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EVIL EXISTS – The most common way to identify it is through the DENIAL that comes immediately after an act of EVIL!

Saturday, January 28th, 2023

This is a post set to music – the kind you don’t hear much anymore! Go back far enough and you will find evil taking lives in the most horrible ways. And today it is still happening. This hymn takes us back over 2,000 years and a reminder of what Jesus’ crucifixion was like. The same kind of people crucified Jesus as worked on Tyre Nichols. We can’t seem to get that picture of what humans are capable of doing.

We have been given another lesson and another look at the fact that evil exists, is very real and is incorporated into most institutional structures. To find its structural components one must look at the beginning of the corporation – the institutuion – the government – the structure of the group in which we are seeing the evil surface.

In these United States evil is sprouting all over the country. We always seem to have to question and question claiming to not understand why such horrors constantly surface. The latest is what happened to Tyre Nichols.

It is interesting that the news reports all look for parallels and come up mostly with the Rodney King horror with its evil spewing all over. Some go back to Emmett Till for the same reason. To really understand the evil in what happened to Tyre Nichols one has to go back to slavery and what this country was like at that time examining the structures which developed and are still in place maintaining what is needed to maintain “better than”.

This evil happened because we have a police force which was created and structured to capture, torture and do whatever was necessary to subdue and/or eliminate runaway slaves and discourage those who are thinking of running away and trying for another life someplace else. That predates the Rodney Kings and all the other parallels we try to make. We seem to be unable to look at the truth of what is and has been happening in this country for generations. We now have people like Ron DeSantis trying to pass laws to prevent the teaching of the history of slavery in this country and what has happened to minorities – those who are not descendants of those who brought all of this forward. If that history is not taught people who have some inclination to this kind of vile violence just might join in with others to make this the majority.

We know about the slaughter of blacks, but not through our history books. The Tulsa massacre has only recently surfaced. Most of us had never heard of such. Who was it that sang about the fruit hanging from the trees? We hear the song, we are moved by it, but we don’t related that to what is happening today. We also don’t care about the life and trials of the person who used her life and career to make that song and all it stands for important and so well known that it is still heard today.

This violence is not a one time happening nor is it limited to one generation. It has been a part of who we are as a country almost from the beginning and it is not slacking.

We are today missing the fact that African Americans being so tortured and killed or experience attempted murder in the most horrific ways are a part of a long line of people over many generations. We are seeing this happen to elderly African Americans with no one interested and very few looking to see what is happening as that torture is about the destruction of generational wealth of black families and it becomes more prevalent in these United States.

That happens by destroying the life, family, and so much more of the African Americans so targeted. Many have died in the process of being so stripped. Their deaths have been attributed to their age and not to what they have been put through so others can strip them of their life’s collection of wealth. Wealth they amassed at great cost to their lives to pass on to their children so their children could have the kind of life they didn’t have. Blacks who worked throughout their lives to make their children’s lives better and hopefully reduce the racism and other forms of bigotry they experience. Others, who seem to escape the grasp of the greedy, never fully recover from the attempt at such destruction and gradually live out the end of their lives in compromised health, with their wealth destroyed and their families set at odds against one another. We have seen this happen to many blacks with very few knowing about the attempts and even fewer interested in anything except a passing comment.

The Tyre Nichols type of killings, massacres and more have been unbelievably brutal and carried out in front of an audience. Today, in the Tyre Nichols case, the audience was not present, but the videos recorded by many including the government are played so millions don’t miss the carnage. We recoil and talk about how awful and horrendous and all those adjectives which in the long run mean nothing and shortly our attention moves on putting what happened in the background and so it recurs. In the past few years there have been many and nothing done to actually stop the horrendousness of such.

EVIL is alive and well and thriving just waiting for its next opportunity to break out and that will be soon.

Michael Cohen, A Jew – Experiencing Structural and Institutional Bigotry by the FEC

Tuesday, May 11th, 2021

Michael Cohen, at the direction of his boss, Donald J. Trump, acted in a way which violated the law. He was tried and convicted and sent to prison.

Donald Trump, his boss, did the act which caused the problem. He then required Michael Cohen to carry to its fruition the cover-up so Trump would not be negatively affected by his lewd and sleazy behavior at the polls since Trump was running for president and his actions would have been reported by the media and probably would have caused him to lose many votes.

Michael Cohen did his boss’ bidding and wound up in a heap of trouble. Cohen told the judge that the illegal contributions—payments to Clifford and McDougal to keep quiet about their alleged affairs with Trump—were “in coordination with and at the direction of a candidate for federal office,” implicating the president in a federal crime.

While the FEC prosecuted Michael Cohen and Trump was scheduled to be prosecuted because of all that came out in the investigation and trial of Cohen, just recently, the FEC came out with a statement that it was going to ignore the actions of Donald Trump and not prosecute him.

Other candidates for president have run afoul of the FEC and been prosecuted. How come Trump has been ‘exonerated’?

Since Trump was the reason for the ‘crime’ and leaned on Cohen to get him out of a jam and, it is alleged signed one of the checks which went to Daniels and McDougal it is amazing that the person who was at the core and coordinated Cohens activities is not being prosecuted for the crime.

Cohen – a Jew

Trump – claims to be a WASP as he works with and apparently helps to facilitate some activities of the White Supremacist organizations which feel beholden to him. Is this what has exonerated him and spared him from prosecution?

The FEC is showing the structural and institutional racism it practices as it made these decisions.

Identity Politics – U.S.A. Style

Tuesday, May 4th, 2021

We are currently deep into “Identity Politics” – put there by Donald Trump and his push for power at any cost.

We had a hilarious time as we gathered because someone brought up the current Republican drive to become the WASP Party in America.

It was hilarious because the remaining people who identify as Republicans are anything but WASPS. We have identified them as RepublicanX.

As this RepublicanX Party becomes solidified – or should be say ossified – they are backed up and “protected” by a mostly Irish police force.

We said this post was about “Identity Politics” so get ready for some hard ‘facts’ which most of us don’t want to deal with. We have not created the “identifies” – we are just using what others have created so if you object to our identifying the current police force as “Irish” – go read something else.

As you all know by now, the police in the U. S. were created to back, protect and maintain slavery – particularly to maintain the slave property of White America. In the early days, they did go after the runaway slaves and others involved in such transactions and treated them roughly. Today’s treatment of protestors and others trying to free todays slave replacements would be an analogy to how slaves were treated in the old days by the Irish police force.

The Irish police were protecting the property of those who were identified as WASPS. In case you are new to all of this – WASP = White Anglo Saxon Protestants do not include the Irish, nor the Italians in this RepublicanX Party. Once the dust clears and the RepublicanX clearly win those will be treated as the second class citizens they are in this country. And besides, they are probably Catholic.

WASPS are the people who ran the country, owned everything therein with some very few exceptions, held the power, etc. etc.

Today, however, the Irish police are protecting the WASP wannabes. Those who are trying as hard as they can to identify themselves as WASPS. Since they can’t, according to the old definitions, we will call them “WASP Wannabes.”

We have seen them acting out the stereotype of WASPS and it is the most hilarious thing you have seen. We wondered why some serial television shows like Downton Abbey were so popular. Is this the history they are adopting as the history of their family and friends? And – are these shows documentaries or wishful thinking on the part of those RepublicanX as they try to pattern themselves after what they have conceived as the 21st Century Downton Abbey reproduction.

WASP Wannabes have coerced Senator Tim Scott into renouncing what he claimed to believe in 2016-2017 about race, etc. to make his big speech on the night of President Joseph Biden’s speech to the joint session of Congress. He put himself into the role of the Africans slaves and newly ‘exonerated” slaves and those colored folks who became a part of the White Supremacist groups in these United States. Even the KU Klux Klan had a black ‘hanger-on’ although they were not called that. They were called the “N” word and accepted the appellation

One black person – one African American – would be attached to each White Supremacist group – like today’s White Supremacist RepublicanX Party – and they would spout the philosophy, beliefs, etc. of that group. Racists all, including the African American. Oh, and lets now forget the minority group called the Jews. Stephen Miller succeeds admirably as the one Jew attached to the White Supremacist RepublicanX Party to disprove the rule of its anti-semitism.

Senator Tim Scott has turned himself and his career away from the path it and he were taking into that follower of the White Supremacist Group because? – he could thereby maintain the fiction of power they have given him and gotten him to believe that he is going to become “a big power” in the party? Maybe its next presidential candidate? Or has Senator Scott done something this group has unearthed and is now holding something akin to blackmail over Senator Scott’s head?

Racism oppresses minorities in very vicious ways. Racism creates an unbelievable insecurity in whites which we have seen for decades – in fact for some 400 plus years in this country and each year the insecurity becomes worse – larger – more unexplainable for people who have arrogated power unto themselves and a lesser status to others. Don’t they believe the lies they tell about the “inferiority” of others?

That insecurity is showing – looking like the elegant dress of someone who has somehow acquired a designer original outfit and when putting it on the outfit shows this filthy and raggedy and torn slip hanging out from under the designer original dress, suit, etc.

Under their leadership and under their enforced so called superiority we have climate problems; homelessness out of control; poverty amongst innocent children because their families are being so screwed over so the third generation immigrants can have it all; space exploration when our problems at home on this earth are exploding; and on and on and on.</p>

In their attempt to have the Republican Party become the RepublicanX Party so they can take it over, function therein and come out with the identity of the former WASPS – is this what we are seeing. Hey wasn’t that an Italian we saw in that RepublicanX Party? No French, however, because they have long identified as “better than.” The English class structure has a few loop holes which allow English who have acquired money, property, power, etc. to rise to the top after some really difficult decades. The French class structure doesn’t even bother with that – you are either a member of the ruling family’s family or you are less than. Nothing leaving space for a bit of ‘shade’. Even those New Orleans Creoles have adopted that class structure – which is how the ‘shade’ has infiltrated into French identity.

Besides Senator Scott and his new position as the “N” to the White Supremacists, we understand he is about to be joined by a woman who will be playing the same role to the White Supremacists as Senator Scott is now playing. A more complete picture of the insecurity in the white identity being shored up by an “N” word person and a “B” word person.

What happens next? Where does this story go? Can Joe Biden pull off a great ending Hollywood style as he moves on from the hero of the Pandemic – the COVID 19 Pandemic – to the eliminator of poverty and the one who solves the immigration problem?

BTW – the immigration problem looks so much like a replant of the White Supremacist system amongst those who come to this country looking for ‘freedom’. How do you solve a problem where the White Supremacists are the former immigrants who were so reviled during the generation they ‘escaped’ to these United States and endured the horror of the oppressive treatment meted out to the newly arrived – those who want to become U. S. citizens and risk everything to escape from their current countries – and more.

Are we ever messed up. It is time for the White Supremacists to resign – find a spot someplace to sit themselves down and observe others doing better what they messed up.

This is the legacy of White Supremacy. This is the group the WASPS want to imitate. This is the road on which the RepublicanX want us all to keep treading. This is the road from which they have gained their superiority.

Did slavery end because the New England WASPS finally had enough money and power and needed for slavery to end so the Industrial Revolution could gain great control because machines were cheaper than, better than, easier to control than Africans stolen from their countries?

We have worked our way into quite a mess and the RepublicanX are trying to dig deeper holes around which we are supposed to walk without falling in.

Good luck America!

P. S. About the Irish Police – did you know everyone writing this and/or contributing has Irish ancestors? Did you know our leader – Marceline’s family name is “Adams”. Maybe even related to John Quincy?

Now – don’t you all respond at once. We need to recover from a few responses at a time.

Truth is tough to deal with, to accept. It gets in the way of our trying to move forward correcting the mistakes that the lies ingrained in us all have caused.

A Private Message to Governor Romney: Want to know how to move out of the mess you are in as a RepublicanX? Want to know how to use your intelligence, wisdom and partial ability to stand up for what you believe? Call us – we will help!

WHO IS Q – as in QANON? What are “Q”s other accomplishments!

Wednesday, February 10th, 2021

The United States and hence the world are being torn apart by one man’s craziness (or should we say one man’s evil)!

It is as if satan has arrived and started to work through a few and is now successfully pulling in their friends, family, organizations, life.

Let us not keep you in suspense. Q is Donald John Trump!

His claim to such evil fame is not limited to Q – so let us trace a bit of conspiracy theory – which is Trump’s stock in trade and that which has moved him into the position he now occupies and into those positions he once occupied.

Why has he been so successful on this kind of evil level? Probably because he has a very keen sense of how to manipulate the negative emotions of human beings. He knows how to use evil to gain his goals and to draw them around him to do his bidding even when they know better.

Early in life, he had and still has many gifts and graces. Every once in awhile you can see the goodness of what could have been for him had he used those gifts and graces for good instead of using them for ill. For whatever reason, he has chosen to use those gifts and hone those gifts on the blades of satan.

To become president, Donald John Trump used bigotry. He saw how effective bigotry is in the attempt to control humans for one’s own aggrandizement. He saw and felt how close one comes to the deity cultivating feelings of being “better than”. He saw how to manipulate the laws in the United States which pertain to bigotry and how people react in the passing and breaking of those laws. He saw that those who used the evil side of the human spirit became extremely wealthy and wielded much power and these were the people he wanted to copy.

As a very young adult Trump was involved in his father’s business and together they made sure blacks were not allowed to rent the apartment buildings they built and owned, in spite of the fact that they used and misled the government. It was during the time in this country when blacks and whites were going to different apartment complexes and applying for an apartment. First the African American went to apply at the Trump owned buildings and behind him/her came a White American after the blacks were turned down because there was no room in the Inn. When the White Americans were able to get apartments – down came the law suits and up came the legal experience Donald Trump has drawn on most of his adult life. The fertile ground from which has sprung QANON and Donald Trump’s takeover of “Q”.

Sometimes a few of his followers have slipped and attributed to Trump the moniker of “messiah”. We have become outraged at such a thought instead of being quiet to let those followers say more about why they applied such a term to Trump.

Trump walked his life’s path with “friends” from whom he learned to instinctively manipulate people at the level of their identity. He learned how strong the identity of “better than” was with even the nicest people, held in highest regard by this society. He saw the evil that “better than” wrought and the power it generated for those using that identity with others and he adopted it. A “messiah” who lifts those around him to the level of “better than” and promises them such largesse and such a life if and when they deal with those “less than.”

He walked alongside Roy Cohn – a Jew. He saw first hand the conflict Cohn had about being a Jew and at the same time seeming to hate Jews. He saw Joe McCarthy and watched Bobby Kennedy who sat right next to McCarthy as his right hand man and he saw how the Kennedy’s moved and used the filth McCarthy was spewing for his political benefit and McCarthy’s ability to use that filth to control others. He watched as the Kennedy’s moved, without taking along the tar thrown at them and others which did not stick to any of them from their involvement with McCarthy. He watched as they moved from the power achieved by being McCarthy’s First Lieutenant to sharing that power throughout the family to become President, Attorney General, Senator of these United States. A family of legend in these United States whose beginnings in the McCarthy power movement rolled off them as if they were made of teflon.

Trump saw and for a time was a part of the Gay Community and saw that community through the eyes of Roy Cohn.

So many influences we could go on for pages, but the above, known to all of us should give you an idea as to Donald Trump’s development and the forces and influences which dictated the direction in which his life would go.

His strongest influence was the Nazi German influence, probably because that is the group from which his family descends. A connection Trump maintained – keeping “Mein Kampf” on his bedside table and imbibing all that it put out.

Fast forward to recent times and we see all of those influences coming to fruition in the political world of these United States when the “birther lie” came along. Whether Trump originated that lie or not, he saw it as a way to achieve the money and power he craved and he jumped into the fray and brought the ‘birther lie’ much further than it would have gone without his work.

That ‘birther lie’ is what brought Trump to the United States presidency.

During his campaign and just before it started, Trump needed something stronger than the “birther lie’ to give him the power, pomp, money that he wanted so into his life comes QANON – a group that could become incredibly powerful and the kind of cult which developed around other things. This one Trump felt he could grow to be the institutional structure out of which he would rule the world.

While others were talking about Trump being lazy, not taking care of business, not working hard as he should as president of these United States.

That is both a lie and the truth. Fascist dictators and would-be fascist dictators have one trait in common – laziness. The whole idea is to have everything and be able to tell others what, how, when to do.

Within QANON, Trump could have not just one lie – like the havoc he wrought with the “birther lie”, but a structure into which he could put many lies and build all of that to the point of world control. He could do what Hitler tried and failed to do. Hitler used some conspiracy structures to gain power, but not enough nor widespread enough to gain the world control he wanted and needed. Trump would not make that mistake.

Within QANON there began to be carved out the “messiah”. The “messiah”, of course was “Q”.

The strength of QANON and Q comes from that side of human nature which needs to come together as a community, but in the world of “Q” the identity of those who are adherents to “Q” is strengthened by the fact that QANON “members”, adherents, disciples, shamans are all considered to be “better than” blacks, latina’s, gays, muslims – those considered to be “minorities” – less than.

This time the world would be better for the arrival of “Q” because there would be no concentration camps. The same thing would be achieved by killing these minority groups in any way possible – even one at a time – because there would soon be enough people in QANON doing these individual or small group killings in so many places that they would be untraceable to the original group and to “Q” himself and yet there would quickly be tens of thousands of such minorities killed with their numbers reduced to where slavery and other forms of “less than human” would be where minorities, needed for the work the “majority’ should not have to do, would be placed and kept.

Take a look at the “accomplishments” of Trump and his administration. It has been all about creating “identity”. Putting people who would do the will of “Q” into substantial places. Not because of the qualifications that the outside world considers before putting people in specific jobs, but those “Q” needs to do the work he has decided was needed to create the world according to “Q” and the inner circle of “QANON.” Many people considered to be “minorities” by “Q” have been killed – into the many thousands.

The latest example of such killings comes about when you look at the killings that took place recently on “death row” in the federal penitentiary. Those slated for execution, but who were on death row for years and some for decades were all killed in short order by “Q” and they were who? – minorities, you say?

Take a look at the gradually escalating police killings and the infiltration of the police departments by white nationalists, white supremacists, neo-nazi’s and all the rest. This started long before Trump, but it accelerated created under his presidency as more of those in the QANON group infiltrates the ranks of the law enforcement in this country the more minorities would and have been killed with the killers facing no punishment of any kind.

This recent they ‘stole the election lie’ which Trump started perpetrating months ago even before the election happened, is another such instance which allowed for the beginnings of what the QANON followers thought was going to be a way for wholesale killings and publicly done – the killings to come that the “noose” hung on Capitol Building grounds symbolized and so much more.

The Charlottesville re-enactment of Krystallnacht with many coming down a small mountain with their tiki torches lit chanting “Jews will not replace us” is another example of calling into the QANON group those who could hear the message and understand where this was all going.

The recent taking over of the Republican Party is not something new. It was started quite a long time ago to change a group that was the support of the abolition of slavery and the attempt of the United States to move towards equality. The Democratic Party, doing all those days past was the movement to keep apartheid in this country with those who espoused it in political control.

A parallel would be the retribution which was aimed and thrown at Haiti which is today suffering from its successful revolution which attempted to liberate Haiti from colonial control. They are still paying the price for that action. And so the Republican Party is being targeted to pay the price for its past support of African Americans.

At one point in the deep south, the head of the Louisiana Republican Party was a black man. That was before the institutional structure which supported and maintained African Americans and other none Northern European-ancestry groups as inferior and to be kept from participation in the political as well as all other groups in the U. S. Society started to weaken.

QANON has been cultivated as the power needed to bring Donald Trump into position as the fascist, Hitler type leader that is needed to make sure the majority of people in these United States, especially the voting majority and those who are heads of businesses, never flips from majority Northern European-ancestry types to those today considered “minorities” – African Americans, Latina’s, Asians, etc. with Northern European-ancestry types as one of instead of what they have been – “better than” and served by.

We have never explored what bigotry does to the human spirit. To see a bit of what happens and which should be studied minutely, take a look at those in the Republican Party today who do not move depending upon right and wrong, but who move depending upon what “Q” wants them to do. Their identity has gradually moved from a mostly white Republican Party to being a part of the cult of QANON with Donald Trump as “Q”.

To be “better than” is more addictive than alcohol or any kind of drugs which addict the body, mind and spirit. It takes away your ability to reason on a human level where you understand we all are of one race. It makes you follow the directives of the person and group that keeps you pumped full of the “better than” identity. It keeps others asking “what’s wrong with them” – when a little thought would tell them because if they really went into “what’s wrong with them” they would have to delve into the extremely painful place that exposes their adoption into their identity of being “better than” – which in these United States is simply camouflaged because we all have been raised to incorporate the “better than” and “less than” spirit into our being.

So now “Q” has become totally entrenched in our society. What happens now? The birther lie was also fully entrenched. We have done nothing about that lie and so it has given birth to other lies much more dangerous than that from which it has sprung.

Many who knew better took some solace in the fact that they could keep their bigotry covered because others were carrying the torch and going out in public to maintain the “better than”/”less than” lie.

So now dear God – what happens next? Are we capable of living in a world where we are equal to? Can we even write and talk about all of the institutional structures that need changing to keep such evil out of our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren.

Mostly, we take down one institutional structure only to put up others which do the same job only in a more genteel and hidden way.

So, where do we turn? How do we reach your mind and heart to be able to cleanse our own? Will those who bring about basic change always have to pay the heavy prices we have required of them to discourage others from following in their path? Will this ever change or is this how we must live until death!

To Wear a Mask or go Maskless says what about you?

Monday, January 25th, 2021

by: Marceline Donaldson

I am old enough to remember and to have been through the campaigns against smoking.

When it was discovered that smoking caused cancer and even second hand smoke could damage the health of the person inhaling another persons’ cigarette smoke, it was quite a brawl. Sort of like the one we are having with masks or going without a mask. The arguments are the same and the people I have encountered without a mask are the same people who refused to give up blowing smoke into the environment of those who don’t smoke.

What is also amazing is that these are the same people who refuse to give up their identity as “better than.”

Your identity is basic to your being. To have been raised with an identity which claims you are “better than” and experience that as comfortable and that by which you live and move and have your being and by defining others as “less than”, as people who owe you their agreement to stay in “their place” and not disturb the outer, better, larger environment where the “better than” thrive, is a soul destroying thing.

Once upon a time, many years ago, I was on the National Board of NOW. At that time, the law suits and one push was on stopping people (actually men) – (actually white men) from smoking cigars on airplanes because the exhaust and replenish system on the airlines could not effectively remove all of the smoke and other pollutants which such smoking put into the air. Only one or two people were needed to smoke cigars on the plane in which you were traveling to cause problems for everyone else. That, according to the science coming out, not only caused health issues with everyone, but created an extremely uncomfortable environment for those flying.

It was a pitched battle. Finally, after many resources spent – time, money, etc. – the airlines decided to eliminate cigar smoking on planes. That was an incredible victory.

Later, the battle began to eliminate cigarette smoking as the scientific papers were published about the damage cigarettes could do to the human body. That battle was worse than the one around cigars. The cigar smokers just started smoking cigarettes on planes instead of their beloved and deadly instruments of disease.

Gradually, the fight was and still is being won as people today have to deal with even apartment buildings which now say if you live in that particular apartment building and are a smoker you have to agree to smoke outside and not in your own apartment building for which you pay substantial amounts of rent.

Restaurants were another place where the battle against smoking inside the restaurant raged. It was won and people started moving to eat in the “bar” side of the restaurant so they could smoke while eating. The war against smoking found them and today even those in bars can’t smoke inside the bar, but must go outside for their favorite bit of poison.

When that fight was raging I was at IBM. They had a thing where you had to go to Atlanta, GA. for six weeks of training before you could sell those wonderful machines. In the training classes people, of course, could smoke. Light up anytime and foul the air for those in the class who found that a horribly filthy and very uncomfortable habit.

We fought that in many ways. During my class time, success was not gained, but in subsequent classes smoking was outlawed in the classroom. One had to go outside to smoke. So progress does happen. It happens excruciatingly slow and people lose their lives and health in the process, but it happens.

One action we took, as an aside, was to also challenge IBM’s inviolable “dress for success” class and rules. On one of the last days of class we arrived (females, of which there were almost none), in MuMu’s, hair in large curlers, no make-up and slippers. The men arrived (not all, but many) with their jockey shorts over their dress pants and cut off t-shirts over their dress shirts. It was hysterical and great fun, but produced no change in IBM’s dress rules or the necessity of taking such a class.

What is it about human beings and the human spirit that everything must be as we are and everyone must live according to how we live and want life to be. We change facts to accommodate our comfort zone and claim we have the “right” in this country to jeopardize the health of and make uncomfortable and even denigrate and destroy those who aren’t like us?

Those who don’t live our lifestyle? Those who insist on refusing to change when the growing body of science shows us problems which we could address and make better with some simple changes of our lifestyle? We prefer to demand our “rights” to do things harmful to others while totally overlooking the other persons’ “right” to be safe and more. Doesn’t that come from our basic need to be “better than”? The belief system, culture and more that many would rather died for than give up and change.

If we are “better than” our neighbors, friends and all others then we can go about without a mask because we find wearing a mask uncomfortable, not pretty or stylish and all the other reasons we have thrown up. We do not want to become comfortable wearing a mask because it is our “right” to go around without one. Isn’t it interesting how we can demand what we consider our rights, even when those rights that we claim jeopardize the health and well being of others?

It is no mistake that we elected a man who exemplifies all of that and demands his rights over all other human beings? The man who demands to be top of the heap and all others are under him accepting what he doles out to them and for which they are grateful. How come we do all of that? What is there in the human spirit which thinks that is great. We join wild groups because they reinforce the identity we are on the verge of losing – “better than”.

That “better than” need is more lethal than the most terminal and painful of cancers. Yet we insist on living through that kind of culture and that kind of life.

That “better than” need led our ancestors to euthanize attempt to exterminate American Indians. It allowed and encouraged us to use slavery to build these United States. Used the Chinese in a slavery kind of structure to build our railroads – and all through we use denial so we don’t have to acknowledge what we have done and are doing to the detriment of ourselves and others.

To care for others. To be concerned about those with whom we live on this planet doesn’t take much.

An example from my IBM experience shows the difference. I lived in Ambassador Andrew Young’s house while I was in training at IBM. I could not live in the townhouse apartments right next to the classes during that time because I had two young children with me. They had me and I had them and wherever I went they went for all the years of their growing up.

It was difficult driving the 30 to 45 minus to class each day instead of walking a short distance to the classes. It was horrendous trying to figure out and find ways of making sure they were taken care of during the day. That would have been simple had I been able to live in the housing provided by IBM, It took a lot away from my time and ability to really get into the training – although I did a respectable job of it.

No one at IBM cared about the situation I was trying to handle. Men were the main people in those training classes. Men had wives at home who stayed there and took care of the children and anything else that needed to be taken care of because society looked at that as the job of women.

Towards the end of my time in training at IBM, I had caused such an upheaval that a couple people turned their attention to seeing what they could do to make things right.

My girls were learning horse back riding during that period of time so the IBM people found a camp not far away which had young people – about the ages of mine – who lived at the camp and followed their program of learning to ride, show and jump horses. That was a near miracle. I picked up the girls on the weekends and we went ‘home’ and were able to do touristy things satisfying to all.

How wonderful if IBM had put together a few people who gathered such possibilities for people in my situation so my time during training could have been more productively spent. It didn’t take a lot, just caring. Their response, at the time, was to eliminate people like me because it was too much to include us and much better to carry forth the “better than” attitude.

The caring that is missing amongst the people who refused to smoke outside; who wanted to smoke while in class; and so much more.

There were only two or three people in those classes who smoked. They, however, made the room unbelievably uncomfortable and dangerous to the health of the rest of us. The same attitude prevails among people who refuse to wear masks. One would think that past ones time as a rebellious teenager, the need to “prove” things would have abated.

All of those folks have something in common – their identity, which contains the strong belief that they are “better than” the rest of us and why should they accommodate. What a wonderful change in this world when and if they are able to do show some kind of caring for others where there is no payback that they can see for themselves.

“Better than” is a vicious philosophy by which to live. It is incredibly destructive of the human soul as it takes hold of ones personality, character, lifestyle and makes them so incredibly ugly to the rest of society. “Better than” so blinds us as humans that we can’t even see how negative is the way such people are seen by others.

May God forgive your sins against one another and give you the ability to open your hearts in a caring, healing, wonderful way to experience this life as it was intended to be experienced, not to experience it within the confines of a lifestyle with ways of living and choices which lead to a life of denial which leads to a life of lying, cheating, etc. etc.

A Petition to replace Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill

Saturday, December 12th, 2020

We took on this campaign a couple years ago when Donald Trump announced he would not honor President Obama’s plan – already set in place with the currency plates created and the date set to run this new $20 bill. He did not feel Harriet Tubman was someone who would do anything good for the United States and, indeed, would be an embarrassment. Trump cancelled the run of this new currency.

Since we started this campaign, many others have taken it up and adopted and adapted it as their own. Several people designed and created stamps for sale so you could take the currently available $20, stamp over the picture of Andrew Jackson before spending your money. That $20 could be spent with good feelings that the person on it representing the United States was someone who sacrificed much for her country and, indeed, as the end of her life was given military honors for the work she did leading many slaves to freedom – hundreds of slaves as the risk of her own life.

We just signed the petition “Replace Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman on the $20” and wanted to ask if you could add your name too.

This campaign means a lot to us and the more support we can get behind it, the better chance we have of succeeding. You can read more and sign the petition here:

https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/replace-andrew-jackson-with-harriet-tubman-on-the-20

https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/replace-andrew-jackson-with-harriet-tubman-on-the-20

Thank you!

Marceline and Robert

P.S. Can you also take a moment to share the petition with others? It’s really easy – all you need to do is forward this email or share this link on Facebook or Twitter:

https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/replace-andrew-jackson-with-harriet-tubman-on-the-20?share=b3d7f54b-5f01-4e2e-95b4-9e52a62bad05&source=email-share-button&utm_medium=&utm_source=email

DONALD J. TRUMP ATTEMPTS COUP D’ETAT!

Thursday, November 12th, 2020

We need to make this an article, but what else is there to say!

We remember when there were articles about Senators taking money from the NRA for their political campaigns. Could that be why they are now so quiet about this Trump ‘Coup d’Etat’ thing? And why they are so quiet about so many other things they were elected to address? Isn’t it time for them to check themselves to see just how naked they are – in imitation of this Emperor and those who went before him, in whose path he is now walking?….President Andrew Johnson…..President Andrew Jackson….Adolph Hitler….Mussolini…..Stalin…..and back to Rome and further?

One of the attorney generals in the U. S. has just about stripped the NRA of its power and money in these United States and it has to either fold or work hard to re-grow. It seemed to be clear when that happened that the NRA was a channel through which Russia (and probably other fascist states) funneled money to intervene in the U. S. elections. However, today, with this Trump thing we have totally pushed that part of the story out the window.

It is very sad to see the United States going through such trauma. However, think for a few moments of the trauma experienced for hundreds of years by American Indians, Africans, Chinese, Latinas, Jews, LBGTQ peoples and more because of the kind of bigotry that has been rammed down the throat of the U. S. and the world by the likes of Donald Trump.

Why has that bigotry been so strong and lasted so long? If you can count you can see the strongest reason being the 72,000,000 millions of people who voted for Donald Trump. Keepers of the flame of slavery, bigotry, greed, hatred and so much more.

If you are bigoted and want a fascist government in place to ram your extreme prejudices into and throughout society so you can feel that you and your country are “better than”, Donald Trump must have seemed like a glass of spring water for someone dying of thirst.

He pulled no punches. Donald Trump showed all during his run in the primary and throughout his presidential campaign and when he came down the escalator to accept the nomination of his party for president of the United States. No one could hide from the ugly racism, the putrid sexism his hatred of Mexicans when he announced how the Mexicans were rapists and more. That should have sent those in attendance running and screaming out of that place. But they applauded. Given that, we understand that a very large segment of the United States population is about as bigoted as they come. Some try to hide their prejudices behind an elegant demeanor, an intelligent mind, an ivy league education, their surface devotion to the sacredness of their definition of motherhood and more, but when they pulled that lever or scratched in that circle voting for Donald Trump they exposed themselves to God and everybody .

What is amazing to us is the two sided nature of human beings. The president of Mexico is one of the few international leaders who has not come out to congratulate Joe Biden and to welcome him into the international community as a partner. What is that all about? Did he not hear? Did he not know? Is he trying to be neutral and in the end will go with the winner?

The United States will recover from the trauma of Donald J. Trump’s Coup d’Etat, but will the handful of us who are not prejudiced – who are not bigots – who have not seen the United States as a “better than all the rest” country – how are we going to survive?

If you had any doubts – any questions – any hesitations that you were judging “the Don” harshly? Your questions have been answered. If you want something, some kind of measuring device, with which to judge those you elected to govern take a look at those standing with “the Don” and then take a look at those working hard to try to help this United States move to a democracy, a better – healthier – happier place.

The Emperor has no clothes and the patches over the eyes of the Emperor’s subjects which have been in place doing a job of not allowing his followers to recognize his nakedness, have been removed. Do they create and put on new blinders so they don’t have to deal with a government structured and run according to good and true ethics? According to justice for all? According to kindness, understanding and helping those who need help? Or do we continue to accept this Emperor and continue to play the game of “better than” because it is easy, taking money from those in need and giving it to the wealthy along with all the other games we have been playing for generations.

The Emperor truly has no clothes and his naked body is the ugliest thing we have seen in generations. He is a negative walking living stereotype from his hair to his ballet dancer hands to his walk to his daytime diapers. Do we applaud as he passes by or do we let him know we see him as he is and it is time for him to get dressed and join the rest of society!

Girl, that could be you!

Monday, November 9th, 2020

Marceline, don’t just read this and cast it aside, I am writing it and sending it to you for Bettina Network’s Blog. Someone should write your biography. As I saw Kamala Harris I thought about you and had to sit down with my pen before I got involved in something else and this moment would not come again.

We need a Truth and Reconciliation moment as all of this will only accelerate. It is a time during which much history will be forgotten or re-written to satisfy those who want to keep society as it is, but will effect change – for the moment.

When I saw Kamala Harris on that stage, I thought of Marceline Donaldson. I know, I know, you like to write, talk and think about others, but it is time you reflected on your life.

My first thought was that the two of you look enough alike that you could be mother and daughter. And then I realized that was a racist thought because what you have in common physically is your hair and color. Otherwise, you are very different and to realize your hair commonalities one had to know you way back when – before you turned gray.

We have been friends long enough for me to know your first analysis of Kamala Harris would be her clothes style – not southern, not new england, not mid-western, but very decidedly California.

Your second thought was probably to think – she didn’t take ballet lessons and all the rest as a child to force herself into that ‘constrained southern lady’ thing. I say thank goodness. Don’t remember what you would say because you were usually all over the map about that.

I thought immediately of the Truth and Reconciliation Task Force because when I first saw Kamala Harris come onto that stage I started crying and couldn’t stop. I knew I was not alone because I was sure you were doing the same thing. I remembered all the many times this white woman cried with you, for you, and for myself. We will probably be crying for months at the least little things because much of what we experienced has been pent up for decades. It will take more than this for the dam to break, but hopefully, shortly, enough will happen for all of those pushed down feelings that we all have, to erupt.

My pain does not begin to be the huge pains you carry, because I didn’t put myself out the way you did – and probably still do. I want to put out in public just a few because what individual women have gone through just to exist and move ahead in this world needs to be aired. I hope others follow this example and will send you their stories. That kind of pain needs to be shared because those who caused it go around without a thought as to what they did and what they are doing to other human beings just because those others are women. And I mean women and men have caused enormous pain and agony to each other.

The memory I won’t ever forget = can’t forget was being in your brokerage office – Dain, Kalman & Quail, inc. – trying to become one of your clients. You had just become the first African American stock broker in Minnesota. I believe you were the first in the country, even though several African American men have been knocking themselves out to prove otherwise. Don’t know if you knew that, but they approached me trying to get my cooperation. A book or something like it is being written to wipe you out of history.

In that stock brokerage/financial investment office, that day I began to realize the enormity of the problems you were facing and would face and the almost insurmountable obstacles that are thrown in all of our paths on a daily basis. Just to keep us in our place – “less than”. And you as a black woman have had to face unbelievable times. Well “almost black woman” – (howls of laughter from me – a sort of private joke).

Into the office, while I was waiting to see you, came a group of black men. They demanded to see the president and were apparently known by a couple people in the office. They were ushered right into the presidents office. I didn’t know them, but as talk went around me I understood they were the heads of the local offices of a few national civil rights organizations and one was there – brought by the others – to be your replacement. They were in the office that day to demand that you be fired and this black man be hired in your place because of the incredible, horribleness of your having been hired over a black man in the first place.

They expressed their indignation at your being a stock broker and what an insult that was to Black men all over. They wanted you fired and they brought along with them one of the Babington-Johnson brothers as someone who should have been hired instead of you. The fact that you walked into the office and applied for the job, backed by Lillian Anthony as your reference and a few other black and white brothers and sisters meant nothing to them. The fact that the Babington-Johnson brother hadn’t thought about applying for such a job and wasn’t doing that now, but was going along with this kind of awfulness meant nothing to them.

One was head of the Minneapolis Urban Coalition – on which you were a member of the board. We went to a few board meetings together. Another was head of the Mpls Urban League. One was a “gad fly” who worked for one of the large companies – a utility company, I think – whose demeanor I never liked. Never did learn who the others were.

While I sat and waited for you – thank goodness you were no place near to hear all of this – I got to hear the meeting and it was a list of grievances and outrageous insults and put downs of black men with this one topping the list.

I hadn’t thought of that before. I had always thought of black men as allies in this fight for women’s rights. That day changed all of that.

When they left the office, I did too. I couldn’t face anyone after that so I went home. I was so upset it took days for me to settle down. I left that office a strong feminist, although that was not who I was when I went there looking for you. I had been to a luncheon panel discussion on investment at a local hotel – don’t remember which one – an investment luncheon which you organized and led and I was high on women now being equal after that brief time. I should have known better, but I was quite young and ‘unexposed’ never having been in a civil rights fight or organization before that.

Those black men demanding you be fired and a black man hired in your stead did something to me from which I have never recovered. Before witnessing that meeting I was quite shy about calling myself a feminist. After, I have been a proud feminist to this day. And as such a supporter of Kamala Harris for as long as I can participate in this society’s politics.

I hope others follow this example and let the Dam break with the flood of stories of what women – white, black, brown, yellow, red, etc. – have experienced in this life so men could assume the mantle of “superiority over” women and not have to work hard for their “better than” identity. And I hope all women realize it is not only white men who have this “better than” need and whose egos can be bruised quickly by a woman exerting the fact that she is their “equal.” To break the stereotype of women as always held up and respected “on a pedestal”, “motherhood uber alles”, our job being to take care of the home and family while men go out to work, etc. And lets not even begin to go into the stereotype of black women.

Haven’t used your “better than” quotes, but I will do so now extensively. Maybe a little late to the party, but my memories are going to flood out to whoever, wherever I can share them. Unfortunately, they are the memories of an observer rather than of someone who participated in change, but maybe today I can correct that before I leave this earth.

Supreme Court Nominee – Amy Barrett. Really!!!

Tuesday, September 29th, 2020

Amy Barrett is a woman being appointed to the Supreme Court who does not believe in the equality of women.  Equality does not happen when one lives in a community and one’s first loyalty is to the content and structure of that organization giving deference and obeisance to men. In this case living under the board of governors who can only and always be men.  

In Ms. Barrett’s case, her entire life is structured around the concept of women always under the authority of men.   She has accepted that and lives with it as her life’s mantra.  It is not spiritually or emotionally possible to then have a job outside that community which requires you to be a person who sees others as equals.

She believes a career in the law is a means to the end of serving God.   God, the way she lives in that concept, is one who structures society with men on top and women in, at best, secondary – lesser people who cannot handle the responsibilities given to that male board of governors.

Someone who has purposefully elected to be a part of a community such as People of Praise should not get a pass to rise in other groups where their community beliefs can be set aside to make decisions which are disparate to what they are taught and teach and live by in this community. Their tendency will be to undermine that group to which they do not belong as a lifestyle choice so that it becomes and its members become a part of POP.

Human beings cannot do that without waking up the evil side of their lives, which will increasingly become the side they use to make decisions in their vocation outside of POP.   Your life beliefs – especially if they are as strong as those in People of Praise and as different from the concept of this Republic called the United States as is the lifestyle demanded by the People of Praise  – do come into account and totally influence your decisions.

Barrett does not see herself in an equal marriage.  Her husband is the head of the family.  This is re-enforced by the larger community in which she lives, works, breaths.  That community  is headed by an all male board of governors and women are identified as those who cannot serve on that board of governors. Their lives are lived on a very secondary plane because they do not have what is necessary to take on that first level?

Its institutional structure, economically, is one of a communist organization or a very  developed socialist organization on its way to being communist.

To be fine with women excluded from the highest leadership positions says a lot about how she would rule as a Supreme Court Justice.  The economic lifestyle of her life group also says how she would rule if she were confirmed.

To question Amy Barrett on her membership in the People of Praise and her ability to be a justice who sees equality as the guiding principle of the U.  S. Constitution is not questioning her on the Catholic religion since People of Praise is a non-denominational paraChurch group.

It is totally like Donald Trump and his beliefs in the inferiority of women and their use as objects to have appointed someone like Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court.  To have someone with the belief system of people of praise as a Supreme Court Justice is one way to destroy and undermine the Supreme Court as Trump has done to the other parts of the u. S. Government.

How much money is he receiving and from what quarters to make this decision.

This is an extremely authoritarian group where each one reports to someone higher up and there are no secrets and no decisions made solely by one person – apparently, even in their career.   Who plus Amy Barrett would occupy her seat on the Court?

Republicans has gone into fits and one of the worse threats possible seems to be the threat of having someone in government in these United States – either elected or appointed – who lives in a Socialist and/or Communist political structure, especially someone at the top with major influence. 

Donald Trump has made it his choice to appoint people in high places who would contribute to the downfall and destruction of the Republic of the United States and who would most likely be instrumental in replacing that Republic with a very authoritarian, fascist system.  This nomination of Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court is no exception.

Bill Barr – the Attorney General is either closely affiliated with or a member of Opus Dei – a group which encourages its members to promote their faith through their everyday lives.

They live in a controlled environment and all the while Opus Dei hides behind the Catholic Church.” It is claimed they are not free to make their own decisions.

Mike Pence is a member of a similar group and it may be the People of Praise.  He has not identified the group to which he belongs, but what we have gleaned is that it is the same type of authoritarian, evangelical/catholic group which requires the same kind of sell-out of the U. S. Republic as those apparently belonged to by Bill Barr and Amy Barrett, amongst others in the Trump government.

These are cultish groups.  Pence cannot meet alone with a woman without someone else present. Members do not make their own decisions, but have others pulling the strings of the people so appointed.  To have the president of the United States appointing people who have the tendencies that one must have to maintain membership in such groups is chilling.

It suits his extreme authoritarianism, but these United States were founded by people running away from such.  These appointments and others say much and go along with the type of person Donald Trump chooses to appoint and with whom he chooses to work.

Their economic structures are also all mostly communist.

 

Electoral College Trumps Democracy!

Friday, September 4th, 2020

With the upcoming vote being what is dominating the news, the one thing mostly absent from the discussion is the Electoral College.

We have suffered through Donald Trump as president because of the racism and sexism structured into this country and its Constitution by our Founding Father. They were unable to envision a country in which all people were created equal. The fear that ‘others’ – other races, immigrants, women, slaves might be able to rise up and exercise control over those who they felt were the real Americans and so the Electoral College came into being as the structured racism and structured sexism put into the Constitution to prevent such an occurrence.

In 2016 that Electoral College gave us Donald Trump as president. A man so morally deficient in what we consider our “American values” that our country as we know it has almost ceased to exist.

We have immigrants being destroyed at the southern border. We have young children of immigrants by the thousands who can’t be found, while we have the suspicious swell in Sex Traffickers having a huge supply of young children they are abusing.

We have as president a man who had “Mein Kampf:” next to his bed for years on his night stand and who has just automatically put in place Hitler/Nazi type institutions into this American country. The latest being his Attorney General trying to eliminate the International Court of Justice.

The 2016 election clearly said – from a democratic place; from the democracy we wish we had structured instead of the republic under which we live – that Hillary Clinton was elected president and was pushed aside in favor of a white male northern European descendant with a ‘mafia’ type family history. We have lived with the fact that over 3 million Americans voted Hillary Clinton into office as president of these United States and instead we cringed as we watched Donald Trump step over her and take the position instead. That by itself should have been the event to horrify every American and move all of us into action when one candidate has over 3 million votes more than the other and the other becomes president? How have we justified our near silence about that over these past four years? How have we justified not having made that our number one priority? How have we justified making excuses for the continuation of the Electoral College while blaming other things which did not have the strength nor the import to be responsible for such a happening?

If we were not happy with that structural racism we would have moved to change it over these last four years. We have not. Instead, we have attributed that loss not to what our Founding Father institutionalized and what we have lived under all of these hundreds of years, but to James Comey writing a memo which is not the kind of thing which would dictate the winner of the 2016 presidential election.

It is time for us to “man up” and admit our failings and move swiftly and together to change that. We have “Black Lives Matter”, but do they really when we cannot take out of our institutional, political structure what has been put there to make sure whoever is running for election as president of this country has a very large barrier to cross if they are not northern European and if their class is not the preferred class of our Founding Fathers.

It is time for us to be – structurally – a democracy – and not hide behind the fear of “the others” taking over and running this country. It is time for us to be an actual democracy where white northern European upper classes in these United States are one of – are equal to – are working alongside those who are not white, not upper class, not the kind of person who originally wrote the Constitution and instituted slavery and the extreme oppression of women with immigrants being treated as they are today.

Why is equality such a scary thing to all of us. Why do we need the accident of our birth to determine our level of power, wealth and control in these United States. What is it we are afraid of? That blacks will rule the country? That Jews will be the financial arbiters? That we will all slide ‘down’ into a culture taken from American Indians? Need I go on?

Get your guts together America and act out what we claim to believe – that we are all created equal and we all have much to give to the betterment of these United States and we need to make sure everyone is allowed to give of their talents and that each one’s vote will be equal to the vote of their neighbor, friend, co-worker, colleague, ……….

The first priority in voting is to eliminate the Electoral College. We cannot afford anymore Donald Trump’s – and, we might add, eliminate many of those presidents who would not have been elected but for the Electoral College – all of whom added their bit to the destruction of this country through their fear of losing the advantage of their skin color, their culture and their financial status which they did not earn, but were given by their birth.

Your birth gives you many things – it does not give you “better than” against other human beings.

ELIMINATE THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE TODAY!

Get Off My Neck! Continuing the story of what is happening to Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett!

Thursday, June 11th, 2020

We are the new folks on the block and took a look at the papers and other things available on what is happening with Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett. They have asked that we make everything public and transparent for all and any to read and learn from. This is a very ugly development in this society and it is beginning to destroy many families.

We Want to start our part of this investigation with a correction. As we looked at the papers, we found that Rev. Bennett was picked up and forced into Mass General Hospital the first time on March 3rd on a section 12 which was signed off on by Dr. Rebecca Warner, a psychiatrist. What was amazing to us about that was Dr. Warner’s statement, included with the section 12, apparently to cover her rear, that she had never met Rev. Bennett, never examined him, never been to his home and yet she signed a paper for the police to pick him up immediately and incarcerate him in a hospital since he was such a threat to the public by virtue of either – according to what you can do under a section 12 – a psychotic break which was public and that break was threatening to bring harm to the public, alcoholic problems causing Rev. Bennett to threaten the public, drug overdose because of which he was threatening the public, attempted and threatened suicide – I think you get the drift of what this section 12 is about. You can also see how it was misused and was abuse of the court, the police, the law itself and especially of Rev. Bennett.

Dr. Bennett is a quiet, shy, hard working, retired Episcopal priest who works with his wife in their home building a business geared to helping others. He does not smoke, drink, take drugs, and has never had even a hint of mental problems. So what is it Dr. Warner found so threatening about Rev. Bennett that he had to be immediately picked up by the police and incarcerated in Mass General Hospital? SCES had never met the Bennett/Donaldson family – except for a five minute visit where two of their people claimed to be “friends” come to visit with the couple. They had not assessed their home; had no contact with the family on any kind of professional or semi-prefessional basis; had not put in place any program the family was required to follow and had deviated therefrom, – the Bennett/Donaldsons had no contact with SCES at all. SCES had done none of the things their program puts in place requiring them to do before taking such a drastic step as sending the police to remove a man – well known and well respected in his community – from his home.

That is how the Nazi’s were able to fill the concentration camps during the early days of their reign before it became clear what they were about and the need for that kind of subterfuge was over. The Gestapo arrived, knocked on the door or broke it down, took out the person for whom they had come and “incarcerated” them locally before moving them to concentration camps. The parallel to what happened to Rev. Bennett and what SCES had planned for his future is startling in its parallels.

The second time Rev. Bennett was picked up by the police and forcibly taken out of his home was March 6th – after the section 12 was lifted by Mass General Hospital on March 4th at about 3am and he was sent home.

Not being able to incarcerate Rev. Bennett on a section 12, the Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services tried to incarcerate him on a section 19. It does not track that one must remove a man from his home immediately because of the reasons described above and then two days later after that does not stick they are back to attempt to remove him and keep him incarcerated on other charges.

That was the March 6th time he was demeaned by being forced from his home by the police. During these two times the police were always all white and it was always a sick, vicious kind of event calling the neighbors attention to that infamous couple – you know, the African Americans who are probably the only such family in that neighborhood.

The section 19 claims that Rev. Bennett had to be immediately removed from his home because of the threat to his life by his wife. The claim was that Rev. Bennett was so abused by his wife he had to be immediately removed and incarcerated in Mass General Hospital for his own protection and there was no one else around to help him so they had to move immediately. If that was the threat – why was the section 19 not called for before they activated the section 12? One answer is – we have found a couple African American men treated in the same way by the same people.

Now lets see! As to the claim of no one else who could “protect” Rev. Bennett from all of this.

At that time – his adult children were visiting because Rev. Bennett was just home from brain surgery at Mass General. Before they arrived, several friends visited with food, etc. for the family and so much more, but you get the picture. Attorney O’Sullivan representing his clients SCES were building a story out of whole cloth to justify where they were going and to lay the ground work for what comes next so they would be in the winning seat. – which from what we see – that means someone else is losing their lives, their assets, their immediate family and friends and so much more.

After five weeks, Rev. Bennett was returned to his home by SCES to once again live with this wife who was declared by SCES to be so incredibly abusive they had to remove him and incarcerate him and force him to stay in bed lying on an alarm type blanket, only allowed to go from his bed to the chair next to his bed, in a “cell” which was about 7 feet by 9 feet with hospital equipment stored in back of his bed sharing that space with him. What happened to the extreme threat his wife posed to his life?

We give you that background because Rev. Bennett’s wife – Marceline Donaldson – and everyone else thought Rev. Bennett had been picked up by the police to be incarcerated twice under a section 12. The above scenario is unbelievably worse and the arrogance of the court, the police, Dr. Warner and all those involved for doing this and thinking they would get away with it as the beginning of the attempt to strip that family of all its assets, its family relationships, its everything, just boggles the mind. The courts may not have been doing its job and seemed to be more going along with the program, but our investigation is not yet complete so lets keep that door open. We have seen the many lies told to the court on behalf of SCES and no one called to account – so lets keep that door open also.

The abusiveness shown by SCES during all of this with its supporting people preferring to live in an ignorance and claimed unknowingness, allowing all of this to go on seems to be varied – for some it is greed, for some extreme racism, for some the racism which pushed them to go along to get an African American family out of that Harvard Square/Brattle Street neighborhood, for some their career in this ‘guardianship’-‘protective agency’ area and on it goes.

The latest in this true life story is the hearing Rev. Bennett and Marceline Donaldson just went through because, at Rev. Bennett’s request, his attorney of record filed a motion with the court to withdraw as his attorney.

Rev. Bennett asked her to withdraw as his attorney because throughout all of this he, in actual fact, did not have an attorney. He had never met her, she never attempted to contact him, any papers from the court were not sent by her to Rev. Bennett, his wife, his family – so they knew nothing about any appearances, motions, anything that involved Rev. Bennett and so any court actions were allowed to run rampant and always have as the result a “win” for the SCES side.

This group seemed to be setting in place a legal structure to be able to control, wipe out financially, destroy the life and future of Rev. Bennett – attempt alienation of affection between him and his wife and other family members and so much more. And Rev. Bennett had who he considered a “place holder” as an attorney.

That all came to a head when Rev. Bennett was able to get out of the hospital after five weeks; recovered from what was a gruesome ordeal which seriously compromised his health; and he tried to file a motion with the Court which was circulated to many of you – however, they heard nothing from the court.

The hearing on Rev. Bennett’s attorney of record happened this past Monday, June 8th via telephone – which is how such things are being done in this pandemic space. – Judge Gargas in Middlesex Family and Probate Court was the presiding judge

The pleadings for the hearing were sent to the court and a copy of them follows:

———- Original Message ———- 
From: THE BETTINA NETWORK <bettina-network@comcast.net> 
To: emily.mahoney@jud.state.ma.us 
Date: June 7, 2020 at 8:20 PM 
Subject: Robert Bennett hearing MI 20 P 1699 

For: Emily A Mahoney [mailto:emily.mahoney@jud.state.ma.us]

Pleadings for:  Rev. Dr. Robert A. Bennett, Jr.

________________________________

I am asking that Attorney Myette be allowed to withdraw from any motions, or any other court actions or documents. on which she is named as the attorney for Robert Bennett.

I have never met Attorney Myette, have not talked to her until recently when I contacted Attorney Myette and asked her to withdraw as my attorney on any actions on which she is listed as attorney for Robert Bennett.

I have the right to exercise my rights to choose the attorney with whom I want to work.  My wife asked Attorney Myette to withdraw when she was informed by Attorney Myette in a telephone call that she had been appointed as my attorney, However, since I was in the hospital with no telephone or other access and was not allowed to contact my wife and she was not allowed to contact me,  I was not able to follow through on that request and my wife was not allowed to.

Attorney Myette was appointed as my attorney at a hearing about March 5th about which I knew nothing and so was not able to respond.  

Attorney O’Sullivan asked the court for that hearing which he characterized as an “emergency hearing” and told the court damage would come to Robert Bennett if the hearing was not allowed and Attorney O’Sullivan asked that the hearing be ex parte.  The court complied.

Since Attorney O’Sullivan used that hearing to set in place much of what happened following that hearing – that essentially robbed me of more than my rights some of which are guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.  

The law says I had, as others have, the right to be notified of that hearing.  There are exceptions, but they do not include an ex parte hearing which does the substantial things which that hearing accomplished at my expense.  What was presented to the court as an emergency hearing was not.  It was a way to get your issues before the court without any challenge to those issues so you can get the result you would like at the expense of the other party.

That hearing should not have happened.  It was a waste of the court’s time, resources and reputation.  In fact, none of what has happened to me and my family over the past several months should have happened.

Attorney O’Sullivan represented me to the judge as being “indigent”.  That representation allowed the judge to appoint Ms. Myette as attorney to represent me.  She came from the CDSC which supplies attorneys to people who are “indigent” and could not afford an attorney without that help.

For Attorney O’Sullivan to tell such a lie to the court – which he knew or should have known was not true – that deprived someone else who needed that kind of help from getting it and it made me complicit – without my knowledge – of cheating the tax payers of Massachusetts who expected their money to go to help others and not to promote whatever game was being played by Attorney O’Sullivan or by Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services at Attorney O’Sullivan’s expense.

Attorney Myette was appointed as my attorney because of Attorney O’Sullivan’s lies to the court – presenting as facts to the court statements he knew or should have known were false.

Those lies could have been responded to at that time and the record corrected if I had known there was such a hearing and I would have had the attorney of my choice representing me in that presentation.  The ex parte hearing was quite illegal and violated laws put in place to make sure things like this do not happen.

Attorney O’Sullivan asked the court for an emergency hearing.  What was happening with me at the time he described someone who needed to be immediately removed from his home by the police 0 for the second time in the same week and only two days apart?

My adult son and daughter were visiting from Washington, D. C. and they came because I was just out of the hospital from brain surgery and they came to be of help and to make sure I had whatever I needed that they could provide.

There was clearly no emergency – to ask for such and appoint an attorney to represent someone he presented to the court as “indigent” is something we have tried unsuccessfully to correct.

What Attorney O’Sullivan did not tell the court was that two days before Attorney O’Sullivan asked for this “emergency hearing” he sent police to my home – eight white policemen with five or six EMT people to remove this African American man from his home in such a theatre/circus setting that people came running to my home from the Charles River.  To do this Attorney O’Sullivan on behalf of SCES  claimed I was either having a psychotic break in public; was publicly drunk and causing an upheaval and upset of the public; or I was overdosed on drugs and causing havoc publicly; or I was threatening suicide and needed to be put under observation, etc.  All things that come under the section 12 removal of a person from their home. I was none of these things.  I have never had the hint of any mental problems – although at the moment that action by SCES has left my reputation in shreds, do not drink, do not smoke, do not take drugs.

I was removed and forced into Mass General Hospital on March 3rd after they actually had orders to take me to Mount Auburn Hospital.  Mass General Hospital lifted the section 12 on March 4th at about 3:30am  and sent me home telling me I should not have been picked up in the first place.  I spent most of the time in the hospital waiting to see the psychiatrist because they were so busy.

At about 3:30am I was discharged from Mass General Hospital with no medicines prescribed and all vitals normal with no high blood pressure.

The day before I was picked up and forced into Mass General Hospital a policeman came to my home about 9:30pm to do a “wellness check”.  He reported back that all was well and he saw nothing out of line.

With that background and my adult children at home with me Attorney O’Sullivan claimed an emergency on behalf of his clients Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services who had been running all around town, the hospital and trying to talk to doctors and others to build a case against me so they could force me out of my home and into a space where I would be under their care and that was a total disaster.  They were not able to build a case so they created one through lies, deceptions and actions which are reflected in the affidavit Ms. Nora Al Wetaid filed with the emergency motion Attorney O’Sullivan requested on behalf of SCES.

SCES through Attorney O’Sullivan went on to make several representations which were not true and could have been responded to at that time, if I had known such a hearing was happening in the court and that could have been done with attorneys of my choice.  My wife and I having worked on civil rights cases for decades – not as attorneys – but as helpers when people had short money and needed such help – we had some idea of what to do and how to do it.  We were not allowed to do anything except be recipients of the worse abuse I have ever experienced.

Because Attorney O’Sullivan knew or should have known that I was not “indigent”, Attorney Myette would not have been appointed in the first place making it possible for her to use her time to work with someone else who needed her help and would have been in tough shape legally without an attorney.

if Attorney O’Sullivan had properly represented the truth to the court what has followed almost destroying my life, my family, my work and more would not have happened.

Attorney Myette was appointed by the court because she was next on the list of the Boston Legal Services (the CDSC) organization which makes available the names of attorneys available and willing to work for those who are “indigent” or close thereto.

The client whom Attorney O’Sullivan represented. Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services knew definitely I was not “indigent”, but apparently represented to Attorney O’Sullivan that I was and represented such to the court. If Attorney O’Sullivan had done a minuscule amount of due diligence, as all attorneys are expected to do he would have known they were lying.

 That client also represented much more to the court which was also not true and the court moved along making decisions based on those misrepresentations, some outright lies and it has resulted in many being hurt and their lives turned upside down unnecessarily.

so, to summarize: – to get an emergency motion Attorney O’Sullivan on behalf of his client Somerville Cambridge Elder Services 

1) lied to the court multiple times and serious lies which we feel would rise to the level of perjury if investigated by law enforcement for such.

2) kept from the court the fact that I had already been seen and discharged by Mass General Hospital on SCES’ first claim attempting to get me incarcerated.

Since that failed they then took the route of ruining my wife’s reputation by claiming she abused me and taking me out of my home on a section 19 which was totally untrue and unbelievably painful for my wife and for myself.  We didn’t know about the section 19 – we thought it was a second section 12 because the police when they came to force me out of my house – dragging me out if necessary – refused to give me or my wife a copy of the order giving the police permission to do what they did.  

3) SCES had the report from a policemen which was positive after he was asked to make a wellness check the evening before they first forced me out of my house.

4) They also kept from the court the fact that my adult children were visiting from Washington D. C. would be with me for several days because they came following my surgery to help with any care I might need.

5) In addition, the psychiatrist – Dr. Rebecca Warner who signed the section 12 added to the document that she had never met me – never examined me – never been to my house yet she called it “unsafe” – never had any interactions with me at all.  She signed it at the urgings of Ms. Noral Al Wetaid and Ms. Angela Clary who already clearly had been lying to make their case.

Given all of the above why is Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services called in to vote on whether or not Attorney Myette should be allowed to withdraw?

I could go on for pages on all the things they did which violate laws, the truth and more but the above gives a good look into what they are about.  They did a lot more and hopefully it will all be revealed to the court shortly.

Additionally, why is Maliça Aronowitz being given a vote?

One of the things Attorney O’Sullivan did on behalf of his clients Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services, was to ask the court to invalidate my current  Health Care Proxy which had been created for me by MGH.

The court obliged and invalidated the MGH Health Care Proxy and validated a Health Care Proxy which had been invalidated November 18, 2019 by being replaced by a proxy created for me by Probate Attorney Donald McInnis.  Attorney McInnis created that Health Care Proxy for me at my request because I discovered about that time that Malica Aronowitz had a Health Care Proxy in my name which named her as my Health Care Proxy.  I knew nothing about that Health Care Proxy.  I wanted and named my wife as my health care proxy.

Attorney McInnis did just that and that HCP was witnessed and signed by Attorney McInnis and Ms. Trudi Van Slyck, both people I have known for many years who are substantial and long time members of this community.   It was signed with all three of us together in my dining room on November 18, 2019.  I have statements from both to that affect.

At Mass General Hospital, my wife and I gave an MGH staff person my Health Care Proxy which named Marceline Donaldson as my Health Care Proxy.  We have been married happily for 36 years and have always taken care of each other.  She is who I wanted as my Health Care Proxy.  She is who went all over town trying to get treatment for me after it became clear something was wrong and she is who found Dr. David Pilgrim, Chief Neurologist at Brigham and Women’s in Jamaica Plain who, in spite of his being in an emergency position with the death of his wife’s father, made us comfortable enough with directions which led us to Mass General Hospital for brain surgery.  

That happened in spite of the fact that the physician who was my PCP – Dr. Kehlman – could not see us because he was going off on vacation and would see me when he returned; did not have anyone else in his group to send us to; and did not know a neurologist to refer us to.  That PCP was my PCP because Maliça Aronowitz insisted he was who I needed as a PCP.

This is who this court invalidated a perfectly legal and legitimate Health Care Proxy which was identical to the Health Care Proxy created for me by Probate Attorney Donald McInnis except for one character from MGH -this is who was put in charge of my health.  

That Health Care Proxy replaced the one Attorney Donald McInnis created for me because MGH was concerned for our safety seeing people all over the hospital investigating us and they didn’t know why.

SCES knew and Attorney O’Sullivan should have known this was why the Attorney McInnis’ Health Care Proxy was replaced.  It had a one character typo.  The Health Care Proxy was the same and so was everything else.

In the SCES affidavit of Ms. Nora Al Wetaid she goes to some length to create the picture of this MGH Health Care Proxy not being valid because of numbers she gives which she claims made me not able to comprehend what I was signing at the moment.

MGH does not create Health Care Proxies and have people sign them who are “incapacitated” and don’t know what they were signing.  I was quite aware of what was happening, was happy MGH took such an interest.  

I was concerned because with that kind of concern from SCES about my ability to comprehend when it was about my Health Care Proxy, they were totally able to question me extensively when I was very groggy, just out from under oxygen and didn’t really know who they were or what they wanted until a nurse told me the next day when I asked who that person was who made me so uncomfortable.

The lack of empathy which allowed Ms. Clary to move on someone to attempt to question them in detail when they are just out of brain surgery to attempt to prove something which would benefit Ms. Clary and Ms. Al Wetaid  – which today in retrospect was clearly trying to find reasons to take me away from my home and family so SCES would have a case to follow and work on is beyond what should be happening if people are qualified for their jobs.

So questioning me under the fog of oxygen when I was not quite conscious was acceptable because SCES people were doing it and the Health Care Proxy which had been signed months earlier with the MGH proxy having changed only one character and kept the same health care proxy was not acceptable.

That goes along with the environment in which they work where if you send a complaint to SCES about something like the above it is investigated by the people against whom you have complained.  It is their standard working procedure.

This same group claimed I was incapacitated and should go immediately to a nursing home and that I was in such bad shape not even technological assistance could help.  That was a lie.  That would have ruined and denied me the rest of my life.  They have no response to that except to keep destroying lives and families.

I was kept by them in MGH for five weeks, forced to take 10 to 15 pills per day of over the counter medication, given hallucinatory drugs and so much more forcing me to stay in bed for five weeks only able to go from the bed to a chair in a space some 7 by 9 feet including hospital equipment.

When I was sent home by them I could barely walk – could not walk without a walker and support by two people one on each side – and was sent home in my stocking feet because my feet were too swollen for shoes.  That is what happened to me under their care.  I was kept away from my wife who was treated abominably and only allowed to see me three times during five weeks and then only with a Security Guard present.  Before that we had not been separated except for two days to a funeral in 36 years.  It was one of the most difficult times in my life.  I now know what it is like to grieve the loss of your spouse.  Sadly, if they could do it again they would – and – because this has been so public we have received many calls from people who have experienced the same thing – all African Americans – and a couple left the state to get away from the Protective Services people.

 When I was forced into MGH for the second time on March 6th I was walking, talking, enjoying life, enjoying my family, doing all the things I had been doing before going into MGH.  When I left, my life was in shatters and so much more.  It took coming back to my family to be able to experience life as an independent person walking, talking, participating in life, picking up my research and so much more.  They attempted to destroy everything I had ever done starting with my reputation.

So why does SCES get to say whether or not Attorney Myette should not be allowed to withdraw?

I am in the process of making plans to move ahead with court actions and have talked to several attorneys about representing me.  Two called the court and were told I already had an attorney.  They called Attorney Myette for some clarification in the process of their due diligence before taking on representing me, but Attorney Myette did not return the telephone calls. That did not inspire confidence in the attorneys that this was a case they should take.

I am asking this court for a clear path to be able to have the attorneys of my choice by approving Attorney Myette’s motion to withdraw from whatever court action in which she is acknowledged as the attorney for Robert Bennett.

Please confirm Attorney Myette’s motion to withdraw. 

I have never met Attorney Myette in person.  I talked to her on the telephone for the first time after I sent her an email telling her I would like her to withdraw as my attorney and that was just days ago. And in-between times Attorney. Myette did nothing for me so if she does not continue I will not be any worse off than I was when she was my attorney.

Please allow Attorney Myette’s motion to withdraw.

Robert A. Bennett                                          Marceline Donaldson

617 497 9166                                                 617 497 9166

Robert Bennett talked and dictated

Marceline Donaldson typed

_____________________________________________

In addition to the above pleading by Rev. Bennett – Marceline Donaldson submitted a pleading to the court asking that Rev. Bennett’s attorney be allowed to withdraw.

That pleading follows:

———- Original Message ———- 
From: THE BETTINA NETWORK <bettina-network@comcast.net
To: emily.mahoney@jud.state.ma.us 
Date: June 8, 2020 at 7:31 AM 
Subject: My statement for Attorney Myette’s motion to withdraw MI 20 P 1699 

I join my husband’s request to allow Attorney Myette to withdraw from representing him on any and all motions which may have been filed on which Attorney Myette is listed as attorney for Robert Bennett.

Attorney James O’Sullivan asked for an “emergency hearing” around March 5, 2020 which he also asked to be heard “ex parte”.  Attorney Myette was appointed attorney for Robert Bennett by the court at that hearing.

To get the result, Attorney O’Sullivan obtained Attorney O’Sullivan  misrepresented Robert Bennett to the court as “indigent” when he knew or should have known that was not true.  Attorney O’Sullivan made many representations to the court in the process of that “emergency hearing” which were not of the truth, but of lies which would allow him to block the possibility of Robert Bennett and his family hiring an attorney of his or their choice to represent Robert Bennett.

In addition, Attorney O’Sullivan misrepresented the situation he claimed to be trying to prevent by lying to the court about his need for an “emergency hearing” because of the claimed danger which he claimed would happen to Robert Bennett if the court did not intervene.

Robert Bennett was not in a situation which would have required an ’emergency hearing’ and the intervention of the police to remove Robert Bennett from his home against his will with the police, apparently, given the right to break into Robert Bennett’s home and forcibly remove him even if Robert Bennett objected to his removal from his home and family.  If Robert Bennett objected he was to be carried out of his house against his will any way possible.  That is what the police told Robert Bennett’s family if they intervened and prevented them from taking Robert Bennett out of his home of 36 years.

Before this hearing, Massachusetts General Hospital had already ‘lifted’ a section 12 filed against Robert Bennett by Attorney O’Sullivan on behalf of his clients just two days prior.  That section 112 was removed with “no medicines prescribed” and “all vitals normal including blood pressure” along comments by individuals in the emergency room – doctors and nurse practitioners – that Robert Bennett should not have been picked up under a section 12.  

A policeman, the evening before this forced incarceration happened on March 3rd,  was called by SCES and  directed to do a “wellness check.”   He found nothing out of order.  

Robert Bennett’s two adult children were at home with him to be there if he needed anything and to help with any care Robert Bennett needed because Robert Bennett was just out of MGH after brain surgery from the second of two falls months apart because of eye surgery – the first to remove a cataract and it was unsuccessful in restoring Robert Bennett’s vision and the second destroyed Robert Bennett’s peripheral vision in his left eye.  

The psychiatrist, on behalf of the SCES signed for the section 12 and at the same time she was signing for police to force Robert Bennett from his house and incarcerate him in the hospital, she included deniability in case she was wrong in her signing such a document.  This psychiatrist  added to the section 12 that she had never met Robert Bennett, never examined him, never been to his home and yet she declared his home “unsafe.”.  

In addition, neither had Attorney O’Sullivans’ clients, the SCES,  had any contact with the family nor with Robert Bennett beyond a five minute visit which was billed as “friends” visiting Robert Bennett calling to make sure he was fine.  They found a man in very good shape, having a dessert of ice cream in his bed/sitting room.

There was no consultation with the family by SCES,  no telephone calls for an appointment to assess the house for its safety or lack thereof,  nothing with Robert Bennett except intruding on his recovery from brain surgery by appearing in his hospital room when he had just been removed from oxygen after surgery and interrogating him for a very long period of time.  In spite of the above, SCES pushed into Robert Bennett’s life with claims that are not true, but made to justify their attempt to intervene and take over directing his life and its decisions.  On information and belief this is something SCES has done several times with other African Americans and with others with horrendous results for the people with whom they became so involved.

During the “emergency hearing” Attorney O’Sullivan asked the court to invalidate a valid Health Care Proxy created by Mass General Hospital with that HCP based on the one Robert Bennett asked Probate Attorney Donald McInnis to create for him because Robert Bennett discovered from Beth Israel Hospital people that they would not speak to his wife about him because his “Health Care Proxy” asked them not to. That was the point at which  Robert Bennett discovered there was a Health Care Proxy that he knew nothing about, did not sign and nominated a health care proxy he did not want making decisions about his health.

In spite of that, and with SCES knowing the Health Care Proxy they were asking the court to validate as the Health Care Proxy which would be over Robert Bennett -and – with SCES knowing it was not one Robert Bennett wanted, – and – with SCES knowing that Health Care Proxy had been invalidated – even if it were legitimately created – by one Robert Bennett had a probate attorney create for him and one he signed November 18, 2019.  In spite of knowing that and with Attorney O’Sullivan who knew or should have known that the court invalidated Robert Bennett’s Health Care Proxy and validated one he did not sign and did not want.

All of that and more was done in the “emergency hearing” Attorney O’Sullivan asked for and further asked that it be ‘ex parte’ without Robert Bennett being notified.

In that “emergency hearing” with all of its untruths presented to the court Attorney Myette was appointed to represent Robert Bennett.

During her representation of Robert Bennett as his attorney, she had one contact with Robert Bennett’s wife.  None with Robert Bennett – she has never met Robert Bennett.

During the telephone call Attorney Myette made to Robert Bennett’s wife to notify her that she had been appointed Robert Bennett’s attorney by the court,  Marceline Donaldson told Attorney Myette that Robert Bennett’s family would hire an attorney of their choice and she would appreciate Attorney Myette withdrawing so another attorney could take her place.

Other attorneys were hired by Robert Bennett’s family to represent him, none of whom could represent Robert Bennett because of the structure Attorney O’Sullivan put in place using a so called “emergency motion” to abuse the court, abuse the police, abuse the law for his clients – SCES.

Robert Bennett and his family have tried to file motions to remove those attempting to destroy the quality of his life, his life, his freedom and more.  They have not been able to do anything because they were blocked by the fact that the court appointed attorney was acting more as a place saver keeping anything which SCES did not want to happen from happening than as an attorney working in her clients best interest.  

Attorney Myette has not even met her client nor spoken to him from the time she was appointed until he recently contacted her and asked her to withdraw.

Attorney Myette agreed to withdraw, but needed court agreement and she said she would file the needed motion.

Why, in that motion, are people and organizations allowed to be involved with a decision which should be between Attorney Myette and Robert Bennett and not including the people who are benefitting financially and otherwise on the dishonest representations they have made to this court and to others to maintain their position “kneeling on Robert Bennett’s neck.”

I ask this court to please allow Attorney Myette to withdraw and not allow this theatre/circus which started with eight white policemen going to Robert Bennett’s home on March 3rd along with five or six EMT people, two ambulances, police cars all over the street with people running from the Charles River to see what was happening to demean, discharge, shame, defile, destroy Robert Bennett’s reputation and the work of his life by giving it this horrible ending.

Robert Bennett is 87 years old.  He has lived a very healthy life with no hospital admissions and a large belief in natural remedies.  He had no health problems, until Maliça Aronowitz inserted herself into his life with demands that he have his eyes operated on limiting his eye sight and destroying his peripheral vision causing him to fall twice and then telling stories multiplying those two falls caused by the eye surgeries  into many characterizing Robert Bennett as not being able to live on his own outside of the most severe restrictions which he experienced at Massachusetts General Hospital, which almost cost Robert Bennett his life.

Because Robert Bennett went through those two eye surgeries trying to “go along to get along” with his step daughter who has been missing from our lives except a few hours dinner on Thanksgiving and a few hours dinner on Christmas until this past year,  he should not be punished any further.

Attorney O’Sullivan also needs to be sanctioned because of the way he handled this and other cases in which he has been involved.  His past cases need to be investigated as to exactly what happened.  We have a couple names to offer of African Americans whose lives were destroyed and whose assets were taken by these machinations.  They contacted us when they heard what was happening to Robert Bennett.  They are the people taken up by SCES and supposedly “protected” by them to the point of ruining their lives.  One has left the state trying to get away from SCES and its abuses.  

Robert Bennett filed a motion with the court, but has never heard from the court as to a hearing for this motion.  We wondered if Attorney Myette listed as attorney for Robert Bennett prevented such a motion filed by Robert Bennett from being heard.

Please allow Attorney Myette to withdraw and keep this motion to withdraw limited to the two people who are the only people/organizations who/which should be allowed to weigh in on this motion – Attorney Myette and Robert Bennett.

Marceline Donaldson

49 Hawthorn Street

Cambridge MA. 02138

617 497 9166

“deaf to our suffering as the institutional structures creating and changing the republic in which we live are debased.”

______________________________________________________-

Judge Gargas refused to allow Rev. Bennett’s attorney to withdraw. She said she did not want to leave him without legal representation.

Since the reason Rev. Bennett asked his present attorney to withdraw was because he had been – in fact – without legal representation from the time she was first appointed, we did not understand the judge’s reasons for such a ruling.

She did mitigate that by saying when an attorney put in an appearance for Rev. Bennett this present attorney would be allowed to withdraw.

We were amazed at all of this because Rev. Bennett’s right to choose his own attorney was taken away from him from the time Attorney O’Sullivan asked for an emergency hearing and asked that Rev. Bennett not be notified. At the end of that hearing when everything was put in place to determine the outcome of this ugliness then and only then did the judge appoint an attorney to represent Rev. Bennett. That was done because Attorney O’Sullivan lied on behalf of SCES by claiming at the outset of his initial appearances that Rev. Bennett was “indigent.” That claim of being “indigent” gave Attorney O’Sullivan a free hand to absolutely carry out everything he wanted to do to move Rev. Bennett from the hospital to a nursing home where he would be classified as “incapacitated” where not even new technological interventions were possible to attempt to bring Rev. Bennett back to being able to be something other than a vegetable with no one around to support him, etc. so he had to be so incarcerated – according to Attorney O’Sullivan.

When Rev. Bennett’s family tried to get another attorney to represent Rev. Bennett that was not possible – and attorneys tend to be shy when there is another attorney of record that they have to plow through.

As we become more acquainted with all of this we are finding Rev. Bennett’s rights have been totally destroyed and mostly by the court – which really had the power to make this right and refused.

As we looked into the claim of Attorney O’Sullivan on behalf of Somerville Cambridge Elder Services – that there was no one around for Rev. Bennett and so they had no choice but to take over his life and everything in it – except his wife – it was stunningly arrogant for them to make that claim.

What are Rev. Bennett’s support groups?- Obviously his family, which includes his wife and two adult children who are involved with his life and do stay in contact with him.

In an emergency which Rev. Bennett or his family could not handle or for many other reasons, all Rev. Bennett had to do was to call his bishop. As a retired Episcopal priest you do have that possibility and you do have the organization of the Episcopal Church which supports its retired priests and from our investigation that is real support.

As a person who ministered at several churches both in the Greater Boston area and in Baltimore, MD. Rev. Bennett has a circle of friends who were parishioners at those churches who have stayed in touch with Rev. Bennett and his wife and who are very good friends and a supportive circle.

In addition, there are many friends who check in regularly and are there for anything the family needs and there is a reciprocal relationship where the Bennett/Donaldson family has been there for some of their needs.

During another hearing, we understand and have seen several letters from some of these friends submitted to the court.

That is a substantial community which few people have. But that is the person Somerville Cambridge Elder and Protective Services with the help of Attorney O’Sullivan had picked up by the police in an incredible and very ugly display in front of their home and incarcerated twice – for no reason.

When the first attempt at incarcerating Rev. Bennett failed, they tried again with massive lies which we have easily disproven and have given the family what we found – which is kind of massive if we say so ourselves.

What has happened is we are being shown that this society has a legal structure under which any one of us can be forced out of our homes by the police without cause and we will then have to spend our resources trying to get away from the horribleness of that and what comes after.

We started with some doubt about the claims we heard that this was a criminal conspiracy. Just this beginning of this investigation has shown those doubts were not justified. It looks to us clearly as a criminal conspiracy and it extends further than the Bennett family.

Please keep an open mind about all of this. You might need the help of what the Bennett/Donaldson’s have agreed to make public. Each step of their way through all of this will be made public so others can benefit.

__________________________________________________

Bettina Research Group Forming

Sunday, March 29th, 2020

We e been researching several things – mostly in the legal area, but it has been exciting, fun and will have a huge impact moving into the future.

To gain your goal or not depends a lot upon the foundation you form. Many of us have problems, but how to solve them – and even when we know how to solve them we need the research, the information, the putting everything into the right form, having those on speed dial who can help for an hour or two – is the difference between making change or just getting frustrated.

There have been three of us doing research to try to understand and move forward with what is happening to Robert Bennett. We have been contacted by many people who have or had similar problems and with the same groups. They said what they lacked was knowing what to do.

Well here we are – come join us. Help us for a short time or join for the long haul. We will be open to hearing from people who have problems with which they need help and people who are research capable and can put their experience, knowledge and ability to care and empathize to work for those who get stumped because stumping people is how many acquire huge sums of money.

We started this when we needed to know about a section 12 – the thing Somerville Cambridge Elder Services started harassing and abusing us with having the police pick up Robert on such a charge twice in the same week. We were overwhelmed with the information a friend of our found on the internet, which clarified jus what a section 12 was, how it is used and has been used against minorities and more.

We needed someone to work with us on putting together a case to ask the Legal Bar to consider beginning disbarment procedures against an attorney who apparently has been abusing elders for years. Two people just stepped up and are doing that research now.

We are also researching legal malpractice and will soon be able to change the face of lawyering – well that is a stretch, but we will be able to make small changes.

It is truly amazing the power in such a group. We can do this contactless and for the future we can communicate across the world to work with those having problems. The problem today is just that – how to deal when someone or some groups trip you up for their own selfish reasons. Where do you turn. We are becoming isolated – not just because of coronavirus, but because that is the way this technology is pulling us. So lets use the technology to keep it together and be able to move quickly and with the kind of expertise needed to solve serious life changing problems.

JOIN US! LET US KNOW YOUR area of interest and your expert knowledge.

Make suggestions on how we move ahead, smoother, better, quicker and with a thoroughness that wins the day.

We are going to do this through the Foundation because contributions are tax deductible and we will need plenty, but our results should more than justify the cost. We think the work you provide may also be tax deductible, but we have to check that out.

How to make basic change. That is what complaint groups were formed for – call in your complaint or send info for an investigation – isn’t that what happens. And then you wait and wait and wait and are generally discouraged because nothing great happens and the change you hoped for did not come. Hang on – we are moving into that area.

Bettina Network Foundation, inc. 1-617-497-9166

P. O. Box 380585

Cambridge, MA. 02238

African American Family harassed, demeaned, opened to police harassment and more in Harvard Square Cambridge, MA.

Wednesday, March 4th, 2020

by: Marceline Donaldson

That African American family is mine. The harassment, demeaning, threats and more happened on Tuesday March 3, 2020 in my home. Your home is supposed to be sacred, but was violated on that Tuesday morning in the most horrific ways.

On Tuesday morning, the door bell rang about 10:30am. When I went to open the door there were some 8 policemen (all male, all white) and six or more EMT’s also all white and all male. They were standing on the porch and said they had a “warrant” – a Section 12 order to take my husband out of the home and bring him to Mount Auburn Hospital because he was not safe in his home and they went into so much more.

It was unbelievable. 2020 in the United States with a Constitution and other protections, piled into my home were all of these white males in uniforms which traditionally destroy, harass, kill, maim African Americans.

The last time I felt so terrified was in New Orleans walking on Canal Street on my way to school as a high school student when a man grabbed my hair – which at the time was close to my waistline – and using a cutting instrument he had in his hands he cut it off quite short, nearly breaking my neck in the process. A policeman was standing nearby and instead of responding to my cries, he turned his back and walked away – having seen clearly what happened to me. And now, here I was in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2020 experiencing something very similar only they were after my African American husband.

When I looked out the door there were police cars all over the street, an ambulance, policemen guarding the entry to the house, on the porch and in the house.

When I asked why he was being sent to Mount Auburn Hospital when he had been a patient at Mass General, no one had any answers.

What happened that they felt they had the right? My husband was discharged from Massachusetts General Hospital and sent to Sherrill House for rehab after surgery. When I went to visit him at Sherrill House on Sunday everything seemed fine and I was not unhappy that he was there because as an Episcopal Priest I thought Sherrill House would be a good place for his rehab. It was not my idea to send him to Sherrill House, it was one of the people at the hospital who made the suggestion. I was more interested in him going to Spaulding in Charlestown, but I was told the place which had a bed for him was Sherrill House. With his Episcopal background and my own, I was open to him going there. Once we arrived at Sherrill House I discovered why most of the hospitals I had seen and visited and the related medical places were all white with blacks providing the cleaning and other upkeep services. There is a black and a separate white apartheid system in the Cambridge/Boston area for those who need medical services. Sherrill House was mostly black – African Americans, Caribbeans, etc. The patients were also mostly minority. So that visit to Sherrill House cleared up what I did not understand. Separatism bordering on apartheid is what I was witnessing.

On Monday, when I returned to spend time with my husband I was not allowed to see him. Why? Sherrill House was being quarantined because there were three or four patients with the flu on the second floor where he was staying and that second floor was quarantined to keep the flu from moving further out into the society.

I was unhappy, upset, confused and didn’t understand any of what I was being told. My attention was on what would happen to my husband in a place with three or four people with the flu on the same floor with windows not open and lots of ways the flu could spread to those in the facility – the healthy and those there to become healthier. My husband was not there to come down with the flu, especially with all of the coronavirus possibilities going around. I asked what kind of flu – no one had an answer.

I spent time in the lobby talking to people and the receptionist about what this was about – discovered it was not a first for such to happen at Sherrill House, it had been under quarantine just months prior. My decision was, as my husband’s health proxy, to take him out of Sherrill House. I did not feel he should be exposed to the flu and have to deal with that as well as his recovery. People were going into Sherrill House if they were on the first floor or visiting someone on the first floor. They were going to visit family and/or friends on the third and fourth floors, but the second floor, where my husband was, it was quarantined – no one knew how long this would last nor the extent of what would happen to those on the second floor.

I checked my husband out of Sherrill House that Monday afternoon and we went home – away from an active flu spot exposing him 24 hours a day. I hope you would have done the same thing – if you loved and were concerned about your family. I had not read the reviews of Sherrill House on the internet before Robert went there. The Episcopal connection made me think it would be a great place for him to be. When I read those reviews I was appalled – most of the reviews were not only bad, but talked about the hurt that had unnecessarily happened to patients at Sherrill House, including a death under difficult and what was characterized as negligent circumstances.

Robert was very happy to be home. He was thriving. On Monday, we walked to the post office and enjoyed the rest of the day going places and doing things he enjoyed.

On Tuesday morning all hell broke loose. All of the white policemen and white EMT’s, some 12 to 14 people arrived to in affect, arrest him and take him to a place for people who were seriously alcoholic and had been sent against their will – sectioned because their alcoholism was a danger to them and the society; who had a drug habit on the same level; was a danger to themselves because they were ‘committed’ and sectioned’ because they were a suicide threat; and because they had other mental illnesses which caused them to be forcibly picked up and held in a large emergency room full of security people walking around to make sure the people in that room were ‘safe’. There were a couple ‘runners’ while we were there – people who were constrained and had somehow gotten loose and were chased and returned to an examining room in constraints. That is normaly what this sectioning “warrant” is used for – not the way it was used with Robert.

This ‘arrest’ of my husband was ordered by Cambridge/Somerville Elder Services by a woman who should not have been able to sign such a sectioning order and the Court should have been involved if this were really such a serious threat.. She is a psychologist and none of my husbands reasons for having been in the hospital had to do with psychiatric or psychological reasons. She filled out the forms necessary and noted that she had neither seen, nor examined the patient – she had not seen nor been in his home to see its condition to know whether or not it was ‘safe’ although she declared it unsafe. She was backed by two young women who lied to help her take out this section 12 order. They claimed prescriptions had been sent for Robert to CVS. She claimed that I had been notified by CVS but refused to pick up the prescriptions. When a friend of mine who accompanied us to the hospital and stayed most of the evening as a support checked with CVS all around Cambridge and/or reasonably close to where we live, there were no such prescriptions at CVS waiting for Robert.

We spent 14 hours under this sectioning order which were a strain on my husband and put him under unbelievable stress. No one with any real concern for him or his health would have done this. A call to me would have been in order to attempt to understand and clear up any concerns she may have had. That is what usually happens with people who use these Section 12’s, but she simply filled out the form and sent it to the police for their action. A cruel slam against an African American who racism says does not deserve such consideration.

I insisted that, if Robert had to go, it would be to Mass General instead of Mount Auburn Hospital because it was clear to me there could have been political friendships going on that could make this worse. I wanted to know why the police had been told to take him to Mount Auburn where he had no history and no prior visits.

After their examination, Mass General lifted the sectioning and discharged my husband.

It is time to change this ability of people clearly not qualified to do such to be able to use this sectioning to exercise their racism and other bigotry and possibly even personal vendettas. It was the meanest thing I have seen done to another human being in a very long time. What could have happened with all the white policemen and the circus environment created outside my house with neighbors and others stopping to see what was happening was clearly the possibility of physical harm, extreme emotional and mental stress and a display of racially based violence.

It is clear this would not have happened to a white family in the Harvard Square neighborhood and the police and all the others were able to do what they did because they were dealing with an African American family. In that Brattle Street neighborhood this does not happen. The whites who live there are given much more respect, privacy, and more.

I am talking to attorneys and encourage any attorneys who would like to be involved in this, please don’t hesitate to call and/or visit. This needs to be changed – there should be the necessity of a Court being involved when someone’s freedom is being taken away with what is characterized as a “warrant’; civil rights people need to be involved when this happens to an African American or any other minority family and so much more. Your feedback is requested.

Whether it has relevance or not I do not know, but we published a Bettina Network Blog on Tuesday morning at 5am entitled ‘Hospitals and Bigotry – Institutional Racism, alive and well!’. The police arrived at approximately 10:30am with their section 12

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IT COSTS MONEY TO PRODUCE THIS BLOG. WE HOPE YOU WILL CONTRIBUTE SO WE CAN EXPAND AND CONTINUE THE RESEARCH AND WRITINGS WHICH KEEP YOU KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT MANY THINGS THAT WOULD NOT REACH YOU OTHERWISE ALONG WITH THE OPINIONS AND WORK OF THOSE WHO ARE MEMBERS OF BETTINA NETWORK’s LIFESTYLE COMMUNITY.

What follows are some of the ways you can support our work:

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

*This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc. which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

into a major media outlet bringing to the public news, recipes, thoughts, reviews of businesses, etc. from the perspective of those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.  This is not a tax deductible contribution. You can send a check to Bettina Network, inc. P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 to support this blog! Please make your check payable to “Bettina Network, inc.”

Project 4 – Boycott the Twenty Dollar ($20) bill

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation will be used to support the many activities in which we engage to try to make this a better world. 

_________________________________________________________

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

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net 




Romney – Pelosi – Trump

Friday, February 7th, 2020

by: Marceline Donaldson

The experience of having seen and heard Mitt Romney lay out in all its rawness, his reasons for voting to convict Donald Trump was amazing, confirming and an experience I shall never forgot and one for which I give thanks.

In doing so, Romney gave all of us a pattern for how our particular religious practice, our faith, our politics could go together.

We live in a country founded on the separation of religion and politics. In spite of that, we have the religious right demanding that their religious beliefs be the foundation which creates the policies on which this country continues to exist. How do we reconcile all of this? How can you live without your religion when it claims to be all consuming and the basis on which you live, breathe and from which comes all of your life decisions and function in a country which attempts to keep religion and politics separate!

Mitt Romney and Nancy Pelosi have given us one way to walk being able to live our religion with dignity, respect and honesty and function in these United States. In addition, Mitt Romney has opened the door for the acceptance in these United States of all religious beliefs. Who would have thought that would be done by a Mormon. A fairly “new” religion and one still being pushed aside; its believers and belief system ridiculed; and its adherents not often accepted by the rest of the country.

My study of theology over the years gave me an image of Donald Trump and his religious belief system which is clear, unequivocal and straight out of scripture. You have, no doubt, read what other writers in this publication have written as they outlined this belief system and tracked Trump’s walk through it with some clarity and quotes from Scripture.

There is a story in the Christian bible which is incredibly parallel to the walk Donald Trump is taking through his life. It apparently started when he was a young man and has become stronger over the years as he has walked this path with all of its trappings to get to his current post. That is the story of Satan tempting Jesus on the mountain top and offering Jesus all the beauty and power of this world if he will bow down and worship Satan. Jesus refuses and we move on from there.

Looking at Trump’s life you get a clear picture of what would have happened if Jesus had accepted Satan’s offer. Trump is only one of many men who have come along and said – “Let me replace Jesus, I will bow down and worship you Satan and I will do your bidding throughout eternity. Give me the power Jesus rejected.” We have seen and read about the life these men led and their “achievements” along with the power they sought after, grabbed for and finally had to relinquish at the end.

Yesterday, when I was at a very low point, sitting aimlessly in front of the television, there was Mitt Romney saying- my God and my faith are the center of my life and from that comes the decisions by which I live. Those are not his exact words, but that is the meaning of his preface as to why he was voting to convict Donald Trump.

After that short speech by Romney came another one on television by Donald Trump, who said “I do not believe in anything this Jesus – the Christ – person has said, nor do I nor will I live my life making decision that go along with His Gospel – how ridiculous. I will make decisions that go along with my belief and my dedication to the worship of Satan which I have cultivated throughout my life. Given that, I will retaliate in the worst way possible against all of those who did not, do not, will not do my bidding. I will attempt to destroy their quality of life and where possible the very lives of those who do not do my bidding. I will get others to “take them out”. They are horrible people. They are people who have blocked my ability to do Satan’s will and live the life Satan has required of me so I will have absolute power on this earth.

Those are not Trump’s exact words, but they are the meaning of what he said. He clearly abrogated the very core of what it means to be a Christian, to follow, to live into and to attempt to walk the path Jesus – the Christ – laid out for all Christians. He very clearly, loudly and in some detail said to everyone at that National Prayer Breakfast that he was not a follower of Jesus – the Christ; he did not believe in Holy Scripture; he would not live his life following the dictates of what – up to that point – he had called his religion. This weak and out-of-date belief system entraps those tending towards the same power grab that is sending many politicians into the arms of Trump and so into the arms of Satan. Christianity is not going to ‘entrap’ Satan – a few thousand years of experience shows that. It is also not going to entrap Trump he is now far beyond its grasp.

Trump has been able to move many others off the path of Christianity and helped them find the path Satan carved out for him and for those who would follow him. At the same time, in another setting, I watched Trump, still on television, bringing before the cameras, commending and raising up for all of watching, many of those he has been able to corrupt. Or rather, he gave us another lesson on how to recognize and bring into your ‘group’ those already corrupt to combine together to do Trump’s bidding. One such person received a sustained standing ovation when his name was called. The whole scene made you want to vomit.

Those are the people I was struggling trying to understand before this extravaganza happened. It was as though God said – turn on your television I am going to show you the answer to your prayers and relieve your consternation over what is happening in your world. And on came Trump and Company celebrating their “victory”.

God didn’t actually sit next to me and say that. This is my interpretation of what I heard and learned from the unveilings of the past few days.

Donald Trump has, in the past, walked up to the line of destroying Christ for many, but in his talk at the Prayer Breakfast he crossed it and was very clear that he is not Christian, never has been and finds Jesus and his teachings the extreme opposite of who he is and what he is about. That makes me wonder about the White Evangelical Christians who almost rabidly support Trump and all he is about. Donald Trump has been very clear about his belief system, how he lives his life, what he is going to do moving into the future and what he expects from his supporters.

It does not take much to realize what he is planning for those who don’t get in line, join the “team” and follow him.

It was amazing to me that all of this was revealed so quickly and in the context of a National Prayer Breakfast. I heard in my head a little ditty which many repeat – “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me; fool me three times – wow, am I that morally corrupt?:”

So many people have told me over the years – when someone tells you who they are; what they believe; where they are going; and how they are going to treat you if you don’t behave in a certain way- believe them and make your decisions in life including that knowing instead of a hope and a wish that they were otherwise, were going to magically learn lessons which would allow them to be otherwise and better than they seem.

Thank you Senator Romney! I too try live my life by my faith in God and my belief in God’s promises. Lots of people I know live the same way. I just happen to be Episcopalian. My friends, who live the same way, are a gathering of people from Catholic, Baptist, Hindu, Muslim, and many more denominations/religious belief systems. I saw when you were Governor of Massachusetts that out of your belief system came the health care system that we now enjoy in Massachusetts and beyond. Out of the lives of many of my friends have come some amazing achievements – not grand and glorious which the world celebrates, but quiet and necessary and with large contributions to the lives of those around them.

Thank you Nancy Pelosi! As an African American/New Orleans Creole woman my life has been a continuum of one oppression received from this society after another. Not one day passes that I do not have to deal with racism or sexism or a combination of the two. And when those hits come I also have to deal with the denial of that experience by the rest of the world, even at times from my own family. And I know and have seen I am not alone in those experiences – many are forced by others to go through those horrors for reasons they don’t even seem to know or want to know, but which they put out there and demand that many go through so they can keep their identity as ‘better than’ whether that identity has served them for good or for ill.

In the process, I have learned to keep on keeping on and maybe help someone else to do the same. Trying to help someone climb over a particularly large stone they were having a difficult time getting over or getting around. Watching you on a national scale has been one a truly wonderful gift. May you continue and move from great to true greatness as you do your job on a daily basis.

My experience has been – there is nothing in this world stronger than prayer. The miracles I have seen coming from people joining their prayers together have been earth changing. May you continue to find strength in your faith to do what you needs to be done, standing in your own light, without need for the approval of those around you.

Satan is still looking for those to do his bidding who will fall down and worship him. Donald Trump needs to look at the example of those who did just that and how the end of their lives came exposing their evil and sin to the world as they went out in a blaze of horror, filth, agony and huge regrets never able to see the beauty which comes from the love of God and from those around seeing who they really are and caring for them in spite of their failings.

Trump is clear, that is not his way. He showed that for all to see when he walked away from a mentor who spent much of himself and his resources and fortune helping to educate and move Trump to the place he now holds – even moving him and his business from Queens to New York without which help none of what Trump has done would have been possible. When Roy Cohn became ill and in need at the end of his life, the person to whom he had given much and who very greedily accepted everything given to him assuming he could always go back for more and did while giving nothing back in return walked away from him, turned his back on this ‘friend’ and attended his funeral only briefly standing in the back for just a minute before beating a quick retreat out of there.

Throughout life you have to make life affirming, life changing or life destroying choices at many points. I hope the choices which those reading this make will be for good, for love, for kindness, for caring, to help relieve the suffering of others, realizing the humanity -the fragility – the tendency to fall and fail we all share and experience at different times of life is what joins us together.

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IT COSTS MONEY TO PRODUCE THIS BLOG. WE HOPE YOU WILL CONTRIBUTE SO WE CAN EXPAND AND CONTINUE THE RESEARCH AND WRITINGS WHICH KEEP YOU KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT MANY THINGS THAT WOULD NOT REACH YOU OTHERWISE ALONG WITH THE OPINIONS AND WORK OF THOSE WHO ARE MEMBERS OF BETTINA NETWORK’s LIFESTYLE COMMUNITY.

What follows are some of the ways you can support our work:

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

*This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc. which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

into a major media outlet bringing to the public news, recipes, thoughts, reviews of businesses, etc. from the perspective of those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.  This is not a tax deductible contribution. You can send a check to Bettina Network, inc. P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 to support this blog! Please make your check payable to “Bettina Network, inc.”

Project 4 – Boycott the Twenty Dollar ($20) bill

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation will be used to support the many activities in which we engage to try to make this a better world. 

_________________________________________________________

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

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net 




Bettina Members talk Trump!

Wednesday, February 5th, 2020

Ed. Note: It seems to be all Trump all the time. A disgusting use of resources. It also seems that those who were looking for ways to maintain their White Privilege and White Nationalism and just plain bigotry over many areas have been able to do so with the foul backing of this man who calls himself President of these United States.

We received much, from Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Members, about the State of the Union address many times yesterday starting in the morning and becoming a tsunami by the time it was over. Mostly, people are becoming unanimous in their call for Trump’s removal because he was never legitimately elected in the first place and that call is beginning to be heard. When foreign governments interfere with an election – in some ways that won’t be known for decades – it is time to stop being “nice”; stop trying to preserve the un-preservable and time to speak truth. That has not happened and clearly is not going to happen.

We are including here a few responses which represent the main complaints we received.

Bettina Member #1 – It is amazing to hear the lies being told by the President of the United States on television and during the State of the Union. Starting with “his” promotion of Charles McGee to Brigadier General. https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2019/december/19/tuskegee-airman-mcgee-to-be-promoted-to-brigadier-general

This was an honorary promotion backed by others, not Donald Trump, although at this State of the Union speech he did take credit. What was needed was for President Trump, who was not responsible for this promotion, to add his own touch by making sure that Charles McGee received the difference in salary and pension benefits that he would have received had this honor happened decades earlier.

As a part of the Tuskegee Airmen, Brigadier General McGee went through much trauma during his early adulthood, his time in the armed services and pushing ahead with a life of service. He deserves at least that salary and those pension benefits even though it comes years later.

What I also need to say in this publication I will take from the Facebook posting that Marceline Donaldson put out last night during Trump’s speech. You all need to read that posting.

What was the Trump family doing during the time of Charles McGee’s epic struggle to help this country succeed in its struggle happening at the time with the other Tuskegee Airmen trying to do their duty to this country? Trumps were building apartments in Queens, New York and refusing to rent those apartments to African Americans. It was so bad, the United States government stepped in to force them to stop that racist practice.

How did the Trump family do this? They blocked, obfuscated, obstructed the Courts and refused to produce what was normally expected to be produced in Court. They disrespected all of us by disrespecting the Court System under which they lived. They generally acted the way Trump acted recently obstructing Congress, demanding the right to continue their unlawful practice without any penalties for having violated the law. It is a behavior model Donald Trump has followed in all the many ways he has violated the rights of citizens, immigrants, businesses and anyone and/or any group he felt the need to rip off for what he perceived to be to his benefit and today he has even hired the lawyers who worked for him to rip off students through Trump University to defend him in this impeachment action and they complied, using the same tactics. Rip off students, rip off U. S. citizens, rip off whoever. A Trump family theme song. Now about to be practiced again as his son-in-law works with others to set up the rip off of Palestinians.

To TELL THE TRUTH is not something Donald Trump does. To TAKE CREDIT FOR WHAT OTHERS HAVE DONE is something Donald Trump does regularly and does not give credit to those who actually did that for what he claims credit.

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Bettina Member #2 It is amazing how much Donald Trump needs to attempt to put down Barack Obama and use that attempt at trashing Obama to build himself up and to take credit for work done by Obama. It has been one of the consistencies of Trump’s presidency. Whenever I hear him – once again – putting down Obama I know he is trying to cover up what he has done that is not great and is trying to take credit for someone else’s work, assuming his base will follow along – after all their reward is to remain being “better than.” in this case, he attempted throughout his talk to take credit for the current state of the economy of the United States. We will pay, over years. for what Donald Trump is doing today attempting to become an Oligarch.

Trump claimed in this State of the Union speech that he took over an economy which was failing and a mess and he moved in, took it over and produced a great and successful and the best economy ever seen on the face of the earth. What Trump took over was an economy that Obama turned around from moving into a depression under George Bush into an economy which is now in its 10th year of moving ahead. The economy is moving ahead in spite of the many ways Trump has tried to sink this economy, but it was too strong for him to accomplish the last wish in Putin’s Christmas stocking left for Santa Trump Claus.

It is also time for the media and others to recognize what Barack Obama accomplished and to give him credit for the work of his administration and stop sucking up to Trump, who is not going to favor you with any interviews that mean anything to your career over the long run. That will sink your career because it shows your inability to analyze and report what is most important seeing the lines, strings, things that lead to others things which need to be reported on accurately not in ways that CYA so you can continue sucking up to Trump for what you think is the protection of your future.

Trump’s racism is so strong he assumes the citizens of this country and those around the world will believe him when he trashes Obama. Amazingly, some of them do believe him, not because what Trump is saying is true, but because their racism needs the relief of someone trashing a fantastic human being who is also African American. Extreme bigotry works that way. It is why so many African communities after Reconstruction were trashed and people massacred with so many laws passed to attempt to keep the lid on the possibility that African Americans stolen from other countries would always be subjected to their needs and their control

This is why Andrew Jackson could push forward with his Trail of Tears. It is why Donald Trump can now claim to be President of the United States and he knows he holds his office because of the need people have, like those who created and now are members of the KKK, the White Nationalists, the neo-Nazi’s, etc. They cannot live with the reality that they are equal to and not greater than those who are not the same color, the same sex, the same everything. Most times, those trying to lift themselves up on the backs of others are society’s failures who manage through manipulation and other such means to achieve. How could anyone believe an African American could achieve what Barack Obama achieved by being a decent, truthful, God loving man? Many can believe such, but not those with the extreme bigotry of a Donald Trump and his followers. Obama was not perfect, but his failings were the failings of a human being who believed in what he was doing and accomplishing and not in creating a smoke screen on which he could project things he wanted people to believe he excelled in and did while actually being furiously failing in life and destroying everything he touched – as is the case with Donald Trump.

Lets put Trump’s criticisms and claims into perspective and put out there the reasons he dumps on so many people.

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Bettina Member #3 I am so tired of hearing how divided we are as a country – never before have we been so divided against each other. And then the story goes into the many ways this is shown.

It is time TO TELL THE TRUTH.

We are not so divided in this new era of one person against another. One House of Congress against another. We are pretty much where we have always been, if anything we are less divided than we have been in the past and we are in a position to be able to resolve some age old separations which were killing of human beings and deprived many of their rights under the Constitution in this country.

Why? How?

We have appeared to be together, but we have been a country of White Supremacy over all. When we seemed to be less divided we were more successfully divided against those we wanted to keep down – those less than.

We have had a Congress of all white, all male representatives. We have had businesses of all white, all male representatives and they worked together behind closed doors on how to rip off the rest of us – and they did that very successfully.

Well, today, we are not more divided, we are more representative. We have at least one half of Congress with representatives from many different groups working together to make sure we are all represented and to keep in check people like the racists, sexists, total bigots on everything from religion to sexual orientation to culture to language .

In every corner of this country there are people challenging others on their need to be “better than” and their push to keep white northern european males superior in every way. There are also those who are trying to make sure any advances made are being done by that one group and being served by so called “minorities.”

That has changed because those minorities will very soon be the majority and people like Donald Trump are manipulating and attempting to become extremely wealthy by ripping off even those they claim to partner with to maintain that superiority. They will even destroy the planet in the process.

That is not new. We have a planet on the verge of destruction because that white, male, northern european group has gained its advantage, its wealth, its clout by promoting themselves, their businesses, their lifestyle in ways that have hurt us all and demanded and still demands the birthright to be able to continue to do such. That is certainly the message of Trump to his followers – they will back him and he will maintain the Supremacy they are accustomed to even if they don’t gain materially or in any way benefit therefrom – other than in the maintenance of their identity as superior.

To root that out of society is an impossibly difficult task. It is one that has currently taken over the look of extreme division because the minorities have gained some power, a little money and have maintained the values, the morality, the spiritual beliefs with which they were raised and with those things they intend to make sure the places where they live and work remain under an ethical system which recognizes the equality of us all. That is very divisive and will be until the group that was the “majority” group gives up and decides to back down and take the lesser place of equality.

Instead of walking into that sunset, we are hearing public complaints and warnings about how “divisive” some folks are; how divided we are and how horrible that is and will be for the government and society in which we live. So many warnings are now coming out to help scare us all and attempt to force us to back off. Those warnings are coming from those who claim to be on “our side”. Who want to see this new world come into being just not with such divisiveness. Lets keep the status quo for a time until we can work out the problems and then lets move forward together.

That was the old argument – now in new clothes – which paraded around the King Movement, the Malcolm X movement, the NOW movement, the feminists of all kinds organizing to change society from a “better than” to an “equal to” society, in the LGBTQ Society – ‘lets opt to work for marriage equality and those things that are culturally accepted and makes us like everybody else.

That is why we are still having to fight so hard. The evil in us comes out and we cannot stand to see such goodness about to break through into this world. ‘What will I do if I am expected to be equal?’

During the Black Civil Rights Movement it was said the only way to solve the problem of racism is for Whites to give up White Privilege. In todays world Whites who have done just that have been singled out by the media and others and the attempt to destroy them has been unrelenting. Somehow, a White woman giving up her “white superiority” is a super huge threat.

We have attempted to make life a living hell for the few who came out publicly with such a declaration .

A White Male who comes out and claims he is not going to take it anymore announces he is running for President under the name Donald Trump. He is going to move to make sure equality does not come about. He is going to run for president because he sees and feels the fear in others as they look at such a possibility. He is going to become super wealthy with his friends by fighting against such and he will become the greatest man who ever lived. He was so insistent on his way of living he has now taken to comparing himself to Jesus and he has followers who are beginning to promote such beliefs.

He has corrupted the Republican Party and it has become a cult, following him down this road. He has combined with those like minded people who want to accomplish their ascendency over others for power and control. He is training his children to do the same thing and they have learned well at his knee.

He has been so successful that today he is working, successfully, to bring in the teachings and work of Joseph McCarthy accusing folks of Socialism and now moving to accusations of Communism which are the charges McCarthy made which totally disrupted these United States. He won’t move directly into the way McCarthy moved, but he does understand the pattern and will make a few cuts to make it fit his ways.

where will it end. Will the equal people succeed? Will the fascists come back and take over pushing us back brutally with killings and violence and their Concentration Camps to get things back to normal?

Our current president is pulling for the return of the fascists with him being the chief. He certainly has the ability to lie, cheat and steal to make it happen and worth his while.

Stay tuned. Hope you are on the right side.

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Before You Acquit Donald Trump!

Monday, February 3rd, 2020

Bettina Network Oracle speaks:

Ed Note: We have called in the Bettina Network Oracle because much needs to be revealed which is not now showing and we thought it was important to be able to put out whatever the oracle had to say – good, bad or indifferent.

“It is amazing that you have to call me in to say what is obvious. If humans in the United States will only get to know their history they will be able to see immediately the background for anything that happens in the U. S.

What is going on with this impeachment and all the other related things?

If you go over a review of your United States history you will see it is about time for a movement to come along, once again, to force the politics, business, legal, social sides of the United States to remain stringently White, Male, Northern European. Things are beginning to get out of hand, if you are one of those who sees his or her identity beginning to disappear into an identity of equality.

Such a movement that we are now seeing, which put Donald Trump and his family and friends in office was necessary for those who have benefitted from an identity which holds them above everyone else and keeps them preferred for those positions and other things on top of the society with basically the jobs and lifestyles to support that superior lifestyle going to those considered “lesser people”.

Such times have arrived and it has been brutal. Hopefully, this will be different, but it does not look hopeful.

To understand today take a look at what happened after the Civil War and after Reconstruction. Those who were accustomed to turning human beings into slaves and put in place an institutional structure which defined themselves as much better than others were horrified at the fact that Reconstruction was moving fast to make every citizen of the United States equal to every other citizen. The outrage of those who lost the war and some of those in the north who quietly approved of what the confederate people were doing began to make itself felt in massacres, lynchings of those who attempted to vote and were not white and male and those who were in the upper classes. The horribleness of what happened to those who thought they were equal to and moved to make that a part of the structure of society was horrendous.

Your Michael Bloomberg gave a talk recently which went back to recapture the history of the massacre in Tulsa Oklahoma when a small city of Blacks which worked hard and smart and was called the “Black Wall Street” was destroyed. Whites who could not stand seeing Blacks even survive went into that city and killed men, women, children and burned the homes and businesses in the city to the ground until there was nothing left except the remains of the carnage from the Whites who were unable to live with themselves if they were not “on top”, “better than”, reducing Blacks to nothingness and poverty through their own actions and blamed the Blacks for the situation they were in.

If you are having a difficult time understanding those who are defending Donald Trump and those working with him to bring about something very similar – think on those and other such happenings which are not captured in our history books unless you take the time to search long and hard to find such happenings.

Joseph McCarthy, a United States Senator came along several decades after the carnage in Tulsa and caused huge misplacements of the same kind, but he did it using the governmental processes. It was not the physical massacre, but he did an excellent job He called hearings and set up circumstances under which he and his followers and helpers could destroy anyone by calling them “Communists”. Many lives were destroyed in that process. It was not the kind of physical massacre that happened in Tulsa, but it was a massacre nonetheless.

Your present president knows about that because he had experience on the side of those doing that damage. He learned the craft he is now practicing at the feet of Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn during the days of those hearings and he has been looking for a way to bring that kind of ugliness back into the society so he will have more complete control over these United States. He started recently to bring McCarthyism back as he turned to accuse your Bernie Sanders of being a “Soviet- style Communist.” You will hear more of the same from him as he tries to bring others under that banner and see that they receive the kind of abuse that will bring them down and him up. Add his immigration killings and so much more and you will have a more complete picture of his lack of a soul.

Songs were written because of the viciousness of many trying to keep one group of people down. “Strange Fruit” – which you can hear on this blog with the story of its writing, came about because of the hundreds of Africans who were hung from trees ( which is the “Strange Fruit) because they dared to vote.

There are many more such happenings. Just search history and you will be overwhelmed at the evil it contains.

Andrew Jackson, Donald Trump’s favorite president, was censured for his actions which could be compared to Trump’s. He also was the president under whom the Trail of Tears happened during which thousands of Native Americans were destroyed. They were forced to walk from the Southeast to the middle of the country so Whites could live where their homes had been for generations. They walked with nothing – no food, no clothes, no place to sleep, and on and on it goes. This done by Donald Trump’s favorite president. How have you missed all of this? Or is it of no consequent to you?

I could go on for pages to make this a book instead of an article and there would be other such happenings still not included. When Trump embraced Andrew Jackson as his favorite president he was giving a message to the world. Some heard him loud and clear and knew from that point on how to deal with him and what to expect. Others, who did not have the ability to understand the connection still don’t get why Jacksons portrait is in the Oval Office and other such connections. The Trail of Tears was a time of killings and more which could parallel what has been started with the immigration and the way children and others are being treated. Did you realize death has come to some of the children put in “cold boxes” if they were sick and other such incredibly inhumane things?

And now, today, we are experiencing the beginnings of yet another one. Donald Trump is the evil who has come along to do what his mentors did and those in Reconstruction times did, and the KKK did with their lynchings and what so many others have done.

In past times, you came to me asking about what was happening with the immigrants and others things beginning to surface looking very much like the beginnings of Hitlers Germany. Didn’t that mean anything to anyone? What I said in answer to your questions has now come about. What good is it to give you this information if you ignore it and go ahead doing what will not be effective?

Don’t be so foolish as to be a part of the evil beginning to rain down on your United States. This is only the beginning. It is a gathering storm which will tear the world apart for one man’s power needs.

When there are as many leaders as you now have in your U. S. Senate who are willing to compromise their very soul for status, money, power and more, hope is a small flickering candle being buffeted in the winds blowing all around it and that candle will not be lit for long. When it goes out – so has hope.

Be very careful, you are playing with your eternity. Even small actions now count.

Bettina Members Respond to Trump

Saturday, February 1st, 2020

Bettina Member Speaks: Thank you for the blog on Kobe Bryant. No one wants to go there, but Donald Trump has pulled out all the stops to distract from his horribleness and he has been very good at it. It took me quite awhile before I realized the distractions he and his followers apparently created were just that and neither news nor anything else. When it came to the time of Trump’s trial to remove him from office it is clear there would be another distraction to make other distractions look small by comparison to attempt to lessen the impact of his criminality being in the news. Kobe Bryant’s death was just that and its timing was exactly at the time Trump needed such. It did serve as a distraction like nothing else could have.

When John Bolton’s book excerpts started coming out at the same time as Trump’s removal trials were starting, I felt something really big would happen because something outrageous and vile and extremely evil would be needed to attempt to diminish Trump’s negative headlines. After the killing of the guy at the top of Iran happened because Trump gave the order for what looked like the same reasons, it did come to mind that someone could have caused Kobe Bryant’s death and that someone would probably be Donald Trump and his supporters. No one has had the guts to say anything about that, but you folks always come out with truth and this could very well be truth and not a conspiracy theory.

Looking at what is happening around the world, it all seems geared to keeping a white master race over all. So it has been almost from the beginning of this country and so it is now. Those in control have been feeling insecure as the United States moves towards the minorities becoming the majority and the same thing is happening in other parts of the world. The people fighting to maintain the kind of control they have maintained over the generations is becoming more visible and shows their insecurity and the lengths they will go to maintain themselves as white and – as you folks would say – “better than.” Russia, under Putin, is the first to come to mind and aren’t they a very white nation? And on and on it goes.

You had a down time with the blog which worried me. I called to find out what was happening that we weren’t seeing blogs. I was sure before I called you would be in the midst of some kind of harassment, but I was equally sure you would come out of it. Glad to see you back. I am enclosing a contribution to keep you keeping on. Keep fighting back. You are trying to combine a great business with an outlet for those who who use your services to have things to say that are not credibly being said by others. Keep it coming and don’t let up.

You have lots of followers, lots of love and many people pulling for your success. We know what happened with Airbnb and it was ugly. Every time I see their name I get angry, especially when I see the mess they are making of what was a fantastic industry that survived over the generations. I also see Marceline’s family background in journalism coming through. That is a powerful combination and I hope you pull it off. – call me when you need help and I will certainly positively respond. In the meantime, I will be out here spreading the word about all of you and your business.

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Ed. Note: Thank you so much for the contribution and for being there for us as we move ahead growing and changing the business, keeping the blog moving towards our goal of a media outlet which puts out the ideas and more that we pick up in the process of meeting folks who become supporters and our source of news, ideas and more. You are the reason we keep going.

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IT COSTS MONEY TO PRODUCE THIS BLOG. WE HOPE YOU WILL CONTRIBUTE SO WE CAN EXPAND AND CONTINUE THE RESEARCH AND WRITINGS WHICH KEEP YOU KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT MANY THINGS THAT WOULD NOT REACH YOU OTHERWISE ALONG WITH THE OPINIONS AND WORK OF THOSE WHO ARE MEMBERS OF BETTINA NETWORK’s LIFESTYLE COMMUNITY.

What follows are some of the ways you can support our work:

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

*This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc. which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

into a major media outlet bringing to the public news, recipes, thoughts, reviews of businesses, etc. from the perspective of those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.  This is not a tax deductible contribution. You can send a check to Bettina Network, inc. P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 to support this blog! Please make your check payable to “Bettina Network, inc.”

Project 4 – Boycott the Twenty Dollar ($20) bill

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation will be used to support the many activities in which we engage to try to make this a better world. 

_________________________________________________________

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

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net 




The Most Corrupt Country is the U. S.?

Thursday, January 30th, 2020

by: Marceline Donaldson

It is amazing to watch and listen to the impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

I was a Republican from the time I first voted. Coming from the deep south and with a relative a few generations removed who was head of the Louisiana Republican Party and who was African American; and coming from a part of the country where African Americans were harassed and sometimes lost their lives if they registered and voted; and knowing that the back-up you had to even partially participate in the political life of the United States was the Republican Party; and having experienced the ugliness of the Democratic Party at that time and its close relationship with the KKK and other White Nationalist Groups, I didn’t see any other choice.

I stuck with the Republican Party for decades after it was clear the direction the Party was taking, I kept trying to say – honor your history – look at where you are going – see the Democratic Party refusing to seat Blacks at their Convention – but look at the overwhelming numbers of racists joining the Republican Party – be loyal to the Republicans – forget that, look at where the Democratic Party is going and doesn’t that look as though the two Parties are going to exchange places! Clearly, I overstayed my welcome in the Republican Party by decades. And as I tried to be some kind of mitigating force I should have given up years ago as the handwriting was clearly on the wall.

My Waterloo came when Donald Trump became the Party nominee for president. It was unbelievable. I followed Trump for years; knew his extreme racism; saw his talent for taking every corrupt advantage that presented itself and who very carefully walked past the high road as though he had a terminal allergy to such; saw the sexual abuse and assault charges against him which constantly reached newspaper headlines and saw the extreme corruption accompanied by a set of morals which hit the gutter and kept going down.

Even with all of that, I could not imagine him nor anyone else reaching the presidency of the United States and being so unbelievably, publicly, corrupt. He was and is clearly what Corporate America could become and is becoming as Trump leads the way. All of my civil rights and other fights surfaced extreme evil in these United States, but there was always these clouds of good which seemed to gain the advantage and take us in a different better direction. That has almost come to a halt with Trump and the evil forces have become unbelievably strong.

I have been trying to look into who are his followers. We don’t want to believe the racism in these United States, however, there can be no dispute that whatever Trump does is acceptable to his followers because he has given out the clear signal that he will do his thing and make himself rich and powerful at the expense of the rest of us and his followers will accept and glorify him in spite of that, because he will keep back the hordes of minorities who will soon be the majority and in keeping them constantly submerged, oppressed, fighting for their economic and actual lives so he has the space to keep the United States Government, Corporate America and every other crack and crevice in this country where power resides White, Northern European and male. He is keeping his pledge to his supporters and they are keeping their pledge to him. In other words, he has made a pact with his followers that he will preserve their identity as being a part of a country where the overwhelming money, power and everything else resides in the White, Male, Northern European with the rest of us picking up the pieces they cast aside and being used as the scapegoats to justify their claimed greatness that they hold up as who they are.

Trump seems to have been taking lessons and receiving support from Putin in Russia, Erdogan in Turkey, the prince in Saudi Arabia and a few other smaller actors and putting those lessons to great service to his cause – which is the aggrandizement of himself, the accumulation of limitless wealth, the power to do whatever he wants with some of the most corrupt people who have made it to a substantial place in this society supporting and coming around him to add to the evil he is spreading all over the world. It is clear his supporters on this high level supporting and covering up his evil have been on a questionable moral level as they moved through their professional lives, but they did not show themselves as corrupt as they could be and have become in their push to support Trump and cover-up his sins that he is spewing over all of us. The problems Putin, Erdogan and the Prince are going to have will surface – big time – if Trump clears these hurdles. His needs are limitless and with the United States swamping their countries in wealth, power and much else, he will be quick to put them in their places and they will not begin to be Trump’s equal.

We have a president of these United States who is a sexual abuser and assaulter of almost two dozen women who have come forth and made their charges against him. Who knows how many others there are who have not had the courage or moral fortitude to come out with what happened to them. He sees his sexual abuse as his right and nothing wrong with his assaulting women – he has earned the right.

We have a president of these United States who has “stolen” the hard work of those ordinary citizens who worked hard to build a business and had him come along to destroy – in some cases – their life’s work. Again, he sees that as his right and normal for him. He is doing that to these United States and to as many people in it or trying to cross over to become a part of these United States as he needs to destroy to push himself and keep himself at the top of power and wealth.

As I interact with many of his supporters, I feel the need to go home and take a long, hot shower. You know this kind of evil exists, but you don’t normally encounter it on such a prolonged basis. What is horrible about the encounters I have had is the attitude of his supporters that they are right, good and Trump is doing nothing but supporting their current identity as better than and their right to continue to be better than.

When Nixon resigned it was said he did so because he did not want to put this country through the trauma that would come if he stayed to fight. That wasn’t so real to me when it happened, I was enmeshed in the horror of what he did and his attitude towards it. As I see what Trump is putting this country through so he can stay in power and do all of the other evils that he has to do to stay in power, I understand the gift to this country that Nixon gave us as a partial atonement for his sins.

There are questions in all of this that I have not heard asked or answered. The most crucial is the one I have been asking for months and at times on this blog – We all acknowledge that Mitch McConnell kept Barack Obama from being able to appoint a Supreme Court Justice during the end of his time in office. I don’t hear anyone talking about, asking about, being amazed and disgusted about the conclusion one has to come to about Mitch McConnell when the answer to that questions begins to dawn. – “What did Mitch McConnell know about the intervention of foreign governments and their heads intervening and manipulating our presidential election. What does he know and what does he see as his involvement in this world when that success happens.”

My conclusions about Mitch McConnell is that he is beholden to and working with foreign influencers who want control over these United States. When McConnell started withholding the Supreme Court nomination from Obama it looked as though Hillary Clinton was going to be the next president of these United States. Clearly, McConnell was not keeping the Supreme Court nominee from Obama to give Hillary the ability to make such an appointment. It seems to me he had to have knowledge that the results of that election would be Donald Trump being elected president and that would be the beginning of his and his groups’ appointing judges who would do their bidding and change this country for decades if not generations – as a beginning of what they would do. If he did indeed have such knowledge, what were and are his involvements in what would be treason. We haven’t heard much of anything about that.

And then there is the role of Pence………………

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IT COSTS MONEY TO PRODUCE THIS BLOG. WE HOPE YOU WILL CONTRIBUTE SO WE CAN EXPAND AND CONTINUE THE RESEARCH AND WRITINGS WHICH KEEP YOU KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT MANY THINGS THAT WOULD NOT REACH YOU OTHERWISE ALONG WITH THE OPINIONS AND WORK OF THOSE WHO ARE MEMBERS OF BETTINA NETWORK’s LIFESTYLE COMMUNITY.

What follows are some of the ways you can support our work:

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

*This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc. which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

into a major media outlet bringing to the public news, recipes, thoughts, reviews of businesses, etc. from the perspective of those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.  This is not a tax deductible contribution. You can send a check to Bettina Network, inc. P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 to support this blog! Please make your check payable to “Bettina Network, inc.”

Project 4 – Boycott the Twenty Dollar ($20) bill

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation will be used to support the many activities in which we engage to try to make this a better world. 

_________________________________________________________

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

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net 




“Better Than” – The Power that built the United States!

Friday, January 24th, 2020

We have held off on our postings because we could not believe what we were seeing from those sending their comments to be published in Bettina Network’s Blog. It is time for us to put all of that together and lay out for you what many in our community are thinking.

This is an opportunity presented in these United States to citizens, immigrants, illegals, temporary residents, permanent residents, students and others to put your professional lives on the line. We haven’t done much, but have paid a high price for some of the things we have written about in this blog. We knew that was a possibility when we started this blog, but took an oath that we would write without letting the possibility of negative consequences mitigate our voice. It is the collective voice of those who use Bettina Network, inc. And yes, sometimes we can publish diametrically opposed ideas in the same week. That is who we are – not “better than” because we are “politically correct”, but “every person” expressing themselves for all to see and hear.

Member #1: Until this Trump conflagration came along I struggled to understand why my life was so oppressed; why many around me felt so free to step all over me without holding back; denying what they were doing; and blaming me for their sins so blatantly committed against me and those like me. I also could not understand why even many of those like me felt the need to commit the same sins against me. None of it made sense.

Along comes Donald Trump and his followers and promoters and his attempt at a movement. In the process, we have not joined his “movement” but he and his totally and completely answered the questions that have haunted my life. The downside of it all is that it comes at the end of my life. Hopefully, there are others on whom these messages and this morality play, being acted out in front of us daily, will have meaning and who will recoil from everything it lays bare. Take its message to heart – it is the difference between life and death for all of you. For some of us to deny, turn away, claim otherwise really does separate the sheep from the goats – the good from the bad – those wallowing in sin and those pulling themselves out of the muck and cleaning themselves of all that has gone before.

Member 2: When I take in the entire spread of history in these United States it doesn’t bode well for human beings. It casts us as evil;, as harboring a gene we pass on from one generation to the next to destroy others because we hold ourselves to be “better than” all life on earth even at times including our own families. Where does that come from? How did we get here? Why are we constantly moving in and out of times which can make Hitler’s Germany look like a relief from what we are living? Or is this that final wake-up cal!, which if not answered correctly moves into another period of human degradation of us killing each other and declaring those we kill as less than. Or is this the time during which we can repent all of the evil we and our ancestors have done and/or caused to have done!

Member #3: How could people who came to these shores looking for a better life – a freer life – a life full of goodness and not the “better than” we were struggling under and being oppressed by in another country – experiences which made us take the risk of crossing an unknown ocean seeking Nirvana. How have wound up with the history we read about even in the redacted history books we use to teach our children of our past?

We came and survived with the help of those who were already here and had been for generations. We were immediately grateful until that gratitude was blown away by the storm clouds gathering from the “better than” universe. As our beginnings in this country moved from struggling to just survive; learning from those already here how to plant what grew in these climates; build houses; have a life which began to grow to see us enjoy freedoms denied from whence we came – we moved to being “at home”. Just as that began to happen we didn’t thank those who were there for us when we were in need. We turned to fight them because we began to consider ourselves, once again, as better than. We let our “better than” genes come out and they won the day culminating in Andrew Jackson’s Trail of Tears.

Member #4: Andrew Jackson, who we claim to have been the founder of the Democratic Party, has seen his political group move from racist developers of the Ku Klux Klan to people doing their best to free us from the likes of Donald Trump and move us into a more equal place. As years later Abraham Lincoln, who we claim was the founder of the Republican Party has seen his political group move from defenders of liberty; as the group Africans looked to as we voted in a country which hung you if you tried such; which worked to defeat segregation has now moved to become the group which works to make sure segregation is maintained and never changes. The GOP today shows itself in its current administration of 99% white, northern European ancestry people with a president who is showing his potential to make even Adolph Hitler, who he studied during his young adult years, look good.

How could we come to these shores running away from persecution and set in place a government with leaders who clearly persecute others and claim our right to do such because we and our governmental structures and business structures are so much better than those others.

How could we not acknowledge our greed and laziness which moved us to traffic in human beings who we called slaves and set in place to do the work of making us great in this country and certainly “better than” the slaves who actually did the work of such while we strutted around like peacocks taking the credit.

How could we set our women up to look like peacocks and buy into a lifestyle which oppressed them from birth to death, to get the women in this society to be the pattern we used to enslave Africans and maintain ignorance as to their real position in this society? One of oppression and maintained in slavery of a different kind only with a different mythology keeping them in place? How did we convince women to continue in that space when we used the marriage laws, which enslaved women to be the basis upon which we passed laws to enslave Africans.

How could we massacre and slaughter in this country those who tried to move into a more equal place? And deny what we were doing even unto today?

How can we see the economic inequalities which cause some to be homeless, on the street with scraps to eat from the throw aways of those in control; with clothes thrown away by others as what they wear; as make shift tents or simply beds on the cement benches around the parks and other places or even worse on the sidewalk and in the doorways until our police force comes along to force them to move along.

How can we see the storms gathering as those with enormous greed develop businesses which take away from others to put largess into their own pockets and consider themselves “better than” because they have figured out how to move ahead at the cost of tens of thousands of peoples lives?

Member #5: As we look at what is happening with the Trump Administration; within the Trump family; with their friends and others we can see ourselves over the centuries. Different clothes, a different political system, different words to describe the same thing, and using denial, greed, murder, oppression, theft and more to maintain themselves to satisfy their need to be “better than” – in and among those people we see ourselves. Not clearly, because we have our own denial, greed, murder, oppression, theft and more having constructed a curtain we cannot see through which reflects us and our lives in the mirror behind that curtain we designed to be able to have complete denial of who we are and what we are about.

Today, we have the advantage of seeing this morality play over television and our other technology that we use to “keep up” with what is happening. Amazingly, in spite of watching this reality play in front of our eyes we can see “them”, but we can’t see how “they” are a reflection of “us” and are a part of “us”. We cannot see what we have done and are doing to others just as egregious as what they are doing that we are watching daily.

Instead, that morality play is making some of us even much “better than” they are and shoring up our next chapter in this life so that it continues and we do not have to deal with who we are in this life and the part we have and are playing.

Trump and his group are making it possible for us to continue as “better than” and to usher in another chapter with the next generation of those who are much, much better than in a society which has all white business owners, all white in polite society, all white and male in government, with those who are not taking secondary places and feeling blessed to be able to do so because that means they are “better than” those in their own group who didn’t make the cut. The fact that they are the ones in their group parroting and allowing “better than” to continue and those cut out have called out truth just can’t get through into the discussion to attempt to make total, real change.

A Response by a Bettina Member

Thursday, December 5th, 2019

First – I am young, white and male. I need to put that out front so you know something about where I am coming from. I am also a scientist who has been using Bettina Network for several years and look forward to my time spent in one of your homes in Harvard Square – it is my favorite place to go. I get the education in that house that I didn’t get at home and I get to stay in real luxury surroundings at the same time – something I also did not get to do at home.

I read Marceline’s article on Kamala Harris and there are things I would like to add that she did not say. Things I researched after many breakfasts in her home which just blew my mind. Mostly, about telling the truth.

To tell the truth about Kamala Harris means to say that she was one of those who supported Barack Obama from the beginning. At the beginning of Obama’s candidacy, when others were looking elsewhere, Kamala Harris was strong in using her time and other resources to work towards getting Obama elected president. She has yet to be given credit for that. What blows my mind is the fact that so called “older blacks” are supporting Joe Biden because of his closeness to Obama. How such is that?

That should not be such a surprise to me because I noticed over the years African Americans are not great supporters of Bettina Network. I have yet to meet one using this network and my conversations with those I know blow my mind. A couple African Americans I know and who are friends of mine would rather stay in lesser accommodations and pay more than to stay at the Bettina Network. They don’t articulate why, but after a short conversation it becomes clear they do not give much credit to a company owned by another African American, especially a woman. Given that I have some understanding as to why blacks are not supporting Kamala Harris. To support their own seems to be a negative to just about every African American I have met. This is an article, after all, in which I am determined to tell the truth as I see it in this life. If that violates you or makes you angry so be it. I have had to struggle years to be able to face life as it is rather than as it is described to me for me to believe as the truth.

To tell the truth about Joe Biden, which few are doing, means to say that he was not one of those supporting Barack Obama when Kamala Harris was out on the campaign trail doing exactly that. My research shows that from the very beginnings of Barack Obama’s campaign there was Kamala Harris doing everything she could to support his candidacy.

It is to admit that Biden was instrumental in seeing that Thurgood Marshall was followed by Clarence Thomas – and that is who “older blacks” are supporting instead of supporting Kamala Harris? I was too young to remember the hearings, but I went back to read about what happened when Clarence Thomas was put on the Supreme Court and it was vile and who was instrumental in seeing that happen? Pictured in newspaper clippings as chair of the panel that made sure Thomas was exonerated enough to be elected to the Supreme Court – Joe Biden. So now we have to live with him on the Supreme Court without acknowledging who was instrumental in making that happen.

To tell the truth means to talk out loud without being intimidated to say Joe Biden treated a black woman – Anita Hill – disgracefully, and this is the man being promoted as the successor of Barack Obama? The man promoted as the next president while Kamala Harris’ campaign is suspended? I do not wonder why we now have Donald Trump as president. Sometimes I wonder if he is not who we deserve.

To tell the truth means to point out the upset and upheaval that happened when Elizabeth Warren was, briefly, the front runner in the Democrat’s primary presidential campaign. Such furor and upset was palpable. A flurry of activity and out comes Michael Bloomberg and even DeVal Patrick running into the campaign to stop what looked like an election getting out of control – how? a woman was then the front runner taking control out of the hands of the white males who normally oversee and dictate such things whether they be Republican or Democrat. That should have been done generations ago, but we are still here fighting the same battles we have been fighting for generations. I hope it stops with my generation. At least there seems to be some hope after we have seen an African American man as president doing an outstanding job followed by an out of control White man who someone said wears “clown shoes” and will engage in treason to keep himself up front and in control because his ego needs that. The job he does is irrelevant, only a by-product of his stage settings for himself. And that job includes turning the United States Government into a criminal enterprise over which he rules as the godfather? Is this what I am inheriting?

All of a sudden there were people coming out from all corners to stop Elizabeth Warren. The last time I saw anything like that was when it looked as though Hillary Clinton might win and out came even Russia and Vladimir Putin to stop that and stop her becoming president even if they had to sully the process to achieve their goal.

We don’t tell the truth. And so we help elect the likes of Donald Trump. The man whose closest long term adviser is Steven Miller – a Jew who hates other Jews and has promoted and helped to bring about things that were prevalent during Hitler’s reign and Nazi Germany. Just like Trump’s mentor Roy Cohn who was a gay man who hates gays.

To tell the truth means that we have a straight line we can draw in our government from Joe McCarthy of “communist” days straight through to Donald Trump. I heard at many breakfasts how Trump learned at the feet of Cohn and McCarthy and as my research bore that out I was stunned. That is not something I would have put together otherwise.

We have constantly had to fight such people and why? Is it because we put forth a scenario which skewers the truth and puts forth instead a story line which is meant to manipulate the voting public into a stance that we want which will maintain the system as it is rather than tell the truth to gain a fully functioning system open to all which reflects the equality we claim to be about?

We had a senator in Joe McCarthy who was rumored to be a total drunk and yet he had lots of support as he careened all over the place making life a living hell for many, seeing to it that their lives were upheaveled, their jobs lost, their beliefs lied about for the convenience of the many who wanted to see the kind of “purge” McCarthy undertook. I didn’t realize until my stay in a Bettina home the connection between McCarthy, Cohn and Trump. There was even talk about the role Robert Kennedy had sitting at McCarthy’s right hand as he made his way up the political ladder. I heard it at a breakfast seminar and still didn’t believe it until I did my own research and the shock that this is my country and this is what we are about hit with crude power and I have not been the same since.

I could go on for pages, but this is what we need in this country – tell the truth and deal with the consequences. What a totally refreshing idea. Maybe then we wouldn’t have to worry about the “billionaire group” who deserve to be a part of this society also. And we wouldn’t have to worry about the feminists, or the lesbians, or the homosexual males, or the angry blacks, or the immigrants, or……… All people we have in our immediate families – well, maybe not all, but certainly one or two. We can have family dinners with them, but not allow them to be an equal part of our lives. Is that why our family lives are so screwed up? To be better than, we have to hide and/or try to change those who share our genes?

Maybe when I get a bit older I will understand and join this group, but now, as a young person I hope I continue learning and speaking truth. It is freeing like nothing else. At least if I decided to support Joe Biden it would be after I knew the truth about his history and who he is today. But even so I agree with you Marceline, I would rather support someone like Kamala Harris for president. I was lukewarm about her until I read your article. Today, I would like to be one of her supporters.

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