Trump uses his mugshot and four indictments to seek support from Black voters, essentially saying, "Hey, we're all criminals here, so you should vote for me"

Kanye West and Donald Trump

 

Donald Trump is seeking the support of Black voters by insulting them. How do we know?  It's from an article at Axios under the title "Indicted Trump claims solidarity with Black voters." Here is the gist of Trump's pitch: "I have a mugshot and four indictments, and we know that many of you have a history with the criminal-justice system, so you should identify with me and support me for president."

To Americans with a few functioning brain cells, that probably sounds a bit warped or goofy, like a joke story from The Onion. But in Trump's diseased mind, it is a legit appeal, and he apparently is serious about it. Will such a gambit work? Considering Trump is a Republican, and his party has led just about every effort to trample Black rights over the past 55-60 years, I have my doubts. In fact, Republican weakness on basic human rights for Black Americans goes back decades before the 1960s and Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign that was based largely on opposition to the Civil Rights Act. And that does not even count Trump's own documented use of racist language and dubious actions, which go back several decades before his 2016 run for president.

Black voters, it seems, are unlikely to overlook the antipathy Trump and his party have shown toward people of color over many years. That's why Trump's efforts to appeal to them now seem more than a little lame. From the Axios report, written by Mike Allen: 

Former President Trump is pushing his mug shot, arrests and criminal charges to try to claim new solidarity with Black voters — a group that has largely shunned him in elections.

Trump has latched on to a narrative promoted last month by Fox News commentators and others in conservative media — that his arrests could boost his standing among African Americans who believe the criminal justice system is unfair.

There's little evidence he's getting an indictment bump among Black voters, despite his claim that support rose after the mug shot from his arrest in Atlanta was released.

But his team believes he can make inroads with Black voters by pushing an I-am-a-victim-just-like-you storyline.

Trump claimed in a recent interview with conservative host Hugh Hewitt that his poll numbers among Black voters "have gone up four and five times" since his mug shot was released.

That's not true, as CNN reported.

A statement from Donald Trump proved to be false? Now that's a shocker. Here is more from Mike Allen and Axios:

It's unclear whether Trump's favorability with Black voters has increased beyond the 8% or so share he received in 2020. (Recent polls have suggested Trump's support among Blacks is improving, but pre-election polls in 2020 overstated his support.)

In recent weeks Trump has promoted videos of Black people defending him, and senior Trump advisers have kept in touch with Black celebrities who have supported him publicly.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung posted on X a TikTok video of a 34-year-old Black man saying, "We rocking with Trump, man. Even the youth, they know what time it is."

"I just think — especially, again with the (Black) men — they're going to see through" the charges against Trump, "because they've been dealing with this for a long time," Donald Trump Jr. told Newsmax.

Some Black men might consider the criminal-justice system unfair -- and they unquestionably have a point; in fact, I would submit the entire American justice system (criminal and civil) is filled with unfairness and corruption. But does that mean Black men  are going to see Donald Trump as their ally, worthy of support at the ballot box? I doubt it. From Axios:

Black artists including Lil Pump, Kodak Black and Chief Keef have posted mugshots of themselves next to Trump's, shared supportive messages, or otherwise indicated they're rooting for him.

Keef mused that Trump would "run the prison" if he's convicted.

Another artist, Bandman Kevo, got Trump's image tattooed on his leg.

Several artists have pointed to actions Trump took while in office, including passing the First Step Act and PPP loans, as reasons for their support.

Critics of the former president see irony in his push for African Americans' support.

Trump is charged in Fulton County, Georgia, with trying to overturn the 2020 election results. The charges stem from an alleged conspiracy in which Trump's team sought to invalidate votes in heavily Black urban areas across the country after the election.

Democratic pollsters doubt that Trump's support among a few Black artists will help him significantly. A bigger issue in a general election matchup against President Biden could be Biden's slipping numbers with non-white voters who don't have college degrees.

"The best way to describe (Trump's) political efforts here is pissing in windmills," former South Carolina state Rep. Bakari Sellers told Axios.

"I love Kodak. I love his music, but that doesn't mean that his thoughts on Donald Trump are going to be pervasive."

In the 2020 election, Trump also got support from several Black artists, including Ice Cube, Lil Wayne and Ye (formerly known as Kanye West).

Alabama Sports Council scores a big-money touchdown with Magic City Classic, but two Black universities who generate the cash get thrown for a loss

 

Alabama State and Alabama A&M  square off in the Magic City Classic.

Alabama State and Alabama A&M, the historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) who participate in the Magic City Classic football game that is played annually at Legion Field in Birmingham, have been ripped off by a nonprofit organization that was formed in 2016 to promote amateur sports events in the state. The Alabama Sports Council has come to manage the Magic City Classic in recent years, and on the council's watch, the two participating universities have received only a fraction of the proceeds the event generates, according to a report from donaldwatkins.com.

Watkins, a longtime Alabama attorney and civil-rights advocate, calls the universities' take from the football game "pocket change or tip money." He also suggests this sets up Alabama A&M to be cheated out of more than $527 million the state of Alabama owes the university in an unrelated matter.

How do the numbers stack up for the Magic City Classic? Not well for the two universities who generate substantial proceeds. Watkins says two historically Black institutions are being financially abused regarding the Magic City Classic. The Alabama Sports Council -- along with its "tight circle of political friends, influencers, and networking partners" -- have become the main benefactors of the event, with Alabama State and Alabama A&M pushed to the outside, trying to look in. The sports council's "tight circle" appears to include Birmingham-based Gene Hallman, perhaps the state's best-known sports executive. Watkins shines light on how Alabama A&M and Alabama State got pushed financially aside in an event where they create the flow of dollars. Watkins shines light on how this grossly unfair situation took shape. He writes:

In 2021, the Alabama Sports Council, Inc., reportedly paid Alabama State University (ASU) and Alabama A&M University (AA&MU) about $375,000 each (for a total $750,000) to play in the Magic City Classic at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama.

The Alabama Sports Council is a nonprofit corporation that was formed on April 18, 2016, to promote amateur sports events in the state. The organization has produced the Magic City Classic in recent years.

According to the Alabama Sports Council’s Form 990 tax return for 2021 (which is the latest full-year tax return publicly available), the organization reported $5,878,430 in total revenues and $5,344,097 in expenses that year.

The tax return was signed by Birmingham businessman Larry Thornton, who was listed as the council’s board chairman in 2021.

Nick Sellers, who is best known as CEO of The World Games 2022 in Birmingham, was listed as a board member. Sellers was the council's chairman from 2016 to 2020.

Nichelle Nix, director of the Alabama Office of Minority Affairs, was also listed as a board member on the 2021 tax return.

Did the Magic City Classic pay off for the sports council and its "tight circle"? Yes, in a big way, Watkins reports:

Of the council’s $5,878,430 in revenues in 2021, a whopping $3,897,417 (or 66.3%) was derived from the Magic City Classic.

The remaining $1,981,013 in revenue was derived from the Council's production of Hammerfest, SEC Baseball Tournament, and SEC Women's Golf (which cost the Council $1,210,484 to produce and netted the Council a separate $770,529 profit).

The Alabama Sports Council reported expenditures of $3,269,979 for the Magic City Classic in 2021.

Off the top, the Council made a hefty $627,438 profit on the Magic City Classic, alone (i.e., $3,897,417 in revenues, minus $3,269,979 in expenses).

How did Alabama A&M and Alabama fare in the deal? Not so well, Watkins writes:

Despite their creation of $3,897,417 in revenues from the Magic City Classic, ASU and AA&MU received only $750,000, or a mere 19.2% of the total money generated by the Classic in 2021. In the world of sports promotions, the 19.2% awarded to ASU and AA&MU is viewed as “pocket change” or “tip” money.

Watkins asks an obvious question: Where did money from the Magic City Classic go? Here is his answer:

The Alabama Sports Council’s Form 990 tax return itemizes $863,634 in general expenses related to the 2021 Classic and the three smaller sports events (i.e., Hammerfest, SEC Baseball Tournament, and SEC Women's Golf) that were produced by the council that year. These payments included:

1. $770,469 paid to Gene Hallman’s Bruno Event Team for event-planning management. Hallman's fees for managing the council's sports events have ranged from $448,980 in 2017 to $770.469 in 2021. During the 2020 COVID pandemic year, Hallman's company pocketed $760,117, even though the council reported an overall loss of $378,921. Today, Hallman's company is called Eventive Sports. What is more, Gene Hallman is a big-time Republican donor who contributed $3,300 in campaign contributions to Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) and $2,900 to Sen. Katie Britt (R-Alabama).

2. $11,048 for accounting services.

3. $78,000 for lobbying.

4. $1,500 for advertising and promotions.

5. $148 for office expenses.

6. $2,469 for insurance.

Only 66.3%, (or $572,589) of the Alabama Sports Council's $863,634 in general expenses can be rightfully attributed to the Magic City Classic, especially since the other three sports events produced by the council in 2021 returned a $770,529 profit.

The Alabama Sports Council's Form 990 tax return does not say how the remaining $3,324,828 (or 85%) in revenues generated from the 2021 Classic was spent. However, we know from published reports that ASU and AA&MU received about $375,000 each for playing in the Classic that year.

Apart from the payment of $750,000 to ASU and AA&MU and the expenditure of $572,589 for the Classic's portion of the council's general expenses, the remaining $2,574,828 in Magic City Classic revenues was disbursed to a cadre of politically-connected consultants, "influencers," and vendors who received non-bid contracts from the council in amounts under the $100,000 threshold for reporting these payments on the Form 990 tax form for 2021.

We will identify the consultants, "influencers," and vendors who received this $2,574,828 in Classic-related money, along with their undisclosed financial relationships to certain politicos in Alabama, in an upcoming October article.

It appears that ASU and AA&MU had zero input in managing and minimizing the Council's $3,269,979 in direct Classic-related expenses in a way that maximized a financial return for the two participating universities. Reportedly, trustees from ASU and AA&MU were content with the opportunity to attend chic parties, sit in skyboxes at the game (for free), and engage in endless photo ops in and around Birmingham during the 2021 Classic weekend.

In Watkins' words, a "pattern and practice of abusing" the two universities that play in the Magic City  Classic has developed within Alabama: 

The Alabama Sports Council's Form 990 tax return for 2021 evidences a disturbing pattern and practice of financial abuse of ASU and AAUM with respect to the revenues generated, expenses paid, and amounts paid to each university. The Council's tax returns for 2017, 2018, and 2019 reflect the same structural flaws in the Magic City Classic's financial deal that appear in the 2021 tax return.

Again, the money paid to ASU and AA&MU in 2017, 2018, and 2019 from the millions of dollars in revenues generated by the Classic fell well within the category of "pocket change" or "tip" money.

The COVID-19 pandemic appears to have been a factor in limiting the Alabama Sports Council's financial abuse of ASU and AA&MU for 2020.

The financial abuse resumed with the 2021 Classic, and likely occurred with the 2022 Magic City Classics, as well. [Note: The Council's tax return for 2022 is not expected to be filed until January 2024].

The financial abuse of ASU and AA&MU is poised to continue with the upcoming 2023 Magic City Classic in October because there are no adequate guardrails against this kind of abuse. Likewise, there is no effective institutional oversight to prevent it.

It should be noted that both ASU and AA&MU voluntarily agreed to the bad financial deal embodied in their Magic City Classic agreements with the Alabama Sports Council. As such, they bear the ultimate responsibility for this unfortunate situation.

This suggests Alabama A&M is poised for more financial abuse in the near future and probably will be unable or unwilling to do anything about it, writes Watkins:

Considering the ease with which the Alabama Sports Council was able to garner a one-sided advantage over ASU and AA&MU in connection with the $3.9 million derived from the 2021 Magic City Classic, it is inconceivable that Alabama A&M is ready, willing, and able to collect the $527,280,064 debt that the university is owed by the state of Alabama. Gov. Kay Ivey and the Republican majority in the Alabama Legislature have far more experience in financially abusing historically Black educational institutions and majority-Black government agencies than the Alabama Sports Council has ever exhibited.

As structured, the Alabama Sports Council's Magic City Classic deal in 2021 was a lose-lose proposition for ASU and AA&MU -- from every financial angle. Both universities were ripped-off in a classic fashion. As shown in the Form 990 tax return for 2021, the Classic was a financial bonanza for the Alabama Sports Council and its tight circle of political friends, "influencers," and networking partners.

Donald Trump proves that he is ignorant of the Constitution, and the rule of law in general, probably because he doesn't plan to abide by the law, anyway

This man is ignorant of the law, but he wants to be president.

 

For those of us outside the MAGA orbit, Donald Trump has quite a few shortcomings for someone who wants to be president. No. 1 on the list might be this: He is ignorant of the Constitution, and the law in general, according to an article at the widely read Above the Law (ATL) legal website. Considering that presidents probably have to deal with quite a few law-related issues, that's a pretty serious deficiency. On top of that, Trump's recent statements indicate he has no interest in the law -- and no intention of following the law, as it currently exists. On top of that, it appears Trump is not even interested in governing -- he is running, it seems, mainly to help him stay out of prison -- and that puts him in line with many other prominent Republicans. 

Under the headline "Trump Demands That GOP Invoke 25th Amendment To Get Rid Of Biden. Because Trump Is Deeply Ignorant Of The Constitution," ATL's Liz Dye writes:

BREAKING: Donald Trump endorses Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

Or maybe that weirdo is just screaming bullshit into the ether, as usual.

From @realDonadTrump at Truth Social:

 

Liz Dye continues:

Trump and his minions subject us daily to a twin barrage of nonsense. First they insist that President Biden is simultaneously leading an international crime syndicate with his son and a senile old man drooling into his oatmeal. At the same time, [Biden's] predecessor, who is under four criminal indictments, vomits out an endless stream of gibberish exposing his own deteriorating mental health and ignorance of basic American law.

“WHY HASN’T THE REPUBLICAN PARTY BEGUN THE PROCESS OF INVOKING THE 25th AMENDMENT AGAINST THE WORST & MOST INCOMPETENT PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, CROOKED JOE BIDEN?” he shrieks. “With these facts, they would have done it to us long ago!”

In 1965, after Kennedy’s assassination, Congress decided that Americans could do with a more clear succession plan for their chief executive. Proposed by Senator Birch Bayh, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment provides that the vice president shall become president upon the death or resignation of the executive. It is unequivocal that, in the event President Biden were actually removed, he would be replaced by Vice President Harris.

But that’s not the weirdest part of Trump’s post. Because here on Planet Earth, Republicans in Congress have zero power to invoke the 25th Amendment, since the plain language of the Amendment locates that power in the vice president and the cabinet.

 Dye even quotes from the 25th Amendment:

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

If that's not clear enough, Dye adds context:

With these fact, Democrats would not have done it long ago, because shut up, that is not a thing. And even if it were to come to pass that VP Harris and the cabinet turned on Biden, it would take a two-thirds vote in both Houses of Congress to override Biden’s refusal to leave office. This probably accounts for the failure of Trump’s own cabinet to invoke the Amendment, even after Trump incited an insurrection on January 6, 2021.

Obviously, there are not enough hours in the day to debunk all of Trump’s lies. But at the same time, we can’t just allow it to wash over us like a warm bath of acid rain, even as every Biden stutter is treated as a sign of serious neurological impairment.

Is Trump clueless about all of this? Probably so. Does Trump care? Probably not? Does he assume his MAGA followers are blissfully clueless about matters of law? You probably can take that to the bank. Does Trump hold mostly contempt and disrespect for his own followers? You also can deposit that at the bank.

Dye concludes by cutting to the chase, and sounding an alarm, with bluntness that is refreshing -- at least to me:

Trump is deeply ignorant of the law, not to mention basic American civics, and he counts on his followers to be the same. And since we’re not going to be saved from this looming disaster by the Fourteenth Amendment, we had better exercise the First while we still have it.

Has K.B. Forbes' hard-hitting investigative journalism on scandal-plagued Southern Company made him the target of life-threatening, gun-oriented retaliation?

The Forbes backyard, showing path of the shot

Why would someone shoot into the home of K.B. Forbes, CEO of the CDLU nonprofit advocacy group, which has published probably several hundred investigative articles on corruption related to Atlanta-based Southern Company, the nation's second-largest utility and home to Alabama Power among other subsidiaries? Have First Amendment rights in the U.S. become so tenuous that journalists who create hard-hitting reports on matters of public interest must be on the lookout for gunfire flying through their homes? Is reporting accurately on sensitive topics at the Ban Balch blog enough to put a man's life at risk?

We do not have detailed answers to those questions -- yet. But it appears law enforcement, at several levels, has been provided with enough evidence to start putting together pieces of the puzzle. Under the headline "Southern Company Retaliatory Shooting? DOJ, SEC, NRC, and FBI Briefed," Forbes indicates he takes this matter seriously, very seriously:

Is Southern Company’s longtime consultant Joe Perkins (founder and owner of the Montgomery-based Matrix LLC political-consulting firm)  simply out of control? Is the Oompa Loompa of Alabama politics, who is paid millions by the utility, finally being shown the door by Southern Company?

What would cause an unknown Southern Company goon to shoot a .22 projectile into a perceived adversary’s bedroom window?

The U.S. Attorney of the Northern District of Alabama, Prim Escalona;U.S. Department of Justice leaders in Washington, D.C.; the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI office in Birmingham; investigators at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and officers at the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission have all been briefed on the retaliatory shooting against K.B. Forbes, CDLU’s Chief Executive Officer.

Forbes met in person yesterday afternoon with the FBI.

This is not the first time Forbes and his family have been targeted. He writes:

“Southern Company crossed a line when they targeted my family in the summer of 2020 and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a forensic colonoscopy of everything associated with my family, including the exportation of a princess bed for my then-three-year-old daughter. Now, what has happened is a criminal threat and an infringement of our Civil Rights. No one, and I mean no one, messes or threatens my family and young children. Southern Company ought to be ashamed about this disgraceful act of violence,” Forbes declared.

What about the evidence that has been gathered so far? Forbes provides a rundown:

The window that was hit is located several inches above the bedroom floor, but is located about 5 feet from the outside lawn.

The blue arrow in the picture to the left shows the 5-foot drop from the pierced window .

The trajectory of the projectile passed by the playground area in Forbes’ backyard. The shot, unequivocally, was targeted directly at the window, and not a fluke accident or ricochet. 

The lots behind Forbes’ home are higher and above Forbes’s lot, so the individual who took the shot would have had to climb down, behind the  Forbes home.

And why retaliate?

The CDLU has been working with investigators in multiple government agencies regarding Southern Company’s alleged criminal acts, illicit surveillance efforts, and gross misconduct.

But Tuesday’s story about Southern Company’s alleged surveillance operation of U.S. Department of Justice officials and then-U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town was beyond explosive. The alleged acts are felony crimes.

The last time Forbes' journalism appeared to prompt a shooting, the subject of the article was former Alabama Attorney General and U.S. Senator Luther Strange. Writes Forbes:

In 2021, a couple of days after ex-Drummond executive David Roberson testified about the $25,000 alleged bribe to former Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange in exchange for a letter to be sent to the EPA regarding the North Birmingham clean-up site, Roberson’s car window was shot out.

Strange’s official act in exchange for $25,000 appears to have been a felony crime, too.

To threaten those who write, talk, testify, or criticize Southern Company’s criminal enterprise, a .22 projectile sends an unwavering message of violence and physical harm, or possible death.

And Southern Company has the audacity to tell The Wall Street Journal that they have “moved on?”

Moved on?

Maybe moved on from misdemeanors to felonies.

Could evidence in the Forbes shooting wind up pointing to Luther Strange and former Alabama Governor Robert "Luv Guv" Bentley (best known for his sexcapades with highl-level staff aide Rebekah Caldwell Mason)? Longtime Strange aide and campaign manager Jessica Medeiros Garrison is another name to watch? 

We would not be surprised if evidence pointed in any, or all, of these directions. Strange and Bentley are longtime political compadres, and both vigorously opposed EPA designation of North Birmingham property as a Superfund site. In writing about Roberson's $75-million civil case brought by Shelby County attorney Burt Newsome, Forbes wrote the following in 2019:

Just a few months back, Balch and Bingham and Drummond Company were not concerned because Roberson’s criminal lawyers were paid by Drummond, and Balch’s grip on Jefferson County including federal probes was solid.

But all that changed when Roberson hired Burt Newsome as his civil lawyer. Newsome, who allegedly was wrongly targeted, falsely arrested, and defamed by Balch and Bingham, is running circles around the Balch posse.

U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town has been intentionally avoided and overlooked due to his ties to former U.S. Senator Luther Strange, Balch’s biggest stooge.

Instead, Roberson’s civil lawyer is working with federal investigators in Washington, D.C. and Capitol Hill senior staff, circumventing the political cronyism and corruption of Birmingham.

Further, Forbes wrote:

Our sources say management members at Alabama Power, Drummond Company, Thompson Tractor, and Balch & Bingham—corporate supporters of the AstroTurf and money-laundering entity Alliance for Jobs and the Economy that funneled more $360,000 in bribes to disgraced State Representative Oliver Robinson—appear to have possibly given incomplete testimony or even perjured themselves.

More interesting now are the five-figure campaign contributions (to investigators: alleged bribes) paid to Balch’s biggest stooge, Luther Strange, and ex-Governor Robert “Luv Guv” Bentley after signing the multiple ghost-written letters to the EPA against the North Birmingham expedited clean-up efforts.

The ghost-written letters were allegedly drafted by convicted felon and Balch-made millionaire Joel I. Gilbert.

As for Jessica Medeiros Garrison, she has documented ties to Luther Strange, "Luv Guv" Bentley, and Rebekah Caldwell Mason, and once served in an "of counsel" role at Balch & Bingham -- the law firm that gave birth to the North Birmingham scandal. Medeiros Garrison's connections to, and mysterious exit from, Balch & Bingham were not lost on the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), a D.C.-based watchdog group, which reported in March 2021:

Jessica Medeiros Garrison

[Jeffrey] Wood, [Ed] Haden, and other Balch lawyers spearheaded high-profile legal fights with the Obama-era EPA. Wood and Haden represented Republican members of Congress in a 2016 court filing siding with West Virginia as it fought EPA carbon emission standards at coal power plants. The lawsuit appeared to be coordinated by coal behemoth Murray Energy and the fossil fuel industry-funded Republican Attorneys General Association. RAGA’s executive director at the time, Jessica Medeiros Garrison, was simultaneously an attorney at Balch from 2011 through 2016. She has also worked for [Jeff] Sessions.

Alabama's refusal to create a second majority-Black voting district is driven by an alliance with right-wing power broker Leonard Leo, of the Federalist Society

Steve Marshall and Edmund LaCour

 

Alabama's refusal to abide by a federal-court order to create a second Black-majority voting district is being driven by an alliance between state legislators and a dark-money network tied to far-right power broker Leonard Leo. As head of the Federalist Society, Leo is known for largely "picking" Donald Trump's appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, Leo is throwing his weight around in Alabama's Republican-dominated legislature, according to an article at Alabama Political Reporter (APR). Under the headline "Dark money: The backstory of Alabama’s redistricting defiance," Editor Bill Britt writes:

The Alabama Legislature’s open defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Allen v. Milligan ordering the creation of a second majority-Black district baffled and infuriated the federal three-judge panel that initially ordered the state to redraw its 2021 congressional map. 

APR has now identified connections between Alabama officials who led the 2023 redistricting process — which disregarded the U.S. Supreme Court’s order — with far-right power broker Leonard Leo’s dark-money network, described this past week by Politico as “a billion-dollar force that has helped remake the judiciary and overturn longstanding legal precedents on abortion, affirmative action and many other issues.”

APR’s reporting shows the extent to which Alabama’s calculation to defy the Supreme Court was made not simply by state legislators in Alabama but has been driven by nationally connected political operatives at the center of the well-documented right-wing effort to reshape the composition and jurisprudence of the Supreme Court and to overturn the remaining key protections established by the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Leo has been known for working behind the scenes, and that appears to be the case with his Alabama efforts. Reports Britt:

Despite the organization’s claims that it does not take positions on policies or nominations, former President Donald Trump famously stated that Leo’s Federalist Society had “picked” his judges, and all six Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices “were seated with major help from Leonard Leo,” who has come to be known as the “hidden architect of the Supreme Court.” With few exceptions, the justices Leo has ushered to the bench have reliably voted to permit the partisan gerrymanders and strict restrictions on voting access that have proliferated in recent years from red-state legislatures, which themselves work in tandem with — and sometimes under the direction of — Leo’s dark-money groups.

As APR reported on July 27, Alabama lawmakers working in conjunction with state Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office and Washington D.C. lawyers had “intelligence” that Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh — who voted with the majority in Milligan just weeks ago to order the new maps under the statutory language — is open to rehearing the case as a constitutional challenge to the validity of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. 

The Alabama government’s briefs before the three-judge panel in September referenced a concurring opinion by Kavanaugh that questioned whether “race-based redistricting” can “extend indefinitely into the future.” Alabama further relied on arguments — also rejected by the U.S. District Court — that a subsequent U.S. Supreme Court decision this same term ending affirmative action in college admissions (called Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard ) compels the Court to find that a state’s use of a map in which “race predominates” now violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. As in Milligan, Kavanaugh filed a concurrence in Students for Fair Admissions, emphasizing the potential for time limits on race-related policies.

Kavanaugh appears to be a central figure in Alabama's efforts to dig in its heels on creating a second majority-Black district, reports Britt?

In addition, there now appears to be a significant connection between Alabama’s post-Milligan map redrawing process, Leo’s powerful national dark-money network, and Kavanaugh.  The tangled web of previously unreported ties centers around Marshall, Alabama Solicitor General Edmond LaCour — dubbed “the architect behind Alabama’s voting rights defiance” — and the D.C.-area law firm Consovoy McCarthy, the firm founded by William Consovoy, a now-deceased former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas who represented Shelby County in Shelby County v. Holder. In Shelby County, the Supreme Court invalidated Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act and its vital preclearance provision, which protected against unilateral state changes to voting rights and maps in states that had a documented history of racial bias in administering elections in order to disenfranchise Black voters.

A review of Alabama’s July Legislative Contract Review Agenda shows that the Alabama Attorney General’s Office retained Consovoy McCarthy attorneys to “provide expert analysis, strategic advice, assist in legal research, and review and revise pleadings as needed” regarding an unnamed matter. Consovoy McCarthy has handled many high-profile cases assailing measures to redress racial discrimination on behalf of right-wing groups tied to Leo. For instance, Consovoy McCarthy has repeatedly represented the Honest Elections Project, an alias for The 85 Fund, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) group closely tied to Leo, and it represented the Leo-connected dark money group Students for Fair Admissions in its successful challenge to Harvard’s affirmative-action program at the Supreme Court.

Reporting from Politico and the Washington Post has identified The 85 Fund (then called the Judicial Education Project) as the vehicle through which Leo coordinated the movement of up to $100,000 to Justice Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, between 2011 and 2012, at least, and possibly continuing for years. The Washington Post noted “[t]he same year, the [Judicial Education Project] filed a brief to the Supreme Court in a landmark voting rights case,” in which Justice Thomas joined a decision in accordance with the Judicial Education Project’s brief. The 85 Fund has also been tied to Leo’s efforts to coordinate anonymously funded briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court in highly charged political cases.

The presence of the Consovoy McCarthy law firm means connections exist between Alabama's current defiance on redistricting and efforts in the state to gut the Voting Rights Act via the Shelby County v. Holder case. That does not sound promising for the state's Black voters, Britt adds important details about ties between Leonard Leo's groups and key Alabama officials in the redistricting matter:

Among the Consovoy attorneys listed on the state contract disclosure is Tyler Green, one of three trustees on a billion-plus dollar trust fund helmed by Leo, which helps administer Leo’s largest dark money operation called “Marble Freedom Trust.” Green, who clerked for Justice Thomas and formerly served as the solicitor general of Utah, is also a contributor to the Federalist Society, which Leo helms as co-chair of the board. 

The Attorney General’s Office contract lists “Edmund LaCour, Solicitor General” as the attorney assigned to work with Consovoy McCarthy. LaCour is also a Federalist Society contributor and previously clerked for Eleventh Circuit Judge William Pryor, a close ally of Leo and Justice Thomas, and a vocal Federalist Society defender. 

LaCour’s wife, Alice Shih LaCour, is also a Federalist Society contributor, and her Federalist Society profile notes that she “served on the confirmation teams [at the Justice Department] to “elevate Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

The LaCours also have been involved with Catholic far-right organizations with close affiliations to Leo. They are both in their 30s with law degrees from Yale.

How strong are the LaCours' connections to the Catholic far-right and its affiliations with Leonard Leo? Britt's reporting suggests they are quite strong:

Edmund and Alice LaCour were fellows with the Opus Dei-affiliated Leonine Forum, where Leo is a board member. They also have been involved with the Catholic Information Center, a hub for Opus Dei—a small, ultra-conservative and controversial Catholic community—in the nation’s capital and which has given Leo its highest award. Both LaCours gave tribute remarks at the Catholic Information Center’s John Paul II New Evangelization Award Ceremony in 2017. 

A January 14, 2019, article from the Washington Post stated that CIC members and leaders include high-profile figures like Leo and that CIC serves as a meeting place for influential operatives in Washington, D.C., leading it to have “an outsized impact on policy and politics.” 

Alice LaCour’s work on Kavanaugh’s confirmation, and the LaCours’ connections to Leo and the Catholic far-right, have not been previously reported.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall also has ties to Leo, writes Britt:

Attorney General Marshall has connections to Leo through the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) and its affiliated Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), where Marshall has been a director since 2020. Leo’s groups are the largest known funder of RAGA since its launch as a separate 527 group in 2014, as The Center on Media and Democracy and True North Research have documented.

RLDF/RAGA is notorious for its robocalls encouraging participation in the rally before the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Both organizations have received significant funding from Leo’s network. According to IRS filings, The Concord Fund (also known by its alias, the Judicial Crisis Network), another of the core organizations Leo uses to raise and allocate funds) has provided more than $1.9 million to RLDF and $16.5 million to RAGA in recent years. 

Marshall is a contributor to the Leo-helmed Federalist Society and delivered the opening speech at the Federalist Society’s 2023 Alabama Chapters Conference, which also featured LaCour.

Speaking of Marshall and RAGA, Marshall reportedly accepted a campaign contribution from RAGA in February 2017 that officials from both political parties said violated state law. The Alabama Ethics Commission eventually cleared Marshall of wrongdoing.

Former Luther Strange aide Jessica Medeiros Garrison, the subject of numerous posts here at Legal Schnauzer (see here, here, here, here, here, and here), once was executive director of RLDF/RAGA, which suggests she, too, has (or had) ties to Leo -- not to mention her ties to the Balch & Bingham law firm, which was at the heart of the North Birmingham bribery scandal involving Southern Company and its affiliates, such as Alabama Power.

On top of that, Garrison had a business relationship with a one-time Florida resident named Erik Davis Harp, who was indicted as a kingpin of a sports gambling ring that reportedly generated $20 million a month. The gambling ring had ties to organized crime, including the Gambino and Genovese crime families. That suggests Jessica Medeiros Garrison, via her business relationship with Erik Davis Harp, had at least roundabout connections to organized crime -- as did Luther Strange, via his political relationship with Garrison.

All of this could cause a reasonable person to conclude that the Rule of Law Defense Fund's title is not meant to be taken literally. Where is this headed in regards to Alabama's defiance on the redistricting issue? Britt has ideas on that question:

These previously unreported connections between Alabama officials who led the state’s 2023 redistricting process and various players seeking to reshape America may be the reason Alabama’s Republican-controlled legislature gambled on a rehearing before the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes their inside intelligence was right in believing Kavanaugh would change his previous vote in Allen v. Milligan.

After publishing a bombshell story about corruption tied to Southern Company, Ban Balch's K.B. Forbes has a 22-caliber projectile shot through his window

A .22-caliber pistol

 

The CEO of a nonprofit advocacy organization that has published numerous in-depth articles about scandals swirling around Southern Company was the apparent target of a shooting at his home today.

K.B. Forbes is publisher of the Ban Balch blog and chief executive of its parent organization, the CDLU public charity and advocacy group. Forbes says a 22-caliber projectile pierced a window at his house today. Ban Balch has published probably several hundred posts about unsavory activities involving Southern Company and its affiliates, including Alabama Power. But he says the shooting appears to have been triggered by one particular post, and he addresses today's unsettling events under the headline "Southern Company Unhinged! Forbes Family Window Shot At; 6-year-old’s Play Area Targeted":

Just hours after BanBalch.com published the bombshell story that Southern Company engaged in an alleged surveillance effort of U.S. Department of Justice officials and former U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town, an unknown Southern Company stooge apparently shot at CDLU Executive Director K.B. Forbes’ bedroom window, in the rear of his house. (Here at Legal Schnauzer, we published an article about the surveillance story at this link.)

The .22-caliber projectile hit the window and was believed to have been shot from the fence behind Forbes’ home. Four sheriff deputies came to Forbes’ home, and federal investigators are being briefed.

The Forbes Family lives in a gated community so the shooting was not random nor accidental.

Forbes and his wife have two daughters, and at least one of the girls could have been in harm's way. Forbes writes:

The area of the bedroom is a play area for his 6-year-old daughter. The path of the projectile was directed at the height of the child’s head.

“Deplorable! Southern Company resorted to hiring the dregs of humanity, and now these misfits allegedly have sent yet another violent message trying to silence our advocacy,” Forbes stated.

This is not the first time someone connected to journalism or courtroom activities involving Southern Company has been targeted. Forbes provides a rundown:

In 2021, David Roberson, an ex-Drummond Company executive, had his car window shot out on Highway 280 as he was delivering documents to his attorney, Burt Newsome.

In 2020, Burt Newsome was gravely injured in a head-on car wreck just days after a smear website paid for by Southern Company falsely called him a rapist.

In 2018, the vehicle windows of Burt Newsome’s wife were smashed and shattered in a targeted burglary,  allegedly the handiwork of Southern Company operatives. The vandalism was caught on video-surveillance cameras, and law-enforcement officers said the burglars were specifically looking for her vehicle.

Now Southern Company Executive Chairman Tom Fanning and CEO Chris Womack need to be held responsible for the criminal enterprise’s unhinged misconduct. No one at Southern Company can blame Mark Crosswhite, who resigned nearly a year ago as CEO at Alabama Power. No one at Southern Company can blame Matrix LLC founder Joe Perkins or his entities, when Southern Company allegedly still pays him millions of dollars every year to allegedly do what he infamously does.

Without a court fight, historically Black Alabama A&M stands to lose more than $527 million it is owed due to state-funding inequities that date to the late 1800s

 

Alabama A&M University

 

The state of Alabama owes more than $527 million to historically Black Alabama A&M University because of a funding shortage that affects land-grant institutions in 16 states. Will the state, under Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, willingly pay the debt without a court fight? Will Alabama A&M have the will and the resources to fight for the money it is owed? The answer on both counts likely is no, according to longtime attorney and civil-rights advocate Donald Watkins, who has extensive courtroom experience with such funding issues in the state. Under the headline "Alabama A&M University Owed $527,280,064 by the State. Will A&M Fight for Its Money?" Watkins writes:

Yesterday, the U.S. Departments of Education and Agriculture notified Alabama governor Kay Ivey that the state of Alabama owes historically Black Alabama A&M University $527,280,064.

Notice of the state’s debt to Alabama A&M, a land-grant university, came in the form of a letter that was sent to Ivey.

In addition to their letter to Gov. Ivey, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack also sent letters of notification to the governors of Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Altogether, the historically Black land-grant universities in these 16 states have been wrongfully underfunded for the past 30 years by $13 billion.

The amounts owed have their grounding in legislation that dates to the late 1800s. Watkins explains:

The land-grant universities mentioned in the 16 letters were established under the Morrill Acts.

The Morrill Act of 1862 gave states 30,000 acres to establish public colleges and universities, such as Auburn University, University of Florida, University of Georgia, University of  Kentucky, University of Tennessee, Texas A&M University, Louisiana State University, North Carolina State University, and other similarly situated White land-grant institutions.

When the Morrill Act of 1862 was passed, the overwhelming majority of Blacks in America were enslaved people. The Act of 1862 was a legislative companion to the Homestead Act of 1862, which gave White peasants (who were openly recruited to America from Europe) more than 270 million acres of free land between 1862 to 1986 that was wrongfully seized from Native American tribes. These land-grant universities were established to teach the new White European immigrants how to farm on the free lands that were gifted to them by the U.S. government. Each recipient was given a minimum of 160 acres of land.

Because Black students faced exclusion at those universities, a second Morrill Act was passed in 1890. This Act mandated that states either admit Black students or found separate land-grant schools for them.

Alabama A&M was founded to comply with this legal requirement for Black students in Alabama. However, A&M never received its fair share of the land-grant money from the state of Alabama.

Watkins quotes from the letter Gov. Ivey received, and we can take a wild guess that the missive probably did not make her day:

According to the letter to Governor Ivey:

“Unequitable funding of the 1890 institution in your state has caused a severe financial gap, in the last 30 years alone, an additional $527,280,064 would have been available for the university. These funds could have supported infrastructure and student services and would have better positioned the university to compete for research grants…..

Given the large amount of state funding that is owed to Alabama A&M University, it would be ambitious to address the funding disparity over the course of several years in the state budget. It might very well be your desire to do so, which we wholeheartedly support. Yet, if an ambitious timetable is not a possibility, we suggest a combination of a substantial state allocation toward the 1890 deficit, combined with a forward-looking budget commitment for a two-to-one match of federal land-grant funding for these institutions in order to bring parity to funding levels.”

So, what happens next? Watkins looks for the state to dig in its heels and drag them as slowly as possible. And he's not just guessing about that. He has up-close experience with Alabama's usual response on matters of equity for its most vulnerable citizens:

Alabama has had an unrelenting historical agenda, spanning from the late 1800s to the present, to keep its Black citizens economically, educationally, socially, and politically downtrodden, "from the cradle to the grave." Dillard v. Crenshaw (1986).

In the area of higher education, this history is well-documented in the 1991 higher-education desegregation case of Knight v. James.

I led the litigation team that dismantled Alabama’s 32-public colleges and universities' dual systems of higher education in Knight v. James. After litigating this issue for 25 years, we finally defeated Alabama’s massive resistance to providing historically Black Alabama State University and Alabama A&M the following relief: (a) court-ordered doctoral programs; (b) new academic undergraduate programs; (c) nearly $600 million in new funding (beyond the regular state appropriations) to remedy past discrimination through 1995; and (d) nearly $100 million apiece in endowment money for Alabama State and Alabama A&M.

Even today, Alabama will not give its Black citizens the second court-ordered Black Congressional district that was mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Milligan v. Allen on June 8, 2023. Once again, the state is engaging in massive resistance to the enforcement of voting rights for its Black citizens.

Absent a vigorous and sustained court fight, the state of Alabama will not pay Alabama A&M the $527,280,064 it owes the university.

Will Alabama A&M get the money it is owed? Watkins is not optimistic:

Blacks in Alabama are downtrodden and leaderless today. It is highly unlikely that Alabama A&M will muster up the courage to fight for the $527,280,064 the state owes the university.

It seems that Black public officials in Alabama only fight for historically White colleges and universities to get state funding. Just this year, Black public officials in the Birmingham metro area fought “tooth and nail” for Birmingham-Southern College, an elite private school, to get $30 million in funds from the state and $5 million from the city of Birmingham, even though BSC has a long record of suppressing educational opportunities for Blacks.

Dr. Daniel K. Wims, the president of Alabama A&M is NOT known as a fighter. Only one member of the university’s board of trustees -- Nichelle Gainey – has a proven track record of fighting for the advancement and protection of human, civil rights, and constitutional rights for people of color around the world.

Without a fight, A&M likely will lose out on money it is owed -- and probably needs pretty badly. If that happens, it means another chapter will be written in Alabama's long history of injustice toward people of color. Writes Watkins:

If Alabama A&M does not fight for this $527,280,064, the state of Alabama will claim that the university waived its entitlement to this equitable money.

Meanwhile, Gov. Ivey and other White state officials, who completely ignored the 60th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four young girls in Sunday School on September 15, 1963, are poised to resist the payment of this $527,280,064 debt to Alabama A&M. None of these officials attended last week's commemorative event for the victims of the church bombing.

Instead, these state officials were making plans to move forward with using more than a billion dollars of windfall federal COVID money to build new prisons. They say the education of young Blacks in Alabama, to the extent necessary, can take place within the state's prison system.

In Alabama, Blacks constitute 27% of the state's residents, but 54% of the state's prison population.