob Mahoney wrote.
“It’s impossible to replace Kevin Durant. Hell, it’s hard enough just to set a fair return for Durant in a trade, much less one suitors can realistically meet. Every ask sounds ridiculous because Durant is a genuinely ridiculous player.
“That might be the only reason he’s still a Net some six weeks after requesting a trade—and maybe the real reason KD is stirring the pot with this ultimatum in the first place. Does he really want Marks and Nash gone? Or is he just looking to send a shock through the Nets’ system?”
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The Athletic’s Alex Schiffer, meanwhile, pointed towards Durant’s strong endorsement of Marks after the Brooklyn’s four-game sweep at the hands of Boston as proof of just how confusing it all is.
“If Durant wanted Nash out but didn’t feel like putting him on blast to the media 10 minutes after the season ended, he could have discussed Nash’s future with an ‘I don’t know’ or ‘Now’s not the time for that’ . But he didn’t,” Schiffer wrote.
Schiffer agreed one “plausible explanation” is that this is Durant trying to force Brooklyn’s hand, to make the situation so untenable that the Nets back down.
Durant wants out of Brooklyn. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
The Heat have been heavily linked to Durant since he first requested the trade but are unlikely to have the assets to make it work, at least in a traditional two-team deal.
The Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang though Durant’s ultimatum was an important point in the drama, even if it still left “plenty of questions unanswered”.
“But in the wake of The Athletic’s report that Durant doesn’t want to work with Nash or Marks, the question is: Will this force the Nets to trade Durant prior to the start of training camp in late September to avoid any awkward tension and drama between the two parties? he wrote.
“That sort of deadline could take away some of the Nets’ leverage as the window to trade Durant before training camp shrinks as each day passes.
“The Nets could also decide to take Durant into training camp if a good enough offer doesn’t present itself, which would force Durant to decide whether to skip practices as he waits to be dealt or play through it.”
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NBA insider Brian Windhorst though was not so sure it would pay off, should Durant’s ultimatum have been a ploy to try speed up a trade out of Brooklyn.
“Doing it now is a manoeuvre, a manoeuvre that I don’t think worked because as I talk to teams out there, they don’t think this increased his trade demand. They think this hurt his trade value,” Windhorst said on ‘NBA Today’.
Windhorst brought up Tsai’s tweet earlier in the week as proof of it, in which the Nets owner claimed: “Our front office and coaching staff have my support. We will make decisions in the best interest of the Brooklyn Nets.”
“I want to point to the second half of the Joe Tsai tweet,” Windhorst said.
“I think it’s obviously important to look at the first sentence which is that he’s not going to fire Sean Marks and Steve Nash. But the second sentence is really the sentence that the league paid attention to it. And it seems benign when he says ‘We make decisions for the best interest of the Brooklyn Nets.’
“But I’m going to decode that for you. What he’s basically saying is despite what Kevin Durant is trying to do here, we’re not going to change what our expectations are for a trade and if you are not traded, we expect you to be reporting to camp to continue the four years you have left on your contract.”
At this stage though, we are no closer to either party getting what they want, with Schiffer putting it best in his summation of the drama.
“During’s ultimatum,” he wrote, “opened a chest’s worth of questions while the clock to training camp continues to tick more loudly”.
The Phoenix Suns and Miami Heat were initially listed as preferred landing spots for Kevin Durant but now two new contenders have emerged.
According to SNY’s Ian Begley, the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers are also desirable destinations for the 12-time All-Star.
Of course, Durant has been heavily linked to Boston in recent weeks, with a potential trade package centered around Jaylen Brown.
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But those reports were focused on a move that would work for the Nets. This one looks at just what Durant may be after and it looks like he is keen on the Celtics too.
Boston reportedly offered Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and a first-round pick but even that does not seem to be enough for Brooklyn, who want reigning Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart.
The Sixers, meanwhile, could offer an attractive package including Tyrese Maxey, Tobias Harris and/or Matisse Thybulle and would see Durant reunite with James Harden.
Durant would be likely to accept a trade to Boston of Philadelphia, though his Brooklyn future is likely in the hands of Joe Tsai.
The 12-time All-Star made an ultimatum to the Nets owner, asking for GM Sean Marks and coach Steve Nash to be fired or be shipped out of town himself.
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Durant told Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai that he must choose between keeping Durant or head coach Steve Nash and general manager Sean Marks. (Photo by ELSA / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)Source: AFP
Durant’s issues with the Nets and specifically Tsai go much deeper than his demand they fire Nash, a source close to the Nets and familiar with KD’s thinking told The New York Post.
“The ultimatum he made is not what really caused the deterioration. It’s not the ultimatum itself,” the source said.
Durant, among other things, was not consulted on the Nets’ firing of assistant coach and director of player development Adam Harrington when the season ended, the source believes.
“There are simple things that destroy a relationship. You fired someone he was close to and didn’t have a conversation about it,” the source said.
Last week, the popular Harrington attended a Liberty WNBA basketball game and was seen hugging current Nets players, according to a Reddit post.
“I would think there are so many things, it’s not one thing,” the source said. “I think KD wants to leave and it doesn’t matter what reasons he says.”
During a meeting this weekend with Tsai said, as he did last month, he wanted to be traded unless Nash was fired, The Post confirmed. There are also reports he wants general manager Sean Marks fired as well.
Marks was the main force behind hiring Nash, sources said.
Where will Kevin Durant end up? (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Durant believes “he traded away too many pieces,” the source said.
Tsai, after the reports Monday about the meeting with Durant, tweeted, “Our front office and coaching staff have my support. We will make decisions in the best interest of the Brooklyn Nets.”
All involved recognize Marks and Nash do not have autonomy and ultimately if the Nets blow up it is because of Tsai, the source said.
Tsai now has to decide whether to lower his high asking price and get a Durant trade done before training camp opens at the end of September as the 33-year-old star has requested.
“I don’t think anybody on the team is safe from being traded. Everyone is up for grabs,” the source said.
Durant signed a four-year, $198 million contract extension in 2021, so he has limited power in forcing a trade unless he refuses to play. A source told The Post this week that’s an unlikely scenario.
“I don’t think he’s not going to play,” they said.
This article first appeared on The New York Postand was reproduced with permission.
US Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) waits for an elevator to go to the Senate floor at the US Capitol in Washington, US August 2, 2022.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Long before Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., held up a massive spending bill that promised to create jobs, invest in clean energy and tax the rich — delivering on some of President Joe Biden’s and the Democratic party’s top campaign promises — those working at Wall Street investment firms had donated millions to the freshman senator’s campaign.
One of her main objections was the bill’s so-called carried interest tax provision — which would have closed an arcane loophole in tax law that allowed hedge fund managers, law firm partners and private equity executives, among others, to pay significantly less taxes than ordinary workers.
Closing that loophole, which was estimated to raise $14 billion in tax revenue over the next decade, was supposed to help pay for $433 billion in spending on climate and health initiatives.
To get Sinema’s vote, and the bill passed, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats had “no choice” but to drop that provision from the broader Inflation Reduction Act. The bill instead imposes a 1% tax on all corporate share buybacks along with a minimum corporate tax rate of 15% on companies with more than $1 billion in revenues. The massive spending-and-tax package squeaked through the evenly divided Senate 51-50 on Sunday with Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote. It’s expected to pass the House later this week.
American Investment Council
As Biden rallied support in the Senate just over a year ago to close the loophole, the head of the trade group representing the world’s largest private equity firms began cranking up the pressure on Sinema and fellow Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who is also a Democrat.
“Arizona Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly will be critical voices and votes in the upcoming infrastructure debate,” Drew Maloney, the president and CEO of the American Investment Council, wrote in an op-ed published by an Arizona news outlet. The trade group represents some of the world’s largest private equity firms, including Blackstone, Apollo Global Management, Carlyle Group and KKR. “I urge them to continue supporting private investment’s role in helping small businesses here in Arizona and across the country,” he added.
One of the group’s top priorities was then, and is now, to preserve “carried interest capital gains and prevent elimination of interest deductibility.”
“Our team worked to ensure that members of Congress from both sides of the aisle understand how private equity directly employs workers and supports small businesses throughout their communities,” Maloney said in a statement to CNBC. “Our advocacy helped prevent punitive tax increases that would make it harder for investors to continue to support jobs, small businesses, and pensions in every state.”
Sinema’s been fighting to help preserve the loophole since at least last year when she told Democratic leaders she opposed closing the carried interest tax break. It was subsequently stripped out of a House bill, according to NBC News.
Sinema’s opposition, along with a bevy of concerns from Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.V., helped sink a much more sprawling version of the bill, which was significantly back to win over the two moderate Democrats.
‘What’s best for Arizona’
“Senator Sinema makes every decision based on one criteria: what’s best for Arizona,” Sinema’s spokeswoman Hannah Hurley told CNBC in an email. She said Sinema has been clear for over a year that she will only support tax reforms and revenue options that support Arizona’s economic growth and competitiveness.Sinema believes that “disincentivizing” investments in Arizona businesses would hurt the state’s economy and ability to create jobs, Hurley said.
In the weeks before Sunday’s vote, Sinema’s office was inundated with calls from lobbyists representing hedge funds, private equity firms and other money managers arguing against closing the carried interest tax loophole, according to people familiar with the matter. In the runup to last week’s deal, Ella’s senator and her staff fielded numerous in-person meetings with the industry, said some of the people familiar with these meetings, asking not to be identified to speak freely about private efforts to connect with Sinema .
Since she was elected to the Senate in 2018, Sinema has been a sympathetic ear to the industry. Last September, she huddled for a lunch meeting at a Philadelphia restaurant with Michael Forman, who manages at least $34 billion as CEO of a Philly-based investment firm FS Investments, and one of his executives, according to people familiar with the lunch. Forman did not return emails and calls seeking comment.
“Every single major industry that is not supportive of what’s in there is meeting with Sinema and she is meeting with anybody and everybody,” a lobbyist representing some of the biggest investment firms in the world told CNBC before Schumer announced late Thursday that Democrats agreed to drop the carried interest provision to get her vote. Sinema said she would work separately “to enact carried interest tax reforms.”
Private equity donors
Even before Sinema was elected to the Senate in 2018, she supported private equity investors as a member in the House of Representatives. In 2016, Sinema said the industry provided “billions of dollars each year to Main Street businesses,” according to the New York Times.
Sinema won a coveted seat on the powerful Banking Committee and made quick work networking with — and raising donations from — the industry she would oversee. Since the start of the 2018 election cycle, she’s raked in at least $2 million from the securities and investment industry — outraising Senate Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown’s $770,000 in industry donations over the same time, according to Federal Election Commission data analyzed by the nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets. Both Sinema and Brown, D-Ohio, are up for reelection in 2024.
Sinema’s take includes $10,000 in campaign donations from the American Investment Council’s political action committee, half of which was donated to her campaign after Maloney’s op-ed ran last year.
Employees at private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the Carlyle Group and Apollo Global Management donated more than $95,000, combined, to Sinema from the 2018 election through the current 2022 election cycle, according to campaign finance data.
That includes $11,600 in combined donations from KKR co-founders Henry Kravis and George Roberts, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Records show that Carlyle’s and Apollo’s political action committees also donated a combined $15,000 to Sinema’s reelection campaign.
Representatives for KKR and Carlyle declined to comment. Representatives for Apollo and Blackstone did not return requests for comment.
‘Hats off to the P/E lobby!’
The reason why some of Wall Street’s wealthiest money managers want to preserve the carried interest loophole is because it taxes their profits at a lower rate than the ordinary income. Instead of paying the standard individual income tax rates of up to 37% for individuals who earn more than $539,900 ($647,850 for married couples filing jointly), carried interest is taxed at the capital gains rate, which is usually around 20% for high-income earners, as long as the investment is held for at least three years.
Democrats wanted to make executives hold those investments for at least five years to get the better rate. The industry defends the carried interest tax break, saying it helps preserve investments that benefit small businesses. Critics say it’s just a massive tax break for the rich.
Lloyd Blankfein, the former CEO of Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs, mockingly congratulated the private equity industry on Twitter after the carried interest provision was stripped from the Inflation Reduction Act: “Hats off to the P/E lobby! After all these years and budget crises, the highest paid people still pay the lower capital gains tax on earnings from their labor.”
US Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) waits for an elevator to go to the Senate floor at the US Capitol in Washington, US August 2, 2022.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Long before Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., held up a massive spending bill that promised to create jobs, invest in clean energy and tax the rich — delivering on some of President Joe Biden’s and the Democratic party’s top campaign promises — those working at Wall Street investment firms had donated millions to the freshman senator’s campaign.
One of her main objections was the bill’s so-called carried interest tax provision — which would have closed an arcane loophole in tax law that allowed hedge fund managers, law firm partners and private equity executives, among others, to pay significantly less taxes than ordinary workers.
Closing that loophole, which was estimated to raise $14 billion in tax revenue over the next decade, was supposed to help pay for $433 billion in spending on climate and health initiatives.
To get Sinema’s vote, and the bill passed, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats had “no choice” but to drop that provision from the broader Inflation Reduction Act. The bill instead imposes a 1% tax on all corporate share buybacks along with a minimum corporate tax rate of 15% on companies with more than $1 billion in revenues. The massive spending-and-tax package squeaked through the evenly divided Senate 51-50 on Sunday with Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote. It’s expected to pass the House later this week.
American Investment Council
As Biden rallied support in the Senate just over a year ago to close the loophole, the head of the trade group representing the world’s largest private equity firms began cranking up the pressure on Sinema and fellow Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, who is also a Democrat.
“Arizona Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly will be critical voices and votes in the upcoming infrastructure debate,” Drew Maloney, the president and CEO of the American Investment Council, wrote in an op-ed published by an Arizona news outlet. The trade group represents some of the world’s largest private equity firms, including Blackstone, Apollo Global Management, Carlyle Group and KKR. “I urge them to continue supporting private investment’s role in helping small businesses here in Arizona and across the country,” he added.
One of the group’s top priorities was then, and is now, to preserve “carried interest capital gains and prevent elimination of interest deductibility.”
“Our team worked to ensure that members of Congress from both sides of the aisle understand how private equity directly employs workers and supports small businesses throughout their communities,” Maloney said in a statement to CNBC. “Our advocacy helped prevent punitive tax increases that would make it harder for investors to continue to support jobs, small businesses, and pensions in every state.”
Sinema’s been fighting to help preserve the loophole since at least last year when she told Democratic leaders she opposed closing the carried interest tax break. It was subsequently stripped out of a House bill, according to NBC News.
Sinema’s opposition, along with a bevy of concerns from Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.V., helped sink a much more sprawling version of the bill, which was significantly back to win over the two moderate Democrats.
‘What’s best for Arizona’
“Senator Sinema makes every decision based on one criteria: what’s best for Arizona,” Sinema’s spokeswoman Hannah Hurley told CNBC in an email. She said Sinema has been clear for over a year that she will only support tax reforms and revenue options that support Arizona’s economic growth and competitiveness.Sinema believes that “disincentivizing” investments in Arizona businesses would hurt the state’s economy and ability to create jobs, Hurley said.
In the weeks before Sunday’s vote, Sinema’s office was inundated with calls from lobbyists representing hedge funds, private equity firms and other money managers arguing against closing the carried interest tax loophole, according to people familiar with the matter. In the runup to last week’s deal, Ella’s senator and her staff fielded numerous in-person meetings with the industry, said some of the people familiar with these meetings, asking not to be identified to speak freely about private efforts to connect with Sinema .
Since she was elected to the Senate in 2018, Sinema has been a sympathetic ear to the industry. Last September, she huddled for a lunch meeting at a Philadelphia restaurant with Michael Forman, who manages at least $34 billion as CEO of a Philly-based investment firm FS Investments, and one of his executives, according to people familiar with the lunch. Forman did not return emails and calls seeking comment.
“Every single major industry that is not supportive of what’s in there is meeting with Sinema and she is meeting with anybody and everybody,” a lobbyist representing some of the biggest investment firms in the world told CNBC before Schumer announced late Thursday that Democrats agreed to drop the carried interest provision to get her vote. Sinema said she would work separately “to enact carried interest tax reforms.”
Private equity donors
Even before Sinema was elected to the Senate in 2018, she supported private equity investors as a member in the House of Representatives. In 2016, Sinema said the industry provided “billions of dollars each year to Main Street businesses,” according to the New York Times.
Sinema won a coveted seat on the powerful Banking Committee and made quick work networking with — and raising donations from — the industry she would oversee. Since the start of the 2018 election cycle, she’s raked in at least $2 million from the securities and investment industry — outraising Senate Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown’s $770,000 in industry donations over the same time, according to Federal Election Commission data analyzed by the nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets. Both Sinema and Brown, D-Ohio, are up for reelection in 2024.
Sinema’s take includes $10,000 in campaign donations from the American Investment Council’s political action committee, half of which was donated to her campaign after Maloney’s op-ed ran last year.
Employees at private equity firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the Carlyle Group and Apollo Global Management donated more than $95,000, combined, to Sinema from the 2018 election through the current 2022 election cycle, according to campaign finance data.
That includes $11,600 in combined donations from KKR co-founders Henry Kravis and George Roberts, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Records show that Carlyle’s and Apollo’s political action committees also donated a combined $15,000 to Sinema’s reelection campaign.
Representatives for KKR and Carlyle declined to comment. Representatives for Apollo and Blackstone did not return requests for comment.
‘Hats off to the P/E lobby!’
The reason why some of Wall Street’s wealthiest money managers want to preserve the carried interest loophole is because it taxes their profits at a lower rate than the ordinary income. Instead of paying the standard individual income tax rates of up to 37% for individuals who earn more than $539,900 ($647,850 for married couples filing jointly), carried interest is taxed at the capital gains rate, which is usually around 20% for high-income earners, as long as the investment is held for at least three years.
Democrats wanted to make executives hold those investments for at least five years to get the better rate. The industry defends the carried interest tax break, saying it helps preserve investments that benefit small businesses. Critics say it’s just a massive tax break for the rich.
Lloyd Blankfein, the former CEO of Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs, mockingly congratulated the private equity industry on Twitter after the carried interest provision was stripped from the Inflation Reduction Act: “Hats off to the P/E lobby! After all these years and budget crises, the highest paid people still pay the lower capital gains tax on earnings from their labor.”
Ben Simmons’ rocky NBA career has taken another turn after the Brooklyn Nets guard reportedly left a players group chat before a decisive playoff game last season.
Simmons was drafted first overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2016 NBA Draft but found himself locked in a standoff with the franchise after demanding a trade.
The Australian was eventually dealt to the Nets as part of a package for All-Star guard James Harden, and was expected to don his new colors for the first time in the playoffs.
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The Athletic reported in April that Simmons was set to debut for Brooklyn in Game Four, during the first round of the playoffs.
Brooklyn were already down 3-0 to the eventual Eastern Conference champions Boston Celtics when he pulled out with back soreness.
But renowned NBA analyst Ric Bucher has made a stunning revelation about Simmons, saying that he left a players group chat without saying a word before Game Four.
“They’re having a team chat before Game four, thinking he’s going to play against the Celtics, and from what I’m told, Ben just left the chat,” Bucher told Colin Cowherd on The Herd.
“They asked him, ‘Are you going to play?’ Ben left the chat. Like he didn’t even answer the question. He just left the chat.”
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The 26-year-old required surgery in March on his lower back after withdrawing from that crucial playoff clash with the Celtics.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Simmons needed back surgery after experiencing “pain soreness” the day before the Nets were eventually eliminated.
“Brooklyn Nets swingman Ben Simmons will require three to four months of rehabilitation after undergoing back surgery, but is expected to be fully recovered to return to the court well ahead of pre-season training camp in September, sources told ESPN on Wednesday,” Wojnarowski wrote.
“The decision to undergo the surgery was reached after ‘consultation with multiple back specialists,’ the team said Wednesday.”
Simmons said that mental health was the reason behind his ugly exit from Philadelphia, as he opened up on his “dark times.”
However, sports radio host Ben Maller believed that it was just an excuse for the Melbourne-born talent to leave the Sixers.
“Ben Simmons in Philadelphia was a charlatan, a fake, a phony and a fraud,” Maller said on Fox Sports Radio in February
“This guy has been hiding behind the mental health card playing it from the bottom of the deck, knowing that it makes you untouchable in a polite society.
“The establishment media are afraid of even slightly criticizing someone who makes this claim, like Ben Simmons.”
A guest on Antiques Roadshow was left stunned after the ring which she described as an “ugly lump of glass” was given a whopping evaluation by the show’s jewelery expert.
Valuer on the UK TV show Susan Rumfitt revealed a guest’s Art Deco cocktail ring with a yellow sapphire was worth almost $9000.
The guest explained the ring had belonged to a relative of her mother’s who lived in Philadelphia in the US, The Sun reports.
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“When she died, her jewelery was sent to my mum, which included rings and brooches,” she said.
She confessed she thought the ring was “an ugly lump of glass” and “a bit too much” for her.
Rumfitt replied: “That’s a shame, it’s a gorgeous color though, it’s a really pretty colour.
“And if it is glass, it’s definitely a nice piece of glass.”
But then the guest was shocked to discover the jewel was in fact a huge yellow sapphire.
“I can understand why you thought it might have been a citrine as you do get that range of yellows from that light, very punchy yellows,” Rumfitt said.
She said the sapphire was about 16 carats, leaving the guest open-mouthed.
“It’s certainly brightened up my day, and if it went into auction you would be looking at an estimate of between £4000 and £5000 ($A7000 to $A8700),” Rumfitt said.
“You’re kidding me,” the guest replied. “That’s ridiculous.”
This article originally appeared in The Sun and was reproduced with permission
Dolph Lundgren has responded after Sylvester Stallone criticized him for attaching himself to the potential Rocky spin-off, Drago.
Lundgren took to Instagram to clarify details of the spin-off after being called out. He revealed there is not an “approved script” for the project, or a director, Fox News reports.
“Just to set the record straight regarding a possible Drago spin-off,” Lundgren captioned a photo of himself and Stallone on Instagram. “There’s no approved script, no deals in place, no director and I was personally under the impression that my friend Sly Stallone was involved as a producer or even as an actor.
“There was a press leak last week which was unfortunate. In touch with Mr Balboa – just so all the fans can relax… There ya go.”
Yesterday, Stallone criticized Irwin Winkler and his sons, Charles and David, for “picking clean the bones” of the Rocky character Drago for the potential series.
“ONCE AGAIN, IRWIN WINKLER, this PATHETIC 94-year-old PRODUCER and HIS MORONIC VULTURE CHILDREN, Charles and David, are once again picking clean THE BONES of another wonderful character I created without even telling me,” he wrote on Instagram.
“I APOLOGISE to the FANS, I never wanted ROCKY characters to be exploited by these parasites,” Stallone added, before making a jab at Lundgren.
“By the way, I once had nothing but respect for Dolph but he NEVER told me about what was going on behind my back with the character I created for him! REAL FRIENDS are more precious than gold.”
Stallone has yet to respond to Lundgren’s recent reply.
Lundgren previously spoke about a possible spin-off to The Hollywood Reporter in 2021.
“By the way, I think there’s some talk about doing a whole spin-off on Drago with MGM. So you may get more of that,” Lundgren told the outlet at the time.
Stallone has also criticized Rocky franchise producer Winkler for keeping revenue generated by the spin-off films from him.
This article originally appeared in Fox News and was reproduced with permission
Sylvester Stallone has hit out at his long-time friend and co-star Dolph Lundgren over an upcoming spin-off to Rocky.
The 76-year-old US actor created the smash-hit Rocky franchise back in the ’70s, in which he stars as Philadelphia boxer Rocky Balboa across six films spanning three decades. He also reprized the iconic role in two believe films, with the third to be released in 2023.
And now, the cult favorite story is set to be repurposed yet again, with TheWrap announcing a new MGM project focusing on Lundgren’s Rocky IV character, Russian boxer Ivan Drago.
But the news hasn’t gone down well with Stallone, who launched an explosive post claiming Lundgren kept the production a secret from him, despite Stallone having created the character.
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Taking to Instagram with a lengthy statement, Stallone also hit out at original Rocky producer Irwin Winkler, 91, who won the Oscar for Best Picture for the breakout 1976 film.
“ONCE AGAIN, IRWIN WINKLER, this PATHETIC 94-year-old PRODUCER and HIS MORONIC VULTURE CHILDREN, Charles and David, are once again picking clean THE BONES of another wonderful character I created without even telling me,” Stallone wrote alongside a screenshot of the news.
“I APOLOGIZE [sic] to the FANS, I never wanted ROCKY characters to be exploited by these parasites …
“By the way, I once had nothing but respect for Dolph but he NEVER told me about what was going on behind my back with the character I created for him!!! REAL FRIENDS are more precious than gold.”
Stallone followed up the post with another furious rant, which featured a photoshopped image of Winkler wearing vampire teeth having sucked blood from Rocky’s neck.
“After IRWIN WINKLER and FAMILY SUCK ROCKY DRY!” Stallone captioned the post. “Presumed to be the most hated, untalented, decrepit [sic]producer in Hollywood and his cowardly children have found their next meal… Drago, RETURN MY RIGHTS BLOODSUCKERS!”
Rocky IV, which was released in 1985, is considered one of the most popular films in the franchise. It follows Rocky’s emotional journey to the ring to fight against Drago, who had fatally punched Rocky’s best friend Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) during an exhibition bout.
Stallone has previously opened up about his frustration over failing to secure rights to Rockytelling Variety in 2019 he had “zero ownership” of the franchise.
“Every word, every syllable, every grammatical error was all my fault. It was shocking that it never came to be, but I was told, ‘Hey, you got paid, so what are you complaining about?’” Stallone said.
“I was very angry. I was furious. Rocky is on TV around the world more than any other Oscar-winning film other than Godfather. You have six of them, and now you have believe and Believe II.”
