By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on June 15, 2019 On May 31, 2019, I published an article about Kyle Whitmire’s effort to write an unauthorized biography about my life. Whitmire is a Birmingham, Alabama-based reporter with the Alabama Media Group, which owns The Birmingham News and the website AL.com. Whitmire covered my criminal trial on wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy charges in February and March 2019. Whitmire’s slanted coverage of the trial fed a steady stream of negative news articles to Google and local TV news outlets. Thursday night, I learned that Glynn Wilson is also researching my life for a possible book deal. Wilson publishes articles on a website called the New American Journal. He is a former reporter for several daily newspapers. In 2005, Wilson went independent on the web and started blogging with the publication of the Locust Fork News-Journal. In 2014, Wilson developed and launched the New American Journal as a national news site from Washington, D.C. I do not know Glynn personally, but he reached out to me in July 2006 and again in February 2016 to hustle money from me for both of these financially struggling media ventures. I declined his requests for money on each occasion. On March 10, 2019, Wilson wrote a scathing article about my business dealings titled, “ The Cautionary Tale of Donald Watkins and the Icarus Complex.” This article represents a radical departure from the truth about me and my business dealings. For example, Wilson claims Voter News Network, which was an Internet-based news service I founded in 2001 for independent voters, took in millions of dollars which I used for my personal benefit. In truth, this entity never sought or received any money for publishing news. However, it did award 32 college scholarships to deserving high school students, which I funded out of my own pocket. Wilson also says I am “clearly a little unhinged, making one bad investment after another, a children’s book company, an airline, at one point entering into an agreement with the government of Namibia to mine and sell uranium.” For starters, I have never had a children’s book business. I did operate The Children’s Bank for several years. This entity provided seed funding ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 to deserving young entrepreneurs 16-years old and younger. This venture was a huge success for the recipients of its loans/grants. Next, the airline Wilson referenced was named TradeWinds Airlines. It was purchased by me in 2008. Wilson conveniently leaves out two critical facts about this transaction. First, I secured a February 15, 2008 offer letter from Federal Express to fly its cargo between the U.S. and the Caribbean on TradeWinds’ cargo jets. Second, two Detroit pension funds provided the business loan used for this transaction. Shortly after the TradeWinds purchase transaction was closed, several key trustees pressured me to pay them kickbacks for their support of the deal. I refused to do so. As a result, the pension funds manufactured events of "default" and prematurely called the loan. I voluntarily reported the trustees' kickback requests to a federal grand jury. These individuals, including the general counsel of the pension funds, were eventually indicted, tried, and convicted on unrelated bribery charges. I lost the airline to public corruption but I preserved my integrity in business in the process. Wilson left all of this pertinent information out of his article. Next, Wilson discussed an energy services company I formed in 2011. On March 27, 2012, this company was awarded a uranium concession by Epangelo Mining Company (Pty) Ltd., which is the Republic of Namibia’s national mining company. The Namibian government lifted a national moratorium on uranium concessions for nuclear fuels so that my company could compete for this concession against Iran’s state-owned Iranian Foreign Investment Company and others. My company worked closely with the U.S. State Department to make sure that we had the best chance of winning this uranium concession and keeping this strategic asset out of the hands of the Iranians, who were desperately trying to develop a nuclear weapons program at the time. Two months later, my energy services company won a concession from the Namibian government for an offshore oil block. In October 2015, independent and highly qualified geotechnical oil and gas experts concluded their data interpretation on the 2D seismic geotechnical work program for the company’s oil block. A report authored by a world-class, Texas-based geophysics firm confirmed the presence of 522 million barrels of oil and 583 billion cubic feet of carbane methane gas within our oil block. In July 2018, we renewed our oil block license for another two years. Despite these remarkable achievements for an Alabama-based business, Wilson cites this Namibian business venture as evidence of a “bad investment.” Wilson, Whitmire View My Businesses in a Negative Light Like Kyle Whitmire, Glynn Wilson views my businesses in a negative light. In contrast, respected European and African media outlets view them in a positive light. For example, on January 16, 2015, Upstream magazine featured an article about the completion of our company’s 2D geotechnical work program for its Namibian oil block.  Upstream is a UK-based trade magazine for subscribers in the global oil and gas industry. Nobody in the industry thought our small company could get this expensive 2D seismic work done without outside financing, but we proved them wrong. Our energy services company is now preparing for its 3D stage of petroleum development activities, followed by the drilling of test wells. We are the only private, African/African-American-owned oil company that is developing a confirmed “unrisked” oil resource in the Walvis Basin.  Upstream called us a “minnow.” Yet, we are working in the Basin alongside Exxon Mobile, French-based oil conglomerates Total and Maurel Prom, Madrid-based Repsol, and other well-known publicly traded international oil companies. Glynn Wilson’s articled also criticized my leadership as CEO of Masada Resource Group. Masada is a recognized global leader in the waste-to-energy industry. In 2015, Masada was one of the recipients of the Governor’s Trade Excellence Award, which recognizes Alabama companies for excellence in exporting goods or services. In 2012, Masada executed a Polyfuels licensing and distribution deal with Sustainable Technologies & Environmental Projects Pvt. Ltd. (“STEPS”) in Mumbai, India. This deal enabled Masada to beat out the Birmingham-based Drummond Company and win the Alabama International Business Alliance's 2012 International Deal of the Year (Large Deal Category) Award. Masada’s waste-to-energy work in Sub-Saharan Africa was featured in the July 2014 edition of the London-based International Finance and Legal Review, a prestigious subscription publication for European and African business leaders, and in a February 9, 2012 guest appearance on CNBC for Africa. Yet, Glynn Wilson, Kyle Whitmire, and other U.S. journalists of their ilk tend to omit these pertinent facts because outstanding business achievements of this kind undermine the negative racial stereotypes they spew on a regular basis. Wilson says I am a “taker, not a giver.” Yet, he failed to mention in his article that I have never taken a dime of the $7,500 per month salary (per market location in 47 international markets) that Masada authorized for the CEO position prior to my assumption of the job 13 years ago. Furthermore, my real estate company has never taken a penny of the $17,000 a month in office rent that Masada was obligated to pay me on a 10-year office lease signed by my predecessor. My deferral of this money (a) allowed Masada to survive the Great Recession of 2008 that tanked over 100 of our global competitors and (b) facilitated the company’s growth as a global leader. Like Kyle Whitmire, Glynn Wilson wants to commercialize my life story in a book deal for his personal financial benefit. Wilson's article demonstrates that it is far easier for me to succeed in the global energy marketplace than it is for me to conquer negative racial stereotypes at home. Maybe Glynn Wilson and Kyle Whitmire can team up with each other and co-author a bestseller titled, “The Donald Watkins Story: Hopelessly Trapped in Negative Racial Stereotypes in the Deep South.” When I finish climbing the mountain of life, I will tell my own story in my own words. PHOTO: Glynn Wilson is trying to commercialize my life story in a book deal for his personal financial benefit.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on June 12, 2019 I received a flurry of calls this morning in response to my article yesterday about Alabama Power Company’s shabby treatment of its Black Belt and rural retail customers. This treatment, which centers arounds Alabama Power’s plan to close 40 business offices in Black Belt counties and rural communities in order to reduce operational expenses, is described in detail in my article. I thought Alabama Power would be appreciative that I brought a very solvable customer service problem to its immediate attention. I was wrong. Within hours after yesterday’s article was published, Alabama Power’s governmental affairs executives began calling Perry County officials and telling them to ignore the facts presented in my article about the company’s impressive financial condition, even though these facts came directly from the company’s filings with regulatory agencies, Wall Street institutions, and utility industry research organizations. They called me a “blogger,” even though I am a dues paying member of the Society of Professional Journalists and I have an online readership of more than 20,000 people. Alabama Power reminded these public officials that I was convicted in March on hotly contested federal criminal charges. This news event was reported in a March 9, 2019 article titled, “We Feel Your Love.” I will be sentenced in this case on July 16, 2019, after which I will file an immediate notice of appeal and ask the Court for permission to remain free on bond during my appeal like former Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard. I have been informed on good authority that Alabama Power Company operatives are looking for ways to get my bond revoked. If Alabama Power is successful in this regard, a revocation of my bond would land me in jail immediately and would prevent me from publishing future investigative articles about the company. Alabama Power views me as its lone credible media critic in Alabama. The utility giant neutered other media organizations in Alabama years ago through a combination of advertising dollars, financial contributions from its non-profit foundation, event sponsorships, and consulting fees for seminar participants affiliated with media entities. Now, these media outlets only report “Happy News” about Alabama Power and its business operations. Jailing Critics to Silence their Voices This is not the first time Alabama Power has tried to jail its critics. The company tried to do the same thing with Governor George Wallace and his brother, Gerald Wallace, in 1972. Starting in his second term of office in 1971, Wallace took direct aim at Alabama Power and its frequent fights with the Alabama Public Service Commission over rate increases. Wallace hired lawyers to oppose Alabama Power’s exorbitant rate increases, one of which was 18%. Alabama Power thought that jailing Wallace was its best option. As the 1972 presidential election approached, Alabama Power Company and other power-brokers were able to persuade President Richard Nixon to have George and Gerald Wallace investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice on federal charges that they rigged state bidding procedures, solicited and received illegal campaign contributions, and accepted kickbacks. Nixon went along with the scheme because he thought Wallace’s candidacy as an independent party nominee would take votes away from his re-election campaign. The Internal Revenue Service expanded the criminal investigation to include Wallace advisor Seymore Trammell. After Governor Wallace announced that he might seek the Democratic Party nomination in 1972, rather than run as a presidential candidate on the American Independent Party ticket (as he did in 1968), the Justice Department dropped its investigation of the Wallaces. However, Seymore Trammell was eventually charged, convicted and jailed. Based upon Alabama Power’s mistreatment of the company's ratepayers and the nefarious scheme with the Justice Department, Governor Wallace never trusted the company. Wallace fought Alabama Power Company and its requested rate increases for more than a decade in office. He was determined to protect poor people, middle-class consumers, senior citizens on a fixed income, and small business owners from Alabama Power’s outrageous rate increase requests. For reasons that are hard to understand, Alabama Power Company views any public attention on its monopoly status and its self-determined rate adjustments as an “attack” on the company. As Governor Wallace learned in 1972, no one is allowed to “attack” Alabama Power by standing up for ratepayers, unless he/she is prepared to face harsh adverse consequences. Our Watchdogs are not Barking As I pointed out in yesterday’s article, Perry County Commissioner Albert Turner Jr. appears to be the only public official in Alabama who is demanding that Alabama Power treat its "captive" customers in Black Belt counties and rural communities as well as it treats the company's executives and its biggest customers. After all, ratepayers in these communities are paying for a host of executive perks, including (a) extravagant game-day events at college football games in Tuscaloosa and Auburn; (b) corporate jets that fly executives and dignitaries to and from exotic ports of call, (c) event packages to (I) the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia, (ii) national championship football games, (iii) “March Madness” basketball games around the nation, (iv) NFL Super Bowls, and (v) ritzy international air shows in Paris and London. The list of Alabama Power's over-the-top corporate perks that are paid for by ratepayers is endless. The silence of Governor Kay Ivey, the Public Service Commission members, state legislators, county commissioners, and other public officials regarding Alabama Power’s shabby treatment of its customers in the black Belt counties and in rural communities shows the degree of control and dominion Alabama Power exerts over these neutered officeholders. The company's endless supply of campaign cash, its strategic awards of non-profit grants, its facilitation of jobs and contracts for the friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, wives, husbands, mistresses, lovers, and relatives of state legislators, and its monetary inducements for mainstream media organizations have drowned out any thoughts of public service that these officials might have been inclined to render on behalf of their constituents. This silence is one of the reasons why Alabama Power was able to overcharge its customers by $146 million, as of November 2015. In closing, remember this: The loud silence of public officials who serve in "watchdog" roles is usually the first sign that the general public is in deep trouble. When only one of the several hundred public "watchdogs" in Alabama is barking about Alabama Power’s shabby treatment of its ratepayers in Black Belt counties and rural communities, this means the other “watchdogs” have abandoned the public interest in favor of their undisclosed private interests. PHOTO: Former Alabama Governor George C. Wallace was the public’s best “watchdog” over Alabama Power Company. Wallace zealously protected poor people, middle-class consumers, senior citizens on a fixed income, and small business owners from Alabama Power’s outrageous rate increase requests.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on June 11, 2019 Perry County, Alabama County Commissioner Albert Turner, Jr., called me yesterday. He is disgusted with Alabama Power Company. Turner is a longtime human rights activist and one of the few elected officials in Alabama who is “unbossed” and “unbought.” Like his mother and father, who were nationally-recognized human rights icons in West Alabama, Commissioner Turner stands up for poor people, middle-class Alabamians, senior citizens on a fixed income, and small business owners whenever he sees an injustice inflicted upon them. He saw such an injustice over the weekend when Alabama Power Company announced that it was closing 40 of its 86 business offices across the state by August 2019. As expected, these offices are located in West Alabama’s Black Belt counties and in a host of rural communities around the state. The office in Marion, which is the county seat for Perry County, is on the list of closures. Turner understands the articulated business case for closing these offices, but he denounces Alabama Power’s practice of allowing privately owned and operated payment centers to charge customers a processing fee of $1 to $3 for each bill payment made in person at these locations. In Turner's view, this transactional fee gouges the company's "pay in person" customers and effectively constitutes an unauthorized rate increase that is borne solely by these customers. Commissioner Turner pointed out that this transactional fee should be borne exclusively by Alabama Power Company. This was Alabama Power's practice in the late 1990s and early 2000s when the company began the gradual shift to privately operated payment centers. Although Alabama Power is cutting customer services for poor people, middle-class consumers, senior citizens on a fixed income, and small business owners in these 40 locations, the company’s cost cutting measures do not apply to its high-flying corporate lifestyle and mind-blowing executive perks. For example, Alabama Power continues to sponsor extravagant game-day events at college football games in Tuscaloosa and Auburn. Its corporate jets are still ferrying executives and dignitaries to and from exotic ports of call. Its presence is still felt at the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia, at Regions’ golf tournament in Birmingham, at national championship football games around the nation, at NFL Super Bowls, and at ritzy international air shows in Paris and London. Just last year, Alabama Power agreed to pay $500,000 per year for 15 years for a naming rights package for the new UAB football stadium in downtown Birmingham and for the luxury skybox that goes with this package. The list of Alabama Power's over-the-top corporate perks that are paid for by ratepayers in Perry County and other parts of the state is endless. For the record, Alabama Power Company generated a record $6 billion in gross revenues in 2018. The company’s net income after payment of operating expenses and shareholder dividends was $930 million. This amount represents an increase in net income of $82 million, or 9.7%, over the previous year. Can Alabama Power Be Trusted to do the Right Thing for Ratepayers? Former Alabama Governor George Wallace never trusted Alabama Power Company to treat its customers right. Commissioner Turner does not trust Alabama Power either. Like Wallace, Turner realizes that Alabama Power is a regulated monopoly with no competitors in the state. Its market share dwarfs other power providers in the state. As such, Turner holds Alabama Power to a higher degree of transparency and accountability. Starting in his second term of office in 1971, Wallace took direct aim at Alabama Power and its frequent fights with the Alabama Public Service Commission over rate increases. Wallace hired lawyers to oppose Alabama Power’s exorbitant rate increases. He fought Alabama Power for more than a decade while he was in office. Wallace, who later found an ally in Attorney General Bill Baxley, fought Alabama Power on behalf of poor people, middle-class consumers, senior citizens on a fixed income, and small business owners to stop the company from ripping off its “captive” customers with outrageous rate increase requests. Commissioner Turner has taken over this “watchdog” function today, at least for Alabama Power's customers in Perry County. Alabama Power’s Ironclad Grip on the State’s Political Establishment Once George Wallace left office in 1987, Alabama Power Company made a corporate decision to conquer the state's political scene. The company “bought” or “rented” every politician in Alabama who was “for sale” or “for rent.” Nearly every elected official in the state quickly surrendered to the seductive power of the company’s cash campaign contributions and litany of other inducements. Alabama Power has never able to “buy” or “rent” Commissioner Albert Turner. He aggressively represents the political interests of his constituents, without hesitation, reservation, or fear. Today, Alabama Power Company totally owns and controls the Public Service Commission. This is the agency that is supposed to regulate Alabama Power’s utility rates and its treatment of ratepaying customers. Alabama Power also controls a dazzling collection of greedy, self-centered, statewide elected officials and legislators through campaign contributions from its affiliated political action committee. In 1990, Alabama Power Company formed a non-profit foundation to hand out charitable gifts. Every group with any influence in Alabama that was not directly controlled by the company’s campaign contributions, advertising dollars, sponsorship agreements, and strategically awarded consulting agreements, is captured and neutered by Alabama Power’s tens of thousands of philanthropic gifts of cash to “deserving” entities chosen by the company since 1990. Finally, Alabama Power controls the state’s mainstream media organizations through a combination of advertising dollars, financial contributions from its non-profit foundation, event sponsorships, and consulting fees for seminar participants affiliated with media entities. For example, the Alabama Power Foundation funded the non-profit organization that wholly owns The Birmingham Times newspaper and online website. This approach to public relations has bought Alabama Power Company a steady stream of "Happy News" and a form of protectionism from adverse media coverage of its business practices. Except for Commissioner Albert Turner, no other elected official in the state has publicly complained about the business office closures that at are sure to hurt poor people, middle-class consumers, senior citizens on a fixed income, and small business owners in the affected service areas. For all Practical Purposes, Alabama Power Sets its Own Customer Rates Because Alabama Power Company is a publicly owned regulated utility, its allowed return on equity (ROE) is set by the Alabama Public Service Commission. As of January 2019, the average ROE across 93 major industries and almost 8,000 firms for the U.S. market is 14.49%. Utility companies like Alabama Power – with an average ROE of 10.13% – are on the lower end of the spectrum because Wall Street views them as less risky investments. The ROE for power companies varies significantly from state to state, as each public utility commission has exclusive authority to regulate utility operations as it chooses. According to Advanced Energy Economy’s Power Portal database, which tracks ROE for over 100 publicly-owned utilities across the country, the highest ROE allowed by a public utility commission belongs to  Alabama Power Co., at 13.75%.  This ROE places Alabama Power is in a class by itself. Furthermore, Alabama taxpayers guarantee Alabama Power a five percent minimum annual return on the company’s equity. If there is a shortfall in this guaranteed minimum return on equity, taxpayers must make up the difference. Against this backdrop, critics with expertise in regulated utilities question whether the Public Service Commission is properly balancing the interests of consumers and shareholders. Based upon the empirical evidence regarding Alabama Power’s self-determined rate increases since George Wallace left office, the answer is, “no.” Instead of making an individual case for a rate increase in an open forum that permits independent expert scrutiny and ratepayer input, Alabama Power uses a formula-based ratemaking process (called the “Rate Equalization and Stabilization” formula) to adjust its rates each year without any public evidentiary hearings and without any participation by consumer advocates and ratepayers. This mechanism was adopted by the Public Service Commission in November 1982. Between 1982 and 2012, Alabama Power gave itself 12 rate increases and 3 rate decreases. There were 15 years during this period when Alabama Power made no adjustments in customer rates. The company’s last rate decrease was recorded in 2016. Its last rate increase was in January of 2017. Locations of Alabama Power Business Office Closures Alabama Power’s business office closures this summer will occur in Columbiana, Gardendale, Leeds, Aliceville, Carbon Hill, Dora, Greensboro, Hamilton, Linden, Livingston, Sulligent, West Blocton, York, Clayton, Daleville, Slocomb, Alexander City, Ashville, Attalla, Blountsville, Heflin, Jacksonville, Wedowee, Bayou La Batre, Brewton, Butler, Citronelle, Flomaton, Grove Hill, Jackson, Prichard, Theodore, Fort Deposit, Georgiana, Marion, Tallassee, Wetumpka, Ashford, Florala, and Geneva. PHOTO: Perry County, Alabama Commissioner Albert Turner, Jr. is holding Alabama Power Company accountable for cutting customer services in his political territory. Turner is the lone advocate for Alabama Power ratepayers. His iconic, civic-minded parents would be extremely proud of him for fighting against Alabama Power's shabby treatment of its "captive" customers.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on June 8, 2019 Six weeks after Donald Trump announced his candidacy for President of the United States on June 16, 2015, I published an article predicting that he would defeat his 15 Republican Primary rivals and win the Presidency on November 8, 2016. The article, titled “Donald Trump’s Newest Art of the Deal – Winning the American Presidency,” provided the following explanation for why Trump would win the Presidency: “For decades America’s super-rich billionaires have controlled the political scene in this country. This group includes Sheldon Gary Adelson, Charles and David Koch, Paul Singer, Donald Trump and scores of other power-players who have poured billions of dollars into national elections to influence the direction of American politics and policies. They have contributed heavily to political candidates, PACs and super-PACs. They own or control mainstream media organizations like Fox News, the Newhouse family national chain of newspapers, and many other news outlets that run political endorsements designed to influence our opinions about political candidates. In recent years, this class of billionaires has lost faith in the usual “political hustlers” and career politicians who run for and hold national political office. These political hustlers are responsible for the across-the-board deterioration in the caliber and stature of candidates who offer themselves for Congress and the presidency. This pool of candidates is increasingly comprised of weak, financially broke, lazy and marginally intelligent individuals who memorize sound-bites, specialize in photo opportunities, and need to be told what to think and do on a daily basis. For the most part, these candidates have no backbone, character, work ethic, self-determined political agenda, or vision. They are just hustlers looking to make a career and living out of politics. Trump and his billionaire friends have decided that enough is enough—no more government through weak surrogates. Trump is leading this charge by seizing direct control of the political process for electing a president the way he would do it within a private business empire. At first blush, Trump’s campaign style and tactics seem extremely bizarre to the multitude of journalists, news analysts, commentators, and talking heads who cover presidential elections. Remember, none of them are billionaires. None of them has orchestrated a corporate merger or acquisition or has led a corporate takeover initiative. None of them has practiced the art of the deal in real life. Trump has, and he does it on a routine basis. Once Trump entered the race for the purpose of winning it, the first thing he did was to show his strength over all of the other candidates. He made himself directly accessible to the media and does not engage in scripted interviews. Trump speaks his mind on every issue and is not concerned about political correctness. His private views are expressed in public. Whether one likes him or not, Trump is a strong leader with a demonstrated record of creating dynamic economic growth for his businesses. He does not apologize for expressing his political views, which is a rarity in today’s world. Trump has not backed down when the expression of his political views cost him money in his private businesses. Next, Trump took the iron club he routinely uses to browbeat his business competitors and quickly bludgeoned his fellow Republican candidates with it. He nullified them as competitors in record time by showing America just how weak and pathetic these candidates are. All of them are little more than political pack mules who were created by rich Republicans and who are tasked with the job of carrying the political water of America’s super-rich individuals and corporations. None of them has ever built anything of significant economic value. The Republican billionaire crowd has decided that starting with the 2016 election cycle, political surrogates are “out”; rich principals are “in” for the national political offices that matter the most. Trump made a direct and strong appeal to what really scares white America – the browning of America. Trump regularly uses campaign rhetoric about illegal immigration of Mexicans, the need to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, and the unwillingness of young black males to work as a way of signaling his willingness to stem the tide on these issues. Trump has shown white Americans that he is their candidate of choice with the backbone to “make America great again." In turn, they have catapulted Trump to the top of the national polls in the race for the Republican nomination. Knowing that most white Americans see President Barrack Obama as a nice guy who is a weak president, Trump has made his strength in business the centerpiece of his campaign. Trump works at projecting the toughness that he believes is necessary to effectively deal with world leaders in Russia, China, North Korea, Mexico, Iran and other tough spots for America around the world…. Unlike the other candidates, Trump does not have to pretend that he believes in “family values.” Trump does not have to kiss babies or act like he loves his cheering crowd of supporters. He just has to be the "Donald Trump" that America already knows…. Everybody is talking about Donald Trump. Very few people are talking about the other Republican candidates. The Trump campaign is a reality show in real time on the art of the deal – winning the American presidency. It is being masterfully produced by Trump himself. This show is a hit with Republican voters…. No other Republican candidate has the political muscle needed to stop him. In fact, Trump is already running against Hillary Clinton, a highly intelligent woman with a distinguished track record of public service to America and the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president….Trump will likely defeat her, too. The Trump campaign is a perfect blend of entertainment prowess mixed with passion, intellect and a big dose of business acumen, from a man who has played hardball all of his adult life. Trump knows the art of the deal and his ultimate prize – the American presidency – is within his reach.” The next presidential election will be held on November 3, 2020. Trump is running for re-election. Everything I said in my August 2, 2015 article is true today. Trump’s Republican political base loves him. Many independent voters love him, as well. These voters do not care about Trump’s multitude of personality flaws and demonstrated lack of character because he faithfully advances their political interests and aggressively protects their core values, without flinching or apologizing. In their view, Donald Trump delivered on his promised tax cuts; he is cracking down on illegal immigration; he is stacking the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts with right-wing conservative judges; unemployment is at an all-time low; the stock markets are at an all-time high; Trump broke Mexico’s political will on the immigration issue with his recent threat of tariffs on products coming out of Mexico; he is building “The Wall”; he has cleared the way for big American businesses and Wall Street to do pretty much whatever they want to do in the name of "capitalism"; he is tackling America’s trade imbalance with the Chinese by imposing new tariffs on Chinese imports; he withdrew from the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change; he withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal; he withdrew from the UN Arms Trade Treaty; he has protected the NRA from tougher gun control regulations in the face of mass murders in American schools, churches, synagogues, and workplaces; he is gutting federal air, ground, and water environmental protection regulations; he is cracking down on the governments of Cuba and Venezuela; he issued travel bans on five Muslim countries; he has proven that CNN and MSNBC cannot “make” or “break” a “strong” conservative president; and he survived Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s attempted coup d'état of his 2-year-old presidency. Trump’s base of Republican voters, together with a strong block of independent voters, represents the new “mainstream” in American politics. This voting block is here to stay. I profiled one of Trump’s supporters on June 4, 2019. Her name is Carla Vann Nettles. She is a good, decent, well-educated, highly intelligent, and hard-working American. She is also a devoted wife and mother of three beautiful adult children. Carla Vann Nettles is NOT a racist; she is a true political conservative who cares about the future of her family and this nation. Donald Trump has been loyal to Ms. Vann Nettles and to the tens of millions of voters who share her values. I predict that these voters will reward Trump for his political loyalty by turning out on November 3, 2020 and voting in record numbers for his re-election. The 24 declared Democratic presidential candidates in the race are mostly talking to themselves and their narrow band of supporters. They are talking about everything except what really matters to the new “mainstream” voters. National Democratic Party, itself, remains a prisoner of the Barack Obama-Joe Biden and Hillary-Bill Clinton factions of the Party. New voices within the Party have been stifled by its old and tired national leadership. What is worse, the Democratic Party takes its most loyal political base -- black voters -- for granted. None of the Democratic candidates in the race has what it takes to defeat Donald Trump. What is more, none of them is listening to the new “mainstream” voters who have been won over by Trump. In time, Donald Trump will defeat his Republican Primary challenger, former Massachusetts Governor William Weld. Barring divine intervention from God or a total collapse of the U.S. and global stock markets, Trump will go on to defeat the eventual Democratic nominee in the November 3, 2020 presidential election. PHOTO: President Donald J. Trump.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on June 7, 2019 On May 15, 2019, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed the most aggressive anti-abortion law in recent American history. The law permits abortions only if the mother’s life is at risk or if the fetus cannot survive. There is no exception in cases of rape or incest. Under the “The Alabama Human Life Protection Act,” performing an abortion in Alabama would be a felony. The legislation defines a fetus as a legal person “for homicide purposes” and compares abortion to the Holocaust and other genocides. The woman who receives the abortion would not be held “criminally culpable or civilly liable.” Alabama has a long, ugly, and well-documented history of abusing, neglecting, and taking human life after child birth. Under color of law, its black citizens were lynched, beaten, burned to death, tortured, subjugated, and denied basic human rights. The state’s women were spared lynching, but did not fare much better than blacks. Federal intervention was required throughout the 20th Century and into the 21st Century to protect the basic constitutional rights of blacks, women, children, infants, and the mentally impaired in Alabama. Within this historical context, the Alabama Human Life Protection Act merely forces a mother to give birth to a child, including a child who is the result of rape and incest. The Act is a political prop that is designed to (a) pander to “pro-life” voters and (b) protect the political life of its legislative supporters and Governor Ivey. The reality of how the State of Alabama treats its infants, children, and other vulnerable members of society belies any notion that the Act values their lives as human beings. The Reality of Children's Lives in Alabama After a child is born, he/she is subject to a myriad of adverse quality of life conditions, regressive governmental policies and laws, and state-sponsored indifference to his/her health, safety, and welfare. The male politicians who voted for the Act are the last people in the world a child in Alabama can count on to protect his/her life. The facts listed below show why. Let’s start with child birth. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and a host of reputable medical journals, Alabama leads the nation in infant mortality, pre-term births, and maternal healthcare. The clinical care for infant care in Alabama ranks 45th in the nation. Alabama ranks 44th in child mortality. Whether the state’s governor has been a man or woman, not one of them has made infant, child, or maternal healthcare a priority. Furthermore, Alabama has consistently neglected the health, safety, and welfare of its infants and children. The state has always ranked at or near the bottom of these quality of life categories. If the child lives long enough to attend K-12 school, he/she will be educated in the worst public school system in the nation, according to a May 2019 U.S. News and World Report. Only 62% of those students who graduate from high school go on to a 2-year or 4-year college, according to a 2019 report issued by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama. Nearly 15% of the state’s adult population lacked basic literacy skills in 2018, according to Microsoft News. Only 24.7% held a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2018. If the child in Alabama falls through the cracks and is incarcerated for any reason, he/she will be housed in the worst prison system in the nation and the fifth worst in the world, according to a 2016 report issued by the Prison Policy Initiative. Alabama has a 26% black population. Yet, black inmates account for 75% of all inmates housed in the state’s prison system, according to a 2018 report issued by the Sentencing Project. Black inmates also account for 94 of the 182 persons on death row in 2018. Since 1976, Alabama has executed 21 white death row inmates for killing black victims and 290 black inmates for killing white victims, according to May 31, 2019 figures release by the Death Penalty Information Center. Controlling Women’s Bodies The Alabama Human Life Protection Act has nothing to do with protecting human life. It was passed to advance anti-abortion political interests in the fight to overturn the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, and nothing more. It represents the latest power-play by white men in Alabama to control women and their bodies. This is not the first time white men in Alabama passed laws to control women’s bodies. In 1919, Alabama enacted a eugenic sterilization statute that authorized eugenicists in the state to explore their warped ideas about "racial improvement.” This statute resulted in the widespread application of compulsory sterilizations of poor women and women of color by Alabama physicians in both public and private practice. In 1927, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in Buck v. Bell that compulsory sterilization of women was constitutional. Alabama doctors expanded the practice of sterilizing poor women and women of color to "improve" society by reducing the state's welfare burden. This practice finally stopped when Montgomery Federal Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. issued a 1974 ruling in case of Relf v. Weinberger that exposed and halted the sterilization abuse in Alabama. Judge Johnson’s decision led to reforms that protected poor women and women of color across America from this sterilization abuse. Epilogue The State of Alabama holds the record in America for violating the basic human and constitutional rights of its black citizens, women, children, infants, and the mentally impaired. The Alabama Human Life Protection Act will likely be struck down by the courts. Even conservative Republicans and religious leaders in national pro-life organizations have renounced the Act as ill-conceived and counter-productive. The white men who passed the Act do not care about anybody but themselves. When it comes to women’s bodies, white men in Alabama's government forced compulsory sterilizations on women for more than five decades. Today, they are forcing compulsory births in cases of incest and rape. The Alabama Human Life Protection Act should be renamed, “The Alabama Political life Protection Act,” to reflect its true purpose. PHOTO: Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signing the "Alabama Human Life Protection Act." The Act is likely to be struck down by federal courts. From 1919 to 1974, the State of Alabama forced compulsory sterilization on poor women and women of color. Today, the state is forcing child birth on female victims of rape and incest who become pregnant from these criminal acts.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on June 5, 2019 Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who once called for “American Elites” to be held accountable, has joined Centerville Partners, LLC, an elite Wall Street investment bank. Emanuel will be advising Centerville clients on mergers and acquisitions, co-founders of the firm told the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news today. Centerview has offices in New York, London, San Francisco, Palo Alto and Los Angeles will be opening an office in Chicago. Emanuel left office in May after two disastrous terms in office that saw the largest round of school closings in the city’s history, a teachers strike, the corruption conviction of his onetime schools chief, an explosion of gun violence that surged under his watch, a sex abuse scandal at Chicago Public Schools, record tax increases to shore up the city’s pensions and the Laquan McDonald police shooting that led to a federal investigation of the Police Department, and a decline in his support among the city’s African-American voters. Rahm Emanuel was one of the least effective mayors in America. He is short in physical size and leadership stature. Emanuel’s only claim to fame is that he once served as President Barack Obama’s first chief of staff. Even there, he was a dismal failure. Twice during Rahm Emanuel’s two terms as mayor, Chicago was named the “Murder Capital of the World” because of its violent crime and homicide rates. In 2018, the number of murders in Chicago, the third largest city in America, was higher than the number of homicides in Los Angeles and New York combined. After 30 years as a highly-placed political operative in the Democratic Party, Emanuel turned out to be another political hustler whose actions did not match his phony political rhetoric. PHOTO: Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a portrait of failed leadership. He is now advising clients of Centerville Partners, LLC, a Wall Street investment banking, on mergers and acquisitions.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on June 4, 2019 On June 2, 2019, I published an article about the U.S. Navy's act of shielding the USS John McCain warship from President Donald Trump’s view during his visit to Japan last week. I thought this action was disgraceful. I have been struggling to understand why Republican voters who support our military tolerate Trump’s non-stop insults of John McCain, scores of military Gold Star families (whose loved ones were killed in military action), and various decorated war heroes. After all, Trump was a verified Vietnam War-era draft dodger. When it was his time to fight for America, he ran from the battlefield. A Facebook friend of mine named Carla Vann Nettles put this situation in perspective for me. In a comment she posted on my Facebook page, Ms. Vann Nettles stated: “Like Donald V. Watkins, President Trump is unbossed and unbought! His supporters stand by him because he loves America. Serving in the military is not a requirement for being POTUS. If it were, how did Obama and Clinton get elected? In the big picture, dodging the draft is low on the list of why a citizen is unqualified to be president. I support both of you because you both have a lot of the same core values. Is President Trump, the draft dodging, womanizing, whatever comes across his brain comes out his mouth, name calling man perfect? Heck NO! Is he perfect for the job compared to the other candidates? Heck YEAH!” Later, Ms. Vann Nettles added this comment: “I’ll tell you something else that is extremely important to me, the POTUS and Donald V. Watkins. [Law enforcement] corruption and sex/human/drug trafficking. Therefore, I missed President Trump’s speech. I was completely consumed with the 19 paths from Mexico to the US that were cut off from the drug mules over the holiday weekend.” I do not know Ms. Vann Nettles personally, but I have tremendous respect for her for several reasons. First, she expresses her viewpoints in clear and concise language. Second, she is not afraid to disagree with my viewpoints and when she does so, it is always done in a tasteful manner and in a way that enlightens me. Third, whenever other commenters direct harsh comments towards Ms. Vann Nettles on my Facebook page, she remains focused, thoughtful, and respectful in her response. Fourth, Ms. Vann Nettles always articulates a rational basis for her viewpoint. Fifth, I can tell from the tone and substance of her comments that Ms. Vann Nettles is very smart. Many times, Ms. Vann Nettles and I agree to disagree on various matters of public interest. I like that. Sometimes, Ms. Vann Nettles articulates her position in a way that it makes sense to me and I wind up changing my viewpoint. This constructive dialogue often helps me to grow in my understanding of the world. Ms. Vann Nettles symbolizes the broad, diverse base of readers on my Facebook page who focus on what we have in common as Americans, as opposed to what divides us. I enjoy reading her comments, even when we disagree on a particular matter. It would be so beautiful if President Trump embodied Ms. Vann Nettles’ leadership qualities, intellect, and approach to public discourse. She knows how to listen, learn from, and tolerate opposing viewpoints without insulting those who differ with her. Likewise, Ms. Vann Nettles knows how to open up a closed mind. Ms. Vann Nettles has plenty of class and character. She is a well-meaning American who loves this country. She is a unifier, not a divider. She speaks her mind freely and openly without resorting to coded messages. When Ms. Vann Nettles speaks, I listen. Ms. Vann Nettles tolerates Trump’s acknowledged plethora of character flaws because the other candidates who are running for president do not share her core political values. These candidates need to pay close attention to Ms. Vann Nettles and the tens of millions of voters like her across America. It is the candidate’s job to understand the core values of mainstream voters and to address them in a persuasive manner. Until and unless this is done, Donald Trump – with all of his flaws – will remain the preferred candidate of choice for mainstream American voters. He has won their hearts and minds. I know, work with, and enjoy strong personal relationships with hundreds of voters who support Donald Trump. These voters are NOT racists. They also openly support me with the same fervor and degree of loyalty. Above all, they are NOT “sunshine” friends. During the recent storms of adversity in my life, they never left my side. They understand what I am going through and why. Like Ms. Vann Nettles, I respect leaders who are “unbossed” and “unbought.” However, the ones I support must have class and character. These essential attributes filter out murderous thugs like Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korea President Kim Jong Un, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, all of whom are “unbossed” and “unbought.” For reasons I do not understand, Donald Trump idolizes murderous thugs. I do not. Finally, the act of listening to opposing viewpoints from Carla Vann Nettles and the thousands of supportive Facebook friends like her helps me grow as a human being. It also fosters spirited and respectful debate on matters of significant public interest. This is a key ingredient for our participatory democracy. PHOTO: Carla Vann Nettles, my loyal Facebook friend and supporter.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on June 2, 2019 Yesterday, the U.S. Navy acknowledged it had received a request to hide a U.S. warship bearing the name of former political rival John McCain from President Donald Trump's view during his visit to Japan last week. “A request was made to the U.S. Navy to minimize the visibility of USS John S. McCain, however, all ships remained in their normal configuration during the President’s visit," according to a statement from Rear Adm. Charlie Brown, Chief of Navy Information, that the Pentagon released. The one-paragraph statement did not mention who made the request and a Pentagon spokesperson did not respond to media requests for further information. Trump gave a Memorial Day address aboard the USS Wasp at Yokosuka Naval Base, south of Tokyo. The McCain was docked there for repairs. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report that White House officials wanted the guided-missile destroyer to be kept "out of sight" during Trump's visit to Japan, apparently fearful that the president would be upset at having to see the name of the late Arizona senator, a frequent target of the president's anger. The ship was named after McCain's father and grandfather, both decorated admirals. The Navy added the name of Sen. McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam who emerged from captivity as a war hero, to the ship in 2018, according to the Journal. Trump is a verified Vietnam War draft dodger. His family’s wealth and status in New York City facilitated Trump’s ability to secure deferments from military service. Today, Trump is the Commander-in-Chief of all U.S. military forces. During his 2016 campaign for the presidency, Trump regularly insulted John McCain, scores of military Gold Star families (whose loved ones were killed in military action), and various decorated war heroes. Since his election, Trump has continued these gratuitous insults, unabated. On the international military scene, Trump’s idols appear to be Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korea President Kim Jong Un, and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, all of whom are murderous thugs. He also has a strong affinitive for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was implicated in the 2018 brutal murder and dismemberment of U.S. resident and Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi. The former military generals who served in the White House and as members of Trump’s cabinet after he became president are now gone. In the aftermath of their departure, there is no one left in the Trump Administration to serve as a check-and-balance on the President's perpetual impetuous conduct. The only people left in the White House are certified "ass kissers." PHOTO: The late Senator John McCain (left) and President Donald Trump (right). McCain, who died in 2018, was a war hero and Vietnam War-era POW. Trump was a verified draft dodger and is now America's Commander-in-Chief of all military forces.

Breaking News--- By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on May 31, 2019 This morning, the Jefferson County Department of Public Health announced that it is canceling a public hearing on an application submitted by Sherman Industries for a Title V Air Permit for two concrete manufacturing plants the company plans to operate at 3240 Fayette Avenue in the Five Points West community. This location is surrounded by several predominantly black residential neighborhoods and is directly adjacent to the City of Birmingham’s new $55 million state-of-the-arts CrossPlex recreational facility. The scheduled June 6, 2019 public hearing was canceled at Sherman Industries’ request. The company stressed, however, that Sherman Industries has NOT withdrawn its application for an air permit at the Fayette Avenue location. It has merely suspended proceedings on this application for the time being. In recent years, over $100 million in city government and private sector dollars have been invested into developing CrossPlex Village to stimulate additional development in the community. During the same period, the city invested vast dollars into the Parkside District in downtown Birmingham. Sherman Industries has been asked to leave its downtown concrete manufacturing location because the predominantly white residents in the new and booming Railroad Park and Regions Field neighborhoods do not want to be exposed to its non-stop air pollution. To accommodate these residents, Sherman Industries decided to impose its unwanted presence and corporate will on the residents of Five Points West. Jeff Sieg, a spokesman for Lehigh Hanson, Inc., U.S. parent company of Sherman Industries released the following statement this afternoon: “Sherman Industries has been working closely with the City of Birmingham regarding our proposed concrete batch plant at Fayette Ave. The company intends to continue this approach in an effort to improve the city’s and the community’s understanding of the scope of our project and to attempt to identify a mutually acceptable solution at Fayette Avenue in Five Points West, or possibly an equally viable location. Since these good-faith collaborative efforts are ongoing, Sherman Industries has voluntarily requested a temporary suspension of our pending air permit application and postponement of the June 6 public hearing. Sherman Industries remains optimistic that we will reach a mutually acceptable solution with the city of Birmingham. If our efforts to work with the city are not successful, Sherman Industries will resume processing of our pending air permit application. Sherman Industries is a responsible operator and has consistently remained in compliance with environmental regulations. Ultimately, our goal is to build and operate a state-of-the-art, environmentally sound and clean, concrete batch facility with a minimal environmental footprint.” Lehigh Hanson, is an affiliate of the German-based concrete manufacturing giant, HeidelbergCement Group. This international conglomerate operates 3,000 concrete plants worldwide. The company was a known collaborator with the Nazis’ death machine during World War II. Last Friday, Sherman Industries made it clear to the local NBC TV news that the company is moving forward with its application for a Title V Air Permit for the Fayette Avenue site. Today, the company's proceedings on its application has been temporarily suspended to give Mayor Randall Woodfin breathing room to find a mutually acceptable solution to this classic case of environmental racism. If Randall Woodfin fails to solve this problem, Sherman Industries has made it clear that the company will resume the processing of its air permit application for the 3240 Fayette Avenue location in Five Points West. Is this a veil threat by Sherman Industries? Yes. Will the company run over Mayor Woodfin and construct and operate its two concrete manufacturing plants at the 3240 Fayette Avenue location, if this corporate action is necessary? Yes. PHOTO: Sherman Industries plans to construct and operate two concrete manufacturing plants in Birmingham's Five Points West residential community. The company has temporarily suspended its application for an air permit at this location to appease protesting neighborhood residents and city officials.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on May 30, 2019 Dr. Zac Henson is a former Birmingham, Alabama-based social activist and scholar who proudly refers to himself as a “redneck” -- a white, working-class Southerner, albeit one who received his doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley, and whose politics, in contrast to the general view of “rednecks,” are decidedly not right-wing. He currently resides in Montgomery. In April 2019, Dr. Henson published a book titled, “Memoirs of a Mad Redneck.” The book has a fascinating chapter on Randall Woodfin, Birmingham, Alabama’s 37-year-old first-term mayor. Woodfin has been in the news recently about his failure to stop Sherman Industries from moving its dangerous, air-polluting concrete manufacturing plant from its downtown location to a predominantly black residential neighborhood in the Five Points West community of Birmingham. While Woodfin claims the plant is not coming to the Five Points West community, Sherman Industries is proceeding with its application for an air permit for the plant site in this residential community. Again this backdrop, Dr. Henson's assessment of Mayor Woodfin is enlightening. Here is Dr. Henson's view of Woodfin today: Randall: Excerpt from Memoirs of a Mad Redneck “Shortly after releasing the MCAP Strategic Plan in 2015, a young district attorney and president of the Birmingham Board of Education, Randall Woodfin, approached us about potentially supporting his 2017 mayoral campaign.  The meeting was set up by Mark Kelly, a local liberal newspaperman and genuinely good guy who would hook his wagon to Woodfin. I worked for Kelly at his newspaper, Weld for Birmingham, as a delivery driver for about three years until the newspaper folded.  The paper was pretty unique in Birmingham.  They had a strong editorial stance, they ran series on gentrification and poverty in Birmingham, and even went far out on a limb to critique the main development non-profit, REV Birmingham, in their dealings with the people of Birmingham.  It’s really sad that it ultimately folded because it provided such a strong service to the Birmingham community, a voice from the left in Birmingham, advocating for justice and change.  I published two editorials in the paper, one on gentrification and one on asset based community development, and Weld allowed a number of community members to publish editorials in the paper.  I’m happy that I got to contribute to Weld in my own little way and disappointed that it folded.  It seems that the days of small, local papers with strong editorial stances are gone and all that’s left is fluff articles and click bait. Randall ran a great campaign.  Let me say that from the beginning.  He knocked on doors, he reached out to many different communities in Birmingham, he was organized, and he executed the plan.  He came out of nowhere to win an election that everyone thought the incumbent, William Bell, would win in a walk.  He networked nationally and raised money almost solely through small donations.  He also used the movement community to get elected and turned on us less than two months after inauguration.  He began with our community in 2015. Randall read our plan and seemed high if non- committal on the projects.  During the meeting he was open, asked questions, and asked how he could help.  He has a weird sort of everyman charisma where he never claims to be an expert, but appears to be listening and engaging with the community.  We never thought he was a revolutionary, but we did think that he would listen and that he would work with us. I met with him a number of times.  I told him that if he wanted to get elected that he needed to adopt our plan and that he needed to use social media to stay in the traditional media like Trump.  My thoughts were that since he would be at a monetary disadvantage to Bell, he could use free media to leverage the narrative. He seemed attentive, but there were red flags.  He talked shit about Avee Shabazz calling him a sovereign citizen.  It’s something that I should have caught.  He was playing members of the movement off each other, implying that he was going to go with us and not with Shabazz and his team.  I missed it completely.  I wanted to believe in Randall probably too much and was blinded by the thought of getting a mayor favorable to us.  Randall is probably the greatest mistake that I ever made in movement work and it was a big one. I met with Randall six or seven times leading up to and during the election.  We also regularly exchanged text messages.  He also showed me a tweet from Chokwe Lumumba, radical mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, that showed Lumumba’s support for Randall.  Randall of course knew that I admired Lumumba and the work being done in Jackson.  I told Randall that if he wanted to be like him Lumumba, he had to support cooperatives.  And Randall did. In August of 2017, Randall endorsed The Black Agenda, a document created by The Grassroots Coalition-Birmingham, a 501c4 organization that grew out of the MCAP Strategic Plan.  The plan was wide ranging and included policing reform, cooperative economics, and transportation.  Randall carefully guided the debate about economics toward black-owned businesses and community land trusts.  It was an explicit endorsement of one type of cooperative institution, community land trusts, and an implicit endorsement of cooperatives generally.  Randall had previously put participatory budgeting and citizens oversight of police in his platform, after which I personally endorsed him.  After endorsing The Black Agenda, The Cooperative New School endorsed Randall. Bell hired Matrix, a political consulting firm, to attack Randall.  Matrix and the Bell campaign paid a number of grassroots organizers to switch sides.  The two most prominent to switch sides were Carlos Chaverst and Cara McClure.  I do not know if or how much they were paid, but they did switch sides in the middle of the election.  Cara’s switch drove a wedge in Black Lives Matter-Birmingham of which she was one of the founding members.  In retrospect, it would have probably made more sense to just take the money because name of the person in political office ultimately doesn’t matter because the Big Mules always have and still do control Birmingham.  In a city and state this corrupt, there’s little room for idealism and a mercenary attitude is rewarded institutionally. The Bell campaign also recruited a number of online influencers to attack Randall, and the arguments online reached a fever pitch in the months leading up to the election. But none of it phased Randall.  He had an army of free social media personalities to fight for him because they believed in him, and nothing Matrix or Bell could do would stick.  Randall’s staff also seemed quite a bit more adept at using social media than the Bell campaign, creating humorous memes and driving the narrative.  Randall won in a landslide. Randall’s first move was to create transition committees that brought together people from all sectors of Birmingham to supposedly craft his agenda.  There was a social justice committee, which many movement folks were on.  It seemed like we were gaining institutional legitimacy, but I chose not to be on the committees because I wanted to maintain my independence.  Some people were raising red flags. We were in the process of creating the Cooperative Business Development Center with a couple of black women organizers and a radicalized former small business owner, which was to be an incubator for cooperative businesses.  The center was gaining some traction.  We were working with the Woodlawn Foundation to create a cooperative grocery store and we were working with a number of other people to create cooperatives.  People openly wondered how much of Randall’s promises he was actually going to do and some members of the CBDC were quite skeptical of all Randall’s initiatives. The transition committee process included a number of public meetings to craft a social justice agenda for this city.  This included an Office of Social Justice.  There was a wide range of recommendations ranging from pollution to cooperatives and everything in between. But, things began to fall apart for Randall not long into his tenure.  In January of 2018, Randall announced that the city was going to build a stadium.  It was the first thing he did in spite of the fact that he had said during the campaign that it was not a priority.  The cost was $90 million over 30 years and the stadium would be owned by the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center, which is essentially a white shadow government, and not the city.  Randall touted unrealistic returns on the stadium for the city, numbers which included the redevelopment of Caraway Hospital, a project which would only be taken on by an insane person or someone with a healthy subsidy.  I challenged Randall on it on Facebook.  He responded that he wanted to talk. I spoke with him by phone.  I told him that I’d get behind it if he got a community benefits agreement on the stadium.  He agreed.  I wrote a plan to include CBA benefits in the bidding process.  Randall agreed in writing to get a CBA in a response to City Councilor Darrell O’Quinn’s written set of questions.  I even chewed out O’Quinn at a community meeting in front of about thirty people.  This was not what we voted for. There was never a CBA.  Randall’s progressive/movement support began to disintegrate.  I still believed in him, but some of the things that were red flags, like his business community support, began to pop up in my mind.  Every movement person was waiting on the transition committee process to see if it was all real or fake. Randall reserved the Alabama Theatre and gave the results of the transition committee process.  It was vague and indeterminant, but one thing was clear.  Randall was a neoliberal reformer.  Randall was going to take the city from an essentially Third World banana republic to a modern neoliberal city where gentrification was king and businesses could make tons of money.  He did promise to create an Office of Social Justice, but that has not yet happened.  People were very disappointed. The final straw and the moment that completely dissolved Randall’s credibility was when he refused to make Birmingham a Sanctuary City, which he promised to do during the campaign.  Randall had failed to do anything that he promised to the movement; not one thing.  I don’t know if this is because Randall is incompetent in terms of moving a bureaucracy or if it is because he never really intended to do it in the first place.  Either way it makes him a liar. Birmingham is perpetually missing its potential.  There was a moment, one moment, when everything seemed to come together.  I don’t like big crowds at all, but I decided to go to the celebration of Randall’s victory on the night of the election.  The people there were what Birmingham really is and what it could be.  Avee Shabazz, Mark Kelly, Michael Hansen, Julia Juarez, Martez Files, and many others.  The campaign had brought these people together in a way that Birmingham had never seen before and it was truly powerful.  The people there could have supported and fought for Randall as he tried to do something no one else has ever done anywhere.  But, that moment is gone and the opportunity is missed.  The lesson learned is that white suburban capitalists control Birmingham and have since 1871 including during and after the Civil Rights Movement. Big Mule, or Alabama capitalist usually living in the Birmingham suburbs, Sid Smyer famously said, “I’m a segregationist but I’m not a damn fool.”  The Big Mules could see that holding on to segregation was going to destroy their power, and they eliminated it and reorganized the government in order to maintain that power.  Birmingham was a colony of the Big Mules under direct rule during Jim Crow.  Now it is a colony under indirect rule. I moved to Montgomery because my wife is now the executive director of Alabama Arise.  My work in Birmingham is over and most of my activism is both a hobby and national/international.  I’m semi-retired from activism, working at a shop, and restoring my 1985 Toyota 4Runner.  It’s been a difficult transition.  It’s not often that something that you feel is your life’s work like Birmingham just abruptly ends and you’re left with an unknown and open future.  I don’t know what is in store for me, but I do know that I’m proud of the work we did together in Birmingham.  We came damn close, damn close to achieving something truly revolutionary and I hope history remembers all of us for that.  It’s proof that it is possible, even in the South.” PHOTO: Dr. Zac Henson, former Birmingham, Alabama activist and community organizer. He is a self-described “Mad Redneck.”

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on February 3, 2019 I have written on many occasions that Rosa Parks was a dear friend of the Watkins family. The civil rights icon enjoyed a close bond with my parents, Levi and Lillian Watkins. My brother Levi, Jr. was her heart surgeon. The Watkins family admired and respected Rosa Parks for her courage in the face of danger and unwavering service to humanity. We were blessed to know her on a personal basis. Rosa Parks embodied greatness. Many things have been written about Rosa Parks, but some are worth remembering during this year’s Black History Month. Author Christopher Klein of History.com compiled 10 facts all of us should know about Rosa Parks. 1. Parks was not the first African-American woman to be arrested for refusing to yield her seat on a Montgomery bus. Nine months before Parks was jailed, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was the first Montgomery bus passenger to be arrested for refusing to give up her seat for a white passenger. (Parks was involved in raising defense funds for Colvin.) Three other African-American women—Aurelia Browder, Mary Louise Smith and Susie McDonald—also ran afoul of the bus segregation law prior to Parks. The four were plaintiffs in the Browder v. Gayle case that resulted in the Supreme Court ruling bus segregation unconstitutional. 2. Parks was a civil rights activist before her arrest. Parks was a long-time member of the Montgomery chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which she joined in 1943. At the time of her arrest, she was a secretary of the local NAACP chapter, and the previous summer she had attended a workshop for social and economic justice at Tennessee’s Highlander Folk School. Her political activism continued through the boycott and the rest of her life. 3. Parks had a prior encounter with James Blake, the bus driver who demanded she vacate her seat. In 1943, Blake had ejected Parks from his bus after she refused to re-enter the vehicle through the back door after paying her fare at the front. “I never wanted to be on that man’s bus again,” she wrote in her autobiography. “After that, I made a point of looking at who was driving the bus before I got on. I didn’t want any more run-ins with that mean one.” After the written order from the Supreme Court outlawing bus segregation arrived and the Montgomery Bus Boycott ended on December 21, 1956, one of the newly integrated buses that Parks boarded to pose for press photographs happened to be driven by Blake. 4. Her act of civil disobedience was not premeditated. Although Parks knew that the NAACP was looking for a lead plaintiff in a case to test the constitutionality of the Jim Crow law, she did not set out to be arrested on bus 2857. Parks wrote in her autobiography that she was preoccupied that day and failed to notice that Blake was driving the bus. “If I had been paying attention,” she wrote, “I wouldn’t even have gotten on that bus.” 5. Parks was not sitting in a whites-only section. Parks was sitting in the front row of a middle section of the bus open to African Americans if seats were vacant. After the “whites-only” section filled on subsequent stops and a white man was left standing, the driver demanded that Parks and three others in the row leave their seats. While the other three eventually moved, Parks did not. 6. Parks did not refuse to leave her seat because her feet were tired. In her autobiography, Parks debunked the myth that she refused to vacate her seat because she was tired after a long day at work. “I was not tired physically,” she wrote, “or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” 7. Weeks after her arrest, Parks was jailed a second time for her role in the boycott. Parks was on the executive board of directors of the group organizing the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and she worked for a short time as a dispatcher, arranging carpool rides for boycotters. On February 21, 1956, a grand jury handed down indictments against Parks and dozens of others for violating a state law against organized boycotting. She and 114 others were arrested, and The New York Times ran a front-page photograph of Parks being fingerprinted by police. 8. Parks was forced to move from Montgomery soon after the boycott. Weeks after her arrest, Parks lost her department store job, although she was told by the personnel officer that it was not because of the boycott. Her husband quit his job after being told that there could be no discussion of the boycott or his wife in the workplace. Throughout the boycott and beyond, Parks received threatening phone calls and death threats. In 1957 she, along with her husband and mother, moved to Detroit, where she eventually worked as an administrative aide for Congressman John Conyers, Jr., and lived the rest of her life. 9. Parks was the first woman to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol. After Parks died at age 92 on October 24, 2005, she received a final tribute usually reserved for statesman and military leaders when her body was brought to the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. More than 30,000 people filed past her coffin to pay their respects. 10.Bus seats were left empty to honor Parks on the 50th anniversary of her arrest. On December 1, 2005, transit authorities in New York City, Washington, D.C. and other American cities symbolically left the seats behind bus drivers empty to commemorate Parks’ act of civil disobedience. PHOTO: Civil rights icon Rosa Park’s Montgomery, Alabama booking photo after her second arrest in February 1956. PHOTO: Rosa Parks with my parents, Levi and Lillian Watkins, and my sister Pearl in their Montgomery, Alabama home. PHOTO: My sons Donald V. Watkins Jr. (left) and Derry "Light" Watkins (right) met Rosa Parks when they were teenagers. She had a tremendous impact on their lives and calling to serve humanity.

By Donald V. Watkins ©Copyrighted and Published on May 26, 2019 Yesterday, we stood in the 101-degree sweltering heat in front of 3240 Fayette Avenue in West Birmingham for one hour. This is the spot where Sherman Industries intends to construct and operate two industrial-scale concrete manufacturing plants. It is surrounded by several predominantly black residential neighborhoods and is directly adjacent to the City of Birmingham’s new $55 million state-of-the-arts CrossPlex recreational facility. In recent years, over $100 million in city government and private sector dollars have been invested into developing CrossPlex Village to stimulate additional development in the community. During the same period, the city invested vast dollars into the Parkside District in downtown Birmingham. Sherman Industries has been asked to leave its downtown location because the predominantly white residents in the new and booming Railroad Park and Regions Field neighborhoods do not want to be exposed to its non-stop air pollution. To accommodate these residents, Sherman Industries has decided to impose its unwanted presence and corporate will on the residents of Five Points West. This relocation move represents a classic example of modern-day environmental racism, plain and simple. Environmental racism is unlawful. Section 4.06(1) of Birmingham’s Mayor-Council Act authorizes Mayor Randall Woodfin to “enforce all laws and ordinances,” including those laws and ordinances that prohibit acts of environmental racism. As we stood in the unbearable heat yesterday, I listened to Susan Palmer, Kimberly Chatman, April Williams, and nearly a dozen other dedicated and respected neighborhood leaders express their strong opposition to locating two concrete plants on the Sherman Industries site. These leaders are united in their goal of stopping Sherman Industries from coming to their neighborhood with commercial-scale air pollution and nuisance-level business operations. They are passionate in their advocacy. They are determined to protect the improving quality of life in the Five Points West community. They are committed to winning this fight. And, they are real leaders who mean serious business. On May 7 and 21, 2019, Mayor Randall Woodfin assured city council members and Five Points West residents that Sherman Industries would not be constructing and operating its two concrete manufacturing plants on this large vacant site in Five Points West. Last Wednesday, he told me the same thing. On May 21, 2019, Lehigh Hanson spokesman Jeff Sieg issued this carefully worded statement: “Sherman Industries intends to continue working with the city and the community to improve everyone’s understanding of the scope of our project and trying to identify a mutually acceptable solution at Fayette Avenue in Five Points West, or possibly an equally viable location that is, like the Fayette Avenue site, properly zoned for this business.” Lehigh Hanson is the U.S. parent company of Sherman Industries, LLC. The German-based HeidelbergCement Group is the international parent company of Lehigh Hanson. The HeidelbergCement Company, which operates 3,000 concrete plants worldwide, was a known collaborator with the Nazis’ death machine during World War II. On Friday, Sherman Industries made it clear to the local NBC TV news that the company is moving forward with its application for a Title V Air Permit for the Fayette Avenue site. The Jefferson County Department of Health (JCDH) has scheduled a public hearing on the permit for June 6, 2019. If Sherman Industries’ air permit is granted, the company will likely get approval from state and federal environmental regulatory agencies for the concrete plants at the Five Points West site. Based upon my independent research and publicly available information from the Greater Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution (GASP), here is where we are today: 1. Sherman Industries has no intention to abandon its plan to relocate its concrete manufacturing operations to the Fayette Avenue site. 2. The June 6th hearing is going forward, as planned. 3. The application fees associated with JCDH’s review and processing of Sherman Industries’ air permit ranges from $1 to $2 million. 4. JCHD has issued Title V Air Permits to the most notorious air polluters in the State of Alabama, including (a) ABC Coke in North Birmingham, (b) Alabama Power Company's J.H. Miller, Jr., Steam Electric Generating Plant, (c) ACIPCO in North Birmingham, and (d) 28 other major air polluters. 5. JCDH has zero interest in stopping environmental racism. Major air polluters control this agency. 6. On May 18, 2015, Lehigh Hanson secured an air permit from JCDH for the Lehigh Cement Company in Leeds, Alabama. The issuance of this permit gives Lehigh Hanson a tactical advantage over neighborhood protestors and city officials who are opposing the two concrete batch plants on the Fayette Avenue property because JCDH is already familiar with the Lehigh Hanson family of concrete manufacturing companies. 7. Thanks to JCDH’s issuance of 31 Title V Air Permits, Birmingham ranks in the top 15 urban areas with the largest disparity in air pollution exposure between whites and nonwhites, placing an undue burden on poor communities and people of color. 8. In general, the people most at risk to the harmful effects of air pollution are children, seniors, pregnant women, and people with preexisting health troubles like asthma, COPD, and diabetes. In addition to those vulnerable groups, research has consistently shown that people of color and low-income families are disproportionately burdened by air pollution. 9. Air pollution is the leading environmental risk factor for premature death and disease in the world. There is no safe level of exposure to particle pollution. It was painfully obvious to everybody who gathered at 3240 Fayette Avenue yesterday that Sherman Industries and Lehigh Hanson have hoodwinked Mayor Woodfin and his department heads. They are now going to publicly humiliate Woodfin by ramming the company’s two concrete manufacturing plants at Fayette Avenue down his throat regardless of what he and the residents of Five Points West think about this business. They are motivated by corporate greed, arrogance, a total lack of respect for Mayor Woodfin, and a reckless disregard for human life in the Five Points West community. As a public relations gesture, Sherman Industries has talked to city officials about offering jobs to area residents in an effort to diffuse the growing neighborhood protests. They also want to make this pitch to neighborhood leaders, but not one of them wants to listen to this kind of appeasing rhetoric. The truth is this: Sherman Industries and Lehigh Hanson are coming to Five Points West unless Randall Woodfin uses his mayoral power right now to stop this blatant act of environmental racism. State and federal officials will not stop them. Alabama's judicial system will not stop them. Birmingham’s corporate leaders will not step forward and stop them. The only person in city government with the legal authority and duty to stop this act of environmental racism is Randall Woodfin. Unless Randall Woodfin draws a line in the sand on this issue today and flexes his mayoral muscle in a clear, convincing and forceful manner between now and June 6th, it will be too late to stop Sherman Industries from building and operating these two plants in the Five Points West community. Merely voicing his opposition to the concrete plants will not stop Sherman Industries. Woodfin must demonstrate to Sherman Industries that he means real business on this matter. In this case, action speaks louder than words. This is a “do or die” fight for Mayor Randall Woodfin. It is not for the faint of heart. It will define his duration in office and legacy as mayor. Losing this fight with Sherman Industries is not an acceptable option for Woodfin. His manhood is on the line. The city council cannot help Mayor Woodfin in this matter. Only Mayor Woodfin has the power to “enforce all laws and ordinances.” Even if the council had the power to help Woodfin, the overwhelming majority of its members are little more than political mannequins with name tags. Mayor Woodfin has less than two weeks to prove he can earn the respect of Sherman Industries. He must force this company to withdraw its application for an air permit for the Five Points West site by June 6th. This is Woodfin's moment of truth. PHOTO: Sherman Industries' concrete manufacturing location in downtown Birmingham.