Author: leeheidhues

I am a Green Party member, legal worker, walker, cyclist who follows politics, world events, 🌎 the literary world and 🎥 film

Injury riddled 49ers let it all slip away. Face Wild Card elimination

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 1.5.2026

All the sports reporting are heaping praise on the Seattle Seahawks performance at Levi’s Stadium. The reality is that the San Francisco 49ers could have and should have prevailed on Saturday night.

It was painful to watch on Saturday night. Granted, the 49ers have suffered injuries this season. All of which would have sacked any chance the Niners had to reach the penultimate game with a surprising 12-4 record. And looking to have the top record in the National Football Conference.

The Thrill is Gone

It was not to be. A series of miscues and missed opportunities sent the locals limping off the field at game’s end. Most definitely not looking forward to a cross country trip. Meeting the Philadelphia Eagles next Sunday afternoon.

Niners running back Christian McCaffrey is tackled in the first quarter of Saturday’s game against the Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium. McCaffrey was limited to 23 yards on eight carries. Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle

Excerpted from The Athletic 1.4.2026

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — It was a miracle the San Francisco 49ers trailed only 10-0, and not 20-0, midway through the second quarter Saturday night. But it turns out that it didn’t matter — 10 points was more than enough for the Seattle Seahawks.

In a game that determined home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs, the Seahawks came into Levi’s Stadium and put their feet on the couch. The final score, 13-3, did not indicate the game’s one-sidedness, but the Seahawks’ rushing output — which more than tripled that of the 49ers (180-53) — sure did.

Quarterback Brock Purdy lays on turf after taking a big hit on the 49ers’ final offensive play against the Seahawks on Saturday. He said he suffered a shoulder stinger, noting afterward: “I feel good right now. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow.” Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle

“The 49ers have been scoring at will,” Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones IV said. “We know our style of play. Let’s go out there and see what they have.”

San Francisco finished with 173 yards of offense, its fewest in a regular-season game in Shanahan’s nine years as coach (they had 164 in the 2022 NFC title game).

Top photo: San Francisco 49ers’ Yetur Gross-Matos fails to recover Seattle Seahawks’ fumble in 3rd quarter during Niners’ 13-3 loss in NFL game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Saturday, January 3, 2026.Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle

Trader Joe’s shopping bag now a global fashion statement

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 1.6.2026 UPDATED

Who would have thought that the utilitarian Trader Joe’s shopping bag would become a global fashion statement?

A Trader Joe’s bag on display at Java Beach Cafe in San Francisco near Sunset Dunes Park – 1.6.2026

Sunday afternoon I was in my neighborhood Trader Joe’s and talked with a Clerk about TJ’s shopping bags becoming a global fashion item. The Clerk told me that people are lined up at the front door each morning at 8AM to purchase the shopping bags. There were none on the shelf Sunday afternoon.

Never having owned a car the TJ bag is essential. A couple of years ago I replaced a well traveled pair of TJ’S totes. The clerk told me I should keep the old pair. I declined. She was onto something. I could have sold them on Ebay.

On a day when Warmonger Felon Trump further disrupted the World order with his criminal kidnapping of the Venezuelan President and the home town 49ers were beat down by the Seattle Seahawks a little levity was appropriate to escape the Winter doldrums.

What do they say??? Shopping is good therapy. So, grab your Trader Joe’s bag and make a trip to the store.

I take my Trader Joe’s shopping bag on San Francisco public transit as I mingle with the folks as I carry home groceries from the nearby Trader Joe’s outlet. I am not alone. I see these large cotton canvas bags all over San Francisco. They’re sturdy and essential.

The shoppers line up at Trader Joe’s in San Francisco

Now this essential item has reached the pages of the Wall Street Journal.

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 1.3.2026

The Trader Joe’s tote, which sells for $2.99 in the U.S., has joined the ranks of geographically specific status bags like those from London’s Daunt Books or Paris’s Shakespeare and Company. In addition to London, they’re being carried in Seoul, Melbourne, Australia, and Tokyo. Because there are no Trader Joe’s stores abroad, the bags are listed on resale platforms like Depop, eBay and Korea’s Karrot market for up to $10,000—with some eBay listings reaching $50,000.

In London, Holly Davies initially thought her Trader Joe’s tote would go unnoticed. The podcast producer snagged the bag for $2.99 at the grocery store on a trip to Washington, D.C.

While Trader Joe’s is objectively a massive corporation—the chain operates 618 stores in the U.S.—it doesn’t feel like a big-box store. For Davies, hand-painted signage and packaging “that looks like it was designed by a circus mouse” create an impression of independence.

Back in the U.K., where she grew up and lives, she figured it would simply be another anonymous canvas carrier. But whenever she spotted another tote in the wild—on the Tube, outside a pub, swinging from someone’s shoulder on a crowded street—she felt a spark of recognition.

Trader Joe’s totes could be spotted on the street during Paris fashion week. Getty Images

“I always make an effort to smile at the person carrying it, which isn’t a super common thing to do in London,” Davies said. “I feel a bit of a kindredness with other Trader Joe’s tote carriers.”

Here was someone else connected to America, she assumed, probably another like-minded dual citizen or expat. Then the sightings multiplied. Something else was happening.

Nearly everyone Davies interviewed abroad presumed Trader Joe’s has liberal connotations—though she’s learned this doesn’t necessarily track in the U.S. itself. “I think the Trader Joe’s tote can be viewed as far enough away from the ultra-capitalist, consumerist side of the U.S. that some people from the U.K. particularly dislike,” Davies said.

https://www.wsj.com/style/fashion/trader-joes-tote-bags-international-market-ebay-071a0f55?st=9iD1Zx&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Trump the bully aggressor. Launches attack on Venezuela

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 1.3 2026

Donald Trump the flatulent Felon has launched an attack on Venezuela.

New York Post photo – 1.4.2026
Felon Trump unleashed
Trump the Aggressor. It’s all about the 🛢 Oil

The unhinged machismo of this punk wannabe strongman is a pitiful display of his failed manhood.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro enroute to America. Blindfolded and handcuffed after kidnapping by Felon Trump’s military forces against a sovereign State leader – Deutsche Welle photo

NO U.S. WAR on VENEZUELA- Photo Deutsche Welle

5 years since 1.6.2021. America suffers from political Amnesia

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 1.7.2026 UPDATED

Straight out of the 1930’s Nazi Germany playbook
Wall Street Journal – 1.7.2021
Wall Street Journal 1.7.2026

It is nearly five years since Donald Trump led the insurrection and tried to violently overturn the November 2020 election.

The place Trump belongs. Prison

As rebellion flared up in the nation’s capitol America failed its biggest test. Putting this criminal insurrectionist back in the White House a year ago. He should be in prison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_6_United_States_Capitol_attack

The American sheep like people continue to suffer from Amnesia and are all too willing to let this abhorrent event fade into the historic background.

On this New Year’s Day I went into the PBS FRONTLINE archives. Resting there for all who care to view is the graphic documentary originally broadcast on January 26, 2021. Reasonable people thought this criminal would land in jail. Wrong.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/trumps-american-carnage/

As rebellion flared up in the nation’s capitol America failed its biggest test.

There is one Hero amongst the somnolent lazy American public. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Smith_(lawyer)

Excerpted from The New York Times 12.31.2025

Jack Smith, the former special counsel, defended his decision to twice indict President Trump, accusing him of “exploiting” violence on Jan. 6, 2021, to overthrow the 2020 presidential election, according to a transcribed interview released by House Republicans Wednesday.

Mr. Smith, a former prosecutor vilified by Mr. Trump as a partisan, spent much of the eight-hour, closed-door session on Dec. 17 before the House Judiciary Committee rebutting a range of Republican claims, including the accusation that he had improperly obtained metadata on phone calls involving Trump-allied lawmakers.

“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power,” Mr. Smith said, according to the transcript.

Bloviating mindless January 6th insurrectionists were pardoned by Donald Trump the first day he returned to office 1.20.2025

In the interview, Mr. Smith sought to undermine the narrative that the president was an innocent figure persecuted by partisans who weaponized federal law enforcement, a core belief among many Trump supporters.

Trump malicious “Stick of dynamite” blows up weather center

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 12.18.2025

How tone deaf is the Felon President Trump. A totally cruel malevolent luddite with no concept of the danger fossil fuels increasingly threatens the longevity of Planet Earth.

The rainstorm season is about to hit San Francisco.

Out of some warped sense of political animus Trump wants to dismantle and destroy one of the premier weather monitoring agencies. The National Center for Atmospheric Research.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Center_for_Atmospheric_Research

Why? It’s based in Blue Colorado. An American State which has vigorously battled the Felon Trump. It is mind boggling that the spineless Republicans continue to bow down before this abhorrent man.

Excerpted from The Hill 12.18.2025

A Democratic senator involved in the negotiations over passing a five-bill package of appropriations bills before Christmas said that Donald Trump’s attempt to dismantle a premier weather and climate center based in Boulder, Colo., was like a “stick of dynamite” that exploded any chance of a bipartisan breakthrough on spending.

A potential deal to fund large swaths of the federal government, including the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services, collapsed on Thursday night after Colorado senators demanded that Congress stop President Trump’s efforts to dismantle a key climate agency.

Out of some warped sense of political animus Trump wants to dismantle and destroy one of the premier weather monitoring agencies. The National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a leading Democratic voice on climate issue, called the research a “global crown jewel of science” that “helps us learn a great deal about whether which matters a great deal to everyone.”

Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet (D) and John Hickenlooper (D) objected to moving forward with the so-called minibus spending package that, if enacted into law, would result in 85 to 90 percent of the federal government being funding through September of 2026.

But Bennet and Hickenlooper took the lead in bringing the package to a dead halt by objecting to an agreement to set up date and amendment votes on the Senate floor.

Trump move to dismantle climate agency blows up Senate funding deal

It’s only rock ‘n roll. At 82 Rolling Stone Keith Richards likes it

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 12.13.2025

I have been listening to the Rolling Stones since I bought my first of many Stones LPs ‘Out of our Heads’ in 1965.

Stones guitarist Keith Richards has gone from rock ‘n roll bad boy drug addict to being featured in the Wall Street Journal.

Written up in the WSJ the reporter talks about the Stones affinity for Chess Records House of Blues in Chicago and how the music of Black blues artists influenced the Stones creativity.

The Stones and the reciprocal love from House of Blues was memorialized in the 1997 CD ‘Paint it Blue – Songs of the Rolling Stones’. 13 Stones songs performed by Black blues artists.

I think the best piece on the CD is Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown cover for Ventilator Blues.

Keith Richards ‘Ventilator Blues’ Live in Vancouver 1972

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 12.13.2025 – Rich Cohen

Solving the mystery of the guitarist’s longevity may be our best hope of aging gracefully.

In America, the average man can expect to live 75.8 years. Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts had gone five years past that and was still playing for audiences shortly before he died in 2021. Stones founder Brian Jones died young in his swimming pool, but several of the band’s other iconic members, from Ronnie Wood, 78, to Bill Wyman, 89, have won the battle with the actuarial tables. Mick Jagger, the demonic frontman, was barely slowed by the replacement of his aortic valve in 2019. An octogenarian, Mick can still be seen dancing on the ashes of Western Civilization.

And yet, for some reason, it is the band’s rhythm guitarist who personifies immortality. As the bumper sticker has it, “Think of the world we’ll be leaving Keith Richards.” How this riff-drunk ragamuffin, who turns 82 on Dec. 18, not only survived but stayed relevant is a mystery, a puzzle wrapped inside a guitar string. Solving it may be the best hope the rest of us have of aging gracefully.

I date my life with Keith to the spring of 1982, when, in the finale of the Central School talent show in Glencoe, Ill., I played the part of the guitarist in the Stones cover band that brought down the house with “Jumpin Jack Flash.”

It was while preparing for the show that I first really learned about Keith: about his legendary 1961 meeting with Jagger at the train station in Dartford, the English town where they both grew up; about their mutual love for the Chicago Blues (Jagger was carrying a stack of albums from Chess Records); about the Stones’ apprenticeship in the basement clubs and bars around London; about the first rush of fame and how Keith shut himself off from it behind a wall made of heroin. It was living through the chaos and tragedies of the 1960s and 70s—the river of opioids, the demise of Janis, Jimi, Jim and the rest—that gave him that vampiric aura. As the roadie puts it in “Wayne’s World 2,” “Keith cannot be killed by conventional weapons.

https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/the-wisdom-of-keith-richards-at-82-500208bb?st=sRPTRM&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Top photo: Rolling Stones circa 1963 = Keith is second from left

And people ask ‘why do drunk drivers get away with murder?’

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 12.11.2025

And people ask why do drunk drivers literally get away with murder?

Let’s Talk about being rewarded for criminal behavior.

It is unconscionable that a drunken driver engaged in one of the most sordid, cowardly and shameful crimes. Hit and run.

The perpetrator ran over an 88 year old woman on increasingly dangerous Streets of San Francisco. She died.

The SFPD finally corralled the perp. What does the Judge do? Grants ‘home detention’ until the Trial. Blowing off the District Attorney’s Motion to keep this killer in jail until Trial.

San Francisco Chronicle 12.11.2025

A man suspected in an Ingleside hit-and-run that killed an 88-year-old woman in October has been charged with murder, prosecutors said Thursday. 

Prosecutors asked that Le be held without bail while awaiting trial, but a judge ruled that he would be released to home detention with electronic monitoring, officials said. 

Hai Van Le, 48, faces additional charges involving driving under the influence and leaving the scene of the crash. He was arraigned Wednesday and pleaded not guilty, according to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. 

On the evening of Oct. 26, victim Lau Sim Lui was struck by a driver at the intersection of Ocean and Ashton avenues. Police arrived at the scene just after 6:40 p.m. and found the woman on the ground in a crosswalk.

Medics declared Lui deceased at the scene a few minutes later, from what officials later said was a severe head injury. 

A witness at the scene provided police with dashboard footage of the incident, which showed Le’s vehicle stopped at a red light and then proceeding through the intersection after the light turned green, prosecutors said. 

The vehicle is then seen running over Lui, who was in the opposite crosswalk, officials said. Officials said the video shows the vehicle’s brake lights briefly activating before the driver continues east on Ocean Avenue. 

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/hit-run-murder-charge-sf-21237496.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL2NyaW1lL2FydGljbGUvaGl0LXJ1bi1tdXJkZXItY2hhcmdlLXNmLTIxMjM3NDk2LnBocA%3D%3D&time=MTc2NTUyMTc5NjE0OA%3D%3D&rid=OTJhM2RhZWItNDMzYy00ZjMxLTgyMTQtZTU2ZjE2NDIzNDRl&sharecount=NA%3D%3D

MAN CHARGED WITH MURDER IN CONNECTION TO FATAL DUI HIT AND RUN

True reporters, like Sy Hersh, dare to expose what they’re told not to.

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 12.9.2025

I have followed Seymour Hersh writing for decades. I became transfixed when I read his classic “The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House” published in 1984. A compendium of the treacherous foreign policy instituted by President Nixon and carried out enthusiastically by Henry Kissinger. Countries in the Western Hemisphere to the near East and Asia, specifically Vietnam and Cambodia, were in their Machiavellian sights.

Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet who overthrew the democratically elected President Salvador Allende on 9.1.1.1973 shakes hands with Henry Kissinger. The story of Nixon and Kissinger’s involvement in the coup is written about in detail in Sy Hersh’s book.

The soon to be released documentary “Cover-up” is must viewing for those who want to know what genuine, honest investigative reporting is all about in the era of Donald Trump and his relentless assaults on the media. A mainstream media which has been cowed and compliant. Enabling this liar to attack the core of American democracy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Hersh – An American journalist icon

Excerpted from Variety 8.25.2025

As “Cover-Up” reveals, the key lesson of Seymour Hersh’s career is that when it comes to crucial stories of corruption, just about every situation is layered, booby-trapped, woven with deception. The movie is called “Cover-Up” because cover-up is the metaphysical state we live in. The true reporters, like Hersh, are those who dare to expose what they’re told not to.

When Hersh, in the documentary, talks about how American media works, how it’s too cozy with power, he can sound a lot like the Noam Chomsky of “Manufacturing Consent.” But part of what’s so compelling about “Cover-Up” is that Hersh, in his heyday, wasn’t a pie-in-the-sky purist agitator like Chomsky; he was a regular guy who simply wanted the truth to get out there.

The film captures how he sort of fell into journalism, after helping to run his family’s dry-cleaning business on the South Side of Chicago. He was originally a crime reporter, and got his big break in 1963, when he went to work for the Associated Press. Assigned to cover the Pentagon, he would walk out of the scripted press briefings and, instead, wandered the halls and used his sports chatter to befriend high-ranking officers.

That’s how he got wind of the My Lai story, when an officer referenced what was going on with Lt. William Calley (without actually naming him). “Cover-Up” takes us inside the process of how this complex story was brought to light.

That’s how he got wind of the My Lai story, when an officer referenced what was going on with Lt. William Calley (without actually naming him). “Cover-Up” takes us inside the process of how this complex story was brought to light.

A false mythology of the massacre lives on to this day (that American soldiers went “crazy” with violence in the jungles), but the far uglier truth is that the murder of Vietnamese civilians had been ordered as a way to inflate the casualty numbers (which was the Army’s yardstick of success). My Lai wasn’t the only My Lai — far from it.

The story, which Hersh broke in 1969, made his name.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/cover-review-laura-poitras-enthralling-121321596.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall

https://screenanarchy.com/2025/09/toronto-2025-review-cover-up.html

San Francisco Public Works reacts to dangerous street conditions

SAN FRANCISCO – MASONIC AVENUE NEAR GEARY BOULEVARD

Lee Heidhues 12.8.2025

It was only 10 days ago that I took a hard fall on Masonic Avenue on the pavement in front of the shuttered Lucky Penny Restaurant at 2670 Geary Blvd. Suffering physical damage and a blow to my peace of mind. Happily a number of good citizens, including a nurse from nearby Kaiser, came to my aid.

I returned to the site of The Fall three days later with Liz. I will not be deterred from doing my shopping.

Feeling something needed to be done to publicize the dangerous streets I posted a recitation of the mishap (see below) and perhaps, more importantly, notified the Department of Public Works. https://sfpublicworks.org/

I learned the property owner is responsible for maintaining a safe sidewalk in front of their land. This morning I went shopping at next door Trader Joe’s and was pleasantly shocked to see white paint painted all along the sidewalk. The property owner has been notified that the dangerous condition must be rectified.

The treacherous sidewalk in front of the shuttered Lucky Penny Restaurant
Be careful walking past the Lucky Penny. It’s dangerous.
Like the Reaping Day scene out of The Hunger Games I involuntarily became a “Tribute.” The dangerous pavement has been a years long hazard. I crashed to the sidewalk in what resulted in a serious fortunately not fatal injury.
Tripped up at Trader Joe’s. A dangerous fall to the rocky street

Top photo: The Lucky Penny Restaurant. Trader Joe’s is next to the black car on the right.

Petty politics at the Tat Wong Academy – Master Chow is out

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 12.6.2025

A heartfelt plea to the Tat Wong Kung Fu Academy.

It is totally shocking and uncalled for that Master Jeff Chow has been cast aside and no longer providing his mastery of martial arts.

It appears the only reason for his expulsion is office politics at the Tat Wong Academy. There’s no question about his competence and ability to motivate the students.

Liz Heidhues gets into the action at the Tat Wong Academy

It’s hard to understand why an institution which prides itself on improvement of the body and mind can be so petty and venal. Totally ignoring and disrespecting the opinions and feelings of its student population.

The following messages sent to Tat Wong from long time student Liz Heidhues and her husband blogger Lee are heartfelt pleas to stop this petty political posturing and return Master Jeff Chow to his rightful place in the martial arts world.

Dear San Francisco Team

I have been attending Tat Wong Academy since 2018 and have been taught by many different sifus – including Joe, Philippe, Brandon, and most importantly the best – Master Chow. 


Master Jeff Chow has been a student of Grand Master Tat-Mau Wong for more than twenty-six years, and has been a chief instructor at the Tat Wong Academy since 1998. He was awarded the title of Master in 2013 and is currently ranked internationally by The World Organization of Wushu Kung Fu Masters at 8th degree Black Belt.Master Chow has been fighting Sanshou for the past 15 years and is a competition champion.  He was the Silver Medallist for the 2006 Pan American Games in the Sanshou 65-kilo weight category, and proudly represented the USA in 2007 as a USA World Team member. In 2009 and 2011 he served as the official USA Sanshou team coach.He is also a Gold Medallist from many International traditional form and lion dance competitions. Every day Master Chow passes on his skills and passion for Kung Fu to our students, our Sanshou fighters and our Lion Dance performers. Master Chow says, as both a teacher and a martial artist: “I will never stop my kung fu and sanshou training, because they continue to teach me about myself. I hope to inspire my students to feel the same.” He also adds: “Nothing is worth doing unless done well. So stay focused and dedicated and the results are always worth it.” – Featured in the Tat Wong website https://www.tatwong.com/

I also have a cordial relationship with Grandmaster Tat Wong, having met him when the school was housed in the old Hibernia bank at 7th Ave & Clement. 

I would like Grandmaster Wong to know I am not happy with Master Chow’s ouster.

Master Chow delivers a class worth paying for. 

The array of belts earned by Liz Heidhues at the Tat Wong Academy since 2018

He makes us work our muscles and our minds, inspires us to practice the different forms with passion and speed, and I walk away from his class feeling a sense of accomplishment from a good physical workout.

Master Chow grew up at the Academy. He know his stuff.

There has been no outreach to the students about the removal of Master Chow as our teacher. This is very poor customer relations. I do not want to continue the program if he doesn’t return.

Legacy Customer

Elizabeth Heidhues

Black Belt Club

Liz Heidhues on her way to a Black Belt is awarded her Red Belt by Master Jeff Chow – 2.4.2025

Tat Wong Kung Fu Academy

I am writing on behalf of my lifetime partner and wife Liz Heidhues.

Liz is extremely upset and disappointed that Master Chow is no longer the instructor.

In talking with Liz over the past seven plus years since she joined Tat Wong it is evident that the physical workout and coping skills Liz has learned have become an essential part of her life.

Now this has suddenly and with no warning been yanked away from Liz.

It’s not right.

Why Master Chow has been eliminated is impossible to understand  and hard to accept. 

He needs to be at Tat Wong to continue his work and making life in San Francisco safer for all of us. 

In Solidarity,

Lee Heidhues 

Lifetime partner and husband of Liz Heidhues

Top photo: Liz Heidhues on the way to Black Belt status is awarded her Red Belt by Master Chow – 2.4.2025

Conductor Jonathon Heyward leads the Seattle Symphony in “Mars” from Holst’s The Planets at Benaroya Hall. #ListenBoldly