The arch Washington establishment publication, founded in 1922, marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11 with a deep look into the 20 year so called War on Terror and its impact on America in particular and the world in general. Who Won the War on Terror?
Foreign Affairs is the must read bi-monthly magazine for the foreign policy establishment and  apparatchiks in Washington and capitals around the globe. What  makes the current issue with its unvarnished look on the World 20 years after 9/11 must reading is the clear eyed analysis. There are six articles. The most sobering is titled “From 9/11 to 1/6. The War on Terror Supercharged the Far Right” by Cynthia Miller-Idriss.
The illustrations, one accompanying each article, are by Brian Stauffer, a noted artist whose contribution to this special Foreign Affairs special section, give it added weight.
The top illustration is for Ms. Miller-Idriss piece. Â The other illustrations follow with the title and author of each article.
Enter a captionBin Laden’s Catastrophic Success – Al Qaeda Changed the World-But Not in the Way It Expected – Nelly LahoudThem and Us – How America Lets Its Enemies Hijack Its Foreign Policy – Ben RhodesThe Good Enough Doctrine – Learning to Live with Terrorism – Bryan BymanResistance is Futile – The War on Terror Supercharged State Power – Thomas HegghammerWinning Ugly – What the War on Terror Cost America – Elliot Ackerman
We are reposting the letter sent to the Archdiocese of San Francisco in January 2021 criticizing its cozy relationship with the San Francisco Police Officers Association (POA).
Catholic San Francisco – POA Ad
This co-mingling of Church and State activities is all the more alarming in the current atmosphere which finds the POA one of the main backers in the attempt to recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
The POA is letting Mayor London Breed’s allies Andrea Shorter, Mary Jung and Nancy Tung do its political dirty work in this attempt to subvert the 2019 will of the voters.
The Recall DA Chesa Boudin campaign is hiring mercenaries at $8.00 per signature and putting these mercenaries up in hotels in its attempt to take down San Francisco’s Progressive DA. A District Attorney who has shifted long standing policy and not looked the other way when cops engage in misconduct under the color of law. Chesa is holding the cops accountable.
The Mayor Breed’s DA Recall campaign claims to have gathered nearly 50,000 signatures. At $8.00 per signature the DA Recall campaign, funded with Republican right wing MAGA money, has now shelled out $400,000 to these mercenaries for signatures. This does not include the costs of travel, food and lodging paid to these mercenaries.
Not wanting the cops responsible for their misconduct is the reason the POA viciously opposed the election of Chesa Boudin, spending over $700,000 in its failed effort. The POA is at it, again, with the willing assistance of The Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Following is a special contribution by associate Blog mistress Liz. 1.16.2021
Dear Archbishop Cordileone, Publisher:
It is alarming that the Catholic Church, which sanctifies life, racial inclusiveness, integrity, compassion, accepts money in the form of political ads from the San Francisco Police Officers Association (POA).
The POA is a group which advocates for SFPD with its long history of abusing and harassing people of color, the homeless, the poor, and the disabled.
I was appalled when I saw the POA ad in the 12.17.2020 issue of Catholic San Francisco.
Catholic San Francisco has a prominent influence in shaping cultural attitudes and moral values.
In 2019 the POA spent nearly 1 MM to destroy the candidacy of District Attorney aspirant Chesa Boudin.
Chesa was victorious in the DA election.
Since Chesa took office a year ago, the POA has never let up on its line of attack on Chesa’s integrity, reforms to our broken criminal justice system, or reforms to the brotherhood of cops who cover up police misconduct deeds.
It is scandalous that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese allows money from the POA to help the POA retain power and position within the faith community,
Sincerely,
Liz Heidhues – a Catholic advocating for criminal justice reform
Elijah McClain a 23-year-old Black man with chronic anemia, who played his violin to soothe stray cats and dogs, was murdered on 8.23.2019 by  Aurora, Colorado police while walking home from a grocery store after buying iced tea.
Sheneen McClain, Elijah McClain’s mother, said: “What I set out to do is still not over, but I’m halfway there. I’m halfway there,” of her efforts to hold the cops accountable for the murder of her son.
On Wednesday, 9.1.2021, a Colorado State Grand Jury indicted the cops on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, in addition to criminal charges of assault and violence.
Elijah McClain was assaulted and brutally murdered by the cops because he was “different”.
The cops who murdered Elijah McClain would not have been charged if the wanton killing of this gentle musician hadn’t provoked a national outcry and his mother hadn’t filed a Federal Civil Rights lawsuit.
An investigation into the 23 year old’s murder would never have happened were it not for dozens of peaceful protests across the United States by violinists playing their instruments to honor the gentle musician who wanted to heal through his hands.
Police body camera video show an officer approaching Mr. McClain and saying, “I have a right to stop you because you’re being suspicious”.
Because he suffered from chronic anemia, Mr. McClain frequently wore layers of clothing and a face mask due to being cold.
Elijah McClain tells the cops who stopped him, “I’m so sorry. I have no gun. I don’t do that stuff . . . I don’t do guns. I don’t even kill flies.”
The cops put Mr. McClain in a chokehold and continued to torture him after he told them he couldn’t breathe.
The paramedics who injected Mr. McClain with a powerful anesthetic were also charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Paramedics injected Mr. McClain with Ketamine. Medical practitioners and veterinarians use Ketamine to produce sedation, amnesia, and relief of pain.
The amount of Ketamine injected in Mr. McClain’s body far exceeded the appropriate amount for someone of Mr. McClain’s size and weight.
Elijah McClain never regained consciousness and was pronounced brain dead at a hospital.
In 2019, the local District Attorney declined to file charges against the police after a coroner’s report could not determine Mr. McClain’s cause of death. Historically most District Attorneys have acted as an enabler of abusive and criminal behavior by the cops by looking the other way and allowing their crimes to go unpunished.
Attached is a link to Democracy Now with a video segment discussing the September 1, 2021 indictment of the murderers of Elijah McClain in Aurora, ColoradoÂ
Four men and one reactionary woman on the Supreme Court have turned back a woman’s right to choose. Can we now expect back alley abortions and clothes hangers as the necessary method of choice in those states which put women in the position of slaves to the State?
It is a shameful and terrifying day for America which is now becoming what Margaret Atwood wrote about in her dystopian 1980’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale.
Excerpted from The New York Times 9.1.2021
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to block a Texas law prohibiting most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. The move, a response to an emergency application from abortion providers in the state, came less than a day after the law became effective, severely restricting access to the procedure.
In a separate dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Elena Kagan, was more direct.
“The court’s order is stunning,” she wrote. “Presented with an application to enjoin a flagrantly unconstitutional law engineered to prohibit women from exercising their constitutional rights and evade judicial scrutiny, a majority of justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand.”
The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joining the court’s three liberal members in dissent.
The majority opinion was brief and unsigned, and it said the providers had not made out their case in the face of “complex and novel” procedural questions.
“In reaching this conclusion,” the opinion said, “we stress that we do not purport to resolve definitively any jurisdictional or substantive claim in the applicants’ lawsuit. In particular, this order is not based on any conclusion about the constitutionality of Texas’ law, and in no way limits other procedurally proper challenges to the Texas law, including in Texas state courts.”
In dissent, Chief Justice Roberts wrote that he would have blocked the law while appeals moved forward.
Subject:Â Censorship of The Great Walkway Advocates on Opinion page
The blatant censorship displayed on The Chronicle editorial page towards advocates of The Great Walkway is appalling and a total disregard of journalistic norm.
Thousands of people have demonstrated their advocacy for The Great Walkway to be designated a permanent site for the sole use of pedestrians, runners and cyclists of all ages. This advocacy is well documented in the public record. An undeniable fact of which The Chronicle is well aware having published several pieces since The Great Walkway was opened in April 2020.
Since The Great Walkway has once again become a polluting auto thoroughfare The Chronicle has been loath to publish any letters submitted by advocates of The Great Walkway.
The Chronicle, which seeks to pride itself on representing diverse viewpoints, is contradicting its own values by continuing to give a free ride to the motorists who blithely continue to destroy the environment in this time of Climate Change and unending wildfires setting California ablaze.
Senator Scott Wiener at left addresses The Great Walkway advocates 8.15.2021
There has been so much reporting as the US exited Afghanistan and ended its so called War on Terror after 20 years. It’s been a slog trying to find a piece of reporting which sums up the disaster which America allowed itself to be sucked into. The following sums it up succinctly.
Excerpted from The Daily Beast 8.30.2021 –
Adrian Bonenberger
The last American plane left Afghanistan on Monday after more than a decade of lazy showrunners letting self-proclaimed experts go on about how the Afghan government was making progress and the nation’s security forces were building capacity and securing the country.
If the truth had been widely known—that after 20 years, the country we called Afghanistan was totally and essentially dependent on the U.S. military, and could not survive a single month without it—it would have prompted deep soul-searching and some reasonable calls for accountability.
The collapse of Afghanistan demonstrated that the country I imagined when I was deployed here was also a lie, just another storyline. It has been extraordinary to watch how in the intervening weeks, rather than facing up to the delusion that we entertained for 20 years, nearly everyone with a hand in this mess has done everything they could to shift the blame elsewhere.
And because the show is a ratings hit again, however briefly and terribly, the war is ending with those same “experts” jamming the airwaves with malarky since they’re the only people the TV news bookers and assigning editors know to call. Fulminating against how the withdrawal has been carried out, they slake their anger and hide their embarrassment at having been so wrong for so long with brazen half-truths and outright falsehoods.
The overall effect is to wear American citizens out, to have viewers throw up their arms in exhaustion, and to deny President Joe Biden and those in favor of the withdrawal any measure of satisfaction for an unequivocal good for the country and its long term foreign policy prospects. To do that, they depend on American ignorance about Afghanistan and disinterest in the history of the country during our occupation of it. On American TV, the war is just one storyline among many in what was the Bush show, and then the Obama show, and then the Trump show, and now the Biden show.
But this is not merely a storyline. The real world and the details matter—it’s just a question of finding the ones that are truly significant. It’s a good thing to take stock after a disaster. The question is if we are going to learn things that may help prevent future disasters or repeat the lies that led us to this one.
Certainly, some leaders were capable of and interested in considering the significance of Afghanistan’s near-instantaneous collapse. Admiral Mike Mullen, for example, didn’t shy away from reality. But the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff didn’t have much company. Most of the other people who led the war and promoted it have indulged in rationalizing, comforting counterfactuals and even outright lies.
Every Picture Tells a Story – Masks Required edition
Liz and Lee Heidhues 8.26.2021 Â
This is your Blogger at the de Young Museum before viewing the Judy Chicago exhibit on Members Only Day. Standing with a daughter and her boyfriend. I had just pulled down my Mask to give the full frontal view to the photographer.
In the next shot I struggle to pull my Mask over my chin as the daughter rolls her eyes and the boyfriend rivets himself to the unfolding drama on the left. A museum Minder, who had been setting up for a presentation, screeches her trolley cart to a halt and rushes over. She busts me with a stern admonishment.Â
I don my Mask quickly. With the mask now fully in place, the witnesses to my transgression put on their faces the Alfred E. Neuman expression: “What, me worry?”
Alfred E. Neuman
The de Young Minder had targeted me in her cross-hairs and rung me up for being un-Masked 10 seconds in the indoor venue.
Top artwork – Judy Chicago – Wolves in the cross-hairs
Masks and Vaccines continue to be controversial no matter where and in which venue. Even cartoonist Gary Trudeau finds the Controversy worthy of Lampoon.
The refusal of people to comply with government mandates to mitigate the spread of the Covid-19 is a world wide case of People Behaving Badly.
Such absurd and dangerous personal behavior is not limited to the luddites in America who continue to oppose the common sense advice of health officials and government agencies.
The resistance to good health practices is widespread in Europe as the rallies in defiance of Court orders in Berlin clearly prove.
Anti-vaxxers march in streets of Berlin. Protestor wearing banner, “We are the People.”
Deutsche Welle 8.28.2021
Marchers rallied through the streets of Berlin, with thousands of police officers on standby in case of violence. A court had allowed only one rally to go ahead.
A total of 4,200 police officers were on standby, including officers from Baden-Württemberg, Lower Saxony, Bavaria and Saxony who were deployed to the city to support their Berlin colleagues.
Large but scattered crowds of protesters across Berlin waved German flags and anti-lockdown slogans of the Querdenker group — a movement which includes coronavirus skeptics, far-right activists and anti-vaxxers. Berlin authorities banned nine planned demonstrations, including a rally by the Querdenker group.
Anti-vaxxers display (Chancellor Angela) Merkel Must Go banner
However, one of the demonstrations successfully challenged the police ban in court and gained permission for a gathering of an expected 500 people on Saturday and Sunday.
“Experience has shown that a large number of people do come to the city and do not follow the ban,” said a police spokesperson before the demonstrations.
“The police will enforce the assembly bans, be present accordingly and protect the government quarter in particular,” the spokesperson added.
Granting parole to Robert Kennedy’s assassin would be a tough pill to swallow.
Robert Kennedy’s murderer has spent most of his adult life incarcerated. He’s been imprisoned 53 years.
I was 21 and completely devastated when Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968.
At a deep psychological level I never recovered from the shock and trauma of his murder. I had campaigned actively on Robert Kennedy’s behalf as a college student throughout Spring 1968 and knew he would be elected President in November 1968. My life’s path headed in a totally different direction in the aftermath of his assassination.
Robert Kennedy’s murder influenced my political perspective and personal life in ways I did not forsee or realize at the time.
Robert Kennedy lay dying – June 5, 1968
Excerpted from The New York Times 8.27.2021
California parole commissioners recommended on Friday that Sirhan B. Sirhan should be freed on parole after spending more than 50 years in prison for assassinating Robert F. Kennedy during his campaign for president.
Shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, Kennedy gave a speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles following his victory in the Democratic primary in California. As Kennedy, a senator from New York, walked through the hotel’s pantry, Mr. Sirhan shot him with a revolver. Five other people around Kennedy were shot as well, but they all survived.
Kennedy died the next day, less than five years after President John F. Kennedy, one of his brothers, had been assassinated.
Robert Kennedy campaigning in California – 1968
The recommendation from the two commissioners does not necessarily mean Mr. Sirhan, 77, will walk free, but it most likely puts his fate in the hands of Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat facing a recall election that will determine his political future. A spokeswoman for Mr. Newsom declined to say whether he would approve the recommendation, only that he would consider the case after it is reviewed by the parole board’s lawyers.
Time – May 1968Time – RFK Assassination issue
The parole hearing was the 16th time Mr. Sirhan had faced parole board commissioners, but it was the first time no prosecutor showed up to argue for his continued imprisonment. George Gascón, the progressive and divisive Los Angeles County district attorney who was elected last year, has made it a policy for prosecutors not to attend parole hearings, saying the parole board has all the facts it needs to make an informed decision.
At the hearing, which was conducted virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Sirhan said he had little memory of the assassination itself, but he said he “must have” brought the gun to the scene.
“I take responsibility for taking it in and I take responsibility for firing the shots,” he said. Mr. Sirhan, much of his short hair turned white, was seated in front of a computer and was wearing a blue uniform with a paper towel in his chest pocket.
Mr. Sirhan, who is Palestinian and was born in Jerusalem, said in a television interview from prison in 1989 that he had killed Kennedy because he felt betrayed by the senator’s proposal during the campaign to send 50 military planes to Israel.
Top photo – Robert Kennedy speaks to cheering crowd after winning California primary June 4, 1968 at Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He was asssassinated a few minutes later.
Here is today’s example of People Behaving Badly – Missoula Montana edition.
Either these so called adults don’t read the news or are totally oblivious to the Pandemic, now nearly two years running, which continues to leave its imprint on planet Earth.
Sadly, it’s the children who will ultimately suffer for the parents selfishness and stupidity.
Excerpted from The Missoulian 8.26.2021
Local parents are suing Missoula County Public Schools, Target Range and Hellgate Elementary over masking requirements to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The 11 parents are also suing on “behalf of their minor children,” most of whom are enrolled at the three districts. One family involved in the suit claims to have unenrolled their children at Target Range School District due to the district’s mask mandate.
Those involved with the suit claim that the required use of masks at the three districts is against the law, and infringe on a person’s “right to privacy, dignity, and free expression without the necessary showing of a compelling government interest in doing so.”
The general allegations against the school district call into question scientific evidence by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization regarding the effectiveness of masks.
The suit also alleges that the mask mandates at the three districts do not accommodate the needs of children with autism or asthma.
Montanans protest in front of former Governor Steve Bullock’s house – July 2020
“Wearing a mask constitutes to many an outward sign of trust in, loyalty to, or submission to the honesty, wisdom, and power of the government,” the plaintiffs claim in the suit.
The plaintiffs are represented by local lawyer Quentin Rhoades of Rhoades Siefert & Erickson.
The parents in the suit are joined by Stand Up Montana, a nonprofit organization based in Gallatin County. The group seeks to provide support for legal action against school districts across the state that are “illegally masking our children,” according to its website.
Court documents filed with the suit claim there are “many” Missoula County residents enrolled as members with Stand Up Montana, which says it now has over 2,500 members from around the state.
Stand Up Montana says it’s preparing to file a similar lawsuit in Gallatin County against Bozeman Public Schools after its board voted in favor of universal masking.
Lee's Perspective 