Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf’s Massive Credit Card Fraud

Elizabeth Warren Is Right!

by Donald V. Watkins

Senator Elizabeth Warren is right. Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf should resign and face a criminal investigation for the 2 million acts of bank account and credit card fraud committed on his watch. This fraud was widespread criminal conduct that was part of Wells Fargo’s bank culture. Top executives at the bank received bonuses based upon this fraud. No one has been prosecuted.

Why?

Bank regulators and federal prosecutors are afraid to prosecute the CEOs of the so-called Big Banks. They enjoy immunity from prosecution. Not one of them was prosecuted for running their banks into the ground during the Great Recession of 2008 and losing $13 trillion in American wealth in the process. Other nations sent their crooked bank CEOs to jail. Here, we bailed them out with taxpayers money and gave them bigger bonuses. They thanked us by finding new ways to cheat customers and regulators.

Stumpf and his fellow CEOs are modern-day untouchables, and they know it. The Big Bank bank employees who get prosecuted for criminal wrongdoing are usually

UNC Chapel Hill Research: Medicaid Expansion Helps Rural Hospitals

As of the date of this posting – Monday, 19 September 2016 – there are 19 states which have NOT Expanded Medicaid, and Alabama is one of those 19.

In alphabetical order, they are:

Current Condition of Medicaid Expansion
Has YOUR state expanded Medicaid?
Orange=NO

1.) Alabama
2.) Florida
3.) Georgia
4.) Idaho
5.) Kansas
6.) Maine
7.) Mississippi
8.) Missouri
9.) Nebraska
10.) North Carolina
11.) Oklahoma
12.) South Carolina
13.) South Dakota
14.) Tennessee
15.) Texas
16.) Utah
17.) Virginia
18.) Wisconsin
19.) Wyoming

 

 

 

 

 

Lack Of Medicaid Expansion Hurts Rural Hospitals More Than Urban Facilities

By Shefali Luthra September 7, 2016

It isn’t news that in rural parts of the country, people have a harder time accessing good health care. But new evidence suggests opposition to a key part of the 2010 health overhaul could be adding to the gap.

The finding comes from a study published Wednesday in the journal Health Affairs, which analyzes how the states’ decisions on implementing the federal health law’s expansion of Medicaid, a federal-state insurance program for low-income people, may be influencing rural hospitals’ financial stability. Nineteen states opted not to join the expansion.

Rural hospitals have long argued they were hurt by the lack of Medicaid expansion, which leaves many of their patients without insurance coverage and strains the hospitals’ ability to better serve the public. The study suggests they have a point.

Specifically, the researchers, from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, found that

Are There Any Good Choices In The 2016 General Election?

There are NO GOOD choices in this General Election.

We have:
The Devil We Know vs The Devil We Don’t Know.

We also have:
Choosing the lesser of two evils is still a choice FOR evil.

Granted, someone WILL be elected, and granted further, s/he won’t be liked by those whom didn’t vote for the winner.

The two major party’s candidates are almost universally disliked within and without the parties. And that is a very sad state of affairs. It is, in large part, why there was such enormous support for Bernie Sanders… who is the opposite side of the same coin as Trump.

What concerns me most about Trump is that he seems

Give To Those Who Ask

Some time ago, I had a change of heart on a rather simple matter,

and which was one of faith.

Since the summer of ’93 I had heard that

Criticizing Stephen Hawking

Renown astrophysicist Stephen Hawking appeared on the Larry King Now show June 2016, and was interviewed by the esteemed long-time journalist.

In the interview, among the comments Hawking made was that “We certainly have not become less greedy or less stupid. The population has grown by half a billion since our last meeting, with no end in sight. At this rate, it will be eleven billion by 2100.”

News of the interview was covered by USA Today, and subsequently by The Intellectualist website, both which focused upon Professor Hawking‘s remark as referenced above.

This is worth noting:
The article quoted Hawking as saying,

Your Tax Dollars At Work: Taxpayers Subsidize CEO Pay, Here’s How #BonusLoophole

Executive Excess 2016: The Wall Street CEO Bonus Loophole

This 23rd annual report reveals how taxpayers are subsidizing financial crisis windfalls.

By Sarah Anderson and Sam Pizzigati, August 31, 2016

This report is the first to calculate how much taxpayers have been subsidizing executive bonuses at the nation’s largest banks.

The study focuses on a 1993 Clinton administration reform that was intended to rein in runaway CEO pay by capping the tax deductibility of executive compensation at $1 million. But the new rule included a huge loophole for stock options and other “performance” pay. As a result, the more corporations hand out in executive bonuses, the lower their tax bill. This perverse incentive for excessive compensation has been a major factor in the explosion of CEO pay.

The financial bailout program closed this loophole for recipients, but only until

Why @HillaryClinton’s @StateDept Quid Pro Quo Pay-To-Play Is A Corrupt Practice

Accountability is what remains once responsibility has fled. The citizens of the United States must demand higher standards from their public servants, and officials, and severely punish violations of the same.

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Bill and Hillary Clinton, Meet Jozette Berry, Alisha Cole and Lashonda Smaw

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on August 28, 2016
Used with permission.

Former Jefferson County, Alabama revenue clerks Lashonda Smaw, Alisha Cole, and Gazette Berry (pictured from left to right). They engaged in the same unethical conduct that is involved in the Hillary Clinton “cash for prioritized access” scandal. Each woman was investigated, criminally charged with felony ethics violations, and convicted in court. Their total take in gratuities was $120. The total gratuities involved in the Clinton scandal is $156 million, and nobody is under a criminal investigation.

In 2013, Jozette Berry, Alisha Cole and Lashonda Smaw were Jefferson County, Alabama revenue clerks who worked in the downtown County Courthouse and the Center Point Satellite Courthouse. These low-level public servants accepted cash gratuities for cutting people to the front of the 4-hour long, slow moving, car tag line. Cole was caught accepting $20 on two occasions in August 2013. Berry and Smaw were caught accepting $40 on a single occasion in April 2013.

After a local Fox TV news team publicly exposed this criminal conduct, there was immediate and widespread condemnation of the women’s actions. It made national news. This was declared an ethics violation on the part of each woman.

In December 2013, a Jefferson County grand jury indicted Berry, Cole, and Smaw for using their public office for personal gain, which is a felony in Alabama and an ethics violation as well. Each woman faced 2 to 20 years in prison, if convicted.

These women did not have friends in high places. They were not connected to the Obama White House, or the U.S. Attorney General, or the Director of the FBI. They did not hold any political office. They did not have New York spin-doctors or high-powered lawyers to argue that they had done nothing wrong. In short, they had no one who could “fix” their criminal case, or make it go away.

Jozette Berry and Lashonda Smaw, who are black, eventually pled guilty. Alisha Cole, who faced two felony counts of ethics violations, went to trial and was convicted. Berry received a sentence of 12 months of hard labor in the county jail. Imposition of Berry’s sentence was later suspended and she was placed on 2 years of unsupervised probation. After her conviction, Cole received a three-year suspended sentence and two years of unsupervised probation. Smaw’s sentence for her ethics violation is unknown at this time.

The guilty pleas for Berry and Smaw and guilty verdict for Cole ended a multi-year joint criminal investigation by the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Public Corruption and White Collar Crimes Unit, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, and the Birmingham Police Department. After the criminal cases ended in May 2015, the local DA proudly released the following statement: “We are grateful to have partners in law enforcement who are

Why don’t some vote? Are Democrats & Republicans really the same?

Some citizens who have no religious compunction against voting, and who would otherwise vote, sometimes express frustration at their perceived inability to effectuate change by and through voting. Thus, they abstain from any involvement in the political process. When things don’t go their way – or even according to the wishes of the majority – they often feel justified in their passive inactions and claim a corrupted process which not merely inhibits active involvement, but actually alienates itself from the electorate. In a very real way, they are their own victims in a self-fulfilling prophesy. However, there is evidence to support the idea that to some extent, the process has become corrupted. The following article examines some of the more common refrains heard in complaint.

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50 Ways the Democratic and Republican Parties Are The Same

Aug 3, 2016
By Andrew Gripp

1. Both parties engage in and benefit from gerrymandering, the practice of redrawing district lines for partisan gain. In 2010, Republicans invested millions in statewide races to retake state legislatures for the purpose of controlling congressional redistricting. Since then, Republicans have created highly gerrymandered maps in states like North Carolina and Virginia. Democrats are guilty of gerrymandering as well: Maryland hosts some of the most contorted, gerrymandered districts in the country. Gerrymandering is one of the leading reasons that many congressional races are not competitive.

2. Both parties also thwart efforts to combat gerrymandering, such as amendments making gerrymandering illegal and the adoption of independent redistricting commissions. In Florida, where gerrymandering is outlawed by the state constitution, Democrat-sponsored bills to create an independent redistricting have led nowhere, and in Maryland, Democrats have been reluctant to give up control over redistricting after a commission appointed by the state’s Republican governor recommended handing mapmaking over to an independent panel.

3. At the federal level, both parties benefit from congressionally mandated single-member districts (SMDs). Last passed in 1967, this mandate requires that only one House member can represent a congressional district (except in Hawaii and New Mexico). According to Duverger’s law, SMDs tend to produce a two-party system because there can only be one winner, which encourages voters to vote strategically for a major party candidate to prevent the opposing major party candidate from winning. There has been no major bipartisan effort to allow states to experiment with alternative modes of congressional representation, such as multimember districts (MMDs).

4. Both parties control the process of formally electing the president. First, in each state, parties create a slate of loyal electors. After the presidential election in November, the electors

Do Politicians Really Care About People?

Do They Really Care About Us?

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on July 24, 2016
Used with permission

I am a political independent, a status I have enjoyed since 2002. I watched the Republican National Convention last week and will watch the Democratic National Convention this week. I will decide which candidate has earned my support after Labor Day.

Meanwhile, I am assessing whether the current class of political candidates running for election in November really cares about us. I always enjoy a good political speech, but I tend to judge candidates and public officials by their actions or inaction, rather than their “feel good” speeches.

Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump agreed that America’s financial system is “rigged” in favor of the super rich. I agree with them. Sadly, this truism does not seem to bother a majority of public officials at the local, state and national level. Here is how and why the system is rigged against ordinary Americans.

First, every Monday through Friday at 5 p.m. EST, media organizations nationwide report on how well the financial portfolios of the wealthiest Americans and major public companies have performed on Wall Street. When the super rich have a good day, we all know it. When they have a bad day, we know that as well.

Pew Research found that 53 percent of Americans own no stock at all, and out of the 47 percent who do, the richest 5 percent own two-thirds of that stock. And only 10 percent of Americans have pensions, so stock market gains or losses don’t affect the incomes of the vast majority of retirees.

Unlike Wall Street, I know of no financial dashboard that gauges Main Street’s financial health on a daily basis. Why? Our politicians cater to

Hillary, Trump, Sanders, Kasich… Who’s In? Who’s out?

Hillary this, Trump that. People are increasingly sickened by both candidates, and polls continue to illustrate as much.

Some fervently adhere to Bernie, while other Hillary supporters bash him – and vice versa. 

And very few will admit to supporting Trump, either GOP adherents, or Independents. It seems a “Pariah Syndrome” covers Trump like a blanket of slop. But that’s okay, because he now loves Jesus… at least according to James Dobson – the quasi politico-religious counselor-cum-minister who enriched himself by promoting the politics of “family” – who heard a second hand report of the matter. Reliable indeed. (/sarcasm)

Very few have addressed the matter pragmatically – except to conduct polls, the number of which has increased significantly. And, in part, that can be

Is @HillaryClinton ~REALLY~ The First Female Candidate For A Major Political Party?

In a word, no… and yes. But to fully understand, one needs to understand the Clintons’ technical use of the English language.

Tuesday night, June 8, 2016, addressing an audience in Brooklyn, Hillary Clinton said that for the first time in American history “a woman will be a major party’s nominee.”

Earlier, on 7:27 PM – 7 Jun 2016, she Tweeted that “For the first time in our history, a woman will be a major party’s nominee for President of the United States.”

Is Hillary’s self-aggrandizing Tweet true? Is she the first ever?

So, let’s parse words.

The Clintons – Bill & Hillary – are expert at using the technicalities and nuances of language. During his impeachment trial, then-President Clinton became infamous for his testimony under oath about the experiential scope and nature of his physical relationship with Monica Lewinsky, when he said this during a video-taped deposition which later became Grand Jury testimony:

“It depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is. If the—if he—if ‘is’ means is and never has been, that is not—that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement.”

So in order to get around this – something the Clintons are expert at doing – the comment she made of herself was that she was (or would be) the first female candidate for a “major” party. That is a very legal, very technical phrasing. 

Earlier, Stephen Colbert, host of the CBS television show “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” made mock of Hillary’s legalistic technical phrasing by saying

On Executive Compensation

The Mosaic Scriptural principle (which is also referenced in the New Testament) that “you should not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain” is certainly a principle with and by which we should compensate people for their labor. However, there is little disagreement that the committees that set the rewards far too often overcompensate those whom are charged with organizational oversight.

There is something to be said for fair and just compensation according to the terms of a contract, and the wishes and desires of those whom issue them. 

Why then, is it that when

Happy #MothersDay 2016!

Anna Jarvis, the woman credited in 1908 with celebrating the first day to recognize mothers, later later denounced the holiday’s commercialization and spent the latter part of her life trying to remove it from the calendar, after it became an official U.S. holiday in 1914.

Much earlier, however, the ancient Greeks and Romans celebrated festivals honoring the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele. But the clearest modern precedent for Mother’s Day is the early Christian festival which was known as “Mothering Sunday.”

As a once-major tradition in the United Kingdom and parts of Europe, that celebration occurred on the fourth Sunday in Lent and was originally viewed as a time when the Christian faithful would return to their “mother church” – which was the main church in the vicinity of their home – for a special service.

In the years before the Civil War (1861-65), Ann Reeves Jarvis of West Virginia helped establish “Mothers’ Day Work Clubs” to teach local women how to

Sexual Bribery Not Uncommon in Alabama #ALpolitics

Free Legal Advice for Prosecutors in Bentley’s Case

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on April 22, 2016
Used with permission

This article offers free legal advice to state and federal prosecutors investigating Alabama Governor Robert Bentley and his mistress/lover/partner in crime, Rebekah Mason. We are bringing to their immediate attention the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals case in McDonald v. State, 57 Ala. App. 529, 329 So. 2d 583 (Crim. App. 1975) 57 Ala. App. 529, 329 So.2d 583. This case involved former Madison County Judge Thomas D. McDonald, who was charged with soliciting sexual favors from a woman appearing in his court on a criminal charge of larceny in exchange for dismissing her case. The woman reported this solicitation to the proper authorities and her case was transferred to another judge. McDonald was then charged with bribery, tried and convicted. His conviction was upheld on appeal.

  The Court of Appeals ruling reveals that Judge McDonald had the female defendant in this criminal case brought to his private courthouse chambers; he then closed the door to make sure the two of them were alone; afterwards, he told the woman how attractive she was; he put his arms around her; he promised to dismiss her case if she would allow him to enjoy the pleasures of her body; and he asked this woman to meet him at a motel that night.

Judge McDonald exhibited

The @JusticeDept Readies Its Case: 10 Questions About United States v #ALpolitics @GovernorBentley, @rebmason, et al

USA v. Robert J. Bentley, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, and Other Co-Conspirators

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on April 19, 2016
Used with permission

Alabama Governor Robert J. Bentley, 73, and political consultant Rebekah Caldwell Mason, 40, are expected to be charged by the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) for using Bentley’s position as governor to execute a wide ranging racketeering conspiracy involving wire and mail fraud, tax fraud, bribery, money laundering, the unauthorized use of the federal National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and the Law Enforcement Tactical System (LETS) databases, and related criminal charges.

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley and paramour-cum-Senior Political Advisor Rebekah Caldwell Mason

As we announced exclusively on April 9, 2016, federal prosecutors in Washington have decided to expedite the initiation of public corruption charges against Robert Bentley and Rebekah Mason. This article takes you deep inside the criminal case against the governor and his married lover.

Mason, a mother of three young children, is trying to stay out of jail by cooperating with the federal probe. She does not have the financial resources to mount a spirited or sustained defense to the expected criminal charges.

Bentley, whose criminal defense attorneys are paid from campaign funds and personal savings, is helping Rebekah Mason fund her criminal defense by keeping Jonathan Mason, her husband, on the state payroll as the director of Serve Alabama at an annual salary of $94,000. This financial assistance, however, is woefully inadequate considering the tidal wave of legal trouble Rebekah Mason faces.

Robert Bentley, Rebekah Mason and other co-conspirators are staring down the barrel of a criminal indictment that is expected to exceed ninety felony charges once the case has been presented to a federal grand jury. Bentley will be named as the “ringleader” of the racketeering conspiracy.

The commonly asked questions about the governor’s criminal conduct and

2016 Election Cycle Thoughts #P2 #TCOT #politics

There’s little doubt that the 2016 General Election cycle will be as historical as it is hysterical.

The GOP is floundering with an invasion of illegal aliens which consist of undocumented TEA partiers, religious wing nuts, and no-taxers whom have all pushed the party to the breaking point edge. It’s front runner is despised by the establishment, and it’s runner-up attempts to cloak himself in the mantle of pseudo-religious corporatism.

Meanwhile, the opposite side of that coin in the Democratic Party is fighting it’s own battles with an almost wholesale alienation of its broad core constituency, through a sell-out to corporate interests to the extent that critics have called one of its political “family heritage” candidates a Republican in Democrat clothing, and demonize its strongest contender who is imminently more popular with the people as an idealist whose FDR-like ideas are labelled everything from communist-to-socialist, and all points in between. The political “family heritage” candidate remains the corporate media favorite, though it’s increasingly more difficult to ignore the greatest public outcry of popular support since the last presidential election, which contender is drawing crowds double that of its two-term nominee-president.

Both parties top contenders have decried overseas multinational trade deals which continue to be despised for negative net effects which most notably includes loss of domestic industrial manufacturing capacity translated as jobs, family income and domestic financial security.

One party nominee-wanna-be is

Hillary Haunts @GOP In Staten Island Visit @HillaryClinton #P2 #TCOT #Politics

“I Will Not Raise Taxes on the Middle Class,” Says Clinton Sunday At Staten Island Campaign Stop.

Says she’s the only presidential candidate making such a promise.

Little know facts that give understanding to the news report:
• Staten Island is the least populated of NYC’s 5 boroughs w 470,000+/- population

• Is predominately White/Caucasian (64%+)

• Roman Catholic

• College educated (27.3% have Bachelor’s degree or higher)

• Median family income is $64,333

• Is New York’s self-proclaimed “forgotten borough,” because it is a hidden bastion of Republicanism in one of the nation’s most liberal cities, and

• Because it is separated from the rest of New York City geographically and politically.

  
Staten Island is frequently the butt of jokes about NYC, and the borough’s voters once considered seceding from the city in 1993.

Donald Trump recently campaigned there and

Alabama #ALpolitics @GovernorBentley Abused Office As Evidenced By Aircraft Use

—UPDATED 13 April 2016 to add helicopter/wallet detail.—

Alabama Governor Bentley used numerous state aircraft several hundreds – perhaps even thousands – of times, including ones registered to, or leased by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, and Alabama Department of Transportation – not just the governor’s “official” craft, and used state money to pay for even more charters with numerous other private firms.

 

In fact, since the day of his initial inauguration, he and former wife Dianne flew 749 times – more than TWICE as much as former Governor Fob James.

 

The number of aircraft flights taken by former Alabama First Lady Dianne Bentley, and paramour Rebeka Caldwell Mason are telling.

The destinations and purposes for many, if not most, of the trips – including ones he made for campaigning – were purposely vaguely listed to

Alabama #ALpolitics State Laughingstock @ALGOP @GovernorBentley Used @RebMason

The word of the day is “Vituperative.”

Bentley’s archnemesis Attorney D.V.Watkins – who published highlighted findings of his investigation into Bentley’s public corruption & lawbreaking (though withholding details of the same) – has shared that he has sent details to the US Department of Justice for their consideration. 

It has also recently come to light that Bentley, in a manner reminiscent of disgraced former president Richard Nixon, also had an “enemies list” and (mis)used the power of his office to investigate those individuals. 

Is R.Mason guiltless? 

No.

Watkins makes no apology for, or defense of her alleged lawbreaking. He does, however, acknowledge that the sure and heavy hammer wielded by the Federal Government may be somewhat less severe if she cooperates with the investigation by turning state’s witness.

It’s a veritable legal “Art Of The Deal” 101.

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Rebekah Is No Villain; Bentley Is

 
 
By Donald V. Watkins
 
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on March 31, 2016
 
 
Rebekah Caldwell Mason resigned yesterday. (RCM was Bentley’s “Chief Political Advisor” and was paid with so-called “Dark Money” by Alabama Council for Excellent Government (aka ACEGOV), a 501(c)(4) political group sympathetic to, and influential upon him. By law, 501(c)(4)s are tax-exempt nonprofit “social welfare” organizations, and not required to disclose their donors, but must file IRS Form 990 detailing their expenditures. -Editor) This event was forced by all of the drama surrounding the “sex for power” scandal created by Alabama Governor Robert Bentley. The governor effectively threw Rebekah under the bus to save himself.

Rebekah indulged Bentley’s sexual appetite for several years. Like a young schoolboy, Bentley professed his “love” for Rebekah, over and over again. In the end, Bentley betrayed her. Apparently, his love for Rebekah was only skin-deep.

Rebekah joins a long and distinguish list of people who loved and trusted Bentley and were ultimately betrayed and discarded by him. This list includes

Ohio GOP Primary Analysis

Ohioans cast their 2016 party Primary ballots last night, and the preliminary, unofficial results of the 8887 statewide precincts reporting (100%) according to Ohio Secretary of State John Husted, Ohio Governor and GOP Presidential nominee contender John R. Kasich won 917,284 votes, which represented 46.98% of all GOP Primary ballots cast statewide.

The next nearest contender,