SAN FRANCISCO – SUTRO HEIGHTS PARK BY THE PACIFIC OCEAN
Lee Heidhues 7.23.2026
The blogger set out for his daily walk at the unusual time of 4:30AM.
The streets were dark. Devoid of cars and people.
It’s an eerie feeling of quiet on the streets of San Francisco in the outer Richmond neighborhood. Just blocks from the Pacific Ocean.
The blogger leaves San Francisco land and enters Sutro Heights Park in the Golden Gate National Recreational area. The sky is completely dark.An unhoused person walking a bicycle loaded with belongings shouts a greeting, “Hi buddy.”
As the blogger makes his way around a dark Park the skies begin to lighten in the northeast. Gradually becoming fully daylight. The sounds the blogger hears are the Pacific Ocean waves hitting the coastline and the birds talking at daybreak.
This is a very invigorating experience to feel the wind and breathe in the fresh air at dawn.
The mainstream media is in a general uproar because New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has correctly labeled Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu a “war criminal.”
If it was up to New York’s Mayor the Israeli Prime Minister would be arrested when he arrives for the United Nations general assembly meeting.
It’s easy to ignore reality. The Israeli military has slaughtered over 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, 2023. In retaliation for the Hamas attack which resulted in the deaths of over 1300 people, mostly Israelis.
Eventually, Netanyahu will have his day in Court. Regrettably, it won’t happen in the United States.
Excerpted from The New York Times – 7.22.2026
Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently disclosed that he was in “active conversation” with his legal team about whether he could make good on a campaign vow to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, should he set foot in New York City.
What the mayor neglected to say, in a wide-ranging interview with The New York Times last week, was that he had already been advised by lawyers that he had no authority to do so.
His declaration risked a rare public clash with his police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, whose pro-Israel stance runs counter to the mayor’s longstanding position.
Ms. Tisch had no intention of arresting Mr. Netanyahu, and the Police Department was ready to make that clear with a formal statement declaring that it lacked the authority to take such action. Lawyers agreed that such an arrest was not within the scope of the Police Department.
Top photo: War criminal Bibi Netanyahu with the Israeli military
Daily Beast 7.23.2026The First Amendment survives Wall Street Journal – 7.23.2026Wall Street Journal – 7.20.2026
Donald Trump lives in America in 2026. His attitude and actions are akin to Germany in the 1930’s.
While Trump is precluded from going as far as 1930’s Germany he is using his Department of Justice to intimidate and bully the media for exercising its First Amendment rights to publish.
This is a chilling assault on the foundation of 🇺🇸 American democracy
One of the first things the National Socialists did after assuming power in early 1933 was quash the free press. This action was followed by a series of book burnings.
The president is waging an across-the-board war against the First Amendment and its legal interpretations from the mid-20th century to today. – Huffington Post 3.13.2025
Excerpted from The New York Times – 7.20.2026
The Trump administration sought the phone records of several New York Times journalists and their relatives — including one reporter’s mother — in its effort to unmask the confidential sources who had provided information for articles about the security capabilities of President Trump’s new Air Force One jet.
The Justice Department told The Times late last week that it had issued subpoenas to third-party phone service providers seeking several journalists’ phone and text messaging records. That effort was in addition to the subpoenas issued on July 10 that sought to compel reporters to testify before a federal grand jury.
The government’s actions amount to an extraordinarily aggressive and unorthodox attempt by the Trump administration to unearth the confidential sources of independent journalists whose reporting had angered the president.
The additional subpoenas — which also sought information about calls and messages on the phones of two of the reporters’ spouses — were described in a motion filed on Saturday by lawyers for The Times, which is seeking to quash the requests. The motion was unsealed on Monday morning by Judge Arun Subramanian of U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Top drawing: Herblock in Washington Post June 1971 during Pentagon Papers First Amendment battle. The Nixon administration tried to enjoin the New York Times from publishing the history of the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court upheld the Times right to publish.
“A little bit of courage is all we lack. So, catch me if you can I’m going back.” The Byrds
‘With a permissive referee running the show..” The Argentina 🇦🇷 “intimidation” was ultimately thwarted…Wall Street Journal – 7.20.2026San Francisco Chronicle – Ann Killion – 7.20.2026
Spain won its second World Cup in a extremely physical match with defending World Cup champion Argentina and Lionel Messi.
FIFA boss Gianni Infantino had to push Trump off the Victory stage – 7.19.2026
But how many will remember the game when, as is often the case, the Audience of One Donald Trump tried to steal the show.
Fortunately thousands of fans in attendance let Trump know what they thought of his party crashing obnoxious appearance.
Excerpted from NJ.com 7.19.2026
A coalition of artists, organizers and advocacy organizations was set to distribute 50,000 red cards to fans headed to MetLife Stadium for the World Cup final on Sunday to stage an in-stadium protest of FIFA and President Donald Trump.
The plan was for fans to hold up the red cards following the Spain-Argentina match when Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino presented the championship trophy to the winning team.
The red card protest was organized by SoundsGood Presents, along with several activist groups, including Contra-ICE, Make the Road New Jersey, 50501, People vs. The Machine, Way to Win and Movement Voter Project. Other local groups and U.S. Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-11th Dist.) were also part of the coalition.
Excerpted from Yahoo Sports!/Athlon 7.19.2026
Trump demands another World Cup in United States ‘immediately’
Donald Trump has declared that the World Cup should return to the United States “immediately” and claimed he would ask Fifa president Gianni Infantino to help stage another tournament during his presidency.
The hosting rights for next two World Cup have already been decided. The 2030 edition will take place in Morocco, Portugal and Spain, following opening matches in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay to mark the tournament’s centenary, while the 2034 tournament will be held in Saudi Arabia.
I am unsure what is more infuriating reading this WSJ editorial screed.
Standing by Israel despite its ongoing three year onslaught against the People of Gaza.
Or, relitigating the US involvement in Vietnam. An act of Washington stupidity which lay waste to Southeast Asia resulting in the deaths of 58,000 Americans. And hundreds of thousands of Asians.
Several bloody and bandaged soldiers ride on top of a tank used as a make-shift ambulance after the Battle of Hue in the Vietnam War, Hue, Vietnam, February 15, 1968. (Photo by John Olson/Getty Images)
Wall Street Journal editorial 7.16.2026
The vote by 103 House Democrats on Wednesday to block U.S. arms to Israel as it fights a multifront war is a shocking abandonment of an ally. It’s a sign of the rapid conquest of the Democratic Party by its anti-Israel wing, and it echoes another betrayal half a century ago—in Vietnam.
The measure to strip Israel of all aid—humanitarian and military, offensive and defensive—was offered by the isolationist Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky. He was the only GOP member who voted for it, as it failed on the House floor, 314–104.
The shock is that nearly half of all Democrats voted for it. They included former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the second ranking Democrat in leadership, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts. Another 10 voted “present”—non-profiles in courage all. “It is clear that the status quo is not tenable,” Ms. Clark said in a statement before the vote. “We should not provide a blank check for military aid to any country that does not comply with U.S. law, interests, and values. The [Benjamin] Netanyahu government has failed to meet that standard.”
Israel has violated no U.S. laws we know of. As for U.S. interests, Israel is fighting by the side of the U.S. against Iran and fighting alone against Iran’s proxies that have killed Americans. The defense relationship with Israel is a U.S. military advantage that helps maintain America’s technological edge over adversaries. When Democrats are voting to abandon even Iron Dome missile defense, this is self-sabotage out of anti-Israel animus.
It’s one thing to oppose Mr. Trump’s war on Iran, but it’s a far more radical step to cut loose a steadfast ally. How is it a U.S. “value” to disarm an ally fighting against murderous enemies that fire rockets on civilian towns?
VIETNAM – APRIL 30: The Fall of Saigon in Vietnam on April 30, 1975 – The north-Vietnamese tanks cross Saigon on the way towards the Doc Lap palace. (Photo by Herve GLOAGUEN/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
All of this echoes the sad denouement of the Vietnam War, when Democrats fought for years to cut off funds for South Vietnam, restricted U.S. aid, and denied its pleas for help in 1975. The North Vietnamese Communist offensive overran the South, sending more than a million “boat people” into the open ocean.
That is where the Democratic Party—and some parts of the far right—appear to be heading. It’s a telling sign that even Seth Moulton, often sensible on foreign policy, voted to disarm Israel as he competes in a Democratic Senate primary in Massachusetts. That’s where the party’s grassroots voters apparently are.
Some might dismiss the House vote as of no great account because everyone knew the Massie measure would fail. But the mistake is thinking that this is a one-time affair. The political momentum is growing against Israel, even if Israelis depose Prime Minister Netanyahu in their October election. This movement thinks Israel is evil while Palestinian terrorists are victims.
The party of Harry Truman, who recognized Israel in its time of founding crisis, is becoming the party of Zohran Mamdani. It’s a betrayal for the ages.
Does anyone have the right to end one’s own life? It’s a controversial topic worldwide.
The opposition to State sanctioned suicide is fierce on both religious and political grounds.
Often lost in the tumult are the wishes and desires of the patient. It seems a sticking point is the question, “Is the patient mentally capable of making the decision?”
California has a form of physician assisted suicide with the “End of Life Option Act”which went into effect in 2016.
California End of Life Option Act is a law enacted in June 2016 by the California State Legislature which allows terminally ill adult residents in the state of California to access medical aid in dying by self-administering lethal drugs, provided specific circumstances are met.[1] The law was signed in by California governor Jerry Brown in October 2015, making California the fifth state to allow physicians to prescribe drugs to end the life of a terminally ill patient,[2] often referred to as physician-assisted suicide.
In May 2018, a state trial court ruled that the law was unconstitutionally enacted,[3] but the following month, the law was reinstated by a state appeals court;[4] the law was affirmed by the California Supreme Court.[5]
As can be seen below, Germany is one country struggling with the assisted suicide dilemma.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 11.23.2025
Lukas Radbruch, one of the leading palliative care doctors in Germany, raised the problem of assisted dying organizations that counsel patients on their end-of-life choices also being the ones carrying out or mediating assisted suicide.
In 2023, lawmakers of the German Bundestag debated possible regulations regarding assisted suicide, adopting with a large majority a resolution to strengthen suicide prevention. This year (2023), a draft suicide prevention law has been presented by the government. The current debate could precipitate its passage through the legislature.
People demonstrate outside the B.C. Court of Appeal during a hearing into the federal government’s appeal of the B.C. Supreme Court ruling that struck down the laws making physician-assisted dying illegal, in Vancouver, B.C., on Monday March 4, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
“The problem with consultations at assisted suicide organizations is that people are more likely to be advised on how to do it, not whether to do it,” he told DW in 2023.
Three organizations currently operate in Germany, offering assistance with suicide to their members. Individuals have to apply for membership, undergo counselling and may not receive medication for the first months of their paid membership.
Former Health Minister Karl Lauterbach of the center-left Social Democrats told the Rheinische Post newspaper that the current situation is ethically unacceptable because it is not certain “that people who take this path do not suffer from mental illnesses that impair their ability to make decisions.”
Editor’s note: If you are suffering from serious emotional strain or suicidal thoughts, do not hesitate to seek professional help. You can find information on where to find such help, no matter where you live in the world, at this website: https://www.befrienders.org/
The blogger’s interest in Oliphant goes back decades when I began looking forward to his work, published several times weekly.
In the early 1970’s I was living in Germany. I kept a large number of his cartoons and pasted them in my journal. Following are a number of them. All of which were published during the presidency of Richard Nixon, the Vietnam War and the release of the Pentagon Papers.
Oliphant turned his attention to a multiplicity of subjects including the Catholic church, Donald Trump (shown above) and other individuals and institutions who came in the sight of his line of political fire.
One of my favorite Oliphant works is this masterful drawing in 1971 of a family bemoaning the state of the economy and its impact.
In 1967 Oliphant won his Pulitzer for a cartoon portraying North Vietnam’s revolutionary leader, Ho Chi Minh, carrying a dead soldier. The caption read, “They won’t get us to the conference table … will they?”
As Mr. Oliphant later told it, the cartoon he submitted for the prize was, intentionally, one of the weakest he had published in 1966. It was a kind of test. When it won, he criticized the Pulitzer Board for choosing it on the basis of its America-boosting point of view rather than the quality of his work. Thereafter, he scorned the Pulitzers and became a regular critic of the board’s selection processes. – New York Times 7.13.2026
The blogger is well familiar with the political combat involving landlord-tenant law in rent control San Francisco.
But murder to facilitate the sale of a property in the foggy Sunset District is something that would only be found in a pulp fiction novel or Hollywood crime story.
The entire Sunset Beacon article is printed herein.
Sunset Beacon 7.13.2026
By Neal Wong
On 46th Avenue in the Outer Sunset, 58-year-old Eric Bigone was fatally shot outside his home in May. His landlord, Philippe Chagniot, was later arrested and charged with the murder.
Eric Bigone’s son has filed a wrongful death lawsuit accusing Chagniot of carrying out the killing to clear the home for sale.
Dino Bigone filed the complaint in June against Phillipe Chagniot and his wife, Barbara Chagniot, individually and as trustees of the couple’s 2007 family trust. Bigone is seeking damages and a court order blocking the sale of several properties the family owns.
According to the complaint, Eric Bigone had been renting the single-family home at 2518 46th Ave. since 2023 for $3,200 a month, paid in cash at the landlords’ insistence so the income could be kept off their tax filings. Beginning in January, the complaint alleges, the Chagniots tried to get him to leave by serving improper notices to enter, threatening eviction, demanding he vacate by March 1 and refusing his rent while declining to give him an address where he could mail it. Bigone hired an attorney simply to keep paying.
The landlords also threatened to invoke the Ellis Act, which lets owners evict tenants by pulling a property off the rental market, but never filed for it. The complaint calls the threat “a fraudulent subterfuge” meant to force Bigone out.
At a press conference in late May, San Francisco Police Department Chief of Police Derrick Lew said surveillance video captured the alleged murder that happened around 5:20 a.m. on May 17.
“Officers obtained video footage showing the suspect dressed in dark clothing, approached the victim’s residence,” Lew said. “The suspect then lit a fire on top of a car. And when the victim exited his residence to deal with the fire, the suspect shot the victim in the back using an automatic firearm equipped with a silencer. The suspect then stood over the victim and fired again before fleeing the scene.”
Phillipe Chagniot “casually” biked away before ambushing and killing his tenant, prosecutors said.
The complaint adds details that the police did not release. It says the weapon was a MAC-10 fitted with a high-capacity magazine and alleges Chagniot rode a bicycle to the home wearing a mask, spray-painted nearby cameras, and shot Bigone in the back of the head.
Lew said investigators used automated license-plate readers and other cameras to identify and track the suspect. Lew did not provide a motive at the conference.
“We’re still very early in the investigation, and we’re still working through all the details,” Lew said.
The complaint alleges that the Chagniots conspired to murder Bigone so they could sell the home without a tenant in it.
HOMICIDE – The San Francisco Police Department logo, serving San Francisco, California. (San Francisco Police Department via Bay City News)
The day after the shooting, the complaint says, Barbara Chagniot called Dino Bigone to offer condolences and to ask when he would move out, and Phillipe Chagniot sent a text message:
“We’d like to offer our sincere condolences to you and your family during what is no doubt, an extremely difficult time. This is something no one should ever have to experience. If you have any questions for me, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Wishing you peace.”
The complaint says Dino Bigone later asked for the return of a security deposit.
On May 27, the Chagniots replied through their attorney that there was no deposit, complained that the Bigone family was in the house, and said the tenancy had ended with Eric Bigone’s death. Phillippe Chagniot was arrested the same day. At the press conference, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced that her office has charged Chagniot with murder, with an allegation that he used a gun to commit the murder and a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait.
“We have also filed additional charges that include assault with an automatic firearm, arson, possession of an automatic firearm, possession of a silencer and possession of a high-capacity magazine,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins said her office sought to hold Chagniot without bail and that he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. Chagniot is due in court on Aug. 24 to set a date for his preliminary hearing.
The civil suit raises 10 causes of action, including wrongful death, battery, breach of contract, negligence and violations of San Francisco’s rent ordinance. It also asks the court to bar the Chagniots from selling or transferring five properties until any judgment is paid, arguing they may try to move the assets. Three of the properties are in San Francisco, one is in Daly City and one in Sonoma County.
In seeking punitive damages, the complaint alleges the defendants “have violent and socially maladaptive tendencies.”
District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong, who represents the neighborhood, provided comment on Eric Bigone’s death.
“This was a heartbreaking incident for our Sunset community, and I know many neighbors have been deeply shaken by the violence,” Wong said. “My thoughts remain with the victim’s loved ones and everyone impacted by this tragedy.”
Both the civil case and the criminal case are pending. The lawsuits’ allegations have not been tested in court.
Undated Top photo: Eric Bigone at Ocean Beach in San Francisco
Attached is an article with further details published in The California Post
Bone-chilling details emerge in SF landlord’s alleged murder of tenant
The blogger, who has posted about the South Carolina Senator, woke this Sunday morning to be inundated with a series of headlines mourning the “sudden” death of Trump’s favorite lapdog. Senator Lindsey Graham. No more so, as would be expected, than the Wall Street Journal editorial page.
Fortunately there are a number of media outlets, not part of the mainstream media establishment who are taking a more jaundiced and skeptical view in announcing Senator Graham’s demise.
Lindsey Graham – Wikipedia – Graham died after a “brief and sudden illness” on the evening of July 11, 2026.[371][372] The day before, on July 10, Graham paid an official visit to Kyiv, Ukraine.[371] One of Graham’s staffers said there had been no indication that he was ill before his death.[373]Emergency medical services responded to a call at a home owned by Graham at around 8:30 p.m. EDT in the Capitol Hill section of Washington D.C. for a patient with chest pain. According to radio transmissions, personnel reported 25 minutes later that a male was in cardiac arrest and that CPR was underway. A nearby resident said that Graham was taken to George Washington University Hospital around 9:30 p.m. EDT.[371][373] On July 12, preliminary findings from the D.C. medical examiner stated Graham died from an aortic dissection caused by arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.[374]
Trump’s shoeshine boys. Lindsey Graham, then AG Bill Barr and Mitch McConnell – June 3, 2019
The blogger posted several times decrying the reactionary racism of Lindsey Graham. Including his role in the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in 2020
New York Times – 7.15.2026Washington Post – 7.11.2026
Donald Trump wants nothing more than to stamp out the First Amendment.
This wannabe dictator will use his final 925 days in the White House unleashing the Department of Justice and abusing the levers of presidential power to stifle, harass and prosecute his political enemies by any means necessary.
First it was former national security advisor John Bolton who published “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.” Bolton plead guilty to one charge against him and is looking at a 2.5M fine and five years prison time.
The Trump administration issued subpoenas on Friday to several journalists for The New York Times, after the news outlet reported this week on security concerns involving President Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One.
The smirking bully Trump
The Times journalists who received subpoenas included Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt, who reported on Wednesday that Mr. Trump had departed Turkey on the old Air Force One as a security precaution at the urging of the Secret Service. On Thursday, The Times reported that the new Air Force One, a Qatari-donated Boeing 747-8, lacked some of the advanced security features of the older aircraft, including antimissile capabilities. Both articles cited sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues.
The subpoenas — which seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday — were an extraordinary escalation in President Trump’s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations.
In some cases, the subpoenas were delivered by federal agents who showed up at reporters’ homes.
The Times denounced the administration’s actions.
“The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects,” said David McCraw, The Times’s top newsroom lawyer, in a statement on Friday evening.
Lee's Perspective 