To All My Friends
Gratitude, acceptance, and invites
***Founding members will find the registration link for Sunday’s Founder’s Day event with Keir Giles below the paywall.***
Bette’s Calendar at a glance:
Sunday, Dec. 1, 11 am PT — Founder’s Day with Keir Giles, author of Russia’s War On Everybody, on his new book, Who Will Defend Europe? To join our Founder’s Day events, please upgrade your membership to the premium level — you can set your own price above a full annual membership.
Tuesday, Dec. 3, noon PT — Our weekly wellness check in will feature global friends on managing self-care during difficult days. Open to all paid members.
Sunday, Dec. 15, 4 pm PT — We will be joined by Yale professor Marci Shore on her book The Ukrainian Night. Open to all paid members.
Sunday, Dec. 22, 4 pm PT — Author Nancy MacLean joins Bette’s Speakeasy to discuss Resistance efforts and her updated version of Democracy In Chains. Open to all levels of membership.
“Thunder on! Stride on Democracy! Strike with a vengeful stroke!”—Walt Whitman
When I walk to the market I pass two murals — one is dedicated to the First Amendment:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The other is on a electric box, smaller, beginning to fade, but equally important:
"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."—Viktor E. Frankl, Holocaust survivor, philosopher, psychologist
I live in a neighborhood where three of four people voted for reality. They voted for the prosecutor not the criminal.
We held the line in my town.
I see writers out there facing a terrible dilemma — they’re either attempting to deliver hopium to the masses or one doom post after another. Neither are particularly helpful in our current situation.
My goal will be to keep everyone in action. We will be hearing from global experts to help us do just that. I personally choose to be in acceptance — facing reality head on — that’s how I remain in action.
On Tuesday, we learned that we are all going to have to tie our rowboats together, and that it’s our duty to be kind and to stand up and out and always be an ally.
As I wrote in my first post-election post, we also must also remember to have a happy life. This is our life — we are the people bearing witness to an organized crime ring taking over our countries, hacking brains through a monopoly on social media.
We are going to have to find a way out, and it will take a rowboat flotilla, as one Bette member suggested.
But today is Thanksgiving, so first, we give thanks.
Thankful to the people in our lives who have not lost touch with reality.
Thankful to those like you who support writers like me.
I am making my cornbread casserole — my home smelling just this side of heaven.
I am making my World Famous Krabby Mushrooms. A word of caution to those of you trying the recipe for the first time — you will be asked to make them for every occasion so fairly warned be you says I lol.
Those of you experiencing MAGA family anxiety, invite Leslie Jones to dinner — Lesdogg has the cure.
Quick December calendar note: Bette members will be sharing our zoom salons with Nancy MacLean, Marci Shore, and our wonderful pool of global experts. We are not alone, there are more of us who want the goodness of the world to continue.
On Sunday, Founding members get to meet one of my favorite humans — Keir Giles.
Like many of my UK friends, he was right about everything. His next book will likely be called “I told you so…”
I spent an hour on the phone with an ally in a war zone yesterday. We laughed until we cried. We choose to fight transnational criminals with our words and will continue to do so as long as we breathe life — we will defend reality.
But today, we eat.
We love and be kind.
Love may not be all we need, but it helps.
In solidarity, reality, truth, and unity,
Heidi xo
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Founding members: please keep scrolling for registration link.
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Bette Dangerous is a reader-funded magazine. Thank you to all monthly, annual, and founding members.
I expose the corruption of billionaire fascists, while relying on memberships to keep the light on.
Thank you in advance for considering the following:
Share my reporting with allies
Buying my ebooks
A private link to an annual membership discount for older adults, those on fixed incomes or drawing disability, as well as activists and members of the media is available upon request at bettedangerous/gmail. 🥹
More info about Bette Dangerous - This magazine is written by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter/producer, author, and veteran music and nightlife columnist. She is the cohost of RADICALIZED Truth Survives, an investigative show about disinformation and is part of the Byline Media team. Thank you for your support of independent investigative journalism.
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Begin each day with a grateful heart.
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REGISTER HERE FOR OUR FOUNDER’S DAY WITH KEIR GILES