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Trump bringing McCarthyism back to U. S.

Wednesday, July 17th, 2019

by: Marceline Donaldson

I am on a roll -maybe its age, but ‘deja vu’. It is like watching history repeat itself. What is that old adage – either you learn from history or you are doomed to repeat it. And we clearly are being doomed to repeat the worst of our history – for which we sent out a dog whistle when Trump became the Republican running for President and then the fog horn blowing out of control when he was elected.

I was once a Republican. For most of my adult life starting with the first time I voted – I registered as a Republican. Being from the deep south it was the Republicans who were there to make sure you could vote without being strung up to a tree or worse. My cousin, an African American, had been head of the Republican Party in Louisiana. And then things began to change.

Having a huge ego, I was sure I could fight this and keep my Republican Party moving in the right direction. Well, that didn’t happen. I knew it was all over when Trump won the Republican primary. That was the day I changed my party designation from Republican to Independent.

When I looked around. Most of the people I knew as Republicans were now in my category – Independents all.

My rude awakening came in Minnesota when I was precinct chair in Wayzata. I was also suing Pillsbury for race and sex discrimination and George Pillsbury was in my precinct with me having to help him with his re-election to the Minnesota Senate. That wasn’t so bad. I sat next to George and Sally Pillsbury in Church on Sundays and we smiled and talked after church so how could that be different? Or difficult?

Difficult happened, in my capacity as precinct chair in the Republican Party, when Reagan ran for president. His first run was astounding. The scales began to drop from my eyes as I saw just how dirty was politics.

At the first precinct meeting of the season, the room was filled with people I didn’t know. Given the informality of how politics worked in the Republican Party at that time – you talked to people, got a consensus of what they wanted and that is what you did at the meeting. This time was different. First, most of the new people who showed up had southern, Texas accents – in Minnesota? Second, they were appalled that I was precinct chair. Not because they knew me, but because I was an African American woman. Well, they took care of that promptly and after a very ugly meeting I was no longer precinct chair, but I had gathered a lot of information. They were all sent to Minnesota specifically to get Reagan through the primary process and then elected president. Some had jobs, some were living on other folks money. It was a baptism by fire. I knew about Louisiana politics and its fringy sides, but that didn’t hold a candle to what these folks were about. It was like having experience in the minors and then all of a sudden being thrown into the big leagues.

From that and my experiences after that in the Republican Party I can guess what happened to get Trump elected and Russia would have been only a small part. After Trump’s election folks couldn’t wash the dirt off their ethics, their values, their lives, no matter how hard they tried.

Now that he is here – just look at the mess. He has called on all of his past experiences and they were putrid. Today he is calling on and acting out of his experiences having had Joseph McCarthy as one of his mentors when he was a very young man and having seen first hand how McCarthyism developed, what it could do and the power it wielded over this society. Trump had a seat at the table or rather at the feet of McCarthy and Roy Cohn. Cohn sat right next to McCarthy as his right hand man and Trump was in the mix learning and doing and he is now in the process of bringing all of his experience and learnings back into the United States government as he uses “the Squad” as his first intended victims to bring in McCarthyism to attempt to win the 2020 election.

Instead of having Jews in his sightline as he aims, he has people of color hurling them at Jews leading to the destruction and maiming of Muslims. Notice how he has singled out the Muslim woman in “the Squad” as he and his cooperators attempt to use her to destroy both Jews and Muslims.

At first the call was to hold up Democrats as being Socialists. Now all pretense has been dropped and “Communist” has come to the forefront and will be the clarion call from here on in. This time, Trump will make McCarthyism look like kindergarten because he now has his masters degree in destruction, carnage, filth, lies, and all the rest.

He will make “the Squad” the first of those against whom he will fling Trump-style McCarthyism and then many more will follow until the primary and then the election when he sees this becoming a huge movement which sweeps him into office in such a way that he has total sway over this government and all of its people. He looks to the entire country to treat him the way his Republican followers treat him – scared to do anything except respond and act out – Yes sir, President Trump.

Think this is just a conjecture? – look at Lindsey Graham and all the others who are now in the position of doing little else except “yes sir, President Trump.” Remember when they regarded him as not much better than scum? Whatever happened to those opinions they expressed before he become president and before they realized and were faced with his expert ability at blackmail. At some point in life one has to stand up and be counted, no matter the cost. There is life after the attempt on your life of an expert, experienced, blackmailer who can do so without actually putting himself in any legal jeopardy.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said – (paraphrased because I don’t remember the exact quote) – there comes a time in ones life when you must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but your conscience tells you this is right. The ultimate measure of a human being is not where you stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where you stand during times of challenge and controversy. – and the ultimate one – if you have nothing for which you will die, you have nothing for which to live.

We are living in a world where the “good and right” thing to do, the ethical thing to do is what the institution in which you function tells you is the good and right thing to do. To stand beyond that and to live, work, love, play in a universe which has ethical standards which you follow beyond those of a particular institution is a totally foreign concept to those in control, in charge in todays’ world. We honor Mueller because of his refusal to do anything outside of the structure in which he functions as “Special Counsel” or in whichever role he has functioned. Keep to the four corners. We need to live in a world in which we have ethics and take stands beyond that. If the institution is constricting our sense of right and wrong and allowing evil to thrive we need to stand up, break those chains of that institution and do and say what brings all of us back to a sense of what is just, what is righteous, what is merciful.

Nancy Pelosi needs to pay attention to what is happening and let go of the four corners of her box.

Donald Trump comes from a several generation racist, sexist, extremely bigoted family. He has chosen to be mentored by the most extremely evil people who have shown themselves to be so full of greed and lust and evil that they upheaveled this country for a time.

We need to see that and learn from the lessons of the past. We don’t need to return to McCarthyism; we don’t need to bring back the KKK or the White Nationalists nor the Nazis. That is Trump’s world and to allow him to replace what is with what he knows and sees where-in he can thrive at the expense of whoever is to engage in his evil and to become a part of his evil dream for this world while he is an inhabitant here and beyond when he is forced to leave this world leaving behind his evil being inflicted on the rest of us the way he is being inflicted upon us by Roy Cohn, Joseph McCarthy and others who he holds up as his examples for life.

Joseph McCarthy was an extreme alcoholic who wrecked havoc in this country as Senator in a political way using the forum of the U. S. Senate to destroy lives and institutions in an institutional way we now call McCarthyism. – what Donald Trump is very fast bringing back to these United States.

Trump’s father was a part of the KuKlux Klan and marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in a parade of some 10,000 plus people in white sheets and pointy hats.

We give Emmanuel Macron credit for being the genesis of Trump’s idea and fixation on this grand military parade. Was he really? Or did Trump’s own father put these ideas in his head by exposing him to what could have been for both of them. Ideas Trump has worked hard to bring into existence. We are all partially captive to our upbringing. Turn around and take a look at Donald Trump’s upbringing and several generation family.

We look at Trump’s criminality and we ignore his family connections. We ignore the rumor that his father’s business partner was a large part of the Italian mafia. Trump has graduated from that group to one a lot more horrific.

His grandfather, who came to this country from Germany bringing some ugly connections, wound up with a hotel for prostitution, which he obtained on the backs of women. And his grandson comes along with direct connections to that lifestyle with some 19 plus accusations against him of assaulting, abusing, raping women. That kind of disrespect is profound when it comes down the family and comes from that everyday family influence. Did you ever ask how a man with so many claims of abuse of women against him became president of these United States? We have an ever growing group of men somehow closely connected who has horribly abused women and moved into substantial, strong, positions in this society – besides Epstein – across the street in another town house we had Bill Cosby – and connected to both men we have Donald Trump.

Do I need to go on?

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Donald Trump and Gay Folks!

Monday, December 31st, 2018

A series of articles to look at, give a partial analysis and outline of Trump’s base and what it cam expect of him.  We are starting with that portion of Trump’s base which are those who are very anti-gay, homophobic, are sure gay folks are trying to convert their children, destroy Christianity and the values they claim to hold close to their hearts and so much more.  You know the rhetoric and you know that portions of Trump’s base overlap.  It is very true that those who are homophobic have other bigotries against other groups which overlap, but this article addresses itself to the anti-gay community portion of Trump’s agenda.

Trump has tried to satisfy them by attempting to ban transgender people from serving in the armed forces, throwing out of the armed forces those transgender people already serving and more.

We will not say much about Donald Trump in his teens because those are tender years and can be the background for the direction in which a person travels, but could also be just experimental and a passing phase.

When we get to Donald Trump in his 20’s, however, we see a person beginning to show his values and to set his life’s path.

One of the people Donald Trump met, who became his mentor, was Roy Cohn.  Roy Cohn was a prominent New York attorney with an awesome reputation for bullying.  He was, at the time, a very famous attorney in these United States and not always for the best of reasons.  At the end of his life he was disbarred for many reasons like – particularly reprehensible conduct, and his ethics were called into question and so much more.   Cohn’s clients included several of New York City’s mafia, who he defended along with a large and impressive roster of clients.

Roy Cohn connects – Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump, the Rosenbergs, Roger Stone, Joseph McCarthy, and many more.  A surprising confluence of people.

For the purpose of this article, that which is right out there about Roy Cohn is that he was gay and he died of AIDS.  He is the person most responsible for helping Donald Trump move from his father’s businesses in Queens, New York to Manhattan.  In the process Donald Trump and Roy Cohn were extremely close.  If you could not find one you called the other and that person could tell you where to go or call to find the other – they were that close.

They spent evenings together over candlelight dinners at Club 54; once Trump married, Roy Cohn spent many evenings having dinner with the Trumps at their condo in Trump Tower and that in spite of the fact that Roy Cohn did not think Ivana was the person Donald should have married.  

Donald Trump was in the middle of the male gay community which surrounded Roy Cohn.  He was accepted as one of the boys and his relationship with Roy Cohn was common knowledge and also accepted.

Donald Trump was one of Roy Cohn’s most important clients.  If you did anything with Trump that would or could have resulted in a legal battle you had to deal with Roy Cohn, but Trump rarely, if ever, paid Cohn.  And if you went to Trump’s office during that time there would be a large picture of Roy Cohn on his desk.

We could go on for pages about Donald Trump’s relationship with Roy Cohn, but the point of this article is that during that time and for many years after Roy Cohn’s death, Donald Trump was in the middle of a very sophisticated gay group in Manhattan in which he was totally accepted.  According to some he provided an apartment, at Roy Cohn’s request, to one of Cohn’s friends who was dying of AIDS so he could live out his shortened life in relative comfort and Trump did just that – giving up a condo in Trump Tower – for free.

With that background, where does this hatred of people who are gay come from?  Where does this doing whatever he can to limit access to the gay community of the many things previously granted them as equality – like gay marriage?    The question becomes – why does Trump’s background and relationships  show that he would do the exact opposite?  Why did he have a mentor who was very gay and in the middle of a gay community bringing Trump into the middle of that community in a very public way?

At no time has Trump acknowledged that lifestyle, nor has he said anything about that personal history.  He did not come out, for example, to say that “at one time I was very supportive of the gay community, but in xxxx year I discovered my fault and reformed – turned my back on that history and all of the people with whom I had a close association and friendship and now have decided that homophobic is what I really am and have cut off associations and friendships with any and all gay people except those who have recanted, turned their lives around and are now straight.”

From where in his soul does this close association and friendship with many gay males come from – people with whom he had an extremely close relationship – to make him today able to move his campaign to take an active homophobic stance on many issues; to talk about people who are gay in very negative and subhuman terms; to go after those who are transgender to keep them away from serving in the armed forces and in many other ways.

More to the point would be – how and why do the people who really are homophobic and whose agenda is to rid society of everyone who is gay, transgendered, etc.  have simply taken Trump at his word.  Even knowing this background and history, they have never questioned any of this background.  What is going on here that they believe that he, without political campaigns to win,  would continue to act to make sure this gay group of people are clearly oppressed and not equal to the rest of society?

Surely they have had at least a passing thought that when Trump has no more campaigns to win he would then govern in such a way as to bring the gay community into equity with the rest of society and the goals of the homophobic community destroyed and turned against them.

Anything else makes no human sense.  To say God is using Trump makes even less sense because in my many decades of reading scripture God does not involve me and mine in any evil that God moves to eliminate.  God takes the evil hitting me and turns it into good.  God does the work and humanity benefits.  God upheavals and me and mine are playing God as we see fit.  But this part of Trump’s base has many excuses as to why they are supporting Trump because they believe, in the long run he will act in the interest of and promotion into society of their anti-gay, homophobic, anti transgender beliefs and life actions.

We believe that is nonsense and we believe something else is operating here and we believe we know what that is about.

Take a look at Bill Cosby and the evil he inflicted on dozens of women with his corrupt actions.  Look at how many years and how much pain and suffering and hard work it took to expose Bill Cosby and bring him to justice.  Why was that?  Why did so many people for so long support Bill Cosby in spite of what was showing right in their faces up close and personal?

For many, many decades television, books, and much more of media coverage portrayed Bill Cosby as this loving father and great man.  He received all kind of awards – not based on who he was, but based on his media persona – which many believed and would not let go of even in the face of facts which proved otherwise.  It took decades before it began to seep into the world’s conscience that the Bill Cosby on television and all of those Cosby family books and other kinds of media that circulated was created fiction and not the real Bill Cosby.  The real Bill Cosby was the person going to Court who was finally proven to be the sexual predator that he actually was and not the great, kind, with it father he portrayed in many media settings.  The kind of father we all want and many of us don’t have.  It is extremely difficult to give up on that kind of dream.  And the kind of dream Turmp portrayed – great business executive, incredibly successful giving others and maybe one day us the opportunity to follow in his footsteps.  That is like giving up on the lottery for those so addicted.

For many years, Donald Trump has been portrayed on television as this great business mogul with all of the trappings to create a romantic figure to get us to tune in year after year.  We have in mind the man created by good writers, camera people, directors, producers, in books ghost written for him by others.  We have not been able to believe and to take down the man so constructed for us by the media to see the real person who is the real Donald Trump.  The media is now doing its best to show us that person, but many are resisting because Donald Trump is putting himself in front of the public as the created, romanticized person who actually exists only on television and not in real life. 

Don’t you think it is time to look carefully and scrutinize this man the way many had to scrutinize Bill Cosby to see who he actually was and to look away from and put in the fairy tale books the Bill Cosby and Donald Trump created as marketing tools to sell all kinds of products to the average American citizen?

And don’t you think, given those two examples of human beings turned into almost monsters by their media persona and how far we have had to go to expose them as other than that romantic image – that we should give lots of thought to what we create and watch and give credence to in the media because clearly that is now roiling our society by the way it has seeped into our consciousness and affected decisions in real life and in how we make choices for ourselves and others?  

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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.

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