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Posts Tagged ‘Bettina Network Educational Institute’

Bettina’s is ready for the 21st Century pulling from all the centuries that went before!

Thursday, August 25th, 2022

Bettina Network Lifestyle Community

Bettina Network, inc. wants you to know about the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community.

We have had many valued guests staying in our bed & breakfasts over the past 35 years we have been in business.  COVID  19 turned our business upside down and we had to think long and hard about where do we go from here.

Along the way we added Bettina Network Foundation, inc., Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Journal, and a couple more. Through those experiences we discovered there can be no separation between our commercial selves and our responsibility to work towards a much more giving, loving, gracious society. 

We decided to work through Bettina Network Lifestyle Community, which is a group of people who are always open to and looking for human experiences with the goal of adding diversity, wisdom, learning while going about their ordinary daily lives and businesses.

As a Community, we have homes open to members who can make reservations as they travel. However, we only take reservations from those who are members of Bettina Network Lifestyle Community.  The world is not in shape where any and everyone can make reservations through an open system without taking huge risks. A computerized reservation service open to everyone to stay in homes that have not been thoroughly checked and where you arrive to find a key under the mat (or its current equivalent) is no longer viable and that will become increasingly apparent as society moves into this new era.  

We also only take homes into this Networking Community where people are living in the home and have a talent, interest, doing research, art, music, public affairs , scientists and more who are people who would add to your enjoyment and knowledge base and find that a very exciting thing to do..

If you are not already a member of Bettina Network Lifestyle Community, we invite you to call us and become one of those who cares about where you stay when traveling and who enjoys finding those little nuggets of wisdom from others who have found answers to what you might still be searching and so much more.

We are always searching for knowledge, wisdom and a greater understanding of the world.  We have combined it all in the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community.

To request membership in Bettina Network Lifestyle Community, please fill out the form below:

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Bettina Network, inc. P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238

617-497-9166 inside and outside the U. S.

toll free inside the U. S. and Canada 1-800-347-9166

https://www.bettinanetwork.com

email: bettinanetwork@comcast.net

More about – BETTINA NETWORK LIFESTYLE COMMUNITY

This also includes Bettina Network Hedge Schools from which we took  a very old, Irish concept, dusted it off and updated it in such a way that we are deep into lifelong learning.  

Hedge School Families share their histories, experiences, learning and wisdom when you choose to stay with them when you travel. Hedge School Facilitators travel Bettina Network and turn up in the most unexpected places.  They bring an added layer of learning as the Hedge School Families specialize in many different areas of learning and doing.

Instead of depending upon serendipity, some guests ask to stay in a home with a particular emphasis – with a concert pianist;  sculptor;  academics in different fields —which means, for example, you can improve your knitting by staying with a family of expert knitters; a chef with whom you can cook; a priest and more.

Some facts on Bettina procedures

Someone from Bettina Network, inc.spends the night in every home before it is taken into Bettina’s and offered to you. 

We get to know the family with whom you will be staying and we keep up with our homes on a daily basis. We send out a “Guest Questionnaire” to everyone who stays in a Bettina Home and the return rate of these requests for feedback is 90%.   That tells us – usually in great detail – the experience of a guest and keeps us aware in another way of what is happening in Bettina Network homes.

We accept cash, checks, credit cards – OR – we invoice your company.

We invite you to look to Bettina Network, inc., when  looking for a place to stay for those special guests who are traveling to give a lecture; to collaborate on a research project; to be a tourist; those giving a performance in an extraordinary music event, or etc. 

www.bettinanetwork.com/blog

The blog is thought provoking with contributions from members of Bettina’s Lifestyle Community.  Once you become a member of this incredibly diverse community, we invite you to write articles, send pictures, float ideas, try out your latest research on a great audience – which, as of today, includes some 2,000 to 3,000 people who are reading the blogs.  

In addition, Bettina Network Journal joins us as a new publication, incorporating Bettina Network Blogs, ads and much more. Real Estate is our latest addition to the Journal – which brings into your email box some of Bettina Network Blogs plus other information and experience.  

Given our resources, we have information, news, and ideas you won’t find anyplace else.  Join our little group, add your voice and use our services.  If you would like to receive the ‘Journal’ please send us your email address and we will add you to our list of – as of today – 10,000 people who have signed up.

Kamala Harris vs Michael Bloomberg

Wednesday, December 4th, 2019

by: Marceline Donaldson

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

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

Trump doing what he does best!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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IT COSTS MONEY TO PRODUCE THIS BLOG. WE HOPE YOU WILL CONTRIBUTE SO WE CAN EXPAND AND CONTINUE THE RESEARCH AND WRITINGS WHICH KEEP YOU KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT MANY THINGS THAT WOULD NOT REACH YOU OTHERWISE ALONG WITH THE OPINIONS AND WORK OF THOSE WHO ARE MEMBERS OF BETTINA NETWORK’s LIFESTYLE COMMUNITY.

What follows are some of the ways you can support our work:

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

*This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc. which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

into a major media outlet bringing to the public news, recipes, thoughts, reviews of businesses, etc. from the perspective of those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community. 

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

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

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott. 

_________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net 




Bettina Network Lifestyle Members Comments

Tuesday, December 3rd, 2019

ONE MEMBERS COMMENTS:

So much talk about Attorney General Barr. It is clear we give credit to people who have foul ethics and carry them along making excuses for their failings. In the case of Barr it is crystal clear that his family is the reason Jeffrey Epstein was foisted on this society. Epstein was given his start by Barr, Sr. giving him a job teaching young children in an elegant private school where he was served a banquet he could drool over for months and it was a gift because Epstein was totally unqualified for the job. No degree, experience, etc. All the qualifications expected of someone in such a position were missing. So what did he have that qualified him in the eyes of the Barr family?

And now we are lamenting how surprised we are that Attorney General Barr is showing his ethical and moral lacking? Please! Don’t waste my time. I don’t use ugly language often, but this is scum. We talk about WT? Here you have a real WT family going down the generations to maintain their spot at the top of that group!

To be surprised we even have to overlook what Barr did his last times serving as Attorney General. The same thing he is doing now only since he was recently called into action by someone whose ethics are so much more foul than the ethics of those he served before he has to expose himself and move into uglier waters to get results. We are the ones who need to shape up and clean up this society’s ethics and morals.

SECOND MEMBERS COMMENTS:

Questions are periodically raised about the “Christians” who are acting as though their religion is expected to produce great people. We have had so called “Christians” worshipping who they call their god on Sundays and even as far back as slavery and before with the Native Americans, they have been killing, maiming, hanging, oppressing, mutilating and totally destroying the lives of generations of Africans and others. Now we are destroying immigrant children’s lives and futures – that destruction is including murder.

I am just recently “Woke” and realize how much I benefitted from watching and doing nothing. I maintained a sense of myself as “better than” those designated as “less than” and I also had the greatness of designating myself as “much much better than” those doing the dirty work which allowed me to maintain myself above everybody else in this society.

It is an embarrassment and disgrace to have to make such an admission. As a member of Bettina’s I can do this without my name appearing. That is an act of cowardice, however, I am not quite ready to come out publicly. And when and if I do many others will have to come out with me.

THIRD MEMBER COMMENTS:

The presidential primary with Pete Buttigeig involved shows clearly what is happening within the Democrat Party. It has always been a party which recruits from movements. I have seen your comments on this blog about such. It recruited from the KKK in the early and into the mid-1900’s and was quite successful at that. They were involved in the ugliness of those White Nationalist groups.

That began to change in the 1950’s and 1960’s as it became clear that the movements of the day were diametrically opposed to what the Democrat Party was about. As the Black Civil Rights Movement and the Feminist Movement became stronger, it was clear the makeup of the Democrat Party would change and it did. It started recruiting from those movements and backing the people therein and became the party of the civil rights movements which is where it is today.

And now we have another change as the Gay Movement becomes stronger the Democrat Party can’t resist now recruiting in that movement and moving their goals into the Party. So the candidacy of Buttigeig and its success.

It is tragic that the first primary is Iowa – a very white state. Followed by New Hampshire – another very white state. If the Democrat Party is serious about its recruitment and those from whom it is recruiting members – it needs to be flexible with the order of its primaries and start someplace other than what has been their overall sequence. Through the order of their primaries across the country, that seems to be a throwback to their recruitment within the White Nationalist Group. The KKK and others still have an edge when it comes to the Democrat Presidential Primaries. They can’t make major changes, but they can keep their toe in the water through the primary ordering of which states go first and which down the road.

To show clearly and give voice to those being recruited into the Democrat Party they need to clear out the negativity of those they just stopped recruiting.

What a mess. We need a third Party soonest. So far, that has not been possible, the Republicans and Democrats come together on that point and seem to do everything they can to prevent such. It is time for that to stop and for all to see the advantage to this republic of the need to move from a republic to a democracy and that will only happen with the advent of a successful third Party.

________________________________________________


IT COSTS MONEY TO PRODUCE THIS BLOG. WE HOPE YOU WILL CONTRIBUTE SO WE CAN EXPAND AND CONTINUE THE RESEARCH AND WRITINGS WHICH KEEP YOU KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT MANY THINGS THAT WOULD NOT REACH YOU OTHERWISE ALONG WITH THE OPINIONS AND WORK OF THOSE WHO ARE MEMBERS OF BETTINA NETWORK’s LIFESTYLE COMMUNITY.

What follows are some of the ways you can support our work:

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

*This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc. which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

into a major media outlet bringing to the public news, recipes, thoughts, reviews of businesses, etc. from the perspective of those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community. 

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

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

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott. 

_________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net 




Real Estate Taxes/Collusion/Graft

Thursday, August 29th, 2019

by: Marceline Donaldson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And then come the games.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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IT COSTS MONEY TO PRODUCE THIS BLOG. WE HOPE YOU WILL CONTRIBUTE SO WE CAN EXPAND AND CONTINUE THE RESEARCH AND WRITINGS WHICH KEEP YOU KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT MANY THINGS THAT WOULD NOT REACH YOU OTHERWISE ALONG WITH THE OPINIONS AND WORK OF THOSE WHO ARE MEMBERS OF BETTINA NETWORK’s LIFESTYLE COMMUNITY.

What follows are some of the ways you can support our work:

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

*This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc. which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

into a major media outlet bringing to the public news, recipes, thoughts, reviews of businesses, etc. from the perspective of those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

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

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

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott.

_________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net





Bettina Community Members Respond About – Tiger Woods, Mitch McConnell, Trump and Erdogan, Nancy Pelosi

Wednesday, May 8th, 2019

Many comments from members. This one seemed to represent what all of you sent. If we left out something you wanted aired, please resend your comment and we will add it as an article to this Bettina Network publication.

Thanks for all that you do and for sending us information to include in Bettina Network’s Blog. It is your publication and we would never know all that we do without your input.

TIGER WOODS

I have been disgusted in the past with Tiger Woods behavior – the womanizing, the drugs, the awful way he took his talent and seemingly threw it to the wind. When he won the tournament recently and so many were praising his “come back” I had hopes that things had changed and we would now be able to enjoy, respect and look forward to great things from Mr. Woods.

How could one be so wrong. Instead of that, we get Tiger Woods as a member of the Trump Mafia/ Criminal Enterprise.

I watched the ceremony with Trump giving him the Presidential Medal of Freedom; heard Trump’s comments and the highly emotional way Tiger Woods tried to respond. I wanted to throw up.

Tiger needs to get his life in order. What is most missing from his life and how he lives it is a good ethical base; good character and an understanding of his responsibility as a human being.

To accept the award from someone posing as president of the United States is bad enough – but to accept the award from his “boss”, a man for whom he is working, for whom – among other things he is designing golf courses and more and getting paid by this man bestowing on him this “honor” is beyond my ability to think anything of Tiger except – so we get more of the same that you gave us in the past only now – instead of drugs and women – you are cultivating within yourself and learning mafia ethics while working for and being a part of a criminal enterprise – who would have thought Tiger could have sunk so low. That show of emotion Tiger Woods made during his acceptance speech should have been grief for the life he could have lived and the respect he totally gave up for a round disc hanging on a piece of ribbon. What a disgrace and a waste of an incredible talent. Just think of what could have been with Tiger Woods. He is not someone I want around my children.

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Mitch McConnell

Living in Kentucky what is clear to me is how difficult it is going to be for McConnell in 2020 to keep his seat in the Senate. His candidacy is underwater at the moment and he is losing followers and those who used to think he was the man for whom to vote.

Clearly, Mitch is tied into the Trump Criminal Enterprise and the Bettina Blog was correct when it asked why McConnell blocked Obama’s nomination for the Supreme Court long before we even suspected Hillary might not win the Presidency. More of us are asking what did he know – how did he know it – when did he know Donald Trump was going to be declared the next President of the United States. It certainly looks as though he knew that months before we cast our votes and Russia’s interference blocked Hillary Clinton’s candidacy in favor of putting Donald Trump on the throne.

What makes it even worse, many of us are extremely unhappy that he put a man credibly accused of sexual assault into that position on the Supreme Court. Some of those so unhappy were friends who called me racist when I refused to support Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court. With Clarence Thomas’ nomination, I could not believe that someone I loved and respected and supported – George H. W. Bush – had actually nominated someone like that for the Supreme Court. They are probably going to be appalled at my thoughts about Tiger Woods, but I was so happy to see Bettina Network’s Blog spelling out the horribleness of giving Tiger Woods the Presidential Medal of Honor. The two of them – Tiger and Trump – standing together on that podium with Trump looking at Tiger as though he was going to be dinner for a sexually hungry man after the award ceremony was way beyond my ability to cope. I turned off the television and went back to work seething. What is wrong with folks that they either can’t see that or are willing to accept it?

McConnell was able to support and still totally supports a man who has been credibly accused of many instances of sexual abuse against some 20 woman that we know about and who has spent over $100,000 to hide his inability to control his penis during the presidential campaign, or apparently at any other time. What kind of man is Mitch McConnell anyway. His morals are in the dumpster.

I will be contributing to whoever is running against him and I will be a Republican working for whichever Party’s candidate looks as though they will unseat Mitch McConnell.

I hope there are many like me out there. I was a McConnell supporter for a very long time. This, however, is my Waterloo. Never thought in my adult life that I would support, help fund and work for a Democrat, but if that is what it takes I will be upfront and center in this upcoming election, working as hard as possible with those like me.

I have never thought of myself as particularly ethical or requiring a standard good character of people. I am so sorry I have not done that and now look at what we have to endure.

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Trump and Erdogan

Trump is looking more and more as though he is talking to Erdogan and getting lessons on how to become an autocrat in these United States with a Congress totally emasculated.

I look at what Donald Trump is doing and can’t help but parallel his actions to those of Erdogan in Turkey and how he moved that country to the autocratic state it is today and with its populace trying to escape that one man’s tyrannical rule.

Turkey just had an election which went against Erdogan and so the results of the election were cancelled and Turkey now gets to vote again. Take a look at what is happening there and see if you don’t think Trump is taking ideas and what to do from his fascist friends around the world.

What do we do when it becomes clear that one person whispering in the ear of the Donald is Kim Jong Un – the love of Donald Trump’s life?

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Nancy Pelosi

What a disappointment. Trump, apparently “respects” Pelosi – if you believe he comments coming out as to why he has not given her one of his infamous nicknames.

Does he respect her or do they have an agreement whereby she may go after him, but she will block impeachment so Trump can swagger around daring the Democrats to impeach him when he knows he has a friend at court who will make sure that does not happen.

It is past time Nancy – at least a year overdue – for Trump to be impeached.

To want to be guaranteed of success before you start any process is to be either totally naive or to not want the result to happen because you have other fish to fry.

Get real here Nancy – Bettina Network’s blog called for you to ‘impeach or step aside’ – I want to verify that I am behind that sentiment 100%. You are becoming a liability and a disappointment in the way you related to Trump.

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This contribution is to the Bettina Network Foundation, inc. which is a 501(c)3 organization and tax deductible.

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

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott.

_________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.co










Tiger Woods – No Surprise!

Tuesday, May 7th, 2019

We received little notes from Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Members about the award Donald Trump bestowed upon Tiger Woods.

Several expressed surprise that Tiger Woods accepted the award – given the stand many African American and even mixed race African American sports figures have taken. So why is Tiger Woods standing there grinning and proud?

We didn’t understand the surprise of some of our readers and contributors because – “birds of a feather”.

That should give you some idea of the common values Trump and Woods share. That kind of sexism, that disrespect for, that misuse and abuse of women crosses racial, national, and all other barriers.

Think back a bit. What do you know about Tiger Woods beyond his great talent in the golf game? Remember his ex-wife’s anger when she found out just how ‘outre’ he was with women? Remember the stories which surfaced in the media about how he ‘shacked up’ with multiple women after his golf tournaments and carried on multiple affairs while his wife took care of home and children? Remember all of the womanizing you heard and/or read about concerning how Tiger Woods lived his life? Does that remind you of anyone? Maybe the man putting the necklace (some call it the Medal of Freedom) around Tiger Woods?

Now who is surprised? We are, that so many of you are surprised and/or expected Tiger Woods to refuse the award on principled grounds. Expect him rather to ask ‘what’s that’ – principled grounds?

The surprise should be all of the media reports with no one mentioning that history – those connections between Woods and Trump – etc. Or have we become a society which accepts all of that as normal and those commonalities having nothing to do with why one is chosen? Who you are as a person needs to be the rock foundation from which other talents and accomplishments radiate.

Have we lost our way expecting awards such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom be given to someone who examplifies greatness in what they do as well as who they are and how they have lived their lives – as an example of someone who walks this earth who we would be proud to have our children emulate? A great talent is a wonderful gift. A life well lived is what we give back. An award such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom needs to be given to someone whose life embodies both the gift and what the giver returns to the society. At this point Tiger Woods has shown and cultivated his God given gift. He has given back, however, much that muddies the earth, confuses its children and supports the likes of a Donald Trump and his presidency. From looking at Tiger Woods’ children, imagine them crossing the border – or trying to cross the border from Mexico to the U. S. How do you think he would be treated by those carrying out the dictates and policies of the man putting that award around his neck. Do you think Tiger, having been asked the question would call for the bowl of water, soap and a towel? With the acceptance of that award from Donald Trump, Tiger Woods symbolically did just that.

https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-gives-tiger-woods-presidential-medal-of-freedom-2019-5

_______________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

into a major media outlet bringing to the public news, recipes, thoughts, reviews of businesses, etc. from the perspective of those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

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

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott.

_________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.co










Zillow, Realtors, Racism

Monday, May 6th, 2019

We have known for generations that the segregated neighborhoods that refuse to show any signs of integration, which cause segregated schools, which are enabled by redlining (although today there are more sophisticated names than redlining), are caused by the collusion between realtors, those serving the professional real estate community, banks and other financial institutions.

We am having an experience of what that is like in 2019 because one of our own is selling her house and is mind blown by what she is experiencing.

Her neighborhood is one of the “upper class” neighborhoods in Cambridge, MA. It is about 99% white and for the last 37 years that she has lived and owned a house in that neighborhood there has been no change. One black man lives in the neighborhood and has lived there longer by a fluke of government contracts. Architects built an apartment building using HUD money. Those HUD contracts were to bring “affordable housing” into the neighborhood and to help insure people with very little could afford to buy condominiums and live and raise their families in a really fantastic place.

Unfortunately, the HUD contracts were only for one generation of buyers, so once the condominiums were sold if the people who bought them were foreclosed on or met some other kind of tragedy which mandated they move then the builders were free to take back the condo’s and resell them at market rate to whoever, no matter their wealth or financial status.

Since the terms to buy were way beyond what most in the economic/financial situation to which those contracts were pointed and the terms under which the condo’s were being sold were generous to encourage such buyers – people bought who could not afford the condo’s they were put into and in short order the buildings units were being foreclosed or people were forced out by turning over their deeds or whatever arrangements they made to get out of what they bought as a dream, which was actually a nightmare. There were no safety measures in place under that HUD contract which could have helped many retain their homes.

One lone African American man remains in the neighborhood because somehow he managed to keep his condo and is still there today. Otherwise, it is like looking for hens teeth to find any other African American homeowners, unless they are temporary residents under the wing of Harvard University.

So now the stage is set. Along comes one of our leaders – an African American woman who buys into the neighborhood. That was horrific on its own. But that settled down and she lived a mostly peaceful, rewarding life making many friends of her neighbors.

She decides to sell. Looks up Zillow and find her house has a Zillow Estimate of about $4.9 million. And then the fun starts.

That Estimate stays for several months after the house is listed on Zillow and is close to professional appraisals of the house. Until, apparently, Zillow discovers the African American residents and the house tumbles in value on Zillow by almost $1 million dollars within two to three days.

How did Zillow do that? And what are they counting on to erase their attack? The way they set up their Estimate. In one to two months that history will be history and things will look normal – well, sort of.

To reach that Estimate, Zillow compared her property not to other houses in the Brattle Street, Gold Crown Historical District, but made a comparison of her house to homes in Brighton/Alston, Central Square, etc. and the size of the homes to which her home was compared were 1,000 to 2,000 square feet smaller. A comparative value, found from such circumstances would be much lower than one if the house was compared to those actually similar.

When Zillow was called and emailed to say – why? They did not respond.

What happened to the house that after a few months with the house on Zillow at $4.9 million approximately, the Zillow Estimate drops to $3.5 million – which is actually substantially below the value of the house in todays market and that drop happened within about 24 to 48 hours..

After more investigation, we discovered the answer. It has to do with race.

What is that called? Why are they allowed to do such? What are the alternatives?

That made us look around to ask – Zillow can’t be alone with these practices and are there official places which make this possible and Zillow comfortable in what it is doing?

Let’s investigate!!!!! Stay tuned for more. We have started some investigative work to look closer and deeper.

____________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale

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Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

into a major media outlet bringing to the public news, recipes, thoughts, reviews of businesses, etc. from the perspective of those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

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

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott.

_________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.co









Bettina Oracle Speaks – New World Order

Friday, May 3rd, 2019

So much happening in your world and there are so few people – beyond those doing the planning – who understand and get what is probably going to be their future.

George H. W. Bush – Donald Trump – New World Order – blocked by the Clintons.

Have you noticed the continuum between H. W. and DJT? What you can’t have missed was H. W. diminishing Thurgood Marshall by replacing him with Clarence Thomas. What you can’t miss today is William Barr – Attorney General during the Bush Administration and now Attorney General during the Trump Administration. And please don’t be so obtuse that you can’t connect the dots with Barr committing impeachable offenses during both times he supposedly served the country, but actually served as one of those on the front line for the New World Order.

Who will lead the world in the coming years – Government, the way you have lived under, preferably elected governments; or the Billionaire Class which is strongly moving to take over so they can accumulate more, more and more without government muddying up the waters. That is the war going on in the earth sphere. So primitive and with such incredible ugliness because you are still bound by greed, horrible ethics, lack of integrity in those you have chosen to lead and on down the list into more and more muck.

Every once in a while someone comes along sacrificing themselves for the good of the whole, but that never works. At most it buys you time and space to get your act together to move ahead into a more beautiful space. But the uglies always have a plan and people to carry out the plan to make sure liars, cheaters, thieves, those who have no integrity and mostly greed take over and turn the earth sphere into something ugly.

Once upon a time earth was a beautiful place. But those who were in that beautiful place gradually turned it into the filth it is fast becoming where disease is rampant following the greed which has created the many diseases now plaguing the earth.

Sexual deviants have taken over bringing in sex trafficking, rape, and all the other horribleness perpetrated on others. You can see the filth in their souls as they try to blackmail those who might break out and they always use some kind of sex threat in the process. Sex is beautiful and is the way you survive on earth. How else do you help in the creation of others being born into what should be an ideal existence? Those full of greed, sin, filth and more have taken the core of existence to blackmail and try to turn others – and they have been majorly successful because we have not rescued sex from the ugly into the beauty that it is and was created to be.

Look at how you treat serious sexual deviants: You just elected one president of the United States. Trump, who uses sex as a tool to gain power and control over and to feed his sick male ego, has been majorly rewarded for his braggadocio and the things he has done to attempt to debase women. There are so many more, but I won’t dwell on that negative you see it on a daily basis.

You have taken the basics of life and allowed those who will destroy even life or at the very least the quality of life to gain money, power and control to use those basics of life to gain material wealth leaving many destitute, in pain, sick, homeless – and many on earth have done this over even too many generations. Instead of thinking on and creating real wealth and beauty and making sure you have no homeless – instead you cordon off what you can claim as wealth, put it into the hands of a few like those who are so ugly and so full of sin.

Food is something which you decided to cordon off and manipulate to gain material wealth. So are the other necessities of life. And now instead of turning around to make right what you have destroyed you will do even more ill by trying to go off into space to do the same thing elsewhere, leaving the poor, the destitute, the hungry, those without adequate clothes and shelter in their state because you need them to be so.. How else can you claim and feel so victorious and better than if others don’t pay such a price to your egos?

As life move along and you continue in this path things will all of a sudden become excruciatingly painful for you and lets not even begin to talk about your death.

At this point the business interests are winning and that is tragic. All forms of bigotry have made that possible and irreversible. The different forms of bigotry invented on earth are now coming close and rubbing elbows with each other. The nazi’s, the racists, the sexists, the homophobes, those who hate muslims, and all the rest are living cheek by jowl and shoring up their “leaders”. They think they are about to gain control. In fact, they are about to reap their Armageddon.

And those who do nothing will stay in a sphere of nothingness. That is a state which makes solitary confinement in your jails look like a party.

You all need to wake up and understand what is happening around you.

Make the parallels between H. W. and DJT and see the progress that has been made. Thurgood Marshall to Clarence Thomas to Kavanaugh. Plot that path.

Take a look at the Clinton’s. Why is Hillary such a threat? Try answering that question and you will unlock the evil in Donald Trump.

What are the billionaires doing with their money? Even those who seem to be “do gooders”. You will be shocked – maybe into sanity and an understanding of the direction in which your world is going.

Who is really running your government? In the United States it certainly is neither Trump nor Putin.

Are the great empires of the past really beginning to come back and reassert themselves?

Is Trump crazy? weak? or is something else going on?

How come the people in power today are those who were mentored by the evil of yesterday – Trump and the combination of Roy Cohn and Joseph McCarthy. And didn’t Bobbi Kennedy come out of that Communist threat McCarthy brought into the United States. Wasn’t he a staff attorney to the McCarthy hearings and more? Look at those in power and see who mentored them! It is an amazing lesson in why the world is in the state it is in today. And, don’t stop at the United States. Do the same thing around the world and you will have a greater understanding of where we are – where we are going – and why.

Think about what it means to have a president who was mentored in his young adult years by serious alcoholics who were almost always drunk. McCarthy was a known and dangerous alcoholic, but he remained in office and was allowed to do a substantial amount of harm to tens of thousands of people. So was Roy Cohn. And now their protege has reached a level of power they couldn’t dream to reach. In spite of that history, today we try to look for reasons for Trump’s actions – he is weak; he is crazy; he is, etc. etc. We look every place to try to explain Trump except where we will find answers. He was raised within a mafia family of influence which goes back through his father to his grandfather and who knows what beyond that. He was mentored by drunks and those with no integrity and horrible ethics. How was he supposed to turn out. AND, we voted him into the highest office in the United States even knowing his family history, his adult years, the evil he did through his life. Is that a Trump problem or is there something wrong with the rest of us? The leader you get is the one who most reflects you.

Think and watch and wait.

_______________________________________________


Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog into a major media outlet bringing to the public news, recipes, thoughts, reviews of businesses, etc. from the perspective of those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.

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

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott.

_________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.co








Pelosi – Impeach or Move Aside!

Friday, April 19th, 2019

To be so constantly exposed to so much sin takes lots of prayer to maintain.

When one goes into a United States of America Court of law one takes certain assumptions. Basic is the one which outlines how agreements, breach of contract, relationships and more work. You find evidence for your side and move on from there.

When one is mafia, that is an entirely different set of rules. The first of which is, apparently, no direct contracts, promises, etc. One learns early about the circularity of talking, especially to the “Don”. One lives amongst a set of ethics which makes sure you won’t get caught, won’t be exposed, won’t get killed – jailed – —-

Those two ways of living under the “law” came into conflict with the Mueller Report. It was clear Donald Trump lives, works and has relationships under the Mafia Law. The circularity and non-directness of that law is probably why some mafia leaders were not afraid of being wiretapped. The people listening would have to re-educate themselves about language and its use within mafia society. Reasoning and how one draws conclusions would be changed and those listening would have to educate themselves, their court system, their citizens and more to be able to call mafia leaders and followers to account in a court of law. Instead of providing that kind of education to the American public our Criminal Justice System has had to revert to other means and many mafia leaders have been called to account through their taxes where two different ways of living, talking, reasoning is not permitted. These two different ways of communicating became clearer to the general public through Michael Cohen’s testimony during a Congressional Hearing.

As I listened to all of the readings and analysis of the Mueller Report and read a copy of the report which showed up in my email box, what became clear to me was one possible reason why Mueller stopped so abruptly and produced his report. William Barr presents a clear and present and immediate danger to this United States system of governance. Something had to stop him or we would all be totally under Trump and his foreign backers without even knowing what happened. Trump’s circle of loyalist is growing and with each addition the danger increases. When one of those loyalists is the Attorney General of the United States that is beyond simply wrecking havoc on this society. That amounts to its destruction and subjugation to other foreign powers and/or mafia groups.

Russia is such a threat, but not the only one. A much larger threat and more imminent is the one of Trump bringing the United States government into line as a country under mafia rule and mafia control. A country ruled by a complex of mafia bosses with no contracts, no above board agreements, no way to bring anyone before the Courts as we know the Court System to work. Trump has been busy establishing a different way to govern and he is moving very quickly with that endeavor. That was very clear with the ascendancy of William Barr.

I heard many people talking about the end of William Barr’s career. This is not the end of his career, as seen through Barr’s eyes. It is the continuation of a career on a different track, within a different system of values and governances which he apparently sees as taking him much further than he could go taking the traditional U. S. route as an American lawyer.

I doubt that any of this makes much sense to the reader. It certainly makes no sense to the writer. I am just trying to come to grips with what I have been seeing, hearing and looking back at the history of to answer questions I have about much that is totally above my pay grade.

We are living in a country in which the president is a serially accused sexual assaulter and who has not only admitted to such, but bragged about his ability to assault any woman he chooses to sexually assault. This same president looks to me to be also guilty of treason against the country which he is supposed to be leading. He has corrupted many people in his administration and apparently some quite successfully. I especially don’t understand why or how people could follow him and consciously assault and turn against everything they claim to believe. They are afraid of what? Not committing the sins the president is requiring of them? Is that more dangerous and scarier than committing those sins and living in eternal hell? If that is not an alternative in their way of thinking then why do they generally, almost across the board, call themselves Christian? Is that a word they use to identify themselves because it helps them move up in the world of money – power – better than?

What a mess!

And then we look towards those who are supposed to be the keepers of the good flame and we hear them talking about not holding this president’s feet to the fire and not demanding William Barr resign immediately. Their conversation is about political considerations. What happens in 2020 if we move ahead to impeach Trump? What if we make that move and we don’t get enough votes in the Senate for that impeachment and Trump goes free? Well, what if you do nothing – Trump goes free! And he could win in 2020.

What if I kill someone, maybe I should not be tried in Court because the risk of not getting a guilty verdict after the facts are presented might make my accusers look bad. I am sure those folks in jail would have liked to hear such a conversation about their crimes – maybe we should not arrest John Doe or Jane Smith, it might fall back on us politically.

We have all long since stopped thinking or acting ethically. We have this ethics of relativity – or convenience – or of winning. And that tears down the society putting its values in jeopardy and eventually producing a society which is about what is best for those in power to maintain that power and control by any means necessary.

I don’t know what else to say or where to go from here. I saw a man today – William Barr – who is, as my grandmother would say, the scum of the earth. He is calling himself Attorney General. But he was put in his position by a usurper to the presidency so just who is William Barr to be pretending. As a lawyer he knows very well he should not be Attorney General, that he is a pretender. He is also a liar of great facility in his lies. And it looks as though he has no caring about right or wrong. And how does Bush Sr. fit into this – Barr’s last ‘fixer’ moment, the last time he acted as consigliere that I can trace was for Bush, Sr.

We have another liar who calls himself President, who has done and is still doing horrible things. Those things were made public and so the liar president takes a private jet, paid for by the people of these United States and once again costs us over $1,000,000 to take himself and his family and whoever else he wants to take to Mar-a-Lago for the holiday weekend while people who live and have lived honest lives wonder what they are going to eat today let alone any kind of Easter, Passover or any other holiday upcoming. People, watching the president fly overhead while they are left wondering if they will ever get off the street again to know what it is like to live in a home with light, heat, food, clean clothes. And people in Congress debating whether or not those folks, in that overhead jet, should be called up to answer and pay for their crimes against the citizens of this country.

Homelessness is a crime of the society against its citizens and it goes unpunished. These treasonous acts of Trump or whatever you want to call them are crimes of people against their society and those crimes go unpunished.

IMPEACH those you can reach and have a case against like the man who calls himself President of these United States and the man who calls himself Attorney General of these United States. That is the very least that can happen and maybe the rest will begin to fall into place when we know those who call themselves leaders of this society have ethics that are higher than the ethics of winning. Maybe we will all begin to fall into place and realize that we are called to a higher life than one of having more things than; more money than; a higher vocation than; are ourselves better than and we will stop kicking those who are down; we will stop cursing those who are living on the street and blaming them for their plight. Something has got to give in this world before we all either continue in this murkiness or…….

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BARR – Distracting from????

Thursday, April 18th, 2019

Distracting from the evil they are currently putting in place is a strong, ongoing way Trump World operates.

Barr has simply joined the group.

He has been clear about who he is for quite some time now. He has worked from a set of ethics which are in the toilet and are at least as bad as, or are on their way to becoming as bad as Donald Trump’s. My spirit recognizes your core and your real values.

We see people in everyday life and they seem to be “nice” people. So we accept them and become shocked when they show us a very different side and move up in life by having core values which shows they have been corrupt all along we just weren’t paying attention on that level. We have this way of simply ‘whitewashing’ our friends and those to whom we give respect because of the level of achievement they have reached and of being surprised when we see they have been complicit in coverups, lies, cheating, protecting those above, moving ahead by doing evil – that is a part of who William Barr is and who he has been.

Today he is into the kind of distraction we have become accustomed to with Donald Trump. He is now truly a “made man”.

Barr recently intervened in the immigration process and passed the edict which said there will be no bail for asylum seekers. They would have to stay “in jail” – “incarcerated” – until their case has been decided.

Why does this need distraction? Because it is the beginning of the second stage of United States Concentration Camps. If you check back Bettina Network Blogs you will find we predicted Trump Concentration Camps and they would be filled with children. Huge and ugly these Concentration Camps which will soon be quickly erected will make Nazi Germany concentration camps look like a luxury hotel by comparison.

Thousands of people will soon be incarcerated and in vile, filthy, horrid conditions. That has already started with the United States incarcerating people beneath bridges and in conditions which most of us choose to ignore and we have had limited reporting on what they are like and the conditions under which “brown skinned” humans have been forced to live. Limited reporting because so much concerning the Mueller Report has been used to distract the media headlines and stories away from that reality. Barr has done a masterful job with this using the Mueller Report – no wonder Trump hired him as his Attorney General. However, an illegal president cannot hire an attorney general who can legitimately function in that space.

To stop the bleeding from the Mueller Report, someone needs to simply give an un-redacted copy to the media to be printed and distributed for all and any who want copies. That is a risk, but it is one that needs to be taken that in the end truth and justice will prevail. That will end that and we can go on to dealing with all of the other ugliness Trump, his backers and friends are pouring into this American society.

We knew who William Barr was years ago. What he did destroyed or should have destroyed his reputation and should have seriously called into question the reputation of Bush 1. Isn’t it amazing how much of what is happening today traces back to Bush 1?

This is the new world order. Remember those comments, which were stopped in the middle of his making them?

Donald Trump was brought in to stop the darkening of America. He is doing his job magnificently. And wait until American and Israeli Jews discover his other mission. When the truth is told, right-wing Americans are not enthralled with Israel because of its Jewish history. Their interest in Israel is because of its Christian history and as time goes along, if they remain keepers of that flame both Jews and Muslims will discover they are expendable and dividing them was simply a way for Trump and his people to take over Israel and remake it into the ‘Evangelical Christian’ country such folks have dreamed about for generations. In the meantime, have you noticed the “Jews” Trump and his people deal with are the Ashkenazi Jews – those German-type Jews who look white? It makes one think all Jews are very fair of skin. Have you seen any brown skinned middle-eastern Jews amongst those leaders?

My first impression of Israel when we travelled and lived there for several months was the separation of white from black. Not American whites from African Americans and others of such color, but the separation of ‘white’ Jews from those others – who you can’t tell from the brown skinned Palestinians. When we arrived in Israel, driving in from the airport to where we are going to live we saw cotton fields with people of color picking cotton. They were Arabs and Middle Eastern Jews – all the same color. My first lesson upon arrival.

Because I was raised amongst Jews and Christians during my growing up days I was well aware of that separation. If you live long enough and are exposed to the world you live a history that shows you where the cracks and lies are.

In the United States during that time and before, Jews – Ashkanazi Jews included – were called by the “N” word. They did not fill out forms asking for race by checking “white”. Both Jews and African Americans were in and out of our house. Mixing was not unusual. My mother was named after the daughter of one family with whom we were particularly close. I spent lots of time at their home in the city and their home in the country. They were not particularly well off when that friendship formed. It went back to my great-grandfather who was helpful in establishing their fortune which became substantial. My grandfather tutored their children and spending time together was normal. As time passed, Jews became white and those friendships were dropped. It was no longer that close, normal, everyday thing to ‘drop in’. The tutoring because the children needed that learning help and my grandfather was an educator with a Columbia University education and a family friend, gradually became a ‘better than’ relationship and so my grandfather pulled away.

William Barr is the needed extension of what Donald Trump is doing and someone Trump needs to stop the continued “darkening” of America. It is one of those times when people begin to pull away from one another whereas before they were friends and neighbors. Pull away because of skin color and the need of one group to exert a superiority over another. William Barr’s order for bail to stop for asylum seekers is one large step in that process.

Those asylum seekers are, after all, the brown people of the world and they cannot be allowed to continue to come into this country because it is already at the precipice where the majority is or soon will be “brown”. And we can’t allow those incoming brown people to mix with the rest of Americans because friendships develop, family mixing happens and the need to keep white and blacks apart with blacks less than becomes rather impossible.

We need to look closely at the fact that many of the Muslims against whom Donald Trump is moving may be Islamic by religions but they are of African extraction by birth. They are African Americans or Blacks who will become African Americans when they enter this country and become one of those on their way to citizenship. I knew trouble was coming a few years ago – before Trump – when I went to the swearing in ceremony of a friend who was becoming a United States citizen. As I look down on the group of new citizens from the balcony I was amazed to realize they were about 80% “brown” – from many different countries and many shades of the same brown to black skin color. I was sure then trouble was on the way.

Why does Trump have the percentage of supporters he has? They recognize that and their way of wearing a sheet and pointy hat is to allow and support Trump as he moves to insure that this country in which they live will always have different levels of people – whites uber alles and all the rest. And one cautionary note to those who may not have realized the fact that – yellow is not white.

This flap over the Mueller Report is hiding this major next step that Barr made legal – we are now on the way to jailing and destroying as many of the “brown” people of the world as possible and it is succeeding. We will not hear of the many deaths that happen along the way as Germans did not hear of the millions of Jews killed in Concentration Camps. We predicted long ago in a Bettina Network Blog that you would soon be hearing of children being killed or ‘accidentally” dying. That is now happening and the real number will never be known.

Besides a brief report on Barr’s edict to disallow bail for those seeking asylum I haven’t seen any other reporting on what is a major move for the Trump administration and one which is moving brown peoples directly into ever larger and growing numbers of Concentration Camps which will spring up all across the country.

And you natives of the United States whose ancestors were forced to come to the United States in slavery, you may today be citizens, but you are not exempt. There has been almost no reporting on the number of black American citizens who have been picked up and evicted from this country by ICE. A few have been able to contact friends and relatives and have been brought back. They were not able to do that until they were dropped off in foreign countries about which they knew next to nothing. What about those who are still in shock in countries to which they have been transported where they have no friends, no relatives, no connections of any kind, no money, no assets, no jobs, no legal status of any kind and have not been able to contact those in the U. S. who could or would help?

Now, on to getting ready for the farce of a press conference which is scheduled to happen on Thursday at 9:30am. And on to Nancy Pelosi claiming there should not be an impeachment of Donald Trump with Trump’s interesting response of being extremely respectful of Nancy Pelosi. How come?

___________________________________________-

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

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Notre Dame/Steve Bannon?

Tuesday, April 16th, 2019

One can’t help but notice the incredible “coincidences” that now abound. Are they really coincidences or are we in the middle of people who are just plain dishonest, manipulative, power hungry and see bigotry as the way to gain what they couldn’t come close to without that way of functioning.

Politics has become really ugly. We no longer have to worry about how Hitler came to power. We are seeing real-time examples showing us just how he did it with todays’ improvements by people like Steve Bannon, Donald Trump et al.

Yet one more “coincidence” of violence against…..speculate a bit about the burning of Notre Dame in Paris. This happens just two days after Steve Bannon announces the purchase of the monastery which he intends to convert into some kind of training camp for people to take down the pope and the Catholic Church. And Please don’t say – ‘but Steve Bannon is Catholic.’

That matches the two days after Trump announces he is not a Globalist and the results are felt in Pittsburgh. And just a couple days after Trump grossly attacks people against whom he plays the victim with those people who Trump has characterized as victimizing him subsequently receiving bombs – which apparently didn’t go off because of the incompetence of their maker……. and so many more such coincidences. They have now become difficult to list or recount they are so numerous.

Lets get international and look at New Zealand – shootings right at the time Trump needed something really big to distract from what was coming, exposing his evil within days. What came were the New Zealand shootings – what was diminished and distracted from – look it up in your news feed and see for yourselves. Do the work people and keep on that edge as you read the news which is grave and see the proximity to Trump’s need for distractions from the horribleness of his life, his so-called presidency and more.

Notre Dame burns – just two days after Bannon called for and talked about how the Pope and the Catholic Church needed to be taken down and this “hit” on the Catholic Church- this time a “two’fer – Trump facing the release of the redacted Mueller Report just a couple days later.

Don’t be dissuaded from looking closely because Bannon is Catholic and Stephen Miller is Jewish along with the claim that Trump is crazy. Crazy like a fox.

Some of the most racist people against Blacks I know are Black. Why? Because, apparently, they see power within the group and their power-over dissipating if integration comes along. That has been the case. It is how Whites have chosen Black leaders over the centuries. Look for those who will do the most damage and exercise the most control over the Black Community. That is who you help become leader of the group. Same thing goes in the female community and in all the other minority groups. It has always been so. Those in the minority communities don’t seem to have clear vision to be able to see such. We even define terms to make sure those power dynamics are skewered. We make the claim that Blacks cannot be racist – one must call such Blacks who clearly show their racism – prejudiced. That is one of the most ridiculous definitions I’ve heard in a very long time, but those so declared as “leaders” totally talk about that definition, correcting those who see otherwise so nothing will dilute their power.

The biggest disgrace of this the century, however, is the ascendancy of Donald Trump into the office of president of the United States. He is clearly someone who showed before he was “elected” that he would take down the country and would turn it into a racist, fascist dictatorship preferably with him as the fascist dictator. Trump was discovered as that kind of person by influential people in governments hostile to the United States, people who thus far had not been able to get far in weakening and taking down America. So let’s try Trump. And they did.

They have gone very far with Donald Trump. He has and is consistently weakening every institution within these United States and he has done a very good job at such. As the days pass he is acquiring a collection of people around him who will go to jail doing his bidding because they have blindsided themselves to the point of believing they will be great in his administration if they do his bidding. They are people with histories of having done ugly, lying, illegal things before he found them and brought them into his inner circle. William Barr being the latest. Someone who has had extensive influence and changed America with the way he has obstructed justice for at least two previous presidents. He has now stepped forward – at just the right moment – to attempt to do the same thing for Donald Trump.

He issued a statement which Trump could use and did to claim he was “exonerated”. He has postponed until a holiday weekend with Congress out of town to release the redacted Mueller Report. He is redacting the report and our guess is his “redactions” will be blackening out those parts which tell the truth about Donald Trump – the ugly truth. And Congress will go along with the program dragging its feet and talking big and bad throughout.

Why is Donald Trump still in office being called President. Even casual observers saw he would not win the election because he had – what – some 25% of the vote without the help of those within those hostile governmental and other kinds of communities who saw themselves benefitting from such an evil soul?

Trump’s very vile history is well documented on thousands of videos around the world which are played constantly over some kind of media. They were played even before Trump and his supporters claimed he was the next President. People who voted for Trump knew his reputation; they knew his evil; they knew the kind of history he created; they knew him to be dishonest, – a casino operator, unethical contractor person who stiffed those very middle class people trying to establish themselves in their corporate entities as well as others who he could reach any way his evil mind allowed – those wanting to move ahead educationally; those interested in wine, cheese and goodness knows what else he put out to stiff the rest of the world so he could thrive.

But then so was Hitler’s history before he became head of Germany – although videos and other instant replay devices were not available during Hitler’s reign. That had to go by slower means and sometimes even word of mouth. The need for power and control amongst those who would follow was so great they gave up their eternity for a few months of following a monster. And isn’t that true of Donald Trump’s followers?

What bothers me most is why he is still in office? Why those who claim to be against him have not so moved and are passively doing what they can to allow him to remain in office – why? Because they are larger than life as the opposition and their power and control is more complete by so passively allowing Donald J. Trump to remain while claiming to be on the side of John and Jane Q. Public. They see power in allowing Trump to remain in office damaging the world because if he is removed now someone else might run for the office of president and win, ruining their chances to come to power in a sprint rather than the very difficult road that would present.

Where do you stand? Don’t you realize your children are watching? How are they taking this in and how is this affecting their lives as they learn and grow? Are these the lessons you want them to act on as adults? As of now you have no choice. What they are being shown is what happens in this country when an African American is president and what happens when a so called White American is president. What Trump is teaching them about “whiteness” is lessons I would not want my children to learn. And those lessons are being allowed by both Black and White Americans.

And to you racists. They are being taught – thanks to the lessons you are making possible – that if you want a great president vote for an African American. If you want one who is a mess-up, who is evil, who is vile and will engage in corruption, attempted murder by remote control and more, then vote for a White man.

Et tu?

___________________________________________________-

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_________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

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Mitch – How did you know? Barr – Who is your handler?

Thursday, April 11th, 2019

It is time to acknowledge that something is very wrong in our government and with our politicians which is beginning to show publicly in some strange ways.

For example: Mitch McConnell blocked Obama’s appointment of Supreme Court justices months before the end of his term. One such appointment he blocked was a relatively middle of the road/conservative justice from being appointed to the Court. Appointed instead was the man who is known as an extreme political activist, credibly accused sexual assaulter and who was brought onto the political stage by the Bush family.

We have talked lots and printed much about that, but no one has asked how Mitch McConnell knew his blocking Obama’s appointment of Merrick Garland would result in Donald Trump appointing conservative political operatives like Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. If Hillary Clinton had won the presidency, which was widely expected and seemed to be a done deal, her appointments would probably have been to the left of Obama’s. Does anyone believe Mitch was holding open Supreme Court appointments for Hillary’s nominations?

Mitch McConnell proceeded in the face of what was showing and expected and blocked not only the Supreme Court justice appointment by Obama, but much else also, which he then released when Donald Trump reached the point where his friends and supporters called him “President”. We were not amongst those.

Who majorly ushered Mitch McConnell onto the political stage?

How did you know Mitch? What connections do you have not showing? Add that to all else you have done, what kind of country are you helping to shape? Would you and your children want to live in the kind of country you are helping to create when those whispering in your ear become those in total control of that country? Do you really think they will allow you and your family to prosper after your work is done and you are gone? Or does that matter to you?

**************************************

William Barr we have the same question of you!

Who is whispering in your ear? From whom are you taking your orders? Do you really expect us to believe that you just happened to turn up at the exact time your writing that lengthy opinion for Donald Trump would result in your being named Attorney General and your carrying out the wishes of whoever is giving you marching orders at this time?

Didn’t you help bail the Bush family out of an Iran mess? Or was that Reagan?

Just before Mueller’s investigation ends, you, Mr. Barr, turn up having laid recent ground work to become Attorney General to stop the Mueller investigation without the public being aware of your role in wrapping up that investigation putting yourself in place to put out an “exoneration” of a man who calls himself president of these United States so he can finish the work of destroying what took hundreds of years to build? You were clearly put in that place by – who? – the same people who called you up to duty and now will keep you in front of us where you can play your part in this farce?

Who benefits here? Who has orchestrated this? Or did this happen accidentally with everyone acting independently and this just comes together in such a smooth way? We don’t think so!

We saw “Mafia Speak” within the Court setting, when the judge in the Manafort case did his mafia speech before sentencing Manafort. Remember that little ditty about how this had nothing to do with “collusion”. Shortly thereafter on the front steps of the Court Manafort’s attorney made the same speech = one having nothing to do with the case he was coming outside from having represented his client making the announcement not about the case he was in front of the judge to carry forth but to say – Manafort was judged free of any collusion. That was not true, but this attorney carried his speech off as though it were.

And then shortly thereafter Donald Trump, that same afternoon, talking to the press shouting questions at him, makes his speech about how “honored” he was that day by the judge and Manafort’s attorney. Trump’s speech in its words and tone was that of a man who, that day, became comfortable with his role as “the Don”. His choice of words – striking – “honored”. ‘I am honored.’ ‘You have honored me’. That is about as close as a mafia don comes to humility. But then one discovers it is not about the “Don’s” humility, but about the “Don” allowing you to show your humility because having done his bidding and the bidding of those supporting him he is about to allow you to show your humility by allowing you to kiss the ring

Today we had “Mafia Speak” in the reverse. Donald Trump comes out with his bit of “Mafia Speak” which sets the stage and then William Barr, before Congress, follows him almost within minutes saying almost the exact same thing Donald Trump said to the press shouting questions at him.

This is a well orchestrated play being enacted in front of us and are we all too stupid or too innocent to see this?

Who gains? Who loses? What is at stake? This is a game with real life consequences in which the United States as a republic wins or the mafia in which Donald Trump was once a participant, but now apparently is the “Don” wins. Today he may be shored up by his fascist friends around the globe – supported by the billionaire’s club, but tomorrow? Donald Trump is not the type of person to be grateful or to be one of those serving and working with. His “friends” will soon see they are working for him and it will not be pleasant for any of them. Barr may see himself wielding power today, but he needs to take a good look at history to realize his future and it is not pleasant.

We have entered the era of a world-wide mafia generating from and controlled by the United States government which is in the process of forming a very tight, very strong mafia from which there will be no relief nor any turning back.

Today you can call us crazy, paranoid, delusional! However, tomorrow when you realize the situation in which you are living what will you call us then? And what will we call you? Involved? Taking action to preserve a democracy? Or one of the good people who allowed this to move to its conclusion by doing nothing?

Take a look at past Bettina Network Blogs and you will see we predicted this. It does not take a genius to see what is happening. We also talked about children being murdered and Concentration Camps – different from those in Nazi Germany. Concentration Camps where children would be incarcerated and then disappear.

We hope you are listening. We do not want to be in the position of saying “we told you so.

______________________________________________

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

If you prefer your gift go to the Foundation, make your check payable to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. The money we receive for the Foundation currently is going to support the Wells Fargo Boycott.

_________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

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Trump – yet another distraction!

Tuesday, April 9th, 2019

by: Marceline Donaldson

Apparently, Vladimir Putin has sent Donald Trump another list of things to do and Trump is carrying them out in his usual manner. However, the Chinese spy was ‘caught’ and the distraction is exposed for what it is – a continued attempt to dismantle these United States.

It is clear from the way this is happening that this is a distraction from the coming revelations from the Mueller Report which Trump, his friends and allies want to arrive in a murky atmosphere so Trump will continue to have time to continue to dismantle the United States government into the kind of structure they can take over.

Sad to say Trump does not realize that he will not be around to enjoy the excitement and celebration if he succeeds. He will be too much of a threat – especially since he can’t keep soda water on his stomach.

With the firing of Nielsen and the comments on her “evil” and the other ways she acted we seem to forget that what happened in Nazi Germany was not due to some special and unique character of Germans. It is a character flaw which is human and is happening in many places on different levels for the same reasons – power and control. It is well underway in these United States. Hopefully, there will be no reason for it to be said – as history goes over our actions during these days – that good people did nothing.

A man with no experience in government and no accurate knowledge of how the United States government works could not do what Trump has been doing without help from someone with the training that Putin has had as an operative of the Society Union. And I am sure Putin is not the only one in the mix seeing this as a good time for them to intervene as they have wanted to do for generations. Favros didn’t show up in such a hurry at the beginnings of the meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un in Vietnam by accident. My guess – someone was not toeing the line and needed a nudge to get with the program.

And in the end, Trump’s exit is already planned. He is setting the stage for a “crazy persons” exit from the United States presidency from which he expects to go scot free with lots of money waiting him to live happily ever after.

I do not believe all of these recent firings are taking place just as a coincidence when Trump needs some kind of cover for whole or parts of the Mueller Report becoming public. The last time such took place it was a huge explosion and great distraction. This is what Trump needs now to get the public off on a wild goose chase after the seeming upheavals with immigration so they are not focusing on what is happening with Donald Trump and what looks like the continuation of a huge next step in his massive conspiracy to destroy the current United States government so it will be easy to bring it back together again in a non-democratic/republic shape.

What is hopeful is all of this is the extreme diversity of the current United States House of Representatives. We are now a country which represents all of us – well, once the Senate has been “readjusted” – and the new president elected, if the press will stop pushing the white males amongst the candidates and pushing the females into the background, we might have the continuation of a great country. This time, one that represents all of its citizens. A note to the press – remember the great push and coverage you gave to Donald Trump’s campaign. It is time for you to stop self-absorption and the profit motive and realize the influence you have on this society. That needs to cause you to always and forever act with courage, and truth.

With the United States becoming the country we were raised singing, writing and claiming to be great in its diversity representing all of the people, maybe in this generation it will be so.

It is fitting that the old guard, which was the past, is represented in its death throes by this ridiculous caricature of a man who, hopefully, is the last president trying to keep this country white, male and mostly northern European. Dear God, let it be so. Do not let us have to go through another and more vicious Nazi Germany to emerge steps further down the road to a true government of the people, by the people and for the people.

My vision of Donald Trump is of a man ascending the stairs of an airplane with the wind at his back and his hair piece flapping in the wind with toilet paper stuck in one shoe following him up the stairs on his way to explaining to his handlers why he made such a mess of his assignment and couldn’t, in the end, pull it off.

______________________________________________________-

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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

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The Story – a new editor

Sunday, April 7th, 2019


“What is racism, bigotry, ethnocentrism, homophobia, etc.?

The actual experiences of people who have had to endure the bigotry of others while they tried to move along and achieve their life goals gives an understanding of bigotry which helps us root it out of our lives and out of the institutions in which we live and work. With that in mind, we hope you learn from and can use the stories in this series.

In instances of bigotry, it is the person who is acted against – the person who has been forced to experience another’s bigotry – who is chastised or loses an opportunity or is moved out of a home or denied entrance to an educational institution for which they qualified and ‘but for’ would have been accepted. This needs to stop. Especially, we need to stop the denial when we come across an instance of bigotry. We cannot afford to call for the bowl of water, soap and a towel to wash our hands leaving the responsibility for our sins on others or on the institutions which we created.”

_________________________________________________

I was in the process of going through papers which a friend of mine is packing to send to Amistad Research Library in New Orleans. In the process I discovered a treasure trove of stories of people experiencing bigotry. I volunteered to continue this series because of that and hope you will send your stories with any supporting evidence you have for our files.

A disclaimer – I am not a writer, more an organizer of papers and things so bear with me here. I thought this story was one not to be passed by. Let me know your thoughts as you read it:

Before I started this job I knew nothing about seminaries, churches, ordinations. As I am now knee deep in boxes of papers on that subject, my suggestion for a book for someone who is a writer would be – what happened at Episcopal Divinity School, which is now seriously diminished in size and influence and what is happening and has happened in the Episcopal Church.

My curiosity was stimulated when I ran across a letter on Trinity Church Copley Square letterhead from the Rev. Spencer M. Rice, Rector to the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Massachusetts. I am copying that letter to this blog – when I figure out how to do that – commending Marceline Donaldson for ordination …”who is sponsored for Holy Orders by the Rector, Vestry, and congregation of Trinity Church in the City of Boston.”

I’ve known Marceline for many years, but knew nothing of this. How she is still standing is an amazement to me. Besides this letter from the Rev. Spencer Rice are letters from the Rev. Henderson Brome, Rev. Edward Sims, Bishop Coburn and more all glowing with their recommendations. Marceline was not ordained and, in fact, was asked to withdraw from Episcopal Divinity School and she dropped out of the ordination process.

What happened? I would like to publish the entire file. However, basically racism, sexism and apparently the power and control needs of a few people. From the file records – Carter Heyward, George Hunter, John Skinner, and Edward Stiess – a committee of the faculty who stopped more than one black woman’s progress through seminary and ordination – were the instigators behind this. Another black woman from Ohio who was a student at the seminary went through a similar process with the same people and suffered the same fate. Her name is Lillian Bannister.

Since I have to send this box off on Monday and I haven’t figured out how to scan these letters into the computer to attach to this blog let me copy it for you. The original of these letters and this file will be at Amistad Research Library if anyone is interested in exploring and writing about these events.

The Catholic Church has been exposed on many levels, but the Episcopal Church – which has been shrinking dramatically – has not been so exposed and maybe it is time.

This letter is on Trinity Church Copley Square Stationery

5 February 1986

The Standing Committee

Diocese of Massachusetts

One Joy Street

Boston, Massachusetts 02108

Re: MARCELINE DONALDSON

Dear Standing Committee Members:

It is my privilege to commend to you Marceline Donaldson, who is sponsored for Holy Orders by the Rector, Vestry and congregation of Trinity Church in the City of Boston.

When I came to Trinity Church on 1 May 1982, Marceline Donaldson was teaching in the Church School as a volunteer. She was cherished by the Director of Christian Education as one of the most able teachers with whom she had ever worked.

During the academic year, 1982-83, Marceline taught three sections of an adult education course entitled, “Formerly Marrieds.” This course was for the pastoral assistance of those who were either in the process of divorce, or who had recently experienced the same. Marceline deported herself as an organized sensitive counselor who was of great assistance to those participating in these groups.

During the academic year, 1984-85, Marceline in concert with her husband, taught an adult education course on the Old Testament. In this course and the above offerings, Marceline was prepared academically, and was of great assistance pastorally to all those who attended these offerings.

Throughout the twelve months of 1985, and continuing to the present in 1986, Marceline has functioned as a lay reader and a chalice bearer at Trinity Church every Sunday at either the 8:00 a.m. Holy Communion service or the 6:00 p.m. Holy Communion service. In the discharge of these duties, she has been punctual, prepared, and spiritually focused.

On October 20, 1982, I received a letter from The Very Reverend Harvey Guthrie, then Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge. A copy of his letter is enclosed for your advisement. Harvey’s warm enthusiasm for Marceline’s presence in and contributions to the E.D.S. family constitutes its own witness.

Scarcely more than a year later, I received a call from Marceline, indicating that she had been summoned before a committee of the faculty (Carter Heyward, George Hunter, John Skinner, and Edward Stiess) on Martin Luther King Day, Monday, January 16, 1984, at 10:00 am. in Wright Hall Conference Room.

Marceline asked me if I would attend this meeting as her Rector and friend because thirty days earlier, another black, middle-age woman was expelled from E.D.S., and Marceline was apprehensive about such a forum. I did attend.

It would be impossible to recapture in a letter the degradation evidenced in this session. As Arch-deacon for the Diocese of California under both Bishop Pike and Bishop Myers, with personnel responsibilities for fifty-two mission churches, and as Chairman of the Board of St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in San Francisco, I have never experienced anything like this meeting. Had one participated in such a meeting in the aforementioned responsibilities, one would expect to be summoned into Federal Court within hours.

Charges were emotionally hurled at Marceline without either evidence nor written documentation. It was as close to a kangaroo court as I ever hope to experience.

Whereas the Dean of E.D.S. sent me a three page letter as Marceline’s Rector, when he and the faculty were more than pleased with her, I received no letter nor written information about her performance prior to this session; I received no written invitation from E.D.S. to this session; and I received no written documentation as to their judgment following this session.

In thirty-one years of priesthood, I have never experienced such a blight on the soul of the Church as this hearing.

It is a credit of no small magnitude to Marceline that she has deported herself with balance, compassion, and achievement after this most unfortunate experience.

The Rector and Vestry of Trinity Church support Marceline Donaldson for Holy Orders without reservation.

Very sincerely yours,

/s/ / Spencer M. Rice

Rector

cc: The Rt. Rev. John B. Coburn

The Rt. Rev. David E. Johnson”

_________________________________

After having read the rest of the file, which had more of the same, I went home in shock and wanted to do something, but what? Having read the beginnings of “The Story,,,” I thought this was probably the best beginning. The second step would be for someone who is good at research to take this up and put it into a book. Especially since there were many glowing letters about Marceline in the file and much more that could be explored. She will not, however, be cooperative, but the files at Amistad should help along with those located elsewhere in many different locations.

_______________________________________________

When you start digging and bigotry moves beyond the grand institutional sweeps into the individual stories, you begin to realize the horror of the experience of being an African American woman, man, Native American woman, man, Latina American woman, man and all the rest of those we demand accept our treatment of them in such a way that damages the soul of those putting out the horrific treatment of other human beings, bigotry takes another definition.

________________________________________________


Bettina Oracle Speaks

Wednesday, March 20th, 2019

Well, for once you did not call me – I am here because you need to think seriously about what is happening in your world before the worst degradation, oppression, horribleness takes you by surprise.

I am here because John McCain, who recently joined us, has something he very urgently wants to say to you and he asked if I would be his “transmitter”.

From McCain:

“I have been watching and listening to what is happening amongst you. My concern is that you are defending my reputation without realizing that the insults hurled my way are not about me. Nothing on earth can hurt or harm me. Even my reputation is now cast in stone. It will stand – the good, the bad and the indifferent.

Instead of trying to defend and protect me, please see and understand what this is really about. Use this example to look carefully and clearly and understand what is in front of you.

To Lindsey Graham: I know you wanted to say something in my defense. I know it was painful for you to keep quiet and I know you think that by keeping quiet to get yourself re-elected you think this is the best way you have to counter the evil in the world and the evil which is now so close to you.

Please don’t! You are jeopardizing your eternity and your life. Live it standing firmly on your own two feet as an independent individual and everything you want will happen. The way you have chosen will only bring you and the rest of the world horrors beyond your imagining.

To the rest of you: Donald Trump isn’t fixated against me. He didn’t make his anti-John McCain comments because so many months after my death he is still spitting out insults against me because of some kind of emotional need. Donald Trump made those anti-John McCain comments because he was testing Lindsey Graham. He needed to make sure Lindsey Graham was loyal to Donald Trump to a fault. He wanted to insure that Lindsey would do whatever he was asked by Donald to do and so Donald put him to the test. If he could viciously insult a dear and old friend of Lindsey’s who could not defend himself in your world so you could see and hear that defense and Lindsey kept quiet and let those insults stand, then Lindsey could be trusted and was now loyal to Donald Trump. That is what those supposed insults were all about. Before Donald Trump used any of his resources to back Lindsey’s re-election, he wanted to make sure Lindsey was in the Donald Trump camp and would do whatever Donald Trump asked Lindsey to do.

Please think clearly as this all unfolds. It has reached the point of your world being engaged in major sin. It has reached that tipping point where all of you will either be engaged in promoting the world the way Donald Trump sees it or you will stand up for the goodness that is in you but you and Lindsey have to find the strength to stand.

Lindsay Graham can break this part of the pattern by finding the strength within himself to stand tall and speak the truth. He knows what those insults were about. This is his moment and his immortal soul will either live or die on this hill.

If you look at this pattern you will see why so many others are keeping quiet. They have had their own period of testing and they wanted what was offered if they pledged their loyalty to Donald Trump. You will see what is being done to them and the heavy load they have been carrying. They, like Lindsey, want the power they have as Congressmen. They, like Lindsey, are trying to justify the price they are paying to maintain themselves. Some believe they are doing this for family and country.

To compromise your eternity for a few more years in Congress is not worth it, Lindsey. You have so much more in front of you if you find the strength to stand tall and tell the world what is happening to you and why. Accept this and your life is over.

I could have caved as a prisoner and gone home to live a quiet life without having gone through the pain and agony of the prison life and violence and personal agony that I suffered. I didn’t realize and didn’t think about what the stands I took would mean to my eternity. I have been able to look back at all of it and put it all in perspective and I had no idea the greatness that would come from the way I chose to live my life. I just did what I thought was right.

May you, Lindsey and all of you have the courage to live your lives choosing the right path and making decisions which will benefit you, your families and the rest of the world – and to you Lindsey, you know exactly what you must do. Don’t let that weakness of yours send you hurtling into a life of sin

Your friend always – who will be standing by your side.”

Tell the Story!

Friday, March 8th, 2019

These are actual instances of how institutional racism and personal bigotry work hand in glove to destroy attempts to change this society from one of White Supremacy and Patriarchy to one which looks beyond physical differences. (I will start – send your stories to share with those who need to understand on a conscious level the structure in which they live, work and in which their children’s character, ethics, morality are being formed. – don’t let me stand out here alone. To talk about these experiences on a personal level takes a lot of humility. The first step to break through the ego and ‘better than’ needs is to allow humility to take hold.)

by: Marceline Donaldson

CHURCH

One of the dominant conveyers of bigotry. What follows is one very small example of how it works!

Currently, we are seeing the demolition of the Black Church. That has been happening for decades. It moved along in earnest when the overall society realized the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s was formed, nurtured and carried through successfully because of the Black Church. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a black preacher and Church leader with an ancestry filled with black ministers, organists and more.

This story starts in a Black Episcopal Church in Central Square, Massachusetts. A Church that has had its ups and downs and currently is down. What happens?

This is one small incident, but crucial in how the Black Church is being destroyed.

My husband and I served as interim ministers at St. Bartholomews Church in Central Square – Cambridge, MA. – in the mid-1980’s, a Church which is predominantly Jamaican, African American, with a few people from Barbados and Haiti – in other words, all people of color.

When we arrived there were two people licensed by the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts to serve as Lay Eucharistic Ministers. One was the wife of the last rector.

We worked with several additional parishioners who were interested in serving their Church as Lay Eucharistic Ministers and as required, we sent letters to the Diocese asking that they be licensed. They attended the requisite training offered by the Diocese, were licensed and worked as Lay Eucharistic Ministers with no problems and many ‘thank you’s’.

The following year we added a couple more who also went through training and were licensed. We also encouraged them to get involved with the Diocese – as well as seeking out others in the congregation who were interested in Diocesan work. There were several and we did our share to make the Episcopal Diocese less White and more Diverse.

The Episcopal Diocese had one or two African Americans involved in their work – people they were accustomed to – the people who disproved the rule.

Everything went along fine until the Bishop under whom we made those additions and changes retired and a new bishop was elected. The new bishop was not comfortable with the increased numbers of African Americans having a say in the business of the Diocese and so began the process of elimination. How was that done? – Quietly! Under the radar, so to speak!

We applied for a renewal of the license for the -now – seven Lay Eucharistic Ministers, who had been licensed for a couple years; who had attended all of the training offered, some more than once and who were doing an excellent job. Back came a letter from the Bishop that those licenses could not be renewed because members of St. Bartholomew’s Church had never been licensed as Lay Eucharistic Ministers; the Church had never applied to have anyone so licensed and no one had ever appeared for training. So our request was denied and we were cast as irresponsible or ignorant for attempting to have licenses renewed which had not been issued in the first place.

That is how the constant struggle is set up and the negative stereotype ‘refreshed.’ Take one step forward. Make it a successful step. Others following in your footsteps become a threat and are seen as a ‘horde’. Minorities are put in the position of constantly having to fight against, have to struggle to achieve anything, which is exhausting. Block their path and after a time there are none. The fiction can then be run which goes “we don’t have any because there are none qualified or interested or willing to do the work. One Bishop moves to open doors; another moves to slam them shut.

It is stunning to see the paperwork, which we have kept, which lays out this scenario.

What did we accomplish? Nothing that made permanent change. The destruction of St. Bartholomew’s continued apace. It was time for us to move on and our place in the structure was outlined for us clearly so there could be no misunderstanding.

Time for us to move on meant the next step in the destruction of St. Bartholomew’s – a rector to whom the congregation had to minister instead of being ministered to and a couple steps after that made sure there would be an empty church soon and its small congregation would have to consider a ‘merger’ into a White Congregation – losing their history and identity completely.

We went off to the Bishop’s office to meet and attempt to correct what we thought was a mistake of some kind taking with us the copies of the licenses issued and all supporting paperwork hoping that would clear up any ‘misunderstanding’ or misplaced licenses or other records. It was a meeting that did not go well. It was clear licenses never having been issued was a fiction and one that was thinly veiled. The fiction was maintained even in sight of the licenses signed by the Bishop.. The copies and in two cases the original licenses were characterized as “we don’t know where those came from” and that went on until my well known temper exploded and I wound up accusing the Bishop of racism and outlining how, when, why and what this behavior was meant to create – and that basically was the intentional destruction of a Black Church. All denied with righteous indignation.

The Bishop started the meeting and acknowledged and complimented us on a job well done. He acknowledged the substantial increase in Church attendance over the time we served as Interim, but also said I was not Marceline Donaldson, but Mrs. Bennett and I should act accordingly- which he suggested should be attending Church on Sundays, sitting in the front row so I could be seen ‘appropriately’ as being ‘supportive’ of my husband.

We outlined for the Bishop the circumstances under which we had taken the job. I was in the ordination process at the time and this placement was totally in line with what I was doing in Seminary. I was to do most of the work because my husband had a full time job as a professor at an Episcopal Seminary and he was there to be supportive and the one who was ordained and who could carry out the responsibilities that fall only to the ordained. We also let him know I had never been Mrs. Bennett, would never be Mrs. Bennett and my legal name and the one I used under all circumstances was Marceline Donaldson.

The Bishop responded by saying he was ordaining people who were young, just out of seminary and he preferred to ordain young men because that is really who made the best priests. He added that because we had done such a great job he would use us as Interims in other Churches as needed and if my understanding of my position more closely matched his he thought our work could make a substantial contribution to the Church.

My explosion, which could be heard outside the Bishops office, did not help the situation, but it did make clear to the Bishop that I would not be a part of the picture he drew and that his concept was racist and sexist and we thought the Episcopal Church had and was moving away from that – which was really about sin.

He did agree to renew the licenses and Robert and I went home. We talked about how we were going to withdraw from St. Bartholomew’s and the Episcopal Church. We were clearly only welcome if we could go along with the program of using the reputations and respect we had gained to maintain the Episcopal Church in its current stance with its institutionalized White Supremacy in tact and its Patriarchy moving in such a way to incorporate those who could go along with the program and push out those who wanted the world Jesus promised.

I went back to one of the three places in Scripture which has sustained me:

Ephesians 6:12-18

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”

It has always been amazing to me how so many people are able to use the institution in which they serve to maintain themselves as “better than” and their institution serving the needs of White Supremacy and the maintenance of the Patriarchy while doing what they consider the work of that part of the world in which they have chosen to make their lives, raise a family, and thrive without a conscious realization that it is being done at the expense of the lives of others. What we also came to see and understand is that those so mired in the maintenance of the Patriarchy and White Supremacy are also mired so deep in sin that the lives they show to the public and the private life they lead are very different and separate from one another. That private life is generally immoral, full of serious ethical problems with a character that peeps out ever so often showing a very ugly personna.

Why was it necessary to keep the Diocese White, male and begin the destruction of a Church which had a long history in the Diocese as well as its neighborhood? WHY? Because that was the beginning necessity for the conversion of the neighborhood back to a White neighborhood. The era of the move to the suburbs was drawing to a close making necessary the “whitening” of neighborhoods which “darkened” when White Flight started. These movements happen over generations and our conscious awareness of them only happens at their end when their goals are being realized and can no longer happen “under cover.”

In the vineyard of the fallen are my brothers and sisters who want to segregate us by color – by sex – by ethnicity – by sexual orientation – by all kind of other ‘differences’ to shore up their ego and identity so they don’t have to do the work of being.

How long before the eyes of the blind are opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped, the prisoners set free, those who walk in darkness brought into a great light.

When we shore up those who are keeping us all in bondage to their need for power, money and dominion-over, our lives are in jeopardy and our eternity closed out.

________________________________________

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

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THE WALL: A 1920’s KKK Dream

Friday, February 15th, 2019

That dream, in the 1920’s when the KKK was at its height, was complete with steel slats and it was a very high wall on the Southern border between the U. S. and Mexico.

It looks as though Donald Trump, the illegitimate president of the United States, is doing everything he can to fulfill that dream. Is this his memorial to his father, who was apparently a part of the KKK? https://ahtribune.com/us/2016-election/242-trump-grandfather-pimp-father-kkk.html?fbclid=IwAR073Tg7RDAbs2uIjtiWeDGVC09i5tyRk7BTjBk0LMh_SDjsx6WRpbjWonM

His father’s legacy to Trump was to get him started in the same vein in which he lived his life – by incorporating into his life and work discrimination against African Americans, as in not letting them rent in the buildings father and son built. Trump was started on his racist path early in life and continued on that path throughout his life. As the United States became more diverse, the peoples included in this family’s racism became more diverse and today, apparently includes all of the brown and black peoples of the world.

How fitting that his denouement would be fulfilling the dream of many klansmen of his father’s era by pushing through to build this wall (in their honor?). As you look at the determination and energy and effort Trump has put behind this WALL it had to have a very special meaning to him. All of the trying in todays’ world by many talking heads to make it look as though Trump is working for his base just does not fit.

For his base, he could have moved on and worked for something to give them that was doable. This is a strong emotional commitment which has driven Trump. What could be stronger than doing this for his father? Was the part of the WALL Trump was trying to build to have his father’s name?

AND — a little bonus — because of the timing, Trump could also use this point in time to coverup, distract from, mute and diminish the publicity around the roll-out of Andrew McCabe’s book “The Threat”? Trump’s timing wasn’t perfect but it was close. If McCabe’s book was introduced when it was supposed to be – this weekend on 60 Minutes – without the preview of the 60 Minutes interview with McCabe on the morning and evening Talk/News shows, Trump’s efforts would have perfectly wiped “The Threat” off the news. As it is, he was able to reduce and diminish the coverage of McCabe’s book because of his announcement that he was going to declare a “National Emergency” after he signed the bill. Since most of the newscasters either didn’t know or simply eliminated, for better effect, the fact that this bill has enough votes behind it to make it veto proof, neither the House nor the Senate needed Trump’s signature taking away from him the circus he is creating to throw smoke into all of our faces so we can’t see McCabe and his new book. Is this what is called a ‘two’fer?

FROM TRUMP TO SENATOR LIZ CHENEY

Lying in bed, dozing off I was sharply awakened by this woman doing the most intense racist rant I have seen in a very long time.

Fortunately, I was recording that particular news show so I was able to rewind and watch it from the beginning. I was totally shocked to see that the person giving this racist rant in the most arrogant, smug and self-satisfied way was none other than Senator Liz Cheney – daughter of the ex-Vice President. I kept wondering why she had this super smug demeanor as she ranted on and on after having been asked a question about Donald Trump. Her rant focused on Elizabeth Warren and the fact that Senator Warren publicly acknowledged throughout most of her life, her Native American ancestry. Instead of talking about the courage that took, especially during the time frame in which Senator Warren made her family background public, Senator Cheney was ripping Senator Warren apart. What is there about that which set her off? Should we look into Senator Cheney’s racial background?

When the question about Donald Trump was repeated, Senator Cheney simply continued the most racist monologue against Senator Warren that I have heard in decades. My further shock was that no one called her on it. There should have been outcries from every corner of Congress demanding that she apologize. Not one peep. Today, having heard the backlash against one of the brown women, Ilham Omar, in Congress claiming she made bigoted comments and calling for her to apologize, and at the same time the same people ignoring of Senator Cheney’s comments shows up the claims against others for what they are – political attacks wherever and however you can get them.

I kept thinking I was in a time warp. I didn’t always agree with Senator Cheney, but I had never pictured her just inches away from the likes of the most bigoted of those in public life. One becomes accustomed to people like the Congressman Steve King and just dismisses anything he says. But Senator Cheney, I thought, was better than that. Well – so much for that misperception. Now I understand why Steve King was able to spout his racism and walk away unscathed. He has lots of compatriots who are viciously racist and don’t see anything wrong with Steve King’s racism. He is entitled?

EXECUTIVE TIME a la TRUMP

Maybe most of you don’t remember that far back, to the beginnings of Donald Trump’s illegitimate and illegal presidency, but I do. I remember when he talked about being shocked that the job of the president of the United States was so easy he could do both. He could run the Trump Organization and act as though he was President of the United States.

This was not said by a talking head interpreting Trump’s comments, this was said by Trump himself.

Now we have Trump’s schedule showing massive amounts of “Executive Time”. There have been many talking and poking fun at what that means – watching cable tv seems to be the first comment with the most repeaters, but every time I hear that I remember those comments made by Trump – and I’ve seen that he usually tells on himself and does things up front. Is he running the Trump Organization during his “Executive Time”? Are his comments about the Presidency being a part time job true?

THE NEW WORLD ORDER

I remember where I was when I first heard comments about “The New World Order.” The first time I heard this is was George Bush the Sr. making the comments.

As I look at this ‘Trump/vs the rest of us’ round in this war, it certainly looks like one of the battles trying to bring about that vision of such world governance by the Corporate/Billionaire Group.

From the comments I’ve heard – this New World Order seems to be about the Corporate/Billionaire Group ruling everything (and of course, being very patronizing to those not in their Group) and the diminishment of Government by the people, for the people and with the people. The people being those who do the work to maintain, grow and make life easier for that Corporate/Billionaire Group while dedicating their lives to trying to be like them on almost no money and very few assets.

Not like the traditional slavery in this country because slaves were brought in from Africa and they were very dark of skin. The people doing the todays work that would have been done by slaves in that past era includes those we call “white” along with all of the brown and black peoples of the world. And, some of the people in the Corporate/Billionaire Group are brown – haven’t seen any blacks yet, but they will surface.

Are we moving forward as a world where Cyber Warfare takes over and actual hand to hand and gun and other combat using the traditional artifacts of killing being pushed off center stage, being used to distract from the real war. A way to entertain and occupy the workers of the world so they will stop calling for these impossibles where we all benefit and profit?

We are certainly not fighting over Communism. That went out decades ago if it ever existed. What always amazed me about that was the theoretical definition of Communism seemed to be taken straight from the economic system outlined by Jesus in the New Testament and the people most against that economic system were the Evangelical Christians.

And we are definitely not fighting over Socialism – as you can see from this current beginning stage of the election of the next United States president. That word was introduced by Howard Schulz. Isn’t he one of the Billionaire Group? Beginning the anti-Socialist distraction rhetoric?

And, the biggest joke of all is Capitalism, which we claim exists in the United States, but which actually can’t exist anywhere as long as prejudice against groups exists and is a part of the societies in which we function. We can claim some economic system is capitalistic, but in reality we can’t have a capitalistic system as long as we have such strong prejudices in this world. What we have, in the name of capitalism, is a system which allows theft and other such uglies to be made legitimate, normal and actually a good thing in the systems we call Capitalist.

I wish we could clear our eyes to see the world as it is. One of the roles bigotry plays is to cloud the ability of people to see reality. And those who promote bigotry are benefitting mightily from John Q. Public’s mental illness.

Ed. Note: From several members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community. Hope you learned something from these thoughts shared.


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Elizabeth Warren and Pocahontas!

Friday, February 8th, 2019

by: Marceline Donaldson

It has been a busy day! The writing from a Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Member on Elizabeth Warren has caused a bit of a blowup. So you know I have to chime in. Who would guess that among hard working people; thoughtful people; intellectual people there would be this bit of racism.

Is it racist to dump on Elizabeth Warren for talking about her Native American ancestors and as some are doing, claim that is reason for the Democratic Party to rethink her candidacy for president? “Drop her” is what I have heard from some and looking for justification to back their negativity towards Senator Warren is what I have heard from others.

What is the racial mythology fueling this? The claim that Blacks, African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans and all those other minorities out there really want to be White. What negates this is a White American acknowledging her Native American ancestors and at a very young age. -That is clear in the past reporting on Michael Jackson. It came out periodically. The claim that Michael Jackson wanted to be ‘white’. He used ‘white’ make-up on his face to cover his blackness, etc. etc. The reality of his life was never acknowledged.

The fact that Michael Jackson had a disease that turns your skin from dark to stark white was never injected into those conversations. Neither was the fact that makeup on the white portions of your face where the pigment has gone away does not take very well so your choice is limited and it must be the white makeup. That was constantly reported, but the facts were skewered to accommodate the mythology of White Supremacy. No matter how great Michael Jackson was – and he was pretty outstanding in his day – what he really wanted was to be white. That is the other side to the rejection of and demand for an apology from Elizabeth Warren for acknowledging her Native American ancestors.

How do I know about this disease? My grandfather had the same disease. His hands were spotted as the darker pigment was moving away and his hands and face and neck were turning white as the disease progressed. Some people live to see themselves turn completely white, some die before that happens. I don’t think it is the disease which causes their death, it doesn’t seem to have any other affect on the body.

That is only one reporting which brought out and emphasized how blacks wanted to be white. There have been more. What does that do? It shores up White Supremacy. Those who are not white want to be. The opposite – those who are seen and accepted as white hide any minorities they may have in their background. “Passing” has always been looked down on, but once you have “passed for white”, married and have children that look white you are sort of safe, just stay put and don’t bring up those minority ancestors.

What Elizabeth Warren has done is turn all of that on its head. She had a life as white – until she started talking about her Native American ancestry. What is that? It is a violation of the contract whites have with each other. If every ‘white’ persons’ minority ancestry was outed we would have chaos in this country there are so many. Slavery wasn’t mostly on plantations, most of slavery happened in one house with one white family living “cheek by jowl” with one black slave family. The result of this produced many white plus children. White Supremacy would be in total confusion and destroyed if history were more accurate. The hold that the need to be better than has on all of us becomes clearer by the decade. The hypocrisy of racism and its ridiculousness is lost on most of us.

One great example of the ridiculousness comes from the life of Senator Strom Thurmond. A son of the south and one who viciously articulated hatred of blacks who should always know and stay in their place. His political career was founded on his racism. Senator Thurmond had a black daughter who he knew, educated, with whom he had a relationship, but everyone conspiratorially around him kept his secret. Thurmond was in the forefront of those Democrats who left the Democratic Party because they saw the possibility of taking control of and changing the Republican Party into a replica of the KKK and other such groups. And as we have seen from this current man who calls himself President of these United States, he was successful.

Our hypocrisy on race is the stuff of legend. So how does White Supremacy and racism remain? It stays put because of the inferiority and arrogance of whites – conservative and liberal – who need to have that feeling of being better than to feel normal.

How does that relate to Senator Warren, her Native American heritage and the societal reaction?

If we are going to maintain White Supremacy we must abide by the rules. A cardinal rule is that one follows the mythology – in this case that blacks and other minorities want to be white. To break that happens when a white person – one who is totally accepted as white – comes out talking about her Native American ancestors – that is the stuff which gets one stoned.

Senator Warren – you are white. Defined as being better than and as a young person just getting started in your career you came out putting “Indian American” on forms that need to be filled out with race on the form. Just look at what you are doing to this society. You have upended and disregarded and violated one of the basic rules that maintains White Supremacy. The mythology which is one of the pillars holding up White Supremacy is that Blacks and other minorities want to be white and here you are coming out to say I am White but I acknowledge and respect my Native American ancestors. Look around Senator Warren, even the Native American leaders can’t handle that. Why not? If basic change happens. If everyone starts coming out and acknowledging and respecting all parts of their heritage just look at what that will mean. Those leaders of minority groups, among others, will be out of work.

Hey, you put out your heritage let me put out mine, which includes Native Americans. But wait – that doesn’t do anything. For one minority to lay claim to their ancestors in another minority group – no sweat. That changes nothing and is barely noticed. Many of my African American friends acknowledge their Native American ancestors and no one notices. The problem comes when you – white female – comes out to dare to acknowledge and respect your Native American heritage, and lordy, to even talk about it in the highest places.

And to all of those claiming you do not belong to any Native American tribe and therefore can’t be Native American, that is mind blowing. Why? Because that is the way Native Americans are annihilated – eliminated – become obsolete . That is something we have been trying to do almost since the Pilgrims landed.

If you are mixed and live as white and the generations pass, your Native American heritage is lost and it is also lost to all of those Native American Tribes. Gradually Native Americans will become extinct as we become a more mixed society. Just think of what that means if only those who are members of a Native American Tribe can call themselves Native Americans. That is a form of genocide.

My great grandfather was Black Feet Indian. He worked for and received a Doctorate of Divinity from Philips University. He was an ordained Episcopal Priest who wound up in New Orleans where he was rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church; head of a school; and did a lot more. His story counts – his life was important – his ancestors deserve a place in history as who they were. He lived in an African American community and was considered African American. He was not a member of a Native American Tribe. If he and his life and his true identity are lost to history and he becomes submerged in other groups histories, Native Americans suffer as their history is degraded. That does not happen to the Irish, the French, the English or to any other group considered white. They accomplish and their progeny do not deny their ancestors because they were not citizens of Ireland or France or etc. It is tragic that we do not live in a time or in a country where your Native American heritage is not denied but celebrated.

We are watching, under Donald Trump, history repeating itself in another century with some changes, but basically the same annihilation of a group of people considered ‘minority’. The brown peoples attempting to come into the United States. Their children are being taken away from them at the gate. Native American children were taken from their parents and who knows what happened to most of them. A generation lost. That part of Native American history can only be reclaimed by those families which integrated and included Native Americans who were ripped from their families and thrown to the wind. That history will be an expansion of Native American history. For a more accurate history we need the stories from those mixed people who talk about their Native American ancestry and who tell the stories from their youth which have been passed down through the family. The Native American stories passed down through minority communities sort of remain. The Native American stories are totally discouraged from being passed down through white communities.

Your history and the history of your Native American ancestors is also a part of Native American history and should be talked about, included and accepted, especially by those Native American Tribes who are what -growing or shrinking?

Our society used to believe – if you had just 1% of minority “blood” you were a minority. That means, if you were mixed with any of the groups of the world that we call “races” and those ‘races’ were white you were considered “white” unless in the mix even as little as 1% was one of the minority ‘races”. Then you were considered a minority and then you, your history, your legacy, your life were thrown on the dump heap.

Some of us have begun to see otherwise. As blacks, latina’s, native americans, philippine’s and more begin to achieve greatness the conversation has turned. The conversation around the “black” golfer , who was number one and couldn’t be unseated, that public conversation went – he is not really black, he has these other ancestors and should not be called black. Isn’t his mother something else? How can he neglect and push aside her contribution to who he is. And she was not white, but enough to help turn the conversation. That gave us enough of a view to the future that we realized racism will continue, but it will be in us in other ways – which are beginning to be newly defined.

Minorities can be raised up into this group which espouses White Supremacy either overtly or covertly if their achievements are so great they question the negative stereotype by which we are raised. But, “whites” must give up, hide and not claim their minority ancestors. That is necessary because if it went in the other direction we would lose this great bonus of White Supremacy and many would have to live out their lives being equal to. What a death sentence to their ego.

So, Senator Warren, do you have the guts to continue respecting, honoring and raising up your Native American ancestors or are you going to be one who apologizes because you slipped and acknowledged the family history with which you were raised. Those Native American Tribesmen get it – or they should. They clearly understand that there are those outside registered tribe members who have Native American ancestors and can freely talk about them. Or do you need to be in lock step with the White Supremacist who are trying desperately to keep their ‘better than’ position by any means necessary?

And all of you Native American Tribes – you demonstrate for other things are you going along with what is happening to Elizabeth Warren? Are you going to stand up for those who acknowledge their Native American ancestors and heritage even if they are not a member of a particular tribe. Is that such a threat to you that you will jump on that White Supremacist band wagon and go along with the program? If you do, it will be to your extreme loss and to the loss of your progeny and to those who went before.

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Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

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Native American or White!!!!

Thursday, February 7th, 2019

Because God knows in this society you can’t be both and be proud of your entire ancestry!

I am Native American and I need to weigh in on this conversation.

It is an amazing conversation to me because we are talking about the fact that Elizabeth Warren’s ancestors at some point “passed”. We are looking at a time in history when 1% was the criteria for whether or not you were a minority. If you had 1% African blood you were African. If you had 1% Native American blood you were Native American. If you had 1% Chinese blood you were Chinese – at least in America.

Today we are dumping all over Elizabeth Warren because she attempted to claim her Native American heritage. That is such a threat in a racist, bigoted society that we get up in arms about it and begin to dump on the person who is causing this uproar. MAKE HER APOLOGIZE SO THE REST OF US CAN RELAX AND NOT BE THREATENED WITH THE POSSIBILITY THAT ‘OUTING’ YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY MIGHT BECOME THE NORM!

Once upon a time, not that many years ago we would have dumped on Elizabeth Warren for trying to “pass”. Today we dump on her for trying to acknowledge her ancestry -trying to respect the stories that circulated in her family when she was a girl – because the ancestry she has held up as a part of her ‘racial’ identity is of a group considered a part of the oppressed minority in this country. We can’t have that! Just think of the chaos that will ensue! Most of you would have to move to the ghetto!

We are even trying to re-write history to get people to believe that if you were Native American during the time when Elizabeth Warren filled out the forms everyone is holding up you would have received some kind of special consideration and that special consideration would have gotten you rights, privileges and other goodies from this society that non-Native Americans could not have received.

Get real people! Stop lying and trying to redeem yourselves and your society at someone else’s expense.

There has never been a time in this society when you would have gotten any small part of the “goodies” passed around to everyone else if you were Native American. You would have been discriminated against and you would have been pushed aside and pushed back in favor of white males – and then black males – and then white females – and then black females – and then male Native Americans and at the bottom would have been any leftovers doled out to female Native Americans, but there never were any. That is history – what you are trying to create is another myth to ease your guilt at your participation in this racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. etc. society.

Today, Native American tribal leaders are concerned because they have profits from the gambling casinos on their reservations which are given to those members of the tribe who “qualify” and the tighter the definition of those who are members of the different tribes who “qualify” the more money and benefits they receive and the less competition for leadership of the tribes.

Remember when the United States took Native American children from their homes and families and reservations and put them into pograms where they were to be acculturated? They were never returned home and they and/or their progeny are someplace in this society where they have ‘integrated’, ‘intermarried’ and whatever else happened to them which successfully insured they would have no connection to any Native American tribe. So what are they? and where are they? Are they Indian Mongrels? No family – no ancestors they can admit to without risking the scorn of a nation? And what of all those other Native Americans who intermarried and became Irish, English, French, etc. plus Native American? Is their history also to be hidden because society does not want to see it to have to acknowledge that a Senator of the United States who was an attorney tenured professor of law at Harvard University is part Native American? My God – there goes the unravelling of hundreds of years of creating and nurturing White Male Supremacy in all things!

That is what this comes down to! Does this Elizabeth Warren thing challenge and upend White Supremacy? You can bet the store that it does, especially in the eyes of those who need to be White better than Black, better than Native American, better than etc. which is most of you. Isn’t that a large part of what elected and is keeping Trump in office? His racist, bigoted appeal to our lowest nature succeeds.

How do you explain such achievement, as attained by one like Elizabeth Warren who has Native American blood? Shouldn’t that disqualify her? How could she and her family have done such a thing to this society?

We have had other members of the White Privileged Supreme Society members who have been “outed”. Major difference – they didn’t out themselves to claim their minority heritage.

Wasn’t John Kerry accused of having Jewish ancestors or was it Madelin Albright? And then there were those accused of having African ancestors who they didn’t acknowledge and being dumped on because of it and because they were accused of ‘passing for white.’ When that is the narrative with the society doing the outing White Supremacy is safe. When the narrative is about someone the rest of you considered “White” and who is fairly frequently throwing up in your face that she really also has Native American ancestors – that is a very different narrative and threatens the very fabric out of which this society was woven.

Elizabeth Warren acknowledges her Native American ancestors without shame and in fact with some pride and so she has to be excoriated because that is totally unacceptable in this society. What if others started to do the same following her example? What a mess we would then have on our hands.

Bigotry pops out in many different ways and this is one way bigotry has jumped out without a white sheet and pointy hat, but with the same emotion and to do the same job.

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More from Bettina Members

Friday, January 11th, 2019
  1. I must admit when I first read “Thoughts on Color”, I thought it was frivolous and reaching to make a point. How foolish to put racism into the color one chooses to wear or the color of the car one chooses to drive. Then I saw Donald Trump on his trip yesterday to #TheWall. I was struck dumb for a few seconds. If ever I have seen a “dog whistle” there it was. If ever I thought the wall was about other than racism, Trump’s appearance at the wall in his MAGA Cap brought those thoughts crashing down.

The red MAGA cap was gone. In its place was a white MAGA cap. As I researched, that is not the first time the MAGA Cap’s color has changed. I owe an apology to the person who wrote the “Thoughts on Color” article. It is a powerful way to look at many of the things happening in this society. They range from dog whistles on bigotry to bull horns, all camouflaged with the color one uses.

Given the fact that #TheWall goes back to the KKK, White Nationalists, White Supremacists as one of their projects – made of steel – that they did not complete and have tried through others to bring life back to again – a white MAGA hat conveys the message symbolically, the way Trump’s call to Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails was made. That didn’t take a genius to understand, neither does Trump’s white MAGA hat. His arrogance knows no bounds.

It has been clear from day one with Trump that the presidency for him is all about re-aligning the races and bringing us back as close as he can get to slavery. Trump, in the middle of treason with Russia, has to be concerned about the color of people in the U. S.

Russia is a white country – as are the others with which he is trying to align himself. Kim Jung Un may be basking in glory today, but he needs to realize he heads a nation of people of color and his involvement with Russia et al will be as a minority nation.

Trump changed the color of the U. S. cabinet and every place else in his administration he has eliminated, almost entirely, people of color and replaced them with people today we call “white”. Where he has reach and influence, we have moved from the beautiful flower garden of the Obama’s with its many colors and kinds of flowers to the Trump manufactured and very artificial white flower which looks as though it was produced in a factory producing the same product on its assembly lines day after day. A flower that was designed by a robot.

2. This Wall thing is not a dog whistle it is a bull horn. Go back into your history and look at the parallels. There was the Emancipation of slaves under Abraham Lincoln. That was followed by Reconstruction. After Reconstruction came the reaction which saw the KKK grow into an organization which could march down Pennsylvania Avenue in the 1920’s with tens of thousands of people in white sheets and pointed hats declaring white supremacy, making the country miserable and scared. Donald Trump’s father was one of the people in the white sheet with pointed hat walking with that group of klansmen. He was one the police arrested during the “march” which is one reason why we know Trump’s father was involved with the KKK.

One thing the KKK wanted was a wall on the southern border to keep out people of color – only they were called much nastier names by the klan. They wanted #TheWall to be made of steel. When Trump changed from cement to steel, I think you were right in your blog saying that was a clear message to the extreme bigots of this country. Isn’t that why racism has lasted so long? Because it is overtly and coverly supported by people like Trump with a long line of predecessors, many in Congress, who saw an opportunity and a way to gain power with as much cheating and illegalities as they could muster. All they had to do was to rise up on the backs of all of us – white, black, brown, tan, purple, pink. orange.

Today you can’t call someone the N word without getting into trouble, but you can push to build #theWall and you will be doing the same thing with an excuse and defense against people who will call you racist.

You can let the world know sexism is back and stronger than ever by making sure an alleged sexual assaulter winds up on the Supreme Court. You can have pictures go around the world of the U. S. Cabinet being made up of White Males and the Republicans in Congress being the same with only a 1% difference. That sends out a huge, direct message.

That is what #thewall is all about. Trump even changed the color of his MAGA hat, in case his followers didn’t catch on. That was a more specific signal.

The atmosphere in this country has been changing and it has become very tense with white males feeling their “superiority” threatened, as more people of color move into positions where once an unqualified white male would be hired rather than a more qualified person of color.

We had Mexico – where years ago its borders changed so parts of Mexico would become Texas – remember that piece of history?. The Mexicans who had lived for generations in the areas where the borders were redrawn didn’t leave. Their property and goods were taken and they were thrown out on the streets, but they stayed – what choice did they have – and the work then began by the “ruling class” in this country to make sure the ex-Mexicans were pushed as close to the bottom of the ladder as possible and kept there for generations. Got to keep people around to do the “dirty work”. With those “Texas” brown and black people threatening white supremacy, just by their numbers”, something had to be done.

To be sure some things were done even into the time of Hitler’s Germany. The Nazi prisoners of war were brought to Texas for their incarceration while the war was still going on. African American soldiers, on leave or visiting Texas, or working in Texas, were denied entrance into restaurants and other places because of their color supported by the separate and unequal laws. The Nazi prisoners were picked up on Sundays by the locals who took them to dinner at those same restaurants where the German prisoners of war were welcomed in their native language.

Much upheaval happened and the klan, among other groups, grew exponentially. They could never quite keep those ex-Mexicans down – although they made their lives a living hell most of the time. When you are next in Texas, think of this history as you look around at the substantial Mexican culture you see all around. That culture didn’t pop up as Mexicans came into the United States over the past couple generations, that has been there for quite a few years.

And now along comes Trump. In this time after our modern day equivalent of Reconstruction as Trump and his minions do their job of deconstructing and trying to turn as negative as possible the accomplishments of the Obama Administration, they have reached back into the history of one of our most racist times and come up with #theWall. That unfinished piece of White Nationalism, which they were not able to achieve before they were diminished.

Trump has brought back as much bigotry as he could possibly muster and when folks talk about his “base” they never quite talk about what that means. That means, for those of us who are a little obtuse and did not live that history, Trump’s base means the most bigoted people in this society gravitate to him and his administration because it means a little more time hanging onto their claimed white supremacy and a letting loose of their evil to make life as miserable as possible for the people of color amongst us. Let me note here that this also includes some few lost souls who are not white, but are overwhelmingly lazy, jealous, believers in their own inferiority and more. Even the KKK had those people of color, especially of African descent, who attached to their organization.

Amongst the other things he has done, Trump has certainly done an amazing job of bringing back the modern day equivalent to the Supreme Court which kept Plessy v Ferguson around for generations and guarded against anything that looked like it might facilitate a break in the extreme bigotry in which this country has been gripped almost from its beginnings. The Plessy v Ferguson racial apartheid ruling stayed in this country kept there by the U. S. Supreme Court because of the political beliefs of those on the Court for over 50 years. Isn’t that why Conservatives are so adamant about accepting anything Trump does if he appoints the” right people” to the Court? Look at the straight jacket in which the U. S. Supreme Court kept this country because of its own racism and look at how many years and how many attempts were made unsuccessfully to bring about a change. Thurgood Marshall and those who served with him are justifiably celebrated as “heroes”.

To get the Democrats to contribute to #TheWall would be a huge step forward for Trump’s connection to his followers. It would fulfill one of their great needs. That is why his advisers are saying if he caves on this he is finished politically.

Hopefully, something decent gets into his brain which moves him into joining the forces of good instead of the evil to which he has apparently irrevocably attached himself. It has brought him a future, not of hundreds of millions of dollars, but of total disgrace. How much better to stop lying and start living a decent, respectable, God filled life. He certainly isn’t even close to that today. He is moving in the other direction sending his Secretary of State to the Middle East to attempt to dismantle Obama’s foreign policy and turn it into something ugly. What that has actually managed to do is to remind people of Khashoggi and just how low the Trump administration has sunk. His activities in trying to pull down Obama has reminded everyone that Trump’s foreign policy includes condoning and giving cover to murderers who do gruesome things in addition to all of the rest – the adultery, the lying, the cheating, the stealing, the setting up a criminal enterprise in the White House and so much more.

How long is this going on? Will we find relief soon or will this carry on for years to come? Will we be free of bigotry when Trump moves off stage? Or will something or someone else replace him to keep the U S. bigotry within its borders simmering and waiting for another chance to explode? Will the narrative of the United States contain long chapters of the goodness we have wrought and the road we have taken to walk with others to a better life? Or will we forever replicate a government which leads us down the ugly path finally to perdition.

3. Bar (r) the fixer. It is time – actually past the time – for Congress to put on its “big boy pants” and refuse to clear Barr for Attorney General.

As Trump brings ever more disgrace to these United States and moves us back into a morass from which it will take generations to extricate ourselves, we are also seeing and learning about the sins of those who went before and how they are coming home to be repeated.

Barr was a part of the Reagan/Bush disgrace. Some say he was one of the architects who made sure all of the sins of the Reagan and Bush administrations were not revealed to the voting public.

He was a “cover up” artist and he is now being pushed for Attorney General to do the same thing under Trump. Do we see the invisible hand of Bush, Jr. in this? There can be no equivocating as to why Bar (r) the Fixer was nominated. He volunteered for the job of “cover-up artist” and the only thing he will actually do is denigrate the name and reputation of George H. W. Bush. A lot of what happened in the Bush administration as he became president after Reagan has flown under the radar. Bush the Sr. got away with his reputation intact because of the machinations of Barr. With the ascendancy of Barr to Attorney General in this atmosphere and environment, that will no longer be true. Already the stories have started to uncover and dig up what would have been exposed to the Americana voting public and then to the world, but for Barr.

Are we going to allow that to happen again? Thanks to the Bush family we now have a Supreme Court with TWO sexual deviants. One an abuser and one an alleged assaulter. What Bush started Trump is finishing. The alleged sexual assaulter was started on his career which brought him to the Supreme Court by the Bush family. George Sr. and Jr. The alleged sexual abuser was moved into his career as a Supreme Court Justice totally by Bush, Sr. who in the pictures of them together with members of their respective families, Bush Sr. seems very proud to have moved up into society an African American man who could fit into the negative stereotype of African American men and carry that negative stereotype several degrees uglier and further into this society.

Barr brings the Bush family several steps down and negate their reputations. He is the latest star in the – from Bush to Trump saga. It is time for all of this to be acknowledged and stopped. This society has carried a heavy weight for most of its life. It is time for that burden to be lifted, not for more stones to be put on the backs of those carrying this society forward.

It is time for us to move out of the muck, the filth, the dirt we have walked through and take a hot shower to wash off the muck so we can keep on moving forward with respect for ourselves and to gain some of the world’s respect. It is time for us to treat all parts of the world as equals, not as people to whom we respond with noblesse oblige as we have in the past. Trump has been so outrageous and full of evil that he has presented us with an imperative – “shake off the dirt from your feet” and walk into the beautiful sunlight over lush grassy grounds.

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