Photo above posted by a Twitter account linked to Dmitri Mishin shows the Schneerson Center shooting suspect wearing a Nazi uniform.

Lee Heidhues 2.8.2023

Folks just don’t want to believe there are Nazis lurking in the streets of San Francisco.

Shocking as it may seem and impossible to comprehend, these despicable people can be found in my quiet Outer Richmond District neighborhood close by the Pacific Ocean.

Nazis are depraved and dangerous people who need to be stamped out and obliterated.

This horrific story was first picked up by the Northern California Jewish Weekly and is now making its way into the mainstream media.

The Standard 2.8.2023

A man who appears to have posted Nazi imagery on social media before firing blanks from a pistol in a San Francisco synagogue will face allegations that he committed a hate crime, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Dmitri Mishin, 51, was arrested following a bizarre chain of events that peaked Feb. 1 when he allegedly fired the fake gunshots at a gathering of worshippers inside the Richmond District’s Schneerson Center.

On Wednesday, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins decided to file numerous charges against him including hate crime allegations and counts of making threats, obstructing a religious meeting and brandishing a replica firearm.

“This is another deplorable example where our Jewish community has been targeted for who they are and what they believe,” Jenkins said in a statement. “There is no doubt that antisemitism is real and we must stand with our Jewish community against it.”

The startling incident rattled a close-knit community in the Richmond District that includes many Russian-speaking immigrant elders. But religious leaders weren’t sure what to make of it until social media posts emerged showing the gunman may have harbored antisemitic views—and even dressed like a Nazi.

“I’m happy this person is getting the charges he deserves,” said rabbi Alon Chanukov, “and I hope that he’s put away for a very long time and that the community can unify against this behavior.”

The shooting has raised security concerns for the Schneerson Center, a storefront synagogue located on a largely residential section of Balboa Street.

Police have placed a patrol car outside the building on Shabbat, the weekly Sabbath when there are more worshippers, Chanukov told The Standard a day before the charges were announced. But it’s unclear how long that will last.

“The big synagogues already have the guards; they have the funding, everything,” he said.

Mishin is expected to be arraigned Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.

https://sfstandard.com/criminal-justice/man-linked-to-nazi-imagery-accused-of-hate-crime-in-san-francisco-synagogue-shooting/

Liz Heidhues response to Cara Levine, an artist grappling with some of the most pressing issues of our time, including police brutality, climate change, and the Covid-19 pandemic, inviting the public to share personal stories of loss.

“Cara Levine – To Survive I Need You to Survive”

The exhibit opens at the Contemporary Jewish Museum February 16, 2023.

Liz Heidhues has been a CJM member for nearly a decade.

Today, I am grieving…

A true story of Injustice in 21st Century San Francisco …

my loss of innocence, civil liberties, and life savings …

from two False Citizen’s Arrests in my old age 4.12.18 and 2.8.20 …

I was to go to the Symphony the afternoon of 4.12.18 …

Instead I lay on a hard wooden ledge in a filthy prison cell waiting for my husband to ride his bicycle with $20K cash in 200 $100 bills stuffed into his backpack …

riding against rush hour traffic from our bank where we had a modest savings account to the Hall of Justice …

where he posted bail allowing me to return to our home of 39 years …

in San Francisco, Amerika.

Lee Heidhues 2.5.2023

The imbroglio involving the Chinese Balloon is nothing more than a distraction from the real issues facing America.

Racism, income inequality, gun violence and the spread of right wing orthodoxy in the United States.

The bogus security threat of the Chinese balloon, broadcast far and wide by the mainstream media, is mind candy for the masses.

A crass appeal to America’s historic racist, xenophobic isolationist instincts.

Excerpted from Medium 2.4.2023

The US has now popped China’s spy balloon with a missile, but not before the big Beijing gas bag wreaked havoc on the country.

Long-term effects will undoubtedly result, and of course will occur in the long term, but this series of cataclysmic events immediately transpired:

💥 The sky official fell

This news in a late-breaking report by reporter Chick N. Little

💥 Prices of the scrumptious, and always popular, Panda Express Orange Chicken skyrocketed

Since the balloon was actually an Orange Chicken delivery drone for Panda E., the shortage of the best Chinese dish ever, was sudden AND acute. There’s now talk that Panda will have to switch to Yellow Chicken to satisfy customer demand. Even paler chicken shades are being discussed by top execs at the fast food behemoth.

💥 Midwesterners finally had something to talk about

As the balloon drifted over the country’s midsection, people living there took a break from discussions about corn, cheese, potatoes, and football and turned their eyes heavenward.

Then they began talking about the weather.

💥 Florida Governor, Ron Desatan, missed out on the opportunity to say something incredibly stupid and racist

The heat rising from this backward nation (Florida), that’s still part of the US, likely prevented the spy balloon from drifting into Floridian air space.

Sorry Ron.

But buck up, rumor has it that a cavalcade of Gay, Black, transgender Disney characters are massing at your State’s northern border and preparing to invade.

💥 Chinese Spy Balloon-inspired bouquets

Will be all the rage for Valentine’s Day.

Lee Heidhues 2.4.2023

It is nearly one year since Vladimir Putin unleashed his vicious assault on Ukraine.

As the days, weeks, months pass by the Ukrainian people continue to suffer and die under this brutal attack on an independent nation.

Inside Russia a few courageous citizens – in the face of suppression, arrest and prison – are standing up to Putin and his ongoing war of aggression.

Excerpted from The Moscow Times 2.4.2023

Russians continue to memorialize the dozens of Ukrainians killed in last month’s Russian missile strike on the city of Dnipro — one of the deadliest single incidents of Moscow’s invasion — in what has evolved into a new nationwide form of anti-war protest. 

Makeshift displays of flowers, stuffed toys and handwritten notes have sprung up in at least 60 cities across Russia, often by statues of Ukrainian poets Taras Shevchenko and Lesya Ukrainka — or by monuments to victims of Soviet-era political repression.

“It’s a statement against the war, not just mourning for the dead people in Dnipro,” said one woman who laid flowers at a memorial in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk.

“I couldn’t stay silent,” she told The Moscow Times in an anonymous interview conducted with the aid of youth opposition movement Vesna. 

Images of the destroyed apartment block, civilian casualties and desperate rescue attempts in the aftermath of the Jan. 14 strike in Dnipro served as a shocking reminder of the devastation caused by the Ukraine war and evoked anger and shame among some Russians. 

The ongoing tributes to victims of the Dnipro attack are the first nationwide anti-war protests since demonstrations against the country’s “partial” mobilization in September.

They have even earned their own name: “flower protests.”

Almost three weeks after the deaths in Dnipro, new memorials continue to appear. 

“I decided to lay flowers at a local memorial to show that not all Russians lack compassion toward Ukrainians,” said a man from the Khanty-Mansiisk autonomous district in another anonymous interview conducted via Vesna.

“I was thinking about the Dnipro attack victims and what it must have been like to be under the rubble.”

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/02/03/i-couldnt-stay-silent-anti-war-flower-protests-spread-to-60-cities-across-russia-a80129

Top photo – The aftermath of the Russian missile attack on Dnipro on Jan. 14.

Lee Heidhues 2.3.2023

I hope the mountain lion remains free to live its life uninterrupted by humans.

“CDFW and allied agency personnel have been denied access to the primary private property and adjacent private properties.”

I appreciate the fact that State officials respected property rights to stop the hunting down a protected species.

The mountain lion was undoubtedly and understandably afraid when it was approached by a human being.

The mountain lion was protecting itself from what it perceived as a threat.

I hope the injured boy is not forever traumatized.

The mainstream media was quick, with no justification whatsoever, to label the incident in which a five year old was injured a “vicious attack.” Scare tactics which do nothing more than titillate the audience.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 2.3.2023

California wildlife officials have called off the search for a mountain lion responsible for attacking and injuring a 5-year-old boy in San Mateo County.

Jack Trexler was attacked around 6:50 p.m. Tuesday while he was walking with his mother and grandparents along Tunitas Creek Road in rural San Mateo County. California wildlife officials searched for the cougar near the scene that night but were unable to locate it.

Jack’s mother, Suzie Trexler, charged the cougar when she saw it attack and it released her son, whom she scooped up and carried to safety. The boy was “taken to the ground” by the cougar and suffered several lacerations to his face as well as a fractured bone near his eye, according to his aunt, Amie Wagner.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife stated in a tweet on Friday that agency staff he been denied access to private property near the site of the attack, which complicated their efforts to track the mountain lion. They said lack of access and inclement weather, combined with the “nomadic” nature of mountain lions, had reduced their chances of successfully catching the animal.

“Since the day of the attack, CDFW and allied agency personnel have been denied access to the primary private property and adjacent private properties for the purpose of attempting to capture the offending mountain lion,” the tweet said.

The agency also reported Friday that it was able to use DNA to confirm that a mountain lion was responsible for the attack.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/state-wildlife-officials-unable-to-catch-mountain-17763190.php

Lee Heidhues 2.1.2023

Times are tough for law & order crime fighter Heather Knight.

She NO longer has her favorite Scapegoat Chesa Boudin to kick around anymore. What’s a Nightcrawler scribe gonna do? She needs a new target. How about Mayor Breed and her handpicked Personal shopper DA Brooke Jenkins?

This should have been the Lede in the Story. Not buried near the end. “Mayor London Breed hasn’t agreed to an interview on the subject. I approached her at a public event last week to ask about the Black Magic burglary and if she’s satisfied with the level of service her police officers are providing the public. She said to direct questions to her spokesperson and walked off.”

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 2.1.2023

It sounds like the opening minutes of a noir-ish “Law and Order.” But the episode — let’s call it “Burglary at the Black Magic” — would have ended before the first commercial break. After the theft, pretty much nothing happened until I started asking questions. It’s just the latest instance of San Francisco police seeming to shrug off crime, contributing to a city short on law or order.

It was early in the morning on Friday the 13th, and Mick Martinez sensed trouble at the Black Magic Voodoo Lounge.

The Lombard Street bar was closed that January morning, but its front window was open — and its curtain blew in the breeze. Martinez, a neighbor out walking his dog, figured somebody broke in. He used the flashlight on his cell phone to peer inside and shouted, “OK, fellas! The game’s over!”

Remarkably, it took nearly 15 hours for police to respond after the bar’s owner, Joe Vernieri, called in the burglary. Even though other burglaries of small businesses in the area — including one two days before at Chico’s Pizza on the same block — had just taken place. And strangely, when cops finally did get to the Black Magic, it was at 3:44 a.m. the next morning even though California bars must close at 2 a.m. Obviously, nobody would be there to give them information and the visit was pointless.

Mayor London Breed hasn’t agreed to an interview on the subject. I approached her at a public event last week to ask about the Black Magic burglary and if she’s satisfied with the level of service her police officers are providing the public.

She said to direct questions to her spokesperson and walked off.

Her spokesperson, Jeff Cretan, later wrote in an email that understaffing “is a very real challenge” but the city is paying officers overtime, as well as adding street ambassadors and crisis response teams to supplement regular police work.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/bayarea/heatherknight/article/san-francisco-police-crime-17755470.php

Artwork cartoons by Liz Heidhues

Top cartoon – Mayor Breed with her minions. Handpicked Supervisor Matt Dorsey, Puppet DA Brooke Jenkins and Assistant DA Nancy Tung

Lee Heidhues 1.28.2023

Tonight I pulled out one my first CDs. Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1 (1995)

The most haunting piece is “Miss Sarajevo.” The song is composed by U2 leader Bono. Luciano Pavorotti is the tenor voice in this memorable composition from the movie of the same name.

The liner notes in the CD read:

“Bill Carter’s award winning documentary “Miss Sarajevo” chronicles one of the more bizarre events of the war in former Yugoslavia – when several artists mounted an elaborate beauty contest under mortar fire. The camera follows the organizers through the tunnels and cellars of the the city, giving a unique insight into life during a modern war, where civilians are the targets. The film captures the dark humor of the besieged Sarajevans, their stubborn refusal to be demoralized, and suggests that surrealism and dadaism are the appropriate responses to fanaticism.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Sarajevo#:~:text=The%20film%20Miss%20Sarajevo%20is,old%20blonde%20named%20Inela%20Nogi%C4%87.

Lee Heidhues 1.27.2023

The legal effort to destroy JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park and the The Great Walkway along the San Francisco shoreline may be over soon.

The California Court of Appeal in San Francisco appears to be bringing down the curtain on the last ditch legal effort which began in December 2021 in San Francisco Superior Court.

Failing to obtain an injunction in early 2022 ordering JFK Promenade and The Great Walkway be open to cars the plaintiffs, Open the Great Highway Alliance, took their case to a higher Court.

Turns out funding for this legal effort came from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

This fact came to light during last year’s FAMSF campaign for Proposition I and its opposition to Proposition J. Both efforts were funded by the FAMSF and its politically connected former Chair of the Board of Trustees.

Dede Wilsey wrote the 200K check paying the mercenary signature gatherers to qualify the ill fated Proposition I for the November 8, 2022 ballot.

It was a wasted effort. Proposition I was defeated by 65 percent of the voters. Proposition J, placed on the ballot by the Board of Supervisors, won an overwhelming 63 percent majority. Assuring car free JFK Promenade and The Great Walkway.

The soon to die lawsuit was the last gasp effort of the long entitled motorists.

After spending 800K to oppose car free areas on the ballot it appears Dede Wilsey and the FAMSF have finally seen the writing on the wall. No longer willing to bankroll this quixotic legal fight. A financial drain and more importantly bad for their image as stewards of culture in San Francisco.

San Francisco Ethics Commission filings for the FAMSF listed Open the Great Highway Alliance as a Filer. The same group which sued to bring cars back to these now car free spaces.

The following is from the Court of Appeal website. The Court is saying it is going to grant the City’s latest Request for Judicial Notice and, barring something extraordinary, will “DISMISS THE APPEAL AS MOOT.”

Lee Heidhues 1.26.2023

I have been subscribing to and reading The Nation since my time as a journalism student at San Francisco State University.

It is must reading and the name Victory Navasky and The Nation have always been inseparable.

Victor Navasky’s death at age 90 is a loss for journalism, political discourse, the United States and the world.

NPR – 1.24.2023

A left wing political luminary has died. Journalist Victor S. Navasky died at the age of 90.

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

Navasky ran The Nation, one of the oldest magazines in America, with a sharp progressive bent. He started as editor in 1978, a year when teachers’s strikes and the Camp David Accords ruled the headlines. He also worked as the magazine’s publisher, and then publisher emeritus until his death Monday at a hospital in New York. The cause was pneumonia, his son Bruno Navasky told NPR.

“For many years, we had a bad joke: If it’s bad for the country, it’s good for The Nation,” Navasky told NPR in 2009. He was alluding to the magazine’s pointed criticism of the George W. Bush administration and the soaring number of subscriptions his publication saw after the advent of the second Gulf War. “It’s a rallying point for people who feel that they’re not represented at the highest levels of power.”

Navasky, the second child of a clothing manufacturer, was also a scion of the Upper West Side in Manhattan. He attended progressive educational institutions, including Rudolph Steiner School and Swarthmore College. After a stint in the U.S. Army, he enrolled in Yale Law School and quickly became part of the journalism establishment, working for The New York Times as an editor, writer and columnist.

But it was at The Nation that Navasky’s singular voice became a clarion call for the left. He mentored other writers whose playful prose and sense of satire breathed wit into what had been an occasionally pedantic publication, among them Christopher Hitchens, Calvin Trillin, Katha Politt and Alexander Cockburn.

Navasky appreciated the work of making news stories passionate and beguiling. He told NPR he watched Fox News for years, because Bill O’Reilly and other Fox stars were so entertaining. He even claimed to welcome the channel’s conservative check on Democratic administrations. But Navasky added he missed progressive voices in mainstream media.

“It is a credibility problem if you don’t — if you distort, omit or otherwise demagogue against the opposition,” he said.

Navasky, for whom entertainment and ethics were always intertwined, wrote the National Book Award-winning book Naming Names which told the story of Hollywood blacklisting, as well as other titles, including Kennedy Justice and A Matter of Opinion, which won the George Polk book award in 2005.

A statement provided to NPR from his family said Navasky “usually had nothing but kind words for everyone he encountered — even adversaries — and took a particular joy in his close relationships with family and a few select friends who were with him through to the very end.”

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/24/1151122377/journalist-victor-s-navasky-has-died-for-years-he-led-the-nation

Lee Heidhues 1.25.2023

The following article may be about nearby Santa Cruz, the coastal town just 73 miles south of The Great Walkway in San Francisco.

San Francisco City Hall needs to get its proverbial head out of the sand and pay attention.

What is going on in Santa Cruz is equally true for the Great Walkway. It took an overwhelming majority of the electorate last November to maintain a partially free space along the Pacific Ocean.

San Francisco officials must continue to push for a permanently car free oasis along the ocean front. If the bureaucrats don’t do it, Mother Nature will take care of it for them.

In short. It is long past the time when politicians listen to the spoiled entitled motorists.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Standard 1.25.2023

“The storm has reminded us that we can’t just keep putting Band-Aids on things,” said Gary Griggs, a UC Santa Cruz researcher who specializes in climate and coastal science.

“We need to think longer term, and realistically, there’s nothing we can do over the long term to hold back the Pacific Ocean. It’s coming, and it’s coming for us.”

While the January storms may have hastened the damage, climate experts say to expect more of these once-rare weather events. And figuring out how to plan for them, and the rising seas in general, is not a problem unique to Santa Cruz or even California. Coastal cities up and down the state have been grappling with similar challenges, debating the idea of “managed retreat,” which focuses on relocating property and infrastructure and planning for sea level rise instead of fighting it.

“Pretty much all the places we identified [as hazards], there are problems now,” said David Revell, a coastal geomorphologist who consulted on the city’s plan. 

While consulting on the plan, Revell said his group found that prioritizing recreation—particularly access to the city’s world-class surfing—would have the most economic benefit to the city and community, especially compared to the expensive status quo of constant emergency repairs. 

“If we keep armoring, we’re going to lose those surf spots much faster than if we allow erosion to continue or look at ways to add more sand to the beaches,” Revell said. “I think dodging cars is probably not the long-term answer.”

But ultimately, Griggs said, there’s no stopping the inevitable. 

“All protection ends somewhere,” Griggs said. “You can’t build a wall to hold back 10 feet of sea level rise.”

https://sfstandard.com/weather/future-of-iconic-coastal-road-in-doubt-following-january-storms/

Top photo – Coastal erosion in Santa Cruz – just 73 miles south of The Great Walkway in San Francisco