By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on June 11, 2024 An Editorial Opinion For 1999 to 2017, I owned the ultra-modern Class A office building in Birmingham, Alabama known as the “Alamerica Bank Building.”  At the time, I was also majority owner of Alamerica Bank. The Alamerica Bank building is located at 2170 Highland Avenue South, which is the most upscale commercial street inside the city limits.  My office building was the nicest one on Highland Avenue South.  I also owned the adjacent parking lot, as well as the two parking lots that were directly behind the building. A ten-year first mortgage on the building matured on September 1, 2013.  Even though I began refinancing efforts in March 2013, the mortgage products that were offered to me were not acceptable, nor would they have been acceptable to any seasoned business owner. The office building was fully leased to reputable corporate tenants. It was fully occupied and well-maintained. In 2003, the building appraised for $5.7 million.  In 2013, the mortgage payoffs totaled $3.9 million.  The monthly rental income from the two primary tenants, alone, exceeded the monthly mortgage payment by $16,000. In 2013, I had at least $1.8 million in equity in the property (i.e., $5.7 million fair market value appraisal, minus $3.9 million mortgage payoff), or so I thought. Despite a diligent six-month effort to refinance the mortgage, no financial institution, in or out of the state, would give me a mortgage that covered the $3.9 million payoff of the existing mortgage, which was held in the portfolio of a New York City real estate investment trust (REIT). After the mortgage matured, I successfully fought the REIT’s attempted foreclosure on the building from September 2013 to December 2017.  I had no choice because I had signed a personal guarantee on the mortgage loan. As a bank owner at the time, I could not understand why I could not refinance the building on commercially reasonable terms and conditions.  How was it possible that I could not get a fully-leased, strong cash flowing, Class A office building in the best commercial district in the city refinanced? After much prodding on my part, a lender in Miami finally sent me the answer and I was floored.  The underwriting report for the requested new mortgage was essentially a demographic report on the city of Birmingham.  The report charted and assessed critical data on a multitude of quality-of-life factors in Birmingham going forward from 2013 to 2023. In summary, the 2013 report predicted: A dramatic rise in violent crime in the city over time. A local city government that would become increasingly inept over time. The inability of the mayor and city council members to recruit new businesses to the city. Consistently failing Birmingham city public schools. Deteriorating neighborhoods and communities that would serve as havens for drug activity, property crimes, and increasingly violent violent street gangs. The exodus of existing Birmingham businesses to the suburbs. The growth of residential and commercial properties in the suburbs cities. A deteriorating and grossly neglected infrastructure in the city's residential neighborhoods and communities. An overall decline in the city of Birmingham’s population. A diminishing occupational and sales tax base that would undercut the city's ability to provide the seven basic city services. Every prediction listed in the report happened between 2013 and 2023. Birmingham was Dying, But I Didn't Know It Having worked as Mayor Richard Arrington, Jr.’s Special Counsel from 1985 to 1998, I never thought the city of Birmingham would decline to the degree specified in the lender’s demographic report.  I was naive in that regard. Unfortunately, the decline in these quality of life factors has continued to levels that were unimaginable when I invested $6 million of personal money for my ownership shares in Alamerica Bank and $4.4 million in an ultra-modern bank building in 1999. Initially, I thought I was being denied a suitable mortgage refinancing product because I am black. In hindsight, that was NOT the case.  I was denied a suitable mortgage refinancing product because I chose to invest $5.7 million in a commercial building in a city that was dying. In December 2017, I executed a Settlement Agreement with my REIT lender in which they agreed to release me from the personal guaranty agreement I signed at the time of the mortgage loan in exchange of my release of all liability claims against the REIT.  With this release, the lost value in the building was capped at $3.2 million (i.e., the amount equal to its diminished value between 2003 to 2017). After the REIT lender took possession of the building in 2018, they sold it to a thrid-party for $2.5 million.  In the process, I lost $1.8 million in equity ($5.7 million asset value, minus $3.9 million mortgage payoff) and the mortgage lenders lost an additional $1.4 million ($3.9 mortgage payoff, minus $2.5 million foreclosure sale price). Tren de Aragua is Here In addition to the bodies piling up in the streets of Birmingham each day, violent drug and gang-related crime in Birmingham is also killing property values in the city and in the surrounding suburbs. What is worse, Tren de Aragua, a powerful transnational criminal gang that originated in a Venezuela prison, has finally made its way to Mobile, Montgomery, and Birmingham, Alabama.  This gang is much more violent than the Bloods, Crips, MS-13, and Disciples who rule the streets of Birmingham today. Sadly, violent street gang members greatly outnumber Birmingham’s grossly understaffed 430-officer police force.  Fullly staffed, the police force is 900 sworn officers. Having overrun Birmingham's streets with ease, the very gangs that glorify cop-killing are now eying suburban cities and communities as fertile new territory for the expansion of their criminal activities. These gangs view the city of Birmingham’s law enforcement response to their increasingly violent drug dealing, robberies, carjacking, theft-rings, and shootouts as weak, timid, and reactive rather than proactive.  Furthermore, we have received unconfirmed reports that one of the top prosecutors in Birmingham has longtime ties to one of the city's most violent street gangs. He is reportedly pictured (front bottom left) in the photo below. Reportedly, this top prosecutor and his brother were members of the Nasty Boy Crips during their youth. According to informed sources, this top prosecutor is not in a position to be tough on violent crime perpetrated by the Crips. We are investigating this report. Lloyd Peeples, the head of the Criminal Division in the Birmingham U.S. Attorney's Office is busy pushing a personal racial agenda that targets black, non-violent, first-time, white-collar offenders rather than Tren de Aragua and the other dangerous street gangs operating within the city. What is more, Prim F. Escalona, the local U.S. Attorney and a 4-year Donald Trump holdover appointee, has zero experience as a criminal prosecutor. Unless there is a massive and sustained show of force by police officers or National Guard members on the streets of Birmingham, these violent drug dealers and street gangs will continue to roam the streets of Birmingham with impunity and in increasing numbers. Eventually, they will control City Hall much like they control the small island nation of Haiti.  Killing innocent people and rival gang members means nothing to them. With the surge of homicides in Birmingham, together with expanded drug-dealing operations and increasingly violent street gang activities, neighboring suburban cities and communities should expect to see a dramatic increase in their violent crime rates and a corresponding decline in their property values.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on June 8, 2024 Alabama Federal Judges Jeffery Beaverstock (left), W. Keith Watkins (center), and R. David Proctor (right). An Editorial Opinion [Author's Note: I saved this editorial opinion for Pride Month (June 1-30, 2024). “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer" (LGBTQ) Pride Month is currently celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan. As a social justice advocate, I have been a staunch defender of LGBTQ rights in Alabama since 1979. I have also experienced and fought judicial tyranny in Alabama my entire legal career.] Judicial Tyranny in Alabama's Federal Courts. Federal judges in Alabama have a long, ugly, pervasive, and well-documented history of engaging in vicious acts of judicial tyranny against in-state and out-of-state attorneys for disfavored civil rights groups/litigants. Today, the newest victims of this judicial tyranny are eleven attorneys who served as legal advocates for LGBTQ clients and their civil rights causes in Alabama. The targeted attorneys are being harassed and railroaded in the same way COINTELPRO-era participating judges in Alabama abused and railroaded civil rights lawyers for the state's black citizens in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. While the formal, centralized COINTELPRO program ended in 1971, the informal decentralized program has continued in Alabama for more than five decades. A key component of this COINTELPRO-style judicial tyranny is the purposeful suppression of any organized civil rights activity exercised by the disfavored group that threatens Old-South social norms and a predetermined "Order of the Day" in the state. Historically, the primary disfavored groups in Alabama have been blacks, women, and LGBTQ citizens. Since 1819, the constitutional and civil rights of these groups have been suppressed in Alabama from the "cradle to the grave." In recent years, the segment of the LGBTQ community that has been most disfavored in Alabama today is its transgender citizens. As discussed in this article, transgender Alabamians and their attorneys are catching pure hell from a small clique of tyrannical federal judges in the state who are determined to choke the life out of LGBTQ rights and activism in Alabama. Early Purveyors of Judicial Tyranny in Alabama In the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, Judges Daniel H. Thomas (1951 to 2000) and William Brevard Hand (1971-2008) were early purveyors of judicial tyranny against civil rights attorneys and their clients. In the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, Judge Robert Varner (1971 to 2006) was the lone judicial tyrant until he was joined in his reign of tyranny by Mark E. Fuller (2002 to 2015). Fuller was forced to resign his judgeship in disgrace in 2015 after I outed him as a serial wife-beater, pompous courthouse philanderer, and hardcore perjurer. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama was packed with judicial tyrants. Judges Seybourn H. Lynne (1948 to 2000), Frank H. “Big Red” McFadden (1969 to 1982), Jimmy H. Hancock (1973 to 2020), and Edwin L. Nelson (1974 to 2003) inflicted as much harm as they could on civil rights attorneys and their clients. All of these federal judges harassed and threatened in-state and out-of-state civil rights lawyers just in an unrelenting and creative fashion. They were nasty, unreformed racists, sexists, and LGBTQ bigots. Daniel Thomas was an original COINTELPRO-participating judge. The other judges joined Thomas in providing a sanctuary within the halls of their courthouses for federal, state, and local bigots to wallow with comfort in an orgy of prejudices against the state's disfavorable citizens. Judges Thomas, Hand, Varner, Lynne, McFadden, Hancock, and Nelson were notorious for their use of the N-word in public and private settings. They also treated female attorneys like coffee-fetching second-class citizens. LGBTQ Americans were laughed at and called "faggots,""dikes," and "queers." I never tolerated their bigotry, or reveled in their degradations of disfavored groups, or laughed at their despicable jokes. I fought their bigotry every step of the way. These federal judges often threatened stiff sanctions against me and other civil rights attorneys if we lost our cases for members of the disfavored groups. This is why we fought like hell to win our cases on appeal. These judicial tyrants also despised their colleagues on the federal bench like Judges Virgil Pittman (Mobile), Frank M. Johnson, Jr., and Myron H. Thompson (Montgomery), and Sam C. Pointer, Jr., and U.W. Clemon (Birmingham), all of whom were/are fair-minded and nationally respected jurists. Chief Judge Frank McFadden Practiced Extreme Judicial Tyranny Frank "Big Red" McFadden, a Mississippi native, practiced an extremist form of judicial tyranny. During the trial of an employment discrimination case involving one of my clients (Douglas L. Pope) in 1977, McFadden shouted the following statements to me in his judicial chambers after he ordered everybody else, including the court reporter, to leave the room: "I don't give a shit what your evidence shows. I am not going to put that nigger in a principalship. By the time you appeal my ruling, win on appeal, and the case is remanded to me for further proceedings, [Douglas] Pope will be too old under state law to work in the school system. Now, get out of here!" Before the trial restarted, I told McFadden I wanted to put something on the record that occurrred in his chambers . He just looked at me in disbelief. I dictated to the court reporter everything McFadden said to me in his chambers. McFadden turned extremely red and was livid. He started banging his gavel and threatened to get physical with me. There was pure hatred in his eyes for Mr. Pope and me. As McFadden predicted, I won Douglas Pope’s case on appeal, but not before Mr. Pope reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 for public school educators in Alabama. A New Wave of Judicial Tyranny in Alabama There is now a new wave of judicial tyranny in Alabama. It is aimed at attorneys who represent LGBTQ clients and their causes and it is just as vicious as the original brand of COINTELPRO judicial tyranny. On October 3, 2023, U.S. District Court Judges Jeffery U. Beaverstock (Mobile), W. Keith Watkins (Montgomery), and R. David Proctor (Birmingham) authored a heavy-handed 53-page “Final Report of Inquiry,” which was filed “Under Seal.” The Report concerns the litigation-related conduct of 39 attorneys who performed some degree of work on three LGBTQ rights cases that were filed in Alabama's federal courts on behalf for its transgender citizens. All three judges are George W. Bush/Donald J. Trump appointees. Their inquiry was made without any party or client filing a formal complaint with the U.S. District Court or with any state bar association against the targeted attorneys. The inquiry centered on conduct the panel of judges suspected was “judge shopping.” Plaintiffs and defense trial lawyers in Alabama (and the rest of America) routinely refer to the same conduct as “litigation strategy” that advances the clients’ interests within the applicable Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and federal statutes governing litigation in federal courts. This "litigation strategy" is practiced by plaintiffs and defense attorneys alike throughout the state. However, only attorneys for LGBTQ plaintiffs were targeted for the panel's heightened judicial scrutiny of this conduct. After numerous highly questionable star-chamber proceedings, the Report concluded that various acts of “misconduct” were committed by eleven of the 39 originally targeted LGBTQ rights attorneys. The Report claims these eleven attorneys “intentionally attempted to direct their cases to a judge they considered favorable and, in particular, to avoid Judge [Liles] Burke.” Judge Burke, an ultra-conservative, right-wing Donald Trump appointee, is well-known for his aversion to the enforcement of LGBTQ rights. The targeted attorneys strongly objected to closed-door star-chamber proceedings and hotly disputed the panel's judicial findings. The eleven targeted attorneys and their law firms/employers at the time are: Melody Eagan, Lightfoot, Franklin & White Jeffrey Doss, Lightfoot, Franklin & White Scott McCoy, Southern Poverty Law Center Jennifer Levi, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders Shannon Minter, Legal Director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights James Esseks, ACLU Foundation Kathleen Hartnett, Cooley LLP Michael Shortnacy, King & Spalding LaTisha Faulks, ACLU of Alabama Foundation Asaf Orr, National Center for Lesbian Rights Carl Charles, Lambda Legal These eleven attorneys are highly skilled, very accomplished, and widely respected in the legal profession. Their LGBTQ clients, however, are despised in Alabama. These attorneys are obviously being punished for effectively representing disfavored LGBTQ clients and their causes in Alabama's MAGA-controlled federal judiciary. The Threat of Court-Imposed Sanctions Looms Over the Eleven Targeted Attorneys Like a Hangman’s Noose Judges Beaverstock, Watkins, and Proctor sent their Report to U.S. District Judge Liles C. Burke (Huntsville) for a final disposition of the matter. Burke may impose the following sanctions upon the eleven attorneys cited in the Report for alleged "misconduct:" (a) a criminal referral, (b) a referral to the state bar associations that licensed the targeted attorneys, (c) suspension or disbarment from all federal courts, and/or (d) hefty monetary fines. U.S. District Court Judge Liles C. Burke. The purpose of this exercise in judicial tyranny is to terrorize the eleven targeted attorneys in such a way that no attorney, in or outside of Alabama, will ever touch a LGBTQ rights case for transgender citizens in the state again. This kind of judicial tyranny is pervasive in Afghanistan, Ghana, Iran, Syria, North Korea, and other nations where LGBTQ rights are repressed under the threat of death, but it has no place in American society. The Report represents a modern-day use of old Alabama judicial tyrannical tactics for (a) inflicting the maximum harm possible on despised LGBTQ litigants and (b) producing a “chilling effect” on the enforcement of civil rights for this disfavored group of Americans. Once again, judicial tyranny has reared its ugly head in Alabama and now reigns in the state’s three federal court districts. I have never stood silent in the face of judicial tyranny, and I will not do so today! May LGBTQ citizens in Alabama celebrate Pride Month with joy in your hearts! Whether judicial tyrants in Alabama like it, or not, you have earned the right to be respected as full-fledged American citizens, with all of the rights and privileges bestowed upon you by the U.S. Constitution and our federal and state statutes.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on June 7, 2024 An Editorial Opinion U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' pay-to-play schemes have made him a multimillionaire. Thomas knows how to hustle “gifts”and “love offerings” from individuals who have an interest in the outcome of cases that come before the Supreme Court.  He has been doing it a long time. Clarence Thomas always votes the way the "gifting" parties wants him to vote in these cases. He has never failed them. The "gifting" started after Thomas became a Supreme Court Justice. As you can see from the chart below (which is based upon recently released Supreme Court records), Clarence Thomas' “gifts” account for $4,042,286 (or 85%) of the $4,077,147 total dollar value of all gifts received by Supreme Court Justices in the past two decades. Clarence Thomas has mastered the art of using his position on the Court to hustle money from groups/individuals who benefit from his vote on the Court. This crook has taken "pay-to-play" schemes to a whole new level. Who said crime does not pay? They obvious forgot about Clarence Thomas. What is worse, Clarence Thomas is immune from criminal prosecution because Attorney General Merrick Garland is a weak-kneed, impotent, law enforcement coward.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on June 5, 2024 An Editorial Opinion Donald Trump is smiling tonight! Earlier today, the Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia issued an order indefinitely staying the criminal RICO and election interference case against Donald Trump and several of his co-defendants. The stay will remain in effect until a panel of appellate judges decides whether Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis can remain as the prosecutor on the case. This ruling constitutes a death knell blow to Willis' case against Trump. It signals that Trump will likely win his motion to remove Willis from the case when the Court issues a final ruling on the matter next year. On March 15, 2024, Fulton County, Georgia Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Willis can continue to prosecute the 2020 election interference and RICO case against Trump and his co-defendants if special prosecutor Nathan Wade (and boyfriend) was removed from the case. Wade stepped down from the case the next day. Judge McAfee was highly critical of Willis' and Wade’s romantic relationship, describing it as being the result of “bad choices.”  He also described Willis’ fiery testimony last month during one of the hearings over whether to disqualify her as “unprofessional.” McAfee said special prosecutor Wade must step aside if District Attorney Fani Willis remains on the case in order to dispel the “cloud of impropriety” created by their romantic relationship. McAfee also rebuked Wade for what he said was a "patently unpersuasive explanation for the inaccurate interrogatories" the special prosecutor submitted in divorce proceedings, which the judge said indicated a willingness to "wrongly conceal" his relationship with Willis. "An outsider could reasonably think that the district attorney is not exercising her independent professional judgment totally free of any compromising influences.  As long as Wade remains on the case, this unnecessary perception will persist," McAfee wrote. McAfee found that while he was not able to "conclusively establish" when Wade's and Willis' relationship turned romantic, "an odor of mendacity remains."  Defense lawyers argued the romantic relationship predated Wade's hiring, and the timeline emerged as a key issue during evidentiary hearings last month. "Reasonable questions about whether the District Attorney and her hand-selected lead SADA [Nathan Wade] testified untruthfully about the timing of their relationship further underpin the finding of an appearance of impropriety and the need to make proportional efforts to cure it," McAfee wrote. All of the legal wrangling in this case about Willis' conduct as a prosecutor is likely an exercise in futility, as the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to grant Donald Trump presidential immunity for any and all criminal acts he may have committed while serving as president. The Court's ruling on the immunity issue is expected on or before June 22nd. All of the criminal acts alleged in the Georgia indictment occurred while Trump was a sitting president. A copy of today's one-page Order may be read here. In the unlikely event Trump loses his appeal in the Georgia Court of Appeals when it issues a final decision in 2025 on the Willis disqualification issue, he can appeal the decision to the Trump-friendly, MAGA-dominated Georgia Supreme Court. If Trump lose there, he can further appeal this issue to the Trump-friendly, MAGA-dominated U.S. Supreme Court. For all practical purposes, Willis' criminal case against Donald Trump is over. Trump won the case on a disqualification issue involving an undisclosed romantic relationship between two naive and inexperienced prosecutors who enjoyed a brief flash of glory in the biggest criminal case in American history. This was a self-inflicted defeat for Willis and Wade. If Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election, Fani Willis and Nathan Wade can expect to experience the same kind of political retribution from the U.S. Department of Justice that former Baltimore District Attorney Marilyn Mosby is currently experiencing in the aftermath of her unsuccessful criminal prosecutions of the police officers who killed Freddie Gray. "If you go after me, I’m coming after you!," said Donald Trump in a social media post last August. Those who are close to Trump say he meant what he said. Stay tuned!

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on June 5, 2024 OxyNol Solutions (formally known as Masada Resource Group, LLC) developed its core CES OxyNol waste-to-ethanol process by building upon the cellulosic ethanol processes developed and deployed by German scientists during World War II. The Germans ran wartime commercial-scale biomass waste-to-ethanol fuel plants in Tornesch, Holzminden, Dessau, Regensburg, Mannheim, Mainz-Kostheim, Hamburg, and Stockstadt am Maim in Germany, as well as plants in Kelheim, Bavaria and Lenzing, Austria during the war. Germany is not (and never has been) an oil-producing nation.  Adolf Hitler fueled the Nazi war effort from 1940 to 1943 by: (a) occupying the North African countries of Libya, Egypt, Morocco, Algiers, and Tunisia, (b) seizing the oil produced in these former Germany colonies/occupied territories, and (c) shipping this oil back to Germany. Necessity is the Mother of Invention After British and American military forces pushed German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel out of North Africa, the Nazis had to find a another way to secure the fuel needed for their war machine and civilian economy. Hitler found the solution to this problem in a cutting-edge German invention known as ersatz, or synthetic fuels. From 1943 to 1945, the U.S. Office of Military Intelligence sent spies into Nazi Germany to ascertain how Hitler was continuing to fuel his war machine.  The spies discovered that Hitler was making fuel-grade ethanol from wood waste and ordinary household garbage at eight commercial-scale production plants in Germany, one in Bavaria, and one in Austria. Hitler was also making V-2 rockets that could strike enemy targets that were far away from German ground positions. These rockets replaced the costs and resources required to transport, arm, and house massive numbers of German troops to Great Britain and other targeted conflict zones in Europe. The U.S. spies documented the technical operations of Hitler's biomass-to-fuel plants in classified reports.   Their field reports were formalized and presented in two volumes. [Click here to read Field Information Technical Report, Vol. 1] [Click here to read Field Information Technical Report, Vol. 2] After American bombers destroyed Hitler's main synthetic fuel plants in May of 1944, the Nazis knew they were finished. “From a technical production standpoint, the war was lost with the success of these attacks,” said Albert Speer, a Hitler confidant responsible for armaments. Bringing Nazi Synthetic Fuels Technology Scientists to the United States After the war ended in 1945, the United States brought two groups of German scientists to Alabama.  The first group were the V-2 rocket scientists, who were taken to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.  These scientists developed rockets for the Department of Defense and the agency that would become the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The second group -- synthetic fuels scientists -- were taken to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.  Unlike the research performed by the German rocket scientists, the work of the synthetic fuels scientists at TVA's biomass facilities was classified for many years. The government did not want other nations to learn how they could produce fuels from their own wood waste and household garbage. At the time, the government did not priority synthetic fuels technology for use at home because gasoline and oil products were cheap and plentiful in the U.S. Masada Resource Group gained custody of these spy reports after they were declassified by the U.S. government.  They were used in Masada’s extensive research and pilot testing work at TVA from 1998 to 2002 to develop the CES OxyNol waste-to-fuel process for commercial use at home and abroad. Masada’s refinements and enhancements to the German cellulosic ethanol template made the process more efficient, economical, and environmentally friendly.  Additionally, OxyNol Solutions is able to use any nation’s existing waste management infrastructure and normal garbage flow to produce clean synthetic fuels and other commercial byproducts. Deploying Synthetic Fuels Technology Around the Globe The CES OxyNol process enables OxyNol Solutions (and its licensees) to produce clean, fuel-grade ethanol anywhere in the world for less than $0.82 per gallon (inclusive of capital costs for construction of the production facility). There are 3.8 liters of fuel in a gallon of gas. In most countries, fuel is sold in liters. Today, fuel is $1.25 per liter in South Africa, where OxyNol Solutions is currently working. OxyNol Solution's ethanol-based fuels can be produced, sold, and consumed, all in-country. The TVA biomass pilot plant facilities and equipment used by Masada to develop the CES OxyNol process were purchased by Masada affiliate Pencor Orange Corp. in 2007 and subsequently donated to Auburn University. Auburn University was Masada’s research and development partner for the development of mill sludge-to-ethanol technology and biomass aviation fuels. Masada also sponsored Auburn's published research these synthetic fuels in the prestigious Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, 2010, 49, 5969–5976. Today, the German waste-to-fuel technology that was once used to power the Nazi's war machine is now being introduced on a commercial scale around the world for benevolent purposes of nation-building and energy independence. At OxyNol Solutions, we are excited to be leading the international rollout of this second-generation, paradigm-shifting, clean fuels technolog. Our strategic busniess alliance partners around the world are the "best of the best" companies in the clean fuels business.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on June 4, 2024 An Editorial Opinion Here are some serious subjects to think about this Tuesday. They deserve our attention. Florida A&M University Florida A&M University (FAMU) is owed nearly $1.9 billion from the state of Florida.  The debt is confirmed and verified in a September 18, 2023, letter from the U.S. Departments of Education and Agriculture to Gov. Ron DeSantis.  Yet, FAMU has refused to discharge its fiduciary duty to collect this debt. Instead, In April-May 2024, FAMU got scammed in a fake $237 million tax fraud “gifting” scheme.  FAMU happily announced this worthless “gift” during the university’s May 4th commencement service. The $237 million "gifting" transaction fell apart under the hot lights of media scrutiny.  FAMU paused the gift and began an internal investigation into how and why the university got scammed. On May 24, 2024, the Florida Board of Governors for the State University System of Florida for took over the investigation into this embarrassing fiasco. Today, there is a crisis of confidence in FAMU's president and board of trustees. Heads are expected to roll after the Florida Board of Governors completes its investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding the $237 million "gift" to FAMU and presents its findings to Gov. DeSantis. Alabama A&M University Alabama A&M University (AAMU) is owed more than $527 million from the state of Alabama.  The debt is confirmed and verified in a September 18, 2023, letter from the Departments of Education and Agriculture to Gov. Kay Ivey.  Yet, AAMU has refused to discharge its fiduciary duty to collect this debt. Instead of collecting its $527 million debt, AAMU confirmed on May 13, 2024, that the university made a $52 million offer to purchase the campus and facilities of bankrupt Birmingham-Southern College (BSC), which closed on May 31, 2024. Insiders at AAMU do not understand why the university is offering a bankrupt historically white private college fair market value for its campus, buildings, furnishings, and equipment.  No sophisticated buyer acting in a fiduciary capaacity offers fair market value for anybody's distressed real property, special-purpose buildings, and other tangible assets. These assets are usually acquired at "fire sale" prices. All of BSC’s assets are pledged as collateral on bank loans made to the college.  Today, BSC is upside down in these distressed assets, meaning the defunct college owes more on the loans than its property holdings are worth. Insiders at AAMU also say the university has failed to conduct the necessary and proper due diligence that is required for the BSC acquisition transaction. Reportedly, there was no credible, independent, in-depth, inspection-based appraisal of BSC's distressed assets that was prepared by a qualified and reputable appraiser prior to AAMU's $52 million offer. Like FAMU, AAMU appears to be caught up in a scam of its own making with its announced plan to acquire BSC's 192-acre campus.  AAMU is merely trying to bailout BSC's bankers, mortgage creditors, and unpaid vendors with the land-grant university’s limited financial resources. Dormitories and other buildings on AAMU's campus in Huntsville are in deplorable shape due to decades of deferred maintenance, inadequate state funding (to the tune of $527 million), and an anemic $50 million endowment. Yet, AAMU says it has the money to buy BSC's entire 192-acre campus 100 miles away in Birmingham and pay a premium price for it. AAMU's $52 million purchase offer for BSC's distressed assets cries out for a federal criminal investigation. Whenever financial transactions do not make common sense from a customary financial standpoint, "under-the-table" money has usually changed hands. AAMU’s announced purchase offer for BSC appears to be a deflection from the fact that AAMU's president and board of trustees have breached their fiduciary duty to collect payment on the $527 million debt that has been owed to the university by the state of Alabama since September 18, 2023.  Apparently, AAMU prefers to spend its time and limited money bailing out BSC's bankers, creditors, and vendors rather than collecting the $527 million that is legitimately owed to the university. Breaches of Fiduciary Duty Eventually Have Consequences Professionals in the banking world are literally laughing at the governing officials at FAMU and AAMU. These HBCU officials are more interested in brandishing their university credentials and regalia at public gatherings, attending football games in skyboxes, and traveling to VIP events at university expense than they are in performing their fiduciary duty to collect $1.9 billion and $527 million, respectively. FAMU and AAMU have hoodwinked their university stakeholders (i.e., students, faculty, staff, and alumni) into believing they are somehow better off waiving their collection of the confirmed and verified debts acknowledged in the September 18, 2023, letters.  What is worse, their stakeholders have seemingly bought into this false narrative. Finally, FAMU's and AAMU's governing officials have shown a level of incompetence, malfeasance, and breach of fiduciary duty that is rarely seen on America's higher educational scene and in today's financial services industry.  If this same kind of incompetence, malfeasance, and breach of fiduciary duty had occurred in the private world of guardianships, estates created by wills and trusts, and conservatorships, the guardians, executors, trustees, and conservators of such trusts and estates would have been removed from office and possibly prosecuted criminally by now.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on March 1, 2020; Updated and Republished on June 3, 2024. An Editorial Opinion In 2010, Jack Camp was publicly considered to be a distinguished U.S. District Court Senior Judge in Atlanta. Privately, Judge Camp had a very dark side -- he loved to hang out in Atlanta's totally nude strip clubs and use illegal drugs with featured dancers. On October 1, 2010, Camp was arrested when he and a local stripper (who was an FBI informant) purchased $160 worth of recreational drugs from an undercover agent. Less than two months after his arrest, Camp pleaded guilty to (a) one felony charge of aiding and abetting a person he knew to be a drug felon in the unlawful possession of illegal drugs and (b) two misdemeanor charges -- (i) illegally possessing cocaine, marijuana, and Roxicodone (a synthetic form of heroin) and (ii) theft of a government laptop computer that Camp had given to the stripper. Camp faced up to four years in prison and $300,000 in fines. This is the sentence that is routinely handed down to defendants who are convicted of the same crimes, together with a sanctimonious speech about how the sentencing judge needs to make an example out of the accused. This is particularly true when the accused is a black male. U.S. District Court Senior Judge Thomas F. Hogan from Washington, D.C. was assigned to handle Camp's case. Hogan wasted no time in bending the "arc of justice" in Camp's favor. Hogan promptly converted the felony charge into a misdemeanor, made the charges run concurrently, and sentenced Camp to 30 days in jail and 10 weeks of community service. He also imposed a $1,000 fine on Camp. This action allowed Camp to keep his right to vote, hold public office, carry a gun, and collect his $174,000 per year salary (with annual increases) for life. The Privileged Few Get Preferential Treatment Federal judges are the only group of public officials who receive lifetime presidential appointments to their job. They take office after their appointment has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate. They can only be removed from office by a Congressional impeachment proceeding. Today, the judges who serve on the District Courts around the United States and its territories earn a salary of $243,300 per year. The ones who serve on the Courts of Appeal make $257,900 per year. The Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court makes $312,200 per year while his eight Associate Justices make $298,500 per year. When federal judges take "senior status" or semi-retirement like Judge Camp, they continue to receive their full salary. Their healthcare plans and job benefits are the best and most expansive in the nation for government officials. In addition to Judge Jack Camp, there are those among the ranks of federal judges who have accepted bribes and kick-backs, those who have lied to FBI agents, those who have committed sexual assaults on women, those who have committed perjury when testifying to judicial investigators and before grand juries, those who have obstructed justice, those who have severely beat their wives, those who have slept with courtroom deputies, court reporters, secretaries, and prosecutors, those who have presided over trials while high on prescription drugs, and those who have routinely held ex parte meetings and phone calls about pending cases with prosecutors and powerful outside parties. When federal judges like Jack Camp commit federal crimes, most of them do not get prosecuted for their offenses. For example, U.S. District Court Judge G. Thomas Porteous of Louisiana was found guilty of four articles of impeachment in 2009, including accepting kick-backs and lying to the Senate and FBI. Sadly, the list of federal judges who committed crimes while serving on the bench and who escaped criminal prosecution is long and distinguished. What is worse, federal judges in the modern era of partisan politics have morphed into judicial "fluffers" for prosecutors in cases that involve ordinary defendants. Today, many federal judges use the cases in their courtrooms to push personal ideologies and partisan agendas. Judicial scholarship is often used to erode, not protect, the basic Constitutional rights of ordinary citizens. Appointments to the federal bench have become political "plums" for party hacks. Many of these appointees have no litigation or courtroom experience. Some of them are downright incompetent. Very few of them deserve to be praised for their legacy on the bench. State, local, and national bar associations are afraid to criticize judicial misconduct, even when it is glaring and inexcusable. For example, in 2014, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Mark E. Fuller (in Montgomery, Alabama) savagely beat his second wife Kelli in an Atlanta hotel room. He was arrested and jailed for spousal battery. Fuller's colleagues on the federal bench remained silent about his drunken rage and violent conduct. Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Senior Judge Gerald Tjoflat tried to help Fuller keep his job by suggesting that he go to anger management classes to control his temper. No bar association group condemned Fuller's violent conduct. Fuller was eventually forced to resign on August 1, 2015 after I engaged in a year-long series of investigative news articles that exposed Fuller's marital cheating, spousal abuse, sexual escapades with courthouse staffers and law clerks, and prescription pill-popping conduct during trials. Fuller also lied to judicial investigators who probed his misconduct. Like Judge Porteous, Fuller was never prosecuted for perjury or any other federal crime. The Trump Effect Donald Trump has proclaimed, on a repeated and sustained basis, that the federal criminal justice system is "rigged." The cases of Judges Jack Camp, Thomas Porteous, and Mark Fuller appear to support Trump's claim. It is telling that no Republican member of any national, state, or local government body has disputed Trump's characterization of the federal judiciary. Furthermore, the Federal Judges Association, a professional organization which was founded in 1982 to advance and protect the financial gravy train that federal judges ride, has not push back on Trump's description of the federal criminal justice system. This is true even after Trump labeled FBI agents as "scum" and federal prosecutors as "corrupt." The double-standard between the preferential treatment accorded to corrupt federal judges, as compared to the harsh treatment ordinary Americans routinely face in the federal criminal justice system, requires no further discussion. It speaks for itself and is shameful. This is the dark, seedy side of the federal judiciary! It's a cesspool of hypocrisy, favoritism, protectionism, and incestuous dealings. Federal judges truly know how to take care of their own.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on June 2, 2024 An Editorial Opinion Black Americans across the nation are shocked by MAGA World’s rejection of the 34 guilty verdicts in Donald Trump’s New York “hush money” case.  I am not. The guilty verdicts mean absolutely nothing inside of Trump’s MAGA World.  After all, he is their political "savior."  They are flooding social media with this meme. While Trump did not benefit from "jury nullification" during his New York trial, he is profiting from a healthy dose of MAGA World voter nullification.  It has helped him with independent voters, as well. MAGA World views all four of Trump's criminal cases as politically motivated persecutions by state and federal prosecutors who are closely tied to the Democratic Party and who want to tarnish Trump's name, reputation, and political brand.  Within 24 hours, MAGA World and thousands of independent voters rewarded Trump with a whopping $52 million in campaign contributions as a show of support. For the first time, black Americans are realizing that the “law and order” mantra that suffocates them on a daily basis does not apply to criminal defendants who enjoy widespread political support in the white community.  In fact, blacks are in a state of shock over this revelation. MAGA World does not care that Donald Trump is a convicted “felon” because he is their candidate of choice for the presidency.  Their devotion to Trump is profound and resolute. To MAGA World, “law and order” is an old Richard Nixon-era political sound-bite that references street criminals, most of whom come from marginalized segments of America's general population. It does not apply to Trump. Understanding the Phenomenon of Voter Nullification I fully understand this phenomenon of voter nullification and its growing role in politics and business.  I, too, am a so-called “convicted felon.”  I have benefited from a close cousin of voter nullification that is called "public nullification." In 2018, racist forces in Birmingham, Alabama used a skinhead federal prosecutor named Lloyd Peeples to railroad me in a rigged criminal trial on bogus “investor fraud charges” that were investigated and rejected two years earlier by federal prosecutors in New Jersey. Peeples was a washed-up Birmingham pizza restaurant owner whose small business failed 11 months after he opened it.  Peeples was chosen for this prosecutorial assignment because he was a "loser" with a documented history of racism and sexism against successful blacks and women. Lloyd Peeples was able to "home-cook" me in a rigged "trial" in Birmingham and jail me in a federal prison camp for nearly three years. Despite his best efforts, however, Peeples failed to destroy my international energy businesses. Because the international oil, gas, and clean fuels industry in which I work is virtually all-white, my status as a “convicted felon” meant nothing to my strategic business alliance partners and industry peers.  They only care about whether my companies can produce oil, gas, and clean fuels in commercial quantities, whether we will own clear title to the fuels and other commodities produced, and whether our market price per gallon/liter will be competitive. It is well-known within the international energy business that state and federal criminal justice systems in America are often used to target and neutralize Americans who are disfavored for political and/or racial reasons.  The high-profile Donald Trump and Marilyn Mosby "guilty" verdicts are viewed by many in the industry as cases on point. Politically-Motivated Prosecutions Have Been Around for a Long Time In 1976, Congressional hearings on the FBI’s COINTELPRO program (which operated on a formal basis from 1956 to 1971) exposed the government’s rampant use of state and federal criminal justice systems across the nation to discredit and undermine major political movements, destroy or cripple their leaders, and crush thousands of political and social justice activists who were disliked by the political party in power.  The informal, unofficial version of COINTELPRO has continued, unabated, to this day. MAGA World is aware of this documented history and firmly believes Donald Trump is the victim of a modern-day COINTELPRO operation. They are not tolerating it.  As such, Trump's supporters have used the awesome power of their money, political infrastructure, and 74 million MAGA block of votes to immediately nullify and neutralize the adverse impact of Trump’s criminal convictions. In an impressive display of raw political power, MAGA World has also banded together to derail or kill Trump’s criminal cases in Washington, Miami, and Atlanta. Those cases will never see the light of day. I predict that Donald Trump will never spend a day in jail.  The MAGA-dominated U.S. Supreme Court will prevent this unprecedented event from occuring.  The Court will also provide Trump with the presidential immunity he needs to kill all four of his criminal cases. Sobering Reality For blacks who are coming to grips with the new paradigm of voter nullification of criminal convictions, I leave you with a disturbing comment that somebody posted on my website two days ago under an April 3, 2024, article titled: “Doomed: ‘White Flight’ Killed Birmingham-Southern College.”  This comment sheds light on how tens of millions of whites feel about America and the deteriorating state of many Democrat-controlled cities and urban commmunities: “Whites are not stupid -- they know once a neighborhood goes black, it never comes back to being the quiet, clean, safe place it was when it was White. In 1976 a White student, Quenette Shehane, was abducted, raped, tortured and killed by three black savage animals for no other reason than she was a White woman getting groceries at a local store. I am amazed Whites put up with this black violence for this long. Robert E. Lee, the man himself, was quoted as saying that wherever there are blacks, things are going down around them. They are far better off in Africa than here. Free to rape their own kind. Send them back.” Like it or not, Donald Trump has tapped into a growing angst in white America.  As Americans of interracial goodwill, we cannot stop the spread of this angst if we do not understand the societal and political forces that create, nurture, inspire, and foster it. As a people, we were enslaved, lynched, murdered, raped, brutalized, dehumanized, segregated, profiled, ostracized, mass incarcerated, and oppressed from the "cradle to the grave" in America for over 400 years. "Whites only" neighborhoods, schools, jobs, hotels, hospitals, professional associations, licensing agencies, insurance companies, cemetaries, public transportation, restaurants, entertainment venues, zoos, parks, etc., were codified into law and practiced religiously for 350 years. Yet, a growing number of influencers like Elon Musk, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Steve Bannon, Bill Maher, Lloyd Peeples, and Clarence Thomas think the meager Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies that were put into place over the past 30 years to remedy this centuries-old legally enforced white supremacy are somehow "racist" in nature and discriminatory against whites. Obviously, I strongly disagree with this belief. This is the new paradigm for blacks in America. We can succumb to this terrifying state of being or fight for our rightful place in American society. There is no "in between." This is the cold, hard, truth. We must deal with it.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on June 1, 2024 An Editorial Opinion It has happened five times in the history of this nation  In five presidential elections, the loser of the popular vote won the presidency.  This outcome occurred in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016. Here are the three most recent elections where the loser of the popular vote won the White House: This "lose the popular vote but win the White House" scenario seems likely to occur again for Donald Trump in 2024.  What is more, neither Trump, nor Joe Biden, is positioned to win the White House with more than 50% of the popular vote. Barring divine intervention, Donald Trump is poised to win the presidency by defeating Biden in the Electoral College vote.  This will be the second time Trump has positioned himself to win the Electoral College vote, despite losing the popular vote. My Circle of Independent Voters/Influencers/Mega-Donors Love the Way the Race for President is Shaping Up The race for the White House is shaping up the way my close-knit, ethnically diverse, circle of independent voters/influencers/mega-donors anticipated and like.  Winning the Electoral College will boil down to which nominee has the most campaign cash to ramp up his "get-out-the-vote" strategy in the key swing states between September 1st and November 5th. The last chunk of donor money that goes into a presidential nominee’s campaign coffers is often viewed as the most valuable money.  My group of independent voters/influencers/mega-donors is prepared to channel $50 to $75 million in cash donations to the preferred Super-PACs of the nominee we support. We are NOT a campaign expense item. Instead, we are a potential source of fresh campaign cash in the home stretch. We do NOT require a star-studded gala filled with political sycophants, rambling speeches, and meaningless photo ops as a prelude to giving out the campaign money. We only need the names, addresses, and wire transfer instructions for the nominee's preferred Super-PACs. At this juncture, we are NOT committed to any candidate for president. Our campaign donations are up for grabs. What is more, we are NOT slaves or sharecroppers who till the soil on political party plantations. Additionally, we have NOT compromised our personal value systems and principles of decency to point where we have become mindless zealots for Donald Trump or Joe Biden.  We view both men as deeply flawed. As it stands today, Donald Trump is fighting to stay out of jail, while Joe Biden is coping with an obviously deteriorating mental condition -- senility. These two men are viewed by many independent voters as undesirable choices. But, this is the political hand that has been dealt to independent voters. Third-party candidates, write-in candidates, and single-issue protest candidates will NOT get our financial support. Finally, we are NOT acting as a "front" or surrogate donor for anybody. Individually and collectively, we are "unbossed" and "unbought." What is the Process for Gaining Our Political/Financial Support? As a group of independent voters/influencers/mega-donors, we have a well-defined but sensible political agenda. We are fiscal conservatives, social moderates, political centrists, and strong advocates for national defense and homeland security.  As successful, diversified business men and women, we have plenty of practical experience in dealing with those who operate in the political arena. The nominee who can best advance and/or protect our political interests will win our financial support.  Our level of financial support requires a direct conversation with the presidential nominee, not with his campaign surrogates.  If the nominee does not have the time for this conversation, he will not get our financial support. We are re-activating, turbo-charging, and narrowing the scope of the approach Voter News Network (VNN) used to dole out more than $1 million in campaign contributions to a handful of candidates for public offices in the early 2000s.  Our money will flow directly from the donors to the Super-PACs specified by the preferred presidential nominee. Like VNN, our friendship circle, as a group, will decide who our preferred nominee will be. The presidential nominee who can align himself with our political agenda is the one who will pick up $50 to $75 million in financial support from our tight circle of independent voters/influencers/mega-donors. We are NOT focused on Donald Trump's recent criminal conviction in New York. We know from U.S. Supreme Court cases dating back to the 1900s that state and federal prosecutors in America enjoyed the unfettered power to turn any law-abiding citizen into a convicted felon without credible evidence of criminal misconduct. The "Scottsboro Boys" rape case and thousands of state and federal criminal convictions obtained against innocent "COINTELPRO" victims are documented proof of this unchecked prosecutorial power. We also know that healthy doses of injustice in civil and criminal cases continues to be meted out in American courtrooms every day. For all practical purposes, my circle of independent voters/influencers/mega-donors wants to function much like the last gas station on the road to the White House. We will see which presidential nominee wants and needs our campaign fuel in the home stretch.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 31, 2024 An Editorial Opinion Yesterday, Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump was convicted on all 34 felony counts in his New York state court "hush money" case. Trump is scheduled for sentencing on July 11, 2024. So, What Happens Next? For the reasons stated in my March 14, 2024 article, the U.S. Supreme Court will issue a ruling in June that is widely expected to end Trump's criminal exposure in all four of his state and federal criminal cases. Once the Court's ruling is issued, Trump's lawyers in his New York case will promptly present the presidential immunity defense in a renewed motion to dismiss the case. Judge Juan Merchan will have no choice but to vacate Trump's 34 felony convictions and dismiss his criminal case, with prejudice. As such, there will be no sentencing of Donald Trump in this case. How Does Presidential Immunity Impact Trump's 34 Felony Convictions Post-Trial? Like most Americans, the Supreme Court is aware of Donald Trump's New York criminal case and yesterday's 34 "guilty" verdicts. The Court is not inclined to allow any state or federal criminal case to interfere with the 2024 presidential race in a way that favors or hurts either one of the two major party nominees. For example, in March, the Court put Trump back on the ballot in Colorado after state election offficials kicked him off. Donald Trump’s New York state court “hush money” case will likely end with the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity, even though Trump has already been convicted on each one of the 34 felony counts in the indictment.  A motion to vacate the convictions and dismiss the case may be presented to Judge Merchan at any time, upon a showing of immunity from prosecution. The reason for a dismissal of the criminal charges in Trump's New York case is simple -- Donald Trump (and persons acting on his behalf) did not reimburse Michael Cohen for the “hush money” payments he made to porn actress Stormy Daniels until February 14, 2017.  Even then, the authorized signatories for Trump's Revocable Trust Account made the first three monthly payments. Donald Trump signed reimbursement checks made payable to Cohen from his personal bank account, beginning on May 23, 2017. Trump was well into his presidency when he began signing the reimbursement checks. It is undisputed that Donald Trump was a sitting president when all 11 reimbursement payments were made to Michael Cohen. The Supreme Court will define the doctrine of presidential immunity broad enough to cover this circumstance. It will not matter that Michael Cohen committed crimes with his "hush money" payments to Stormy Daniels prior to Trump assuming the presidency in January 2017. Donald Trump’s personal participation in Cohen “hush money” scheme began AFTER he became president. As such, Trump actions in the "hush money" case would be covered by the Supreme Court's newly recognized and broad doctrine of presidential immunity. What is more, prosecutors in New York did not charge Donald Trump with participating in a "hush money" conspiracy with Michael Cohen. Trump is the lone defendant in his New York "hush money" case and the payment to Cohen occurred after he assumed office as president. Trump will likely win a dismissal of the "hush money" charges after the Supreme Court grants him immunity from all criminal prosecutions, state and federal. Epilogue Donald Trump is the luckiest criminal defendant I know.  Despite his cadre of mediocre criminal defense lawyers in all four of his criminal cases, Trump will likely walk away from these four criminal prosecutions because of a new judicially-recognized presidential immunity that is not expressed in the U.S. Constitution or any federal statute. It also appears that the Supreme Court is determined to make the rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden an election that will be decided by voters at the polls, without any interference from federal and state prosecutors. Two shady U.S. presidents (i.e., Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton) had their sycophants in the Department of Justice (DOJ) create and fortify the concept of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution "out of thin air" in September 24, 1973 and October 16, 2000 DOJ memos to cover their asses upon their exit from the presidency. The Supreme Court does not have to birth the concept of presidential immunity.  All the Court has to do is expand the scope of the presidential immunity enunciated in these DOJ memos and add judicially-created exceptions for treason and murder.  This, the Court will do.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 30, 2024 An Editorial Opinion I have been telling my readers for over a year that Donald Trump’s legal teams lack the experience needed to win his four criminal cases.  Today, they lost Trump’s Manhattan "hush money" criminal cases by a shutout verdict count of 34-0. This blowout may be a record defeat in a New York state court criminal case. Trump’s New York “hush money” case was the weakest one of the four criminal cases pending against him. Todd Blanche and his legal team tried to win this case by using the traditional "buckshot" approach wherein the defense team challenges every witness and every piece of government evidence. This was the wrong approach for this case. They also took marching orders from Donald Trump, who has never tried a criminal case in his life.  This was the second huge mistake in the case. To win the case on all 34 counts, Trump’s team had to use the "sniper" approach wherein the defense attorney waits patiently for the right opportunity to fire his/her "kill-shot" (figuratively speaking within the context of litigation jargon only) at the main government witness – Michael Cohen.  Even then, the cross-examination questions required for the "kill-shot" are totally different from the ones asked by Todd Blanche’s inexperienced defense team. These two major mistakes combined to doom Trump to 34 “guilty” verdicts in an otherwise very winnable case. The fight in Trump’s case now shifts to the sentencing phase.  This is where most defense lawyers fall completely down.  I expect Trump’s defense team to fail miserably at the sentencing phase, as well. They are dejected, demoralized, emotionally drained, and defeated. Todd Blanche will now go down in the annals of American jurisprudence as the lawyer who lost former President Donald Trump's historic criminal case by a 34-0 blowout.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on May 29, 2024 To Whoever is in Charge at the White House, The United States must stop Israel’s campaign of genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.  Do not waste my time trying to convince me that Joe Biden is in charge of anything at the White House.  Biden is an old, weak, and decrepit man who is so senile that he must read his name on note cards at public speaking events. The deaths of innocent infants, babies, and children in Rafah last weekend were unconscionable.  The Israelis are using American-made bombs to commit war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and ethnic cleansing. I do NOT support any war criminal, including the ones who are U.S. allies. Nothing can make a war criminal acceptable to me. Nations around the globe are condeming Israel's campaign of genocide. Two international courts have condemned it, as well. One of these courts has order a stop to the genocide. Israel answered the court order by burning innocent children alive, beheading them, and slaughering them in the most gruesome ways possible in a tent encampment in a refugee zone. Unlike the Joe Biden 2024 presidential campaign, I do not want or need money from political donors or anybody else that is drenched in the blood of 35,000 dead Palestinian infants, babies, children, women, and men who were the innocent victims of war crimes.