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A Series – Part ONE: Racism, Sexism and more…. – the structurally divided system we call the United States of America! But, it could also be called the World in Which We Live! This series will cover what maintains it in such an evil way with individual examples!

Friday, June 17th, 2022

We write and talk a lot about the bigotry of racism, sexism and so much more. We keep that talk on an institutional level. Very seldom do we write and talk with individual, real -true-to-life examples. That would interfere with our ability to deny – which is the foundation of what allows those structures to continue to exist. Start to talk about your real, true-to-life example of having experienced racism, sexism and all the rest and denial will immediately pop-up to explain away your real life experience. It is the most potent way we have of continuing bigotry’s existence. Raw, unwashed, in-your-face bigotry, maintained, continued, developed through denial.

We see denial being institutionalized in our educational system. Florida and the laws it is passing is an example. Those laws parallel the laws of old which made it a crime to teach slaves to read and write. Why criminalize something so seemingly harmless as teaching reading, writing and arithmetic? Because that was the beginnings of an effective way out of slavery. Today, we are trying to re-instituionalize a modernization of those criminal laws. Why? To maintain the “better than” in this society of white male northern-europeans peoples. And even to make a difference within that group of those who believe one way as against those who believe another. Bringing culture, religious beliefs and more into that “better than” equation.

Our world was rocked when we saw and got to know many of the victims of the bigotry against the elderly. We had seen bits and pieces of it pop-up, but to really experience the bigotry the elderly must live with, ignore and end their lives living in the most humiliating and vicious way – usually very broke after everything they worked all their lives to acquire – is an earth-shattering experience.

Society is structuring itself to maintain the elderly totally apart from the rest of world. That allows grifting, theft, physical – mental – medical – legal abuse to come to the forefront and happen with everyone looking on while denying what they are seeing and turning it into something positive. What is most annoying is that those doing this as the leaders of this pact are just like you and me. They look normal, talk normal, participate in their part of the world just like you and me with no one the wiser. They, however, begin to acquire wealth we don’t even give a thought as to from whence it has come.

We have published several articles on what happened to Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett and Marceline Donaldson. African Americans – Elderly – with fairly substantial assets. Mostly, what we published has been ignored except by those who experienced the same thing. We were surprised at how many elderly are experiencing this “putting the elderly into poverty” and then, let us use a small percentage of what is taken to keep them barely surviving and right under the nose of and with the approval of their families. Or, I should say because of the neglect of their families who are very, very busy. That is one real-life example which has uncovered many more. What we saw is that you don’t know when something like that will hit you. As a society we are taught “denial”. I am not my brother or sisters keeper – let them work it out on their own. That is our attitude towards bigotry of all kind. That is why it is so prevalent, long lasting and horrific in this society and in this world.

Guardianship is one evil in this society which has been practiced mostly against Jews, but is beginning to spread to other minorities as the wealth of different groups increases.

Murder of the youngest generation of minorities is happening because the numbers of minorities in this society are increasing and those who we refer to today as minorities are predicted to be the largest functioning group within a decade or so. How to cope and reverse that? Kill the children of these minorities. Well, you will get a few children of the majority group, but then Hitler targeted and killed Jews, but also included non-Jews to be most efficient and effective in his goal to remove Jews from the world. And the result of this killing of the children? When the oldest working group of minorities retires or dies there will be far fewer minorities to replace them, effectively re-establishing the inequality that currently exists. Those who would replace them have been murdered by the hundreds.

Corporate America has long had a very high wall, to protect those at the top, which they have built over time and are now re-enforcing so that wall will last many more generations. The wealthiest people in this society are those who have developed businesses, new ideas, etc. Those are all white-male-mostly Northern European types who are the world’s billionaires – or working very hard to become such with support of their cultural, racial, ethnic brothers.

How has that happened and how has that line been kept so free of minorities crossing into the land of entrepreneurial opportunity? From our perch, we have seen the ideas and hard work and success of minorities and women in the entrepreneurial area stolen by this group of white male, etc. There has been a re-definition of things like “theft” and more so this group of white males have a smoother road as they cruise down to reach that billionaire status on someone else’s back. Take a look at the history of Silicon Valley – only don’t leave out the minority businesses stolen; the women-owned businesses stolen; the refusal of investors to support and invest only in business brought to them by their “own kind”. Don’t leave out the young white males who raced through Cambridge and places like MIT, Harvard and more to see who was doing what that they could steal and take to investors who would look at the ideas with a cover to induce blindness against those from whom those businesses were stolen.

What has most disturbed us, because it is going unnoticed, supported by the extremely wealthy few, and within this group “theft” re-defined to make the actual theft going on constantly a non-event. If you break into my house and steal one of my artifacts, jewelry, furniture – even food, you are subject to arrest and jail for that theft. If you break into my computer and or corporate location, steal my business plan, take all of the ideas, structure, customers, experience I acquired while building a substantial business, etc. and at the same time do everything you can to destroy my business so I will be busy just trying to survive while you develop the model you coveted, that is not considered theft and subjects you to no criminal action. It also does not disqualify you from being considered for funding for the ideas and businesses you stole from others.

Every day, we come across people who have been crushed by such theft after 20 to 30 years of working to build a business with ideas all their own and have been successful in the process as they introduced to society a new way of doing something or a new product or something not out there before. We also see the people who crushed them and tried to leave them and their business by the wayside because they decided to set in place a copy of their business and because the people so crushed tend to be minorities and/or women the white males used to succeed. They have access to capital to grow their business, which the minorities and women don’t have; they have access to partners, those who have worked at the top of large white-male owned businesses which take an interest and the kind of theft and destruction which took down the business they copied is ignored. Unfortunately for all of us the ethics of such businesses are in the gutter, however, most of us go along with the growth of this stolen business as it becomes an intrinsic part of this society with which the rest of us have to live.

Real Estate is a biggy! The structure, wealth, schools in the geographic location of where you live depends upon your culture, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual choice, etc. and that institutionally racist structure was put in place eons ago. It began in slavery and was intensified when we changed our economic structures from “in your face” slavery to a more modified form with which we live today.

The importance of the geographic location where you live and work and have your being increased dramatically and became entrenched and unchangeable during separate and unequal days and today is becoming even more bigoted than it was generations ago. It is now easier to discriminate on such a level without anyone noticing or those who notice and complain being crushed and blamed for their plight after that drastic crushing.

As the world moved forward, that structure moved with it and has been kept in place by realtors, the real estate industry and its cousins. They maintain geographical bigotry in your living accommodations very effectively and much easier than a few generations ago, which in turn maintains racially divided schools which maintains racially divided businesses which occupy the retail spaces in those racially divided neighborhoods with the result that some of such businesses thrive and become very successful and some, in the minority neighborhoods, hang on by their fingernails for a lifetime.

These are some of the areas we will research and write about going forward with actual examples.

We have lots out there in the literature which talks about structural racism and how society separates unequally, but individual examples seem to be the most threatening and the least written about – especially in books used in schools of higher learning where to examine such things might cause a great disruption in this society. It is the area that many will read about and immediately engage in denial and denigration of those doing the writing.

We, at Bettina’s, have lived long enough that such denigration will not deter us. You are encouraged to join us with your stories. After all, we must all experience denial to understand how vicious it is.

In Scripture you will read: “Do you think I come to bring peace on earth. No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other; three against two and two against three”…….Luke 12:51-52.

We talk and sing a lot about “peace”. We knock those who we claim bring “divisiveness’. But when we do that what happens to such passages in Scripture? We think there is nothing wrong with “divisiveness”. We need to look at good and evil and separate those concepts instead of making divisiveness substitute for evil and coming together substitute for good.

………An Elegant Historical House for Sale!

Saturday, April 2nd, 2022
Every corner of this home bespeaks elegance, history, beauty and invites you to stay awhile. Across the street is a park; two door down on the same side of the street is another park and look out the windows, you will see the Charles River!

49 Hawthorn Street – Cambridge, MA. 02138 – $5,800,000.

What follows, under “House for Sale” describes a house which we would like to bring to your attention.  We hope you will consider buying the house – either for yourself, your family or for one of your favorite institutions and/or charities.

A kitchen for those who actually cook with room for everything – your utensils, pots, spices and so much more. Many fantastic meals have come out of this kitchen.

     The house we are describing was designed and built by an MIT graduate in 1900.  She was one of MIT’s  first female architectural students..  Her papers are in the MIT Library.  She is Lois Lily Howe with her own architectural firm and all the architects working with her were women.  Such a history in today’s climate makes quite a statement.

This particular house – at 49 Hawthorn Street – is the only Howe designed house in this area in which the interior has not been stripped and re-built taking away all of the historical design. The only room that needs to be brought back to its original design is the kitchen. It is wonderful as it is, however, to bring it back to Ms. Howe’s design would be special.

A fantastic welcome as the front door is opened to you and/or your guests. It speaks of the elegance which shows up all around the house – from French to Spanish to English to African to South American touches making it an escapee from Old New Orleans.

Marceline and Robert have lived in this house for 40 years and love every corner.  Being people who love history (Near Eastern History was the subject of Robert’s Harvard Doctoral thesis) and with Marceline’s educational background in the School of Architecture under Ralph Rapson, they have totally enjoyed living in this house and discovered much in the process. Selling it under duress they want to know it is in the hands of people who would continue in that design preservation route. The area has a penchant for taking beautiful culturally diverse homes and turning them all into a Northern European Scandinavian aesthetic. They look as though they were all designed in the Ikea Showrooms. So sad! There is nothing wrong with the Ikea Designs, however, what is wrong is making them the ultimate, cultural, design touch stone. This house escaped that “remodel”.

Ms. Howe built the house for William Augustus Maynadier – a Harvard Professor who taught “Arthurian Legend.”- the story of King Arthur and the Round Table.  It was a required course for all Harvard men. There were no Harvard women in those days.

Being very strong feminists, the Donaldson/Bennetts found that Harvard/MIT combination quite special.  While “feminist” was not a term in her day, Ms. Howe clearly was a feminist as we know the term today, stepping out into the world of Architecture the way she did.  Prof. Maynadier would be known as an extreme sexist today. He was teaching a class which laid the ground work for the very horrible sexism which most 20th century women have had to deal.  And yet, he hired Ms. Lois Lily Howe to build his house.

Arthurian Legend – King Arthur and the Round Table – was a way of teaching men how to treat women in that “on the pedestal and out of the equality” area.  The necessity of opening doors and standing on the side as she entered the room and etc. for this weaker sex is what was being taught, although not so specifically – it was wrapped in the Arthurian Legend.  All the things women have fought to have removed for decades so they could be treated as equals is what Prof. Maynadier’s class was about.  It was totally accepted at the time. Most people don’t know that this originated at Harvard.  It was in the general world population at the time, but not to the extent that it became entrenched with Prof. Maynadier at 49 Hawthorn Street.

It was interesting to us that Prof. Maynadier chose Ms. Howe to design and build his home. – which he used to live in and invite paying guests to stay with him.  The house has had that use throughout its 100 plus years of existence.  It hosted seminars, class sessions, teas and many famous and not so famous people, still while serving as a very private home.  

One of four bathrooms in this home – designed with jacuzzi, steam/shower room and separate enclosed toilet. The plumber calls it a “no bad smells” bathroom.

The Donaldson-Bennetts used their home to have what today are called bed & breakfast guests and to build the first network of such private homes working their way across the country and turning a national and an international network of bed and breakfast homes into a commonly known and accepted concept. This house was the beacon.  Besides this house, they had homes also in Thailand, England, France and more.

The guys who founded Airbnb stayed with them before those three even thought of such a company.  They were sent by Venture Capitalists – particularly the Capital Network in Cambridge – who wanted to fund such a venture, but not one designed, created and being grown by African Americans.  So they helped themselves to the Bettina Network, Inc’s business plan and everything else they could find to help them get the same kind of venture off the ground.  They sent people to offer their homes to join the Bettina Network, inc. but were really only interested in the process of how that was done – just as they hacked into and used Craig’s List to get their initial clients. The Donaldsons’ believe that when their web site was stolen, locked and offered back to them for enormous sums of money – it had to do with the genesis of Airbnb, although that was not known at the time as Airbnb was just forming.

While the Donaldson/Bennett’s lived and are living in the Lois Lily Howe house, Harvard sent many guests to stay with them, as did MIT, Tufts, Boston University, Boston College and more.  Several admin people called regularly to make reservations for guests visiting Harvard and other Universities in the area as well as private corporations calling for guests to whom they wanted to give privacy.. Everyone who stayed loved their time in the house and totally were taken by its history stories and general feeling.

Many institutions and corporations used the house when guests were visiting who they wanted to have privacy without being worried that their guests would be stalked in the lobby of the hotels to pick up information that could be used for media articles. They also liked the fact that guests wouldn’t need so many levels of security when they came to Boston.  Guests included such as Ambassador Victor Israelian, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, top management from the State Department, many of the USA’s top families, many scientists – mostly physicists – who loved the quiet and privacy of the house where they could enjoy the patio where squirrels and birds would visit them as they worked on the back porch.

If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to call.  If you or someone you recommend would like to see the house, we are available at their or your convenience.

Call Marceline Donaldson – 617 497 9166 or email bettinanetwork@comcast.net putting 49 Hawthorn St in the subject line.

What follows is a fuller description of the house as it appears in different publications.

                              HOUSE FOR SALE – Cambridge, MA. 02138

“Marceline and Robert are selling their home.  If you don’t want to buy it, please pass this along to those you know who might be interested and/or know someone who would love to step into their shoes.  As a private home or as a home with a bit of  income so you can live there and do other things.  Income can be in the neighborhood of $1,080.00/night, not including income from events, etc..  

Marceline and Robert did a wonderful job and are now moving to New Orleans – which is where Marceline grew up.  They have not been able to survive the onslaught against them of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the way they treat minority elderly in what was and is an apparent attempt of a group within the state to relieve Jews, African Americans, Latinx and others of any wealth that could be passed on to the next generation. This is the new racism/bigotry that is replacing the separatism that followed slavery.

The house has been newly painted with, among other improvements, a new 75 gallon commercial water heater with a 20 year rating and lots of other elegant restorations which keep the historical design of the house as much as possible..  

It is one of the few homes in Cambridge, which gives you views of the Charles River from many of the bedroom windows and it overlooks the Riverbend Park on one side  with no other building blocking your view.  There is also a second park (the historical Longfellow Park) just two houses down on the same block and the same side of the street as Marceline and Robert’s house.  Fantastic and very unusually elegant to have so many parks within the same block the home in which one lives.  One of the only homes in the area with such and with a spectacular view.

You would have 9,000 square feet of living space in this house over five floors.  5,400 (apx.) finished into three floors of elegant historical living and 3,500 square feet (apx) of attic and basement which can be finished into fantastic living space.   

For a possible future use of the basement take a look at the basement of Harvard University’s Memorial Chapel’s basement.  

The attic could be refinished into an exquisite ballroom for entertaining with its 16 foot height (apx) at its apex with no beams going across to obstruct the wonderful height of this room.  The architect – Lois Lily Howe, in 1900 was one of the first, (she is credited with being the first), to be able to build such an attic.  Most attics are so clogged with structures to keep the roof from falling in on itself you do not have the breathtaking space one finds here.  This attic is a full floor.  Its footprint is that of the entire length and width of the house.  Just think of the elegant entertaining you could do in that attic.

Historically, guests came to events in such houses and went to the second floor living room to leave their coats, etc. and freshen up and then went up another floor or two to the tea, dinner, dance or etc. on the upper floors.  Today, we don’t have attics large enough for such events, especially not one replicating the footprint of the other floors of the house.

Lois Lily Howe was the architect.  Designed and built in approximately 1900, she was one of MIT’s first female graduates.  She established her own architectural firm and the architects she hired were women. 

In the process of designing and building this home,  Ms. Howe scrounged the area for homes being torn down which had historical touches and she brought that actual history into this house.  The mouldings are exquisite and are some 100 years older than the house. 

The history of this house includes a psychiatric history – Dr. Lydia Dawes, a well known psychiatrist of yore, was an owner for some 40 plus years before the Donaldson-Bennetts arrived and the house frequently  embraced many of her friends who were also famous guests.  Sigmund Freud’s daughter stayed often and worked with Dr. Dawes.  Together they produced one of the first psychiatric journals in the area from this house.  Many local psychiatrists remember a part of their training that happened on the couch by the living room window overlooking the magnolia tree.  So much history goes with this house both  within its structure and with the people who have passed through.  

Marceline and Robert have spent decades trying to preserve and create a garden worthy of Lois Lily Howe who ended her career and life as a landscape architect.

You may have heard of  the many outstanding and famous people who stayed under the Donaldson-Bennett’s roof during their time in the house because you were probably one of them.  You can now own this magnificent property so beautifully located. 

Want more information – call Marceline – 617 497 9166 or email us bettinanetwork@comcast.net

Structural Racism/Rittenhouse/Blacks & Jews

Monday, November 22nd, 2021

by: Marceline Donaldson

A huge topic and we will not even skim the surface.

Racism, when it has become “structured” into a society and into its institutions, is a very complex thing. We like to think it is an “unfortunate incident” which happened because the person to whom it happened was complicit in some way. It is not. Every action you take is governed by the bigotry structured into the society in which you live which has successfully structured that bigotry into every core and every cell of its existence. The experience of bigotry is not a one time experience. It is all day everyday for those who are the “minority.” It is also an all day everyday experience for those who are “white.” Their lives move ahead beyond their talents and contributions to this society because of the fact that they are in the “better than” group.

Step out of your house and it starts. Stay in your house where bigotry wafts in with the very air you breathe – it is constantly ongoing and just as constantly denied. Bigotry happens – denial follows and is given credibility.

The United States has much to deal with to become the society it claims to be and the main thing is its bigotry which was installed at its beginnings with the way American Indians were treated and with slavery.

The Rittenhouse case deals mainly with the structural/institutional racism of the Court system. It has been a showcase for all to see how this structural racism works – how and why it was set up – what is to be gained by the “better than” group through the existence of institutional racism.

My background and growing up years is totally intertwined with what happened in the Courts and with what happened on the streets which came before today’s Court system. This “street happening” brings to the forefront the relationship between Blacks and Jews – which is fraught with much bigotry itself and so much more.

What didn’t come out to the general public, until after the verdict is that the men killed were Jews. They were characterized and described as “white.” That is far from the truth. Maybe it is my age, but I remember when Jews were as ostracized as blacks and when the “n” word was applied and Jews were called that and worse – all names most blacks would know and recognize. It is thought today that those words applied only to Blacks. Blacks were and are called “nigg…”. They are not the only group so called by the Northern European-ancestry group. It is spread around to the rest of the world encouraging it to pick up and use those names. East Indians are another group to whom the “n” word was applied, especially when England colonized their country.

Let me give you an example of black/jewish relationships and what happens in these United States – from my own background:

Way back when I was a young child my grandfather used to bring me regularly to #1 Audubon Place in New Orleans when he picked me up (grandparents visiting rights) and he had business with Sam Zemurray or just went to visit. I loved the house. I especially loved the dining room with its spanish feel and walking through the wrought iron decorative gates into the dining room.

My grandfather would announce his appearance by calling out to the cooks to put water in the soup because O.C.W. had arrived. Everyone thought that was funny. I also spent many a summer’s day at the Zemurray home outside of New Orleans. A kind of life I loved and embraced quickly. When we arrived, my grandfather was there to visit with Sam Zemurray and someone working on the estate was called to take care of me. Mostly that meant taking me out in a canoe on a pond from which we could see people walking around in the distance which I was told was to admire the azalea garden open to the public. I never did see that azalea garden, but I saw pieces of it because whenever a shipment of azaleas arrived at the Zemurray estate my grandfather was called and we went out to pick up the latest truly beautiful plant for his garden. Before he died my grandfather had an exquisite azalea garden in his front and back yards all from those shipments.

Other times, we went to one or the other Zemurray estate because my grandfather, with his Columbia University education, tutored two of the Zemurray children. My grandmother was a regular visitor with her skills put to use and my mother was named Doris Taylor after Doris Zemurray – Sam Zemurrays’ daughter.

It is a long involved story which needs to be told in full because it shows the beginnings of a corporation which today is dumped on because of how it developed. The story of its Black/Jewish start is nowhere to be found. That has been “whitewashed.” Could that be the history those in control wanted to hide and wound up instead with a company considered “inhumane” by others?

My great-grandfather was an Episcopal priest. He was the Rev. Dr. David Franklin Taylor. There was a strong connection between one Jewish family and one Black family way back when. My great-grandfather was a close friend of “old man”Zemurray”, the founder of United Fruit. A company which today has a horrendous reputation including in the fields of racism and more. Back then it was clear and uncontroverted that the company was founded by a Jew, but grew because of this alliance between this one Black family and this one Jewish family.

“old man” Zemurray, as he was called then, founded United Fruit by going to the docks in New Orleans with an ice cream-type push cart. The kind that would appear in most neighborhoods with the man pushing the ice cream cart jingling his bells and calling out for the children to hear and they came running with their nickels and dimes to buy ice cream.

In New Orleans there was more than one kind of such push cart. Hot tamales were sold on the street in the same way. As I recall, a dozen hot tamales from such a cart cost 45 cents.

In New Orleans, “old man Zemurray” had such a cart full of ripe bananas he picked up from the docks and some given to him by those on the ships that came into the docks. They could not be sold to the stores, for which the other bananas were sent because they were ripe and they would be black by the time they reached the stores for which they were intended. Zemurray’s business grew rapidly. He had a business selling a product for which he paid nothing. So very quickly, he went from the push cart selling bananas on the street, which is how he started United Fruit, to a business hiring employees mostly from Honduras.

Mr. Zemurray’s problems grew with his business, as happens to most who start new businesses. His were mostly personnel related. The people who came to the United States to work at United Fruit came from Honduras and had a very different culture, a different way of living and that began to cause major problems. My great-grandfather was the priest/rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church (a part of the Anglican communion). Most, if not all of those from Honduras were members of that Anglican communion and so Rev. Dr. Taylor and Mr. Zemurray formed an alliance beyond friendship into business. Rev. Taylor would work with the people United Fruit employed to help them acclimate to this American culture and Mr. Zemurray was then free to dramatically grow his business.

Today, United Fruit is a huge corporation, but that Black/Jewish beginning is almost lost in history. In today’s world it would be seen very differently from what it actually was. It was beginning to lose that history when I was growing up because Jews were beginning to call themselves “white” and the general U. S. society could not see such an alliance and friendship as one amongst equals as existed between the man who founded United Fruit and the man who was responsible for a serious part of its early growth. When I was a small child, the stories and the talk were about how United Fruit would not have existed or grown as it did without the friendship and working together of those two men – the Jew and the Black. Back then Jews were not hired to work regular jobs. In fact, it is within my lifetime that banks went from hiring no Jews to now hiring Jews for jobs up and down the bank ladder. Jews back then had to either start their own company or find some other independent way to make a living. That is what Mr. Zemurray was doing. Looking back into that history from today, it is easy to re-write it so that its real beginnings are “cleaned-up”.

When I became an adult the relationship between Blacks and Jews remained, but had changed. There were many Jews around Martin Luther King and the black civil rights movement. They were there because they were experiencing bigotry because of their Jewishness; they were struggling to overcome the “n” word and all that it implied; and they were fighting for the freedom and equality of both groups. In many places where you had to fill out forms, it was clear that Jews could not fill out and check “white’ as many do today.

All throughout the Jewish community in this country and abroad there was that alliance. Sadly, it has substantially diminished because many Jews see themselves as a part of the Northern European-ancestry group and discriminate against Blacks the same way they do.

Before we get too ‘sanctified’ I think I need to point out here that there are many Blacks who have taken the same route. The more money the more they feel “different from” those with the same skin tones and the more justified they feel in doing to other blacks what was done to them and/or their ancestors.

What the Rittenhouse case surfaced is the fact that there are still many Jews working in civil rights groups with Blacks to gain equality for both groups and so the two Jews who were killed by Rittenhouse. They were not bystanders they were participants in a movement which they and their families saw as important. They had been trained, apparently, as children not to be bystanders to benefit from the sacrifice of others, but to be participants in bringing about a world where we all enjoyed equality and took responsibility for each other.

The Court system in this country, from the smallest court to the United States Supreme Court, has grown from its beginnings to where it is today, laced with bigotry and put in place to maintain the superiority of the Northern European-ancestry male, especially over the slave.

One need look no further than the Plessy decision at the end of the 19th century which brought into being “separate but equal” as a doctrine we have had to live by and which continued and put in stone the separation of the races with non-‘white’, none Northern-European-ancestry people as those who had to be controlled and kept in an inferior place. When society could no longer keep those inequalities then the Court stepped in to make sure white was also “better than”, “superior to”, and all those other terms by which we have lived almost from day one of this country’s founding.

Brown vs the Board of Education came along and reversed the Plessy decision and we all rejoiced. However, the rejoicing became muted as we saw what that meant institutionally/structurally.

An integrated educational system has never been a reality, in spite of the Brown decision. Real estate interests, amongst others, were employed to keep that from happening. Even today, separate neighborhoods and thus segregated schools are the norm – which is one way we found around the Brown decision. What did happen was the promotion of a group called the Black Muslims or Nation of Islam which promoted the Jews as evil and tried to promote Blacks as “better than.”

The real “better than” people allowed and promoted such groups because they would cause the split between Blacks and Jews that this Northern European-ancestry group had been trying to bring about, but couldn’t because of the long history of such cooperation. They did manage to do a great deal of harm to that relationship and did help to spin a tale, even though not true. It put a lid on real equality for generations to come.

Jews didn’t help because many tried to move into the “better than” group and did everything they could to hide and move ahead without their Jewish identity showing.

The one place it was clear the “better than” people could not lose was the Court system. Lots has been happening in this Court system under our noses and we are just now awakening to the damage done. The “better than” group has been able to structure into its system what is needed to maintain bigotry. The loudest verdict so far is the Rittenhouse verdict, but more is coming. The Republican Party has focused intensely on “stacking” the Court with judges who would maintain a system of inequality where they and those like them would always win and the others would increasingly be denied their rights.

The judge, the defense attorneys, the prosecution all worked together like a well oiled machine – set up from the start of slavery and has just been given an overhaul after the shock of the general voting public having elected an African American president. It is clear the concern before that was not as strong as it is today. Not even looking at the fact that the general population in this country is now about to turn majority-minority. That was true in the south during Reconstruction. There were blacks elected to Congress, to their state legislatures and in all areas of the south. That was not so true of the north. The majority of citizens in the south were black and mostly former slaves.

Violence raises its head quite high today – as it did when there was a threat of African Americans gaining equality. The huge threat in Tulsa-Black Wall Street – brought the ancestors of those who are the white terrorists of today out to kill Blacks who seemed to be gaining equality and in fact, had achieved more than they and/or their families had achieved in terms of education and finance.

Today that is also beginning to be true as you look around at the condition of today’s minorities and so we are attacking and attempting to eliminate generational wealth of minorities, health, property and more of those considered “less than” and we are doing it through a corrupted Court system.

Take a close look at your Courts. Many incorporate a mafia where all else fails. In Massachusetts who was head of the Court system? Whitey Bulger’s brother. The problems we are facing in the Courts in these United States are much larger than we will talk about, write about or attempt to rectify.

Amen?

Danforth and Thiel have What in common?

Friday, October 8th, 2021

The more we research the more unbelievable it all becomes. Maybe we are naive with expectations we should dump. Maybe the world needs to stop idolizing white male northern-europeans-ancestry people and start over again including everyone in decisions, actions, all to advance better living for everyone. It is really tiring to see generation after generation making the same mistakes.

We have been digging to try to understand what is going on with the Republican Party. Why has it become so extremely racist/sexist/add all the other minorities, but waffle a bit on homophobic. That was our first clue as we followed the money. – who could cause that? John Thiel?

We were taught early on that when it comes to politics and trying to understand the underlying dynamics – follow the money. We’ve never really believed that because it is difficult to actually believe the people you know and want to respect make their decisions; take their stands; argue for hours, days, months for something, not because they believe in what they are saying, defending, promoting, but because it will bring big dollars into their bank accounts.

It is time to believe that and stop blocking our thoughts by giving everyone the benefit of the doubt.

We’ve known about former Senator Danforth and his backing of Clarence Thomas for quite some time. We have also known that he continued that kind of political machination to get Josh Hawley elected to the Senate. What we did not know was the involvement of John Thiel -lots of money John Thiel.

What we are also connecting is the influence John Thiel and his money have on those investing in the businesses which are and have become the billion dollar businesses – with their founding and hard work to develop the ideas done by and stolen from women and minorities to make sure young white males, mostly northern-european-ancestry-types, but also a small handful of males from other groups to keep the monied people in those outlying groups merging with his to control the world and Make America White Again. At least the Amazon founder is upfront with his need to become emperor of the world. John Thiel, one could say, roughly parallels the Wizard of Oz.

What we search for today is to know those who work with John Thiel to keep the world mostly white-male-northern-european-ancestry people.

Mr. Thiel apparently does have a lock politically on the Republican Party. The orange blow-hard at the top simply follows orders – from what we can tell.

While many of us look at Donald Trump as the one to whom Republican politicians are pledging their fealty, Donald Trump does not have the money to keep them loyal. Some have claimed it is Putin and Company. We are wondering if it is not John Thiel who is causing this mischief.

Many are looking today and worrying about what is and will happen to the women and children in Afghanistan. We are looking and worrying about what will happen to American women and children. We are seeing the same kind of crack down, happening in Afghanistan, coming to the women of America. Starting with the abortion issue and moving on from there to roll back the gains minorities and women have made including Brown v Board of Education.

Donald Trump’s slogan – “Make America Great Again” – which many believed was actually the public face of the real slogan which was and is “Make America White Again”. That slogan was stolen from Ronald Reagan and his time in politics and in political office. That was also a time when racism reared its ugly head and gains were rolled back. Strangely enough it was also used by Bill Clinton of “don’t ask don’t tell fame.”

One of our founders tells us how quickly the racism under the table surfaced when Reagan made his first run for office. She was Republican then and precinct chair in Wayzata, Minnesota – the area that was the bastion of some of Minnesota and the country’s elites. Into the meeting came all of these Texans – all new to the area. That would not have meant much to you then, but how much does it mean today when you see the damage Texas is trying to do to the civil rights of all the “wrong” people. The damage Texas is doing to “Make America White and Male Again.” We could go back even further in Texas’ racist history to bring up the story of the Texans who went to the prison camps and checked out a Nazi prisoner on a Sunday to take them to dinner. They were taken to restaurants which refused to serve African American soldiers unless they came around to the back door of the restaurant and didn’t eat inside, but in the yard outside with the garbage and other unhappy scenes, or left the area with their food to eat someplace else entirely.

When Marceline entered the room as precinct chair there was an audible gasp and the ugliness and racism that immediately surged was so obvious the natives experienced shock. Some of the Texans were newly working in Minnesota, some were there, not for jobs, but for the Republican Campaign to support Reagans candidacy.

Reagan was not elected during that precinct meeting, but Marceline was removed as precinct chair and Reagan was elected during the next such meeting four years later. The ground work was done in that precinct caucus – they just had to wait four years for their work to grow and spread itself across the country and it did.

All of that was supported by someone’s money. All of what is happening today around Trump and this Republican Party is being supported by someone’s money.

We are looking at John Thiel as the organizer of the money behind Trump. Et tu?

FACEBOOK, AirBNB and all the other startups turned billion dollar corporations!

Monday, October 4th, 2021

There are some things we know, but do not talk about. We flesh out our knowing with hypocrisy, lies, reasons which we know are false and more.

For example, we know there are minuscule amounts of minorities who receive investment money for their startups and lets include women in that group. We don’t really stop to analyze what, why, how to change things.

At Bettina’s we became involved in all of this when – and you know the story by now – the Capital Network, a group funded by and involved with the City of Cambridge – sent three white males to one of the homes in the Bettina Network, inc. – to see what they were doing and to steal the idea and anything else they could in the process.

It was Cambridge working its structural racism making sure a black-owned business, with great potential, did not succeed in its territory. It was Cambridge pulling on its structural racism, solidly in place today, to force blacks who were moving too far too fast to back down and/or move out.

Out of that came AirBnB. A company whose founders used several stealth ways to steal from Bettina’s. The Business Plan; by sending people in to steal as much more as possible; whenever they ran into something they couldn’t fathom, more calls to Bettina’s without identifying who or what to keep their business idea looking as though it was really theirs….and on and on. A prototype for business development in this society.

At the time, Bettina people were going to the Thursday afternoon meetings of the Capital Network, inc. trying to understand and apply for and get better acquainted with the “investor class.”

That was a waste of time.

After the visit of the three guys who had never before been to a bed & breakfast, talked about not even knowing private homes could be put together in a Network, etc. etc. Bettina people went to the next Thursday afternoon gathering of the Capital Network and were surprised to see their company name had been taken down and they were held at the door because they were no longer listed as part of the group.

Someone who knew Bettina’s appeared and re-entered Bettina’s as a part of this group with their name appearing on the board letting people know they were “in the space”. An “oversight” they said. Even though Bettina’s was at the Thursday meeting the previous week and the one before that, etc. they were ‘unintentionally’ dropped.

As we discovered a few years later, substantial investment money was given to the three white guys forming AirBnB and the black folks – male and female – developing Bettina’s were totally cut out and had to fight for their continued existence, fighting one swipe across the bow after another, rather than continuing to move ahead with their business, which was growing substantially.

Friends began to appear talking about their problems, not knowing that Bettina’s was going through the same thing. These friends start-ups, which were right on the verge of expanding exponentially, but without the funds to do so and able to expanding only on current income, which we all know doesn’t work – caught our attention and time to research asking the question what do we have in common?

“This” – was and is the way this society maintains itself as northern european-ancestry white males.

Seeing and following that bit of structural racism, we tried everything but the system was tight, immovable and carefully constructed to eliminate and destroy anyone trying to do something different. Something different is and was to attempt to build a new business idea into a billion dollar plus business. Anything which looked as though it had that potential was stolen and the minority and female founders were put through horrendous experiences to handicap their following through with what looked to everyone as fantastic. Not only was their business handicapped with few to no investors of substances, but their daily lives were destroyed in as vile and ugly a way as possible to keep them from being able to wind up being competition.

At the same time we noticed a parallel occurrence. There were white males treated the same way. Not as crudely, but there were similarities. For example, Facebook – was founded on an ethical fault line. Like AirBnB this was not Zuckerberg’s idea, it was one he stole from others and promoted as his own. When all of this became public, it was ignored and had little to no affect on the growth of Facebook. It certainly did not slow down or dampen investor enthusiasm.

Given its unethical beginnings where was it supposed to go and how was it supposed to get that unethical mess out of its structure? That does not happen, it just grows with the business and that is what has happened.

These were not just “thefts” by people on the outside looking in who saw something, picked up the core idea and went on their own to fill in the rest. This was “theft” in the crudest way which screamed to all who could hear the very unethical way it was done. This spoke volumes about the ethics of those involved.

What we saw was that unethical base of those doing the stealing was what the “investors” – conscious of it or not – were looking for in an entrepreneur they would fund. Take a look around and see the history.

Today we have people speaking out loud and clear with proof about the highly unethical way of Facebook. What we don’t understand is why the surprise? That has been known for quite some time and has been pointed out to the many. The result – you could almost hear the cheers as Zuckerberg was embraced as one of our own. He could be “trusted” to be someone who develops and developed a company which could almost be called the Devil’s Spawn.

We are a society which has developed “big” businesses on the most evil platforms. That seems to be what the West Coast investor class looks for as do all the rest. That is not done above board, but the choices made show clearly the ethical base of those doing the choosing.

We are watching and experiencing horribleness because of those beginnings – and – the history is carefully ignored with claims that this history is irrelevant as the company has grown. And yes, it has grown but its beginnings are structured into the company because that willingness to do whatever it took is a foul beginning which takes on a life of its own within the corporate structure. We seem to be programmed to blot that out and try to achieve a good result from that kind of beginning. Is that our laziness or our evil side.

In the Christian Scripture there is a story of Satan tempting Jesus with all kinds of earthly delights. He takes none of them but sticks to the business about which he has come. It seems that from this story there has come a long line of people who called out to Satan asking to be given the same choices. They were and this is the result.

There is an unwritten, not talked about agreement amongst investors who get such companies off the ground that monies will be spent developing businesses which have structured bigotry into their corporate forms, boardrooms, etc. and which have structured – anything goes if it gets us where we want to go let the ethics of what we are doing be damned. We are smart enough to give back an intellectualized reason which sounds good to deflect, at least as long as we need to deflect, those who would hold up to the general universe what we are doing which is and will continue to hurt our world, our galaxy and put our human species in jeopardy of extermination by itself.

May God’s judgment be swift and sure.

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.

Donald J. Trump – Mentally ill or evil!!

Saturday, January 9th, 2021

There is a huge difference between someone who is mentally ill and someone who is just plain evil. Looking back and through Donald Trump’s life, it is clear he is not mentally ill, he is clearly evil and has practiced his craft for decades. Who in literature – especially biblical and spiritual literature do you find has to hold the Bible upside down? Isn’t that what Trump did during that spectacle he created in Washington, D. C.? Why was it so important that he called out all the important military and others to create this show? To announce who he really is? To unmask himself? He said nothing – he simply held up the Holy Bible UPSIDE DOWN and in doing so identified himself to all who could see.

What is amazing to us is that before voting for him and electing him president we knew him. We knew his history. We knew his family. We knew his friends.

As a young adult, Donald Trump, working with his father was sued by the United States Government for their racism. They built apartments and refused to rent to African Americans and other minorities. The Trump response to the law suit was quite telling as to how Donald Trump would lead his life into the future. The way he responded to the law suit was amazingly evil. He clearly had no intention of changing or adhering to the laws of the United States. He just spent a lot of Court time to make sure he would not have to and could continue not renting to minorities. The pattern for future response was set in that law suit. Look it up. See how far Trump went to create the kind of confusion, hatred, arrogance and a show of extreme white supremacy that he and his father showed to the United States Government through the process of that law suit.

In the literature, books, newspapers we learned that Martin Luther King, Jr. kept the Bible and a copy of Howard Thurman’s “Jesus and the Disinherited” next to his bed and his bedside table. That told us a lot about the ethics, commitment, interests, spirituality of the man. His life reflected his choice of readings and of the books he kept close.

By contrast, the same media outlets told us – as they reported on Donald Trump’s divorce from Ivana Trump – that Donald Trump kept Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” next to his bed. That also said a lot about the ethics, commitment, interests, spiritiuality of the man. Trump’s life has reflected his choice of readings and of the books he kept close. Yes, he does read. We just do not understand his choices and we choose to say he is the way he is because he does not read. Just one of the many times we have provided the Trump’s with an escape hole for what should be talked about honestly.

And as his life moved along, Trump’s friends of choice show more of who he is becoming as his ages. At one point Roy Cohn, attorney, was his very close friend. Speculation at the time was that Trump was gay. Roy Cohn, a man who was well known to be gay and Jewish was also someone who was known for his unabashed hatred of Gays and Jews. Someone like Donald Trump was perfect as a cover for Roy Cohn and as someone with the same anti-Gay, anti-Jewish proclivities. It made their closet seem safe from exposure.

Cohn was the person who brought Trump and his business to Manhattan and taught Trump everything he knows about how to fight. The rumors about Trump being gay floated around because if you lived in New York at the time in the “right neighborhood” you saw Cohn and Trump having dinner by candlelight in restaurants many times – just the two of them, clearly “spooning” and enjoying their time together.

Trump’s throwing his friends and those who followed him under the bus became a clear trademark of Trumpism as one could see observing his friendship and working partnership with Cohn, which went along swimmingly until Cohn lost his fortune, was fairly destitute and ill. Even at Cohn’s funeral, the best Trump could do was to appear and stand at the back of the Synagogue for a few minutes before disappearing. Helping a friend financially who was responsible for most of what Trump had and was able to do in New York is not something that was and is a Trumpian thing to do.

The talk of New York at the time was how much Cohn had done for Trump and when he was in need how little to nothing Trump did for Cohn. Trump was happy to “spoon” with Cohn over those candlelight dinners when Cohn was an important and feared part of New York. That ended as Cohn neared his end and had nothing more to offer Trump. – sound familiar? Cohn also introduced Trump to Joseph McCarthy and there created the trinity and the time during which Trump learned at McCarthy’s knee a lot of what you see him practicing today and a lot of what he used to move himself into the position he current holds. Our amazement is how someone with that background – which, as Trump moved along in life, included sexually assaulting, raping and abusing women which screams of an incredible hatred of women. He showed how he was not too above board with his business dealings, doing one thing in plain sight while deflecting and turning your attention to another place so when he did what he actually was about you had to do a total about face to keep up with the evil being spewed all over everyone.

Trump and his family have a history of strong, positive, relationships with the mafia. At one point in time in the United States that would have been an automatic disqualifier for being even considered as president of the United States.

At this point in time, the only thing relevant to the next president of these United States was how racist is he – and she would not even be considered? How far is he willing to go to destroy African Americans, Jews, Latina’s, LGBTQ people, Muslims and so many more not Northern European-ancestry people?

We are in this country “divided”. But very few will go the distance in describing just what that means. Blaming Donald Trump and holding up his sins is about as far as many will go. We need to look more carefully. We went from slavery – which was destroyed by the Industrial Revolution – which structure was destroyed by Corporate America – which is now being destroyed by the White Male Institutional structure being put in place by this new way we are moving.

Corporate America is clearly “authoritarian” in its structure. One could go further and say it borders on fascism. How does such a structure which affect every part of these United States survive in a democratic structure. What we are seeing is that it doesn’t. The structure that Corporate America has developed works hard to be the “hegemonies” in what has been created as a hegemony over all. Isn’t that what created Donald Trump and his father?

That structure is giving way and the question is – what next? What will control this society? And there are the divisions where one side latched onto Trumpism and gained enough time to anchor its foot hold and pull the wool over the eyes of those fighting to live and work in a democracy.

Whenever democracy threatens to take over Corporate America and its fascist structure those efforts are loudly claimed to be “Socialism” and that is look on as the devil itself.

That label has been created to put fear into many so democracy will not succeed in changing the corporate structures taking hold in this world.

Want to see what corporate america has wrought? Take a look carefully at Josh Hawley and his rise to the Senate. We wondered how he was able to win his seat against someone like Claire McCaskill who was well respected and with a substantial reputation. As we looked at Trump and how he made his rise, we began to understand. Try taking a look at the “money and power” which backed Josh Hawley in his run replacing McCaskill. When he took his stand with his raised fist and started this business which resulted in the incredible destruction, insurrection, attempted coup that we have just witnessed we did not know his history nor the enormous amounts of corporate money behind him.

Clearly, when one is so funded and supported as Hawley has been, the piper does come calling and expects you to perform for that investment – and Jose Hawley did more than what was expected of him and is still going to great lengths because he knows he is connected to the money and power which put Donald Trump in office and whoever chose him knew who he was and of what he was capable.

Once Hawley has made a total fool of himself as he lets his greed and power needs get out of hand, he will be cast aside and someone not quite so ‘obvious’ chosen to do the same job, backed by the same power and money that brought us Josh Hawley and dissed Claire McCaskill.

As a country, we have been split, but we are not coming up front with just what is the split. It is being talked about as Democrat vs Republican and even putting the blame on race. We need to look at the real genesis of what this is all about. We have a billionaire group which has involved itself in politics far more deeply than the wealthy in this country used to in years and decades and generations past. Those who have obscene money and power and pushing hard to gain more and to reshape the world so they and theirs will live forever.

There have been some failed attempts in years past to get government, industry, ordinary people to sit and reason together. Those attempts failed because Industry would not sit together, but saw itself sitting above and calling the shots which government and ordinary people were not allowing.

The reason for the bigotry-racism-better than can be traced directly to this corporate group. Take a look at the immediate result providing money to groups like the “Proud Boys”. We have had to take a stand and object to J. P. Morgan Chase making its tools of trade available for them to raise money to continue their fight. And Chase’s response will be to plead ignorance and more.

Take a look at what is and has happened with entrepreneurship. Look at who gets funded by the Venture Capitalists and their ilk and who doesn’t. All of that is to support the current structural divisions – the institutional divides which are becoming stronger and which all of this Trump business is simply deflecting from what is really happening in these United States. Many, if not most, of the fledgling businesses which become the multi-billionaire groups were formed – their genesis came out of the minority and female communities. Immediately upon their recognition and future potential becomes noticed along comes young, white male Northern European-ancestry types – although lately other males are finding themselves sprinkled among the white boys – and the businesses started and brought to the point where their potential is obvious are ripped away from minorities and women and funded to the tune of enormous amounts of money so their histories can be changed and credit taken and given to those white male Northern European-ancestry types, who are then able to bring them to fruition as multi-billion dollar corporations which recognize and acknowledge and build according to the fascist needs of corporate america which is putting itself out of business for this new and upcoming group dictating the future and using the Donald Trump’s of the world to confuse, obfuscate, muddy the waters until this new structure is safely in place.

One such group destroyed was being put in place by Marceline Donaldson and Rev. Robert Bennett. For 20 years they worked on a business and structure which pointed the way to the future. Funding was not there. Instead the corporate funders sent – the Venture Capitalist sent- the white male Northern European-ancestry types into their home to discover what they were doing – how they were doing it- etc. etc. And now we have Airbnb safely white male with everything possible being done to destroy the Donaldson-Bennett’s so they cannot put in place any kind of competition.

They are not alone. We have been looking for and finding many minorities and women whose ideas have been clearly and upfront stolen with others – white male Northern European-ancestry – put in place to bring forward the businesses they have spent years working to develop and beginning to be very successful in a structure and business that would change the way business is being done.

Those businesses have brought back and are continuing to bring into being a vicious racism and sexism in their structures which rivals what many fought to change in this country for generations. The “Proud Boys” and those like them may be crowing and running around “proud” of what they consider their success in their mission without realizing their time in the spotlight is already over and others are being moved in to take their place.

Trump has been the shield behind which a Russian-style American Oligarch group has been formed and which is destroying the structure of the U. S. so the structure which is most congenial to them can be put in its place and they are succeeding admirably.

Josh Hawley and what has happened to him – and what will happen to him in the future is just a small way-station on the way to their complete and total control over the means of production and everything else in this country.

Some think slavery ended because of the abolitionists and all the others who fought against that institution. Is that true? Or did slavery end because the Industrial Revolution was moving into that space and the machinery being developed was much more controllable and cheaper than slavery and so much more.

We are now in the middle of another such turn in the economics, culture and more in this world. The little people aren’t tall enough to see the structures being put in place to replace what is no longer working.

The bigotry is going along because it is extremely useful in keeping those same little people under control. Tell them they are better than – let them believe such lies and they will be able to be led around like human beings with nose rings and a long chain from their nose ring to the hands of those put in place to lead them.

The large billion dollar corporations did not come about via the people who have re-written their company’s history to show themselves as the founders. Most of the great ideas now funded and grown into such behemoth corporations came from minorities and women and were stolen and put in the hands of young white males who showed the most promise as racists with a bit of a “noblesse oblige” spirit – but not too much. Got to keep them in chains, just camouflage the chains and ignore those who see what is really happening.

We could go on for pages. But if you want to know more and to see this for yourselves take a look at the senate campaign of Josh Hawley and Claire McCaskill. Follow the money and promises and talk to a few people around and involved in what happened. Many who look like the little people have great analytical abilities, but they are into self-preservation and won’t share what they see and know with many.

That would make a good book for someone – especially as it is now unfolding what Josh Hawley is willing to do and how far he will go, even to destroying the country he has taken an oath to serve because he sees a future of money and power and himself beyond his ability to resist.

That is just one story. There are many others. Trump’s story is ending and all of his dreams for his children to follow him and to become the lifelong president of the United States which would give him and his family unlimited power – that is over. His usefulness is over. His future is prison along with those who supported and followed him and they will probably never see or know what happened to them.

All of us, human beings, are subject to evil. We have that tendency and we mostly ignore it. What we need to do is examine it and keep the evil within us out of our lives and walk that path which is far more beautiful than any power and money can bring. That is not a lifestyle our marketing and advertising people portray. Maybe where we really need to start cleaning up this society is with them.

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.

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!

Responses from Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Members!

Saturday, July 4th, 2020

Member 1

Rev. Dr. Robert Bennett is the second African American – that we know of – who has had a negative interaction with the police. He is the second African American who had done nothing even remotely criminal and yet the police came to his house twice and forced him out and incarcerated him. The second time for five weeks.

The first we heard about was “Skip” Gates.. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder.

The attempt was to arrest Skip Gates. There are now pictures in the papers which show him on his porch in handcuffs with the police standing around.

Even if they could not be held, their images could be tarnished and it gives jokes among white supremacists.

And, by the way, how come the police in Cambridge, Ma. are becoming whiter along with Blacks being “arrested” for no reason.

Why was Gates “arrested”? For breaking and entering into his own home.

And Bennett? To be “sectioned” at the local and apparently ‘going along with the program’ hospital. He who had never had a hint of any kind of mental problems was picked up by the police, forced into the hospital to be psychiatrically examined because he was considered a threat to the public. Someone who might do harm to those around and about.

Both are living in areas of Cambridge which are known to be “for white patrons only.” It is an area which traditionally was and is “red lined.”

Rev. Dr. Bennett lives in that area and he is not Harvard connected. Well, except for a Harvard doctorate, however, he was supposed to live in faculty housing so the neighborhood would be confident he and his family would be moving along once he retired. Disappointed and having to come to grips with the reality of where they lived, they decided to sell their house, but then took the house off the market. Shortly thereafter white anger was unleashed and this is the result?

Member 2

What is incredibly disturbing in what I have read about all the things happening to Rev. Bennett is the fact that he had a probate attorney draw up a Health Care Proxy – which we are all advised to do – and that was drawn up months before he went into the hospital for surgery. Apparently, a judge, at the request of an attorney- who really seems ‘sketchy’ – invalidated that Health Care Proxy and put in its place a Health Care Proxy that Rev. Bennett did not want, had not signed, with a proxy he did not want and that Health Care Proxy was the reason Rev. Bennett had this new Health Care Proxy drawn up. Rev. Bennett was forced by the judge’s decision to have that proxy. Rev. Bennett apparently tried to correct that awfulness by having a probate attorney draw up a Health Care Proxy which invalidated the one he knew nothing about and the Court validated that proxy – the one not signed by Rev. Bennett, one he did not know existed and invalidated the one he clearly wanted. It is mind blowing! Are our attorneys and court that crooked? That said clearly to me this is all about setting up the situation to rip off Rev. Bennett’s assets and not about anything else.

Attorneys who have no ethics about what they are doing and who possibly have hidden interests in so doing can change our wishes to what benefits those attorneys and their clients. What kind of court system do we have? The way it is developing is that of an extreme dictatorship that wants to present a good “front” with no problems letting such things happen. Sadly, some folks have discovered the pots of gold at the end of United States citizens lives and have figured out how to put those citizens into extreme pain, make the end of their lives a torture and wind up with everything they managed to save so that end of life would be decently lived.

People who do not have endless money to be able to hire attorneys to go to court for as long as is necessary to correct this horrible wrong are at the mercy of tainted courts and -should we say ‘crooked’ attorneys? Even then, I suspect it would be a waste of money because the first attorney and judge did ugly things. Isn’t that illegal? Shouldn’t that be illegal? And what recourse do you have except continuing in court – bleeding money to attorneys – and even then – nothing.

Keep publishing. We need to know these things!

This entire thing has upset me and my family unbelievably because we have a probate attorney we hired to make sure we were all covered with what we need and want for those times we might not be able to or not allowed to control our own lives and this says to me that was just a waste of time and money. Money well into four figures. The court and an attorney can invalidate all of it in seconds.

Whatever happened to the United States and its honest court system? Was there ever such a thing and we only knew the image and not the reality?

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Member 3

Thank you for all of your postings about what is happening to Rev. Dr. Bennett. I was a student of his years ago and it grieves me to see what he is going through today.

He is a lovely person. Very quiet, self-effacing and extremely shy!

I was a student at EDS at the time and took his Hebrew Bible Class and a class on Racism he co-taught with his wife, Marceline Donaldson. They also taught that class at Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston, but it was more complete at Episcopal Divinity School.

At the time, when they invited the class to tea at their home, my thoughts were – one day this community is going to attempt to destroy them. They were the only African Americans owning a home in that neighborhood and I knew a few of their neighbors who were not happy with “those folks” living close to them. Besides their comments to me, they smiled nicely when they encountered the couple. I know that because I was with them when one of the neighbors greeted us. They didn’t know Dr. Bennett and his wife so I introduced them. I was so shocked at their response – smiling, lovely, welcoming and just two days prior they were bitter in their comments to me about “such people” living so close.

If there is any way I can help, please let me know. They can’t be left alone in this fight because it is one that affects us all.

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Member 4

My husband and I have been calling Robert and Marceline who we have known for years. At first, I could not believe what was happening to them. After some thought, I realized the same could happen to any of us. My work has made me aware of the result beginnings of these Guardianship Corporations which fly under the banner of “helping the elderly who are alone”. We had one problem in our church with a member who was fairly well off and all of a sudden was embroiled with one of these Guardianship groups trying to take them over. It became clear that they were trying to take over and drain off their assets.

Given what we went through with that family, please know that we are here to do whatever we can for Marceline and Robert. They have always been a very beautiful couple. Their sense of humor with each other is great! It is a shame that this is what they are experiencing at this time of life.

We are praying for them – however, we also want to know what else we can do. My husband thought about organizing a group in the church to work with them and keep that group going after their problems are solved to work with others in the same place.

Stay in touch and please keep those write-ups coming so we all can keep up with what is happening with Dr. Bennett and his wife. When I receive mine I send it around to as many people as I can think of who would be interested and the feed back has been dynamite.

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Member 5

Reading about all of this it is startling and very disturbing.

We have pictures of Skip Gates – from Harvard University – in handcuffs on his own porch – being arrested by the police for breaking and entering his own home?

And now we have Robert Bennett picked up in a huge drama, which we watched and were appalled at the Cambridge Police for allowing themselves to be so used. Or – were they a part of this whole drama before it happened and were attempting what was attempted with Skip Gates?

Do you realize how the Cambridge and Boston police are becoming “whiter”? Now that we are decades away from what caused these areas to attempt to diversify their police force, that has gradually slipped away and we see the whitening now happening. Will we now see more of this happening in Cambridge? Clearly, African Americans can be picked up in Cambridge, by the police, even though there is not even a hint of criminality involved and they can be imprisoned for indefinite periods of time for no reason. And what happens after that? Any and All Americans can be picked up in Cambridge, by the police, even though there is not even a hint of criminality involved and they can be imprisoned for indefinite periods of time for no reason. Do you doubt that? After this, I don’t!

I guess we consider ourselves so influential that we can make those same African Americans pay for their own imprisonment. Isn’t that what happened with Robert Bennett? I would love to know who paid for all of this? Hopefully, not my tax money and hopefully not the Bennett’s insurance money. Either way I am getting ready to protest all of this somehow.

If you are all sleeping and not paying attention to this and not intervening to make these things stop you could be next. I was raised with the saying – Nazi Germany is what happened because good people did nothing. You are seeing the same thing happening in these United States and what are you doing about it?

#BlackLivesMatter

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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.

__________________________________________________

Hospitals and Bigotry – Institutional Racism, alive and well!

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020

Every place you live, work, visit is imbued with racism and other forms of bigotry. They are entrenched and have not gone away in spite of the many lives which have been sacrificed to change things.

We stayed away from the medical/health industry for years, but were recently forced to get involved.

What I saw as a child in the deep south is being re-enacted in the Greater Boston area. Racism is alive and well and functioning throughout the health care system. The difference? No one comments or analyzes or tries to change things – from what we could tell.

We recently interacted with two hospitals – Beth Israel and Massachusetts General. The experiences were so different I thought I was in different countries. One was horrific and one was unbelievably good.

Our first interaction was with Beth Israel and we barely survived.

We entered Beth Israel through the Emergency Department. That was a horrifying experience. We were directed by the Primary Care Physician to the wrong Beth Israel. We were directed to a suburb of Boston It did not have what was needed to deal with the problem we presented. It was quite some time – with a serious problem – that we stayed in the waiting room and at first had to endure ugly treatment until one of us complained and then everybody started smiling at us. We were then moved by ambulance to the Beth Israel in the downtown Boston area.

When we arrived we were brought to the examining area. A room with a curtain across the front and lots of equipment. That was time spent for a couple days seeing nobody – waiting for something which didn’t happen – watching what was happening outside this examining room.

There were people stacked all around the hallways in hospital beds which apparently brought them to the hospital. Along every wall – every turn of the corridor, people sick enough to have come to the hospital were all over the place – not in private rooms, not in examining rooms, not in any space which could even remotely be called a room, but in the hallways almost stacked one on top of another.

One of us started walking around the hallways and stopped periodically to try to deal with the shock to our system. At one stop in the middle of the hallway a nurse was vicious accusing us of violating the patients confidentiality by having stopped to catch our breath. My face must have shown the shock I was in, but she was just ripping me apart for this violation of her patients confidentiality. How was that done? When I stopped, in the middle of the hallway, she was in the process of talking to a patient asking questions about that patients health and background. I wasn’t aware of any of that I was just looking around at the horribleness of what was in front of me. I wasn’t even aware of the patient – who was in the hallway, on a hospital bed – apparently rolled there from an ambulance and left barely covered with all kinds of people all around.

I stuttered to the nurse that I wasn’t violating any patients confidentiality I was simply walking down the hall trying to cope with the shock I was feeling. The nurse continued to just rip me apart and demanded that I leave the area. Since we were in the examining room just on the other side of the hallway to the patient who was against what wasn’t even a wall, but a desk. Someone was working at the desk, not family nor medical person involved with this, and was clearly closer to the patient whose rights I supposedly violated and was being ignored by the nurse as someone also possibly violating this patients right to privacy. I don’t know where the nurse expected me to go.

That was just the tip of the iceberg. I was also in shock and reacting to the fact that there was a “bull pen” in the middle of this very large room filled with rows of desks and people working, talking, relaxing, joking in this “bull pen”. What I was shocked about was not all of the above, but by the fact that everyone in that bull pen – the professionals in that part of the hospital, were white. Not black, not brown, not colored, not asian, not any of those things – traditional white northern european types working and communicating back and forth about the patient and hospital business. They were, from what we saw, the closest to the top of the pyramid in that hospital.

As I took in that scene I looked around this very large room and blacks – mostly black women were seated around the periphery of this group, working. They looked as though they were the receptionist for the group, but they were not doing receptionists work.

And other minorities? Blacks occasionally came to the floor working, but they always carried a pail, mop, broom, etc. because they came to clean the examining rooms when a patient left and before another patient arrived.

What was striking was that most of those blacks had Caribbean accents and clearly came from another country.

TO BE CONTINUED

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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.

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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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 




Kamala Harris vs Michael Bloomberg

Wednesday, December 4th, 2019

by: Marceline Donaldson

My candidate, as everyone knows, is Kamala Harris. I hope her campaign suspension is temporary and she comes back strong.

We all acknowledge that Donald Trump needs to go soonest. He is like a huge, overgrown pig eating at the trough pushing everyone else away because he wants no one on his level. And considering how foul he is, I don’t think anyone else wants to eat at the same trough, but another pig has joined the primary campaign – Michael Bloomberg.

Trump doing what he does best!

When we move from incredible greed, arrogance, lies, grossness, to just the normal kind of such ugly foul things politicians do, we can now add Michael Bloomberg, an American Oligarch, as one of the pigs.

I have been listening to what the talking heads are saying about Kamala Harris’ decision to suspend her campaign. None have mentioned the ugliness caused by Bloomberg’s entry and the press release by his new ex-Harris staffer which was one of the most vicious such things I have been. All of that makes Bloomberg look a bit like Trump. No way that press release went out without Bloomberg’s blessing

Give him time. From his initial roll out – which included stealing a member of Kamala Harris’ staff – who didn’t just leave, but left using that exit to give a huge boost to Bloomberg at Harris’ expense, had to have been done with Bloomberg’s knowledge and consent.

Kamala Harris had a perfect roll out of her campaign and her appearances have been stellar. All of the hopes for her candidacy began to fade as time went on and racism and sexism took over to push her out.

One of the major pushers was Bloomberg. To enter a race late, to do so with the obscene amounts of money Bloomberg spent and intends to continue spending makes him look like a version of Donald Trump. He is not, however, feeding at the pig’s trough, he doesn’t have to, he is feeding others at his own personal trough – like the person he ripped off from Kamala Harris campaign to join the staff of his campaign. That had to be upending for Harris and her campaign and who else and what else did he do to get rid of a competitor? A move worthy of his American Oligarch status.

Really vicious – especially when you read the press release that person wrote dissing Kamala Harris and her ability to lead her primary presidential campaign making her look totally incompetent, indecisive and more. All of the great and correct things she did were washed out with that one move by Bloomberg and his new ex-Harris staffer.

Those talks between Bloomberg and his new hire from the Harris campaign must have taken place over a period of time. One doesn’t just jump ship without having been offered something you can’t resist – like more money? more power? more…….

Both Bloomberg and his new hire need an ethics transplant. Politics is about money and clearly in this instance money was offered and succeeded in its goal. Get a good staffer in the middle of the campaign, which you enter late, and hurt the competition in the process. On their way to hell with those moves.

I don’t know where I will go from here, but it certainly will not be supporting the Bloomberg campaign and I hope all of you follow suit.

We have to draw the line and begin insisting our politicians have a better moral and ethical base and these moves early, in the middle and later in their campaigns fit a higher moral and ethical place than is happening now.

What becomes clear to me is Biden was the fair haired boy who was to walk away with the primary. That isn’t happening, so the Oligarch’s who need a president they can control, are now jumping into the campaign. Their panic at possible loss of advantages in this society are growing so they are showing their hands – and their hands are all looking quite dirty.

________________________________________________


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. 

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

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 




Real Estate Taxes/Collusion/Graft

Thursday, August 29th, 2019

by: Marceline Donaldson

It never ceases to amaze me how many people are willing to take part in an obvious rip-off of others with those “others” including themselves and they do this for nothing – mostly not even realizing the rip-off. How many “good” people are willing to ‘go along to get along’ turning their backs to the suffering of others caused by their ‘head in the sand’ attitude towards life.

Real estate taxes is one of those areas. A collusion between the banks and the government entity levying the taxes.

Take a close, clear look at what that is all about.

Many government entities, which have decided to charge real estate taxes to those within their boundaries join the corporate and financial mafia which is totally ripping off the average citizen, daily, and these government entities contribute their share in that kind of enterprise. They join in making the banks overfed, arrogant and with an attitude that the banks rule.

How does that happen?The right to collect real estate taxes is declared and the reasons and areas which will benefit are also outlined. Those having to pay the taxes are in general agreement because they see the benefit to themselves and their generations to come.

And then things go off the rail. What enters is graft, theft, rip-offs, greed, power and much more.

How could something which started off as a benefit become such a tool to the grifters and others who insert themselves into the process? Think about who benefits before the real estate taxes you pay reach their destination. Very few people pay their real estate taxes to their government entity. Their taxes are collected by the banks. When they sign for the mortgage they are given a story which is clearly not true as to why the bank should pay the taxes. They are convinced that is the best way and their mortgage papers have a clause they have to sign – even under duress or they don’t get the mortgage – that the bank can take over paying their real estate taxes at any point the bank decides. That means many who start off paying their taxes directly to the government entity, in a short time receive notice from the bank that their mortgage amount is increased by the amount of real estate taxes and it must be paid at the same time their mortgage is due.

Real Estate Taxes have made the banks of America fat, overly arrogant, feeds them for free so they can do their thing in other areas ignoring their customers and much, much more. It is free money for six months. Money the banks knows will come in on a certain day and will remain for the next six months. The banks know that will continue for the life of the mortgage, which in some cases is 30 years. Billions and Billions of dollars free – from John and Jane Q. Public.

The public could put that money monthly into a savings account if they so decided and receive interest payments at the retail market rate. They could buy bonds which come due a few days before their real estate taxes and receive appreciation and interest. They could do a number of things with their own money and earn for themselves instead of giving that money to the bank to be held – for free. The banks are not charity organizations to whom you contribute because of the good humanitarian work they do.

Think of what a bank can do and is doing and has done around real estate taxes. The billions and billions they collect and use to up their bottom line comes from the hard earned money of John and Jane Q. Public who makes the money by hard work and gets zero return on his or her dollars because the bank’s evil geniuses have figured out how to set in place such a system and make it palatable to the general public. It is normal – is what we’ve heard. Everybody has to pay their taxes to the bank – we’ve also heard. And how does that make it right – we are asking?

Today you are required or convinced by the bank’s smooth talk to make mortgage payments to the bank which include your real estate taxes. The bank’s requirement is that you make these tax payments to them six months in advance. The bank holds that money – can use it anyway they choose – and for six months they have money in the billions on which they don’t pay anything to the people whose money they are holding. Banks have billions of dollars they can use – free – to do whatever they choose and they don’t have to answer to anyone for the money nor pay interest nor anything else on those real estate taxes which they hold for fully six months.

If you have a 30 year mortgage, the bank knows that for the next 30 years they have your money to use for free for six months ongoing for the next 30 years.

And then come the games.

Foreclosure and default are very lucrative for banks. If you pay your mortgage plus interest in full and do not pay your real estate taxes to the bank you are found in default for money owed to no one. but which the bank has declared a part of the repayment of your mortgage and they hold that you are in default or foreclosure because the real estate taxes you do not owe have not been paid.

We have been contacted by people who are in default on their mortgage and some who are in foreclosure. Those in default have had massive fees added to the mortgage amounts in spite of the fact that their mortgages were paid in full and on time. For three months they did not include the real estate taxes because they figured out the game the banks were playing and refused to go along. They contacted the bank and said they were going to pay their real estate taxes directly to the government entity and the bank said no. That is not possible. If you don’t pay directly to us and if you don’t pay six months in advance of when the amount is due you will be held in default after three months of not making those real estate tax payments to the bank.

They have tried to send money each month to the government entity – which was fine, but because it was not in the bank, they were found in default by the bank when, in fact, there were no monies due because the government entity had been paid.

So, in spite of their mortgage having been paid in full and on time – and their real estate taxes having been paid six months in advance of their being due, but directly to the government entity instead of to the bank, the bank put them into default and a couple such people we knew about into foreclosure for not paying monies they didn’t owe. The problem was resolved, but with the bank keeping the many fees charged because the mortgage had been declared in default and with the other family, the fees kept because the mortgage was in foreclosure.

The bank, knowing the real estate taxes were paid in full ignored that and paid the government entity the real estate taxes in full. In another case, the bank overpaid the taxes because they needed the extra few thousand dollars they overpaid to throw the family into default on their mortgage. In another case, the bank paid other bills, which they had no right to pay, but which they did anyway causing the family untold problems to work through and all of that with attorneys – causing the family to expend even more money. Is that fear and intimidation?

One such person had an agreement with their bank that they would pay their own real estate taxes. After several months of going along with that, the bank notified the person that their real estate taxes needed to be escrowed in addition to paying the mortgage. They refused because they had a different agreement going into the mortgage – the mortgage was paid on time and the real estate taxes also. The family put real estate tax monies into bonds which matured in six month increments so they could use that money to pay the government entity. That didn’t matter, the bank wanted the money to use for its own purposes, for free and demanded that their mortgage holders pay their real estate taxes directly to the bank or face foreclosure.

Did you know the bank can attempt to foreclose on your property even if your mortgage plus interest is paid before its due date and in full?

Into this money game – enter the government entity collecting the real estate taxes. They have several games they play in collusion with the banks.

  1. They go along with the banks demanding that the real estate taxes be paid six months in advance and the money held by the bank – without recompense to the mortgage holder. And, on one account we saw where the mortgage holder paid an average of $5,000 to the city for real estate taxes over six months, that mortgage holder’s bank was one of the more generous banks paying them $.31 interest on their $5,000 for six months.
  2. Enter the elderly. Many government entities have passed laws which say those over 65 – although some say those over 75 – may defer their taxes on their property until either they die or sell the house. The interest on such ranges from 3% to about 7% depending upon the amount of interest so stipulated by the particular government entity.
  3. Enter the games against the elderly. Some government entities on their admin side don’t want that, but it was passed anyway. So the admins and their managements have found a way to by-pass this. They make sure to discombobulate, to dissemble, to refuse to accept the applications from the elderly for such deferrals. Many we have encountered are very good at this pushing away and not accepting applications yet claiming the applications were not complete, not offered, not submitted, etc.
  4. If that doesn’t work and the elderly person is particularly good at dealing with bureaucracies what then comes into play is the collusion between the banks and the government entities. The government agrees that the application is complete, good, passed on positively and the elderly person sends it to their bank holding their mortgage and the bank refuses to honor the deferral.

5. Given the fact that the bank should not be able to dishonor such an application, especially if the equity is substantial enough to insure the taxes will be paid upon the person’s death or sale of the property – the bank refuses to accept the deferral and does not have to give a reason. Just a blanket refusal. We call that bank-greed and elder-abuse.

6. We call it bank-greed because we have tracked down a few such instances and have found that there will be people in the bank with their eyes on a particular property where the elderly owners are going through this process and they want to buy the house, but not at the retail price which everyone else has to pay. With machinations, the elderly person is, in effect, swindled out of their property and the city or bank person goes away happily owning a new piece of property or have passed it on to someone who gives them a kick back.

7. The rub from all of this is that the elderly person will generally wind up without their property living in subsidized elderly housing and the person paying that bill is John Q. Public who was swindled by the banks and the government entities in the first place in this real estate tax dealing. So that swindle comes around again and payment is extracted again from the tax paying public.

There is a whole lot more to this than the above and we encourage you to send us information from your experiences. We will continue to write about it in installments so that you can see how banks, taxes, mortgages, government entities work hand and glove in ways we feel are illegal, but they feel as their right against those working hard to put bread on their tables and keep their heads above water let alone attempting to do anything more that they deserve because of their hard work over a lifetime.

________________________________________________

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!

[give_form id=”3763″]

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.

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

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





Ethics and Integrity in Business

Monday, April 29th, 2019

We have published blogs on the beginnings of Airbnb and outlined how and when the idea was stolen from an African American woman by three white males who were sent to her home to get info on the business she had been building for many years. If you want to know more about that, search this blog for Airbnb. The complete story is in a couple of blogs. some are titled as follows:

Sex Trafficking, Airbnb and more!

Ethics and Integrity in Business

BILLIONAIRES UNITE!

The ‘Sharing’ Community????

Happy New Year – 2016

She was going to a Venture Capital group in Central Square Cambridge, MA which gathered on Thursdays. She was there most Thursdays with her name and company in their computer system and she asked for meetings with relevant people and an indication of interest each Thursday. There was never anything forthcoming.

Instead of working with her to gain investment support, the Capital Network sent Brian Chesky and his friends to see what she was doing and to bring back as much of her business information as possible. They followed through on that visit by stealing her ideas, gaining the venture capital support she was seeking, and her name and company name were taken out of the Capital Network’s computer – on which those who attended on a regular basis signed in to and were admitted to these Thursday sessions. Her business plan was also stolen and she had to re-register for the Thursday gatherings re-entering her name into their computer system. At the time, the reaction to her appearance was really strange and the reasons for it didn’t become apparent for a couple years down the road.

All of this to satisfy the mythology that the business ideas, acumen, experience, success etc. comes from the white male community with the assumption that others have not yet reached that level of business ability. When, in fact, the reason for this monopoly of white, mostly northern european males’ hegemony over the substantial businesses that make up this society had more to do with their questionable ethics and lack of integrity than anything else.

Venture Capitalists have made sure that this is the only avenue the current potential billionaire businesses have and the only way they can come into being. The venture capitalist community has been a very racist/sexist group of people and they have kept the gate closed to all except their own kind and this shows up clearly today and will be even clearer and exceptionally vile in the generations to come. Most of the civil rights work of the past generations will/is being negated by the way these venture capitalists are working to establish a “New World Order” which clearly will not include those not like them – racially, culturally, etc.

This, however, is not the only business nor the only minority person so negatively affected by that particular form of racism/sexism in the society. This way of segregating and oppressing goes back many generations. Most businesses thriving mightily today show themselves as first thought of, established and the start-up part of those businesses – the part that required much blood sweat and tears to get it through to smoother sailing has been done by minorities.

It is an example of why the top 1% of the wealth in this country is now held by that same white male group, how that came to be and the structures they use to insure that this will forever be unless something and many someones intervene in drastic ways – or the ethics and integrity of the entire society demand they clean up their act – make amends – and open the doors to everyone leaving the great ideas with the people who came up with them and are in the process of bringing them to life..

We will continue at later dates with more specific examples – check the blog to make sure you don’t miss any of these stories:

Did you ever wonder where Trump Shuttle came from? Donald Trump, his family and their incredible business ideas? Or – is there another story circulated only within the African American community.

A black man approached Donald Trump with his idea and with the work he had done and was doing building a short term shuttle from Cape Cod to Boston/ New York/ Washington, D.C. etc.

It was a dream of his and a business he had been building one small step at a time because of his limited funds and the refusal of others to invest in his venture. – until along comes Donald Trump.

The African American made many trips to New York to Donald Trump’s offices with his business plan, sharing his experience in this area and he made many return trips as Trump indicated he wanted to invest in this business and gave this Black man things to do so that he, Trump, could invest.

The man came to visit us before and after each one of these trips and talked about his visit to Donald Trump; Trump’s interest and promise to invest because he thought it was a great idea; Trump’s request for the man to do additional work, which Trump always applauded – according to the feed back and notes we saw.

When all was in great shape and “they” were ready to move ahead with the introduction and execution of this new shuttle service, Donald Trump slammed the door on this black man and would not see this African American anymore; was very nasty to him when he called expecting to move ahead; Trump cut off all contact. This gentleman had been paying his own way to visit New York and Trump at a substantial expense to his current business and he always left the work he did with Trump, pending the additions and changes which resulted from those meetings.

After that abrupt and ugly cut off – well, look at this – Trump announced the formation of Trump Shuttle and as he unrolled this business it was an exact copy of what the two of them had been planning and working on for months.

And so, another African American’s business ideas, acumen, hard work, start-up – stolen by another white male business man who simply and blatantly stole his years of development and the initial work of establishing such a business and strategizing/planning for its future.

There are many more such stories. They basically show the lack of integrity in the corporate/business world and the acceptance as normal of such things happening.

______________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott

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.

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







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!

[give_form id=”3763″]

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


BILLIONAIRES UNITE!

Thursday, January 31st, 2019

The only thing Mr. Starbucks’ announcement about the possibility of a run for the presidency of these United States did for most people was to remind us that we have been screwed, raped, pillaged with practically everything taken away from us unless we spend our lives working from dawn to dusk for meager rewards – which will become even more lean as time goes on if they are allowed to continue.

Human beings and greed go together. It is one of the sins with which we are born and if we don’t work at constantly curbing our appetites we will all look like our current billionaire class – unmitigated greed, constantly searching for more, feeling poor unless that more comes into our coffers hourly; working to keep what we have, talking magnanimously about the charity we do and blaming the victim for not having what we have as billionaires. Those others could be in this group but for their laziness, lack of initiative, inability to lead, lack of vision, etc. etc. etc.

Some of us have helped to set up and enhance this system under which we operate; others work to make sure it continues; while still others see the evil, complain about it, speak eloquently about working to relieve the pain of the poor, but do nothing; others teach their children how to maintain within this system without sliding down another rung and others work hard just because that is how they were raised.

A few stories about this part of the societal structure and how it comes about:

  1. Because we have a vested interest in ‘bed & breakfast’ I will start with #Airbnb as an example of how the billionaire class is created – why it thrives – what it is about.

Bettina Network, inc. and Bettina’s Bed & Breakfast, inc. were the genesis for Airbnb. It is a classic example of how bigotry remains, thrives and supports the billionaire class and how the billionaire class supports its own and decides who will be let in. There is a thuggishness to those within and those chosen to enter.

When #Airbnb was founded it was on the back of an African American woman who worked over 20 years developing the concept and growing it by inches because venture capital money was and is not available to minorities or women. That is the most solid block in the foundation of this billionaire class. If they have a creed its foundational stone would be on the refusal to admit minorities or women except as tokens to disprove the rule.

Venture Capitalists sent Brian Chesky and two of his friends to the home of this African American woman to find out what she was doing, how, all the details they could glean. Our feelings about what happened circulate around the fact that they did not have an idea, a vision and saw Bettina Network, inc. from afar. They went into a Black woman’s home and family – put their feet under her table, ate her food and stole her business plan and vision. And – they knew nothing about bed & breakfast before that – they didn’t ‘find’ her through their own machinations or investigations or search for places to stay, they were sent by Capital Network in Central Square in Massachusetts to look at what she was doing as something they might steal and copy.

They were not graduates of Ivy League schools nor had they attended Ivy League schools and they had practically no business experience. Their experience consisted of brief times spent as entry level admin people. What they showed was their lack of character and their willingness to steal from someone else with all of the character traits that go along with that – and they did that in spades. Once established they even lied about their beginnings and where the idea for Airbnb came from.

What they created was a structure which incorporated their racism, their greed and more. It is clearly visible in the business they brought about for all to see.

Their racism structured into their corporation? It is entrenched and has many forms within the structure of Airbnb. The most obvious spits on the work of the civil rights leaders of the 1950’s and beyond. The Thurgood Marshall’s, the Jack Greenberg’s, those who litigated for years to move society to a more integrated place and were successful in that endeavor for a brief period of time. Before their legal work, if you applied to college you submitted your resume, your grades, your references and YOUR PICTURE.

Because it was not always possible to tell the color of a persons skin by their application alone, the picture helped Universities at the time to distinguish between applications and to make sure their entering classes were composed of majority white males and very few others.

That practice was deemed illegal through several law suits filed during the 1960’s and beyond. Universities stopped the practice of requiring a picture to accompany your application for admittance because of those law suits and because that practice was declared racist. That practice is now being turned on its head by Airbnb because to make a reservation at an accommodation through Airbnb one must submit a picture and that picture is more often than not used to determine whether or not you will be accepted as a guest.

Many have been discriminated against and have not been able to get reservations. There have been instances of minorities arriving at a home and being turned away with the owner or person at the house claiming the person engaged in ‘subterfuge’ to get a room. What was the subterfuge that got them turned away? A mixed Asian couple in California was turned away at about 10pm in storm conditions because one was Asian and the other of Northern European extraction. The picture they submitted for their reservation was of the Northern European extraction half of the couple. When the Asian woman appeared she was not acceptable so they had to find accommodations elsewhere. The host family claimed they “cheated” to get the room. That was not an isolated incident. The stories of discrimination from Blacks who tried to get accommodations, had to submit pictures and were subsequently turned down are legion.

It is a corporation structured to bring back that kind of racism from the 1950’s and earlier.

It is a corporation structured to make affordable housing almost unavailable and to bring out the greed of those who come near to use the web site.

It is a corporation which has been used by sex traffickers because it has set itself up in such a way that whoever has a need can use their web site and hide a lot they could not get away with, but for.

It is a corporation which, because of the way it is structured, has been a part of at least one client being murdered.

It is a corporation whose structure has allowed the destruction of many houses and estates in some of the most vile ways, causing the upheaval of neighborhoods with the wild parties that have happened in homes which were supposed to be used as a room or an estate for the night.

Investors put 1.2 billion dollars of investment money into Airbnb in promoting some of this society’s worse traits. It will soon go public and if that is successful we will have a corporate structure carrying on what many of us have tried to eliminate from this society for generations – and so it goes.

Isn’t it striking that the three people who started Airbnb and wound up with substantial venture capital money are people who showed themselves to lacking in good character, ethics, and more. Isn’t it striking that those character traits are what has handicapped this country to the point of finally seeing us wind up with a Donald Trump as president? A man who epitomizes exactly what Airbnb is about?

2. Let us move on to another such company founded and structured around questionable morals and character. – Take a look at Facebook. The vision of twins who engaged Zuckerberg to code their business idea. That however wound up the property of Zuckerberg who carried the idea into a corporate structure which is today wrecking havoc on this society in very gross, immoral and unethical ways.

What we are now trying to do is right this wrong which will not be possible because the corporate structure of Facebook has become too strong. It is being credited with being majorly responsible for the election to the presidency of Donald Trump, with the destruction of the privacy guaranteed to the citizens of the United States by the Constitution, with using private conversations and back and forth between family and friends as a front when in reality it sells every scrap of information it can glean to the marketeers and advertisers and others for 20 pieces of silver.

Take a look and analyze most of the corporate structures which have come up and have brought their owners billionaire status and see how they have used the backs of tens of thousands of people to attain their goals and have left the society stripped almost bare with a path for those without character, without good morals, without honesty.

Take a look and analyze and you will find they are all either northern european descendants – some middle easterners – ……

These are two of the most graphic examples, but there are many others.

Most notably, what has been happening and continues to happen is the groups of people looking around the world for up and coming corporations or LLC’s or neighborhood gatherings whose structure and ideas they can steal; that they can get funding for because those doing the developing could not – mostly because of their color and sex.

Because of our experience with the theft of our idea and work by what became Airbnb we have come across many. The stories were all eerily similar and nothing was done about any of it. Look furiously – not within yourselves – but at what others are doing which looks successful – find venture capitalists to fund your stealth and move on into the billionaire’s club. Once you get there all will be forgotten and those who do remember the unethical road you took will soon be dead so just hang on and you will become one of the racist, sexist corporate structures in this society which maintains who we are without any of those others moving up to challenge our superiority. It may happen temporarily, but the business class has insured that this move to open up this society making it more diverse will not last. Remember Martin Luther King, Jr’s sacrifice? How much of what was achieved by so many has been reversed seriously by those now moving up?

And it is not limited to the United States. In other countries where people of brown and black complexions have begun to move up in these corporations – they are swiftly removed and replaced with a whiter skin person with a penis. We have heard many of those stories. Stories that parallel what has been happening in this country for generations. Remember Madame C. J. Walker? Think about all those others, people of color and women, who struggled so mightily with others, white, male, etc. reaping the rewards for their labor, their vision, their imagination.

And what happens now?

A note from Marceline Donaldson: My garden has been torn up – literally the garden in front of my house. My business has been upheaveled! I have been threatened! and so much more. but I am old and neither sickness nor death fazes me so none of that scares me nor does it make me drop the struggle.

What does move me to a furious state is to continue to see this and to know that my children will have to undertake this same struggle when I thought my work and life would make theirs easier. My grandfather worked his entire life to change this society so his children and grandchildren would have a better life and would not have to dedicate so much of their lives and times to this struggle; so did my grandmother; so did my mother; and so have I. My children deserve better and so do your children. I have not paid nearly the price others have paid trying to bring about basic change.

Watching the young people coming along behind the disaster that was Donald Trump thinking they are going to make basic change is heart breaking – the system looks stacked against them. All I can do from my perch is to wonder when and how they will be taken down and replaced with Northern European – very white males and our young people made to pay for their arrogance of thinking they can make such basic change. If they could, the color of our total billionaire group would not be white, male, with some middle easterners – Saudi Arabians – thrown in and one or two African American men and a woman or two. That billionaire group – those who will totally control tomorrow look like Donald Trump’s cabinet and all those other groups where color is absent and women are practically extinct.

_______________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott

__________________________________________________________

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

_________________________________________________________


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