The United States isn’t the only nation withdrawing its military from Afghanistan. The Germans were part of the NATO force which has been involved in the so called War on Terror the past 20 years

The situation is horrific. Germany and America can’t acts as the world’s self appointed policeman. The British and Russians occupied Afghanistan. Both nations eventually withdrew after years of struggle, loss of life, domestic political turmoil and money spent to no good end.

Now the citizens of Afghanistan are facing the return of the brutal and misogynistic Taliban rule. It is an unfolding humane crisis and horror story.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 8.10.2021

The sight of Taliban fighters overrunning Kunduz in Afghanistan has triggered anger, grief and helplessness among German veterans who fought to free the Afghan city. Many now fear for the Afghans who helped them.

The fall of Kunduz to the Taliban is a devastating psychological blow to many German Bundeswehr soldiers, according to veterans of Germany’s two-decade mission in Afghanistan.

“It triggered an earthquake in the emotions of veterans,” said Wolf Gregis, a former soldier and now an author and professor of pedagogy at the University of Rostock. “No other place is associated so much with the death toll that the German military suffered than Kunduz itself.”

“It feels extremely shitty,” said Johannes Clair, a former Bundeswehr corporal who published a book about his seven-month mission in Kunduz from 2010 to 2011. “We left blood, sweat and tears there,´; our comrades were killed there. And it was predictable. In 2014, when the combat troops were withdrawn, it was clear that the Afghan forces were not going to be able to control the situation on their own.”

“The second thing is that, while we’re all back home, the Afghans over there are in mortal danger, especially those that cooperated with the West — that makes it even worse,” he added. “Now I’m sitting here and I can’t do anything about it.”

At the same time, Clair thinks the final withdrawal of Western troops this year was inevitable and logical because the whole mission had simply become what he called an “alibi mission — half-hearted. That’s why I’m angry, because even though the fundamental problems in Afghanistan have long been known, even in 2010 when I was there, they were never addressed properly,” he told DW. 

For years, he said, NATO and the German government stumbled from one strategy to the next, hoping that it would work out, but largely because the mission was unpopular back home, the government never properly committed to its mission. That all culminated in the withdrawal of combat troops in 2014. “It was completely clear then that the positive effects that we had caused were not sustainable,” he said. “We betrayed all the work we did there, but more than anything we betrayed the Afghans.”

It was in the Kunduz province that the Bundeswehr suffered the most casualties and where the events that shaped the German public’s abiding images of the Afghanistan war took place. “This is the place where German soldiers first learned on a large-scale what fighting and dying in an asymmetric war meant and how ugly that is,” said Gregis, (the name is a pseudonym, which he prefers to go by).

Several horrific incidents happened in the province: In September 2009, a German officer ordered a US airstrike on an oil truck that left over a hundred civilians dead, causing a scandal back home that eventually cost then-Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung his Cabinet office. A year later, German soldiers were increasingly finding themselves in firefights with the Taliban, especially when a patrol was ambushed and pinned down in the nine-hour “Good Friday battle” of April 2010. Three soldiers were killed and eight more injured, their lives saved by a US helicopter.

https://www.dw.com/en/german-army-veterans-feel-anger-and-grief-at-fall-of-kunduz/a-58820552

San Francisco is going to mandate a logical step in the face of the resurgent Pandemic.

All City employees must be vaccinated.

Reading the overwrought statements by some  employees one could draw the conclusion that a portion of San Francisco’s workforce has been infected by a hungry bug-catcher from an off world colony.

‘hungry bug-catcher’  – Liz Heidhues 2020

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 8.9.2021

Nearly 200 San Francisco employees are attempting to rebuff the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate and other protocols like testing and mask wearing for city workers, submitting identical, conspiracy-tinged letters suggesting the city is infringing upon their “God-given and constitutionally secured” rights.

“Almost all of the statements are either absurd, misleading, meaningless, and are written not to solicit any serious response but to be deliberately hostile for political purposes,” said Dr. Lee Riley, an infectious disease expert at UC Berkeley.

Concerns raised in the letter about the contents of vaccines or other products, or their safety and efficacy, are baseless, said Dr. Robert Siegel, an infectious disease expert at Stanford.

“This came from some kind of conspiracy factory,” Siegel said.

Many of the products the letter suggests as potentially dangerous vaccine additives — including lipids (fat), sodium chloride (salt) and sucrose (sugar) — are consumed by people daily, Siegel said. Other products mentioned in the letter include chemicals commonly found in the environment.

“The whole thing is just garbage,” he said.

Siegel said the contents of the letter raised concerns about the judgment of those who signed it.

The letters, which began streaming into San Francisco’s HR department in late June, came after city officials announced they would require city employees — with certain exceptions — to get inoculated or risk losing their jobs.

Dr. Joan Ullyot was an inspiration, women’s running pioneer and trailblazer who Liz and I ran with in several Dolphin South End Club (DSE) races in San Francisco. 

When Dr. Ullyot ran in a DSE race it was always a topic of conversation. She was bound to finish amongst the top runners.

Liz and I have been running for 50 years. We started this effort in Germany in 1971.

We say with pride that at one time each one of us finished ahead of Dr. Ullyot. Liz finished ahead of the Doctor in an arduous race whose course traversed the steep hills adjacent to the Legion of Honor and ended at the ss San Francisco memorial at Lands End. I will always remember the shock I experienced passing Dr. Ullyot as we ran by Spreckels Lake towards the finish line at the Windmills by Ocean Beach.  It was a once in a lifetime experience.

Excerpted from The New York Times. 8.5.2021

When Joan Ullyot, a physician and an accomplished runner, published her book “Women’s Running” in 1976, she took on a daunting set of traditional ideas that boiled down to one admonition: Women should not run long distances.

Dr. Ullyot ran her last marathon, the Boston, at 56. But she never lost her competitive spirit. When her son Theodore ran a marathon in two hours and 50 minutes, beating Dr. Ullyot’s personal record, she resolved to outdo him. After intense training, she beat his time by a full two minutes.

Mr. Ullyot recalled his mother saying, “You boys can have all the records in this family short of a marathon, but you’re not taking the marathon record from me.”

“I’ve had a motto since turning 40,” Dr. Ullyot told The Times in 1989, when she was 48. “Age, experience and cunning can overcome youth and ability.”

They were not physiologically built for it, women were told. Compared with men, they typically had higher body fat, less muscle bulk and lighter bone structure, factors that should discourage them from engaging in long-distance running — or so it was believed. Moreover, many authorities in the field warned that extended running might harm women’s reproductive organs.

But Dr. Ullyot (pronounced UH-lee-yet) methodically debunked those assertions in her book, one of the first to examine the sport from a female perspective, and one of the first books on the subject by a female author.

“You just have no idea how many myths and superstitions there were around vigorous activity for women then,” the marathoner Kathrine Switzer said, “so we needed this a lot.”

Dr. Ullyot ran more than 75 marathons and numerous other races while working as a medical researcher in cellular pathology at facilities like the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.

She was a single mother of two sons for much of her life: Her marriage ended in divorce in 1976.

Her son Theodore Ullyot recalled that she had mandated that he and his brother, John, run three miles to middle school with her a few days a week, backpacks and all.

“It was extremely embarrassing for a couple of teenagers,” Mr. Ullyot said. Nevertheless, both sons took up running as well.

Dr. Ullyot, one of six runners from the United States, attended the first international women’s marathon, in Waldniel, Germany, in 1974. Having learned German in college, she served as the team’s interpreter.

During the event she met Ernst van Aaken, a German doctor who was an early proponent of women’s running. He pioneered the “long slow distance” method of training, which emphasizes running long distances at a slow speed, rather than the shorter-distance and more intense interval training that was standard at the time. The two became friends and collaborators.

Together they developed training programs, for both men and women, to maximize endurance and minimize damage to the body. (She told Gary Cohen, the running blogger, that Dr. van Aaken, who died in 1984, had introduced her to one of her favorite non-running activities: drinking wine.)

Dr. Ullyot was a fixture in the starting blocks of the Boston Marathon, running nine of the races and winning the Masters division for runners over the age of 40 in 1984.

It’s a sad moment for the San Francisco culture scene with the announcement that Michael Tilson Thomas is recovering from brain surgery.

Liz and I have attended the San Francisco Symphony for years sitting in the seats directly behind the orchestra. It was always a special event when MTT was the conductor.

We will always remember attending the Summer Series when vocalist Natalie Merchant was the featured performer. She reminisced about first meeting MTT when she was a young woman and waited for him outside the Buffalo, New York Symphony building. Ms. Merchant said it was a hi-lite of her career and she always thought of Michael Tilson Thomas as a mentor.

Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 8.6.2021

The musical world in San Francisco and beyond reacted with concern and optimism on Friday to the news that Michael Tilson Thomas, the San Francisco Symphony’s longtime former music director and now music director laureate, was recovering from surgery for a brain tumor.

“I’m heartbroken but incredibly grateful that we have UCSF and other amazing medical centers here in the city,” said former Symphony board President Sakurako Fisher. “And with a brain as prodigious as Michael’s, I’m sure this won’t slow him down for a nanosecond.”

Yet friends and artistic partners who have spoken with him in recent days reported that Thomas was in generally high spirits — cracking jokes, making music and adjusting to the news.

Mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, a frequent musical collaborator, said that Thomas had sounded “good and positive” when she spoke with him by phone.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all that he’s handling this with such grace, as he always does,” she said. “I’m sending him all my love and feel glad that he’s healing.”

There were also statements of support from musical organizations with which Thomas has had a close association, including the New World Symphony and the London Symphony Orchestra.

But response was keenest in the Bay Area.

“He’s been so much a part of San Francisco life for 25 years,” said Symphony President Priscilla B. Geeslin. “So many of our memories of the San Francisco Symphony are tied up with Michael and watching him conduct.”

https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/music/michael-tilson-thomas-brain-surgery-announcement-draws-outpouring-of-love-and-support

Liz and Lee Heidhues 8.5.2021

It is a shameful and sad time for San Francisco, a so called “Progressive” bastion in America, when duplicitous members in the Democratic party are lining up to support the attempted ouster of District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

Mayor London Breed is a behind-the-scenes advocate in the attempted Recall of democratically elected “progressive” District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Mayor Breed, a political moderate herself and soulmate of the traditional Democratic party establishment, is tacitly by her silence supporting the Recall attempt.

The attempted Recall, circulating by a group of “moderate Democrats”, is being led by Mary Jung, former head of the local Democratic County Central Committee. Ms. Jung has plenty of well connected fellow enablers.

One person leading the campaign is Andrea Shorter who actively worked on Ms. Breed’s candidacy for Mayor in 2018.

Nancy Tung is a Recall supporter. She ran for DA against Chesa Boudin and finished third in a field of four candidates in 2019. In 2020, Mayor Breed attempted to appoint Ms. Tung to the San Francisco Police Commission. The Board of Supervisors rejected her appointment.

Tim Redmond is one of San Francisco’s most renowned political reporters. He publishes 48 Hills. In the latest edition Tim takes a critical look at Mayor Breed’s recent ethical problems and how they play into the Recall Chesa Boudin campaign.

Tim has reported extensively on the dark Right Wing Republican money which is supporting the Moderate Democrats attempt to overturn the election of a fairly elected public official.

https://48hills.org/2021/08/irony-and-casual-corruption-in-the-latest-on-the-city-hall-scandals/

There’s a move in the American Congress to hold multi-national polluters financially liable for  environmental catastrophes.  

The chances of such legislation ever becoming law are virtually nil given the power of corporate energy companies.

Still it will engender a spirited debate about making those responsible for  these environmental disasters pay a price.

Oil & Gas Newswire (article in New York Times) 8.4.2021

Democrats in Congress want to tax Exxon, Chevron and a handful of other major oil and gas companies, saying the biggest climate polluters should pay for the floods, wildfires and other disasters that scientists have linked to the burning of fossil fuels.

The draft legislation from Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, directs the Treasury Department and the Environmental Protection Agency to identify the companies that released the most greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from 2000 to 2019 and assess a fee based on the amounts they emitted.

That could generate an estimated $500 billion over the next decade, according to Mr. Van Hollen. The money would pay for clean energy research and development as well as help communities face the flooding, fires and other disasters that scientists say are growing more destructive and frequent because of a warming planet.

The bill for the largest polluters could be as much as $6 billion annually spread over 10 years, according to a draft of the plan.

The proposal comes as the Senate prepares to vote on a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure package that includes billions of dollars to help communities prepare for and recover from extreme weather driven by climate change. Democrats hope to later pass a separate $3.5 trillion budget package that will include measures to cut carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases.

The behavior of many people in the Pandemic is beyond reprehensible.

The childish like temper tantrums by adults in name only calls into question the maturity and intelligence of today’s grown ups.  And this foul behavior is not an American phenomena.  These dangerous, immature and brutish antics are occurring all over the World.

People simply refuse to acknowledge the seriousness of the Pandemic.

These sensible restrictions, such as mask wearing, are going to be with us for the foreseeable future. It’s scary to think about this abhorrent behavior growing worse as time goes by.

Excerpted from the San Francisco Chronicle 8.3.2021

Last Tuesday, a customer at Community Foods Market in West Oakland, upset about the store’s indoor mask mandate, threw a bag of groceries at a cashier, shattering glass items that were inside of it, owner Brahm Ahmadi said. Earlier in the month, another customer threw a watermelon at an employee, and in a separate incident the general manager had to duck to avoid a full can of soda that a customer chucked at his head, Ahmadi said.

The cashier who had a bag of groceries thrown at her last week called out for the next two shifts, he said. Ahmadi posted about the harassment to Instagram on Sunday with the message in the hope of supporting his staff: “Please don’t assault us.”

Since Community Foods Market started asking customers to mask up again in mid-July, verbal animosity and even physical harassment from customers have become a regular occurrence, Ahmadi said. His employees are worn down and stressed out, forced back into the role of public health enforcers amid conflicting local, state and federal guidance over the past few weeks.

In May 2017 Liz and I were in Berlin and visited the Sinti and Roma Memorial located next to the Bundestag. It was a very sobering experience.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 8.2021

On August 2, 1944, 4,300 Sinti and Roma were killed in the gas chambers of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Genocide survivors described the horrors. To this day, many of their descendants are refused compensation.

Genocide in Europe: Cruelly systematic, horrifically spontaneous

In many countries today there is still very little awareness that Sinti and Roma were victims of systematic genocide, said Karola Fings. She believes the full extent of the murderous violence will only become clear with a wider European perspective.

In response, researchers are working on an encyclopedia of Nazi genocide — a project that the German Foreign Office is backing with €1.2 million ($1.4 million).

In Germany, the genocide was largely ignored for decades. Members of the police continued to employ racist methods, using Nazis files in investigations and blocking acceptance that Sinti and Roma have been gravely persecuted. That, in turn, led to further trauma for survivors: trauma that has extended into the second and third generations, said Fings.

The historian was a member of the German government’s Independent Commission on Antigypsyism which recently issued its final report. Alongside clear recognition of the genocide committed against Sinti and Roma and further investigation through the mediation of a truth commission, Fings said there must be material compensation — and not just in Germany.

“This also applies to those living in other countries, especially in Eastern Europe who after 1945 were completely shut out from compensation,” she said.

The commission also said that, as is the case with Jewish victims of Nazi persecution and their descendants, Germany must also take responsibility for ensuring “that Roma and Romnja are recognized as an especially marginalized and vulnerable group.”

Wherever in Europe the Nazis gained ground, Sinti and Roma were persecuted and forced to fight for their lives. Many were murdered, in camps, or in mass shootings. “It all depended on local occupation policies and who the local proxies were,” said Fings.

In German-occupied Poland, there were the death camps. However, there were also an estimated 180 other locations where massacres are known to have taken place. And when it comes to the Soviet Union or Yugoslavia, “most of the victims were not murdered in camps but wherever the killing happened to take place — on the spot.”

In occupied Bohemia and Moravia — today’s Czech Republic — Sinti and Roma were detained at the Lety and Hodonin camps before being deported to Auschwitz. In Croatia, Jasenovac “was a particularly horrific camp, where many were beaten to death.”

https://www.dw.com/en/europe-remembers-sinti-roma-murdered-under-nazi-rule/a-58705933

The Gold Cup final match was played in Las Vegas, the gambling hub of America. The enthsiastic and boisterous crowd was colorful and overwhelmingly pro-Mexico. In the end the USA prevailed and everyone was having a good time.

It’s the seventh Gold Cup crown for Team USA.

Next comes the 2022 World Cup qualifying matches beginning in September. It will be a tough road to Qatar for Team USA. For now the squad can enjoy the victory.

Today was coach Gregg Berhalter’s 48th birthday. Congratulations, coach.

The Guardian 8.1.2021

Miles Robinson scored on a header in the 117th minute, and a reduced United States lineup upset a mostly front-line Mexico team 1-0 on Sunday night to win the Concacaf Gold Cup.

Kellyn Acosta, the only player in the US lineup who gets playing time when the first-choice roster is together, took a free kick, and Robinson outjumped Edson Alvarez and headed the ball in on one hop to the right of goalkeeper Alfredo Talavera.

Robinson, a 24-year-old defender, got his third international goal in nine international appearances, his second goal of the tournament.

Matt Turner got his fifth shutout in six matches of the Gold Cup, the championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean.

The US won its seventh Gold Cup title, its first since 2017, matching Mexico for the most in the 15 tournaments. Canada won in 2000. It was just the second victory for the Americans in seven finals against El Tri.

The US have won nine consecutive games overall and 14 home games in a row.

Top players, who are with their clubs for European preseasons, will return when the US opens World Cup qualifying at El Salvador on 2 September. Mexico start at home that day against Jamaica.

Before an overwhelmingly pro-Mexico crowd, El Tri started seven of the 11 players who began the Nations League final that the US won in extra time in June: defenders Luis Rodriguez, Nestor Araujo, Hector Moreno and Jesus Gallardo plus midfielders Alvarez, Jesus Corona and Hector Herrera. The newcomers were Talavera, midfielders Jonathan dos Santos and Orbelin Pineda, and forward Rogelio Funes Mori, starting in place of goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa plus Carlos Rodriguez, Uriel Antuna and Hirving Lozano.

The US lineup included nine players from Major League Soccer.

The field Concacaf chose was 69 yards wide, narrower than the recommended 75 yards.

US coach Gregg Berhalter made four changes from the lineup in the semi-final win over Qatar, inserting Cannon for Shaq Moore, Bello for Sam Vine, Williamson for Gianluca Busio and Zardes for Daryl Dike.

Top photo – USA’s forward Nicholas Gioacchini, right, points at Miles Robinson after Robinson scored the winning goal during the Concacaf Gold Cup final against Mexico at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Sunday night. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/01/gold-cup-final-usa-mexico-miles-robinson-goal

With the continuing spread of the Delta variant strain of the Covid-19, which is approaching a two year Pandemic, the pathetic reality that people are ignoring health authorities warnings and common sense government restrictions is incredible.

Germany, a country people would like to think of as a leader in enforcing reasonable health measures, is being buffeted by a loud, obnoxious and dangerous protest movement. Origins of and support for these anti-vaccine protests can be found in Germany’s far right political scene which includes the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD).

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 7.31.2021

Judges in the German capital have moved to ban a number of weekend demonstrations amid fears they will lead to a rise in coronavirus infections. Police expect protesters to travel to Berlin nonetheless.

Berlin authorities have banned more than tens of thousands of anti-lockdown protesters demonstrating this weekend.

What is the ‘Querdenker’?

The Querdenker, or lateral thinker group is Germany’s main anti-lockdown movement.

It has been monitored by the country’s intelligence agencies amid fears of its links to far-right and extremist groups.

The group has helped spread conspiracy theories about the pandemic and vaccination efforts.

They claim that COVID-19 and the federal and regional laws aimed at halting the spread of the virus, infringe on citizens’ liberties

Critics, including the far-right Alternative for Germany party, say the ban is hypocritical because authorities allowed a march of 35,000 people to take place last weekend.

Judges at the German capital’s administrative court refused to authorize 13 demonstrations, some of which had been organized by the Querdenker (Lateral thinker) anti-lockdown movement.

The ban was upheld by the Berlin-Brandeburg upper administrative court.

Organizers said 22,500 people had registered to take part in one of the rallies.

Court officials said the protests were banned amid fears of a rise in coronavirus infections sparked by the delta variant.

A separate march planned for Sunday has also been forbidden.

The “For Peace, Freedom, Truth” rally had been expected to draw 3,500 people.

Several of the demonstrations had been organized in support of Berlin’s nightclubs.

Why were the demos banned?

The court said the risk to public health was too high.

The upper court said the Querdenker movement was characterized throughout Germany “by the fact that the participants used them to violate legal norms created to contain the risk of infection in a way that attracted public attention, in particular by disregarding the social distance requirement and the mask requirement.”

Berlin police fear that many of them will still decide to travel to the German capital.

The bans affect all protests “whose participants regularly do not follow legal regulations, specifically to protect against infections,” said police spokesman Thilo Cablitz.

He cited the refusal by demonstrators to wear a mask.

https://www.dw.com/en/covid-berlin-court-bans-anti-lockdown-protests/a-58712622