October, 2017 - Bettina Network's Blog

Archive for October, 2017

The Personification of Evil

Tuesday, October 31st, 2017

BY: Marceline Donaldson

I heard a sermon a few weeks ago preached by a person who could be called a politician.   He tried to recast these current political events as purely political and not evil.  I should have been amazed, but I simply wondered why I had chosen that church on that particular day to hear such a message. It was christianity being preached with a small “c”.  The kind most of us practice, which allows us to keep silent when we need to speak the truth. to no longer even know what is truth and to obfuscate when we need to speak and act out of the clarity of our convictions.   To go along to get along because our sense of moral outrage and correctness has been numbed by our need for that which will not satisfy who we really are……

My biggest disappointments in life have been those times when a clear lack of a clear and sure moral compass, when it was most needed, has been displayed by the society in which I live; those times when I have been taken back to a parallel time – like now – to the times of McCarthyism – which shows we have learned negative lessons from history.   We interpret what we see “through a glass darkly”and think we are seeing the new heaven.  We seem to need to be “important”; to be “accepted”; to not be pushed out of our position in life that we have achieved by our “striving” and for which we have paid a heavy price.  We will sacrifice the very ground on which we stand for those goals.

Remember Joseph McCarthy – remember the Rosenberg’s – remember all of the people whose lives were sacrificed at the same altar that those historical times are now bringing back to us via those who inherited the tools of evil that existed then and are using them today.

I have not been surrounded, most of my life by those society calls  murderers, thieves, rapists, liars.  I have been surrounded by “strivers”.  And now, with Donald Trump as president, it is clear this country is full of  such “strivers”.  How few have come out to speak truth.  How even fewer have called out the evil being constantly pumped into this society.  How many could withstand the onslaught that comes from being cut loose from your moorings because you took that one brave moment and spoke truth, -yet some still do.  Why would speaking truth cut you off and cause a huge upheaval in your life? Why would it not bring you the status of hero?  What it does bring to those with that strong moral compass is very indicative of the moral health of the society in which we live.

When and if you do take a stand in this current society, those who connect to you, who take some of their identity from being your friend, who see you as a part of their group and therefore as a part of them become threatened by you and can only recoup by trying to sink you to show how unlike you they are and how unchanged they are and how they are still willing to lie, cheat, steal, oppress in the name of whoever is in power – and that can even includes members of your family.

Now – today – you have the chance to reform.  It is time to come out and condemn bullying – lying – cheating – stealing – oppressing others for your own advantage – in other words, you have a chance today to speak the truth about these United States and about the world in which we live.  If you don’t, that world will be changed and not for the better.

We elected a man as president of these United States who is a bully.  A man who lies, cheats, steals, and who will use whatever he can to be the most powerful person in the world.  And when I say “we” – Russia may have manipulated for him to gain more votes and put their strength behind helping him become president of these United States, but millions of plain, ordinary Americans voted for him.  And why?  Because he promised he would single you out and make you and your kind “better than”?  That he would maintain and increase the racism, sexism, homophobia, and all the rest that has existed in these United States for generations? And in return you would turn a blind eye to his robbing you blind because you need that “better than” status more than you need a fair and equitable country in which to live?  Because you need to know that the brown-skinned person across the street is less than you?  Because you can brag about living in a country which excludes and diminishes those whose religion is different from yours? And on and on and on because that is the only thing Trump has promised you and the only thing he has delivered to you and will continue to deliver to you as long as he is president.  He has promised to deliver evil!  He has promised to accept you and your contribution to his administration if you engage in evil for his sake!  He has made all kinds of promises which all come down to increasing the wealth of the wealthy; increasing the power of the powerful; …………………..(.add your own comments to finish this sentence.)

I was totally appalled at the progress of a part of his entourage.  There was the ‘First Lady’, Melania, at a school talking to young impressionable children about “bullying”.  And what were they doing?  Looking in their laps at pictures of this First Lady – nude and half nude – https://www.bettina-network.com/blog/archives/2572  – prancing around airplanes in practically nothing – lounging on beds in pictures that some sex magazines would not print without blurred spots?  I am sure you know the scenario.  If you don’t, take a look at the pictures in the above link which were out in public view long before Trump ran for president and which circulated the country during his campaign.  And still you voted to bring this family into the White House as role models for your children and mine.

She went into the schools talking about bullying.  With what credibility?  Was she bringing the issue up before our children so they would understand and avoid such tactics or was she teaching them hypocrisy and how to do one thing – live one kind of life – and come out in the light of day talking another.  A woman who lives daily with a bully and has supported him with her words and actions.  This is who you wanted talking to your children about the evils of “bullying”?  One who used a bully to move herself up to billionaire status and has arrived as First Lady of these United States by marrying and tolerating and promoting a bully while doing whatever she needs to do to keep herself sane?  This is your role model who you parade through your schools for your children to see and listen to while they ogle her half-nude pictures?

How the mighty have fallen.

Who was Donald Trump’s mentor – besides his father who clearly was a bigot and was arrested at a KKK demonstration – try reading this New York Times article – https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/21/us/politics/donald-trump-roy-cohn.html

Mentored by Roy Cohn – a notorious and feared New York attorney who was Joseph McCarthy’s right hand man.  Who helped to bring much pain and suffering to many in these United States who the McCarthy hearings accused of being “Communist”.- Mr. Trump has now taken one of his mentors tactics and has shown he has no loyalties nor anything approaching a substantial set of foundational ethics by now moving completely to the other side with those same “Communists” apparently having been used to get him elected president of these United States.

It is not accidental that Gorka brought up the Rosenberg’s in his attempt to destroy Hillary Clinton.  Destroying the Rosenberg’s and sending them to the electric chair was a part of the tactic that promoted Cohn and his crowd and is the inheritance of Trump and his crowd.  If at once you succeed you don’t have to try again you only have to push ahead and move the world into the image that most lets you live like Vladimir Putin, only without the downside Putin now faces.  And now comes a reliving of that time, only this time with Trump as saint paul, Cohn in the jesus seat and Gorka and his crowd working to bring in a 2017 form of McCarthyism to project and increase their money and power and the American people allowing all of it to happen as long as their jobs, assets, status as “better than” are safe.

It is time to wake up America and live out your claimed beliefs.  Live out your Constitution.  Put the quality of life – the equality of all – ability to provide for everyone without having a billionaire crowd growing at the expense of the homeless and others on the margins about to become homeless.

All of the moneys being spent on the foolishness we are now seeing acted out in front of us by White Male Northern European ancestry Americans needs to stop.  Oops, not quite.  We do have some hangers-on from other groups to disprove that rule – let’s not forget the African American Ben Carson, and others like him. Strivers all!

It is time for the windows and doors of this country to be thrown open and the fresh air of humanity, compassion, equality, love, grace, and all the rest be let in and not be closed off and only allowed to a small and smaller group.  The thugs and criminals who keep this country in chains are not who you want in charge.

We need an America whose soil does not grow and support and strengthen such people.  I don’t know what happened to them that they pursue such  a way of life, but that really does not matter.  What matters is their choices in life were evil. The lifestyle that they chose is evil.  Their ability to corrupt others is evil.  They need to be called out on all of it and removed.  The hate they are spewing – the choices they are making ——

It is the personification of evil and different from the sermon I heard a few Sundays ago about labeling this “politics” and not “evil”.  It was certainly not a Christian sermon – it was a sermon from the soul of a religion spreading very quickly and calling itself “christianity”.  It is the call to follow this god they are promoting as “christ” and ignoring the evil intrinsic to this kind of “politics.”  The small letters are not typos – they are intentional.

Stand up and be counted here America.  This is your country and you need to take it back and put it in the light.  Take it out of the darkness settling on all things American and with that darkness spreading fast.  The same group which promoted and supported Jos McCarthy and his brand of anti-communism is around Trump.  Their heirs are alive and well and trying to take this country down the same road.

You don’t have much time because one defense Trump has is to start World War III and I have no doubt he is capable and would rather see that happen than to traverse the road he set for himself, which will be hard, painful, a total embarrassment and payment for his past sins in the public and corporate arenas.

We will be in the middle of nuclear warfare without even knowing what happened.  You will be standing in the street with your skin turning to mush and your eyes destroyed and your entire body in excruciating pain because when you had the chance to stand in the street for justice – for equality – to be passionate about a political experiment called the American Way you were among the missing.  You went about your day as normal, you did not want to be involved.   You wanted others to stand up and take the pain of working hard and sacrificing their lives so you could live in peace, harmony and without extreme environmental changes and so your children could grow up and replace the Trumpians and McCarthyism.

How is that not spreading and being a part of the same evil you are seeing played out in the news everyday?  Everyone has a part.  Choose yours wisely because your day of reckoning is coming also.  Remember the story in scripture about the sheep and the goats?  Each day you choose which one you are becoming and each day you take on more of the characteristics of your choice. – and at some point it is too late to change and make another choice – you and yours simply will have to live with the choice you make today, no matter how small.

This is not political – this is evil!!!!

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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

 

A Response to “Trump and Kelly: Resign”

Monday, October 23rd, 2017

Thank you for that post.  It was quite a history lesson for me.  I know some things about this USA, but my education is not nearly complete about racism and all the rest that happened here and I was born here.  My friends who moved here from other countries know more than I do about my country’s history.

I think all of this upheaval about the black special forces person who was killed was merely to cover up and distract from what I expect will be unveiled at some time in the future.  This allows Trump and his friends time to get something together to cover-up their misdeeds.  I think these four young men died because of some shenanigans Trump was ordering the military to do that he should not have and it all went wrong.

I think he is also trying to bring about a massive war in North Korea.  Once that war starts you will know that the investigation led by Mueller has reached its conclusion and the results are very awful about Donald Trump and his friends.  A major distraction will be needed and I think Trump will bring about that war to distract and to try to remain as president in spite of the investigations’ findings.

It was especially clear, during all of the dust-up, that it was about the black person among the four people killed.  There was almost no mention of the three whites.  I also wonder what happened that Johnson was found so far away from his compatriots.  Did he know something he was about to communicate to his Congresswoman?  Once upon a time I would not have suggested anything like that, but having watched Trump over this past year with his conspiracies and racial hatred against Obama and others I have to say it does not seem far fetched.

The first question I heard asked about this was about the entire incident in Niger.  Trump answered by turning that question about war specifics into a question he answered that was not asked about his personally calling and writing the families of those who were killed.

The lies about, even the distraction are enormous.  As Trump representatives appeared on the television shows they talked about all kinds of things that were not true – I wonder if they checked first or just took the script provided to them and went with it.  Do they expect and will they receive awards or did they lie just for the experience of their 15 minutes of fame.  One claimed the Congresswoman should not have run to the press with her claims – in fact, the press was waiting for her when the limousine in which she was riding pulled up to claim the body of Johnson.  There were many more which I am sure you’ve heard.

Keep up the good work, I will be reading.  Maybe I will even send a blog – this certainly expands the mind.

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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

 

Trump and Kelly – Resign!

Friday, October 20th, 2017

The Manchurian candidate has become the Manchurian president.

Trump has spent his presidency causing chaos, confusion and more.  Isn’t that what Russia would have wanted in exchange for helping Trump gain the presidency?  Donald Trump, now President Trump has not missed a time of sowing the wind so we could reap the whirlwind.  Does he do this in the expectation that when his tenure as president is over Russia and its friends will reward him with a Trump Tower in Moscow, to be the largest such complex in the world?  Isn’ that the kind of goal Trump would relish and fight to achieve?  With an ethical standard that has no traditional right or wrong, his sense and practice of ethics is relative to what is happening immediately in front of him with right replaced with what benefits Donald Trump and wrong replaced with that from which Donald Trump does not stand to gain,   Spending time as President of these United States – doing Putin’s bidding – or the bidding of whoever is his ‘handler’ is the place where Trump will spend his time and energy.  He is doing an incredible job fulfilling his role as ruiner of America – the Manchurian President.  A side job he has probably decided on for himself is the job of lining his pockets with as much as he can before he is out as president.

General John Kelly, or rather Mr. John Kelly (since he is today a civilian and not a General)  – the  Chief of Staff – whose unvarnished bigotry was on full display during his appearance in the briefing room – you need to resign before your very soul is destroyed.  Your hypocrisy and bigotry is flying all over the world for all to see.

It was clear during Mr. John Kelly’s appearance yesterday, in the briefing room, to defend his boss, that he and his boss have a lot in common.  Kelly clearly supported his boss – voted for him? – is very much like him when he isn’t hiding behind the veneer that the training he received during his tenure in the armed forces allowed him to learn about and use.  John Kelly is definitely not the adult in the day care center, but a bigot working amongst other bigots.  In such a circumstance it is very easy to lose your ethical center and, if he ever had one, it is now clearly missing.

Many things were uncovered during Kelly’s appearance in the White House Briefing Room and many things have been confirmed. When Donald Trump took office as president, ‘GENERAL’ John Kelly was named head of Homeland Security.  That department rolled out the first Muslim Travel Ban in record time.  It was brutal and caused incredible grief, suffering and casually vicious evil for tens of thousands of people.  That was the work of Mr. John Kelly.  The armed forces gave him the tools he needed and he used them  to act out and attempt to put into the United States system of government a travel ban which was bigoted and a part of Donald Trump’s plan – which Kelly agreed with – to “Make America White and Christian Again”.  What Kelly does not realize is that once his ability to contribute is over, and he has done what he could to help Trump and others re-establish bigotry in these United States,  he will clearly be shown that the group discriminated against includes Catholics.

It was an incredible experience to watch this former United States General stand in the briefing room and make a fool of himself because his bigotry led him to that place and time.  Kelly outlined his bigotry for all of us without even being conscious of how he was exposing himself.  He outlined for all of us his bigotry and the incredibly flawed and romanticized view he holds of the United States.  His description is a romanticized version of the bigotry which existed in these United States as he was growing up and in many places still does.

This view is palatable if one takes John Kelly’s description and ignores the reality of a country that was racist, sexist, violent against minorities – especially in the Brighton/Greater Boston area during that time, gave great privilege to white males with Northern European ancestry and – especially during the time John Kelly describes – was particularly bigoted against the Irish.  Irish from Brighton, MA. would have experienced that bigotry and apparently John Kelly escaped the reality of his life growing up and taking on the identify society tried to give him by putting in place this “better than” picture and now describes to us, with all the rhetoric of the White Supremacist with whom he clearly identifies. a world that did not exist except in the corner of his mind which he uses to justify himself and identify himself as better than and more equal than….

John Kelly took his place on the platform with his tikki torch just as others did in Charlottesville, VA. when they were out marching around and doing damage to others  imitating Hitler and Nazi Germany’s Krystallnacht.

Kelly talked about how wonderful this country used to be.  Woman were honored; churches were filled; etc. etc.  Kelly had no consciousness that he was spouting the worst kind of racism and sexism.  From Trump, women are sluts and objects for sexual abuse and misuse.  For Kelly they are honored on pedestals way away from the real world and there they should stay.  In that vein, as we turn the armed forces into a “sacred space”,  we need to remember that sexual abuse, rape, and all the rest which Trump brags about doing, was very prevalent in the armed forces.  The fight to reduce what was wide spread and so accepted that a woman’s career in the armed forces was just about over if she brought formal charges against anyone after she was sexually abused or raped or… is something that happened during Kelly’s active tenure in the armed forces. I don’t see John Kelly’s name amongst any of those who fought against those practices.

While Kelly tried to be the “General” during his time in the White House Briefing Room, misusing his title in the service of someone whose bigotry got him into the non-sacred space he was now occupying, Kelly’s common ground with Donald Trump kept slipping out.  Calling Congresswoman Wilson an “Empty Barrel”, among other epithets, was clearly in the mould of his boss.  Kelly was arrogant enough to attempt to reduce a Black Woman, whose life shows her care and work for others and the struggle that she has been through because of how Kelly’s racism and sexism contributed to making her life significantly harder, he tried to reduce her the exact same way his boss would have, with the epithet of “Empty Barrel” and a string of lies.  Kelly’s mental illness was on full display.  The kind where he can do and say and the person he is doing and saying about has no ability to respond.  His is the word that will stand – OR – does Trump have something on Kelly that forced him into that position?  It seems to me that is the case with several people – in Congress, on his staff, etc.

Kelly showed his inability to see or participate in any kind of equality when he claimed to be “stunned” that Congresswoman Wilson was listening in on such a sacred conversation.  The fact that the conversation was taking place in an automobile and the conversation was clearly on speaker phone to which anyone in the car would hear and could listen, didn’t come into his calculations.  Neither did the fact that he and others were listening in on such a “sacred conversation” as well.  They were doing the right thing that they were qualified and should be doing.  With the exact same actions Congresswoman Wilson was somehow violating some code of privacy – the White’s listening were the privileged deified to do so by White Supremacy and the Black Congresswoman and others in the car not allowed to violate that “sacred space.”

Most Blacks can understand that assumption since a part of racism is cornering a Black into a space where no one else exists and oppressing them in such a way that their psychic responds to the hurt so inflicted and ‘puts them in their place’, but they cannot object nor bring that oppression public with any credibility.  A strange satisfaction racists have gotten for generations. A racist act Donald Trump performs on a daily basis in almost all of his acts and conversations and now we have seen that his Chief of Staff does also.

President Trump is accustomed to demeaning minorities.  He arrogates that right to himself and has apparently done so throughout his life.  It was his birthright given to him by his father, who was involved enough with the Ku Klux Klan to have been arrested as one of them at one of their rallies.  His birthright from the way his father trained him to insure that the buildings they built were not to be lived in by Black families.  We know that from the civil rights law suits filed against them by the federal government probably because they accomplished this discrimination and bigotry using federal funds and violating United States laws.  Habits instilled from childhood, which Donald Trump to this day apparently still follows as normal and the way things should be if America is to be great again.  If America’s greatness is to be defined as the racism, sexism, violence against women and others, etc. etc. that are a part of America’s history, we are sadly going into the dustbin of history not into greatness.  We will be there in good company with Putin in the adjoining dustbin.

Clearly, from General Kelly’s presentation, not only the Bannonites carry tikki torches for this president, but so do his ‘generals’  The way this administration is mirroring Nazi Germany is incredible and moving very fast down the road as they take into the Trump administration the equivalent kind of who helped Germany become the country of extreme bigotry under Hitler’s leadership.

In the United States, we have never had so many “General’s” in an administration before.  We have gone against what we have outlined as not permissible in a democracy to bring in Trump’s generals.  To have supported the election of Trump for president the first requirement these generals would have needed was for Trump and his people to see the familiar bigotry in their lives and belief systems.  Kelly has clearly outlined and shown the rest of us why he qualified to be Chief of Staff.

After that display in the White House Briefing Room and his rolling out a program (the Muslim Travel Ban) which violated the Constitution of the United States and many other such slights and crossing the road from democracy to the Russianization of the United States that Trump seems dedicated to bringing in, Kelly has shown himself qualified to work for Trump.

It is time for’ General’ John Kelly to resign as Chief of Staff and remove himself to a retirement community of all White, all Catholic Christians where he will be most comfortable.

Having lived a long life and having seen what it was like to have your ancestral roots in Ireland, it is amazing that General John Kelly could say the things he said in that WH Briefing Room.  I grew up where Irish, Africans and Native Americans lived, worked, married, raised children together.  They did that because they were this country’s outcast.  “No Irish Need Apply.”  That is also John Kelly’s world before he replaced his past history with this clearly unreal and very racist storyline.

Where General John Kelly was raised, Irish were the servants because no other jobs were available.  They scrubbed floors, cleaned toilets, demeaned themselves for the WASPS for whom they worked to be able to put food on the table.

Mt great-great grandfather was Irish and his family came to this country settling on  a farm in Ohio and then moving to Illinois before he moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.   My great-great grandfather Adams married my great-great grandmother – a Choctaw Indian who was on the Trail of Tears, forced to walk from Alabama to the middle of the country with no food, no clothes to protect from the weather, no place to sleep except wherever the group being pushed along by the U. S. Federal army – ordered by their generals to keep these people moving along so White Christian ‘Americans’ could have the land on which they lived and worked for generations.  John Kelly’s ancestors were not a straight line down from those Generals, they were a straight line down from the Irish, Africans and Native Americans who tried to support one another during that time frame because the bigotry was so strong and their lives were considered less than nothing, except when needed to do someone else’s dirty work.

General Kelly needs to remember his history and the history of those who went before.  Having been raised in Brighton, MA. – now owned by Harvard University – was not the best of upbringings.  One ‘out’ he had in this country was to join the armed forces, which he apparently took.  But he also developed a “better than” attitude adding that to his identity.  “General” wasn’t enough.  The ability to oppress via “White Supremacy” had to be added to his belief system as the ground under John Kelly to make him feel adequate to his life.

Donald Trump needs to resign along with John Kelly, especially when it will be discovered that the two of them caused the death of the four special forces men who gave their lives for what the men thought was a good cause – defending their country.  Trump and Kelly caused their death by doing their best to demean their country and turn it into a bigoted space in this world – sending the likes of those four who died into harms’ way to justify and bring about Kelly and Trump’s need to be better than – their need to be a part of a system of government for which your skin color, hair and religion determine your place in that system of government.  They are working hard to make sure democracy is stopped and along with Vladimir Putin is replaced with a system of government which oppresses its people and forces them to work while the governmental people at the top reap the benefits of their toil.

The movement today is to keep America White and Christian.  But “white” is relative.  Only in America are people classified as “white”.  In Europe they are French, English, Scandinavian, etc. “Race” is an ungodly invention, which happened in America to justify slavery so Christians could go to Church on Sundays.  Color goes only skin deep and probably doesn’t go all the way through the skin.  Instead of classifying people by their hair, color, etc.  try classifying them by their character, achievements on behalf of others, etc.  Our entire U. S. government would have to change if that were to happen.  Our current governmental leaders  lie, cheat, steal, sexually abuse, etc. etc.

Weinstein is being excoriated for his alleged sexual abuse.  Trump was elected president in spite of all that was alleged against him and in spite of his admitting to and bragging about sexual abuse, but he was rewarded by being elected president.

Trump whipped up the crowds at his rallies into a bloodlust group of people screaming for Hillary Clinton to be jailed – about having her killed – about doing violence to others for which he, Trump, would pay the legal fees for those taking such actions.  A large group against one woman who Trump felt was becoming too powerful and certainly not reflecting her female stereotype.  Trump and his campaign brought  violence against women out from behind the private places where it usually happens into the bright sunlight with people owning and bragging about their bigotry.  He brought the KKK out from behind their white robes and pointy hats.  He made being and admitting to Nazism an OK thing to do.  He is responsible for bringing all of the symbols and institutions of Nazism into public view in this country.  He has made it acceptable.

Donald Trump and the way he is ‘governing’ looks as though his strongest goal is to fill his coffers with the United States gold and to add to it as much of the world’s gold as he can manage to pilfer.

John Kelly looks like the assistant who is going to destroy the last bits of his character and end his life as the person who most ably assisted Donald Trump in that mission.  How he is characterized today by those having to live and work around him is not how he will be characterized when the history of his life is written by others once he has passed out of power and can no longer negatively affect those who speak truth.

Some stray questions!

Congresswoman Wilson was threatened after she spoke out about Trump’s telephone call to the point where her office felt its security threatened and reported the threats.  At the same time, Trump says he refused to answer reporters questions about the incident until Congresswoman Wilson repeated what she said about him and the telephone call.  From watching him and hearing his comments, it was clear to me that he expected her to recant what she said.  That sounds to me like a definite threat someone would make who knew about and could make happen the violence threatened against the Congresswoman.

Trump and Kelly – RESIGN!

Trump has established temporary Concentration Camps – using disasters which create extreme pain and suffering to create these CCamps through his and his staff’s refusal to act in any kind of a timely fashion.  Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are two examples.  He has to finally come around to acting somewhat positively, but he does not do so until much damage has been done and the “brown people” involved have been pushed decades behind everyone else.  Inviting the Governor of Puerto Rico to Washington, D. C. and trash talking about the corruption happening in Puerto Rico around the help they are receiving from the United States, while at the same time praising the hard work and honesty of the people in Texas is beyond one’s ability to imagine that a President of these United States would so engage in that kind of talk and actions.

Trump and Kelly are using disasters and travel bans as one way to attempt to get rid of the fact that most of the people in these United States, today,  are minorities and their numbers are growing.  Another way is the various Muslim ban’s Trump and Kelly have brought into being.  Be particularly aggressive in throwing non-white, non-Christians out of these United States to attempt to continue the supremacy of White Christians so this country can remain bigoted against minorities and women. It was effective during Katrina.

New Orleans was reduced from over 70% Black to some 50% Black and from overwhelmingly Democratic to Republicans taking over.  What an example for Trump to follow! And, in the process, Trump is becoming more outwardly and publicly bigoted in everything he does and says.  When the story of what happened in Niger is finally revealed – even if that means we have to wait for another regime to tell the truth – will it show that Trump and Kelly caused the deaths of those four young people through their bigotry having added Chad to the list of countries whose people are not allowed into these United States – among other things they have done, some even more direct to the cause of those deaths?

Trump and Kelly – RESIGN!  You are a disgrace to this country.

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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

 

 

A Book for you and other things!

Friday, October 13th, 2017

by: Marceline Donaldson

I just finished a book by Verna J. Dozier entitled “The Dream of God.”  It is published by Cowley Publications, if you are moved to buy the book.  I found mine at an estate sale and would not have picked it up otherwise.  Cowley Publications is in Cambridge, MA if you want to follow this through.

This is an amazing book.  Ms. Dozier dug deep to put out for the rest of us her wisdom and musings and prophetic voice.

I didn’t quite understand the title until I almost finished the book and then it hit like a storm.

I have always believed the Kingdom of God was all around us.  We were the ones inhibiting our ability to see, feel touch, live out and through this kingdom.  Maybe the terminology stopped me – but I am old and Kingdom of God is a traditional term we all think we understand, but really don’t.

She tears apart the concept of an institutional Church – corporate business structure – our need to institutionalize as a comfort zone which keeps us away from the Kingdom of God where there is freedom and keeps us tied to our institutions which we create because of their comfort and our need to be told what, how, when to do.  Kind of explains why some people move so far right to the threshold and into the “kingdom of authoritarianism’.  Why we look for a leader and allow that person to turn into a dictator over against all of us.

She outlines the several times she sees us as having fallen:  In the Garden of Eden when we discovered we were naked; during the time of Israel and the coming together of the Jewish people; and recently.  All times she sees an opening for us to be a part of, help bring about and live into the Dream of God and all times we let fear keep us away from such a magnificent concept.

She writes some incredible truths we don’t want to read – “nothing scares us more than freedom.  We are always afraid that freedom will degenerate into chaos – as it often does – so to escape chaos we flee to authority, which means authoritarianism.”

She sees our chosen purpose as one that calls us to be coworkers with our Creator so that the dream of God for a new creation may be realized.  “God has paid us the high compliment of calling us to be coworkers with our Creator, a compliment so awesome that we have fled from it and taken refuge in the church.  God does not need such an institution.  “‘Destroy this temple,’ Jesus said,’ and I will rebuild it in three days.’ ”

“Like Esau, we have surrendered our birthright.”

Institutional structure is where I have spent a lot of time, trying to understand what that means – how the structure affects the people living within its boundaries – what role does the institution play in moving us in the wrong directions we have taken trying to get to a good end.

Ms. Dozier says “The institution is the servant of the people, but it has presumed to become the master.

“We the people are responsible for what the institution has done.  We have allowed God’s gracious gift to us of order, continuity and memory to become a monster of control irrelevance and idolatry.”

In the beginning of “the Dream of God” Verna Dozier talks about the “free gift of God ” to be the new thing in the world.”a witness that all of life could be different for everybody – this gift was harnessed by an institution that established a hierarchy of those who “know’ above the great mass of those who must be told.”….”A veil was in the temple, a rood screen in the cathedrals.”

Some of her statements contain delayed power – “The people of the Torah made the gracious gift of the law into a system.  The people of the resurrection made the incomprehensible gift of grace into a structure.”

She carried me along in her book until the last few pages when she totally back tracks on everything she has said so far and done what she has called the rest of us to reject.  She  rationalizes the current structure and talks about how it can be effective, if only.

No matter your particular religious belief, this is an awesome book.  I have always had real problems with the worship of Jesus.  That seems to contradict everything Jesus was about.  She breaks into two 1) the worship of Jesus or 2) following in Jesus’ footsteps with your life choices.  but she clearly outlines how in taking on the institution Jesus lost the war, but gained the victory.

Turning the messenger into the message is idolatry to Ms. Dozier.  I can understand that.  It has been one of my long standing problems with the Church.  Worship the messenger and you don’t have to deal with the message.

Close the door to your reading room when you pick up this book and shut everything else out.

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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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