"The Global Consciousness Project, also known as the EGG Project, is an international multidisciplinary collaboration of scientists, engineers, artists and others continuously collecting data from a global network of physical random number generators located in 65 host sites worldwide. The archive contains over 10 years of random data in parallel sequences of synchronized 200-bit trials every second."
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, November 22, 2020
The article should instead be headlined:
“Former Hong Kong University Post-Doctoral Student And Chinese YouTuber Start False Coronavirus Rumor, Steven Bannon And Fugitive Chinese Billionaire Amplify Message”
How Steve Bannon and a Chinese Billionaire Created a Right-Wing Coronavirus Media Sensation
by Amy Qin, Vivian Wang and Danny Hakim
Friday, November 20, 2020, 7:10 AM CST
Dr. Li-Meng Yan wanted to remain anonymous. It was mid-January, and Yan, a researcher in Hong Kong, had been hearing rumors about a dangerous new virus in mainland China that the government was playing down. Terrified for her personal safety and career, she reached out to her favorite Chinese YouTube host, known for criticizing the Chinese government.
Within days, the host was telling his 100,000 followers that the coronavirus had been deliberately released by the Chinese Communist Party. He wouldn’t name the whistleblower, he said, because officials could make the person “disappear.”
By September, Yan had abandoned caution. She appeared in the United States on Fox News, making the unsubstantiated claim to millions that the coronavirus was a bioweapon manufactured by China.
Overnight, Yan became a right-wing media sensation, with top advisers to President Donald Trump and conservative pundits hailing her as a hero. Nearly as quickly, her interview was labeled on social media as containing “false information,” while scientists rejected her research as a polemic dressed up in jargon.
Her evolution was the product of a collaboration between two separate but increasingly allied groups that peddle misinformation: a small but active corner of the Chinese diaspora and the highly influential far right in the United States.
Each saw an opportunity in the pandemic to push its agenda. For the diaspora, Yan and her unfounded claims provided a cudgel for those intent on bringing down China’s government. For American conservatives, they played to rising anti-Chinese sentiment and distracted from the Trump administration’s bungled handling of the outbreak.
Both sides took advantage of the dearth of information coming out of China, where the government has refused to share samples of the virus and has resisted a transparent, independent investigation. Its initial cover-up of the outbreak has further fueled suspicion about the origins of the virus.
By Ryan J. Reilly, Senior Justice Reporter, HuffPost
Monday, November 2, 2020, 4:45 AM CST
The Justice Department can’t take four more years of President Donald Trump.
Scores of former department officials from both political parties said that the severe damage inflicted by the president on the department and its components over the past four years will become permanent and irreversible if Trump wins a second term. The result, they said, would be a fundamental subjugation of the rule of law and the transformation of the department into an overtly political operation.
No president since Richard Nixon has had as much of a negative effect on the Justice Department as Trump. He fired one FBI director and is considering firing another. He pushed out his first attorney general and is engaging in a public campaign to pressure current Attorney General William Barr to investigate his chief political rival, Joe Biden, hinting that he might dismiss Barr if he doesn’t.
“As bad as that has been over the past four years, it would be obviously even worse over the next four years,” Greg Brower, the FBI’s former congressional liaison and a Republican appointed by President George W. Bush as Nevada’s top federal prosecutor, told HuffPost.
“I worry a great deal about what they would do with another four years in power,” former Attorney General Eric Holder told HuffPost. “People need to understand that there’s no doubt that the Department of Justice is on the ballot this year.”
A number of former U.S. attorneys who were appointed by Republican presidents ― including a man who served as both FBI and CIA director under President Ronald Reagan ― agreed. They condemned Trump, whom they called “a threat to the rule of law in our country,” and endorsed former Vice President Biden, who they said would “refocus the Justice Department on the cause of impartial justice” and help address the country’s “deep-seated societal issues.”
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have hammered home that justice is on the ballot in 2020,” said Julie Zebrak, a former Justice Department official turned political consultant. “Four more years of manipulating DOJ to serve the president’s personal agenda — and personal vendettas — could very well bring the department to the point of no return.”
Indeed, for many Justice Department employees who endured four years of the Trump administration, the outcome of the election will determine the future of their careers. Significant brain drain is a near certainty if Trump wins another term.
A White House spokesman did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Holder said that four years of Trump had done “substantial” but recoverable harm to the Justice Department. He’s not so sure if Trump wins reelection.
“After eight years you would have such structural damage done to the department that I really worry about the ability of a new administration [in 2024] to actually repair the damage that would’ve been done after eight years under Donald Trump,” Holder said.
Uncharted Waters
A few days before the 2016 election, a journalist shot off an email to his fellow reporters on the Justice Department beat, proposing Election Day drinks. It had been an unusual few months on a beat that was usually calm in the run-up to a presidential election, in part because of policies meant to prevent the department from affecting elections.
“Once every four years, it is certain that DOJ/FBI reporters will have a quiet few weeks before Election Day,” the reporter wrote. “That promise was stolen from us.”
There was FBI Director James Comey’s highly unusual press conference on Hillary Clinton’s emails in July, followed by the discovery of emails on Anthony Weiner’s laptop, which threw the whole campaign into chaos just days before the election. Ongoing investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election had mostly faded into the background. The focus was on Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, September 20, 2020
South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is a hypocrite, and a liar… just like his narcissistic miscreant misleader, Donald “DJ” Trump, aka POS45.
In comments lasting about 6 minutes on March 10, 2016, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Graham said in pertinent part,
“I want you to use my words against me:
If there’s a Republican president in 2016,
and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term,
you can say ‘Lindsey Graham said,
‘Let’s let the next President,
whoever it might be,
make that nomination,”
and you could use my words against me,
and you’d be absolutely right.”
– South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, to the Senate Judiciary Committee March, 10, 2016
On Wednesday, October 3, 2018 in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor in Chief of The Atlantic, at The Atlantic Festival in Washington, D.C., Graham said in pertinent part that,
Here’s an excerpt of the pertinent part of that interview which has become part of an ad exposing Graham’s lying hypocrisy, and opposing his re-election.
Things are different now, and that instead, he will support the President’s nominee.
Here’s a recent Tweet published by him Saturday, 19 September 2020 of him attempting to explain away his twice former promises and position to adhere to his promise of not promoting a SCOTUS nominee during an election season.
As to my view of filling a Supreme Court vacancy in 2020, I’d encourage you to review these most recent statements.
And that’s but one reason why the GOP will lose the Senate, gain the White House, and strengthen their hold on the House of Representatives.
Sen. Graham’s challenge: Fill a court seat and save his own
By Meg Kinnard
Sunday, 20 September 2020
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Few members of the Republican Party have taken a political journey as long as Lindsey Graham’s, from ridiculing Donald Trump as a “race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” to becoming one of the president’s fiercest defenders in Congress, as well as a regular golf partner.
Graham has long been known to have flexible politics, and that has served him well in South Carolina for decades. But this November may be his toughest test yet as he seeks reelection and explains to voters how, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he will push for Trump’s Supreme Court nominee on the president’s aggressive timetable, when the senator was so clearly — even defiantly — opposed to that approach as recently as two years ago, even demanding that he be called out for hypocrisy if he switched.
He switched.
“The rules have changed as far as I’m concerned,” Graham said Saturday.
It falls to Graham, as committee chairman, to vet Trump’s pick to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Read the rest of this entry »
U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom Robert Wood “Woody” Johnson IV told embassy staff in 2018 that his friend, President Trump, asked him to help get the British Open golf tournament held at one of the Trump family’s golf resorts in Scotland.
U.S. Embassy staff have separately complained that Johnson made racist and sexist comments on the job.
The State Department’s Inspector General has been looking at these claims as part of a routine review of the embassy, according to people familiar with the matter. The inquiry was first reported by theNew York TimesandCNN.
Lewis Lukens, the embassy’s former second-in-command, confirmed in a text to NPR that Johnson told him about the president’s request.
“I advised him that doing so would violate federal ethics rules and be generally inappropriate,” Lukens wrote.
But Johnson apparently went ahead and raised the matter with David Mundell, then secretary of state for Scotland, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, May 12, 2020
POS45 lies to Americans about COVID-19 testing… among many other things.
The President Liar in Chief continuously falsely claims (diplomatic language meaning that “he lies“) that no other nation has done more testing for COVID-19 than the United States.
THAT IS BLATANTLY FALSE!
NUMEROUS and various sources attest that the President Liar in Chief’s
claims are unquestionably 100% pure LIES.
The Liar in Chief plays the American people for fools, that they do not, and cannot understand that a nation with a higher population could have a lower testing rate than a smaller nation, both by percentage of population tested, and by per capita testing.
For example, a nation with a 1,000,000 population which tested 100,000 people (10%), naturally has raw testing numbers higher than a nation of 10,000 people who tested all 10,000 (100%) of their residents.
The per capita ratio for the two nations would be 1 per capita for the 100% testing, and 0.1 per capita for the 100,000 people with 10% testing.
“The United States as of Sunday had completed nearly 9 million coronavirus tests, according to the Covid Tracking Project. While an enormous number, the amount is equivalent to 2.74% of the U.S. population and does not give a full representation of the virus’ reach within American society.
“There are far higher levels of per-capita testing in other parts of the world. In tiny Iceland, the figure is a 15.4%, but that amounts to about 54,000 tests across a population of 352,000 people.
“Yet major industrialized economies with large outbreaks also have fared better in testing than the United States: Italy has conducted tests equivalent to 4.31% of its population, and Germany is at 3.35%. The United States also is still behind its northern neighbor, Canada, where its 1.09 million tests are now equivalent to 2.95% of the county’s population.”
As well, Dr. Fauci, MD testified before the Senate Health Committee via online remote video teleconference today and contradicted practically everything that the Liar in Chief POS45 has claimed, that the United States is leading the way with more testing than any other nation, and that COVID-19 is “under control” in the USA.
Bluntly, that is utter bullshit.
Confirmed Coronavirus Cases and Deaths by Country and Territory
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Alan Dershowitz Argues Presidential Quid Pro Quos Aimed At Reelection Are Not Impeachable
When I read the headline, I LITERALLY laughed out loud.
Yet, it would sad, if it weren’t so funny.
Alan Dershowitz, a once-respected attorney, retired Harvard Law School professor, and member of Trump’s legal team in his Senate trial for Impeachment, has recently argued that Trump did not violate law when he withheld Ukraine money, and asked Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky saying “I would like you to do us a favor, though” in the now-infamous July 25th phone call, because… he is trying to get re-elected.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Recently, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the once-and-former White House mouthpiece-Press Secretary for the Liar in Chief, Current White House Occupant Donald J. Trumpanzee, and daughter of Arkansas Preacher-Governor POTUS-wannabe Mike Huckabee, a Republican, had a sit-down interview with the Associated Press and New York Times in the quaint little state capitol town of Little Rock.
As described by New York Times writer Annie Karnie, (aka “the failing New York Times,” as POS45 says – of course, this is all “fake news, folks… fake news”) she and Sanders had breakfast tacos, and obliquely suggested at what she has plans to do in 2023 when current Republican Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson’s term is complete.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Jesus warned against false prophets promising salvation to those who heed their call, yet each age seems to produce its own crop of misguided messiahs. In our own time, many will remember the tragedies associated with delusional figures such as Charles Manson, David Koresh, Yahweh ben Yahweh, and Jim Jones. Be cautious with those who promise much but demand unquestioning loyalty in return. If the fruits of humility, compassion, respect, and integrity are not visible in the message, don’t trust the messenger.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, November 1, 2019
Apparently, literacy is way overrated.
At least, that seems how some see it.
</sarcasm>
“There had been a whistleblower complaint and a partial transcript of a phone call between President Trump and the president of Ukraine. Both could be read as damning, even dramatically so. But both were documents. To be outraged, you probably had to read them. Most people didn’t.“
Impeachment May Gain Momentum From First Big Moment
“There had been nothing like the thunderclap in September 1998. That’s when a flotilla of black SUVs came to the Capitol bearing the report of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, with 18 boxes of evidence, and President Bill Clinton’s impeachment became all but inevitable.”
Gotta’ hand it to the Republicans.
They know how to manipulate public opinion using media and showmanship.
That’s a somewhat diplomatic phrase meaning to pull the wool over your eyes, or “fool you.”
Just look at their current president.
He’s a goddamned Liar in Chief.
And a true scumbag, if ever there was one.
Democrats gotta’ feel the outrage and get emotional.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, October 28, 2019
Donald Trump isn’t America’s asshole.
Donald Trump is America’s hemorrhoid.
As a demonstration about how much (or little) attendees of America’s Favorite Pastime think and feel about him, he was booed for quite some time, and lauded with chants of “Lock him up!” when he was shown on the in-stadium giant video screen, between the 3rd and 4th innings at Game 5 of the World Series between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., October 27, 2019.
Donald Trump, United States President, official portrait
Of that occurrence, The Guardian wrote in part, that “That, perhaps, was predictable: Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and both Bushes were all booed while attending baseball games as President. What came shortly afterwards was a little more personal in a city that is heavily Democratic as cries of “Lock him up!” [and “Impeach Trump!” rang out at nearly 100 decibels loudness], a reference to the chants about Hillary Clinton used at Trump’s rallies in the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections.” Trump only won 4% of Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, October 23, 2019
This one, honest man – a West Point graduate, where the honor code is “I will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do” – a career Army officer who later became a diplomat, will be Trump’s undoing, simply because he TOLD THE TRUTH – unlike President Trump, who is incapable of truth-telling.
This honest man’s testimony (who Trump ordered to not testify) provides an openly and starkly contrasted picture of a publicly and brazenly corrupt President and administration, the likes of which our nation has never seen, surpassing even then-President Richard M. Nixon’s lies and other criminal conduct for which he resigned in shame.
Acting Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor is escorted by U.S. Capitol Police on Tuesday as he arrives to testify before House committees as part of the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into President Trump. – Image by J. Scott Applewhite/AP
The second and third paragraphs in his 15-page testimony read as follows:
“I have dedicated my life to serving U.S. interests at home and abroad in both military and civilian roles. My background and experience are nonpartisan and I have been honored to serve under every administration, Republican and Democratic, since 1985.
“For 50 years, I have served the country, starting as a cadet at West Point, then as an infantry officer for six years, including with the 101 Airborne Division in Vietnam; then at the Department of Energy; then as a member of a Senate staff; then at NATO; then with the State Department here and abroad — in Afghanistan, Iraq, Jerusalem, and Ukraine; and more recently, as Executive Vice President of the nonpartisan United States Institute of Peace.”
Ambassador Taylor is a man of honor… unlike President Trump.
And, Ambassador Taylor makes it explicitly clear the reason why policy toward Ukraine matters when he wrote that:
“I am convinced of the profound importance of Ukraine to the security of the United States and Europe for two related reasons:
“First, if Ukraine succeeds in breaking free of Russian influence, it is possible for Europe to be whole, free, democratic, and at peace. In contrast, if Russia dominates Ukraine, Russia will again become Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, October 9, 2019
This photograph was published by Getty Images on 1 January 1996 with the following caption: “Partygoers, including Ivanka Trump (center, in white) who her sits on her father, businessman Donald Trump’s lap during a concert (by the Beach Boys) at the Mar-a-Lago estate, Palm Beach, Florida, 1996. Also visible seated front row left is Trump’s wife Marla Maples.”
And so… the Current White House Occupant and Twitterer in Chief has blasted out yet more asinine absurdities, which demonstrates yet again, his utter ignorance and ineptitude for governance.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, October 6, 2019
The Current White House Occupant – Donald J. Trump – is blatant.
He acts as if he tells something openly and very publicly, that it can’t be wrong, unethical, immoral, or illegal. Thus, he has a habit of “doubling down” when any allegation of wrong-doing is made against him. We saw that when allegations of him paying hush money through his now-Federally-convicted lawyer/”fixer” Michael Cohen to adult film actress Stephanie Clifford, aka “Stormy Daniels,” and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal to conceal the fact that he had sex with them, when he and his campaign became concerned that public knowledge of his affairs with them would harm his public approval ratings.
Put simply, his tactic is deny, deny, deny, deny… and then, when denial doesn’t seem to work, embrace the wrong, then unashamedly publicly state the wrong behavior as if it’s A-Okay to do the act, and justify it using faulty rationale… like “everybody does it,” or falsely claiming some absurdity that “it’s a common practice.”
And that is why, in response to the question by a reporter among the gaggle outside the White House on October 3, 2019, “What exactly did you hope Zelensky would do about the Bidens after your phone call?”, Trump publicly stated that,
“Well I would think if they were honest about it, they’d start a major investigation into the Bidens. It’s a very simple answer. They should investigate the Bidens. Because how does a company newly formed and all these companies — by the way, likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens. Because what happened in China is just about as bad as what happened with Ukraine. So I would say that President Zelensky, if it were me, I would recommend that they start an investigation into the Bidens. Because nobody has any doubt that they weren’t crooked. That was a crooked deal, 100%. He had no knowledge about energy, didn’t know the first thing about it, all of a sudden he’s getting $50,000 a month, plus a lot of other things. Nobody has any doubt. And they got rid of a very tough prosecutor. Now they’re trying to make it the opposite way, but they got rid of him. So if I were the president of Ukraine I would certainly recommend that.”
– President Donald J. Trump, to reporters assembled on the White House lawn, October 3, 2019
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Despite his increasingly bizarre and contemptuous behavior, and bull-in-the-china-shop approach to almost everything, I could support perhaps a few of the President’s efforts and positions, and, I could even overlook some of his behaviors as merely eccentric, quirky, or even slightly off-kilter –– much like his well-known penchant for ketchup on steak.
That’s beside his unilaterally-imposed Trade War with China, Mexico, and Canada which continues damaging American families, farmers and industry, and diversion of monies meant for the Military, Coast Guard, TSA, and FEMA to Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, February 28, 2019
“I am in constant contact with the Southern District of New York regarding ongoing investigations.”
– Michael Cohen, former attorney and “fixer” for Donald J. Trump, under oath to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, February 27, 2019
That one sentence early in Mr. Cohen’s testimony before the committee is substantial, regardless of whether anything else he said is true, or not. There is no legitimate reason for him to make such a claim, especially if it was a lie.
Consider also the “Liar’s Paradox,” referring to knowing how to discern when a liar is telling the truth. Frankly, however, everyone – WITHOUT EXCEPTION – has lied at one time, or another; therefore, using the faulty “logic” used by Republicans, everyone is a liar… including them. Yet, they except themselves simply by ignoring that fact. So therefore, their hypocrisy is exposed.
Such exercises are part and parcel of logic and reasoning, which is also a branch of mathematics, and forms a foundation upon which philosophy and even the legal profession exists – particularly and especially in criminal trials. In other words, deduction is based upon a formula which can be expressed on paper.
But there are also behavioral (physical) clues exhibited by the liar, which may (though not always) include “body language” such as fidgeting, facial movements and gestures, including eye movement such as covering the mouth and/or looking away, intonation and inflection in their voice and tone of speech, observation of breathing patterns, use or avoidance of certain words, exaggeration of details, response to questions, repetition of certain words, sentences, or phrases (a type of stalling to increase time for crafting a lie), including a “mid-sentence jump” (changing the train of thought in the middle of expressing an idea), deflection (a conversational control tactic which changes the focus of the topic by not directly answering the question), and more.
Michael Cohen takes oath before his testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Wednesday, 27 February 2019.
The Attorney’s Office writes this about their mission:
“The Office prosecutes cases involving violations of federal laws, and represents the interests of the United States government and its agencies in criminal and civil matters. The Office investigates and prosecutes a broad array of criminal conduct of every conceivable magnitude, even when the conduct arises in distant places.”
Reasonably and logically, no liar would lie about being “in constant contact with” a Federal Attorney’s Office, or a Federal Court, after an investigation has concluded.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, January 8, 2019
The Liar in Chief won’t tell his subjects these inconvenient official truths.
—//—
“While cross-border migrants often make headlines, the largest number of illegal migrants settling in the US each year is those who stay in the country after their visas expire.
“According to the most recent reports by the Department of Homeland Security and the Center for Migration Studies, a non-partisan think-tank, the number who overstayed their visas has outnumbered those who crossed the border illegally every year since 2007.
“Canadians make up the largest group of these illegal migrants, followed by Mexicans.”
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, January 1, 2019
Welcome aboard!
Glad to have you in the New Year!
Curious about how the New Year was looking, I messaged some friends in Germany, where it’s 7 to 8 hours ahead of the Central Time Zone. She and their boy were visiting his father over the winter holiday season, where he was stationed on Active Duty with a Special Forces unit.
The “New Year” is often depicted as a babe, a veritable infant, wearing a diaper and banner sash with the year imprinted upon it, while the outgoing year, the “Old Year” (Father Time), is depicted as a decrepit old codger wearing a tattered cloak type garment with a staff.
When I’d earlier messaged my friends, I’d asked if they had any special plans. Not everyone celebrates the incoming New Year, you know. She replied, “Not sure quite what we are doing, there are several parties to choose from.” (Don’t you just marvel at our ability to communicate INSTANTLY to the opposite side of the world!?! Seriously. How great is that!?!)
Several hours later, just about the time when the New Year was dawning in Germany, I sent a message which stated, “How does the New Year look so far? Got any clothes on?🤣”
The reply, “Happy New Year. Hardly. In the hospital. C has a broken ankle.”
Of course, upon hearing such, one would naturally ask, “How’d THAT happen?”
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, December 30, 2018
… and other lies.
Just like it’s the Democrats’ fault that Trump screwed around on his wives.
Wednesday, October 17, 2018, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in part that, “Shutting down the government is something that’s widely disliked by virtually every American and I don’t think we’re going to do it.”
But on Saturday, November 17, 2018 Trump said in part that, “If I was ever going to do a shutdown over border security — when you look at the caravan, when you look at the mess, when you look at the people coming in. This would be a very good time to do a shutdown.”
Then, on December 11, 2018 in the White House Oval Office, in front of teevee cameras, and worldwide press, speaking to Democratic leaders Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA-12) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (NY) in the Oval Office, Trump said: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, June 27, 2017
The Department of Justice, United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District, announced that Mobile, Alabama physician Dr. James Matthew Crumb, MD (AL license number MD.24535, AL Controlled Substances Certificate ACSC.245, National Provider Identifier: 1629079793 ) a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitative physician who currently practices as Mobility Metabolism and Wellness (MMW), and a local neurosurgeon group Coastal Neurological Institute, P.C. (CNI), 3280 Dauphin Street, Suite A, Mobile, AL 36606-4060, (NPI:1740212174), have collectively paid $1.4 million to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act (“FCA”) by engaging in fraudulent schemes to maximize payment from the Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE health care programs.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, June 13, 2017
America’s Official Pussy Grabber in Chief, Multiple Bankruptcies Expert, Prevaricator in Chief, Liar in Chief, Traitor in Chief, Liar & Cheat, Narcissist in Chief, and Overall Scumbag held his first Cabinet meeting yesterday (Monday, June 12, 2017) which was widely covered by news reporting agencies, and with his usual audacity and unmitigated gall claimed that Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, June 12, 2017
Many have said Jeff Sessions didn’t say it, and have gone back and forth on the matter.
Let’s bury that hatchet – once and for all – squarely where it rightfully belongs.
Here, from the Congressional Record, is Jeff Sessions’ 1986 testimony under oath before the Senate Judiciary Committee following his nomination by then-President Ronald Reagan to a Federal Judgeship.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, April 9, 2017
To be certain, few are likely as concerned that Alabama’s Republican Governor Robert Julian Bentley was maritally unfaithful to his wife, as they are that in the process, he abused, and misused the power and authority of his office to attempt to cover it up, and to deceive citizens and others about it. And that in that process, he is believed to have violated state, and very likely, Federal laws. The ordeal is, as things go, a drama of Shakespearean proportion and caliber.
A lying, corrupt, and depraved Republican governor of Alabama is counting on Black members of the state legislature, all of whom are Democrats, to rise up and save him from impeachment. No, this is not a Hollywood movie. It is a real life drama that is playing out in real time in the Alabama State House.
The governor is Robert Bentley, who is generally regarded as the laughingstock of the nation today. Not only did Bentley engage in widespread public corruption and ethics violations with his married girlfriend, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, but the governor also (a) trashed the state’s two historically Black state universities, (b) deprived Black and poor Alabamians of adequate healthcare, (c) discriminated against Black voters in the state’s legislative redistricting plan, and (d) erected massive barriers to Black voter participation in the state’s electoral process.
In this Tuesday, November 4, 2014 file photo, retired physician, and Republican Gov. Dr. Robert Bentley, MD listens to a phone call as Rebekah Mason, right, announces his win for a second term as Alabama Governor, in Montgomery, AL. Bentley defeated his opponent, retired physician Democrat Dr. Parker Griffith, MD. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)
Yet, Bentley and Mason still exercise a shocking degree of dominion and control over many of the state’s Black lawmakers, including some of the ones who serve on the Judiciary Committee that is conducting Bentley’s impeachment proceedings.
For a fleeting moment in time, Bentley even had Judge Greg Griffin, a Black state circuit court jurist, thinking that he had the power and authority to lawfully block the Alabama Legislature’s impeachment proceedings. The Alabama Supreme Court overturned Judge Griffin’s ruling in record time. Griffin is a Bentley appointee to the bench.
Bentley has a well-known record of treating Black lawmakers like his personal servants. When he is not whipping them for what he perceives as “bad” behavior, the governor is making these compromised souls carry his dirty, smelly political baggage. They dutifully accommodate the governor’s commands for a mere pat on the head.
Alabamians will witness Black lawmakers engage in political servitude to Governor Bentley this week. Please pay particular attention to Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Donald John Trump, elected November 2016, and inaugurated January 20th, 2017, is the 45th United States President. Official portrait
One might as well ask why a bird flies or sings.
Trump is a one-man show. He bullies others to get his way. He doesn’t know how to collaborate, or cooperate with others.
He’s also emotionally insecure, hence the sense of an inherent need to constantly obtain approval as evidenced by an inordinate desire to obtain adulation and adoration from media.
But, there’s more.
Why Trump Clings to Discredited Lies
by Donald V. Watkins
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Used with permission
Even though the FBI and all of America’s national security agencies have stated emphatically that there is no evidence that President Barrack Obama, or anyone else, wiretapped Trump Towers during or after the 2016 presidential campaign, President Donald Trump still claims his phones were tapped. Other than his Twitter rants about this wiretapping, Trump has offered no proof to validate his claim.
So why does Trump cling to this now discredited lie?
Based upon my observations of Trump over the past 20 months, I have notice several disturbing character traits that facilitate Trump’s ready ability to take a mental flight from reality and truth. These traits are scary and dangerous to the American people.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, March 12, 2017
True, or False?
If under oath, you say, “and I did not have _X_” and in fact, you did have _X_, are you a perjurer?
The statement “and I did not have _X_” is a voluntary assertion, and claim of fact by the speaker. It makes an independent statement. It does not answer a question.
By virtue of the use of the word “and,” the claimant is making a voluntary assertion which can stand alone, and which needs no other support. Rather, by using the word “and,” the statement which follows that word supports any statement predicated within it, and would appear to lend credence to any statement which preceded it, simply because it is “added onto” a primary claim.
And even though it is mentioned in a secondary manner – that is, the remark is mentioned after another statement – it becomes a primary, rather than secondary, assertion. It “flips the table,” in a manner of speaking.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, March 2, 2017
As part of the Confirmation process for Attorney General,
Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions (R) takes oath before his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in his Confirmation Hearing to be United States Attorney General.
in January, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) asked nominee Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions for answers to written questions, one which was: “Several of the President-elect’s nominees or senior advisers have Russian ties. Have you been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election, either before or after election day?”
Sessions wrote a one-word response: “No.”
During the Confirmation Hearings before the Judiciary Committee on January 10, Minnesota Senator Al Franken (D) asked Senator Sessions, “If there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do?”
Senator Jeff Sessions stated, “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and I did not have communications with the Russians.”
Jeff Sessions: “I did not have communications with the Russians.” (C-SPAN)
Justice Department officials said that Sessions met twice with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak: Privately on Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, February 16, 2017
Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, Director, Defense Intelligence Agency, USA
Vice President Mike Pence, USA
Here’s how Trump rewards those who look out for our Nation’s Security.
REMEMBER:
Before Michael Flynn resigned as National Security Advisor…
Before the Inauguration, when Flynn was asked about his calls and texts with the Russian Ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak, he lied to Vice President-elect Mike Pence.
A former administration official said the Justice Department warned the White House in January that Flynn had not been fully forthright about his conversations with the Russian ambassador, and because of that, the Justice Department feared that he could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail.
CIA Director John Brennan, and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., agreed with Acting Assistant Attorney General Sally Q. Yates that:
Sergey Ivanovich Kislyak, Russian Ambassador to the United States
John O. Brennan, Director, Central Intelligence Agency, USA 3/8/13 – 1/20/17
1.) “Flynn had put himself in a compromising position”;
2.) Could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail;
3.) That he had been deliberately misleading about his interactions with Russia’s ambassador;
4.) That VP-elect Pence had a right to know that he had been misled, and;
5.) Recommended that POTUS Trump be warned.
Trump then fired Yates.
Flynn publicly stated that when he was Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, he traveled to Moscow in 2013, and there met Kislyak, who continued to communicate with Flynn during, and after the Presidential campaign.
Our Facebook news team has just learned that the U.S. Department of Justice has given federal prosecutors full authority to resume their investigation of Alabama Governor Robert Bentley and his married girlfriend, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, and to prosecute them if the evidence unearthed in their investigation warrants it. The Department scaled back its earlier criminal investigation of Bentley and Mason after former Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange lulled the Department into believing that he would prosecute the First Couple of Alabama on state law ethics violations.
In December of last year, Strange decided to give Bentley and Mason a prosecutorial “pass” on state ethics law violations in exchange for an appointment to the U.S. senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions. This move, which may well constitute a form of bribery under federal law, has embarrassed and angered career federal prosecutors.
The move has also demoralized the Public Corruption Unit led by Deputy Alabama Attorney General Alice Martin and Unit Chief Matt Hart. Martin and Hart are seasoned professional prosecutors with a proven track-record of success in high-profile public corruption cases.
Public outcry over the unsavory deal between Bentley and Strange has reached a fever pitch in the state. Alabamians witnessed a sitting governor buy his way out of a messy state criminal investigation by appointing a greedy and selfish former attorney general to the senate seat in Washington. What is more, Bentley put off the mandatory 90-day special election for Strange’s senate seat until the November 2018 general election.
Bentley’s appointment of Steve Marshall as Alabama Attorney General pushed the public and the Justice Department over the edge. Marshall, who was a longtime district attorney in a small Alabama County, has no Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, October 15, 2015
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.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, October 6, 2015
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 Read the rest of this entry »
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 Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, October 2, 2015
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.
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 Read the rest of this entry »
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 Read the rest of this entry »
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.
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.
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.
Governor Robert Bentley’s long-time personal CPA and heavy hitting moneyman for the Robert Bentley Campaign Committee, has split from the governor. Echols, who handled the financial books and records for both the Bentleys and the Campaign Committee, resigned his post over a disagreement with Bentley about Rebekah Mason, the governor’s mistress and married paramour.
The precise nature of this dispute, which occurred several weeks ago, is not known at this time.
What is known, however, is that Bentley wanted Echols to do something questionable with the financial records relating to Rebekah Mason. The governor’s request did not sit well with Echols, a respected Tuscaloosa accountant and well-known PAC organizer. During a heated exchange between the two men, Echols refused the governor’s request and turned over the various checkbooks and financial records in his custody to Bentley. With this handover, the professional relationship between Echols and Bentley ended.
Echols has been Bentley’s accountant for many years. He was also the Campaign Committee’s accountant in 2010 and 2014.
In a slick move that is expected to become the focus of First Lady Dianne Bentley’s divorce proceedings, as well as law enforcement agencies in Washington, the governor stashed Read the rest of this entry »
Governor Robert Bentley could barely contain his lust and love for Rebekah Caldwell Mason in the months leading up to his re-election in 2014. He was so obsessed with Rebekah that he sent a romantic text written for Rebekah to First Lady Dianne Bentley by mistake. It was graphic in content. Ms. Bentley’s subsequent review of her husband’s text messages answered all of her questions about the nature and scope of the governor’s marital infidelity. The text message exchange between the two lovers, along with what Dianne overheard during the governor’s private phone calls to Rebekah, let her know that the governor, 72, was “head-over-heels” in love and lust with his 43-year-old paramour.
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley with paramour Rebekah Caldwell Mason
Not only has Bentley proven to be a cheater and a sexual pervert, but now he has proven to be a crooked governor too. We have recently learned that Bentley not only had direct and personal knowledge of Rebekah’s handling of questionable financial practices with state and campaign monies, but he even went so far as to Read the rest of this entry »
George L. Beck, Jr., is the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, which includes Montgomery.
George L. Beck Jr. was sworn in as the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama on July 6, 2011. He was nominated by President Obama on March 31,2011, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 30, 2011. Prior to being appointed, George Beck served as Deputy Attorney General for the State of Alabama for eight years, and Judge Advocate General for the Corps of Alabama Army National Guard for over thirty years, retiring at the rank of Colonel. He joined a private law firm in January 2004 where he remained until he was confirmed as U.S. Attorney. Mr. Beck received his undergraduate degree from Auburn University and his law degree from the University of Alabama.
President Obama appointed Beck to the top federal prosecutor’s job in Montgomery in 2011. Beck’s Senate confirmation took a mere three months from the date of his nomination, even in the midst of a gridlocked Congress, because Beck enjoyed the support and loyalty of Alabama’s two Republican senators, as well as its Republican governor and state attorney general. For all practical purposes, Beck is a “closet” Republican.
Beck received his law degree from the University of Alabama, where he was a law school classmate and personal friend of David Byrne, Governor Robert Bentley’s chief legal advisor. Over the years, the two men formed Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, July 26, 2015
Various styles of “cavalier” boots, which are also called “thigh high” boots, from which the term “bootlegger” is believed to have originated. Note the boot’s high shaft which extends to, and often over the knee, and the widening taper to accommodate the thigh’s size & shape. The style originated in Spain with early cowboys, and was entirely one of functional design, then later took upon a fashionable trend among the well-to-do, moneyed nobility class. Background image is oil on panel, dimensions 9.8 x 7.5 inches (25x19cm), entitled “A Guardroom Interior,” c.1630 by Jacob Duck (1600-1667), a Dutch painter whom specialized in such guardroom images and contemporary period paintings.
To be certain,
it’s NOT “boot liquor,” which in a sense could be
(or perhaps has been) morphed into bootlegger, which is a person who
illegally sells liquor. The term itself derived from
the practice of
hiding a flask of liquor
in a
high-legged boot.
But to be certain,
the term “boot licker” is a
derogatory term
used to describe
someone whom is Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, July 25, 2015
For those who like their newz with a Right Wring Tryst
Slant…
from a journalistic perspective, it’s colorizing a news report to fit the opinion of the reporter. It’s the polar opposite of hard news reporting, and is more akin to OpEd, or even News Feature writing.
More than likely, only the erudite would be aware of the differences. The average Joe is clueless about it, and only knows “where the gas and keys go,” which is another way of saying “if it’s on the Internet, it must be true.”
A one word description for that is “gullible.”
And face it, not everyone is a brainiac… and that’s okay.
What it boils down to is integrity, and truth-telling, which is precisely why journalistic integrity is of paramount importance in a free society like ours. Lack of it is what got “Lyin’ Brian Williams” canned from being the anchor of the NBC Nightly News. It wasn’t “colorful” reporting, it was blatant fabrication of a material fact. In plain language, he lied – and not just once, but several times – about events he reported, including Hurricane Katrina and being under enemy fire while flying in a Blackhawk helicopter.
Such phenomenon is not just limited to teevee news, but journalistic integrity also covers the written word. And there have been Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, June 13, 2015
Alabama State Senator Larry Stutts has once again been named in another malpractice lawsuit in which a patient of his retained placental tissue, and suffered excessive bleeding following delivery of her baby.
The new case is oddly reminiscent of an older case in which Stutts was named defendant, in which his patient retained placental tissue and suffered excessive bleeding, and later died. The new case’s Plaintiff, Greta C. Cooper, did not die.
The suit alleges, among other things, that Stutts failed to order powerful antibiotics to be administered EXCLUSIVELY by Licensed Professional Nurses, and that two RNs with Gentiva Home Health Services in Russellville, Alabama, then taught the Plaintiff’s husband how to administer the medication, and that as a result of his failure to properly order, blood levels of the medication were also not taken which resulted in overdose toxicity.
Dr. Larry Stutts, DVM, MD (R), who was first a veterinarian, then became an Obstetrician/Gynecologist (OBGYN), upset 32-year veteran Alabama Senate District 6 State Senator Roger Bedford (D) by 67 votes in the 2014 November General Election. Stutts is also president of Colbert Obstetrics and Gynecology, PC (his private medical practice), located at 1120 S Jackson Hwy #104, Sheffield, AL 35660, (256) 386-0855.
Alabama District 6 State Senator Dr. Larry Stutts, DVM, MD
Alabama State Senate District 6 encompasses all of Franklin County, and portions of Colbert, Marion, Lauderdale and Lawrence Counties in NW Alabama.
Stutts is the same physician who was years earlier named in another lawsuit in which his patient Rose Church – a newlywed, and healthy 36-year-old Registered Nurse – died, which in turn, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, May 14, 2015
It’s a classic variation upon the theme of a “straw man argument.”
But if you’re like most folks in Alabama, you’re probably so “largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command” to know what that is.
So, I’ll tell you.
You cite an example of thing you oppose (and which many others would oppose) – even though it’s false (example: “The air in our city has killed thousands of babies!”) – and hammer on it, until you beat it up. Never mind that the example you use is pure bullshit and a total lie. That way, you get your opponent distracted from the REAL issues by responding to your bullshit lies. Studies have shown that when you repeat a lie – even if you are repeating it to refute it – the repetition can reinforce the lie in the minds of some people.
In my more than half-a-century of following politics — state, local and national — I cannot recall such a general disgust with the quality of the folks who govern us.
How, I hear it asked repeatedly, did these people get elected?
The answer, of course, is that they got the most votes.
But that is not the answer most people want.
What they want to know is how these politicians were able to convince a majority of Alabama voters to cast a ballot for them.
Well, I’m gonna tell you.
Today, politicians in Alabama get elected because they have mastered a strategy that has gotten Alabama politicians elected as long as there have been politicians and elections in this state.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, October 13, 2014
Robert Bentley, MD will say ANYTHING to get elected. In fact, he did. Is there any reason to believe he won’t do it again? He had no intention of fulfilling any of those promises. And that, my friends, is the definition of a sociopathic liar. Sociopathic Liars are defined as someone who lies continuously in an attempt to get their own way, without showing care or concern for others. These individuals are goal-oriented. Even though it might seem hard to believe, lying is focused – they are focused on getting their own way. Sociopaths don’t have a lot of respect or regard for the feelings and rights of others. They tend to be charismatic and charming, but they will use their exceptional social skills in a self-centered and manipulative manner.
Having met with Alabama Governor Bentley a couple times, I can attest that he came across to me as a “nice guy,” a decent human being.
However – and to be absolutely certain – when I refer to Robert Bentley, or Governor Bentley, I mean to refer to him as an elected political figure, nothing more. And in that sense, as a legislator from Tuscaloosa, he was an inept, do-nothing, milquetoast, mamby-pamby, clueless, bumbling, cowardly, lazy, yellow-bellied, gutless, craven, unimaginative, clueless, pedestrian, hackneyed, lame and feeble Representative.
As Governor, he has given Alabama all that, and more… in spades!
As an elected official, Governor Bentley is a liar, and there are LITERALLY 15-20 broken promises he made while in the 2010 campaign that were very likely the hopes upon which Alabamians hung their hat, and ideas for which they cast their vote. His Democratic contender – Ron Sparks – was a man who, as Secretary of Agriculture and Industries, had his finger on the economic pulse of the state of Alabama. Ron was the man whom opened doors of market opportunity for Alabama’s farmers to sell poultry in foreign markets. Ron regularly communicated with the captains of industry in Alabama, as well the numerous entrepreneurs, small businesses owners, and Mom & Pop shops, which are the lifeblood of any economy.
Bentley’s campaign is nothing more one Broken Promise after another. It is a history of lies, infidelity, and willful deception. To characterize his administration as duplicitous would be generously diplomatic. To say it has been treacherously fraudulent would be more accurate.
Retired state trooper Capt. Mark Whitaker ran the Protective Services Division and Capitol Police in the Alabama Department of Public Safety (“DPS”) until this year. This is the DPS division responsible for guarding and driving Governor Robert Bentley. Wendell Ray Lewis was a sergeant under his command.
While running his division, Whitaker learned that Lewis’ overtime pay was pre-approved by Bentley and never to be questioned. This was even true with regard to Lewis’ claimed entitlement to 24 hours of overtime for a single day. Prior to Lewis, Whitaker had never seen a trooper make a claim for or receive 24 hours of overtime pay for a single day.
On January 14, 2014, Whitaker was called into then-DPS Director Hugh McCall’s office where McCall told Whitaker that his entire division would be transferred to the newly created Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (“ALEA”). As a result of the transfer, Whitaker, a highly respected captain, would fall under the command and supervision of Lewis, who at that time was a sergeant. Unbelievably, Captain Whitaker would be reporting to Sgt. Lewis.
This order came directly from Governor Bentley.
This humiliating role reversal was the ultimate insult for Whitaker, a career officer who had climbed the ranks within DPS and earned his command position. According to published reports, Whitaker believes this demeaning and insulting personnel action – a captain reporting to a sergeant – occurred merely because he sought to question Lewis’ overtime pay in the months prior.
“This is what I get for doing my job,” Whitaker complained to McCall at the time. He retired soon after.
Whitaker is the second high-ranking trooper to retire over the Bentley-Lewis overtime pay scandal. In 2011, Major Marc McHenry, now retired, served as the DPS chief over Protective Services and the Capitol Police. Lewis also worked under McHenry.
When McHenry realized in 2011 that Lewis had accumulated a gigantic amount of overtime pay, he tried to put an end to Lewis’ financial windfall. At the time, troopers were not being paid for overtime. They were given time off instead.
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – A mother and son from Cullman have been charged in a scheme to defraud federal health agencies and a nonprofit east Alabama health center of more than $100,000, which they used to buy personal items such as electronic fish finders, truck tires, cell phones and an adult website membership, federal prosecutors announced.
Sheila Osborne Parker and James Robert Parker were charged in separate documents today in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, according to a joint press release issued by U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance, FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard D. Schwein Jr., IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Veronica Hyman-Pillot, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Office of Inspector General, Atlanta Regional Office Special Agent in Charge Derrick Jackson.
Sheila Parker, 59, faces six counts of wire fraud, two counts of bank fraud and two counts of failing to file federal income tax returns, according to the press release. James Parker, 33, faces five counts of wire fraud and two counts of failing to file income tax returns. The mother and son have both entered plea agreements with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Sheila Parker worked for Birmingham Health Care, a nonprofit organization in Birmingham intended to provide free or low-cost health care services to the homeless and to people living below poverty level in the metro area, according to the press release.
“Multiple times since being in office he has gotten emails from women (who may not even be real) inviting him to explore, also sending pictures of themselves.”
What strikes me as particularly curious is the fact that apparently neither Senator McGill nor his wife Heather made any remarks or comments of any type, kind or variety when he alleged that it first occurred, nor did he alert authorities when a suspicious knock came at his door in the dead of night.
It’s exceedingly sad that he – as a physician – ordered Alabama’s 67 Counties Departments of Public Health to STOP giving Tuberculosis tests, thereby jeopardizing the public health of everyone who eats at a public restaurant, works in healthcare, and more – and was done as super-virulent, drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis are emerging. Gee, thanks, Governor Dr. Bentley. NOT!
Thanks for nothing, you jack-legged nincompoop!
By your defiant actions, Governor Bentley, you will FORCE the Federal Government to do something TOTALLY against your opinion – and that is, to establish a Health Insurance Exchange in Alabama.
You, Governor Bentley, are a lazy, sorry, idiotic jerk, in addition to being a liar, thief, incompetent boob, and contemptuous good-for-nothing.
Pejoratives aside, more than anything, this places the solitary onus of responsibility upon the governor and legislature to 1.) Increase education,; 2.) Increase employment; 3.) Increase Corporate Income Tax rates; and 4.) Increase Personal Income Tax rates on the wealthiest Alabamians who already pay a well-documented rate that is significantly lower than the impoverished.
By increasing educational attainment in Alabama, the governor will be demonstrating a high-quality, high-yield investment in the state’s most precious resource – people.
But the governor – bless him – is ignorant, and it is quite painfully obvious that he just doesn’t understand such simple concepts. He should understand them, however, because he has said previously, that he used the G.I. Bill to complete his medical training after his enlistment ended.
In stark contrast, Tennessee’s Republican governor, Bill Haslam said, “I’ve always said from the very beginning that anything we [Tennessee] can run instead of the federal government, we are going to run it better and cheaper,” The simpler thing to do is to say, ‘Here, it’s your idea, you run it,’ but I’m not convinced yet that that’s what’s best for our citizens. There’s going to be an exchange and ultimately, our citizens — through their insurance companies — are going to pay for the costs of running that exchange. So who do we think can run it cheaper: us or the federal government? I’ll bet on us every time. But we have to be convinced that the flexibility they will give us is worth taking the risk of running it ourselves.”
For the benefit of the reader who may be unaware of what an Insurance Exchange is, the exchange is designed to allow uninsured people to compare and buy health insurance plans through a single Internet portal. Those who earn up to four times the federally designated poverty level will receive subsidies to pay for the coverage.
Essentially, it’s an Internet-based non-business (nobody is making any money), that creates a database of health insurance carriers that all adhere to certain guidelines for efficiency and coverage. The law allows states to join together to run multi-state exchanges – essentially, insurance across state lines – or to exclude themselves.
In essence, make a list of companies that sell health insurance in the state, make a comparison of their plans and prices, and provide a link to the company for folks to buy insurance from whatever company they want.
Not too difficult to figure out, eh?
Here’s a link to an informative flyer from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation about what Health Insurance Exchanges are, and what they do.
Bentley, in a show of continued resistance to the Affordable Care Act, said this afternoon that he will not set up a state health care exchange and he will not expand Medicaid under the federal healthcare overhaul.
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley speaks at the Birmingham Business Alliance 2012 Governor’s Luncheon in Birmingham, Ala., Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012. (Tamika Moore | tmoore@al.com) / Tuesday, November 13, 2012 1:17 PM
“I will not set up a state exchange in Alabama,” Bentley said during a speech to the Birmingham Business Alliance.
States have a Friday deadline to inform the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services if they plan to set up a state-run exchange, essentially a marketplace for people and businesses to shop for insurance. If states don’t set up their own exchange, either alone or in federal partnership, then the federal government will step in and design it.
Bentley said he has been in communication with other governors — including peers in Texas, Florida and Louisiana — about the exchange decision. He expected multiple governors to show a united front of resistance to the Affordable Care Act.
“If we stand together, I do believe Congress is going to have to look at this again,”Bentley said.
Bentley said he expected other governors to announce similar decisions.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, October 25, 2012
Let’s be absolutely certain about a few things.
Number One: Alabama Governor Robert Bentley is – as a politician – a liar, thief and utter incompetent who is shitting on the people of Alabama and wiping his dirty ass with the United States Constitution.
Number Two: Alabama Governor Robert Bentley is – as a politician – a racist.
Number Three: The majority of the state’s Republican leaders are also incompetent boobs, liars and racists.
Number Four: I have utterly NO respect for the man Robert Bentley. Not as a politician, not as a human being. NONE whatsoever.
I predict Alabama will only be better off only AFTER he leaves… the dirty rotten scumbag.
—
Alabamahas the worst economy in the Southeast. Wonder why? (Joey Kennedy)
Published: Thursday, October 25, 2012, 11:30 AM Updated: Thursday, October 25, 2012, 12:17 PM
Remember when the Legislature was steamrolling through that overreaching, harsh, toughest-in-the-nation immigration law in 2011? The sponsors said not only would be be mean enough to make individuals and families so miserable they’d self-deport, but also would boost Alabama’s economy and put good ol’ red-blooded, U.S. citizen Alabamians back to work.
Odd report this week, then, from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, which said Alabama has the worst economy in the Southeast. Worse than Louisiana. Worse than South Carolina. Heck, worse than, my goodness, ThankGodforMississippi
Makes us proud, doesn’t it?
There is a saving grace. While Alabama’s economy sucks more than any other in the Southeast, it’s only the fourth worst economy in the United States. Yea us! We’re No. 47!
The outlook for Alabama isn’t that sunny, either, the report says. Unemployment is down to about 8.3 percent, from last October’s 8.8 percent, but economists attribute that to jobs that have simply disappeared, not to jobs having been created.
That, too, can be traced to the immigration law, which left farmers, construction companies, restaurants and other labor-intensive industries looking for workers, then settling for fewer of them when Alabamians failed to fill the jobs.
A University of Alabama economist was ridiculed by state officials and others when he said Read the rest of this entry »
