Evil, like beauty, is sometimes in the eye of the beholder.
It
is difficult to distinguish an evil act from an evil person. Few people,
for example, would argue that Adolph Hitler, Pol Pot, and Josef Stalin
were not evil men. But if killing lots of people is the criteria,
Abraham Lincoln was a pretty evil guy, too; he just happened to be on
the right side of history. As the saying goes, history is written by the
winners and, it seems, the winners get to decide who is evil. For a
long time, we Americans have thought of ourselves as a shining beacon of
goodness. Ronald Reagan stoked that mood with his “Morning in America”
administration. Meanwhile, those bad guys over there in the Soviet "Evil
Empire" were wreaking their havoc. Only, the rest of the world does not
quite see it that way. Distrust of America is growing and we are seen
as one of the biggest perpetrators of evil and bloodshed, the“Great
Satan” to some. This confuses Americans because that's not what we see
when we look at ourselves in the mirror, and through the lens of
American exceptionalism.
The point is, objective truths are hard to pin down, and subjective truths are many and contradictory. Adolph Hitler was
evil because he killed people out of spite and a bankrupt and
hate-filled ideology (although he also probably didn’t see himself as
evil when he looked in the mirror.) Lincoln was not evil
because he was forced into the position of killing people for the
preservation of the country. But many Germans worshipped Hitler, and
many in the Confederacy despised Lincoln.
No one sets out to do
evil, U.S. Presidents included. Our most murderous, warmongering
presidents did not intend to become killers, but they did end up
committing acts that are considered evil. Here are six of the most evil
Presidents in our history (followed by a healthy list of runner-ups.)
1. Andrew Jackson
Andrew
Jackson, Old Hickory, our seventh president, was beloved by the common
people of the United States. He was a populist who railed against the
federal banking system, a man who grew up poor and climbed the ladder to
ultimate power, a war hero, a romantic who pined for his wife who
passed away only days after he won the presidency. He was a slave owner
who believed in the morality of owning human chattel (although many of
our early presidents owned slaves and felt similarly).
What set Jackson
apart, and places him high in the “Evil President” ranks was his actions
against Native Americans. Simply put, Andrew Jackson never met an
Indian he liked or felt obliged to respect. Appointed by President
Thomas Jefferson to wage war on the Creek and Cherokee tribes in order
to gain their territory, Jackson was a brutal Indian killer whose
nickname Sharp Knife was well earned. At his command, his troops killed
not only vast numbers of male Native Americans, but also women and
children. Millions of acres of land was stolen from the tribes during
his campaigns.
In 1818 Jackson and his men invaded Spanish Florida and
incited the First Seminole War, killing Seminoles and capturing escaped
slaves who lived among them. As he illegally swept through Florida, he,
“violated nearly every standard of justice,” wrote historian Bertram
Wyatt-Brown. Long before ethnic cleansing became a term to describe the
terrible war crime, Jackson perfected the practice.
Supporting and
signing, as President, the Indian Removal Act in 1830, over 46,000
Native Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and lands east
of the Mississippi River and marched to reservations in the western
territories. In one such forced march, which occurred after Jackson left
office, 4,000 Cherokees died during the infamous Trail of Tears.
Millions of acres of Indian land was seized and handed over to the white
slave aristocracy. Old Hickory carried his actions against Native
Americans out despite the fact that the Supreme Court ruled it
unconstitutional. "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him
enforce it!" cried Jackson.
2. Harry Truman
Famous
for the sign on his desk, “The Buck Stops Here”, Harry ”Give ‘Em Hell”
Truman never shied away from his decision to drop the A-bomb on Japan.
Debate has raged ever since. In1945, Truman ordered the U.S. military to
drop atom bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Was
his action, which literally incinerated many thousands of civilian men,
women, and children, and crippled and mutilated many thousands more,
justified in order to end World War Two and save the lives of a million
American soldiers, who would have had to invade mainland Japan
otherwise?
That is the argument in favor of the decision, but that turns
out to be disingenuous. Japan was willing to surrender to the United
States in July of 1945 with one condition, that the Japanese Emperor
Hirohito not be tried as a war criminal. The truth was that Japan was
virtually helpless by this time, its military in a shambles, its cities
bombed, and its people starving. Truman ignored the offer, and in August
ordered the bombs dropped. Since the U.S. ultimately granted that
condition anyway, the dropping of the bombs was unnecessary, and the
horrific death and destruction that resulted was also unnecessary.
3. William McKinley
When
most people think of William McKinley, our 25th President, they are
most likely to think of America’s fattest president. Weighing in at over
300 pounds, McKinley was a mountain of a man. He also was a man with
blood on his hands, the blood of hundreds of thousands of Filipino
people. At the conclusion of the Spanish-American War in 1898, in which
the United States defeated Spain, McKinley found himself with the
question of what to do about the Philippines. The Filipino people had
expected to be given their independence, which they had fought with
Spain over prior to the war.
Instead, McKinley decided, “that we could
not leave them to themselves - they were unfit for self-government - and
they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain’s
was; and…that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all,
and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize
them, and by God’s grace do the very best we could by them, as our
fellow-men for whom Christ also died." Thus, under McKinley’ mandate,
the U.S. brutally put down the Filipino insurrection in a war that
lasted until 1902.
“I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn:
the more you kill and burn, the better you will please me,” said one of
McKinley’s generals, General Jacob H. Smith. Tens of thousands died in
direct combat in the guerrilla war, and hundreds of thousands more from
disease transmitted in the concentration camps where Filipino prisoners
were herded.
4. Ronald Reagan
Today’s
Republican Party may remember The Gipper as a saintly figure, but it is
doubtful that many in the gay community share the sentiment. In the
1980s, an unidentified disease began decimating the gay community, and
in 1981 it was identified as AIDS. While not specifically a gay disease,
it was the homosexual community (as well as intravenous drug users)
that was primarily infected with it in the United States at first.
Reagan’s attitude towards homosexuals was well known. While campaigning
for President in 1980, Reagan referred to gay civil rights: “My
criticism is that [the gay movement] isn’t just asking for civil rights;
it’s asking for recognition and acceptance of an alternative lifestyle
which I do not believe society can condone, nor can I.”
His beliefs
carried over into his administration, and he virtually ignored the AIDS
crisis for the several years as it ravaged and killed thousands of
infected people. Even his old Hollywood friend Rock Hudson’s death from
the disease did not sway him from his indifference to the suffering.
Reagan’s Surgeon General, C. Edward Koop was specifically prevented from
speaking out about the ways to minimize contracting AIDS. When he did
speak about it, The Great Communicator actually served to inflame the
crisis. Despite the Centers for Disease Control issuing a report that
casual contact did not pose a threat to contract AIDS, parents in many
parts of the country spoke out against allowing children with AIDS (who
mostly contracted AIDS through blood transfusions) to attend school.
Rather than soothing these fears, Reagan stoked them. “…medicine has not
come forth unequivocally and said, This we know for a fact, that it is safe.
And until they do, I think we just have to do the best we can with this
problem.” It was only after organizations like ACT UP, and celebrities
like Elizabeth Taylor, began pressuring Reagan to acknowledge the crisis
that he allowed Koop to issue a report in 1986, a full five years after
the disease was identified.
Even then, his Administration was
ultimately at odds with Koop, as the report went way beyond what Reagan
wanted, rejecting AIDS testing and urging use of condoms and sex
education.
5. Andrew Johnson
Andrew
Johnson, 17th President of the United States, was just not a worthy
successor to Abraham Lincoln. Maybe anyone succeeding The Great
Emancipator would suffer in comparison, but Johnson energetically earned
his incompetence with deeds that the African Americans in the former
Confederacy could truly consider evil.
Considering the fact that Johnson
was a fervent racist, and pre-Civil War slave owner, who believed in
the inferiority of African Americans, it was no surprise that the
Reconstruction of the South, post-Civil War, did not go as Lincoln would
have liked. “This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I
am President, it shall be a government for white men,” wrote Johnson in a
letter to the governor of Missouri.
In 1867, in his message to
Congress, he said, “…wherever they [black people] have been left to
their own devices they have shown a constant tendency to relapse into
barbarism.” In order to minimize the influence of newly freed slaves,
and to prevent the redistribution of land to them, he pardoned all but
the most egregious Confederates, and they quickly began grabbing the
seats of government.
Soon after, they began passing “Black Codes”, laws
that, while granting some rights, effectively made African Americans
second-class citizens. Radical Republicans in the Congress passed a
civil rights bill, which Johnson promptly vetoed, claiming the bill
unfairly favored people of color over whites (the veto was overturned).
In response, the Congress created the 14th Amendment to the
Constitution, giving African Americans equal protection under the law.
Johnson vehemently campaigned against the amendment.
6. James Buchanan
There’s
a lot not to like about our 15th President, James Buchanan, not the
least of which is that he fiddled while Rome burned, i.e., he allowed
the country to slide to the brink of civil war, which it did shortly
after his successor, Abraham Lincoln, took office. The issue that the
American Civil War revolved around was, of course, slavery.
During
Buchanan’s administration, the debate in the air was whether slavery
would be legal in U.S. territories, or would only be decided once
statehood was imminent. Northern interests leaned towards territorial
decision, where the decision could be made before significant numbers of
slave owners arrived. The South preferred that states make the
decision, believing that at that point, slave owners could flood the
soon-to-be state and vote it pro-slavery. Buchanan sided with the
southern states on the issue, and saw an opportunity to have the courts
decide the matter.
On the Supreme Court docket was a case involving a
slave, Dred Scott. Scott sued for his freedom, based on the claim that
he had lived for a period of time with his owner in Illinois and
Wisconsin (at the time, part of Minnesota), both free under the Missouri
Compromise of 1820 (which had limited slavery primarily to Southern
states and had diffused the issue for several years).
There were five
southern justices on the Court, but they let Buchanan know they were
inclined to allow an earlier lower court ruling stand and not make new
federal law. However, Buchanan was informed that if northern judge
Robert Cooper Grier could be persuaded to side with the Southerners, the
Court would agree to rule on the matter. Improperly infringing on
judicial territory, Buchanan proceeded to write Grier and request that
he side with the Southerners, which Grier agreed to do.
The resulting
Dred Scott decision declared that slaves were not citizens and could not
therefore sue.
Secondly, it said that slaves were property, not people,
and were therefore protected by the Constitution in all territories and
could not be prohibited there. The decision invalidated the Missouri
Compromise. The President of the United States, James Buchanan, colluded
with the Supreme Court to eliminate territorial barriers to slavery,
opened the door to the expansion of the “peculiar institution”, and
ultimately set the stage for the Civil War.
Some Evil Runner-ups
George W. Bush:
For invading Iraq under false pretenses (“Weapons of Mass
Destruction”), resulting in the deaths of thousands of U.S. soldiers,
and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens.
James Polk:
For starting a war with Mexico under the doctrine of “Manifest Destiny”
(the belief that the United States was destined to expand and acquire
land), resulting in the deaths of 25,000 Mexicans and the theft of most
of southwest North America.
Franklin Roosevelt: For the imprisonment of over 100,000 Japanese American citizens for the crime of looking Asian.
Lyndon Johnson:
For expansion of the Vietnam War while lying to the American people
about both the reasons for the war and the prospects for victory.
Richard Nixon:
For further expanding the Vietnam War after promising a secret plan to
end it, and illegally spying on American citizens perceived as political
enemies.
Dwight Eisenhower: For authorizing the
overthrow of the Iranian government via the CIA, resulting in the
coronation of the Shah, countless subsequent political murders, and
ultimately the rise of Muslim extremism.
Glenn Beck was irate on his show. He let the Republican Party have it.
"The Republican Party, I've made my decision," said Glenn
Beck. "I am out! I'm out! I am not a Republican. I will not give a dime
to the Republican Party. I am out! I highly recommend, run from the
Republican Party. They are not good and you see it now. All this stuff
that they ran and they said they were doing all these great things. And
they were going to stand against Obamacare and everything else and legal
immigration, set us up. Enough is enough. They are torpedoing the
Constitution and they are doing so knowingly. They are taking on people
like Mike Lee and Ted Cruz. And they are torpedoing them, knowingly. And
these guys are standing for the Constitution. So I am done with them."
It should come as no surprise to long time listeners that
Glenn is fed up with the Republican party as it exists in Washington,
DC. He’s been outspoken in his criticism of the establishment’s
leadership, including John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and Lindsey Graham.
Meanwhile, he’s watched those same establishment politicians try to
destroy passionate conservatives like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. So today on
radio he made it crystal clear that he is done with the Republican
Party.
“When we first started the 9/12 Project and everything else, we said
stay in the Republican party. Change it from the inside. Then we saw now
how rotted the Republican is. There’s no saving it. Don’t give another
dime to the Republican party. We tried to do it from the inside. They
are knifing us from the inside,” Glenn said.
In other words, the Republicans are not enough to the right for Glenn
Beck and his ilk. Really? If it wouldn't hurt so many people, it would
be great to give these folks the country they claim to want for a couple
years. They would become card-carrying liberals quickly thereafter.
As
if one of the wealthiest corporations on the planet paying poverty
wages wasn’t bad enough, McDonald’s (one of several franchises being
represented in a lawsuit against the city of Seattle over its recent
mandate to raise wages to $15 an hour) apparently believes itself to be
exempt from regulations of the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA).
Remember Ketchup As a Vegetable?
In
the great tradition of the Reagan years, the management at McDonald’s
“restaurants” consider mustard and mayonnaise to be first aid ointments.
It’s not a joke. In a press release from the website FightFor15.org, a
McDonald’s worker from Chicago described her experience:
“My
managers kept pushing me to work faster, and while trying to meet their
demands I slipped on a wet floor, catching my arm on a hot grill…the
managers told me to put mustard on it, but I ended up having to get
rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.”
This
worker’s story is not unusual. At least 80% of McDonald’s employees
report suffering moderate to severe burn injuries. Of that 80%, 6 out of
every 10 workers suffered multiple injuries. 1 in 3 report that the
first aid kit (mandated under OSHA regulations) is either not readily
accessible, lacking supplies – or missing altogether.
And what of
safety equipment? Dream on, folks – you think this is a four-star French
cafe?
(Incredibly, there are 1,200 McDonald’s outlets in France – but in
order to survive in that country, the corporation was forced to adapt
to French eating habits and preferences…and you’d better believe working
conditions are better as well.)
Actually, McDonald’s and most
other “fast food” franchises have far more in common with an automotive
assembly line than any sort of upscale dining establishment.
A Bit of History
The
concept of “fast food” in the United States goes back over a century,
but arguably, the first modern “fast food” chain was A&W (of root
beer fame), which began franchising in 1921. 19 years later, two
brothers in San Bernardino, California, created a kitchen and food
service method modeled on the same assembly lines pioneered by Henry
Ford.
The brothers’ names? Richard and Maurice McDonald.
In
1954, a salesman for milkshake blending machines visited the McDonald’s
operation in order to learn why the brothers had ordered a dozen
machines (most eating establishments and soda fountains had one or two
at most). When the dust settled from that visit, the McDonald’s had a
partner in that visiting salesman, who went by the name of Ray Kroc. He
opened the first McDonald’s franchises in his home state of Illinois
shortly thereafter. By 1961, Kroc was in a position to buy out the
McDonald brothers – and the modern McDonald’s Corporation was born.
It’s Not All Bad
For
better or worse, this food service business model has become almost
ubiquitous. However, some present-day fast food restaurants treat
employees far better than others. Not surprisingly, these tend to be
either small, independent family businesses or more localized chains,
such as the Pacific Northwest’s Burgerville or the Southwest’s In-N-Out
Burger. Both of these companies have always paid starting employees more
than minimum wage and provide low-cost, full medical and dental
benefits. Current and former employees give the companies high marks
when it comes to worker satisfaction, despite the fast-paced and
stressful nature of the job.
So….what is it about these issues that McDonald’s doesn’t get?
Ronald Could Learn a Thing or Two
On
16 March, 28 complaints from workers having suffered burn injuries were
filed with OSHA. This issue – now attracting national attention – is
quickly becoming part of the fight for higher wages among these workers
from across the nation. Demonstrators in the San Francisco Bay area and
elsewhere in the country are gathering outside of McDonald’s stores, not
only demanding $15 an hour, but speaking out about unsafe working
conditions as well.
A spokesperson for McDonald’s told USA Today
that alleged safety violations would be investigated, but added that the
media should to be aware that said allegations were “part of a larger
strategy” on the part of “activists” who were targeting the company.
According
to the allegations, as managers exert extreme pressure on employees to
work faster and “more efficiently,” basic, common-sense safety
precautions are ignored. One of these is to wait for cooking oil to cool
down before emptying fryers for cleaning. At least one employee was
instructed to line a cardboard box with plastic, fill it with ice, and
dump hot cooking oil into it so the fryer could be cleaned faster and
the used product disposed of sooner.
After all, profits are at
stake. Franchisees are themselves under intense pressure from the
corporate office, which sends out inspectors regularly to make certain
they are toeing the line. (Conformity appears to be the main concern,
here; safety is low on the priority list.)
It must be paying off
for someone. Despite a great deal of bad press in recent years,
McDonald’s – a global corporation with 36,000 locations worldwide – has
been seeing a modest increase in sales. In 2012, the corporation had
revenues of $27.5 billion, a little over 3% over the prior year. That
averages just under $764,000 per restaurant.
In-N-Out, which has a
mere 232 locations in five Western states, made an estimated $625
million that same year. But that represents an income of nearly $2.7
million per restaurant – about 350% better than McDonald’s.
One
significant difference between the two restaurant change is that the
global corporation must grow and expand at all costs. If that means
cutting corners and gaming the system, so be it. If workers get hurt and
customers get sick, well, that’s just part of the cost of doing
business.
It is what the late author and social critic Edward Abbey described as “the mentality of the cancer cell.”
The
regional chain, which was founded in 1948, has an entirely different
business philosophy. Central to In-N-Out’s philosophy is treating
employees well and sharing the corporation’s success with the workers
who make it possible. According to Wall Street wisdom, anything that
cuts into the profit margin and prevents constant, rapid expansion is
bad business.
Yet In-N-Out is doing phenomenally well by all
standards. McDonald’s, which follows Wall Street convention, is facing
charges for violating labor regulations, armies of angry, dissatisfied
employees demanding a greater share of the wealth they work to generate –
and a rapidly tarnishing public image.
And in the meantime,
McDonald’s employees continue to suffer unnecessary, painful, on-the-job
injuries. One hopes that OSHA officials will take these complaints
seriously and give the Golden Arches a good, hard, detailed once-over.
Processed foods are suspected of causing a variety of heath issues.
Foods high in sugar and refined carbohydrates, for example, are known to
cause high blood sugar and obesity. But recent research has uncovered
an entirely new mechanism by which many metabolic disorders can be
triggered. Certain additives that are commonly used in processed foods
are being shown to impact health, at least in mice, by altering the
body’s population of bacteria that live in the gut. Collectively
referred to the microbiome, the importance of this bacterial community
of millions is just beginning to be understood.
Research published last September demonstrated that artificial sweeteners can raise blood sugar levels
in mice, stimulate their appetites, and possibly lead to obesity and
diabetes. The artificial sweeteners appear to create these conditions by
changing the micriobiome’s composition.
Last month, a different set of research was
published that also suggested a disease pathway mediated by microbiome
disturbance. This time, commonly used food additives called emulsifiers
are the culprits.
Emulsifiers help keep sauces smooth and ice
cream creamy, they hold dressings together and prevent mayonnaise from
separating into oil and water. The new research gives reason to suspect
that emulsifiers could raise your blood sugar, make you fat and even
make your butt hurt.
The study, published in Nature, looked at two
common emulsifiers, Polysorbate 80 and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC),
and found a range of metabolic problems that appeared in mice who were
given water dosed with these chemicals in quantities proportional to
what a human might consume. The mice who drank either emulsifier tended
to eat more, gain weight and develop conditions like irritable bowel
syndrome, colitis and metabolic syndrome, which is a range of
pre-diabetic conditions.
The effects of these additives were
dependent on the dosage; the more emulsifier the mice consumed, the
worse off they were. A control group drank water laced with a common
preservative, sodium sulfite, and did not show any negative effects on
the gut.
The team found that the bacterial diversity of the mice
microbiomes were altered. They also discovered the mucous membrane of
the gut was thinner in mice who were fed emulsifiers. The thinner mucous
membrane allowed the microbes closer to the gut wall than they would
normally get, they wrote, which could cause the observed inflammation of
the gut wall, and diseases like irritable bowel syndrome.
John
Coupland, a professor of food science at Penn State University, thinks
this research could be a game changer, providing it can be shown that
these emulsifiers can do to humans what they do to mice. “[It] really
challenges a lot of the way we think about assessing toxicology and
nutritional value of foods,” he said in an email.
Coupland noted
that Polysorbate 80 and CMC are very different molecules. While
Polysorbate 80 is small, and doesn’t carry an electrical charge, CMC is
large, and charged. These molecules are not only built differently, but
they behave differently, he said, pointing out that CMC is technically
not even an emulsifier, but a thickener that makes emulsions more
stable. That they both cause similar microbial disruptions, mucous
reductions and associated health problems is a striking discovery.
In
an email interview, the study’s co-author, Benoit Chassaing,
acknowledged that CMC is more of a thickener than an emulsifier, but
noted that it does have emulsification properties, due to its charge. He
suspects the resulting emulsifying activity is to blame.
I asked how they originally thought to look at emulsifiers. Chassaing explained:
"The
incidence of IBD and metabolic syndrome has been markedly increasing
since about the mid-20th century, and this dramatic increase has
occurred amidst constant human genetics, suggesting a pivotal role for
an environmental factor. We considered that any modern additions to the
food supply might play an important role, and addition of emulsifiers to
food seems to fit the time frame of increased incidence in these
diseases.
"We hypothesized that emulsifiers
might impact the gut microbiota to promote these inflammatory diseases
and designed experiments in mice to test this possibility."
The
team is currently investigating other common emulsifiers, aiming to
identify any others that might cause microbial disturbances, or
inflammation of the gut. Carrageenan, Chassaing noted, has already been found to
cause inflammatory bowel disease in rats. Extracted from seaweed,
carrageenan is widely used in processed “natural” foods. Like CMC,
carrageenan is more of a thickener than an emulsifier, but is, like CMC,
on the spectrum of additives that exhibit emulsifying properties.
One
molecule his team is currently investigating is lecithin, which is a
true emulsifier. Like carrageenan, lecithin is used in many “natural”
processed products. If lecithin shows similar activity to carrageenan,
CMC, and Polysorbate 80, it would cast a shadow over many, many
processed food formulations. Organic processed foods are still processed
foods. Organic approved additives like carrageenan can still give you
ulcerative colitis.
Food additives are tested for certain
toxilogical activities, like the ability to cause cancer, or to cause a
mouse to instantly drop dead. But they aren’t tested for any potential
effects they might have on one’s microbiome, or their ability to
stimulate one’s appetite, or cause conditions like irritable bowel
syndrome.
If the recent results on mice can be repeated in humans,
current testing protocols for food additives will be revealed as
woefully inadequate.
If you stay away from highly refined, heavily
processed foods with long lists of ingredients, you can avoid most of
these additives in one swoop, and not have to worry about inadequate
testing procedures.
But not everyone has the luxury of being
able to avoid processed foods, especially the poor, and ironically,
people stuck in institutions like hospitals. That’s why we need the
standards by which food additives are evaluated to be updated sooner,
rather than later.
Ari LeVaux writes a syndicated weekly food column, Flash in the Pan.
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.
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.
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.]
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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 Administrationare 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.
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 personstopped.”
●
“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 officerreasonablysuspectsheorsheisindanger 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
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
