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

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.

—/—

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

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

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

A Better Argument For Alabama #ALpolitics To Legalize, Regulate & Tax Marijuana

Recently, on February 23, 2016, AL.com published an OpEd entitled “Would legalizing cannabis solve Alabama’s budget problems?” written by Reggie C. Pulliam, whom was identified as “a resident of Gulf Shores who has worked on public policy and criminal justice reform in Washington, D.C.”

I found his Op-Ed unconvincing because it’s poorly written.

The Colorado Department of Revenue reported that for December 2015 (State of Colorado Marijuana Taxes, Licenses, and Fees Transfers and Distribution December 2015 Sales Reported in January 2016), Total All Marijuana Taxes, Licenses, and Fees was $13,247,434.

The year-to-date increase was $4,689,293.

Based upon the December figure, on an annualized basis, that’s $158,969,208… which is not exactly chump change.
(See “Alabama Senate Approves Shifting $100 Million Away From Schools” published September 15, 2015.)

Linked here is the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Colorado Marijuana Tax Data.

Figuring into the state cost : benefit analysis & calculations also is a decrease in costs associated with

What Underutilized Renewable Alabama Resource Could Catapult The State Economically?

Soon, the Alabama state legislature will reconvene, and soon enough, they will – once again – be faced with enormous fiscal shortfalls.

And, once again as well, the Republican super-dominated Alabama state legislature will be reticent, reluctant, and recalcitrant to raise taxes… except upon those least capable of paying them. I refer, of course, to the impoverished, which – according to the United States Census Bureau – comprise nearly 20% of Alabama’s population. And with a population estimated at 4,849,377, that’s 901, 984 people, who annually, according to the research,

Even With #ALpolitics @ALGOP & @GovernorBentley’s Iron-Fisted Control, Alabama STILL Thanks God for Mississippi

Fraud, waste, and abuse are rampant in Sweet Home, and it’s KILLING the state.

Cronyism and corruption remains alive and well, despite claims to the contrary as asserted by the GOP, which now rules Alabama with an Iron Fist.

If it could be said that states have personalities, Alabama’s would be bipolar, and schizophrenic. Reeling from fear – though they deny it – they continue to perpetuate and indeed, cultivate the very worst of the very worst in human behavior.

It’s not that Alabama or its people are bad, it’s that fear rules their hearts, and fearing that want and poverty will overtake them (ALERT! It already has.), they continue to elect those who pander to their fears. As a result, they get what they deserve.

It’s HIGH TIME – as was said in the Star Trek television series – “to BOLDLY go where no man has gone before!”

No one praises cowards, or cowardice. And yet, so many praise Alabama’s politicians, who are veritable Cowardly Lions.

Alabama has had – and continues to have

#ALpolitics Robert @GovernorBentley Update

Robert Bentley Update

by Donald V. Watkins
Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Our report for the U.S. Department of Justice on Alabama Governor Robert Bentley’s criminal conduct in office has been written and vetted by our editors and attorneys. The report, which grew out of our

Medical, Scientific, and Economically Valid Reasons To Legalize #Marijuana In Sweet Home Alabama #ALpolitics

It’s no joke, Colorado is ROLLING (pun intended) in revenue from the taxes and licensing fees associated with legal cannabis sales.

From the Colorado Department of Revenue:
Colorado Marijuana Tax Data
“Total marijuana tax revenue includes the 2.9% retail and medical marijuana sales tax, 10% retail marijuana special sales tax, 15% marijuana excise tax, and retail/medical marijuana application and license fees.”

For the month of September 2015 (reported October 2015), Colorado had TOTAL (Total All Marijuana Taxes, Licenses) $11,656,736.

On an annualized basis, that’s at least $139,880,832.

The rhetorical question is:
What could Sweet Home do with even half the money like that?

Consider also this: That the legalization of cannabis also largely eliminates

Why #ALpolitics Should’ve Elected @RonSparks2010 – @GovernorBentley In His Own Words: “I had no clue.”

Having made no bones about it, I remain searingly and scathingly critical of Alabama Governor Robert Julian Bentley, a retired physician-turned-Republican legislator from Tuscaloosa, who is twice elected governor – in 2010, and in 2014.

While I wished him well after his initial victory in the governor’s race against his Democratic opponent then-Secretary of Agriculture and Industries, Ron Sparks, he has disappointed the state since Inauguration Day 2011 when he put his foot in his mouth at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, Montgomery, where on Martin Luther King Day, Monday, January 17, 2011 – mere hours after taking the oath of office and inauguration – he said in part, “There may be some people here today who do not have living within them the Holy Spirit. But if you have been adopted in God’s family like I have, and like you have if you’re a Christian and if you’re saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister. Now I will have to say that, if we don’t have the same daddy, we’re not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.”

It was at that point that Rebekah Caldwell Mason became his Communication Director, and later, Senior Political Advisor-cum-paramour.

More to the point, however, I have maintained that among other things, as an elected official, he has been feckless, and clueless.

But, let’s let him speak for himself.

Here’s in part what Governor Bentley said in a speech to a statewide gathering of city officials in Montgomery, May 2013, “You know where I came up with that idea? Ron Sparks.

#ALpolitics @GovernorBentley Hoodwinks @YHN & @ALdotcom

Bentley Hoodwinks Yellowhammer News and AL.com

Alabama Governor Bentley with paramour/ Rebekah Caldwell Mason, Communications Director cum Senior Political Advisor

by Donald V. Watkins
Published via Facebook Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Used with permission

Once again, Governor Robert Bentley has hoodwinked Yellowhammer News and AL.com. This time, Bentley has deceived these two news organizations by providing them with a handful of sanitized text messages between Rebekah Caldwell Mason and himself in response to their separate Open Records requests for emails and text messages between the two lovers.

Like former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Bentley withheld the more embarrassing text messages about his illicit love affair with Rebekah from public disclosure. Of particular significance are the text messages where Bentley describes his true love for Rebekah, including a text message Bentley thought he was sending to Rebekah that he mistakenly sent to his former wife Dianne instead.

KWAME MALIK KILPATRICK
MDOC Number: 702408
SID Number: 3353708P
Name: KWAME MALIK KILPATRICK
Racial Identification: Black
Gender: Male
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 6′ 4″
Weight: 310 lbs.
Date of Birth: 06/08/1970 (45)
KWAME MALIK KILPATRICK Image Date: 5/25/2010

Yellowhammer bought into

Department of Justice Report on #ALpolitics @GovernorBentley Now Underway

Alabama Governor Bentley with paramour Communications Director/Senior Political Advisor Rebekah Caldwell Mason

DOJ Report on Bentley Underway

By Donald V. Watkins
Published via Facebook October 11, 2015, 9:54am
Used with permission

Our Facebook news teams is in the process of preparing a detailed prosecutorial memorandum on Alabama Governor Robert Bentley’s misuse of taxpayer and donor money to carry on a love affair with Rebekah Caldwell Mason, his senior political advisor. It is anticipated that the report will be

Key Questions for #ALpolitics Mainstream Journalists

Key Questions for Mainstream Journalists

By Donald V. Watkins
Posted to Facebook 6 October 2015
Used with permission

I know it is not my job to tell mainstream media journalists what questions to ask Governor Robert Bentley (assuming they have the courage to ask him any questions about his infidelity scandal), but I would suggest the questions below for them ask the governor (assuming they want to regain their credibility):

1. Why did you hire David Byrne as your chief legal advisor after he presided over the massive collapse of

A Simple Guide For #ALpolitics Mainstream News Media Organizations

A Simple Guide For Mainstream News Media Organizations

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on October 5, 2015
Used with permission

I have a simple guide for Alabama’s mainstream news media organizations that want to assail or independently confirm the accuracy of our exclusive reporting on Governor Robert Bentley’s martial infidelity and misuse of taxpayer and donor money. Before starting, I want to note that I hold the individual record in Alabama for exposing the highest number of major corruption scandals involving public officials. Thus, I am going to give my fellow journalists some simple tips on effective investigative journalism as it relates to the governor’s cheating scandal.

First, ask for all of the text messages between the governor and Rebekah Caldwell Mason from January 2011 to the present. These records are public documents under Alabama’s Open Records Act. They are not confidential or privileged documents. They are

#ALpolitics @GovernorBentley: Alabama’s “Counterfeit” Leader – Epilogue

Epilogue: Governor Robert Bentley, Alabama’s “Counterfeit” Leader

By Donald V.Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on October 4, 2015
Used with permission

Since our initial September 4, 2015 edition, we published a series of articles titled, “Forbidden Love” and “Executive Betrayal.” Those articles disclosed a flaming love affair between Alabama Governor Robert Bentley and Rebekah Caldwell Mason, his married paramour and Senior Political Adviser. The adulterous love affair was underwritten by taxpayers, donors to the governor’s campaign organization, and contributors to a 501(c)(4) non-profit corporation that Bentley used as a slush fund to sponsor his personal affair with Rebekah.

Alabama Governor Bentley with paramour/ Rebekah Caldwell Mason

Infidelity between two married “Christian” lovers is a moral and religious issue. The use of state and federal funds along with donor money to carry on and conceal the affair is a criminal matter.

Bentley’s case is dripping with evidence of wire and mail fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, misuse of public funds, and

#BREAKING! Seth Hammett, #ALpolitics @GovernorBentley’s Chief of Staff Resigns

Seth Hammett was three-time Speaker of House & represented Alabama’s 92 District until 2010, when he retired from the Legislature. He is a Democrat, while Bentley is a Republican.

Bentley’s Chief of Staff Resigns

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on October 2, 2015
Used with permission

Seth Hammett, Governor Robert Bentley’s chief of staff, has resigned his post. The governor announced Hammett’s departure today with the praise and fanfare needed to “mascara” over this surprising defection.

Hammett exited the scene at the governor’s office because he was not comfortable with the growing scandal that has ensnared the governor and senior political advisor, Rebekah Caldwell Mason.

Hammett was one the staffers Bentley dispatched to get troopers on the security detail to sign confidentiality statements as

Getting the Alabama Media to Look the Other Way: #ALpolitics @GovernorBentley’s Executive Betrayal & Taxpayer Fleecing

Executive Betrayal – Robert Bentley’s Fleecing of Taxpayers and Donors – The Finale

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on October 2, 2015
Used with permission

Getting the Alabama Media to Look the Other Way

The Birmingham News (the “News”) is a media entity in the Alabama Media Group. The Mobile and Huntsville newspapers are also in this media group. The News was a willing participant in the FBI’s COINTELPRO program that was aimed at secretly spying on, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations. The News worked closely with the Alabama Sovereignty Commission and state and local officials who opposed racial integration in Alabama. In doing so, the News targeted individuals like Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Arrington, Jr., and other civil rights leaders from the 1950s to the 1970s for an unrelenting campaign of negative news reporting in an attempt to undermine their credibility. COINTELPRO came to an official end after it was publicly exposed in the 1976 Congressional “Church Committee” hearings. Unofficial activities continued.

Today, the News plays a significant role in advancing and protecting the interests of unfit state officials. The latest case in point involves disgraced Governor Robert Bentley and his marital infidelity scandal. Bentley, who was recently divorced by his wife Dianne, used

David Byrne: #ALpolitics @GovernorBentley’s Consigliere – Part 3, Executive Betrayal

Executive Betrayal – Robert Bentley’s Fleecing of Taxpayers and Donors – Part 3

David Byrne – Governor Bentley’s Consigliere

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on September 25, 2015
Used with permission

Bobby Lowder was the founder, President, CEO & Chairman of the Board of the failed Colonial Bank. He was widely known as a manipulator and micromanager of Auburn University, where he was a member of the Board of Trustees, and donor. During his tenure there, the university suffered many scandals, including use of Lowder’s private jet for recruiting an Athletic Director & Head Football Coach that violated NCAA rules. His undue influence upon the university extended even to the university president, who was fired after a No Confidence Vote by the Board of Trustees. Governor Bentley named Lowder to reappointment to the Board after Lowder donated $25,000 to Bentley’s gubernatorial election campaign. A civil lawsuit in the Lee County Circuit Court complained that Bentley’s actions violated Alabama’s Open Meetings Act, and under such pressure, Lowder withdrew his name from consideration, and shortly thereafter, the Alabama State Senate voted him off the board.

On August 14, 2009, federal and state regulators took control of Colonial BancGroup, a regional banking powerhouse based in Montgomery. The seizure of Colonial Bank’s 346 branches and $26 billion in assets made it the sixth-biggest bank failure in U.S. history, the worst of 2009, and the third largest during the credit crisis that plunged the financial markets into turmoil in 2008. Colonial’s collapse cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation $2.8 billion. Colonial’s shareholders lost billions of dollars in stock value. Thousands of bank employees lost their jobs.

David B. Byrne, Jr. was admitted to the bar in 1966. He received his B.S. from The University of Alabama and his J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law. He was
Assistant U.S. Attorney, 1971-1974, Special Assistant Attorney General, State of Alabama, 1998 – Present; United States Army, 1966 – 70, Captain, JAGC
USAFR, 1971 – Present
Military Judge, Colonel USAF Trial Judiciary, 1993 – Present

Although the public focused on the failed leadership of Bobby Lowder, Colonial’s founder and CEO, it was David B. Byrne, Jr., who was

#ALpolitics @FirstLadyDB: Strength in the Face of Domestic Abuse

Dianne Bentley: Strength in the Face of Domestic Abuse

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on September 23, 2015.
Used with permission

In her official state biography on the Governor’s website, it states, “If Mrs. Bentley can be remembered for one thing as First Lady, she hopes that the people of Alabama will remember her stand for Christ. After all, the Bentleys feel that they have been called “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14) and always strive to remain in God’s will.”

Governor Robert Bentley abused Dianne Bentley emotionally, psychologically, and verbally. The abuse started when Rebekah Mason became Bentley’s closest advisor and lover during the governor’ first term in office. Bentley’s domestic abuse of Dianne was pervasive, degrading, and ugly, and his malicious words and deeds, ultimately left Dianne feeling irrelevant, disgraced, and utterly inadequate.

As Bentley’s romance with Rebekah Mason heated up, so did his abuse of Dianne. Though not physical in nature, Bentley’s abusive conduct was so disparaging towards Dianne that even the couple’s four sons and some of his grandchildren have felt the need to disassociate from him.

Once Bentley became governor, he changed. He was

Follow the Money, Part 2 – Executive Betrayal: Robert Bentley’s Fleecing of Taxpayers & Donors

Executive Betrayal:
Robert Bentley’s Fleecing of Taxpayers and Donors
Part 2

Follow the Money

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on September 20, 2015
Used with permission

Rebekah Caldwell Mason with husband Tony Mason (Facebook profile)

UPDATE 21September2015: Today, the John Kasich for President Campaign issued a statement denying that Rebekah Mason is working for the Kasich Campaign. The statement was issued in response to the sentence in the article below that, “[Rebekah] is reportedly working for Presidential candidate John Kasich (R-Ohio)”. Everybody is distancing themselves from Rebekah, except Governor Bentley. No one is denying that Rebekah Mason secured Bentley’s endorsement of Kasich.

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Rebekah Caldwell Mason, Governor Robert Bentley’s mistress and the de facto First Lady of Alabama, is married to Jonathan P. Mason. Jonathan was a weatherman at WVUA, a small local television station in Tuscaloosa. When Bentley took office in January of 2011, however, he made Jonathan the director of Serve Alabama, which is the state agency for the governor’s faith-based programs and services.

Serve Alabama functions as the Alabama State Service Commission, granting and administering ten state AmeriCorps programs across Alabama. It is the state’s lead agency for Volunteer and Donations Management after disasters. This office serves as a liaison to the state for faith-based and community-based non-profit groups.

Serve Alabama also administered FEMA’s Disaster Case Management Program for survivors of the April 2011 storms. It administers the Governor’s Emergency Relief Fund. The office administers ReadyAlabama.gov, Alabama’s statewide disaster preparedness campaign.

Serve Alabama states that it