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FACEBOOK, AirBNB and all the other startups turned billion dollar corporations!

Monday, October 4th, 2021

There are some things we know, but do not talk about. We flesh out our knowing with hypocrisy, lies, reasons which we know are false and more.

For example, we know there are minuscule amounts of minorities who receive investment money for their startups and lets include women in that group. We don’t really stop to analyze what, why, how to change things.

At Bettina’s we became involved in all of this when – and you know the story by now – the Capital Network, a group funded by and involved with the City of Cambridge – sent three white males to one of the homes in the Bettina Network, inc. – to see what they were doing and to steal the idea and anything else they could in the process.

It was Cambridge working its structural racism making sure a black-owned business, with great potential, did not succeed in its territory. It was Cambridge pulling on its structural racism, solidly in place today, to force blacks who were moving too far too fast to back down and/or move out.

Out of that came AirBnB. A company whose founders used several stealth ways to steal from Bettina’s. The Business Plan; by sending people in to steal as much more as possible; whenever they ran into something they couldn’t fathom, more calls to Bettina’s without identifying who or what to keep their business idea looking as though it was really theirs….and on and on. A prototype for business development in this society.

At the time, Bettina people were going to the Thursday afternoon meetings of the Capital Network, inc. trying to understand and apply for and get better acquainted with the “investor class.”

That was a waste of time.

After the visit of the three guys who had never before been to a bed & breakfast, talked about not even knowing private homes could be put together in a Network, etc. etc. Bettina people went to the next Thursday afternoon gathering of the Capital Network and were surprised to see their company name had been taken down and they were held at the door because they were no longer listed as part of the group.

Someone who knew Bettina’s appeared and re-entered Bettina’s as a part of this group with their name appearing on the board letting people know they were “in the space”. An “oversight” they said. Even though Bettina’s was at the Thursday meeting the previous week and the one before that, etc. they were ‘unintentionally’ dropped.

As we discovered a few years later, substantial investment money was given to the three white guys forming AirBnB and the black folks – male and female – developing Bettina’s were totally cut out and had to fight for their continued existence, fighting one swipe across the bow after another, rather than continuing to move ahead with their business, which was growing substantially.

Friends began to appear talking about their problems, not knowing that Bettina’s was going through the same thing. These friends start-ups, which were right on the verge of expanding exponentially, but without the funds to do so and able to expanding only on current income, which we all know doesn’t work – caught our attention and time to research asking the question what do we have in common?

“This” – was and is the way this society maintains itself as northern european-ancestry white males.

Seeing and following that bit of structural racism, we tried everything but the system was tight, immovable and carefully constructed to eliminate and destroy anyone trying to do something different. Something different is and was to attempt to build a new business idea into a billion dollar plus business. Anything which looked as though it had that potential was stolen and the minority and female founders were put through horrendous experiences to handicap their following through with what looked to everyone as fantastic. Not only was their business handicapped with few to no investors of substances, but their daily lives were destroyed in as vile and ugly a way as possible to keep them from being able to wind up being competition.

At the same time we noticed a parallel occurrence. There were white males treated the same way. Not as crudely, but there were similarities. For example, Facebook – was founded on an ethical fault line. Like AirBnB this was not Zuckerberg’s idea, it was one he stole from others and promoted as his own. When all of this became public, it was ignored and had little to no affect on the growth of Facebook. It certainly did not slow down or dampen investor enthusiasm.

Given its unethical beginnings where was it supposed to go and how was it supposed to get that unethical mess out of its structure? That does not happen, it just grows with the business and that is what has happened.

These were not just “thefts” by people on the outside looking in who saw something, picked up the core idea and went on their own to fill in the rest. This was “theft” in the crudest way which screamed to all who could hear the very unethical way it was done. This spoke volumes about the ethics of those involved.

What we saw was that unethical base of those doing the stealing was what the “investors” – conscious of it or not – were looking for in an entrepreneur they would fund. Take a look around and see the history.

Today we have people speaking out loud and clear with proof about the highly unethical way of Facebook. What we don’t understand is why the surprise? That has been known for quite some time and has been pointed out to the many. The result – you could almost hear the cheers as Zuckerberg was embraced as one of our own. He could be “trusted” to be someone who develops and developed a company which could almost be called the Devil’s Spawn.

We are a society which has developed “big” businesses on the most evil platforms. That seems to be what the West Coast investor class looks for as do all the rest. That is not done above board, but the choices made show clearly the ethical base of those doing the choosing.

We are watching and experiencing horribleness because of those beginnings – and – the history is carefully ignored with claims that this history is irrelevant as the company has grown. And yes, it has grown but its beginnings are structured into the company because that willingness to do whatever it took is a foul beginning which takes on a life of its own within the corporate structure. We seem to be programmed to blot that out and try to achieve a good result from that kind of beginning. Is that our laziness or our evil side.

In the Christian Scripture there is a story of Satan tempting Jesus with all kinds of earthly delights. He takes none of them but sticks to the business about which he has come. It seems that from this story there has come a long line of people who called out to Satan asking to be given the same choices. They were and this is the result.

There is an unwritten, not talked about agreement amongst investors who get such companies off the ground that monies will be spent developing businesses which have structured bigotry into their corporate forms, boardrooms, etc. and which have structured – anything goes if it gets us where we want to go let the ethics of what we are doing be damned. We are smart enough to give back an intellectualized reason which sounds good to deflect, at least as long as we need to deflect, those who would hold up to the general universe what we are doing which is and will continue to hurt our world, our galaxy and put our human species in jeopardy of extermination by itself.

May God’s judgment be swift and sure.

Donald J. Trump – Mentally ill or evil!!

Saturday, January 9th, 2021

There is a huge difference between someone who is mentally ill and someone who is just plain evil. Looking back and through Donald Trump’s life, it is clear he is not mentally ill, he is clearly evil and has practiced his craft for decades. Who in literature – especially biblical and spiritual literature do you find has to hold the Bible upside down? Isn’t that what Trump did during that spectacle he created in Washington, D. C.? Why was it so important that he called out all the important military and others to create this show? To announce who he really is? To unmask himself? He said nothing – he simply held up the Holy Bible UPSIDE DOWN and in doing so identified himself to all who could see.

What is amazing to us is that before voting for him and electing him president we knew him. We knew his history. We knew his family. We knew his friends.

As a young adult, Donald Trump, working with his father was sued by the United States Government for their racism. They built apartments and refused to rent to African Americans and other minorities. The Trump response to the law suit was quite telling as to how Donald Trump would lead his life into the future. The way he responded to the law suit was amazingly evil. He clearly had no intention of changing or adhering to the laws of the United States. He just spent a lot of Court time to make sure he would not have to and could continue not renting to minorities. The pattern for future response was set in that law suit. Look it up. See how far Trump went to create the kind of confusion, hatred, arrogance and a show of extreme white supremacy that he and his father showed to the United States Government through the process of that law suit.

In the literature, books, newspapers we learned that Martin Luther King, Jr. kept the Bible and a copy of Howard Thurman’s “Jesus and the Disinherited” next to his bed and his bedside table. That told us a lot about the ethics, commitment, interests, spirituality of the man. His life reflected his choice of readings and of the books he kept close.

By contrast, the same media outlets told us – as they reported on Donald Trump’s divorce from Ivana Trump – that Donald Trump kept Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” next to his bed. That also said a lot about the ethics, commitment, interests, spiritiuality of the man. Trump’s life has reflected his choice of readings and of the books he kept close. Yes, he does read. We just do not understand his choices and we choose to say he is the way he is because he does not read. Just one of the many times we have provided the Trump’s with an escape hole for what should be talked about honestly.

And as his life moved along, Trump’s friends of choice show more of who he is becoming as his ages. At one point Roy Cohn, attorney, was his very close friend. Speculation at the time was that Trump was gay. Roy Cohn, a man who was well known to be gay and Jewish was also someone who was known for his unabashed hatred of Gays and Jews. Someone like Donald Trump was perfect as a cover for Roy Cohn and as someone with the same anti-Gay, anti-Jewish proclivities. It made their closet seem safe from exposure.

Cohn was the person who brought Trump and his business to Manhattan and taught Trump everything he knows about how to fight. The rumors about Trump being gay floated around because if you lived in New York at the time in the “right neighborhood” you saw Cohn and Trump having dinner by candlelight in restaurants many times – just the two of them, clearly “spooning” and enjoying their time together.

Trump’s throwing his friends and those who followed him under the bus became a clear trademark of Trumpism as one could see observing his friendship and working partnership with Cohn, which went along swimmingly until Cohn lost his fortune, was fairly destitute and ill. Even at Cohn’s funeral, the best Trump could do was to appear and stand at the back of the Synagogue for a few minutes before disappearing. Helping a friend financially who was responsible for most of what Trump had and was able to do in New York is not something that was and is a Trumpian thing to do.

The talk of New York at the time was how much Cohn had done for Trump and when he was in need how little to nothing Trump did for Cohn. Trump was happy to “spoon” with Cohn over those candlelight dinners when Cohn was an important and feared part of New York. That ended as Cohn neared his end and had nothing more to offer Trump. – sound familiar? Cohn also introduced Trump to Joseph McCarthy and there created the trinity and the time during which Trump learned at McCarthy’s knee a lot of what you see him practicing today and a lot of what he used to move himself into the position he current holds. Our amazement is how someone with that background – which, as Trump moved along in life, included sexually assaulting, raping and abusing women which screams of an incredible hatred of women. He showed how he was not too above board with his business dealings, doing one thing in plain sight while deflecting and turning your attention to another place so when he did what he actually was about you had to do a total about face to keep up with the evil being spewed all over everyone.

Trump and his family have a history of strong, positive, relationships with the mafia. At one point in time in the United States that would have been an automatic disqualifier for being even considered as president of the United States.

At this point in time, the only thing relevant to the next president of these United States was how racist is he – and she would not even be considered? How far is he willing to go to destroy African Americans, Jews, Latina’s, LGBTQ people, Muslims and so many more not Northern European-ancestry people?

We are in this country “divided”. But very few will go the distance in describing just what that means. Blaming Donald Trump and holding up his sins is about as far as many will go. We need to look more carefully. We went from slavery – which was destroyed by the Industrial Revolution – which structure was destroyed by Corporate America – which is now being destroyed by the White Male Institutional structure being put in place by this new way we are moving.

Corporate America is clearly “authoritarian” in its structure. One could go further and say it borders on fascism. How does such a structure which affect every part of these United States survive in a democratic structure. What we are seeing is that it doesn’t. The structure that Corporate America has developed works hard to be the “hegemonies” in what has been created as a hegemony over all. Isn’t that what created Donald Trump and his father?

That structure is giving way and the question is – what next? What will control this society? And there are the divisions where one side latched onto Trumpism and gained enough time to anchor its foot hold and pull the wool over the eyes of those fighting to live and work in a democracy.

Whenever democracy threatens to take over Corporate America and its fascist structure those efforts are loudly claimed to be “Socialism” and that is look on as the devil itself.

That label has been created to put fear into many so democracy will not succeed in changing the corporate structures taking hold in this world.

Want to see what corporate america has wrought? Take a look carefully at Josh Hawley and his rise to the Senate. We wondered how he was able to win his seat against someone like Claire McCaskill who was well respected and with a substantial reputation. As we looked at Trump and how he made his rise, we began to understand. Try taking a look at the “money and power” which backed Josh Hawley in his run replacing McCaskill. When he took his stand with his raised fist and started this business which resulted in the incredible destruction, insurrection, attempted coup that we have just witnessed we did not know his history nor the enormous amounts of corporate money behind him.

Clearly, when one is so funded and supported as Hawley has been, the piper does come calling and expects you to perform for that investment – and Jose Hawley did more than what was expected of him and is still going to great lengths because he knows he is connected to the money and power which put Donald Trump in office and whoever chose him knew who he was and of what he was capable.

Once Hawley has made a total fool of himself as he lets his greed and power needs get out of hand, he will be cast aside and someone not quite so ‘obvious’ chosen to do the same job, backed by the same power and money that brought us Josh Hawley and dissed Claire McCaskill.

As a country, we have been split, but we are not coming up front with just what is the split. It is being talked about as Democrat vs Republican and even putting the blame on race. We need to look at the real genesis of what this is all about. We have a billionaire group which has involved itself in politics far more deeply than the wealthy in this country used to in years and decades and generations past. Those who have obscene money and power and pushing hard to gain more and to reshape the world so they and theirs will live forever.

There have been some failed attempts in years past to get government, industry, ordinary people to sit and reason together. Those attempts failed because Industry would not sit together, but saw itself sitting above and calling the shots which government and ordinary people were not allowing.

The reason for the bigotry-racism-better than can be traced directly to this corporate group. Take a look at the immediate result providing money to groups like the “Proud Boys”. We have had to take a stand and object to J. P. Morgan Chase making its tools of trade available for them to raise money to continue their fight. And Chase’s response will be to plead ignorance and more.

Take a look at what is and has happened with entrepreneurship. Look at who gets funded by the Venture Capitalists and their ilk and who doesn’t. All of that is to support the current structural divisions – the institutional divides which are becoming stronger and which all of this Trump business is simply deflecting from what is really happening in these United States. Many, if not most, of the fledgling businesses which become the multi-billionaire groups were formed – their genesis came out of the minority and female communities. Immediately upon their recognition and future potential becomes noticed along comes young, white male Northern European-ancestry types – although lately other males are finding themselves sprinkled among the white boys – and the businesses started and brought to the point where their potential is obvious are ripped away from minorities and women and funded to the tune of enormous amounts of money so their histories can be changed and credit taken and given to those white male Northern European-ancestry types, who are then able to bring them to fruition as multi-billion dollar corporations which recognize and acknowledge and build according to the fascist needs of corporate america which is putting itself out of business for this new and upcoming group dictating the future and using the Donald Trump’s of the world to confuse, obfuscate, muddy the waters until this new structure is safely in place.

One such group destroyed was being put in place by Marceline Donaldson and Rev. Robert Bennett. For 20 years they worked on a business and structure which pointed the way to the future. Funding was not there. Instead the corporate funders sent – the Venture Capitalist sent- the white male Northern European-ancestry types into their home to discover what they were doing – how they were doing it- etc. etc. And now we have Airbnb safely white male with everything possible being done to destroy the Donaldson-Bennett’s so they cannot put in place any kind of competition.

They are not alone. We have been looking for and finding many minorities and women whose ideas have been clearly and upfront stolen with others – white male Northern European-ancestry – put in place to bring forward the businesses they have spent years working to develop and beginning to be very successful in a structure and business that would change the way business is being done.

Those businesses have brought back and are continuing to bring into being a vicious racism and sexism in their structures which rivals what many fought to change in this country for generations. The “Proud Boys” and those like them may be crowing and running around “proud” of what they consider their success in their mission without realizing their time in the spotlight is already over and others are being moved in to take their place.

Trump has been the shield behind which a Russian-style American Oligarch group has been formed and which is destroying the structure of the U. S. so the structure which is most congenial to them can be put in its place and they are succeeding admirably.

Josh Hawley and what has happened to him – and what will happen to him in the future is just a small way-station on the way to their complete and total control over the means of production and everything else in this country.

Some think slavery ended because of the abolitionists and all the others who fought against that institution. Is that true? Or did slavery end because the Industrial Revolution was moving into that space and the machinery being developed was much more controllable and cheaper than slavery and so much more.

We are now in the middle of another such turn in the economics, culture and more in this world. The little people aren’t tall enough to see the structures being put in place to replace what is no longer working.

The bigotry is going along because it is extremely useful in keeping those same little people under control. Tell them they are better than – let them believe such lies and they will be able to be led around like human beings with nose rings and a long chain from their nose ring to the hands of those put in place to lead them.

The large billion dollar corporations did not come about via the people who have re-written their company’s history to show themselves as the founders. Most of the great ideas now funded and grown into such behemoth corporations came from minorities and women and were stolen and put in the hands of young white males who showed the most promise as racists with a bit of a “noblesse oblige” spirit – but not too much. Got to keep them in chains, just camouflage the chains and ignore those who see what is really happening.

We could go on for pages. But if you want to know more and to see this for yourselves take a look at the senate campaign of Josh Hawley and Claire McCaskill. Follow the money and promises and talk to a few people around and involved in what happened. Many who look like the little people have great analytical abilities, but they are into self-preservation and won’t share what they see and know with many.

That would make a good book for someone – especially as it is now unfolding what Josh Hawley is willing to do and how far he will go, even to destroying the country he has taken an oath to serve because he sees a future of money and power and himself beyond his ability to resist.

That is just one story. There are many others. Trump’s story is ending and all of his dreams for his children to follow him and to become the lifelong president of the United States which would give him and his family unlimited power – that is over. His usefulness is over. His future is prison along with those who supported and followed him and they will probably never see or know what happened to them.

All of us, human beings, are subject to evil. We have that tendency and we mostly ignore it. What we need to do is examine it and keep the evil within us out of our lives and walk that path which is far more beautiful than any power and money can bring. That is not a lifestyle our marketing and advertising people portray. Maybe where we really need to start cleaning up this society is with them.

Bettina Members Respond to Trump

Saturday, February 1st, 2020

Bettina Member Speaks: Thank you for the blog on Kobe Bryant. No one wants to go there, but Donald Trump has pulled out all the stops to distract from his horribleness and he has been very good at it. It took me quite awhile before I realized the distractions he and his followers apparently created were just that and neither news nor anything else. When it came to the time of Trump’s trial to remove him from office it is clear there would be another distraction to make other distractions look small by comparison to attempt to lessen the impact of his criminality being in the news. Kobe Bryant’s death was just that and its timing was exactly at the time Trump needed such. It did serve as a distraction like nothing else could have.

When John Bolton’s book excerpts started coming out at the same time as Trump’s removal trials were starting, I felt something really big would happen because something outrageous and vile and extremely evil would be needed to attempt to diminish Trump’s negative headlines. After the killing of the guy at the top of Iran happened because Trump gave the order for what looked like the same reasons, it did come to mind that someone could have caused Kobe Bryant’s death and that someone would probably be Donald Trump and his supporters. No one has had the guts to say anything about that, but you folks always come out with truth and this could very well be truth and not a conspiracy theory.

Looking at what is happening around the world, it all seems geared to keeping a white master race over all. So it has been almost from the beginning of this country and so it is now. Those in control have been feeling insecure as the United States moves towards the minorities becoming the majority and the same thing is happening in other parts of the world. The people fighting to maintain the kind of control they have maintained over the generations is becoming more visible and shows their insecurity and the lengths they will go to maintain themselves as white and – as you folks would say – “better than.” Russia, under Putin, is the first to come to mind and aren’t they a very white nation? And on and on it goes.

You had a down time with the blog which worried me. I called to find out what was happening that we weren’t seeing blogs. I was sure before I called you would be in the midst of some kind of harassment, but I was equally sure you would come out of it. Glad to see you back. I am enclosing a contribution to keep you keeping on. Keep fighting back. You are trying to combine a great business with an outlet for those who who use your services to have things to say that are not credibly being said by others. Keep it coming and don’t let up.

You have lots of followers, lots of love and many people pulling for your success. We know what happened with Airbnb and it was ugly. Every time I see their name I get angry, especially when I see the mess they are making of what was a fantastic industry that survived over the generations. I also see Marceline’s family background in journalism coming through. That is a powerful combination and I hope you pull it off. – call me when you need help and I will certainly positively respond. In the meantime, I will be out here spreading the word about all of you and your business.

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Ed. Note: Thank you so much for the contribution and for being there for us as we move ahead growing and changing the business, keeping the blog moving towards our goal of a media outlet which puts out the ideas and more that we pick up in the process of meeting folks who become supporters and our source of news, ideas and more. You are the reason we keep going.

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Ethics and Integrity in Business

Monday, April 29th, 2019

We have published blogs on the beginnings of Airbnb and outlined how and when the idea was stolen from an African American woman by three white males who were sent to her home to get info on the business she had been building for many years. If you want to know more about that, search this blog for Airbnb. The complete story is in a couple of blogs. some are titled as follows:

Sex Trafficking, Airbnb and more!

Ethics and Integrity in Business

BILLIONAIRES UNITE!

The ‘Sharing’ Community????

Happy New Year – 2016

She was going to a Venture Capital group in Central Square Cambridge, MA which gathered on Thursdays. She was there most Thursdays with her name and company in their computer system and she asked for meetings with relevant people and an indication of interest each Thursday. There was never anything forthcoming.

Instead of working with her to gain investment support, the Capital Network sent Brian Chesky and his friends to see what she was doing and to bring back as much of her business information as possible. They followed through on that visit by stealing her ideas, gaining the venture capital support she was seeking, and her name and company name were taken out of the Capital Network’s computer – on which those who attended on a regular basis signed in to and were admitted to these Thursday sessions. Her business plan was also stolen and she had to re-register for the Thursday gatherings re-entering her name into their computer system. At the time, the reaction to her appearance was really strange and the reasons for it didn’t become apparent for a couple years down the road.

All of this to satisfy the mythology that the business ideas, acumen, experience, success etc. comes from the white male community with the assumption that others have not yet reached that level of business ability. When, in fact, the reason for this monopoly of white, mostly northern european males’ hegemony over the substantial businesses that make up this society had more to do with their questionable ethics and lack of integrity than anything else.

Venture Capitalists have made sure that this is the only avenue the current potential billionaire businesses have and the only way they can come into being. The venture capitalist community has been a very racist/sexist group of people and they have kept the gate closed to all except their own kind and this shows up clearly today and will be even clearer and exceptionally vile in the generations to come. Most of the civil rights work of the past generations will/is being negated by the way these venture capitalists are working to establish a “New World Order” which clearly will not include those not like them – racially, culturally, etc.

This, however, is not the only business nor the only minority person so negatively affected by that particular form of racism/sexism in the society. This way of segregating and oppressing goes back many generations. Most businesses thriving mightily today show themselves as first thought of, established and the start-up part of those businesses – the part that required much blood sweat and tears to get it through to smoother sailing has been done by minorities.

It is an example of why the top 1% of the wealth in this country is now held by that same white male group, how that came to be and the structures they use to insure that this will forever be unless something and many someones intervene in drastic ways – or the ethics and integrity of the entire society demand they clean up their act – make amends – and open the doors to everyone leaving the great ideas with the people who came up with them and are in the process of bringing them to life..

We will continue at later dates with more specific examples – check the blog to make sure you don’t miss any of these stories:

Did you ever wonder where Trump Shuttle came from? Donald Trump, his family and their incredible business ideas? Or – is there another story circulated only within the African American community.

A black man approached Donald Trump with his idea and with the work he had done and was doing building a short term shuttle from Cape Cod to Boston/ New York/ Washington, D.C. etc.

It was a dream of his and a business he had been building one small step at a time because of his limited funds and the refusal of others to invest in his venture. – until along comes Donald Trump.

The African American made many trips to New York to Donald Trump’s offices with his business plan, sharing his experience in this area and he made many return trips as Trump indicated he wanted to invest in this business and gave this Black man things to do so that he, Trump, could invest.

The man came to visit us before and after each one of these trips and talked about his visit to Donald Trump; Trump’s interest and promise to invest because he thought it was a great idea; Trump’s request for the man to do additional work, which Trump always applauded – according to the feed back and notes we saw.

When all was in great shape and “they” were ready to move ahead with the introduction and execution of this new shuttle service, Donald Trump slammed the door on this black man and would not see this African American anymore; was very nasty to him when he called expecting to move ahead; Trump cut off all contact. This gentleman had been paying his own way to visit New York and Trump at a substantial expense to his current business and he always left the work he did with Trump, pending the additions and changes which resulted from those meetings.

After that abrupt and ugly cut off – well, look at this – Trump announced the formation of Trump Shuttle and as he unrolled this business it was an exact copy of what the two of them had been planning and working on for months.

And so, another African American’s business ideas, acumen, hard work, start-up – stolen by another white male business man who simply and blatantly stole his years of development and the initial work of establishing such a business and strategizing/planning for its future.

There are many more such stories. They basically show the lack of integrity in the corporate/business world and the acceptance as normal of such things happening.

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

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

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

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

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

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

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.co







BILLIONAIRES UNITE!

Thursday, January 31st, 2019

The only thing Mr. Starbucks’ announcement about the possibility of a run for the presidency of these United States did for most people was to remind us that we have been screwed, raped, pillaged with practically everything taken away from us unless we spend our lives working from dawn to dusk for meager rewards – which will become even more lean as time goes on if they are allowed to continue.

Human beings and greed go together. It is one of the sins with which we are born and if we don’t work at constantly curbing our appetites we will all look like our current billionaire class – unmitigated greed, constantly searching for more, feeling poor unless that more comes into our coffers hourly; working to keep what we have, talking magnanimously about the charity we do and blaming the victim for not having what we have as billionaires. Those others could be in this group but for their laziness, lack of initiative, inability to lead, lack of vision, etc. etc. etc.

Some of us have helped to set up and enhance this system under which we operate; others work to make sure it continues; while still others see the evil, complain about it, speak eloquently about working to relieve the pain of the poor, but do nothing; others teach their children how to maintain within this system without sliding down another rung and others work hard just because that is how they were raised.

A few stories about this part of the societal structure and how it comes about:

  1. Because we have a vested interest in ‘bed & breakfast’ I will start with #Airbnb as an example of how the billionaire class is created – why it thrives – what it is about.

Bettina Network, inc. and Bettina’s Bed & Breakfast, inc. were the genesis for Airbnb. It is a classic example of how bigotry remains, thrives and supports the billionaire class and how the billionaire class supports its own and decides who will be let in. There is a thuggishness to those within and those chosen to enter.

When #Airbnb was founded it was on the back of an African American woman who worked over 20 years developing the concept and growing it by inches because venture capital money was and is not available to minorities or women. That is the most solid block in the foundation of this billionaire class. If they have a creed its foundational stone would be on the refusal to admit minorities or women except as tokens to disprove the rule.

Venture Capitalists sent Brian Chesky and two of his friends to the home of this African American woman to find out what she was doing, how, all the details they could glean. Our feelings about what happened circulate around the fact that they did not have an idea, a vision and saw Bettina Network, inc. from afar. They went into a Black woman’s home and family – put their feet under her table, ate her food and stole her business plan and vision. And – they knew nothing about bed & breakfast before that – they didn’t ‘find’ her through their own machinations or investigations or search for places to stay, they were sent by Capital Network in Central Square in Massachusetts to look at what she was doing as something they might steal and copy.

They were not graduates of Ivy League schools nor had they attended Ivy League schools and they had practically no business experience. Their experience consisted of brief times spent as entry level admin people. What they showed was their lack of character and their willingness to steal from someone else with all of the character traits that go along with that – and they did that in spades. Once established they even lied about their beginnings and where the idea for Airbnb came from.

What they created was a structure which incorporated their racism, their greed and more. It is clearly visible in the business they brought about for all to see.

Their racism structured into their corporation? It is entrenched and has many forms within the structure of Airbnb. The most obvious spits on the work of the civil rights leaders of the 1950’s and beyond. The Thurgood Marshall’s, the Jack Greenberg’s, those who litigated for years to move society to a more integrated place and were successful in that endeavor for a brief period of time. Before their legal work, if you applied to college you submitted your resume, your grades, your references and YOUR PICTURE.

Because it was not always possible to tell the color of a persons skin by their application alone, the picture helped Universities at the time to distinguish between applications and to make sure their entering classes were composed of majority white males and very few others.

That practice was deemed illegal through several law suits filed during the 1960’s and beyond. Universities stopped the practice of requiring a picture to accompany your application for admittance because of those law suits and because that practice was declared racist. That practice is now being turned on its head by Airbnb because to make a reservation at an accommodation through Airbnb one must submit a picture and that picture is more often than not used to determine whether or not you will be accepted as a guest.

Many have been discriminated against and have not been able to get reservations. There have been instances of minorities arriving at a home and being turned away with the owner or person at the house claiming the person engaged in ‘subterfuge’ to get a room. What was the subterfuge that got them turned away? A mixed Asian couple in California was turned away at about 10pm in storm conditions because one was Asian and the other of Northern European extraction. The picture they submitted for their reservation was of the Northern European extraction half of the couple. When the Asian woman appeared she was not acceptable so they had to find accommodations elsewhere. The host family claimed they “cheated” to get the room. That was not an isolated incident. The stories of discrimination from Blacks who tried to get accommodations, had to submit pictures and were subsequently turned down are legion.

It is a corporation structured to bring back that kind of racism from the 1950’s and earlier.

It is a corporation structured to make affordable housing almost unavailable and to bring out the greed of those who come near to use the web site.

It is a corporation which has been used by sex traffickers because it has set itself up in such a way that whoever has a need can use their web site and hide a lot they could not get away with, but for.

It is a corporation which, because of the way it is structured, has been a part of at least one client being murdered.

It is a corporation whose structure has allowed the destruction of many houses and estates in some of the most vile ways, causing the upheaval of neighborhoods with the wild parties that have happened in homes which were supposed to be used as a room or an estate for the night.

Investors put 1.2 billion dollars of investment money into Airbnb in promoting some of this society’s worse traits. It will soon go public and if that is successful we will have a corporate structure carrying on what many of us have tried to eliminate from this society for generations – and so it goes.

Isn’t it striking that the three people who started Airbnb and wound up with substantial venture capital money are people who showed themselves to lacking in good character, ethics, and more. Isn’t it striking that those character traits are what has handicapped this country to the point of finally seeing us wind up with a Donald Trump as president? A man who epitomizes exactly what Airbnb is about?

2. Let us move on to another such company founded and structured around questionable morals and character. – Take a look at Facebook. The vision of twins who engaged Zuckerberg to code their business idea. That however wound up the property of Zuckerberg who carried the idea into a corporate structure which is today wrecking havoc on this society in very gross, immoral and unethical ways.

What we are now trying to do is right this wrong which will not be possible because the corporate structure of Facebook has become too strong. It is being credited with being majorly responsible for the election to the presidency of Donald Trump, with the destruction of the privacy guaranteed to the citizens of the United States by the Constitution, with using private conversations and back and forth between family and friends as a front when in reality it sells every scrap of information it can glean to the marketeers and advertisers and others for 20 pieces of silver.

Take a look and analyze most of the corporate structures which have come up and have brought their owners billionaire status and see how they have used the backs of tens of thousands of people to attain their goals and have left the society stripped almost bare with a path for those without character, without good morals, without honesty.

Take a look and analyze and you will find they are all either northern european descendants – some middle easterners – ……

These are two of the most graphic examples, but there are many others.

Most notably, what has been happening and continues to happen is the groups of people looking around the world for up and coming corporations or LLC’s or neighborhood gatherings whose structure and ideas they can steal; that they can get funding for because those doing the developing could not – mostly because of their color and sex.

Because of our experience with the theft of our idea and work by what became Airbnb we have come across many. The stories were all eerily similar and nothing was done about any of it. Look furiously – not within yourselves – but at what others are doing which looks successful – find venture capitalists to fund your stealth and move on into the billionaire’s club. Once you get there all will be forgotten and those who do remember the unethical road you took will soon be dead so just hang on and you will become one of the racist, sexist corporate structures in this society which maintains who we are without any of those others moving up to challenge our superiority. It may happen temporarily, but the business class has insured that this move to open up this society making it more diverse will not last. Remember Martin Luther King, Jr’s sacrifice? How much of what was achieved by so many has been reversed seriously by those now moving up?

And it is not limited to the United States. In other countries where people of brown and black complexions have begun to move up in these corporations – they are swiftly removed and replaced with a whiter skin person with a penis. We have heard many of those stories. Stories that parallel what has been happening in this country for generations. Remember Madame C. J. Walker? Think about all those others, people of color and women, who struggled so mightily with others, white, male, etc. reaping the rewards for their labor, their vision, their imagination.

And what happens now?

A note from Marceline Donaldson: My garden has been torn up – literally the garden in front of my house. My business has been upheaveled! I have been threatened! and so much more. but I am old and neither sickness nor death fazes me so none of that scares me nor does it make me drop the struggle.

What does move me to a furious state is to continue to see this and to know that my children will have to undertake this same struggle when I thought my work and life would make theirs easier. My grandfather worked his entire life to change this society so his children and grandchildren would have a better life and would not have to dedicate so much of their lives and times to this struggle; so did my grandmother; so did my mother; and so have I. My children deserve better and so do your children. I have not paid nearly the price others have paid trying to bring about basic change.

Watching the young people coming along behind the disaster that was Donald Trump thinking they are going to make basic change is heart breaking – the system looks stacked against them. All I can do from my perch is to wonder when and how they will be taken down and replaced with Northern European – very white males and our young people made to pay for their arrogance of thinking they can make such basic change. If they could, the color of our total billionaire group would not be white, male, with some middle easterners – Saudi Arabians – thrown in and one or two African American men and a woman or two. That billionaire group – those who will totally control tomorrow look like Donald Trump’s cabinet and all those other groups where color is absent and women are practically extinct.

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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Project 1 – Estate Sales after the Sale

Project 2 – #WellsFargoBoycott

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

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

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

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

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

TO LEARN MORE try www.bettina-network.com

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Sex Trafficking, Airbnb and more!

Sunday, 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

 


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