Cab Drivers Union Says Chicago Taxi Industry Near Collapse

By Jeff Schuhrke of In These Times

In addition to repaying loans on their medallions, taxi operators also have to pay thousands of dollars each year in city expenses, like the ground transportation tax and medallion license renewal fee—expenses that rideshare drivers are not subject to. (Cab Drivers United/ Twitter)  

Ghana-born John Aikins has been a cab driver in Chicago for two decades. About 15 years ago, he decided to go into business for himself by taking out a loan with his wife to purchase a medallion—a city-issued license to operate a taxi—for $70,000. Paying it off within a few years thanks to a steady stream of passengers, they took out loan for a second medallion five years ago, using the first as collateral. Watching his medallions appreciate in value over the years, Aikins planned to eventually sell or lease them to other drivers, a common practice in the industry. “I hoped it would be my retirement investment, and I had planned to retire this year,” Aikins told In These Times.

But with the introduction of Uber and other rideshare companies to the city—which can operate without the expensive, city-issued medallions—Aikins has seen his clientele plummet over the past three years, making it increasingly hard to keep up with his medallion loan payments.

Across the city, the number of taxi rides dropped from 2.29 million in January 2014 to 1.1 million in January 2017, according to a report released recently by Cab Drivers United, AFSCME Local 2500 (CDU).

As a result, the average monthly income per medallion has fallen by $2,000 during the same time.

“Getting to the end of last year, things had changed so drastically,” Aikins said. “We just couldn’t make it.” After recently receiving a notice of foreclosure on his medallions, his retirement plans are now on hold.

Aikins is hardly alone. In the past three years, more than 1,300 taxi medallions in the city have either been surrendered to the city or put into foreclosure status, while another 100 or so are facing repossession through lawsuits by lenders, according to the CDU report.

This foreclosure crisis is hurting small family businesses most of all, CDU contends. Of the 6,999 taxi medallions in the city, 39 percent belong to small owner/operators, like Aikins, who own four or fewer medallions.

“Because of the misconception that the taxi industry is just big fleets, the fact that thousands of small businesses are disproportionately being hurt by this crisis is too often overlooked,” said Tracey Abman, associate director of AFSCME Council 31. “The taxi industry is really about providing decent, full-time jobs—or was—for drivers.”

In addition to repaying loans on their medallions, taxi operators also have to pay thousands of dollars each year in city expenses, like the ground transportation tax and medallion license renewal fee—expenses that rideshare drivers are not subject to.

CDU says the number of rideshare vehicles in Chicago now exceeds 227,000, while 42 percent of the city’s taxis didn’t pick up a single passenger this March. The union stresses that the decline of the taxi industry is a loss for the broader public. Unlike most rideshare vehicles, taxis serve people without bank accounts by accepting cash, and they also have more stringent requirements on providing access to people with disabilities.

Aikins says he doesn’t fault the rideshare industry for his current predicament, but instead blames the city.

“We are so saddled with rules and taxes and renewal fees, and the city hasn’t done anything to relieve us,” he said. “It looks like they are just waiting for us to die off.”

Last summer, the City Council was poised to pass new regulations on rideshare companies, which CDU hoped would help create fairer competition. The original ordinance would have required fingerprint background checks on rideshare drivers and would have mandated that at least 5 percent of all rideshare vehicles be wheelchair-accessible—rules comparable to those imposed on the taxi industry.

After the last-minute intervention of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, however, a watered-down version of the ordinance was passed that removed the original provisions on fingerprinting and wheelchair accessibility. While the final version requires rideshare drivers to obtain special chauffeur licenses, it allows them to complete the necessary training online instead of through the expensive in-person classes taxi drivers must attend.

Critics have accused Emanuel of being biased in favor of rideshare companies, particularly Uber. His brother Ari—a Hollywood agent and the inspiration for Jeremy Piven’s character on HBO’s Entourage—is an Uber investor. Also, the mayor’s former chief of staff became an Uber executive not long after passage of last year’s ordinance. Earlier this year, Emanuel’s Obama administration colleague and former Uber executive David Plouffe was fined $90,000 by the Chicago Board of Ethics after it was revealed he illegally lobbied the mayor on behalf of the rideshare giant in 2015.

With no help from the city, Aikins turned to Cab Drivers United for assistance after receiving his foreclosure notice. Formed in 2014, CDU is a non-traditional union in that it does not bargain contracts, since labor laws classify taxi drivers as “independent contractors” rather than “employees.” Made up of hundreds of dues-paying members and a network of thousands of activists, CDU provides educational workshops for drivers, connects them to legal services and organizes them to pressure lawmakers for fairer treatment.

Furqan Mohammed, a private attorney whose firm partners with CDU, said he has talked with over 100 owner/operators like Aikins facing foreclosure in recent months.

“Some of these drivers will owe upwards of $250,000 on these medallions, yet the underlying asset is worth maybe $50,000 if you can even find a willing buyer,” he said.

With CDU’s help, Aikins contacted an attorney who recently helped him file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in an effort to save his livelihood. Mohammed said his law firm is assisting many owner/operators to restructure their medallion loans, but he called it only a “temporary solution.”

Longer-term, CDU is calling on the city to ease the financial burdens of taxi drivers, including eliminating the medallion license renewal fee and waiving the ground transportation tax for struggling owner/operators.

The ground transportation tax—paid once every two years—is due at the end of June. Aikins said the tax for two years is about $2,000.

“It doesn’t make sense,” he said. “The city knows we don’t have the money.”

“If the city were to create a hardship waiver for the ground transportation tax literally in the next few weeks, that would send a signal to these small owner/operators that the city does care about them and is prepared to work on a more comprehensive package for reform,” AFSCME’s Abman said.

“If relief is not provided [in the coming weeks] we will see much more decimation of the industry,” she warned. “Time is of the essence.”

The full report from Cab Drivers Union

Chicago Cab Industry Collapsing As Medallion Foreclosures Soar

Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel has a lot on his plate these days between soaring murder rates, failing pension systems and the worst domestic migration trends in the country as residents see the tax-hike writing on the wall and are moving out of the "Windy City" by the 1,000s.  Now, it seems he can add a failing taxi industry and millions in additional annual tax revenue losses to his list of woes.

As the USA Today points out, the cab industry in Chicago is quickly hurdling toward extinction as nearly 50% of the city"s fleet sat idle in March 2017 and medallion foreclosures in 2017 have already exceeded 2016.

About 42% of Chicago’s taxi fleet was not operating in the month of March, and cabbies have seen their revenue slide for their long-beleaguered industry by nearly 40% over the last three years as riders are increasingly ditching cabs for ride-hailing apps Uber, Lyft and Via, according to a study released Monday by the Chicago cab drivers union.

More than 2,900 of Chicago’s nearly 7,000 licensed taxis were inactive in March 2017 — meaning they had not picked up a fare in a month, according to the Cab Drivers United/AFSCME Local 2500 report. The average monthly income per active medallion — the permit that gives cabbies the exclusive right to pick up passengers who hail them on the street — has dipped from $5,276 in January 2014 to $3,206 this year.

The number of riders in Chicago hailing cabs has also plummeted during that same period from 2.3 million monthly riders to about 1.1 million.

More than 350 foreclosure notices or foreclosure lawsuits have been initiated against medallion owners already this year, compared to 266 last year and 59 in 2015. Since October, lenders have filed lawsuits against at least 107 medallion owners who have fallen behind on loan payments, according to the union’s count.

Meanwhile, the value of Chicago medallions have crashed by 90% in less than four years after peaking at over $350,000 each back in 2013.

The value of Chicago medallions hit a median sales peak of $357,000 in late 2013, just before Uber arrived on the scene in Chicago. In April, one medallion sold for just $35,000, according to city data.

About 39% of Chicago’s medallions are owned by individuals or groups with four or few fewer medallions, while the majority of medallions are owned by companies that maintain large fleets of taxis and lease the permits and vehicles to licensed operators.

"It feels like the city is just watching us collapse," Aikins said. "Right now, there are a few people, the elderly and some others who refuse to take Uber because they are uncomfortable with it, that keep us going. But how many of those people are out there to sustain us?"

Not surprisingly, the cabbie union has done what unions do best by calling on local government officials to prop up the dying industry through tax incentives, measures which should buy them at least another month or two of operation.

The union is calling on the city take several actions to provide relief for the city’s struggling taxi industry, including changing rules so taxi drivers aren’t required to replace their vehicles as often, waive an annual $1,176 per taxi ground transportation tax fee, and eliminating a city medallion license renewal fee that costs owners $1,000 every two years.

“When they opened up ground transportation and taxi market to thousands of for-hire vehicles like Uber, Lyft and now Via . . . taxi driver income has been decimated and owner-operators are unable to keep up with loan payments for their medallions plus their high-operating costs,” said Tracey Abman , associate director at AFSCME. “As a result of that, hundreds of taxi owner-operators are facing foreclosures on their medallions and thousands more foreclosures are likely unless the city takes substantial action to reduce the financial burden on small taxi owners.”

Of course,Chicago cabbies aren’t alone in feeling the pinch.  In New York, ridership in the city’s iconic yellow cabs has fallen about 30% over the last three years. Last year, San Francisco’s Yellow Cab — the city’s largest taxi company — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.  Los Angeles taxi ridership fell 43%, and revenue was down 24%, between 2013 and 2016.

Shocking that it is so hard to compete in an industry in which Uber is willing to burn billions of dollars per year to provide your service for a fraction of your operating costs.

"He Certainly Has A Story To Tell" - Statement From Mike Flynn's Lawyer

Hot on the heels of the WSJ report that Trump"s former National Security Advisor, Mike Flynn, has offered to testify in exchange for immunity from prosecution, Flynn"s lawyer, Robert Kelner of the law firm Covington, issued the following statement, in which judging by Kelner"s language, Flynn"s offer is not so much to "turn" on Trump, as to set the record straight, while putting an end to the ongoing "media witch hunt", to wit:

the media are awash with unfounded allegations, outrageous claims of treason, and vicious innuendo directed against him. He is now the target of unsubstantiated public demands by Members of Congress and other political critics that he be criminally investigated. No reasonable person, who has the benefit of advice from counsel, would submit to questioning in such a highly politicized, witch hunt environment without assurances against unfair prosecution.

The full statement by Robert Kelner is below

Counsel to Lt. General Mike Flynn (Retired)

General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit.

Out of respect for the Committees, we will not comment right now on the details of discussions between counsel for General Flynn and the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, other than to confirm that those discussions have taken place. But it is important to acknowledge the circumstances in which those discussions are occurring.

General Flynn is a highly decorated 33-year veteran of the U.S. Army. He devoted most of his life to serving his country, spending many years away from his family fighting this nation"s battles around the world. He was awarded four Bronze Stars for actions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the war on terror. He received the Legion of Merit twice, and the Defense Superior Service Medal four times. He is a recipient of the Defense Department"s Distinguished Service Award and the Intelligence Community Gold Seal Medallion for Distinguished Service, as well as numerous other decorations.

Notwithstanding his life of national service, the media are awash with unfounded allegations, outrageous claims of treason, and vicious innuendo directed against him. He is now the target of unsubstantiated public demands by Members of Congress and other political critics that he be criminally investigated. No reasonable person, who has the benefit of advice from counsel, would submit to questioning in such a highly politicized, witch hunt environment without assurances against unfair prosecution.

h/t @ChuckRossDC

How Uber Wiped Out Millions In Capital From "Mom And Pop" Investors In NYC's 'Green Cab Ponzi'

The first yellow-taxi medallions were sold in New York City in 1937 for $10 each.  Over the next several decades, the value of those medallions soared until they ultimately peaked at roughly $1.1 million in 2004, generating an annual return that far outpaced equity returns over the same period. 

So when Dr. Amarpreet Singh received a "tip" from a patient back in 2013 that NYC was expanding its taxi fleet by issuing thousands of permits for a new line of cabs, so-called green taxis that would pick up passengers in the outer boroughs and upper Manhattan, he jumped at the "opportunity" to get in on the ground floor.  Within a matter of months, Singh had purchased himself 5 green-cab permits for $75,000 plus 5 handicap accessible vehicles for another $325,000 and was ready to start raking in the dough. 

Unfortunately, Singh missed one vital detail in his due diligence: a small up and coming company called Uber. Per Crain"s

Singh liked the idea of helping disabled New Yorkers get around town, so he paid the broker $75,000 for five green-cab permits, plus another $325,000 for vehicles. Then he waited for drivers to rent his taxis. And waited some more. After nearly two years he got in touch with his patient to see what was up with the investment. Singh learned his cabs were lying fallow in Mill Basin, Brooklyn. He dashed over and found a parking lot filled with 600 cars, none with license plates and some not even outfitted as taxis.

"It was just a sea of green," said Singh. "I walked out telling myself, Oh my God, what have I done?"

The collapse of the taxi business has dramatically altered New York"s streetscape. Spurred by the advent of Uber and other apps, the number of drivers looking for passengers has grown by 40%, but the surge has meant less business for cabbies, who are making 30% fewer trips than only three years ago. Those who invested in yellow or green cabs are seeing their investments wiped out as drivers flock to rivals or pursue other work and cars sit idle.

Since 2013 5,000 taxi drivers have thrown in the towel, and last month Queens-based Melrose Credit Union was seized by state regulators after delinquent cab loans soared tenfold in just 18 months. The stock price of the city"s preeminent taxi lender, Medallion Financial Corp., has fallen so far that one share now costs less than a subway ride.

Moreover, as we recently noted, Capital One breaks out the details of its runoff commercial taxi medallion loan portfolio in its quarterly reports and they don"t paint a nice picture.  Just since March 2015, nonperforming Taxi Medallion loans have soared to over 50% from just over 1% less than two years prior.  

But investors in New York City"s green cab permits allege their losses are due to more than just market share losses to Uber.  In fact, a group of green cab investors, including Singh, have sued in Brooklyn state court, alleging their green-cab broker and his partners cheated them out of $8 million by selling taxi permits "in the manner of a Ponzi scheme." They also allege the defendants funneled millions of dollars" worth of taxi money into Platinum Partners, a large hedge fund that federal prosecutors likened to a Ponzi scheme after it collapsed last year.

Ginsburg"s investors further allege that, in an effort to hide money made from selling permits, he and Langer lent $7.2 million to Platinum Partners in June 2015 through their real estate company, White Rock Properties.

Manhattan-based Platinum was a $1.7 billion hedge fund that collapsed last year, and seven executives were charged with crimes, including the fund"s founder and chief investment officer, two co-chief investment officers and its president.

Of course, medallion broker Alan Ginsburg who made a killing selling green cab permits at multiples of their true market value, denies any wrong doing and says the pending litigation is nothing more than a "shakedown".

The broker, 33-year-old serial entrepreneur Alan J. "A.J." Ginsburg, denies any wrongdoing and said investors are blaming him for the taxi industry"s woes. "The accusations being made about me are absolute lies," he said. "This lawsuit against me is nothing but a shakedown."

It might seem like long ago, but as recently as 2013, taxis were a red-hot investment. The price for a medallion granting the right to drive a yellow cab and pick up street hails quadrupled after 2004, peaking at $1.1 million.

Yet cabs were often hard to find outside Manhattan, and lots of would-be drivers were priced out by the soaring value of medallions. To tackle both problems, in 2013 the city created green cabs, also known as Boro Taxis, and sold 6,000 permits, mostly for $1,500 apiece. Demand was so strong that by December of that year, a permit was resold for $7,000, according to Bloomberg News. The city sold a few thousand more permits the following year for $3,000 each, and still there was a waiting list of 6,300, according to the New York Post.

"People were looking at this as the next big taxi-medallion market," said Matthew Daus, a former chairman of the Taxi & Limousine Commission.

Today, a green-cab permit can be had on Craigslist for just $999, a small 93% discount to what Singh paid in 2013, and the city has declined to offer the last 6,000 permits it"s authorized to sell. Meanwhile, Nancy Soria, the first person to buy a green-cab permit from the city, said she started driving at 8:30 one recent morning and didn"t pick up a customer until 11.

Just another helpful reminder of how quickly bubbles pop...

Cab Industry On Verge Of Collapse? Capital One's Taxi NPL Rate Soars Above 50%

Having abandoned its venture to lend out roughly $1 billion to legacy Taxi "Medallion" drivers and businesses some two years ago, and shifting its backing over to Uber resulting in many unhappy drivers as well as a handful of lawsuits, Capital One has nonetheless provided a useful spotlight into the troubled state of the traditional "yellow cab" industry by breaking out the details of its runoff commercial taxi medallion loan portfolio in its quarterly reports.

And according to the latest, just released report (in which COF incidentally missed both the top and the bottom line, reported EPS and revenue of $1.45 and $6.60 billion, both below expectations), the US taxicab industry must be on the verge of collapse, because in COF"s Q4 report, the company reported that while the size of its runoff Medallion "held for investment" loans tumbled by $83 million from $773MM to $690MM, it was the surge in the nonperforming loan rate that was the stunner: surging from 38.8% in Q3 to a whopping 51.5% in Q4, it suggests that legacy cab drivers in the US are not only barely making money, but are in financial dire straits.

Of course, the irony is that the Medallion industry"s biggest nemesis, Uber, is likewise burning through billions in venture capital cash every year in hopes of putting its legacy competitor out of business. And, if these Capital One numbers are any indication, it may soon succeed.

Uber's Massive Cash Burn Problem: 2016 Loss Set To Hit A Record $3 Billion

With a valuation of $68 billion as of December 2016 - more than GM and Twitter combined - Uber is, according to the WSJ"s Unicorn Database, the most valuable private company in the world.

And yet, despite its eye-popping valuation courtesy of a growth curve which until recently was truly unprecedented (at least until the company"s sudden withdrawals from China), Uber has a big problem: an unprecedented cash burn, which if not getting worse with every passing quarter, is certainly not getting better.

Back in August, Bloomberg reported that Uber"s first half loss was roughly $1.4 billion ($580MM in Q1 and well over $800MM in Q2) on just over $2 billion in revenue ($960MM in Q1 and $1.1BN in Q2): it was burning approximately $1.6 dollars in costs and overhead (mostly in the form of an ongoing attempt to price the competition out of business by subsidizing drivers using VC cash).

This follows a loss of $2 billion in 2015, and had, as of Q2, lost at least $4 billion in the history of the company. Of this, however, Uber reportedly lost at least $2 billion in China as a result of a failed attempt to penetrate the local market which it abandoned later in the summer, which while sapping growth potential in China, also supposedly stem losses associated with the Chinese market.

Furthermore, the H1 loss came at a time when its fortunes in the US were said to be changing, and the company vowed it was turning a profit in Q1, only to revert back to its money losing ways in Q2 and onward.

As Bloomberg said at the time, "It"s hard to find much of a precedent for Uber"s losses. Webvan and Kozmo.com—two now-defunct phantoms of the original dot-com boom—lost just over $1 billion combined in their short lifetimes. Amazon.com Inc. is famous for losing money while increasing its market value, but its biggest loss ever totaled $1.4 billion in 2000. Uber exceeded that number in 2015 and is on pace to do it again this year."

Fast forward three months, when overnight Bloomberg reported that Uber"s cash burn problems continued, and in the third quarter, Uber lost another $800 million, bringing its total loss for the first nine months of the year to "significantly more" than $2.2 billion. The good (and bad) news is that even as its cash burn grew, so did Uber"s revenue which rose even leaving the world"s most populous country, and is said to have generated about $3.76 billion in net revenue in the first nine months of 2016, or about $1.7 billion in Q3 revenue and, according to Bloomberg, is on track to exceed $5.5 billion this year. The problem - if only from a cash burn basis - is that when 2016 closes in ten days, Uber is also expected to have burned a record $3 billion.

Another problem, one which comes as less of a surprise, is that growth in Uber"s bookings - the total combined value of the fares that riders pay - is slowing down: these came in at $5.4 billion in the third quarter, an increase from $5 billion in the second quarter and $3.8 billion in the first. The slowdown in Uber"s bookings growth can at least partially be explained by the company"s decision to leave China. Uber said on Aug. 1 that it came to an agreement with Didi Chuxing to exit China in exchange for 17.5 percent of the Chinese company. As part of the deal, Didi invested $1 billion in Uber. Uber"s third-quarter financials don"t include the business in China, which were part of the previous quarterly results.

But the biggest problem is that despite the growth in revenues, Uber"s losses continue to gross in a proportional manner, suggesting that the company has little if any control over its bottom line: as noted above, in Q1 the loss was about $580 million and by Q2 it significantly exceeded $800 million, including China. That number is likely far higher.

Even in the U.S., Uber"s home market, the company continues to lose money. After turning a slight profit in the in the first quarter of this year, Uber lost $100 million in the U.S. in the second quarter. The loss increased in the third quarter, the person said. Lyft, Uber"s largest U.S. competitor, has promised investors that it will keep its losses below $150 million a quarter.

What does all of the above mean? During Uber"s Q2 presentation with investors, the company"s head of finance, Gautam Gupta said that subsidies for Uber"s drivers are responsible for the majority of the company"s losses globally. Which means that Uber continues to cut prices in an aggressive attempt to gain market share. While for now this plan has worked, and Uber has become a dominant player in most venues in which it operates (except, perhaps, the most important one of all China), this strategy only works as long as Uber has has to, literally, burn to capture market share (something which in the end backfired dramatically on Saudi Arabia in a similar experiment over the past two years), and as long as its investors are willing to keep writing equity checks to the company at ever higher valuations - a down round for Uber would be the beginning of the end.

For now, however, the company"s main competition - established taxi and transportation companies - are proving resilient, and despite the aggressive cost pressures from Uber, few have been bankrupted, and while the price of a Yellow Cab medallion has plunged from $1.3 million in 2014 to just $250,000 recently, New York City is still not only dominated by taxis, Uber still has a long way to go before it can get even close to catching up to its competition in terms of volume.

Meanwhile, Uber"s success will go on only as long as the company has blow billions in hopes it puts its competitors in bankruptcy before its cash runs out. Alas, a few more years like 2015, in which the company burned a whopping $3 billion despite a rising top-line, and Uber"s prospects are suddenly starting to look rather shaky. Meanwhile, the winner in this massive "deflationary" battle to the bottom is the consumer, for whom transportation prices have rarely been lower. So dear Venture Capitalists, please continue to fund Uber and subsidize deflation for consumers in at least this part of the economy: it"s clear that between the Fed and Trumpflation, there aren"t many such deflationary hiding spots left.

Lady Gaga Channels Hitler in Chilling Speech At Hillary Clinton Rally

Submitted by Josie Wales and Alice Salles via TheAntiMedia.org,

Lady Gaga made waves on social media Monday night when she took the stage at Hillary Clinton’s final rally, sporting an outfit eerily resembling a Nazi uniform. In a black military jacket complete with red armband, the pop star gestured emphatically while delivering the despotic speech, often pounding the podium and pointing at the crowd, ironically mimicking the powerful speaking style made famous by Adolf Hitler himself. At one point, Gaga declared “Hillary Clinton is made of steel. Hillary Clinton is unstoppable.”

In response to the social media backlash, sites like Huffington Post, Cosmopolitan, and ET were among many to rush to her defense, pointing out that the very-Nazi-looking ensemble once belonged to Michael Jackson, who wore the jacket when he visited the White House in 1990.  It’s unclear why the fact that it was previously owned by someone else makes it less…Nazi, especially given the fact that Jackson has been rumored to have been obsessed with the Nazi dictator.

But that’s not the only thing Lady Gaga’s media white knights conveniently overlooked.

Despite the many Hitler references, what many people — among both the media and the general public — failed to associate with Gaga’s outfit during the final Clinton rally was hiding in plain sight.

The black jacket fitted with a red armband and silver medallion is part of the same outfit worn by Jackson at the White House in 1990. At the time, the King of Pop was meeting with then-president George H.W. Bush — just three years before he was first accused of sexually abusing children.

By mid-1993, dentist Evan Chandler had accused Jackson of having an inappropriate relationship with his 13-year-old son Jordan. After the attention he got from the media due to his son’s proximity to Jackson, Chandler later talked to his attorney, bringing the accusation directly to Jackson. By August, the allegations were being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Sexually Exploited Child Unit. In the winter of 1993, Jackson’s sister, La Toya Jackson, claimed she had proof her brother was a pedophile. He later forgave her after she claimed those accusations stemmed from her financial troubles.

After the investigation was carried out in full, the LAPD cleared Jackson of unfounded molestation charges from the Chandlers. A civil lawsuit was later filed in September, and on January 25, 1994, the lawsuit was settled out of court. Jackson was ordered to pay $15,331,250, which was mostly held in a trust fund for Jordan.

In 2003, Jackson was charged with several counts of child sexual abuse and several counts of administering an intoxicating agent in order to commit a child sexual abuse felony. The trial, which began in January 2005, ended in June of the same year. The jury found Jackson not guilty.

By wearing his jacket to Clinton’s rally, it’s possible Lady Gaga may have wanted to make a statement. After all, Clinton’s husband, the former President Bill Clinton, is often accused of sexual misconduct.

Three women publicly accused the 42nd President of the United States of sexual misconduct, including rape and sexual harassment. Clinton later admitted extramarital relationships with Monica Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers. But in 2015, a young woman alleged in a sworn affidavit that American financier Jeffrey Epstein had used her as a sex slave. At the time, she claimed she had been at parties on Epstein’s private island, along with former president Clinton.

In one of the court documents from the lawsuit, Epstein was accused of running a “sexual abuse ring,” lending underage girls to “prominent American politicians, powerful business executives, foreign presidents, a well-known prime minister, and other world leaders.” Despite the heavy accusations, on April 7, 2015, allegations brought up by the young girl were tossed out after Judge Kenneth Marra ruled they had no bearing and should be removed from the record.

When considering Gaga’s decision to wear Jackson’s jacket to Mrs. Clinton’s rally, one might ask whether Gaga was aware of the strange similarities between the accusations made against Jackson and Clinton. Did those issues cross her mind or was it all just a strange coincidence? Or was Lady Gaga simply (and likely unintentionally correctly) attempting to channel a strong, authoritative image?

Regardless of what the answer is, the fact the media is refusing to discuss these details while simply spinning Hitler references shows few are willing to do thorough research when reporting the news.