Rail travel is the SMART trip. North Bay voters just said YES for 30 more years

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.3.2026

It is very reassuring to know that voters in Marin and Sonoma County have overwhelmingly endorsed the SMART train which currently runs from Larkspur in Marin to the far reaches of Sonoma County.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonoma%E2%80%93Marin_Area_Rail_Transit

At a time when voters in car centric America are loath to fund public transit the results coming from Marin and Sonoma Counties prove that voters appreciate the value of sustainable passenger rail travel.

Perhaps North Bay voters have experienced rail travel outside the United States where public transit is an essential part of daily life.

The blogger can only bemoan the sordid history of how the automobile industry worked hard to destroy public transit in the United States. (see attached link).

https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/demise-american-public-transportation/183456

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle and Marin Independent Journal 6.3.2026

SMART’s (Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit) critical sales tax extension rode to passage Tuesday.

Officials in the public transportation world have something to cheer about andare trying to remain optimistic, pointing to a SMART train sales tax extension on Tuesday that won 70% of the vote in Marin and Sonoma counties.

To many observers, it demonstrates not only that residents value transit but that they view SMART as a centerpiece for a new wave of development.

With 100% of precincts reporting, results from Marin show 70.25% of voters in favor and 29.75% opposed. In Sonoma County, with 72% of precincts reporting, returns showed 70.44% voted yes and 29.56% were opposed.

Measure B renewed the quarter-cent sales tax for 30 years. The tax generates about $51 million annually for SMART, equal to more than half of its annual operating budget.

Marin County has 173,082 registered voters, while there are 319,260 in Sonoma County.

The citizens’ initiative required a simple majority vote to win, as opposed to a traditional two-thirds threshold. If the measure had failed, the existing tax would have expired on June 30, 2029.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with the results we’re seeing right now,” said Suzanne Smith, chair of the SMART initiative committee.

“I think it’s a testament to SMART as an organization and the services they provide to the community,” said Smith, a former executive director of the Sonoma County Transportation Authority. “We, as a committee, were lucky enough to have such a great project to sell to voters, to tell voters about, and voters see that value, so we’re pretty excited.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/smart-tax-renewal-measure-heading-toward-passage/ar-AA24ILgV?ocid=BingNewsSerp

Russia launches yet another major drone attack on Ukraine. The World yawns

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.2.2026

Most of America has tuned out to the ongoing Russian carnage being inflicted on the people of Ukraine.

The mainstream media only gives the Putin led aggression scant coverage.

The Russian onslaught is well into its fifth year and the truth of the matter is most of the world has lost interest.

Much of this has to do with the undeniable fact that Donald Trump has regarded the Ukraine carnage a side show.

And, given the problems of his own making, think Iran Trump is happy enough to let Putin do what he wants while Ukraine burns and its citizens perish.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 6.2.2026

Russia launched a major missile and drone attack on Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, Dnipro and Kharkiv, overnight into Tuesday, killing at least 22 people and wounding over 100 others.

This comes after days of warnings that Moscow was planning another major attack. On Tuesday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that ​”another ‌large-scale attack may occur tonight,” according to Ukrainian intelligence. 

Russia launched 73 missiles and 656 drones at Ukraine starting 6 p.m. local time on Monday (1500 GMT), Ukraine’s air force said, adding that 40 missiles and 602 drones had been neutralized. 

Kyiv was the main target, but drones struck 38 other sites across Ukraine, the air force said on Telegram

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it used high-precision, long-range weapons to strike Ukraine’s defense industry facilities. In a statement, the ministry said it carried out a “massive strike” and claimed to use “high-precision weapons.”

“The ​strike ‌objectives have been achieved, all ‌designated targets have been hit,” ‌it ​claimed.

Following the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Europe to develop its own air defense systems.

“Europe needs its own anti-ballistic defense so that this war can finally be brought to an end,” he wrote on social media on Tuesday. He also called for more support from Washington, saying their Patriot systems — which can intercept Russian ballistic missiles — are “absolutely necessary.”

https://www.dw.com/en/russia-launches-major-missile-attack-on-ukraine-several-killed/a-77384025

Open the Link and watch the Video of the devastation against Ukraine inflicted by Russian drones.

Mom and Pop on the FBI 10 Most Wanted List. Not your typical American family.

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.31.2026

The 1960’s radical movement thankfully never went away.

Depending on your retrospective walk through American history in the 1960’s ‘Progressives’ are thought of as either forward looking progressives determined to upend the System. Or spoiled rotten kids who didn’t appreciate the good things about the consumer driven money making post World War II era in which their parents participated in.

Zayd Ayers Dohrn was unwittingly and unknowingly raised and nurtured in the maelstrom of 1960’s politics. And seems to have landed with both feet firmly in the camp of realistic thinkers without having forsaken his upbringing.

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal ‘Review’ Joseph Epstein – 5.29.2026

What’s in a name? Consider the name of Zayd Ayers Dohrn, the author of “Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young.” His first name derives from that of Zayd Shakur, the minister of information of the East Coast Panthers, a radical group formed in the late 1960s. Ayers was his father’s name, his father being William Ayers, a leader of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a founder of the terrorist group the Weather Underground and a relentless organizer on behalf of revolution. Dohrn was his mother’s name, and she, Bernardine Dohrn, was a fellow member of the Weather Underground, as well as the fourth woman to appear on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List. Quite a bit, it would seem, can be in a name.

The subtitle of Zayd Ayers Dohrn’s book is “A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground.” Reading it, I was more than grateful for the ticket I had drawn in the parent lottery. Throughout his book, Mr. Dohrn, who was born in 1977, wonders how much he, his younger brother and his foster brother really meant to their parents. As a child he feared, and he reports he fears still, that next to their commitment to revolution, perhaps not all that much.

The book offers an account of both of his parents’ revolutionary careers. Neither was brought up in a radically political family. Both came to their politics in their early adulthood.

His mother, whom J. Edgar Hoover would call “the most dangerous woman in America,” was born into a middle-class home and grew up in a suburb north of Milwaukee. Strikingly good-looking and an excellent student, she went off to college at Miami of Ohio, where she was rejected by every sorority on campus because she was Jewish. Doubtless this rejection set her off on her political path.

‘The Weather Underground’ Academy Award nominee 2004 – The Weather Underground (film) – Wikipedia

Soon, the author explains, Ms. Dohrn transferred to the University of Chicago, where she fell in with the political faction among the students. (Bernie Sanders, later a firebrand senator, attended at the same time.) She went on to law school, though at the time she had little interest in a legal career. She would work with Martin Luther King Jr. on his rent strike in Chicago and, her son reports, had a single magical meeting with Muhammad Ali.

Ms. Dohrn would later have a hand in planning the student riots in Chicago in 1968. “I consider myself a revolutionary Communist,” she declared when she was elected to the SDS national board that year. “There’s no way to be committed to nonviolence,” she said, “in the middle of the most violent society history has ever created.” Her hatred for America was unqualified.

William Ayers grew up in the middle-class Chicago suburb of Glen Ellyn, the son of a high-level executive at Commonwealth Edison (he would eventually become its Chief Executive Officer). In 1963 Mr. Ayers went off to college at the University of Michigan, at the time the residence of the political organizer Tom Hayden and the scene of the founding of SDS. Not political before then, Mr. Ayers began showing up at protests. Soon he quit his fraternity and not long after dropped out of school.

The young Chesa Boudin

They didn’t marry until 1982, when Ms. Dohrn was 40 and Mr. Ayers was in his late 30s. They settled in Hyde Park, Chicago, where they also raised Chesa Boudin, the son of Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert who were serving long prison terms.

Former Weather Underground member Bernardine Dohrn walks with friend Bill Ayers and an unidentified child outside the Federal Court Building in New York, May 17, 1982. The couple refused to identify the child. Dohrn refused to cooperate with a Federal Grand Jury investigating on October’s bloody Brink’s robbery in Rockland County. (AP Photo/David Handschuh)
“You don’t need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/dangerous-dirty-violent-and-young-review-raised-in-the-revolution-e0a005a9?st=wFcDsx&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Top photo: Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers with a young Zayd Ayers Dohrn

NBA All World ‘Wemby’ Extraterrestrial Finals

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.31.2026

Victor Wembanyama is the new Crown Prince of the NBA. All Frenchman 7’4″ of him wrapped up in his 22 year old frame. The most apt music to describe ‘Wemby’, as he is referred to by network announcers, is Aaron Copeland’s ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’ featured below. Performed by the Metz, France Cite musicale.

Victor Wembanyama – Wikipedia

Excerpted from The New Yorker – Louise Thomas – 5.31.2026

Victor Wembanyama, the San Antonio Spurs’ supernova, opened the Western Conference Finals, against the Oklahoma City Thunder, with forty-one points and twenty-four rebounds in a double-overtime game that seemed to reset the possibilities of professional basketball. He ended Game Seven, a thrilling 111–103 win over the defending champions, with a pedestrian stat line—twenty-two points, two assists, seven rebounds—and a glimpse of his dreams. And when it was over, after he had broken down in tears and screamed with euphoria and relief, he hugged and leaned on his teammates, who had, for much of the second half, become the best versions of themselves, and, collectively, a reflection of him.

Wembanyama has an eight-foot wingspan and a nearly ten-foot standing reach. He can dunk without leaving the ground or smoothly sink a standard jump shot—you have to see it to believe it—from forty-two feet. In his third N.B.A. season, he may already be the best defender in pro basketball history. A story of Saturday night’s game could be told in one play, which took place late in the fourth quarter. The Thunder’s implacable scoring machine, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander—among the most gifted foul-baiters of his generation, who had received his second-straight Most Valuable Player award days before—had the ball. Up to this point, he had played (finally!) with his usual surgical precision. Wembanyama, playing with five fouls, was a stray hand away from fouling out of the game, and was all that stood between Gilgeous-Alexander and the basket. But the reigning M.V.P. declined to challenge him.

Here is another story of the series: before Game One, Wembanyama had to sit and watch Gilgeous-Alexander accept that M.V.P. trophy—an award Wembanyama had openly sought. He took it personally. During the finals, the Spurs were at their best, statistically, when Wembanyama was on the court. That isn’t surprising. But the same was not true for the Thunder’s best player, Gilgeous-Alexander: Oklahoma City were actually outscored when he was on the floor. (Out of kindness, let us not speak of the performance of Chet Holmgren, who was drafted one spot behind Wembanyama, finished second in Defensive Player of the Year balloting, and was once talked of as Wembanyama’s rival.)

When Wembanyama went to the bench in the fourth quarter with five fouls, and Gilgeous-Alexander began finding the space that he thrives in, and the excitement swelled in the partisan Oklahoma City crowd, with plenty of time still on the clock, Luke Kornet checked in. Kornet is an élite comedian, a competent backup, even a good writer! But he is not, let’s face it, on the level of the other players who were on the floor, playing some of the best basketball we’ve ever seen. And suddenly, with six minutes left and the Spurs up by six, he found himself racing after Isaiah Hartenstein, who had just stolen the ball and had an open lane to the basket. Kornet chased him down and cleanly blocked his shot, leading to a Spurs basket on the other end. It was a four-point swing and, in retrospect, the beginning of the end for the Thunder.

The block was one thing. The reaction on the bench was another. Wembanyama—usually the one to make that kind of play—clenched his fist and bit it. Kornet’s teammates embraced him. There was a palpable sense of inspiration flowing from player to player. Presti brought San Antonio’s team-oriented culture to Oklahoma City, but Wembanyama has brought a culture, too, and, by the force of his example and his will, he has remade the image of his team.

SF Superior Court mysticism. “Are you an expert on tarot cards?”

San Francisco Superior Court

Lee Heidhues 2.14.2025

There are sometimes amusing moments in the most stuffy and deadly serious courtroom environment.

Only in a 21st century San Francisco courtroom. A Hitchcockian tale of suspense.

“Are you an expert on tarot cards?”

That was the question posed to a witness who testified about black cats and the Tarot in a San Francisco courtroom on Valentine’s Day.

The courtroom was vexed and intrigued by the testimony that a Black Cat Tarot Card could be used as a tool of harassment.

So was the blogger who did some research. He learned something about the black cat and its influence in the centuries old Tarot card.

Will the Black Cat Tarot Card devour its enemies? Will its caretaker be burned at the stake for witchcraft? Has 15th century justice landed in the courtroom? Stay tuned for the next encounter.

The Queen of Wands is a court card in the Minor Arcana set of the tarot.

The black cat at her feet shows that luck favors her, as black cats are viewed as bringers of good or bad luck.

The nature of cats may also show that she has tamed her darker impulses yet understands and follows her own instincts, thus representing her self-aware and independent nature. Black cats are also commonly associated with occultism and the dark arts, suggesting intuitive understanding of the world.

Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play tarot card games.[1] In English-speaking countries, where the games are largely unknown, tarot cards came to be utilized primarily for divinatory purposes.

Its keywords include: attractive, wholehearted, energetic, cheerful, and self-assured.

The sign of Leo is strongly associated with this card due to the lions adorning her throne, as well as the lion pendant clasping her cape. She is holding a sunflower, which may represent a fertile and joyous life, but may also further suggest a connection to Leo. In their bud stage, sunflowers face and track the sun in its motion across the sky, a behavior called heliotropism. The sun in astrology is considered to be the ruling planet of the sign of Leo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_Wands#:~:text=The%20black%20cat%20at%20her,self-aware%20and%20independent%20nature

Soundtrack from the 1958 Alfred Hitchcock movie “Vertigo” filmed in San Francisco
Our lives exist in a parallel world with art. A friend who read the blog post informed me that 12 hours after posting “Are you an expert on tarot cards?” with its “Vertigo” soundtrack…the film was shown at The Legion of Honor. Just a short walk from our home.

Top photo: The black cat devours the flagpole of St. Joan of Arc. She was born on January 6, 1412. She was charged as a relapsed heretic and burned at the stake on May 30, 1431 in Rouen, France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc

Joan of Arc statue at the 100 year old Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

Tabloid fodder in WSJ. Proverbially burned at the Stake

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.30.2026

Americans are so prudish and puritanical.

If this was taking place in a tolerant European nation there would be a big shrug of the shoulders and a, “So, what?”

America can bomb, maim and kill people all in the name of patriotism.

But let an individual, let alone a candidate for the US Senate, engage in a bit of sexual banter and the person is proverbially burned at the stake.

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 5.30.2026

Days after Graham Platner announced his Maine Senate bid, his wife informed the campaign about a potential political problem she had previously discovered on the oyster farmer’s phone: sexually explicit texts with several women, according to people familiar with the matter.

The previously unreported deliberations over sexually explicit texts discovered on Platner’s phone comes as the former veteran has exploded onto the national political scene, kindling Democratic hopes that they can unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins and gain control of the Senate.

The revelations about Platner’s past have provided fodder for Republicans and stirred debate within the Democratic Party about his character and judgment. Platner is a political novice. Some in the party fear they have attached themselves to a candidate who didn’t undergo thorough vetting and could undermine their hopes for the midterm elections in November.

UNSPECIFIED – CIRCA 1800: English catholic martyrs burned at stake during reign of Henry VIII. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)
https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/graham-platners-wife-flagged-sexually-explicit-texts-to-his-senate-campaign-628ec832?st=BMChxt&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

The food trip via SF Muni. A gastronomical adventure

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.29.2026

A drizzly Friday morning in the Richmond District the blogger set off to the Sunset District for Arizmendi Bakery to purchase fresh scones and muffins. Hoping it would be an uneventful journey. It turned out to be another chaotic experience on the San Francisco Municipal Railway (SFMTA).

The 44 bus inches its way across Geary Blvd and the construction mayhem on a Friday morning.

The chaos began when the blogger transferred from the 38R Geary line at 6th Avenue. Site of the now two year pavement construction project which has disrupted traffic and infuriated merchants. Seemingly this public works project will never end. At 6th Avenue a 44 Shaughnessy bus sat a block away on Clement Street for nearly 15 minutes. Finally the bus poked its way down 6th Avenue and stopped to pick up a load of passengers.

The never ending disruption of a public works project.

The blogger inquired of the driver as to why she sat so long before continuing on her route. Obviously, the driver didn’t appreciate the question nor the blogger’s attitude, “I have a break” was her pithy response.

By the time the bus reached Golden Gate park the bus was stuffed with riders. Including a group of Special Needs students who were enroute to the De Young Museum.

Disembarking at 9th Avenue and Irving Street the blogger walked up the street to Arizmendi. For the first time the blogger could remember the bakery was nearly devoid of customers. The blogger’s Trader Joe’s bag was quickly full of scones and muffins and he hustled back to the bus stop. Shortly thereafter the 44 bus came and it was just as stuffed as before.

The 44 bus approaches 9th and Irving inching its way towards Golden Gate Park
These Muni riders most definitely don’t look happy.

When the blogger got off at 6th Avenue, again, he crossed the street and was, again tossed into the chaotic street scene waiting for the 38 bus.

Urban chaos in San Francisco’s Richmond District

The chaotic scene at 6th Avenue

San Franciscans crowd onto the bus

Finally, the blogger was heading home. But, there was one more stop. Bill’s Place on Clement Street where he picked up a take out order of an omelet, hash brown potatoes and headed home where he can enjoy the view of the Pacific Ocean just blocks away.

Bill’s Place. A local institution since 1959. A definitely old school establishment.
The view of the Pacific Ocean on a drizzly late May morning.

Top photo: 6th Avenue and Geary Blvd. with the KFC restaurant looming above it all.

Text and photos: Lee Heidhues

Moving to Berlin. A Dream Come True. But not for this Blogger

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.27.2026

‘Checkpoint Charlie’ the famous, and notorious, crossing point between East and West Berlin – 1961-1989

Watching this video report on Deutsche Welle about the American who relocated to Berlin makes the blogger’s Heart ache.

The blogger and Liz have made several trips to Berlin and are totally infatuated with this international City. Life is often all about unfulfilled dreams and missed opportunities.

The blogger is envious of an American who fulfilled her dream. Something that the blogger can only wistfully think about from his home in San Francisco.

Should the opportunity present itself the blogger would be on board United Airlines (UAL) daily flight from San Francisco to Frankfurt and via the Deutsche Bahn to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof.

Smiling faces.The blogger and Liz in Potsdam – November 2023

https://www.dw.com/en/moving-from-the-us-to-berlin-a-dream-come-true/video-77267376https://open.spotify.com/track/6XqHfNotMOyzM49AJjwS0L?si=ec802f3b262f4c28

New York Knicks set Gotham City aglow

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.26.2026

Sports News of the Day.

New York City is justifiably often insufferable. Think Donald Trump.

Last night the Big Apple braggadocio is now fully warranted.

Everyone loves the winning New York Knicks

The often woe begone New York Knicks, one of the National Basketball League’s original teams founded in 1946, haven’t won an NBA title since 1973. And have not reached the finals since 1999.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Knicks

The opportunity has now presented itself at long last. After the denizens of Madison Square Guardian obliterated the Cleveland Cavaliers in a humiliating four game sweep. To capture the NBA Eastern Conference crown.

New York Post headline ‘They Did it!’ – 5.25.2026

New York can cheer for now and await their next potent foe. Either the San Antonio Spurs of reigning NBA champions Oklahoma City Thunder. Currently even at 2-2 in their Western Conference battle.

Wall Street Journal – 5.26.2026

The Whole Basketball World will be watching when the seven game series opens on June 3rd.

Wall Street Journal – 5.26.2026

The New York Knicks Will Play for the NBA Championship. I Can’t Believe It, Either.

Riding a historic winning streak, a former punchline books a ticket for the Finals

By Jason Gay

Updated May 26, 2026 4:49 pm ET

The New York Knicks celebrate after winning the Eastern Conference. David Richard/Imagn Images/Reuters
https://www.wsj.com/sports/basketball/new-york-knicks-nba-finals-215b0522?st=fM8htp&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Whose “hair is on fire”? Trump tosses Israel and the War Hawks into the Straits of Hormuz

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.24.2026

Trump does the “surrender” walk

Some commentators describe The Atlantic piece as War Hawk neo con talking points blasting Trump for “surrendering” to Iran.

Such talk is only correct by half. Yes Trump may be surrendering. But not for the reasons the War Hawks argue.

Trump is the prototype, for better and worse, transactional operator. He realizes belatedly the entire assault on Iran, pushed by Israel, has been a disaster from Day One on February 28, 2026. Now he is seeking an exit ramp realizing he’s made a shambles of the global economy and guaranteed the MAGA brand is going to take a beating on election day next November 3rd.

Excerpted from The Atlantic 5.21.2026 – Robert Kagan

According to one U.S. official, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “hair was on fire” after the May 20th call with Donald Trump—for good reason.

The outlines of President Trump’s endgame in the Iran war are now emerging. In a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu May 20th, Trump reportedly explained that the United States was negotiating a “letter of intent” with Iran that would “formally end the war and launch a 30-day period of negotiations” on Iran’s nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz

Trump’s repeated threats to resume attacks since then have proved to be bluffs. The leaders in Tehran have been calculating for two months that Trump would not launch another attack, and for this reason they have made no concessions despite the damage they suffered from 37 days of relentless strikes. On the contrary, their terms for a settlement are those of a victor: They demand war reparations, no limits on uranium enrichment, recognized control of the strait, and an end to sanctions.

The purpose and effect of such an agreement should be clear: The United States is walking away from the crisis. Trump may launch another limited strike to look tough and satisfy the demands of the war’s supporters, but it would be a performative gesture. Endgame in this case is a euphemism for “surrender.”

Trump no doubt hopes that he can slip away without Americans noticing the magnitude of this defeat. The financial markets may stabilize if it is clear that oil will eventually start flowing again through a reopened strait, even if under the new Iran-controlled system.

The Iran war may end up as the single most devastating blow to Israel’s security in its brief history. On the present trajectory, Iran will emerge from the conflict many times stronger and more influential than it was before the war. It will exercise leverage with dozens of the richest nations in the world, all of which will have an acute interest in keeping Iran happy. They will be unlikely to take Israel’s side in any conflict that it has with Tehran or with its proxies in Lebanon and Gaza, because Iran will have the means to punish them if they do. Israel will emerge more isolated than it has been at any time in its history—and not least from its only reliable protector, the United States. When Trump turns his back on Israel, as he must do to implement this policy, MAGA will gladly follow. The bipartisan anti-Israel consensus in the United States will grow and harden.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2026/05/trump-surrender-iran-endgame/687252/?gift=og7bP-I2jPZ31wYIETbx1vmTNzK9tVbSb56RgKFzK1U&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share