January, 2017 - Bettina Network's Blog

Archive for January, 2017

On the Issue of Immigrants and Refugees

Friday, January 27th, 2017

by: Marceline Donaldson

WHERE DO WE STAND AS AMERICANS ON THE ISSUE OF IMMIGRANTS?

The United States of America has a rich and long history, which started long before Donald Trump and will continue long after he is gone.

Where do we stand on immigrants? This has been documented historically for generations and we have a beautiful statue on its own island as a symbol to make sure our next generations and those looking to us for leadership around the world understand where we have come from traditionally, historically and out of the very soul of this nation, which is made up of immigrants and where we will be solidly for a very long time.

A poem, written by Emma Lazarus and cut into the stone of the gift from France – meant to be a beacon to Exiles from all over the world – says exactly where Americans have been for a few hundred years. This is not the first time I have quoted this poem on this blog.  Hope it becomes meaningful to you – as it has been to generations of Americans and Immigrants coming to this country.  Many I have met can quote this poem from memory.

“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Not Donald Trump, nor anyone else can erase the history of the United States with its continuing stance on immigrants no matter how hard they try. We need to come to our senses and look at our history and respect where we have been – who we are – and where we are going.

Neither Donald Trump, nor his wife, nor any members of his family would be in this country if we did not have the above stance on immigration and immigrants. This was not written for the immigration to the United States of Northern Europeans – it was written to and about the world and to and about who we all are.

Me and mine have been in this country over 5 generations and we are not going anywhere. Some of my ancestors were here before the Pilgrims and the Puritans.  Some of my ancestors were brought here against their will.  Some came as immigrants either because of the possibility of wealth and they wanted to increase wealth they already had; or because they wanted to escape oppression.  Some didn’t come at all, but became United States citizens when the borders were redrawn and their plantation was deemed no longer in Mexico, but in America and they were thrown off their own land and put in the street.  So, no – I am not going anyplace and I know that my family is very much a part of the fabric of America – the good, the bad and the indifferent.

I did think briefly of updating my passport and leaving before all hell breaks loose. However, this is my country and the Donald J. Trump’s are the newcomers and the nouveau riche. Their history is short and littered with commercial moments trying to take money and material goods from the rest of us without paying, without earning what they have taken, without any regard for the humanity or the human rights or the Constitution of these United States. It is time for them and theirs to leave and be blocked from arriving – not for them to be able to go against those who have always been Americans – always respected the Constitution – always have given and shared and helped those trying to make a better life in these United States – legal or otherwise – trying to respond, as best they could as they were caught in the horribleness of where they called home.

May God forgive him and all the rest who are following him for the way they have lived and contributed to the pain and suffering of those whose lives they have touched, changed and made excruciatingly difficult just because they could.

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

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

Donald Trump – President – the Day After

Saturday, January 21st, 2017

It has been a harrowing few days.  Mostly because we had to get through something which caused the very air we breathe to grieve.

The Bettina Network, inc. – A Lifestyle Community – Defining a Creatively Elegant Lifestyle.  And in the subtitles created by our business model, we are a company with diversity at its core.  We see the transformational power of diversity on a daily basis.  We deal with all religions, races, nationalities and are open enough – some would say arrogant enough – to feel we are beyond bigotry and its inhibitors and destroyers of beauty, life, love, creation.

We wanted to give you an overview of our reaction to the Inauguration of Donald J. Trump as 45th President of these United States, remembering that many of our members live around the world.  We are not solely within the United States.

To do this, we kept in touch with many during the day to get their feedback and thoughts as to this new administration; the inauguration; what people took away from it about the future of the United States – to sum up, what is it this whole thing meant to us and what do we see in the future.

We have known for some time, that some members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle community are strong Donald Trump supporters; some think Obama and God are related; some are too busy to bother; and some are just political junkies.  Most THINK – a rare quality these days – and practically all are avid readers (which is one reason Bettina’s Blog comes out with words, lots of words, and not many images, videos, etc.).

As we talked to Trump supporters, many of them have changed their commitments and are no longer Trump supporters.  Of those still supporting him they are doing so because they are holding tight to his promise of bringing into being Term Limits for all Congresspeople.  That struck us as strange, especially given all that is swirling around Trump today, but basically, their discouragement and dropping of Trump in all other areas has come about since the election and comes from watching him as “President in Waiting”.

Most of the Trump supporters we previously talked to said they turned against him when they heard his Inauguration speech.  For the first time, some of them questioned his sanity.  Others said it was amazing to see and hear someone give such a speech at such a momentous occasion.  They’d heard him before with his claims of this being the best inauguration of all times and the most people in attendance – and even when they saw and were sure he saw the small numbers of people in front of him – he still talked about he and his being the best ever.  Donald Trump held to his claim that more people turned out for his inauguration than any other in history.  Some 1.8 million turned out for Obama’s inauguration and less than half of that number were now there for Trump.  That denial of reality is a Trump hallmark.  Even before his term as President of the United States began, he had a very substantial reputation as a liar.

If Trump does not come through with the term limits on Congress he will lose the last group, in Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community, still hanging in and trying to support him – at least the sampling of those we contacted to get their feedback.

For those not supporting Trump – most were beyond simply not supporting him, they had moved to be very afraid of him and what he represented.  Their big issue was his bigotry and how that is going to change the country and the world.  They were super concerned that Trump thanked “the world” for some of his support.  To many, that immediately said his arrogance was way over the top and considered that an admission of his connection to Valdimir Putin, Russia and others like him acknowledging their interference in the American Presidential election.  Others were concerned about the clenched fist salute he gave at very particular and seemingly coordinated times in his speech.

The surprise of what came out of this for us was the acknowledgment by everyone of Trump’s lies – with the postscript that even though he lies about everything, the truth seems to always come out, and from him, like highway markers along the way.  This comment of his thanking, among others, the world – was taken as one of those highway markers.

Those most frightened by Trump were those who saw this Trump administration as a takeover of the United States by the 1%.  Not the “establishment”, but those newly wealthy – as is Trump – and “feeling their oats” and exercising ‘power over’ without any consideration for anything or anyone except themselves.  The “fright” comes from the fact that extreme wealth seems to make those having it extremely self-absorbed and not able to see anything outside of their wants.  What we heard often was – “wealth blinds” and that old hack saw “power corrupts”.

The theologians amongst us saw this as an example, being worked out in front of us, of how being self-absorbed with nothing around which one allows to mitigate that, being the road to hell.  Well – they expressed it better and in greater detail, but we have compressed that long theological argument.  The wealthy and self-absorbed being surrounded by Sycophants leads to sin and eternal damnation – or something like that.

Others were concerned about the “Militaristic” forces moving the United States in the direction of a dictatorship with the support that requires.  This coming, apparently from the requirement in the U. S. that the Secretary of Defense be a civilian and Donald Trump ignoring that and appointing a military man to that position with others in government and who could and should have stopped that, allowing him to move in that direction.  That said to them – it is not just Trump, but he has supporters in all the right places to create an ugly fascistic dictatorship.

Those who were looking towards the next election to begin to make things “right” saw this dictatorship forming itself very quickly and consolidating its gains by its attacks on the Voter laws.  Only a handful saw that as a racial move – most saw it as a consolidation of a fascist government in waiting making sure it could continue to shape up its structure and put down roots while uprooting the Republic.  Some things that brought this up were the brakes being put on a voting rights case and the voter ID laws being put down and more.  Those who didn’t see this as a racist move saw it as using racism to blind us to the fact that this is the next step – after destroying the media – to the establishment of a dictatorship.

The Europeans we talked with were mind blown by Trump’s inauguration speech, which they saw as a parallel to the speeches given by the incoming Nazi’s right after the second world war with its descriptions of America which in Trump’s speech, sounded like a war-torn country immediately after a war that was lost and the country stripped of everything.

Given the wealth of America and the strength of its Armed Forces and everything else, it was seen by most Europeans, especially Germans, as the kind of speeches which were used to allow the structure of Nazism to form within the German government with the help of its citizens.  But that was not limited to Germans. Surprisingly, Italians were also upset over the landscape of that speech.

Many heard Trumps’ call to totally eradicate radical Islamic terrorists from the face of the earth as really code for eliminating Islam.

Ridiculous parts of the speech were “the middle class ripped from their homes”.  No one missed the fact that with that comment and Mnuchin Secretary of the Treasury that was clearly a comment meant to keep the middle class quiet and supporting Trump while he and his minions raped the country.

Rape came up as a constant theme.  Most thought Trump was going to rape the country of every kind of wealth possible and not being able to do it alone, his cabinet members were perfectly chosen to create that perfect storm.  Practically everyone in his cabinet seems to have been chosen because they are against what the department they have been appointed to lead stands for – and Congress is going to do nothing about that, except pass along Trump’s appointees.  Governor Perry from Texas who many times talked about his burning desire to eliminate and shut down the Department of Energy is now appointed to head it.  in spite of all those comments, he now says he has had a change of heart.  That was a joke to most.  A change of heart to be able to be appointed and it all seemed like a wink, wink, nod, nod to most of those with whom we talked.

What was most amazing to most of our ‘informants’ was Trump’s ability to lie and spread that lie seeming to be so honest in his speech.  He talked about jobs going overseas and we need to bring them back – and he said that as though China, Mexico and others were the ones responsible for sending those jobs overseas.  The fact that United States Multi-National Corporations are the ones who emptied the factories and eliminated U. S. jobs – not the countries to whom those jobs were exported was nowhere to be heard – neither in the speech, nor in any of Trump’s previous campaign speeches, nor by anyone he has appointed to his cabinet, nor anyplace else in this “Trump Movement.”

Nowhere does Donald Trump make any pledges to bring back the jobs his companies have sourced overseas to other countries – nor has he nor his daughter pledged to bring back such jobs to the United States.  Always the finger is pointed at others.  His daughter has moved her jobs from China to Bangladesh, but not back to the United States.  Clearly, China was coming in for negativity from the “Trump Movement” when we saw that movement happen.

What amazed most is, they haven’t seen any mainline media coverage of this fact. Nothing which analyzes and talks about the Trump family contribution to jobs having been moved overseas.

Also not in evidence is how the people hired in those sweat shops and other factories and places are being used as indentured servants to increase the wealth of Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump and their friends and relatives.  They are not jobs uplifting the masses in the countries to which they have been exported.  It is just another form of near-slavery because the wages are so low to non-existent.

A few people wanted it known that the fact that “America First” was coined by the Nazi Regime and is being used by Trump and others as though it is a good thing.  Germany “Uber Alles” is something else they wanted highlighted.  It is certainly not Christian and that was the theme of Trump’s inauguration.  The prayers by the three people were all definitely and exclusively “in your face’ Jesus and company.  Nothing wrong with that, per se, except that this was about the state and not the church and it was about being president of all the people and many in this country pray to other than Jesus.  It was a very strong statement made by this inauguration.  It became very clear what “Make America Great Again” really means.  If you didn’t get it before, you got it at this inauguration.  “Make America White and Mainline Christian Again”.  All of you ‘fringe’ Christian denominations need to take note.

People are being rounded up as you read this – and this is neither a joke, nor a fantasy, nor a story.  Who we have elected with his supporters is a bully and so are many of those he is appointing to key Government positions.  To see the outlines of his bully nature – read again his description of grabbing women without their consent.  I think we are going to see that acted out as Trump and his wealthy friends grab and reset government.  They are the ones now in control with the money and power.  They had the money – now as a group, they have the power to basically change these United States.

We think you will see a corporate crime wave like none other.  Trump has already shown he is taking the constraints off of police violence and its consequent abuse of U. S. Citizens and others.  Given the FBI report of decades ago about the goal of infiltrating the police with those seeking to maintain White Privilege by any means necessary – they have had a couple decades to do just that and we have seen its beginnings.

It is tragic that all police have been tarred with the same brush.  Without an investigation to determine what is going on within the police forces around the country, there is no hope for anything other than a clear path for those who want to maintain control through this kind of police violence.  With Donald Trump and his administration, they now have the go ahead to escalate and instill fear into the populace.

Trump, in his inaugural speech,  described the fictional America which was needed to put in place the structure to allow for Trump’s Nationalist and Populist government to rape and squander what has taken this country from 1789 to build.  It can all be lost in just a few short years.  One goal seems to be to limit which voters are going to be allowed to go to the polls and vote in the next two years so the “Trump Movement’s” playground won’t be lost.

What could have come out of this is a three party system, which is much needed in this country, if Trump had different moral values.  The Republicans, Democrats and the Trump Party.  With their leaders lack of character and inability to tell the truth.  With Trump’s  lies saying whatever he feels will get him over the moment along with the bigotry he used to get where he is today, that clearly will not happen.

From our leader to Trump – you reap what you sow and there is no getting out of or going around that universal truth.  So, we need to buckle up, but so does Mr. Trump.

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

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

Alan Powers – A Book Review

Wednesday, January 18th, 2017

A member of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community, Alan Powers is Author, Astrophysicist, Professor and World Traveller.

His book that most intrigued me was  “Giordano Bruno” – the Man Galileo Plagiarized.  Just the sub-title was enough to get me to read the book.

Alan’s wife Susan, usually is the illustrator of his covers and inside art.  Together they produce very sensitive books which usually have a bit of a bite.

If you put his name in the search box you will find a video presentation of Alan giving a lecture on Giordano Bruno.  Bruno’sname is not as well known as Galileo, but being the one Galileo plagiarized, we think it is worth reading about and listening to.

Alan Power’s Biography “The only thing Alan W Powers shares with Dr. Seuss is their place of birth, Springfield MA. Powers has worked as a harmless drudge, a college teacher of composition and Shakespeare, in Minnesota and Massachusetts. He has written a guest Safire “Head over Googles,” and appeared in two poetry films, Keats and his Nightingale and A Loaded Gun. He has been interviewed on Italian TV and radio, and American radio. As a jazz trombonist on the bench, he wrote jazz tunes based on British and American birdsong, the subject of his first popular book. With the ears of a spy, he has written verse monologs based on scandalous overheard conversations. Despite several articles on Shakespeare (and law), his lifework turns out to be translations and a biography of Giordano Bruno, who was sent to the Inquisition by one bad student evaluation. A sceptic on education reform, he says, “Good teachers get fired; great teachers, killed–Socrates, Christ, Giordano Bruno.” “

Alan’s latest book is “Parodies Lost”.

In an email, Alan sent us a bit of information about this new book which we share with you:

“Susan Mohl Powers (google her art on wikipedia) has provided arresting covers and interior art for my new book, Parodies Lost, filled with parodies of famous poets like Ashbery, Angelou, Dickinson, R Wilbur, Dylan Thomas (and the other Dylan-Zimmerman), Robert Herrick and more. The story follows my brilliant Amherst College friend Tom Weiskel, Harold Bloom’s favorite student at Yale, and a Yale Asst Prof at 25, d. at 29. Back-cover blurbs from Ron Wallace (Poetry Editor at U WI), Margie Ferguson (UC-Davis, former head of MLA), and William Pritchard (Amherst College). Brief excerpts:

“He knew–from a picture of Rod McKuen–
of all his race, the poet makes
 the saddest face. And next to a hound,
 the saddest sound.”

Wordsworth, a reflective poet pup:
“Of many words I have no need
Like all those human lies—
Say, where they’ve been. With one stiff sniff
I know, the noser knows.”

After Dylan Thomas:
“Love burst firth, froth on the sea
Foams on the rolling, beating surf.
Life burst first from the edge of the sea,
Leapt spume over land,
Arched sparkling, fell seed into soil…”

Country Western:
“I’m only a Laborer
In the Factory of Love;
I been workin’ ev’ry night
And now the job is done.
My wife she made a baby,
But I have been the one
Workin’ in the Factoree of Luv.”

“Better a beetle in a pile of dung
Than anything in a Rapper’s song.”

https://www.amazon.com/Parodies-Lost-Alan-Powers/dp/1786975122/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

After presenting at Harvard Astrophysics in October, 2013, I spoke at U Notre Dame, London, and my second book on Giordano Bruno, his hilarious play Candelaio, was performed at the Bridewell Theatre, London (4 April 14). That book is now in a dozen world libraries, including the Royal Danish Library. My Worlds of Giordano Bruno is in three dozen, in eight countries.
My Ph.D. thesis, This Critical Age (on 17C English criticism in verse form), written under Bellow’s friend Leonard Unger, is now in two German libraries, recently added at Freien Universitadt Berlin, 35 years after its publication. Also, I currently edit the Shakespeare Series for Peter Lang Press.

To buy this book what follows is the information you will need –

Paperback: 106 pages
Publisher: FeedARead.com (November 12, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1786975122
ISBN-13: 978-1786975126

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

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

Care for Wood Floors

Tuesday, January 10th, 2017

I read a Bettina Blog quite some time ago which talked about caring for wood floors without using the petroleum derivative products and others, which are harmful to humans.  I don’t remember its title, but it made a lot of sense to me and I used its suggestions and have added a few of my own.

The one I found sensational is caring for wood floors with coconut oil – organic, expeller pressed, coconut oil and nothing else – except a soft rag and 0000 steel wood if the floor is really dirty with stuff crusted into the wood.

The first time I cleaned my floor with coconut oil I had to use the 0000 steel wool and it took a long time because I could only do a section at a time.  My energy didn’t last for the entire floor, but that worked in my favor because I could move furniture over in a small section of the room – go over the floor, pouring a bit of coconut oil onto the floor and wiping back and forth with the 0000 steel wool.  I then went over it again with a soft rag pouring the coconut oil sparingly onto the rag to wipe up the remains of the steel wool, dirt and whatever else this process got off the floor.

I let the floor dry for a day or two and then wiped it with a soft dry rag.  There was a soft film over the floor and the dry, soft rag wiped it off quickly leaving the floor unbelievably beautiful.  It looked like the real mahogany wood I loved so much when it was first installed.  It did not have that look of a plastic covering, only being able to see the real wood through that thick coating – it had the look of well taken care of mahogany wood.

That was a couple years ago.  I first tried olive oil on the floors, but after a couple cleanings, that left a sticky surface.  And I tried a few other oils, but the one I am sticking with is coconut oil.  I put the glass jar of coconut oil on top of the stove before cleaning so it will be liquid.  I now clean my floors once a year with the coconut oil and after only about three years, the floors are now easy to clean – I rarely need the 0000 steel wool anymore and each time I clean the floors with the coconut oil, the floors look better than they did the time before.

What a fantastic and simple way to keep your house clean.

A bonus comes from the really nice odor the coconut oil leaves.  No one can put their hands on exactly what is the smell, but people now notice and comment when they come in the house.

I now put a bit of essential oil of lavender in the coconut oil before using it and that has enhanced the really great feeling of the house – and its odor.

A friend of mine has taken up the habit after she saw my floors.  She puts essential oil of roses – which she calls rose otto – in her coconut oil and her house smells great.  That is her preference – wouldn’t be mine, but I still enjoy the odor when I go to visit.

Thanks for that!

Keep those suggestions for this organic kind of house keeping coming.  I feel as though I have added a few years onto my life and the lives of my family.  No off-gases from those other kind of cleaning ingredients, which I think are dangerous to your health.

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

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

 

Truth Telling Time!

Monday, January 9th, 2017

Copied from Face Book – an Article from the New York Times along with comment by Marceline Donaldson.

This isn't the only business stolen from African Americans – slave or not. Airbnb was the work of a Black Woman – me -…

Posted by Marceline Donaldson on Monday, January 9, 2017

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We Heard Your Call to Investigate and Write!

Sunday, January 8th, 2017

To the editor:

Thank you for that blog.  We – me and a small group of friends – heard your call to investigate and put together the pieces we have and write about what is happening.  We are going to do exactly that and hope others will follow suit.

We have a little information, but need to expand on it so we are going to contact who we need to contact and you will soon hear from us.  I am writing this because I hope others do the same.

Some of us can put our names out there.  Others, who are still dependent upon their jobs, can’t.  Can we still send you a blog and you will publish it anonymously?

Answer:

Yes! We will publish it anonymously, as long as we know who you are and we know you are a real person. You have to identify yourself to us, but we will keep your identity close.  It does not have to be sent with your blog, but you will have to then call, write, or somehow contact us to let us know who you are and your identity has to check out.

Thank you for caring.  If we all come together on this, maybe we can save a little bit of the country we know and love from what is about to happen here.

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

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

The American Manchurian President-elect

Friday, January 6th, 2017

Marceline Donaldson – January 2017

I think it is too late in the day to continue the denials of what has happened and is happening in these United States.  We are attempting to put lipstick on a pig and for the sake of decency – truth – justice – our own democracy continuing and not being usurped the way it is currently being usurped – continued prosperity – we need to be truthful and own up to what has been a massive failure for the United States and an ugly exposure of its underbelly.

The platitudes and overused sentiment needs to stop.  The voting citizens of the United States elected Hillary Clinton as president.  Over 2.9 million more than her rival, Donald Trump.  The Electoral College – an institution which was put in place with the Founding Fathers to maintain slavery – turned their backs on what the substantial majority of the United States voting citizens declared and wanted and that Electoral College elected a man who has shown himself to be a traitor, a bigot, crude, vile, womanizer, adulterer, participant in and poser for soft-porn pictures, sexual abuser, very arrogant and entitled about that fact of his life, and so much more.

There are indications that Donald Trump is a part of the mafia and has been so for some time.  It is difficult in the United States to own casinos; to be involved in the Construction Industry; to own hotels – all at the same time and not be a part of the mafia.  Those investigating and writing about their findings have found that Mr. Trump has bought concrete from the Genovese Crime Family for his hotels and much more.  It is time for every decent person in these United States to take up their pen and begin to investigate and print their findings.  Clearly, the media is not going to do that.  If they printed what they knew before the election, it is possible we would not be facing this situation today.

Donald Trump’s  deceit, hypocrisy and lies slaps everyone in these United States and elsewhere with its flagrancy.  If he is caught, he simply denies his actions and takes the other side.  It does not matter to him that he is in print clearly making the statements he then denies having made. There is no hesitation.  That alone shows his lack of a good and substantial ethical base from which to make decisions; a lack of respect for those to whom he is speaking (all of us), and he has shown an incredible vicious side and total lack of any component of what constitutes a good character.  In large corporations, looking for a chief executive, I don’t see any that would hire such a person and yet he is about to become President of these United States.  His lack of honesty is beyond overwhelming – it is something I have never seen before.  To stand in front of a group of people and deny that you said what they know and can prove you said without blinking an eye or showing any shame or regret or taking back of the one statement as when you believed then, but now have had a change of heart – nothing.  He simply stands in front of a group of people and denies what was his own truth.

When Roger Ailes was outed as a sexual abuser of many of the women who worked for Fox News and he was forced to resign, Donald Trump embraced him as a friend and gave him support.  The men Donald Trump embraces and calls “friend” are men who have similar backgrounds.  They may not yet have been outed, but we clearly know and have seen their womanizing habits.  This is your newly “elected” president of these United States.  Not only  has Donald Trump embraced prominent sexual abusers, whose deeds were publicly known and verified, but he has bragged on tape about his own sexual abuse. In the bragging he clearly saw what he was saying and doing as good and his right – at the expense of the women having been and who will be exposed to such a man as the leader of these United States.  He is the one who will be serving as a role model for our children.  He is the one who will be contributing to their character and to the choices they will make over the years.  That will not leave this country – that will be entwined and a part of the fabric of this country’s ethical base and decision making for generations to come.

When is it going to be enough – all of you United States citizens?  When are you going to call an end to this charade and made for television moment in our history?

It is clear to me that Donald Trump started his candidacy in cahoots with Valdimir Putin or some other high ranking government official in Russia.  Donald Trump’s conspiracy theory against Barack Obama, which plagued Obama’s presidency for eight years and plagued his presidential campaign before he became president clearly played right into Vladimir Putin’s negative relationship with Barack Obama.  The boy doing the bidding of the man.  The “boy” in these United States is clearly Donald Trump.  The “man” is clearly Vladimir Putin.

Most of us looked at that conspiracy theory and let it go as the rantings of someone vicious and evil and far removed from our world.  However, he was right in the middle of this world and preparing to help those the United States has fought against for generations to take it over.

It is clear that this is a takeover of the United States Government and we will never be the same.

Evil walks the land and we are cooperating with it as we try to be “nice”.

President and Mrs. Bush have announced that they will be at the inauguration of Donald Trump as president because it is important to show the world how a democracy works and the peaceful transition of power.

President Clinton and Secretary of State Clinton have made the same announcement.

What they are actually showing the world is that they have been co-opted for the optics of the moment and are not going to take an ethical and moral stand which puts them on the side of the good and the just and the righteous and those who see through this charade.  They have been in a position and have been exposed to the people and information which tells them – in more detail than the rest of us will ever have – just how corrupt Donald Trump actually is.  To then stand up next to him and for him and allow those pictures to circulate through the generations – that when called on for the tough decisions, they were among the missing – is kind of hard for this voting citizen of the United States to take.

It is time for everyone to pick up their pen and document what they know about all of this and how they feel about this takeover of their government.

It is time to stand tall and stop this turning Muslims into the victims of the moment so the treasuries of countries can be raided while its citizens are distracted and so all kind of other injustices and lies can be promulgated while the majority of the people are ranting against Muslims as though they are the people who created this evil.

Turn back in time and listen to what Donald Trump said about Mexicans.  Listen to how he was going to build a wall and Mexico was going to pay for this wall – to keep out thieves and rapists and on and on he went denigrating Mexicans.

As you listen – tune into what is being said today.  The United States taxpayers are going to be called on to pay for this wall which is going to become a reality in this country as one of its current and ongoing projects.

To make that palatable, what is added is that – after the wall is built, Mexico will reimburse the United States for the cost of building the wall.  Mexico has not said this nor agreed to this.  In fact, Mexico has said the opposite, they will neither pay for nor have anything to do with such a creation.  In spite of that many people are now taking up that new mantra and passing it around as though it is truth.

That is symbolic of the kind of ethical base being created in this country. Ethics which are designed to make some very ugly things palatable and positive and looking as though they are for the good of all.  What are those ugly things?  It is overused at this point as an example – but if you do not know history you are doomed to repeat it and we are repeating the history of Nazi Germany, except the way we are going and the very accelerated time table we are on – Nazi Germany will look like the training ground and the learning wheels on the bicycle.  The incredibly powerful vehicles the United States will soon be producing, riding, navigating and trying to sell to the rest of the world through its own re-creation of a sordid time in history will be horrendous.

The United States will not be standing alone – we will be a part of a combination of  countries with whom we are growing compatible and who have a head start on wrecking this kind of evil on others.  If this madness is not stopped we are going to wreck evil on this world such as it has never seen before.

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

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.

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December and 53,244 People Visited the Blog

Sunday, January 1st, 2017

It was a good year for Bettina Network’s Blog.  Each month saw an increase in visitors. With the 53,244 people who visited the Bettina Network Blog in December – that brought our total number of readers to 1,513,131.  Now that looks like a number that might produce something from the lottery.

In 2017 you will be able to sign up and have the blog delivered to your email box every time a new blog comes out.

If you are a member of Bettina Network Lifestyle Community you can send us  articles, information, news that you would like to see published in the Blog.  Or, you can send comments on Blogs you have read that you would like to share with others.  Send that via email to bettina-network@comcast.net.  You may either take credit for your work or we will publish it without a name attached.

It has been an exciting year as we gathered information, ideas and more to share with you.  As time goes on and hopefully, before the end of 2017 the Blog will have become a Newsletter – and then a Newspaper and then a Media Center.  We don’t think small around here, but try to project into the future.  We make out own rules so don’t think of us as a traditional publication – although w have some signs of being that also.

When we started this blog we had seven readers and we knew each one – we had implored them to read the Blog and give us feedback.  From that, we have had an active participation from members of Bettina Network Lifestyle Community and we have grown.

Sometimes we get articles – sometimes ideas that we embroider and write about because the person sending us the idea didn’t want to follow through, but the idea was too good to let lie fallow and sometimes we just take a leap into the ether and hope we give out good information to incredibly talented people which helps them in their lives and work.

You don’t want to miss the Bettina Blog which introduces the company or person in Bettina’s Hall of Shame.  Or the one which tells who won the Bettina Network Hall of Fame Mention.  We have a small list of categories of those who have earned their mention in one of our categories – which will be out before the end of January, 2017.

If you have suggestions or want to get involved with Bettina Network, inc. in 2017 let us know.  We have lots of different activities and need many different talents and skills.

Enjoy your time on this earth.  It is very short!  Our request of you for 2017 – make a contribution  in 2017 that improves all of our lives.  You won’t regret it.

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

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


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