The ongoing and never ending story of war between the drug cartels in Mexico receives scant attention in the American media.  Which is strange.  Mexico is America’s neighbor to the south and much of the drugs being produced in Mexico are destined for the American consumer.

The closest Americans come to geting a view of the drug cartels are through movies and books.  Films such as Traffic directed by Steven Soderbergh(2000) and Sicario directed by Denis Villeneuve (2015) come to mind.  Books by Don Winslow. The Power of the Dog (2005) and The Cartel (2015) closely examine the war on drugs and its connections with American law enforcement.

Deutsche Welle 6.26.2021

The bullet-ridden bodies  (photo above) of the cartel members were discovered in the north-central state of Zacatecas. Earlier this week, two missing police officers were found hanging from a bridge in the same area.

Eighteen bodies were discovered Friday after what appeared to be a shootout between members of rival drug gangs in northern Mexico. The deadly incident occurred in a remote area in the northwestern state of Zacatecas, and came days after a similar shootout in a town close to the US border.

Local media reported several similar shootouts this week in the same area.

What happened?

State security department spokeswoman Rocio Aguilar said there was evidence the shootout resulted from a confrontation between gunmen from the Sinaloa and Jalisco criminal cartels over drug trafficking routes. Three vehicles, one of them burned out, were also found at the scene.

On Wednesday, seven people were also shot to death in a neighboring city in the state.

On the same day, the bodies of two abducted police officers were found hanging from a bridge in the state capital.

Gunmen from cartels often hang bodies to send out a message to either authorities or rival members, but they seldom target law enforcement officials.

Aguilar said authorities have not found a link between the discovery of the officers’ bodies and the latest gun battle.

What triggered the shootout?

The state of Zacatecas, once dominated by the old Zetas cartel, has been the scene of many inter-cartel battles.

The township of Valparaiso, where the shooting occurred, borders Jalisco state, a stronghold of a powerful cartel called Jalisco Nueva Generacion (Jalisco New Generation). Authorities said cartel members have been waging a violent campaign to dominate drug trafficking routes.

Several other groups, like Sinaloa, Gulf and Northeast drug cartels are also involved in violent turf battles in the area. Mexico’s drug wars have claimed more than 300,000 lives since 2006, when the government started deploying federal army troops to fight the country’s powerful cartels.

https://www.dw.com/en/mexico-18-dead-after-shootout-between-rival-drug-cartels/a-58054191

Jerry Brown’s nearly 50 year career in California as three time Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State and Mayor of Oakland formally ended in 2018. His legacy for innovation, fiscal conservatism, forward thinking and unique ideas are his trademark.

Jerry Brown’s long time spiritual and political advisor Jacques Barzaghi was emblematic of his style of governance.

Excerpted from The New York Times 6.25.2021

Whether as policy adviser, interior decorator or barber, he was a Zen-like presence in that California politician’s orbit, and always dressed in black.

Jacques Barzaghi, who was a longtime confidant, alter ego and soul mate of former Gov. Jerry Brown of California and known for his Zen sensibility and noir presence from boot to beret, died on June 1 at his home in Normandy, France. He was 82.

On one occasion, asked for his thoughts after touring a state prison to report on conditions there, Mr. Barzaghi reportedly replied, “We are all prisoners.”

Intense, bald and heavily tattooed, Mr. Barzaghi, who wore wire-rimmed glasses and dressed in black from head to toe, cut an austere figure and was given to vaguely existential utterances.

He died in his sleep without an identifiable cause, although he had a history of heart ailments, his daughter Tatiana Barzaghi said.

Mr. Barzaghi (pronounced bar-ZAH-ghee), who was born in France, began his association with Mr. Brown in the early 1970s, when Mr. Brown was California’s secretary of state.

The two were inseparable for three decades, through Mr. Brown’s first two terms as governor, three unsuccessful campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination, a failed bid for the Senate, a stint as chairman of the California Democratic Party, a move to Japan to study Zen Buddhism and much of his tenure as mayor of Oakland. It all ended in 2004, when Mr. Brown, as mayor, fired him after Mr. Barzaghi’s wife reported a violent domestic dispute.

Mr. Brown declined to comment for this obituary.

Mr. Barzaghi served in multiple official and informal roles for Mr. Brown, including as barber, interior decorator and armed bodyguard. He was deeply involved in almost everything Mr. Brown did, from helping him make policy decisions to picking out his trademark double-breasted suits.

“He lends creativity and imagination to the administration and serves as a person Jerry can bounce ideas off of,” The Los Angeles Times quoted a Brown aide as saying in 1977, the year Mr. Barzaghi became an American citizen with Mr. Brown’s help.

“We are not disorganized,” he told The New York Times during Mr. Brown’s 1992 bid for president. “Our campaign transcends understanding.”

Top photo:  Jerry Brown and Jacques Barzaghi in 1992

Everything is politics whether it be in Washington, DC,  San Francisco. Every place and everywhere.

Fans want to entertain the fantasy the sports world is immune from political decisions. Fans want to believe that politics don’t enter into the equation in women’s sports.

Wrong. Read the following piece by San Francisco Chronicle sports scribe Ann Killion. Full transperancy.  We both attended the same high school.  Admittedly years apart.

San Francisco Chronicle – Ann Killion 6.25.2021

The Olympic rosters are taking shape, and the story is not only who makes Team USA, but who doesn’t.

Some athletes, like Stephen Curry, make the choice themselves. Others, like Cal swimmer Nathan Adrian, lose out by a hair: Adrian missed his fourth Olympic team by 0.25 of a second, but had beautiful perspective, as both a testicular cancer survivor and new father of a baby girl.

And then there’s the case of Stanford alum Nneka Ogwumike.

She got caught up in the politics of women’s basketball — politics that desperately needs to change.

“I’m physically sick about this,” Ogwumike’s college coach, Tara VanDerveer, said this week. “It’s like a punch in the gut.”

Ogwumike was shockingly, inexplicably left off the U.S. women’s basketball roster for Tokyo when the team was announced Monday. One of the most accomplished players in the women’s game, this was expected to be Ogwumike’s year — she was left off the team in both 2012 and 2016.

The omission rattled the women’s basketball world.

Derek Fisher, the coach of Ogwumike’s WNBA Sparks team, called it “a travesty.”

Dawn Staley, the coach of the Olympic team who does not sit on the selection committee, said the omission “breaks my heart.”

Ogwumike’s former Sparks teammate Candace Parker said the decision “was bulls—,” adding, “How many times are we going to say it’s unfair? How many times are we going to say it’s not politics?”

And that’s the real issue. Not injury, but politics.

Yes, Ogwumike, 30, has been battling a knee sprain, but she was expected to be back in time for the Olympics. What public comments anyone on the selection committee made implied Ogwumike’s injury was a factor. Yet there appears to be a double standard. Diana Taurasi, 39, has a fractured sternum and also has been unable to practice for several weeks, yet she made her fifth Olympic team.

So, where does the politics come in? As usual, in the world of women’s basketball, it has to do with Geno Auriemma and UConn.

Auriemma, who coached the team to gold medals in 2012 and 2016, is on the selection committee and remains a special adviser to the Olympic team. He has enormous influence over everything that happens with the team, and it seems to be no coincidence that whenever a player is left off the team, they are replaced by a UConn player.

In this case, Napheesa Collier made her first team, likely at the expense of Ogwumike. Collier is a UConn alumna and plays for the Minnesota Lynx. The five-person selection committee includes Auriemma, Lynx assistant Katie Smith and Connecticut Sun coach Curt Miller, whose WNBA team is closely tied to the UConn program.

In 2012, half the 12-person roster were UConn products. In 2016, there were five UConn players. This year, there will again be five of Auriemma’s players (plus half the roster in the new 3×3 version is from UConn). It gives credence to the longstanding belief that Auriemma uses promises of Olympic medals in his recruiting pitches.

Stanford has not had a player on the roster since Tara VanDerveer was the head coach in 1996, when she had two former players. That seems odd. It’s also worth noting that once her stint as an Olympic gold medal-winning coach was over, VanDerveer has never been a “special adviser” or placed on the selection committee for the team.

She is the only WNBA MVP to never make an Olympic team. She has been on two FIBA World Cup gold medal teams. She is a six-time WNBA All-Star, a former No. 1 pick and Rookie of the Year and has been totally, unconditionally committed to Team USA — making every camp for the past five years.

“She has been so loyal, and that loyalty isn’t reciprocated,” VanDerveer said. “It’s so disrespectful.

“She deserves it, she’s earned it, she has waited in line. She doesn’t need to be on the Olympics to validate who she is. But it is so painful for all of us who love her.”

 

Ogwumike, one of the most gracious athletes I’ve ever covered, did not return a request for comment, and has kept her thoughts private since the announcement. She is a natural leader, is the president of the WNBA Players Association and has been key to so much of the important groundbreaking work the WNBA has been involved in in recent years.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/annkillion/article/Stunning-Olympic-snub-of-Nneka-Ogwumike-about-16272185.php

Liz and Lee Heidhues 6.24.2021

“I pledge to prioritize the health of our families, climate, and democracy over fossil fuel industry profits,” vowed San Francisco supervisorial candidate Connie Chan in 2020.

“If elected, I will represent every resident in District 1. I understand that my job as a Supervisor is to represent those who are vulnerable and often ignored by the rich and powerful”.

The effect of climate change is all around us. Changes in atmospheric CO2 correlate with human emissions of CO2.

At the SF County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) Board meeting, now Supervisor Connie Chan attempted to destroy The Great Walkway Park. She tried to remove the SFCTA’s recommendations for a full “24/7” promenade pilot.

D1 Supervisor Chan did not speak up as an ardent defender of the Great Walkway Park in this crucial meeting to determine the fate of the open space.

Did Supervisor Chan flip-flop on her 2020 campaign promises in District 1’s Supervisor’s race?   

Was Connie Chan just catering to the Progressive vote when she campaigned as a friend of the environment?

Progressives work on curbing the effects of climate change, ensuring that the quality of our air and water take precedence over car commuters. Progressives play a pivotal role in anti-pollution movements and consumption patterns of energy. Progressives initiate changes in reaction to the increased problems associated with industrialization, in which the automobile plays a major role.

Connie Chan, Supervisor of D1 where Liz was born and raised and where we live still, is not embracing her campaign promises.

Connie Chan’s flip-flop is not surprising. Put bluntly she caved to a strident, aggressive minority of entitled motorists.

Studies show that two-thirds of the drivers on The Great Highway were car commuters driving between the Outer Richmond, where Supervisor Chan lives, to the South Bay, before the Pandemic. Rather than look beyond their self interest at the big environmental picture, she continues to enable their behavior.

Connie, what do you remember about your childhood? Do you remember being driven around in a car on a freeway, or do you remember the joys of bicycling, roller-skating, and running around with other kids you knew?

The negative consequences of cars include:  the use of non-renewable fuels, a dramatic increase in accidental deaths, the disconnection of community, the decrease of local economy, the rise in obesity and cardiovascular diseases, the emission of air and noise pollution, the emission of greenhouse gases, the generation of traffic, the segregation of pedestrians and other active mobility, and urban decay.

The Great Walkway expresses something that cars will never express.

The Great Walkway expresses human society on the move in healthy, sustainable ways.

The Great Walkway Park is an environmental dream come true for San Francisco.

The Great Walkway Park is D1 Supervisor Chan’s wake-up call to get her priorities straight.

Photos: Liz Heidhues 6.22.2021 Taken while the SF County Transportation Authority Board meeting was in progress.

Is this incident  racist or simply teenagers behaving badly?

Does it warrant firing of the coach whose players were involved in the tortilla toss (pictured above)?

Excerpted from San Diego Union Tribune 6.24.2021

The Coronado Unified School Board voted unanimously to fire their head basketball coach Tuesday night, days after someone threw tortillas at an opposing team Saturday night.

Some people have said it was a racist incident, considering Orange Glen is a predominantly Latino school.

But others say it is too soon to jump to conclusions and the incident may not have been racist.

According to witnesses, Coronado head basketball coach JD Laaperi allegedly cursed at an Orange Glen coach after the game, saying “That’s why you don’t talk (expletive). Get your kids and get the (expletive) out of here.”

The board members took the vote behind closed doors and did not comment further. During closed session the board discussed but did not take action on student discipline.

Calls for the punishment of those involved in the tortilla throwing incident crescendoed throughout the day Tuesday.

After a Saturday night division championship game between Coronado High and Orange Glen High, a high school in Escondido, at least two people threw tortillas at the Orange Glen team.

A motto of the Longhorn state is “Don’t mess with Texas.”

Evidently Gov. Greg Abbott has decided it is ok for humans to mess with canines. Shame on him.  The governor himself owns two dogs. Go figure.

Excerpted from The Guardian 6.22.2021

The governor of Texas has pulled a surprise move, vetoing a bipartisan bill that would have provided greater protections for dogs against human abuse.

The Republican governor, Greg Abbott, vetoed a bill on Friday that would have made unlawful restraint of a dog a criminal offense, sending animal rights activists and legislators on both sides of the aisle into a fray and spurring the hashtag #AbbottHatesDogs.

Abbott owns two golden retrievers named Pancake and Peaches, who occasionally make social media appearances.

“I have to hand it to the governor. ‘Anti-voting rights, pro-animal cruelty’ is a bold re-election message,” tweeted Julián Castro, a former Democratic presidential candidate, who included animal rights in his policy platform, and former mayor of San Antonio.

Law enforcement agencies expressed their disappointment over the bill’s downfall to the Houston Chronicle.

“Governor Abbott says that the current Texas statute already protects dogs, but this bill – which was carried with active support from sheriffs, law enforcement and animal control officers – would have clarified the vague language that makes the statute completely unenforceable,” said Shelby Bobosky, the Texas Humane Legislative Network’s executive director, in an emailed statement to the Guardian.

She said the bill would have provided a cleanup of basic standards for restraining dogs and could have protected dogs left outside in very hot and very cold temperatures. Bobosky said the network, which advocated for the bill, was “devastated” by the veto.

The move is being castigated across social media.

State senate bill 474, dubbed the Safe Outdoor Dogs Act, aimed to ban the use of heavy chains to keep dogs tethered. The bill had bipartisan support in the legislature, passing the house 83-32 and the senate 28-3.

In his veto, Abbott said state statutes already existed to protect dogs from animal cruelty, and the penalties proposed in the bill of $500 to $2,000, and jail time of up to 180 days, were excessive. The bill said that dog owners could have dogs outside but could not restrain them with short lines and chains or anything that could cause injury and pain to the dog.

Dog owners would have faced a $500 penalty for a first offense and class C misdemeanor, and the next penalty would have been a class B misdemeanor, for a fine of up to $2,000 and up to three months in jail.

Abbott said Texas was not a place for that kind of “micro-managing and over-criminalization”.

“I’m disappointed in the governor,” the state senator Eddie Lucio Jr, a Democrat who sponsored the bill, told the Texas Tribune. “I don’t agree with everything he does, but I respect him when it comes to quality of life and protecting life. I want to include dogs in that issue.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/22/texas-governor-dogs-bill-veto

Lee Heidhues 6.21.2021

Yesterday I blogged, maintaining that “anger” is motivating the motoring community in San Francisco which feels its sense of entitlment threatened by the Pedestrian/Cyclist Great Walkway along the Pacific Ocean.

I simultaneously placed the blog post on Nextdoor in my San Francisco neighborhood. There have been nearly 60 responses, none of which addressed the issue I discussed 24 hours ago.

In 2014 San Francisco firmly rejected a ballot measure affirming cars are the priority mode of transportation. In the same election the voters approved financing for transit, pedestrian and cyclist enhancements. The post is included below dated 6.20.2021.

A short time ago I received the attached post on Nextdoor.

It is an expression of “anger,” harassment and a threat to break the law.

Lee Heidhues 6.20.2021

“Anger” is what motivates the motorists is an observation I read from a fellow neighbor.

This neighbor quite perceptively says that motorists feel completely “entitled.” Because motorists have not gotten their way motorists are angry. A sense of entitlement and anger has manifested itself during the past several months.

Fortunately the SFMTA will not permit itself to be bludgeoned and intimidated.

Neither will the Board of Supervisors.

It’s worth noting that in 2014 the voters emphatically rejected with a 62% NO Proposition L. Its objective was to have Cars designated the priority transportation mode in San Francisco. In the same election the voters approved Proposition B. Allocating money for transit, bicycle and pedestrian enhancements.

City Hall by designating The Great Walkway is following the will of the Voters. That’s Democracy, folks.

Lee Heidhues 6.20.2021

“Anger” is what motivates the motorists is an observation I read from a fellow neighbor.

This neighbor quite perceptively says that motorists feel completely “entitled.” Because motorists have not gotten their way motorists are angry. A sense of entitlement and anger has manifested itself during the past several months.

Fortunately the SFMTA will not permit itself to be bludgeoned and intimidated.

Neither will the Board of Supervisors.

It’s worth noting that in 2014 the voters emphatically rejected with a 62% NO Proposition L. Its objective was to have Cars designated the priority transportation mode in San Francisco. In the same election the voters approved Proposition B. Allocating money for transit, bicycle and pedestrian enhancements.

City Hall by designating The Great Walkway is following the will of the Voters. That’s Democracy, folks.

Israel’s new Prime Minister may be sharing a laugh with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid but he is deadly serious when talking about the government in Tehran. The coming months will be a time of tension and stress in the always volatile Middle East cauldron.

Excerpted from Times of Israel 6.20.2021

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday opened the first cabinet meeting of his new government with a condemnation of the newly elected Iranian president. He said Iran’s choice was a sign for world powers to “wake up” before returning to a nuclear agreement with Tehran.

“A regime of brutal hangmen must never be allowed to have weapons of mass destruction that will enable it to not kill thousands, but millions,” the prime minister said, speaking briefly in English.

Iran’s hardline judiciary chief, Ebrahim Raisi, was elected Saturday with 62 percent of the vote amid a historically low voter turnout and as all major competitors were disqualified or pulled out.

He is sanctioned by the US in part over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988, at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Raisi has not commented specifically on the event.

Bennett said at the cabinet meeting in Jerusalem that “of all the people that [Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei could have chosen, he chose the hangman of Tehran, the man infamous among Iranians and across the world for leading the death

committees that executed thousands of innocent Iranian citizens throughout the years.”

 

He said that the new government would follow the previous Israeli administration’s policy of determinedly opposing Iran reaching a nuclear weapon.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/bennett-hardliner-raisis-election-a-sign-for-world-powers-to-wake-up-on-iran/

Lee Heidhues 6.19.2021

The world communtity is weighing in with its opinion about the victory of an “arch conservative” to be Iran’s next President.

Predictably much of the insular American press has little to say about Iranian politics. Americans interest in foreign affairs is minimal at best and disinterested in the mainstream.

There is another reason to be thankful Trump and Netanyahu are gone from power. Were both men still around the airwaves would be full of  bombastic rhetoric about Ebrahim Raisi. It’s good the adults are minding the store once again in Washington, DC and Israel.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 6.19.2021

The news of hard-liner Ebrahim Raisi’s election win in Iran on Saturday sparked mixed reactions from the international community.

While regional allies welcomed the Islamic hard-liner’s win, exiled opposition groups decried the vote as a farce — and Western nations remained largely silent.

Raisi is known as a fierce critic of the West. He will become the first serving Iranian president to already be under US sanctions before entering office, due to his involvement in mass executions in 1988.

Iran’s regional allies were quick to congratulate Raisi, but analysts say his win could spell difficulties in improving ties with regional neighbors and the West.

Who welcomed his win?

One of the strongest messages of support came from Russia, with President Vladimir Putin saying Raisi could help strengthen “bilateral cooperation.”

“This responds entirely to the interests of the Russian and Iranian people and goes towards reinforcing regional stability and security,” Putin said in a message.

Syrian President Bashar Assad was one of the first to welcome the win, sending his “warmest congratulations” in a statement. Iran has been a key player in helping Assad hold power in Syria’s decade-long conflict.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan echoed Putin’s remarks — saying he was ready to work with Iran’s newly-elected president. Erdogan said he believed “cooperation between our two countries would be strengthened further.”

Congratulations also came in from the United Arab Emirates as well as Oman, which has served as a mediator between Tehran and the West.

How did others respond?

Israel voiced concern over Raisi’s win, saying the international community should be alarmed over his commitment to a “rapidly advancing military nuclear program.”

The United States said it regretted Iranians were not able to participate in a “free and fair electoral process.”

A State Department spokesperson said, “Iranians were denied their right to choose their own leaders in a free and fair electoral process.”

The European Union also did not react immediately. Brussels did, however, release a statement on Saturday evening saying negotiations on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal will resume on Sunday.

The EU statement said representatives from Iran will be present at the talks in Vienna, along with the other signatories of the 2015 deal. The US also said it would participate in indirect negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program.

https://www.dw.com/en/iran-election-raisis-win-sparks-congratulations-and-censure/a-57969598