deerstalker

Just days after being charged by federal prosecutors, Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, Houston megachurch pastor and longtime spiritual adviser to former President George W. Bush, took to the alter of his church on Easter Sunday to defend himself.

According to KHOU11, Cadwell told his parishioners that the indictments against him were just a “pit stop” on his way to the Promised Land.

“As you know, I’ve been in the news lately,” Caldwell said. “From my mouth to your ears, I am not guilty.”

Caldwell, 64, who pastors Windsor Village United Methodist Church, was indicted in federal court last Thursday for allegedly using his influence as pastor of the 16,000-member megachurch to lure “vulnerable and elderly” investors into a scheme that has seen them lose over $1 million.

Gregory Alan Smth, 55, manager of Shreveport, Louisiana-based Smith Financial, was also named in the indictment for allegedly using his influence to lure investors to pay more than $1 million to invest in historical Chinese bonds. Both of them now face 13 counts of wire fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering charges, prosecutors said in a news release.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, which is also suing both men for violating financial laws, said that in 2013 and 2014, Smith, who has been barred from the broker-dealer business by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority since 2010, along with Caldwell, allegedly targeted “vulnerable and elderly” investors, giving them false assurances that the bonds–which were “essentially worthless” with no meaningful investment value–were worth millions.

Prosecutors said the historical bonds were issued by the former Republic of China prior to losing power to the Communist government in 1949. Smith allegedly told some investors that the money raised would be used to acquire more Chinese bonds. Prosecutors said he repeatedly told investors that the bonds were “risk-free,” “guaranteed,” and “safe” and that there were buyers lined up to purchase the bonds. Smith also told investors that the bonds would either be sold to a third party or redeemed by the Chinese government.

“They are not recognized by China’s current government and have no investment value,” United States Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook said in the release.

Prosecutors said Smith and Caldwell promised high rates of return, sometimes three to 15 times the value of the investments. And instead of investing the funds, prosecutors said they allegedly used the approximately $1.8 million of investor money to pay off personal expenses including personal loans, credit card bills, mortgage payments in the case of Caldwell, and luxury vehicle automobiles in the case of Smith. Prosecutors said offshore individuals allegedly received most of the remaining funds.

Caldwell and Smith allegedly raised at least $3.4 million from 29 elderly investors, some of whom liquidated their annuities to invest in the scheme.

Throughout 2014, prosecutors said Caldwell and Smith “continued to send emails and texts promising investors that they would be paid.” The “lulling emails,” prosecutors said, usually provided elaborate explanations for why Caldwell had been unable to sell the bonds. Excuses ranged from issues “pertaining to international currency exchanges” to “failures of international organizations like the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank to approve the redemptions.”

“Our laws do not tolerate materially misleading statements to exploit vulnerable investors who, in this case, looked up to a prominent pastor,” said Eric I. Bustillo, director of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office in a press release. “Caldwell took advantage of his victims, encouraging them to remain faithful even as he and Smith broke that faith, stealing from elderly investors in an outright fraud.”

Dan Cogdell, an attorney for Caldwell, told the Huffington Post in a statement that the accusations against the pastor are “simply false.”

Cogdell said his client believed the bonds were legitimate and that he had invested a significant sum of his own personal money into the scheme.

“Everyone who has asked for their money back, because the process is taking longer than expected, has received their money back,” Caldwell said during services on Sunday.

Caldwell started his career as an investment banker and bond broker. He has pastored Windsor Village Church since 1982, growing the congregation from 25 people to the nearly 16,000 members it is today, according to the church’s website. Caldwell served as former President George W. Bush’s closest spiritual adviser and officiated the wedding for his daughter Jenna in 2008. He endorsed presidential candidate Barack Obama that same year, donated to his political campaign, and went on to become one of President Obama’s spiritual advisers.

He has launched various community development projects in the Houston area, including schools, an AIDS outreach center, and a nutrition program. He published The Gospel of Good Success: A Road Map to Spiritual, Emotional and Financial Wholeness in 1999, in which he discusses how he transformed his megachurch into a “Kingdom-building machine” and advises readers on how to “create wealth God’s way,” among other things.

“This is not a get-rich-quick scheme,” Caldwell told the Dallas Morning News in a 1999 interview about the book. “It’s about being faithful to God and receiving what God has for you,” he said, and being “a blessing on God’s terms to others.’

The post Pastor Kirbyjon Caldwell Says He’s Not Guilty Of Fraud appeared first on Black Enterprise.

The thing is… we’ve done this before.

You might have grown up on the exceptionally pale original Lost in Space which aired from 1965 – 1968. You might have watched the reruns. Maybe you’re watching the reruns in anticipation of the April 13th debut of the reboot.

Or maybe you were one of the 12 people to watch the 1998 retelling (starring Joey Tribbiani).

I imagine these comparisons are quite tiring for the producers and writers, but given the state of reboots these days, it’s worth asking (no offense, The Rock, but Baywatch wasn’t your best work).

So it’s fair if you’re wandering if yet another reboot is worth your time and effort. We know the story: the Robinsons are on route to colonize (sidebar for sci-fi writers: you should really come up with another word for this; I will mail you my thesaurus) a scouted and inhabitable planet are thrown wildly off course and must fend for themselves if they hope to survive. It’s a conflict we’ve been seeing since 7th grade English class, so is this humans against nature tale do more than just go through the motions?

Full disclosure: I will watch almost anything set in space. Star Trek has my heart, but Star Wars, Firefly, Aliens (all of them), Space Balls, Interstellar, Contact… it honestly doesn’t matter, I’ll watch it. But I know when I’m watching a show because it’s set in space versus when I’m watching a show because it’s good. Make no mistake: Lost in Space is good.

There are a lot of reasons why this iteration works. First, production value. While there are times during original when it looks like the Robinsons are betting their lives on aluminum foil and hope, it looks like Netflix has spared no expense.

The robot? [runs in circle] Whew boy! The. Robot. The robot is impressive in a way I didn’t expect from a non-theatrical release. Its movements and its face, in particular, are disarming. It’s not uncanny valley because it is so obviously a robot but it’s fighting with Wall-E for the mechanized barely verbal champion of my heart. (Skip to about 1:00 to see the robot or treat yourself and watch the whole trailer)

Technology, in general, is believable enough for me to suspend my disbelieve and rational enough for me to pretend like I was an honors science student in high school and still futuristic enough for me to know I’m at home in my chosen genre.

But since the show hinges on being invested in the Robinsons’ survival, let’s talk about the family. Tolstoy wrote “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” One thing the reboot did absolutely right was adding the right bot of complication to the Robinson family dynamic. Each member is layered and what drew me in more with each episode was the slow reveal, the development of each character.

I found myself impressed by Molly Parker’s portrayal of matriarch Maureen Robinson. Her character is brilliant, but falters when it comes to her family. What is best for them? Whose needs should be prioritized at any given moment? She faces questions that are all too familiar to mothers still in this solar system. Parker communicates her inner conflicts with a truly authentic performance.

Her counterpart, John Robinson (Toby Stephens) embodies the dueling priorities of how do I love and also provide (and protect) them when it’s almost impossible to do both at the same time? There are heartbreaking moments and feel good moments, but– all due credit to the writers–they almost always feel earned.

Penny Robinson (Mina Sundwall) offers comic relief by often voicing the audience’s concerns. She’s not exactly our voice of reason, but sometimes what you really need is a voice of sarcasm and WTF. The counterpart to her is, for me, Will Robinson (Maxwell Jenkins) who I found to be the embodiment of both my fear and my wonder–and sometimes the bravery we don’t know is in us. His is an actual child-like character. Often, [looks at Wesley Crusher] children aren’t children on sci-fi shows if they are lead characters. Will is a child and his relationship with the robot which could have so easily veered into the awfully cheesy territory.

Judy Robinson, played by Taylor Russell, likewise feels like a kid you might reasonably sit next to in an honors class: brilliant, somewhat haunted and crippled by that brilliance, and trying not-as-successfully-as-she-thinks to mask it. It’d feel disingenuous to not address the question of race. The thing is I’m aware that families need not be homogenous, so after seeing the trailers and promo pictures, I had less question about the logistics of her family as I did about the utilitarianism of tokenism.

If I’m honest, I am less and less patience for shows and movies with all white casts. Even if the shows are good. Even if I like the actors. Even if I like the original. Because I’m going to die one day and so I only have so much time to watch television so I’m going to make sure that I see myself in what I make time to watch.

I don’t want to ignore Ignacio Serricchio’s role as Don West. The Argentinian actor is a PoC, too, but [sings in the key of Gina Rodriguez’s Instagram account harmonizing with Nella Larsen’s novels] it is easy to code him as white, white passing, or racially ambiguous. Want to really think of a radical future? Imagine a future where PoCs are more abundant and vital and less tokenized.

Is that to say that it feels very much like tokenism? Yes. Is that to say it’ll stop me from watching it? No. I’ll watch it and I’ll recommend it. I know that Lt. Uhura was the only black woman on Star Trek and yet her presence has meant so much to so many WoC, but that doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed that Russell is the only WoC with top billing.

Bottom line:

Watch Lost in Space. Come for the familiar and comforting puny earthlings against all odds and stay for the character development and emotional engagement.

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The post ‘Lost in Space’: Reboot Is Worth Your Time, Come Along For The Ride appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

She makes being a cat lady cute -- and very funny.

Speculation is rampant as to who might take their final bow in Infinity War, but “these folks are gonna die” lists are missing a crucial element: how loud my sobbing will be if the following people get killed.

Using a highly scientific approach of a year’s worth of studying Infinity War trailers and commentary and my gut instinct, I present you with the characters I think most likely to kick the bucket, ranked by what this development will mean to me personally.

6. Vision

Most camps agree that Vision is pretty much a goner, since the Mind Stone is embedded in his forehead and Thanos needs to collect ’em all, and also nobody cares about Vision. From what we’ve seen from trailers and toys, it seems like Vision gets roughed up pretty bad at one point, and potentially the whole standoff in Wakanda is taking place because Shuri’s trying to find a way to remove the Stone without killing him.

But Vision never quite clicked with the audience, meaning me, and while it seems like Infinity War is going to play up his romance with Wanda, I feel like this is a last-gasp attempt to make us care when he dies.

Crying factor: I will stare dry-eyed at Vision’s death, thankful that another reminder that Age of Ultron happened is gone.

5. Drax the Destroyer

The extremely literal Guardian of the Galaxy has a pretty huge bone to pick with Thanos, considering that the Mad Titan killed Drax’s whole family. Avenging his family’s murder has been Drax’s M.O. since we met him, so he’s going to be looking to take a piece out of the big purple guy.

Drax is fine; I’ve enjoyed Dave Bautista’s embodiment of him, but I think the Guardians will get along just fine, Drax-less. Drax will want to fight tooth and nail against Thanos, and if he does, he’s going to have a bad time.

Crying factor: If Drax goes out, I will shed a single tear, and perhaps a few more if he gives a last, gasping speech about rejoining his family.

4. Hawkeye

I’m convinced that Hawkeye’s almost total omission from Infinity War promos isn’t because he dies early on: that would be too much of an obvious spoiler. But I do think that doom lies in wait for Clint Barton’s surprise secret family from the unfortunate Age of Ultron, and that this will launch him down a Drax-type path of seeking revenge against Thanos—perhaps by taking up an alternate identity from the comics. Even if Hawkeye gets some badass scenes and a cool new costume, however, it’s hard to imagine how he fits into the Avengers world going forward.

Marvel denied us a Clint/Natasha romance, which many fans wanted after Avengers; there’s been no sign of any kind of solo Hawkeye film; living family or no, Clint’s been framed as a guy who just wants to settle down. I think he’ll be killed by Thanos, which gives us the shock value of an original Avengers member taken out, no doubt also a galvanizing force for the team. I’m fond of Hawkeye and sad about what was done with his characterization: pretty much nothing.

Crying factor: If Clint dies in his BFF Natasha’s arms I will cry not a small amount.

3. Nebula

While Nebula became a sorta-good guy by the end of the second Guardians of the Galaxy, it’s likely that she won’t get to stay on the team for long. Her single-minded mission is to kill Thanos for the abusive upbringing that he inflicted on her. I think she’ll get to go out in a last gasp of heroism—perhaps protecting her sister Gamora, who will be really pissed.

While I personally think that the whole Thanos thing should wrap up with Nebula and Gamora kicking his ass into another dimension, it’s hard to imagine Marvel giving us that glorious retribution. Still, Nebula’s sacrifice would make for a heart-wrenching twist and a motivating moment for the Guardians, especially Gamora, who has only just got her sibling back.

Crying factor: I have a thing for morally ambiguous quasi-villains who lean towards being antiheroes, so I like Nebula and her arc quite a bit. If she dies in Gamora’s arms I will need to break out the tissues.

2. Loki

Speaking of morally ambiguous quasi-villains who lean towards being antiheroes, things aren’t looking too good for my guy Loki. While some of us Loki fans cling to the hope that all of the heavy-seeming suggestion that Loki will die means that he actually won’t—surprise!—I’m still afraid that this might be the first big death of Infinity War. If I were to guess, Thanos ruthlessly attacks the Asgardian refugee ship in the movie’s opening moments (we see him bearing down on them at the end of Ragnarok). Thanos then threatens Thor (we see him squeezing Thor’s head), and Loki himself is being threatened by the Black Order, with Proxima Midnight pointing her weapon at his head.

Whether it’s an attempt to save his brother’s life or his own, Loki hands over the Tesseract. This is when I am much afeard that we’re going to see Proxima Midnight’s spear in action. She has a special spear that can kill anyone in one blow—this thing was forged from a sun trapped in distorted space-time and has the power of a star, a supernova, and a black hole behind it. Yeah.

What better way to show us that the ruthless Black Order means business than to demonstrate the spear’s ability to take down Loki? Thanos promised Loki a world of pain for failing his mission in the Avengers, and he’s unlikely to let Loki live after he went on the lam. While I’m hoping our favorite trickster finds a sneaky way to escape, I can’t shake the feeling that it’s the loss of his brother—newly returned to his side—along with his people that launches Thor into the tragic, transformative storyline the Russos keep promising.

Crying factor: I will set this theater on fire and then put out said fire with all of the tears that I will cry if Loki dies.

1. Captain America

Although I don’t want to face facts, the fact is that Steve Rogers is living on borrowed time. Chris Evans has been pretty clear that he’s done with the MCU after Avengers 4, but it’s possible that when we see Steve in Avengers 4 (remember those set photos?) it’s through a flashback, a rip in time, magic, or an Infinity Stone-induced journey, and he really dies in Infinity War.

The loss of Captain America leaves room for Bucky—newly tight with the Wakandans, and mostly back to his old self—to take up the Captain America mantle, should the MCU want to follow in the comics’ direction. For Bucky to lose his best friend so soon after they’re reunited is tragic as hell, but it would set him up nicely for an emotional arc going forward and elevate his importance in the events of Avengers 4. Wakanda is the MCU’s future, and Bucky is well-positioned therein.

Like Hawkeye, it’s hard to see where Steve Rogers would go from here. He’s gone full Nomad and is considered a dangerous fugitive; even if the world forgives him after he saves it, there’s really no going back to being the star-spangled man for Steve. Part of me wants to believe that Steve’s death, like Loki’s, seems so obvious that maybe the Russos won’t go there just to surprise us.

It’s incredibly hard to envision Avengers 4 without Captain America, but that may be what we’re in for. While Tony Stark has long been the MCU’s flashiest hero, for me Cap is the heart and soul of the franchise. To really make Infinity War hurt—like the Russos keep promising that it will—they’re probably going to have to rip that heart out (and mine along with it).

Crying factor: If Steve dies in Bucky’s arms I will be able to paddle right out of that accursed theater on a river comprised of my own tears.

Who do you think isn’t going to make it in Infinity War? And whose death would leave you emotionally compromised?

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