By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on March 23, 2024 An Editorial Opinion On March 21, 2024, California-based U.S. District Court Judge Dale A. Drozd filed an Order discharging Donald V. Watkins from supervised release and terminating all of the proceedings in U.S. v. Donald V. Watkins, Sr. The Order was based upon a recommendation from the United States Probation Office for the Eastern District of California that the Court end Watkins' 5 years of supervised release nearly 4 years early.  Judge Drozd accepted this recommendation, thereby ending all proceedings in the case. With Judge Drozd's Order, the high-tech lynching of Watkins on phony wire fraud and bank fraud charges in a Birmingham, Alabama federal court has ended. The legal proceedings against Watkins' son and co-defendant, Donald V. Watkins Jr., were terminated early and his case was closed on November 21, 2022. On August 25, 2022, Watkins was released from his 5-year sentence -- more than 2 years early. What Really Happened in Watkins' Case and Why? In 2015, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asked federal prosecutors in the New Jersey U.S. Attorney's Office to investigate Watkins on allegations of investor fraud. After a six-month grand jury investigation, career New Jersey prosecutors in the Office's Major Crimes Unit cleared Watkins of all wrongdoing and congratulated him on his accomplishments in international business. In October 2017, the SEC pitched the same investor fraud case to Jay Town, the new Donald Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for the northern District of Alabama. The allegations in the Alabama case arose out of the same business transactions that formed the basis of the grand jury investigation in New Jersey. Watkins was indicted by a Birmingham federal grand jury, dragged into a Birmingham federal criminal courtroom, railroaded in court, and sentenced to 5 years in prison and 5 years of supervised probation. The Birmingham criminal prosecution was the brainchild of former U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-Alabama), a polished racist and former COINTELPRO prosecutor in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Shelby used his seniority and clout in the Senate to get Trump’s Department of Justice and various federal regulatory agencies to target and Blitzkrieg Watkins and Donald, Jr. Sen. Shelby instructed Jay Town, a former Shelby campaign operative, to get Watkins by any and all means necessary. Shelby harbored a longtime resentment of Watkins for two reasons. First, Watkins forcefully advocated for equal economic, political, and educational rights for blacks and women in Alabama. Second, Watkins won the 85-felony count Sarbanes Oxley criminal trial against former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy in 2005 in a way that embarrassed and humiliated the SEC. Jay Town assigned Lloyd Peeples, the then-First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern Division of Alabama, as the day-to-day ringleader for the lynching. Peeples, who has a documented record of hostility towards blacks and women dating back to his college days, resented Watkins’ international business experience and success.  Like his deceased segregationist father, Peeples was known to use racial slurs in private all-white settings to describe successful blacks. Peeples, a failed pizza restaurant owner, was happy to prosecute Watkins on orders from Town and Shelby. After Watkins was railroaded in then-Chief U.S. District Judge Karon O. Bowdre's courtroom in a 2019 trial, Peeples asked Judge Bowdre to sentence Watkins to 18 years in prison. Bowdre refused to do so. While Bowdre was willing to facilitate the high-tech lynching of Watkins as an atonement to Alabama's white community that was livid over her handling of the Richard Scrushy criminal case, an 18-year sentence for Watkins on bogus criminal charges was a bridge too far for her. Accordingly, Bowdre sentenced Watkins to 5 years in prison and 5 years of supervised release. Watkins served 3 years of his sentence in a federal prison camp before winning his release from custody 2 years early. Watkins and Son Maintained Their Innocence Throughout Their Ordeal Even though Watkins had been cleared of investor fraud by career federal prosecutors in New Jersey and had testified before every regulatory body that investigated his business conduct (without invoking his Fifth Amendment rights) and had testified twice before the Birmingham federal grand jury (without invoking his Fifth Amendment rights), Birmingham federal prosecutor Lloyd Peeples proceeded to indict Watkins and his son, Donald, Jr., on phony investor and bank fraud charges. Peeples added Watkins’ son, Donald V. Watkins, Jr., to the case for the sole purpose of getting around the expired statute of limitation on these fraud charges.  The addition of Donald, Jr., enabled Peeples to fabricate a bogus conspiracy charge, which had a longer statute of limitations. As was the case with every regulatory and judicial proceeding leading up to the phony fraud charges, Watkins denied wrongdoing and testified during his trial (without invoking his Fifth Amendment rights). During his 2019 trial, Judge Bowdre blocked or limited all evidence that tended to exonerate Watkins and his son.  She also severely limited Watkins’ cross-examination of prosecution witnesses.  In addition, Bowdre openly ingratiated herself to several high-profile prosecution witnesses in plain view of jurors. In closed-door proceedings, the U.S. Magistrate John Ott, a former Birmingham federal prosecutor, and Judge Bowdre sealed all court documents that referenced the government’s secret request to gag Watkins. In court filings, Watkins opposed all closed-door proceedings on the sealed documents. What Magistrate Ott and Judge Bowdre did to Watkins behind closed doors was unprecedented and unconscionable. They ordered Watkins to remove more than a dozen published news articles from his digital media platforms. The articles targeted for court-ordered removal sought to minimize the non-stop character assassination of Watkins that was perpetrated by AL.com columnists/reporters John Archibald and Kyle Whitmire leading up to the trial in the case. In one pretrial article, John Archibald made up a fake quote that said Watkins' job in 1991 was to "kick white people's ass." Archibald attributed this racist quote to Watkins.  Under a threat of litigation, AL.com retracted the fake racist quote and issued a public apology to Watkins. What is worse, Kyle Whitmire planned to hawk an unauthorized biography of Watkins that portrayed Watkins in a false and negative light. Whitmire's news articles about the case were written in a one-sided, salacious manner to help him profit from his planned book. While Watkins was gagged, AL.com remained free to collude and collaborate with Birmingham federal prosecutors to assassinate Watkins' character prior to, during, and after the trial. A former top federal prosecutor in Alabama confirmed to Watkins and his son the nature, scope, and history of Archibald's and Whitmire's collaboration with federal prosecutors in Birmingham. At Watkins’ request, the sealed documents were finally unsealed on November 6, 2023.  For the first time, the COINTELPRO media role played by AL.com in lynching Watkins and his son is laid bare in publicly available court filings. The Appellate Process After Watkins and his son appealed their convictions, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals assigned their case to an all-white three-judge panel headed by a then-93-year-old Gerald Bard Tjoflat. Appointed as a federal judge in 1970 by President Richard Nixon, Tjoflat is notorious for his hostile views toward civil rights attorneys and his personal dislike of Watkins, who filed a formal complaint against him in 2014 for the judicial protection Tjoflat wrongfully afforded to a wife-beating federal judge named Mark E. Fuller in Montgomery, Alabama. Despite Tjoflat's unabashed embrace of Fuller, Watkins succeeded in getting Fuller removed from his judgeship in 2015. As expected, the Gerald Tjoflat-led panel of appellate judges affirmed the convictions of Watkins and has son. In doing so, Tjoflat took the opportunity to write a very negative opinion about Watkins' business conduct, without disclosing his conflict of interest with Watkins. The ultra-conservative, anti-civil rights U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the convictions of Watkins and his son. Moving Forward in Business Throughout the trial and appellate process, federal prosecutors never challenged the legitimacy or success of Watkins’ award-winning international business ventures.  They could not do so because Watkins' businesses were industry leaders in the global alternative energy technology sector at that time. Furthermore, only 7 of Watkins' 30 investors turned on him and cooperated with Birmingham prosecutors. All 7 of these investors experienced unexpected adverse changes in their lives before turning on Watkins. Watkins' international businesses continued to operate during the 3 years he was incarcerated.  They were built to withstand a plethora of market, political, economic, regulatory, and legal risks. After Watkins was released from the Federal Prison Camp at La Tuna in August 2022, he rejoined the executive team that ran his international businesses.  Thanks to seasoned executive management, all of these businesses are competitive today. None of Watkins' international business partners defected from his strategic business alliances in the oil & gas and alternative energy industries during Watkins' imprisonment. Since his release, Watkins has added new world-class international business partners to his alliance. Epilogue Watkins and his son survived a racially motivated Blitzkrieg and lynching in a “rigged” federal criminal justice system. It was a high-tech lynching that did not kill them. This lynching ordeal revealed to Watkins and his son who their true friends are. Throughout their ordeal, Watkins and his son also experienced an incredible display of full and unconditional family support. As he did with Mr. Clarence Norris (the last surviving “Scottsboro Boy”), Watkins will seek a full and unconditional presidential pardon for his son and himself based upon a showing of “innocence.”   While he expects resistance to the pardon from a cadre of local racists in Alabama, Watkins is confident that he and his son will secure such a pardon based upon their "innocence." What was meant to destroy Watkins and his son only made them stronger and wiser.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on March 22, 2024 An Editorial Opinion In 2022, I met Doug, a 37-year-old white inmate, at the Federal Prison Camp at La Tuna in El Paso, Texas.  He wanted me to help him get out of prison early. Doug was sentenced to 11 months on cocaine trafficking charges and 5 years for possessing a gun while he was trafficking cocaine.  I had never seen a cocaine trafficker receive only an 11-month sentence for drug trafficking.  I quickly learned why. Doug came from an extremely wealthy family in Iowa.  They have been well-established in the oil distribution business for three generations. When I reviewed Doug’s case file, I was stunned to see where he had been in and out of various state and federal pretrial diversion, "Second Chance," and "Youthful Offender" programs for first time, non-violent criminal offenders 17 times before his current conviction and imprisonment. Prior to meeting Doug, the most breaks I had seen a drug offender get in the criminal justice system involved Caleb, a then-27-year-old white drug offender with nine drug-related arrests between 2011 and 2017.  Caleb, who is the son of a well-known political figure in Alabama, had been in and out of pretrial diversion and "Youthful Offender" programs on numerous occasions. Caleb also benefited from the prosecutorial practice of reducing felony charges to misdemeanors for well-connected offenders. Caleb escaped prison time on each one of his nine arrests. Then, there is Stephanie. On June 8, 2019, Stephanie, who is white and the daughter of a well-known Alabama-based Internet blogger and political columnist, was arrested in Jefferson County, Alabama and charged with two felony cases of possession of illegal drugs. While Stephanie was out on bond, she was arrested again on January 28, 2020, and charged with one felony count of insurance fraud. On March 11, 2020, Stephanie was sentenced to a pretrial diversion program on the drug charges. This judicial action allowed her to avoid imprisonment.  On October 27, 2020, Stephanie was sentenced to pretrial diversion on the insurance fraud charge. Once again, she escaped imprisonment. I am withholding Doug’s, Caleb’s, and Stephanie’s full names because their names are not germane to the point of this article. The Disparate Treatment of Black Drug Offenders During my 46 years of practicing law, I know of no black drug offender who has gotten more than one chance in a federal or state pretrial diversion or "Youthful Offender" program. If a black drug offender commits three or more felonies during his lifetime, he/she is generally considered a “career criminal” and is usually subjected to the maximum possible federal and state sentence for drug offenses. Black drug traffickers typically receive between 10 and 25 years in prison upon their conviction for the first offense. Very few black drug offenders are allowed into pretrial diversion, “Second Chance," and/or "Youthful Offender” programs like Doug, Caleb, and Stephanie, all of whom had multiple drug-related charges. Law enforcement officials, judges, and politicians routinely label black drug offenders as "dangerous thugs” and “ruthless criminals,” and treat them as such in the criminal justice system. When drug offenders are white and privileged, the gravity of their drug possession and drug trafficking conduct is greatly diminished.  They are often viewed by prosecutors and judges as sympathetic figurers who have a “chemical dependency” problem. Because they are perceived to have a “bright future” and are "seeking professional help for their problem," many state and federal prosecutors and judges believe privileged white drug offenders deserve a break in the form of pretrial diversion or Youthful Offender status, or both. The only reason Doug received any prison time for his 18th and current drug-related offense is because he possessed a firearm in his home while trafficking his cocaine at that location.  The federal judge who sentenced Doug could not find a way to circumvent the 5-year minimum sentence for possessing a firearm while trafficking cocaine. So, this judge gave Doug 11 months of misdemeanor time for trafficking his stash of cocaine and the minimum of 5-years for possessing a firearm during the commission of a drug offense. The Special Hunter Biden Drug Offender Treatment The only known exception for the 5-year minimum sentence on a firearms charge tied to a drug offense occurred in Hunter Biden’s criminal case, with its ill-fated plea deal. According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reports for 2001 through 2021, none of the 185,082 “weapons” cases, which includes firearms, that were prosecuted during this 20-year period was referred by DOJ to a pretrial diversion program. U.S. v. Hunter Biden is the first and only time a federal offender who possessed a firearm that was tied to conduct involving illegal drugs enjoyed a prosecutorial referral to a pretrial diversion program.  Smelling a “rat,” Biden’s trial judge rightfully declined to approve his plea deal. Of course, Doug was not the son of a sitting U.S. President.  As such, his trial judge had no choice but to impose a 5-year minimum sentence for his gun possession charge. Epilogue Even though I helped 47 inmates leave prison early, I did not help Doug.  In my view, Doug had received enough breaks in the criminal justice system based upon his “White Privilege.” I also considered how actor Jussie Smollet was treated in his bid for pretrial diversion. When Smollett, who is black, was admitted into a state pretrial diversion program in Chicago in 2019, it created a firestorm of controversy from the privileged white communities throughout America that routinely benefit from these programs. Unlike, Doug and Stephanie, who faced serious felony charges when they were arrested, Smollett was charged with filing a false police report, a low-level Class 4 felony. The controversy surrounding Smollet’s admission into the pretrial diversion program ended this alternative disposition of criminal charges for him. Meanwhile, Doug will exit federal prison on April 6, 2025, if not earlier.  During his time at La Tuna, Doug continued his involvement in the illegal drug trade. Old habits die hard, and "White Privilege" seems to last forever.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on March 20, 2024 An Editorial Opinion Billionaire Elon Musk heads three major American corporations -- (a) Tesla, the electric vehicle maker, (b) SpaceX, the rocket company, and (c) X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter. Musk is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and Executive Chairman of X. Musk is a White South African who migrated to the United States as an adult. As of March 2024, Tesla has a market cap of $517.52 billion. This makes Tesla, a NASDAQ company, the world's 15th most valuable company by market cap. SpaceX and X are private companies owned by Musk. They are valued at $180 billion and $12.4 billion, respectively. Is Elon Musk a "Dopehead"? Based on recent media reports, Tesla, Space X, and X are led by a CEO who is drowning in allegations of hallucinogenic drug use, both legal and illegal. On January 6, 2024, the Wall Street Journal published an in-depth report on Musk's alleged drug use. The report detailed allegations that Musk used illegal drugs, including LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, and psychedelic mushrooms, at private parties around the world. Fellow partygoers signed nondisclosure agreements or gave up their cellphones to enter the parties attended by Musk, the Journal reported, citing sources who said they witnessed Musk using illegal drugs or had direct knowledge of it. In 2018, Musk was seen openly smoking marijuana on the set of a podcast. Recently, Musk added ketamine to the list of drugs he uses. Musk acknowledges using ketamine, but claimed his use of the drug is beneficial for Tesla investors in an interview with former CNN host Don Lemon that aired Monday on X. Musk also claimed that ketamine, which must be prescribed by a physician, helps him manage a "negative chemical state" comparable to depression. Musk denied that he abuses the drug. Ketamine has been used to treat people suffering from depression who have not responded to other treatments. The drug can be administered by nasal spray (esketamine) or IV infusions (ketamine). Where is the Securities and Exchange Commission Oversight of Tesla? The Securities and Exchange Commission is the investing public's regulatory "watchdog" for Wall Street companies. Yet, the Commission has turned its head to Elon Musk's alleged use of hallucinogenic drugs, whether legal or illegal. The Commission has not sought the removal of Elon Musk as CEO of Tesla, based upon the confirmed reports that Musk has led and operated this public company while under the influence of illegal hallucinogenic drugs. "From the standpoint of Wall Street, what matters is execution," said Musk in his interview with the Journal. Musk seems to believe that the Commission does not care if he is a “dopehead” or not, as long as Tesla performs well for investors. Unlike its privileged treatment of Musk, the Commission has NEVER knowingly allowed a Black CEO or senior management executive of any size publicly-traded company to operate his/her publicly-traded company while reportedly getting high from illegal hallucinogenic drugs like LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, and psychedelic mushrooms. Any Black CEO or senior management executive caught up in an illegal drug use situation would have been banned from his/her company for life and prosecuted by federal law enforcement agencies in a Blitzkrieg manner, if the Commission had even a hint that he/she used illegal hallucinogenic drugs on a regular basis. If the Wall Street Journal was able to investigate and confirm Musk’s alleged use of illegal hallucinogenic drugs, the Securities and Exchange Commission should have been able to do so, as well. For reasons that defy common sense, public safety, and fiscal responsibility, the Commission has allowed $517.52 billion in Tesla corporate assets to remain under the operational control of an alleged “dopehead.” Musk Wallowed in the “White Privilege” Afforded by South Africa’s System of Strictly Enforced Racial Apartheid Elon Musk wallowed in "White Privilege" for the first 18 years of his life as a South African. Musk is a direct beneficiary of South Africa's system of strictly enforced racial apartheid, which only ended in 1994. Musk's family in South Africa became wealthy by using the apartheid system to rip off Black South Africans. Musk regularly rails against U.S. government policies and programs that afford equal economic, educational, political, and social justice opportunities to Black Americans, while ignoring his own free flowing "White Privilege." In January, Musk complained on X about Dr. Sherita Hill Golden’s public acknowledgement of “White Privilege” in Johns Hopkins Medicine’s (JHM) monthly Diversity Digest. Musk’s complaint amounted to cyberbullying. At the time, Dr. Golden was JHM's Chief Diversity Officer. Under pressure from Musk and other known beneficiaries of “White Privilege,” both inside and outside of JHM, Dr. Golden stepped down as Chief Diversity Officer earlier this month. Epilogue It is unknown whether Elon Musk was acting under the influence of LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms, marijuana, or ketamine when he lashed out at Dr. Golden's article about "White Privilege." What is known is this truism: Elon Musk is a longtime beneficiary of “White Privilege” in the United States and South Africa and he relishes it. It is also known that the Securities and Exchange Commission is knowingly and willingly allowing an alleged "dopehead" to serve as the CEO of Tesla -- something that would be unthinkable if Elon Musk was a Black CEO of any publicly-traded company. At the end of the day, Elon Musk is a portrait of Securities and Exchange Commission-protected "White Privilege"in all of its glory.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on March 19, 2024 An Editorial Opinion On February 16, 2024, a New York state court found that Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Eric Trump schemed for years to defraud banks and insurers by inflating his wealth on financial statements used to secure loans and make deals. The court entered a $454 million civil fraud judgment against Trump and his sons, who are appealing this ruling. The day before the much-anticipated court ruling in Donald Trump's case, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved a merger of Trump Media and Technology Group with Digital World Acquisition Corp., a publicly-traded blank-check acquisition company. Trump's media company owns Truth Social, which he founded after he was banned from Twitter (now known as X) in 2021. Trump Media's merger deal with Digital World was valued in February at an estimated $10 billion. This valuation was purely speculative. Digital World’s shareholders are scheduled to vote on the merger deal on Friday, March 22, 2024. Since its founding in 2021, Truth Social has sustained massive financial losses and a limited base of users (estimated 607,000 monthly users as of July 2023).  Trump has 6.61 million followers on Truth Social. Digital World says Truth Social has so far had 8.9 million signups. The Commission's approval of the merger occurred despite Donald Trump's documented history of filing business bankruptcies – six to be exact -- and stiffing creditors. The merger was approved while Donald Trump is awaiting state and federal criminal trials in New York, Washington, Atlanta, and Miami on 88 felony charges. Donald Trump, Jr., who was also found liable of business fraud in the New York civil case, is slated to join the board of directors of the merged entity. Despite all of these red flags, Donald Trump will own between 58.1% and 69.4% of the combined company. If Digital World’s shareholders approve the merger deal, Trump will become the first person in the history of the Securities and Exchange Commission to own a majority interest in a publicly traded company AFTER he was: (a) convicted of repeated acts of civil business fraud in court, (b) indicted by state and federal authorities on 88 felony charges, and (c) involved in six business bankruptcies. The Securities and Exchange Commission is supposed to be the watchdog agency that protects the investing public from fraudsters.  It rarely performs this function. Instead, the Commission has become a cleansing agent for crooked Wall Street banks, major utilities like the Southern Company, and soiled businessmen like Donald Trump. With the Trump Media-Digital World merger deal, the Commission found a pathway to hold its nose and look past Donald Trump’s adjudicated business fraud, four criminal indictments, and six corporate bankruptcies so that Trump and his son could (a) seize control of a public social media company and (b) save Truth Social from bankruptcy. The Securities and Exchange Commission is as crooked as the Trumps. No other explanation makes sense for its approval of the Trump Media-Digital World merger deal. Digital World’s share price closed at $35.57 on Monday -- the same day Trump's lawyers announced that he was unable to post a $464 million appeal bond in his New York civil fraud case. The share price is down from $50.49 in February when the Commission approved the merger. We now know the highly touted Trump Media-Digital World stock is virtually worthless since it does not provide Donald Trump with the amount of liquidity he needs to post a $464 million appeal bond in his civil fraud case. From the public's standpoint, the Commission's approval of the merger has facilitated the nightmare scenario of stacking of fraud on top of fraud.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on October 12, 2022 In 2017, a failed pizza restaurant operator in Birmingham, Alabama named Lloyd Peeples became a local federal prosecutor. He immediately tried to destroy an international waste-to-fuel technology company I had managed since 2005. The company's name is Masada Resource Group, LLC. I owned Watkins-Pencor, LLC. It is the designated “Manager” of the Masada family of companies, which established 19 international partnerships to facilitate waste-to-fuel market opportunities in over 40 locations around the world. Watkins-Pencor also holds an ownership interest in various Masada affiliates. Between 2017 and 2019, Peeples teamed up with compromised U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission officials in Atlanta and ultra right-wing officials in the Trump administration's Department of Justice in Washington in a coordinated Blitzkrieg to (a) undermine my personal credibility and (b) cripple the clean fuels technology companies I managed and grew into industry leaders. Lloyd Peeples and his cohorts were not successful in these goals. Global Market Forces Drive the Demand for Fuels After my release from a federal prison camp on August 25, 2022, I learned that many of the international partnerships I established between 2007 and 2017 were still ready, willing, and able to continue with market development activities. With soaring fuel costs, Masada offers common sense solutions to the production of clean-burning fuels at affordable prices per gallon or liter. Additionally, Masada’s 2007 “Sponsored Research Agreement” with Auburn University broadened the company’s portfolio of energy creating solutions and gave us a sustained competitive advantage, worldwide. My international partners kept abreast of my legal entanglement with Peeples and his cohorts. In 2020, Peeples, who served as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney in Birmingham, burrowed himself in the U.S. Attorney’s office in a demoted role in order to ride out the in-coming Joe Biden administration. My partners also read the articles I published during the lead up to my 2019 criminal trial, as well as those that were published after I was "railroaded" in Birmingham federal court. They understand what had happened to me, and why. What is more, COVID-19 froze my dozen or so international waste-to-energy competitors in-place for most of the 3 years I was wrongfully imprisoned. . My international partners understand the rise of Trumpism in the United States and the open hostility that African-Americans are facing from MAGA Republican politicians and their bureaucratic minions, particularly in the state of Alabama. Whether it was Birmingham church bombings in the 1960s, or former governor George Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, or U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) spewing racial hatred at a MAGA rally last weekend in Nevada, my partners are well-aware of the hostile business environment for blacks that exists in many parts of the country. As such, they held our waste-to-fuel projects in abeyance until I was freed. Many of Masada’s waste-to-fuel market development activities are located in countries that were once colonized by European powers. The indigenous peoples in these countries know and understand the propensity of modern-day bigots to denigrate people of color, particularly in a state like Alabama that still promotes itself as the “Heart of Dixie” and “Cradle of the Confederacy.” Unlike many Americans, my international partners know how colonial powers often trump up phony criminal charges against civil rights activists to slow down or stop political and economic independence for people of color. They watched this apartheid-era tool used against Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Maggie Bozeman, Julia Wilder, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Robert Mugabe, and thousands of other freedom fighters around the world. All of my partners viewed me as an American “political prisoner,” which I was. Even though my body was imprisoned, my mind never was. Moving Forward With My Partners in Progress All of my international business partners conducted extensive due diligence on Masada, Watkins-Pencor, Masada’s patented waste-to-fuel technologies, and our worldwide corporate reputation prior to executing their strategic business alliance agreements with Masada. They know who we are and what we do in the international business world. They also know that, in 2015 and 2016, unbiased federal prosecutors in New Jersey reviewed the same allegations of wrongdoing that formed the basis of Lloyd Peeples' federal prosecution in Birmingham in 2018 and 2019. The New Jersey prosecutors determined in that my personal and business conduct complied with all federal laws. They declined to bring any charges against me and congratulated me on my achievements in business. Today’s demand for affordable, clean-burning fuel outweighs any concerns or questions my international partners have about whatever Peeples and his cohorts may say about me. Furthermore, as president, Donald J. Trump called some of the nations in which I have strategic business partnerships, “shit-hole countries.” Prior to Peeples' attempts to sabotage Masada and Watkins-Pencor, these companies enjoyed a worldwide reputation for excellence in the field of international business. In 2015, Masada was the recipient of the Alabama Governor’s Trade Excellence Award. Its achievements in business and accomplishments in the clean-energy sector, as recognized by global industry organizations and trade publications, are featured in the articles hyperlinked below: https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins/posts/pfbid0F9xo7sVZVbLSGTjifGB9KqxgwFjX6Peto5wRXmHuFGtSiuqqYs7kgBLZJ1pZMtUBl https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins/posts/pfbid02oQBgBLRtPUJw4rT66nnTwLs46ptsR37Mt2ZujapVXHe2ZueDdS1ZK1VbP4w9HyUGl Epilogue We are moving forward with our positive contribution to the production of clean-burning fuels. The people who tried to stop our business growth cannot produce a drop of clean-burning fuel. All they can do is weld the power of the federal bureaucracy to advance a white supremacy agenda. Nobody in the international community is listening to these obstructionists. It seems that racism in American political institutions is fashionable, again. The old White Citizens Councils that dominated the landscape in southern states during the 1960s appear to have morphed into today’s MAGA-dominated Republican Party. Donald J. Trump has emerged as a national version of Gov. George Wallace on steroids. Despite these regressive developments in America, I am moving forward with our opportunities to deploy commercial-scale clean fuel production technologies in a host of international markets. The timing is right for the production of clean-burning fuels in the Paris Agreement signatory countries, and our international partnerships are in place to positively impact this sector as a market leader. All articles are shared on Facebook and Twitter. If you enjoyed this article, please click on these links to follow Donald Watkins: https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins https://twitter.com/donaldvwatkins

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on March 15, 2024 Fulton County, Georgia Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled today that District Attorney Fani T. Willis can continue to prosecute the 2020 election interference case against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his co-defendants if special prosecutor Nathan Wade is removed from the case. McAfee was highly critical of District Attorney Fani Willis and prosecutor Nathan Wade’s 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 Nathan 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 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 may be 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 in June. All of the criminal acts alleged in the Georgia indictment occurred while Trump was a sitting president. A copy of Judge McAfee’s 23-page ruling is linked here.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on March 8, 2024; Updated on March 10 and 12, 2024 An Editorial Opinion Dr. Sherita Hill Golden, M.D., M.H.S., is the Hugh P. McCormick Family Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism and Vice President at Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) in Baltimore, Maryland.  Until Tuesday, Dr. Golden was also JHM's Chief Diversity Officer. Dr. Golden specializes in Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, Diabetes Mellitus, Endocrinology, and Lipid Disorders. She is an internationally recognized physician-scientist and member of the National Academy of Medicine, the Association of American Physicians, and the American Society of Clinical Investigation. According to JHM’s website, Dr. Golden has research interests in Diabetes and Depression; Diabetes Epidemiology; Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease; Inpatient Diabetes Healthcare Delivery; and Health Disparities and Health Equity. She is also the author of more than 200 articles focused on diabetes, endocrinology, and health disparities. Dr. Golden is a summa cum laude college graduate and a Phi Beta Kappa member. On Tuesday, Dr. Golden stepped down from her job as Chief Diversity Officer. Dr. Golden had been under fire for remarks she made in the January edition of Johns Hopkins Medicine’s “Diversity Digest” in which she acknowledged and described the existence of “White Privilege.” Her exact statement appears below: Under pressure from JHM’s top executives, Dr. Golden retracted the language she used in her discussion of “White Privilege” and apologized. Here is her retraction and apology: Additionally, JHM’s leadership team renounced Dr. Golden's "White Privilege" language, saying her definition of “White Privilege” ran counter to its values and commitment to serving everyone equally. Conservative Congressman Andy Harris (R-Maryland) called Dr. Golden’s comments a “racist memo” and demanded that she be fired. Harris is a Johns Hopkins-educated physician who supported the January 6th insurrection. One of Dr. Golden's loudest critics was billionaire Elon Musk, a South African immigrant who wallowed in "White Privilege" for the first 18 years of his life. Musk is a direct beneficiary of South Africa's racial apartheid system, which only ended in 1994. Musk's family in South Africa became wealthy by using the apartheid system to rip-off Black South Africans. After a “great deal of reflection,” Dr. Golden stepped down as Chief Diversity Officer on Tuesday. She will remain at JHM as a faculty member and diabetes researcher . Setting the Record Straight About JHM in an Anti-Woke Society JHM’s quick and harsh condemnation of Dr. Golden’s remarks on “White Privilege” was shocking, considering JHM's somewhat complicated place in the history in American medicine. I’m not talking about glorious accomplishments JHM has made in ethical medical research. I’m talking about the shocking, inhumane, and unspeakable acts that placed JHM in the midst of unethical, non-therapeutic, government-sponsored medical experiments on 1,931 people of color in Tuskegee, Alabama and Guatemala without their knowledge or consent. The U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) and state of Alabama medical professionals conducted non-therapeutic medical experiments on 623 poor, rural, uneducated, black men in Tuskegee, Alabama from 1932 to 1972 in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. During the Study, penicillin was deliberately withheld from the syphilitic participants so that researchers could study the effects of untreated syphilis on these men all of the way to their deaths.  Penicillin was then, and is now, the drug that is commonly used to treat syphilis. Researchers told Tuskegee Syphilis Study participants they were being treated for syphilis when, in fact, they were not. Johns Hopkins Medicine acknowledges the participation of its faculty members and researchers in the review of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study's research data, as well as the unpublished research data gathered from the Guatemala Syphilis Experiments from 1946 to 1954. Additionally, J. Earle Moore, an associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and head of the Johns Hopkins Hospital's syphilis clinic, served as an advisor to the PHS on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Moore also chaired the 12-member PHS Syphilis Study Section. JHM stresses that Moore and the other Syphilis Study Section members associated with its School of Public Health -- Dean Lowell J. Reed, Thomas B. Turner, and Harry Eagle -- served independently of their roles as Johns Hopkins University faculty members and researchers. Historians and legal scholars, including Dr. Karen Kruse Thomas, PhD (the historian at JHM's Bloomberg School of Public Health), have linked JHM-affiliated faculty members, researchers, and alumni to human experiments in which vulnerable populations of Guatemalans were deceived and intentionally exposed to syphilis, gonorrhea and other venereal diseases and pathogens, without giving any informed consent, and denied treatment. The Guatemalan experiments targeted 1,308 school children, orphans, psychiatric hospital patients, prison inmates and military conscripts, who were deliberately infected them with the venereal diseases involved in the experiments. Prominent Johns Hopkins-affiliated researcher and alumnus -- John C. Cutler -- actively participated in the Guatemalan Syphilis Experiments, as acknowledged by JHM on September 1, 2020. "This seems like something right out of Dr. [Josef] Mengele's notebook," said Bradley Stoner, MD, past President of the American Sexually Transmitted Disease Association. Dr. Stoner compared the Guatemala Syphilis Experiments to the Nazi medical experiments inflicted upon Jews in Auschwitz during the World War II. In 2010, the Obama Administration apologized to the Republic of Guatemala for the Guatemala Syphilis Experiments.  The victims of the experiments, however, were never compensated. JHM blamed the federal government for conducting the unethical Guatemala experiments. JHM said it did not initiate, pay for, direct, or conduct the study in Guatemala. In April 2022, a U.S. District Court judge let Johns Hopkins Medicine off the hook by granting a summary judgment in the institution's favor after finding that the Guatemalan plaintiffs who sued Johns Hopkins Medicine and others did not demonstrate that JHM, as an institution, was responsible for conducting the nonconsensual STD experiments in Guatemala. Epilogue Considering its shocking and embarrassing association with U.S. government-sponsored, non-consensual, non-therapeutic medical experiments on people of color in Tuskegee and Guatemala, John Hopkins Medicine should have been leading the defense of Dr. Sherita Hill Golden against those who seek to present a sanitized version of American history that pacifies today’s anti-woke movement. Instead, JHM became a ring leader for the anti-woke crowd that attacked Dr. Golden. JHM turned on Dr. Golden because academic "truth" on racial matters outside of the narrow confines of scientific research is no longer viewed as a valuable "institutional asset." Using dog-whistle language, Elon Musk labeled Dr. Golden's editorial comments on unearned privileges as a "hit list." Of course, Musk is a bona fide member of the "White Privilege" group who showers his 21st century apartheid views upon all who are receptive to them. No one has disputed the truth and veracity of Dr. Golden's comments. Dr. Golden stated publicly what most American acknowledge privately as the truth. The people who railed against Dr. Golden's comments are, for the most part, privileged White men who are uncomfortable with a public airing of Dr. Golden's truisms. I have NOT found any member of today's anti-woke movement, including Elon Musk and Andy Harris, who embraces the truth about what happened in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and/or the Guatemalan Syphilis Experiments. Hell, they won't even acknowledge the true cause of the American Civil War.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on March 4, 2024 I ran across my old campaign brochure from when I ran for City Council in Montgomery, Alabama. As you can see from the brochure, I promised to represent the interests of my 18,000 Council District 6 constituents in an aggressive manner, which I did for four years. I financed my campaign with money from family members and close friends. I raised more money than I needed to win the race against six opponents, including a popular incumbent named Herman Harris, without a runoff. I refunded leftover campaign money to the contributors. I was elected to the City Council in October 1979.  I was the youngest person ever elected to a Council seat in Montgomery, where I served from 1979 to 1983.  I was one of four Blacks on the nine-member Council. I donated my Council salary to local charities in my District. I never took a city-paid trip to any municipal conference or workshop, in-state or out-of-state. Instead, I attended these events at my own expense. My telephone number was always publicly listed so that constituents could reach me directly on any day or at any hour. I delivered on all of the campaign promises listed in the brochure during my four-year term in office. My departure from the Council was hailed by then-Montgomery Mayor Emory Folmar as "one of the greatest blessings since the Yankee troops went home in 1870.” I took that statement as a compliment. Today, the political forces that oppose our progress are more vicious the ones I faced and fought as a Council member.  This is why voting is even more important today than it was in 1979. This is also why I hold our elected and appointed public officials to a high standard for representing our political interests. I don't ask these officials to do anything in terms of their political representation of constituents that I didn't do myself. Please vote on March 5, 2024, for the candidate of your choice! UPDATE: March 5, 2024 I voted and dropped my ballot off at my polling place.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on December 31, 2018 As 2018 comes to an end in a few hours, I thought it was the appropriate time to remind my readers how The Birmingham News (now known as AL.com) has historically portrayed me. The Scott Stantis editorial cartoon pictured below ran in the Sunday edition of the News on November 7, 1999. It depicts Birmingham's newly elected mayor, Bernard Kincaid, squashing me to death (as a blood-sucking insect). This fictional event was cause for celebration in The News' accompanying editorial. In light of the fake racist quote reporter/columnist John Archibald made up about “kicking white people’s ass” which he attributed to me in his November 29, 2018 editorial, the cartoon shows that The News has always despised me and wanted me killed off, at least figuratively speaking. In an article John Archibald published this morning, he attempted to explain away his fake quote this way: “I quoted the comment from 28-year-old memory, and that’s not a smart thing to do. I can’t prove he said it any more than he can prove he didn’t. I sure hope he did say it, because I put those words in his mouth and if they’re wrong I did him a profound disservice.” I did not say, write or publish the racist quotation. Archibald did. The burden is not on me to prove a negative fact – that I did not say the words Archibald put in my mouth.  John Archibald carries that burden because he published the false statement. Yet, Archibald readily admits he cannot prove I made the statement about “kicking white people’s ass.” What is more, the statement does not appear anywhere in the May 12, 1991 article because it was not made. Additionally, Archibald’s co-author, Bob Blalock, was present during my 1991 interview and has not confirmed this fake quotation. Finally, the two reporters taped the interview and took reporter’s notes. None of these independent sources will reflect this racist statement being made because it never happened. With this in mind, John Archibald has fallen back on a reliable Old South technique – the one that got thousands of blacks in Alabama killed and/or railroaded in the state's court system. Rather than retracting his racist quotation, he reduced his mistake to a “he said/he denied” dispute between a white and black man and based his version of events on a “faulty” memory from 27 years ago. In effect, Archibald made a "non-retraction" retraction. He also gave a half-hearted apology for his faulty memory. This is worse than fabricating his racist quotation, which, in the light most favorable to Archibald, could be characterized as a “mistake.” Standing by his published statement in the absence of proof evidences a reckless disregard for the truth. It also fosters the News' negative portrayal of me -- someone who must be killed off. In “street” language, John Archibald is no different from The Birmingham News reporters who willingly smeared the good name and character of numerous civil rights activists, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from 1956 to 1971 as part of J. Edgar Hoover’s infamous COINTEPRO program. Yes, John Archibald has done a “profound disservice” to me. In the process, he has also dishonored himself. He was a friend, but is no more. A person cannot be my friend unless he/she has the courage to do the right thing under all circumstances.  John Archibald does not have this courage. The Birmingham News was not successful in squashing me to death in 1999 and it will not be successful in killing me off in 2019. [Editor's Note: In fairness to Mayor Bernard Kincaid, he always treated me with the utmost respect. After he assumed office, Mayor Kincaid valued my newly-established commercial bank as a significant resource for growing the City.]

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on January 10, 2019 For the past two decades,The Birmingham News has established a clear pattern and practice of portraying me in the most negative light possible. The News’ negative articles and editorial cartoons on “Donald Watkins” have centered on my ability to generate business revenues as an attorney, banker, and entrepreneur. To be clear, my businesses has never focused on minority business set aside programs. To me, these programs are demeaning. I compete against mainstream companies in law, banking, energy services, and media content on a "head-to-head," competitive basis in the ordinary course of business. My businesses have been very successful in the United States and abroad. The Birmingham News has a "Donald Watkins problem" with my approach to business, especially after I became a professional journalist in 2013. I am one of the News' competitors in the online news business. My readership is growing, while The Birmingham News is struggling to stay alive and relevant. The Birmingham News Has Been Obsessed With Watkins’ Financial Success On December 31, 2018, I republished a Scott Stantis editorial cartoon that appeared in the Sunday edition of The Birmingham News on November 7, 1999. The cartoon depicts newly elected Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Bernard Kincaid squashing a blood-sucking insect (bearing my name) to death. This cartoon was a clear reference to the millions of dollars in legal fees I earned successfully representing the City of Birmingham in 74 cases during Mayor Richard Arrington, Jr.’s term in office. Arrington was Kincaid’s predecessor in office. The News wanted this revenue source stopped. Instead of killing me (figuratively speaking), Mayor Kincaid developed a healthy respect for me as a local businessman and the co-founder of Alamerica Bank. Alamerica, which was founded in 2000, received the first bank charter issued by the State of Alabama Banking Department to an African American-owned financial services institution. Kincaid served two terms as Birmingham’s mayor from 1999 to 2007. During this period, the City of Birmingham deposited a total of $40 million in Alamerica Bank, which was fully insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The City’s deposits were properly collateralized and fully protected. At the time of the deposits, Alamerica was ranked fourth nationally among its peers for return on assets by an independent community bankers association. The Bank had a track record of success that was second to none, and it was headquartered in Birmingham. If Kincaid’s decision to deposit City money into local banks had been made solely on national rankings and objective qualifications, Alamerica Bank would have won all of the City’s banking business. To promote goodwill within the City’s banking community, Mayor Kincaid also deposited City money in eight other Birmingham-area banks whose peer group rankings, capital ratios, and overall objective qualifications were inferior to Alamerica’s at the time. Many of these banks had to apply for and receive federal “bailout” money from taxpayers in order to survive the Great Recession of 2008. Alamerica Bank did not require any “bailout” money, or "corporate welfare," during the Recession. The Birmingham News Wrongfully Painted Kincaid and Watkins as “Crooks” Alamerica Bank held less than a quarter of one percent of the Birmingham market when it took in City deposits. Yet, The Birmingham News only singled out the City’s banking business with Alamerica for special criticism. On September 9, 2007, The Birmingham News published an article titled, “City is biggest customer of Watkins-founded bank.” Citing comments from Tony Plath, an associate professor of banking at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the article suggested that the act of placing the City’s deposits in a bank with political ties to Mayor Kincaid constituted a “real conflict of interest.” The article made no mention of the tangible political support Mayor Kincaid received from the other banks that held the City’s $412 million in deposits during his two terms in office. The financial contributions these banks made to political action committees supporting Kincaid apparently did not constitute a “real conflict of interest,” while the political contributions from my circle of friends and business associates did (at least in the eyes of the News). The News also published a demeaning cartoon of Bernard Kincaid in a baseball cap with “Mayor” on the front and a “Made by Watkins” tag hanging out the back. The dog-whistle message to the metro-Birmingham community was clear -- Kincaid and I were crooks. Even though I did not support Mayor Kincaid during the 1999 mayoral race, I developed a significant amount of respect for his intellect and understanding of municipal government issues, as well as his transparency in government operations. Kincaid maintained and expanded the system of checks and balances and internal financial controls we had put in place during my 14 years of service as Mayor Richard Arrington, Jr.’s special counsel. These checks and balances allowed me to investigate and stop: (a) the theft of drug informant money by Birmingham narcotics officers, (b) the theft of cash from the City’s Parole and Probation Office, (c) the theft of property from the police department’s property room, and (d) the theft of cash from various Boutwell Auditorium financial accounts. Alamerica Bank never asked Mayor Kincaid for City deposits. The Bank took in the City’s deposits because Kincaid was insistent on ending the exclusion of black-owned financial institutions from participation in the City’s banking business. Not one time during The Birmingham News’ campaign to smear my name, did this new organization disclose its own $16 million conflict of interest involving me. As detailed in “The Birmingham News’ $16 Million Undisclosed Conflict of Interest," I was an arbitrator who awarded six former Birmingham News distributors (all of whom were white) $20 million in damages on December 30, 2002 because they were the victims of the News’ serial fraudulent conduct against each one of them. The findings of fraudulent conduct and award of damages (which was reduced on appeal to $16 million) were affirmed by the Alabama Supreme Court on June 11, 2004. The Birmingham News wanted Bernard Kincaid to destroy my businesses and me when he took office in 1999. He refused. Only then, did the News embark upon a crusade to publicly disparage both of us. PHOTO: Dr. Bernard Kincaid, Ph.D., J.D., served with distinction as Birmingham, Alabama's mayor from 1999 to 2007.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on March 10, 2024 An Editorial Opinion As of 2023, the global Jewish population (those identifying as Jews above all else) was estimated at 15.7 million, or 0.2% of the 8 billion worldwide population.  Israel hosts a Jewish population of 7.2 million, followed by the United States with 6.3 million. This tiny population group has a chokehold on America’s financial markets, streams of commerce, and politicians.  This chokehold is the major reason why politicians from both major political parties have refused to publicly condemn or curb Israel’s ongoing campaign of genocide against innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Americans overwhelmingly support Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas, which conducted a terrorist attack on Israel last October that killed 1,200 Israelis and resulted in the kidnapping of 250 hostages. Regardless of who is president of the United States, America’s support of Israel is unconditional and unwavering. Using weapons of war that are supplied by America, Israel has demonstrated its willingness to annihilate innocent Palestinian babies, children, women, and men in Gaza with relentless aerial bombings, war-zone famine, and a forced deprivation of proper medical care for the civilian population. To date, Israel has killed more than 29,000 innocent Palestinians in and around Gaza since the Hamas terrorist attack in October. Under no circumstance is this killing an act of self-defense against Hamas. Instead, this is a campaign of state-sponsored campaign of genocide against a designated ethnic group (Palestinians) that is aided and abetted by America. The World's Tiny Jewish Population is Disproportionately Wealthy and Influential In an October 2023 show titled, “Six Keys,” BBC News Mundo presenter Gonzalo Cañada (in Spain) states that Israel “is seen as an American enclave in the Middle East.”  Cañada’s assessment is very true. “Although Jews are a minority in the American population, they are a powerful minority. Half of American Jews have a household income of more than $100,000 annually, while among Americans in general, the percentage with that same income barely reaches 19%,” says Cañada. “In terms of educational level, 36% of American Jews have completed a postgraduate degree, compared to 14% of the general U.S. population.  Furthermore, Jews have also found prosperous avenues in politics.  In the current [U.S. Congress], 34 congressmen . . . . declare themselves to be Jewish, while the portion of the American population that declares itself Jewish does not exceed two percent,” notes Cañada. Biblical and academic accounts of history tell us that Jews have been entrepreneurial for thousands of years.  For many decades in the United States, they were barred from owning land, from trade unions and associations, from attending many universities, from entering certain regulated professions, and from gaining membership in influential country clubs. Living under the yoke of these oppressive societal conditions, American Jews became money lenders, peddlers, merchants, and vaudeville entertainers. One European Jewish family -- the Rothschilds -- controlled the world’s money supply for more than two centuries.   In 1791, the Rothschild family gained control of America's money supply through Alexander Hamilton (the family's agent in George Washington's cabinet) when the family established a central bank in the U.S. named the First Bank of the United States, which received a 20-year charter from Congress in 1791. In 1816, Congress passed a bill authorizing a second Rothschild-dominated central bank named the Second Bank of America. In the late 1800s, the Rothschilds helped New York financier J.P. Morgan and the Drexels and Biddles of Philadelphia establish European branches of their respective banks in exchange for allowing the Rothschilds to control the banking industry in New York and, therefore, America. In 1913, the Rothschilds established their last and current central bank in America -- the Federal Reserve Bank. Even though the Federal Reserve is overseen by a board of governors appointed by the president of the United States, the bank's real control still resides with the Rothschild family. Historically, American Jews were attracted to riskier fields of business activity. They took the early risks associated with the music and entertainment business, Hollywood movies, real estate developments, casinos, multimedia companies, professional sports teams, private equity firms, hedge funds, Wall Street banks, check-cashing stores, payday lending companies, trading and investments companies, cryptocurrency exchanges, oil & gas companies, online retailers, and high-tech companies like Oracle, Google, Microsoft, Bloomberg LP, Facebook, Dell Technologies, etc. The persecution, suffering, and death of Jews around the world in pogroms of the 19th and 20th centuries clearly inspired their creativity and work ethic in business. This oppression also contributed to their laser-like focus and extensive networking skills in business. These factors, together with others, resulted in the overrepresentation of Jews among the world’s billionaires.  This explains why an estimated 50% of the world’s billionaires are Jewish, even though Jewish people make up only 0.2% of the global population. In American Politics, Money Talks Money is the lifeblood of American politics.  Cash is King!  Big money is used to place a chokehold on American politicians all of the time. The flow of campaign money from Jewish-controlled political action committees like AIPAC allows this tiny minority group to "own or rent" any politician in America, almost without exception. This is why Israel can wage a campaign of genocide against innocent Palestinian babies, children, women, and men in Gaza under Joe Biden’s presidency, without fear of adverse consequences from the U.S. This is also why former president Donald Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, despite heavy criticism from Palestinians. Such is the power of money!

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on March 9, 2024 An Editorial Opinion There is a very good reason why most Americans do not trust the federal government.  Its agencies have lied to us, repeatedly and for decades, about nearly everything. For example, federal government agencies lied to Americans about the disgraceful Tuskegee Syphilis Study and Guatemalan Syphilis Experiments, the FBI's racist COINTELPRO activities, the secret Iran-Contra Affair, the existence of the Pentagon Papers, the futile Vietnam War, the non-existent “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq, the so-called "soundness" of America's Social Security program, the messy and losing Afghan-United States Conflict, bailouts for Wall Street banks and other corporate thugs, illegal domestic spying on Americans, the origin of COVID-19 and "benefits" of mask mandates, the amount and kind of weapons and aid required to adequately support Ukraine in the Ukraine-Russia War, the crisis at our southern border, and the genocide of Palestinians by Israel in the Israel-Hamas War. For agencies like the CIA and Pentagon, lying is embedded within their cultures.  They have rarely told the truth about anything that potentially embarrasses them. For example, the CIA has been assassinating foreign leaders and undermining democratically elected governments in other countries, unabated, for decades. Of course, the CIA publicly denies these events. Since August 2005, the Pentagon has classified its internal executive-level investigation into the 2005 murder of 19-year-old Army Private LaVena Johnson in Balad, Iraq by a five-star Army general as "Top Secret," even though the Pentagon immediately and publicly labeled Private Johnson's murder as a "suicide" on the same day she was killed. The newest lie birthed in Washington comes to us in the form of a 63-page Pentagon report on UFOs.  The report, which was released on March 6, 2024, is complete and total “bullshit.” Every section in the new report is worded in such a way so as to avoid full disclosure of known material facts on UFOs.  The report parses its wording regarding identified UFO sightings to (a) evade the truth and (b) leave enough wiggling room for the government agencies responsible for investigating UFOs to come clean in case they are later caught in their web of lies. Civilians authorities who oversee the Pentagon and America's Intelligence agencies are incapable of getting the truth out of them.  These agencies have lied to U.S. presidents, White House staffers, Cabinet members, members of Congress, and the courts, with impunity. Despite numerous UFO sightings captured on sophisticated aircraft video cameras and cockpit instruments by experienced military pilots who flew our most advanced fighter jets, the Pentagon report claims that (a) UFOs do not exist and (b) there is no evidence that our government possesses extraterrestrial materials, spacecraft, or technology. The new Pentagon report falls within the category of “bullshit” Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Georgia) peddled to Americans when he likened the ugly and violent January 6th riot at the Capitol that was captured on video cameras to a "normal tourist visit." In other words, the Pentagon does not want us to believe what our eyes have seen.  Instead, we should place our blind trust in untrustworthy government agencies. This new Pentagon report has value ONLY if the paper upon which it is written can be softened to tissue paper quality and used as toilet paper. Americans are so sick and tired of our federal government lying to us about nearly everything. The military industrial complex President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about as he left office in January 1961 has absolutely zero respect for any U.S. president, member of Congress, member of the judiciary, head of a government agency, or the American public. The Pentagon and Intelligence agencies are simply incapable of telling the American people "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.” Today, every report coming out of Washington seems to be predicated upon a steady stream of self-serving “alternative facts.”  Frankly, the peddlers of this kind of government-issued "bullshit" are doing a great disservice to the American people.