July, 2018 - Bettina Network's Blog

Archive for July, 2018

WHO AM I?

Tuesday, July 31st, 2018

I suffered a loss, that could have destroyed everything I’ve built over some 30 years.

In very bad shape emotionally,
I came to your back door
and asked for your help.

You were busy and would not let me in.
You kept me standing outside your back door while we talked
I heard people inside so I knew you were busy

All that I had was on the line
if I could not solve the problem I came to you with
all would be lost for me

I would not have come
if I saw some other alternative

You went inside and came back giving me $40. and asked if that would help.
I thanked you, but did not take the money
it was not money I needed
it was help solving the problem

You said you had company and were busy
I asked who
You said your father and his family

So I went away.

My thoughts went way back
to when my daughter was just 4 years old
Her father and I separated
and eventually divorced

One day,
in desperation
shortly after the separation
I went to him
because we were homeless
and on the street

He was busy with his new ‘friend’
they didn’t have time to deal with us
he told me this was just like me
pretending to have a problem
and he sent us away.

Help came to us then
in the form of someone who always loved unconditionally
And gave unstintingly
out of the little she had
and she had very little

so we survived

and even thrived.

WHO AM I?

I am your mother!

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ED NOTE: A new feature appearing irregularly in Bettina Network’s Blog
Membeers of Bettina Network Lifestyle Community are invited to submit articles for WHO AM I?
As usual, with or without your name appearing – let us know. If you say nothing we will assume you don’t mind your name appearing.
This could be submitted as poetry, prose, a short story, whatever form you choose.
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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

Immigration by Merit!

Monday, July 30th, 2018

It is amazing to hear Donald Trump calling on the United States to change the immigration requirements. Amazing because if we had immigration by merit the Trump family would not be in the United States. They would have been amongst those rejected for immigration on any level – including asylum.

Trump’s grandfather’s specious background was outlined in another blog.

In this one let’s look at where Fred Trump – Donald’s father – got his wealth.

Fred Trump had a partner with whom he grew his wealth. Willie Tomisello, a man who – it is claimed – fronted for the mafia – in particular the Gambino and Genovese families. That explains some of which we found – receipts where Trump purchased concrete from the Gambino family and more.

Donald Trump himself, as he grew up and took over from his father beat at least four federal grand juries – which could explain his arrogance and the way he is now handling his response to the Mueller investigation.

So, we now have a president who has the style and ways of the mafia – so the United States is changing into a country where mafia style relating is becoming the norm. The foul language used normally and in practically every speech and appearance Trump makes is setting quite a low bar for our children, let alone the lifestyle of this president. Our children are watching and their teen years are going to be very different because the ethical example they are now seeing will set them on a very different path than that which their parents are trying to put their feet.

I prefer to think the presidential election of 2016 was hacked. I would hate to think that United States voting citizens elected such a person.

Mafia background – KKK, White Supremacist, White Nationalist from the time he was a very young boy who was influenced by his father’s connections to such organizations – serial adulterer – claimed abuser and assaulter of women – evil enough to kidnap children from their parents and keep both in Concentration Camps exposing them to the possibility of death through the “cold rooms” and to the sexual assault we are now hearing about which is taking place in those “Concentration Camps” in which they are put and so much more – business man who filed bankruptcy some 9 to 11 times – that evil shows forth in his past – learned at the knees of Jos McCarthy during the time of McCarthyism and during the time Donald Trump was the protege of Roy Cohn – expects everything from others and gives nothing as particularly shown in how he treated his mentor Roy Cohn when Cohn was dying of AIDS and Trump just disappeared when before he was seen around town having candlelight suppers with Cohn and socializing with Cohn’s friends, accepting all kinds of legal help from Cohn without paying, etc. etc. etc. – and that does not mean Cohn was such a great person that does mean Trump treats everyone including his mentor who was majorly responsible for bringing Trump and his company from Queens to Manhattan as though they are responsible to him without a vice versa. His choice of Roy Cohn and Joe McCarthy as mentors says even more about this United States President and his choices. We can see that being played out in his choices of people to serve in his administration. They will be forever tarred by the Trump brush.

And now you have Trump playing footsie with the Eastern European mafia and probably also the Russian mafia as he seems to aspire to become an Oligarch – one of those boys. Does that mean he has given the finger to the Italian mafia? – if so, how do you guys feel about that?

When you add it up – people wise – that all accounts for Trump’s base except for a few bigots who are hiding behind what they are now calling “Conservatism”, but in actuality are supporting the “Don” because inside all of his rhetoric is the one promise – that he will make sure they stay as White on top stepping on all minorities and does everything he can to reduce the numbers and positions of minorities and women. Keeping women within the old stereotype of a “lady” – barebreasted, pregnant, powerless, beholden to and doing the work of “her man” or “her men”. And so you have the “Don” strongly behind anti-abortion. How can you keep a woman subservient if she can legally control her own body.

So there you have America exposed. And the rest of us are still mightily struggling to develop and keep this as a republic on a sound ethical base on its way to becoming a democracy.

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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

Unfair and Ugly Marketing!

Saturday, July 28th, 2018

by: Marceline Donaldson

We hope you will take notice and respond to a crucial request!!!!!!!!

As a business partially owned by minorities and women, Bettina Network, inc. constantly has to protect itself and put up barriers to those who seem to need to undermine and attack us in any way possible. We are asking all of you to take notice. Not only for Bettina Network, inc. but to be responsible consumers and require companies to be ethical, moral and treat others with respect.

That is how we have tried to live and work. We know there are many of you out there who do the same. I think these past few years with what is happening in the United States should bring all of us to the realization that we have been given a choice. We can live and work in a world in which we undercut others; insult others; demean others or we can succeed through hard work, being of good character and morals.

We have had a very ugly experience when a member of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community called to tell us we were being undercut by a web site called IloveInns.com

How were they doing this?

By telling the world on their web site that Bettina Network, inc. was closed and no longer in business.

I was amazed and could not understand why anyone would do such a thing.

When I checked, sure enough there was the message in more than one place on their web site with Bettina Network, inc. listed – with other companies – but the line under the name Bettina Network, inc. has a little message for the readers telling them this company is no longer in business.

Bettina Network, inc. was the only company on their site with such a listing.

If they thought that was the case, they could have called to verify – they did not. If they didn’t want to call they could have looked up the web site for Bettina Network, inc. – they did not. Nor did they do anything else before taking such a step which could drastically and negatively affect someone else’s business.

They deliberately chose to put out this bit of negative advertising in an attempt to hurt our business.

Why do I say it was done to hurt us?

Most people would have simply eliminated a company which they determined was out of business. And before taking that step, most people would have made sure their information was accurate. To have kept Bettina Network, inc. listed with the additional tag of being out of business is negatively advertising another company and quite clearly, intentional.

I hope all of you respond.
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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

Comments from Bettina Network Lifestyle Members

Sunday, July 22nd, 2018

1) It is amazing to hear all of these folks talking about Donald Trump possibly being compromised – to explain his actions. What a load of crap. The assumption wrapped into the claim of someone acting in a certain way because they have been compromised assumes they would normally act in a different, better way. It is time to acknowledge that Donald Trump is simply corrupt and has been for decades. His life’s history shows that clearly. Putin has not corrupted Trump. Trump has acted and said the things he has said and done because he sees that to be to Trump’s advantage. My assumption is that Trump sees himself becoming an Oligarch and having the wealth he has pretended to have for decades through his association with Putin and Russia.

Before he became president Trump apparently, according to those around him, had lots of money passing through the Trump Organization from Russia. After he filed so many bankruptcies – six they say – American bankers would not deal with him so he went through Deutsche Bank where Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s son works and money flowed to him.

Is his nomination of Kavanaugh for Supreme Court Justice really about a deal cut with Anthony Kennedy from Ivanka through Kennedy’s son to Kennedy resulting in Kavanaugh? Novels were written about such deals – businesses thrive through cutting such deals and here we are with this one right out in the open. There is no longer hidden evil, it is right out there for all to see and still it thrives.

When Trump leaves the presidency he won’t have much chance of making the kind of money he seeks. After all the Obama’s only made several million through their book deal, and a few talks, etc. and the Clinton’s the same and those who went before were a little wealthier because of their service to their country.. Trump, however, is looking for multi-billions not multi-millions and he can’t do that through book deals or speeches. He can accomplish that through ripping off the American government and its people and coming out in the multi-billions category. After all, he has something to sell – and that is the American Government and its influence to the highest bidder and currently, that seems to be Russia.

Enough of this business about Trump having been compromised. Trump is doing what he has always done – looked out for Trump in a greedy way going in the direction of the money with no thought to the trashing of everything he has left in his wake. I think often of the missed opportunity many of those trying for an education were screwed out of through Trump University.

2) I have never understood why Mitch McConnell and the other Republican Congress people held up the confirmation of Judge Merritt Chase for the Supreme Court. They wanted a Supreme Court appointee made by a Republican President. BUT, the person who looked like the winner and the next president was Hillary Clinton. So to follow that logic, they would have wanted someone like Merritt Chase rather than risk who Hillary would appoint – unless they knew something the rest of us did not know. They knew as long as a year before the election that Donald Trump would be elected president. How could that be unless they were involved in colluding with the Russian to bring about the election of Donald Trump, or they knew about the collusion of others and stood by and watched and approved since they saw themselves as benefitting. Either way it is despicable. Trump nominating Kavanaugh seems to be another spit at Obama from Trump as Trump appoints the man who works under Merritt Chase to a position over him. The filth being spewed by Donald Trump over all of us is monumental, foul and that for which we will repent and have to work hard to clean up for generations.

3) I heard many rumors that Trump’s rallies are being stacked with paid attendees. Any truth to that rumor?

4) Trump likes and understands Kim Jong Un because he would like to be in that kind of position and because Trump sees someone like himself? What does that say about those sucking up to Trump?

5) The abortion issue seems to miss a big point. Why do so many “Conservative” men and very sexist Paternalistic institutions wind up seriously, loudly and aggressively anti-abortion? Many men who are serially sexually abusive and engage in sexual assault against women are also anti-abortion. Does this mean the out of control male ego needs to know it can spread its sperm and wants no intervention to stop the children it is spreading around the world to prove its virility – especially those not caring for such children?

6) No worries that Kavanaugh, if he becomes a Supreme Court Justice, would be led by a good character, ethics, etc. His career shows his great ability to suck up to advance. We are so accustomed to so many advancing through that suck-up avenue we demur from calling that what it is. In this case, he would be coming to the Supreme Court as another mafia member where there have been so many appointed in the Trump Administration. The only question open is whether or not he will become a “made man”. Trump has made a few mistakes with his appointments thinking he was appointing “Trump Loyalists” who would kiss the ring. In actuality Trump’s corruption has become so extensive and so public that those appointed who thought they were being “promoted” and this was their chance in a job they wanted badly, have discovered their character and ethics have not allowed them to “suck up” the way one needs to if one wants to continue being a part of the Trump Administration. So many have been fired after having discovered that fact. Having been fired from your job in the Trump Administration has become a badge of honor – they should wear it proudly because it does say something about their character. That does not include those who had to leave because the public outcry against their corruption was so loud and strong they had to leave under disgrace.

7) This is all too much for me. This is not at all the country in which I was born – my parents were born – into the fourth generation. Some things I didn’t even think about before now. I’ve lived my life with the American mythology rather than the reality of who we are – I haven’t even faced the reality of who we are as human beings. All this took was for the United States to elect a black president? And a very competent and substantial black person who set a tone and reached a level that few have reached in that office. Have we all gone crazy because our identity – our White Supremacy – was threatened by that and now it has to be turned around so we won’t have to suffer the ignominy of equality? And we elected a Donald Trump to do that job?

I now understand how Hitler’s Nazism took over Germany; how Joe McCarthy held sway in the United States and destroyed so many lives for several years; how the Japanese Concentration Camps were founded and kept alive and thriving; how the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed and acted upon for a very long time; how the Native Americans were so destroyed after they put themselves out to help those who came to these shores very unprepared for what they found; how Jim Crow became the law of the land verified and solidified by the United States Supreme Court and kept the law of the land by that Court until recently. Where have I been, thinking I am living in this great democratic country? This fantastic republic? Look how quickly and how easily Donald Trump has taken over and turned everything around to move this country into an evil place. What kind of a dream state have I been occupying! Even knowing all of the above and starting to re-read history I slip up and go back to that naive person who was wrapped up in the unreality, the untruths sold to me from childhood. I don’t want to face this reality. There has to be redemption in here someplace. Goodness can’t have gone missing. Greed, powerhunger and all the rest can’t take the place of the values my parents instilled in me. Stop this and let’s get on with life as I knew it once again – only lets keep marching to an even better place. At the moment we are all in lock step on our way to hell.

ed note: The above was sent by members of Bettina Network’s Lifestyle Community. No other comments are necessary.
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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

Congress – Putin – NRA – Compromised?

Thursday, July 19th, 2018

Just a brief note to hope you mention the fact that many of us believe several Congressional people have been compromised by Russia and Putin.

Every-time I hear someone expecting the Republicans to respond to the horrific things happening I wonder what’s wrong with them? It is clear many in Congress have been compromised by Russia – we think, through the NRA.

Didn’t the NRA give Trump some $20 million for his campaign. And hasn’t the NRA contributed multi-millions of dollars to the campaigns of quite a few Congress people? And don’t the Congress people take great care not to alienate the NRA? This nonsense about not wanting to alienate the base needs to be revisited. It looks instead that the Congress people don’t want to alienate the goose that lays the golden egg for them. And what happens when the NRA reveals to those Congress people where their money is actually coming from? The NRA does not seem to have the multi-millions it contributes. That money is coming from someplace – and where would that be? Would the genesis of their funds be Russia? and Putin? looking to compromise as many Congressional people as possible?

Will the day ever come when people serving the public good be those who don’t cower behind their need to keep their position, their income, their extras, their power and will give up their ethics, their character, their beliefs just to maintain? It was time for those working in the immigration area to take their belongings and leave when they realized what they were being asked to do – but many stayed on and helped separate children from their parents and even worked into the wee hours of the morning to move children at 1, 2 and 3am. Why do people give up so much for so little? Why do we cause others so much pain as we simply try to stay on top to continue with the money coming in and the little bits of power we exercise?

To stand in your own truth. To own your values. To live out of your belief system. What a luxury. You may not be the wealthiest of people doing that, but you certainly sleep well and don’t scare easily. How many have given their lives so you might live. You, Congress, will not give up your extravagant lifestyle and bits of power so democracy might live and grow and be strengthened for all of us. So what exactly are you doing in Congress. You should have resigned already.

It doesn’t take much. But it does take commitment – truth – justice – faith – and over everything it takes love. We have moved love out of its God sphere into the sex sphere and there we can be as corrupt as possible. Notice how many of those making these compromises of their core beliefs for money and power are also those being held up today for their sexual abuse, sexual assault, disrespect of women and many others because they so disrespect and abuse themselves.

Thanks for this “blog” space. Keep it up – we are reading.
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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

Melania Trump’s Lifestyle – African American?

Monday, July 16th, 2018

It was amazing at the Republican Convention to hear Melania Trump give a talk which was lifted practically verbatim from a talk given by Michelle Obama. So it was not too much of a surprise to see her choice of clothes.

For the formal dinner in England just a few days ago, Melania Trump chose to lift the dress choice of Lupita Lyongo, the Kenyan/Mexican actress and model – only in yellow instead of the red chosen by Lupita for her appearance at the Golden Globe awards. www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/158540849363070263/
And then there was the jacket Melania wore to visit the site where children were being held in cages. remember? It said “I really don’t care. Do U?

All of the conjectures about the jacket missed a very crucial point. It was designed and manufactured by a company which routinely designs and manufactures anti-semitic clothes, of which that jacket was one – fit right in with the anti-brown/black immigrant goals of a White Nationalist family, don’t you think?

On a different wave length, to her more serious events she wears designs by people who would fit into the “better than” category the Trump administration and its White Nationalist philosophy has chosen to designate as those who are “better than” – “more/better culture than”, etc.

The Trump’s fit into the “Nouveau Riche” category and they are acting out their newsness to wealth and their inability to acclimate and fit into the society. Apparently, before the wealth arrived, the Trump family had some secrets to keep hidden in the “culture” department and are trying to do so by giving themselves a very different background from the one which is their reality.

Donald Trump labels himself as half-English/half-Scottish. With the claim that his mother came from England and the other side came from Scotland. Nothing about his real grandfather who came from Germany, which means that Donald Trump himself is an immigrant one generation removed from the man who arrived in these United States with no money – very broke – no education – scraping the bottom of the barrel and who reportedly moved himself up on the backs of women who he used to scrape together the means to build a hotel – and- it is rumored, used the hotel as a brothel.

This is the background of the man who is now trying to lift himself up by pushing down other immigrants and lifting up Northern European culture as at the top and currently endangered by all of the bare foot, dirty, non-English speaking immigrants he is trying so hard to keep out of the United States and strongly advising England to keep them out of their country or their “superior” culture will be lost. The Trumps clearly have worked hard to move themselves up class wise, but don’t quite seem to know how to do that. Their recently learned knowledge about this “cultural” phenomenon has come late and with lots of defects in the knowledge. The KKK, White Nationalists, neo-Nazi’s take you down the cultural ladder, Donald, not up. The “Upper Class” in these United States will never embrace someone with your background. Probably not your family until the third or fourth generation – which means Ivanka’s grandchildren – if they keep their noses clean and out of what you are constantly involved with and which Ivanka is, apparently, helping you to achieve.

Problem is, every time Donald Trump opens his mouth he shows his lack of a decent “cultured” upbringing and out comes all the crude, lying, greedy, lifestyle he apparently learned at his father’s knee. His presumptions and characterizations about himself show a great gift for storytelling. – Wasn’t it Donald and his father who were sued by the United States of America for the racism they were practicing in their buildings? And wasn’t it Donald’s father trying to lie his way out of being jailed with the KKK after they marched down Pennsylvania Avenue in their sheets and pointy hats trying to scare the entire American society? And given the choice wasn’t it the Donald who found his associates and friends among the mafia, the gamblers, those who stole from others to pad their own pockets ie his six bankruptcies which took away from many and gave him assets without a cost to the Trumps?

This is now the president of the United States – How the mighty have fallen!

The Evangelical Christians of a certain stripe support him strongly and claim their god sent him
Their god sent an
Adulterer
pathological liar
cheat
man full of greed – ripping off others as though it was his right
takes his failures and proclaims them as great successes
glutton
and so much more – do we really need to list everything?
______________________________________________________________________He needs to find GOD! and give up on his evangelical imitation leading him down the road to sedition and sin which leads him straight to hell! It is extremely interesting that the Trumps imitate the peoples they consider inferior and want to push down and characterize as “less than”. Wonder what that means?

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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

A BNLMember Responds to Poetry

Monday, July 9th, 2018

I loved the poem about trees. I would love to respond with my own poetry, but until that day this is what I found which i find beautiful and an addendum to Lynn O. Cohen’s poem –

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.”
– William Blake, 1799, The Letters

“I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines.”
– Henry David Thoreau, 1817 – 1862

“Around a flowering tree, one finds many insects.”
– Proverb from Guinea

“Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?”
– Walt Whitman, Song of the Open Road

“God is the experience of looking at a tree and saying, “Ah!” “
– Joseph Campbell

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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

Come to me..see me..hear me..touch me!

Saturday, July 7th, 2018

Leaves moving this way and that
sounds just like big ocean waves.
i am elsewhere.
Ah! the leaves giving me
a kiss on my cheeks
cooling me
even moving my short hair

i have arrived at the ‘mentor tree’
bottom looks like gargoyles,
witches faces
But look up! many big branches
tall and strong!
parts chopped off
but see how it still grew from there

Welcome to me
i am life!
i get wrinkles
and i move on
i’ll give you shelter anytime you want.
see that ant crawling on me?
for you it would be bothersome
doesnt bother me
i let it crawl
i welcome it.

i have persisted
nor’easters, wrinkles, ugliness, parts missing.
But i keep going and growing
Learn from me.

Lynn O Cohen
A Bettina Network Lifestyle Community Member
6/12/18

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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

TREASONOUS TRUMP!

Thursday, July 5th, 2018

Quite some time ago I read a blog on these pages about “The Manchurian Candidate” and that was before Trump was elected president and today he is the president of these United States and clearly into treason against the United States.

Patterns?

Trump went to Canada and alienated U. S. Allies demanding that Russia be included in the “7” making it “8” and then he went on to North Korea and was smiley and extremely complimentary of Kim Jong Un, a dictator with a terrible record which included, apparently, killing members of his own family and other atrocities and Donald Trump found that laudatory. His flattery of Kim Jong Un was extravagant.

And now, on to the NATO meeting followed by an extremely private meeting with Vladimir Putin and another “I love Russia and Putin” and those NATO folks are $#%&%#S….

Those meetings are not accidental timings, they are arrogant.

The extreme privacy of his meeting with Putin violates his role as President of these United States. He is the U. S. President not a private citizen and as such he is responsible to the citizens of these United States in everything he does. Meeting privately with Vladimir Putin is against the interest of the United States.

Donald Trump is breaking laws in this country and turning it into a dictatorship which rivals that of Kim Jong Un. Given enough time he will make the atrocities in North Korea look small by comparison. That is what he clearly prefers and what he wants of his presidency – by his own admission.

He has probably done enough to be tried by an International Court and to call in the United Nations and any other international body that has jurisdiction over such acts.

Trump has, in the United States, created a crisis which has allowed him to establish Concentration Camps, Internment Camps and Death Camps. The post in this blog which made those statements early on was clearly correct. What he has created parallels Nazi Germany and takes it many steps beyond.

Trump has turned the “Brown and Black people” arriving in the U. S. seeking asylum from horrendous situations into criminals. He takes away their children and according to the news reports has “lost over 1,000 of them”. Lost them to what? The young girls lost to sex slavery? The young children lost to adoption by others? Any of them sold? It is certainly a slavery situation and closely parallels preparations for slavery auctions with people particularly children in wire cages.

Muslims, Hispanics are currently targeted. Trump has indicated the other non-whites will be next.

Are Naturalized Citizens from those “Brown and Black people” next? Will their citizenship be turned around and they thrown out of the United States after the DACA people are put in the wire cages and deported? Or will they be put into wire cages and moved to the Death Camps when no semi-lawful way is found to deport them? Are African Americans next? And then Native Americans – don’t know where they will be deported, but Trump will think of something. Or will they be jailed on”trumped” up charges and turned into caged slaves. Allowed out during the day to do the free work of the establishment and returned to jail in the evening. Maybe they will simply be killed. And then comes Asians and Asian Americans? He has already cancelled the passports for Asian Americans in Silicon Valley.

And in the process Trump has ignored the Constitution as though it does not exist.

He is isolating the United States and undercutting its economy.

It is clear what is needed to create a fascist dictatorship from a democracy or a republic is isolationism – trade wars – leading to a heavy depression and those are the circumstances under which we are living. That has already been done we just have to wait a couple months for the depression to take hold.

Those three things helped create the ground on which Nazism flourished.

To those who think that is a conjecture too far? It is not conjecture: –

We have death camps – only there is no gas to turn on. Trump has found something more excruciatingly lethal and they are called “cold boxes”. If you are ill when you arrive in this country looking for asylum, having walked over hundreds of miles to get here you are probably over tired, may have the flu and other problems. Are you given health care to help you along – no, you are put in a “cold box”. A place kept at 50 degrees to somethimes as “warm” as 55 or 60 degrees and there you stay until you are ‘decontaminated” of the germs you carry – which in several cases has been weeks. Everything you have is taken away from you and you are left in those “cold boxes” with a thin sweat shirt, thin pants and inconsequential to no shoes and those cold boxes include children and toddlers.

There can’t be doctors around because I don’t know of any doctor or other health person who would recommend such a treatment. All you need is a lowered immune system and a body underfed and exhausted to cause gradual death. If you get to leave the “cold box” you need a very heavy constitution to overcome its effects and over time you will succumb because that stay in that “cold box” compromises your entire system.

Trump supporters are a group of people who are on a level with, if not worse than, the MS-13 gangs Trump loves to threaten people with when the real enemy is Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions. The killing of the five news media recently and the serious injuring of more sits directly in Trump’s lap and comes from the kind of rhetoric he has encouraged and is spreading.

Sessions, the AG who Trump claimed to be against and wanted to fire when all along -while he was talking that rhetoric – dumping on Sessions to get people who neither liked nor respected him, but didn’t think Trump was treating Sessions “fairly” substantially supporting Sessions. And all the time, behind the curtain, Sessions with Trump were planning and working on a model of this current immigrant plan, put it into operation as a model to see what happened and when it worked to their satisfaction rolled it out as a full blown operation. Children taken from their parents, asylum seekers criminalized, “cold boxes” to increase the chances of immigrants dying – but not until they left the “cold boxes” so Trump would not be held responsible, and all that we see happening in front of our eyes. – AND, at the same time we are hearing Trump supporters bragging about what is to come next – even “better than” what we are currently experiencing with the immigrant question.

Nothing you see is what is real in this Trump presidency. The obfuscation, the hiding, the lying, the destruction of human life is extensive.

And then we have Donald Trump meeting with Vladimir Putin behind the curtain just before the mid-term vote in the United States. Another coincidence? I don’t think so. Trump has had a dream of a Trump Tower in Moscow since the 1980’s and it certainly looks as though he has made a deal to get his Trump Tower in Moscow. The timing is unbelievably arrogant – but then so was the call by Trump on television, during the Presidential Campaign, for Putin to hack the DNC computers which happened with Russian help. Trump’s denial of Russian interference with the United States presidential election is simply to make sure they are able to do it again when the next election comes up and he does nothing to negate the process. So he goes to meet Putin conveniently just before that mid-term election and at the beginning of that election season with whatever information Putin needs to be more effective this time with Trump having access to all of the United States intelligence so Putin and his boys can do a better job.

And this time there is an added flourish. – United States Congresspeople meet in Russia, just before Trump’s arrival, to insure that Putin knows and sees Trump’s ‘power’. The Congress people met to exclaim and proclaim their support of Russia and wish for great ties binding Russia and the United States peoples – the “White” ones who are the only ones who will survive Trump and his administration.

Make America White Again – coming from Trump means alliances with “White Nations” like Russia – which is all White and the power structure 99% male. It also means alliances with other such countries while dumping on those which are not “White” and/or which have given in to the women and have women in the power structure.

Some Americans wanted a business person as president. That meant all kind of positive things to them. Well take a look and then take a look at our corporate structures and some of the leaders of that corporate structure and their ethics and character match Trump’s – they are also clearly not building republics nor anything close to democracies and probably never will. Only a handful really profit, the rest of us work all of our lives for those few to immensely benefit. I believe the blog in this series which says -the growth of U. S. Billionaires parallels and causes the growth of the homeless.

So in summary:

Parallels to Nazi Germany

Death Camps which gassed people = Trump Death Camps which destroy peoples already compromised immune systems in “cold boxes”. Cold boxes take longer and are more painful than gassing and people die after being released from the cold boxes so Trump and his people can deny, lie, obfuscate and abdicate responsibility.

The SS for enforcement = ICE for enforcement, burying the facts and lying to U. S. Citizens and the world to cover what is actually happening.

no rule of law = Trump has made a mockery of the U. S. Rule of Law by, among other things, having 3 and 4 year olds, who sit in Court on chairs, where their feet can’t touch the floor, alone, defending themselves

Trump – a pathological liar which means the institutions over which he has power have become pathological liars and so have those who are the administrators and others in those institutions. It is the only way they can survive.
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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

What a Day! All is forgiven America!

Monday, July 2nd, 2018

by:  Marceline Donaldson

What an incredible day!

I have spent a lot of time and energy being angry over my lifetime because of the fights I have had to engage in just to survive. And at other times I have had to engage in even more fights because others were being treated with great injustice and I seem to be constitutionally unable to stand by and watch or turn away.

It has been extreme pain at many points in my life as I saw and experienced racism, sexism, xenophobia, ethnic cleansing and so much more.

My thoughts about my country wavered during those times because I saw a side to these United States that left me wondering – why? So many talked about how great we were and the mythology connected to these United States was awesome. However, my experience didn’t live up to, nor see, nor experience that greatness, because I was not one of those deemed to be equal to and my talents were not even recognized because my color and my sex got in the way.

I have had things stolen in the tradition of what has happened to minorities over the hundreds of years. Recently, I have had people try to push me around the way they haven’t for a decade or more.

Especially recently. the bigotry I thought was mitigating with the presidency of our first African American president clearly was growing stronger under Donald Trump, with the strongest bigotry I have ever seen in this country produced and cultivated by its president and his administration.

I recently experienced a lot of the kind of racism and sexism I thought left decades ago and while bigotry itself was not gone, I tried to believe it was in the process of being run out of town.

What I didn’t experience in this life, I experienced as I studied history. – Reading and learning about the horribleness of the lives of so many others because of the bigotry that existed and exists in these United States. The worst of it was the denial. It is more than enough to experience bigotry and have your economic, social, cultural life limited and changed by that bigotry that I experienced and that jumps out at you as you wander into the history of what went before. The worst of it is to have people get in your face and deny what you and they both know happened – it is the ultimate sell-out of humanity.

Today was an amazing and very cathartic time. The issue was bigotry – against those brown people who were so threatening. The mothers and children and babies who so riled up this country that its president established Internment Camps, Concentration Camps and Death Camps to turn around people coming to the United States hoping for asylum from what in many cases was horrendous and life threatening. To seek asylum and have that effort get you thrown in jail where you thought you would find freedom has to be excruciatingly painful and the end of life.

To experience the response of Donald Trump, the illegitimate president of these United States and his cabinet and administration as they all acquiesced either through their silence or actions, to what Trump was doing to the least of these. It has been an unbelievable time.

Today turned around my history. To see the outpouring, the numbers of people all across the country who responded and said by their presence this is not who we are nor is this who I am going to allow my United States to be nor how I am going to allow it to act.

Over 700 demonstrations against what Donald Trump has wrought was awesome. To talk to many of the people so demonstrating and to find out why they were out in the street on a 90 to 100 degree day to make their voices heard is the most encouraging and beautiful thing I have seen in a long time.

I hope all of those who struggled so long and so hard to bring these United States into a place of true democracy where we are all equal and we look out for one another were present today. It is not the easiest thing to do, especially when there are some 15 percent of the citizens in this country moving in the opposite direction and demanding that the United States follow the pattern set by the Nazi movement and the Hitlers of the world.

I didn’t intend to be a part of the demonstrations because I fell down the stairs and could hardly walk – but walk I did. As I sat nursing my foot which is swollen and ugly from the fall, I realized everything I have been about, everything I believe, everything I have worked so hard to see happen was breaking open across this country and I needed to be a part of all of that.

My foot probably won’t heal for a month after what I did to it today, but I don’t even feel the pain, the joy has overcome it all.

May we always be this country which turns out for what we believe and will not let what Donald Trump brought on and made so many children and their parents suffer because of his power, greed, control, fascistic dreams of his future and more win the day. He must be stopped and what he is using to maintain and expand his power must be destroyed.

He has brought about 1) trade wars 2) Isolationism and 3) set in place the structure of a severe depression which we will probably experience in just a few months. These are what is needed to turn a democracy into a despotic state. Trump has set those things in place and is moving these United States into the camp of other leaders like him who are also out to satisfy their greed, control, vicious tempers and more. Let us turn that around and continue to show we are determined to live free and equal not in chains to the likes of the despots who intend to feed on all of us.

God is good! And I can see God’s kingdom breaking in all over the world, in spite of the clouds of ferocious institutionalized hate, bigotry, greed, and those using religion trying to stop that beauty from coming through. It is far too late for that to succeed. History can’t be changed, but the present and the future certainly can and it takes all of us to bring about those changes. May I see you always just across the road working as hard as I am for the good of us all, especially the children, that precious generation which needs to see the light that we send to them and which they send along to others not yet born.

And on to Martin Luther King’s Beloved Community!
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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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