By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on January 6, 2021 Sixteen years after 19-year-old Army Private LaVena Johnson was murdered on a U.S. military base in Balad, Iraq in July 2005, there is finally an opportunity for justice in her case when the Joe Biden/Kamala Harris administration assumes office on January 20, 2021. Private Johnson, who was black, was murdered by four-star general Kevin P. Byrnes (retired), who is white. Rather than prosecuting Byrnes, the Pentagon decided to kick him out of the Army in August 2005, some 3 months prior to Byrnes’ announced retirement date. What is more, Army investigators classified Private Johnson’s death as a “suicide” within hours after her death. Yet, the Pentagon maintains a “Top Secret” classified file on Private Johnson’s “suicide” that can only be released to the public with the personal signatures of the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Private Johnson’s “suicide” was the subject of a private briefing between the Commander of Iraqi Operation and Secretary of Defense with President George W. Bush in August 2005. The Pentagon never gave a reason for classifying Johnson’s suicide as “Top Secret”. I published a series of exclusive articles, commencing in February 2016, that solved the murder of Private Johnson and unmasked Gen. Byrnes as her murder. These articles are linked here: The Murder of Pfc LaVena Johnson – Part 1, The Murder of Pfc LaVena Johnson – Part 2, The Murder of Pfc LaVena Johnson – Part 3, and Solving the Murder of Army Private LaVena Johnson as well as Epilogue on Army Pfc LaVena Johnson's Murder and The Pentagon Should Do the Right Thing in Private Johnson’s Murder Case. The article that disclosed the secret Pentagon file is linked here: Private Johnson’s Murder Classified as a National Security Matter. After publication of these articles, every federal law enforcement agency in the U.S. subjected me to a Blitzkrieg of investigations. After the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey refused to indict me on bogus fraud charges, the U. S. Attorney in Birmingham, Alabama volunteered to do so. I was charged, tried and convicted in a pro-prosecution courtroom, and sentenced to prison, where I have been subjected to abuse by staffers and placed in harm’s way as a course of conduct. The Donald Trump administration had no interest in investigating Private LaVena Johnson’s murder and prosecuting Gen Byrnes. Hopefully, Biden and Harris will. This black life – Private LaVena Johnson – should matter to all Americans. We finally have an opportunity for justice for Private Johnson and her family. Those who aided and abetted the coverup of Private Johnson’s murder should also be prosecuted. All articles are shared on Facebook and Twitter. If you would like to follow Donald Watkins, please click on these links and hit the follow button: https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins https://twitter.com/donaldvwatkins

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on December 13, 2020 When President-elect Joe Biden assumes office on January 20, 2021, he should immediately fire all three U.S. Attorneys in Alabama and their First Assistant U.S. Attorneys. Biden can designate career prosecutors to Alabama’s Northern, Middle and Southern judicial districts until his permanent U.S. Attorneys are appointed and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. For the most part, the individuals appointed to these positions in Alabama during President Donald J. Trump’s single term in office are political hacks who used their official positions to resurrect, implement and oversee the Department of Justice’s documented COINTELPRO program that targets black civil rights activists and political dissidents for harassment, persecution, and prosecution on trumped-up charges in pro-prosecution courts. COINTELPRO activities are rampant in all three federal judicial districts in Alabama. On January 21, 2020, we highlighted a clear case of COINTELPRO conduct by the Alabama Middle District U.S. Attorney’s Office in an article titled, “God Wears a Robe – Part 3: Railroading Alabama Attorney Christopher Pitts”. The article detailed the Department of Justice’s blatant and unforgivable racism and selective prosecution of Christopher Pitts. A “De Facto” U.S. Attorney COINTELPRO activities are more acute in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama. Since 2017, the office has been run by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Lloyd Peeples. Even though President Trump appointed Jay Town as the U.S. Attorney in 2017, Town never moved from Huntsville to Birmingham to run the operations from the office’s Birmingham headquarters. Instead, Town simply collected the executive salary for the job and handed over operations control to Peeples, who became the “de facto” U.S. Attorney. Lloyd Peeples comes from a family with a history of discrimination against black people. Peeples' father was a Dothan, Alabama businessman who held extremely negative racial views toward African-Americans. Peeple’s family sent him to a private academy in Marietta, Georgia that was established as a haven for white children whose parents opposed court-ordered desegregation of public schools. In college, Peeples wrote and published articles in his college newspaper that highly criticized the University’s efforts to increase its enrollment of women and minorities. Prior to joining Jay Town, Peeples ran a struggling pizza restaurant in a Birmingham suburb. Before that, Peeples served a short and lackluster stint as an Assistant U.S. Attorney under George Bush-appointee Alice Martin. A Sanctuary for Modern-Day Racism The Jay Town/Lloyd Peeples duo found a sanctuary within the halls of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. This court has long served as a citadel in Alabama for the unfair treatment of black civil litigants and criminal defendants. The court was an original participant in the DOJ’s formal COINTELPRO program. In 1980, the judges of the Northern District court tried in vain to block the appointment and confirmation of longtime civil rights attorney U. W. Clemon to the federal bench. Clemon prevailed and became the first black federal judge in Alabama. Later, several of Clemon’s colleagues on the Northern District bench worked behind the scenes to have Judge Clemon indicted on trumped-up federal wire and mail fraud charges in 1996. This racist attempt was unsuccessful as well. A couple of these federal judges regularly referred to Black lawyers and their African American clients as “niggers” in their conversations with law clerks, in handwritten notes passed between the judges and their law clerks, and in closed door court proceedings. During his first stint in the U.S. Attorney’s office, Peeples reportedly despised Clemon, who eventually served as the Chief Judge of the Court before retiring in 2009. While serving as First Assistant U.S. Attorney and “de facto” U.S. Attorney, Peeples began to resurrect, implement, and oversee the modern-day version of COINTELPRO in the Northern District. Everything in his life has prepared Peeples for this throwback COINTELPRO assignment. Epilogue If Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are sincere in their stated goal of promoting social justice in America, the best place to start is by purging the Trump-era COINTELPRO prosecutors in Alabama as soon as the new administration assumes office. There is no place in the federal criminal justice system for political hacks in the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in Alabama who get off on railroading blacks as a white supremacy sporting event. Because most federal judges in Alabama coddle new-era COINTELPRO prosecutors, Biden and Harris will have to remediate and police this embedded racism from Washington. Jay Town left the U.S. Attorney’s Office on his own in 2020. Biden and Harris must send Peeples and his kind to that special place where Southerners keep their Confederate flags, Civil War monuments, Alabama Sovereignty Commission files, COINTELPRO records, “Good Ol’ Boys Roundup memorabilia and memories of defeated despots. PHOTO: Lloyd Peeples ran a "Your Pie" pizza restaurant in Homewood, Alabama before he took over the U.S. Attorneys Office in Birmingham in October 2017.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on December 27, 2020 By the end of my fifth month at the Talladega Federal Correctional Institution, I had investigated, documented, and submitted a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) “whistleblower” complaint on widespread corruption at the prison camp where I was housed. The prison was a cesspool of fraud, waste, and abuse. My January 27, 2020 OIG complaint was “confidential” and warned the DOJ that prison officials would retaliate against me if the complaint was revealed to Talladega officials. During the course of my 47-year legal career, I have reported public corruption to law enforcement agencies on numerous occasions. As former prosecutor and special counsel to heads of several governments, I have purged over two dozen “dirty” cops from police departments. I have prosecuted police officers for murder and other crimes. I have forced COINTELPRO federal prosecutors in Alabama to resign their jobs. I have also forced corrupt federal, state and local judges to resign from the bench. My track record in fighting public corruption is second to none. However, nothing in my professional background prepared me for the cesspool of corruption I discovered at FCI Talladega. It was out of control. What is more, the prison had a contraband trafficking ring that operated from the Warden’s office and its Special Investigative Services (SIS) Unit. Items of contraband included cellular phones and their chargers, tobacco, marijuana and drugs. “Stash houses” for the contraband were located in the Warden’s office, the SIS unit, and at the prison’s warehouse facilities. Contraband items were sourced by prison officials and distributed within the inmate population by trusted inmates. Within the prison camp where I was located, there were at least two trusted contraband dealers/resellers who flooded the place with contraband. Between April 27 and May 6, 2020, several Talladega prison officials who were implicated in the OIG complaint learned of its existence. The retaliation was immediate, harsh, and unrelenting. On May 12, 2020, a prison correctional officer “planted” a cellphone charger in my dormitory locker after my dorm had been evacuated for a security search. An article published on November 7, 2020 and titled “OIG Complaint Reports Widespread Corruption at the Talladega Federal Prison” describes how prison officials framed me in this incident. I have been isolated from the general prison population since May 12th. DOJ’s Response Donald Trump’s DOJ viewed OIG “whistleblower” complaints with considerable disdain. Trump openly castigated “whistleblowers”. No DOJ official has interviewed me about the fraud, waste and abuse at FCI Talladega. Instead, the DOJ has permitted prison officials to place me in harm’s way for black mold inhalation, lead poisoning in Talladega’s water supply, COVID-19 exposure and a host of other dangerous conditions. The ”defacto” U.S. Attorney in Birmingham, Alabama is Lloyd Peeples, a new-wave COINTELPRO federal prosecutor who runs the office’s day-to-day operations. He has turned a blind eye toward the contraband trafficking ring at FCI Talladega for reasons that are explained in an article titled, “Biden Must Quickly Fire COINTELPRO Prosecutors”. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons in Washington has followed Trump’s lead in ignoring OIG “whistleblower” complaints. The Bureau’s “see no evil”, “hear no evil” approach allowed the corruption at FCI Talladega to flourish in 2019 and 2020. On the morning of the May 12th dormitory search, FCI Talladega Camp Unit Manager Destiney Lassiter/Brooks assured me that I would have a “bad” day. She obviously knew that a phone charger would be “planted” in my locker and this incident would be used to punish me. Two weeks later, Lassiter assured me that I would lose my contest of the bogus phone charger infraction. She was right. Lassiter is also one of the prison employees implicated in the OIG complaint. Lassiter has a history of using inmate labor for her personal benefit. Inmates who accommodate Lassiter’s personal requests received special treatment, including an early release from prison. SIS Unit’s Involvement The prison’s SIS Unit is supposed to police inmate and officer misconduct. Surprisingly, the contraband trafficking ring at FCI Talladega is sourced and coordinated by a high ranking SIS officer who reportedly has a special but undisclosed relationship with one of the trusted inmate dealers/resellers. This relationship allowed the trafficking ring to operate without fear of disruption or adverse consequences. Fortunately, there are documentary records and electronic footprints that can help a competent and unbiased investigator confirm the existence of the trafficking ring and identify the nature and scope of each person’s participation in these crimes. I will connect the dots for qualified and capable investigators who are NOT trying to cover-up these crimes. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Birmingham is too compromised to conduct this criminal investigation. Interestingly, FCI Talladega officials freed two of the trafficking ring’s principal participants during the summer using COVID-19 as their cover. Both inmates were serial drug offenders. One was reported to have a familial relationship with the high-ranking SIS officer/participant. Next Steps After the new Biden/Harris administration and members of Congress assume office in late January, I will make all of my supporting evidence available to the staffs of the U.S. House and Senate Judiciary Committees for referral to the appropriate federal agencies. Obviously, somebody in a position of authority at Talladega was asleep at the wheel. Otherwise, the public corruption at Talladega would never have reached such epic proportions. Efforts by FCI Talladega officials to discredit me as the “whistleblower” will likely fail. The same is true for Birmingham COINTELPRO federal prosecutor Lloyd Peeples. My experience and training in detecting, investigating, and rooting out public corruption prepared me on how to document and report it to the proper authorities. The evidence is there in a permanent format. This criminal case can be made without my testimony, but only if a legitimate federal prosecutor pursues it. All articles are shared on Facebook and Twitter. If you would like to follow Donald Watkins, please click on these links and hit the follow button: https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins https://twitter.com/donaldvwatkins

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on December 25, 2020 To my Family, Friends, Supporters, and Fellow Political Prisoners around the world: I bring you greetings on this special day – the day Christians all over the globe celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. To this day, Jesus was the greatest man to ever walk the earth. He is recognized in every major religion in the world. Jesus was the earthly son in the flesh of our Lord God. No man was more powerful than Jesus. He could summon twelve legions of angels to fight for him at a moment’s notice -- 36,000 to 72,000 angels. In 2 Kings 19:35, we are told that a single angel killed 185,000 Assyrians in one night. Yet, Jesus never waged war on any man, or empire, or army. Jesus was born in poverty and spent his adult life homeless. He owned no earthly possessions. He was mocked by the Jewish Pharisees and the Roman occupiers of Judea. Jesus lived and preached among the “least of these”. He gave sight to the blind; healed the sick (among Gentiles and Jews); he cleansed the lepers; he gave hearing to the deaf; he fed the hungry and gave the thirsty wine to drink; and he raised the dead among those who were faithful. Jesus stopped the capital punishment of a woman who was accused of adultery. In contrast, no “establishment” figure stopped the Jews of Romans from arresting Jesus on bogus charges, trying him before Pontius Pilate, scourging him, and crucifying him. Instead, they relished in Jesus’s execution much like today’s death penalty zealots relish in the executions of the “least of these”. Jesus gave us a code of conduct called the “Beatitudes” (Matthew 5:1-11) and a “Lord’s Prayer” (Matthew 6:9-15). He loved everyone and hated no one. He was a “giver”, not a “taker”. Jesus never hated on any group of human beings for any reason. He called the Pharisees “hypocrites” because that is what they were. Yet, he never attacked them or their authority within the Jewish faith. Jesus ministered to children; he did not molest them. He respected eunuchs, instead of belittling them. Nowhere in the New Testament did Jesus bash same-sex couples or marriages. Many claim to speak for Jesus, but very few have followed his Christian teachings. Most Christians talk the Christian talk, but not many are willing to lead the life of love and giving that Jesus practiced. As strange as it may seem, I have seen more examples of Christian living in prison than I ever saw in the free world. In prison, all inmates – political prisoners and common law prisoners – are treated by their captors as the “least of these”. We languish in a system of legal slavery that is authorized in the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. I have witnessed intellectual growth, courage, wisdom and generosity that I never saw on the “street”. I have seen men stand up to the abuse of their captors and endure psychological torture without breaking, showing a strength and resilience that defies the imagination. At the same time, I have seen a glimmer of humanity in prison guards grow into a measure of respect for their captives. Jesus taught us there is “goodness” in every man and woman. It is our job to find this “goodness” and grow it. As you exchange material gifts today, please remember that humanity is the greatest gift of all. Give it freely and in an unselfish manner. Love your friends and enemies, alike. Lead by example. Celebrate life every day. Thank God for whatever you have. And, thank God for sharing his son, Jesus, with us. My gift to all of you is a book I read at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta that was written by David Nassar titled, “A Call to Die”, Redemption Art Publishing (2000). Along with Dr. Howard Thurman’s book, “Jesus and the Disinherited”, Nassar’s book is one of the three best books in the world on the life of Jesus. The third book is the Holy Bible. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was my childhood Sunday School teacher, pastor, and Baptist Training Union instructor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama during the early 1950s. He kept a copy of Thurman’s book with him at all times. He would have loved Nasser’s book, which embodies all of Dr. King’s Sunday School lessons. It is a powerful book. I love all of you, and Merry Christmas! God is good. He is always present in our lives. He is the source of my strength and courage each day.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on November 28, 2020 November 3, 2020 marked the beginning of the end to the 4-year reign of President Donald J. Trump. American voters ended Trump’s bid for re-election. During his only term in office, voters came to see Trump for who he really is – a racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, crude, narcissistic, corrupt, unfit, and morally bankrupt despot. Trump ran the presidency with an ironclad fist. He ran through White House staffers, cabinet appointees and other top administration officials like he ran through wives and girlfriends. Many Republican members of Congress, who privately expressed their dislike of Trump, lived in fear of him because Trump and his FOX talk show media allies would scourge any public figure who openly criticized the President. Trump’s cavalier attitude towards the deadly coronavirus proved to be his undoing. Even though Trump's national security advisor privately warned Trump in January of 2020 that the virus was highly contagious and extremely deadly, Trump ignored this advice. He publicly proclaimed that COVID-19 was the Democrat’s newest “hoax” and that the virus would go away like the “flu”. Trump was wrong on both counts. Today, there are 13,454,346 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 271,029 Americans have lost their lives to the virus. Trump vs. Hitler The international world had not seen an authoritarian leader like Donald Trump since Adolf Hitler seized control of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. The Aryan nationalism espoused by Hitler sounds and feels a lot like Trump’s “Make America Great Again” political theme and action plan. Hitler enjoyed the popular support of “good” Germans who focused on (a) the improved German economy, (b) Hitler’s anti-immigration policies that targeted Jews, gay, gypsies, and Black Germans and (c) the growing industrialization of Germany. These “good” Germans turned a blind eye to Hitler’s atrocities. Trump enjoyed the popular support of “good” Republicans who once championed (a) sound fiscal policy, (b) limited national government, (c) ethical government, (d) protecting the world from tyrants and dictators, (e) military might, and (f) family values. Over the last 4 years, they only championed Donald Trump, warts and all. The actually idolized him. Like Hitler’s fanatics in Nazi Germany, Trump’s supporters showed they would tolerate his intolerable conduct whenever Trump demonized and castigated entire segments of the national population and others (i.e. Jewish people, African-Americans, Muslims, gays, immigrants of color, “shithole” countries, etc.) The faces in the crowds at Trump rallies mirrored the faces in the crowds at Hitler’s rallies in Nazi Germany. Nobody in Nazi Germany reigned in Hitler’s abuses of power. Nobody in the Republican Party reigned in Trump’s abuses of power and pettiness. Hitler and Trump reshaped their respective government cabinets and federal judiciaries in their own ideological images. Hitler and Trump were known for their cold-blooded ruthlessness, which appealed to the worst instincts in their diehard political bases. For 4 years, Trump succeeded in redefining America in his own image – self-centered, untrustworthy as an ally, unethical, immoral, hypocritical, untruthful, devoid of character, hostile towards people of color, intolerant of religious differences, tyrannical and rudderless. Unlike Hitler’s violent demise in Nazi Germany, American voters decided on November 3rd to end Trump’s reign of terror. This was the day a majority of voters decided to “Make America Great Again” by ridding the nation of a despot named Donald Trump. This is what makes America the greatest democracy the world has ever known. We use ballots rather than bullets to end authoritarian rule. Nuremburg-Like Trials Warranted Starting on January 20, 2021, Americans will learn the full extent of the atrocities committed by the Donald Trump regime against (a) immigrants of color at the Southern border, (b) Muslims seeking lawful entry into the country, (c) African-Americans and working poor people seeking upward mobility and (d) a host of other groups deemed “undesirable” by Trump and senior presidential advisor, Stephen Miller. The nation will likely need to hold Nuremburg-like trials for senior Trump cabinet members and White House staffers who ordered these atrocities committed to ingratiate themselves to Trump. Most of these atrocities were committed by the Departments of State and Homeland Security and senior White House staffers. The criminal indictments should be handed down in Washington, D.C. and the trials should be conducted in that venue, as well. These trials are essential for the nation to heal itself and for America to return to its coveted role as the “Leader of the Free World”. We must show the people of China, Russia, and North Korea how America deals with homegrown despots when their conduct in office shocks the conscience of humanity. Epilogue Trump will likely pardon himself and his family members for any and all federal crimes committed while he was in office. True to his nature, Trump will leave his subordinates exposed and hanging. Trump did exactly this during each one of his six bankruptcies. Republicans can appropriately distance themselves from Trump the same way the “good” Germans distanced themselves from Hitler at the end of World War II – they can say they would not have supported Trump had they known about his atrocities against the groups he persecuted. We can and must forgive them. As Jesus said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Matthew 12:25. Trump can now take his rightful place in the dustbin of history of deposed despots.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on November 23, 2020 Some of my friends and supporters have asked why I continue to write and publish articles from my prison cell. They realize that senior officials within the U.S Bureau of Prisons and Department of Justice are punishing me for doing so. I agree with their assessment, but the issue is larger than me. Much of what the world knows about the black experience in America was written by white historians, novelists, and journalists over the last 400 years. I call them “scribes” who were free to reimagine the subversiveness, resistance and intelligence of Africans, African slaves and freed “Negroes” to confront the slave trade, colonial histories, legal codes, America’s Civil War realities, Jim Crow laws and customs, modern-day slavery under the 13th Amendment, the fascism within Trumpism, and political treatises and policies that pertain to the same people in quite different terms. In the South, these “scribes” willingly participated in the legal and social systems that subjugated, degraded and harmed Black Americans. To a large extent, they still do. In Alabama, where I was first imprisoned, The Birmingham News, Montgomery Advisor, and Mobile Press Register are examples of media organizations that gleefully collaborated with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, as well as federal and state court judges, who railroaded and persecuted law-abiding Black citizens as part of the FBI’s notoriously racist COINTELPRO counter-intelligence program (1956 to 1971) and the “Good Ol’ Boys Roundup” (1980-1995) that targeted civil rights activists and political dissidents for persecution and destruction. While these formal programs have been disbanded, informal versions of them are in full swing today in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The most hostile place for an African American today is inside a federal courtroom in one of these Deep South states. They will not call blacks a “nigger” in open court, but they certainly will treat us like one. Reducing Oral Histories to Written Ones Starting in 2013, I decided to tell my own story about life in the “Cradle of the Confederacy” and “Heart of Dixie”. I have done it on a continuous basis in my own words in about 900 vignette articles I have published since 2013. These articles cover every aspect of my life. Prison life is but one chapter in my 72-year stride toward freedom and dignity as a Black man. Since my imprisonment on August 28, 2019, I am still searching for adequate words to describe the egregious mistreatment of black and brown inmates who are technically and legally classified as modern-day “slaves” under the plain language of the 13th Amendment. If Black captives do not write their own histories, our captors will. When they do, it is usually distorted, biased and ugly. Take the case of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for example. He spent more aggregate time in jail than me. Southern whites, including members of the clergy, labeled King a “criminal” and “outside agitator”. The FBI proclaimed Dr. King as the most “dangerous Negro in America”. They call the man who was my Sunday School teacher, pastor and BTU instructor a “thug”, a “filthy animal” and an “evil, abnormal beast”. The man who taught me the Beatitudes (Matthew 5: 1-10) and held our small hands in a circle of Sunday School children as we sang “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so…”, was on the receiving end of an unrelenting campaign by the FBI, Alabama media, and racist Alabama state and federal judges to force Dr. King to commit suicide in 1963. When their effort was unsuccessful, Dr. King was murdered. I learned from Dr. King to define one’s self to the world in the books you author, the articles you publish, the speeches you give and through your good works under the most difficult of circumstances. It does not matter how our enemies define us. It only matters how we see and define ourselves. The Biggest and Most Unforgivable Lie in American History Finally, the biggest and most unforgivable lie in American history compels me to document my own journey. This lie involves white America’s reckless disregard for the truth about who really discovered the Americas. Whites universally credit the Italian born explorer, Christopher Columbus, as the person who “discovered” the Americas in 1492. This is an embedded lie in our American culture, history books, and folklore. We even celebrate Columbus in a national holiday. Thus, it is a “lie with legs”. In truth, West Africans “discovered” the Americas as early as 1311 and traversed the Atlantic ocean in expeditionary fleets from 1311 to 1460. King Abubakari the Second of Mali established trade routes and villages in the Americas during this period. African tribes that established their presence in the New World from 1311 to 1460 included the Charrúa of Brazil, the black Caribs of Saint Vincent in the Gulf of Mexico, the Yamasee of Florida, and many other “true Negroes” from Africa who were well-known to Spaniards in 1492. Noted anthropologist Ivan Van Sertima meticulously documented this profound and deliberate omission from American history books in his critically acclaimed book titled, “They Came Before Columbus”, (New York: Random House, 1976). World famous historian James W. Loewen embraced Sertima’s work in “Lies My Teacher Told Me”. (Touchstone Books, 2007) If American “scribes” will lie to us about who really “discovered” the Americas, how can we ever trust them to tell the truth about the life experiences of “Inmate No. 36223-001”? So, I must tell my own story, regardless of the adverse consequences from my captors. If I do not, those who have never lifted a finger to promote the fair administration of justice for people of color will use the imprimatur of their offices to write a version of history that favors and furthers their continued dominance over and abuse of people of color. The fire that is burning inside of me will not allow that to happen. Nothing but death will silence my voice and stop my writing. Epilogue For these friends and readers who still do not understand my attitude in this regard, they should read Howard Thurman’s book, “Jesus and the Disinherited” (Abingdon Press, 1949; republished by Beacon Press, 1976 and 1996). Dr. King traveled with this book everywhere he went. Thurman’s book is relevant to this article because it explains why I fear no man, but I do fear God. It also explains why “hatred” is too much of a burden for me to bear, and why I must “love” my enemies. Finally, this book explains the importance of a recorded history that is free of cultural deception and bias. Only I can deliver a pristine recorded history of my life and imprisonment. Dr. King showed me how to do this in his April 16, 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”. Federal prosecutors in Birmingham recently said I have “disdain” for the federal criminal justice system. I do not. I only have “disdain” for those inside the system who pervert it. All articles are shared on Facebook and Twitter. If you would like to follow Donald Watkins, please click on these links and hit the follow button: https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins https://twitter.com/donaldvwatkins

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on November On November 8, 2020, I published an article titled, “OIG Complaint Reports Widespread Corruption at the Talladega Federal Prison”. In the article, I demonstrated via prison documents how Talladega prison officials trumped up a phony cellphone charger infraction against me after they discovered a confidential January 27, 2020 complaint I filed with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General that documented fraud, waste, theft of government property and abuse at the prison. I appealed disciplinary sanctions that were imposed upon me for this phony charge by a hand-picked Bureau of Prisons disciplinary hearing officer. On September 18, 2020 the Bureau’s Regional Office agreed with the hearing officer and upheld the sanctions. A prison executive, who is implicated in the OIG complaint promised me the appeal would be denied a day before I filed it on May 28, 2020. I had 30 days from September 18th to appeal the Regional Office’s adverse decision to the Bureau’s Washington office. I did not know about this adverse decision because the Regional Office’s denial letter ( which was delivered to the Warden’s office on October 15, 2020) was not delivered to me until October 25th, 2020 – 5 days after the time for an appeal had expired. No reason was given by the Warden for this delay. I filed an appeal to the Washington office anyway and mailed it off on October 23, 1010. On October 29th, I made a written request to Warden Cheron Nash for (a) a copy of the hearing officer’s 2-page report, (b) a copy of the three evidence photos, and (c) the 1-page “Chain of Custody Log”. [Click here to see my October 29, 2020 Request for Documents] I informed the Warden that I needed immediate action on this request because the documents were needed to support my legal position on appeal. Warden Nash is one of the executives implicated in the OIG complaint. Hearing nothing from Warden Nash, I made a second request for the same six pages of documents on November 5, 2020. I pointed out that “I should not have to beg for Bureau of Prison documents I need for my appeal…If I am not entitled to these documents for any reason, please let me know ASAP.” [Click to see November 5, 2020 Request for Documents] On November 10, 2020 at 2:30 p.m. a prison counselor brought me the Warden’s written response, unsigned and undated. It simply said, “Mr. Watkins, you will need to request these documents through a FOIA request. The DHO Report can be requested through your Unit Team.” A FOIA request takes 4-6 months to fulfill. My appeal in Washington will be decided by then. Furthermore, the Warden is over my Unit Team, which still has not provided me with a copy of the DHO report. Today’s article, along with the November 8th article on widespread corruption at the Talladega prison, provides an inside look at why this corruption flourishes. Not a single investigator or prosecutor has asked me a question about the detailed and documented fraud, waste, theft and abuse presented in the OIG complaint. On September 2, 2020, Warden Nash wrote that my “Conduct Disrupts” the operations of the prison with the “Greatest Severity”. In the span of 7 months, I have gone from the inmate with the lowest Risk Assessment Level in the prison population to the greatest threat to prison operations, all because a cellphone charger was “planted” in my locker by a prison guard after executives discovered my January 27th OIG complaint. Regardless, if I see fraud, waste, theft, and abuse in a federal prison, I will report it. This is my affirmative duty as an officer of the court. The people with the sworn duty to stop this public corruption will not do so because of the individuals involved. Stay tuned! All articles are shared on Facebook and Twitter. If you would like to follow Donald Watkins, please click on these links and hit the follow button: https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins https://twitter.com/donaldvwatkins

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on November 17, 2020 The plot to overthrow the duly elected government of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris began in earnest on Monday, November 9, 2020. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper refused to participate in the coup d’état and was promptly fired that day by defeated incumbent president Donald J. Trump. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) bought into the plot and gave a speech on the Senate Floor on November 9th signaling his buy-in. Attorney General William Barr bought into the plot immediately after the November 3rd election. On November 9th, Barr sent a memo to all of his 94 U.S. Attorneys and FBI agents ordering them to investigate voter fraud in connection with the November 3rd presidential election, even though the Trump Campaign has failed to produce any credible evidence of voter fraud in any of the lawsuits it has filed since the election. The chief of the Department of Justice’s election crimes division, Richard Pilger, abruptly resigned on November 9th over the issuance of Barr’s memo, which marks the first time in 40 years that the Department has initiated criminal investigations into election activities without any proof of illegal criminal conduct. The last time this scenario occurred, the Department was targeting black voters in Southern states for voter harassment and voter suppression. Mike Pence is silent. He reportedly is scared to death about his involvement in Trump’s coup d’état. The U.S. Supreme Court is packed 5-4 in Trump’s favor. Five of the High Court’s six conservatives are ideological clones of Donald Trump. Amy Coney Barrett, the Court’s newest Justice, is not a Trump clone. Barrett’s independence is anchored in her personal and professional integrity, which is beyond reproach. Trump has also appointed nearly 200 other judges to federal appeals and trial courts around the nation. With these appointments, Trump has saturated the federal judiciary with political hacks who, for the most part, received lifetime appointments to the federal bench based upon their ability to kiss Trump’s derriere. The Acting Secretary of Defense, Christopher Miller, will coordinate with Barr on a plan to use the military and federal agents to maintain “law and order” during and after the coup d’etat. Trump has already alluded to a nationwide military presence to distribute new COVID-19 vaccines. Now, the military will add a “law and order” function, as well. Detention centers at U. S. military bases across the country are ready to house Americans who violently resist the coup. Federal prosecutors will target swing states like Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia for Barr’s voter fraud criminal investigations. The Grand Jury Secrecy Act provides a cloak of secrecy for federal prosecutors to do their dirty deeds behind closed doors and beyond the reach of judiciary scrutiny. These probes are fishing expeditions that target people and Democratic Party G-O-T-V organizations rather than crimes. Unsupervised and politically motivated federal prosecutors can “twist” any lawful political activity into “voter fraud”. Prosecutors do not have to nullify Joe Biden’s 5 million vote lead over Donald Trump. They only have to invalidate a sufficient number of votes in the swing states to take away Biden’s lead in these states. This will make Trump the putative Electoral College winner. The federal grand jury probes will also have the operative effect of stopping Republican secretaries of state in swing states from certifying the final vote tabulation by the deadlines for certification. Furthermore, they will stop the Federal Election Commission from certifying the presidential winner, as well. There will be no official winner declared for the 2020 presidential election while the grand jury probes continue. A federal grand jury probe can last from 18 to 24 months. The probes in the swing states will last for 24 months. With no declared winner of the presidential election on or before January 20th, 2021, Trump will suspend the U.S. Constitution’s provisions relating to the presidential election and declare martial law, citing the ongoing federal criminal probes. Of course, the Grand Jury Secrecy Act will provide Trump cover for not disclosing the nature and extent of the voter fraud under investigation. During this period, most of Trump’s U.S. Attorneys will remain in office beyond January 20, 2021 to implement the coup. It should be apparent to everyone by now that Donald Trump is NOT leaving the presidency on January 20, 2021. His is ushering his concept of “minority-rule” into the new paradigm of American politics. Trump and Barr hold all of the executive power in Washington. They also control all of the federal agencies needed to implement this coup. Joe Biden and a majority of voters in the November 3rd election hold none of the reigns of power in Washington. Trump and Barr also know most federal judges are nothing but judicial fluffers for prosecutors. They only show backbone when body-slamming black, brown and poor defendants in their courtrooms. Trump is a despot who is willing to do anything to stay in office. Trump has always placed his self-interest above the national interest. Is a second American Civil War on the horizon? Will Americans support the imposition of martial law by a president who lost the popular vote and Electoral college? Will Trump’s refusal to leave the White House result in the mutually assured destruction of America’s 233-year-old democracy? We shall see! All articles are shared on Facebook and Twitter. If you would like to follow Donald Watkins, please click on these links and hit the follow button: https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins https://twitter.com/donaldvwatkins

By: Donald Watkins Copyrighted and Published on October 11, 2020 Thursday, September 24, 2020 was a great day for me, as I celebrated in the small, dingy prison cell where I am locked down 24 hours per day, seven days per week. I have been confined in this maximum-security prison cell since May 12, 2020. Yet, I still found cause to celebrate several milestone achievements. That morning, I finished a 4-month-long daily task of organizing the notes and data I need to write up my advance math/physic team’s formal document for the phenomena that is mathematically defined as the Navier-Stokes Equation. The document that will take 3 months to write, explains the phenomena observed, predicts its frequency and duration, and presents the applied physics needed to mitigate these phenomena in order to achieve the desired military application. I am hopeful that our solutions to the complex mathematical and physics theorems presented in the Navier-Stokes Equation will earn my team of intellectuals a nomination for the Nobel Prize in physics. In the afternoon, I spoke on the phone to my daughter, Claudia, who is preparing to leave Alabama to attend graduate school at the internationally acclaimed University of Exeter in Exeter, UK. I introduced Claudia to international business and finance when she was 15-years-old. She traveled to London with me and attended all of my business meetings as my intern. Now, Claudia is living her dreams (and mine, too). After my call with Claudia ended, I saw my T-Dorm roommate, George Washington Dunn, Jr. Like me, George has also been in the “Hole” since May 12, 2020. George informed me that his long-awaited release from prison was imminent. I was elated. George is the first inmate I assisted in securing his freedom and is the seventh one to win his freedom since I arrived at the Talladega prison on August 28, 2019. I have written an article about George that will be published after he leaves the prison. George is a remarkable 62-year-old man who should have been released 2 years ago under the Elderly Offender Program in the First Step Act of2018. When nightfall came, I laid across my bed and felt the cool breeze coming out of the black mold-encrusted air vent. Minutes later, a prison guard brought me a package from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Birmingham. Inside the envelope was a copy of the Government’s opposition to my pending Motion for a Compassionate Release. Even though I am represented by counsel in this matter, Birmingham federal prosecutors wanted me to see and read their words about me. Disdain for the Federal Criminal Justice System Once I read past the boilerplate legal arguments in the Government’s Opposition, I saw what really goads them. Beginning on page 9 of their document, these prosecutors bitterly complained about the numerous articles I have published on my website (www.donaldwatkins.com) and Facebook page (Donald V. Watkins) that criticize state and federal criminal justice systems. Under the express language of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, their systems feed the only legalized institution of “slavery” in America. Therefore, they deserve my heightened scrutiny. The prosecutors say my articles “lay bare my disdain for the federal criminal justice system” and constitute an effort to “deceive the public about [my] actions.” Mind you, it is President Donald J. Trump who has loudly, publicly, and repeatedly proclaimed in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 that the federal criminal justice system is “rigged”, that federal prosecutors are “corrupt”, and that FBI agents are “scum”. What is more, Trump is their boss and toughest critic. Do his words express “disdain” for the federal criminal justice system? Even though prison officials executed a Home Confinement agreement with me on April 14, 2020 and despite the fact that the prison’s Health Services Department wrote that I have serious underlying medical conditions that place me at a higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19, prosecutors say I should remain in prison because of my “recalcitrance” in maintaining my innocence of the charges against me. My published articles speak for themselves. The ones that are highly critical of the federal criminal justice system are based upon (a) bipartisan Congressional reports on COINTELPRO activities, (b) the Congressional Record on acknowledged prosecutorial misconduct in federal criminal cases involving former Birmingham mayor Dr. Richard Arrington, Jr., and former Birmingham U.S. District Court Judge Chief Judge, U. W. Clemon, (c) Department of Justice Office of Inspector General Reports on the racist “Good Ol’ Boys Roundup” and the flagrant abuse of the FISA warrant, (d) scholarly works on systemic prosecutorial misconduct, (e) a litany of recent court cases in which prosecutorial misconduct occurred, and (f) hundreds of cases where innocent defendants were eventually freed through the efforts of non-profit advocacy groups like Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama (www.eji.org). The prosecutors cited two articles in particular: (a) Inmate 36223-001: The Story of a Political Prisoner”, dated December 6, 2019 and (b) COVID-19: Leveling the Playing Field” dated April 14, 2020. Yet, they did not dispute a single sentence in these articles. What is more, the prosecutors did not address the fact that prison officials openly referred to me as a “POW” and chanted “Dead Man Walking, Dead Man Walking, Dead Man Walking” when I was removed from the Camp and detained in the “Hole” from April 27-30, 2020 without any charges against me. “Recalcitrance” Based Upon Innocence Our history books are filled with cases where prosecutors denied the fair administration of justice to black criminal suspects who exhibited “recalcitrance” based upon their innocence. In South Carolina, 14-year-old George Stinney exhibited “recalcitrance” in 1944 after he was falsely accused of murdering two young white girls. Stinney was tried as an adult, found guilty by a jury, and electrocuted within 80 days of his arrest. Several years ago, a state court judge fully exonerated Stinney in a belated legal proceeding to clear his name. In Alabama, the nine “Scottsboro Boys” showed “recalcitrance” after they were falsely accused of raping two white girls in 1931. The Boys were tried on rape charges three times and convicted each time. They were sentenced to death, including the two boys who were just 13-years-old at the time of their arrest. Their 45-year-old legal nightmare ended in 1976 when the state of Alabama formally admitted to Mr. Clarence Norris, the last surviving Scottsboro Boy, that all nine Boys were innocent of the charges against them. In recent years, prosecutors used “recalcitrance” as a justification for seeking the execution of death row inmates Walter McMillian and Anthony Ray Hinton. Both men maintained their innocence, even after their convictions on murder charges. Both of them were eventually freed based upon their innocence. Sadly, Hinton spent nearly 30 years on death row before his release. In my case, I exhibit “recalcitrance” because I embrace the outcome of a six-month federal grand jury probe of the same allegations of wire fraud and mail fraud upon which I was convicted that was first conducted in 2015 and 2016 by the Economic Criminal Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of New Jersey. This grand jury review was professionally conducted, fair and objective, and thorough. The probe was led by Andrew Kogan, one of America’s top financial crimes prosecutors. Upon completion of this probe, my name was cleared. In contrast, Birmingham federal prosecutors subsequently targeted me, and not financial crimes. They added two bank fraud charges for loans to a business partner that were expressly authorized under applicable banking regulations. What is worse, they gave Wells Fargo bank executives a pass on 2 million acknowledged acts of bank fraud that occurred between 2012 and 2016. As expected, there is no reference in the Government’s Opposition to my 2016 exoneration by the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey. Yet, I am the one who is accused of deceiving the public. Epilogue If I must remain in prison for exercising my First Amendment right, so be it. Nobody will ever silence my voice on matters of significant public interest, and no one will ever take my manhood from me. I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees. As the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, wrote, “The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.” I enjoy freedom from fear.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on October 21, 2020 Most Americans have never heard of the “Negro National Anthem” that was sung in every segregated black school across the U.S. each morning during the Jim Crow era. The song is “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” by James Weldon Johnson. I sang it every morning in class until I graduated from high school in May 1966. When court-ordered desegregation occurred across the nation in the late 1960s, most black public schools were closed. White administrators who ran the nation’s school systems forbade black students from singing the song at their newly desegregated schools. Like so many positive aspects of black culture, the “Negro National Anthem” became a casualty of the desegregation process. The same was true for academic awards and sports trophies earned by the closed black high schools. The value of this memorabilia was completely disregarded by white America, particularly in the Deep South. Here are the lyrics to “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing”: Lift ev’ry voice and sing, Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise High as the list’ning skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won. Stony the road we trod Bitter the chastening rod Felt in the days when hope unborn had died Yet with a steady beat Have not our weary feet Come to the place for which our fathers sighed? We have come over a way that with tears has been watered We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered Out from the gloomy past 'Til now we stand at last Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast God of our weary years God of our silent tears Thou who has brought us thus far on the way Thou who has by Thy might Led us into the light Keep us forever in the path, we pray Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee Shadowed beneath Thy hand May we forever stand True to our God True to our native land This song was inspirational and it helped an entire race of “despised” African Americans endure: (a) the suffocating oppression and sweltering heat of Jim Crow segregation laws in the Deep South, (b) the Ku Klux Klan lynchings, beatings, cross burnings, house and church bombings, and (c) the entrenched systemic racial discrimination against blacks in every aspect of society. This song encouraged us to lift our voices and sing until freedom rang out across America. It is as sacred to African Americans as the “Star Spangled Banner” is to white America. At the beginning of sports events, we sang the “Star Spangled Banner” followed by the “Negro National Anthem”. Everybody stood for both songs. The Relevance of the “Negro National Anthem” Today Fast-forward to today. The majority of players in the NBA and NFL are African Americans. In the era of George Floyd, Jacob Blake, and Breonna Taylor, black professional sports players are looking for a positive way to support the growing call for racial justice in America. Many of them have chosen to remain in their locker rooms, kneel or remain seated during the singing of the National Anthem. To me, this form of protest is divisive and disrespectful, especially for Americans whose athleticism affords them coveted membership in the top one percent of the nation’s income earners. Many of these professional athletes have pressured their leagues to contribute financially to an activist group called Black Lives Matter. I have no problem with Black Lives Matter sponsoring peaceful protests around the nation as a means of calling the nation’s attention to social justice issues. I realize that most white Americans dislike Black Lives Matter. Likewise, 75% of whites in America disliked Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Fox TV talk show host, Laura Ingraham summed up white America’s attitude towards black athletes’ support for social justice protest when she said, “Shut up and dribble”. Ingraham was expressing the sincere view of millions of white Americans who simply want to be entertained by black athletes. I think black professional athletes in the NBA and NFL should insist that the “Negro National Anthem” be sung immediately after the “Star Spangled Banner”. These two sports organizations would be paying respect to both iconic cultural symbols. This approach is done all the time when two different nations are playing a game against each other. This approach would also educate white America on a positive aspect of black culture and it would give black America some measure of the respect it deserves. Right now, white America knows almost nothing about black history, culture and our positive contributions to American society. As the ruling class in America for 400 years, white Americans never had a need to know this information. What whites know today about blacks is limited to the world of sports statistics and rap music. We are viewed as modern-day minstrels who are paid to entertain and/or serve white America. This is why Laura Ingraham boldly said, “Shut up and dribble” to the loud applause of white Americans. Black Lives Matter Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter needs to focus on voter registration and running its best and brightest members for city council in urban areas across America. Based on my personal knowledge and experience, a single educated, energetic and dedicated African American councilmember can bring deadly police shootings in his/her city to a complete halt within a single 4-year term. All he/she has to do is use the power of his/her office to conduct a “committee of one” investigation into a couple of police shootings and publish his/her detailed written findings in the minutes of a council meeting. Nobody can “whitewash” a police shooting when this is done. A knowledgeable and dedicated city councilmember has the power to obtain and review every city document in existence, including all police department files on every officer. This is hard work, but it saves lives. It also serves as a “check and balance” against police misconduct and police coverups. Epilogue Whether an African American is a professional athlete or supporter of Black Lives Matter, there are effective platforms and means available to change negative conditions in society. We should start with the rendition of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” immediately after singing the “Star Spangled Banner” at the beginning of sports events and we should continue by registering black and brown Americans to vote. Finally, Black Lives Matter should encourage its best and brightest members to run for city council and county commission seats. If there are white Americans who oppose the singing of the “Negro National Anthem” we need to know who they are. Likewise, if there are Black Lives Matter activists who do not want to leave the streets to join governing bodies in cities and counties across America, we need to know them, as well. All articles are shared on Facebook and Twitter. If you would like to follow Donald Watkins, please click on these links and hit the follow button: https://www.facebook.com/donald.v.watkins https://twitter.com/donaldvwatkins

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on October 14, 2020 Donald J. Trump’s reign of terror is nearing an end. The end of his presidency required Divine Intervention. It came in the form of a global pandemic – a novel coronavirus scientists call “COVID-19”. There was nothing that could stop this Biblical plague upon American soil. Those who occupied the “Pharaoh” positions in our government were unable to stop COVID-19. The righteous suffered, along with the unbelievers. Job 9:33-35. Trump said “It is what it is” when confronted with America’s staggering number of conferred COVID-19 cases currently totaling 8,090,253 and COVID-19 related deaths equaling 220,873. The United States accounts for 4% of the global population of 7.5 billion people. Yet, America has 25% of the global COVID-19 confirmed cases and 22% of the global COVID-related deaths. Rich Nation, Poor Leadership How did the richest, most advanced nation on earth experience such COVID-19 devastation? We were led by a president who was totally unprepared to lead us through a national health crisis. Trump simply blew it. 220,873 Americans have died because Trump did not know what to do, even when his national security advisor briefed him in late January about how deadly the coronavirus was. In the end, the sheer scope and community spread of the virus overwhelmed Trump and his White House Response Team. What is worse, Trump never developed a national plan to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Rather than being honest with Americans about the steps needed to contain COVID-19, Trump turned this tragic experience into a name-calling, mudslinging sideshow. He mocked social distancing. He told Americans the virus would go away on its own. He undermined the importance of wearing masks and sheltering in place. Finally, Trump tried to “normalize” the loss of 200,000 plus to COVID-19. This is when Trump lost the confidence of a majority of American voters. Any president whose incompetence contributes to the number of American deaths in 7 months to a virus, more than four times the number of American soldiers killed during the 12-year Vietnam War is destined to be a one-term president. Preventable deaths that were not prevented became a game-changer for Trump. Voters to Trump: “You’re Fired” Americans have already began early voting for the November 3rd election for president. They know that a second wave of COVID-19 is coming. As such, Trump will not get a second chance to showcase his incompetent pandemic leadership skills because Americans have COVID-19 fatigue and they are tired of “Trump Drama”. The “show” is over. Trump, “you’re fired”. The suffering, afflicted, permanent injuries, death and economic destruction from COVID-19 have tested the faith of mankind, particularly in America. We still have a long way to go with this virus. It will leave us when God lifts this plague from our lands. As for me and the Carmichael/Varnado/Watkins family, we have always worshipped and trusted in the Lord our God. Since the 1830s, my ancestors and family members have publicly and privately acknowledged that only God could: (a) deliver us from slavery in Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky, (b) allow our black, biracial and multi-racial ancestors to educate their children and prosper in the Deep South during the Post-Civil War Reconstruction era, (c) protect our family members during the Post-Reconstruction era of suffocating Jim Crow racial segregation laws, (d) shield our entire family from eight decades of Ku Klux Klan lynchings, beatings, cross burnings, house and church bombings and other acts of domestic terrorism in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kansas, (e) nurture and shield our family from the sweltering heat of racial discrimination and brutal oppression of blacks during Alabama Governor George C. Wallace’s era of “segregation yesterday, segregation today and segregation tomorrow” and (f) keep us safe in the post-Wallace decade that included (i) massive resistance to equal opportunity (ii) the benign neglect of blacks (iii) the New Jim Crow era masquerading as conservative political thought and (iv) today’s right wing extremists’ abuse of women and minorities by our institutions of government. Epilogue At 72-years-old, I have seen many seemingly invincible “Pharoahs” come and go. God has a way of toppling those “Pharoahs” who stand on the necks of the “least of these”. Their shelf-life is short. Trump tried in vain to lead America into a civil war. This time, America was being divided into warring political tribes with a “take-no-prisoner” attitude. Trump moved us past ideological debate into a zone where communities and family members hated each other based upon their political party affiliation. Trump became the new Joe McCarthy of Washington politics. People who disagreed with him, whether Democrats or Republicans, were called “Marxists”, “Communists”, “Socialists”, “scum”, “corrupt”, “thugs” and much worse. Republican members of Congress and governors feared Trump as much as Democrats. He turned on friends and foes, alike. Finally, Trump reduced Evangelical Christians into modern-day apostles of hatred. Other religious leaders were bought off with CARES Act of 2020 economic stimulus money in the $350 billion Payroll Protection Program. They is why they lacked the authenticity needed to provide America with credible leadership during the COVID-19 crisis. In the end, Trump was no match for God and his wrath.

By: Donald V. Watkins Copyrighted and Published on October 4, 2020 The time has arrived to make a recommendation to independent voters regarding the best of the bad options for President of the United States. My recommendation is free of campaign spin from the major political parties. Likewise, my endorsement cannot be bought by anyone. Both presidential candidates – Donald J. Trump and Joe Biden – are severely flawed. Yet, these two men are our realistic choices to win the presidency in a deeply divided nation Donald J. Trump For nearly four years, Donald J. Trump has turned the White House into a non-stop TV reality show. He has also fed Americans a steady stream of drama and insults. His supporters love him, while his detractors hate him. He is former Alabama governor George C. Wallace on steroids. Trump has been a fantastic president for the “1 Percenters” – Wall Street corporations, giant banks like Wells Fargo, and super-wealthy Americans. He gave the “1 Percenters” a massive tax break without requiring them to reinvest in jobs for American workers. Trump lavished $1.5 trillion dollars in CARES Act money upon them. He caused the Federal Reserve to award them another $6 trillion dollars. Meanwhile, ordinary American workers/taxpayers shared in a mere $250 billion in CARES Act money. Companies like Boeing got bailed out this year for manufacturing a fatally flawed 737 MAX airplane, even though the jetliner’s engineering design flaw had nothing to do with the coronavirus. What is more, large Wall Street corporations raided $350 billion in CARES Act stimulus money that was earmarked for legitimate small businesses. This money was stolen in less than two weeks. Like the Wells Fargo massive fraud scheme involving 2 million fake bank accounts, no one was prosecuted for fraudulently obtaining CARES Act small business stimulus money. The stock market is booming, again. The “1 Percenter’s” wealth is secured amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, “Main Street” is existing in a depression, based upon joblessness and income inequality. Only 42% of the American jobs lost to COVID-19 have been recovered. The outsourcing of American jobs to China, India, Thailand, Mexico, Canada, and the Philippines continues unabated. The new jobs created since June are mostly low paying service worker jobs. Home foreclosures and apartment evictions are surging as the COVID-19-related moratorium on foreclosures and evictions ended July 31, 2020. This problem only adversely impacts the “99 Percenters”. The “99 Percenters” are worse off today than they were four years ago. The wealth gap between the “1 Percenters” and the “99 Percenters” has doubled in the past four years. America’s middle class is shrinking at the fastest rate in this country’s history. Joe Biden Joe Biden has been a political fixture in Washington for 47 years. He was Barack Obama’s vice president for eight years. Biden is a nice guy, which is his problem. He’s too nice. His bark is tougher than his bite. Biden secured his party’s nomination because he had been fiercely loyal to Obama. He was the sentimental favorite of black Democratic voters during the primary elections because of his loyalty to Obama. Biden’s resurrection from the politically dead on Super Tuesday was likened to Lazarus’s resurrection from the dead in the Bible When it comes to pocketbook issues, Biden is clearly aligned with the “99 Percenters”. He would also fight to protect the healthcare benefits that 20 million Americans enjoy under Obamacare. Biden would make sure the “1 Percenters” are taxed fairly. He would also reign-in the massive national debt, which now exceeds the nation’s total gross domestic product (GDP). Biden would end federal subsidies to Wall Street corporations and giant banks. Obama did not do it, but Biden says he will take the government’s financial nipple out of their greedy mouths. My problem with Biden lies in the fact that he may be entering the early stages of senility. At best, Biden is a one-term president. In all likelihood, Biden may not make it far into his term as president, as his condition appears to getting progressively worse. Pence/Harris With two greatly flawed presidential nominees, I was forced to examine the vice presidential candidates in deciding on an endorsement. Mike Pence is Donald Trump’s vice president. In nearly four years in office, Pence has failed to distinguish himself on any substantial front. He is little more than a cheerleader for Trump, and he is not a good one. Trump placed Pence in charge of the White House’s Coronavirus Response Team, where Pence did a horrible job. Eventually, Trump had to re-assert control over the COVID-19 Response Team to prevent it from becoming a joke. Washington insiders have questioned Pence’s role in the 2018 attempt to declare Trump “unfit” as president under the 25th Amendment. This attempt was described by “Anonymous” in his September 5, 2018 New York Times Op-Ed article. Pence had active, direct and very discreet communications with former Attorney General Jeff Sessions about invoking the disability clause in the 25th Amendment. We also know which staffer facilitated the clandestine back channel message exchange between Pence and Sessions. Trump may trust Pence for now but I do not. I place a premium on loyalty. ___ Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris as his running mate. Harris is a former San Francisco district attorney, former California attorney general and current U.S. Senator. She is the daughter of a Jamaican father and Indian mother. Harris is married to a successful businessman, who happens to be white. She is super-smart, tough on crime, and sensitive to the financial struggles of “Main Street”. Without a doubt, Harris is smarter and tougher than Donald Trump, Mike Pence and Joe Biden, combined. Solely because Harris is a person of color and a woman, millions of voters will dismiss her as an asset for Biden in this race. Many small-minded voters will hold these factors against Harris. Harris’ presence on the Democratic presidential ticket makes it viable and attractive. At some point, if Biden is elected, Harris will likely assume the presidency. At least Independent voters know this likely scenario on the front-end. Pence’s attempt to seize the presidency from Trump was clandestine, and he has been successful in maintaining plausible deniability regarding his role in the attempted coup d’etat. Even though Harris hails from California, she has a proven track record as a fiscal conservative and social moderate. She is also a bridge-builder in her personal and professional life. Recommendation The best of the bad options for the presidency is the Biden/Harris ticket. If race and male privilege were not realistic factors in this year’s election, Kamala Harris’s presence on the Democratic ticket would propel Biden to an easy victory. If he wins, Joe Biden’s legacy in American politics will be his decision to elevate a woman of color to the presidency. America can be made great again, but NOT by going backwards on racial matters. If the little girl who rode the school bus to desegregate her elementary school in Oakland, California makes it all of the way to the White House, then America will be greater than she has ever been. Joe Biden’s election to the presidency is the last toll booth along the road to this historic event. For these reasons, I recommend that independent voters cast their ballots for the Biden/Harris ticket.