June 3, 2021
Today it’s time out time for rock n’ roll.
With all the serious news these days it’s time for music.
The closing credits scene from the 2003 film “School of Rock” starring Jack Black, Joan Cusack and a cast of marvelous kids.
Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein, has been in jail nearly a year accused of numerous crimes.
The punishment Ghislaine Maxwell has been subjected to could be called cruel and unusual. In the latest chapter of Justice in America, a Federal Court of Appeals has denied her Motion to be released on Bail until her trial.
The Guardian 6.2.2021
Ghislaine Maxwell will remain in a New York jail after a federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected the British socialite’s latest request for bail.
The second US circuit court of appeals in Manhattan also denied Maxwell’s request for a hearing on what her lawyers called “horrific” confinement conditions at the Metropolitan detention center in Brooklyn. It did not explain its reasons.
Maxwell, 59, faces up to 80 years in prison if convicted over her alleged role in procuring four underage girls for the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse between 1994 and 2004.
She has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and other charges. A trial in Manhattan is slated for November, delayed from a previous schedule of this July.
Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on separate charges. The appeals court also denied bail for Maxwell in April.
“Ghislaine Maxwell is subjected to more grueling conditions than any other inmate” at the Brooklyn jail, her lawyer David Markus said in an email. “This is due to the Epstein effect. Because Epstein died on the jail’s watch, it has decided to torture Ghislaine. That’s wrong.”
This was her fifth failed attempt to win bail. The appeals court had rejected a bail request once before and her trial judge had thrice said no.
Her lawyers have gradually increased the terms of a proposed bail package, saying Maxwell and friends and family would put up $28.5m.
They also say Maxwell, a US citizen, would agree to 24-hour armed guards, an electronic bracelet and renounce her citizenship in England and France.
All to no avail.
Maxwell’s lawyers added that she cannot properly prepare for trial because of sleep deprivation, a lack of potable water, a sewage stench in her cell, an inability to meet privately with her lawyers or keep jail guards from reviewing her confidential materials, and an underpowered computer to review evidence.
A spokesman for US attorney Audrey Strauss in Manhattan and a spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons declined to comment.
Maxwell’s trial judge, US district judge Alison Nathan, has rejected bail three times, calling Maxwell a significant flight risk.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/02/ghislaine-maxwell-denied-bail-request-new-york-jail
Photo above – Ghislaine Maxwell in Court in 2021 and before her arrest in July 2020
In many areas the increasingly conservative US Supreme Court has rolled back civil rights and voting rights. However, when it comes to Native Americans whose land was decimated and people slaughtered in the quest for the white man’s Manifest Destiny in the 19th Century, the Supreme Court seems to realize a terrible wrong was done.
Several decisions have recognized the rights of the original Native Americans.
Better late than never.
Excerpted from The Oklahoman and The Wall Street Journal 6.1.2021
WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that tribal police officers with sufficient cause can stop and search non-Indians traversing reservations, the latest in several recent decisions that in ways large and small have affirmed limited sovereignty for Native American nations.
Last July, the court ruled that Congress never dissolved five tribal reservations encompassing much of eastern Oklahoma, putting in question the state-court convictions of Indians for crimes committed in the territory. In 2019, the court held that Indian hunting rights remained intact despite the advent of Wyoming statehood in 1890. (U.S. v. Cooley)
Stephen Greetham, an attorney for the Chickasaw Nation, said Tuesday: “The Supreme Court’s recognition of both the competence and authority of tribal police to protect public safety is heartening. The ruling is sound on the law and smart on the facts.”
Cherokee Nation Attorney General Sara Hill said Tuesday that the decision “makes it clear that tribal officers can stop and search non-Indians on public highways within that tribe’s reservation and, if necessary, seize evidence of a crime and detain or transport the offender to turn over to the proper prosecuting authority.
“The non-Indians must be tried in state or federal courts, depending on the crime, but tribal police can make the initial stop and hold the offender until federal or state police arrive or transport the offender to the proper federal or state authorities under the tribe’s own inherent authority on its reservation. That makes everyone safer. No one would want a tribal police officer to be required to let a drunk driver back on the highway because he or she was a non-Indian.”
Indian tribes have jurisdiction over Indians for crimes committed on reservations, but non-Indians typically fall under the authority of federal or state authorities. Reasoning that a non-Indian’s 2016 drug arrest in Montana stemmed from a tribal officer’s investigation, federal trial and appellate courts threw out the conviction.
Tuesday’s decision, however, found that tribes hold basic authority on reservations to safeguard the welfare of their members, including the legal power to make safety checks on suspicious cars stopped along the public right-of-way.
Tribes “lack inherent sovereign power to exercise criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the court, or even to “regulate hunting and fishing by non-Indians on land that non-Indians own” on a reservation. Congress holds the ultimate power over tribal authority, the court has held.
But in decisions tracing to the republic’s early years, the Supreme Court has on occasion recognized the dependent sovereignty the tribes retained. Justice Breyer recalled an 1832 opinion by Chief Justice John Marshall affirming Cherokee prerogatives against encroachment from the state of Georgia.
Although European conquest made them subject to the crown and, now, Congress, “the Indian nations had always been considered as distinct, independent political communities, retaining their original natural rights as the undisputed possessors of the soil from time immemorial,” Chief Justice Marshall wrote.
More recently, a 1981 opinion noted that a tribe “may also retain inherent power to exercise civil authority over the conduct of non-Indians on fee lands within its reservation when that conduct threatens or has some direct effect on the political integrity, the economic security, or the health or welfare of the tribe.”
The officer put Mr. Cooley and his child in the patrol car and called for backup. Officer Saylor searched the truck, finding a glass pipe and a bag containing methamphetamine. Tribal, county and federal officers soon arrived, and Mr. Cooley ultimately was convicted of federal narcotics charges.
While the Crow tribe lacked authority to prosecute Mr. Cooley, its officers were empowered “to search and detain for a reasonable time any person he or she believes may commit or has committed a crime” and turn the suspect over to federal or state officers, the court said.
Liz Heidhues – Master baker, photographer and blog contributor – 5.31.2021
How American can we eat?
When the Pandemic and skyrocketing legal fees for a Pursuit of Justice render bare a senior couple’s cupboard, help is just around the corner. The San Francisco Marin Food Bank makes certain no senior citizens go wanting. The selection from the Food Bank is unprocessed and it is healthy. It requires cooking, baking, or a deft touch to be made into satisfying, nutritious recipes. At the End of the Day a little elbow grease and devotion turns out mouth watering masterpieces. This plethora of apples from The Food Bank ended up in a Memorial Day pie. Made from scratch apple pie celebrates Mom (the cook), Memorial Day and the San Francisco Giants. Memorial Day 2021 the San Francisco Giants win for the sixth time in the last seven games. The Giants are now in first place in the National League West. The local boys will prevail in their Pursuit of Victory. Go Giants. Go Justice!!
Top photo. Hall of Famer Willie Lee McCovey Bobblehead. Nicknamed “Stretch”. Left handed power hitter.
During the Cold War days spying between the US and Russia was part of the game. A whole genre of movies and books told the real life story in fiction form.
Now that the Cold War is, at least officially, over the spies need to justify their existence and continue creating more invasive tools of surveillance. So, it comes as no surprise that the American National Security Agency (NSA) for years spied on German Chancellor Angela Merkel. What is, perhaps, surprising is that Denmark thought to be a quiet NATO member was a main player in this cyber espionage.
Deutsche Welle 5.30.2021
An investigation has uncovered that Denmark’s secret service helped the US to spy on German politicians. It’s not the first time there have been reports of the NSA monitoring German leaders, but it is the first time Denmark has been named as a direct partner.
Denmark’s secret service helped the US National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a European media investigation published on Sunday revealed.
The Danish government knew of the involvement of their country’s secret service in the NSA scandal by 2015 at the latest.
They began to collect information on the FE’s cooperation with the NSA between 2012 and 2014 in the secret Dunhammer report following the disclosures by the former NSA employee and whistleblower Edward Snowden, NDR reported.
The information they gathered made it clear that the FE had helped the NSA to spy on leading politicians in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and France, as well as Germany.
Danish intelligence also helped the US agency to spy on the Danish foreign and finance ministries as well as a Danish weapons manufacturer. The FE also cooperated with the NSA on spying operations against the US government itself.
Upon discovering exactly how far the cooperation between the two countries’ intelligence services went, the Danish government forced the entire leadership of the FE to step down in 2020.
A Danish expert in secret service operations Thomas Wegener Friis believes that the FE was faced with a choice about which global partners to work more closely with.
“They made a clear decision to work with the Americans and against their European partners,” he told NDR.
Patrick Sensburg, who led the German parliamentary committee to investigate the NSA spying scandal, was not surprised by the news. For the lawmaker from Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), it is important to understand what drives secret services.
“It’s not about friendships. It’s not about moral-ethical aspirations. It’s about pursuing interests,” he told NDR.
The NSA, FE and Danish defense ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the research, however, a general statement from the defense ministry said that “a systematic bugging of close allies is unacceptable.”
The disclosure that the US had been spying on its allies first started coming to light in 2013, but it is only now that journalists have gained access to reports detailing the support given to the NSA by the Danish Defense Intelligence Service (FE).
The report showed that Germany’s close ally and neighbor cooperated with US spying operations that targeted the chancellor and president.
The then chancellor candidate for the German center-left socialist party (SPD), Peer Steinbrück, was also a target, the new report disclosed.
Secret service sources passed on the information to a team including Danish, Swedish and Norwegian broadcasters (DR, SVT and NRK respectively), as well as the French newspaper Le Monde, German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and German public broadcasters NDR and WDR.
Steinbrück spoke to the German members of the research team upon finding out about the spying operations against him.
“Politically, I consider this a scandal,” Steinbrück said. While he accepted that western states require functioning intelligence services, the fact that Danish authorities had been spying on their partners showed “that they are rather doing things on their own.”
Neither Merkel nor Steinmeier had “any knowledge” of the spying operations carried out by leading Danish government officials. A spokesperson said that the chancellor had been informed of the revelations.
After 12 years in power the hard line corrupt thug Netanyahu, whose policies were encouraged and enabled by Donald Trump, may be on the way out of power.
It will be a day of rejoicing for those who want to see Peace in Palestine/Israel and the banishment of an impediment to that goal.
Sadly the policies which Netanyahu has put in place likely will not change. Nonetheless, the fact this hard line politician and one responsible for the continuing theft of Palestinian lands will be officially, at least, out of power.
Excerpted from AlJaazera 5.30.2021
Israeli far-right politician Naftali Bennett, a kingmaker whose Yamina party has six key seats in parliament, has said he would join a governing coalition that could end the rule of the country’s longest-serving leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“It’s my intention to do my utmost in order to form a national unity government along with my friend Yair Lapid, so that, God willing, together we can save the country from a tailspin and return Israel to its course,” Bennett said on Sunday after meeting with his own party, Yamina.
A Palestine Liberation Organization official said, after Bennett’s speech, that the prospective government would be “extreme rightist” and no different than the administrations headed by Netanyahu.
Centrist Lapid has been tasked with forming a new cabinet by 11:59pm (20:59 GMT) Wednesday.
Bennett’s announcement is a key step towards ending Netanyahu’s 12-year rule.
He said he had made the decision to prevent the country from sliding into a fifth consecutive election in just more than two years.
Minutes after Bennett’s announcement, Netanyahu lashed out, calling the plan “a danger for the security of Israel”.
He accused Bennett of betraying the Israeli right-wing and urged nationalist politicians who have joined the coalition talks not to establish what he called a “leftist government”.
Netanyahu said such a coalition was a danger to Israel’s security and future.
“What will it do for Israel’s deterrence? How will we look in the eyes of our enemies,” he said. “What will they do in Iran and in Gaza? What will they say in the halls of government in Washington?”
A Bennett-Lapid agreement had already been reported to be close when violence broke out between Israel and Hamas fighters on May 10 and Bennett suspended the discussions. The fighting ended with a ceasefire after 11 days.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/30/israeli-far-right-leader-bennett-joins-anti-netanyahu-camp
Every Picture Tells a Story – Abusive motorists edition
Liz and Lee Heidhues – 5.29.2021
San Francisco’s entitled motorists continue to ignore Slow Streets with impunity. In the most cavalier manner motorists blithely drive around and through the signs. Everyone is at risk, including birds as the sad photo of a dead pigeon sprawled on Cabrillo Street in plain view clearly indicates.
Motorists have to get the message they don’t own the Planet.
Lee Heidhues 5.27.2021
There is a close relationship between the current battle in San Francisco to create The Great Walkway and stories involving big energy. Royal Dutch Shell lost a legal battle in Holland. Exxon Mobil shareholders, led by a group of investors based in San Francisco, have elected climate change advocates to the Board of Directors.
In San Francisco a battle is being waged over which way this supposedly “progressive” City will go in the Climate Change war. Will environmental advocates prevail? Or will the auto addicted mob have its way?
The Great Walkway along the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco is coming. The San Francisco Metropolitan Transit Authority (SFMTA) has been very thorough and inclusive. The Howling Mob of self entitled motorists is unhappy with the public input which debunks the Mob. Its bullying and intimidation will not prevail.
As a real life example of the future I invite people to read today’s news about Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil. It’s on page one of the Wall Street Journal and The Nation. The Great Walkway is in step with the future.
The Nation 5.27.2021 – Mark Hertsgaard
all the lawyers.”
The Netherlands won a historic court case against the Royal Dutch Shell oil company that carries the most profound implications for defusing the climate emergency. The court ordered Shell to bring its global operations in line with the Paris Agreement goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius; this will require Shell to reduce both its own and its customers’ greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent from 2019 levels by 2030.
Together with shareholder revolts demanding stronger climate action by ExxonMobil and Chevron, the Dutch court ruling made May 26 one of the biggest days of climate news in years. Following last week’s landmark International Energy Agency report declaring all new fossil fuel development must stop for the planet to avoid irreversible climate destruction, the events amount to a crushing repudiation of Big Oil’s long-standing assertion that its profits matter more than civilization’s survival.
The Dutch case is particularly remarkable, for three reasons. First, “because it is the first time a judge has ordered a large polluting corporation to comply with the Paris climate agreement,” Roger Cox, a lawyer for Friends of the Earth Netherlands (in Dutch, Milieudefensie)—which brought the case with 17,000 other plaintiffs—told The Guardian.
Second, because the judge held that society’s interest in emissions reductions takes priority over the commercial harm that Shell would suffer as a result. And third, and perhaps most far-reaching, because Shell must slash not only its direct emissions—the heat-trapping gases Shell releases when it drills for, refines, and brings oil to market—but also the company’s indirect emissions, the gases millions of customers around the world release when they use Shell’s gasoline and other products. As climate activist Greta Thunberg observed, this latter provision is what makes the court ruling such “a game changer.” If other countries apply the same logic, fossil fuel companies would have to leave much of their product in the ground, just as climate science says is imperative.
Meanwhile, the shareholder rebellions against the managements of ExxonMobil and Chevron flash an additional signal of public impatience with intransigence from Big Oil. The annual votes that shareholders of publicly owned companies cast almost always rubber-stamp management’s positions.
But at Exxon, at least two of management’s candidates for the company’s board of directors were defeated. The opposition was spearheaded by a hedge fund, Engine No. 1, and pension funds from California and New York; the fate of two additional board seats was unclear as this article went to press, the vote still too close to call.
“This is a landmark moment for Exxon and for the industry,” Andrew Logan of the nonprofit investor group Ceres told The New York Times. “How the industry chooses to respond … will determine which companies thrive through the coming transition and which wither.”
Legal News of the Day
A big story in summer 2020, when we weren’t obsessing over Trump, was the Central Park dog walker who summoned the cops. She felt threatened by a Black man taking his bird watching walk through the Park. The story, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter movement, went viral worldwide.
The woman who called the cops was fired from her job. Now, like any good American, Amy Cooper is seeking relief in the Courts. She’s suing her employer for wrongful terminaton.
Daily Beast 5.27.2021
Amy Cooper, the white woman who called 911 on a Black birdwatcher in Central Park, has filed a discrimination lawsuit against her former employer for firing her when video of the incident went viral.
Cooper, who was charged with making a false report but then let off the hook after attending therapy sessions, says the firm Franklin Templeton canned her without doing a basic investigation into the confrontation, basing its decision on her race and gender, the New York Daily News reports.
“Franklin Templeton perpetuated and legitimized the story of ‘Karen’ vs. an innocent African American to its perceived advantage, with reckless disregard for the destruction of Plaintiff’s life in the process,” the suit says.
It also brands Christian Cooper, the man on whom she called the cops, “an overzealous birdwatcher engaged in Central Park’s ongoing feud between birdwatchers and dog owners.”
Franklin Templeton said in a statement: “We believe the circumstances of the situation speak for themselves and that the Company responded appropriately. We will defend against these baseless claims.”
Photo above: Bird watcher Christian Cooper and Amy Cooper
Lee Heidhues – 5.25.2021
It was one year ago Derek Chauvin knelt on Georg Floyd’s neck and murdered him. The killer cop was convicted of murder last month and will spend decades in prison.
People took to the streets worldwide to condemn this action, all too symptomatic of American law enforcement treatment of Blacks. Derek Chauvin is just one symbol of the racism which permeates America at all levels.
The question today is, “One year after George Floyd’s murder by American law enforcement will there be any substantive change in how the cops treat Black people?”
Lee's Perspective 