April 27th, 2018
It has been amazing to see how Trump has gone about destroying America and bringing it down to size so Putin could benefit and control the world. Who will manage to gain world control first – Putin or Bezos? Very different play books; lifestyles, goals and objectives.
First: Giuliani.
Why was he brought in? What is his goal? What are his marching orders?
One can only hope he has more care and concern for the United States than he does for Trump. Sometimes, however, that has not been so clear. His morality and values have been showing for quite some time and they don’t look as though he wears a “white hat”.
We think Giuliani’s two week deadline is dead serious. Not that Mueller’s investigation will be wrapped up by that time – this coming Thursday – but it didn’t sound to us as though those two weeks were about Mueller finishing his investigation. He can’t be allowed to do that because Trump isn’t coming out looking good. In fact, Trump is looking like crap with morals and values that make Giuliani’s look like Jesus’.
What has been clear to us is that by this coming Thursday, Giuliani will be present at Trump’s side as he fires Mueller. Hasn’t Giuliani surfaced to be present at the ‘execution’ – so to speak. To help pick up the pieces and be one of Trump’s people helping so Trump won’t be alone as he manages the fallout from that act. And, possibly so Giuliani comes out ‘top dog’ in a way he could never be otherwise.
If you have any doubts, listen to the Fox interview with ‘President’ Trump and what most call the ‘rant’, but which actually sounds as though it is something coming from someone who can’t control the power he thinks will soon be in his hands.
Second: Putin’s Americanized Playbook!
Now that Trump has done his best to cause as much disruption in the American Government as possible, especially by putting into government people who are diametrically opposed to the cabinet position to which they have been appointed to wreck all of those areas with upheaval causing distractions as a bonus, the next step – so thinks Putin, Trump and company – should be a breeze.
All of the upheaval Trump has put down – after having given himself a mental out, if things take a turn in the wrong direction – now makes it easier to establish American Oligarch’s in the Putin/Russian style.
When the Soviet Union became Russia there was a lot of publicly owned utilities, monopolies and more such huge structures hanging out waiting for the next step. That next step was to ‘privatize’ – Russian style – all or most of those structures making a handful of Russians unimaginably wealthy. They then built a human shield around Putin so his taking over would be complete – the creation of the ‘super wealthy’ class – the Russian Oligarchs.
That Russian playbook, we think, has been translated American style and that is what Trump is following. How? Privatize as much of America as possible and put the largest structures, now publicly owned into the hands of the select few who would be the American counterparts to the Russian Oligarchs by having them form the human shield around Trump. We’ve seen the attempt and plan to privatize the armed forces, – the VA, eliminate the Education Dept, kill the Energy Dept. and on and on it goes.
That is being played out with the Veterans Affairs structure. The number 7, 8 or 9, if it were on the largest 100 corporations in America, being privatized would be a very large step on the way to achieving that goal.
Trump, having fired the head of the VA when he took office was an early step. It has been complicated by the American spirit which tends to be generationally republic on its way to a democracy. That is a very different mind set than was in Russia when Putin took it over. A mindset we don’t believe Putin or Trump could begin to understand.
Having fired McDonald – who had been head of Proctor and Gamble – probably, we think, because he was not into privatization of the VA of which Obama set him up to head, finding someone else who would be open to do the Russian Oligarch thing in America has not been an easy task. That could not be someone with experience. It would ideally be someone with not even the beginnings of experience on that level. Someone who could be manipulated without knowing it; who was willing to go ahead with the privatization plan or at the very least who would not know the privatization plan was in play, moving ahead under his inability to watch over such a large organization. Someone whose ego would carry him away as head of such prestige who wouldn’t really care what was happening on his watch as long as it didn’t affect him. Someone like Pruitt at the EPA – so busy lining his own pockets he could care less what was happening and the best way to distract from what he is doing is to cause upheavals and take resources to deal with his mess.
Now what! How does the playbook continue in play with Trump losing it because he is actually, experience wise, in the position Ronnie Jackson was in when he was elected president. That is quite a parallel. Trump had about an equivalent amount of experience when he took over the American government as president and Putin was clearly aware of that fact.
What was really wrong with Hillary Clinton, as far as this Russian plan was concerned? She was totally experienced and ready to be a totally functioning president. It would not be possible to put over on her the kinds of things Putin and Company have put over on Trump. Some say Putin favored Trump because of his dislike of Hillary. We think that is ridiculous given what is at stake. Likes and dislikes don’t come into play when one is shooting for the high stakes in this game.
Trump has probably worn out his welcome with Russia and Putin, so now what! Clearly, his usefulness has come to an end. So have his dreams of Trump Tower Moscow. The “privatization” of huge public companies is going no place so the creation of the equivalent in America to Russian Oligarchs has come to an end. Do they have an alternative game plan to bring in in case of failure of this one?
The part of the playbook we were most amazed at was the willingness of Putin and Trump to throw as many “mafia” types into top positions in the United States as needed hoping enough would stick to get the game way down the road to success. Failures would just be dropped into the sewer. The penalty the failures would receive would be their name, reputation and future smashed.
Trumps’ problem and what slowed him down to a stop even though he tried very hard was not being able to get rid of the media with his calls of “Fake News” and other such tactics so what was happening would not be noticed. The United States media is roughly akin to the Putin concept of how to take down America – throw as many “news hounds” as possible against the wall. Some will stick and climb to the top, others will fall by the way side, but there will be no end to those begging to be thrown against the wall even if it means serious injury to health, life, wealth and family. And so the U. S. media, in the end, will help the U. S. citizenry win the game they don’t even know they are playing and don’t have a clue it is being played against them.
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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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Tags: American Oligarchs, Barack Obama, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, politics, Ronnie Jackson, Rudi Giuliani, Veterans Affairs, Vladimir Putin
Posted in American Oligarchs, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, politics, President Obama, Ronnie Jackson, Rudi Giuliani, Veterans Affairs, Vladimir Putin | Comments Off on Trump’s American Oligarchs and Giuliani
April 26th, 2018
Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron are back in France and have left the American public with lots to talk about and even more to think through.
President Trump has a way of bullying those who arrive as “important guests” both domestic and foreign from the moment he holds out his hand to shake theirs. The only person on whom he did not use this bullying handshake was Vladimir Putin. Trump has a bullying handshake where he makes the person on the other side wince as he pulls their arm and then the rest of their body towards him with one of the most bullying handshakes I have ever seen.
Emmanuel Macron was no exception. Macron, however, has made it his mission not be bullied by this handshake nor to be passive in an attitude of acceptance with a “this too shall pass” sub-text. He has taken on Trump’s handshake and given back which, during this visit, resulted in an amazing display.
The media and many others took it as a “bromance”. To say they missed the point is to say they exist in a society which accepts and does its best to ignore and deny sexual abuse in its many forms. That is exactly what we saw Emmanuel Macron put through during his trip to these United States.
President Macron, however, gave the country an exquisite example of how to handle such a bullying. Bullying of all kind will be with us forever if we don’t start calling it what it is when we see someone being bullied instead of finding other ways to describe what we know is an act of unashamed bullying. That could have been an example of a woman being abused and I think the media would have talked about a budding romance instead of stepping in to stop the atrocity – which is what we saw acted out before the world.
Trump’s initial handshake was returned in kind and Trump’s bullying was on high display as he responded to the need to push Macron down to puff himself up – in front of the world. I hope others have the guts and insight to come forward to condemn the display President Trump put on as his ego kept pushing him to uglier heights. Not even children would have participated in that dandruff act.
Not to be deterred by how ugly he was appearing to all, Mr. Trump continued trying to oppress and subjugate President Macron and Macron’s response should be in a book on bullying as one person’s way of brilliantly handling an extremely distressful and continuous almost non-stop display of oppression and bullying. Instead of seeing and commenting on what was actually happening, the media continued to claim – “they must like each other.”
Beginning with the handshake, Trump practically bowled Macron over as he tried to pull him towards himself. Macron responded by maintaining and giving back to Trump what he got from the handshake and responding and making it about the ‘French Kiss” by putting his arm around Trump and kissing him on both cheeks. Since it seems possible that Trump goes both ways, President Macron’s attempts didn’t land the way he intended.
and on and on it went.
Clearly, Macron’s response – his coup de grace – was put forward during his speech to the American Congress during which Macron laid out his policies and ideas including almost all of Trump’s policy stances and the beliefs Trump has made a part of his ‘reign’ as president. President Emmanuel Macron’s stances were totally opposite to Donald Trump’s. In giving that speech, President Macron did not wince, pull back, chance his beliefs, etc. He was forthright, forthcoming and clear and he had the American Congress with him – showing where they really stood when any possible attempts at blackmail, bullying, pushing were removed and one could respond as one felt.
Clearly, Melanie Trump showed she was truly the wife and soul mate of Donald Trump when she appeared in the white suit with hat which at one point moved Brigitte Macron out of the picture. When she appeared with “the Don” it was clear the arrogance and posturing of one was totally acceptable and generated pride in the other. They appeared in a strong statement which looked totally out of place for the company, the situation, the reflection of herself as hostess. She was clearly uncaring about Brigitte Macron and was only out to outshine and put forth her worth – which she apparently holds as her body and what she puts on it. The sexist male – the misogynist male has a female counterpart whose chief value is invested in how she looks. It was an outsized look and had a very hard edge which did not show as the hostess, but as the guest attempting to outshine all the other guests.
In his speech to Congress, President Macron came across as human, compassionate and seriously working to make this a better world for the least of these. His wife, Brigitte, looked like a caring, compassionate and serious person who was working with her husband and while her dress was quite elegant, it was also very human. She was not trying to outshine, outdo, send out an image to puff herself up or any of that. She was dressed in a lovely “human’ way. The contrast was astounding.
As I looked at all of that my mind brought me back to Barbara Bush’s funeral and life. Her funeral, for me, was a brief moment of public respite. At the end, she gave us a time to reflect, to think, to move away from the upheaval – panic – intensity of nothingness – the passionate hiding of something unsavory. There was no name calling; no trying to upstage and outshine; no arrogance; no posturing; just people coming to witness to the life of someone they knew either as a close friend or in her capacity as mother, wife, First Lady, volunteer, helper to those in need, etc. Somehow, I could not see Melanie Trump ever being such a lovely, humble person who knew who she was and presented herself not as an artificial model using her body to sell whatever it was she was selling. The hat ruined the suit and showed a person with a very hard edge who was anything but a warm, caring human being. I have yet to see any of those qualities in either Melanie or Donald Trump and that white hat and suit emphasized the arrogance, artificiality and lying image of the couple. What is a ‘lying image”? Presenting oneself as an image projecting not who you are but projecting that which one needs to show to make public one’s concept of power and control and that ‘better than’ attitude so constantly projected by the Kushner/Trump family.
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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.
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Tags: Barbara Bush, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, breakfast table talk, Brigitte Macron, Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, Melania Trump, politics
Posted in Barbara Bush, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Brigitte Macron, Clothes, Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, Guest comments, Melania Trump, politics, Vladimir Putin | Comments Off on A Current Example of Bullying – Trump and Macron!
April 20th, 2018
by: Marceline Donaldson
It should not have been amazing to hear that Rudi Giuliani has again taken center stage in the Donald Trump story.
It should also not be amazing to see that men, who treat women like crap, profoundly disrespect women and see them as objects for their use, to be discarded when a newer model comes along, should find each other. In that, Giuliani and Trump are brothers and it makes sense that one such piece of scum would come to the aid of another piece of scum. (Sorry for the crudeness, but I am living in a country where crude is being modeled at the top as the way one speaks of others and we all know that way of being and talking is like a contagious disease which spreads like wild fire and so it is spreading. I wonder how our children, now in their teens, will talk about others as they move into their twenties and beyond and they become the politicians).
I remember – maybe a decade plus ago – reading about a press conference that took place on the steps of the Mayor’s house, on the steps and porch of Gracie Mansion, in New York City, when Giuliani was still mayor. It was then Mayor Rudi Giuliani flanked by his girl friend who was the reason for calling this press conference.
Inside the Gracie Mansion was Giuliani’s wife, preparing a meal for the family completely oblivious to what was happening in front of her house. Giuliani called the press conference to announce that he was divorcing his wife and was going to marry his girl friend. He had not yet made that announcement to his wife, with whom he was still living, who was inside with their young son preparing food for them to eat – I believe it was breakfast.
She learned that morning, from the press, when they called her for a comment, that her husband was leaving her for another woman – with whom he had been involved for some time. She learned that her husband was going to divorce her and marry this other woman. People divorce and remarry all the time. The circumstances of the Giuliani divorce and his re-marriage would fit into a narrative about the ethics and morals and lifestyle of Donald Trump.
I can’t imagine how Giuliani’s then wife felt, but I am pretty sure it was not great. She learned of all this from the press.
The rest of us forget that little detail about Giuliani’s values and ethics. His sexism, extreme I would say, is put in the past and not even deserving of a foot note as the press now talks about his current position on the political stage. In fact, that act by Giuliani was almost never mentioned as he moved into other things and was involved in life as it unfolded around him and his political and other ambitions. Was that a part of what has made Donald Trump possible? Our moral values are eroded a little at a time. If we ignore what Giuliani did to be so disrespectful and crude with his then wife and we ignore that and treat him as though he is an honorable man then the door opens a little wider for someone like Trump to be elected in spite of the way he has treated so many women and in spite of all the rumors of “golden showers” and other such stories. And now two such men are again combining to support one another in their ambitions to be a big deal in life and in this United States culture and society. Is this how our culture is evolving and the path we are blazing for our children to see and to follow?
This is the man Trump called on during his campaign and who he has now called on to shore up and help him with the Mueller investigation and other matters. We are seeing the coming together of a new nation with new moral values, new ethics, new ways of being and doing, and an unbelievably destructive way of relating to and dealing with woman on all levels of all kinds of all races, religions and marital status.
How long will we all accept people who treat women in such a disgraceful way and move ahead with them, quietly ignoring their history with women. Those things need at least a foot note. Ignoring Trump’s history with women and his treatment of them – isn’t that one reason why so many were able to vote for him? Because women don’t count and can be treated however – isn’t that what allows the white evangelicals to support, comfort and raise up someone like Trump? I suspect if you look into the lifestyle of many of the white male evangelicals you would find similar circumstances – girl friends, mistresses, one night stands all carefully hidden from their congregations as they go about attempting to hold up Jesus as an example to the world as someone the world should follow and to whom this world should give allegiance, love and faith. And as they hold up themselves as an example of who you should be as Christians holding up to all of us what looks like the wonderful white male family hoping you don’t remove the covers and look inside? Where is the real voice of the women inside these families? Are they so afraid for their own existence and survival and lifestyle that they are willing to oppress themselves to hold up their men knowing their transgressions and the lies they are living? How long are we going to hold up Donald Trump as president of these United States? A man mired in filth, corruption, and who – by his own admission – sees women as only of value for their p#### which he can grab and do with whatever he and by extension other men choose?
It does not take geniuses to know what to do! It takes men and women of courage to step out and be counted here! Is your identity as white – male – Northern European ancestry – so important to you that you will give up eternity for these few minutes on earth during which you are ethically, morally and in every other way destroying yourselves and others? And to the women who support these men – what ever happened to your self-respect? The more support you give to them the less you have of yourselves. You can’t but dwindle in your own eyes when these are your standards.
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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.
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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Donald Trump, politics, Sexism
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Breakfast Table Talk, Donald Trump, politics, racism, sexism | Comments Off on Rudi Giuliani and Donald Trump
April 14th, 2018
It is beyond belief that we in the United States are so enmeshed in evil. Are we really so totally corrupt and from the head?
There has always been an evil side or evil group in these United States. As you trace our history you find even from the beginning when those who first arrived, who were welcomed by the ‘natives’ – the peoples living in these United States – our history shows we responded to that welcome with evil which finally led to the Trail of Tears. That kind of evil is still practiced against that original group living in this country. It is still going on today. With that unrelieved history we know there is something very wrong.
When a group, too lazy to do their own work, starts roaming the earth and brings back human beings from Africa bound into slavery and tied for generations to do the work of this evil group under the conditions of slavery and against their will the evil continues.
When so much death and destruction happens even after that and continues into today something is very wrong.
There were massacres all during slavery as many tried to escape. After slavery there were massacres as groups of Africans, supposedly freed slaves, were bound and kept in slavery and slaughtered if they refused. Communities – such as in Oklahoma – were massacred.
Skipping a lot because it begins to sound like “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” – an unrelieved book documenting the suffering of American Indians – and coming into today we have almost daily shootings to kill people at random. Shootings that our laws uneffective against the guns do not stop and which brought our young people, our teenagers and younger into the conflict for the second time in modern history. I was a part of the first bringing in of such young people to try to mitigate the unrelieved suffering inflicted upon Americans by evil groups of people and which was temporarily successful until this new age started.
We now have billionaires persecuting and oppressing others with the consequent growth of homelessness at disgraceful levels and the attempts of the few to stem and stop that growth not showing results. We are fighting each other because the rich want to be richer; the not so rich want to be really rich and supports those they want to be like hurting themselves and their families in the process. It is a crazy environment. Speaking of which we have even disrupted and are destroying our own environment in which we have to live and breathe and can’t survive if climate change continues on the road we have set for it. AND in that process we still have that evil group denying and trying to destroy those working to stop climate change – denying climate change because it means their march towards the riches they want projected by their greed will be disrupted if we work to stop or even slow down climate change.
And today – at the head of this we have #evilTrump – a president with the story following him of “golden showers”. A president who, it is claimed, had prostitutes pee on one another to foul the bed the African American president and his wife slept in when they visited Russia. Try to depict that as anything other than extreme viciousness and evil. And he is the one leading this nation. He is the one the White Evangelicals have chosen as their political leader. He is the one they raise up when they call on Jesus in their Churches to protect them and him from who – from those actually living out the Gospel? And that ‘golden showers’ story is one of his lesser deeds, which he denies and claims he is a “germaphobe” and couldn’t be involved in such. However, the claim isn’t that the pee touched him, but that he was the one who had the prostitutes do the peeing on each other while he got his jollies from watching. Isn’t that ultimate evil? Nothing was claimed that they peed on him or even sprayed him with their pee. And the white evangelicals will continue to hold him up and give reasons as to why they feel he is doing gods work! In that context god must be spelled with the small ‘g’ because it is idolatrous and worship by infidels who have put up their god to gain the ascendency over the God they claim to worship. It is foul – evil – sin – the work of who they call Satan. Satan – walking freely around the evangelical churches; taking shelter in their meetings; dictating what is said and acceptable in their conferences and gatherings; holding up other men just like this head of the United States who have covered their sins so they can hold up and claim him.
It is not to be believed. And yet, he was elected president. Is this God’s justice from all that has happened in the past? Does this president have the 666 – the mark of the beast on him as restitution for all we have brought about in these United States when the ground was given to all of us to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God?
Something is very wrong here and I don’t see us stopping, changing, or making this better. I see “President” Trump appointing Cambridge Analytica’s successor to Steve Bannon in the form of John Bolton – isn’t that how evil continues? When one person becomes too toxic replace him with another of the same ilk supported by the same group with both totally involved with Cambridge Analytica. Not even hidden, but so sure of themselves that exchange is totally out in the open.
I see all of the evil forces coming out stronger doing their best to swamp those trying to right these wrongs and I see a totally foul president still in power and still moving to cause as much upheaval as he can. And I hear him still being led by and managed by Russia as an asset of Vladimir Putin. What is wrong with you America? Are you so scared that the increase and almost majority of brown people in this world scared you to the point of needing to go crazy in an evil way to prevent this? Are you afraid when the majority of people in this world are those who were the minority that they will take vengeance against you? Or are you so stuck in being “better than”. With your claimed superiority threatened you will do anything to prevent becoming equal too all other human beings? Have you noticed the “Russia” to which Trump seems to be promised – it is a white nation! Immigration the way Trump is dealing with it has as its goal to make America White Again as an ally and cousin to this white nation. And then what will they unleash as they combine with other such white nations? They won’t be allied with France or England or other such becoming “brown” or already “brown” nations.
I guess you don’t realize that all of these “brown” people are your children? Black and White coming together produces Brown!
I don’t know what to make of this – except that it is evil personified! And roaming America freely! Like everybody else outside of the circle of evil, we have so much to say, so much to share, so much to give and instead this ugly stifles everything good and it is spreading not shrinking. What are you going to do about all of this America? Sit by and hope it goes away? Claim we are the world’s greatest nation and sit back and watch it all go up in fire and smoke with our president disproving that on an hourly basis?
It is time to choose – Good or Evil! To sit back and do nothing is not acceptable. Either you totally accept the evil that is Donald Trump or you reject it and move it aside – there is no alternative. Those who do nothing are as doomed as those who do evil!
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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.
Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. 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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Tags: African American history, Barack Obama, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Donald Trump, politics, Racism, Sexism, Spiritual Reflection
Posted in African American history, Barack Obama, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Bettina oracle, Breakfast Table Talk, Donald Trump, Historical Homes, Historical Support, Parklands Florida Shooting, politics, President Obama, racism, sexism, Uncategorized, Vladimir Putin | Comments Off on The Bettina Oracle takes us back to the future with Donald Trump!
April 11th, 2018
What if Colonialism had not happened and we gradually moved to a world community – discovering new ideas, ways of doing things, different foods that we are used to eating and cooking, etc. instead of developing a society which claimed some foods and ways of cooking as superior and some to be shunned.? What a rich and very fantastic place this would be.
What if today we shun that Colonialism and come together as a one world community giving and sharing what we have with others on an equal basis. Mine as just as good as yours and yours as just as good as mine. What an incredibly rich place this would be and the knowledge which circulates using the new technology would facilitate an awesome life. Instead that technology is used to manipulate, persuade, lie to, and we are all the poorer for it and enamored forever in war, brutality, white supremacy, nazism and its cousins, and so much more that destroys us and totally damages our children.
Assuming this first, we look for greatness in societies and cultures and discovered a way of cooking rice that is great.
I didn’t much care for rice, but then I only knew white rice which took 7 minutes to cook and had a skim covering on top that looked like and probably was talc powder. Hope I’ve missed the cancer that kind of rice is rumored to cause and that I discovered organically grown rice in time. Now, today, with my new found knowledge, I buy organically grown rice and I am careful whose organically grown rice we buy.
Problem with that was in the cooking. It would take a long time and I could never count on the rice being great. Sometimes it turned out in a sensational way and sometimes it was not something you wanted to eat – either too hard or too soft.
A friend came over to show me how to cook this rice and we put on a cooking show for our Bettina Network Hedge School guests. This now very close friend is not someone who my mother would have allowed into the house as my playmate, nor would she have been a part of the many “play dates” I was taken to as a child.
Those who joined us for dinner were in my Bettina-Hedge-School-Home to learn special cooking skills and so thy were invited into the kitchen to help prepare the dinner.
Rice was the main dish since that was the reason for my very-skilled-at-cooking friends’ presence.
She started by putting what to my eyes and sensibility was a very large amount of butter in the glass corning pot in which we were going to cook the rice. I winced as I saw all of that butter. (It actually was three tablespoons – but if you try this you should use your own judgment and your own taste.)
She let the butter melt and bubble awhile and then added the rice. She cooked the rice in butter for several minutes and then added water, a little salt – Himalayan salt, turmeric and I added a dash of cayenne pepper (because every dish I cook has a dash of cayenne).
We put the top on the pot and in about 15 minutes we had the fluffiest rice I have seen. And the tastiest. I think I will give up potatoes and take on rice. Well, maybe I will just add rice cooked in this way as another food I can add to my menus.
Everyone at dinner thought the rice was spectacular.
A SUGGESTION:
If you are vegan, you might want to start this rice in coconut oil, or some other kind of oil with a high smoking point. I would not use the famous Olive Oil because it goes rancid quickly in heat. We only use Olive Oil for cold dishes like salad dressings, etc. As a society we have become so accustomed to what we call th “Mediterranean diet” which is anything but, that we assume Olive Oil is a universal oil and we try to use it in everything. So much so we have become accustomed to the taste of rancid olive oil and assume that is normal.
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
Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Cookbook, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, food shopping, Recipe
Posted in A new home in the Bettina Network, Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina's Cookbook, Food Shopping, Hedge Schools, Recipe | Comments Off on Cooking Rice Elegantly!
March 25th, 2018
Bettina Network, inc. has several areas within its corporate structure. Bettina Network Hedge Schools is one – to refresh your memory or read about the Hedge Schools see https://www.bettina-network.com/blog/archives/3428
Also included in Bettina Network, inc. are its publications: Bettina Network’s Blog and Bettina’s Menu of Events. Both described below. If you have questions don’t hesitate to email us at bettina-network@comcast.net
2.) Bettina Network’s Blog
is a conglomeration of conversations which take place around the breakfast table in one or another Bettina Network Hedge School/homes.
-or-
A Member or Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community sent us information which they would like disseminated to a large audience,
-or-
something happens which just strikes our fancy and we want to share it with all of you.
– all will go immediately to Bettina Network’s Blog.
Bettina Network’s Blog covers a wide range of topics —- With points of view you generally won’t find other places — you never know what will appear next — and that comes from the diversity within our corporation. An article could come from one of the Bettina Network Hedge Schools; members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community; or our own quirky people who work for the Corporation; or from those who volunteer to help us achieve our goals to “make this a better world one small step at a time”.
3.) Bettina’s Menu of Events
provides a rich, curated list of activities that will keep you busy,
entertained,
will add to your intellectual knowledge base,
and help create and expand your store of wisdom.
Use the “Menu” before your next stay in a Bettina Lifestyle Home!
Bettina’s Menu of Events also includes reviews of everything, critiques of events, places, restaurants, happenings and more.
To use Bettina’s Menu of Events you must be a member of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community.
As a member you will receive a password, which allows you access to Bettina’s Menu of Events, among other benefits.
Besides getting events to attend during your stay in a Bettina Network Hedge School you can also add events you find of interest so others can share what you found. Some of our best events have been added to Bettina’s Menu of Events by members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community. We encourage you to search the world for just that perfect event to share.
……And so we grow.
You can interact with us by:
CALLING: when you next need reservations either for yourself or from visitors coming from other cities, states, countries who would benefit immensely from spending their time away from home in a Bettina Network Hedge School.
Our homes are wonderful places to stay – some reach the appellation of exquisite.
Not much can compare to what we offer.
Our rates range from $110 through $495/night. In other cities the rates also vary depending upon what is offered.
Call if you are moving, changing your lifestyle, settling an estate – we are able to sell furnishings, jewelry, automobiles, stocks, bonds, etc.
Call if you have a home and want to join Bettina Network, inc. as a Bettina Host Family sharing your knowledge with guests who come from around the world. If your home is not currently ‘exquisite’ we have people who will work with you to make sure you are on a par with everyone else in the network.
Call if you have a home you want to donate to Bettina Network Foundation, inc. that we can use to house those who are in need and so continue to expand our training and more, recovering someone who might not find their way otherwise. Yes, we do offer a tax deduction through Bettina Network Foundation, inc. a 501(c)3 corporation.
Call if you just want to talk to get acquainted and know more about who we are, what we do and where we are going.
And in the future, coming as soon as our resources allow – Bettina Network’s Research Library.
Sincerely,
All of us at Bettina’s Bettina Network, inc.
P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238
1-617-497-9166 (or) 1-800 347 9166 (toll free within the U. S. and Canada)
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email: bettina-network@comcast.net
blog: bettina-network.com/blog
Bettina’s Menu of Events can only be accessed by members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community via their personal password .
Check out our web site for more information at www.bettina-network.com .
We are an exciting company which also includes Bettina Network’s Blog – Bettina’s Menu of Events – Bettina Network’s Sales – Bettina Network Research Library and Bettina Network Foundation, inc a 501(c)3 corporation.
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Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Cookbook, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network Information, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, breakfast table talk, estate sale, Hedge Schools
Posted in A Bettina Moving Sale, A new home in the Bettina Network, An Estate Sale, Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network Info, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Breakfast Table Talk, Estate Sales, Hedge Schools, Historical Homes, House Sales, Kitchen Table Talk | Comments Off on What is Bettina Network, inc. – i.e. Publications
March 23rd, 2018
Everyone wants to know what is going on with Trump and Putin!
I think its clear.
Trump has wanted a replacement for his friend Roy Cohn who died in the 1980’s. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/06/donald-trump-roy-cohn-relationship
Cohn was someone who was responsible for helping Trump move his business from Queens, New York to Manhattan.
With a very forceful father, the Trump family succeeded in Queens in the construction business. Trump moved that business into Manhattan and it became construction, casinos, et.al. Trump made that move under the tutelage of Roy Cohn who was responsible for introducing Trump to the ‘right’ people; being his legal hawk; guiding him into Manhattan and always being there for him.
Donald Trump and Roy Cohn were an item. They were inseparable for years and it was under Cohn that Trump was protected, taught – Cohn was Trump’s mentor during that time and he learned all the lessons Cohn had to teach. Cohn was also the mentor behind Joe McCarthy and his anti-communist ‘purge’ which had this country in an enormous upheaval and a lot of evil for several years with Cohn whispering in McCarthy’s ear. At those hearings you can see Cohn pictured whispering into McCarthy’s ear whenever McCarthy seemed to need some kind of reassurance, information, teaching to continue.
The McCarthy era has been recalled and re-enacted by Trump in these United States. Not the same issue, but the same upheavals and messes and evil spread all over the place in this country as happened during that time led by McCarthy and Cohn and little Trump. And now we have Trump with his longing for Cohn and Cohn having been replaced in Trump’s life by Putin.
Trump also relied heavily on Cohn as protector. Its a long story. Cohn was very gay and lived a gay lifestyle. He and Trump were very close. I always thought Trump’s womanizing was Trump running away from his homosexuality. I could be wrong, but it certainly looks that way to me.
Trump has found a replacement for Roy Cohn and his name is Vladimir Putin.
Ask around and you will see how similar are the two relationships. Trump and Cohn and Trump and Putin. Trump and Cohn were physically inseparable. Where you found one there was the other. Trump and Putin are separated by countries, but the intensity and Trump’s dependency on Putin seems to be the same as was his dependence on Cohn.
Big difference! Cohn didn’t have much to gain from Trump – he was the giver. It seems as though Trump didn’t give to that relationship even when Cohn was at the end of his life, destitute, mired in filth and almost totally friendless. Trump stayed away during that time – didn’t want to soil his reputation or ‘give’ I presume.
Now the tables turn and Trump is the giver with Putin having an enormous amount to gain and it looks as though Putin is guiding Trump into destroying the U. S. with Trump seeing the mirage of great success, happiness, et. al. at the end of a rainbow where he will find neither Cohn nor Putin. Mueller with hand cuffs, perhaps?
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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
Tags: Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, breakfast table talk, Donald Trump, politics, Vladimir Putin
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Breakfast Table Talk, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin | Comments Off on Trump and Putin! A Reader’s Thoughts.
March 20th, 2018
Use our services to increase your knowledge, experience and enjoyment of life.
1.) Bettina Network Hedge Schools
Why travel inns, hotels, bed & breakfast, guest houses, etc. when you can travel using Bettina Network Hedge Schools
What are Bettina Network Hedge Schools? How do they work?
A Bettina Home/Bettina Network Hedge School, is a place where you can stay while visiting a particular city, country, village, either on other business or on a vacation or you are doing a historical review of the area and you want to add to the experience of the trip; or you can travel to a Bettina Network Hedge School just for the experience, knowledge and wisdom it adds to your life.
We take homes into Bettina Network, inc. because they have something to contribute to our learning; they are full of many amenities not found elsewhere.
The family in residence offers their life-experience, a workshop, knowledge of art, architecture, prayer, spirituality, health, cooking, or whatever is their specialty. In Bettina Homes/Bettina Network Hedge Schools, those specialties change as the family lives and grows and experiences life from different perspectives.
Bettina Network Hedge Schools are patterned after the historical “Hedge Schools” of Ireland. We include all the world’s knowledge, experience, religions, spirituality.
Book your visit to one of our Hedge Schools today by calling 617-497-9166 or toll free at 800-347-9166
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email us at bettina-network@comcast.net.
Check out our web site for more information at www.bettina-network.com .
We are an exciting company which also includes Bettina Network’s Blog – Bettina’s Menu of Events – Bettina Network’s Sales – Bettina Network Research Library and Bettina Network Foundation, inc a 501(c)3 corporation.
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Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Foundation, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community | Comments Off on What Is Bettina Network, inc.?
March 19th, 2018
Most of us buy from all kind of stores to satisfy our needs and wants – retail, hardware, clothing, accessories, furniture, jewelry, etc. Ever-so-often we come across a family or individuals or groups of unrelated people who live together, who have decided to try another lifestyle and live one step under the radar.
They do this through buying food from a commercial store and everything else from estate sales, garage sales, driveway sales, house sales, etc.
We have had many talks with people who think of this from time to time as they pay exorbitant amounts of money for things they want. We also hear this from people doing wishful thinking when they see something they want, but can’t afford.
Well, this column, written by different people as they experience the ‘estate sale lifestyle’ fully, will tell you the stories of those who live via shopping only at these sales. For some, they even step into buying food at estate sales. They can only buy food that is sealed and have to supplement what they buy via going shopping at grocery and other food stores, but they stick rigidly to not buying anything else except at the sales which happen across the country.
We will attempt to give you a peek into how they manage this and you can decide if this is how you want to live. It is recycle on steroids.
Meet the Smith Family. Mother – Mary Smith. Father – John Smith. Daughter – Dorian Smith. Son – Jackson Smith. Mother, Father and two children with a van, living in a White House with black trim surrounded by a white picket fence. The beginning story of the American dream.
The Smith’s however, are not who they appear to be. We met them at the last estate sale we went to. The family in that particular house was selling everything. The mother died recently. She had been living in a nursing home for about two months before she died and now her house and everything in it was for sale. Her children – now grown – didn’t want to keep anything. (This is the kind of sale we really love). They didn’t think much of their parents taste. Wanted everything “new” and were going to get their wishes fulfilled when the house and its contents were sold.
We felt so sorry for the woman who died and especially for her children. She had some lovely things which would cost a small fortune if purchased from retail stores, but were being sold for a fraction of their “when purchased” price. She also had furnishings which would only escalate in value over the years. We have met many people who talked about – “oh look, Mama had that and wow look at the price. We sold it for a fraction of that when she died – we had no idea.” We sent up a prayer for the woman and her children. The woman who thought she was leaving a beautifully furnished house for her children to take over and continue to improve and live in graciously, and we prayed for her children who couldn’t wait to get rid of all that ‘stuff’ .
The Smith family showed up near the end of the sale and were very excited about what they found. They have three fireplaces in their white home with black trim surrounded by its white picket fence. One thing they were looking for was wood for the fireplaces. They had been looking for a couple months and wondered if this wasn’t something they would not find and today, here they were beyond their greatest dream with this huge store of oak in front of them.
Before this ‘great find’ they had not used their fireplaces because the cost per fire was too much given their small income and the relatively high cost of fireplace wood. At the house where we met they had just purchased a ton of wood – cut – dried – stacked on the side of the house and they paid $25 for all of it.
They were in the process of taking the wood home. They were filling their van and clearly would have to make two or more trips to get the wood home, but that didn’t bother them at all. They were very animated talking about how they could have a fire every night when the weather dictated that a fireplace smelling of oak would be sensational. They could toast marshmallows that they made and spend long evenings in front of a blazing fire without hurting themselves financially. Actually, they could enjoy this dream without even thinking of saving on wood or of burning just a little keeping the fires sparse and maybe only in one fireplace. The wood they were taking home would last two or three seasons.
As we talked further with the Smith family, they told us how they have been living like this for several years. They were devoted estate sale shoppers and loved the friends they made going to different houses and meeting people who are ‘estate sale people” and exchanging stories. They also loved walking through the houses to see what people had done and how they decorated – taking home as many ideas as ‘things’.
We asked if we could follow their adventures so you will be hearing more about the Smith Family. Amazingly, their daughter Dorian was the most excited about this way of life because of the clothes, games and other such things she finds which her parents would not let her buy retail, but which she can enjoy via the “sales”. Dorian is about 12 years old. Jackson is about 16.
As we paid for our purchases, it was clear the Smith Family was not nearly ready to stop shopping. We looked back on them filling their van and hoping they could made the trips home and still have time to shop. Mrs. Smith just shook her head and said it would be next weekend before they did any more buying, but that was alright because it was exciting to find something they really needed and didn’t expect to find at a price they could afford.
So, next weekend you will find us traipsing around town following the Smith Family and writing up their adventures for you to experience through Bettina Network’s Blog.
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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
Tags: Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, estate sale, Moving Sale
Posted in A Scattering Sale, An Estate Sale, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Driveway Sales, Estate Sales, Garage Sales, House Sales, Moving Sale, Ubuntu | Comments Off on The Smiths – An Estate Sale Family!
March 17th, 2018
Thank you for what you have written in the Manchurian Administration.
What amazes me is that Jared Kushner let the cat out of the bag early on that there was and would be “collusion” with Russia and Putin when he wanted to set up a “back door” communications channel for Trump and Putin to communicate. And, when he wanted that back door to be immune to U. S. Intelligence Agencies listening and spying on what they had to say or what transpired between Putin and Trump, that just seemed to be Kushner trying to protect Trump from what he had to know would be a price to pay if those Intelligence Agencies could listen to the connection and conversation of those two people.
It seems very far fetched that Kushner would come up with something like that and present his idea to the Russian Ambassador unsolicited or with no reason except coming only from Kushner’s mind.
That is one of the most telling pieces of this saga for me. That had to come to Kushner from trying to carry out his and Trump’s part of this agreement with Russia and Putin so Trump could become president and stay on the good side of Putin. Clearly, to be on Putin’s bad side carries lots of danger.
I have followed this and it seems so clear to me that apparently, the Trump followers and supporters prefer their White Supremacy in all and any of its forms to a democracy. That is a tough trade off but when it is your identity we are talking about people will give their lives to maintain their identity. That is rock bottom who you are and that is not easily changed. Our basic nature endowed identity is the group from which we come. Add to that the next step humans most often take – to declare their group better than any other group and you have all these machinations, killings, spyings, and more to maintain themselves as better than at all cost.
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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
Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, breakfast table talk, Donald Trump, Guest Comments, politics, Racism, Sexism
Posted in Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Breakfast Table Talk, Donald Trump, Guest comments, Kitchen Table Talk, politics, racism, sexism | Comments Off on A Readers Response
March 15th, 2018
President Trump has made it clear, on a daily basis, for all of us to see and learn from – one can live in a bigoted society and get feel goods from puffing yourself up to believe you are better than or you can live in a democracy – your choice. You cannot, however, have both.
My guess is that Donald Trump has made a deal with Putin and Russia – he becomes U. S. President and helps Putin carry out his goals for these United States; Putin gets behind his candidacy and does everything possible to make that happen; and in return the “Don” gets his Trump Tower in Moscow at the end of his term(s) as president.
What does the “Don” have to do? Take down U. S. sanctions against Russia; promote Putin as this wonderful leader and one we should befriend; carry out whatever side actions Putin lets the “Don” know are in Putin’s best interest and which he needs the U. S. to do immediately; and say nothing untoward – negative – or demeaning against Putin or Russia.
From where I sit, Trump is doing an incredible job of following through with his part of this apparent deal with Putin and is doing everything he can to turn the United States into a very autocratic, authoritarian, mean-spirited country. He is following in the foot steps of the worse autocrats in history. He is at the beginnings of that process, but he is moving quite fast and has accomplished much.
He has just moved a woman into the position of head of the Central Intelligence Agency. Isn’t it wonderful that for the first time a woman has headed that agency. However, on the other hand she is the one who headed turning a part of the Intelligence Agency into a very murderous, torture chamber for no good reason since it has been known for some time that torture does not get the results expected.
All of the laws which guaranteed a democracy are either being reversed or other laws are being added which make this a very ugly, fascist country. The worst of our history is being replayed in the immigrant area. We have been through refusing entry into this country of Chinese. After the Chinese sweat blood and gave their lives to build at great cost to themselves and their families – our railway system and other low level, dangerous jobs they were forced to take to survive. The Irish went through a horrible time complete with “No Irish need Apply”, amongst other denigrations and demeaning and horrifying times, some of which still exist today. And on and on and on until you come to slavery of Africans. I have to add Africans here because we do still engage in enslaving women in this country.
The ethics and moral values which so many families try so hard to pass along to their children have been short circuited by Mr. Trump and his administrations’ examples. One can see the hand of one of Mr. Trump’s mentors – Roy Cohen – who in spite of being dead, still lives. Lessons the “Don” learned include the biggy – don’t ever admit failure. If you have tried something and it fails, claim it as a great success, speak about your successes loudly so that people hearing will be swayed to actually think of where you failed as being a place where you actually were great. I think Mr. Trump has forgotten as he lives out these lessons learned at Mr. Cohen’s knee that Roy Cohen died broke, friendless and living in squalid circumstances.
Mr. Trump seems to revel in his being president as the return of the “Alpha Male” – who is always at the top of society along with a few males not quite as great but walking with him as they make changes to the society in which they increasingly control everything. As he moves along in his presidency along with his administration and the criminal enterprise we call the RNC, it is clear that they share some common beliefs: 1) the world’s rules, which must be obeyed, are those which keep men – white, Northern European ancestry men – firmly in control. 2) the women you select be careful to insure that they have been brain washed and are trying to and need to be better than when in actuality they serve the purpose of screwing men for the man’s enjoyment and are painfully screwed by the men for the man’s advancement. 3) Maintain the male god who is the keeper of this culture and of the rules by which we all live – rules which are there to keep men firmly in control. The rules of the world have clearly developed to insure the total control of white, Northern European ancestry men over all. 4) Keep a watchful eye to make sure the developments and perceived advancements of science, religion, business, art are all led by and attributed to those same men. Where it looks as though that is slipping, keep the young and the greedy roaming around to steal the advancements, ideas, vision of those non-white peoples. Even some who look like friends – Al Gore claiming he was responsible for the internet when in fact that was a woman; Madam C. J. Walker who invented an incredibly profitable marketing system which she used to market hair products for African women and that marketing system’s invention and development were credited to men; and on and on it goes.
Where is the hope in all of this? Is there any light breaking into this world as it seems to be spiraling down into the depths of hell? Especially since Donald Trump could not have done all of this alone. There was a lot of history which preceded his presidency and a lot of people tuned into what he is doing and wants to do in the future. Some of those people are ones who would be demeaned and destroyed if what they were working towards were to succeed and become a part of the structure of this world – these people seem totally oblivious to the fact that the success of their efforts will fall hardest onto them.
All is not yet lost, however. We see light breaking in with the children – During the Galilean ministry, Jesus’ disciples came saying ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And Jesus called a child and set the child in the midst of them and said, “Verily I say unto you, except you be converted and become as children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore humbles themselves as this child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And who shall receive one such child in my name receives me. But who shall offend one of these it is better that millstones hang around their necks and drowns them in the depth of the sea.
However, that light is being mitigated by the darkness we see spreading as the rich become richer and the poor become desperate. Especially as the rich see the poor as being poor because of some kind of moral deficiency when the moral deficiency is that of the billionaires whose greed keeps them from seeing clearly. We move further apart as the riches of the world become more unevenly distributed, especially since it is not possible for one person to legitimately be worth billions while others live on the street. That is happening to our world and it is reflected in our politics. We want to insure that this trend continues because many of the poor are joining with the rich in bringing this about because they expect one day to be rich themselves and they want the kind of world that will shore them up and be prejudiced in their favor when their ship of gold comes in.
The work of the world is to take seriously Isaiah and all the other scripture writings that say in essence –
“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
and a child shall lead them.”
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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
Tags: Barack Obama, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, breakfast table talk, Donald Trump, Guest Comments, politics, Racism, Sexism, Spiritual Reflection
Posted in Al Gore, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Breakfast Table Talk, DACA, Donald Trump, Guest comments, Never Again, Parklands Florida Shooting, politics, racism, sexism, Spiritual Reflection, Theology | Comments Off on The Manchurian U. S. Administration (cont’d)
March 11th, 2018
Melania Trump shows no gun control is a family affair?
Supporting her husbands’ support for the NRA? Showing how women can give their support to the NRA for their husbands benefit?
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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
Tags: Gun Control, pornography
Posted in Gun Control, pornography | Comments Off on Trump and Gun Control
February 25th, 2018
An article from the Thomas Reuters Foundation
http://news.trust.org/item/20180219000115-hggd9/
As Airbnb established itself Harvard Business School was the first to discover racism within its corporate structure and in the services it offers to others. Other magazines and research groups followed and verified that finding.
Second, the destruction and trashing of many homes where the people rented to individuals for the night through Airbnb and not for a party; and now this. – a home for those engaging in sex trafficking. It is an incredible way to avoid the law and public exposure.
Some Bettina Network, inc. history with Airbnb – like, where did their idea to establish such a company first came from:
When you come to a black woman’s home, where she has structured a successful business which is growing and on the verge of taking off into the stratosphere, apparently sent by people from the local venture capitalist company, to steal her business ideas because they are working and successful and have shown that private homes can be put together in a network for the benefit of all = and the purpose of your visit is to see what is working, how and to steal what is there – there is a price to pay. Saying nothing to her as to your purpose but putting your feet under her dining room table and eating her food while you steal everything you could and continued to have people call for ideas, explanations and finally to have a friend steal her business plan – the universe definitely does not like that and the ethics so displayed get wrapped up in the business you stole.
First because it isn’t your original idea so all kinds of wrong doings and wrong things are in your corporate structure because you didn’t know the industry into which you and your investors put yourselves.
Second, you didn’t have the decency to say anything to the person whose idea and business you stole and third because apparently within your own souls there is an evil which allowed you to do all of the above and put screwed up ethics into the business structure you created.
It is unbelievable that you have turned bed and breakfast into the kind of sordid industry you have managed to structure. Adding sex trafficking to out of control parties at peoples homes who did not give you permission to hold parties at their home and whose homes were and are trashed and destroyed after your guests leave, many homes to the point of having the industry beginning to be heavily regulated because of the negativity you created.
An industry which for several hundred years has been a way for many small individuals to survive with only good results given to the society in which those homes existed – you have turned that into a way for the greedy to have a public platform where they could practice their evil under your watchful and protective eye and structure. Overtime I thought you had stooped as low as you could go, but something always happens to show that you still have a long ways to slide.
And here you vow to tackle the sex trafficking you have used your corporate structure to house so they could practice their horribleness outside the watchful eye of the law. = You should have structured your business so that sex trafficking would not be able to use Airbnb in the first place, but it was not your original vision so you clearly don’t know how. Just as you structured racism into your business because your greed wanted to insure you got as many and as much money as possible and not structuring racism into what you are doing, in your eyes, probably seemed to limit your possibilities. The universe isn’t through with you yet. The way you are corrupting the societies in which you function are legion and ugly and evil.
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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.
Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. 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
Tags: Airbnb, bed & breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina's Box of Shame, Racism, Sex Trafficking, Sexism, venture capitalists
Posted in Airbnb, Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina's Box of Shame, Breakfast Table Talk, racism, Sex Trafficking, sexism, venture capitalists | Comments Off on Sex Trafficking, Airbnb and more!
February 22nd, 2018
by Marceline Donaldson
Trump, yesterday and today, with his followers and close friends and supporters are laughing their asses off as they talk about and listened to the young people and others in the White House who were there to make suggestions for change and to talk about ways to stop the killing of children by children.
Why would Trump be laughing at the people he seemed to so seriously engage with on yesterday? – Why would he be laughing his ass off? Probably because he, no doubt, shared with his buddies at the NRA the suggestions he was going to make, had made and would continue to make amongst other horrifying suggestions. Geared to stopping and solving the problem or geared to taking advantage of a disaster and turning it into a marketing opportunity for the gun lobby.
This particular suggestion made in a seemingly concerned way and in the midst of other people, both young and older, pouring their hearts out about the loss they suffered from the shooting. was one that, we think made Trump and Associates have some hilarious moments when recalling the conversation and Trump’s part in it.
People came to seriously engage with Trump – president of these United States – with their experiences, thoughts, suggestions for change etc. and poured out their pain.
Trump’s addition to the conversation was to suggest change he wanted to see happen which would – in reality – increase the numbers and groups of people owning and using guns. Trump’s suggestion was to arm some 20% of the teachers in the schools who would be the blockade to stop such shootings. That is what Trump and friends were having such hilarious conversation about after everyone had left for the day.
To establish Trump’s suggestion means there would be shoot-outs in elementary schools and high schools; the teachers, trying to work with students to start them on a good life would also be the ones to shoot those self-same students if the circumstances seemed to warrant – and if the situation didn’t warranty and the teachers had made a mistake and jumped to the wrong conclusion, but people still died from their gun shots, that would have ruined teachers’ lives; teachers lives as well as the lives of many students who could never turn from the fact that friends might be dead because of a beloved teacher – how many would be added to the death toll – dead from a teacher/shooting mistake; and on and on goes the scenario.
That isn’t the way Trump phrased it. But he did use that session to open an avenue to sell more guns. He opened a way to increase the exposure of people to guns who would then probably have to join groups like the NRA looking for information, target practice etc. It was really a genius idea. At least genius to the people around Trump who want to see this disaster turned into continuing and increasing the money flow into the Trump coffers from the NRA and related organizations.
And so, as their concerns that such a session might be the beginning of the end to the power they exercise through organizations like the NRA, in fact, they were assured that Trump was still their boy – still looking out for their interests – and still able, with a straight face to promote their organization at times when the organization was in some of its deepest troubles. Not only could he promote their interests at such times he could do it while seeming to commiserate with those who had been seriously wounded with friends and family mortally wounded.
Trump’s solution – increase the numbers of guns in circulation’ increase the groups of people who carry and use such weapons of war; increase the violence in this society exponentially and directed like a laser onto our children.
HAIL PUTIN!!!
Have you checked lately to see where the money support for the NRA is coming from? Have you noticed how NRA assets have doubled and within one year? Have you noticed the large amounts of money – well into the tens of millions of dollars to Congress people and some $30 million plus to Trump, that can be traced? Is that coming from Russia into the United States to further push along their agenda for U.S.?
HAIL PUTIN!!
Do you remember the dinner, off on the side at an NRA meeting where the Russian Ambassador met with Donald Trump, Jr. and they had dinner together? Off, away from the prying eyes of the public? And of the media? but somehow it got out! Wonder what that was about?
HAIL PUTIN!!
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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
Tags: Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Donald Trump, Florida shooting, Parklands, politics
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Donald Trump, Parklands Florida Shooting, politics | Comments Off on The Meeting – Trump and those who experienced a killing field!
February 20th, 2018
It is unusual for a corporation or company or business to take civil rights stands or even political stands – although in fact, where they put their money and who they embrace as friends takes strong stands that the public cannot see and does not know about. It is time for those stands to be taken clear, unequivocal and in public. Businesses and their public interest groups lobby Congress for all kinds of things to benefit their corporation and the communities it serves. This time, stand up and stand with our and your children. Make a very public statement that you are standing up for and with these young people.
Bettina Network, inc. stands with the young people who are the genesis of the movement against gun violence in Parklands, Florida.
We stand with the ‘Never Again’ Movement.
In the 1960’s the turning point in the Black Civil Rights Movement – the fight for equality which brought Martin Luther King, Jr. into prominence – was the point at which school children, very young school children, walking two by two walked into the dogs and fire hoses being used against those who simply wanted equal opportunity and equal rights .The detractors and those who fought against that movement took King’s life and the lives of many others.
Today, we have ignored those lessons and the lessons of the many other movements that went before to the point where our children are once again being called on to risk their lives, their education, the fullness of their youth to fight against those more interested in promoting violence, taking lives, doing everything except what is right in the control of guns to keep all of us safe.
It is enough!
It is time for every corporation in America and around the world to join us and stand with the Never Again Movement.
To bring a corporation into being – according to the laws under which corporations are created, the corporation is a person. If that corporation has legal problems it has to be represented by an attorney just as an individual has to be. All of the language of the corporate world shows the corporation is an entity that is treated as an individual and that enjoys protections and rewards under the laws of these United States, if they are incorporated in the United States – or other countries if they are created elsewhere.
Stand with these young people and support them as they call on Congress to stop taking money from the gun lobbies and as they outline where they are going and how they see themselves moving to save their lives and ours. It is bad enough that our children have been made victims in this fight and now have to be the ones to take on the fight to save their lives and the lives of others. Don’t be among those who leave our children out there alone fighting for themselves and fighting for each other. That would be a tragedy and the crime of this society which should shame all of us.
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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
Tags: Never Again
Posted in Never Again | Comments Off on We Stand with the Never Again Movement!
February 16th, 2018
by: Marceline Donaldson
There is no pain like the pain of losing a child – even a temporary loss, let alone a permanent loss by death. The parents and families of the young people killed in Parklands and the families of the teachers, coaches and staff are all constantly in our prayers.
Our children are precious to us no matter how great or handicapped we are at showing it. They are the means by which we achieve eternity and whether we do it consciously or not we give to them all of who we are and what we have.
To know that your child’s last minutes on earth were spent being terrorized, we are never the same. Where does the ‘peace that passes all understanding’ ever come from in our lives after that – even for a few blessed seconds.
To know that it was a child killing children makes the deed no less painful nor does it make it one we will ever forget or ever be able to remember without the pain surrounding the memory also coming back to terrorize us bringing the grief back fresh and new.
To know that the child killing our children was taken up in a time of his greatest need by a group of paramilitary white supremacist bigots and put into training so he could learn to use the guns he used to kill our children and his peers makes our shock and confusion even greater.
Instead of killing those he was being trained to hate and revile and look on as less than and needing such termination, he turned on his own and became a part of the many white on white crime sprees that have been happening around these United States.
Why did he turn to white supremacists in his time of greatest need and why, in the end, did he turn on them and against them by turning their theories – their politics – their religion against them!
We know very little about the details of this young man’s life – this 19 year old, not yet out of his teen years with his mind not quite developed into the adult mind he would have in years to come. We do know he was without a father for many years and his mother died in November of 2017 and we know he was alone. Others may have stepped in to temporarily bridge that gap, but there are few people who know the depths of that kind of aloneness in a society of plenty where being “better than” on so many levels is that to which most of us aspire. One of the greatest in the one upsmanship that we practice is who are or were our parents. We learn to hide our parents if we achieve beyond their class and so they become an embarrassment or their existence amongst our friends and peers “outs” us for being less than we pretend to be. To have no parents and no family puts us on that slippery road to homelessness in the future if we are not really ‘exceptional’ and just ordinary like most of us. When we slip there is no one there to catch us or prevent us from sliding into the muck.
Parklands, Florida is a place – or was a place – that felt “better than” as a community because it was what – all white with very few exceptions? mostly upper economic families? parents raising their own children without many one parent homes, especially the kind with women alone raising children struggling just to keep food on the table let alone keeping a table? without the stigma of having “bad children”; “those ghetto types of thugs roaming the neighborhoods”; – I could go on but you know the stereotype without even having it outlined for you.
In Parklands, as we read in the media, when children questioned their parents and were afraid to go to school – one report tells of a child who wanted to be home schooled because of her fear – the answer was “you don’t have to be afraid, we don’t live in that kind of neighborhood – we live in a good neighborhood.” And the child questioning and everyone reading that account knows what that meant. That is a part of what we have constructed as the reality of our lives. That is what this shooting destroyed for Parklands.
As we go back over these school shootings and the school violence we have been experiencing, we see that it has happened in mostly white, mostly upper-class neighborhoods. We have been experiencing white on white crime with great regularity.
Why!
Is it because when truth and the reality of who they really are hits, young minds can’t contain or deal with that explosion of those truths and their anger leads them to using the weapons of war to let out their anger – against their own who deceived them!
This young man faced a life which looked hopeless! With the death of his mother he was one of those society discards and blames for being in the position he sees himself facing over the years. When the reality – the truth of who he actually was in this society hit and the lies told to keep people like him under control for the rest of society – when that reality hit him, was the only power he had over his life the one he had been taught by his white paramilitary friends? Kill them all before they kill you? Except his explosion was in the truth of who “they” were to him! His peers! The innocents who didn’t create his life as it was rolling out – the innocents who were as trapped in their existence as he was in his – those young innocent children living the same myth which upheaveled his life.
Hardest to hear throughout all of this, for me, has been the teachers, parents, bystanders who described the other children going to school in Parklands who were achieving such great things. Those children who wanted to be doctors, lawyers, who had done projects so outstanding – and on and on many of them went – apparently trying to patch and heal their community by patching and healing the mythology under which they lived their lives and from which they took their identity. Parklands is really a safe community and full of these really great people raising children who would live on to become leaders of society. This is just an aberration caused by someone who didn’t ‘belong’.
Amazingly, that is the pattern of what happened in other communities. Colorado comes to mind with the two young boys who were so outside of what was the norm in their community and so rejected by their peers and others that their explosion when the myth was exploded instead of them and their reality exposed to them – it was more than their young minds could contain and we had yet another school shooting and massacre.
I am sure this is not what those in such extreme pain want to hear. Nor those who are trying to make sense of this want to put in their minds and hearts to help them through a really difficult time. But, sometimes, the best place to start to heal is with truth. Truth replaces grief and moves us to do great things.
For the truth of life in Parklands and the rest of America to take hold and spread is the best thing that could happen to all of us.
When one of our own human community loses father and mother they become our children and our responsibility. The truth is that does not happen. Except for a very few they become weights on the society for whom our Congress people and president forever try to speak in ways to convince the rest of us that those so orphaned are responsible for their own plight and probably the cause of the situation in which they find themselves.
For truth and love to break into a society what an incredible gift.
Would that begin to happen in Parklands, Florida what a gift to their parents the life and death of their children would be. How meaningful would the lives of those young martyrs be if what happens out of their life and death is their opening a door wide to the truth and love that we so sorely need and so strongly fight to keep out and keep away from. Grief can break down barriers because in it we begin to question our lives and how we have made the choices which brought us to this place of grief.
To see the people around us as fully human and truly divine is such a gift. Can’t we accept it – live through it – give it to others.
There are not many times in life when such is possible. This is one and it was given to us by our children. Don’t throw it away. Don’t reason it out of existence. Use it to live less in the mythology that is our life and more into the reality of who we all really are.
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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
Tags: Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, breakfast table talk, Parkland Florida Shooting, Spiritual Reflection
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Breakfast Table Talk, Parklands Florida Shooting | Comments Off on Immeasurable Suffering!
February 15th, 2018
Brought to you by a White Nationalist President and his administration. An American Nazi and his followers. Donald Trump and those who brown nose and bow and scrape to his out of control ego. This is not a time to try to suck up to such a person – now is the time to step up and be the responsible adults which this United States requires to be able to move ahead and to begin to examine, analyze and stop these shootings.
In the process of taking office instead of working with his administration and others to identify and begin to set up responsible responses and ways to contain and stop these shootings, our United States President came into office closing the borders of these United States to Muslims. Carrying on as though the Muslims are the terrorists who are killing our young people, when in fact they are being killing, maimed and injured by their own kind. By students from their own schools.
The people doing the shootings are not Muslims, they have been very right wing white American students who were hurt seriously by the dynamics of whatever happened to them in their schools. The largest such tragedy – the Oklahoma bombing was done by a white, conservative, very right wing person looking for revenge against harms he and his helpers saw themselves experiencing by the United States Government. They were white – not Muslim, but Christians. And on and on it goes with the school shootings with the perpetrators being white Christian American students who needed help before they reached the point of shooting their own and didn’t receive it. We were and are too wrapped up in our racism, our sexism, our classism, our trying to be better than with our children trying to live with and into the kind of expectations that many of them can no longer handle.
The head of Homeland Security – Four Star General John Kelly – when he was appointed to that job – did not turn his attention to that problem, instead he worked on and immediately declared the United States a place where Muslims were not welcome. In addition Four Star General John Kelly and his then Chief of Staff at Homeland Security who is now its head placed their time, efforts and resources to seeking out brown and black people, arresting them, throwing them out of the country when they were law abiding, taking care of their families, educating themselves and their families and doing much that is positive to move this country forward – and in return the U. S. President, the Head of Homeland Security and his successor wasted resources moving in a direction which did nothing to mitigate or begin to put in place deterrents to these school shootings where our young people are being killed and at the mercy of their own peers.
We have a group of people who have opened the door to Russia and invited them in – they call themselves the NRA. One thing the Russians did was to infiltrate the National Rifle Association and during the past year the NRA its contributions and dues have doubled the size and resources of the NRA thanks to our Russian infiltrators. In Florida, where this last shooting happened, it is unbelievably easy to get guns. Guns they can “open carry”. The door was opened wide, apparently with the help of this group of Russians who worked with the NRA to maintain this gun openness and ease of getting guns. To help Americans or to make it possible for crime families to have easy access to guns and to carrying them openly; for those trying to infiltrate and cause trouble in this country amongst its citizens and an array of others looking to be hurtful to themselves and to others with guns they wouldn’t be able to use if we were less a Wild West kind of country and more of a civilized place to live.
in Florida as well as other states, the NRA works to maintain an openness and ability for anyone to get and carry weapons. How come? Not simple shot guns, but rifles and other automatic weapons which can do major destruction to United States citizens. Along with our White Nationalist President; our Presidents White Nationalist followers, they have worked to be able to secure guns at their discretion with as little interference and as little red tape as possible so guns and their use would not be blocked on any level in this country. And who is suffering most from these laws and lack of oversight – our children.
As a result, we now have another shooting with some 17 young people dead and another dozen in the hospital from this extended American Carnage. The kind of American Carnage that the current United States President has ignored and has cultivated by his ignoring it and moving to make this country white. The price the rest of us are paying for that kind of governance is the lost of some very lovely, very bright, very young Americans who will not be here to graduate, marry, have children and contribute their talents and lives to helping to move the rest of us forward.
It is time for Donald Trump to go. It is past the time for Four Star General John Kelly to go. It is time for the National Rifle Association to be controlled and stopped from running rampant with guns and other violence in this country where our young people, who are unhappy and have experienced some kind of oppression which led them to these shootings be handicapped from having such free access to guns and be given generously the kind of support needed so they will be able to express themselves in some way other than going for guns.
Now is the time to stop the National Rifle Association. Now is the time to call for and achieve extreme gun control. Now is the time to protect our children from the wantonness of a White Nationalist Administration financed and resourced and pushed ahead by Russia, among others, whose interest it is to show the world an out of control United States of America.
So far, Donald Trump has done an admirable job of following the dictates of his handlers from Russia and bowing and scraping to Russian President Putin and his boys. Putin, a man whose assets are said to be more than 70 billion dollars. It is not possible for a government worker, even president, to have acquired that much in assets over his tenure without going under the table and finding many assets to accumulate. And now he can double that by pushing President Trump to continue to make a fool of himself for Russia and the dictates of Vladimir Putin along with others.
This American Tragedy taking place in Florida today with so many young school children killed and so many hundreds of others traumatized for life has to be the last and that will not happen as long as Trump is president. His interest has not been in working to prevent such occurrences. His interests have been in his White Nationalism – his American Nazi government he is establishing in these United States – which calls for him to move out the blacks and browns – whatever the cost. With that kind of emphasis he has not done one thing to begin to prevent such shootings and he never will because he has a very different agenda.
The American Nazi’s must go and a responsible American government must take its place.
The Republican Party has shown itself to be a Criminal Enterprise. Such a Criminal Enterprise is not able to do the right thing so it is up to the rest of us to take control here and begin to examine, plan and put programs in place to stop such terror infecting our schools – such oppression which the young people who took to the guns and to the street – such pain which we are all experiencing. So the rest of us must begin the process of jailing, removing, controlling this Criminal Enterprise called the RNC and its leader Donald J. Trump along with Michael Pence, Paul Ryan and others who are a part of this travesty and who bear the responsibility for this Florida School Shooting before we have to face yet another such shooting and killing of our beautiful young children.
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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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Tags: Donald Trump, Homeland Security, Muslim, NRA
Posted in Breakfast Table Talk, Donald Trump, Homeland Security, John Kelly, Muslim, NRA, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Another American Tragedy
February 10th, 2018
It is time to question seriously what Trump and those around him have in common. What is the strand that keeps them together?
Have you ever thought that a Nazi mentality – a Nazi-like upbringing – a belief in those things that brought and kept Hitler in power is the connection? A family with Nazi’s in the grandparents generation is what moves some of the young people dedicated to Trump. Through those eyes, experiences and teachings they see him and what he is trying to do as warm, fuzzy and politically correct.
Trump wants a parade. His father, apparently participated in the parade of 1924. So is Trump trying to outdo his father to help prove his “manhood”. Look at what Donald can do!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/08/17/the-day-30000-white-supremacists-in-kkk-robes-marched-in-the-nations-capital/?utm_term=.e03cff045f89
We can also say – look at what Donald Trump has done. He is calling for a parade to “honor the U. S. Military”. Is that really what he is doing or is a militaristic parade with the armed forces of the United States the normal follow-up to Charlottesville? Charlottesville created terror – a military parade closely following shows the power and might to bring what the Charlottesville march was about to fruition. Charlottesville showed who we are and what we are about. Now look at the power and might on display that we have to bring about this night of terror.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/why-they-parade-by-torchlight/537459/
Donald Trump has made some mighty strides in the direction of turning these United States into a larger version of Nazi Germany.
A Nazi Parade like the one in Paris France. Is this the parade Trump is really talking about and wants to emulate?
https://pictureshistory.blogspot.com/2009/11/victorious-germans-march-through-paris.html
While the media has done some things to make sure the reading, listening and looking public is aware of this they have stopped short of an investigatory piece into the belief system that brings and keeps Trump and his minions together.
A WASP controlled world with everyone else in oppressed positions serving that world is where Trump and his group are doing their best to move this country. They have not started this process under the table nor are their goals hidden. Trump does everything to maintain his base. Most claim it is to maintain his political power. However, in reality, that is all he needs with the power he has as president to totally change these United States. Hitler had much less. The growth of hate groups since Trump has been substantial.
Moving the United States into a weaker, less visible position on the world stage, the way he has done with the Olympic Games and North and South Korea seems to be a part of that plan because he can always – in Trump’s mind – bring the United States back stronger when he is done and has taken control in a way to insure WASP superiority. (WASP = White Anglo Saxon Protestants). And, if his plans don’t work as he envisions them he is surrounded by generals who can help. To move these United States into the Nazi camp he needs to dampen its lights – cover its visibility on the world stage. He needs that to continue to reach his goals. He needs a quieted United States absorbed with what he throws out on a daily basis to deflect away from what he is actually doing to be able to bring about the political structure of the United States the way it needs it to be to be able then to bring about a United States with the structure which makes real his White Nationalist Administration. A country with its White Supremacist Administration. I am sure Donald Trump sees that as his legacy.
Certainly bringing John Kelly into the White House as his Chief of Staff was one way to satisfy that goal. Kelly may be Catholic, but he is a strong four star general who can accomplish much before he is disgraced and moved out for someone else to take his place. Trump doesn’t care about a high turnover. He cares about achieving his goals as quickly as possible. And, if you remember there were Africans, Catholics, Jews who worked with Hitler’s government and worked to bring about Hitler’s goals of the destruction of their own groups. Jared Kushner’s Jewishness seemed to be the negater of Nazi goals, until the cracks began to show and it was clear Trump was really using Kushner and would blow him off as easily as he will blow off General John Kelly. We let our thoughts of family, goodness, righteousness and all the rest get in the way of seeing reality.
Trump has the added power of bringing along white women. He has shown his thoughts about them. He has described in detail and on many occasions both by word and deed how he sees women and the way they should be treated, but many still think, like the Africans-Americans, Immigrants of black and brown, Catholics, Jews and others that they will be the exception. They are, after all not like those others.
If someone articulates their belief system – believe them. Some people hide who they are, what they believe and their goals in life. Others will look you in the face and outline those beliefs. The shock of some beliefs along with the arrogance of the person who outlines those beliefs for you – like that of Nazism and the right of WASP males to treat females of all kind any way they want, using violence and rape where necessary to gain control – makes us recoil and we refuse to believe that the person really means what they’ve said. We prefer to pass that over and look for something else. Finding nothing our minds can accept and believe, we can always fall back on calling the person ‘crazy’.
Kelly clearly showed his allegiance to Trump’s Nazism when he took over as head of Homeland Security at the beginning of Trump’s administration and almost from the day Trump was inaugurated put in place Trump’s plan to make sure no more “immigrants” – or should we say no more brown and black people entered this country and as many as possible as quickly as possible were beginning to be moved out of this country trying to stop the movement of the United States from white to all those other colors of people – one of Trump’s campaign promises.
Kelly has lost track of his own people’s history in these United States. For a refresher, he should travel south and see the Native Americans with red hair; the African Americans who picked up the ‘fashion’ of streaking their hair red because the fairly common mixture of Native American, Irish and African produced women with that red hair and that was, for a time, a standard of beauty.
When you look at Trump’s supporters and workers in the White House and around his campaign and those contributing money to allow and help Trump achieve his goals you will find the Nazi contingent strong and at the core of the Trump-people. You will find Nazi’s around the Porter situation and possibly in Porter himself. Look closely!
You can ask the question why did they support Porter and allow him so much leeway given what they knew about him. Or you can put on your big girl and big boy pants and admit what is out there for all to see. Porter clearly was a close part of Trump’s group and what they were doing and what they believed. Security clearances only handicap Trump’s goals – so they are not important to him or his group. They know who they want working in the White House and they know who they can trust. Only trust from the FBI Security Clearance perspective is very different from trust from the Trump Nazi Group perspective. Don’t let Porter’s Harvard connection cloud your eyes. The pattern is clear.
Look at all the rest! Steve Bannon? Steven Miller? and on and on and on. Those who are exposed and caught in behavior this country will not tolerate are fired, but they do not leave the circle. They can still contribute even though they are the outside of the White House. They are still inside the Nazi Circle of Trump!
Next to Kelly there is Porter. Apparently, they got along just swimmingly. How come? Was Porter raised around Nazi’s and raised into that Nazi belief system? Something was roiling around in him and it clearly looks as though that is it. In everything Kelly has done with Trump he has shown himself ready and able to sacrifice every morality, bit of character, decent ethics to help Trump bring about the world the way Trump sees it. When Kelly leaves the Trump circle he will not be kept close. He will have served his time and his purpose and he will have to move back into that unwashed group. Porter, however, will continue to be held close. He may be moved out of the White House contingent, but he will probably become more important with those Trump keeps close on the outside so that he has a soft landing and continues the work of Trump’s Nazi Circle.
That is a strong philosophy and belief and holds people tightly together giving up any goodness of character, any ethical beliefs which keep them respecting themselves and their families and their friends and keeps them from being respected by those outside the Trump Nazi Circle. It is a philosophy which generates enormous anger in those who hold it because they turn against anyone deemed “less than” who act and feel “equal too”. Those are brutalized, physically harmed and eventually…………….!
Before you reject the above – test it out. Do the work of digging to see where the folks in Trump’s Nazi Circle come from. How did their beliefs form. Pull out the Nazi family members who were close by when they were little giving them the Nazi belief system and their own superiority beliefs at a very impressionable age. Let go of the claim that Trump is crazy. He is about as ‘crazy’ as was Hitler. The descriptive word that applies here is evil!
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Everything talked about in this blog and in any other blog in the Bettina Network, inc. is the opinion of the person who wrote the blog and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Bettina Network, inc. It is the property of Bettina Network, inc. and/or the person who wrote the original blog.Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.
Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you. 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
Posted in Donald Trump, Nazism | Comments Off on Trump – and his minions!
February 9th, 2018
I have had to turn off the cooking shows. I keep looking for one that does something other than season its desserts and sweets with vanilla flavoring and its savories with chicken stock.
Ever wonder why describing how dishes taste you always have to add – they taste a little like chicken, don’t know why, but I enjoyed the dish. Or, describing a sweet you can’t really define the vanilla taste, but it is present. That is probably because every dish made today that is not sweet is full of chicken stock and every dessert has vanilla flavor.
What is that about?
Well, the desserts are easy to fathom. We use white conventional flour, white over-processed sugar, low-fat milk which has been over processed and is roughly equivalent to sugar water. Debased – with the taste stripped out as well as the nutrition. So, you have to put in desserts something to restore the flavor. Thus comes the addition of vanilla. Try baking without vanilla. Let the ingredients win the day. Try a cake with real organic cherries in the batter for a flavor component. There is always raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, hazelnuts, and so many more.
Try baking, cooking, saucing your desserts with organic whole wheat or whole any grain or whole anything else. Organic eggs add incredible taste;, whole organic milk, organic butter, organic turbinado sugar, organic maple syrup or something equivalent and you will see an amazing difference. I very seldom use vanilla and get lots of compliments for the flavor of desserts. Don’t totally eliminate vanilla, but use it on purpose for the taste not to carry the entire dish. Why? Because flavor comes from all the ingredients and does not have to be restored by adding vanilla. That just dumbs down your taste buds. Once you get them back to rally tasting what you are eating you will really see how bored you can get with vanilla. That is a real shame because vanilla is an excellent and adds great flavor, but not to everything sweet.
That is difficult to do when using almonds since the FDA has decided there should not be organically grown raw almonds. Before you get the almonds, those dubbed ‘organic’ have been toyed with and those that are not organic or have no such descriptive label have really been trashed. Someone decided almonds must be, at the very least, pasteurized or they will deliver mold, etc. to your gut. Sound like the processed food industry looking for graft or profit where it would otherwise receive none?
Organically grown raw almonds are very good and not at all a threat to your health. That is very far from the truth. Whatever the economic benefit to those delivering such an edict to all of us won the day. Those raw almonds, not organically grown, have been chemicalized to avoid the mold. Whenever I see something like that I think “shelf life”. Don’t know if that is the case, but it is my fall back reason and it has been right in the past so I have no reason to doubt it today.
With everything savory using organic ingredients, that also makes a huge difference. Put aside the chicken stock and try water for a change. The dish you are cooking provides a unique flavor all its own without the use of a “cheater” ingredient. The chicken stock industry must have paid a pretty penny to get not that position. There are other stocks on the market, but chicken stock seems to be the one used in just about everything. Whoever came up with that must have made quite a load of money.
When cooking, you can taste the difference between grass-fed and hormoned/chemicalized meat. You can also taste huge differences between wild and farm raised fish. Wild fish tastes the way one would expect fish to taste. Farm raised fish has a strange texture and the taste leaves something to be desired so additions are necessary to make a decent dish, probably the addition of chicken stock – and on and on it goes. And you can bet any salmon with Atlantic in front of the name is farm raised.
Who is behind all of these changes to our food supply? They are coming fast and furious and a stop sign is needed for all our benefits.
Homes that are a part of Bettina Network Hedge Schools are either totally organic – like one in Harvard Square – or they are on their way to becoming organic in their toiletries, food, paper products, cleaning products used and more. Any way we can move the Network in the direction of using products that don’t destroy the environment or your body that is the direction in which we are headed.
Any suggestions to help that movement are welcome!
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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
Tags: bed & breakfast, Bettina Cookbook, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Recipe
Posted in Bed & Breakfast, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina's Cookbook, Health, Kitchen Table Talk, Recipe | Comments Off on Food – Vanilla – Chicken Stock – Horrors!
February 8th, 2018
Thank you for the forum.
- I note how the dregs of society are coming together to take control. Casino operator Trump and his friend casino operator Wynn have been having a grand time with the power acquired from Trump becoming president. The power of Las Vegas was behind Trump. Wynn was not just a small time hood, the is the one who very powerful in the creation of Las Vegas becoming what it is today. His sexual appetite seems to be parallel to Trump’s. And this is who you want as president with all of his friends. Russia made a good choice in seeing Trump as someone who could destroy everything good about these United States. We have had many break-outs which were really awful. It is time for that to stop and U. S. Citizens to get real and lean more on the side of goodness instead of on the side of greed.
2. Isn’t it amazing how our parents had some wisdom. Mine used to caution me many times growing up “birds of a feather”. And now we are beginning to see some of those wrecking havoc in these United States. Bad enough Wynn’s work was to develop Las Vegas. Too bad he could not have used his God-given talents to a more perfect end. Just think what he could have accomplished. Something great – long lived – and beneficial to humanity. Instead he has helped keep us mired in sin, ugliness, greed and the degradation of our fellow humans. SAD!!!!
3. Loved your analysis. It is one of the more sane pieces I have read as an explanation to what is happening. It won’t garner media headlines because it is not reporting the filth we are experiencing. I have never felt so unclean as I do realizing my United States citizens, people I talk to every day are the one who elected filth to the presidency. And he has extricated from the armed forces the worst kind of filth. So many fantastic generals and people who have sacrificed much for this country. Who does he pick and elevate – John Kelly? Yuk. Who else does he have within his administration in terms of four star generals and more who are on Kelly’s level?
4. WOW! I could have written that article. Keep it up, we need such analysis. Maybe it will change our voting system. We are responsible for who we put in office. We need to carefully think through those running for office and get to know who they are and what they really stand for and maybe we will separate the good from the bad. Get out and really do a bit of research on anyone running for office. Their histories, what they believe, how they have lived their lives and more is out there – we need to find it, share it and stop trying to lie and promote someone because we see something in it for us instead of something in it for all of humanity in a good way, not in a way to promote the ugly. And, we really do have ugly at the top in Washington – President, Vice President and many in Congress. People rated Paul Ryan because of his being Mitt Romney’s pick for Vice President. That should not have happened. Look at Ryan for himself and he looks more like someone infected with greed and more only better able to put a smooth cover over it than most – but if you look close you will see the raggedy edges showing.
5. Wish you posted more often. Turn this into a newsletter or a newspaper or a media center. Your voice needs to be heard by many more people. Maybe it can help bring about change.
6. Who are you people! I used your services once and now I am in the middle of an incredible “community”. Love it, but I didn’t know you even existed before a friend paid for my stay at one of Bettina’s Hedge Schools. You must be the best kept secret around. Not even a small newspaper article which is not an advertisement. You must be quite a threat. You need more exposure. I’ve done a little research on your company and it really needs to expand greatly. Don’t know of another company anyplace doing what you are doing. This is how corporations need to be in this world. Bet you are always mired in one blockade after another. Kick them out of the way and move on.
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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
Tags: Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, breakfast table talk, Donald Trump, Hedge Schools, politics, Racism, Sexism, Steve Wynn
Posted in Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network Hedge Schools, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Blog Response, Breakfast Table Talk, Donald Trump, Guest comments, politics, racism, sexism, Steve Wynn | Comments Off on Bettina Community Members Respond!
A Current Example of Bullying – Trump and Macron!
April 26th, 2018Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron are back in France and have left the American public with lots to talk about and even more to think through.
President Trump has a way of bullying those who arrive as “important guests” both domestic and foreign from the moment he holds out his hand to shake theirs. The only person on whom he did not use this bullying handshake was Vladimir Putin. Trump has a bullying handshake where he makes the person on the other side wince as he pulls their arm and then the rest of their body towards him with one of the most bullying handshakes I have ever seen.
Emmanuel Macron was no exception. Macron, however, has made it his mission not be bullied by this handshake nor to be passive in an attitude of acceptance with a “this too shall pass” sub-text. He has taken on Trump’s handshake and given back which, during this visit, resulted in an amazing display.
The media and many others took it as a “bromance”. To say they missed the point is to say they exist in a society which accepts and does its best to ignore and deny sexual abuse in its many forms. That is exactly what we saw Emmanuel Macron put through during his trip to these United States.
President Macron, however, gave the country an exquisite example of how to handle such a bullying. Bullying of all kind will be with us forever if we don’t start calling it what it is when we see someone being bullied instead of finding other ways to describe what we know is an act of unashamed bullying. That could have been an example of a woman being abused and I think the media would have talked about a budding romance instead of stepping in to stop the atrocity – which is what we saw acted out before the world.
Trump’s initial handshake was returned in kind and Trump’s bullying was on high display as he responded to the need to push Macron down to puff himself up – in front of the world. I hope others have the guts and insight to come forward to condemn the display President Trump put on as his ego kept pushing him to uglier heights. Not even children would have participated in that dandruff act.
Not to be deterred by how ugly he was appearing to all, Mr. Trump continued trying to oppress and subjugate President Macron and Macron’s response should be in a book on bullying as one person’s way of brilliantly handling an extremely distressful and continuous almost non-stop display of oppression and bullying. Instead of seeing and commenting on what was actually happening, the media continued to claim – “they must like each other.”
Beginning with the handshake, Trump practically bowled Macron over as he tried to pull him towards himself. Macron responded by maintaining and giving back to Trump what he got from the handshake and responding and making it about the ‘French Kiss” by putting his arm around Trump and kissing him on both cheeks. Since it seems possible that Trump goes both ways, President Macron’s attempts didn’t land the way he intended.
and on and on it went.
Clearly, Macron’s response – his coup de grace – was put forward during his speech to the American Congress during which Macron laid out his policies and ideas including almost all of Trump’s policy stances and the beliefs Trump has made a part of his ‘reign’ as president. President Emmanuel Macron’s stances were totally opposite to Donald Trump’s. In giving that speech, President Macron did not wince, pull back, chance his beliefs, etc. He was forthright, forthcoming and clear and he had the American Congress with him – showing where they really stood when any possible attempts at blackmail, bullying, pushing were removed and one could respond as one felt.
Clearly, Melanie Trump showed she was truly the wife and soul mate of Donald Trump when she appeared in the white suit with hat which at one point moved Brigitte Macron out of the picture. When she appeared with “the Don” it was clear the arrogance and posturing of one was totally acceptable and generated pride in the other. They appeared in a strong statement which looked totally out of place for the company, the situation, the reflection of herself as hostess. She was clearly uncaring about Brigitte Macron and was only out to outshine and put forth her worth – which she apparently holds as her body and what she puts on it. The sexist male – the misogynist male has a female counterpart whose chief value is invested in how she looks. It was an outsized look and had a very hard edge which did not show as the hostess, but as the guest attempting to outshine all the other guests.
In his speech to Congress, President Macron came across as human, compassionate and seriously working to make this a better world for the least of these. His wife, Brigitte, looked like a caring, compassionate and serious person who was working with her husband and while her dress was quite elegant, it was also very human. She was not trying to outshine, outdo, send out an image to puff herself up or any of that. She was dressed in a lovely “human’ way. The contrast was astounding.
As I looked at all of that my mind brought me back to Barbara Bush’s funeral and life. Her funeral, for me, was a brief moment of public respite. At the end, she gave us a time to reflect, to think, to move away from the upheaval – panic – intensity of nothingness – the passionate hiding of something unsavory. There was no name calling; no trying to upstage and outshine; no arrogance; no posturing; just people coming to witness to the life of someone they knew either as a close friend or in her capacity as mother, wife, First Lady, volunteer, helper to those in need, etc. Somehow, I could not see Melanie Trump ever being such a lovely, humble person who knew who she was and presented herself not as an artificial model using her body to sell whatever it was she was selling. The hat ruined the suit and showed a person with a very hard edge who was anything but a warm, caring human being. I have yet to see any of those qualities in either Melanie or Donald Trump and that white hat and suit emphasized the arrogance, artificiality and lying image of the couple. What is a ‘lying image”? Presenting oneself as an image projecting not who you are but projecting that which one needs to show to make public one’s concept of power and control and that ‘better than’ attitude so constantly projected by the Kushner/Trump family.
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Tags: Barbara Bush, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, breakfast table talk, Brigitte Macron, Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, Melania Trump, politics
Posted in Barbara Bush, Bettina Homes, Bettina Network Blog, Bettina Network Educational Institute, Bettina Network's Lifestyle Community, Brigitte Macron, Clothes, Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, Guest comments, Melania Trump, politics, Vladimir Putin | Comments Off on A Current Example of Bullying – Trump and Macron!