The Manchurian candidate has become the Manchurian president.
Trump has spent his presidency causing chaos, confusion and more. Isn’t that what Russia would have wanted in exchange for helping Trump gain the presidency? Donald Trump, now President Trump has not missed a time of sowing the wind so we could reap the whirlwind. Does he do this in the expectation that when his tenure as president is over Russia and its friends will reward him with a Trump Tower in Moscow, to be the largest such complex in the world? Isn’ that the kind of goal Trump would relish and fight to achieve? With an ethical standard that has no traditional right or wrong, his sense and practice of ethics is relative to what is happening immediately in front of him with right replaced with what benefits Donald Trump and wrong replaced with that from which Donald Trump does not stand to gain, Spending time as President of these United States – doing Putin’s bidding – or the bidding of whoever is his ‘handler’ is the place where Trump will spend his time and energy. He is doing an incredible job fulfilling his role as ruiner of America – the Manchurian President. A side job he has probably decided on for himself is the job of lining his pockets with as much as he can before he is out as president.
General John Kelly, or rather Mr. John Kelly (since he is today a civilian and not a General) – the Chief of Staff – whose unvarnished bigotry was on full display during his appearance in the briefing room – you need to resign before your very soul is destroyed. Your hypocrisy and bigotry is flying all over the world for all to see.
It was clear during Mr. John Kelly’s appearance yesterday, in the briefing room, to defend his boss, that he and his boss have a lot in common. Kelly clearly supported his boss – voted for him? – is very much like him when he isn’t hiding behind the veneer that the training he received during his tenure in the armed forces allowed him to learn about and use. John Kelly is definitely not the adult in the day care center, but a bigot working amongst other bigots. In such a circumstance it is very easy to lose your ethical center and, if he ever had one, it is now clearly missing.
Many things were uncovered during Kelly’s appearance in the White House Briefing Room and many things have been confirmed. When Donald Trump took office as president, ‘GENERAL’ John Kelly was named head of Homeland Security. That department rolled out the first Muslim Travel Ban in record time. It was brutal and caused incredible grief, suffering and casually vicious evil for tens of thousands of people. That was the work of Mr. John Kelly. The armed forces gave him the tools he needed and he used them to act out and attempt to put into the United States system of government a travel ban which was bigoted and a part of Donald Trump’s plan – which Kelly agreed with – to “Make America White and Christian Again”. What Kelly does not realize is that once his ability to contribute is over, and he has done what he could to help Trump and others re-establish bigotry in these United States, he will clearly be shown that the group discriminated against includes Catholics.
It was an incredible experience to watch this former United States General stand in the briefing room and make a fool of himself because his bigotry led him to that place and time. Kelly outlined his bigotry for all of us without even being conscious of how he was exposing himself. He outlined for all of us his bigotry and the incredibly flawed and romanticized view he holds of the United States. His description is a romanticized version of the bigotry which existed in these United States as he was growing up and in many places still does.
This view is palatable if one takes John Kelly’s description and ignores the reality of a country that was racist, sexist, violent against minorities – especially in the Brighton/Greater Boston area during that time, gave great privilege to white males with Northern European ancestry and – especially during the time John Kelly describes – was particularly bigoted against the Irish. Irish from Brighton, MA. would have experienced that bigotry and apparently John Kelly escaped the reality of his life growing up and taking on the identify society tried to give him by putting in place this “better than” picture and now describes to us, with all the rhetoric of the White Supremacist with whom he clearly identifies. a world that did not exist except in the corner of his mind which he uses to justify himself and identify himself as better than and more equal than….
John Kelly took his place on the platform with his tikki torch just as others did in Charlottesville, VA. when they were out marching around and doing damage to others imitating Hitler and Nazi Germany’s Krystallnacht.
Kelly talked about how wonderful this country used to be. Woman were honored; churches were filled; etc. etc. Kelly had no consciousness that he was spouting the worst kind of racism and sexism. From Trump, women are sluts and objects for sexual abuse and misuse. For Kelly they are honored on pedestals way away from the real world and there they should stay. In that vein, as we turn the armed forces into a “sacred space”, we need to remember that sexual abuse, rape, and all the rest which Trump brags about doing, was very prevalent in the armed forces. The fight to reduce what was wide spread and so accepted that a woman’s career in the armed forces was just about over if she brought formal charges against anyone after she was sexually abused or raped or… is something that happened during Kelly’s active tenure in the armed forces. I don’t see John Kelly’s name amongst any of those who fought against those practices.
While Kelly tried to be the “General” during his time in the White House Briefing Room, misusing his title in the service of someone whose bigotry got him into the non-sacred space he was now occupying, Kelly’s common ground with Donald Trump kept slipping out. Calling Congresswoman Wilson an “Empty Barrel”, among other epithets, was clearly in the mould of his boss. Kelly was arrogant enough to attempt to reduce a Black Woman, whose life shows her care and work for others and the struggle that she has been through because of how Kelly’s racism and sexism contributed to making her life significantly harder, he tried to reduce her the exact same way his boss would have, with the epithet of “Empty Barrel” and a string of lies. Kelly’s mental illness was on full display. The kind where he can do and say and the person he is doing and saying about has no ability to respond. His is the word that will stand – OR – does Trump have something on Kelly that forced him into that position? It seems to me that is the case with several people – in Congress, on his staff, etc.
Kelly showed his inability to see or participate in any kind of equality when he claimed to be “stunned” that Congresswoman Wilson was listening in on such a sacred conversation. The fact that the conversation was taking place in an automobile and the conversation was clearly on speaker phone to which anyone in the car would hear and could listen, didn’t come into his calculations. Neither did the fact that he and others were listening in on such a “sacred conversation” as well. They were doing the right thing that they were qualified and should be doing. With the exact same actions Congresswoman Wilson was somehow violating some code of privacy – the White’s listening were the privileged deified to do so by White Supremacy and the Black Congresswoman and others in the car not allowed to violate that “sacred space.”
Most Blacks can understand that assumption since a part of racism is cornering a Black into a space where no one else exists and oppressing them in such a way that their psychic responds to the hurt so inflicted and ‘puts them in their place’, but they cannot object nor bring that oppression public with any credibility. A strange satisfaction racists have gotten for generations. A racist act Donald Trump performs on a daily basis in almost all of his acts and conversations and now we have seen that his Chief of Staff does also.
President Trump is accustomed to demeaning minorities. He arrogates that right to himself and has apparently done so throughout his life. It was his birthright given to him by his father, who was involved enough with the Ku Klux Klan to have been arrested as one of them at one of their rallies. His birthright from the way his father trained him to insure that the buildings they built were not to be lived in by Black families. We know that from the civil rights law suits filed against them by the federal government probably because they accomplished this discrimination and bigotry using federal funds and violating United States laws. Habits instilled from childhood, which Donald Trump to this day apparently still follows as normal and the way things should be if America is to be great again. If America’s greatness is to be defined as the racism, sexism, violence against women and others, etc. etc. that are a part of America’s history, we are sadly going into the dustbin of history not into greatness. We will be there in good company with Putin in the adjoining dustbin.
Clearly, from General Kelly’s presentation, not only the Bannonites carry tikki torches for this president, but so do his ‘generals’ The way this administration is mirroring Nazi Germany is incredible and moving very fast down the road as they take into the Trump administration the equivalent kind of who helped Germany become the country of extreme bigotry under Hitler’s leadership.
In the United States, we have never had so many “General’s” in an administration before. We have gone against what we have outlined as not permissible in a democracy to bring in Trump’s generals. To have supported the election of Trump for president the first requirement these generals would have needed was for Trump and his people to see the familiar bigotry in their lives and belief systems. Kelly has clearly outlined and shown the rest of us why he qualified to be Chief of Staff.
After that display in the White House Briefing Room and his rolling out a program (the Muslim Travel Ban) which violated the Constitution of the United States and many other such slights and crossing the road from democracy to the Russianization of the United States that Trump seems dedicated to bringing in, Kelly has shown himself qualified to work for Trump.
It is time for’ General’ John Kelly to resign as Chief of Staff and remove himself to a retirement community of all White, all Catholic Christians where he will be most comfortable.
Having lived a long life and having seen what it was like to have your ancestral roots in Ireland, it is amazing that General John Kelly could say the things he said in that WH Briefing Room. I grew up where Irish, Africans and Native Americans lived, worked, married, raised children together. They did that because they were this country’s outcast. “No Irish Need Apply.” That is also John Kelly’s world before he replaced his past history with this clearly unreal and very racist storyline.
Where General John Kelly was raised, Irish were the servants because no other jobs were available. They scrubbed floors, cleaned toilets, demeaned themselves for the WASPS for whom they worked to be able to put food on the table.
Mt great-great grandfather was Irish and his family came to this country settling on a farm in Ohio and then moving to Illinois before he moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. My great-great grandfather Adams married my great-great grandmother – a Choctaw Indian who was on the Trail of Tears, forced to walk from Alabama to the middle of the country with no food, no clothes to protect from the weather, no place to sleep except wherever the group being pushed along by the U. S. Federal army – ordered by their generals to keep these people moving along so White Christian ‘Americans’ could have the land on which they lived and worked for generations. John Kelly’s ancestors were not a straight line down from those Generals, they were a straight line down from the Irish, Africans and Native Americans who tried to support one another during that time frame because the bigotry was so strong and their lives were considered less than nothing, except when needed to do someone else’s dirty work.
General Kelly needs to remember his history and the history of those who went before. Having been raised in Brighton, MA. – now owned by Harvard University – was not the best of upbringings. One ‘out’ he had in this country was to join the armed forces, which he apparently took. But he also developed a “better than” attitude adding that to his identity. “General” wasn’t enough. The ability to oppress via “White Supremacy” had to be added to his belief system as the ground under John Kelly to make him feel adequate to his life.
Donald Trump needs to resign along with John Kelly, especially when it will be discovered that the two of them caused the death of the four special forces men who gave their lives for what the men thought was a good cause – defending their country. Trump and Kelly caused their death by doing their best to demean their country and turn it into a bigoted space in this world – sending the likes of those four who died into harms’ way to justify and bring about Kelly and Trump’s need to be better than – their need to be a part of a system of government for which your skin color, hair and religion determine your place in that system of government. They are working hard to make sure democracy is stopped and along with Vladimir Putin is replaced with a system of government which oppresses its people and forces them to work while the governmental people at the top reap the benefits of their toil.
The movement today is to keep America White and Christian. But “white” is relative. Only in America are people classified as “white”. In Europe they are French, English, Scandinavian, etc. “Race” is an ungodly invention, which happened in America to justify slavery so Christians could go to Church on Sundays. Color goes only skin deep and probably doesn’t go all the way through the skin. Instead of classifying people by their hair, color, etc. try classifying them by their character, achievements on behalf of others, etc. Our entire U. S. government would have to change if that were to happen. Our current governmental leaders lie, cheat, steal, sexually abuse, etc. etc.
Weinstein is being excoriated for his alleged sexual abuse. Trump was elected president in spite of all that was alleged against him and in spite of his admitting to and bragging about sexual abuse, but he was rewarded by being elected president.
Trump whipped up the crowds at his rallies into a bloodlust group of people screaming for Hillary Clinton to be jailed – about having her killed – about doing violence to others for which he, Trump, would pay the legal fees for those taking such actions. A large group against one woman who Trump felt was becoming too powerful and certainly not reflecting her female stereotype. Trump and his campaign brought violence against women out from behind the private places where it usually happens into the bright sunlight with people owning and bragging about their bigotry. He brought the KKK out from behind their white robes and pointy hats. He made being and admitting to Nazism an OK thing to do. He is responsible for bringing all of the symbols and institutions of Nazism into public view in this country. He has made it acceptable.
Donald Trump and the way he is ‘governing’ looks as though his strongest goal is to fill his coffers with the United States gold and to add to it as much of the world’s gold as he can manage to pilfer.
John Kelly looks like the assistant who is going to destroy the last bits of his character and end his life as the person who most ably assisted Donald Trump in that mission. How he is characterized today by those having to live and work around him is not how he will be characterized when the history of his life is written by others once he has passed out of power and can no longer negatively affect those who speak truth.
Some stray questions!
Congresswoman Wilson was threatened after she spoke out about Trump’s telephone call to the point where her office felt its security threatened and reported the threats. At the same time, Trump says he refused to answer reporters questions about the incident until Congresswoman Wilson repeated what she said about him and the telephone call. From watching him and hearing his comments, it was clear to me that he expected her to recant what she said. That sounds to me like a definite threat someone would make who knew about and could make happen the violence threatened against the Congresswoman.
Trump and Kelly – RESIGN!
Trump has established temporary Concentration Camps – using disasters which create extreme pain and suffering to create these CCamps through his and his staff’s refusal to act in any kind of a timely fashion. Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are two examples. He has to finally come around to acting somewhat positively, but he does not do so until much damage has been done and the “brown people” involved have been pushed decades behind everyone else. Inviting the Governor of Puerto Rico to Washington, D. C. and trash talking about the corruption happening in Puerto Rico around the help they are receiving from the United States, while at the same time praising the hard work and honesty of the people in Texas is beyond one’s ability to imagine that a President of these United States would so engage in that kind of talk and actions.
Trump and Kelly are using disasters and travel bans as one way to attempt to get rid of the fact that most of the people in these United States, today, are minorities and their numbers are growing. Another way is the various Muslim ban’s Trump and Kelly have brought into being. Be particularly aggressive in throwing non-white, non-Christians out of these United States to attempt to continue the supremacy of White Christians so this country can remain bigoted against minorities and women. It was effective during Katrina.
New Orleans was reduced from over 70% Black to some 50% Black and from overwhelmingly Democratic to Republicans taking over. What an example for Trump to follow! And, in the process, Trump is becoming more outwardly and publicly bigoted in everything he does and says. When the story of what happened in Niger is finally revealed – even if that means we have to wait for another regime to tell the truth – will it show that Trump and Kelly caused the deaths of those four young people through their bigotry having added Chad to the list of countries whose people are not allowed into these United States – among other things they have done, some even more direct to the cause of those deaths?
Trump and Kelly – RESIGN! You are a disgrace to this country.
________________________________________
[give_form id=”3763″]
________________________________________
Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.
Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.
Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.
Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net
New to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community!
Wednesday, December 27th, 2017Hello Everybody,
I am brand new to this Community and so far, I love it.
So far, I have not taken advantage of much, but I thought I would write a blog, especially since I am just now beginning to understand what Bettina Network Hedge Schools and being a part of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community means. I wasn’t sure when I first discovered all of you, but having stayed at a Hedge School, the concept and its execution are really fantastic.
First, I have to tell you that I am Jewish.
Why is that important for you to know?
Because I have always wanted to know what it was like being a part of a “Christian” Christmas and I think that is true of many of us. I was not looking to convert or anything else, just to satisfy my curiosity.
From the time I was a very small child, the trees, the toys in the decorated stores and all the rest made me wish to be a part of that – and so this year I took the plunge. As a start, I called Bettina Network to see what they offered – fully expecting them to hang-up on my request, but instead we made reservations. I’ve had three days of magic and I am leaving for home this morning with all of my questions answered and a new way of looking at life understanding others, but especially understanding how rich and full a word like “diversity” means and what it has to offer all of us. I don’t know how this sounds to many of you, but it is where I am at the moment and the reason for my writing this blog.
When I arrived at my Bettina Network Hedge School, I slept in a room with my own Christmas tree; celebrated around the tree in the family’s living room; went to Church with them on Christmas morning and to dinner as a part of the family on Christmas afternoon and into the late evening.
One of their traditions was to open one present around the tree on Christmas Eve before going to “midnight mass”. Not really midnight because it was more like 9:30pm. There was indeed one present for everyone around that tree. We had bubbly apple cider or champagne – your choice. I thought I would be the observer on the sidelines for this celebration and I was prepared to play that role because this was after all, not about my conversion nor inclusion, but to satisfy my curiosity. Imagine my surprise when my name was called and there was my present. What I especially liked, nothing was expensive – everything was made by someone in the family and mine was a mixture of real food as a lotion for my hands. I loved it.
We went to midnight mass and that was beautiful. I have heard and sung Christmas Carols over past years, but this was the first time I sang them in the context for which they were composed.
By the time we reached breakfast on the day after Christmas I faced the shock of separation I was so fully incorporated into this family and its Christmas celebration.
On Christmas morning – all the presents were opened. I didn’t get one because none of the adults exchanged gifts, the presents and opening of the presents was for those under 20 years old. I guess the older teenagers were included to help them gradually move from child to adult.
Christmas dinner was fantastic. Nothing really different, just lots of food with a beautifully decorated table. The big attraction was the community the dinner produced. It included a couple people who were homeless and had been picked up for the celebration. I don’t know how the family knew them or where they came from, but here we were and you couldn’t tell the difference between us. That huge economic gap didn’t show. That for me was the most amazing part of this Christmas celebration. Once in bed for the night, for reasons I don’t quite understand my thoughts went back to the homeless and I cried myself to sleep.
Having to go home has put me into grief. Not because I wanted to stay. Nor because I thought their life and religion and holiday celebration were better than mine, but because I realized how much we have all lost in the way we separate ourselves from one another on all levels. We have taken away from this world what is best about it and we only seem to be able to move further and further away from one another defining ourselves in such a way that we have to move away to maintain ourselves as ‘different from’, ‘better than’ and all those other descriptors that mean so much to this world and those of us who live in it.
I hope you’ve all had a wonderful Christmas. I certainly did and I am very grateful to Bettina Network Hedge Schools for being there so I could have the experience of a lifetime. I am delighted to be a member of your lifestyle community and look forward to my next foray into what you offer. No resorts – No running around to all the events I could afford – No pressing my nose against the glass wondering what its like on the other side – just a real experience with real people and I will never forget it.
Thanks folks! And may you all have a wonderful holiday, whatever it is you celebrate!
_________________________________________________________
Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!
[give_form id=”3763″]
_________________________________________________________
Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.
Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.
Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net
Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Guest Comments, Hedge Schools
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Guest comments, Hedge Schools | Comments Off on New to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community!