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“Better Than” – The Power that built the United States!

January 24th, 2020

We have held off on our postings because we could not believe what we were seeing from those sending their comments to be published in Bettina Network’s Blog. It is time for us to put all of that together and lay out for you what many in our community are thinking.

This is an opportunity presented in these United States to citizens, immigrants, illegals, temporary residents, permanent residents, students and others to put your professional lives on the line. We haven’t done much, but have paid a high price for some of the things we have written about in this blog. We knew that was a possibility when we started this blog, but took an oath that we would write without letting the possibility of negative consequences mitigate our voice. It is the collective voice of those who use Bettina Network, inc. And yes, sometimes we can publish diametrically opposed ideas in the same week. That is who we are – not “better than” because we are “politically correct”, but “every person” expressing themselves for all to see and hear.

Member #1: Until this Trump conflagration came along I struggled to understand why my life was so oppressed; why many around me felt so free to step all over me without holding back; denying what they were doing; and blaming me for their sins so blatantly committed against me and those like me. I also could not understand why even many of those like me felt the need to commit the same sins against me. None of it made sense.

Along comes Donald Trump and his followers and promoters and his attempt at a movement. In the process, we have not joined his “movement” but he and his totally and completely answered the questions that have haunted my life. The downside of it all is that it comes at the end of my life. Hopefully, there are others on whom these messages and this morality play, being acted out in front of us daily, will have meaning and who will recoil from everything it lays bare. Take its message to heart – it is the difference between life and death for all of you. For some of us to deny, turn away, claim otherwise really does separate the sheep from the goats – the good from the bad – those wallowing in sin and those pulling themselves out of the muck and cleaning themselves of all that has gone before.

Member 2: When I take in the entire spread of history in these United States it doesn’t bode well for human beings. It casts us as evil;, as harboring a gene we pass on from one generation to the next to destroy others because we hold ourselves to be “better than” all life on earth even at times including our own families. Where does that come from? How did we get here? Why are we constantly moving in and out of times which can make Hitler’s Germany look like a relief from what we are living? Or is this that final wake-up cal!, which if not answered correctly moves into another period of human degradation of us killing each other and declaring those we kill as less than. Or is this the time during which we can repent all of the evil we and our ancestors have done and/or caused to have done!

Member #3: How could people who came to these shores looking for a better life – a freer life – a life full of goodness and not the “better than” we were struggling under and being oppressed by in another country – experiences which made us take the risk of crossing an unknown ocean seeking Nirvana. How have wound up with the history we read about even in the redacted history books we use to teach our children of our past?

We came and survived with the help of those who were already here and had been for generations. We were immediately grateful until that gratitude was blown away by the storm clouds gathering from the “better than” universe. As our beginnings in this country moved from struggling to just survive; learning from those already here how to plant what grew in these climates; build houses; have a life which began to grow to see us enjoy freedoms denied from whence we came – we moved to being “at home”. Just as that began to happen we didn’t thank those who were there for us when we were in need. We turned to fight them because we began to consider ourselves, once again, as better than. We let our “better than” genes come out and they won the day culminating in Andrew Jackson’s Trail of Tears.

Member #4: Andrew Jackson, who we claim to have been the founder of the Democratic Party, has seen his political group move from racist developers of the Ku Klux Klan to people doing their best to free us from the likes of Donald Trump and move us into a more equal place. As years later Abraham Lincoln, who we claim was the founder of the Republican Party has seen his political group move from defenders of liberty; as the group Africans looked to as we voted in a country which hung you if you tried such; which worked to defeat segregation has now moved to become the group which works to make sure segregation is maintained and never changes. The GOP today shows itself in its current administration of 99% white, northern European ancestry people with a president who is showing his potential to make even Adolph Hitler, who he studied during his young adult years, look good.

How could we come to these shores running away from persecution and set in place a government with leaders who clearly persecute others and claim our right to do such because we and our governmental structures and business structures are so much better than those others.

How could we not acknowledge our greed and laziness which moved us to traffic in human beings who we called slaves and set in place to do the work of making us great in this country and certainly “better than” the slaves who actually did the work of such while we strutted around like peacocks taking the credit.

How could we set our women up to look like peacocks and buy into a lifestyle which oppressed them from birth to death, to get the women in this society to be the pattern we used to enslave Africans and maintain ignorance as to their real position in this society? One of oppression and maintained in slavery of a different kind only with a different mythology keeping them in place? How did we convince women to continue in that space when we used the marriage laws, which enslaved women to be the basis upon which we passed laws to enslave Africans.

How could we massacre and slaughter in this country those who tried to move into a more equal place? And deny what we were doing even unto today?

How can we see the economic inequalities which cause some to be homeless, on the street with scraps to eat from the throw aways of those in control; with clothes thrown away by others as what they wear; as make shift tents or simply beds on the cement benches around the parks and other places or even worse on the sidewalk and in the doorways until our police force comes along to force them to move along.

How can we see the storms gathering as those with enormous greed develop businesses which take away from others to put largess into their own pockets and consider themselves “better than” because they have figured out how to move ahead at the cost of tens of thousands of peoples lives?

Member #5: As we look at what is happening with the Trump Administration; within the Trump family; with their friends and others we can see ourselves over the centuries. Different clothes, a different political system, different words to describe the same thing, and using denial, greed, murder, oppression, theft and more to maintain themselves to satisfy their need to be “better than” – in and among those people we see ourselves. Not clearly, because we have our own denial, greed, murder, oppression, theft and more having constructed a curtain we cannot see through which reflects us and our lives in the mirror behind that curtain we designed to be able to have complete denial of who we are and what we are about.

Today, we have the advantage of seeing this morality play over television and our other technology that we use to “keep up” with what is happening. Amazingly, in spite of watching this reality play in front of our eyes we can see “them”, but we can’t see how “they” are a reflection of “us” and are a part of “us”. We cannot see what we have done and are doing to others just as egregious as what they are doing that we are watching daily.

Instead, that morality play is making some of us even much “better than” they are and shoring up our next chapter in this life so that it continues and we do not have to deal with who we are in this life and the part we have and are playing.

Trump and his group are making it possible for us to continue as “better than” and to usher in another chapter with the next generation of those who are much, much better than in a society which has all white business owners, all white in polite society, all white and male in government, with those who are not taking secondary places and feeling blessed to be able to do so because that means they are “better than” those in their own group who didn’t make the cut. The fact that they are the ones in their group parroting and allowing “better than” to continue and those cut out have called out truth just can’t get through into the discussion to attempt to make total, real change.

An Illegitimate President – now Impeached!

December 19th, 2019

An amazing process. We have had an illegitimate president for three years and many have acted as though he was duly elected. It is time for that farce to be dropped.

Donald Trump has clearly caused lots of problems; has diminished the United States in the eyes of the world; has diminished the power of the United States within its boundaries; has caused lots of grief and harm to so many over his few years in office. How long, O God!

Remember – this is a man who “won” the presidency with only 70,000 plus votes spread over three states. Hillary Clinton had over 3 million votes more and yet he was declared president. The 70,000 plus votes could be accounted for by the help Trump received from Russia during the campaign so we have, in actuality, had a president elected by a foreign power. And this so called “president” has now set about lining up foreign powers and heads of state to insure he will be re-elected. How long, O God!

Listening to the short talks within the House of Representatives from the many Republicans giving excuses for Donald Trump made it a very harrowing time because it was not possible to understand why the Republicans made the statements they made, especially considering that most knew they were lying; knew that they were working for a “president” who is a bully of the worse sort – who is a self-confessed sexual assaulter who brags about how he enjoys assaulting women – who has done so much against all of us including those giving the talks of support against his coming impeachment. It would take pages to list his sins and he is not done yet. How long, O God!

The most grievous were those who compared Trump and what he was going through with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and in that case, to the teller of the comparison, Trump came out as having suffered more. To hear that, shouted to everyone that the person making the comparison was not Christian and did not believe any of the stories in the Bible. If he did he would not have been able to begin to make that comparison. Christianity was to him what it was to those who went to Church on Sundays for almost three hundred years and came home to have their slaves do the work and suffer the humiliations that would be heaped upon them that day. The comments were so horrible a Jesuit felt compelled to come out with a push back against the Trump supporter in the House of Representative outlining the sufferings of Jesus and putting the Trump impeachment in perspective.

There were others who compared Trump to those killed, drowned, mutilated as a result of the Salem Witch Trials. In that comparison the, mostly women, came off as not having suffered nearly as much as Trump during his impeachment trials, leaving out the history of Trump which preceded his claiming the title of “president.”

There is so much more that could be said – but so much has already been said I think each one of us needs to retire within and think on these things.

As for me and mine, this process – these comments – have been totally revealing of the interior, of the souls, of so many people. As we listened we heard people, elected to Congress, expose their values – their future hopes and dreams – the length they are willing to go to maintain the world according to Donald Trump and to move and keep this world closer to one which is racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, weak, brimming with sin and more. It was clear many had already sold out. To expose to who and for what is the next stage of this process. We do need to know what it was worth to each one of them living in a republic and giving it up to live under the tyranny of a vile, vicious bully who lies with practically every breath he takes.

So much has been written – spoken – quietly prayed about. It is now time for us to stop and take a deep breath.

The last word remains and it is – Donald Trump has been the closing parentheses for a group of people who have been accepting, going along to get along, who have raised children with values they themselves don’t recognize and who don’t know from whence those values have come, because they have not recently looked into that mirror of truth. People who have been willing to give up everything for 30 pieces of silver and a small very tenuous connection to power. How long, O God!

The last statement I have about Donald Trump came from what I heard at his rally in Michigan when he resented and called Senator Dingell’s wife to task because she dared vote against him when he had so honored her husband in death. Dingell’s wife, who succeeded him and now has his seat responded that after 60 years of hard work given to this country – the honors he received were hard won and deserved. The pattern of Donald Trump’s life. – take credit for everything, give only to those from whom you expect everything. And in the end take even that back.

The only thought that came to mind after hearing the Dingell comments was – a true, total and completely evil bully who will always and forever move from one crime to another and in the end wind up like his mentors Joe McCarthy – an unrepentant drunk who caused tens of thousands of U. S. citizens untold misery because of it and Roy Cohn, a man who used his knowledge of the law to support and help others like McCarthy do even more and deeper damage to themselves and others. And didn’t both men, in the end die destitute surrounded by a very few friends who saw their evil and conspired with them to hurt, maime, destroy others? For nothing?

“….and as for me and mine, our hope is in God. May we never so transgress to cause a moment’s harm to anyone.”

And as for Donald Trump, it is as if “the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All this I will give you,” he said, “if you bow down and worship me.” What Trump has not heard is the continuation of Scripture – “..the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” “Repent and atone for all the years of harm and hurt you have created for others because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

It is not the many who do not believe and who are following Donald Trump into the homeland of sin, but the many more who have seen a great light and have stepped out putting their earthly, vocational, material wants and needs aside to follow what is right and to hold up the righteous instead of following those who are sliding into universal and eternal darkness. Love guides one group – the absence of love guides the other. Trump’s world shows us what happens when sex in its many deformed forms replaces love in this world. One watches the deterioration of life and the defacing of everything good.

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

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

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

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

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

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

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

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

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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

December 5th, 2019

First – I am young, white and male. I need to put that out front so you know something about where I am coming from. I am also a scientist who has been using Bettina Network for several years and look forward to my time spent in one of your homes in Harvard Square – it is my favorite place to go. I get the education in that house that I didn’t get at home and I get to stay in real luxury surroundings at the same time – something I also did not get to do at home.

I read Marceline’s article on Kamala Harris and there are things I would like to add that she did not say. Things I researched after many breakfasts in her home which just blew my mind. Mostly, about telling the truth.

To tell the truth about Kamala Harris means to say that she was one of those who supported Barack Obama from the beginning. At the beginning of Obama’s candidacy, when others were looking elsewhere, Kamala Harris was strong in using her time and other resources to work towards getting Obama elected president. She has yet to be given credit for that. What blows my mind is the fact that so called “older blacks” are supporting Joe Biden because of his closeness to Obama. How such is that?

That should not be such a surprise to me because I noticed over the years African Americans are not great supporters of Bettina Network. I have yet to meet one using this network and my conversations with those I know blow my mind. A couple African Americans I know and who are friends of mine would rather stay in lesser accommodations and pay more than to stay at the Bettina Network. They don’t articulate why, but after a short conversation it becomes clear they do not give much credit to a company owned by another African American, especially a woman. Given that I have some understanding as to why blacks are not supporting Kamala Harris. To support their own seems to be a negative to just about every African American I have met. This is an article, after all, in which I am determined to tell the truth as I see it in this life. If that violates you or makes you angry so be it. I have had to struggle years to be able to face life as it is rather than as it is described to me for me to believe as the truth.

To tell the truth about Joe Biden, which few are doing, means to say that he was not one of those supporting Barack Obama when Kamala Harris was out on the campaign trail doing exactly that. My research shows that from the very beginnings of Barack Obama’s campaign there was Kamala Harris doing everything she could to support his candidacy.

It is to admit that Biden was instrumental in seeing that Thurgood Marshall was followed by Clarence Thomas – and that is who “older blacks” are supporting instead of supporting Kamala Harris? I was too young to remember the hearings, but I went back to read about what happened when Clarence Thomas was put on the Supreme Court and it was vile and who was instrumental in seeing that happen? Pictured in newspaper clippings as chair of the panel that made sure Thomas was exonerated enough to be elected to the Supreme Court – Joe Biden. So now we have to live with him on the Supreme Court without acknowledging who was instrumental in making that happen.

To tell the truth means to talk out loud without being intimidated to say Joe Biden treated a black woman – Anita Hill – disgracefully, and this is the man being promoted as the successor of Barack Obama? The man promoted as the next president while Kamala Harris’ campaign is suspended? I do not wonder why we now have Donald Trump as president. Sometimes I wonder if he is not who we deserve.

To tell the truth means to point out the upset and upheaval that happened when Elizabeth Warren was, briefly, the front runner in the Democrat’s primary presidential campaign. Such furor and upset was palpable. A flurry of activity and out comes Michael Bloomberg and even DeVal Patrick running into the campaign to stop what looked like an election getting out of control – how? a woman was then the front runner taking control out of the hands of the white males who normally oversee and dictate such things whether they be Republican or Democrat. That should have been done generations ago, but we are still here fighting the same battles we have been fighting for generations. I hope it stops with my generation. At least there seems to be some hope after we have seen an African American man as president doing an outstanding job followed by an out of control White man who someone said wears “clown shoes” and will engage in treason to keep himself up front and in control because his ego needs that. The job he does is irrelevant, only a by-product of his stage settings for himself. And that job includes turning the United States Government into a criminal enterprise over which he rules as the godfather? Is this what I am inheriting?

All of a sudden there were people coming out from all corners to stop Elizabeth Warren. The last time I saw anything like that was when it looked as though Hillary Clinton might win and out came even Russia and Vladimir Putin to stop that and stop her becoming president even if they had to sully the process to achieve their goal.

We don’t tell the truth. And so we help elect the likes of Donald Trump. The man whose closest long term adviser is Steven Miller – a Jew who hates other Jews and has promoted and helped to bring about things that were prevalent during Hitler’s reign and Nazi Germany. Just like Trump’s mentor Roy Cohn who was a gay man who hates gays.

To tell the truth means that we have a straight line we can draw in our government from Joe McCarthy of “communist” days straight through to Donald Trump. I heard at many breakfasts how Trump learned at the feet of Cohn and McCarthy and as my research bore that out I was stunned. That is not something I would have put together otherwise.

We have constantly had to fight such people and why? Is it because we put forth a scenario which skewers the truth and puts forth instead a story line which is meant to manipulate the voting public into a stance that we want which will maintain the system as it is rather than tell the truth to gain a fully functioning system open to all which reflects the equality we claim to be about?

We had a senator in Joe McCarthy who was rumored to be a total drunk and yet he had lots of support as he careened all over the place making life a living hell for many, seeing to it that their lives were upheaveled, their jobs lost, their beliefs lied about for the convenience of the many who wanted to see the kind of “purge” McCarthy undertook. I didn’t realize until my stay in a Bettina home the connection between McCarthy, Cohn and Trump. There was even talk about the role Robert Kennedy had sitting at McCarthy’s right hand as he made his way up the political ladder. I heard it at a breakfast seminar and still didn’t believe it until I did my own research and the shock that this is my country and this is what we are about hit with crude power and I have not been the same since.

I could go on for pages, but this is what we need in this country – tell the truth and deal with the consequences. What a totally refreshing idea. Maybe then we wouldn’t have to worry about the “billionaire group” who deserve to be a part of this society also. And we wouldn’t have to worry about the feminists, or the lesbians, or the homosexual males, or the angry blacks, or the immigrants, or……… All people we have in our immediate families – well, maybe not all, but certainly one or two. We can have family dinners with them, but not allow them to be an equal part of our lives. Is that why our family lives are so screwed up? To be better than, we have to hide and/or try to change those who share our genes?

Maybe when I get a bit older I will understand and join this group, but now, as a young person I hope I continue learning and speaking truth. It is freeing like nothing else. At least if I decided to support Joe Biden it would be after I knew the truth about his history and who he is today. But even so I agree with you Marceline, I would rather support someone like Kamala Harris for president. I was lukewarm about her until I read your article. Today, I would like to be one of her supporters.

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

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

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

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

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

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

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

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

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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




Kamala Harris vs Michael Bloomberg

December 4th, 2019

by: Marceline Donaldson

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

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

Trump doing what he does best!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

________________________________________________


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

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

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

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

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

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

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

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

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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




Bettina Network Lifestyle Members Comments

December 3rd, 2019

ONE MEMBERS COMMENTS:

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

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

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

SECOND MEMBERS COMMENTS:

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

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

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

THIRD MEMBER COMMENTS:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

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

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

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

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

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

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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




Health Industry the new Oil Industry Scam

November 22nd, 2019

We have just been through the scariest time of life. An unexpected health emergency requiring hospitalization.

We have stayed away from medicine, hospitals, doctors for our adult lives and now clearly we know, without a doubt, that was a good/great decision.

What we encountered was a money pit which makes the oil barons of old look like good samaritans on the edge of poverty. The kind of money and resources being drawn from the society by the health industry with little to no results is endless and will become even more so. So, until something changes, we are not for “Medicare for All”. That will give full and total control over the universe to those in the health industry, but only to those at the top. The rest will be scrambling, working unbelievably hard for almost nothing and the maintenance of the racist, sexist system in which we were raised has a stronghold for generations. Civil Rights activists in other areas are simply a distraction giving the real continuation of White Supremacy a chance to develop to its full strength such as has never happened before.

The first thing we encountered was the entitlement and arrogance of those on the front line as you go in the door. You know clearly you are in a territory where – without some kind of uniform or connection to the health industry, you are second, third and fourth class citizens.

The second thing we encountered was the incredible racism – based on skin color – that is totally expected and has created a ghetto like none we have ever seen.

After having been escorted to an examining room, which was a small space with equipment and a sort of hospital bed with a curtain separating you from the outside you have a few hours to look around before you come to anyone’s attention. Once inside this room, where you get to wait for hours for nothing, and once settled (sort of) you look around and see you are one of the privileged. Outside this small space, lining the hallways and every available wall in the place are beds with patients waiting for treatment or for one of the rooms which you now inhabit. Every available space has a gurney with an ill patient in the hospital for emergency treatment. All just lying there out in the open, seemingly ignored with their pocket books or bags or whatever they came in with on top of them on the gurney. It is gruesome.

As you look past all of humanity waiting for emergency attention because of something which sent them immediately to the hospital you see what makes your stomach wrench. Out in the middle of the room – like the space once inhabited by stock brokers with their machines to call and follow their customers stocks – were the “medical professionals”. In that central space was a sea of white. We were there for several changes of shifts and at no time did the skin color in that middle group change.

Every once in a while a wheel chair passed with a patient being wheeled someplace. There the color changed because the person pushing the wheel chair’s skin color was very dark. Other times the sea of white was lifted as a gurney with a patient was pushed past the curtain and you saw the person doing the pushing of the gurney’s skin color was very dark.

When those small spaces became vacant, which held a patient, who was now moved on someplace else, then you also saw the skin color change in the room because the person now in that, space cleaning it, had a very dark skin color.

And so it goes – the institutionalization of bigotry in all of our corporations is alive and well and moving into the next generation without comment. We have searched the news for several years and found no push back against this extreme bigotry.

Ed. Note. This is the beginning of a series of articles on what we are finding in the health industry. We feel as though we are lancing a boil which has been throbbing with pus for decades hiding out under the pretext of saving lives.__

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

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

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

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

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

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

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

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

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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


Integrity – a goal to reach to experience the beauty of life and the pure light of eternity!

October 26th, 2019

I was beginning to think that we live in a world which has very little integrity. Look around! Within five minutes someone will come up to you or be around you weighing their decisions based upon what’s in it for them. How can they maximize their gain even at the expense of others. How can they color the truth to benefit from the results. What can they do, honest or not, to make themselves look good and come out on top of society at the expense of others.

As I look at the people taking part in that stunt to invade, what in government, is a sacred space it was ugly. Seeing that done for the benefit of vile people and for even more dishonest, hypocritical reasons, I thought this world has reached the point of no return. We are on a totally downward spiral leading straight to hell.

Today, just a short time later, we are seeing that change. Almost imperceptibly, but changing nevertheless. In the middle of watching all of those people streaming into the SCIF to try to obstruct others’ lives I turned to watch Elijah Cummins funeral. In the middle of watching this group of people trying to hurt others and put their own needs above everything, it was as if the sky opened and the depression and horror I was feeling just melted away. Here was a good man.

Watching and hearing how he lived his life, I turned from evil to seeing people who put their economic present and futures second and the good of the rest of us first – and even doing that he came out on top.

After watching those two events one almost at the same time as the other it was an example for me where I was finally beginning to see and hear from people who chose honesty in all things and who showed and show respect for others without separating those high and mighty folks living on the backs of others from those working hard for their living. It is as though a cloud parted and the sun could be seen starting to shine through so I decided to turn to Bettina Network’s Oracle for some bits and pieces of wisdom and maybe a look into the future. Even if only the very immediate future:

Me: What is going on in these United States. Why have we been through so much carnage over the past few years?

Oracle: Because you are living through what you set yourself up to live through. When you live the way most do in the United States you are bound to reach a point where you have to deal with someone over your society who looks very much like the anti-Christ.

Me: Isn’t the anti-Christ an old fictional account and name?

Oracle: No! It is very real. When you spend so much on yourselves; when you engage in such foul living as has been going on in the U. S. for generations; at some point an anti-Christ will emerge. In fact, this is not the first. The last time an anti-Christ emerged in the United States it was under the name of Andrew Jackson and he became president of the United States. Go back and review that history and tell me if you don’t see the emergence of the anti-Christ. The anti-Christ emerged in Germany under the name Adolph Hitler. I could go on, but you get the message.

Me: Everyone in this society is not evil or bad or self-absorbed or dishonest telling lots of lies. Many take responsibility for their own lives and the lives of others. Why are we all under this anti-Christ?

Oracle: You are your brother and your sisters keeper. What happens to one happens to all. You are all interconnected. When human beings gather together in one large institution or one large country what they all have in common and contribute to that institution or that country is the evil that lives inside all of us along with the good.

Several people have arrived on earth at the same time bearing the same evil intent and spreading it all around and so you have what is happening on your earth today. Good people have done nothing for too long. Those who have worked tirelessly are beginning to come home. Others have lost the vision, or never had it to begin with. When you can close your eyes and see the door in front of you and when you take hold of that door knob, open the door and walk through, it is the brightest most beautiful scene – that brightness, that light, that beauty is the other side of death. When you walk through you hear this music which goes through you and wipes out everything that was not good and which brought you pain and suffering. All of that leaves as you walk through that door and the beauty of God is all that remains. Some of you live with a piece of that within you because you were born holding onto some of the goodness from whence you came. Some of you replace that because of what happens to you during your lifetime and you spread evil, pain and suffering throughout your lives.

The most difficult to overcome is coming into this life with the need to be better than. It negatively affects and infects everything within and without. You need to group. You need to be a part of group that is better than other groups. When you live such a life and have those needs you bring evil into the world some of which will never leave. It will simply be picked up by others coming across your needs even after you have discarded them and left this earth.

Me: What happened to someone like Donald Trump and those around him. What did he bring into this world? They say he is being blackmailed to do some of the things he is doing what is that about?

Oracle: I won’t go into everything, but I will pick up on the blackmail part.

No one can blackmail you unless you let them. You have to be someone who lives and projects onto the world an image instead of being true to yourself and letting people see you are you are. No one is perfect and we do make mistakes. Anyone can pick up and try to blackmail someone else for what they have done during times when they were weak. But you make the decision to either fess up to your sins and move along promising yourself to live a better life or you come under the sway of those who would use you to do others harm or to gain power and prestige using your weakness.

Some people can’t live a true and godly life. Once they err they spend their lives hiding it and being an image instead of who they really are.

Donald Trump is being blackmailed because he wanted to be president of the United States and was willing to do whatever to reach that goal. It was a petty wish and he moved to reach his goal in very petty ways. He compromised himself with foreign countries asking them to help him become president and telling them what he would do for them in return. A lot of the evil circulating in the United States today comes from that. You saw one of his blackmailers drop the bomb on him during a meeting. You saw it on his face when after that siege he had to step up to a platform and do and say what he had been told to do and say – and for the sake of money and power he did just as he was told.

You can make a deal with the devil for what you want in life, but the devil collects. Either he does the bidding of the devil in his life or he will be exposed with everything he did to become president becoming public and known by everyone. His spirit cannot handle that so he is fighting to maintain the image he created and has lived into all of his life. Many are paying for his decisions – many more will suffer because they fell under his evil.

Me: Isn’t that what is happening now?

Oracle: Yes, but he is making a new deal with the devil to continue to be president. When he made his original deal for which he paid an enormous price that was before he become president. He does not now have it within himself to stand up and be counted as one who erred, who strayed, who repents. His arrogance and pride will not allow that so he will wallow in the muck and sludge for the rest of his life and the door I described above will never present itself to him. The chute he will fall down when his time comes will only show him the ugliest and foulest scenes, smells, imaginable.

The lesson is – to err is human to repent and admit your error leads you to the divine.

Me: Thank you. I have to find a corner to curl up in and think and pray on these things.

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

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

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

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

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

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

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

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

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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


Trump – the anti-Christ? Readers Comment

October 18th, 2019

From a Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Member 1.

Who writes this stuff! I had in mind the same thing, but didn’t have the guts to say out loud what I have been thinking about all of these forces being acted out in this world today. I am incredibly delighted that your people did.

It is worrisome as a Christian – at least that is what I call myself – to have this history of my Christianity backing slavery and all the other evil causes it has backed. Going through school and studying all of this made it even worse because there was no explanation. You were just left with nothing but a violent memory.

I took this to a further stage. Talk is now resurfacing about Gucifer 2.0. Every time I hear the name of this Russian group which worked to elect Donald Trump as president of these United States I think of and my mind automatically substitutes “Lucifer” for Gucifer and Lucifer is what we call Satan. And then I wonder if this is Russia’s sense of the absurd or if someone named this group without a conscious connection between Gucifer and Lucifer. I also can take this further still by remembering that the New York city building Trump’s son-in-laws family owns with its address being 666 (the sign of Lucifer) and which was rumored to be in financial trouble with the possible Saudi’s bailing them out which is the set-up for another genocide with Trump sending U. S. Troops to help the Saudi’s with another genocide, this time of the Yemens.

At any rate, true or not, it explains a lot that happened with Trump’s election. And explains a lot about Trump himself.

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From Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Member 2

I have been really disappointed not to have read or heard any comments coming from the Armenian community in support of the Kurds. Having gone through the same thing with the Kurds on the tip of becoming annihilated by Turkey it really gives another look at what happened to the Armenians and into the Turkish National Memory and Character.

The Armenian Genocide has come around again, this time with the Kurds substituting for the Armenians. If anyone wonders what happened. Here it is being acted out again on the world stage.

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From Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Member 3

I read and heard so many people warning about what Trump would do if he was impeached. Mostly, they expected him to start World War III. I shoved that off as hysteria or ridiculous, no one in this world is that bad. Well, here we are today and what is the distraction Trump and probably his fascist brother leaders have come up with? A war! An outrageous war with Turkey vs the Kurds plus more nations involved and another genocide.

I am glad you added in the article about the Armenian massacre by the Turks is what generated the term “genocide.” We need to be reminded of our history.

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From Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Member 4

The “anti-Christ” is quite appropriate for Trump and his buddies. It looks as though Trump is coming way down and is trying to take the world with him in a fiery storm. To go back to Scripture – doesn’t it say “…the fire next time.”

Thank you for putting that in print in a publication that has put out some substantial stuff. Months ago you wrote about all of this and now it is just coming into print in the mainline media. Keep writing – whether it is by a group, or one, or an occasional article. I have one to send on beauty, but it seems too out of it right now. Do I send my password to make sure my article gets printed?

ED. NOTE: To submit an article for Bettina Network’s Blog – please include your name and the password you receive and which is renewed yearly. That is your ticket to become one of our writers. You can write many articles – detailed scientific articles to cover yourself on being the first to publish – funny stories – serious items of interest – breaking news or news we can break, etc. – your thoughts, concerns, philosophy, religion. Love to have your contributions. Since we are surrounded by theologians we try to go slow on those publications, but we will soon take the restraint off them.

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From Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Member 5

This is to Marceline Donaldson – please publish it in Bettina Network’s Blog and make sure she gets a copy. Is she still overworking? That was one workaholic family. They didn’t do much besides work. Hope that is changed. I remember Cookie from school. She practiced her piano for several hours each day, was a reporter for her grandfather’s radio and television show reporting on school news and I think she was about 9 or 10. The things she has been into over her lifetime – it is amazing.

Hi Cookie

Just found this publication and was amazed, but not really surprised. You are following your family footsteps. I remember your grandfather – O. C. W. Taylor – who was a co-founder of the Louisiana Weekly along with CC Dejoie, Sr. and who helped bring the Pittsburgh Courier to New Orleans, among other places. My mother used to tell me “OC” stories and she said the first office of the Pittsburgh Courier was in your home. That must have been exciting although we were both too young to have much memory of that. Printers ink must be in your veins plus dress design (and I remember with hysterical laughter your sculptures) and God knows what else.

What I am reading about here are the things your family was always into. This is what I heard your grandfather had in mind when he and Mr. Dejoie started the “Weekly”. A paper which, when it was founded tries to publish substantial stories and especially editorials to give the “Community” another way to think. We have too much on parties, fashion articles, who had dinner with who – except I have to take that back because I remember your mother and she was the society editor for the Courier and I think also for the Weekly. Keep up the good work. If I can help in any way, let me know. I hope others are thinking the same because this needs good support, which is why I am writing this to you for publication in Bettina Network’s Blog.

Don’t go off on me and put this aside, I am writing it as an article for you to put in Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community’s publication. My password is enclosed to make sure you have to print this.

Thanks,

_____________________________________________

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

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

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

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

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

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

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

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

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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


Becoming a christian leader – the anti-Christ

October 15th, 2019

There is a story in the Christian Bible which talks about the temptation of Jesus by Satan: Matthew 4:1-11. Included in those temptations is the one from Matthew 4:8-11. From the King James Version

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and only God shalt thou serve.

11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.”

This is not how Donald Trump responded to that call from Evil. He bowed down to worship and thanked Satan for his largess. We are all suffering the consequences because we elected, lived with and served a man who called himself president and who clearly serves evil.

The verse that most directly speaks to what is happening today in United States politics is the one following:

Matthew 12:34  34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

I have wondered for years why there is so much evil in the world. I used to think we were actually reincarnated into hell and had to experience what was evil in each and every one of us until we reached the point of excoriating it and rededicating our lives to goodness.

That thought went away because I came across too many good people who used their lives to help others. And who lived lives of greatness no matter how small their part of the world.

After going through many such iterations I have finally come out on the other side to understand that for generations, in many cultures, no matter the name we gave to it, we have all been subjected to the anti-Christ. The one who was called by Satan – as Jesus was – and offered the world all of the glitz and glory the world could produce and the rest of us had to live out our lives closer to or further away from those who responded to Satan’s call as did Jesus. While we don’t have an answer to all of that and we don’t really know how it all ends we do have an example of how we can live a life which does not produce hell fires and damnation.

Donald Trump is clearly one of those called by Satan who ran as fast as he could towards the gifts and glories Satan offered to whoever would take up Satan’s world, becoming the anti-Christ. With disciples sent out to convert as many as possible to Satan’s Gospel – speaking with forked tongues, trying to trip others into glorifying evil, blaming others for our own faults and so much more.

Trump is not the first, nor will he be the last to make such a whole hearted and complete acceptance of the world Satan offered him. And so, in Christianity we have had to suffer such people and make our own decisions accordingly. We have had to suffer the special ignominy of others taking our name and claiming to be a part of our religion and hold our faith beliefs. But there is a difference – Matthew 7:16 “by your fruits you shall be known.”

In spite of that and in spite of the evil we see so clearly today, we were not always able to see such evil. It was hidden in different packages which our eyes did not perceive as evil. Today, in this moment, however, there is no hiding, or obfuscating, or making excuses for, or throwing smoke in others eyes so we they would be temporarily blinded and we could experience this world of evil. It is right out there. You can’t choose a middle path. It is time to choose goodness and walk away from evil.

The anti-Christ has been with us for generations. In these United States it goes back to the beginnings of the American experiment. Some Europeans ran away from what they considered hard times in their country looking for something better – only to arrive and give an even harder time to those who had been living in this country for thousands of years. Looking for what they considered as “good” while destroying everything around them in which there was actual goodness. We have always had an anti-Christ leading the charge. Someone Satan convinced that the world belonged to him and he should ride it accordingly. Trump didn’t seem to need much convincing. His henchmen are still trying to follow evil although at the moment camouflaging themselves with the story of goodness given an exotic and evil twist.

Every day now, evil is exposed. Question is – what comes after? Have we finally learned enough lessons to be able to walk that straight and narrow path? Or will we still make a way and a place for those who will now shrink into the shadows and wait for the next time they can emerge wrecking such havoc in this world. Christians are very vocal and pushy about their religious beliefs and the fact that they claim it is far superior to other religions and their god is the only real god. Is Christianity the only religion that so clearly maps out the path of the anti-Christ warning its adherents to be careful they fall into its sway or are there others? Certainly, the talk given by Pompeo shows clearly how Christianity can be twisted to attract those with a weakness of spirit to follow the christianity of the anti-Christ instead. What’s interesting is the leaders of this movement led by the anti-Christ tend to be the sons and daughters of those who led many into the wilderness of sin in their generation. Led by the sons and daughters of those who were, at one point in their lives, guilty of sexual abuse, sexual assault and then loudly proclaimed their guilt and repentance after they were caught. The insecure generation which grew up in their parents shadows with all of the feelings of insecurity they now have turned into keeping their parents evil going into the second and third generations.

Many such christians have done such and claimed such for generations. Today they call themselves the white evangelical christians; the christian nationalists; the KKK wearing their pure white robes and taking the cross as their symbol and so many more such names. In fact, they are the followers of those who make it possible for the anti-Christ to take hold and destroy even the religion these claim to be following.

Trump is now history. He and his followers will take a few more moments to burn the fires of hell before leaving the stage, but their moment of glory is gone and their judgment is now upon them. Those who experienced their evil will now see them experience their payment for having delivered that evil. Question is what next? How can we move forward without all of this time taken to fight back the fires of hell and damnation. Is there something in all of us that flashes out and delivers hurt, promoting and holding up the anti-Christ for what we perceive as our own good or can we use the end of this horror to attempt once again to see and exclaim the breaking into this world of God’s kingdom on earth. Is there such a possibility? Is there such a happening? Are we a people who can do such a thing without recoiling into the need to be better than – more powerful than – wealthier than – of a higher class than – stronger than ———

________________________________________________________

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

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

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

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

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

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

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

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

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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


Turkey – Armenians – Kurds – Genocide

October 14th, 2019

The second time around for Turkey in a very few years.

In 1914 there started a genocide in Turkey of a Christian minority who lived as second class citizens. There started the physical annihilation of Armenian Christian people. It was genocide under the cover of war. In fact, the term “genocide” was coined out of that event. Another terms for “genocide” is “massacre” – something African Americans in the United States know a lot about – having been the target of quite a few.

The Armenian genocide lasted until about 1923 and some million plus Armenians were slaughtered by the Turks. How long will this genocide last from 2019 until when? And how many Kurds will have been slaughtered when it finally ends. The reports of Kurds being shot on the side of the road by Turkish soldiers who seem to be seeking them out in a killing field.

This comes about with a president of the United States with no ethics and certainly no problems with anything even close to doing what is right. What is right in this man’s mind is what benefits America’s illegitimate president, Donald Trump. After all, who is Donald Trump’s favorite past United States president – isn’t that Andrew Jackson, one of whose claims to fame was the Trail of Tears which resulted in the slaughter and death of millions of Native Americans?

In about 1838 Andrew Jackson forced Native American Tribes living in the Southeastern United States to travel some 1,000 miles to reservations in Oklahoma. No food, no clothing, no places to stop, herded by federal troops they were forced to march west from their native lands throughout Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and North Carolina because whites wanted their land. Whites wanted to move onto the land on which Native Americans lived, built homes, raised families for decades. It was the point where Native Americans lost any power they may have had or thought they had. They were, from that point on, relegated to a position of powerlessness. Many died because of diseases, lack of water, shelter and bad road conditions. These are people who lived in this country for some 13,000 years before whites appeared – that we can establish.

Over his lifetime, Andrew Jackson, this favorite president of Donald Trump – whose picture has a prominent place in the Oval Office while Trump is using it – owned some 300 slaves. The massacre of African Americans is the stuff of legend. We hope you will note and join the boycott against Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. Donald Trump took over and cancelled Barack Obama’s program. That program was to have the next printing of the $20 bill to have the face of Harriet Tubman instead of Andrew Jackson. Trump declared there would be no such printing with Harriet Tubman. If there is to be a woman on American currency, according to Trump, it would be a woman worthy of the honor not like a Harriet Tubman. And who was she? An escaped slave who risked her life innumerable times to lead other slaves to freedom. Trump does not want that kind of example to be rewarded and we can now clearly see why.

We will appear wherever you would like someone to come with a stamp and others to come with their $20 bills to be stamped to attempt to rectify this and at the least to express the horror of United States citizens at such a move by Donald Trump.

Faced with impeachment, Trump needed a distraction and gave Erdogan the green light to start a war which includes Turkey starting and moving ahead with a genocide, this time against the Kurds. Turkey, Russia and Saudi Arabia seem to be combining in some way to help Donald Trump become a fascist dictator over the United States so he can then manufacture a genocide against people of color? Besides giving Erdogan of Turkey the go ahead for the Kurdish genocide Donald Trump is also sending substantial numbers of American troops to Saudi Arabia without any clear and definite reason. Where is the military brass speaking out about this? Quiet compliance and even quieter obedience is not what is called for here. That is what happened in Nazi Germany. Why is this beginning to look like a huge slaughtering of human beings before it is over. This is not the first time Kurds have been lied to and led to believe their work would result in their being rewarded. Their work is resulting in their being slaughtered in an incredible genocide.

Since the heads of those three countries – Turkey, Russia, Saudi Arabia – have shown they are not reticent about killing and Donald Trump adds a fourth and is showing that he is definitely not reticent about killing, but can keep up with the best of the slaughterers of human beings, we can only wait and see what will be the result of this newest development.

Who are the citizens of the U. S. supporting this Kurdish genocide? Are they doing it in the hopes it will take root in the United States and eliminate the racial problems in that country? The human suffering Donald Trump has caused and is increasingly causing as he escalates his killing fields is taking hold, spreading and the push back is not something we can see. Trump seems to have a clear field to do whatever he decides to do. Is this how low the United States has sunk? Allow this to happen while verbally calling it horrendous and other nouns, adjectives, verbs, and more?

Why are the generals and others obeying his orders? Because they value their careers more than they value the unnecessary, random and power-hungry taking of human life? Why are others going along to get along with this massacre? Why are we putting American military personnel in harms way? Are we waiting until all of this subsides and goals we want to see accomplish have happened and then we can call an end to this slaughter?

Trump does the damage he is guilty of doing because he has been allowed to proceed. Talk is cheap and does nothing, but allows horribleness to take place. So many cowards, so few heroes.

I can’t help but note that the person who opened the door to ending the refusal of Trump to allow his people to testify before Congress was a woman. Many men simply acquiesced because it was the easiest thing for them to do and probably quietly satisfied their needs. A woman whose name and actions will go down in history as a heroine in this sordid story. Et tu, Brutus?

Who are the American and other billionaires supporting Trump? Their names need to be circulated far and wide. And aren’t they all male? et tu, Brutus!

_______________________________________________

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

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

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

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

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

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

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

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

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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

From a Bully to a Killer!

October 10th, 2019

What causes some people to become beautiful human beings and some to be horrible? That is a consistent thought of mine as I go about work, play, eating with many different souls and see the total difference in how they live their lives. None, however, reach the depth of evil that Donald Trump is exploring and taking joy in as he tries to become wealthy, maintain power and just ignore humanity.

Evil begets evil! Take a look at his growing up years, his young adult years, his family environment and more.

  1. Rudy Giuliani – the name most often associated with Trump today. Having followed his career, his morals, ethics, character are defined by one act: During his time as mayor of New York City he lived in the mayors mansion with his wife and son. One day, Rudy held a press conference in front of Gracie Mansion. With him for this conference was his ‘mistress’. They announced at that press conference, which was the reason it was called – Rudy and this ‘mistress’ were getting married. Turns out his wife was inside making breakfast for their son and had no idea what was going on until a reporter called her to verify what he had just heard. Can you imagine learning about your husbands affair, your upcoming divorce and his upcoming marriage in such a way? That, in a nutshell, says it all about Rudy Giuliani. We could go into pages on his affairs with others, but that one event defines him and he has not strayed from the ethical, moral character this describes.

2. Jeffry Epstein – a close friend of Donald Trump. Some think they should not be lumped together, but they were close and their supposed falling out was over what? Something that changed Trump for the better? Or something that caused one to step on the toes of another and they parted ways to maintain their respective areas of power.

So much has been talked about and written about we really don’t have to go into anymore detail except to point out that Epstein has or had a beautiful townhouse in Manhattan. His neighbor, across the street, in a very lovely townhouse was Bill Cosby.

Epstein was very generously given a start by having been given a job at a fairly exclusive private school by Attorney General Barr’s father. “Given” is used generously because Epstein had no college degree nor any of the other qualifications one looks for hiring a person into such a job. Does that reach out to tell us something about AG Barr?

3. Donald Trump, as has been reported, used lots of concrete in building his buildings and bought his concrete from a person reputed to be Italian Mafia – the same person/family who was Trump’s fathers business partner which, no doubt, helped him become as successful as he wound up able to leave Trump over $400 million dollars. Trump didn’t forget his mafia connections because as you look at the wall, there have been many iterations considered. The one Trump decided on was metal rods filled with concrete. Was that Trump’s way of bringing along a benefactor? Although, we understand, his connections to the Italian Mafia pale compared to the ones with the Eastern European mafia for whom he has almost totally dropped the I.M.

4. Trump’s immigrant family – which started when his grandfather immigrated to the U. S. from Germany – dirt poor, no education, and wound up fairly wealthy having built a hotel – we heard on the backs of women prostitutes – and used that hotel as a brothel.

All of this was public knowledge before Trump became president. I used to think ill of the American voting public, however, today I realize they tried – with Hillary Clinton, in spite of Russia, et al dumping on her and trying to handicap her campaign for president in favor of Donald Trump. Hillary wound up with over 3 million more votes than did Donald Trump. Her reputation almost totally destroyed and all the years of very hard work she did for this country and many of its citizens crapped on = but time has a way of pulling back the lies and replacing them with the truth. Hillary’s legacy will be golden. Foreign intervention didn’t quite do the job, but did enough so that Russia and Putin benefitted immensely from the effort. The major difference, Russia, Putin and Trump’s benefits are fleeting. Hillary’s will last for many generations.

5. Looking at those appointed to different positions by Donald Trump it is very difficult to find someone of those who does not have sexual assault complaints in their background; someone who has done a great job in life before working with Trump; in other words someone not tarnished by the brush showing their evil predilections working out in parts of their lives – and that includes the sycophants he attracts and uses, along with those willing to sacrifice their reputations for what they see at gold at the end of the rainbow, only to discover that rainbow they see is a mirage. All of that also holds for Donald Trump’s friends.

6. And let us not forget the evangelical christians. Those who call themselves Christians and come from a long line of people who did the bidding of the one they call god ( clearly not of God) from the time we took goodness from Native Americans and gave them death, destruction, and all kind of horrors; those evangelical christians who gave cover and justification to those, also calling themselves christians, during the time of slavery when they tried to right the wrong of treating human beings with as much evil as they could muster – when they hanged, burnt, beat, starved and more human beings they stole from another country and used to build the new country to which they ran after their lives in their “old” country turned out to be not great – people, who by the way they were treating ‘slaves and others’ made the treatment they received from their “old country” look beautiful by comparison; and when some of the new “Americans” with others fought back, they received a retaliation which showed forth the evil being sown into the soil of these United States.

This is neither reserved nor limited to those who traveled to this new land looking for a better life and took that “better life” at the expense of others because we could go back to the horrors of Joan of Arc and others who paid huge prices for what they believed, but we are living in the time when Donald Trump moves quickly from bullying coming from his life of entitlement to killing because his power escalated to the point of allowing him to do such and his evil is now totally out of control.

Evil has almost enveloped and devoured this U. S. A. And where are you! Protesting that it isn’t that bad? Working to bring about change in your area? Complaining that we should stop fighting and just wait it out, things will change for the better? Or are you doing something else which will not make things better, but insure this too shall pass allowing the evil to wait in the corners of the globe for the next time it can break out. We have had so many “break outs” in these United States it is tiring to even try to chronicle them.

So what now America!!!!!!!!

_______________________________________________-

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

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

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

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

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

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

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

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

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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

-30-

Racism Obscures Black Male Sexism

September 18th, 2019

by: Marceline Donaldson

This presidential campaign, including a black female – Kamala Harris – will experience black male sexism. The major question becomes – how does that look; how has it exhibited in the past; how will it exhibit during this presidential campaign and what is my responsibility to see that it is held in check as we need to also continue to hold in check white male sexism and all the other bigotries our society normally practices – mostly with impunity.

We have been able to have such continue and remain in the structures within which we live, work and have our being because we practice denial and keep actual experiences of bigotry covered over. When they are uncovered and the people who practiced such are uncovered we practice an extreme denial threatening the person who “outed” the practices instead of the people promoting and taking part in the bigotry into which they were born.

I can give you at least two examples of such – one personal and one the experience of a close friend.

As some of you know I was the first African American stock broker, licensed by the New York, American, Nasdaq, etc. exchanges – way back in the 1960’s. That was an incredible experience. I was very young – in my late 20’s and early 30’s during that time, recently divorced, and my ex-husband was Jewish with grandparents from Latvia. I give you that information because it was quite relevant to what happened during my time as a stock broker.

A friend of mine – Lillian Anthony – suggested I apply for the job of stock broker – which I did with several companies. Dain, Kalman and Quail, inc. in Minneapolis hired me, put me in their training program and eventually sent me off to New York to learn enough to pass the exams and to get acquainted with the environment in which I would be working.

It was an exciting, trying, interesting, time. Before that stint I owned an antique auction gallery, antique shop and interior design studio. I sold antiques based on their investment value – which is why Lillian thought I would do well as a stock broker. If you were a client of mine we talked about the current value of the antique of your interest and its future possibilities – up, down or remaining the same for quite some time. I sold antiques the way most stock brokers sold stock. That was not unique to me. It was the way my grandmother furnished her home. She loved antiques and when she could afford something she always first talked about its current value and in which direction its societal value was going in the future. Her conversations went into things like “Cookie, when you become an adult this piece will have tripled in value. Don’t buy that manufactured stuff which will have to be dragged off to the dump years later.” We also designed furniture for people who collected antiques and wanted a way to display them which was in line with what they were collecting. It was important that these display pieces have the possibility of increasing in value over time, either because of their design or the hand craftsmanship that went into their execution.

As I became ever more knowledgeable about what it took to sell stock I became involved with civic, and other activities and groups, had regular dinner parties, and generally became known and got to know the city and all of its groups, corners, ideals, ideas, how things worked and more. It was a great time. I could do all of that in the process of doing my job – something that was new to me. I was on my own for the first time in life and that was not easy especially since I had very small children, but it was quite exhilarating.

The next thing I knew life became extremely difficult and quite abruptly. I was facing people who actively attacked me; did whatever they could to take me down in some incredible ways I didn’t know possible and more. I had no idea what changed and I was not to discover what changed for several years.

I eventually left Minnesota and when I did the covers fell from my eyes because people who knew what happened kept quiet until then. When I met them in other cities what happened began to come together. What happened? A group of leading black male citizens of Minnesota went to Dain, Kalman and Quail and demanded that I be fired and a black man be hired because it was totally embarrassing to have a black female in such a position. Gleason Glover, head of the Minneapolis Urban League, Harry Davis, head of the Minneapolis Urban Coalition and several more had a meeting with the heads of Dain Kalman and laid out their case. – They brought along with them Alfred Babington Johnson who was the person they wanted to see hired in my place.

Hearing all of that and from quite a few people who knew the details was unbelievably painful because I talked and thought all of those folks were friends. I worked with them in their organizations; had lunch with them; discussed much about how to help bring about a better community – one in which we were all equal and so much more.

In addition, as I was told by several people, this group added the claim that I was really not black enough. I was actually pretending to be divorced from my Jewish ex-husband but in reality I was being used by the Jewish Community to get benefits which should have been given to the Black Community – benefits like the job as a stock broker which should really have gone to a black man. They apparently made the claim that once I was settled in the job and in a position to influence who would be brought in that would be Jews and not Blacks because that is why I was being pushed by this Jewish community to do this and Dain Kalman would see that my marriage would be magically put back together again because, according to them, it was never broken. I heard this in the context of having gone through a horrendous divorce.

Experiencing the aftermath of such a meeting in real time and not knowing why was horrendous enough. Hearing about it several years later from friends who knew about this meeting, but felt it best to keep quiet about it was devastating. That is until I talked to Lillian Anthony.

Lillian was an African American woman who worked hard in civil rights and major changes came from some severe and serious sacrifices. She was head of the first Civil Rights Office established by the city of Minneapolis and it was one of the first such offices in these United States. She also worked very hard for and sacrificed much to majorly help establish one of the first African American Studies Departments in these United States. That happened at the University of Minnesota. Lillian was chosen to head that department and was extremely effective in both jobs.

Lillian, at the time we had this discussion, was at the University of Massachusetts working on a doctorate – which she received and then went on to other things.

She left Minneapolis to start on that educational journey because of the incredible push back she was receiving from a group of black men who wanted her out of the job as head of the African American Studies Department at the University of Minnesota because they felt a black man should have that job and she was an embarrassment to them for being in that position keeping it from a more “qualified” black man.

The fact that she was the one who put herself on the line and worked to see the department established and those who were pushing to get her removed were among the missing, but then showed up to take that job away from her was not part of any of the discussions that went on around Lillian and her job.

I remembered how hard it was for her to work with others to get the Civil Rights Office established as a part of the City of Minneapolis’ structure. I am sure you can imagine what she went through in the 1960’s to have helped establish such an office. I also knew what she sacrificed because her goal was to see an African American Studies Department established at the University of Minnesota. It was a natural fit for her to head the department which she and those working with her envisioned and worked to bring into existence. And I saw the change happen when someone who dropped in out of the sky almost and took over that job did not handle it very well and did not have the vision nor the power nor the internal fortitude to bring that department into what it could have been. I saw all of that and was a part of those “movements”, but was too young and inexperienced to get what was actually happening. There were many blanks.

As Lillian filled in the blanks of what happened to her I sat there with tears streaming because I knew how she felt. I had been through something very similar and only recently knew what that was, why it happened and had a chance to look back at some of the people involved. The most hurtful part of that was the fact that those who fought to get me out of a job were black men and women and the same thing was true for Lillian.

I have sought out other such stories because I wanted to know how extensive this sexism was and as I researched and sought out other black women who had been through similar experiences I heard commonalities in each story.

As I looked at Kamala Harris and the road she has chosen, I started reflecting on my experiences way back when. I pray that some of the people around her understand this dynamic and know how to expose and fight it so her candidacy has a chance without others going under the table to attempt to cut off the legs and reduce her chances at this nomination.

It has been a negative – and still is – to say such things out loud. After all we must all support the black male who has such a horrible time moving ahead in this society. I am always struck by those who say such things and used to wonder why they did because the problems and experiences of the black woman in this society are far worse – but as my experiences of sexism has grown understanding has happened.

I don’t want to get into who has it hardest – I do want to expose and call out loud this bit of sexism that will be a drag on Ms. Harris’ candidacy and be something used quietly by those running against her.

It was not easy to write this. I am doing so hopeful that my experience and that of others like me will mitigate and lessen such things happening to other black women in todays world. Please God make it so.

___________________________________________________


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

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

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

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

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

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

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

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

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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







Rob Porter – Nazi Royalty?

September 4th, 2019

We have watched the arriving and leavings of Trump Administrative people and many conjecture as to why there is such a turnover. Mostly, the upheaval and ugliness of working at the White House for Donald Trump is cited. What is either glossed over or ignored are the dynamics that must be playing out when many of the people so involved and appointed by the Donald have a hate philosophy and political ideology to which they adhere.

We knew Rob Porter when he was a very small boy. Active, energetic, and into everything. He came to visit his grandparents. These grandparents were not publicly acknowledged as such but they were the people from whom came his mother. His grandmother was from Germany and spent several years in Austria when her father was Ambassador from Nazi Germany representing the Hitler regime. His grandfather was high up in that regime.

They came to visit from Argentina and went back and forth. From Argentina to the United States – always to visit their “daughter’ and her family.

In-between times the “family” met up in Europe or wherever Rob Porter’s mother was traveling to so they could spend quality time together and so Rob Porter and his siblings could get to know and stay in contact with their “real grandparents”.

When we were introduced the grandparents had Spanish names and spoke the language of Argentina. After a couple visits that dropped and they began to call each other by their real names. Something they clearly only did when alone or with friends.

Like many, they had a family secret, which little by little began to come out. Rob’s grandmother and grandfather had to flee Germany when the Nazi’s lost power and they fled to Argentina. His grandmother had a very small child – a baby – who she did not want to grow up with the stigma of being a Nazi, even though a very prominent one so Rob’s grandmother gave her baby daughter to a very close friend and took a step back. That must have been a profoundly painful thing to do because as we saw her – in spite of her Nazi training and leanings – her humanity and love towards her daughter was clear to see.

She talked about giving her daughter away with the expectation of not seeing her or her daughter ever knowing her mother, but as things turned out, they spent quite a bit of time together. They stayed with us often until the grandfather died of brain cancer. He came to the United States several times for treatment and we understand, after his death, his wife moved to the United States to be close to her family.

When I heard Rob Porter had a job which was so close to Donald Trump and he would know everything that happened in the White House, my blood ran cold. Why? Because we had many conversations with his grandparents and he was clearly exposed to a strong Nazi doctrine from a small child.

We had many conversations which ranged over the universe. His grandmother was very gracious and seldom engaged in anything other than talk on a general and surface level. His grandfather was taken with me and not in a positive way so in spite of trying to keep the conversations on a surface level he often let loose with his politics. The strongest of his comments which started such conversations came when I was holding forth, as is normal for me, on topics which run deep and not always positive towards how things work in the U. S. At first he was interested to know about the life of an African American in the U. S. After a few minutes, however, he always interjected as to how grateful I should be just to be allowed to exist in this country.

What made my blood run cold when I heard of Rob Porter’s job next to Donald Trump, working so closely and knowing so much about the inner workings of these United States, came from all that I knew about the political input that went on during his growing up years – from having seen how much he adored and how much time he spent with his grandparents who were definitely Nazi Royalty – and as time passed and people like Stephen Miller and all the rest began to surface, what I saw was a young man surrounded by those like him in an administration that reeked with Nazi influencers carrying out their basic philosophical and political beliefs, attempting to change this country to one in which they would be much more comfortable because the minorities of the world would either not exist or be kept in their place where they would be grateful just to be allowed to work for those who, following the Nazi Doctrine, were believed to be genealogically, intellectually, spiritually, and in their skin and hair color and texture the “chosen” few of this world.

Add to that a knowledge of Donald Trump as having spent his young adult years with his first wife and young children, having a copy of “Mein Kempf” next to his bedside and reading it every night the way most people read the bible and you have a lens through which to look at this administration which says it will spread evil such as this world has never seen before.

_______________________________________________________


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

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

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

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

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

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

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

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

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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







Real Estate Tax Article Response

September 3rd, 2019

Thank you for the article on elder abuse and real estate taxes. I am not one to start movements or even protests. Instead, I sit home, cry and try to remember what was.

My father lost his home because of the games played with him around his house. It was our family homes. I was not old enough nor employed to be able to help. I am now both, but he is gone and so is our family home. He spent the last years of his life in a Senior Home and he was miserable. How I hate those who caused this. It is all about greed.

Count me in on anything you do around these issues. I know how painful it was for him as he tried to save a home on which he owed very little. Our mortgage had been paid in full since our family lived in that house and owned it for many decades. He took out a small mortgage to make needed repairs and got caught in the real estate taxes game.

The same things happened to him that you described. He thought he could defer the taxes as a lien on the house, but the city pushed him off. They didn’t say no – they couldn’t because he qualified. What they did was everything they could to not accept his application. The bank let it be known that they would not allow the deferral and would not sign off on one if the city decided to accept his application. Caught in a bind he didn’t know what to do. He wrote to everyone and every institution he could think of looking for help. No one responded. He thought and expected people to do the right thing, but they never do when money is involved. I believe the person who bought the house out of foreclosure for a fraction of its value was somehow connected to the bank and/or the city or both. The house was fixed up and then resold and the people who did this made well over $200,000 that I could count.

Please put my name on a list of people you send out notices whenever you do something about all of this. I don’t have much, but I have myself and a little money left over from my job each week. I want to do what I can to make sure others don’t suffer the way my father did at the end of his life.

He lived less than two years in that Senior Citizen place. All of his papers, furnishings, clothes and memorabilia were gone. There was no place for it in his tiny room and even if there was space the bank made sure nothing survived. A sheriff showed up with a truck and hauled away all that was dear to him while he watched, cried and begged them to stop. It was one of the worse moments of my life. I shall take those memories to my grave.

God bless you and may your work succeed. Much pain can be alleviated if only people acted out of a sense of goodness. We are all human – we err – we try and sometimes succeed and sometimes don’t – but when we put aside our humanity for that corporate suit we become something else. I saw that something else through what happened to my father.

_______________________________________________—

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

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

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

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

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

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

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

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

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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





Real Estate Taxes/Collusion/Graft

August 29th, 2019

by: Marceline Donaldson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And then come the games.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

________________________________________________

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

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

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

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

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

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

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

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

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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





Harriet Tubman Boycott

August 23rd, 2019

by: Marceline Donaldson

We have had telephone calls from several people who wanted a Harriet Tubman stamp. So we are putting out the particulars on where to get your stamp.

Remarkablestamps.etsy.com

If you want a contact person try Rachel@stamp-connection.com

They will soon have a web site to keep you up to date on their Tubman stamp. Their website when operational will be www.TubmanoverJackson.com

We will also be setting up shop to get the word out.

I double checked with banks – tried three – and each one said the same thing to me that we wrote about in the blog on the Harriet Tubman Boycott. If you have a $20 that has been stamped with Harriet Tubman’s face covering Andrew Jackson’s face it is still legal tender and you can use it in stores, take it to banks, etc. and they will give you other denominations for your $20. Or pay for your purchases and they will give you change. When that $20 reaches a bank it will be taken out of circulation.

Our goal is to make sure all $20 bills which do not have Harriet Tubmans portrait – those $20 will be out of circulation. The Obama Administration laid out the plans for the Harriet Tubman $20 bill. It was to take affect within months of his leaving office. Donald Trump and Mnuchin decided to keep the Andrew Jackson bill in circulation. They did not want the embarrassment of having a black womans’ face on United State currency.

Andrew Jackson, according to Mr. Trump, is his favorite president. Given Trump’s racism, sexism and bigotry around everything and everyone not male, white, protestant, northern european, we understand his preference. He has chosen the president under whom the Trail of Tears happened. That is his kind of president. It is so fitting that Harriet Tubman, who sacrificed so much to help free African slaves should replace Andrew Jackson’s portrait on United States $20 bills.

Only a White Nationalist president like Andrew Jackson would think otherwise. Trump’s separation of families at the southern border, exposing children to sex traffickers who are always looking for such easy pickings, goes along with the Trail of Tears president. Both have caused unbelievable suffering of tens of thousands of feeling, thinking, caring, human beings – of tens of thousands women, children, men, the elderly, babies in arms.

My great-great grandmother was on that Trail of Tears. Every time I think of it I tear up and get emotional. She was taken off the trail by my great-great grandfather, an Irishman, who she met in the process of all of her suffering. They had several children, settled in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and their progeny are all over the world doing incredible things. These are the people Trump wants to eliminate.

Wherever we go we will have our Harriet Tubman stamp with us. If you need bills stamped, please ask, the stamp is self-inked and we bought extra ink anticipating a wide demand.

May you all be surrounded by love in all that you do and may it benefit the world immensely. Make sure you will not be talked about as being one of those who helped bring forth a holocaust in these United States because good people, like you, did nothing. And make no mistake, Trump is building a true holocaust.

When we talked about Trump Concentration Camps folks didn’t believe it. Thought it was an exaggeration. Today, 24 people have been killed in those Trump Concentration Camps. There are “cold rooms” where immigrants are kept if they cross the border and have some kind of respiratory ailment – a cold, the flu, etc. And they are kept in those “cold rooms” for as long as a month with only the light cotton clothes they had on when they entered and the flip flops on their feet. That 24 people will add up quickly at the rate Trump is moving.

To have your $20 bill stamped with the likeness of Harriet Tubman to help withdraw all of the $20 off the market does not take much. If you want your own stamp so you can spread the word even further they cost only $25 and can be purchased from Stamp-Connection.com with the information we gave you at the start of this blog.

Good stamping!

_____________________________________________________

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

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

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale!*

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

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

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

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

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

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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





$20 Bill Boycott – Dynamite

August 15th, 2019

While stopping in the bank to make a deposit I stumbled over some incredible information which I would like to share with you.

If you want to contribute and are frustrated with Donald Trump and all the rest, but don’t know how to make a difference, this boycott of the $20 to make sure Harriet Tubmans picture is on this bill is the way in. It does not take a lot of time. You can make your voice heard just in the process of going about your daily business.

What does this have to do with my stopover at the bank?

I heard and was assured that if you stamp the picture of “Moses” – Harriet Tubman – over the picture of Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill this was not illegal and could be done. I now have certification of that from the bank.

A really fantastic branch manager outlined what this was all about and I am in her debt.

Before the end of the Obama Administration, replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill and putting Harriet Tubman on that bill, was a done deal. At least until Trump became the illegitimate president of these United States -who gained his presidency with the help of foreign powers adversarial to these United States. When that happened, Trump declared there would be no Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill and his Treasury Secretary Mnuchin carried out Trump’s wishes. (Probably so he and his wife could return to Fort Knox next year and once again watch the fireworks from the roof of Fort Knox on the 4th of July arriving via private plane at taxpayers expense – yet again.)

The Bettina folks called a boycott of the $20 and I joined in making sure when I received change for whatever, it did not contain a $20 bill. That seemed a bit slow, but nevertheless I was right there doing my thing refusing to accept a $20 no matter where or for what.

I have discovered something better. If you go on Etsy.com you can buy a stamp designed by Dano Wall which can be superimposed on the $20 covering up Andrew Jackson and showing an elegant image of Harriet Tubman.

What good will that do?

Once stamped and you use that $20 bill to pay for whatever or you take it to the bank to exchange it for other monies – that $20 bill is taken out of circulation. Just like the bills are taken out of circulation when people write on them or otherwise mark up any bill. I understand people have been known to write poetry on their money.

If we constantly stamp the $20 bills – and all of you who want to get involved and are frustrated with Donald Trump and his racism along with Mnuchin and his following of Trump – here is how to rid the world of Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill and let your voice be heard that you want the Obama program replacing Jackson with Harriet Tubman to happen immediately.

I sent for a stamp. When it arrives I will stamp every $20 bill that comes my way and set it back into circulation. With thousands of you joining me and others – the $20 bills will be out of circulation and kept out of circulation until the program put in place by Barack Obama and his administration will be honored instead of set into the filth and foulness of the Trump Administration and its White Supremacy.

Count me in! I have not taken part in anything close to a civil rights action ever in life. This will be a first for me, but I am certainly going to go at this with gusto.

What about Andrew Jackson? Whose picture on that $20 bill we will be covering over? Did you know Jackson signed the 1830 Indian Removal Act which forced more than 60,000 Native Americans from their land and onto the Trail of Tears? Why would anyone have ever tried to honor such a man and continue to honor him into the 21st century?

We honor the Hitlers’ of this world and we denigrate and spit on those who have truly moved us closer to a good and honorable place. How many times did Harriet Tubman risk her life to bring others out of slavery!!!!!!!

Good luck! Let Bettina Network know what you are doing to they can continue to move this boycott forward. You can find me on the street corner stamping $20 bills. I have not been this excited in years.

To purchase a stamp: go to etsy.com and the cost is $25.30 with free shipping and a self inking stamp. To include more ink the cost is $30.00. And what a souvenir for your family to keep for generations to come with the story of how you helped move us to a more diverse, good and kind, gracious and elegant society.

___________________________________________________

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

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

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]

Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sal

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

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

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

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

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

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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





It is time to resign

August 4th, 2019

or to be thrown out !!!!!!!

Three shootings, spaced across the country in one week, coming immediately after Treasonous Trump had an extremely racist and white nationalist and Nazi tinged rally during which he called for his base to support him and show themselves with action, is a message we cannot ignore.

Treasonous Trump, Moscow Mitch and Cute Nancy – it is time to wrap it up and leave.

The El Paso, Texas shooting in Walmart is a clear historical re-enactment which includes Charlottesville, where the supporters of Treasonous Trump brought back to life, Krystallnacht – the Nazi theatre, complete with torches and winding down a ‘sort of’ mountain to make sure the message was sent. If we didn’t believe Donald Trump was at the head of a Nazi-type regime, that should have cleared up any doubt. If we didn’t believe how he prepared for this, even as far back as his first marriage during which he kept “Mein Kampf” on his night stand and read from it every night (according to the testimony in his divorce from the woman who slept with him for years and had three children by him.)

The shouting by those who participated in that re-enacted Nazi theatre was clearly “Jews will not replace us.” And what do we read from the notes left for us by the white male neo-Nazi white nationalist who shot and killed at least 20 people and injured some 26 more during his rampage in El Paso, Texas? – Among other things his concern about being ‘replaced.’

How much do we have to go through before we come together to take action against what Treasonous Trump, Moscow Mitch and Cute Nancy have in store for us?

Power and money motivates Treasonous Trump and Moscow Mitch and clearly it also motivates Cute Nancy. To impeach Treasonous Trump would not bring the power and glory to Cute Nancy that beating him soundly at the polls would bring – so she is willing to risk his not being brought to justice because of her glorified thoughts about her own ability to pull this off. Her flawed reasons are seen by others, but she is totally blind to them – blinded by the power and money shining on the opposite road. Either way, with Treasonous Trump as president or without him Cute Nancy still benefits and moves ahead in her job.

Moscow Mitch is clearly building an empire with his wife and doing it in the muck and slim of treason along with Trump. A patriot is not a word which even begins to describe Moscow Mitch. Someone who puts himself and his power and money needs above all is where Moscow Mitch has always been and continues to be. I read in this blog some time ago the question asked as to how Moscow Mitch knew Treasonous Trump would be the next president, however, illegitimately. From everything showing, the country wanted Hillary Clinton as its next president. Moscow Mitch knew otherwise and he showed that knowing by the way he worked to keep President Barack Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court from even getting a hearing. He certainly was not stonewalling that nomination so Hillary Clinton could choose the next Supreme Court justice. We see the actions happening all around us, but we don’t walk those action to their most logical conclusion. We prefer to keep on our blinders so we can keep from acting to save these United States of America. We think that by so doing we will come out of this just fine. We won’t! Germany thought the same and look at that history and how much was paid so most could live their quiet lives of desperation as they always had – without taking action which could upheaval or jeopardize what they had and where they were going.

So in the long run aren’t we all after the same thing? Power and money? Only the degree to which we act and the size of the reward we have decided is ours, if we work hard, keep silence differs. – Go along to get along is that what separates us? Big sin or little sin?

They all need to go. And NOW!

__________________________________________

Responses from Bettina Members

August 1st, 2019

From: Bettina Network Oracle

There is a Trojan Horse amongst those running in the Democratic Primary.

Tulsi Gabbard needs to be closely watched and what she says taken with a grain of salt because she probably has talking points given to her by the Donald. Points he has charged her to get into the debate? Her target is Kamala Harris. Trump can attack Elizabeth Warren with impunity, but he is not able to go against Kamala Harris so he has put in Tulsi Gabbard to do his dirty work. Watch and you will see her comments, word choice and more. They are very Trumpian. Her comments, word choice and structure are too close not to have been developed through some collaboration with Donald Trump.

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

From: A Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Member

What is it Trump and those he nominates to his administration have in common? Take John Hyten, for example. One of the latest Donald Trump nominations.

Donald Trump is a person who has some 20 plus credible charges of sexual assault, sexual abuse, rape and more against him by women who are very credible when you take a look at who they are – including a rape of a 13 year old who sued Donald Trump in Court, but withdrew the suit when she and her family received death threats.

John Hyten – like most Trump nominees, has a very credible accusation of sexual assault against him which Trump, his friends, supporters, Senators and others are claiming will not be considered as they decide whether to vote his nomination up or down. Who votes for John Hyten needs to be remembered by all of us.

Remember Al Franken and these same Republicans as they commented about and called for his resignation when one of their own called Franken out on what looked like sexual abuse? Republicans immediately called for his resignation and even Trump’s comments were negative towards him. He was not accused of anything nearly as gross as that for which Trump’s recent nominee, John Hyten, has been accused.

When you look at the people Trump has nominated to serve in his government, most have such charges against them and in spite of that, they are confirmed. So we have a cabinet and government in which a huge number of those serving are sexual predators (Let’s not even begin to mention those with conflicts of interest and accusations of wrong doing much worse) – just like the man who has illegitimately claimed the presidency.

It is an unbelievable set of circumstances when you see the people supporting Donald Trump having the same problem. Senator Martha McSally – Republican Senator, appointed to her post by Donald Trump – has claimed the woman making the charge against John Hyten is not being truthful. That in spite of the fact that Senator McSally made her own claim of rape and expected that to be taken seriously. She calls herself “a military sexual assault survivor”. And when she is confronted with others who had similar experiences she psychically sexually assaults them – apparently if they are Democrats with the possibility of blocking one of Trump’s nominees she coldly backs Trump and whatever he is doing. What’s good for the goose is not good for the gander in Senator McSally’s life.

Senator McSally has been quoted as saying “We’ve come a long way to stop military sexual assault but we have a long way to go.” Apparently, speaking out against others who have been sexually assaulted in the military and claiming she does not believe their story is one way Senator McSally gives her statements the wring of truth. With someone like McSally fighting military sexual assault it will never end. Shame is not something Republicans for Trump experience – no matter how low they have stooped. Empathy and compassion are totally missing from Martha McSally, who is very much like those who support Donald Trump.

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

From: A member

Why GOP Senators are quiet and will not step out for any reason no matter how foul the situation and no matter the fact that they have something to contribute to the truth of many of these situations around Donald Trump and could stop him from his viciousness and the vile environment he has created around himself and is spreading across the world.

All one has to do is look at the way Elijah Cummins has been treated by Donald Trump to understand why Republican Senators are so quiet and why people like Lindsey Graham have become so close to Donald Trump, doing his bidding no matter how low they have to stoop to accomplish his wants.

Moral courage is not common amongst Republican Senators nor is it common amongst many these days. God bless those who stand by their ethics and moral values and live them out in their daily lives.

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

From: A Member

Children in a Trump administration.

The United States is a dangerous place to be for children.

The pedophiles have been picking up white children. Those who supply the pedophiles have been making white children available to these corrupt souls. Today, however, it becomes clear that white children and children of color are at risk here – which group of children will be in demand this week depends upon the time and what is happening and how the scheme has been laid out for the pedophiles with money to pay.

All one has to do is look at the huge number of Trump friends and supporters who are involved in the sex trafficking of children and look at what is happening at the southern United States border. Jeffrey Epstein, from what I’ve read, has apparently become wealthy through this process.

Trump has created a heaven for such people who sex trafficked in children. One side affect of Trump’s immigration policy is to create a pool of very young children, of young teenage children, of male and female children all ripe for the pickings of sex traffickers. Children who don’t have to be accounted for because the records have been “lost”, “misplaced”, never created in the first place and more as to reasons why children and their parents cannot be reunited. Children who can easily be pushed into a sex traffickers net without being missed; who have been put in and kept in hopeless, horrible situations and environments which make them more open to such things, especially when given no choice. The only people looking for many of these children are their powerless parents and those people of color have no way to push to find their children – a sex traffickers dream. Is this southern immigration strategy what Trump has created for his friends with such proclivities?

If Jeffrey Epstein could become one of the super wealthy in this society by braving the possible jail and other traps he could set off while doing his pedophilia thing, just imagine how wealthy Donald Trump can become with this scheme on the southern border of the United States to make vulnerable children available to whoever for whatever in whatever numbers are needed for their sexual fantasies to be fulfilled.

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

How much can the collective soul of this world bear? We shall soon discover in sharp and unbelievable actions and happenings. Amen!

________________________________________________________________


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

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

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

[give_form id=”3763″]


Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale*

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

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott*

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

Project 3 – Growing Bettina Network’s Blog

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

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

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

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

_________________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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



The Scandal Plaguing Harvard Square

July 29th, 2019

by: Marceline Donaldson

My house in Harvard Square is for sale. As a result, as is my habit, I started researching – carefully – the past present and possible future of Harvard Square and all it contains. I wanted to know other peoples experience; historically what could I expect; everything connected with selling a house in a historical district in Harvard Square.

One experience I had of the past 37 years living in Harvard Square came from being African American and moving into an area where we seemed to be the “only ones” or – as my grandmother would say, this is a neighborhood where “we” are “as scarce as hens’ teeth” .

The house was on the historical register when we moved in. It shortly thereafter was dropped from the historical register and in spite of trying to discover why for several years, no answer was forthcoming. I was stalled, dissembled, confused, put off, etc. No racial problem there, just the normal way of treating those who ask seemingly simple questions to which there are no good answers.

In spite of that experience, I found many of my neighbors to be really great, accepting people who included us in their lives and sometimes their work and sometimes helped our work by doing business with Bettina Network, inc. and we sometimes helped them in their businesses.

So with that background and experience I went about this “project of discovery”.

When selling a house you do look closely at everything that could affect the sale and I have gone down several roads in this time of investigation and discovery.

One of the largest scandals in Harvard Square has to do with the purchase and sale of real estate, particularly of private homes.

This area does, after all, contain the “Gold Crown Historical District”. Basically, the goal of such a geographical designation is to keep houses within its carefully chosen area as true to their historical beginnings as possible. The architectural design of the home; the important details which were normal in the time frame of when the houses were built and so much more.

How has that been carried out!

To keep your suspense level as low as possible – it is not carried out. The farce which is the “Gold Crown Historical District” is a huge scandal.

Harvard Square is fast becoming the neighborhood of “Temples to Wealth and Money” – history is shunted off to the side and only appears if it is convenient or provides some kind of prestige to those with too much money, too little taste, and none to a very slight knowledge or interest in architectural history, who are buying homes in the Harvard Square area.

Don’t misunderstand me here – I love to see such “Temples to Wealth and Money”. However, I prefer seeing them in Wellesley, Dover, or other such places where there is much land and neither the houses nor the areas where they are located tout their great “historical” – architecturally historical – beginnings. Heck, I could even see such in Cambridge where there are areas where there is no historical designation applied. But in Harvard Square there are plaques on houses designating the “names”, who lived in the house, when it was built and more. Maintaining your history is as important as building your future.

In actual fact, step inside one of the homes recently sold and they all look alike with very few exceptions. They are a cross between North American and Scandinavian style and design (And not always the best of either of those design patterns.) Walk through the houses and you will see almost nothing that tells you of their architectural, design, history. Most look as though the same Contractor did them all from the same set of blueprints and bought 50 pairs of wall scones and chandeliers or other light fixtures at a bargain and then used them in several neighboring houses.

Very soon, living architectural history in the houses in Harvard Square will be non-existent. “Restoration” is a word used interchangeably with “Renovation” and that “Renovation” is always North American/Scandinavian style and that Restoration is usually a word which is interchangeable with renovation.

Once upon a time Cambridge bragged about having these historical districts, but “policing” only the outside, depending upon the home owners to maintain the historicity of their interiors. That started when money – too much money with too little taste – moved into Harvard Square and we don’t want to alienate those who can pay the property taxes with money to spare.

All the years I have lived in Harvard Square I did not hear about the ugly, petty internecine wars which are today beginning to take place. Those disputes and outright fights which are now common in the areas where the McMansions are becoming common place in Harvard Square.

Today, I have been the center of a few.

One recently relocated family moving into Harvard Square filed a police report against me claiming that my garden overgrew its boundaries on the Mount Auburn Street side and people could not walk on the sidewalk because of all the things growing across that sidewalk. When I went outside I didn’t see anything overgrowing its boundaries, but the policeman who takes care of such and delivers such complaints offered to come over to show me where I was failing. So what was that all about?

I put that aside and just went about my business – having called on several neighbors who did have lots of growth crawling onto the sidewalk to ask what they were going to do about the police notices they received! Turns out – they didn’t receive any. Who did? The African American family against whom one of the newest arrivals in that vaunted Harvard Square community complained because they were appalled that living in such a house was a family that would destroy the reason they moved to such a prestigious neighborhood.

My garden was hacked up pretty good over the winter – don’t know by who. But, to be perfectly immodest, thanks to my gardening skills I was able to pull it back together. I would have preferred to take this spring and summer as times to bring the garden to the next level, but I could not do both.

Looking out my window with my morning cup of coffee, I see the neighbors go by walking their dogs. They don’t take their dogs to the bathroom in front or in back of their own homes, a small number bring their dogs to crap in my garden.

This particular morning there was a new neighbor with his dog – a very beautiful toy dog with long black hair with white hair at the tips. I watched as he put his dog in my garden so the dog could have its morning bowel movement and he would not have to pick up the shit. A set-up for what? To complain about how foul the African American home smells? I couldn’t let that continue so I went outside to say you really can’t let your dog crap in other peoples gardens. According to my information that is called “Criminal Trespass” and also violates a City of Cambridge ordinance that says you must pick up your own dog’s shit and not leave it on the sidewalk or anyplace else, especially you cannot allow your dog to crap in a neighbor’s garden. The same dog when walked by a young woman seems to be trained to crap in my garden, as does a bull dog walked by a middle aged woman who will not make anyplace else. If I am outside the dog pulls back on his leash because he wants to crap where he always does, but he can’t with me glaring at both of them.

When I went outside to meet my new neighbor and ask that he not put his dog in my garden, it is not a dog toilet, he went off on an ugly tangent, demanding I clear the sidewalk of the horrible stuff overgrowing its boundaries and I realized during the exchange that this was the person who filed the police complaint against us. Imagine my surprise. Imagine also my shock when he lunged at me in a very physically threatening way and slammed his foot down on the sidewalk barely missing my delicate toes by less than an inch. I had to reflect a moment – am I still in Harvard Square or is this some other neighborhood I’ve wandered into. After 37 years as a part of this community this was a first.

My new neighbor, so riled up about my garden overstepping its boundaries is apparently the owner of one of the “Temples of Wealth and Money” recently created out of a very lovely historical home built in Harvard Square many decades ago and presently looking as though it ran away from Wellesley because it wanted the prestige of settling into Harvard Square. Anything historical about the architecture having been completely wiped out and replaced with that NorthAmerican/Scandinavian cultural style. It is complete with outsized outdoor grill and all the accoutrements that accompany such a house. The garden, which took the last owner decades to develop was wiped out by a bull dozer, as I watched and cringed, as was a beautiful, very old tree which was a part of the “Sacred Indian Circle” of trees in this area. (Isn’t that a no-no in Cambridge?) Can one cross the palms of someone in government and then take an ax to the beautiful old trees?

Since my neighbor clearly wanted me gone I am sure he cared even less for that Sacred Indian Circle of trees which pre-existed everything in this Harvard Square area.

What doesn’t fit in such a neighborhood? An African American family – especially one not a part of the “more money than sense with no respect for history” group.

I walked all around my neighborhood and saw a lot of construction activity going on and when I looked closely there were bulldozers inside a couple of houses knocking down everything – (yes, inside the houses). These were apparently being rebuilt “better than” with modern materials which didn’t exist back when the houses were built. This happened to the house I am now selling just before we bought it all those many years ago. A small part of the house was “renovated” and during the time we have lived in the house, I had no trouble with the structure of the restored parts of the house, but I have been pulling my hair out about that renovated part because it broke down fast – took about 9 years – looks awful and you can see how inferior the products are which were used in the renovation. Good recurring income for the developer, builder, contractor, architect though.

As I talked to a few of the workers and those apparently in charge of a couple of the houses being “restored” I discovered they had very little to no knowledge of what they were ripping apart; why it didn’t need to be ripped apart; the gloriousness of what they were destroying and the very limited time frame their new renovations would last. They didn’t have a clue how to restore the homes they were sending through daily shock waves. It was depressing.

I also discovered a new industry – a new financial center.

Realtors and Contractors, Architects, etc. have come together so when you put your house on the market for sale – before you take that step they want you to strip your house of all that makes it beautiful and they will upfront the money to the Contractor, Architect, etc. to totally renovate your house so it will sell “fast”. Once sold you will get the balance of the sale price minus what the realtor or contractor has upfronted for the project. As I checked out some of the houses being so treated, it is a scandal and a scam.

Everyone I talked to thought that was fantastic and a wonderful new development in the field. I was appalled. My house will pass to its next owner in the shape it is in currently and that new owner can decide what they want to do. I have a list of suggestions from life within the walls of the house for so many years, but the final decision is theirs.

Giving that new owner the power to make those decisions means if the work done is not up to snuff, they have the guarantees from the builders, renovators, restorers to be able to have them come back and do it again or make the upgrade that didn’t happen, or etc. It also gives the new homeowner knowledge and wisdom about maintaining their home.

That didn’t happen when I moved into my home. I have spent the last 37 years trying to restore the mess that was made and the Contractor person who made the mess totally abdicated responsibility. His allegiance was to the person who hired him – who owned the house before I purchased it – and he and his company totally absolved themselves of having to correct the quick, short cut methods they used under the circumstances which caused us lots of grief. Years of grief and lots of money to make the needed restoration back to where the house was before it was sold.

One serious weakness of our society and probably of others also is the greed wrapped into its institutions. This area of “house flipping”, house renovation before being sold using the realtors money, and more is so riddled with greed it is destroying the housing stock – particularly in Harvard Square, but probably also in other areas where the same thing is happening.

It is time for the Cambridge City Government to get its spine strengthened and add to the outside requirements of homes in historical districts the requirements that the insides also be treated in the same way. Instead, they seem to be losing spine strength and allowing even the outside to be seriously altered and “renovated”, “modernized” and more. After all, that is the reason for the existence of Historical areas. They are not areas set up to show off those Temples of Wealth and Money. Those temples can be built and renovated and rebuilt in other places where they are a better “fit”.. Those historical designations have meaning and a reason for being and it is time we respect that.

The “too much money” people love the idea, the prestige, the loveliness of living in a historical district. They need to make sure that they abide by the spirit and the letter of why the districts were so designated and stop living as though such things are put in place for the “hoi poloi” and not them.\

We need stiff ordinances and/or laws which come down hard on those who burn down their houses to build others because they couldn’t get through the historical commission. I could list many such habits, but you all know them before I even try to enumerate them.

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