Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 5.11.2019

German Catholic women have launched a weeklong boycott by suspending voluntary work in churches. Their protest has crystallized fury over a male-only priesthood and bishops’ foot-dragging on sex scandals.

One of the initiators, Andrea Voss-Frick, said the Maria 2.0 movement – conceived early this year at a women’s parish bible meeting in Münster, a hub of German Catholicism – had received endorsement from Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna. The Virgin Mary is referred to as Maria in German.

The impulse came as the initiators realized that the Vatican’s pronouncement and church teachings of hope “didn’t come across at all” amid abuse and cover-ups, said Voss-Frick.

Unsurprised by such reactions was Münster’s Holy Cross parish priest Stefan Jürgens.

“That’s what I have experienced in the 25 years I’ve been in the ministry: the fiercest opponents of priesthood for women are among women!,” said Jürgens.

“They are just accustomed because of their upbringing that they are the ones serving; that they’re rather subordinate themselves. But the young women can’t stand it anymore,” he said. 

A grassroots Catholic women’s movement – using the motto of the Virgin Mary that should be given her voice – launched a week of disobedient non-service on Saturday – with the backing of major lay organizations and even singular bishops.

The women planned to hold rites outside churches, without priests, and withhold services inside parishes until May 18 at at least 50 locations to back their call that the Vatican open the priesthood to women and drop celibacy.

Left undone will be attendances at mass and committees, parish housework and the liturgical readings – tasks left typically to regular churchgoing women. The central protest will be outdoors in the northwestern city of Münster on Sunday.

On Friday, two nationwide groups – the Catholic German Women’s League (KDFB) and the Catholic Women’s Community of Germany (KfD) – described the strike call as an “important signal” and urged bishops not to ignore it.

https://www.dw.com/en/german-catholic-women-begin-boycott-over-lack-of-reforms/a-48699567

CBS News 5.10.2019

Despite all odds being stacked against them, the Golden State Warriors eliminated the Houston Rockets in Game 6 with a 118-113 victory.

With the Warriors missing Kevin Durant due to a calf strain and Golden State playing on the road at the Toyota Center, the defending champions relied on a huge first-half performance from Klay Thompson (21 points in the first half), a clutch fourth quarter from Stephen Curry and a surprising performance from the team’s bench to eliminate their Western Conference rivals.

Curry led the way with 33 points while Thompson finished the night with 27 points.

Golden State will now await the winner of Game 7 between the Portland Trail Blazers and Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals. Here are some major takeaways from Golden State’s victory:

The old Warriors

This is no disrespect to Kevin Durant, who is, at this point, pretty indisputably the best player in the NBA in my opinion. But my goodness are the old Warriors are something to behold. They are not perfect. They turn the ball over. They make stupid plays and get in foul trouble. But have you ever seen a team that fights like this?

“Not going to swear tonight. They’re giants. They’re champions. These guys are a historically good basketball team,” Steve Kerr said of his Warriors. “You do not do what these guys have done without an incredible combination of talent and character.”

Curry has never struggled with his shot like this. For five games against Houston he was shooting 26 percent from three. He went 0 for 5 in the first half and was held scoreless. He looked awful. That is not an overstatement. Full-blown awful. 

So what does he do?

He comes out and scores 33 second-half points including some monster shots in crunch time.

Forget the otherworldly shooting ability — this is what pure, unabashed confidence looks like. There might not be another player in the world who can shooting, and playing, that poorly to flat out dominating in the blink of an eye like he never missed a beat. Just remarkable, the willingness and self-belief to keep playing through those struggles at full speed, no hesitation, against relentless double teams and traps, with the stakes that high and a world of criticism awaiting him if he didn’t turn it around. Never doubt Steph Curry. Ever. Unless you want to look like a fool.

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/warriors-vs-rockets-game-6-score-klay-thompson-stephen-curry-lead-golden-state-to-western-conference-finals/

It is all well and good to determine who in the SFPD is responsible for the scandalous leak of a confidential police report  about the death of  the late Public Defender Jeff Adachi. Tactics used by the FBI and SFPD are reminiscent of Gestapo Police State tactics. The cops, under the guise of good police work, are engaging in totally abusive and unwarranted tactics. Jeff Adachi would not have approved of such totalitarian action.

San Francisco Examiner 5.10.2019

FBI agents and San Francisco police raided the home and office of a freelance journalist Friday morning as part of an ongoing investigation into a leaked confidential police report containing salacious details about the death of late Public Defender Jeff Adachi.

Freelancer Bryan Carmody said that police and FBI agents attempted to enter his home at 8:30 a.m. using “a sledgehammer.”

“They were in the process of breaking my gate down at which time I woke up and let them in,” said Carmody, adding that the authorities entered his home with guns drawn and searched “my entire house from attic to garage.”

Carmody said that he was detained in handcuffs for more than seven hours and asked to be released several times, but that authorities refused his request. He said he remained in handcuffs as police brought him along with them to his Western Addition office, where they found the police report in a safe.

Carmody accused police of “intimidation” to “make me break my [journalistic] ethics.”

“I’m refusing to give up my source,” he said.

Carmody told the San Francisco Examiner that his home and office were raided by police and FBI agents because he had obtained a copy of the police report, and sold information from that report to the press following Adachi’s death on February 22.

The leak drew wide condemnation and prompted members of the Board of Supervisors to call for the police department to investigate and hold accountable the source of it within the department.

Two weeks prior, Carmody said that he was interviewed by police officers about where he obtained his information, but refused to disclose his source. Today, Carmody said that police and FBI agents executed a search warrant on his Richmond District home and Western Addition office.

They confiscated his cell phones, computers and a copy of the police report from within his office safe.

“They have completely shut down my business,” said Carmody, who has operated as an independent stringer for Bay Area and national television stations, including Fox News, CNBC and CBS Evening news.

A San Francisco Police Department spokesperson confirmed Friday that the raid “is part of an ongoing criminal investigation regarding the Adachi police report.”

Carmody doesn’t believe that whatever materials were confiscated would lead to identifying the source of the leaked report.

Carmody said he sold details of the reports as a story package that included “video information” and “off-the record interviews” as “any freelance journalist does.” He said that the package was bought by three media outlets. He would not disclose which outlets.

Friends and supporters of Adachi, who dedicated his career to uncovering police misconduct, said the leak was political retribution. Carmody declined to comment on the motivation of the leak.

At an April hearing it was revealed that a freelance reporter had allegedly sold the information to media outlets for $2,500 each, but his identity was not disclosed.

Public Defender Mano Raju, who succeeded Adachi, said in an email statement that he is “pleased that [Police Chief Bill Scott] and others are keeping their word and working to get to the bottom of it.”

“All of our criminal justice and City Hall leaders agree that the release of police reports in this fashion is wrong,” said Raju.

https://www.sfexaminer.com/the-city/san-francisco-police-raid-home-of-journalist-to-find-leak-in-adachi-death/

San Francisco is showing itself, finally, to be a true Bicycle friendly place and put itself right up there with major European cities where cycling is a an integral part of the urban environment. I have been cycling in this City since 1972. I do not own a car and am ecstatic that this progressive action is taking place. San Francisco is one place where motorists will not dominate the transportation grid.

Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez – San Francisco Examiner 5.9.2019

People who ride bicycles may be popping wheelies after Mayor London Breed’s Thursday announcement:

More bike lanes are coming to San Francisco, at “double” the pace of original plans.

Breed is tasking The City’s transit agency to build out 20 miles of protected bike lanes in just two years.

And in a boon to frustrated cyclists, Breed asked city agencies to increase citations of bike lane-blocking drivers by 10 percent.

That means more tickets for drivers who swing into green lanes, a problem many have publicly said is caused by two types of drivers: Uber and Lyft drivers trying to pick up passengers, and those in trucks delivering goods at nearby businesses.

“Since 2006, bicycling in San Francisco has almost tripled,” Breed said in a statement Thursday. “As our city continues to grow, we know we need more protected bike lanes, not only to keep people safe but also to encourage more people to bike in the City and reduce congestion.”

While there has long been a push by people who bike for more protected bike lanes — meaning bike lanes with a physical barrier between traffic and riders — the death of Tess Rothstein, 30, on Howard Street in March intensified the pressure. Her death spurred groups like People Protected Bike Lanes to stage protests along streets without bike lanes, placing their bodies where they believed bike lanes should be to save lives.

The new goal Breed set would effectively double the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s pace of building bike lanes. In 2017-2018, SFMTA built protected bike lanes at a pace of just over 5 miles per year, according to The Mayor’s Office. The mayor’s announcement came on Bike to Work Day.

San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Director Brian Wiedenmeier lauded her goals.

“On San Francisco’s biggest biking day of the year, Mayor Breed has issued a bold challenge to the SFMTA to quickly close the gaps in our citywide protected bike lane network,” Wiedenmeier said, in a statement. “Building out our infrastructure is the best way to improve safety and make it easier for people to bike to work, school or wherever they may need to go.”

Breed said the increased pace will be possible if the SFMTA Board of Directors commits to her “efforts to streamline the process to deliver safety projects,” which she announced in March.

The SFMTA announced its own measures to beef up street safety for all traffic users, from pedestrians to drivers and also cyclists on Tuesday. One of those proposals includes beefing up its own construction staff, so that the agency can build out its own bike lanes without relying on outside contractors or other city agencies.

As for ticketing, the SFMTA reported roughly 27,000 citations for infractions related to blocking bike lanes in the second half of 2018. Breed tasked SFMTA with increasing those citations by ten percent in the next six months based on 311 data. Ticketing scofflaw drivers and parkers is the realm of both the Department of Parking and Traffic and the San Francisco Police Department, which will see a boost in its Traffic Company ranks after more training classes were called for by Supervisors Sandra Fewer and Rafael Mandelman.

https://www.sfexaminer.com/the-city/mayor-breed-to-double-pace-of-bike-lane-production-step-up-enforcement/

Had Trump’s Tax Returns been released in 2016. Had the full scope of his extracurricular activities, as in Access Hollywood, been more fully vetted, the Democrats wouldn’t need Trump’s tax return. He would have been dispatched back to where he belongs and doing what he does best. Scamming the public and acting the part of a con artist Reality TV Show toastmaster.

Wall Street Journal Editorial 5.8.2019

If Donald Trump’s claims of executive privilege are a threat to the Constitution, as his critics now claim, what are we to make of the unprecedented bill of attainder against Mr. Trump now moving through the New York Legislature? Every President in memory has claimed executive privilege, but New York Democrats want to hand over the state tax returns of one man, the U.S. President, to Congress.

The scope of Orwellian surveillance is mind boggling. Even more disturbing is the fact people willingly give up their freedom and allow this intrusive behavior to continue and grow.  Even such supposedly benign groups as Next Door are the vehicle for neighbors to snoop and tattle on one another. It’s scary and indicative of the public mind set in the Trump era.

Excerpted from San Francisco Examiner 5.7.2019

“Right now, there is a pressing need to act,” said Matt Cagle, an attorney with the ACLU of Northern California. “The harms of unchecked surveillance are very real and they often impact immigrant and communities of color disproportionately.”

Typical San Francisco political brawl where a brouhaha can arise over the naming of a station in The City’s new underground subway system.

Excerpted from San Francisco Examiner – Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez 5.6.2019

Some feuds continue even after death.

So it goes with Falun Gong, which lined up a rally of more than a hundred people at City Hall Monday afternoon to denounce the late Chinatown political advocate, Rose Pak (pictured below).

The protesters were there in opposition to Supervisor Aaron Peskin’s resolution calling for the Central Subway’s Chinatown station to be named after Pak, who died in 2016.

Pak banned the group from the annual Chinese New Year Parade in 2006, when complaints arose that members were distributing leaflets in violation of the parade’s rules around political outreach. They sued but subsequently lost that legal challenge.

Falun Gong has opposed Pak publicly since that dispute.

Former Mayor Willie Brown exited City Hall right behind the protest Monday. A close friend and frequent ally of Pak’s, Brown had sharp words for the protesters.

Brown said that Pak’s name “will be the name of the Chinatown Station.”

“People are entitled to their opinions, but I don’t share it. Ed Lee wouldn’t share it. Pak saved Chinese Hospital” and helped get Central Subway built, he said. “Nobody else, not a soul up there (protesting), can match Rose’s record. Not even all of them combined.”

Shortly after Pak’s death, the Board of Supervisors urged the San Francisco Municipal Transporation Agency to name the station after her, citing her work to bring the Central Subway to Chinatown and to secure $500 million in grant funding from the federal government. However, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors later instituted a policy to name stations after geographic locations, saying station names need to clearly direct riders to nearby places.

This month, Peskin revived the effort, attempting to meet the SFMTA’s concerns by using the name “Rose Pak Chinatown Station.”

Monday, the Falun Gong voiced their opposition.

Protesters held signs aloft reading “IMMORAL ROSE PAK,” “NO ROSE PAK,” “NO ROSE PAK ANYWHERE,” and “‘BROKER’ OF COMMUNISTS,” referring to Pak’s long-time reputation as a power broker.

While the group’s organizers did not immediately say the people standing on City Hall’s steps were Falun Gong members, they advocated for Central Subway station to be named instead for Sun Yat-Sen, whose ideological history in China is often praised by the organization.

“Falun Gong is just among the many groups” protesting, said Alicia Chen Zhao, a spokesperson for the protesters. Zhao said “several Chinese community organizations, as well as individuals, are involved,” but “because of the terror Rose Pak created in Chinatown, many organizations prefer not to mention their names.”

Proponents have called Falun Gong a spiritual movement while detractors including the Chinese government have called it a cult. Pak and the group were long at odds.

Zhao, the rally spokesperson, said it was peculiar Peskin pushed the resolution despite his critiques of Pak in the past.

https://www.sfexaminer.com/the-city/falun-gong-members-protest-naming-central-subway-station-after-rose-pak/

i

Typical harassment and aggression by Israeli authorities.  When has an olive tree hurt anyone?  Bibi Netanyahu may have an answer.

May 5, 2019

I refrain from posting anything about Trump.  The Deutsche Bank scandal is too important to ignore. It lays bare the lying dishonesty for all the world to see.

Excerpted from Vanity Fair 5.3.2019

Of all the investigations into his dubious behavior, the one that most sets Donald Trump’shair on fire involves Deutsche Bank.

The German lender is famous for being the only institution that would loan the ex-real-estate developer money while everyone else treated him like the pariah he was, and presumably knows more about his finances than anyone outside the Trump Organization.

Earlier this week, the president, his company, and his three eldest children sued Deutsche (and Capital One) in an effort to stop the banks from responding to congressional subpoenas, and a new report from Bloomberg hints at why Trump seems particularly antsy about the idea of Germans telling Democrats everything they know: in addition to decades’ worth of information concerning his financial transactions, some people inside the firm have actually seen his elusive tax returns.

Per Bloomberg, in 2012, the Trump Organization was trying to obtain loans from the bank for the Trump National Doral Golf Club in Florida and the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago. In the wake of the financial crisis, Trump had defaulted on a loan from the bank for the Chicago property, and in an absurd move even for him, filed a lawsuit against Deutsche, claiming it had caused the global financial crisis and “engaged in predatory lending against him.” (The bank promptly countersued, and the case was eventually settled.)

Having been burned by the bankruptcy king in the past, Deutsche initially balked at the idea of lending the Trump Organization its requested $100 million, at which point Ivanka Trump,the point person on the discussions, suggested her father would guarantee the loans with his personal assets.

That got Deutsche listening, but it insisted on performing due diligence first. And because Trump’s tax returns apparently contain information on par with the Pentagon Papers, their appraisal was carried out in a slightly unorthodox fashion. According to Bloomberg, the bank sent a team to the office of the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, who “allowed the bankers to see relevant parts of Trump’s tax returns and take notes.” However, the bankers “weren’t allowed to make copies” of any of the records to take with them. It’s almost as though the returns contain information that might make Trump look bad!

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/05/is-this-why-trump-is-so-scared-of-the-deutsche-bank-investigation