March 12, 2019

You won’t need a cup of coffee after watching Run Lola Run. You’ll be wired up totally.

There has been too much serious news in this Blog during the past couple of weeks. It’s time to take few moments to relax and watch Franke Potente Run Run Run.

Run Lola Run, a German film released in 1998 by then young Director Tom Tykwer is 81 minutes of non stop action and techno music filmed in that most international city, Berlin. This is the same Director who is behind the fantastic  Babylon Berlin, set in 1929 Berlin during the Weimar Republic. See Blog Post 12.29.2018.

Following is a link to the review by Roger Ebert written after its American release in 1999.

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/run-lola-run-1999

March 11, 2019

Matt Gonzalez will not be the San Francisco Public Defender.

Matt is an incredible attorney.  The Public Defender’s office and the public is fortunate to have someone of his caliber, honesty and intellect.

Mayor London Breed selected an 11-year veteran of the office Manohar Raju, head of the Public Defender’s felony trial unit.

By appointing Manohar Raju, who interned for Matt 20 years ago, The Mayor succeeded in politically neutralizing someone she did not want to name, satisfied a traumatized department, and picked someone well respected within the Public Defender’s office and the legal community at large.

Mayor Breed, Matt Gonzalez and Manohar Raju

Photo-Lee Heidhues

Matt Gonzalez made a gracious congratulatory speech to Jeff Adachi’s successor.

It appears Matt will stay on as the Chief Trial Attorney in the department which is reassuring, particularly to those who pushed for him to be selected as Public Defender.

The story being put forth in the local media is that Matt told The Mayor he did not want to be appointed.  A review of the news shortly after Jeff Adachi’s death indicates otherwise. Two weeks ago, Matt told The San Francisco Chronicle he would be “honored” if The Mayor selected him.

It is logical to conclude that Matt was told he would not be named Public Defender

Given the incredible stress and sense of loss it may very well be that Matt genuinely did not want to face an adversarial electoral campaign to secure the position.

Mayor Breed, if nothing else, is a savvy politician. Raised in the Western Addition she is a serious woman who values brains, competency and loyalty. The Mayor will make it clear when she believes someone is insufficiently loyal.

San Francisco Chronicle – Heather Knight 3.10.2019

As someone who looks forward to Heather Knight’s columns, I am disappointed after reading her feature Page One article in today’s, March 10, 2019 Chronicle.

Looking at the Big Picture, I sincerely believe the purpose of her article is to discourage the appointment of Matt Gonzalez as Public Defender.

In every situation, a researcher can find anecdotal evidence to buttress her argument. 

There is nothing to statistically confirm that the Public Defender engaged in a widespread and consistent policy of not informing its clients about plea offers.

It is rumors, water cooler conversation at the courthouse, and a way for SFPD and the District Attorney to settle scores. Ms. Knight is the vehicle, perhaps unwittingly.

Given the statistical reality that the Public Defender handles thousands of cases every year, if this was a pervasive strategy, there are plenty of aggrieved misdemeanor clients who could have come forward earlier.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heatherknight/article/Did-late-SF-Public-Defender-Jeff-Adachi-keep-plea-13672451.php

Germany now has enshrined as law a “third gender” option for its citizenry.

AKK, as she commonly called, needs to watch a few episodes of Babylon Berlin. It’s politicians like her whose views helped speed the demise of the Weimar Republic and the ascension of the Nazis.

Jane Mayer’s piece in the The New Yorker is incredible in its exposure of the insidious and dangerous relationship between Trump and Fox News. This is State run media. Jane Mayer’s reporting sends a clear message that America now has a government owned media outlet.

Following publication of the article the White House Communications Director Bill Shine resigned.

Rupert Murdoch and Trump pictured above.

Will the Masses Finally See Fox News for What It Is?

Excerpted from Jane Mayer in The New Yorker – March 11, 2019

When Bill Shine assumed command at Fox, the 2016 campaign was nearing its end, and Trump and Clinton were all but tied. That fall, a FoxNews.com reporter had a story that put the network’s journalistic integrity to the test. Diana Falzone, who often covered the entertainment industry, had obtained proof that Trump had engaged in a sexual relationship in 2006 with a pornographic film actress calling herself Stormy Daniels. Falzone had worked on the story since March, and by October she had confirmed it with Daniels through her manager at the time, Gina Rodriguez, and with Daniels’s former husband, Mike Moz, who described multiple calls from Trump. Falzone had also amassed e-mails between Daniels’s attorney and Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen, detailing a proposed cash settlement, accompanied by a nondisclosure agreement. Falzone had even seen the contract.

But Falzone’s story didn’t run—it kept being passed off from one editor to the next. After getting one noncommittal answer after another from her editors, Falzone at last heard from Ken LaCorte, who was then the head of FoxNews.com. Falzone told colleagues that LaCorte said to her, “Good reporting, kiddo. But Rupert wants Donald Trump to win. So just let it go.” LaCorte denies telling Falzone this, but one of Falzone’s colleagues confirms having heard her account at the time.

Despite the discouragement, Falzone kept investigating, and discovered that the National Enquirer, in partnership with Trump, had made a “catch and kill” deal with Daniels—buying the exclusive rights to her story in order to bury it. Falzone pitched this story to Fox, too, but it went nowhere. News of Trump’s payoffs to silence Daniels, and Cohen’s criminal attempts to conceal them as legal fees, remained unknown to the public until the Wall Street Journal broke the story, a year after Trump became President.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/03/11/the-making-of-the-fox-news-white-house

I have been riding a bicycle for transportation in San Francisco since 1972. The City is becoming increasingly dangerous even as the number of cyclists proliferate. These horrific incidents are only going to increase. It is part of the Dystopian Urban Madness.

San Francisco Examiner – Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez – March 8, 2019

SF Examiner photo above – Death site at 6th and Howard Streets

A woman was struck and killed in a traffic collision while bicycling at Sixth and Howard streets Friday morning at about 8:15 a.m.

The San Francisco Police department said the woman, who was not immediately identified, was riding a rented Ford GoBike ebike when she was struck by a white commercial truck.

Binod Singh, who was walking nearby when the incident occurred, told the San Francisco Examiner he saw the woman bicycling down Howard when the driver-side door of a parked car opened near her. She swerved to dodge the door, placing her directly in the path of a large white truck, which ran over the woman and crushed her.

“Everyone screamed,” he said.

Singh was shaking as he showed the Examiner cell phone photos he took immediately after the crash.

Maximo Figueroa works in the neighborhood and was sitting in his parked car when he saw the collision. He ran over to help, but when he saw her, he realized it was too late.

“It happened within a second, then boom, then over,” Figueroa said.

The woman was wearing a helmet, which was destroyed in the crash.

The white truck remained at the scene this morning on Howard Street, in an area where there are no “protected” bike lanes with barriers.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/cyclist-struck-killed-south-market-neighborhood/

Chelsea Manning is an American heroine. Absloute abuse being heaped upon Whistleblower Heroine who exposed the activities of various American government agencies. Chelsea has already served over seven years in prison for upholding the rights of free speech and the right of access to government documents. See Lee’s Perspective Post 3.2.2019

March 8, 2019

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has been sent to jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating Wikileaks.

Wikileaks  has emerged as an important part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible Russian meddling into the 2016 presidential election, as investigators focus on whether President Donald Trump’s campaign knew Russian hackers were going to provide emails to Wikileaks stolen from Democratic organizations, including presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton ordered Manning to jail for contempt of court on Friday after a brief hearing in which Manning confirmed she has no intention of testifying. She told the judge she “will accept whatever you bring upon me.”

The judge said she will remain jailed until she testifies or until the grand jury concludes its work.

Manning’s lawyers had asked that she be sent to home confinement instead of the jail, because of medical complications she faces.

The judge said U.S. marshals can handle her medical care. Prosecutor Tracy McCormick said the jail and the marshals have assured the government that her medical needs can be met.

Manning anticipated being jailed. In a statement before Friday’s hearing, she said she invoked her First, Fourth and Sixth amendment protections when she appeared before the grand jury in Alexandria on Wednesday. She said she already answered every substantive question during her 2013 court-martial, and is prepared to face the consequences of refusing to answer again.

“In solidarity with many activists facing the odds, I will stand by my principles. I will exhaust every legal remedy available,” she said.

Manning served seven years of a 35-year military sentence for leaking a trove of military and diplomatic documents to the anti-secrecy website before then-President Barack Obama commuted her sentence.

McCormick said Manning can easily end this incarceration on the civil charge simply by following the law and testifying.

“We hope she changes her mind now,” McCormick said.

Manning’s lawyer, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, said she believes jailing Manning is an act of cruelty given her medical issues, and said Manning’s one-bedroom apartment would be a sufficient manner of confinement.

The Wikileaks investigation has been ongoing for a long time. Last year, prosecutors in Alexandria inadvertently disclosed that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is facing unspecified, sealed criminal charges in the district.

Currently I am reading the 1944 novel by Anna Seghers. It is a difficult and fascinating read.  The novel was discussed in greater detail in a Lee’s Perspectives Post 2.17.2019

Wall Street Journal review by Joel Morgenstern 3.7.2019

The hero of Christian Petzold’s film flees the forces of fascism, takes on another man’s identity, then falls in love with his wife.

Instead of summoning up the haunting strangeness of Christian Petzold’s “Transit” by summarizing the action, which is sporadic, or specifying the time and place, which are ambiguous, let me recount a sequence that begins with a little blob of something being heated in a teaspoon over a candle. Is it heroin? No, it’s solder. The hero, Georg (Franz Rogowski), a German refugee in France, is trying to repair a loose connection on a radio while a young boy looks on, transfixed. When the radio comes to life, it plays a song that moves Georg deeply—his mother sang it to him when he was a child. As Georg sings along, the boy’s mother, Melissa (Maryam Zaree), comes home from work and watches. She doesn’t listen, since she’s profoundly deaf, but soon, signing briskly, she tells her son to tell Georg that she’d like to watch him sing the song again. Which he does, with redoubled feeling that’s reflected on her face.

The thought of Muslims in power is unnerving for governments in Europe and, yes, the United States.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 3.7.2019

Shock and horror among CDU colleagues

The party of Chancellor Angela Merkel has been roiled by a debate about whether a Muslim could lead the CDU and one day become chancellor. One lawmaker couldn’t believe anyone would even suggest such a thing.

The parliamentary group leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has sparked a divisive debate after he said a Muslim could be a future CDU leader and chancellor of Germany.

Asked by media outlet Idea if a Muslim could lead the party and become chancellor in 2030, Ralph Brinkhaus said: “Why not, if they’re a good politician, and they represent our values and our political views?”

The interview took place in late February, but it stirred a backlash only after Bild, Germany’s biggest tabloid newspaper, reported on it on Wednesday.

“For the love of God, I can’t believe Ralph Brinkhaus said that,” Vincent Kokert, the CDU’s chief in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, told the paper. “No, I can’t believe it.”

https://www.dw.com/en/a-muslim-as-german-chancellor-cdu-leader-slammed-for-saying-why-not/a-47813302

The Nazi scourge lives on in all its horrificness. It happened in America.  See the Academy Award nominated video “A Night at the Garden” posted on this site 2.23.2019

Deutsche Welle 2.26.2019

German neo-Nazis and members of a far-right group staged a torch-wielding rally at a stage once used by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The participants also marched past a refugee center.

German prosecutors were considering filing criminal charges after a video emerged that showed members of the extreme-right NPD party and Wodans Erben Germanien group marching through the northern Bavarian city of Nuremberg.

The prosecutors were deciding if there was “evidence of incitement of the masses” at the event, which was held without permission, Nuremberg’s left-leaning mayor Ulrich Maly said on Tuesday.

Photo above. American Nazis march in New York City, February 1939

Police representatives reported that 18 right-wing extremists marched past a refugee center last Saturday, with police showing up to identify and record them. The participants declared themselves members of the NPD and Wodans Erben Germanien. Police ordered them to disperse and then left the scene.

After the police withdrew, the demonstrators gathered again and marched with lit torches to the area used by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and his associates for annual rallies from 1923 to 1938. Torches were often used as a prop by the supporters of the original Nazi party and its allies.

The NPD and Wodans Erben Germanien supporters also took pictures of themselves at a stage once used by Hitler.

“This is an event which should alarm all of us across Germany and especially in Nuremberg — the fact that such symbols are used at places like this,” Maly said.

In addition to Nazi rallies, Nuremberg is also known for the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws were passed in 1935 at a special parliamentary session in the Bavarian city.

After World War II, the Allies organized the Nuremberg Trials to convict Nazi war criminals, including air force chief Hermann Göring, Hitler’s foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and racial ideologue Alfred Rosenberg.

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-torch-wielding-neo-nazis-march-in-nuremberg/a-47699823