$65,000,000 for a New Private Jet, Creflo Dollar? Negro, Please

He wants to pull millions out of the community for a Gulfstream G650, just so he can fly above it all and tell his congregation to say “praise the Lord” while he does.

By Kirsten West Savali

Creflo Dollar
Raymond Boyd/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

On the streets of any hood in the United States, Creflo Dollar, the kingpin behind World Changers Church International, would be called a hustler. Behind the pulpit, however, he’s called pastor, and if that’s not a sin, I don’t know what else to call it.

Dollar, who made headlines in 2012 for allegedly assaulting his then 15-year-old daughter, has now launched a full-fledged campaign to pressure his congregation into buying him a new, $65 million Gulfstream G650 jet.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Apparently, the right reverend was traveling on his old private jet when the aircraft experienced engine failure. Fortunately, the pilot was able to land safely without any injuries or fatalities, but the incident was so frightening, Dollar felt compelled to reach out to his flock.

His G650 plea reads, partially, as follows:

We are asking members, partners and supporters of this ministry to assist in the undertaking of an initiative called Project G650. The mission of Project G650 is to acquire a Gulfstream G650 airplane so that Pastors Creflo and Taffi and World Changers Church International can continue to blanket the globe with the Gospel of grace. We are believing for 200,000 people to give contributions of 300 US dollars or more to turn this dream into a reality—and allow us to retire the aircraft that served us well for many years.

To which, the question has to be asked: Is American Airlines closed? Did Delta go on break?

According to a recent Atlanta Blackstar report, Dollar has an estimated net worth of $27 million—900 times more than the $29,640 average annual income in College Park, Ga., where he holds court.

So, for argument’s sake, let’s say that he’s such a VIP that it’s just absolutely necessary for him to own a private jet—or, maybe, he’s just allergic to those two-pack Biscoff cookies airlines pass out in-flight. But why can’t he pay for it himself?

After all, this is a man who tells his followers that Jesus wants them to be rich, and if you pay him, he’ll show you how to do it. He unapologetically flaunts his wealth to prove to his congregation that the God of the Holy Bible will make those faithful to him richer than Empire’s Lucious Lyon. His prosperity gospel has encouraged more materialism and greed that any episode of Basketball Wives ever could. And he walks around with more gold than Trinidad James.

He’s too broke, though, to buy his own plane?

Dollar would rather press people living below the federal poverty line—people with no jobs, no insurance, no health care and, in some cases, no homes—into funding his luxurious travel?

The man should be ashamed of himself, but apparently he’s not. Anyone bold enough to tell a congregation that he had visions of executing anyone who didn’t pay tithes clearly has no conscience. Yes, he told them that the only reason they’re still alive is that he’s “covered with the blood of Jesus”:

I mean, I thought about when we first built “the Dome,” I wanted to put some of those little moving bars and give everybody a little card. They’d stick it in a little computer slot. If they were tithing, beautiful music would go off and, you know, ‘Welcome, welcome, welcome to the World Dome.’

But ... if they were non-tithers, the bar would lock up, the red and blue lights would start going, the siren would go off, and a voice would go out throughout the entire dome, “Crook, crook, crook, crook!”

Security would go and apprehend them, and once we got them all together, we’d line them up in the front and pass out Uzis by the ushers and point our Uzis right at all those non-tithing members ’cause we want God to come to church, and at the count of three Jesuses we’d shoot them all dead. And then we’d take them out the side door there, have a big hole, bury them and then go ahead and have church and have the anointing.

Aren’t you glad we’re under the blood of Jesus? Because if we were not under the blood of Jesus, I would certainly try it.

A man of God, ladies and gentlemen. A man of God.

I’m not Christian, but I know a master manipulator when I see one. Take this situation out of the tabernacle and onto the track, and he might as well put baby powder in his palm and say, “Bring me back my money.”

He’s a charlatan, and I’m not at all surprised that he’s making this outrageous request. Nor will I be surprised when he reaches his goal. It’s just pathetic that during a time of such unrest and uprising in black America—when food safety is nonexistent, public education is dismal and the bodies of our children are piling up while politicians wave for the cameras—Dollar is busy scheming. Instead of putting millions into the community, he’s pulling millions out of it just so he can fly above it all and tell his congregation to say “praise the Lord” while he does.

And there is nothing holy about that.

[Editor’s Note: We initially reported that Pastor Creflo Dollar’s estimated net worth of $27 million is 200 times more than the average annual income in College Park, Ga., where World Changers Church International is located. It is actually 900 times more than College Park's annual average income of $29,640.]

A New Plane? Fight Tickets? Have Some Pride And Stop Online Panhandling

There’s a new trend of people venturing onto crowdfunding sites to publicly beg for bottles of Hennessy, trips, even a $65 million jet, and it needs to stop.

By Michael Arceneaux

Jameelah Kareem set up a GoFundMe page to raise money so that she could fly to Las Vegas for the upcoming Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. GoFundMe

Unless he was offering direct flights to and from heaven, there was no way in hell Creflo Dollar was going to successfully raise $65 million for a new Gulfstream G650 jet via his own website.

Despite that harsh reality, the Rev. Dollar Dollar Bills, Y’all pulled his campaign only because the online commotion that his outrageous request had caused resulted in absolute ridicule. But as shameless as Dollar may have seemed, he is not an aberration in terms of how people are exploiting online charity.

I can understand fundraising to cover medical bills or even the cost of some creative endeavor, but how have we gotten to the point where people feel comfortable turning to strangers to support their every want and desire no matter how superfluous?

Take, for instance, Jameelah Kareem, who set up a GoFundMe page to raise money so that she could fly to Las Vegas for the upcoming Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight. Kareem’s initial goal was to raise $1,500 (which she did), only she subsequently decided to extend her campaign and shift the remaining dollars raised to a former high school classmate who apparently needs to cover some medical bills related to breast cancer.

That gesture sounds lovely or something, but they do not negate Kareem’s initial intentions, which are audaciously superficial.

Or there’s the case of Azel Prather Jr., who recently launched a GoFundMe initiative to collect airfare to fly to Miami to “save his relationship with his girlfriend.” Prather, who works in marketing and apparently “has a knack for comedy,” scored an interview by the Washington Post for his efforts. Ah, there’s the real win.

There are worse campaigns than this, though. Some are presumably created in jest, hosted by people aiming to cover the cost of a Hennessy bottle or those professing that they are tired of being broke or in need of money for breast augmentation, intending to properly tip strippers or just wanting white privilege. But if their crowd actually donated, each fund seeker would have undoubtedly gleefully taken the contributions and spent them accordingly.

For example, there’s the woman who successfully crowd-sourced her $362 Halloween cab ride from Uber. And then there’s the man who netted $55,000 to make potato salad. It’s not their fault that folks gave them money. Yet I somewhat resent them for inspiring the foolish aforementioned.

And while some of these stunts scream comedy, others are taking advantage of crowdsourcing and are completely serious in their intentions. I’ve stumbled across GoFundMe pages seeking help to cover the cost of immigration fees, baby showers and college tuition.

A month ago, I was sent a link to a Web page of a student trying to pay for the second semester of his freshman year. His story was sad and he went to my alma mater (Howard University, thank you very much). So in theory, I was supposed to feel bad and subsequently toss some money his way.

Unfortunately for him, my only reaction was that his predicament just describes so many people at Howard and every other college in America. My friend echoed this sentiment as we then proceeded to complain about the private student-loan system under which we both still suffer.

Since then I’ve seen several other campaigns like that one, and my outlook has not wavered: If you cannot afford the school of your choice and you’re not anywhere near the finish line of your degree program, go to a cheaper school.

Likewise, if you cannot afford to go to Las Vegas to watch a boxing match that will be screened at way too many sports bars (with wing-and-drink specials to match), stay at home. And if you can’t afford to tip a stripper, go look at free porn. (Sorry, porn stars. It’s rough out here.)

Sure, I’ve sometimes thought, “Well, hell, let me set up a GoFundMe page to support my love of go-go boys, making student-loan payments on time and eating catfish despite it being way more expensive up North than down South.” But I have a sense of pride—something that is beginning to feel passé with each passing day.

Although in the past I have struggled with asking for help (a character flaw that has been to my own detriment at times), whenever I have accepted help, it was not for such self-serving causes.

Beyond that, most of the people asking the folks in their own networks are essentially asking those in similar situations. Most of us are one or a few paychecks away from seriously entertaining the thought of doing something a little strange to keep a roof over our heads. Yes, I read the job reports: And wages are still stagnant and a lot of our cousins have just stopped looking for jobs, hence the lower unemployment figures.

Studies have shown that the poor can be far more charitable than the wealthy, but some of you selfish monsters using the Internet to live out your rapper and reality-star dreams need to pour gasoline over your electronic, Internet-ready devices and get the hell on with it.

Charity is beautiful, but one fine point always needs to be kept in mind: You can’t always get what you want. And to the more self-serving beggers of the virtual world, I say you don’t deserve half of what you’re asking for.

10 Things Black People Fear That White People Don't (Or Don't Nearly as Much)

Statistically and in practice, black people have more to fear than whites do.

 By Terrell Jermaine Starr 

When black people wake up and begin the day, we have a wide range of issues we have to think about before leaving our homes. Will a police officer kill us today? Or, will some George Zimmerman vigilante see us as a threat in our own neighborhoods and kill us? We brace ourselves for those white colleagues who are pissed Barack Obama won both elections and take out their racist rage on us. When we drive our cars, we have to wonder if we’ll be pulled over because our cars look too expensive for a black person to be driving. If we’re poor and sick, we wonder if we'll be able to be treated for our illness. We have a lot on our minds, and sometimes it’s overwhelming.

Here are a few examples of things we have to be afraid of that white people don’t (or not nearly as much).

1. Getting fired because we don’t fit into white cultural norms. Rhonda Lee, an African American meteorologist who worked at a Louisiana TV station wore her hair in a natural hairstyle one viewer found offensive. “The black lady that does the news is a very nice lady. The only thing is she needs to wear a wig or grow some more hair. I’m not sure if she is a cancer patient. But still it’s not something myself that I think looks good on TV,” the viewer wrote on the station’s Facebook page.

After Lee posted a respectful reply to the man’s insulting remark, she was fired for violating the station's social media policy, even though she wasn’t made aware there was one. It took her nearly two years to find a new job. She has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the station that is still pending.

Another example: In 2013, Melphine Evans, a British Petroleum executive, was fired from the company’s La Palma, Calif. location because, she says, she wore a dashiki and her hair in braids. She sued for racial discrimination. In her 24-page lawsuit, Evans claims her supervisor told her that, "You intimidate and make your colleagues uncomfortable by wearing ethnic clothing and ethnic hairstyles.”

“If you are going to wear ethnic clothing, you should alert people in advance that you will be wearing something ethnic,” Evans says she was told, according to the lawsuit.

These are just two examples of ways black people are treated if they don’t perm their hair, dress in a way white bosses deem “professional,” or conduct themselves in a way that is “non-threatening” to their white colleagues.

2. Encountering a police officer who may kill us. ProPublica reports that black males stand a 21 times greater chance of being killed by cops than their white counterparts. What’s more, a 2005 study reveals that police officers are more likely to shoot an unarmed black person than an armed white suspect. Madame Noire created a list of at least 10 armed white men who aggressively brandished weapons or even shot at police yet were taken into custody alive. Black women aren’t treated any better, as this list by Gawker demonstrates.

There is a reason black people bristle when a white person says, “#AllLivesMatter” during a #BlackLivesMatter discussion. In the eyes of many police, clearly all lives don’t matter.

3. Not being able to get a job. The black unemployment rate has been twice the rate of unemployment for whites, basically forever. According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2013, the unemployment rate for black Americans has been about double that of whites since 1954.

The current unemployment rate is 5.7 percent overall. For white people, it’s 4.9 percent; the percentage is 10.3 for AfricanAmericans, a little more than double.

Not much has changed for us since the 1950's, has it?

4. Our daughters being expelled from school because of “zero tolerance policies.” According to a 2015 report titled “Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected,” that analyzed Department of Education data from the New York City and Boston school districts, 12 percent of black girls were subjected to exclusionary suspensions compared to just 2 percent of white girls. In New York City, during the 2011-2012 school year, 90 percent of all girls subject to expulsion were black. No white girls were suspended that year.

Let that marinate for a minute. Before you do, data from the Department of Education reports that "black children make up just 18 percent of preschool enrollment, but 48 percent of preschool children suspended more than once."

The black kids aren’t being suspended simply because they aren’t as well-behaved as the white children.

5. We are much more likely to be harassed by police than by white residents in NYC.Though the NYPD has legally put an end to its racist stop-and-frisk policy, the department’s “Broken Windows” policy is in full effect. What the policy does is arrest people for smoking small amounts of pot, peeing on the streets, riding a bike on a sidewalk, selling cigarettes on the corner and other minor offenses. Between 2001 and 2013, roughly 81 percent of the summonses issued have been to African Americans and Latinos, according to the New York Daily News. Most of the arrests were made in black and Latino neighborhoods, as if white people never pee on the sidewalk or smoke pot on their stoops.

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton swears by the policy, saying  it keeps the city safe. Eric Garner, who was apprehended for allegedly selling loose cigarettes, likely wouldn’t agree. He died after an officer on the scene put him in a choke hold.

Every black person walking the streets of New York City knows he or she could be the next Eric Garner. That’s not just a fear, it’s our reality.

6. Being bullied at work. Fifty-four percent of African Americans claim to be victims of workplace bullying compared to 44 percent of white respondents, according to the 2014 Workplace Bullying Survey.

A recent example of workplace bullying comes from Portland, Oregon, where two current and two former black employees of Daimler Trucks North America are suing the company for $9.4 million.

Joseph Hall, 64, says half a dozen white employees threatened him with violence, wrote graffiti showing "hangman's nooses" at his job, and placed chicken bones in his black co-worker's locker.

There’s much more ugly racism alleged in the case, if you have the stomach to read it.

Black people who just want to earn an honest buck sometimes have to put up with crap like this.

7. Being pulled over by the police. Black drivers are 31 percent more likely to be pulled over than white drivers, according to the Washington Post. We fear this pretty much every time we enter our vehicles. Sure, we sometimes violate traffic traffic laws. But we get stopped even when we don't.

8. Being accused of shoplifting when we’re shopping. Shopping while black can be pretty stressful. Just this week, a black NYPD officer filed a lawsuit alleging that employees at PC Richards & Son store, in Lawrence, N.J., harassed him for "shopping while black.” Sammari Malcolm, 40, of Brooklyn, says employees accused him of using a stolen credit card when he purchased $4,150.23 worth of electronics, even after showing his ID. Malcolm also claims store employees frisked him and detained him for two hours. He is seeking $5.75 million in damages. Sound familiar?

Perhaps you heard about the incident at Macy’s flagship Herald Square store, in Manhattan, where "Treme" actor Rob Brown was handcuffed and accused of using a fake credit card to buy his mother a $1,300 watch in June 2013. He filed a lawsuit against the store and the city of New York over the incident, which was settled in July 2014. In August, Macy’s paid $650,000 to settle a state probe into racial profiling allegations at the store. The store profiled and detained minorities at far higher rates than whites, according to the state’s investigation.

Money and success doesn’t shield us from racism. Even black celebrities are far from immune.

Academy Award-winner Forest Whitaker was racially profiled in February 2013, when he was falsely accused of stealing an item from a deli. An employee frisked him in front of other shoppers. The Academy Award winner didn’t sue, but he wasn’t happy about it.

9. Getting sick and not having access to health care. While African Americans have gained better access to healthcare since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, black people have less access to medical care than whites in core measures, according to data from the Agency for Healthcare and Research Quality. When we do gain access to care, it’s far worse than whites in 40 percent of core measures.

Much of this is tied to poverty, which disproportionately plagues African Americans.

10. Having white people say we’re exaggerating these issues. This isn’t so much a fear as a chronic and sometimes debilitating annoyance. It seems that no matter how much we can statistically demonstrate that racism is pervasive and damages us on many levels, there are white people who fight us tooth and nail with arguments that life is not as challenging for us as we say it is.

I’ve given up convincing white people about the harsh realities of my life as a black man. I’ll devote that energy to fighting for my black liberation in our very racist society.

An Inconvenient Billionaire

How hedge-fund mogul Tom Steyer is using his checkbook to punish climate-change deniers, persuade Obama to halt the Keystone XL pipeline, and try to save the planet.

Tom Steyer founded NextGen Climate, "a non-partisan organization focused on bringing climate change to the forefront of American politics," most notably by opposing the Keystone XL Pipeline, supporting politicians (but not becoming one). He also founded Farallon Capital Management. Farallon is one of the largest landowners in the Bay Area (related, previously). Steyer is also involved with the recent scandal that led to the resignation of Oregon Gov. Kitzhaber.

Explore The Economic Risks Of Climate Change In Your Region

Blue Bell ice cream recall linked to 3 Listeria deaths

By Danielle Haynes

 WASHINGTON, March 13 (UPI) -- Blue Bell Creameries has recalled several styles of ice cream novelties after listeria infections sickened five people who consumed the products, three of whom died.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are investigating an outbreak of listeria monocytogenes infections in five patients in Kansas.

All five people were admitted at a Kansas hospital for unrelated conditions and became ill with the infection between January 2014 and January 2015. For the four patients whose food intake was documented, all had consumed milkshakes made with a single-serving Blue Bell ice cream product called Scoops while in the hospital.

Three of the patients died.

The CDC and FDA determined Blue Bell products were likely the source of the outbreak. As part of an unrelated investigation, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control isolated listeria monocytogenes in single-serve products Chocolate Chip Country Cookie Sandwiches and Great Divide Bars. Scoops products were made on the same production line.

Additionally the Texas Department of State Health Services isolated the bacteria in products samples at Blue Bell's production facility in Brenham, Texas.

Blue Bell said it removed all products made from the same production line from stores and has shut down the production line. The other items included in the recall are Sour Pop Green Apple Bar, Cotton Candy Bar, Vanilla Stick Slices, Almond Bars, six-pack Cotton Candy Bars, six-pack Sour Pop Green Apple Bars and 12-pack No Sugar Added Mooo Bars.

A notice posted on the Blue Bell website indicates this is the first recall the company has had in its 108-year history.

NYPD caught wikiwashing Wikipedia entries on police brutality

Edits to Wikipedia pages on Bell, Garner, Diallo traced to 1 Police Plaza

Edits ranged from sensitive entries on cases of police brutality to the British band, Chumbawamba. (Photocomposite)

By Kelly Weill 

Computers operating on the New York Police Department’s computer network at its 1 Police Plaza headquarters have been used to alter Wikipedia pages containing details of alleged police brutality, a review by Capital has revealed.

“The matter is under internal review,” an NYPD spokeswoman, Det. Cheryl Crispin, wrote in an email to Capital after examples of the changes were presented to the NYPD.

The edits and changes were linked to the NYPD through a series of Internet Protocol addresses, or IP addresses, which can be publicly tracked by various websites. (Here, for example, is one website that shows a number of IP addresses registered to the NYPD.) IP addresses can locate where a computer is when it connects to the Internet.

Computer users identified by Capital as working on the NYPD headquarters' network have edited and attempted to delete Wikipedia entries for several well-known victims of police altercations, including entries for Eric Garner, Sean Bell, and Amadou Diallo. Capital identified 85 NYPD addresses that have edited Wikipedia, although it is unclear how many users were involved, as computers on the NYPD network can operate on the department’s range of IP addresses.

NYPD IP addresses have also been used to edit entries on stop-and-frisk, NYPD scandals, and prominent figures in the city’s political and police leadership.

There are more than 15,000 IP addresses registered to the NYPD, which employs 50,000 people, including uniformed officers and civilians. Notable Wikipedia activity was linked to about a dozen of those NYPD IP addresses.

On the evening of Dec. 3, hours after a Staten Island grand jury ruled not to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, a user on the 1 Police Plaza network made multiple edits, visible here and here, to the “Death of Eric Garner” Wikipedia entry. The edits, all concerning the actions of Eric Garner and the police officers involved in the confrontation, are as follows:

● “Garner raised both his arms in the air” was changed to “Garner flailed his arms about as he spoke.”
● “[P]ush Garner's face into the sidewalk” was changed to “push Garner's head down into the sidewalk.”
● “Use of the chokehold has been prohibited” was changed to “Use of the chokehold is legal, but has been prohibited.”
● The sentence, “Garner, who was considerably larger than any of the officers, continued to struggle with them,” was added to the description of the incident.
● Instances of the word “chokehold” were replaced twice, once to “chokehold or headlock,” and once to “respiratory distress.”

As of March 12, three of these edits (“chokehold or headlock,” “respiratory distress,” and “head down”) remained in “Death of Eric Garner” article, while the rest had been removed in later Wikipedia users’ revisions.

This process of revision and counterrevision is typical of Wikipedia’s self-policing user community.

The website allows anyone to edit entries, either logged in with a Wikipedia account, or anonymously, in which case the website logs the user’s IP address and creates a publicly available record of the user’s edits. Edits from 1 Police Plaza were made anonymously, therefore creating a permanent Wikipedia log of edits made on NYPD IP addresses. Using this information, Capital was able to write a computer program that would search Wikipedia for all anonymous edits made on the range of IP addresses registered to 1 Police Plaza.

Over the past decade, NYPD IP addresses have logged hundreds of anonymous Wikipedia edits, many of which had nothing to do with police issues. A long series of edits contributes to entries on the Catholic Church. There is an edit to the entry on British band Chumbawamba, seven edits to the entry on ages of consent in Europe, and an edit vandalizing the entry for “stye” with graphic comments on gay sex. However, a significant number of edits by NYPD IP addresses have been to entries that challenge NYPD conduct.

On Nov. 25, 2006, undercover NYPD officers fired 50 times at three unarmed men, killing Sean Bell, and sparking citywide protests against police brutality. On April 12, 2007, a user on 1 Police Plaza’s network attempted to delete the Wikipedia entry “Sean Bell shooting incident”.

“He [Bell] was in the news for about two months, and now no one except Al Sharpton cares anymore.

The police shoot people every day, and times with a lot more than 50 bullets. This incident is more news than notable,” the user wrote on Wikipedia’s internal “Articles for deletion” page.

A user on the NYPD network made a second edit to the Sean Bell entry on Dec. 23, 2009, this time changing “one Latino and two African-American men were shot a total of fifty times” to “one Latino and two African-American men were shot at a total of fifty times” (emphasis Capital’s).

On Nov. 23, 2013, a user on the 1 Police Plaza network edited the Wikipedia entry for Amadou Diallo, an unarmed who was killed when police mistook his wallet for a gun in 1999.

The person using this IP address made two edits to a sentence about NYPD Officer Kenneth Boss, one of the officers involved in the shooting: “Officer Kenneth Boss had been previously involved in an incident where an unarmed man was shot, but remained working as a police officer” was changed to “Officer Kenneth Boss had been previously involved in an incident where an armed man was shot.”

“Unarmed” was changed to “armed,” and “but remained working as a police officer” was omitted entirely.

On Oct. 15, 2013, a user at 1 Police Plaza edited the entry for the “Alexien Lien beating,” an event in which bikers and an undercover NYPD officer chased and assaulted a driver on the West Side Highway. The user deleted paragraphs of potentially anti-NYPD vandalism from the entry. Among the deleted text were claims like “After this incident police were pressuring on bikers because Alexian Lien uncle is their boss. Looks like Alexian has influential friends in the govt and got away with the incident.”

On three separate occasions between October 2012 and March 2013, a user on the 1 Police Plaza network edited the “Stop-and-frisk” entry. The changes are as follows; bolded words indicate edits:

“The stop-and-frisk program of New York City is a practice of the New York City Police Department to stop, question, and search people.” was changed to “The stop-and-frisk program of New York City is a practice of the New York City Police Department to stop, question and, if the circumstances of the stop warrant it, conduct a frisk of the person stopped.”

● “The stop-and-frisk program of New York City is a practice of the New York City Police Department to stop, question and, if the circumstances of the stop warrant it, conduct a frisk of the person stopped.” was changed to “The stop-and-frisk program of New York City is a practice of the New York City Police Department by which a police officer who reasonably suspects a person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a felony or a Penal Law misdemeanor, stops and questions that person, and, if the circumstances of the stop warrant it, conducts a frisk of the person stopped.”
● “The rules for stop and frisk are found in New York State Criminal Procedure Law section 140.50, and are based on the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the case of Terry v. Ohio” was added to the entry.
● “if the circumstances of the stop warrant it, conducts a frisk of the person stopped” was changed to “if the officer reasonably suspects he or she is in danger of physical injury, frisks the person stopped for weapons.”
● An extraneous “and” was removed from a sentence.

On two separate occasions, a user on the 1 Police Plaza network edited sections of Wikipedia’s “New York City Police Department” entry that described police misconduct. On June 30, 2006, the user deleted 1,502 characters from the “scandals and corruption” section, including a sentence that claimed “at the end of March, 2006, NYPD started to make changes to this very article in an attempt to censor scandals and corruption information.” The full deleted text can be read here.

On June 19, 2008, a user on the 1 Police Plaza network deleted the entire “Allegations of police misconduct and the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB)” and “Other incidents” sections from the entry, for a combined total of 25,611 deleted characters. The full deleted text can be read here and here.

Wikipedia discourages users from making edits that might constitute a conflict of interest. “COI [conflict of interest] editing involves contributing to Wikipedia to promote your own interests, including your business or financial interests, or those of your external relationships, such as with family, friends or employers,” Wikipedia states in its behavioral guidelines. “COI editing is strongly discouraged.”

A list of all anonymous Wikipedia edits made by NYPD IP addresses is available here.
—additional reporting by Azi Paybarah

Blame It on Hip-Hop: Why Morning Blow Came to SAE’s Rescue

Host Mika Brzezinski was sent back on the air to “clarify” the remarks blaming hip-hop for the racist sing-along by the Oklahoma SAE fraternity boys.

By Kirsten West Savali

As MSNBC continues its obvious attempts to draw conservatives away from Fox News, Morning Blow co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski have fully embraced their roles as the Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin of the network.

Mocking rapper Waka Flocka Flame for canceling a scheduled performance at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon frat house at the University of Oklahoma, Brzezinski said, “If you look at every single song, I guess you call these, that he’s written, it’s a bunch of garbage. It’s full of n-words, it’s full of f-words.

It’s wrong. And he shouldn’t be disgusted with [the fraternity]; he should be disgusted with himself.”

Of course, Brzezinski was suggesting that Waka Flocka shouldn’t be disgusted by these words:
“There will never be a nigger SAE/There will never be a nigger SAE/You can hang ’em from a tree, but it will never start with me/There will never be a nigger SAE.”

Because, hip-hop.

Scarborough even went so far as to insinuate that SAE became familiar with the n-word through hip-hop—as opposed to, say, the generations of redneck ratchetry passed down to them through their Confederacy-loving brotherhood. But it was Brzezinski—with her snide comments about Waka Flocka’s music and side eyes at his stage name—who was given the role of bigot-in-residence, and it has been left to her to clean up the mess.

In an appearance on MSNBC’s The Cycle, Brzezinski backpedaled as furiously as Amy Pascal did after her hacked emails at Sony were exposed. She denied drawing a link between use of the n-word in hip-hop and SAE’s little party-bus jam session, saying, “Lyrics have nothing to do with the actions that happened on the bus.”

“Having said that,” Brzezinski said to the Rev. Al Sharpton (because, of course, where else would he be?), “[Waka Flocka’s] lyrics are inflammatory. They use the n-word and the f-bomb ... but that, again, is a separate conversation. It is sort of like the big picture in terms of where we are moving in terms of our society, and also how we view art and what is art and what is dangerous, or what is art and what perhaps could be disturbing to people. But that is a completely different and fascinating conversation.”

Oh, now it’s a different conversation? Now it’s fascinating? What a difference a day makes when black viewership is on the line.

No, Brzezinski did not blame hip-hop for the ease with which SAE members sang that song, nor for some white people’s casual use of the n-word in general. Scarborough and guest Bill Kristol, however, did. And she should be embarrassed that she’s ducking and dodging that issue on their behalf.

Let’s be clear: The misogynoir and violence that permeate hip-hop are not something to be dismissed, but that is not the conversation that was being had. And despite Brzezinski’s assertion otherwise, the only reason that she brought it up was to race-bait and switch the conversation from SAE to hip-hop—the black scapegoat in every single conversation about racism in this country, along with “irresponsible,” young black mothers and “absent” black fathers. She brought it up as if to say, “If you think these SAE kids are bad, you should check out this rapper.”

Bill O’Reilly must be so proud.

There is speech, moving one’s mouth to form words, and there is language, a “symbolic, rule-governed system used to convey a message.” And the speech on that frat bus, the juvenile use of the word “nigger,” is of much less concern than the language that the Morning Blow panel is trying to minimize.

The joy, the smug superiority, the frenzied, good-ole’-boy excitement of being among other white people who get it, who find humor in nooses squeezing the life from another human being—that is the language of racialized, state-sanctioned terrorism that taunts black America in 2015 as much as it did in 1856, when SAE was founded. So, trying to shift the blame to a culture born from that terror, a culture that exposes and at times reflects white supremacy, instead of keeping it squarely at the feet of privileged little white frat boys—and the antebellum Southern system that spawned them—is what’s disgusting here.

I don’t believe Brzezinski’s faux outrage over lyrics she probably Googled right before the show just to have something to say. I don’t believe that Scarborough is ignorant enough to believe that hip-hop is the inspiration for a hundred-year-old song that these frat boys reportedly had to learn upon initiation. Those attempts to shame those of us outraged into silence won’t work, and I would have more respect for them if they had cut through the bullshit and said what they really felt:

Black people: Stop teaching white people to hate you.

Hip-hop isn’t the system of oppression that the Morning Blow panel needs to dismantle. The thugs of Sigma Alpha Epsilon are just the rotten fruit of trees stained with the blood of black people who built this country on their backs.

And let’s be clear: When their white ancestors were holding lynching parties and hanging us from trees, they weren’t bumping Biggie.

Kirsten West Savali is a cultural critic and senior writer for The Root, where she explores the intersections of race, gender, politics and pop culture. Follow her on Twitter.

Grifters Gotta Grift: 'Tehran Tom' Cottons Up To Defense Industry

By Susie Madrak

So this cotton-picking Iran-letter-writing traitor is really sucking up after those fat defense campaign contributions! We are so very surprised! Via Lee Fang at the Intercept:

[...] Cotton will appear at an “Off the Record and strictly Non-Attribution” event with the National Defense Industrial Association, a lobbying and professional group for defense contractors.

The NDIA is composed of executives from major military businesses such as Northrop Grumman, L-3 Communications, ManTech International, Boeing, Oshkosh Defense and Booz Allen Hamilton, among other firms.

Cotton strongly advocates higher defense spending and a more aggressive foreign policy. As The New Republic’s David Ramsey noted, “Pick a topic — Syria, Iran, Russia, ISIS, drones, NSA snooping — and Cotton can be found at the hawkish outer edge of the debate…During his senate campaign, he told a tele-townhall that ISIS and Mexican drug cartels joining forces to attack Arkansas was an ‘urgent problem.'”

On Iran, Cotton has issued specific calls for military intervention. In December he said Congress should consider supplying Israel with B-52s and so-called “bunker-buster” bombs — both items manufactured by NDIA member Boeing — to be used for a possible strike against Iran.

Asked if Cotton will speak about his Iran letter tomorrow, Jimmy Thomas, NDIA Director of Legislative Policy, said, “[M]ost members…talk about everything from the budget to Iran…so it’s highly likely that he may address that in his remarks.” According to Thomas, the Cotton event was scheduled in January, “but certainly we bring people to the platform that have influence directly on our issues.”

Here's the kind of teabagger scoundrel Tom is. Despite his Harvard Law degree, he proposed this blatantly unconstitutional law back when he was still in Congress, because FREEDOM:

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Wednesday offered legislative language that would "automatically" punish family members of people who violate U.S. sanctions against Iran, levying sentences of up to 20 years in prison.
The provision was introduced as an amendment to the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013, which lays out strong penalties for people who violate human rights, engage in censorship, or commit other abuses associated with the Iranian government.

Cotton also seeks to punish any family member of those people, "to include a spouse and any relative to the third degree," including, "parents, children, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, grandparents, great grandparents, grandkids, great grandkids," Cotton said.

"There would be no investigation," Cotton said during Wednesday's markup hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "If the prime malefactor of the family is identified as on the list for sanctions, then everyone within their family would automatically come within the sanctions regime as well. It'd be very hard to demonstrate and investigate to conclusive proof."

Oh, and Jonathan Chait calls him "the perfect Republican."

ISIS falling apart from within, reports claim

Brutal, militant group Boko Haram reportedly pledged their official allegiance to the radical group ISIS. Ed Schultz, former Rep. Joe Sestak, Rep. Gerry Connolly and Lacie Heeley discuss.

World of Warcraft gamer dies after playing 19 hours straight

By Sully Sheperd

A 24 years old man believed to be addicted to World of Warcraft died after playing 19-hours straight.

Wu Tai was at an Internet cafe in Shanghai, China for playing the role-playing game. After he spent 19 hours of playing, his friends saw him away from screen and violently coughing. He slumped in his chair after the coughing attack, and his gaming compatriots noticed he was dabbing blood away from his mouth with a handkerchief. The gamer sitting next to him said:

“I suddenly heard him groan and when I turned to see what had happened he was very pale and looked uncomfortable.
He was dabbing his mouth with a hankie which had blood on it.
I asked him if he was OK and he said he’d felt better, but that he would be OK. I called for an ambulance while my friend went to get some help from staff. But while we waited he just died in front of us, and there was nothing the staff could do.”

The medical crews tried to rescue him but he was already dead. A police man said about this:

“An autopsy will determine the cause of death but there seems little doubt his playing on the computer for 19 hours instead of resting contributed to his death.”

Of course playing World of Warcraft is not dangerous as long as people listen to developers and take 15 minutes break after each hour of playing.

Rahm Emanuel could lose re-election

Mayor Rahm Emanuel faces a tight run-off campaign, trying to appeal to working families and teachers despite his track record. Ed Schultz, Mayoral Candidate Jesus Garcia discuss.

Robert Menendez: ‘I am not going anywhere’

By Burgess Everett
 

A defiant Sen. Robert Menendez forcefully denied any wrongdoing on Friday night as the Justice Department prepared to bring corruption charges against the New Jersey Democrat.

In a hastily-arranged press conference at a Newark Hilton, the influential Democratic lawmaker acknowledged that there is an “ongoing inquiry” and declined to take questions about the looming charges he is set to face. But he made clear that he had no intention of resigning,

“I am not going anywhere,” Menendez told a bank of television cameras.

The senator made no mention of whether he will step down from his prominent post as the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Menendez is expected to be charged over using his office to aid the business interests of Salomon Melgen, a political ally and also a personal friend, first reported by CNN. In his two-minute statement, the two-term senator made no effort to distance himself from Melgen, who he called a “real friend,” but pushed back against the suggestion he’s done anything illegal.

Also on POLITICO

Feds to charge Menendez with corruption

JOHN BRESNAHAN, MANU RAJU and BURGESS EVERETT

“Let me be very clear, very clear. I have always conducted myself appropriately and in accordance with the law,” Menendez said, listing his advocacy for anti-terrorism preparation and hurricane recovery. “As to Dr. Melgen, anyone who knows us knows that he and his family and me and my family have been real friends for more than two decades.”

He added that he and Melgen have “given each other birthday, holiday and wedding presents just as friends do.” Menendez had previously paid back $70,000 to Melgen for unreported flights on his private plane.

One of President Barack Obama’s sharpest critics on the president’s pursuit of a nuclear deal with Iran, Menendez highlighted his fight to make “certain that Iran never, never achieves the ability to produce nuclear weapons.”

No reporters shouted questions after he delivered his statement, first in English then in Spanish. But Menendez indicated he may have more to say in the future.

“As much as I would like to, I cannot make any additional comments or answer any questions. The time may come to do that, and I hope you will understand,” he told reporters.

'Who knows? She could implode totally'

Clinton email scandal alarms Democrats.

By Gabriel Debenedetti

Three days into the rolling controversy over Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email address as Secretary of State, Democrats are showing signs of stress.

In interviews with more than three dozen Democratic activists, donors, and officials from across the country — including many in the influential presidential nominating states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina — some were scathing in their criticism over the revelations, while others admitted to being unnerved.

“I’m very disappointed that yet another person in political power treats the ‘rules’ as if they do not apply to them,” said Matt Tapscott, chairman of Iowa’s Winneshiek County Democrats.

“This story doesn’t alter my opinion of Hillary,” said Martin Peterson, chairman of Iowa’s Crawford County Democrats, “but it does alarm me that she is a lightning rod for any type of criticism of invented scandals by the opposition.”

At the moment, Democrats continue to present a largely united front in their public support for Clinton and in their belief that the email issue isn’t one that will ultimately matter to voters.

But while the overall message of trust in the presumptive frontrunner is clear, the saga is also exposing deep party-wide anxieties about having so much invested in a single candidate, more than 20 months before November 2016.

“It adds more reason to get other people involved in this process, to make sure we have other strong, good candidates running,” said Larry Hogden, chairman of Iowa’s Cedar County Democrats.

“Because, who knows? She could implode totally.”

Some locals are “wringing their hands and shaking their heads,” said Linda Nelson, chairwoman of Iowa’s Pottawattamie County Democrats. “It’s just one more straw that can break the camel’s back, in their eyes.”

For many Democrats — even those who insist the email questions are unimportant to voters and little more than an optics problem for Clinton, ginned up by Republicans and fanned by cable news pundits — the moment has exposed a party that has few presidential prospects organized enough to fully test Clinton, or prepared to step into the void in the event that she falters.

“What I’m hearing from other people is that they want an actual primary,” said Iowa City activist and blogger John Deeth. “The main problem with this whole email thing is that at the moment there’s no real option. Jim Webb is not considered a serious option. [Martin] O’Malley has got the problem of being considered another old white guy. The only viable option I see out there is [Joe] Biden, [Bernie] Sanders, and [Elizabeth] Warren.”

Doug Grant, the Democratic chairman for northern Grafton County in New Hampshire, framed it this way:

“Is Hillary electable? Admittedly the Republicans have a lot of problems with their candidates who are members of the slave-and serf-owning classes, but we worry nevertheless that one of them will become the next president,” he said. “I would like to see an alternative to Hillary who was popular, populist, wanted to run, electable, not too old and could raise money.”

The predicament in which the party finds itself as it nears the sunset of the Obama era was laid out in stark terms in the recent Democratic National Committee “autopsy” report, which emphasized the need to build a strong party bench in the wake of sweeping electoral losses in 2014 from state houses to governors’ mansions, to the Senate, and a broader hollowing out of the party infrastructure since Obama’s election in 2008. The party’s lack of depth at the national level is reflected in the flimsy emerging presidential field beyond the Clinton juggernaut, despite some activists’ attempts to encourage popular figures to jump in the race to ensure Clinton is battle-tested before the general election.

It’s a sign of Clinton’s strength that none of the influential Democrats POLITICO surveyed on Wednesday or Thursday indicated that the email news would alone be enough to turn them away from Clinton entirely. The former senator and First Lady’s allies have worked overtime to insist that the email flap is unimportant to Americans themselves.
 
“Voters do not give a shit. They do not even give a fart,” said longtime Clinton ally and Democratic strategist Paul Begala, echoing the sentiments of most Clinton allies who believe the all-but-certain nominee is enough of a defined quantity in voters’ eyes that Republican attacks on her email policies cannot sway them — especially not over a year-and-a-half before she faces a competitive vote.

“Find me one persuadable voter who agrees with HRC on the issues but will vote against her because she has a non-archival-compliant email system and I’ll kiss your ass in Macy’s window and say it smells like roses,” he said.

Other Democrats were more measured, insisting that the news was worrisome and that the party should field more presidential contenders in case Clinton struggles in a serious way. But most kept their criticisms to a minimum, and just one early-state figure reported hearing from any of the other potential candidates since the news broke on Monday night.

Some of Clinton’s financial backers are scratching their heads as the story has spiraled into a major point of conversation on cable news and radio, questioning the turbulent home-stretch of Clinton’s pre-campaign phase.

One Democratic donor told POLITICO on Wednesday that Clinton’s last few days have caused concern in New York’s influential donor community. But most of her high-level donors have stood staunchly by her side, and Clinton had a chance to speak with many of her backers on Wednesday night as she headlined the Clinton Foundation’s annual gala — which cost between $2,500 and $100,000 to attend — in Manhattan’s financial district.
 
After disappointing several supporters by not addressing the swirling controversies during a Tuesday appearance in Washington, Clinton on Thursday added a Saturday stop in Miami to her schedule — a stop where many Clinton-watchers expect her to comment on the news.

Announced just hours after Clinton tweeted that she had asked the State Department to release her emails after reviewing them, the appearance will be at an event that was originally supposed to be hosted just by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and her daughter, Chelsea Clinton.
After her stop in Miami, Clinton will return to New York for a pair of major events where she will unveil her much-anticipated report on the status of women and girls worldwide, alongside a slate of high-profile women.

Clinton’s recent stumbles, however, have served as a reminder of her struggles during her summer 2014 book tour, despite the carefully designed sprint through March.

“There is some concern. Some people are saying, ‘Is this going to blow up in her face?,’” said Jack Hatch, the unsuccessful Democratic nominee for Iowa governor in 2014.

Others see the ongoing questions as an indication that Clinton has to better manage her public image in the weeks before she officially announces her candidacy, if Democrats are going to win the White House.
 

“This is a signal, it’s a warning, that whatever [else] there may be … get it straight, be prepared to be open with it, above board,” said former Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder, noting that at a moment of deep public distrust of the government, the last thing Clinton needs is to come across as secretive. “She can’t afford to give any impression that, ‘This is the way it’s going to be from the start of my campaign, or from my government.’ I think they’re aware of that.”

The general trust in Clinton’s ability to handle the situation is not universal, however. At least one outspoken Democratic activist who has a bad history with the Clintons seized upon the news to insist that others jump in the race.

“Her [potential] campaign is so disdainful of anybody who raises any issues,” said former South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Dick Harpootlian, a long-standing booster of Vice President Joe Biden. “You need to get out ahead of it. How does she not see that one coming?”

Biden has raised some eyebrows by appearing in New Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina in recent weeks on official White House business, but the vast majority of Democrats concede it is highly unlikely that the 72-year-old vice president throws his hat in the ring.

Few of Clinton’s possible rivals have spent much time in the early states this year, though former Maryland Governor O’Malley has been ramping up his travel after subtly jabbing at Clinton during a stop in South Carolina last weekend.

But O’Malley is not expected to weigh in on the email saga before the weekend, and even his friends in early states say the controversy is overblown.

“I’ve seen it in the news. My wife and I have sat together to watch it on the news, and we have not said a word to each other about it. I’ve had no one — what’s it been out, three days? — not one person has said a thing. Family, friends, people I’ve run into, not one person has brought it up as a topic,” said O’Malley friend Dan O’Neil, an alderman in Manchester, N.H.

O’Malley is set to appear in New Hampshire and Kansas this weekend before a speaking engagement in Washington next week and a swing through Iowa later this month. And former Virginia Sen. James Webb formed an exploratory committee in November, but he has been largely quiet since then, despite scheduling one Iowa appearance for late March.

Craig Crawford, Webb’s spokesman, said he doesn’t think voters care about Clinton’s emails.

“They’d rather all be talking about jobs and the economy and how working people can get a leg up when wages are falling and income at the top is growing,” he said.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed socialist who is technically an Independent, continues to waffle over running. And the groups backing a run by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who says she won’t run, are unlikely to weigh in on anything Clinton does as they stick to positive messaging and work to organize in Iowa and New Hampshire for Warren.

But while Republicans and reporters continue to dig into Clinton’s email practices, a mix of concerned resignation and urgency has settled in among Democrats involved in the nominating process.

“It may continue to haunt her,” said Mary Hoyer, chair of Iowa’s Henry County Democrats, in an email. “She has to go on the offensive and find her message or she will never overcome these ‘paper cuts.’”

Katie Glueck, Jonathan Topaz, and Ben Schreckinger contributed to this report.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews Promises ‘Transparent’ Coverage If Wife Runs For Congress

By Lloyd Grove

The MSNBC host said he had the strongest belief in wife Kathleen’s judgment and values, and if she runs for office her campaign will be covered fairly by the network.

Six years ago, MSNBC host Chris Matthews briefly flirted with running for public office—a Senate seat from his native Pennsylvania—and then quickly dropped the idea. But now it looks like his wife, Kathleen, might actually take the plunge.

“Last night, Kathleen decided she is going to take a serious look at running for the United States Congress from where we live in Maryland,” Matthews told viewers of Thursday night’s Hardball, his 7 p.m. political show. “Our local congressman, a very good guy, by the way, just announced he is running for the U.S. Senate, and this development is all unfolding quickly.”


 

Matthews explained that he was discussing the prospect of his wife’s candidacy on the air because “it’s important in my position here to be as transparent as possible with you, our loyal viewers.”

Thursday night’s disclosure was prompted by a report in Politico that Matthews’s wife of nearly four decades—a Marriott Corp. public relations executive and a local celebrity in her own right as a former longtime news anchor on WJLA-TV, Washington’s ABC affiliate—is “likely” to mount a campaign to replace Rep. Chris Van Hollen Jr. in the 2016 election cycle.

The seven-term Democratic congressman, who represents Maryland’s 8th Congressional District in the affluent suburbs of the nation’s capital, including Chevy Chase where Chris and Kathleen Matthews live, on Wednesday declared his candidacy for the Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Barbara Mikulski, who is retiring after 30 years in the Senate.

“This is something I’ve just got to deal with,” Matthews told me Thursday morning when I reached him at home. “I think people know who I am. I talk about Kathleen on the show all the time, and she’s been on a good number of times…I think viewers should have a heads-up from me about what I know—so they’re going to get it.”

If Kathleen Matthews does decide to run, her campaign would likely create ethical complications for her outspoken husband, 69, who is also the author of seven books about politics and history.

“I know her commitment runs truly deep.In our nearly four decades together I have always had the strongest belief in her judgment and values.”

Addressing possible ethical issues, an MSNBC source told The Daily Beast: “As this process moves forward, if Kathleen decides to run for office, MSNBC and the Hardball Team would take all appropriate measures to ensure that coverage is transparent and fair, which would include fully disclosing Chris’ relationship to Kathleen if her candidacy is mentioned either by him or a guest.”
The MSNBC source added: “Chris doesn’t cover individual congressional races too regularly, which is worth noting.”

The question of campaign contributions would also be a potential sticky wicket. The NBC Universal News Group, of which MSNBC is a subsidiary, imposes strict rules on its anchors, who are generally prohibited from donating to political campaigns unless they receive prior approval.

In 2010, MSNBC personalities Keith Olbermann, a liberal Democrat, and Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, were punished with two-day suspensions for writing checks to various candidates without permission.

In Matthews’ case, he’s sleeping with the prospective candidate, the mother of their three grown children, so it’s reasonable to ask if he’ll receive a marital exemption.

The MSNBC source referred me to the “all appropriate measures” vow. After all, even if their bank accounts are not commingled and he doesn’t max out in hard money, Matthews, if he’s a decent spouse, will definitely be making “in-kind” contributions.

A self-styled centrist Democrat, Matthews was a speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter and a top aide to Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill before joining the chattering classes as a columnist and Washington bureau chief for the San Francisco Examiner and later a television host and protégé of then-NBC executive Roger Ailes on the fledgling “America’s Talking” network, a forerunner to MNSBC.

“Kathleen and I have not had much time to talk about it—right now she’s on business overseas, heading from Berlin to South Africa right now—but I know she’s been involved with public issues her entire career from anchoring the news to serving as a top executive with Marriott,” Matthews said on the air. “I know her commitment runs truly deep. In our nearly four decades together I have always had the strongest belief in her judgment and values.”

He added: “I am proud of her and support her. And if she does indeed decide to run, then we will make sure we continue to fully disclose my relationship—I’ve never denied it—with her, as part of our commitment here at MSNBC to be transparent and fair in our coverage.”

Debt buyers bury hard-hit consumers in lies

Posted by Jim Hightower

Listen to this Commentary

Whenever a corporation issues a statement declaring that it is committed to "treating consumers fairly and with respect," chances are it's not.

After all, if the outfit was actually doing it, there would be no need for a statement. Indeed, this particular claim came from Encore Capital, one of our country's largest buyers of bad consumer debt – and it definitely has not been playing nice with the people it browbeats to collect overdue credit card bills, car loans, etc.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman found that Encore, based in San Diego, filed nearly 240,000 lawsuits against debtors in a recent four-year period, using our courts as its private collection arm. Problem is, Encore's bulk filing of lawsuits are rife with errors, out-of-date payment data, fabricated credit card statements, etc. Tons of them are missing original loan documents, payment histories, and other proof of debt.

Debt predators, however, scoot around this lack of facts by simply having their employees sign affidavits asserting that the level of money owed is accurate. Judges, overwhelmed by the unending flood of lawsuits filed by Encore et al, have accepted those affidavits as true, thus ruling in favor of the corporations. But Schneiderman found that – Surprise! – affidavits were simply being rubber-stamped by company employees, who didn't have time to check for accuracy. An employee of one large debt-buyer testified that he was having to sign about 2,000 affidavits a day!

This is no minor scam – one in seven adults in the U.S. is under pursuit by debt collectors. It's hard enough for struggling families to claw their way out from under the economic crash without having lying, cheating, predator corporations twist the court system to pick their pockets and shut off their hope of recovery.

"Debt Buyer Faces Fine In Doubtful Lawsuits," The New York Times, January 9, 2015.

Shadow of Mordor, Arkham Knight highlight this week’s best game trailers

By Jacob Siegal

Every week, a landslide of video game trailers hit the Internet, hyping up the games that have just been released, the games that are about to be released and even the games that don’t have release dates. It can be a bit overwhelming to keep up with all of them, which is why we’ve decided to collect our favorites into a single post.



A Batman game with a mature ESRB rating? Count me in. Arkham City didn’t blow me away like it did many others, but with the Batmobile in tow and the darker tone of Arkham Knight, I’m ready for it to be June already.



This isn’t Final Fantasy XV, but it’s the next best thing. Final Fantasy Type-0 HD pleasantly surprised me when I had a chance to go hands-on with it last year. The game has supposedly received a few major tweaks since then as well, so I’m hoping for a polished port when this game hits PS4 and Xbox One in March.



The final DLC for Shadow of Mordor brings Celebrimbor face-to-face with the Dark Lord himself. The DLC for Shadow of Mordor has been surprisingly competent up to this point, but even if you’ve missed out on everything before it, The Bright Lord DLC looks like it will be the one to pick up.



I have no idea why this exists, but it’s free to download and you don’t even need to own Forza Horizon 2 to play it. Still no word on whether Vin Diesel did any voice over work for the game.




OlliOlli was a hit in 2014, and just over a year later, the sequel is nearly ready to launch on PS4 and PS Vita. It looks like more of the same, so if you enjoyed the first one, OlliOlli2 shouldn’t disappoint.

5 Right-Wing Lunacies This Week: The Nonstop Comedy Show of CPAC

By Janet Allon / AlterNet

 

CPAC is like a nonstop comedy show. One hit after another. Scott Walker tried to steal the show by comparing ISIS to those vicious union members he battled in his state, and he was rightfully and roundly ridiculed for that. It'll take some serious backtracking and spinning to undo the damage to the Republican darling. But he was far from the only standup comedian on the roster.

1. Duck Dynasty star to CPAC: Bring your Bible to the Oval Office, and your woman, 'cause the hippies are coming to get you.

Phil Robertson issued the above piece of advice to the CPAC audience, and no one is exactly clear what it means, honestly. Nor did the rest of his speech make a whole lot of sense. His biggest concern seems to be that Republicans not get sexually transmitted diseases.

“There is a penalty to be paid from what the beatniks, who morphed into the hippies (did)!” the Duck Commander rambled, rather incoherently. “What do you call the 110 million people who have sexually transmitted illnesses? It’s the revenge of the hippies! Sex, drugs and rock & roll have come back to haunt us!”

Head for the hills, people! With your Bible under one arm, and your woman under the other! "You lose your religion," Duck Commander bellowed. "And you lose your morality."

Robertson actually claimed, though he "hated to admit it," that he had done some research on the CDC website and found out that only one encounter was necessary to contract a sexually transmitted illness. “How many seconds does it take to get genital herpes?” he asked the CPAC audience, rhetorically. “It said 30 seconds. I’m like, whoa, that’s pretty quick.”

Well, thanks Phil. This has all been terribly enlightening.

Here's the video in case you'd like to enjoy it yourself:
 

 

2. Sarah Palin says a bunch of nonsense at CPAC, then inadvertently says something extremely true.

It’s a bit disorienting, really. In her speech at CPAC, Sarah Palin stayed in her usual history-mangling character when she suggested that the U.S. killed all the Nazis in WWII, when a passing acquaintance with the subject shows is laughably far from the truth. She said we should do the same to ISIS, just kill all of them—both impossible and plain old stupid and dangerous. So far, so good. Palin doing Palin.

Then she did something totally off brand, and wandered into the thickets of truth. It was a mistake, we’re sure. She said: “It’s said that old men declare wars, and then they send the young ones to fight ‘em. So it’s the duty of he who sends them to actually make sure that we can win those wars. And it’s our duty to elect an honorable commander-in-chief who is willing to make the same sacrifices he sends others away to make.”

So, as Raw Story figures, Palin is essentially saying that neither she, nor any other Republican hopeful is qualified to be president, since none has been willing to make such a sacrifice. Governors Jeb Bush of Florida, Chris Christie of New Jersey, Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, and Scott Walker of Wisconsin have not served, nor have Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida. Nor, of course, Sarah Palin herself, although her son Track, who served in Iraq for a year.

So, basically, everybody out of the pool!

Except Track. Track Palin for President! Woohoo!

3. Jim Inhofe reduces climate change debate to a snowball.

There has been some snow this winter, in case you have not heard. And to Senator Jim Inhofe, that can only mean one thing. It’s cold out! Also, snowball fight! Oh yeah, and obviously climate change must be a hoax.

To drive his point home, darned if the Senate’s chief climate change denier didn’t bring a snowball to the Senate floor and toss it. Oh! Feel the burn, all you science believers!

"In case we have forgotten, because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record, I ask the chair, 'You know what this is?'" Inhofe said, holding up his secret weapon. "It's a snowball, from outside here. So it's very, very cold out. Very unseasonable."

Yes it is. Very very cold.

Never mind that despite some record low temperatures in various parts of the country, 2014 remains the warmest year on record, and the nation overall has been experiencing a warmer-than-average winter. It’s cold where Inhofe is—he has to bundle up—and he’d rather just throw a snowball than deal with all that pesky data.

4. Stupid Giuliana Rancic makes racist comment about black hair and Solange Knowles has a great response.

Joan Rivers’ replacement, Giuliana Rancic, may have apologized for her idiotic and racist snark about 18-year-old actress and singer Zendaya’s dreadlocks at the Oscars, but the comments spoke volumes about Hollywood’s inability to regard African Americans as equals and creative forces to be reckoned with. In her “Fashion Police” roundup, Rancic ventured away from talking about Zendaya’s Vivienne Westwood gown, to suggest that her hair probably smells of “patchouli oil” and “weed.”

Really? Why?

Twitter erupted in understandable outrage over the fact that black women's hair just keeps being an obnoxious topic of discussion and object of bewilderment and scrutiny by white powers that be. As HuffPo says, “From TSA agents patting down Afros, a woman having to cut her locks to keep her job, and the Army's discriminatory ban on particular African American hairstyles—the list goes on and on.”

It’s not a random comment, and Rancic’s “I’m sorry if I offended you” apology really does not wash. Zendaya’s eloquent outrage put the “Fashion Police” to shame, as did Solange Knowles’ nifty response.

just shut up, white people. Shut up.

5. Fox News doctor: Crack babies come from women who smoke weed!

Fox News Medical A-Team (ha!) doctor David Samadi is not one for scientific reports. Or science, or, like, facts. So he certainly was not going to admit that a recent study published in Scientific Reports found that pot is quite possibly the least harmful drug humans ingest, including alcohol and cigarettes.

“I think it’s a very dangerous study,” Samadi argued. “People need to be very careful about not getting the wrong message from this study. They’re using a lethal dose as a comparison. For example, they’re putting pot against or weed against cocaine or alcohol. We know you need less amount of alcohol to die. So, they’re using death to see what’s dangerous and what’s not.”

Wait, what?

He went on to make various hysterical claims, such as that pot causes heart attacks and psychosis.

Then this bit of nonsense: “Now we have crack babies coming in because pregnant women are smoking this whole marijuana business.”

They are smoking the whole marijuana business.

Looks like his brain is misfiring, and the dangerous drug he is on appears to be a combination anti-science pathology, anti-pot hysteria and just not having done his homework about the fact that the whole crack baby scare was a myth. Not to mention the fact that the mythological crack babies were not born to mothers who smoked pot.