Posts Tagged ‘Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community’

Come to Jesus! But which one?

Friday, December 7th, 2018

Several times a year I face this conversation. It comes from living in a diverse community with friends, colleagues, family and acquaintances who question Christianity – especially today with Donald Trump being the hero and the one “evangelical christians” glorify – all in the name of Jesus – or are they talking about ‘jesus’.

It came up when Roy Moore from Alabama was running for office and pushing out for all to see, hear and hopefully believe – his evangelical christianity. He used his form of this ‘christianity’ to claim he could not have done all the things folks claimed he did because he was a Christian. He believed in Christ. He loved Jesus – and on and on it goes. Problem with that was, I was raised a Christian all of my life and I didn’t recognize anything he said or did as being Christian – let lets put him in the ‘christian’ and ‘jesus’ religion. And so, I dispensed with that problem – yet again.

In the last undecided Congressional race, watching the people involved comment – the Republican chair talking to Chris Hayes on MSNBC claimed he did not believe Republican Mark Harris would be involved in the voter fraud scandal in North Carolina because he loved Jesus and wouldn’t do anything against that. Once again – he loved which one – Jesus or ‘jesus’?

It looks very much as though his choice was ‘jesus’. Jesus got pushed out the door so he couldn’t witness the scandal. He will be brought back in when all of that voter fraud stuff is over.

In these United States we have two religions which call themselves “Christian” – because they claim to be followers and believers in “Christ.” That has been true for generations – way back to slavery. How many slave owners went to Church on Sunday and professed Christ and promised to follow Christs’ teachings only to return home and beat their slaves for one reason or another feeling perfectly justified in the doing and seeing no conflict?

I’ve tried to make peace with this by putting the bad guy “evangelical christians” in small letters along with the “jesus” and “christ” they claim. But that is not quite satisfying. That still lets me get upset with all of those ‘christians’ professing their ‘jesus’ because it is too close to mine and I have to answer to others who don’t understand the differences. I have to justify my Christianity too many times because of them.

Having been raised in the A.M.E, the Congregational and Episcopal Churches all at the same time, with a heavy dose of Catholicism having lived in New Orleans and Downtown at that, I guess some conflict seems normal to me. (The Intellectuals and the Protestants lived Uptown – the Catholics, the artists, a conglomeration of everyone else lived Downtown).

The conflict between these two totally separate religions, which go by the same name, is way beyond normal and they certainly espouse totally opposite beliefs and theologies.

So maybe its time for a name change!

I remember Jimmy Carter’s dilemma when he started his campaign for President of the United States. It was noted and reported world wide, but after a time left in the dust.

James Carter was a very strong, believing ‘christian’. It defined his life, his work, his relationships and everything about his life.

Problem with that was the Church he attended and where he taught Sunday School and (I think) served as an usher was very segregated. That accorded with his then ‘christian’ religion, but not with the public’s thoughts about Christianity when they heard his religious beliefs discussed. If Blacks came at all to his Church they had to sit in the back row and mostly they clearly understood they were not welcome.

It was quite something in this country when James Carter realized and rejected that ‘christianity’ and left the Church in which he was raised because of its overt racism – common across the country in such ‘christian’ churches. He left one religion – or religious denomination – for another. He left ‘christianity’ and became a Christian.

Todays’ “evangelical christians’ are big supporters of Donald Trump – a sexual assaulter by his own admission. Interesting thing about that – so are many of the leaders of the ‘evangelical christians’. Some have been called out and their ‘sins’ exposed, but they are back in the fold doing the same things they did to get expelled and they are supported by the people and their money to whom they preach every Sunday. I could call them out by name, but there is not enough room on this computer to contain all of them.

All through United States history the claims that this is a ‘christian’ country have been made loud and clear and that declaration used to move aside, push out, treat abusively those who are among the “non-believers”, the atheists, those others who ‘jesus’ supposedly called ‘christians’ to convert. Many if not most of the abusive, hatred, pain, agony and more inflicted on the world has been done in the name of some religion. Today and yesterday it was done in the name of this ‘christianity’. White Privilege – White Nationalists – the KKK and all the others live by and proselytize their ‘christianity’ and use it to justify the evil they do and have done. That ‘christianity’ has maintained such beliefs and actions because it makes the doers feel as though they are on their gods side – on the side which makes them better than everyone else. And they define their god as one who supports and has defined and brought into being the beliefs they live by – a theology that only satan could love.

And most especially – have you noticed the class distinctions between these two religions? “Jesus and the Disinherited” runs through from the beginning until now of the Christian religion. Foul up everything with even the ability and justification to kill and not see that as a moral flaw of your religion runs through the other – with its striving of its members to be better than; more important than; wealthier than. Isn’t that the theology which allowed Trump to proclaim to the nation that they should support MbS because after all Saudi Arabia brought us wealth in our interactions with them and isn’t that what is most important? Dismembering a human being is nothing when compared to the acquisition of the kind of wealth the Kingdom could bring to the United States. A basic belief of this ‘christian’ religion after the one which claims they are ‘better than”.

Don’t you think it is time for a renaming ceremony? Time to clearly distinguish between these two religions? My Christianity certainly does not begin to be anything like that of Roy Moore’s. Et tu?

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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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Tags: Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Spiritual Reflection
Posted in Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Breakfast Table Talk, Class in America and the World, Religion | Comments Off on Come to Jesus! But which one?

Marceline’s Story – continued!

Thursday, December 6th, 2018

Ed. Note: We invite you to send us your story. You can send and request that we not put your name as the person in the story. Having discovered how rich are the lives of those in Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community, it would be great for you to share with the rest of us.

This story was not written by Marceline Donaldson. It was sent to us by someone who knows her – more having observed her life than someone who was a close friend. She was not too happy to publish it, but we prevailed so your feedback by sending your stories would be much appreciated.

The “Marceline’s story” she refers to, in case you are confused – because we were – can be found in this blog https://www.bettina-network.com/blog/archives/4804

A “Friend’s” Observation of a life full of lessons on oppression and how it affects those who are forced to experience it.

A difficult and awkward title, but its is the best I could do and I am not sure you are going to publish it. Hope you do. In this era of Donald Trump and the rise of the racist/sexist groups we need to know what others experience.

I was born and raised in Minneapolis. Most would consider me fairly wealthy. Until Marceline came along I really didn’t think much about that. I suppose I took it for granted that I was supposed to live as I did.

My first conscious experience of race and sex discrimination was when I saw what happened to Marceline when she moved into a house not far from me in Wayzata. I would see her in Church on Sundays, but didn’t pay much attention. We didn’t travel in the same circles, but the affect what happened to her had on my life was profound.

I always lived in White communities. My neighbors and everyone around me were White. Somehow that didn’t strike me as being racist or racism and certainly not sexism. I just lived the way I was raised without question. It was a comfortable life. My friends were great and people I had known for a lifetime. And then along comes this woman with small children and the neighborhood went ballistic.

From a very safe distance I watched what happened. A friend of mine was involved and all were very angry like – ‘who does she think she is; doesn’t she know her place; why did she have to move into our community wasn’t her own good enough for her?” And then I saw the damage done to her house before she could move in and felt the shock that I knew people who could do such a thing. It was profound.

That wasn’t the first time this same woman caused a stir. I heard the stories of what happened before Marceline moved into my neighborhood. Apparently, she lived in another neighborhood in Wayzata and the man who owned the house was appalled at a black family living in his house. I don’t know how she moved in without his knowing she was African American, but watching Marceline over the years, today, that doesn’t surprise me one bit.

He bragged about waiting until Marceline left the house with her children and he then went in and ripped the faucets apart all over the house so there would be no water. I couldn’t imagine coming home with my children and finding the faucets all over my house ripped off and lying around. It was when I heard that story that I began to realize I lived in a White neighborhood without any of “the others” living around me because people like that horrible man existed. He and others were people in the society in which I lived who made sure my neighborhood would always be White. That was an eye opener and I have never been the same.

There was a small buzz at Church that Sunday and when I joined the “buzz” group I discovered what happened after the faucets were removed. Apparently, Marceline called an attorney and was going to have the home owner arrested for what he did. He backed down because she was in the process of also calling the media and I don’t think he wanted the publicity.

After that, everyone expected her to leave the neighborhood and move into a black neighborhood where – as the talk went – she would be more ‘comfortable’, but she didn’t do that. She moved into a more exclusive part of the neighborhood – which means an area where the kind of separatism with which I grew up reigned and the people would do everything they could to fend her off – and they had the power to do it ‘under the table’.

“Her story” picks it up from there, but her life was not easy and with several small children I still don’t know how she survived all of that to still be here and still fighting the battles that we set her up to fight so she and others like her would not move into “our” neighborhoods.

That changed my life. I was no longer unconscious about the dynamics in my neighborhood. I haven’t become a civil rights fighter. In fact I don’t get involved, but I do send money to others who are fighting and keep up with many of the battles going on.

You are probably calling me a coward about now, but that is all I could and can handle and unless lightning strikes I will continue in that vein. It isn’t much, but it did determine how I raised my children and they are far more active than I am and very much aware of the diversity or lack of it in whatever they do and wherever they live. I don’t think they realize they owe that to their mother’s experience many decades ago.

If you don’t print this, its alright. I just wanted you to know a part of how my story and Marceline’s intersected. I wish I could have been more involved, but that is just not who I am. Mostly, I feel guilty from having watched all of that and did not reach out to help. That is probably why I decided to write this. I often think if I had called her to tell her what was going on in the background even that little bit could have helped, but I couldn’t bring myself to do even that. What I did do was to raise my children in a very different way from how I was raised. I am amazed I’ve written this and fully intend to send it to you. Please don’t put my name to anything.

P. S. I am sending a donation and will continue to send donations because I very much want to see this publication and this business succeed.

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Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale

Project 2 – Wells Fargo Boycott

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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.

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

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

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

Tags: Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Racism, Sexism
Posted in African American history, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Feminism, racism, sexism | Comments Off on Marceline’s Story – continued!

Time to Celebrate Bettina Network’s Blog – over 3 million visitors!

Wednesday, December 5th, 2018

We hoped we would cross the 3,000,000 reader mark by the end of the year, however, we crossed that mark in November and thanks to all of you who come on a consistent basis to read what we publish. We also thank you for your contributions, without them we would be nothing. We even thank those of you who come- sometimes. And we miss those of you who have not discovered this source of information.

We have published 612 blogs!!

You can subscribe to get the blog sent to your email address. Currently, we do not have a long list of subscribers so most of those 3 million plus readers come fresh every day. This year we will work on getting a subscriber list – maybe. Someone said that was the way to do it – we don’t agree, but we will give it a ‘sort of’ try.

We continue to have a media center as our goal. We are a new kind of media – community oriented. We are a publishing outlet for our community.

The one thing on which we will not compromise is truth telling. We maintain the same philosophy that we have had from day one. We are open to those who belong to Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community as their media outlet. If they have something to share – poetry they can’t or won’t publish elsewhere; new research findings; new ideas; etc. we will publish their contributions. We include everything – recipe’s, nutrition, fashion, research of all kind, politics, wealth creation, psychology articles, spiritual reflection, articles on sexism, racism, culture and cultural differences, how does culture affect our world, geo-politics, — you name it, we include it if the Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community supports it.

THE GRAND TOTAL _ as of this morning _3,082,637 visits to

Bettina Network’s Blog!!!!

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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.

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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Tags: Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community
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It Is Time to Boycott Wells Fargo Bank! – #WellsFargo

Sunday, December 2nd, 2018

Bettina Network Foundation, inc. is calling on everyone to join in and actively participate in this boycott of Wells Fargo Bank.

For a very long time banks have been fundamental in making sure there is none to very little change in this society. Racism, sexism, homophobia, class discrimination, who owns and keeps the wealth in this country and so much more are determined by your local bank – which is probably no longer local but is the branch or unattended outlet of a major, international banking plus other businesses institution. And most notably they are majorly responsible for homelessness. Not entirely, to be sure, but they do maintain the structure – in tact – no matter how loud or long they protest their innocence.

What do they gain? One thing is keeping us divided against each other so communication as to what they are doing is knowledge kept and known only to a few.

How is wealth created in these United States? Through either real estate or stock. Either through ownership of land – real property – as it increases in value, or through ownership in corporations as they increase in value.

Many people have tried to increase their wealth and have been stymied. Mostly by the banks – even though we are not ignoring the role of other institutions. Unfortunately, in spite of our great educations, most of us are ignorant of how this happens and therefore it continues.

How has this happened? Little by little we hope to unfold for you all of it so you can function with a knowledge that makes your actions and your life more productive.

Banks have in the past and still do today majorly maintain segregated neighborhoods through “red lining”. They are helped in this endeavor by some realtors, but brokers, dealers, realtors can’t take all the credit. Most of it goes to the banks.

Red lining is an old way of maintaining separation of peoples based on things like color, economic and financial status, etc. which has not gone out of existence. It has just gone underground and periodically takes on new forms. Banks do not maintain that separation of peoples only through red lining, they do it through the intentional destruction of neighborhoods targeted for “urban renewal” or for a change of a neighborhoods racial make-up or etc. There are billions of dollars involved and to be made by those who are a part of such transactions along with the loss of lives, livelihoods and more.

Which bank is the most egregious bank of them all? WELLS FARGO!

In spite of tens of thousands of dollars having gone into the legal process to get them to change and many other ways which have been tried to approach this problem, Wells Fargo is still ripping off the American public – and probably many overseas as well. As a result of the legal processes, which they lost, the only change we can see is a new and improved marketing and advertising program which the bank has rolled out instead of making restitution in real ways to those they have hurt. That marketing and advertising program is nothing more than smoke and mirrors to get you to continue doing business with them so they can continue doing that business as usual. And lets not talk about fines, etc. imposed on Wells Fargo. To you and me that is like money to go to the store to buy ice cream or a pizza given their overall finances.

The ugliness, which has hurt so many, is still enshrined within the bank along with its structures and the people who carry them out. Most are people who carry out these policies to put food on their tables and to keep a roof over their heads. Many are people competing to have better food and a more expensive roof over their heads. It is time to take another look at what you can do and how you – Wells Fargo employees – can contribute to bringing about basic change, accepting your responsibility for being one of those making the lives of others extremely difficult so you and yours can benefit. There are ways you can help bring about basic change and maintain your job and your increasingly lucrative and going up the ladder of success lifestyle. You don’t have to concentrate on or be involved in only the one – because you are likely to be one of those against whom you moved to make their lives difficult to impossible. History shows that is probably going to be the result of your efforts, if you continue on the path you are now taking.

Exposure is one way! Open the windows, throw open the doors and let fresh air flow through. Let the general public know what is going on and what we can do to make basic change so we all benefit.

Bettina Network Foundation, inc. is calling one way we can all move towards changing this society for the better:

If you have a savings account with Wells Fargo – close it. You can open it with another bank. And yes, all banks are complicit, but you have to start someplace. One bank has to make change and one very large bank with lots of influence and which has been shown to be a bank which destroys lives, property, the quality of lots of peoples way of life and keeps on keeping on going down the wrong street ripping peoples lives apart is a good place to start.

2. Once you have closed your savings account, let us know and let Wells Fargo know you closed your account and why!

3. If you have a checking account with Wells Fargo – close it.

4. And once again, let us know and let Wells Fargo know you closed your checking account and why!

5. If you own stock in Wells Fargo – sell it. And let Wells Fargo know you sold your stock in their bank and any subsidiaries you can find – let us know about the subsidiaries and let us and Wells Fargo know you sold your stock and why!

6. And this is a biggy! Do you own stock in other publicly traded corporations? Check out who is the transfer agent responsible for keeping the records for that publicly traded corporation. If it is Wells Fargo Shareowner Services or EG by Equiniti – demand that the corporation change its transfer agent and hire another totally unconnected to Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo Shareowner Services, from our experience, did lots to hurt John and Jane Q. Public. Instead of responding to what they did they simply changed their name, ignored the problems they created and kept on moving ahead. This is common for many corporations. It is time for this to stop and you have the power to stop these under handed activities.

A statement taken from Equinity’s marketing materials – “Even though Wells Fargo has sold its transfer agency business, our relationship with Wells Fargo remains strong. We will continue to use banking and brokerage services provided by Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo will continue to use us as its transfer agent.”

Today’s Story is only one, but it begins to unfold why we are promoting and managing this boycott and what we want changed? Bettina Network Foundation, inc’s goal is to eliminate homelessness. That is a growth area in this society and the ways it has been attacked have not worked. It is time to look at the base reasons and eliminate and change them so everyone has food, shelter and work in this very wealthy society. We do not need to continue on this path of the rich getting richer and the middle class becoming homeless.

TODAY’S STORY!

“We owned Dayton-Hudson stock and we owned Target Corp stock for decades. When
Dayton-Hudson became Target Corp. all of our stock became Target Corp. stock. We kept that stock for decades. When we needed to sell the stock because we needed the money
for business purposes and needed that asset changed to cash quickly – as promised it would be by Target Corporation and the Securities and Exchange Commissio – we had to go through Wells Fargo Shareowner Services.

When we contacted Wells Fargo Shareowner Services to ask that they sell the stock – it became a several years consumption of money, time, emotional energy and more.

A transaction that should have taken a few minutes to send a letter with the appropriate form – accurately filled out – and then the next step taken by Wells Fargo Shoreowner Services should have been just four days for the stock to be sold and just a very short time after that for the money to be deposited into my account. That process actually took almost three years. Why? We have many theories, but why is irrelevant. What is relevant is
that our money was kept and our access to an asset which the Securities and Exchange Commission supposedly is the watch dog agency to make sure things like this does not happen all were useless in the face of Wells Fargo. Whatever they did was accepted and acceptable and I was put in the position of first a supplicant – please get this done, I need my money; through to a very angry woman demanding her assets be treated and acted upon per her request.

WHY did I have to go through this? Because the Direct Purchase Plan with Target Corporation gave Wells Fargo Shareowner Services – the transfer agent for Target Corporation – the right to keep the stock certificates of the stock we owned. I was told many stories as to why that was the best thing to do – “when you are ready to sell there is no issue with the stock certificates, they are in the possession of Wells Fargo Shareowner Services or whichever transfer agent Target Corporation was using and the sale of the stock will be stress free for everyone and able to be executed in minutes.”

That was a lie! If, for any reason one of those corporations wants to move against you without showing their hand because you are a political or other kind of nuisance, you have given them the ability to do just that and they will use it – to harass you and make your financial life a shambles at their discretion and Wells Fargo Shareowner Services was the champion at doing that. Leave your stock certificates for safe keeping with their services and they control your asset and no one is going to come to your rescue. Attorneys will, costing more than the stock is worth, but no one else moves to help no matter their job description or their mandate.

Target Corporation, in spite of going all the way up the ladder from Customer Service to the “investment” area to the CEO of Target Corporation refused any kind of help. To them, the responsibility was with Wells Fargo Shareowner Services and they closed off communications of all kind. Letters went unanswered, pleas went unheeded, the door to the Executive Suite slammed shut. This was not their problem. But – said I – this is your stock not Wells Fargo’s stock. Mean silence prevailed.

It took almost three years of going back and forth with Wells Fargo Shareowner Services, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Attorney Generals Office and more such institutions. When a lawyer became involved – only then were our wishes heeded. At that point the asset was gone – attorneys don’t come cheap. So while their goal was not fulfilled one way, it was indeed fulfilled in another way even more effective because it took my time, the asset and emotional energy to get to that solution.

When we started the process of asking that the Target Stock be sold, Wells Fargo Shareowner Services had just taken over as Target Corporations transfer agent. Today just three plus years later ownership of that Wells Fargo Shareowner Services has been transferred to Equinity. The same people are at the top and all through the ranks so what happened? Did their problems multiply because of the way they did business and the number of people they hurt that the easiest thing for them to do was not to make amends for their sins, but to transfer ownership so they did not have to take responsibility and did not have to correct their wrongs? Talk to Equiniti and you will be told – sorry that is not our problem, we are not the company with whom you had problems. Clean – swift – vicious!”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

That is a common way for such corporations to act and it is time for that to stop. If you hurt someone you need to make amends and make those people whole again at the same time changing the processes which caused the problem in the first place.

So we will go back to asking you to check your stock certificates on any stock you own – if the transfer agent is Wells Fargo Shareowner Services or if it is Equiniti, demand that the corporation whose stock you own change their transfer agent or you sell the stock and buy into another corporation which uses another transfer agent and let us and them know what you have done.

We will publish your story with or without your name depending upon your request to us. Why without the name of the person involved? Because retaliation by corporations is common and many have experienced unnecessary hassle and harassment and loss because of corporations trying to silence the public so they can be allowed to continue doing ugly, vile things without taking responsibility and without making those people whole.

Small steps in the right direction have been taken, in the past, by expensive and long lasting law suits from which almost no one benefits. It is time for that to change!

Your basic responsibility is to the human beings with whom you inhabit this earth, to make it a better – more viable – kinder – gentler – more caring place to live without the ugliness we have all had to endure because of greed, power hunger and other such emotions and character flaws which have pervaded the institutions which are supposed to be there to help us navigate this world in a more flawless manner.

Please pass this along to as many people as you can possibly reach who you think need to read this message and to keep up with this boycott.

What do we need to continue, promote and make this a successful boycott?

Your ideas

Your time and energy to do the work of carrying this forward

Your money to help us meet the costs of such an action

______Ways to Contact Wells Fargo Bank to let them know you will not do business with them

Corporate Headquarters*

420 Montgomery Street
San Francisco, California 94163
United States
Phone: 866-878-5865

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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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.

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

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

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

Tags: Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Homelessness, homophobic, politics, Racism, Sexism, Target Corporation, Wells Fargo Boycott
Posted in #meToo, #Wells Fargo Boycott, advertising, American Corporate Businesses, American Oligarchs, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network NEWS, Feminism, Finance, Homelessness, homophobic, marketing, politics, Press Release, racism, sexism, Target Corporation, Volunteer with Us, Wells Fargo, Wells Fargo Boycott | Comments Off on It Is Time to Boycott Wells Fargo Bank! – #WellsFargo

MISSISSIPPI BURNING – EVIL STALKS AND WINS!

Wednesday, November 28th, 2018

by: Marceline Donaldson

It gets harder to write these articles. Once upon a time we wrote about so many wonderful things which helped improve life; made everything brighter, easier, more elegant. Today, we are so enmeshed in the evil that has become part of the everyday life in these United States that nothing else comes up. The evil that is loose in the United States of America has wiped out everything else – unless you are a part of bringing the evil empire about.

You can go ahead with other things. They did so in Hitler’s Germany. While Jews and those who stood up for goodness, mercy, equality, love, caring, kindness were murdered in the most vicious ways and others were put into a horrendous form of slavery, there were those others out celebrating – living life as though everything was fine; paying attention to those everyday things that make for a life amidst denial. My question – how can you continue to move ahead taking advantage of what is available to you while ignoring what is happening in your own country, which seems to be steadily on the road to making Hitler’s Germany look like a walk in the park on a sunny day.

In other articles – a few years ago – we predicted Donald Trump’s march taking the United States into Hitler’s Germany and you all let it happen. Look around at the morass in which you are now living and sinking and doing normal everyday things. Maybe you need to read or re-read Hannah Arendt’s book – on the banality of evil, the middle classless that supported Hitler and his cohort’s evil which was spewn around the world. It is certainly proving true today in the United States.

After tear gassing immigrants, the “president” of the United States went to a rally in Mississippi where many were paid to attend and make like they were just loving Trump and others were there because they actually were loving and cheering on this evil and in that environment Mississippians went on to elect Hyde-Smith as its senator. This was not simply about a political loss or win – this was about evil winning or losing. In Mississippi, one more time, evil won. Evil brought into being the memories of public hangings – of people being dragged behind trucks until dead because they dared to vote. What is horrendous in all of this for me – the country was Democratic when that happened and the good guys trying to stop all of it were Republicans. Well, today – look at who is driving the evil. I left a long life of Republicanism as I experienced that Political Party turning into something that would destroy every good value we hold. That used to be what we thought of the Democrats when they were in league with the KKK, White Supremacist and every other “movement” where the votes could be had cheap and in bulk.

A man who is a murderer, who backs heads of government who murder their own in gruesome ways for getting out of line, a thief, adultery, sexual assaulter by his own admission and braggadocio, and so much more on that evil side of the ledger, this man arrived and called Mississippians to vote for one of his strong unequivocal followers – one who didn’t deviate one inch from his gospel. Watching Trump and Hyde-Smith walk down the steps of the airplane which delivered Trump to Mississippi to do his bit to get her into elected government was like watching satan and one of his anointed.

You think that is extreme? Unbalanced? Mentally off?

What was mentally off was our thinking that the United States was on its way to “becoming” – this “city on a hill” which has been shown to be nothing but Mississippi burning with the smell of sulphur all around.

History says there has been no change. I registered to vote as a Republican. I was precinct chair of my area in Wayzata, Minnesota. I was elected to that position by my friends and neighbors. Wow! That was special. Well, one day Ronald Regan declared he was running for president of the United States. Horror began to strike in me because while he articulated the United States as that city on a hill, he clearly had an extreme racist view and following and program to be elected president using racism, sexism, and as much bigotry as he could summon – albeit in a very elegant way. How did you know that was about to happen? How did you know he pre-saged the coming of Donald Trump, who is anything but elegant? Regan announced his candidacy for president of these United States in Mississippi. That was more than what we call a “dog whistle” – and the “dogs” came running.

What did I see in Minnesota? Into the precinct caucus meeting came a slew of Texans. Being from the south, I recognized that Texas accent all around. Who were they? How did they all turn up in my caucus at the same time? Where did they work? What brought them to Minnesota? And what did I experience? Talk in the caucus meeting was about how shocked they were to see this n—-r woman as precinct chair. And that was followed by all kinds of racist remarks. Who was in that caucus meeting listening – the very proper, top of society Minnesota citizens. They didn’t object; defend; become insulted by; insisted the people doing the name calling and ugly very racist rhetoric to stop – they quietly proposed that we elect someone else, “more appropriate”, as chair. For the rest of that meeting I was treated as a non-entity. I was neither seen nor heard. My personhood was totally denied. If I had anything to say someone else would start a conversation on another topic and direct it to another person who would respond. It was beyond dehumanizing. I should have been amazed to hear the very normal, mundane, quiet way they did that, but by that time I had been a part of so much of that – it seemed normal and it was normal. It is still normal today. Many people experience the same thing on a day by day basis without any intervention and it continues until they either leave or accept their non-human status in whichever group they are trying to function. Their “friends” in the group go along with that kind of treatment, but once outside the group they are “friends” again and acknowledged as fully human and fully a part of that friendship group. Sick! All of us!

That bothered me, but not as much as you would expect. I knew I had friends in the area – didn’t we eat together; talk together; enjoy life and shared our children back and forth? Not really! My even living in the area was a problem, but not one that came out so that I could see and hear it until the Texans showed up. I have a history of being that sort of African American woman who is always in the wrong place at the right time. Look at where I live today and the stories I have to tell about that!

When I bought a home in Wayzata and arrived to take ownership and live in the neighborhood, I found the pond with sculptures outside the house, which was one of its charms, all marked up with graffiti put there by the children of the neighborhood – the seven, eight, ten year old children – those who were the same age as my children and who would be their classmates in school. They heard horrible things about this incoming neighbor and felt free and angry enough to resent our appearance in “their” neighborhood and so set about doing whatever they could to destroy the house before we could take it over and live next door. One of the many deliberate handicaps you must overcome when out of your oppressed group. These were not “ghetto”, wild, untrained, no manners children. These were children of the upper classes in that neighborhood and in this country.

Their parents were all sweetness and light and very apologetic. They had many excuses for what their children had done – none accurate, the story was substantially cleaned up – but they had the children come and clean up their “mess.” That didn’t do the job – it cost me quite a bit to have professionals come in because the damage was deep – no one offered to pay the bill, they just pretended everything was fine and their children had cleaned up what they destroyed. I didn’t ever go out that door again nor look at that pond. I just let it go wild. I wanted to create great graffiti art all over the house and destroy as much of it as possible and then live quietly in the neighborhood, but that fantasy was always in my head, never intentionally acted out.

Life didn’t get better! I lived in two worlds, but it wasn’t anything any different from my life before moving into that house in Wayzata. I was born living in two worlds so I knew how to traverse the terrain – painful, horrendous, confusing terrain, but just by being born that was my lot.

What my neighbors didn’t realize was that all of their talk was brought right back to me, by their friends, so when I saw them in Church, had dinner in their homes, had many discussions on many levels with them, I also heard what was said when I was not around because being a part of those two worlds meant I was not “walled off” in a black community where what they were saying and doing was as though it happened in a foreign country where me and mine didn’t speak the language.

Why am I going into all of this? Because I think it is time to tell my story. It is time to get out of me and into you all of the horror through which I have lived because you wanted to maintain your claimed white supremacy and white privilege. I want you to know what that has cost me and mine. We have paid an especially high price because we didn’t stay in our “black neighborhood”, didn’t marry our black brothers and sisters, have lived in a very “diverse” community for a lifetime so I know the ins and outs that have been kept away from that black community – I know why they were kept 20 years into the past so economic parity would not be an issue, which is probably the major reason as to why it has been kept separate. You can’t take advantage of, oppress, and live such a life if the people you are destroying are aware on an intimate basis of who you are and what you are about. It has been roughly like going through a very painful operation without anesthesia with no recovery, just more operations.

And no, I don’t hate you, I have too many English, Irish, Scottish, and every other kind of ancestor lumped under the category of “white” to have hatred for you and my Christian upbringing has put this knowledge of sin and forgiveness into my life – but my journalist family background added to that the need to tell the truth, so that is what you will read in these pages of my journey through this very bigoted society. The kind of society that elected a racist woman to Congress because she is supported strongly by a man who is not only proven to be racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, thinks immigrants are to be reduced to the exploitation of near slavery and so much more. This election should be the celebration of a woman elected to Congress where no woman had been elected in the past, but this woman had to pass the extreme racist test to be so elected and the test that she was indeed not an independent woman, but beholden to and under the influence of men and she did. Mississippi’s victory over the #meToo movement. #meToo – we elected one woman to Congress – our picture of our incoming class will not be entirely white and male – breaking up the WASP image. She did her job and recalled that time of life when we had public hangings of African Americans who voted and so much more of that racism in her education, her choices for her family, her everyday life.

Want to know more – stay tuned, if you can take it. I’ve lost too much to care if you decide to continue retaliating against me and mine. My losses because of your white privilege have just gone over the top for the millionth time and clearly that will continue into the next generation. You have no idea how painful it is to know your children will experience some of the pain you did because of this group of white supremacist and their followers and supporters. To know that all you sacrificed so your children could live in a freer society will not happen because the white supremacist, the neo-Nazi’s and their friends have moved this society back to where those sacrifices have to be made again and by the next generation. That has been going on too long and you have excused and made room for such people for too long – the fact that you benefitted also makes this evil unforgivable and that was also taught to me in my Christian upbringing. You see, I paid attention in Sunday School and I know that forgiveness does not extend to everything and everyone!

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Tags: Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, politics, Racism, Sexism
Posted in #meToo, African American history, American Oligarchs, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Donald Trump, politics, Press Release, racism, sexism | Comments Off on MISSISSIPPI BURNING – EVIL STALKS AND WINS!

NOT Hillary Clinton – Heart Breaking!

Thursday, October 18th, 2018

by: Marceline Donaldson

Not long ago, I wrote a blog which held up Hillary and talked about her many contributions to the equality of everyone, especially women.

What I said in that blog was true and laudable, however, when I saw the interview Hillary just gave which absolved Bill Clinton from any responsibility in the Monica Lewinsky history, my Hillary Clinton statue sitting way up high in my interior house came crashing down with loud noises and bits and pieces flying all over the place until it all crashed to the ground.

You can’t have it all Hillary. There are times when hard stances have to be taken and to admit the failings of your husband is one of those hard stances.

Either you are a feminist or you are a politician who can lie to absolve someone you love. When you and Bill met and became involved in a relationship which led to marriage, it was apparently a relationship between equals. Bill Clinton, however, showed you who he was when he went on to other relationships, while keeping you as his “main fling”. Those were not equal relationships, they were liaisons which were formed out of unequal positions and totally reflected the unequal power of women in this society in which he used women for his own male superiority needs. Clearly he is conflicted and while he has tried hard to work for the equality of all of us he still has vestiges of male superiority which he has either not worked to eliminate or can’t.

When you absolve him and you tell the world there was nothing he did wrong in that relationship with Monical Lewinsky – that he did not take advantage of the power differences to move on Lewinsky taking advantage of her needs, known or unknown to her, he was the adult in the room and he showed himself ready, willing, able and moving to use his power to compromise women for his own needs with no consideration for the women.

Not only did he show that tendency with Lewinsky, but he used his growing power to subjugate other women – clearly shown by the affairs he had while still married to you.

I don’t want to abrogate everything Bill Clinton has done in this society. He has made substantial contributions, but while making those contributions he was not able to control or subdue his male superiority needs – his misogyny.

You also had a choice. Follow and act out of your beliefs or stop espousing them and keep quiet. You can’t have it both ways. You have claimed a feminist stand, but when it really counted you were among those on the other side. Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton were not equals. Bill Clinton, as president of the United States took advantage of a 22 year old intern working in and around his offices and society condemned the young woman because of its misogyny. If you can’t admit that – your feminism is a game you play when convenient.

I had no idea that is where you stood on the Lewinsky affair until I heard and saw you in that interview. Clearly, you knew better. Your demeanor, your face, your expressions and your answer showed that. I am so sorry that one of my idols has fallen. I guess that is why my religion does not allow idols made of clay – they fall and break. Does that make a lie of your life? No! You have achieved much and you have done much for the equality of women. But it does make a lie of much that you have espoused. When put to the test you came up among the missing. That is what’s wrong with our political system. We need to be able to distinguish the Hillary Clinton’s from the Heidi Heitcamp’s. And, even while I make that comparison, I am sure one day Heidi will come up missing. I will pray she is strong enough to continue to stand for what she believes, but I will know our humanity always overcomes.

We sacrifice, as you have done, our own moral and ethical standards to support someone who claims to believe what we believe. That is what is happening around this country with people supporting Donald Trump. They claim his ethics and character don’t matter as long as he supports their issues. The immorality of that is blatant and we are all now paying the price for electing someone with that excuse. That is an extreme example of what you did supporting Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky affair, but in the end isn’t that the fatal flaw in our republic?

Looking at your life and actions, so sure and so strong, I thought you were one of those people who lived her beliefs and I was wrong.

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Tags: #meToo, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Bill Clinton, Feminism, Hillary Clinton, politics, Sexism
Posted in #meToo, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Bill Clinton, Feminism, Hillary Clinton, politics, sexism | Comments Off on NOT Hillary Clinton – Heart Breaking!

An Anniversary Celebration of the Trump Access Tape

Saturday, October 6th, 2018

We have been drowned with comments from members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community. We could not publish all of them – most of what is coming in are comments from people about Trump and company and that has been true for several weeks. To say this country is upheaveled by this man, his horrible character, his mistreatment of women, his ethics that are in the toilet and his superiority to everyone having been raised in a family which encouraged the development of his messiah complex is an understatement.

We have published as many as we could. Some we combined when more then one person sent us similar comments. The anger, pain, upset, and looking around for some way to make this right is what we are hearing. Hope the anger, pain, upset and other negative feelings go away and give way to finding and combining to use this to bring this country into a more equal place. As human beings, we are not “better than” we are “equal to”. Some may never realize or accept that. Most acting out and engaged in that “better than” culture have submerged what that means to their character development and the moral laws by which they live. Some – or rather many – are going to have to be dragged into this new world of equality kicking and screaming, but if that is necessary, so be it.

Comments from Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Members:

Member #1

What an incredible way to celebrate the one year anniversary of the publication of the Access Tape which exposed Donald Trump and his contribution to normalizing sexual assault against women. For his efforts as one of the extraordinary oppressors in this society, trained by Joseph McCarthy and McCarthy’s lawyer Roy Cohn and having adopted McCarthyism as a young man – today he is keeping McCarthyism alive with its fascination with Russia (then the Soviet Union) so it could be passed on in more intense form by the next generation. Trump was rewarded, by the “ruling class” in this society by being elected President.

Member #2

Sexual assault is something very common in this society. Women of all classes, colors, ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientation have been socialized into being ashamed when they have been sexually assaulted and have gone to great means to hide that fact and deny its existence and in the end, have wound up protecting their assaulter because they have been led to believe their reputation would be ruined if anyone found out that, somehow, the sexual assault against them was their fault. They somehow “encouraged” their attacker. They said “NO” when their attacker really knew they meant “YES”.

Member #3

Trump brags about the sexual assault in which he engages; clearly believes it is his right as a privileged white male famous person and even goes so far as to defend against women accusing him of sexual assault by claiming he wouldn’t give any woman as unattractive as the one making the claim the time of day. Braggadocio doesn’t begin to describe Trump.

He articulates and apparently believes the women he talks about have no rights, especially no rights over their bodies. White males of a certain class and financial standing have that right and how foolish are women to think and act otherwise. As Trump has talked about the sexual assault aspect of those rights, it is clear he and others like him have removed a woman’s right to control who touches her body and/or anything else about her body coming from that sexual rights claim of the misogynous male. That certainly gives an understanding as to why so many of these same men are the ones leading the charge against abortion.

Member #4

Trump has appointed to his administration many people who have or who could be accused of sexual assault against women . His U. S. Supreme Court nomination is only one of many such nominations and appointments of men who are sexual assaulters, abusers, harassers to high and low positions in his administration and who are really the people outside of his administration who he turns to for advice and who he calls “friend”. That clearly will be his legacy. Take a look at his administration. We need a chart to keep track of them.

With what has happened during the course of this horror story to get Kavanaugh confirmed shows Kavanaugh is now beholden to Donald Trump as well as his beholdenness to people like the two Bush presidents who worked hard to introduce a “new world order” into this country so their friends would benefit even more than they benefitted in the past on the backs of others. What will happen with that if Kavanaugh actually gets to serve as a U. S. Supreme Court justice? A Republican Political Operative as a justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Member #5

Kavanaugh’s comments during his hearing as he tried to justify himself against Christine Blasey Ford were amazing. That is the first time I’ve heard a potential political appointee and/or nominee list and threaten those he considers his enemies. The last time we had an “enemies list” was during Nixon’s days. At least the last time we had one publicized.

To talk about a “political hit” and all of his other language – that screams mafia language and tactics. What’s up with that? Does that mean he is now connected to the mafia because of his connection to Trump? Or is that a reflection of what he has picked up during the time William Shine, the man who protected Roger Ailes of the Fox channel from the sexual assault Ailes practiced against women for decades. William Shine is now Trump’s Chief of Communication and preparer of people like Brett Kavanaugh to take his place amongst the officially protected sexual assaulters of this administration. As Brett Kavanaugh moves along in his friendships with Trump administration sexual assaulters does that mean his wife will have to take her place amongst the Camille Cosby’s of the world? Is there a trainer for her or will she be cast aside and left in the dust when convenient for “Bart”.

Member #6

As a Mormon I am totally taken back and quite depressed about Senator Jeff Flake. He helped restore my faith the way he acted, trying to right what is clearly a wrong and a sin. It seemed genuine when it was happening, but he only did what he did demanding an FBI Investigation to give Bishop Orrin Hatch and the other Republicans on the Judiciary Committee cover so they could confirm Brett Kavanaugh. Did Senator Flake take advantage of his friendship with Senator Coons to get this done? It certainly looks that way. Don’t they see what they are doing? I’ve had trouble as a woman and a Mormon because of the way I have been treated. I hoped as I saw from Senator Flake that maybe some good would come out of this for the country and for Mormonism. It certainly has not through Bishop Hatch. Senator Flake seemed so genuine. He is not genuine. He was posturing, helping his “peers” to be able to vote a man accused of sexual assault onto the U. S. Supreme Court making it look better than the crude, awful way it was happening. We now have two men very loudly accused of sexual assault and sexual abuse on the U. S. Supreme Court and a President whose example to this country and to the world is that of someone who shows it is alright to sexually assault women. And there are more in the Trump Administration because he seems most comfortable around such people. Why? Who benefits? It can’t be Russia because they are already white and misogynist and substantially so. The United States does not benefit unless you want to look at a benefit being the subjugation of one group under another and that is the tradition out of which the Republicans are acting. Where will this lead?

Member #7

Donald Trump is and has made a grand mess of these United States. However, he is doing it by taking advantage of what has already been done. In 1954, the U. S. Supreme Court knocked down Plessy vs Ferguson. A decision made at the turn of the century out of a Court like the one now being put together by Trump and his predecessors.

After the Plessy v Ferguson decision happened, when it was clear integration was real and would be pushed by the Courts the society reacted by destroying the school system. Rather a destroyed school system than an integrated one. The attempt was made to establish private schools and have tax payers money underwrite those schools and then keep those private schools white. That didn’t work.

The Evangelical Christian movement was developing and all white academies – with tax payers money supplied by the Nixon Administration – came as a result of the splitting off of a “white conservative evangelical christian” side of that movement. That original Evangelical Christian movement” continues today and one of its leaders seems to be the Rev. William Barber. The split-off group of white conservative evangelical christians also continues today doing the same racist/sexist things which caused the split. May God reach their hearts and move them away from the heart of Pharaoh from the Old Testament and move them into true communion with the Christ they claim to worship but clearly don’t know and would reject if he appeared to them as Jesus look on earth with his dark skin and kinky hair.

Many whites would not cooperate with Court ordered integration and looked for alternatives schools to send their children. They increasingly rejected the evangelical christian academies because the theology being taught was nothing even closely related to Christianity, which those schools claimed to be their foundational belief. That attempt has left the white evangelical christian churches the bulwark of racism and sexism because the people who support them and whose children are educated in almost “pure” white schools are among this country’s most racist and sexist citizens. These schools tried mightily to get federal money to underwrite their children’s education, but – with Hillary Clinton’s help – it was proven that they were “white only” schools so federal money for their support moved away from their grasp. Wonder why the Clinton’s are so despised by people like Brett Kavanaugh, and all the other racist supporters of these schools? Here is one reason that is not surfaced by anyone – except a Bettina Blog that recently appeared.

Trump came along and has put the death knell to the public school system by appointing Betsy DeVos to head that area and she is doing exactly what she was appointed to do. End the school system because integration is not going to be a fact of life in these United States. And in the meantime have a system in such bad shape that those who go through public education won’t be able to get into college and will spend their lives serving the privileged for very little money and then we will be able to bring all the jobs back into the United States which until now have been moved offshore. We will soon have a populace which will encompass enough people in dire poverty that they will have to work for the wealthy for practically nothing because they have no alternative. And if you want to fight that through the Court system – take a look at what will happen with the current makeup of the courts if Kavanaugh is confirmed.

Member #8

Brett Kavanaugh is a wealthy prep school kid from the Maryland/D.C. area who is infected with the immorality of the Catholic priesthood which is destroying its own youth. That sounds harsh, however, take a good look at this situation and don’t think Kavanaugh no longer drinks, etc. His acting out like a teenaged juvenile delinquent who couldn’t get his way and went to a hearing to blast everyone shows he is still a wealthy prep school kid who even though he graduated from Prep School, he still has an overwhelming sense of entitlement from which the rest of us will suffer.

Member #9

I hope you all heard Senator Grassley when he said – about the women protesting the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh – we are not going to have mob rule. When he went further in answer to a question as to why there were no Republican women on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley said that women were either too incompetent or too lazy to serve. He used other words, but that is what his words mean.

Grassley was talking about people who are legitimately protesting his and his fellow senators violation of this republic. Grassley and his kind see this country as their own private back yard in which they play with their own kind and the rest of us are just so much extraneous garbage, useful when needed and if we toe their mark, insulted at other times and constrained when we do not see this country as a private preserve for the privileged few.

Member #10

I hope it goes down in history how Attorney Mitchell, a woman, was used to carry forth the agenda against women. She was brought in from Arizona, Sheriff Arpaio’s country, to question a woman – Dr. Christine Blasey Ford – so the male Senators would not have to soil their reputations by so doing. She was apparently told she was being brought in to question the woman for all of the Senators in five minute increments per Senator.

She was taken down when she started questioning the male senators, by Lindsey Graham, but she did not object. She sat quietly for the rest of the session.

She did apologize to Dr. Ford for having to do that and expressed her opinion that it was not the way to do this, but still she did what the men who hired her wanted her to do. Even after she saw how those same men treated her, showed her by their oppression of her so publicly, without apology and with disrespect, she continued on with the rest of the plan and wrote her opinion to add her voice to the negatives dumping onto Dr. Ford. Her opinion was probably written before she arrived to do her dirty work to help Kavanaugh get confirmed. She doesn’t seem to realize that giving legitimacy to a sexual assault against one woman is giving freedom to sexually assault all women – including Attorney Mitchel and the female children and elders in her family as well as in the families of the rest of us.

Member #11

When Senator Susan Collins was running for election the first time, was welcomed and won as the result of what happened with Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill – sexual abuse – she answered the question of whether she was for or against term limits. She said she was for term limits and would not stay in the Senate longer than 12 years. Well now we see why we should stay strictly to term limits because we can see what has happened with a woman who ran for the Senate on another woman’s back (Anita Hill) and totally overstayed her ability to positively contribute. Wonder what Lindsey Graham and those folks she had lunch with promised her if she would take the ball over the goal post.

When Murkowski said she was voting NO to the Kavanaugh nomination she was in her senate seat with no one around her – no women, no men just Murkowski giving her reasons. When Susan Collins said how she would vote she was surrounded on two sides by women in two seats in back of her – not their seats because they were not members of the Republican Judiciary Committee – there are no women on that Committee, but they were put there to make it look as though women were supporting Kavanaugh. When are we going to stop allowing ourselves to be so used, abused. insulted and assaulted?

That whole thing was a form of sexual assault in which Senator Susan Collins participated and was its star. She was used, abused and assaulted in return for what? Nothing should entice you to give up equality for you and those like you. This happens so much I assume she thought this was not only normal, but she was being given a great promotion. No one will ever again look to look to Senator Collins as anyone interested in the equality of women or in the equality of any other minority. It takes a certain kind of person to do what Senator Collins did. In the 1930’s and 40’s during the great days of the KKK and others like them, there was always at least one black person hanging around. Brought into the group when they needed him and pushed out when his blackness began to irritate. That is the role Senator Collins played in this Supreme Court nomination farce.

Senator Collins, your true colors and who you really are showed out clearly today.

Member #12

Support Senator Susan Collins of Maine -oops, no, no. don’t do that. Support soon to be Senator Susan Rice, as she starts her campaign for election as the Senator from Maine replacing Susan Collins.

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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.

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

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Tags: Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, breakfast table talk, Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump, Lisa Murkowski, politics, Racism, Rev. William Barber, Senator Coons, Senator Jeff Flake, Sexism, Susan Collins, Susan Rice
Posted in #meToo, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Breakfast Table Talk, Brett Kavanaugh, Catholic Church, Christine Blasey Ford, Clarence Thomas, Congress, Donald Trump, Jeff Flake, Lisa Murkowski, politics, Protests, racism, Rev. William Barber, Senator Coons, sexism, Susan Collins | Comments Off on An Anniversary Celebration of the Trump Access Tape

Trump/Putin/Kim – Creating a World to rule!

Thursday, October 4th, 2018

Does what’s happening around Trump and the Ford sexual assault accusations have a ring of familiarity?

Is the way that is being handled by Trump have the ring of familiarity?

Take a look at Putin’s Russia and Kim Jong Un’s North Korea!

Mitch McConnell, Trump, the U. S. Senate’s investigation into the allegations against Brett Kavanaugh could have happened in Russia. That certainly must have brought Trump lots of accolades from Putin and from the head of the Russian mafia. He paid his dues today.

I try to tell myself that what is happening today in these United States is more indicative of how they handle dissent in Russia rather than the way it is handled in the U. S. I say to myself – self, we have a more open, democratic system than exists in Russia or North Korea. We would never set up a sham investigation so we could gain evil ends by corrupting U. S. democratic institutions. I like to think allegations such as those made against Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U. S. Supreme Court would be handled the way our mythological and carefully culled history declares we handle such things in these United States. But is that true?

Looking at past history, isn’t it more true that the way Trump is making sure this is handled looks exactly the way it would look being handled in a pseudo-democratic state? A state giving way to form to quiet its citizenry while it goes along behind the screen destroying everything this democratic country claims it stands for?

However, in spite of that, goodness seems to be bursting out all over. What was hidden will be revealed. For all of you bible quoting folks – and all of a sudden we are surrounded by such people – read these chapters and verses – Mark 4:22 – “For everything hidden is meant to be revealed, and everything concealed is meant to be brought to light”. If you don’t like Mark try Luke 8:17 – “For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing concealed that will not be known and illuminated.” Don’t like the New Testament – then turn to Proverbs 10:9 – One who walks in integrity walks securely but one who perverts Gods ways will be found out.” And there can be no denying the fact that we are “finding out” about Trump and his history on a daily almost minute by minute basis. It seems he can’t do anything anymore that is not immediately exposed. His history is tumbling out like a television series with unending segments.

But to all of you bible quoting people – let me also remind you that Satan quoted Scripture and to Jesus.

Trump has warned all of you young men that you better be careful because they’re coming after you. That is true. What Trump left out is the qualifying clause that says, if you are one of those who engages or who has engaged in sexual abuse, harassment or assault – things for which you were once lauded in raucous groups and quiet groups where such exploits were bragged about – or those of you who did your deeds in private and only the women involved who you abused, harassed and assaulted knew about your tendencies – yes you should be afraid because the culture is changing and that is no loner acceptable. That is no longer something you can get away with. That is no longer something you can do and then have the culture back you up by making the women involved feel shame and hide your deeds. The bright light of truth is shining and becoming even brighter and that spotlight may soon land in your front yard.

To the men – young or old – who have led a different kind of life; one of respect for others. To those who have not violated women, children, or even men, your life will change. You won’t have to be bothered with the filth of those who have engaged in such deeds because their deeds will be exposed and they will be removed from the halls of government and all the other places they inhabit.

What a fantastic world that is about to break in on us. We can endure this present because we see the future.

As the pressures from the “ruling class” increases and has increased all around, all over, all above and all beneath us as their greed and other such vile needs have grown and have taken tens of thousands of us to protest, to leave our jobs, to bring along our families to expose them to the deeds of these people so they will know the warning signs and protect themselves – as those pressures have increased we have seen the breaking in of God, the God Spirit, Jehovah, Lord, Krishna, Buddha and all of those entities and concepts we turn to as we worship and bring about a world our memories cannot recall.

Donald Trump is being exposed with his own deeds bringing thunder and lightning clouds to surround him and everything he does.

Those who want to see someone like Donald Trump on a high pedestal and want to look up to someone like Donald Trump these were among the shouters and laughters and those jumping for joy at the rally in Mississippi where Donald Trump thought he knew his audience – doesn’t Mississippi have a reputation for extreme racism and violence to back up the racism, sexism and horrible way they have treated human beings who did not fit their image of who is included and who is on the outs subject to being the repository of their society’s fear? However, even in Mississippi there were dissenters. Even in Mississippi there is a history of the sacrifices made by whites and blacks when the Black and Feminist Civil Rights Movements moved to bring about change even there. What their sacrifices, all of which are not a part of history, show is that there is life after what we are experiencing. There is life after you have made that sacrifice which you think will end the career you were seeking. There is life after all the horribleness of today caused by those led by all the negative forces in the world and that life is even more beautiful than you could imagine.

Those too are being exposed to their friends, to their family, their colleagues, those who are the periphery of their community watching. Yes, we are being divided and when it is over will the lion be able to lie down with the lamb instead of touting his greater size, ability to instill fear in all of those who cross his path, wreck havoc in the world around him; will the lamb show itself to be the greater of the two because of its gentleness and willingness to be sacrificed; or will they lie down together and enjoy that beautiful warm sunlight together?

It is time for these United States to come together, declare the rotters of the community, the destroyers of truth, goodness, graciousness, and run the offenders of such values off the cliff. And what a time of year this is to do just that – didn’t the Jewish people just celebrate Yom Kippur? Weren’t there lessons in that celebration which related to this instance.

Every religion rails against people like Donald Trump. His using lies to ridicule Dr. Ford shows exactly who he is. His life’s history is a listing of foul deeds not the least of which is to have been credibly accused of sexually assaulting some 19 plus women and he denied all 19 claims. But then didn’t Bill Cosby do the same? Didn’t this society, to bring Bill Cosby to justice have to fight for years against the image created for him by the television media? Isn’t this a society which many times has a problem separating the real from what they see in the stories invented to sell products?

Surely Trump, as president would be expected to nominate and then pull out all the stops to back one of his own? Isn’t that where his comfort level lies? And hasn’t he done that? But be careful, he speaks out loud what many men have in their hearts after having assaulted women. He showed clearly how huge is his disrespect, dislike and arrogance against women. He constantly shows that in his press conferences in the way he speaks to and tries to insult women reporters. But what I heard as a child – “he isn’t worthy enough to clean my toilet. When the universe extracts its punishment he will be lifted high so his crash will be felt. to the measure of his deeds.” And isn’t that what we are seeing. And as he crashes he goes down warning men like himself to be careful – they will get you the way they are getting me. Those men would be well advised to pay attention and take heed.

What a triumph for Trump to install someone like him to the U. S. Supreme Court. He has appointed many men to serve in his administration who could be called out on such charges and some who have already been so called out before they were called by Trump to serve him – and yet they tried.

Sorry folks – my rant will probably be edited by the gods at Bettina’s – but it reflects the horror and anger I feel at what is happening. It reflects the disbelief that I live in a country which elected such a man to be its president and gave him powers he is using to subvert and change the hearts of thousands. When I see what he does and has done and when I see those who are supporting him, my heart bleeds. The only visions that keep me alive come from people like Senator Flake – a Mormon who redeems Mormonism for all of us from the grip of an Orrin Hatch. And Susan Collins, who sometimes does the right thing and sometimes gets lost into the horrible ethics of her political party, but still she tries. And Lisa Murkowski who seems to be clear as to where she is going – sometimes . I hope she does not disappoint that would be too much trauma for my weak heart.

Let me finish with that Bettina saying which I mean to the bottom of my heart – sometimes – may God forgive!

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Tags: #meToo, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, breakfast table talk, Brett Kavanaugh, Guest Comments, Lisa Murkowski, Mormonism, Orrin Hatch, politics, Racism, Russia, Sexism, Susan Collins
Posted in #meToo, American Oligarchs, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Breakfast Table Talk, Brett Kavanaugh, Christine Blasey Ford, Donald Trump, Guest comments, Jeff Flake, Kim Jong Un, Lisa Murkowski, North Korea, racism, Russia, sexism, Sexual Assault, Susan Collins, Vladimir Putin | Comments Off on Trump/Putin/Kim – Creating a World to rule!

Why is Trump Pushing Kavanaugh so Insistently?

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2018

From a Bettina Network Lifestyle Member:

Why is Donald Trump so consistently and insistently pushing the U. S. Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh?

Normally, if anything – no matter how small – surfaces about a Supreme Court nominee, that person immediately and usually quietly withdraws their nomination. Generally in conversation with the president of the United States they have been quietly told they are still good people, but with the U. S. Supreme Court…….. and they withdraw. Donald Trump has actively encouraged Brett Kavanaugh to keep going and Kavanaugh, thinking he has the support of the President of the United Sates, keeps going. He becomes the victim being seriously victimized by that President for his own reasons. How come?

When all of this business with Brett Kavanaugh surfaced, we knew something was coming down the road, but didn’t know what. We did know that with what is going on with this nomination, whatever was coming down that road was big – ugly – and meant to provide Donald Trump cover from some very ugly part of his life which was being uncovered and reported to the American people. Which makes you ask – was any of what was ‘leaked’ put out into the public by that same president? To take advantage of what he probably saw as “made for cover”. The New York Times was already in contact with the “Don” about the article they were writing on his family’s tax situation and the NYT had already received a threatening letter back from the “Don’s” lawyer about what they would do to the paper if they went ahead with the story – with that exchange predating the Kavanaugh hearing.

The New York Times article, which just came out about how Donald Trump and his family committed tax fraud against the American people seems to be what the Kavanaugh nomination and its ugly mess is really being used for – to provide cover for Trump by deflecting the American public away from the real story of the day. Is it only accidental that the day the story breaks about this huge and incredible story on the Trump family’s tax evasion, Donald Trump is in Mississippi stirring up the crowds at his rally through viciously attempting to humiliate and destroy Dr. Christine Blasey Ford complete with chants of “lock her up.” Trump is shrewd enough to know such a rally would emotionally explode within a lot of people – very few can understand anyone so vicious.

New York Times reports Trump received millions through tax evasion ..https://www.dw.com/en/new-york-times-reports-trump…tax-evasion/a-45734477 3 hours ago – By helping his father engage in dubious tax schemes, Donald Trump inherited hundreds of millions of dollars, The New York Times said.

It seems clear to me that this is what is driving the Kavanaugh debacle and why Donald Trump is making such a big deal about it and portraying Kavanaugh as the victim along with Donald Trump himself. This will go on until the fallout from this New York Times’ article dies down. The media can only report so much at one time and the headlines about the Trump family’s tax problems will have to share its spotlight with the Kavanaugh nomination to the U. S. Supreme Court – thus minimizing what the public will hear about this incredible bit of tax evasion engaged in by Donald Trump and his family, one of whom is Donald Trump’s sister and a Sr. federal judge. Maybe this distraction with Kavanaugh will help Donald Trump’s sister keep her job because the public will be too blown away by all the things being exposed by the Kavanaugh nomination to be able to deal with both. Hopefully, that is a wrong assessment. Certainly the possible tax fraud by the Trump family and in particular Donald Trump over a period of decades with multi-millions involved is a larger story than the apparent lies being told by Donald Trump’s nominee to be a judge on the United States Supreme Court. That is not to minimize what is happening with Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination, it is just to put it in its proper context. Real or a created distraction!

The nomination to the U. S. Supreme Court is important and will reverberate throughout this country over decades if Kavanaugh gains that seat; we should not minimize that. However, for a few years now we have been forced to see how Trump manipulates the press and his base so that his past spent in an ugly, foul, filthy swamp will be minimized as the filth of a life led with gutter ethics and a foul character mired in a messiah complex is uncovered for all to see.

A postscript to all of this are the comments Trump made about veterans with PTSD – basically, it was that only the weak suffer from such an ailment. This message delivered by a man who spent quite a bit of time and energy making sure he would never be exposed to the possibility of experiencing life in such a way that PTSD was possible. He did this by getting one deferment after another never having spent time in the armed services – although he did want to spend multi-millions on a super-military-parade in which he would be center of attention as the Chief of State.

Thanks for the space you make available so those of us who are just people can put out our thoughts for others to read and react to. While this contribution is political, I am writing another which is the result of my academic research. I will send that to you for publication as soon as it is in good enough shape to be published. I noticed a couple such articles on this blog and realize this is a great forum for a lot of different bits of information, wisdom and whatever else needs to be said. I also tried your “Marshmaples” recipe in the Bettina Cookbook section of this blog and it was outstanding. We will never buy commercially made marshmallows again. The difference is astounding and they didn’t take that long to make. Somehow it has never dawned on me that I could make marshmallows. Your insistence on “organic” ingredients fell on deaf ears, but then I made another batch and tried the organic route – just for fun – and wow, the difference in taste was just outstanding. I am not a total organic person, but this did make me move on from organic Marshmaples to organic bread. Who knows what will come next.

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Tags: Bettina Cookbook, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump, politics, Sexism
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Look at what we are doing! Join us!

Tuesday, September 25th, 2018

We have had many valued guests over the past 35 years we have been in business.They are always very discerning people and we are looking to add more like them so we are letting you know about our new movements in the hopes you will call to either add your home and talent to Bettina Network and Bettina Hedge Schools and/or you will call us when you travel to use our services.

We hope you will become one of those who cares about where you stay when traveling and are always searching for knowledge, wisdom and a greater understanding of the world. We combine both! A concept we originated and for which we have high hopes.

To Bettina Network, inc. we have added:

BETTINA NETWORK HEDGE SCHOOLS

which are elegant accommodations, with an emphasis on diversity, and includes serendipitous learning for those who travel with Bettina’s!

Bettina Network Hedge Schools took a very old 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 HSF 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 our return rate 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.

And don’t forget Bettina Network’s blog

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 per day coming to read the blog.

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.

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

phone: 617 497 9166or toll free: 800-347-9166 within the U.S.

bettina-network@comcast.net https://www.bettina-network.com

Sincerely,

All of us at Bettina’s

Bettina’s Menu of Events – a benefit for members of Bettina’s Lifestyle Community!

Bettina Network, inc.
P. O. Box 380585
Cambridge, MA. 02238
phone: 617 497 9166 inside and outside the U. S.
toll free phone: 800 347 9166 inside the U. S.
web-site: bettina-network.com
email: bettina-network@comcast.net

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Tags: Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network Information, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, marketing
Posted in Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network Info, Bettina Network NEWS, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Facebook, marketing, Press Release, Press Release from Bettina Network | Comments Off on Look at what we are doing! Join us!

Love and Sex – A reader adds comments

Saturday, September 8th, 2018

Thank you for that blog. It struck me for some time that we are being led by a group of white men who seem to have sex on their minds and we suffer the consequences because love is required of leaders.

What does it mean that our president – Donald J. Trump – has been accused multiple times of sexually abusing and assaulting more than a dozen women and his reputation goes far beyond that if you go back many years. That kind of appetite generally will also turn to greed, jealousy, and many other emotions that destroy and will not build up and Trump is showing that he is into destruction of this society as quickly and completely as possible. This is not new for him because he showed us that in the way he ran and built his Trump Organization. Why? Because it will give him worldly goods beyond his imaginings and will give him power over many who want the same thing.

Is he about building up an American Oligarchy the way Russia has an Oligarchy?

As far back as the 1980’s it was clear that Trump was beholden to the Russia and Eastern European mafia. Take a look and it certainly looks as though his billions were created by those relationships. And, just think of what he can now acquire as he opens the doors to this country’s treasury and assets to those with whom he was financially related from the ’80’s until today.

Everyone is saying he is beholden to Putin and Russia? He is actually beholden to the Russian Mafia and is an asset of the Russian and Eastern European mafia’s. Apparently he didn’t meet Putin until all of this running for the presidency occurred and the Russian mafia did what? Loaned him to Putin to achieve Putin’s goals?

What a difference it makes to have someone as president who is into love instead of sex. I don’t like to make comparisons, but when I saw John McCain’s family during his funeral remembrances I don’t think I have seen, in one family, such a coming together of the world’s people. It was beautiful. I wish we had more of that. It was family trying to live a life of love rather than controlled by sex and all such an emphasis entails.

Apparently, McCain tried to bring along those with whom he worked. His relationship with Lindsey Graham shows that. He brought along Lindsey Graham and now Graham has resorted to who he was before his close friendship with McCain. The need for power, recognition, importance can lead to such ugliness. That is so very sad. I remember Graham before McCain and he was a flake – racist – sexist – and I could throw in a few more negatives, but if you are that old you should also remember the news coverage of where Lindsey Graham was coming from during those days. And then he changed and became someone we all began to respect. That has stopped now that McCain is dead. He has reversed course and has once again become the man he was back then. He looks as though he has been working hard to become Attorney General and it also looks as though Trump has promised him the spot to get Graham to be one of his supporters who Trump can bounce around for whatever he needs. That is so sad!

As I read your article on Love and Sex – how different this world would be if we had that movement towards love. If we could see each other in that light instead of in the light of sex – which is where we move immediately. Try to be friends with someone because you have much in common, it could be a great friendship, but the outside world would see it in terms of sex. We have not been able to rise above how we describe the animals. Tell someone you love them and it immediately takes on a component of sexual attraction. What is wrong with us that we have not developed beyond such a place?

The world of love is so superior to the world of sex that it is unimaginable how we are able to maintain ourselves on the lower level of sex and not be able to rise above it when there is this incredible place we could be. All of our religions tout love. However, most also have these warnings and judgments against sex except how they define it and how we have tried over the generations to legislate sex – such a waste. I had not thought before reading your article that this need to reduce love to sex and then control sex had to do with inheritance and who owns and inherits what. Power – greed – corruption all come into play as we have ruined many lives with our nonsense.

If we could somehow get out of the muck and mess to which we consign ourselves and see another way of living what a great world this would be. People like Donald Trump would have to re-work their ethics and themselves because they would be odd person out and never in a position to become dog-catcher let alone anything else.

Games like this op-ed thing would not be played – there would be no need. Who wrote that op-ed piece? Either Donald Trump or Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, who saw it as a way to raise himself up above his peers and position himself to be able to rise when he got out of the Trump Administration. He has given himself an excuse and a cover for his being there in the first place. After Gary Cohn left, he had to do something – and so we have this op-ed. He won’t admit to it, but he will quietly circulate it when he is ready to be employed elsewhere to shore himself up to a higher place and overcome the negativity he has acquired as a part of Donald Trump’s cabinet. I could be wrong – but in this guessing game that is my choice.

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Tags: Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, breakfast table talk, Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham, Steve Mnuchin
Posted in American Corporate Businesses, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Donald Trump, Guest comments, Kitchen Table Talk, Steven Mnuchin | Comments Off on Love and Sex – A reader adds comments

In Memory of Francis Albert Dynan

Sunday, September 2nd, 2018

by: Frances Maloney

It is written of Mary of Magdala, that, after the disciples had returned to their homes, Mary lingered like a humming bird before the silent face of the tomb, weeping. “And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, “woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have laid him.”

I am that woman. And so, I am deeply grateful to Mary Flynn, Katherine, and Suzanne, and to all of you who grieve Frank’s passing, for allowing me to join you in this company of mourners. Frank and I did not attend Frank’s parents’ funerals, because Frank chose not to go without me, and I wasn’t sober.

Frank was merciful and kind, honest and true, first with himself and with God, then with all of us, indeed with all creatures, great and small.

Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro has provided this prayer for bride and groom that I think was fulfilled in our marriage:

“Dear God,

You have brought this couple together

that they might risk the joys and sorrows of love.

They have said “yes” to You and to each other.

We now ask that you bless them

with love and compassion

righteousness and truth.

Guide them in ways of deep and loving

friendship that they may forever

cherish, honor, uphold and sustain

each other and the divine image

that is our deepest self.”

Ma, that is, Frank’s mother (of blessed memory), taught me to pray, “Thank you, God, for all you have given me, for all you have taken away, and, for all you have left me.

Left me, are vital memories, full of Frank’s spirit and likeness. For example, one day, when we lived in Ann Arbor, a bee appeared in our apartment. I was terrorized and called on Frank to save us. Well, Frank took what seemed like an hour to tackle that bee, amused at my distress. Anxiety turned to wonder as I watched him carefully collect the bee into the palm of his hand and lovingly escort the bee outside, a sweet man doing a sweet thing.

Like Frank himself, the honey bee

The humble, the lowly honey bee

Needed to feed the earth

Needed to feed the earth.

By his spirit and example, his farmer’s faith and heart of a fisherman, Frank drew me to something better than I had ever known, becoming my personal rock, my personal redeemer.

Remembering the concluding line of a poem by Langston Hughes, as reads, “Yet you never know, when a woman like me is free.” I testify that I never want to be free from the Love of God, as expressed by my only husband to his only wife.

Frank was patient, Frank was kind

Frank was glad for the well-being

and success of others, such as

his brother Joe, who was a

blessed father and grandfather

Frank envied no one

Frank was generous, unassuming,

faithful, devoted

Not egotistical, not ‘in your face’

Not rude, never selfish

Frank’s heart was a vessel of gratitude

Frank was slow to take offense,

harbored no resentments

Frank was merciful and forgave in truth

Frank was moral

Frank was ethical

Frank did Matthew 25:34-36

Frank was courageous and brave

Frank bore all things, believed all things,

Hoped all things

Endured all things.

Francis Albert Dynan nearly died in infancy. In Vietnam, he was flown around in helicopters packed with explosives. Surviving these, Frank never missed, for an instant, his work as an instrument of peace, in thought and deed.

Frank and I never parted without desire and hope to behold each other again.

Francis Albert Dynan, how do I love thee? I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach, when feeling out of sight for the ends of Being and ideal Grace -, and, if God choose, precious, gracious, loving, compassionate man, my Rabbouni – I shall love thee better after death.

Ed.Note: Francis Jean Maloney served in the United States Army as did Frances Albert Dynan. They met while serving together in Germany and married. After several years, they divorced, but in spite of their legal status they remained friends and remained married and true to one another for the rest of their lives.

Francis Maloney came from an amazing family. Her mother was the first African American to perform with a major symphony orchestra in the United States and her father was Surgeon General of Liberia. Frances was homeless for a time. What she experienced and suffered should make all of us think about how we treat those who served these United States. She is currently on the board of Bettina Network Foundation, inc. and is a tremendous asset to the Foundation and everything it does.

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

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Tags: African American history, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Frances Maloney, Francis Albert Dynan, Memorial
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Omarosa – you go girl!

Tuesday, August 14th, 2018

“Don’t diss me until you have walked in my shoes.”

It should be amazing to hear, see and read all of the press coverage about Omarosa and her firing by the White House, but it isn’t. What should be amazing about it? The fact that she lasted as long as she did even though she was over the area set aside for minorities. To remain for any length of time in such a position in the Trump White House must have taken a lot of will, political skill and knowledge of self-preservation.

We are seeing the racism of those doing the anti-Omarosa reporting come through like spotlights. It is historical.

For example:

– Omarosa was held in the “Situation Room” for some two hours and was taken into that room, one black female, by four white men. I’ve seen that before and it is meant to scare the same way white sheets and pointy hats and burning crosses are meant to scare. However, the only thing we hear the media addressing is the fact that Omarosa recorded the ordeal and what an awful person she is for having done so. Some have even gone to the lengths of claiming that she should be prosecuted for having jeopardized the security of the United States through this act. Does that sound similar to “lock her up”? Is that a clear blame the victim?

It seems to us the only way the national security of the U. S. was jeopardized was by General Kelly using a secure room which should be used for national security meetings, etc. and used it as a setting to intimidate and restrain a black woman in a room against her will. There is no other way to describe what happened to Omarosa during her time in the Situation Room except as a time of instilling fear and intimidation. How come holding an employee of the White House against her will is not worthy of coverage? Unless, of course, this is seen as normal because it is a black woman and because we want to make sure the victim is blamed where race is concerned. No or very little blame has been incurred by General Kelly and his three co-intimidators. Holding someone against their will is generally called kidnapping – “lock him up.”

– And – One needs to go back into the history of the relationship between Trump and Omarosa before reporting how they are the same! That is the most ridiculous claim of all. Let’s paint both with the same brush! Even making the claim that Omarosa, while like Trump, is much worse. Those are flabbergasting charges.

When you look back at the history of their friendship the extent of Trump’s racism didn’t become clear until he was into his run for president. Whenever a black – especially a black woman, works with whites you have to and are raised to turn a deaf eye and ear to a lot of the racism of your friends, co-workers, acquaintances. That is just survival in these United States. Some people handle that better than others. That appears to be what happened to Omarosa, especially looking at the blacks who surrounded her and seeing the blacks who knew the way to attempt to make claims on Trump’s pocket book and power – ie Kanya West.

Looking at the Apprentice TV show, it had a fairly large number of blacks on the show and it was not easy to pick up racism. Not many of the blacks on the Apprentice picked that up – if they did they certainly kept that discovery to themselves. One assumes also that as the star of the show the people picked were chosen by Donald Trump. However, in this ‘dust-up’ we learn and we learn it from Omarosa that Donald Trump did not choose the people who appeared, there was a production company which did that which accounts for the diversity.

– We have yet to hear anyone talk about Omarosa’s composure, her ability to handle the press when they try to demean her in the middle of an interview, how put together she looks always and the way she carries herself.

Maybe we just don’t remember that during the transition period Omarosa was a part of what was happening in Trump Tower and seemed to be the one sitting in the back of the room closely observing the comings and goings. So – when she makes the comment that as president, people will bow down to Trump and be obsequious as they try to share his power (not her exact words, but the sentiment of the famous taping that is playing over and over on news reports) it is more a statement of truth then one of Omarosa bowing down to Trump. She is in the middle and sees people coming and going who once criticized Trump now bowing down to be included somehow – let us remind you of Mitt Romney, Al Gore, etc. etc. people who would not be expected to show up at Trump Tower because of their strong and accurate criticism of Trump. Omarosa’s character and ethics are criticized using that film clip to do the criticizing, but she is simply telling the truth. We don’t want to be faced with the hypocrisy of our leaders – we want that to slide as they become a part of this Trump Administration. That is how the game is played until along comes this black women who stands in front of the camera and articulates exactly what is happening and points out our hypocrisy in that process. She wasn’t puffing up Trump’s ego – she was truth telling.

– What is also clear is the way the press refused to interview Omarosa during her tenure on the White House staff and the fact that no one said she formerly worked at the White House so was the only staff member with any experience on such a staff. That part of her background was enclosed in silence while other parts – which reflect the stereotype of black women – is pulled out and paraded around.

– To look at the entire picture of Omarosa’s life it was clear that we were headed for such a moment as this. A doubly oppressed minority with Omarosa’s family history and her beginnings in fairly poor surroundings, it is no surprise that having been taken up by Trump as she was moving upward on her own steam, aggressiveness, life-history she would praise Trump. Who gave her such an incredible opportunity? To have moved from Omarosa’s beginnings to Senior aid in the White House is an awesome achievement. She was grateful as many are who experience a life beginning of serious and severe oppression.

To her credit, however, Omarosa was not tone deaf. How she conducted herself in what had to be horrendous surroundings in the middle of people who showed themselves to be totally racist and sexist is nothing short of brilliant. That she woke up from those surroundings to take such a clear, strong, stance and came out of it with what she needed to prove what her life was like during her time in the Trump bubble shows who she really is and the strength of her character.

When you compare that to others who came out and felt they had to sign the NDA AND ACCEPT the $15,000 or other figure per month to keep silent speaks volumes about Omarosa, who was offered the same deal and refused it instead, opened the door to the White House for the rest of us to see what her life had been like and what life in the White House is like. Omarosa gave us another pathway to understand what is happening in these United States.

Do you know what it is like to be in a situation and treated in the horrendously negative way she was treated? What do you do? Some would move out, resign and be grateful for the $15,000/month offer.

“Until you walk a mile in my shoes don’t let your self-righteousness cloud your eyes and ears and keep you from learning from my experience. Is your life so pure you can so negatively judge me?”

When you come from Omarosa’s background to double down and try to make a success of where you are because you know those opportunities are not overwhelming determines your daily life and decisions. She was alone in a White House that was very hostile to her yet she stayed and still worked to attempt to open doors for blacks and that in spite of the fact that neither blacks nor whites reached out to her, but instead negatively characterized her, judged her and treated her like a piece of disposable dirt. It is pretty bad and it is a trap from which it is hard to extricate yourself.

Omarosa had to have a sense of justice to tape, write and go out in the front of a storm to confront and expose. She also has to have a strong sense of who she is to go up against all the negative comments about her “lack of credibility.” What lack of credibility. She was rarely covered by the press for anyone to know who she was – lots of assumptions because she was a friend of Donald Trump and backed him even when his extreme racism began to show. That is not lack of credibility.

At one time I would have said that is lack of good judgment. However, seeing what she was doing with her time in the Trump White House and how she documented what they were doing for a future release time I have changed my mind about that. It seems to me Omarosa was taping people and situations during her time with Trump because her way out was going to be to document everything she saw and experienced. To let all of that out in a book which she probably saw as an alternative to the abyss which awaited her whenever she did decide to leave or would be removed from the White House. She certainly has eliminated the prospect of being called a “go for coffee girl.”

Omarosa is a touch stone for a whole lot of blacks. Those still in the Republican Party and feel they are contributing to moving blacks ahead – staying to be able to document history correctly; feeling that they are keeping really horrendous things from happening to blacks inside and outside the Republican Party; being present to document their experience which could be skewered by others if she didn’t. That is just a few – there are many more.

Omarosa is no better nor worse than the black attorney who is called on to represent clients accused of racism – that happens so much it is automatic and to be expected, We see the black attorneys complimented for their work not dissed for allowing themselves to be so negatively abused; women called to diss other women because coming from a woman it is a stronger dissing; blacks called on to make negative claims against other minorities and so much more.

Omarosa is and has been a black woman whites don’t understand; don’t like; don’t want around because she violates everything about blacks and the black experience that they think they know and understand – she can’t be trusted therefore her character and ethics are in question; but mostly she is the foil against whom we see sharply the failings of other blacks, male and female, those who parrot and are promoted by whites to do their bidding in exchange for 20 pieces of silver and a brief time appearing to be considered equal. She uncovers those blacks as they try to put her down and uncovers those whites who desperately want to protect and continue to cultivate “their” black who helps them hold the line against the onslaught of equality.

Put all of the above against what you will hear over the next few days about Omarosa. You can agree or disagree, but this is what we see.
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Tags: African American history, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, breakfast table talk, Donald Trump, Racism, Sexism
Posted in African American history, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Breakfast Table Talk, Donald Trump, Guest comments, John Kelly, Omarosa, racism, sexism | Comments Off on Omarosa – you go girl!

Keep U. S. Conferences White?

Sunday, August 12th, 2018

ed.note: We are beginning to notice that this Trump/Sessions keeping black/brown people out of the U. S. is not simply an immigrant thing. It is not just about keeping America White by keeping out non-white immigrants, nor is it only about throwing out resident and/or non-white immigrants with green cards who have become U. S. tax payers under as many pretexts as possible. Others are being kept out or their attempt to visit for a brief time, especially for research and collaboration, is made unnecessarily difficult and that difficulty is new – it is not a carry over from past administrations. One person – a member of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community has shared his experience with us and it follows.

“I was raised and educated in China till college. I came to the US to obtain my PhD at Princeton and continued as a postdoc at Harvard. In total I stayed in the US for 10 years before returning to China to accept a faculty position in Beijing in 2017. I have maintained collaborations with both institutions.

This year, I planned a 2-week visit to Princeton in June, but my visa application was denied during the interview. No specific reason was given other than “the purpose of the visit is not consistent with the visa type for which you have applied”, which is a standard business/tourist visa. I realized later that what caused the denial was my honest statement that this trip was for research collaboration. In fact, this is never allowed under this visa type. The J-type visa serves this purpose, though it is much more complicated and is usually for long-term visit (e.g., I was under the J-visa during my 5-year post doc).

This is really upset, besides the fact that the visa interview process itself is very uncomfortable and time-consuing: no bags or cell phone is allowed in the embassy, and one has to wait in long queues multiple times throughout the process which sometimes can be quite chaotic. One generally wastes half a day just for the interview without anything else done.

With this application denied (and trip cancelled), I will have to do another visa application for a workshop in mid-July to early-August. It is a special workshop running for 3-weeks, and the purpose is to bring people in the field together in a relaxed setting to promote interactions/discussions and inspire new ideas. Participants are asked to stay for at least two weeks, and I planned to join for the later two weeks. This time, the visa officer questioned why my previous application was denied, and also why a conference takes such a long time. Despite my explanation, he asked me to provide more materials to demonstrate the purpose of the visit, in particular a “conference schedule”. Well, this is not a standard conference no such schedule exists before the workshop actually begins when people start to figure out an agenda. I had to write to my conference organizer for an additional letter (he already wrote an invitation letter for me) to explain the situation.

Upon collecting everything, I resent my application, which is then sent for “administrative processing”. This is not uncommon for Chinese scholars, which usually takes 4-6 weeks. My application was sent in early June so I thought there should be enough time. However, I waited and waited and waited. There was no news before my originally planned travel date (I was wise not to purchase an air ticket). The week after, I realize I can check the status of my visa application online, and found that it is finally issued. By the time I actually received the visa, the workshop was already more than half-way done, and even if I purchase ticket to join it, most participants would already have left (in the 3rd week). As a result, I simply cancelled the trip.

On the visa, it is indicated that the “administrative processing” completed in 4 weeks where my case was cleared, but the visa was not issued until some 3 more weeks later. They clearly didn’t want me to attend the conference. Moreover, the visa could have been valid for 10 years, but mine is only valid for 1 year.

Nevertheless, with the visa finally at hand, I temporarily planned a trip to visit Princeton the week after, though the original 2-week plan becomes 3 days. This is followed by a 2-day visit to Cambridge to attend another conference. The visit is brief due to my other time constraints, but is fruitful. I stayed at a Bettina Network Hedge School in Cambridge, the same place I stayed back in 2011 when I came to visit Harvard for a job talk. Everything is very enjoyable with illuminating conversations at breakfast as well as meetings and gatherings with many of my colleagues and friends.

I am at the airport now to return to China soon. Thank you for the warm and welcoming experience that you offer and I will come back again despite the disgusting experience with the embassy.”
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Tags: Attorney General Sessions, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, breakfast table talk, Donald Trump, Guest Comments, politics, Racism
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Ethics – Character – Gerrymandering

Wednesday, August 8th, 2018

by: Marceline Donaldson

Looking at the election in Ohio in a district which has been badly gerrymandered over the decades we need to seriously define what it means – especially in politics – to steal, lie, attempt to destroy an old republic trying to become a democracy using gerrymandering as one of many tools. If you want a quick end to this United States Government with all it has meant over the decades and few hundred years it has been trying to move to a place of freedom for its citizens – try lending your hand to those working hard to bring about gerrymandering in many districts so they can have power, control and more in their attempt to satisfy their greed.

I lived in Ohio for several years around the late 1970’s into 1980. It was a place I loved and would move back to in a heartbeat. I called Cincinnati home, but visited and worked all around the state.

What I remember are events which probably were the genesis for what is going on in Ohio today = the Gerrymandering part and where and how the Republicans took hold.

I was Republican in those days – and Ohio was pretty much in the Democratic Party.

Driving around the country side there was an amazing phenomena. When you came close to what was a lovely body of water – a pond, a small lake, etc. – there was a loud and ugly smell of feces. Looking into what could have caused such a smell I discovered a corporation from Germany which was financing Germans who were dairy farmers and leaving Germany in fairly large numbers to do their dairy farming in the United States.

What was driving them out of Germany were laws being promulgated which would have made them control their cows and more properly dispose of cow manure in ways that were beneficial to the rest of society and did not cause the kind of blight and nose rebellion I was experiencing driving through some farm lands in Ohio.

Those dairy farmers from Germany used the ponds as cow toilets. They put their cow’s feces in those ponds and in a short period of time – well, you know what happened.

As I looked at the map, those areas which became very Republican Conservative and today Trump supporters are the areas back in the 1970’s and 80’s which were being taken over by German dairy farmers putting their cows feces in places to wreck the beautiful pastoral quality of the land. These were not the good Germans who stayed home and obeyed laws meant to protect everyone. These were the Germans who had the mind set of some Americans who expected to be able to pollute, etc. as their god given right. So they combined.

When I last checked it out – there was no stopping them. The corporation, with lots of money, which was financing them, made it possible for many to “immigrate” to the United States so they would not have to depend upon American banks to finance their land purchases nor to upfront them the money they needed to get their dairy farms operational.

When you talk about unwanted immigrants against whom the United States should erect barriers and walls – they were the group. Trump, however, with his German ancestors who, it is alleged, had these mafia connections and gained wealth through what is also alleged to be illegal means – with Trump himself gaining his wealth through casinos,and many schemes which bilked lots of people as he filed serial bankruptcies impresses me as one immigrant family which should have been blocked at the border. I doubt that he sees anything wrong with that kind of immigration or those immigrants. They are simply taking advantage of the ‘freedom’ offered in the United States and being very industrious in the process. I think of them when I have to drink pasteurized instead of raw milk because of the way so many such people fouled up the milk supply.

It is a straight line from those events to the control Republicans were able to wrest for their own re-elections by incorporating those “immigrants” into their scheme of gerrymandering – who I am sure as time passed have became U. S. Citizens. They did not seem at all inclined to clean up their ways or their dairy farms or to stop polluting the lakes, ponds and streams of the United States with their cows feces – which means they would not be able to go back to Germany and meet its understandable requirements that Dairy Farmers respect the land and others in the areas surrounding their dairy farms.

Haven’t seen any of that in the analysis of what happened in those areas of Ohio and how what happened affected todays election and the previous elections where gerrymandering became the standard way to power and political control. People with that kind of mindset would be very open to schemes like Gerrymandering.

Anything except – be a good citizen and respect others. Sometimes you win and sometimes others win, but at all times mutual respect is the order of the day not artificially creating situations and circumstances in which you control all the time to your detriment, the detriment of others and most especially the detriment of the United States of America. We stand for something. A republic demands mutual respect. Freedom does also. Get with it and stop all of this nonsense or you will wind up with a politician in charge who makes Trump look like an angel and a do gooder instead of the corrupt power hungry, greedy, grifter, alleged sexual abuser and assaulter and pathological liar he has shown himself to be.

by the way – have you noticed the one thing all of these folks have in common? Their need to engage in sexual abuse, sexual assault and misogyny against women with its concurrent disgraceful behavior towards children.
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Tags: Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Donald Trump, Gerrymandering, politics
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Unfair and Ugly Marketing!

Saturday, July 28th, 2018

by: Marceline Donaldson

We hope you will take notice and respond to a crucial request!!!!!!!!

As a business partially owned by minorities and women, Bettina Network, inc. constantly has to protect itself and put up barriers to those who seem to need to undermine and attack us in any way possible. We are asking all of you to take notice. Not only for Bettina Network, inc. but to be responsible consumers and require companies to be ethical, moral and treat others with respect.

That is how we have tried to live and work. We know there are many of you out there who do the same. I think these past few years with what is happening in the United States should bring all of us to the realization that we have been given a choice. We can live and work in a world in which we undercut others; insult others; demean others or we can succeed through hard work, being of good character and morals.

We have had a very ugly experience when a member of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community called to tell us we were being undercut by a web site called IloveInns.com

How were they doing this?

By telling the world on their web site that Bettina Network, inc. was closed and no longer in business.

I was amazed and could not understand why anyone would do such a thing.

When I checked, sure enough there was the message in more than one place on their web site with Bettina Network, inc. listed – with other companies – but the line under the name Bettina Network, inc. has a little message for the readers telling them this company is no longer in business.

Bettina Network, inc. was the only company on their site with such a listing.

If they thought that was the case, they could have called to verify – they did not. If they didn’t want to call they could have looked up the web site for Bettina Network, inc. – they did not. Nor did they do anything else before taking such a step which could drastically and negatively affect someone else’s business.

They deliberately chose to put out this bit of negative advertising in an attempt to hurt our business.

Why do I say it was done to hurt us?

Most people would have simply eliminated a company which they determined was out of business. And before taking that step, most people would have made sure their information was accurate. To have kept Bettina Network, inc. listed with the additional tag of being out of business is negatively advertising another company and quite clearly, intentional.

I hope all of you respond.
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Tags: advertising, American Corporate Businesses, bed & breakfast, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, marketing, Racism, Sexism
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Congress – Putin – NRA – Compromised?

Thursday, July 19th, 2018

Just a brief note to hope you mention the fact that many of us believe several Congressional people have been compromised by Russia and Putin.

Every-time I hear someone expecting the Republicans to respond to the horrific things happening I wonder what’s wrong with them? It is clear many in Congress have been compromised by Russia – we think, through the NRA.

Didn’t the NRA give Trump some $20 million for his campaign. And hasn’t the NRA contributed multi-millions of dollars to the campaigns of quite a few Congress people? And don’t the Congress people take great care not to alienate the NRA? This nonsense about not wanting to alienate the base needs to be revisited. It looks instead that the Congress people don’t want to alienate the goose that lays the golden egg for them. And what happens when the NRA reveals to those Congress people where their money is actually coming from? The NRA does not seem to have the multi-millions it contributes. That money is coming from someplace – and where would that be? Would the genesis of their funds be Russia? and Putin? looking to compromise as many Congressional people as possible?

Will the day ever come when people serving the public good be those who don’t cower behind their need to keep their position, their income, their extras, their power and will give up their ethics, their character, their beliefs just to maintain? It was time for those working in the immigration area to take their belongings and leave when they realized what they were being asked to do – but many stayed on and helped separate children from their parents and even worked into the wee hours of the morning to move children at 1, 2 and 3am. Why do people give up so much for so little? Why do we cause others so much pain as we simply try to stay on top to continue with the money coming in and the little bits of power we exercise?

To stand in your own truth. To own your values. To live out of your belief system. What a luxury. You may not be the wealthiest of people doing that, but you certainly sleep well and don’t scare easily. How many have given their lives so you might live. You, Congress, will not give up your extravagant lifestyle and bits of power so democracy might live and grow and be strengthened for all of us. So what exactly are you doing in Congress. You should have resigned already.

It doesn’t take much. But it does take commitment – truth – justice – faith – and over everything it takes love. We have moved love out of its God sphere into the sex sphere and there we can be as corrupt as possible. Notice how many of those making these compromises of their core beliefs for money and power are also those being held up today for their sexual abuse, sexual assault, disrespect of women and many others because they so disrespect and abuse themselves.

Thanks for this “blog” space. Keep it up – we are reading.
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A BNLMember Responds to Poetry

Monday, July 9th, 2018

I loved the poem about trees. I would love to respond with my own poetry, but until that day this is what I found which i find beautiful and an addendum to Lynn O. Cohen’s poem –

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.”
– William Blake, 1799, The Letters

“I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines.”
– Henry David Thoreau, 1817 – 1862

“Around a flowering tree, one finds many insects.”
– Proverb from Guinea

“Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?”
– Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road

“God is the experience of looking at a tree and saying, “Ah!” “
– Joseph Campbell

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Come to me..see me..hear me..touch me!

Saturday, July 7th, 2018

Leaves moving this way and that
sounds just like big ocean waves.
i am elsewhere.
Ah! the leaves giving me
a kiss on my cheeks
cooling me
even moving my short hair

i have arrived at the ‘mentor tree’
bottom looks like gargoyles,
witches faces
But look up! many big branches
tall and strong!
parts chopped off
but see how it still grew from there

Welcome to me
i am life!
i get wrinkles
and i move on
i’ll give you shelter anytime you want.
see that ant crawling on me?
for you it would be bothersome
doesnt bother me
i let it crawl
i welcome it.

i have persisted
nor’easters, wrinkles, ugliness, parts missing.
But i keep going and growing
Learn from me.

Lynn O Cohen
A Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Member
6/12/18

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Trump and the U. S. Supreme Court

Wednesday, June 27th, 2018

Members of the Supreme Court, appointed by Republicans and being Republicans, came together to make a decision on the latest version of Trump’s Muslim Band and decided to support the personal bigotry of the Republican President – Donald J. Trump – instead of the Constitution of the United States.

When the second African American man was appointed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, those who made that decision appointed Clarence Thomas, a man accused of sexual abuse, sexual harrassment and more. Nevertheless, Clarence Thomas’ nomination was validated by Congress because the White Males in this country, especially those in Congress even after hearing the incontrovertible evidence as to Clarence Thomas’ character knew their own culpability in such sexist activities and cherished their sexist playground peopled by females more than they did the honesty, reputation and accurate interpretation of the Constitution. Their decision in passing Clarence Thomas through to the Supreme Court showed one role females play in this society, which the Congress representing the society would not give up. A woman’s abuse as sex object and her availability as object of sexual abuse , sexual harassment and sexual assault without penalties of any kind insured for the future.

That is still true as evidenced by the fact that we elected Donald J. Trump as president of these United States. An illegitimate president, but one still in office almost two years on. A man accused of sexual abuse, sexual harassment and sexual assault who admitted to such over national television and bragged about his illegal sexual activities.

We are now in the process of making sure that the institutions of these United States, including its Constitution all bow to his wishes – his autocratic wishes – his clearly evil wishes and actions which he is undertaking to remake this country from a Republic into an evil dictatorship with him as the dictator.

If this sounds angry, it is. My life has been fighting against such evil and it just reoccurs. We then start the process all over again. Those who want to live in a society where they and ‘their kind’ are better than get better at it each time because we have had experience of knowing how to be more sophisticated and hidden in what we are doing and how we are changing the structures in which we live while, at the same time, keeping them the same.

This latest Supreme Court ruling putting the stamp of acceptability on Donald J. Trump’s wishes to make sure these United States discriminate against its citizens and those who would like to become citizens\based on their religion. In the past the United States Supreme Court has ruled in such a way as to discriminate against African Americans slaves, making that legal and later against supposedly “freed slaves” by ruling that separate and unequal was legitimate and the law of the land – a ruling which stayed in affect from the late 1880’s until 1954. A law which destroyed many lives and caused millions to live lives of quiet and sometimes not so quiet desperation. The Trail of Tears under which Native Americans suffered and attempted ethnic cleansing and its ruling in 1944 that it was legal to incarcerate Japanese Americans in Concentration and Internment Camps because they were Japanese Americans and as such could not be trusted the way German Americans and Italian Americans could be trusted.

There were rulings by this same United States Supreme Court which is claimed to be color blind and sees all Americans as equal no matter their race, sex, sexual orientation, religions ethnic origins, etc. So much for that mythology.

This ruling came about to facilitate the ethnic cleansing that we are in the middle of, led by Donald J. Trump who ran on such a platform – who set in place an Administration full of neo-Nazi’s; racists, sexists, anti-every religion except his kind of ET.Evangelical Christianity espoused by the likes of Franklin Graham and others who give this president a “mulligan’ whenever he transgresses God’s laws.

We held up to you what was happening – the United States was on its way to becoming another country following in the footsteps in Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany only worse. You heard those warnings and said – that is an extreme comment. We pointed out to you that Concentration Camps would soon be established in these United States and you said – that is ridiculous and an exaggeration. And you now have Concentration Camps, Internment Camps and you are on your way to Death Camps. Those steps were taken in swift succession.

Today, they are peopled by children who have been weaponized to bring about Trump’s dream of an America over which he and his family rule like the worst despots, the fascist leaders he has clearly articulated admiring like Kim Jong Un; Vladimir Putin and several others.

One thing Adolf Hitler did not do, but Donald J. Trump has done, is the weaponizing of children – “suffer the little children to come unto me for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven” – these are the ones he has weaponized and will continue and worsen his use of them. Donald Trump is the man who bragged about deliberately walking into a room full of 16 year olds unexpectedly and unannounced. – The 16 year olds in various stages of undress as they prepared to be a part of his beautiy pageant and as such were in a position under him with his fairly substantial power over them. Sounds like today? Only this is not a beauty pageant; the children are much younger and much more vulnerable under his complete control as he can decide whether they live or die. Try that when you think of all the children who are now unaccounted for, who cannot be found. The United States military is preparing to house the world’s children in what is the equivalent of “black sites”. Today, they are Hispanics. Tomorrow they will be Muslims. And after that? After he has expanded his internment camps to accommodate the 100,000 and more he is currently demanding – will he then ‘intern’ the DACA people and be able to do so other quietly as he ushers them out of the country keeping them in the interim in these camps? Camps that he could not establish for DACA because the uproar would be deafening. But he can take this move very sneakily and by the time we know what he is doing it will be well along the way with many DACA people having been ‘evicted’ from the United States irrevocably. He is moving fast to achieve #MAWA.

What has he needed to take this country all the way to an evil dictatorship which destroys its own people? Trade Wars – we have that. A recession that will make the “Great Depression” look like a wonderful time in the life of this country by comparison. We are moving fast into that place.

We now have the largest federal deficit in history and we are moving extremely fast to make it as large as possible as Trump rips off everyone. Here is a man who talks about saving money to his electorate and outlines how his latest evil scheme is going to save the United States tons of money. How is that working for you?

Trump spends almost $1,000,000 per weekend as he travels to his golf courses and to his private club Mar a Lago to take on his management oversight of his property. To make sure the marketing and oversight – by Trump – is still in place and producing results? He manages and checks on all of his places at the expense of the United States tax payer making sure the marketing is such that the world thinks they have access to him on weekends and can get their projects funded and more if they patronize his privately owned businesses.

Trump has set up Concentration Camps and Internment Camps with children currently in residence. The cost of keeping children in those camps is about $2,000 per day. Before the camps were set up the cost was something like $360/day.

And the Trump administration is turning out to be the most corrupt administration in the history of this country. His appointees are being exposed one at a time and he ignores the corruption of those who do his bidding and show him their loyalty – not to the country they are supposed to be serving, but to Donald Trump persoanlly. They can be as corrupt as they want to be and rip off everyone and everything as long as they are loyal to Donald Trump – A current example of a mafia “don” – only this time angling to be a mafia “don” on a world wide scale.

All of this gives new meaning to Melania Trump’s jacket and its meaning – “I really don’t care.” Is this Donald Trump’s attitude and thoughts about the United States Constitution and the United States of America as it relates to and affects everyone except him?

Turning back to the United States Supreme Court. What role has it played in this democracy?

We could go all the way back to slavery and when that was made legal and the law of the land. But this would become a very long article. How did slavery become legalized? See any coincidences and similar ways to achieve the evil a small group wants to install within the structures of these United States to maintain themselves as “better than”?

Let’s skip to the 1880’s when Plessy vs. Ferguson was before the Court. How did it rule? It made separate and (un)equal legitimate and that stayed in affect until 1954. the U. S. Supreme Court turned back every attempt to turn back Plessy vs. Ferguson.

To insure that there was no equivocation and no misunderstanding that the Plessy decision was the intent of the Court, it ruled in the Korumatsu case that Japanese Americans – American citizens – many of more than one generation Americans – could be held in what are now called “black sites” because they were a threat to the National Security of the United States – and stripped of everything they owned.

Isn’t that what is being claimed by the United States Supreme Court today? Trump’s travel ban must stay in place because it addresses the national security of these United States. Just in case you missed the confluence of these cases – at the same time the Chief Justice Roberts complained about the dissent statement of Justice Sotarmeyer he also declared the Koramatsu case to have been reversed and closed. What he didn’t say – there was no longer any need for the Koramatsu case as any kind of exmaple as the Court moves along in other deliberations because the Trump Travel Ban does much the same thing – insures that now Religion is added as one reason which can be used to discriminate against American Citizens and others.

Those Concentration Camps and Internment Camps and Death Camps now hold Hispanic children. They will probably soon hold Hispanic families. They will, no doubt, move from there to holding DACA and from there to Muslims in general. And then what? Are those plans being laid within the White House for the rejection and cancellation of the citizenship of Naturalized United States citizens because of “National Security”?

Those being held in the 1940’s in Internment were not German Americans nor Italian Americans. Both groups would have posed a threat to the United States if the reasoning behind the Koramatu case was real and not a bunch of lies put together by the United States Government with the intent to incarcerate in Concentration and Internment Camps United States Citizens.

That goal was clear recently when “reparations” for the Japanese still alive who were interred in those camps. Reparations for that group was passed by Congress and the people charged with investigating, for the purpose of handing out those reparations to the Japanese American families negatively affected by their incarceration without cause – those people were pushed to “slow down” their investigations and to “slow down” their handing out of the reparations because the Japanese Americans to whom the reparations would be going were getting old and if the process moved slowly many would be dead before they received their reparations and the United States would not have to fully reimburse “saving money” in the process.

And what is behind all of this? All because many of you need to maintain your identity as “better than” and you are going to do that no matter the cost to others or to yourselves. So evil is taking over this country and swiftly.

If you dig a grave for me – make sure you dig a second grave and line it with a lovely and comfortable mattress because you will, without a doubt, be your own undoing and wind up in the same place. I heard that someplace – and the more I think about it the more I realize what a true statement.

GREED – POWER and CONTROL over others – STEALING from others because of your own laziness – and on and on and on! – that is what is ruling these United States today under Donald Trump.

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