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In Memory of Sarah Scammell

October 11th, 2018

If any of you reading this knew Sarah and would like to add your remembrances to this – please email us at bettina-network@comcast.net

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Sarah was a friend and someone who worked with Bettina Network, inc. for several years. One day, just a few months ago, someone came to our door to say Sarah had just died.  It was an amazing moment of confusion and rejection and denial.  I was sure the information was wrong, it must have been about someone else because Sarah was only about 58 years old.  I had tea with Sarah less than a week before and she was just fine.  Not ill, not complaining about anything, looking healthy and fit, but here was a friend of Sarah’s come to tell us that Sarah had just died.  She was talking to her landlady and just fell to the floor.  They say she was dead before she hit the floor. Isn’t life unpredictable and scary and unknown.

We met Sarah when she came to our door, knocked and announced she was a neighbor and listed her skills.  If we ever needed help, said Sarah, she would be happy to help.  A week or so later I called Sarah and asked if she could come over because we did need a bit of help and from that point on we were friends and she was someone who worked for and with Bettina Network, inc. whenever we had the need and the money.

Sarah spent her young adult years in California where she studied art.  While she did not work full-time following her art training, it was her passion and whenever she could she spent time with her photographs and wood cuttings and so much more.

The last time I saw Sarah, she came by for tea to talk about working with Bettina’s on Estate Sales and the Foundation.  Sarah had worked with us on Estate Sales several years prior, but we were changing the concept and looking for a new footing.

We had many ideas, which we had discussed in a group which included Sarah with others working with Bettina Network Foundation and Sarah particularly liked the role we carved out for her.  She took the sketch and turned it into something exciting.

We talked about the need to have someone live in the houses in which we managed estate sales so they would not be empty and during the day, style, price and generally get the house together for the sale with the help of others who would show up to help her during the day.  In the evenings, she would explore the neighborhood, take advantage of art, music, restaurants and other offerings she found there and just generally enjoy that time in a new place.  I was worried that this meant Sarah moving every week and I wasn’t sure that would be workable.  Sarah thought that was the exciting part of the job.  She loved going to museums, new art and music offerings, seeing how other people lived and she couldn’t do a lot of that because she had no car and limited funds.  This way she didn’t need a car and would get to look and experience much she wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.

What I remember most about Sarah was her caring and concern for others.  There was an older woman who was homeless and who lived mostly in and around Harvard Square, close to where Sarah lived.  Sarah would look for this woman every few days to see how she was doing and she always had a few dollars to give her.  These few dollars were a lot for Sarah because she did not have much money, but she always had enough to share.  When Sarah moved to Arlington, she still came to Harvard Square to visit with friends and to check on her friend in Harvard Square.

When a friend of Sarahs became terminally ill, Sarah moved from her house to live with her friend so she could help as much as possible and so her friend would know someone was always there.  When Sarah’s friend died, Bettina’s managed the estate sale of what she left behind. What was amazing to me was the way the neighbors responded.  Since Sarah’s friend moved to a hospice at the end of her life, the house had not been lived in and did not have utilities nor water.  We worked, getting the house ready for the sale during the day light hours and brought bottled water.  One neighbor put her hose through the kitchen window so we could have water to do things like wash the dishes and other little things that you don’t think you need water to do until there is none.  We didn’t ask, she just offered.  Several others in the neighborhood stopped by because they wanted to remember and say goodbye to this neighbor who they didn’t know well, but she lived in their neighborhood.  They all knew Sarah.

We have a lot of Sarah stories.  What I have shared with you speak to who Sarah was, why we will remember Sarah for a very long time and why she will always be a part of Bettina Network, inc.

Marceline Donaldson

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It is a pleasure to add my note to our remembrance of Sarah. My remembrance of her was when we were co-participants in a meeting to enlarge the visions of Bettina Network Foundation.

I found Sarah to be a person who was actually present as we talked and planned.  She was committed to bless the world with her presence and art.  She was congenial toward me, and showed honest interest in what other people were offering.  Compassion and peace were in her own offerings.

May Sarah’s family and friends be comforted.

Francis Maloney

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Sarah was someone who took the word ‘Friend’ seriously. I saw her extend friendship to acquaintances, family members, employers, strangers, animals, and people in need….

She was a person that people knew they could talk to and really be listened to. Sarah had her personal antennae ‘ON’ and could understand things intuitively, which is a gift.

Since the shock of her death, I have realized that she knew things about me that not many people will ever know. I will truly miss the presence of a friend who understood some very deep things about me, I will miss that presence for the rest of my own life. In her memory I will try to become a more sensitive listener to others.

We had some nice dinners down in the kitchen….and I am sorry that I won’t be able to make the chicken soup with chicken breast, snow peas, broth, lime juice, scallions, and sprouts for us….which would have been followed by a few rounds of Chinese Checkers!

It interested me that we each wanted the other person to win, but at the same time we were both pretty good players….so it was always a close call.

A conversation with Sarah usually ended up with some humor entering in, one way or another. Her cheer and joyous laugh will be greatly missed. I hope that Sarah is at peace
With kindred spirits surrounding her….We miss you Sarah!…….

Love, Alexandra xxxooo

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I was shocked to learn of Sarah’s death.  Especially because of her very warm presence and almost joyous conversation.  She exuded a warmth and always upbeat presence.

To say she will be missed is an understatement.  We mourn her death and truly will miss her presence.  May she rest in peace.

Robert Bennett

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

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

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

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

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

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

 

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Posted in Memorials, Sarah Scammel | Comments Off on In Memory of Sarah Scammell

Donald Trump – Don’t You Dare…

October 9th, 2018

by: Marceline Donaldson

apologize on my behalf.  Your apology to the Kavanaugh family on behalf of the American people included me as a citizen – the daughter of a citizen – the granddaughter of a citizen – the great granddaughter of a citizen – the great-great granddaughter of a citizen and even further back to before American citizenship when a part of my ancestors owned this land and were put on that long walk without food or water so the land they lived on and owned for generations could be taken from them, given to and used by people like you.

I have nothing to apologize for and will never apologize to someone like Brett Kavanaugh who has been credibly accused of the assault of at least three women and who knows how many more who are afraid to come out and tell their story.

Why do they not come forward?   Because you and people like you have made sure to keep them scared and ashamed so you could sexually assault whoever whenever you decided your ego needed that.  So you nominate and hold up another credibly accused sexual assaulter.  I could say like you – but so far only three women have come forward to accuse Brett Kavanaugh.  Some 19 and counting have come forward to accuse you, Donald Trump.

No, Donald Trump, don’t you dare include me in some apology that you make, not for yourself, but on behalf of millions of others for whom you have no right to include in any apology.  More than half the citizens of this country did not want and do not want Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court and you arrogate to yourself the right to apologize for them?  Who do you think you are!

Apologize for your own sins and the mess you continue to make of this country with your racism, your sexism, your Nazi leanings, your White Nationalism.   – Brett Kavanaugh was not on the Federalist list – you put him there for your own evil reasons and you nominated the person you put on the list and then you fought in the filthy way you have shown yourself capable for decades, to get him confirmed.

You have a lifetime of ugly for which you have never apologized, not even once for anything and you have done much that a thousand apologies won’t begin to address.  – Your mentor, Roy Cohn, taught you to never apologize but claim your failures and uglinesses as greatness.  He did a fantastic job on you because he had a willing student who acted like a sponge and who stayed on his knees in front of Cohn for decades taking in everything Cohn put out.

You have continued McCarthyism in this country from your association with Joseph McCarthy when you were young.  A man who was a drunk and who upheaveled this country in horrible ways.  You are doing the same.  You claim you don’t drink, but there is such a thing as a “dry drunk” and that is the style I see you showing in how you live and in the way you have been “governing” – to use the term ‘governing’ loosely.  A style you picked up from McCarthy and are projecting into the future – you have also picked up his politics, his belief system and are throwing them into the face of the world.  Putin may be your friend today, but he needs to be careful because you will throw him overboard the first chance you get when you see how to claim his power and control.

Under your leadership I see the United States of America sinking to a new low.  I am always amazed thinking your ethics and evil have hit rock bottom, but you then manage to go even lower.  You have this ability to  make sure there is no bottom to the lies you will tell, the filth in which you will engage and now you have taken on this bold, upfront projection of your unbelievably sinful actions onto others.  Today it is the Democratic Party you are blaming for your evil – tomorrow?

I do not apologize to the Kavanaugh family for anything.  So your apology to that family needs to be modified.  I DO NOT APOLOGIZE TO BRETT KAVANAUGH FOR ANYTHING!  Take my name out of the general apology you made on behalf of all the citizens of this country.  How arrogant of you to apologize on my behalf when you have sinned big in your lifetime and have never apologized for any of it. Brett Kavanaugh needs to apologize to me for his part in being so entitled and so in need of power and control that he will work with you and Shine and McGahn and McConnell and Grassley and so many others to bring this country to a new low and for arrogating to themselves the right to degrade women – so he and others can gain money and some kind of male ego power. He showed the direction in which he was going when he sexually assaulted Christine Ford – was that a preview of things to come?  He would then go on to assault not just women, but the institutions in which he lives and works?  He has certainly done a job on the U. S. Supreme Court.  He has taken that body very low and they just might not recover.

However, I have to thank them all of those good ole boys for the way their evil has exposed how the sexist structure of this country works.    I thought I knew.  This, however, has exposed a whole deeper and unbelievably uglier level.

The way the white, northern european-ancestry male, – today’s ‘ruling class’ which clearly includes the Bush family – who came to this country under heavy clouds even hundreds of years ago and whose ancestors enslaved Africans and did so much more and who are now demanding that they be allowed to continue their right to rule even if that includes the ‘enslavement’ and constant sexual assault of women.  Look at the uproar when it appears that sexual assault may come under castigation and be held accountable with women no longer afraid or ashamed.  How will they exercise their out of control male egos?

And don’t be surprised that this ugliness has the Bush family in the middle.  Under their ‘rule’ the Supreme Court has been brought low.  They are responsible for both Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh, the two credibly accused of sexual abuse and sexual assault, being members of that high court.

To confirm to the United States Supreme Court a man who has been credibly accused of sexually assaulting at least three women and whose public drunkenness is out there for all to see and whose character has been on display as he totally disrespected members of the Senate who were not a part of his “group” is not something I need to apologize for.  He needs to apologize to this country and resign.

You and your friends and followers now leading this country have as one of the talking points on your “manipulate the voters scam”  call the women and men “a mob”, who peacefully demonstrated their objection to Brett Kavanaugh being confirmed to the United States Supreme Court.  That tells us all as loudly as you can that the Republican Party is now the Party of White Nationalists, led by the Eastern European and Russian Mafias.

By calling a peaceful demonstration, in the image of the demonstrations under Martin Luther King, Jr., “mob rule” says exactly where you come from.  You and those following you said the same thing about African Americans and others who demonstrated against the extreme racism practiced in this country which they were trying to get addressed and changed.  What were they trying to achieve? To get African Americans treated like human beings – to get people like you and your friends to respect the United States Constitution.  Until then they were treated abominably and that treatment was out of control – especially in places like Mississippi where you received such accolades for the sexism you were promoting and the ridicule you were parading out for all to see as you called Dr. Ford “evil” and ridiculed her in many other ways and held up sexual assault as the right of privileged white males that was being threatened by a King-type mob.

It is no accident that all 11 Republican members of the Senate Judicial Committee are white men.  Your entitlement keeps you from even seeing the problem you are perpetrating.  You see only your right to rule being threatened.  And your right to rule in the style of Adolph Hitler – Josef Stalin – Mussolini and others.

To call those demonstrations against you and those who follow you “mob rule” and other names even worse says you and all your followers are completely in line with neo-Nazi’s.  The neo-Nazis who reenacted Kristallnacht in Charlottesburg who you called good people.  They killed a woman standing on the sidewalk; they re-enacted Kristallnacht making a statement to the world who they were and what they were about; they brutalized, beat, attempted to kill peaceful demonstrators who you then characterized and continue to characterize as the people in the wrong, Donald Trump.  When you call the people peacefully demonstrating against Brett Kavanaugh being confirmed when he should not have been – a mob – and we all remember your calling the people who brawled, maimed and killed in Charlottesville “good people” we know exactly where you stand and where you have stood your entire life.  This is nothing new.  You and your family were racists and sexists, KKK members, Nazi supporters and today people who have cheated the United States of America  through the way your family handled its finances.  The United States of America, the government over which you claim you are president.  You were trained into evil by your parents – your immigrant parents – and you have taken their training steps further down the road to perdition.

And to set the record straight – Senator Grassley, another racist, sexist and probably neo-Nazi is someone who follows you and does your bidding  is who he is not because of his age.  He has always been like that – go back into his record and you will see he comes out as he is today through years of experience acting out his racism, sexism, and Nazi tendencies.

McConnell simply wants power and is shrewd and without ethics enough to do whatever he has to do to get and keep power even if his actions border on the same evil you are spreading around the world.  Power is addictive and he is a total addict, probably irretrievable.

Beyond all of the above, I would like to know what part Christopher Wray – a Trump appointee – played in all of this?  The FBI has been mentioned, but its leader, who could have and probably did have some influence in how those investigations went, has not been mentioned at all.

To call Dr. Ford evil and to mock her the way you did in front of the people, some of whom claim, you paid them to sit there in your rallies and yell their approval of whatever you had to say, is evil Donald Trump.  It also says you have one use for women and after that they should just go away until the next time you need to sexually assault another human being.

Sexual assault is something you see as your right.  Not my words, Donald Trump, but your own words.  You and those with you think sexual assault is not a crime, but something they should not be harassed about because that is what they engage in.  You set the example.  Your election, with all that you have done, clearly says the Republican Party is a sexist, white nationalist group intent on remaking this country into a country led by fascists who have not one shred of decency nor ethics and whose character is in the toilet.

Not one corporation in America would have hired Brett Kavanaugh.  He is not innocent until proven guilty – he has not been charged in a court of law.  He is credibly charged, as his background is exposed in the process which all candidates for Supreme Court Justice must engage,  with at least three sexual assaults against women and incredible intolerable drunkennes and American Corporations will not, under any circumstances, hire such a person.  You made sure, however, that he was promoted to the highest position in his field in these United States of America because those are the kind of people with whom you always have surrounded yourself and now as president you do the same in spades.  You clearly have no tolerance for good, clean, law abiding people because they will not serve your purposes.  They will be fired or resign before they do or will tolerate some of the things you have pulled in what was a republic on its way to a democracy.  You have intervened and your illegitimate presidency has taken this republic and put it on the road to a fascist, intolerant, Nazi-type country – and of that you are proud.

Judgment Day is right around the corner and I don’t mean Mueller’s.  No one can get away with what you have done and are doing – the universe will not allow it.  Not just what you have done as president but all the years before your presidency.  I have seen people who fell off that straight and narrow road, but who worked to pull themselves together and become better functioning members working to bring about a just society.  You have been evil from your youth with no thought of apologizing nor atoning for your sins.

The only thing keeping you today are your years when the television industry dusted you off and used your image to create a person many people would like to be or befriend.  The fact that you are not that person – you only played that person on television the way Bill Cosby played a great father figure while sexually assaulting women – and when you did play that person for whom you were the avatar you were told what to do and how to act with many supporting even putting on your makeup, combing your hair, picking out your clothes and so much more.  That is who we now have as president of these United States.  A figurehead performing, as if on television, the role of President of the United States of America and this is who the Republican Party supports.  And please don’t say I am just another angry Democrat.  I have never been a part of the Democratic Party in my life.  I was a life-long Republican.  I saw the beginnings of the making of this forest of evil startingg with Strom Thurmond when he left the Democratic Party and moved into the Republican Party.  I thought it was temporary and I could fight what was happening because the Republican Party had such a fantastic history.  I had an African American cousin who was head of the Louisiana Republican Party.  This was my Party.  Well, wasn’t I foolish and emotional when I should have stepped back to see the reality of what was happening.

The Republican Party has become the playground of every bigot in the world with political aspirations and it isn’t even ashamed as everyone inside and outside of the Republican Party sees what is and has happened.

People are fleeing – I am not alone.

You think this is angry?  I had to calm myself way down before I could even begin to write this.  This is above any anger I have ever felt.  I will have to pray hard for months to overcome this.

May God have mercy on your soul.

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

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

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

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

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

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

 

 

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Posted in #meToo, Adolph Hitler, American Corporate Businesses, Charlottesville VA, Christine Blasey Ford, Clarence Thomas, Class in America and the World, Donald Trump, Joseph McCarthy, politics, racism, Russia, sexism, Sexual Assault, Vladimir Putin, William Shine | Comments Off on Donald Trump – Don’t You Dare…

An Anniversary Celebration of the Trump Access Tape

October 6th, 2018

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

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

Comments from Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Members:

Member #1

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

Member #2

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

Member #3

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

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

Member #4

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

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

Member #5

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

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

Member #6

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

Member #7

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

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

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

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

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

Member #8

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

Member #9

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

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

Member #10

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

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

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

Member #11

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

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

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

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

Member #12

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

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

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

October 4th, 2018

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why is Trump Pushing Kavanaugh so Insistently?

October 3rd, 2018

From a Bettina Network Lifestyle Member:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Posted in Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Bettina's Cookbook, Brett Kavanaugh, Christine Balsey Ford, Donald Trump, Guest comments, sexism | Comments Off on Why is Trump Pushing Kavanaugh so Insistently?

Hillary Clinton – Thank you!

October 2nd, 2018

by: Marceline Donaldson

I saw Hillary Clinton on television today talking about the Kavanaugh situation, among other things.

She has been dumped on by Donald Trump unbelievably and when in trouble, it seems as though  Brett Kavanaugh has picked up the habit.  For white males – when things don’t go your way, dump on a prominent woman.  Especially, dump on one who has accomplished much and is about eliminating the misogyny you practice. The way both have treated women is an example of evil.  Given that, I thought I might summarize some of the things I remember about Hillary.

When Richard Nixon was in office, one of the negative things he did was to give money to white only academies claiming that was a great way to expand the educational offerings and a good use for tax payers money.  Those were the days when schools were being pushed to integrate and white families were sending their children to these “academies”.   – They were for whites only, private schools, many evangelical church sponsored and all seem to have been financed with government funds.

These academies were draining books and equipment and everything else from schools open to all children, but there was a lot of anger among whites that their children were being put in this ugly position of having to go to the same school African American children attended so they had no thoughts about going after and accepting this money – probably without one thought in their heads that some of the money they were accepting for the schools they were establishing for whites only came from money earned by African Americans.

Hillary Clinton was working with Marian Wright Edelman at the time.  When she left Wellesley College, the first place she went was to work with Ms. Edelman trying to establish schools for those children who were orphans.

In 1972 Hillary went undercover in Dothan, Alabama because everyone knew the money the government was giving to these academies was being given to schools which did not accept blacks.  That would have violated what the money was to be used for and the kind of schools which should have been given that government money.  The schools denied that they were racist and declared they were open to every child, the problem – according to the administration in those school was not that they were eliminating and not accepting blacks, but the problem was blacks didn’t apply.

Hillary went undercover posing as a white parent – and of course she found that only whites were accepted, any and all blacks were rejected and so some of those academies lost their government funding.

I suspect that is something Donald Trump and his follower hold against Hillary.  It is, however, something about her that we celebrate.

Over the years Hillary – between jobs as she moved up the ladder job wise and politically – always found time to go back to work with Marian Edelman and was quite successful in what both she and Marian accomplished.

I thank her for caring and apologize because many in the society in which we live cannot and will not accept women as equal and particularly can’t accept a white woman who has worked as hard for the equality of blacks as she has.  It is certainly not because Hillary wasn’t out there fighting to open doors for all of us.

When things get tough for you Ms. Rodham, remember that there are lots of people like me out here holding you up in prayer, thanking you for your work and thanking God for your life.

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

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

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The F. A. Kennedy Steam Bakery & the Fig Newton

October 1st, 2018

Copyright The Kennedy Family 2008

Editors Note: As we share our homes with you, so we share our histories.
“In 1840 my great, great grandfather, Artemus Kennedy established a cracker baking company in Cambridgeport, MA.
The first oven was set up in a small building on what is now Massachusetts Avenue. There employees rolled each cracker by hand and pitched them into the oven one by one.
They used four barrels of flour per day to make the crackers.
Artemus Kennedy had only one child, a son, Frank Artemus Kennedy, born in 1841 in Cambridge, MA. When Frank was only 20 years old, his father died unexpectedly. This obliged him to take over his family’s business rather than attend college as he had hoped to do. Despite his young age, he proceeded to manage the company with imagination, vigor and far-sightedness.
At the time, there were only three types of crackers being produced in the Kennedy company: a soda, a butter and a sugar one.
Within a few years, F. A. Kennedy had made numerous innovations. The most important one was the introduction of a so-called reel oven. Traditionally, baking had always been done in stationary ovens, one batch at a time. The reel oven he introduced, ran like what we know today as a Ferris wheel (The first Ferris wheel was introduced at the World Columbian Exposition in 1893, so it had not yet been invented.)
This new way of baking dramatically increased production and within a few years it was necessary to construct a larger factory on Green Street to handle national demand of all the wonderful cookies and such. Today, over 120 years later, this brick building still stands. One can read the faded white writing on the top of the building: ‘KENNEDY BISCUIT COMPANY.’
The factory, at one point late in the last century, was scheduled for demolition. Fortunately, it was decided instead to save and renovate the historic old building. It was turned into what was appropriately named ‘THE KENNEDY BISCUIT LOFTS’ at University Park at M.I.T. The Building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and received a 1990 Preservation Award from the Massachusetts Historical Commission. Today it has 142 apartments, artist lofts and a day care center. It has retained exposed masonry and framing, oversized windows, brick vaults and arches and skylights. Some of the original brick baking ovens were kept and incorporated as alcoves into some of the apartments and corridors. A reel oven was rescued and can now be viewed in the lobby. Recently, I brought my youngest grandchild to visit where his great, great, great grandfather had baked Fig Newton cookies, it was a great moment for both of us.
I’m proud that my great grandfather, F. A. Kennedy, was the first to introduce a New England favorite – sealed tins of Boston Baked Beans – shipped around the world, and especially the most famous remainders of his original factory FIG NEWTONS and SOCIAL TEA BISCUITS.
The Fig Newton cookie was created in 1891 by Joshua Josephson of the Kennedy Biscuit Company. The company named many of its products after surrounding communities. This one was named after the town of Newton.
Indeed, I am fortunate to own the original hand-written recipe booklet for these cookies, a very wonderful artifact of family history!
In May of 1890, the F. A. Kennedy Company sold out to the New York Biscuit Company (and became the National Biscuit Company – NABISCO.)
When the merger was complete, the Kennedy plant had a capacity of two hundred and fifty barrels of flour, six hundred eggs, fourteen hundred pounds of butter per day! A huge leap from the mere four barrels of flour a day when the company was first established!
Written November 21, 2008 – on the occasion of my grandson’s 10th birthday.”
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The Kavanaugh Hearings Ended

September 28th, 2018

The Kavanaugh hearing just ended.  I watched them from their beginning at 10am through their ending at about 6:45pm.  Decency, truthfulness, respect, no longer exist in this country.  I don’t know when I have seen anything more degrading, more devoid of anything except the acting out of a petulant teen who was responded to by other very ugly teen delinquents in that room.

Dr. Ford’s testimony was first.  Listening to her being questioned and hearing her honest, forthright answers, I felt as though these United States had been redeemed and we were going to be alright after all.  She managed to testify for hours without cursing; without yelling and screaming; without having a temper tantrum and without insulting those questioning her.  She simply and clearly and as honestly as possible answered the questions put to her.

That civility stopped when she finished her testimony and questioning and left the room.   Brett Kavanaugh then entered the room and started his testimony.  Everything then became ugly, vicious, lying, dissembling, distracting, belligerent, insulting those who asked questions he didn’t want to answer and literally turning in his seat to turn his back on those who he apparently didn’t like.

Respect left the room – as did the decency, truthfulness, and all those good things which you could feel in the room with Dr. Ford doing her best to make sure her answers were truthful and that she was as respectful to those asking her questions as she could be.  She did not dissemble – trot out stories of how great she was; what a fantastic education she had; her amazing accomplishments with bull shit pouring out of every pore.   The truth and direct answers are what Dr. Ford relied upon.

When Brett Kavanaugh entered the room entitlement; hatefulness; a 14 year old having an out of control temper tantrum,  screaming,  interrupting, insulting Democratic Senators who questioned him and to whom he didn’t want to or would not give a straight answer to entered the room.   It was too horrible to adequately describe.

My hope for this country left.  My feeling that we were being redeemed and were going back to being a respectful, gracious, honest, decent country was wrong.  Brett Kavanaugh channeled Donald Trump in that room and the Republican Senators did the same.  There was yelling – blaming viciously – playing politics – hiding the truth – insulting Senator Diane Feinstein by accusing her of lying.  It was an unbelievable show.

The hearing was about sexual assault.  The mechanics of the hearing were totally sexually abusive and made a clear statement that women are less than human and are to be treated so that they know they are not the great white Republican Senators equals.

The “assistant” – Rachel Mitchell, who was brought from Maricopa in Arizona to ask the questions and interrogate Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh – or so we were told that is what was going to happen – wasn’t allowed to do that.

Dr. Ford did an elegant, careful, respectful job.  Attorney Mitchell asked her questions, but did that in a way that was respectful of everyone.  For five minutes she asked questions of Dr. Ford for one of the white male Republican Senators.  For the next five minutes a Democratic Senator asked their own questions of Dr. Ford.  Attorney Mitchell then asked questions for another five minutes for the next white male Republican Senator and for  the next five minutes a Democratic Senator asked their own questions of Dr. Ford.  The Democratic Senators were white, black, asian, jewish, male, female and more.  The Republican Senators were totally and completely all white and all male and all WASP.

At the end of that time came Brett Kavanaugh  – to be questioned.  He gave his opening statement and it was a screaming, angry, belligerent out of control rant during which he rotated between temper tantrums, crying, being hateful and demeaning of everyone.  His face almost never changed from its very angry expression and his demeanor kept its belligerence until the whole thing ended.  It was degrading, demeaning, dishonest, insulting of some of the Democratic Senators – particularly of Senator Klobuchar and more.

When the questioning started Attorney Mitchell asked questions of Brett Kavanaugh for one of the white male Republican Senators.  Kavanaugh went off the deep end.  The next five minutes a Democratic Senator asked questions of Brett Kavanaugh.

The second time around one of the white male Republican Senators moved Attorney Mitchell out of the way and took over to ask his own questions and for five minutes asked questions of Brett Kavanaugh and for the next five minutes one of the Democratic Senators took over and for five minutes asked questions of Brett Kavanaugh.

The extreme misogyny of that performance was just mind blowing.  The white, male Republicans were totally unaware of the fact that they reflected and enacted the sexual abuse that they were investigating and questioning Brett Kavanaugh about.  Dr. Ford was questioned by Attorney Mitchell – a woman brought from Maricopa in Arizona for that specific purpose, but when that was done the white, male, Republican Senators started taking turns asking Kavanaugh questions for five minutes and then a Democratic Senator took over and asked him questions for the next five minutes.

Apparently, the Republican Senators were not going to demean themselves talking to a woman and questioning her – they left that up to another woman.  They took over with Brett Kavanaugh asking him questions themselves.  After asking questions of one white male Republican Senator, Attorney Mitchell was stopped and the WASP Senators took over themselves talking directly to Brett Kavanaugh.  Lindsey Graham asked if he could have the floor because he was quite angry about this whole thing and felt Brett Kavanaughw wasn’t being treated properly.  Senator Graham then went on a rant for quite a few minutes and certainly didn’t let the five minute rule stop him.

Senator Graham clearly was playing up to Senator John McCain when he was alive and they were friends.  He apparently played McCain to be a part of his power and influence group.  He is no longer that person.  He is now all up into Donald Trump and has become his lackey with no thoughts of his own simply reflecting what he apparently believes Donald Trump wants to see.  It is an entire 180 degree turn and not pretty.

Kavanaugh was very ugly to the Democratic Senators refusing to answer one Democratic Senators question in the ugliest way.   He was extremely ugly to Senator Klobuchar who was asking Kavanaugh questions about the drinking of which he had been accused.   Trying to ease the tensions and anger that showed in his face, she  talked for a minute about her father who had an alcohol problem.  Brett Kavanaugh then proceeded to interrupt her and in the ugliest way asked her if she had a drinking problem also and refused to answer her questions.  When he returned after a break he had to apologize to Senator Klobuchar because his response to her had been so vicious.

The kind of sexism practiced during that hearing over the time Brett Kavanaugh was being questioned was beyond belief.  The arrogance, refusal to answer questions, the constant responding to Senators questions with a list of his great accomplishments in sports and his being accepted by the top law school in the country and enumerating his achievements in sports because he was such a great sports figure, instead of answering the Senators’ questions made me sick to my stomach.

It was a performance worthy of Donald Trump and his folks.  The ugly, vicious, untruthful way Brett Kavanaugh conducted himself said clearly he was guilty and Dr. Ford was clearly truthful.

I have seen many hearings in my day.  Never have I seen one so crude, vicious, full of lies, poutings by an out of control teenager, yelling at the top of his voice, bullying everyone, degrading himself and the process of which he was a part with the white male Republican Senators responding with equal amounts of bullying, viciousness and clear attempts to demean and destroy Senator Feinstein- it was an unbelievable performance.

One Republican Senator went so far as to call Senator Feinstein a liar.  They have become so accustomed to the community of liars that has developed since Donald Trump has become president and has shown himself to be a pathological liar that all of Trump’s ugly ways are totally permeating this society.  They so permeated the hearing that you had little hope for anything except a country moving further down into the muck, filth, slim and degradation.

God help us all.  From what I saw today only God can intervene here and bring about some kind of redemption.   Dr. Ford brought to everyone in the hearing room a feeling that we had been redeemed.  She certainly presented that and was clearly a presence of truth, graciousness and a breath of fresh air.  That was cut off when Brett Kavanaugh appeared and his testimony started.  I keep repeating myself, but the degradation he brought into that hearing room was only surpassed by the way the WASP Republican Senators topped the filth he brought.  A petulant, belligerent out of control teen delinquent showed clearly that he is very capable of having done that of which he was accused.  His personality – the way he treated the women in that room – the way he treated other Democratic Senators asking him questions he didn’t want to answer and so would go off on some kind of rant, or turn his back to whoever was irritating him, or made cutting remarks back to the person questioning him – it was beyond disturbing.  If he becomes a U. S. Supreme Court Justice, God help this country.  We will have someone who could be guilty of breaking the laws of this country sitting as a justice in our highest Court judging others.  So much for the rule of law and justice.

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The Big Day – Corruption and Sin – or Walk into the Light!

September 27th, 2018

by: Marceline Donaldson

It is amazing to turn on the television and hear what we are doing to ourselves in the name of politics. – Actually, in the name of maintaining the ability to exercise continued power, control, to satisfy our greed and fear.

Lives are being upheaval and in actual fact, we are in the process of making fools of ourselves for our children to read in history class, shaking their heads in disbelief,  at just how high a price their parents and people they once looked up to  were willing to pay as they moved ahead on this day fueled by fear – and that need for power and control – and the greed being so publicly displayed.   It is overwhelming.

Todays’ hearing, which should be about truth, but is really about moving the boulders out of the way to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U. S. Supreme Court is being set up as a travesty and distortion of justice.  Those setting up this hearing have been doing everything possible to ignore justice and create the stage on which the result is pre-determined and which the sexual assaulters of the world, watching with keen interest, will be well pleased.  The preparations for this hearing  are displaying how to maintain extreme sexism at any cost  and those preparations are showing the world the misogyny entrenched in this United States system of government and how it works to maintain the position of white upper class men as “better than”.

Not only is this hearing showing that, but it is also showing how all of this is set up to get those who always lose everything, are manipulated into supporting and carrying forth the needs of this small group of WASPs to their own detriment and how they are pushed into doing that with no recompense and with the idea that this is all in their interest too.

It was heartbreaking to hear a Republican woman, who looked like a very middle to lower middle class white woman with a family of two female teens talking to the press and telling the world that all men grope women and girls, that is just a part of who they are and  her daughters couldn’t object to that male inappropriate groping because everybody does it and everybody experiences it so you just have to go with the flow and ignore the groping and its consequences. Two young teen aged girls being taught by their mother to accept male groping and experience it as just a normal part of life.

Todays’ hearing is all about the care and maintenance of a “better than” society.  How to protect it and take down those who would throw open the windows and doors and let fresh air circulate for the health and well being and equality of everyone.

We have the Mormon Church in the dock – represented by one of its past presidents.  We know enough about the Mormon Church and how it works, especially as regards to its leaders, to know Orrin Hatch could not be out there spreading his vileness without the support and protection of his church.

We have the once grand Republican Party – to which I once belonged, having been conditioned in my Republicanism by several generations before me.  It was the party which welcomed African Americans, allowed you to vote and protected you from being lynched.  It was the only Political Party way back then which allowed Negroes to be elected to office and to be a part of and have a seat at its Conventions. It was the only breath of fresh air in the south when violence against Negroes rode the streets in white sheets and pointy hats.

Who would have thought that in 2018 we would have a president of these United States – a Republican, backed by the Republican Party – who has brought all of the fear, violence and bigotry moved out by Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement along with Betty Friedan, Pauli Murray and all the feminist leaders who worked so hard and sacrificed so much to move  out of these United States what this illegitimate president,  Donald Trump, is working so hard to bring back into this society, into these United States of America and who is bringing it back leaning on the shoulders of his ancestors who walked the streets of Washington, D. C. in their white sheets and pointy hats, some of whom made their living on the backs of and at the expense of the lives of women.  Who would have thought that this Republican president would be bringing back into these United States the Nazi Party and beliefs of Adolf Hitler along with all of the White Supremacy groups who are growing stronger by the day.  How the mighty have fallen!

All of this orchestrated by the President of the United States – Donald Trump – in the employ of a foreign country and the mafia to sow as much discord, division, and whatever other negatives he can throw into the pile so that their taking over these United States and getting rid of its democracy will be so much easier as our foreign intruders show up foaming at the mouth to clean up the spoils.  Trump is doing a magnificent job in spite of our best efforts to stop him.  He creates one garbage pile after another and the stench from the work he is doing is becoming unbearable.

It looks as though these Republican Senators today will publicly and flagrantly violate everyone’s rights because their backers are demanding that Brett Kavanaugh be confirmed?  They see him working for their best interest and they want him confirmed NOW?  His grooming and time spent as a Republican Political Operative has shown him to be very good at what he does and that is the kind of person they want on the Supreme Court.

What do we have:

The WASP members of the Judiciary Committee of the Republican Party have decided they cannot and will not do their job representing their constituencies in questioning the candidate for the United States Supreme Court – Brett Kavanaugh and the woman accusing him of sexual assault – Christine Blasey Ford.  The other women so accusing him and the witnesses to all of this have been discarded as though they don’t exist.

WHY?  Because they are still stinging from the feedback from the incredibly mean, vicious, misogynous job they did when Clarence Thomas was sitting in Brett Kavanaugh’s seat.  Today the structure of sexism and racism in this society, firmly entrenched in all that happens in these United States, is on display for all to see.  Also on display is how we act when that structure is threatened with collapse, extinction and more.  Clarence Thomas is an African American male and not one of the upper class men who rule this country – whether they are in or out of office.  Brett Kavanaugh – although Catholic – has been groomed to serve the very upper classes in this society and so far, he has done an incredible job of serving his masters.  They see how useful he will be on the United States Supreme Court.

What is most amazing – the president of these United States – a pathological liar and a self-admitted sexual assaulter of women is accusing the women who have come forward at great expense to their lives, their families and their future to tell the truth – this liar and sexual assaulter has called the women who have been sexually assaulted, liars and he has tried to justify the sexual assault and abuse charges against himself by using what is happening in this Brett Kavanaugh affair.  The rest of us need to call them heroes for the way they have conducted themselves and the determination with which they are moving forward to make their experiences with Brett Kavanaugh public so we have something on which to decide if this man should get the job of a justice of the U. S. Supreme Court or not. And while we are doing that we need to call Donald Trump out for what he is – a sexual assaulter; a racist; a misogynist and a pathological liar.

Standing behind all of this we see the men of the Bush family and their class circle backed by the American Oligarchs – although the Oligarch’s a bit lower in class.  Totally free of the stain of what is happening, but responsible for seeing Kavanaugh as someone who could carry out the wishes and demands of their WASP class in this society. We also have the Bush family to thank for Clarence Thomas.  George Bush, the son, was one of the first people to rush out to endorse Brett Kavanaugh – someone he knew as a Republican Political Operative and someone whose work he knew, which means he knew what that would mean to the rest of society if Kavanaugh became a member of the U. S. Supreme Court.  Whether he knew of the sexual assault is only his to say and his conscience to reckon with

I didn’t see that component as clearly as I do today.  This fiasco has had its silver lining.  Many of us now understand and can see this structure without all of the pretty trappings in which it has been enclosed.  The shiny objects meant to distract us have been shelved and we see – with nothing hiding or shading or obscuring just who we are and the farce that has been playing for generations.

So – back at the ranch, the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee went out and hired an “assistant” to work with them to get the job done of making sure that all of the trash was swept out of the way which was cluttering up the road to Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

I don’t know of one corporation in this world which would hire someone to work for them at any job with the kind of sexual assault allegations hanging over that person as are hanging over Brett Kavanaugh, but the United States Senate is moving and doing everything it can to make sure he is hired by the United States Government to be a justice on the Supreme Court.

What kind of trash has this “assistant” been hired to remove?  The women who were assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh and have had the moral fortitude and civic sense of responsibility to come out and tell their stories.  Tell their stories so the rest of us would have a better life without another sexual assaulter getting a seat of power in this United States Government.

What has this group of Republicans on the Judiciary Committee done to promote their cause – to gain power, control over and to exacerbate their greed and fear?  What have they done to make sure women are never able to stand as equal and independent members of this society?

They went to Maricopa in Arizona to hire an “assistant”  – a woman – to do their dirty work so they could sit back and watch the arena in which they have put one woman against another. A man would have been called an attorney, etc.

       Why did they go to Maricopa?  Well, think carefully now –

isn’t that where Sheriff Arpaio comes from?  

the man Donald Trump pardoned, who is beholden to Donald Trump and has said so publicly?

Isn’t the woman they hired a five year colleague of Sheriff Arpaio?  

And isn’t she a registered Republican?

 And hasn’t she been put on their ‘team’ to get the job done of getting Brett Kavanaugh confirmed? And isn’t she working with her (their) team to prepare everyone to get the best result so they will be successful at the end of the day?

Listen carefully and you will be able to hear the laughter from the back room as they all get together and gloat over what they have put together for this hearing for this confirmation to go through leaving the Democrats destroyed in their wake.  The loudest laugh you hear is coming from Donald Trump.

This is what happens when a self-admitted sexual assaulter and sexual predator, who brags about his deeds and how great and powerful he is at sexually assaulting any woman he so chooses to assault,  is elected as president of these United States.  He appoints sexual predators to important posts.

What does the life of the Republican Congressmen look like if we were to play a movie on a big screen showing their every moment of life?  Would we see interludes where they showed themselves to be just like their president?  Is that why they are so furiously backing him?  Why they cannot and will not see the horror of what Brett Kavanaugh has done – what Clarence Thomas has done?  What all of the sexual assaulters have done to destroy the lives of countless women?  Do they have a tin ear and refuse to look at all of this as wrong because these are activities in which they have engaged and have refused to negatively judge themselves?

Having been referred to as an “assistant” gives you the mind set of this Judiciary Committee.  It also gives you the mind set of Attorney Mitchell who agreed to come across the country to do this job for who she considers her peers – her Republican operatives – Congressmen – and others.  Does she not realize she is considered as no better than the women Brett Kavanaugh is accused of sexually assaulting?  That she is looked upon as an object to be used to abuse other women who expected some other kind of treatment?

There is something called Karma.  Other cultures would say “what goes around comes around”.

That is certainly true of Brett Kavanaugh who spent a good deal of his professional life using claims of sexual assault to destroy the lives of others?

Your day is coming Donald Trump.  You have brought into the current life of these United States the spirit of Joseph McCarthy – the man who upheaveled this country for several years and who destroyed many lives before he was taken down.  He did his deeds in a drunken stupor.  Amazingly, his attacks also circled around Russia.  What is your drug of choice?  He did it with the help and advice of Roy Cohn – and these are two of your most cherished mentors and idols.  You have patterned your life after Joseph McCarthy’s and you are causing as much pain in this country as he and his antics caused in their day.  You learned at his feet and you learned on your knees from Roy Cohn.  You learned your lessons well.  The question is – how well have we learned to recognize the likes of you and to move to put an end to your destruction of all we hold dear and which for several hundred years our ancestors paid with their lives to create for us a country – as best they could – which would open its doors to all people and which would respect and hold all people as equals.

Why is equality such a difficult concept and such an impossible way for many to live their lives?  Are we that lacking in love?

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Posted in Adolph Hitler, American Oligarchs, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Breakfast Table Talk, Brett Kavanaugh, Catholic Church, Christine Balsey Ford, Clarence Thomas, Class in America and the World, Donald Trump, Joseph McCarthy, Nazism, politics, racism, Roy Cohn, sexism, Sexual Assault | Comments Off on The Big Day – Corruption and Sin – or Walk into the Light!

…AND THEY LAUGHED AT HIM! – MY PRESIDENT

September 26th, 2018

I watched as my president took the stage and looked so confident.  He looked as though he was ready, able and knew he would successfully take on and make an overwhelming speech for this crowd which was not his own, but he was the United States President.  He’d done this multiple times to thunderous applause and this would be no exception.  The smug look on his face; the arrogance of his stance; the assuredness of his expression said it all.

He started with how great he was as president of the United States.  He didn’t list his accomplishments he just said they were better than the accomplishments of any other administration in U. S. history.  …..And they laughed.

I didn’t laugh.  My mind went back to all I had witnessed of his accomplishments and how he has affected my life.

I went back to Charlottesville, VA and the neo-Nazi’s, the White Nationalists, the KKK and others coming down that mountain with tiki torches re-enacting Crystalnacht.  The people in that United Nations building knew all that.  Their countries had been negatively affected by the actual Crystalnacht and what happened after.  The United States came to the rescue of more than one of those countries when Hitler reduced them to violence, viciousness, and years of a horrible existence.

This U. S. President and my family are forever intertwined in my mind.  I remembered my grandmother while listening to the laughter. I never met her.  She was taken, before I was born, to one of Hitler’s Concentration Camps where she worked under extreme conditions and finally was killed in the most barbarous way with her body thrown into a ditch so we have no grave nor gravestone for her.  I can only keep her alive in my mind with imaginary conversations I wish we had been able to have over the years.  And today I am standing, listening to  this U. S. President, who called the people, really good people, who re-enacted Crystalnacht, all of those neo-Nazi’s, White Nationalists and others, who acted violently against those who protested against that for which they stood.   This president in front of all of these world wide diplomats talked and they laughed at him.

This U. S. President went on talking and expounded the Nazi doctrine adapted for the United States called “America First”.  A movement initiated by the neo-Nazi’s and fairly successful in America.  A movement started in small ‘cell’ groups to get this doctrine accepted across the United States as one stage in their plan to bring back Hitler’s Germany, reincarnated in the United States.  This president talked positively about that America First campaign and they laughed.

I thought of all the pain and suffering of the little children in these United States, who had experienced some awful things in their own countries which made them and their parents flee.  After months of experiencing everything new and negative as they traveled to reach the safety of the United States arrived to what they had never been able to conceive nor thought possible – being taken away from their parents – their safe harbor – and put into American Concentration Camps so their parents, legitimately or not, could be prosecuted and ejected from the country to which they came seeking refuge.

I heard again, in my mind, people talking about these Concentration Camps for children as though they were summer camp – as though they were private school equivalents – and I watched in my mind all of those children suffering the pain of separation from parents who promised them safety and couldn’t produce it for them because of this U. S. President and his administration. And the background for my memories was the laughter.

Listening to that laughter, I thought and saw again the image of this president selling out the security forces of  the United States while speaking on a platform in Helsinki making clear statements that he trusted Vladimir Putin and Russia, but not the FBI – the CIA – the National Security forces of the government which he was standing there representing as its president.

Having been a victim of sexual assault I stood there remembering how awful that was and remembering the  19 plus women who made even worse charges against this president and in spite of that he was still elected – by who?  Who could be so callous, so cold, so unbelievably vicious as to push forth such a person as leader of America?  And here we were as I listened to the laughter and thought of my pain and the pain of so many other women.

I see an America where a president who has bragged about sexually assaulting women as though he had reached some great level of achievement appointing others to top positions who have done the same thing and turning over to them different parts of the governing of the United States.  I thought of William Shine – a man this president appointed after he knew of the substantial way Mr. Shine supported Roger Ailes, president of Fox, throughout Mr. Ailes sexual assault against many women trying to make a living inside and outside of Fox television.  By this time I was standing there shaking because the realization hit that Mr. Shine was only one of many such sexual predators and enablers of sexual predators with whom this president associated, had as his close friends and who he appointed to serve in this United States Government.  And through those thoughts came the laughter.

So many sexual assaulters in high places and now possibly another being elevated to become the second such person on the United States Supreme Court.  This time, a man accused of sexual assault who claimed, as his defense, that he really did not engage in sex with anyone throughout high school and many years thereafter, didn’t drink and worked very hard at his studies.  It is too much to comprehend.  My mind is totally blown that this is how low we have been brought and still they were laughing.

So much more of this ugliness has happened during this President and his family’s ‘reign’ over these United States, but my mind can’t comprehend anymore.  My reaction to the U. S. President and the comments he made as an introduction to and throughout his talk at the United Nations was to walk out.  Why are they still sitting and laughing and not walking out with me, beside me, for me, around me?

And as I reached the door I could hear the laughter still ringing in my ears.

Will we ever………………

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

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

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

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Posted in Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Breakfast Table Talk, Charlottesville VA, Donald Trump, Immigration, politics, racism, Refugees, sexism, Sexual Assault, United Nations | Comments Off on …AND THEY LAUGHED AT HIM! – MY PRESIDENT

Look at what we are doing! Join us!

September 25th, 2018

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

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

To Bettina Network, inc. we have added:

BETTINA NETWORK HEDGE SCHOOLS

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

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

Hedge School Families share their histories, experiences, learning and wisdom when you choose to stay with them when you travel.

Hedge School Facilitators travel Bettina Network and turn up in the most unexpected places.  They bring an added layer of learning as the HSF specialize in many different areas of learning and doing.

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

Some facts on Bettina procedures

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

We get to know the family with whom you will be staying and we keep up with our homes on a daily basis.

We send out a “Guest Questionnaire” to everyone who stays in a Bettina Home and our return rate is 90%. That tells us – usually in great detail – the experience of a guest and keeps us aware in another way of what is happening in Bettina Network homes.

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

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

And don’t forget Bettina Network’s blog

www.bettinanetwork.com/blog

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

Given our resources, we have information, news, and ideas you won’t find anyplace else.Join our little group, add your voice and use our services.

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

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

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

Sincerely,

All of us at Bettina’s

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Get Out of that Trump Base – NOW!

September 24th, 2018

Who do you think you are – all of you claiming to be supporters of Trump because you don’t like the direction in which this country is going and you want Donald Trump to change it.  That is your wish, followed by your vote.  That was also my wish – and it was a thinly veiled wish of someone who was hiding his racism and sexism from himself and everybody else with platitudes up the kazoo.

Mafia – Sleaze – Bigotry – Sexual Assault – Sexual Abuse – Sexual Harassment – Getting rich on our backs while making his friends super rich and those working so hard to support him and his friends moving into the area of destitute.  I just lost my job, thanks to Mr. Trump’s wonderful, great, glowing, expanding economy which will make more billionaires,  more middle class out of jobs and shortly more homeless as a result.

This is what you have wrought and continue to give strength to in this country. What is wrong that we can’t see and build and flourish in a country with as many resources as the United States?

What are our children seeing?  What values are we bringing to them voting our bigotry instead of a higher set of values which I must have been taught at some point in my life.  Although when I look around at my peers and my church I can’t figure out when that happened.

Our children had the example of Barack Obama – an African American man.  Not one scandal in his entire time in office. An exemplary president.  So you showed our children over 8 years what African Americans are like through this African American president. That scared the life out of me.  I don’t know why, but it did.  I had to put a stop to what I saw about to happen.  Today, watching Trump I must have been temporarily insane.

And now you are showing them – children born some 15 years ago through those coming up now – what it is like to have a White – Northern European ancestry president.  I read one of your blogs months ago about the example and what our children were seeing and it scared me.

We should be scared about sitting back waxing eloquent about this man who lies, cheats, steals, assaults women, apparently has ties to and has laundered money for the Italian, the Russian, the Eastern European mafia. Do we really think he is going to listen to and be like anyone else when that has been his history?

How do you think that is going to strike our children growing up?  Will they choose to be like this president and adopt his morals, his values, his way of being?  Or are they going to think they have to look up to African Americans because their own White ancestry is so flawed and corrupt?  Power corrupts and we have certainly misused and abused power.

Ever stop to think of that?  At this point – my disgust is such I wish they would follow African Americans. I can’t believe I am really writing this.  I don’t even know out of which brain or life this is coming.

In a society without such a long history of bigotry we could have an excellent president of one color and a corrupt president of another color and those judgments would not be made by our children along the color/race line, but along the character line.  But in America we have a heavy history of bigotry and it has grown stronger during Donald Trump’s presidency.  The intentional re-enactment of Crystalnacht – that time in Germany which heralded so much pain, agony, blood shed, death and more – under this Trump Presidency with Donald Trump himself giving a speech holding up those who participated in and organized that scene scorched  our lives and cannot be wiped from our memory.

And now today you have the horribleness – with your children watching – of a president who admitted and bragged about sexually assaulting women before he was elected, during his campaign and and after and we voted for him anyway – so we now have this president acting out his lifestyle and beliefs, just in case we told ourselves things would change once he was elected president.

What changed in this country after the election of Donald Trump?

Our public language is now gutter talk – even on prime time television.  As a sexual assaulter he has appointed his friends to high, medium and low places in his government who are also sexual assaulters and he will continue to do so and rub his power to do so in our faces while corrupting our children.  How do you think our children will turn out? Upstanding citizens – great values – strong positive characters – knowing that lying is wrong and the truth is that on which we stand?  Or will our children replicate the values of this American president – lying, cheating, stealing, assaulting women as his right, lying about it and advising those he appoints with the same proclivities to “deny, deny, deny” bragging about their misdeeds, lying to all around to cover what they are doing under the guise of doing what’s best for you, their friends and the country?

How do you feel now America?

It is past the time for this President to go – taking his vice President with him, his family and all of the people he has appointed to office – none of whom can be trusted to be honest, upright, law abiding citizens of this country.  Or is this an environment in which we are comfortable and want to continue to live because lying, sexual assault, cheating, being extremely hypocritical, doing what we can to pull the wool over the eyes of those around us, manipulating everyone all the time because we intend to help him make off with this country’s  family jewels? Do we really believe we have a pearl of great price left to us by this president for our work on his behalf?  Bite into that pearl and it will quickly crush all in our mouth.

Isn’t it time to cut and run in the opposite direction before the slim and muck of that enlarged, deepened and fouled up swamp gets out of its banks and coats the entire country?

Who is writing this?

I am a very furious man – furious at myself for having supported Donald Trump in his run for the presidency – furious at myself and my family for lying about why we were voting for him – furious at this society which encouraged my racism and sexism which I have passed down to my children – furious at the lack of a good role model for us all – and mostly furious at all of us for not having recognized goodness when we had such a family in the White House.  Why didn’t we recognize such – the color of his skin stopped us from seeing the beauty of his character.  You Bettina folks would say – God forgive – I got that at one of your breakfast sessions and I reacted against you viscerally.  I am not there yet.  May not ever be because I seem to need to follow such values – they shore me up and keep me sane.  After watching this president I have to change that to say Trump’s values shore me up and keep me superior to all of you.  I know it is time to say God forgive! Maybe one day!

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

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

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

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

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

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Get Out of that Trump Base – NOW!

A CALL TO LOVE

September 22nd, 2018

by: Marceline Donaldson

My name is on this writing because it is time for all of us to come out of the shadows of shame and into the light with our truth. We have been attacked and are being attacked, apparently to shut us up.  Trying to destroy Bettina Network, inc. and me is keeping some few people busy.   However, we shall go on as long as we can.

Nothing you do –   nothing that others do to you – nothing in your life as you have lived it should be in even a small bit of shade.  Nothing should be pushed into that corner of your memories where you shove those things of which you are ashamed.  Clean them out!  Bring them out into the open.

Shame is what has allowed sin to fester and grow into the slime and horribleness that is showing all around us.  The most effective part of sexual abuse and sexual harassment and sexual assault is the shame which has been dumped on the victim by the victimizer and the society.  Isn’t that one large reason why it is so hard to recover from abuse, harassment and assault?

Society’s message is – SHUT UP – we don’t want to know what happened to you because it does not enhance the mythology we have created around this society for generations.

It is time for that message to be – OPEN UP, PLEASE.  We want all of this awfulness to come out into the light of day.  We want to know what happened to you.  We want you to know we love you, we understand, we are here for you as you work towards healing.  WE SUPPORT YOU.

To all victims of sexual abuse, harassment, assault, please share what happened to you we want to take a part of what you have gone through into ourselves to share that part of your life which we should have been there to help you with.  We are so sorry we were busy doing other things with other priorities that we could not be your support.

WE ARE HERE NOW!

HOW?

This “COMING OUT” – this “OUTCOMING” of Christine Balsey Ford needs to be a coming out for all women.

Her hearing needs to be the second stage of Congressional Hearings on the sufferings of women inflicted by men all over these United States.  In her case it is a coming out by telling the truth about someone who is a Republican Political Operative and was trained to be such to attain to and acquire glory and money and reputation in his field.  He needs to be saved and CHRISTine can offer him the opportunity to look at, hear and address his values before it is too late for all of us.

The Congressional Hearings need to be the beginnings of hearings by many groups around this country holding open hearings to which women are invited and supported in telling their stories and shining light into those dark corners we have kept musty, damp, full of all kind of germs which infect the soul.

Those hearings need to be held in an environment free of bullying, threats, and all the other uglinesses that were characteristic of Congress as exhibited during the hearings held to hear what happened to Anita Hill.  The conditions under which she had to suffer to be able to do the job she enjoyed, was qualified to do and which she did very well were replicated in those hearings.  That was not our finest hour.  Everything said about her carefully excluded her qualifications for the job she was doing and the incredibly efficient and substantial way she did her job.  The shame of those hearings even went to the Republican Congress people hiding and not allowing corroborating witnesses to appear.

The focus in all of these cases is on sex.  While sex is used as the weapon against women, it is really about power, control, greed and a sex drive completely distorted in ugly ways to serve bullying, over-aggressive, insecure males.

It is no accident that these happenings in Congress very much parallel and reflect what is happening in the Catholic Church.  The priests who have been sexual predators and those higher up in the Catholic Church trying to cover the sins committed very much reflect the Congressional people now trying to stifle, submerge, crucify and destroy CHRISTine.  Those same needs and urges are behind the way sexual predators in high places are handled by Congress and all the other “big dogs” in this society.

The thousands of children in the Catholic Church who were the victims of such sexual predatory priests are replaced in this society by women – their mothers, sisters, aunts, cousins.  And very soon, if we do not act to stop all of this, those women – as they have been in the Catholic Church –  will be replaced by our children.  That has already happened in the immigration area – Donald Trump and his administration are replicating the Nazi Concentration Camps with Immigration camps being designed to house children.  And those children will soon and are currently becoming the object of sexual predators.  Rape of the children is not uncommon in the structures Donald Trump has designed and which are coming to pass.  We have heard only the beginnings of such as the stories leak out.

Either we act now or this society is consigned to total corruption. Evangelical christians claim Donald Trump is being used as their gods instrument to bring about his view of the world.  It looks more like their god is named Satan and for him Donald Trump is doing an excellent job.

Regular weekly Congressional Hearings need to be set up to follow the hearing in which CHRISTine tells what happened to her and the planning for that needs to start NOW.

State Legislatures need to organize to take up from the U. S. Congress hearings in their areas where women are invited – supported – and where their stories are given wide national coverage as are the hearings being held in the U. S. Congress on a weekly basis and laws need to be drawn up from those hearings which allow and support us as we put sex out of the picture and acknowledge the humanity, the love, the work we can do together as a society without all of the power, control, greed tactics which are now structured into all of our institutions.

Universities need to take up the banner and hold such hearings for what happens on their campuses.  Sexual attacks, rapes, sexual abuse, sexual harassment needs to be outed in their hearings as well so our college campuses can be about the business of sharing knowledge and maybe even a bit of wisdom instead of shoring up their sexist and racist structures as their administration tries to figure out how to suppress women from coming forward to talk about what happened and is happening to them on these campuses, because that currently is looked upon as a failure of the school and a blot on its reputation so those in charge suppress and thereby provide fuel for the continuation of such attacks and uglinesses against women and against the souls of the men who are guilty of such attacks.

And lets not ignore churches, synagogues, temples and all religious groups because there is a very fine line between religious fervor and sexual passion, which very few know about and study, but which can ravage and destroy or change a religion in short order – from where it started to what it becomes after giving way to such emotions incorporating the way to hide and camouflage them in its structures and destroy those who come forward to speak their truth.

At the same time, there needs to be structured into each institution a way for the men to be treated for what they were raised to believe was their god-given right – superiority over the entire universe.  Treatment to relieve their male ego, which today needs to parade itself around in such a way as the current Republican Congress is giving us a premier example hoping we will follow.

The GOP Congress is out its bullying and its need to exercise control – to destroy to prove its manhood even if that means destroying democracy in the process.  Total destruction is what this white male ego has wrought on this society.

Who wants this democracy anyway.  It only stifles their ability to move back to what they consider the greatness of America, to the time when “White” men in this society were slave owners – “Make America Great Again” came from that wish trying to become a fact of life today in these United States.  Sex trafficking and all the other forms of human slavery still alive and well and protected by our structures are all thriving. These followers of Donald Trump want to go back to being those who could pass laws such as the Chinese Exclusions Act of 1882 to protect their superiority – the first act passed by Congress restricting immigration into the United States.  And that was passed after we horribly abused the Chinese living in these United States as no better than slaves who were conscripted to build our railroad under inhumane conditions and more.

That is the act Donald Trump wants replicated to keep brown and black people out of this country.  He even wants to go into other countries to do the same for their governments.  That is who we will become if we don’t act now.  We have inched up to this place and now the forces of evil are breaking out all over since we elected that champion of evil as president.  Who has he hired as his White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and who will probably replace General John Kelly as White House Chief of Staff?  William Shine –  Roger Ailes’ former head of Fox right hand man and co-president of Fox News and before that Senior Producer of Hannity & Comes.  He was the man who spent his career covering up Roger Ailes’ sexual abuse, harassment and assault of women. He is the man now preparing Brett Kavanaugh for the testimony he will give at this hearing being planned and they have spent hours each day in that endeavor. He is the man who is programming Donald Trump when he goes out to give speeches and who programs and controls the White House’s face to the press and more.  How low are we going America!

Maybe these hearings need to continue first by hearing from all of the women who have brought charges against the current president of these United States – Donald Trump.  Certainly that is an “oversight” area legitimately dealt with by Congress. A legitimate continuation of Congressional Hearings after the one set up for CHRISTine would naturally flow from that and then on to welcoming the women who have such stories to tell about others in Congress.  If these hearings are blocked by the Republicans in Congress I am sure others can find a way for such hearings to happen.

We need to recognize that the conservative evangelical christians lobbying Congress and providing money to individual congressmen are the Protestant equivalent to the Catholic bishops, archbishops, and above who have worked mightily to hide and therefore allow the continuance of the sex crimes which happened on their watch and on the watch of those who went before.

It has been clear to me for some time that to reach out to befriend a male creates a problem for both you and he.  He doesn’t know what to do if he is not attracted to you sexually – because friendship is not something he knows about nor is a friend without special privileges someone he can be.   He assumes that offer of friendship has a sexual component.  That does not describe all men, but it certainly describes the majority.  That is a very sad – no, very tragic comment to make because that is what maintains and continues this system of misogyny defined as “dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women”.  A human being turned into an object which can be used, abused, shamed and then cast away or better yet kept around as an example and symbol to keep other women walking the trail of tears instead of being able to walk in her truth.

Once a date has been set for the hearing of what happened to CHRISTine, another date needs to be immediately for the next hearing, inviting women who have been sexually abused, harassed, assaulted by the president of the United States.  A group needs to be constituted for the next hearings to pick up after those are finished to go on until the problem is solved, stopped and redirected.

AMEN?

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

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

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

 

 

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Posted in American Corporate Businesses, American Oligarchs, Catholic Church, Christine Balsey Ford, Clarence Thomas, Donald Trump, NOW, Pope Francis, Press Release from Bettina Network, racism, Religion, Sex Trafficking, sexism, Sexual Assault, Trump Concentration Camps, William Shine | Comments Off on A CALL TO LOVE

Truth Telling on the Christine Balsey Ford/Kavanaugh problem

September 20th, 2018

I wanted to get this to you before you published the responses from Lifestyle Members, but I have to work to make a living so some things take a back seat.

I see the responses and they are very to the point.  My contribution is this:

When Diane Feinstein received the letter from Christine Ford she did exactly what she was supposed to do.  She gave it to the FBI.  They took the letter, redacted it and put it in the Brett Kavanaugh background file.  All the comments dumping on Diane Feinstein about sitting on the letter from Dr. Ford are misplaced.

After the letter was put into Kavanaugh’s file it was accessible to the White House and I am sure they knew the letter was there and read it – which explains why there was such a rush to get Kavanaugh through the process before anything would happen to bring that letter to light.

The comments you are hearing trying to place blame on Diane Feinstein for holding up the letter are Kavanaugh talking points given to Kavanaugh/Trump supporters going on the air  as one of their talking points.  The Senators, knowing about the letter,  could have called for an FBI closer look into Kavanaugh’s background at that point – but instead they pushed hard to get him through the process trying to get him on the bench before that letter hit the airwaves.  And when the letter leaked before they could get through the hearing and vote they sat back and tried to dump some blame on Senator Feinstein.

They now have something else they are hiding and are making fools of themselves because they are pushing to get this done before it all comes out.

I am glad folks brought to your attention the drinking and how that was ignored in the process of past background checks.  It does not matter that we are talking about high school – when Kavanaugh was first vetted that drunkenness would have been very relevant and should have stopped his first nomination to the bench.  Not many high school boys get drunk and attempt rape. That by itself says a lot about the character of the person being vetted.

P. S.  My guess as to why Donald Trump is so low keyed about this – remember ‘Stormy Daniels’ has a book coming out.  It has some juicy sections about Donald Trump and Ms. Clifford does not hold back.  She tells the whole story.  It is a great book and I recommend you all read it to get a better idea of what is happening here.

A couple reporters have read and reviewed it on line.  It should hit the air waves in a few days and Trump can’t afford to be out there talking about sexual assault.  On TV these days he looks as though he is in the middle of a cringe.  Given that book he should be.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
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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. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

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Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Truth Telling on the Christine Balsey Ford/Kavanaugh problem

Bettina Network Members Respond to Kavanaugh and more!

September 20th, 2018

Wow! We had no idea emotions were running so high.  Nor did we realize how sophisticated Americans are in their understanding of politics.  We expected outrage from this claim of attempted rape – we did not expect what follows.  Here are some of the responses:

  1. “Is it possible there will be no FBI investigation of this situation with Brett Kavanaugh because the Senators and the president know the risks.  What do I mean?  There is a lot of drunkenness, heavy intoxication to the point of passing out and not knowing what one was doing, and the hint of drugs which has been kept quiet because the boys know the risks to their careers which would not be there if it is only about alcohol – but that is just as bad as drugs if not worse.  There are many and very detailed forms to fill out for the FBI vetting process and I wonder if Kavanaugh was complete when he filled out those forms.  Did he include the kind of drunkenness he and his friends engaged in – if he did why did that not eliminate him from consideration from the time of his first vetting from his first promotion to the bench.  Apparently, the president has no line he will not cross because his ethics and morals are in the tanker – and – it looks as though the Senators on the Judiciary Committee are following him right down that black hole to hell.  Would an FBI investigation reveal all of that and that it was not in his original papers?  Since this heavy intoxication started in high school did the FBI not go that far back and now there are people who will lead them to that truth?  Is that why some possible witnesses are not being allowed to testify in this proposed new hearing?  There was an FBI investigation after the charges against Clarence Thomas surfaced, but there was no heavy intoxication, especially with his friends in wild uncontrollable times and parties so those who vetted him didn’t have to worry about that.  Why did that not stop Brett Kavanaugh when he was first vetted many years ago?  That was certainly an issue that would have stopped other nominations.  The Bush Administrations are guilty of having brought us Clarence Thomas.  They are now equally guilty of having thrust upon this country Brett Kavanaugh.  When will this stop and we pick ourselves up out of this morass – certainly it is going much further under Donald Trump.

2.  We have seen how far the Evangelical Christians will go, embracing a man their Jesus would have condemned.  is that because they understand what these guys are about because they are guilty of the same sexual assault; public drunkenness and more?  I am certainly seeing many at the head of the Evangelical Church doing stuff I found embarrassing and in violation of what they are supposed to believe.  When is this parade of sexual assaulters going to stop?  The end does not justify the means.  Just look at how far we are going to embrace these guys who collectively make the “swamp” look “saved.”

3.  It is clear this Judiciary Committee is afraid of something the FBI could find if they went into another investigation of Kavanaugh.  They will not even let his friend, Judge, be questioned at their rally of the klan brothers.   It is bad enough that in 2018 we have an entire, complete racist/sexist panel on the Republican side that will hear these charges – white males all – are they also WASP males?

4.  It is clear Orrin Hatch comes from a background where inebriation through too much alcohol consumption or even any alcohol consumption is looked at as a sin.  His Church needs to call him home and have him respond to many charges.  He has done nothing but embarrass us for decades.  Are the things we teach only meant to be subscribed to when convenient or are they supposed to be a constant and enduring lifestyle?  To be a part of a political system which embraces the Kavanaugh’s of the world is something we have to do.  To defend the people who have done what this guy has done and to defend him and promote him to sit on the Supreme Court – I don’t understand why Bishop Hatch is one of those and has been one of those out front making sure he has Kavanaugh’s back?  Do you talk one thing and practice another? In the LDS Church you practice what is preached and clearly Orrin Hatch has not and is not doing that.  He has been a missionary, a bishop  and has been past president of the LDS Church.  The height of hypocrisy is his book “An American, a Mormon and a Christian.”  I remember what an incredible affect his books had on me. Bishop Hatch is clearly none of those.  He is a politician willing to do whatever is necessary to maintain power and if that means violating his faith – he has done that seemingly with no regrets and no pull backs.  His role in the Clarence Thomas embarrassment to this country was bad enough.  I thought it was something for which he would atone as he looked back on his role.  Clearly, that is not true.  Just to let us know that was not an accident nor a one time thing he has now regretted he is now an incredible leader in this immorality on the wrong side.  CALL HIM HOME!

5. Did Kavanaugh lie on his FBI forms from the beginning and that is why he and his supporters are trying to make sure the FBI does not re-investigate his background?  And lying also includes not telling negatives which might hurt his chances at being passed through.  One man was passed over because he smoked marijuana or some such thing.  Kavanaugh, from his early days clearly has a background of intoxication over the top.  How did he get through from his very first appointment?  Those were years such indulgences would have made a strong difference.

6.  Public drunkennes is not something we should have approved in an appointee for any bench let along the bench where you are appointed for a lifetime.  How did his early history get passed over?  His attempted rape seems to be the result of his not being able to contain or control himself when drunk.  If he exhibited that from high school is he now in a position to be blackmailed from some of his history when on the bench?  Is that who we are now passing through and defending?  Nothing justifies that kind of enabling by our politicians of our judges who they could very well hold up or blackmail as they needed decisions from his bench.  And, others could do the same.  Not being able to control yourself when drunk should be a primary disqualification and Kavanaugh has clearly shown from his high school days that he is not able to exercise any kind of control when so inebriated.  A lifetime is a long time to go if you started off life with a group of friends where “community” was gained as the result of group drunks.  Is this how low we have come – drunks and sexual assaulters beginning to make up the Supreme Court and liars, cheaters, mafioso and more making up our Executive suite?  No wonder the president calls the FBI a cancer on our society.  A mafia connected person as president would first go after the press so he could act for his mafia group without public attention being called to their raping the public and the U. S. treasury.  The second group to go after would be law enforcement so he could do whatever without being called to the bench for his actions.  Isn’t that what Donald Trump is doing?  Isn’t that what Brett Kavanaugh would help him do?

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

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

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Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Donald Trump, Guest comments, politics, racism, sexism, Sexual Assault | Comments Off on Bettina Network Members Respond to Kavanaugh and more!

Nutty and Slutty/Crazy and Confused

September 19th, 2018

by:  Marceline Donaldson

With the Congressional hearing in the 1990’s,  held to smear and destroy the reputation of Anita Hill so they could have someone accused of sexual harassment on the Supreme Court, the nominee was approved by the slimmest of margins.

That “show” provided by Congress, was an incredible education.

In spite of what is practiced in the general society, sexism and racism are so intertwined into our structures of government, it is difficult to know, understand and to educate children about these twin evils and their siblings.  The drama of that ‘hearing’ was an incredible education in sexism and racism.  Those of us who watched, unable to do anything until the hearings stopped for the day or were ended – it was an amazing message.  It told us what our government thought of women.  It put black women front and center, but it made sure the understanding and message was spread that if white women didn’t toe the mark this would also be their fate.

I was such a quiet child.  Spent hours practicing the piano because I was going to be a concert pianist just like one of my piano teachers.  They were all incredible women – and very independent women – but independent in  ways that were acceptable in those days, but for one.  They dressed the way society expected cultured, successful women should dress; they talked, walked, trained those coming up in the way society expected they be trained.  But their very lives gave a different message and I got the message.  My childhood days were my ‘quiet time’.  My adulthood has been one long, loud, excruciatingly painful scream against this life to which I have been consigned.

Jean Coston Maloney, one of my piano teachers, was an incredible woman.  She graduated from Oberlin’s Conservatory of Music and in 1937 from the Julliard School of Music – no mean feat for a black woman,   She was the first African American to perform with a nationally recognized symphony orchestra; she was very elegant; tall, willowy and beautifully dressed.   It was an exciting time for the New Orleans community to have the New Orleans Symphony leave Symphony Hall bringing all of their gear to Booker T. Washington’s High School Auditorium for this concert featuring Jean Maloney playing the Tchaikovsky Concerto. I will never forget the evening nor how I felt as someone who I knew and with whom I had studied be the featured artist.

(why did this symphony orchestra disembark from their home just a mile or so away you ask?  With all the upheaval, money and other inconveniences that caused?  Because blacks were not allowed to perform on the Symphony Hall stages anyplace in the United States in that day and blacks could not attend symphony concerts unless they sat in the very few seats reserved for them in what was called the “crow’s nest”- and paid the same price paid by those who sat in much kinder seats.  So for Ms. Maloney to play with the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra they had to move all of their gear to the local black high school auditorium).

Lucille Hutton was another graduate of Oberlin;s Conservatory and my piano teacher.  She was the one under whom I started by music career and who would not let me touch the piano when I was a small child until my practice showed her clearly that I had the proper hand positions on her coffee table.   I went to these piano lessons all alone on the street car from ‘downtown’ to ‘uptown’  in New Orleans, something no parent would let their children do today.  I was about 7 years old at the time.  Most people knew me or my family and I was never one to meet a stranger.  Ms. Hutton was a well known figure in New Orleans society circles – quiet, unassuming and always dressed the way a regular church going lady should be dressed.

Jesse Dent – the wife of the president of Dillard University was yet another very early graduate of Oberlin Conservatory of Music with a promising career in front of her as a concert artist.  She served on the board of Oberlin for many years and was responsible for people from the Conservatory coming to New Orleans to hear me play.  She was a great pianist, but as the wife of the president, her concert work was limited to her husband’s sphere.  She was a wife and mother and promoter of Dillard and then whatever little time was left her music carried on, but normally only on the campus of the University.  She was a beautiful and well respected personage in her society.

Of the three women, the one whose life was tragic was Jean Maloney’s.  What I didn’t understand until years later, she was the only one who stepped out and away from her expected stereotype and place in society.  She knew who she could become based on her talent and its drive.   The career her talent and presence entitled her to were awesome.   She was determined to follow where her talent led.

Jean Maloney was driven by her talent and drove herself with hours of practice.  Her husband was a well known doctor and the Surgeon General of Liberia – and then they divorced.  She was given an ultimatum by her husband – give up this dream of being a concert pianist, give up your music except when playing for husband and children or within a closed community or I will leave you and the children and neither you nor they will have contact with me again.  Jean Maloney rejected that ultimatum and was going to move wherever her talent allowed her to go and it would have allowed her to go far, but for racism and sexism.  Instead of becoming a great and well known artist, her life ended in tragedy.  The price women and minorities pay for following a dream outside of their stereotype – the oppressive structure in which they must live or be crushed.

The way women – especially black women were taken down by this society when they showed the kind of independence shown by Jean Maloney is one of the cruelest things I have seen and I have seen a lot in this life.  The horror of those take downs – they were not explicit, but camouflaged, unbelievably cruel and a part of the institutional structure of these United States.  You – women and minorities –  and those around are led by this society to turn the blame of the society’s racism and sexism on oneself, turning the victimizer into the victim, instead of where it should really be placed – on those who benefit.  That was clear from Donald Trump’s apparently heartfelt sympathy towards Brett Kavanaugh with no mention at all for the pain and suffering over many years he apparently caused Christine Blasey Ford.  In Charlottesville it was -“both sides”.  In Washington, D. C. it was all feelings go towards Kavanaugh.

Our leaders could call for a bowl of water, soap and a towel and make a show of washing their hands and not being the culprits involved doing the dirty work.   In this case, that was and is done by Congress in the way they acted when they felt the need to step up and take down Anita Hill.  Not for being a black woman nor for being a woman, but for not knowing her place as a black woman and for stepping out of her stereotype after the society found a place for her where she could be sort of successful, but still within the bounds of who she was allowed to be as a black woman.  Anita Hill thought and acted as though she was on the same level as others around her and that she had the same duty to keep this society, government, and its court system on the right track.

If you think this is not structural, look at how quickly Congress plucked its pattern for action for such an event, as now surrounds Brett Kavanaugh, to take down another woman.  White, this time.  The pattern they plucked from their recent history is what they have set in place to use against Christine Blasey Ford – without the FBI investigation.

Brings back that old saying – if you are quiet when they come for me in the morning and when they come for your other friends in the afternoon, they will come for you in the evening when there is no one around to help, protect or save you.

Anita Hill was concerned about the appointment of a man unworthy of being a Supreme Court justice being nominated and on the verge of being confirmed.  A man who the “big dogs” wanted because he was a replacement for Thurgood Marshall and the kind of replacement who would bring back into the society the image, stereotype, personhood of the kind of black man who they thought should have been appointed and who should rightly serve on the Supreme Court, if indeed there was a need for a black man to be in that spot.

The way society was moving that had to be, so they made sure the character, image, background, morals, values of a Thurgood Marshall was replaced by someone who would keep blacks in bondage and in ‘their place.’

Clarence Thomas is who they could see as the person for ‘successful blacks’ to imitate.  Clarence Thomas would be the person young black children would idolize.  Clarence Thomas is who teachers would hold up as an example of greatness in African Americans and therefore Clarence Thomas would uphold the negative black stereotype; make sure blacks moved not an inch, but inched backwards away from equality in this society and back into the foot shuffling, head scratching, over-sexed image this society carefully constructed for blacks to fit into for generations.

Anita Hill’s ‘crime’ was the fact that she wanted that horribleness to be corrected and reality to show through and this society move in the direction of a whole, equal, educated, respectful society it seemed to be walking towards.

For that she was put in the dock, so she could be characterized as ‘nutty and slutty’, but with far more words and images than I can describe in this short piece and Clarence Thomas was held up, patted on the back, encircled by whites who patrolled the borders of racism and sexism to make sure it would continue into the next generation and Anita Hill was cast aside and totally discredited.  She was allowed to survive, but with a reputation and characterizations which others in the following generations could pull out, learn from and not imitate.

and then, along comes Christine Blasey Ford – white woman.  Doing in this society and to this society what Anita Hill tried to do. Simply to tell the truth about her experience with Brett Kavanaugh which questioned his fitness to serve as a Supreme Court justice.  Not the first one to question his fitness, but one whose story and experience could not be ignored.

Instead of being characterized as ‘nutty and slutty’ – which was taken by Republican Congressmen at the time as the best line of attack against Anita Hill because it rolled out and re-enforced the negative stereotype of black women, Christine Blasey Ford is beginning to be and will continue to be characterized as ‘crazy and confused’.  And in the mix are the same men who led the charge against Anita Hill.  They are still present in Congress and now taking the role of ‘elder statesmen’ passing along to their younger comrades the way the system works and the tools it provides to them to destroy this woman, smear her reputation, give a lesson to other white women as to their place in this society and as to what will happen to them if they overstep and cross the line challenging the greatness of sexism and its place in the world.  Their message is crucial to their comrades – destroy this woman or all hell will break loose. The next thing you know all women will be ‘outing’ all of us who have sexually abused, attacked, harassed them and will demand that we stop or be removed and not allowed to enter the hallowed halls of economic and financial success in this society.  These women  will want pieces of that success and will want us to clean up our act and not have a group to run off the side of the cliff to atone for our sins.

What we need to stop and take a good look at is the numbers of white men who have and are engaging in sexual harassment, abuse, assault all over the society and demanding their right to so engage against women of all colors, shapes and sizes.  Most horrible is the fact that they have now been strong enough to elect as their leader in these United States a chief of sexual assaulters – a man so arrogant and sure of himself and his way of acting with women that he brags about his success and his methods.

It is time for this to stop.  My grandparents and great grandparents and many generations before them spent their lives fighting racism and sexism because they didn’t want me and my children to go through and experience the kind of pain and agony that was their lot.  I picked up the fight and have done and am doing the same thing for the same reasons, but my children and my grandchildren will experience sexism and racism as the main theme that negatively affects their lives.  But look at us.  We are still in the muck.  Still oppressed.  The oppression has changed and become much more sophisticated, but this so called ‘hearing’ is exactly the same theatre Anita Hill was put through and the Orrin Hatch’s of the world are planning to produce and direct as the kind of theatre that they think will take down Christine Blasey Ford and at the same time stop tens of thousands of women in their tracks who are seeking equality and trying to move this society into a place of equal acceptance.

And Orrin Hatch?  Bringing down his Mormon faith or opening it up for people to see what it is really about?

Fat chance that basic change will happen here!  This is the society which elected a self-proclaimed sexual abuser, sexual assaulter, sexual harasser as its president and is clearly having its Congress people and their supporters come out with guns blazing to  attack women, to oppress them even further and maintain their control spreading as much pain, depression, and more on all so they can claim superiority in their small corner of the world.  This does not bode well for the future.  Now what!

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

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

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Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Donald Trump, Guest comments, Jean Coston Maloney, racism, sexism | Comments Off on Nutty and Slutty/Crazy and Confused

Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court?

September 17th, 2018

If you ever wondered why there is a #me too movement and if there is a need for a #me too movement – here is your answer.

The United States has a president who is the sexual abuser and sexual assaulter in chief.  Why?  He has some nineteen plus women accusing him of sexual abuse and sexual assault and in spite of that and in spite of having admitted to and having bragged about such behavior for all to hear he was elected president.

He has now appointed someone who has a sexual assault charge against him and what will be Donald Trump’s response?  His history and his mentors say he will go after the woman making the allegation – and so will many Congressmen and women as they think it is to their advantage to do so.  I have already puked every time I see Orrin Hatch comment on Clarence Thomas and on the current scenes where he excoriates those who seem to think women are something above being an object who is there as a man’s convenient depository for his sexual needs – whether she consents or not.

The United States Supreme Court is becoming a group of people with growing numbers of sexual assaulters on the bench.  If Trump has the ability to appoint more who knows how many we will wind up with.  So much for the trustworthiness of their decisions.  If you ever wondered why and how the Supreme Court of the United States could have ruled in favor of separate and unequal in the 1880’s and why the rulings against the American Japanese stood until recently – here is the beginnings of your answer.

And – let’s not start or stop with Donald Trump.

There is Clarence Thomas – appointed by a Republican – George Bush Senior.

That was an interesting appointment.  The Bush family comes across as trying to be on the right side – for the elimination of racism and sometimes even sexism.  However, the appointment of Clarence Thomas belies all of that and in the process ‘outed’ people like Orrin Hatch and even Joe Biden.

To decide to appoint an African American to the United States Supreme Court was a great and glorious thing for George Bush, Sr. to do.  To have that appointment go to Clarence Thomas screamed out loud to everyone and showed just how racist a move Bush Sr. was making and the message he was sending with that appointment.  And that message was heard loud and clear.

There were and are many African American men and women who could have been appointed.  When one appoints one like Clarence Thomas that says to the world you are doing the form thing, but making sure the content is flawed because you really don’t want to bring about change in the society to the point where racism will begin to abate.  In fact, the appointment of Clarence Thomas simply increased the racism and sexism in this society and reinforced stereotypes.  That was not a ‘dog whisper’ that was a megaphoned message.

And now we have the choice of Brett Kavanaugh who is flawed on so many levels and who is quite clearly someone who can continue the corruption of the United States society and government which we have seen  ongoing before Donald Trump, but which has intensified dramatically since Donald Trump was elected.

The Republican Congress has shown just how low they have gone with this appointment by their reaction and their planning and support of those who refused to produce records which normally would have been produced for such an appointment so the man’s history could have been clear.  Little bits and pieces have been pried loose to show – if you hadn’t already guessed – that this was a case of hiding the negatives so the appointment would go through.  And now come the charges of sexual assault.

And so the story continues.  The morality of the United States is once again on display without anything in the middle to hide from the world who we are and what we are about.  And where are you John and Jane Q. Public?  Going along with the program because your white privilege is being preserved and protected and you John Q. Public going along because your male superiority will not be breeched but will be pushed forward as one of the things these United States supports and makes sure is neither breeched nor lessened?

With this, I can no longer say – God forgive!

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

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

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

 

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Posted in Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, Donald Trump, politics, racism, sexism, Sexual Assault | Comments Off on Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court?

Breakfast Oatmeal with Bananas Foster Sauce

September 14th, 2018

A great breakfast which is nutritious and also satisfies your taste for sweet, exotic but not white and sugary.

1.    You need to find ORGANIC Steel Cut Whole Grain Oats.  Nothing less!

2.    For 3 to 4 people measure one cup oatmeal into a lovely glass Corning pot or something equivalent.  No metals please.  An attractive pot in which you can serve the oatmeal would be special.

3.    Add two cups water and stir putting the pot over low heat.

4.   Add one scant teaspoon himalayan salt – one heaping teaspoon organic ceylon cinnamon (if this is hard for you to find try Frontier Co-op) – using a rasp, grate about 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg from whole organic nutmegs – two heaping teaspoons organic turmeric – 1/2 to one teaspoon organic ginger using a rasp to grate whole ginger into the oatmeal.  Preferably – you should use amounts to your taste.  The above is what we use.

5.  Cover the pot and let it simmer for about 20  to 30 minutes or until it looks done – stirring from time to time.

6.  Some people use three cups water, but that makes an oatmeal too soggy for our taste.  If you like that consistency then by all means use three cups water.

If you like that “bite” with your oatmeal add several dashes of cayenne pepper.  You can also add cayenne pepper to the Bananas Foster sauce.

For the Bananas Foster sauce to go over the oatmeal:

Melt one stick organic butter – salted or unsalted is your choice as long as the butter is organic.

Add organic turbinado sugar to the melted butter and stir a bit – not too long.  The amount of turbinado sugar is to your taste.  We use a cup full.

Add organic ceylon cinnamon, freshly grated organic ginger, freshly grated organic nutmeg to the pan and stir again

Add either cream or water – also depending upon your taste.  Some people can’t do without cream and some find cream too much for this dish.  Try both and draw your own conclusions.

Stir and let simmer a few minutes until the sauce looks right.

Add organic bananas sliced on the diagonal and simmer again until the bananas are heated through and a little limp.

Pour the bananas foster into a beautiful pressed glass bowl with a silver ladle for serving.

Put individual servings of oatmeal in a soup bowl or two handled broth bowl and cover with the bananas foster sauce.

A little bit of heaven!

If you are not from New Orleans you can substitute cherries, strawberries, blueberries, etc. to this sauce instead of bananas.  It is a lovely change and an exquisite taste no matter which fruit you add.

Enjoy!

And remember – this is an unbelievably healthy dish and way to start the day with a minimum of work and a maximum of taste and elegance.

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

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

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

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Peanut Butter Popcorn Bettina Style

September 11th, 2018

What a great discovery!  You won’t believe the fantastic taste of this popcorn!

First – buy organic popcorn.  There are several brands, but it must be organic.

Then you will need an air-popper.  This helps because you don’t need oil for the dried corn to pop.

Then use the measuring cup that comes with the air popper – or use about 1/2 cup dried corn into the popper.

Turn it on with a bowl in front to catch the corn once it has “popped”.

While this is happening melt 1/2 stick organic butter (salted or unsalted, your choice).

Into the melted butter put two large tablespoons organic peanut butter which you ground yourself or purchased from the store and ground it in the store.  No store bought/store prepared peanut butter even if it is organic.

Stir the butter and peanut butter together until the peanut butter has melted into the butter and pour this onto the freshly popped corn.  You can make the sauce ahead and let it come to room temperature while you pop the corn.

Mix the sauce you just made with the popcorn until they are thoroughly mixed together.  Add organic himalayan salt and cayenne pepper to taste until everything looks totally mixed and all of the popcorn is covered.

Instead of cayenne pepper, I add several good splashes of tabasco sauce, but not everyone has that kind of taste.

Best if eaten freshly made, but you can eat it hours later and it still tastes amazing.

This is also the best laxative I have ever taken.  Amazing what it does for your bowel movements the next day.

Enjoy!

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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

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

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

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Tides Restaurant

September 9th, 2018

Tides Restaurant & Pub – 2B Wilson Road – Nahant, MA. 01908 – (781) 593-7500

Open for lunch and dinner at 11:30am.  Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas

website:  http://www.tidesnahant.com/home.html

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

We just returned from a fantastic trip to the Greater Boston area and decided to visit Marblehead, MA. and just chill driving along the shore, stopping wherever the spirit moved us to stop.  It was one of those days which draws you to the area – sun, warm, some wind – but not a lot.

We passed Marblehead and were driving along sometimes seeing the water and sometimes passing houses thinking we were moving away from the coast.  We saw a couple walking their two dogs as we neared a dead end and stopped to ask for their recommendation of a place to eat.  Their suggestion was “Tides” – a restaurant we passed just minutes before.  They were sort of hesitant to suggest Tides because they knew the previous owners and didn’t know what was happening at Tides in todays’ world.  They cautioned us that it might not still be a great place to eat, but from past experience, before ownership changed, they said it was  really fantastic.

Amazingly, it was an encounter with New Englanders who fit the stereotype.  The “new owners”  bought the place some 20 years ago.  CHANGE is hard in this part of the world, but after having dinner at Tides we understand why.  When you find a really fantastic place you don’t want it to change – just stay the same because how do you improve on perfection?

 

We sat on the sun porch and had a glorious meal.  The menu said “don’t feed the birds”, but as soon as we sat down a sea gull joined us and so we had five for lunch instead of four and that great seagull helped to make our meal.  He entertained us in ways he had apparently learned paid his benefactors back for their generosity. The restaurant was surrounded by rock outcroppings, sand and the ocean splashing against the rocks.  With that accompaniment to oysters, shrimp, clams, lobster, haddock we were in heaven.  We felt as though the fish had just been caught by the owners next door bringing it immediately into the restaurant to fulfill your order. That was our narrative – which is not true – but the location and the porch brought us to that imaginary happening.

Next time we will bring bathing suits because we were sitting right next to a public beach.  On a holiday weekend the beach was sparsely populated so we know it is a great place to sun, swim, and paddle around whenever we go, with some certainty that we won’t be tripping over half-nude bodies lying side by side.  It looked as though that very beautiful beach was peopled by the neighbors – people who lived close by.

The food was substantial, well cooked and seasoned just perfectly – well except for one of us who brings her Louisiana hot sauce in her pocket book for times like this.  Each plate was enough for two so we brought our left-overs home and warmed them up for dinner the next evening.  What a memory that brought back.  We wondered if we could move next door and eat at Tides on a regular basis.

The wait staff was exceptional and they appeared whenever we looked around, sometimes anticipating what we were about to ask.  Dessert was hot fudge sundaes.  As we ate our dessert the smacking sounds  should have  embarrassed us, but it just made the desserts taste better.

All in all we recommend Tides whenever you are in the North Shore area.  It is worth the stop or even if you have to drive a few miles out of your way – it is worth the drive.

There was a Keno Contest going on when we arrived and we were told they offer full service lottery in addition.  As we waited for a table mesmerized by the view, the hostess told us about their Drink Menu – cocktails, 30 ice cold draft beers, a wide variety of bottled beers and a large wine list. People in the bar were watching a game and we were told they have over 20 HD TVs!  That was all very nice, but we weren’t interested – the beach, sitting on that incredible sun porch, talking (and feeding) the sea gull which adopted us with really great food was what captivated us.

We will return!

___________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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__________________________________________________

Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. Please also tell us if you want your name as your byline or if you want your article to appear without your name.

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

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

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Posted in Restaurant Review | Comments Off on Tides Restaurant

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