Lee Heidhues 3.20.2023

The overt blatant racism coming out of Texas is appalling.

Texas has been in the forefront in its attempts to keep out immigrants coming across its border from Mexico.

Now Texas has gone further as a legislator wants to prohibit Chinese, Russians, North Koreans and Iranians from owning certain types of property.

This type of legislation illustrates the xenophobia entrenched not far from the surface in America.

The Standard 3.20.2023

After a Texas legislator introduced a bill that would ban land sales to citizens of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, a committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has voted to condemn it.

At a meeting in San Francisco City Hall on Monday afternoon, the board’s Land Use and Transportation Committee voted unanimously to pass the resolution. Leading the effort was Supervisor Connie Chan, a Chinese immigrant from Hong Kong.

“This bill is dangerous and racist,” Chan said. “We must stand up for our community, not just here where we live, but also all across the nation.” 

She went on to compare the law with California’s own Alien land laws during the early 20th century, which restricted Asian immigrants from property ownership.

Julie Tang, a retired San Francisco judge and a Chinese immigrant, said the amended bill doesn’t change its character.

She said that classifying the group of Chinese, Russians, North Koreans and Iranians from buying properties is barring them from enjoying the equal rights that other Americans have, regardless of their citizenship.

“That itself is discrimination,” Tang said. “And that in itself is illegal and unconstitutional.”

Texas bill SB 147, authored by Republican state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, seeks to prohibit citizens and government entities from those four countries from buying real estate in Texas over alleged national security concerns.

After strong criticism, Kolkhorst, the Texas state senator, had already changed her bill by exempting permanent residents (which is to say, green card holders) from the ban. 

She clarified that “property” in her bill refers only to farmland, mines, quarries, mineral and forests where logging occurs—meaning that citizens of all nations can buy Texas real estate for residential purposes.

Because the bill targets certain immigrants based on their countries of origin, it has sparked backlash from Chinese American and other immigrant communities nationwide, renewing a vigorous debate on anti-Asian racism and xenophobia.

Opponents of the Texas resolution still think it’s still unacceptable, even with the softened tone

Representatives from Chinese for Affirmative Action, Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and other activist groups spoke at the board meeting in support of the resolution.

If passed by the full board, San Francisco will send an official copy of the resolution to leaders in both Texas and California. Currently, San Francisco has a list of sanctioned states that the city is prohibited from doing official business with because of reproductive rights. Texas is already on the list.

“I have listened to concerns,” Kolkhorst said in a press release statement. “[The changes] make it crystal clear that dual citizens and legal permanent residents are able to purchase property.”

She emphasized the goal of the bill is to establish safeguards against the authoritarian regimes of Russia, North Korea, China and Iran.

The Standard reached out to Kolkhorst’s office for comment ahead of today’s resolution.

https://sfstandard.com/politics/texas-bill-targeting-homeowners-from-these-four-countries-meets-with-condemnation-in-sf/

Lee Heidhues 3.19.2023

The online San Francisco Standard has achieved a presence in local media circles during its brief tenure.

Its coverage of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the pending implosion of First Republic Bank are receiving daily exposure. There’s a reason for this detailed reporting as explained by Wikipedia

The San Francisco Standard is an online news organization based in San Francisco, California. It was funded in part by the billionaire venture capitalist Michael Moritz. 

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

Wealthy venture capitalists founded this publication which has done extensive reporting on political life in San Francisco. For example.

In May 2022, the Standard published a story showing that Boudin’s office secured three convictions for drug dealing in 2021, whereas Boudin’s predecessor George Gascón oversaw over 90 convictions in 2018. Instead, Boudin’s office emphasized convictions for a different crime which would not penalize foreign nationals with deportation or threats to naturalization.^[8] The story generated secondary coverage in the National Review,^[9]Washington Monthly,^[10]Center for Immigration Studies,^[11]Courthouse News Service.^[12] The story was criticized by Matt Charnock of The Bold Italic for allegedly misrepresenting facts and contributing to xenophobic rhetoric.^[1]

Earlier this year the New York Times published an Op ed penned by Michael Moritz which raised the hackles of many in San Franciso.

It is fair to surmise that the ownership of The San Francisco Standard has a vested interested in the fate of Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic so that it may continue its political coverage of the news.

The Standard 3.19.2023

San Francisco-based First Republic Bank suffered another blow on Sunday after S&P Global Inc. downgraded its long-term issuer credit rating from BB+ to B+, Bloomberg reported, making it harder and more expensive for the bank to borrow the very funds that could help it continue to stay afloat.

The downgrade comes as banks around the world are struggling to fend off catastrophe following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on March 10. It came just days after the bank’s debt rating was downgraded to junk status, and means that First Republic’s creditworthiness is considered highly speculative by the ratings agency.

The bank had already suffered downgrades from by S&P and Moody’s on Wednesday, moving it to a level considered a risky bet. S&P lowered the bank’s rating from A- to BB+, or high risk. Moody’s followed suit, downgrading the bank below investment grade.

Following the recent downgrades, a spokesperson for First Republic Bank said that the bank was well-positioned to manage short-term deposit activity thanks to the U.S.-orchestrated rescue by 11 of the bank’s competitors, which deposited $30 billion. The spokesperson said the support—which commentators have said was essential to stave off a systemwide crisis—reflects confidence in First Republic and its ability to continue to provide exceptional service to its clients and communities.

However, this latest downgrade suggests that First Republic Bank’s solvency is becoming increasingly fragile. It has been the subject of global attention as a possible next domino to fall in the context of the current crisis in bank solvency globally, which has been caused by a combination of factors, including low interest rates, economic uncertainty and rising levels of debt.

The recent deposit infusion from other banks is only a temporary solution, and the bank needs to find a more sustainable way to attract deposits to support its operations, according to S&P, Bloomberg reported. If the bank is not able to attract additional depositors and defend the value of its stock, its rating could be downgraded further, the report said.

https://sfstandard.com/business/latest-debt-downgrade-worsens-first-republic-banks-already-fragile-state/

Lee Heidhues 3.18.2023

Liz aka @simbagirrl has been documenting the political life in San Francisco the past two years.

The Recall of progressive DA Chesa Boudin, three school board members and the fight to save car free JFK Promenade and the Great Walkway along the Pacific Ocean galvanized Liz into artistic political action.

She has now turned her attention to the banking crisis which finds local banks Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic collapsing.

There is definitely a correlation between the political upheaval in San Francisco and the collapse of two local venture capital banks. David Sacks and Garry Tan were both major backers and funders of the 2022 recalls of Chesa Boudin and three school board members.

See RELATED: ‘Ballot box Political Lynching of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin’ – March 26, 2022.

Lee Heidhues 3.17.2023

This is is without a doubt one of the absolute best live performance ever made.

I have watched it too many times to count. It’s best to watch it on a large screen with the volume turned up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T.A.M.I._Show

The Rolling Stones also appeared at the TAMI Show. Historically it should be noted that Mick Jagger admitted afterward that James Brown outperformed the Stones. Their performance of Off the Hook is rockin’.

Lee Heidhues 3.17.2023

Julian Assange has been the target of the American government over ten years for making public documents and video evidence about American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The American Department of Justice is continuing to seek his extradition from England where he has been imprisoned.

Despite the world wide outcry from governments, media outlets and tens of thousands of citizens the Biden administration will not drop its extradition request.

The persecution of Julian Assange is an assault on the free press and an attack on human rights.

Most graphic documentation released by Assange is the murder of several civilians by the American military in Iraq which has come to be known as Collateral Murder

https://www.democracynow.org/2023/3/17/ithaka_assange_documentary

A documentary about Julian Assange and his continued imprisonment in England, Ithaka, is being shown at the selected theaters in the United States. Democracy Now interviewed Julian’s father and brother. Interviews which are part of a segment. A link to the Democracy Now segment and the trailer are attached.

Lee Heidhues 3.16.2023

What was the editor of The Jewish Press thinking when he participated in the attempted Coup d’etat in Washington on January 6, 2021?

The Feds apparently have video evidence of Elliot Resnick’s participation. The optics are not good.

The 23 page criminal indictment lays out the details in granular fashion. Click the link according to access the Department of Justice file.

Excerpted from The Times of Israel and The Guardian 3.16.2023

In a new arrest on Thursday, a former top editor of an Orthodox Jewish newspaper in New York was arrested on charges that he interfered with officers trying to protect the Capitol on January 6.

The former editor of an Orthodox, right-wing Jewish news site was arrested Thursday and charged with assaulting a police officer during the January 6, 2021, storming of the US Capitol by then-US president Donald Trump’s supporters.

Elliot Resnick, a 39-year-old New Yorker who had been the editor of the Jewish Press at the time of the insurrection, was also charged with the felonies of obstructing an officer from performing their duties during an incident of civil disorder, entering and remaining in restricted grounds, disorderly conduct in restricted grounds and demonstrating in a Capitol building, according to a press release from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

Resnick was arrested in New York and was slated to make a court appearance later Thursday.

Videos show Resnick grabbing the arm of a police sergeant spraying a chemical irritant to stop rioters entering the building, the affidavit says. Another officer tried to remove Resnick’s hand from the sergeant’s arm, the agent wrote.

Federal prosecutors in Washington have reportedly told court officials a thousand more people could be charged in relation to the deadly January 6 Capitol attack.

Matthew Graves, the US attorney in Washington DC, sent a one-page letter to the chief judge of Washington DC federal court, apprising her of the potential deluge of defendants, Bloomberg News reported.

The correspondence provides details on what the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, has described as “one of the largest, most complex and most resource-intensive investigations in our history”.

Graves said in the letter that justice department officials estimated that another 700 to 1,200 defendants could face charges. That would nearly double the number of criminal cases relating to January 6, Bloomberg noted.

Elliot Resnick, 39, was chief editor of the Jewish Press when he joined the crowd at the Capitol, according to an FBI affidavit.

Clay Kaminsky, an attorney representing Resnick, declined to comment.

The Jewish Press, based in Brooklyn, bills itself as the largest independent weekly Jewish newspaper in the US.

Politico reported in April 2021 that video showed Resnick inside the Capitol. Resnick later wrote an article defending the riot without acknowledging his presence that day, Politico noted.

At the time, the Jewish Press publisher, Naomi Mauer, told Politico the newspaper believed Resnick “acted within the law”. The editorial board said Resnick had been “covering the rally and the rest of the day’s terrible events”.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-editor-of-jewish-paper-arrested-for-assaulting-cop-during-jan-6-capitol-storming/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/16/january-6-capitol-attack-deluge-charges

Top Photo – Elliot Resnick at the Capitol – January 6, 2021

Lee Heidhues 3.15.2023

News continues to come out about the American MQ-9 Reaper Drone downed in the Black Sea on Tuesday. In addition to the Moscow Times piece below today’s interview with Intercept journalist Jeremy Scahill sheds more light on the subject.

Jeremy Scahill emphatically reminds viewers that Vladimir Putin is totally responsible for the continuing aggression against Ukraine. What his reporting also makes perfectly clear is that the American military consciously engages in these spy games. It is a regular part of the increasingly tense relationship between Washington and Moscow.

https://www.democracynow.org/2023/3/15/jeremy_scahill_ukraine_russia_usa?jwsource=cl

Excerpted from The Moscow Times 3.15.2023

Moscow said Wednesday it would try to retrieve the wreckage of a U.S. military drone that crashed over the Black Sea in a confrontation that Washington blamed on two Russian fighter jets.

The United States uses MQ-9 Reapers for both surveillance and strikes and has long operated over the Black Sea keeping an eye on Russian naval forces.

Reapers can be armed with Hellfire missiles as well as laser-guided bombs and can fly for more than 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) at altitudes of up to 15,000 meters (50,000 feet), according to the US Air Force.

Russia also warned against “hostile” U.S. flights as tensions simmered and Russia denied its Su-27 military aircraft had clipped the propeller of the unmanned Reaper drone.

Kyiv meanwhile countered that the incident over international waters was evidence the Kremlin wants to draw the United States into the conflict in Ukraine.

“I don’t know whether we’ll be able to retrieve it or not but it has to be done. And we will certainly work on it,” Russian Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev said in televised remarks.

Nikolai Patrushev said the incident was further proof that the United States is a direct party to fighting between Moscow and Kyiv and said Russia had a responsibility to “defend our independence and our sovereignty.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had scrambled jets after detecting a U.S. drone over the Black Sea and denied causing the crash.

The Pentagon said the drone was on a routine mission when it was intercepted “in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner.”

Russia said the aircraft had lost control but White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. “obviously” refuted the denial.

He added the United States was trying to prevent the fallen drone from getting into the wrong hands.

“We’ve taken steps to protect our equities with respect to that particular drone — that particular aircraft,” Kirby told CNN.

Russia’s campaign in Ukraine has led to heightened fears of a direct confrontation between Moscow and the NATO alliance, which has been arming Kyiv to help it defend itself.

Reports of a missile strike in eastern Poland in November briefly caused alarm before Western military sources concluded it was a Ukrainian air defense missile, not a Russian one.

Several U.S. Reapers have been lost in recent years, including to hostile fire.

One was shot down in 2019 over Yemen with a surface-to-air missile fired by Huthi rebels, the U.S. Central Command said at the time.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/03/15/russia-races-to-salvage-us-drone-wreckage-in-black-sea-a80484

Lee Heidhues 3.14.2023

Today’s ongoing USA-Russia ‘Spy v. Spy’ drama.

Why a Russian fighter aircraft would strike an unmanned American drone over the Black Sea raises a lot of questions. Perhaps the Russians believe the drone was conducting surveillance of Russian operations in Ukraine.

Whatever the reason the incident only serves to ratchet up already tense relations between Washington and Moscow.

Deutsche Welle 3.14.2023

The US said it summoned the Russian ambassador on Tuesday, after a Russian fighter jet forced down a US military “Reaper” surveillance drone over the Black Sea.

The US said that a Russian fighter jet struck the propeller of the surveillance drone in “brazen violation of international law.”

Ned Price, the spokesman for the State Department, said, “We are summoning the Russian ambassador to the State Department.”

Moscow said the American drone sharply maneuvered and crashed after an encounter with Russian jets near Crimea, but insisted that Russian fighter jets didn’t fire weapons or hit the drone.

The Russian Defense Ministry said their fighters from air defense forces on duty were in the air to identify the “intruder” over the Black Sea.

The Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, described the US drone flight as a “provocation,” saying there was no reason for US military aircraft and warships to be near Russia’s borders.

Speaking after meeting US Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Karen Donfried, Antonov added that Moscow wants “pragmatic” ties with Washington and “don’t want any confrontation between the US and Russia.”

US Air Force General James Hecker, who oversees the US Air Force in the region, said in a statement, “Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9.” 

The US military added the incident followed a pattern of dangerous behavior by Russian pilots operating near aircraft flown by the US and its allies, including over the Black Sea.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters they don’t “need to have some sort of check-in with the Russians before we fly in international airspace. There’s no requirement to do that nor do we do it.”

The Black Sea lies between Europe and Asia and is bordered by Russia and Ukraine, among other countries.

https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-updates-us-summons-russian-ambassador-over-drone/a-64976178

Channel News Asia 3.14.2023

The Russian fighter jet on Tuesday (Mar 14) dumped fuel on the American drone over the Black Sea and then collided with it, causing the drone to crash, the US military said, slamming the manoeuvre as “reckless”.

US European Command said two Russian Su-27 fighters intercepted the unmanned MQ-9 Reaper over international waters and one clipped its propeller.

“Several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” it said.

Moscow denied causing the crash of the drone, which the Pentagon said was on a routine ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) mission.

https://www.wsj.com/video/watch-pentagon-calls-russian-collision-with-us-drone-reckless/CA0798A4-7BAC-4DCC-9EBB-B999E025773B.html

“As a result of a sharp manoeuvre … the MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle entered an uncontrolled flight with loss of altitude and collided with the surface of the water,” the Russian Defense Ministry said, adding that the two Russian jets had no contact with the US aircraft and did not use their weapons.

“We are engaging directly with the Russians, again at senior levels, to convey our strong objections to this unsafe, unprofessional intercept, which caused the downing of the unmanned US aircraft,” spokesman Ned Price told reporters.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/russian-jet-causes-american-drone-crash-over-black-sea-us-3346931

Lee Heidhues 3.13.2023

Since last Friday I have been trying to sort through all the events surrounding the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the intervention by the Feds and, now, a blizzard of reporting on what comes next.

It took a column by Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman to clear the air and provide a reality check.

Excerpted in The New York Times – Paul Krugman 3.13.2023

If there is one thing almost all observers of the economic scene have agreed about, it is that the issues facing the U.S. economy in 2023 are very different from those it faced in its last crisis, in 2008.

Back then we were dealing with collapsing banks and plunging demand; these days banking has been a back-burner issue and the big problem has seemed to be inflation, driven by too much demand relative to the available supply.

While the value of bank deposits is federally insured, that insurance extends only up to $250,000. S.V.B., however, got its deposits mainly from business clients with multimillion-dollar accounts — at least one client (a crypto firm, of course) had $3.3 billion at S.V.B. Since S.V.B.’s clients were effectively uninsured, the bank was vulnerable to a bank run, in which everyone rushes to withdraw money while there’s still something left.

And the run came. Now what?

Even if the government had done nothing, the fall of S.V.B. probably wouldn’t have had huge economic repercussions. In 2008 there were fire sales of whole asset classes, especially mortgage-backed securities; since S.V.B.’s investments were so boring, similar fallout would be unlikely. The main damage would come from disruption of business as firms found themselves unable to get at their cash, which would be worse if S.V.B.’s fall led to runs on other medium-size banks.

That said, on precautionary grounds government officials felt — understandably — that they needed to find a way to guarantee all of S.V.B.’s deposits.

It’s important to note that this doesn’t mean bailing out stockholders: S.V.B. has been seized by the government, and its equity has been wiped out. It does mean saving some businesses from the consequences of their own foolishness in putting so much money in a single bank, which is infuriating — especially because so many tech types were vocal libertarians until they themselves needed a bailout.

Indeed, probably none of this would have happened if S.V.B. and others in the industry hadn’t successfully lobbied the Trump administration and Congress for a relaxation of bank regulations, a move rightly condemned at the time by Lael Brainard, who has just become the Biden administration’s top economist.

The good news is that taxpayers probably won’t be on the hook for much if any money.

It’s not at all clear that S.V.B. was actually insolvent; what it couldn’t do was raise enough cash to deal with a sudden exodus of depositors. Once things have stabilized, its assets will probably be worth enough, or almost enough, to pay off depositors without an infusion of additional funds.

And then we’ll be able to return to our regularly scheduled crisis programming.