Lee Heidhues 3.14.2022

The Oped in Sunday’s Examiner says it all. “His (Boudin) narrow victory upset a local political establishment with cliquish manners and a long memory.” THAT SENTENCE nails it. London Breed will not forget that Chesa beat her pick for DA.

Hope San Francisco Mayor London Breed enjoys her 10 days in Europe. Typical American tourist itinerary.

Moving right along. 

Looking at the local morning paper’s piece about the Mayor’s 10 day junket to London, Paris, Frankfurt and Rome to drum up tourism for San Francisco I was struck by the fact that some folks are bringing up the upcoming DA Recall vote into the conversation. 

The pitchfork crowd which has been calling for the DA’s head since the day he assumed office on January 8, 2020 can’t resist taking a shot even when the Mayor’s foreign trip is the topic.

However there were some surprising comments amongst the ususal anti-DA blather.

I appreciate the fact that FINALLY some folks in The San Francisco Chronicle  ‘Conversation’ are waking up to the harsh reality of what the DA Recall is all about.

It’s obvious to many people that SFPD has made a conscious decision to step back and not pursue perps.. Why? The cops want Chesa out by any means necessary. This is a craven insidious dangerous political strategy which the MSM has blithely ignored as it climbed in bed with the POA. This treachery will not go unanswered.

Excerpted from San Francisco Examiner – Gil Duran – 3.13.2022

With the school board recall out of the way, San Francisco voters face yet another consequential decision: Whether to boot District Attorney Chesa Boudin from office in June. If I had to bet, I’d put my money on Boudin getting recalled.

It will have little to do with his policy decisions. After all, Boudin’s doing what he said he would do when voters elected the former public defender as their chief prosecutor, making him one of those rare politicians who follows through on promises. No, Boudin will likely pay because he’s an inexperienced outsider politician — and because he makes a perfect scapegoat for our collective dissatisfaction with life in the 21st century.

Scapegoating is an ancient practice that’s even mentioned in the Old Testament. The word comes from the crude ritual of projecting all blame or sin onto a goat, then banishing the creature into the wilderness. I see a similar thing happening with Boudin.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/scapegoat

“Chesa Boudin is the scapegoat in The City for anything that happens that isn’t positive,” Supervisor Hillary Ronen told the San Francisco Chronicle last month.

I support holding politicians accountable, and I believe that people who depend on public approval for their jobs tend to get what’s coming to them. But the local outbreak of what some call “Chesa Boudin Derangement Syndrome” is on another level.

It’s absurd because one relatively green politician who’s only held office for two years cannot logically bear responsibility for decades of societal failure. Addiction, crime and poverty existed here 150 years before Boudin’s ascension and will persist after he fades into history.

In today’s San Francisco, however, everything seems to be the fault of Boudin. That’s because Boudin is more than a public official. He’s a symbol. Born to parents with infamous Weather Underground roots, educated at elite universities, he’s a bit like radical royalty. This pedigree might normally help him in a progressive city, but he’s an outsider here. His narrow victory upset a local political establishment with cliquish manners and a long memory. He benefited from The City’s convoluted ranked-choice voting process, beating the mayor’s hand-picked favorite, Suzy Loftus, by just over one point.

His close win signaled a key victory for the national movement to elect more progressive DAs, but timing is everything. The COVID pandemic, a national spike in violent crime and surging drug overdose deaths all provide his opponents with plentiful fodder to use against him. He also earned the ruthless scorn of the police union when he righteously decided to uphold his pledge to prosecute police brutality.

Of course, the police union also despised his predecessors.

Opinion: ‘Chesa Boudin Derangement Syndrome’ grips S.F. politics

Lee Heidhues 3.13.2022

There are no innocent bystanders in Thug War Criminal Putin’s brutal assault on the independent nation Ukraine.  In Vladimir Putin’s warped mind journalists are a lethal target whether at home or on the battlefield in Ukraine.

The latest casualty of war in Thug Putin’s unbridled aggression is American documentary film maker Brent Renaud. He was 50 years old.

Reporters take incredible risks traveling into war zones. Journalists are armed only with their writing tools and cameras. In the eyes of combatants journalists are not seen as truth seekers. Journalists are seen as troublemakers who will expose the horrors and inhumanity of ware.

Brent Renaud paid the ultimate price for his truth seeking. May he Rest in Peace.

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

BBC 3.13.2022

A US journalist working in Ukraine has been shot dead in the town of Irpin, outside Kyiv, police say. Brent Renaud, 50, was a journalist and filmmaker who was working in the region for Time.

Lee Heidhues 3.12.2022

It was  surreal and dystopian. I attended the event in the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park as Putin’s criminal war wages on against Ukraine. 

Music, poetry, speeches, costumes, Ukraine flags flying. Folks are chowing down at the nearby food trucks, visiting the Japanese Tea Garden, the DeYoung Museum, Steinhart Aquarium.  Enjoying themselves while thousands of miles away Thug War Criminal Putin continues to destroy Ukraine.

Perhaps this is why I feel so stressed and exhausted.  It seems like the whole World is just going to let this happen. If the World stands by and allows this monster to destroy Ukraine the monster won’t be satisfied. Thug Putin will keep pushing and pushing.

If countries supporting Ukraine participate militarily the entire Planet may be at risk. If these countries do nothing Thug Putin will destroy an independent nation. 

That is why I am perplexed that in San Francisco there is a Summer of Love type event with people literally wearing blue and yellow flowers in their hair.

Where’s the fear and outrage?

The photo montage shows the surreal and dystopian disconnect between the face of war and the peaceful event in San Francisco.

 

Golden Gate Park photos – Lee Heidhues

 

 

 

 

Lee Heidhues 3.11.2022

Vicious reactionaries whose campaign was funded by hard core right wingers who paid mercenaries nearly 1.5MM to gather signatures trying to oust District Attorney Chesa Boudin have sunk to a new low.

Never mind that some Recall people are trying to distance themselves from this blatant red-baiting anti-Asian hate literature. They are all of the same foul reactionary anti-democracy ilk.

The people who are trying to distance themselves from this awful racist literature are the same people who disrupted Chesa Boudin’s rally a week ago in Alamo Square Park.

The millionaire reactionaries who funded this anti-democratic attempt to oust the District Attorney will stoop to any depth to push their warped and perverse agenda in the run up to the June 7 election.

“Sadly, this comes as no surprise from a campaign that has made bullying and harassment key components of their strategy,” Julie Edwards. anti-DA recall spokeswoman said.

Excerpted from SF Standard – 3.11.2022

One of the two campaigns to recall San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin is being accused of using “racist” and “anti-Chinese” campaign materials to criticize the progressive prosecutor with communist-style propaganda.

Nonprofit and civil rights leaders joined multiple retired Chinese American elected officials Thursday in Chinatown to condemn a poster depicting Boudin in a Cold War-era propaganda image, with the DA gesturing in a manner similar to a Mao Zedong poster from the 1970s. The poster also includes images of homeless encampments, a person appearing to consume drugs and a figure slumped over with their pants down.

“The recall campaign has exploited the use of a Chinese historical jacket to deceive San Francisco voters,” said Henry Der, a former state deputy superintendent of public instruction and longtime head of the Chinatown-based civil rights organization Chinese for Affirmative Action.

Der, who also spoke at Boudin’s anti-recall rally last weekend, accused the recall organizers of “race-baiting” to achieve their goal of removing Boudin from office.

The image, which was posted online, was created by the Recall Chesa Boudin campaign. The group failed to gather enough signatures to put the recall onto the ballot last year, but another recall campaign, Safer SF Without Boudin, successfully submitted more than 83,000 signatures to qualify for a recall election this June.

Richie Greenberg, a local Republican Party activist who is leading the Recall Chesa Boudin campaign, doubled down Thursday in a statement blasting the DA.

“We have to talk about Chesa’s communist, socialist roots,” Greenberg said in a statement, pointing to Boudin’s work for Hugo Chavez, the late President of Venezuela and leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. “The vast majority of the Asian community opposes Maoist ideas and find Chesa offensive, views captured well by this poster.”

Boudin is a registered Democrat and the county’s Democratic Party voted overwhelmingly to oppose the recall.

Greenberg called the officials who attended Thursday’s press conference—including current supervisor Connie Chan, former supervisors Sandra Fewer, Norman Yee, and Mabel Teng, as well as retired judge Julie Tang—a group of “far-left progressive extremists” who are “the reason San Francisco is in such dire shape.”

Supervisor Connie Chan, a Chinese immigrant, was attacked with a similar poster in 2020 that depicted her in a communist-style poster with Fewer.

Julie Edwards, Boudin’s campaign spokesperson, said the district attorney and his supporters were “appalled by these racist, anti-Asian posters.” They also demanded an apology.

DA Chesa Boudin Recall: Asian American Leaders Condemn ‘Racist,’ Communist-Style Poster

As Thug Putin continues his War Crimes campaign and thousands of Ukranians are dying, Russia continues to feel the consequences. Financially, socially, culturally.

The German group Rammstein whose music and videos are politically controversial has cancelled its upcoming Russia tour. It’s a small statement against the horrific Wa Crimes being committed by Thug Putin and his military.

The Russian people need to know that the treachery and criminality of Thug Putin will not go unpunished.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 3.10.2022

Both Rammstein and its front man, Till Lindemann, have quite a fan base in Russia. Lindemann has given several solo concerts in the country and had plans to perform in Novosibirsk and Moscow at the end of this year as part of his “Ich hasse Kinder” (“I Hate Kids”) tour.

He canceled them following the Russian attack on Ukraine, but he pledged to play a concert scheduled in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv if circumstances allow.

On its website, Rammstein took a clear stance against the war and in support of Ukrainians. In a statement in German, Ukrainian and Russian, the band said it’s particularly saddened by the suffering of Ukrainians. “Each member of the band has different experiences with the two countries; all musicians have friends, colleagues, partners and fans in Ukraine and Russia.”

The band said it is aware of the despair that many Russian fans feel in the face of their government’s actions, and they want to “remind people of the humanity that Russian and Ukrainian citizens share.”

Lindemann recently joined the many volunteers helping out at Berlin’s main train station, where many Ukrainian refugees have arrived in recent days.

‘Russia, we love you’

Since the turn of the millennium, the German band has been hugely popular with Russian fans. To some, their hard metal sound is reminiscent of German war aesthetics while also evoking Soviet heroism, the power of the proletariat and masculinity.

Authorities, on the other hand, have been wary of the band since a 2019 concert in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium during which Rammstein guitarists Richard Kruspe and Paul Landers kissed on stage — an absolute no-go in Putin’s Russia, which introduced what is known as the gay propaganda law in 2013 and has harassed and persecuted members of the LGBTQ+ community ever since.

Afterwards, a photo of the kiss was posted on social media along with the words: “Russia, we love you.” Many fans were delighted while politicians made it clear the band must refrain from such performances in Russia in the future.

https://www.dw.com/en/rammstein-shows-solidarity-with-ukraine-ahead-of-new-release/a-61077623

The ongoing detention of Black basketball star Brittney Griner in Thug Putin’s totalitarian Russia is an outrage.  

As Dave Zirin in The Nation  points out Griner is now a political prisoner who Thug Putin is using as a bargaining chip as he continues his vicious war crimes assault against Ukraine.

Women are still not given the love, respect and attention they deserve in the sports world. If Golden State Warriors superstar Steph Curry was being detained in Russia the outcry would be off the charts.

Excerpted from The Nation 3.8.2022 – Dave Zirin

The problem is not just what happened to Brittney Griner. The problem is that we don’t know what is happening to Brittney Griner now.

The WNBA superstar was allegedly caught with hashish oil in her luggage at a Russian airport and has been in custody for several weeks. For those first couple of weeks, it was as if no one noticed she was missing, no small feat for an athlete who is six foot nine and one of the most recognizable players in the history of the game.

Whether it started this way or not, we need to understand Griner as a political prisoner. It may have started with airport racial profiling and the idiotic war on cannabis. But now, by the nature of this perilous moment, she has become a chit, a leverage point, in a larger political war.

There are online petitions and a predictable uproar given the anti-Putin sentiment in the States. Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, posted a picture of them together on Instagram as the news spread over the weekend.

She thanked their fans and then wrote, “I understand that many of you have grown to love BG over the years and have concerns and want details. Please honor our privacy as we continue to work on getting my wife home safely.”

It is absolutely true that Griner resonates with people, and now many of her fans are up in arms. If the goal was to quietly negotiate Griner’s return, those days are done. At this point, there is really no choice but to shine the brightest possible light on this political injustice and demand that she be sent home. Political prisoners are rarely freed easily. It requires—and demands—an international response. Brittney Griner is a basketball titan who deserves more than to be treated like a pawn.

She also is also well-known in Russia, where she plays for UMMC Ekaterinburg in the WNBA off season. In 2021 she helped the Russian team win its fifth EuroLeague Women’s championship. (Many WNBA players hoop in Russia during the off-season, as they need to supplement their income, an injustice in and of itself.)

Almost certainly, instead of creating an immediate public outcry following her arrest, there were efforts behind the scenes to get her out of Russia, which, we know now, was preparing to invade Ukraine. The goal would have been to make this go away without provoking an international incident. Well, it’s too late for that now.

In other words, delicate negotiations to get Griner home are almost certainly ongoing in a situation that is spiraling. Griner is detained in Russia at a moment when US-Russian relations are at their worst since Ronald Reagan joked, “We begin bombing in five minutes.” When and how she gets home and how she is being treated right now are anyone’s guess.

As basketball writer Tom Ziller put it, “We don’t have an idea as the public WNBA fandom where Griner is, or how she is doing, or how long she has been detained, or the circumstances of her custody, or what she knows about a timeline for being released, or what she’s being told. We don’t really know anything, and we don’t know whether she or those close to her know anything.”

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/brittney-griner-russia/

Wall Street Journal 3.8.2022

The U.S. will ban imports of Russian oil, President Biden said, targeting the lifeblood of Moscow’s economy as the West ratchets up pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.

“Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at U.S. ports, and the American people will deal another powerful blow to Putin’s war machine,” Mr. Biden said Tuesday at the White House.

Lee Heidhues 3.8.2022

The only way Americans will be weened off their climate killing vehicles is when the cost to own and operate a private vehicle becomes prohibitive.

The rapidly rising cost of gas, the result of Sanctions in response to Thug Putin’s Criminal War of Aggression against an independent Ukraine, is a small price to pay. Americans are giving lip service to supporting Freedom and condemning Thug Putin’s Aggression.

Now Americans will really show their support for Ukraine. Willingly or otherwise.

Excerpted from The New York Times 3.8.2022

Cat Abad, 37, who lives in the San Francisco area, where prices have hit nearly $6 for the highest-grade gas, said she saw stickers on the pumps at one local station saying that Mr. Biden was responsible for the rise. She took the stickers off, she said, believing that he was not at fault.

After months of working from home, Caroline McNaney, 29, was excited about going back to work in an office, even if her new job in Trenton, N.J., meant commuting an hour each way.

But when she spent $68 filling the tank of her blue Nissan Maxima this week, she felt a surge of regret about switching jobs.

“Is this for real?” Ms. McNaney recalled thinking. “I took a job further from home to make more money, and now I feel like I didn’t do anything for myself because gas is so high.”

The recent rise in gas prices — which the war in Ukraine has pushed even higher — has contributed to her sense of disappointment with President Biden. “I feel like he wants us to go out and spend money into the economy, but at the same time everything is being inflated,” she said.

 

Lee Heidhues 3.7.2022

Thug Putin’s War Crimes of Aggression against The People of Ukraine is now impacting the complacent American consumer wedded to the car.

Perhaps Americans will now pay closer attention to the cruel human disaster being inflicted on a people thousands of miles away from the safe haven of the USA.

Excerpted Wall Street Journal 3.7.2022

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 700 points, putting the blue-chip gauge on track to enter a correction, as surging oil prices deepened concerns about economic growth.

The Dow industrials were recently down 2.1%, or about 713 points, following four consecutive weeks of losses. At that level they would close in a correction, down at least 10% from their January high.

Global benchmark Brent crude topped $130, the highest level since July 2008, before easing from its highs. Brent advanced 4.3% Monday to $123.21 a barrel, its highest settle value since April 2012.

Lee Heidhues 3.6.2022

It’s obvious to  people who study Russia that Thug Putin is holding Basketball all-star Brittney Griner hostage. The ex-KGB agent knows the American public is outraged by her detention in Moscow. Expect Thug Putin to exact a steep price to free this young American who is now caught up in Thug Putin’s War of Aggression against Ukraine.

The Guardian 3.6.2022

“If we want her out of jail, Russia is going to have some terms,” said Evelyn Farkas, who served as the US deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia and Ukraine from 2012 to 2015. “It could be a prisoner swap. They also could use it as an implicit threat or blackmail to get us to do something or not do something. Either way, they find it useful.”

 

While the Ukraine people fight heroically against Warmonger Putin the citizens of his own country put themselves at risk.

Russians have taken to the streets to shout out against the warmongering and threat to World peace brought about by Warmonger Putin.

Excerpted from Washington Post 3.6.2022

Authorities arrested at least 4,468 people across 56 cities in Russia, the organization said, as people risked arrest to denounce the country’s invasion of Ukraine.