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Mafia Speak: The necessity for loyalty within Trump’s circle: The fast moving growth of a mafia within the U. S. Government!

Sunday, March 10th, 2019

We complain about the rapid accumulation of 99% of the wealth within the United States economic system being available to only 1% of the population and we talk about Capitalism to Socialism to Fascism, but we don’t get into the particulars of how that is happening.

Clearly, if we did not have a mafia within the U. S. Economic System trying to take over we would not have a billionaire class. We have a very thriving Billionaire Class structure which is growing dramatically fast and dictating who will and who will not join them.

The kind of investment needed to create such a group; the “loyalty” demanded to keep it going and growing; the flagrant violations of the U. S. Constitution to keep the way clear for the mafia structures needed to replace the structures sustaining the U. S. Republi; the pressures to give up the Republic and take instead the structure of the more fascist-authoritarian governmental structures necessary have taken time and several administrations. With the Trump Administration we have finally arrived at that point where it becomes clear that we are barreling ahead into a government which is fast becoming a criminal enterprise headed by a man whose privately owned company could best be described as a RICO organization.

There have been many examples along the way, but the press has either been reluctant to make the call and do the investigative reporting to bring to the public the structures within which they are now living or they do not know and only see such things in the rear view mirror. And that makes sense since the role of the press is to report the news – to report what has happened.

The examples are becoming increasingly ‘in your face’ and they are being immediately ‘normalized’ as just the way we function today.

The latest example was extraordinarily blatant – and that was the sentencing of Manafort. It was an incredible example of “Mafia Speak” – right out front expecting the public and press to gloss over what was done.

A Prelude to the First Mafia Speak: (Setting the stage)

In the context of the original trial, Judge Ellis attacked one of the witnesses – Rick Gates – by testifying instead of maintaining himself as the judge – “…Manafort could not have been paying that much attention to what you (Gates) were doing. If so, he (Manafort) would have known how much money you were stealing from him.” That comment was apparently an attempt to turn the original trial, as much as possible, away from Manafort – to give him some breathing room and allow any juror listening to be persuaded in Manafort’s favor. That said there is Mafia Speak coming.

First Mafia Speak:

  1. The judge said – right before pronouncing the sentence on Paul Manafort – “You are not before this Court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government to influence this election.”

That was a very strange comment for a judge to make. Normally, a judge stays within the confines of the hearing in front of him, he does not wander off as Judge T. S. Ellis did to an unrelated and totally out of context comment which he apparently had a specific reason for doing. That reason became clear as the day progressed. Judge Ellis set up what followed and allowed the mafia “Don” to make his point later in the day for the public to be brought along in the way he wanted the public to go. The “Don” said he was “honored” by his people.

Second Mafia Speak:

2. After the hearing and sentencing when Paul Manafort’s attorney, Kevin Downing, went to the microphones outside the courthouse to say a few words to the reporters gathered outside, he said: “There is absolutely no evidence that Paul Manafort was involved with any collusion with any government official from Russia.”

Interesting in his comments, they were also outside of what the hearing was about. In addition, both the judge and attorney, who are professionals in the law and who know there is no legal term such as “collusion” – it is Donald Trump’s favorite way to characterize the special counsel’s investigation – Attorney Downing’s comments as well as Judge Ellis’ comments began to sound like “Mafia Speak” – things said at the direction of the mafia boss ‘ Donald Trump.

Reason for the First and Second “Mafia Speak” comments:

3. To close the circle and bring it around to why the Judge and Attorney made those statements, which stood out because of their inappropriateness and un-attachment to the hearing and sentencing – later in the day, Donald Trump made comments about the hearing and sentencing when Reporters shouted questions to him at the White House.

Donald Trump’s comments were “I just want to tell you that his (Manafort”s) lawyer went out of his way actually to make a statement last night, no collusion”. “The judge, for whatever reason, I was very honored by it, also made the statement that this had nothing to do with collusion with Russia.”

The mafia don then completes the circle by coming out with what was supposed to be the denouement comment – the reason for the first and second “Mafia Speak” comments. The three of them – the Judge, who set the table, the Attorney, who brought the food to the table and Trump who sat down to eat what was being served to him, let his capo’s know they had done a great job by commenting on his feelings of being ‘honored’ by what had just been done for him. And clearly, Trump had paid for the table and its settings; the food on the table and was going to enjoy his meal knowing that mafia type loyalty still existed within his organization and with his ‘people.’ That is what James Comey missed in why Trump was asking for “loyalty” from him. Every mafia boss has to know that kind of loyalty is crucial because of the way they operate and the necessity for cover when the circumstances call for it.

That type of mafia control is spreading within the U. S. Government and will be hard to extinguish even after Trump is gone. That mafia structure became very clear to us as we looked at Wells Fargo and tried to decide if we should get involved with a boycott against them.

This is what is happening to your government, America. This is what has happened and continues to happen in your Court System. This is why McConnell has so much power – he is the one making this scenario possible so members of this mafia can function without too many repercussions until the society is better controlled by their mafia governing structure.

Even the seemingly innocuous language is telling. After the judge and attorney went out on a limb for Trump – he thanks them publicly and in the way of the mafia he was “honored by it.”

And now kiss the ring!

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott

Or you can send a check to Bettina Network, inc. P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 to support this blog! Please make your check out to “Bettina Network, inc.” since the blog income is not the foundation income.

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 currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott.

_________________________________________________________

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 or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.co


Homelessness – What Causes It?

Friday, January 4th, 2019

We have been studying this for years.  I can remember a time when there didn’t seem to be homelessness.  At least it was so carefully hidden most of us were not aware of anything except the romantic tale of the hobo who couldn’t live in a house – did not want to be closed in, but spent his life riding the freight trains from one place to another.  Little did we know that was real, except for the part about the hobo not wanting to live in a house and wanting to spend his life riding freight trains, cooking over fires he made from whatever he could gather that would burn, freezing to death along the railroad tracks, etc.  He was pictured in movies and other media as a happy camper living this life. There was usually happy music in the background when talking about such.

That was and is an extremely painful way to live and not one lived that way by choice.  What was also carefully hidden from John and Jane Q. Public was the fact that the hobo was the hobo he and some were the hobo she.    

I have always asked – why would a seemingly wealthy society allow such within its borders?  I have no answer.

Homelessness is caused by banks.  Oh, Wow!  I can hear the screams, objections and denials.  You can hem and haw.  You can object and protest.  When you sit down, clear your head and do the work and the investigation you will discover HOMELESSNESS IS INDEED CAUSED BY BANKS.

Within the bank, accountants and others sit and get paid to figure out ways banks can make more money at the expense of the middle class.  Sometimes banks hire consultants – usually outside accountants to do the same thing. “How can we charge for  services we don’t render.  How can we increase what we make on services we do render.”

Well lets take this one profit making pocket at a time.   What is the number one way banks cause homelessness?  House foreclosures.  How does that make so much money for banks?  

The fastest way banks cause homelessness and increase their profits exponentially in the process is through their ability to collect the real estate taxes (RET) levied on John and Jane Q. Public, by the government.  

Cities and other governmental entities are supposed to levy and collect their own real estate taxes.  In fact, that has been turned over to banks to do and it is done by banks in such a way that hundreds of billions of dollars flow into banks from this function.  Bank charges to city entities; fees of all kind levied on home owners for many reasons, etc. It is one of the reasons we have such huge banks and why it is difficult to impossible for the smaller banks to grow at the rapid rate seen in the larger banks.  

If you take out a mortgage with a bank – you most likely have to agree to paying your real estate taxes directly to them instead of to the city or other governmental entity.  Those RET are kept within the bank for at least six months doing nothing except making money and being used by the bank.  That is an amount of money the bank can “bank” on receiving and when and know it will be received with regularity and they know how long it will be in the bank.   From that they can plan how to use that money to increase their profits exponentially because you can’t come to withdraw any of that money, it has to stay put for the requisite period of time and when it has to be turned over it will have been a work horse for the time it stayed.  But – you should say – that money should be a work horse for the governmental entity to which the real estate taxes are owed.  

Look at how much better that money would work for you and me instead of being used to work against you and me keeping us poor or with a glass money ceiling over our heads. How did this happen?

This is one answer to the question – “How did banks grow so big!”  How come they have so much money!  Why are they so arrogant, independent, can be ugly to their own customers and still grow and stay in business. How can they throw so much money around (not the least of which is throwing it around political campaigns to keep the politicians beholden to them). This is one of the ways banks have grown so very large and are awash in hundreds of billions of dollars and it is a biggie.  It is also one of the ways banks promote foreclosure. – It is one of the ways they become the largest promoter of homelessness in this society.

 Homelessness is not about mental institutions which put its patients out on the street for lack of money to sustain, treat and cure them where possible? That is the marketing/advertising campaigns that are out there to mislead us all.  NO! Susie.  It is not.  That is and was a smoke screen.  Homelessness can be traced directly back to banks as its beginnings and root cause.  And, banks are a causer of homelessness dates back beyond the founding of these United States.  Banks have had this role for eons of time.

There is no reason for banks to collect real estate taxes on houses.  The taxes have work to do taking care of different needs of the people who pay the taxes.  If your real estate taxes must sit for six months in a bank – having been paid some six months before they are due so the bank can have that bit of huge money inflow to help it grow ‘big time’, that is a ‘big time’ problem for the people for whom those funds should be working.

The money paid to banks far in advance of when the city says they are due should actually be working to gain more income for you or for the city – if indeed it is not obscene and a violation of your rights to make such a requirement.  In fact, almost all of the real estate monies are collected in this country by banks; sit in the bank working very hard for the bank; and earning untold billions to help grow that banks strength and reach into the community.

Many games are played around real estate taxes and banks.  We, the tax payer,  assumes the present system is the way it should be and we go along with the program – much to our detriment.  We make that assumption because we don’t think of ourselves and our rights. We accept what is, if it is dressed up in Patrician clothes and exhibits the mores of a Patrician class.

Banks collect RET (Real Estate Taxes) on a monthly basis from people who acquire mortgages from them.  The people must then repay the mortgage, usually monthly,  along with 1/12 of that years real estate taxes each and every month.  The bank keeps that money and uses it because real estate taxes are usually only paid by the bank to the city every six months.  The average mortgage holder much pay their real estate taxes monthly and six months in advance of their being due. 

This is an inviolable thing.  No one questions it – and it goes so unquestioned that banks can foreclose and they do foreclose on homes and families even if the mortgage is paid in full each month.  If the real estate taxes are not paid six months in advance the foreclosure happens – not by the city because it does not see taxes owed by citizens and does not foreclose if a citizen misses one six month period of paying taxes, but the bank does this on a regular basis.  Claiming a person is behind in their mortgage even though that is not true and even though the taxes – which they are behind in paying – are taxes, amounts of money, not due for another month or two.

To put that in its proper context. Banks make substantial sums of money on funds that stay in the bank overnight. And they maximize that in every way possible. These are funds that stay in the bank for six months, definite, not able to be withdrawn, tied up in the bank no matter what. Imagine the money made on that. The bank pays a very small amount of “interest” to the mortgage holder on their “escrowed real estate taxes” – minuscule to the amount it is making on those funds.

When that happens – add a little push to get the family headed into financial problems which results in the house being foreclosed, and banks have been known to do this frequently.  Add a minority to whom the bank has given a mortgage; add a minority who has somehow skipped past the banks red-lining policy; add to that a property which has a very small mortgage compared to the large equity position of the property owner – no matter the race, color, class, ethnic origin, religion of the property owner and, in a bank with lousy ethics which is or is bordering on becoming a criminal enterprise, another game usually moves hand in glove with the real estate taxes game.

Banks have been known to target families where there is a large gap between the value of the house and the balance of the mortgage.  When a person has a small mortgage and a large equity position they are sitting ducks for a bank to salivate over future profits.

That was out of control during the last recession and banks were so overcome running where their greed pushed them that our banking system almost collapsed.  Their greed overcame their ability to function any other way.  Many bankers and realtors became wealthy with such a scheme – one amongst many.  Many individuals faced poverty, bankruptcy, homelessness – especially homelessness.

 More on this story in another blog.  Maybe even a few real life stories!

__________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale

Project 2 – Wells Fargo Boycott

__________________________________________________________

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 or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

It Is Time to Boycott Wells Fargo Bank! – #WellsFargo

Sunday, December 2nd, 2018

Bettina Network Foundation, inc. is calling on everyone to join in and actively participate in this boycott of Wells Fargo Bank.

For a very long time banks have been fundamental in making sure there is none to very little change in this society.  Racism, sexism, homophobia, class discrimination, who owns and keeps the wealth in this country and so much more are determined by your local bank – which is probably no longer local but is the branch or unattended outlet of a major, international banking plus other businesses institution.  And most notably they are majorly responsible  for homelessness.  Not entirely, to be sure, but they do maintain the structure – in tact – no matter how loud or long they protest their innocence.

What do they gain?  One thing is keeping us divided against each other so communication as to what they are doing is knowledge kept and known only to a few.

How is wealth created in these United States?  Through either real estate or stock.  Either through ownership of land – real property – as it increases in value, or through ownership in corporations as they increase in value.

Many people have tried to increase their wealth and have been stymied.  Mostly by the banks – even though we are not ignoring the role of other institutions. Unfortunately, in spite of our great educations, most of us are ignorant of how this happens and therefore it continues.

How has this happened?  Little by little we hope to unfold for you all of it so you can function with a knowledge that makes your actions and your life more productive.

Banks have in the past and still do today majorly maintain segregated neighborhoods through “red lining”.  They are helped in this endeavor by some realtors, but brokers, dealers, realtors can’t take all the credit.  Most of it goes to the banks.

Red lining is an old way of maintaining separation of peoples based on things like color, economic and financial status, etc. which has not gone out of existence.   It has just gone underground and periodically takes on new forms.  Banks do not maintain that separation of peoples only through red lining, they do it through the intentional destruction of neighborhoods targeted for “urban renewal” or for a change of a neighborhoods racial make-up or etc.  There are billions of dollars involved and to be made by those who are a part of such transactions along with the loss of lives, livelihoods and more.

Which bank is the most egregious bank of them all?  WELLS FARGO!

In spite of tens of thousands of dollars having gone into the legal process to get them to change and many other ways which have been tried to approach this problem, Wells Fargo is still ripping off the American public – and probably many overseas as well.  As a result of the legal processes, which they lost, the only change we can see is a new and improved marketing and advertising program which the bank has rolled out instead of making restitution in real ways to those they have hurt.  That marketing and advertising program is nothing more than smoke and mirrors to get you to continue doing business with them so they can continue doing that business as usual.  And lets not talk about fines, etc. imposed on Wells Fargo.  To you and me that is like money to go to the store to buy ice cream or a pizza given their overall finances.

The ugliness, which has hurt so many,  is still enshrined within the bank along with its structures and the people who carry them out.  Most are people who carry out these policies to put food on their tables and to keep a roof over their heads.  Many are people competing to have better food and a more expensive roof over their heads.  It is time to take another look at what you can do and how you – Wells Fargo employees – can contribute to bringing about basic change, accepting your responsibility for being one of those making the lives of others extremely difficult so you and yours can benefit.  There are ways you can help bring about basic change and maintain your job and your increasingly lucrative and going up the ladder of success lifestyle.  You don’t have to concentrate on or be involved in only the one – because you are likely to be one of those against whom you moved to make their lives difficult to impossible.  History shows that is probably going to be the result of your efforts, if you continue on the path you are now taking.

Exposure is one way!  Open the windows, throw open the doors and let fresh air flow through.  Let the general public know what is going on and what we can do to make basic change so we all benefit.

Bettina Network Foundation, inc. is calling one way we can all move towards changing this society for the better:

  1.  If you have a savings account with Wells Fargo – close it.  You can open it with another bank.  And yes,  all banks are complicit, but you have to start someplace.  One bank has to make change and one very large bank with lots of influence and which has been shown to be a bank which destroys lives, property, the quality of lots of peoples way of life and keeps on keeping on going down the wrong street ripping peoples lives apart is a good place to start.

2.  Once you have closed your savings account, let us know and let Wells Fargo know you closed your account and why!

3.  If you have a checking account with Wells Fargo – close it.

4.  And once again, let us know and let Wells Fargo know you closed your checking account and why!

5.  If you own stock in Wells Fargo – sell it.  And let Wells Fargo know you sold your stock in their bank and any subsidiaries you can find – let us know about the subsidiaries and let us and Wells Fargo know you sold your stock and why!

6.  And this is a biggy!  Do you own stock in other publicly traded corporations?  Check out who is the transfer agent responsible for keeping the records for that publicly traded corporation.  If it is Wells Fargo Shareowner Services or EG by Equiniti – demand that the corporation change its transfer agent and hire another totally unconnected to Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo Shareowner Services, from our experience, did lots to hurt John and Jane Q. Public.  Instead of responding to what they did they simply changed their name, ignored the problems they created and kept on moving ahead.  This is common for many corporations.  It is time for this to stop and you have the power to stop these under handed activities.

A statement taken from Equinity’s marketing materials – “Even though Wells Fargo has sold its transfer agency business, our relationship with Wells Fargo remains strong. We will continue to use banking and brokerage services provided by Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo will continue to use us as its transfer agent.”

Today’s Story is only one, but it begins to unfold why we are promoting and managing this boycott and what we want changed?  Bettina Network Foundation, inc’s goal is to eliminate homelessness.  That is a growth area in this society and the ways it has been attacked have not worked.  It is time to look at the base reasons and eliminate and change them so everyone has food, shelter and work in this very wealthy society.  We do not need to continue on this path of the rich getting richer and the middle class becoming homeless.

TODAY’S STORY!

“We owned Dayton-Hudson stock and we owned Target Corp stock for decades. When
Dayton-Hudson became Target Corp. all of our stock became Target Corp. stock. We kept that stock for decades. When we needed to sell the stock because we needed the money
for business purposes and needed that asset changed to cash quickly – as promised it would be by Target Corporation and the Securities and Exchange Commissio – we had to go through Wells Fargo Shareowner Services.

When we contacted Wells Fargo Shareowner Services to ask that they sell the stock – it became a several years consumption of money, time, emotional energy and more.

A transaction that should have taken a few minutes to send a letter with the appropriate form – accurately filled out – and then the next step taken by Wells Fargo Shoreowner Services should have been just four days for the stock to be sold and just a very short time after that for the money to be deposited into my account.  That process  actually took almost three years. Why? We have many theories, but why is irrelevant. What is relevant is
that our money was kept and our access to an asset which the Securities and Exchange Commission supposedly is the watch dog agency to make sure things like this does not happen all were useless in the face of Wells Fargo. Whatever they did was accepted and acceptable and I was put in the position of first a supplicant – please get this done, I need my money;  through to a very angry woman demanding her assets be treated and acted upon per her request.

WHY did I have to go through this? Because the Direct Purchase Plan with Target Corporation gave Wells Fargo Shareowner Services – the transfer agent for Target Corporation – the right to keep the stock certificates of the stock we owned. I was told many stories as to why that was the best thing to do – “when you are ready to sell there is no issue with the stock certificates, they are in the possession of Wells Fargo Shareowner Services or whichever transfer agent Target Corporation was using and the sale of the stock will be stress free for everyone and able to be executed in minutes.”

That was a lie! If, for any reason one of those corporations wants to move against you without showing their hand because you are a political or other kind of nuisance, you have given them the ability to do just that and they will use it – to harass you and make your financial life a shambles at their discretion and Wells Fargo Shareowner Services was the champion at doing that.  Leave your stock certificates for safe keeping with their services and they control your asset and no one is going to come to your rescue.  Attorneys will, costing more than the stock is worth, but no one else moves to help no matter their job description or their mandate.

Target Corporation, in spite of going all the way up the ladder from Customer Service to the “investment” area to the CEO of Target Corporation refused any kind of help.  To them, the responsibility was with Wells Fargo Shareowner Services and they closed off communications of all kind.  Letters went unanswered, pleas went unheeded, the door to the Executive Suite slammed shut.  This was not their problem.  But – said I – this is your stock not Wells Fargo’s stock.  Mean silence prevailed.

It took almost three years of going back and forth with Wells Fargo Shareowner Services, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Attorney Generals Office and more such institutions. When a lawyer became involved – only then were our wishes heeded.  At that point the asset was gone – attorneys don’t come cheap.  So while their goal was not fulfilled one way, it was indeed fulfilled in another way even more effective because it took my time, the asset and emotional energy to get to that solution.

When we started the process of asking that the Target Stock be sold, Wells Fargo Shareowner Services had just taken over as Target Corporations transfer agent. Today just three plus years later ownership of that Wells Fargo Shareowner Services has been transferred to Equinity. The same people are at the top and all through the ranks so what happened? Did their problems multiply because of the way they did business and the number of people they hurt that the easiest thing for them to do was not to make amends for their sins, but to transfer ownership so they did not have to take responsibility and did not have to correct their wrongs?  Talk to Equiniti and you will be told – sorry that is not our problem, we are not the company with whom you had problems.  Clean – swift – vicious!”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

That is a common way for such corporations to act and it is time for that to stop. If you hurt someone you need to make amends and make those people whole again at the same time changing the processes which caused the problem in the first place.

So we will go back to asking you to check your stock certificates on any stock you own – if the transfer agent is Wells Fargo Shareowner Services or if it is Equiniti, demand that the corporation whose stock you own change their transfer agent or you sell the stock and buy into another corporation which uses another transfer agent and let us and them know what you have done.

We will publish your story with or without your name depending upon your request to us. Why without the name of the person involved? Because retaliation by corporations is common and many have experienced unnecessary hassle and harassment and loss because of corporations trying to silence the public so they can be allowed to continue doing ugly, vile things without taking responsibility and without making those people whole.

Small steps in the right direction have been taken, in the past, by expensive and long lasting law suits from which almost no one benefits.  It is time for that to change!

Your basic responsibility is to the human beings with whom you inhabit this earth, to make it a better – more viable – kinder – gentler – more caring place to live without the ugliness we have all had to endure because of greed, power hunger and other such emotions and character flaws which have pervaded the institutions which are supposed to be there to help us navigate this world in a more flawless manner.

Please pass this along to as many people as you can possibly reach who you think need to read this message and to keep up with this boycott.

What do we need to continue, promote and make this a successful boycott?

Your ideas

Your time and energy to do the work of carrying this forward

Your money to help us meet the costs of such an action

______Ways to Contact Wells Fargo Bank to let them know you will not do business with them

Corporate Headquarters*

420 Montgomery Street
San Francisco, California 94163
United States
Phone: 866-878-5865
_______________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

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 or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

 

WHY VOTE FOR DONALD TRUMP!

Saturday, October 1st, 2016

What we all have been trying to understand is why so many people – good, kind, loving, caring people – are supporting and intend to vote for Donald Trump.

They have seen – as we all have – Trump’s negatives.  So why and where does this support come from?  We are past the racism, and sexism which has been used to explain Trump.  We are looking at and talking to the many who are 120% behind Donald Trump and nothing is coming between them and the “Don”.  How come!

His supporters have heard his lies and knew they were lies.  They’ve heard how he treats women and know that to be true.  They’ve heard about his racism and knew that also to be true.  They’ve heard all the hints about his bad temper and thin skin and have seen and heard how he will quickly and viciously insult anyone who he even thinks has insulted him.  They’ve heard the hints at the possibility of his being tied to the mafia – both within the United States and Internationally.  And they have heard and seen how all of the greats and near greats who are greatly respected in the United States are now falling all over themselves to detach themselves from being seen as even passively supporting Donald Trump.

So why are there so many still in his camp?

Much of this support is coming from people who have been lied to – cheated – who have seen their hard earned money stolen from them by those within the system in what has been made to look like ways supported by our laws.  They understand the evils of this system in which we live better than those at the top or near the top who have benefitted from the ugly ways of those who pull the strings for the money to flow from the have nots to a handful of the haves who can then step out into the spotlight looking clean, honest and working for the people.  They have lived through some financial horror stories, which most people can’t or won’t believe and which no one is fixing.  Given that, it is totally possible to overlook Trump’s negatives and hope that their lives will be better because Trump will fix it.

Let me give you a few examples – real life examples in which we have been involved.  Having a Foundation you can use it in one of many ways.  One way is to give money to be able to take a 501(c)3 deduction on your income taxes.  Or, you can give money, take the deduction – which doesn’t mean a lot to you – but you take away what you really need, which is the feeling that you have helped those in need. (But you have not had to rub elbows with those in need the “Foundation” people have been hired to do that – and even the “Foundation” people keep themselves removed from the actual recipients.)  Or, you can get involved, personally with the people your Foundation is working to help and therein lies the path to depression, frustration, disbelief, the death of your idols and the ideology with which you were raised, and for many,  your belief in the religious structures in which you function  and more.

Let me tie into the Wells Fargo mess and give you an actual example.  Put yourself into this one persons’ place and then you will see Donald Trump in a very different light.

A Disclaimer:   We are not advocating that you vote for Trump.  That vote would only make things worse, because all of this pain and suffering we have seen would be brought into the light and done without the cover under which it now functions.  Under a Donald Trump administration the front under which all of this evil operates would be stripped bare and made totally legitimate and we would then have to function seeing evil with nothing shielding us from the seriously infected swamp in which it lives.

Back to WELLS FARGO:

Why fight such a giant?  What have they done?  You’ve heard the Congressional hearings.  You’ve read in the papers how President Stumpf has been forced to give back millions to the company. Lets take a  look at the human cost to John and Jane Q. Public:

Assume you have a mortgage with Wells Fargo.

That opens you up to some incredible financial games, created by greed which has created today’s billionaires.

How?

There are many ways – this is just one.

Given your mortgage, Wells Fargo people are now able to open your finances and look in – and from what we have seen, they do just that. What do they have to gain? If they cause you financial trouble across the street, then at home, you will be subject to fees and penalties because they have set up a situation in which you stumble.  If you fall, so much the better, they have everything.  If you just stumble, that’s not so bad and that’s ok too because their fees are high.  They benefit under either scenario.

One other way you are vulnerable to them is through their Wells Fargo Shareowners Service.  A seemingly small, innocuous bureaucratic division which seemingly is quite straight forward in what it is tasked to do.  A little bureaucratic place in this great giant that you probably don’t realize exists.  A little place that interacts with and can control your assets in larger corporations whom they serve.

They are the agents – handling the stock transactions for several large corporations – like Target Stores.  So, let us assume you have a Wells Fargo mortgage and you own Target stock.  Now, lets assume that stock was purchased through Targets Direct Purchase Plan.  What a benefit.  You can send the company small amounts of money to purchase their stock.  So you establish such an account for your children and over the years accumulate Target stock by sending them just a few dollars each month.

Those few dollars add up to a few thousands of dollars and on and on it goes.

Now comes the time you need to sell that stock.  So you contact the transfer agent and ask them to send you the forms necessary for you to sell the stock.  They refuse.  You call again.  They refuse again.  And so it goes. What does that do to you?  You live your financial life assuming this is an asset you can convert to cash in a matter of days – or at least in a matter of a month at the longest, given the excessive times bureaucracies take to work.

Finally – months later – after much time spent on many telephone calls,  you get the forms.  You fill them out and spend over $20 sending the forms back to them – the original forms – via overnight mail to insure they get where they are going and so you have a record and can trace anything that might go wrong with the mail.  And then you wait – and wait – and wait.  But, nothing happens. They received the correctly filled out forms the very next day.  How do you know the forms are correctly filled out?  Because you took them to a bank and to a stock broker friend and you and the banker and the stock broker filled them out.  The banker executing a couple of the forms, as required by Wells Fargo Shareowner Services.

What happens as you wait for your money to be transferred into the account you indicated on your forms?  NOTHING!

So weeks later, you call – not Target, but Wells Fargo Shareowner Services.  Two large corporate entities tied together via this kind of transaction.  These two corporations are also tied to tens of thousands of people with small amounts of money they have accumulated over years of sending their bits and pieces of money to purchase Target stock. There are other large corporate entities so tied together.  Without knowing this you would not connect something happening to you through Target, inc. with Wells Fargo.

An interesting fact, but nothing that bothers you at the time – checking out Target to decide whether to continue investing in them at a later date you discover there is no way to contact their Executive Offices.  You don’t need to, but it is curious that their CEO is totally enclosed and cut off from any and all people except those close to him.  No telephone, no email, no way for the public to reach them. And this is a publicly owned corporation?  So you put that aside for later review.

What happens with the stock you are trying to sell?  The Wells Fargo Shareowner Services Company knows nothing about you, nor the forms you sent to them, and you have to hold on the telephone for over 45 minutes and insist and prove you sent forms to them while they search for these forms they claim to have “LOST”?

Finally, when you produce your proof of mailing, they find the forms and assure you the stock will be sold and you will be sent the money.

And then?  You get a telephone call from someone else from Wells Fargo Shareowner Services days later to say your forms are being sent back to you because they are not filled out correctly.  You ask why?  The person on the telephone does not know.  You hold on the phone and when someone finally comes back – they don’t know either.

So you get the forms back – and your finances are becoming a mess because you were selling the stock for a reason – you need the money. You have a business to expand.  You have projects you have started that need more funding. You have people you have promised to help who need the help now!

And then the fun begins.  For months nothing happens and you go round and round – sending letters, making telephone calls, getting nothing.  And your money is still tied up in Target stock – which you cannot use as money – it is just, at this point, worthless. You can’t even sell the stock through another stock broker because you don’t have the stock certificates – Wells Fargo Shareowner Services holds those and won’t send them to you either.

An interesting side note – Target, inc. comes from Dayton-Hudson, a Minneapolis based corporation.  Back in the day, Dayton-Hudson was known to be part of an interlocking directorate with influence and no inhibitions on using that influence to manipulate individuals – among other possibilities.

And remember – back a few paragraphs – your mortgage is being held by Wells Fargo.  So, is this accidental with one having nothing to do with the other or is something else operating here!

And then your door bell rings.  It is a Chinese Real Estate Agent who is offering to buy your property, claims she understands that you need the money and she has a client who is willing to pay cash – at half the value of the property, in a hot real estate market, where half leaves you a few million dollars short of the real value of the property, but here is the next step in this evil and greed which strips people of everything financially in the end.  It is nothing you could conceive in a country which touts itself as good and other countries as evil or at best as not so good.

You turn down the real estate agent – and at first you are mystified as to why she comes to your door with such an outlandish offer.  You don’t have financial problems so what is she talking about!  The door is slammed with some anger because it is dawning on you that  there is a connection between this and what is going on with Target, Inc. and Wells Fargo.

This story has throw backs to Pontius Pilate all throughout.  He called for the bowl of water to wash his hands and symbolically wash away his guilt at what will be the unbelievably brutal killing of Jesus.  This story is a modern, institutional adaptation of that old, old story which many in this society are experiencing.  The symbols of the bowl of water with rag and soap have changed to new 21st century symbols of the same thing.

The realtor reappears in a few weeks.  This time, after you have called and written to Wells Fargo Shareowner Services a lot – gotten angry – done lots to get your stock sold so you can move on with your financial life..  None of which was effective, even almost two years later.  The Wells Fargo Shareowner Services door is solidly closed.  Their refusal to sell your stock is clearly a refusal and violates everything on which this society is built.  Wall Street could not function without the guarantee that you could convert your stock into cash within days.  So they are violating the very foundation of our economic system and with impunity.  Even contacting the SEC hasn’t helped.

You do get one foot in the door – so you think.  Wells Fargo has appointed someone to investigate this stock problem.  Who?  Someone from their mortgage department.  And who holds your mortgage?  Wells Fargo!

It doesn’t dawn on you what that means.  Your assumption is that this is the company process and the person appointed is probably someone they have trained and designated to head such investigations.  Dumb dumb – she is with the mortgage department.  What you discover in the process is that she does not have access to the people she needs to talk to, nor the records she needs to access to do an investigation.  So why was she chosen to head this investigation?  You gave her the right to access your records with Wells Fargo Shareowner Services Company in a three way telephone call with someone from Wells Fargo Shareowner Services Department, but months later you are told that was only for that particular telephone conversation.  When the three of you ended that telephone call,  so did that sham of an investigation.  Interestingly, you were not told that during the conversation – a conversation which was the initiation of the investigation.  In fact, you were led to believe the opposite – very specifically, that she would continue the investigation and get back to you with her findings.

After this “investigation” came to an end with no results and the mortgage person told you she was in mortgages and had no access to other departments – and you asked why was she assigned to head this “investigation” given those circumstances and you didn’t get a straight answer you realize you have been played. Played to your detriment and the company’s need to buy time to make sure you were becoming more and more financially destabilized.

And then comes the real estate agent again.  This time with an elderly Chinese gentleman to assure you there is a “buyer” who is willing to pay cash.  And, oh by the way, you are really too old to be saddled with owning such a large house.  And, oh by the way, we are willing to pay you half of what the house is worth.  And oh, by the way, you should be thrilled because that will allow you a very comfortable old age – you won’t have to work anymore. And for reasons that made no sense – her last ‘oh, by the way’ was did you get out for a walk today, you need to do that, you know.  With my mouth hanging open wide enough for bugs to fly in from the shock of this – she went on to say they understand we were having troubles with our mortgage and they came to help.  And where did they get this information – you ask?  And they answered – Wells Fargo!  So you throw them off your porch – because you were astute enough not to let them into your house.  And you thank God you were raised to control your anger and not revert to the most primitive kind of violence because this certainly is the point at which that would have happened if your family had not been so tenacious about raising someone who is -on the surface, at least – non-violent.

So the game continues.

Next up – Herb Chambers Automobile Sales and Honda Financial Services.

Because you have been put into this cash flow problem – you have to move assets around to have enough to make up the short fall from the money you expected from selling stock you legitimately own and have been assured, from all the federal statues, the traditions, the law which set in place the Securities and Exchange Commission,  that you would be able to sell and settle in four business days.  This is now over one and a half years later and even with constant telephone calls, letters, emails, the stock has not been sold.

In the process, your car note falls behind by 52 days because you were foolish enough to continue to expect the stock to be sold so you did not transfer assets needed to get all the things done you planned to do before this mess started.  You pay the car note by wiring money into the bank account of the Honda Financial Services Corporation and go about your business.  You have, after all, transferred the assets you need.  You will be fine for months – although your business will not have the money it needs to grow according to the plans you set for it.  You will have to take a little from here and there to make up for the personal financial problems you would have otherwise.  So you do that.

And  behold, arriving at your door is this huge truck to repossess your car.  Surely they are mistaken.  You owe nothing and the total balance due  on the car note is very miniscule.  Well, therein lies the problem.  If it were a huge car note owing – no problem and no one would bother you.  You would have been charged a $5 late fee, which you would pay happily because you know that was owed, but instead, here comes this truck to take away a car on which you have no monies overdue.

The truck driver is not fazed and does nothing because you have threatened him with theft, criminal trespass, fraud and a whole lot more.  So he steps away and waits for his bosses to tell him what to do.  He is clear that he is not going to risk being arrested.

As all of this happens you reflect back on a couple people you worked with in the past to help them save their cars from such a problem.  The total pictures of what they were going through was lost on you because you still had some trust in the system and how it worked.  The greed had not surfaced for you in all of its brilliant magnificence.  Even as you see this truck trying to take your car, the greed intrinsic in this still has not manifest itself.  This just seems like a bureaucratic mistake.

As this all plays out for you, the realization hits that the people you tried to help and who lost their cars did so because they became too afraid of the car company trying to repossess their cars.  And, they never lost the expectation that there was human decency and some honesty in all of this and no one would do to them what ultimately happened.  They were so wrong.

What all of the people you helped with their car problems had in common was a very small amount owing on their car and they were over 30 days past due on their current payment.  You gave them their note payment, which they made to the company, but they still lost their car even though when they lost it, their car payments were up to date.  How could that be?  It was a mystery then, but your faith in the system didn’t lead you to tear it apart to see what was wrong.  It was all revealed, however, with this experience.  The evil is overwhelming.  You can see it as it dances around the people with whom you are dealing – it is all bright and gold and shining unbelievably.  And you thought only good was bright and shining and full of light.  The society that helped raise you taught you that evil was all dark and suspicious and, well like Africans and here you were looking at evil bright and gold and shining unbelievably.  What a break through moment!

What was the difference between you and the people you tried to help?  You were calling the police to have this repossession guy arrested.  The people you moved to help were too afraid to do that and instead put their faith in the goodness of the company.  So they lost their cars.  And what happened to their cars?  With the balance owing on their car being under $3,000 and they having used the money you gave them to bring their monthly payments up to date and the car company demanding that they pay twice that because since they were behind and a repossession notice had been issued, their cars could not be released until the payment they had already made was made again. The fact that the car company had received their cash and put it in their bank account, but still demanded that the amount due – even though it had been paid – be paid again either by bringing cash to the company or sending cash via Western Union’s “Quick Collect” – those car owners were lost.  They didn’t have the car payment they were behind – we gave them that.  Once that was paid they were too ashamed to come back to us to ask for their car payment twice – they thought we would not understand and would think they were trying to game us.

So, being too ashamed to come back to us to ask for their car payment twice or to tell us what happened – something they didn’t understand and didn’t know how to explain, they just kept quiet and lost their cars.  Apparently, Honda Financial Services depended upon that and knew this was the normal outcome.

Once the car payment was made a second time – according to Honda Financial Services employees, – the cash received by them  would be refunded, their car would be released and everybody would be happy.  Since we had given folks the money to make the car payment, they clearly did not have money to pay it again and were too embarrassed to come back to us for more money so they lost their cars.  That part of the story we didn’t know and didn’t understand until now.

What happened to the cars?  With less than a $3,000 balance due – the cars were sold in the used car lot for over $10,000 and who made out with a substantial profit?  Not the original owner, because title was transferred away from them before the sale was made so they had no right to pay Honda what was due and keep the balance.

So, with no money to buy another car and with the car company having wrecked their credit – the car company experiences yet another dividend.   The people so negatively affected could buy another car from the same company – but they would have to pay very high interest and make two monthly payments – one for the downpayment, and one for the regular payment for the car.  A couple people we tried to help did that and nearly killed themselves in the process.  We lost track of them so we don’t know how that story ended.

But I am getting ahead of myself in this story.

What we experienced from Herb Chambers and Honda Financial Services was a demand for a second payment of the monthly car payment even though there was no payment due.  They tried shame; threats; acknowledged they had received the monies sent to them; that the account was not delinquent on any level; but they still demanded the amount due be paid again and even though they had received the cash which brought the account up to date, we would have to either bring them cash for that exact amount or send them a Western Union “Quick Collect” amount.  After they received that Western Union money or we brought them cash to their company, they would take the cash they had already received out of their account and, in due time, send it to us  as a refund.   They claimed this demand was legal.  It was amazing!  What they were demanding was totally illegal and as of today we have not received a refund nor has the second payment been credited to our account.  WOW!

We wanted an explanation as to why they could not keep the money already in their account – why they wanted us to bring them cash so they then could take the cash previously sent to them and received by them out of their account and send it to us as a refund.  It is the demand which made the people we helped lose their cars.  The expectation was that you would not be able to pay this second amount demanded because you had been late on the first payment.  So they were foaming at the mouth looking at a car that they could sell and make a very substantial profit on,for their company, showing they had done an excellent job.

They became so helpful at this point.  They would see to it that the car was returned as soon as we notified them this second payment had been made and they would do everything possible to make sure we would not have to wait a moment longer than necessary for the return of the car.  When we brought them this second payment they would contact the repossession company and have our car released immediately.  What they didn’t realize was that they didn’t have possession of the car throughout all of this because the car repossession guy had gone home without the car.  He got the message, did not want to be arrested, because he knew what he was doing was illegal.

We sent the second amount via Western Union because we wanted to follow this through to the end.  When we called to verify that the monies had been sent and received by them, according to Western Union, we couldn’t help but notice the disappointment and surprise in the voice of the person from Honda Financial Services with whom we spoke.

When we realized what the people we were helping had gone through and some were still going through,  it was beyond belief. It began to dawn on us the extent of  the fraud involved and how intimidating the people were who were practiced at this.  How many people have so suffered.  Most people have buckled under this kind of thing.  We tend to be mean and angry so we call out the police, the attorneys, the relevant governmental departments and agencies involved and everyone we know, to attack.

What makes this possible and why is it so widespread?  SHAME!  People are ashamed even when they are being ripped off

We have no shame.  We are outraged.  And unfortunately for those trying to rip us off, we were not broke – we simply had a transfer of assets problem and in that situation many are caught unawares that this is what happens to people who are actually in a financial bind.  Everything they have is taken away.  Stripped away with great glee.  It is amazing to see how unprincipled, how greedy, how many lies people will tell to strip another person of their money and assets.

What is even more alarming – the people doing the stripping don’t benefit from what they have ‘stolen’.  The company for which they work benefits.  And in that company, the people at the top of those companies benefit.  Those doing the stripping are simply allowed to keep their jobs and, in the evenings, to sit by the fireplace to watch the flames that will consume them when they die – and they will not even have had the benefits of the ill-gotten gains they made possible for others to enjoy.  A very few others, but others indeed.

This has been an experience we are going to push to the limits because this needs to stop.  We realize we won’t be able to stop it – its like using a small wooden fence to stop a tsunami, but we are not going to sit by and let that tsunami swamp everything without trying to stop it.

This experience did enlighten us as to why so many people are willing to overlook Trump’s negatives and support him.  They are looking for relief from an extremely oppressive system.  If you dig into the past of many Trump supporters you will find a situation much more dire than the one I have described to you because at some point, someone in their family has probably been made destitute by these machinations.

As for us – we are supporting Hillary Clinton.  Our more sane side has won and we realize that what we described will only be made worse by someone like Donald Trump coming into office.  We are sure he has had enough experience to know how to take advantage.  What those supporting the “Don” don’t realize is that he has done some of what I described above.  Not the same particulars, but in his own corporate way he has made many people destitute – many others have lost their businesses because of his greed and on and on and on.  But those who have gone through this kind of thing are looking for a way out and someone to come to their aid and they see that someone as Donald Trump.

Clear your eyes people.  He will only make a bad scene worse.

We don’t know where the solution lies, but we are going to continue to move the needle and do what we can to expose and stop these scams – thefts – destructions – horriblenesses of this system out of control.  It is time for that 1% to get real and do something to level the playing field instead of stealing all the turf and exposing the swamp underneath.

Wasn’t it an emperor of Russia who had a wonderful life until the peasants revolted?  And the king of France? And many others, who were so busy ripping off their citizens that they didn’t realize they had gone too far until the ax fell on their heads wielded by the very citizens whose economic and financial lives they were destroying.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.

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