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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.

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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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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Look at what we are doing! Join us!

Tuesday, September 25th, 2018

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

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

To Bettina Network, inc. we have added:

BETTINA NETWORK HEDGE SCHOOLS

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

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

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

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

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

Some facts on Bettina procedures

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

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

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

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

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

And don’t forget Bettina Network’s blog

www.bettinanetwork.com/blog

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

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

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

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

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

Sincerely,

All of us at Bettina’s

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

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

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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

 

Facebook? Our Experience!

Thursday, August 2nd, 2018

We have had a long experience with Facebook, particularly with harrassment.

Bettina Network suspended managing estate sales because of the harrassment we received which became quite threatening and will keep that suspension until we can figure out how to deal with the kind of things that happened.

Our harrassment came in the form of Alan Davidson with Chestnut Hill Estate Sales in the Greater Boston area. They claim to be related to Chestnut Hill Realty – which manages many buildings around the Greater Boston area so Mr. Davidson and Chestnut Hill Estate Sales have a kind of protective cloud around them allowing him – as a member of their family (which is his claim) – to engage in foul business practices making it difficult for others to survive. Or at best to survive in the midst of his incredibly foul business practices, especially against those he considers his competition.

We knew Mr. Davidson, having been to several of his estate sales and had conversations with him as a friend of a friend.

When we had an estate sale we would find people arriving to attempt to destroy what we were doing and just cause a general mess. We began to recognize the people, who actually identified themselves as being connected with Mr. Davidson.

At one point we went to a sale managed by a very new (at the time) estate sale company – Consignworks. That same weekend we went to another sale managed by an estate sale company – which seemed new since we had not heard the name before – which called itself “Consign….” and discovered it was Mr. Davidson trying to muddy the waters and cause problems for Consignworks. Consignworks survived and has grown into a substantial part of the estate sale community.

We thought Mr. Davidson was a friend – more acquaintance – but he was related to people in the business we had known for a couple decades – the Shermans. Mr. Davidson identified himself as the son of Mr. Sherman’s then girl friend and subsequently his wife – so we considered him a friend.

On our Facebook page we embraced Mr. Davidson as a “friend”. Whereupon Mr. Davidson started putting some of the foulest posts on our Facebook Wall which were extremely racist – the language was foul – and the things he said were unbelievable.

Upon talking about this with others, we discovered he was doing the same thing, even to some of those who worked closely with him. It was shocking.

We contacted Facebook, referred them to the posts which were so foul they should not have been published anyplace, and asked them to please eliminate Mr. Davidson’s account. We also gave Facebook the names of others who were experiencing the same thing.

Facebook’s response was they could do nothing. The only recourse we had was to block Mr. Davidson from our account. We asked about the others who were at their wits end about the same thing. Facebook acknowledged there had been other complaints, but their policy was such the only thing they could do was to advise whoever complained to block Mr. Davidson’s from their accounts. When I pointed out to them that when someone threatens you their right to free speech stops, which gave Facebook the right to act – they were clearly more interested in keeping eveeryone than keeping everyone safe and the harrassment eliminated.

The posts in question were complete with some of the foulest language I had ever seen published by any kind of substantial public publication.

That happened several years ago.

Having tried to fend off Mr. Davidson’s attacks, we could not so instead of jeopardizing those who came to us to manage their estate sales, we decided to suspend that part of our business until we could find a way to address it.

It was clearly a very successful way for Mr. Davidson to eliminate an African American business. His friends must have been proud. What happened is something that used to happen in Mississippi or Alabama or any of the other states which specialize in bigotry at its worse and need to keep blacks out of the corporate business world.

It is way past the time for Facebook to take on its responsibility to make sure those who use its services are not open to being trashed and their lives being drastically changed while Facebook continues on down the road to incredible amounts of money earned at other people’s expense because they do not conduct their business with good business ethics, a good character and accepting the responsibility of making sure they are not invaded by such people. Russia may be what caused this discussion to become so public, but there are also homegrown people who make the lives of many on Facebook miserable. They can either not use the service or suffer from Facebook’s abdication of its basic responsibility.

Our experiences as a minority owned business have been legion and unbelievable. When one talks about the very limited number of minority-owned businesses in existence one needs to talk about and realize the forces that constantly do everything they can to limit and destroy such businesses. They are usually quite successful.
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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

My Response! – No Names Please!

Friday, December 22nd, 2017

Don’t want to lose my job.  But if this keeps on the way it has I will be out there on the front lines – dam the job – I will join the homeless if that is necessary to bring about change.

I noticed a couple of Marceline’s Facebook posts.  One included something – in answer to a ‘friend’ about black teachers.  She was too nice to say many black teachers stepped away from the Black Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s because they saw that as the road to losing their jobs to white teachers and didn’t want that to happen.  They were a part of the Black Bourgeoisie and enjoyed a position in black society they did not want to lose.  I don’t know the person she was answering and commenting in her Facebook page so I didn’t add my say so – it seemed intrusive.  Everything goes on this blog so I am answering here.

That said – I really need to respond to your post on Trump and the very ugly picture of the Republicans assembled on the steps of the White House in celebration of their vote on the tax cut.

I lived through Nixon and I didn’t expect to have to live through another such carnage.  And carnage is what this is.  An American President elected – or rather put into office by Russia and the fascists, and I really believe that.  Not from the media or anything else, but from my life experience in the world.  Trump makes Nixon look like a saint.  Nixon covered up a breaking, but Trump is well into treason.

I loved your little comment on the White House built by slaves.

I believe many of the Republican Congress people are being blackmailed.  We have a president who is a bully – ugly and evil bully – who has bullied all of his life and is now president and bullying on a world wide stage.

Why have we tolerated such?  Why hasn’t he been removed?  Why has his sexual assault not been addressed?  Why isn’t he in jail?

He clearly has surrounded himself with people who are as much able to bully as he – like Nikki Haley.  I had great hopes for her and was wondering if she was someone I could support.  After the way she bullied at the U. N. she clearly was chosen by Trump to be a part of his government because he saw this in her and that is what he wants in his administration.  Either bully or grovel.  Push people and governments around in Trump’s name or grovel to show what seems to be Trump support, but in reality the most dangerous people one can have in your circle are those you have blackmailed and forced to do and react in ways they would not otherwise.

Hopefully, they have been blackmailed.  If this is who they have been all these years – I am thinking particularly of Orrin Hatch – then we have been very short sighted to have re-elected them.  It is time for all of them to go.  There must be a way to immediately remove Trump and his administration.  I am sure you folks will think of something – but make it quick.

My response will be following Marceline out of the Republican Party.  I stayed too long, but better late than never.  I remember her when she was precinct chair in Wayzata, Minnesota.  Wondered then how she could be precinct chair in the Republican Party and on the National Board of the National Organization of Women – or is that ‘for’ women?  She stood strong for what she believed.  I didn’t like her much then – thought she was too “pushy”.  I did respect her, however.  I watched her being trashed in some really crude ways, but she didn’t step down, didn’t step away and I don’t think she even blinked.  Having a family to raise that took a lot of guts and she must have been through a lot of pain in the process.

Not been involved in civil rights and these other activities very long, but I am all in now.  And whether that is good or bad we have Donald Trump to thank or blame for my conversion.  From a sort of racist and sexist to somehow trying to walk a different path and make up for a life not always well led or behaved.  Hope you all forgive me.  I was busy trying to make lots of money – but that’s all over.  Getting old changes your values and priorities.

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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

Trump – Peter Thiel – Russia – anymore?

Wednesday, November 22nd, 2017

I read all of your articles.

My response to your latest and all of the others follows:

The largest and I think earliest  investor in Facebook was Peter Thiel. – the Facebook which is in the news for being very much involved with the Russian interference in this last presidential election.  The same Facebook which had those FAKE NEWS articles all over and you know the story.

One of a very small number of people who made large contributions to the Trump campaign – and early on – was Peter Thiel.

The person who organized and used his influence, friendship and business connections to put on that meeting of top IT people in this country right after Trump was inaugurated which showcased Trump – all of the Google, Facebook, etc. top executives together around Trump’s table and also showcased Trump’s children as professionals involved with his governance – was Peter Thiel.

What are Peter Thiel’s Russian connections?

Isn’t Peter Thiel the person most responsible for keeping Blacks and Women, who were working hard to bring about their new ideas, out of the business community as they were scooped – and not accidentally scooped, but had their ideas brazenly stolen –  by other white males with Northern European ancestry who turn up with the ideas, business plans and much more of those same Blacks and Women with the money to bring them to fruition and with a great deal of that money put in place by Peter Thiel and lets not ignore or leave out his friends?

Is there a common thread here?

Especially since the racist and sexist structures of these newly stolen businesses would put this last generation of business entrepreneurs to shame in the way they have totally excluded minorities and women – as customers of these new businesses as well as owners, etc.  except, well, the one or two included to disprove the rule are always included.  This next generation of business entrepreneurs makes the hearts of the KKK, the white supremacists, the Neo-Nazi’s and others palpitate with excitement as they see this helping to make real their hateful world view.

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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.

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

 

FACEBOOK – Marketing for MultiNationals

Tuesday, January 27th, 2015

Bettina Network, inc. copyright 2015

Isn’t it interesting to talk about Facebook to those who don’t know other than – ‘I am addicted’:  ‘I put all of my business on Facebook’:’ I spend all of my time on Facebook’: ‘my friends and I talk all the time on Facebook’: ‘I used to email, but Facebook is so much better’: ‘with Facebook I feel as though I belong’.  But it is sensational to talk to people who have a deep, historical, psychological and cultural knowledge of Facebook.

There is nothing like a bit of breakfast conversation among strangers. People who will probably never meet again but are together for a short period of time and who use that breakfast conversation to sort through complicated societal, cultural and economic institutions and/or the development of  cultural and social mores.  Especially if those conversations are honest with nothing held back.

We had no idea how invasive Facebook is  becoming and how indispensable it has become to this society – both to individuals and large corporate conglomerates.  It is developing its own niche – especially amongst the young but also gaining ground amongst the older crowd.

We had a very disturbing experience with Facebook recently and started poking around to understand what happened.  At the same time we threw Facebook out as a topic for breakfast conversation and the response was electric.

At breakfast, one person said – I used to post a lot to Facebook.  I don’t anymore.  I only post very generic, announcement things.  I have gone back to email, which may not be entirely private but at least I know someone will have to have a court order to see what I have been emailing.  When I have something to say to friends, I send them an email.  Just think, we used to be concerned about the lack of privacy emails produced.  They seem like Fort Knox compared to what Facebook has introduced into society.  My friends could send my emails on to others without my knowledge, but they can’t send  thousands of copies of my emails to others, which is the affect of Facebook on what I post out there.

During this breakfast conversation we discovered there are several ways Facebook totally invades your privacy.  The basic one is, they have privacy guidelines and from what we heard, it is a word game because they don’t follow and apparently don’t intend to follow what it means to have privacy laws.

They will scream loudly at this because Facebook claims to have solid, written and circulated privacy policies – which they do.  What is not showing in those policies is that they are subject to constant change and the change looks suspiciously like a company encouraging you to trust them with your information because they handle it with care and totally within their privacy laws and at the same time, it looks as though they will change those privacy rules when enough information has been accumulated to justify new and expanded contracts with the large corporate entities who can use that information to exploit John and Jane Q. Public.

When you join this corporate entity called Facebook, you discover that it is full of people who have given no thought to the institution to which they are contributing all of their life’s information.  That can be a horrifyingly mysterious experience, until you begin to understand the lay of the land. How does one discover that? Look into how Facebook makes its money and that will clearly lay out its priorities.  We discovered, at breakfast, that Facebook makes billions selling your private information.

Once you join Facebook, all over its pages you will find there is a strong pressure for you to “like” some group, business, industry, celebrity, etc.  What happens when you do that?  The entity you have ‘liked’ has a Facebook page on which they post much – and what they post shows up on your Facebook page, whether you understood that was what you were really allowing or not when you clicked that ‘like’ button.  No wonder there is such an intense push to get people on Facebook to ‘like’ so many things.

To “like” anything on Facebook gives that entity the right to post to your Facebook page and whatever you post in response shows up on their Facebook page – sometimes.  It can be very disconcerting to have all of this stuff showing up on what you thought was your private page for you and your friends.  Now you realize, it is open to the world and you only have to “like” the rest of the world for them to partner with you on Facebook to receive what you share with friends.

How do so many entities have so many “likes” on Facebook?  You advertise for them.  We wondered why one advertised on Facebook since it rarely brings increased business.  It does bring hundreds of new “likes” to you and those “likes” are what give you access to hundreds of people. People whose Facebook pages are now your personal property to do with what you ‘like’.

Facebook also has what has become a ‘tradition’.  It guarantees you privacy; has a very distinct and well written privacy policy so you feel comfortable with what you post within those guidelines; and once you have joined and set up your page you are very comfortable knowing the parameters of what you can do and what will be kept private and sacrosanct by Facebook.

HYPOCRISY ALERT:  These privacy guidelines are temporary.  Once you become comfortable with your personal information being kept private by Facebook and you begin to reveal more and more that you would not reveal if you knew what was coming, those privacy guidelines change and there you are in the middle of your Facebook page with – symbolically – no clothes on, because Facebook has changed its privacy laws and protections and what you thought was private is now out there for the world to see and use.  Well, not really the whole world, only those who have bought contracts with Facebook to receive your information within seconds of your postings. But – you are not fully exposed because you are still ‘protected’ with their new privacy laws.  Except lots of marketing and other institutions now have information which you didn’t intend to provide, but which they now have and can use because Facebooks’  privacy laws changed and now allows them to receive that much needed information.

And now Facebook has the possibility of gaining new contracts from ever larger and some smaller entities because those entities can now see how this business can work to their advantage.

Another wrinkle discussed at breakfast is what happens when you sign in to the different groups to which you belong on the internet – not Facebook – but you sign in with your Facebook password. What does that do?  It allows Facebook to send to the large marketing, retail and other large corporations just about all of the information on your Facebook page.  Information  they could not otherwise access, such as – your ‘friends’ and other stuff that is off limits to those individual people who want to join your merry band and who would like to see that info before deciding to befriend you.  They can’t see that information because of Facebooks strict privacy rules, but  those large corporate entities can access all of it because of your tendency to be a bit lazy and want just one password to remember – Your Facebook password.  Large groups can now access  everything you thought was private and there are no restrictions on what they can do with what was your personal and private information.  Actually, that information is still off limits  to the little person, but the large corporations now can access it all – if they are paying Facebook properly.

Another new wrinkle and new opportunity has popped up.  When you join a group which is a mini-facebook, – such as is now becoming more common – such as your Church, club, social group, companies you buy from with a password to their site and more – a part of what those groups can offer is for you to link your Facebook page to the information or your profile on their site.  What does that do?  Think about your bank! It allows Facebook to give them, not just what you post to your Facebook page, but all of the information you thought was private and members of those groups can now post to your Facebook page.

Small social groups, small Churches – Synagogues – Temples – don’t have the IT capability to do anything with this information, but the large groups which you access via a password,  but now access using your  Facebook password, can  post to your Facebook page and those in the group can also post to your Facebook page from the Group’s supposedly closed shared internet space.  This gives those with whom Facebook has partnered the most amazing and complete information about you.  In affect it is everything  you have on Facebook, including any new posting they or others can now make.  It is quite powerful for these groups to be able to post to your Facebook page from your mini-group internet gathering place, but even more powerful for Facebook to be able to sell information about the groups to which you belong; the companies with whom you do business; the retail internet places where you buy and why you buy, etc.

I used to wonder how some companies received so many hundreds of millions of dollars to develop their start-up idea. After this breakfast where everybody shared what they knew about Facebook, I now know how one group is selected to receive and one group must struggle.  To receive huge amounts of money from ‘venture capital’ groups, or individual investors who want to contribute mightily to your idea, you must have a start-up idea which rips off the public for the benefit of these large institutions .  It has very little to do with anything else.

Facebook was an electric idea.  It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Facebook opened your private world to marketing, advertising, strategic planning groups with the kind of information they had not previously dreamed they could ever access.

The minutiae of your lifestyle; your choice of friends; things you talk about to those you know and trust; your likes and dislikes and how and when they change; what you buy or have just bought and why.  Facebook is also constantly coming up with new and different ways to satisfy this bottomless pit of the need for your most private information.  You – your friends – your family – your professional associates are all the subject of marketing mining; of giving up your most private information so the multi-nationals of the world will know how to manipulate your desires, wants, needs, to increase their bottom line.

The most lethal part of Facebook is their constantly changing privacy rules, because there are always new people joining who have not experienced the jarring instant change of privacy rules which allows those with contracts with Facebook to gain massive new information about you which you thought would always be kept private.  And that information is gained by those contract holders in seconds.  You can fight those changes in privacy laws, and possibly they will be changed back – rarely, but it is possible.  That does nothing for you because your information went into the hands of those who could afford those very expensive contracts with Facebook almost immediately.  And not just once, but every time you post anything to Facebook, it is in the hands of those marketing people immediately.

And we worry about identity theft?  That is like worrying about the lone ant when the elephants in the room are sitting on your chest and destroying everything around you that you hold dear. We have created a world where most of us are prey to those who want to use us to be the consumers of the products, ideas, and more that they are producing without our giving  thought to the basics of whether the product contributes to a good, healthy, caring lifestyle!  – do we need this? is it good for us? will it enhance the quality of our lives or do the opposite? and more.  Our payment?  The ability to be rendered more and more thoughtless in the way we live through this psychological manipulation, with generations to come not understanding the history of our and their lives and who do not understand that this is any kind of problem.

The information flow continues through our continued use of Facebook and some other large groups like them, as they now stand.

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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

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