Lee Heidhues 10.27.2022

In Putin’s Russia all politics are personal.

Even his goddaughter is supposed to toe the Moscow Line.  Apparently Ksenia Sobchak was not one to play ball with Vladimir and took a trip abroad.

She won’t be back in the USSR anytime soon.

Russian media personality Ksenia Sobchak, the glamorous goddaughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has arrived in Lithuania on an Israeli passport, officials said Thursday.

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

Sobchak is famous in Russia, where she took on various journalistic, celebrity and political roles over the years and has long-standing family ties with President Vladimir Putin. Her late father, former Saint Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak, was Putin’s boss in the 1990s.

Sobchak first rose to fame as a fashionable socialite and reality TV star, but later tried to get rid of her spoiled and arrogant image. She got involved in politics when she joined the massive anti-Putin protests in Moscow in 2011-12, and later reinvented herself as a serious TV journalist and opposition activist.

A day before her property was searched by Russian police as part of a criminal case against her commercial director. The state news agency TASS reported, citing law enforcement agencies, that Sobchak herself was not a suspect.

However, Sobchak hinted on her Telegram channel that the case that triggered the search was politically motivated and linked to a documentary she had made about the use of torture in Russian prisons.

Russian media claimed Sobchak bought tickets to Dubai and Turkey to mislead the authorities but eventually left for Belarus, from where she traveled to Lithuania.

“Citizens of (Israel) do not need a visa and are allowed to stay in the country for 90 days,” Darius Jauniskis, head of Lithuania’s State Security Department, told a local radio station. Jauniskis said Lithuania has no evidence of any threat that Sobchak could pose to national security.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told reporters that “Ms. Sobchak currently is not included in any sanctions list of the EU, UK or the US. This does not mean that it cannot occur.”

Lithuania and other Baltic states along with Poland stopped admitting Russian citizens with valid Schengen visas back in September. Hundreds were turned away, but many entered anyway, after presenting other countries’ passports at the border.

 

Israel’s daily Haaretz newspaper reported in April that Sobchak acquired Israeli citizenship after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

She has often criticized Putin, but many Russian opposition figures have also accused her of serving the Kremlin’s agenda. In 2018, she became a liberal challenger in Russia’s presidential election, finishing a fourth with about 1.7% of the vote.

Her critics called her election campaign an attempt by the Kremlin to lend a democratic touch to Putin’s sweeping re-election. However, Sobchak denied serving Putin’s agenda.

https://www.dw.com/en/ksenia-sobchak-putins-goddaughter-flees-to-lithuania/a-63573592

Lee Heidhues 10.26.2022

Brooke Jenkins needs only to con San Francisco voters for another 13 days.

Brooke Jenkins continues to show herself to be totally in over her head, totally unqualified, and little more than a political creature at the service of Mayor London Breed, the San Francisco Police Department and the the Police Officers Association (POA).

Her latest bizarre stunt of firing one of the most respected jurists in California, Tony Kline, from his role in the Juvenile Court lays bare Jenkins total lack of qualification to be District Attorney. Jenkins said “sometimes we have to make very tough strategic decisions based on the need to promote more public safety.”

How does firing a widely respected jurist “promote more public safety”?

Jenkins wants the voters to forget that she called herself a “Volunteer” as she worked to to destroy her former boss Chesa Boudin. Only coming clean after Chesa was politically lynched. After the Coup d’etat telling the public she actually was paid over $153,000 in “Volunteer” wages by the MAGA reactionaries who ousted the Progressive DA.

Jenkins is now under investigation by the San Francisco Ethics Commission as it looks into her 153K “Volunteer” wages.

Jenkins is also the subject of a Complaint filed with the State Bar for her prosecutorial misconduct.

Bob Egelko is one of the most respected legal affairs writers in the country. What he has to say must be taken seriously.

Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 10.26.2022 – Bob Egelko

Tony Kline is “one of the most thoughtful people we’ve had in the California courts, ever,” said Justice Stuart Pollak, a 20-year veteran of the First District court.

He said the state law allowing each side to challenge a trial judge “encourages judge-shopping,” but added, “I’m not sure you’d want to shop for a better judge than Justice Kline.”

Associate Justice Tony Kline’s removal from newly filed juvenile cases by interim DA Brooke Jenkins leaves only two other judges to handle the cases, and, according to local court observers, is the first “blanket challenge” by San Francisco prosecutors to any judge in recent years.

She initially refused to discuss her challenge to Appellate Justice Tony Kline, but confirmed her action Thursday October 20 in a short-lived debate at San Francisco State University.

Asked by the moderator why she had removed Kline, Jenkins refused to discuss individual cases or past rulings by the judge. But as reported by Mission Local, and confirmed by her office, Jenkins then said, “sometimes we have to make very tough strategic decisions based on the need to promote more public safety.”

Lawyers who have defended juveniles in Kline’s current court say he rules for the prosecution just as often as for the defense and has shown no sign of bias. And Kline is drawing strong support from his former colleagues on the appeals court.

“He’s very thoughtful and he tries to do the right thing in every case,” said Justice Alison Tucher, who served alongside Kline for five years. “He’s interested in a wide range of ideas and he thinks about things deeply.”

Young protesters in the audience brought the proceedings to a halt by repeatedly shouting the names of people killed by San Francisco police. Their leaders said afterward they were angry about Jenkins’ apparent lack of urgency in prosecuting police and her stated willingness to charge 16- and 17-year-olds as adults for serious crimes, reversing policies of Chesa Boudin, in whose office she had worked.

John Hamasaki and Joe Alioto Veronese both told The Chronicle this week that Brooke Jenkins’ removal of Kline was wrong and her criticism of him was unfair.

As the protests continued, Jenkins walked off the the stage, leaving her opponents, John Hamasaki, Joe Alioto Veronese and Maurice Chenier, to debate without her.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Citing-public-safety-S-F-D-A-is-still-17536945.php

Lee Heidhues 10.25.2022

Most of America and the World has probably forgotten or is trying to ignore the horrific prison sentence meted out to American professional basketball player Brittney Griner.

Brittney is now looking at spending the next nine years incarcerated in a Russian prison after her Appeal was predictably rejected by a Putin judicial lackey Judge Yelena Vorontsova.

Convicted of possessing a miniscule amount of hash oil, Brittney is just another pawn in warmonger Putin’s assault on Ukraine.

Excerpted from The Moscow Times 10.25.2022

A Russian court on Tuesday rejected American basketball star Brittney Griner’s appeal of her nine-year sentence on drug charges, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported, raising the stakes of U.S. efforts to negotiate her release.

The 32-year-old was handed nine years in prison in August after security officers at a Moscow airport found vape cartridges with a small quantity of cannabis oil in her luggage in February.

She pleaded guilty to the charges but said she did not intend to smuggle drugs into Russia, while her defense lawyers presented doctors’ notes authorizing her to use medical marijuana, which is illegal in Russia

“I really hope that the court will adjust this sentence because it has been very, very stressful and very traumatic,” Griner told the Moscow regional court in the city of Krasnogorsk, appearing via video link.

Judge Yelena Vorontsova announced that the star athlete’s sentence would remain unchanged, RIA Novosti reported.

In a statement published on the White House website, U.S. President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan slammed the court’s ruling as a “sham judicial procedure.”

Statement from National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on the Continued Wrongful Detention of Brittney Griner

We are aware of the news out of Russia that Brittney Griner will continue to be wrongfully detained under intolerable circumstances after having to undergo another sham judicial proceeding today. President Biden has been very clear that Brittney should be released immediately. In recent weeks, the Biden-Harris Administration has continued to engage with Russia through every available channel and make every effort to bring home Brittney as well as to support and advocate for other Americans detained in Russia, including fellow wrongful detainee Paul Whelan. The President has demonstrated that he is willing to go to extraordinary lengths and make tough decisions to bring Americans home, as his Administration has done successfully from countries around the world. The Administration remains in regular touch with representatives of the families, and we continue to admire their courage in the face of these unimaginable circumstances.

“The president has demonstrated that he is willing to go to extraordinary lengths and make tough decisions to bring Americans home, as his administration has done successfully from countries around the world,” the statement reads.

Ahead of the hearing, Griner’s lawyers Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov said in a statement that “Brittney does not expect any miracles to happen but hopes that the appeal court will hear the arguments of the defense and reduce the term.”

Her legal team has the ability to appeal the verdict again in a higher court following Tuesday’s decision.

When she was arrested, the two-time Olympic basketball gold medallist and Women’s NBA champion had been in Russia to play for the professional Yekaterinburg team, during her off-season from the Phoenix Mercury.

Griner’s case came amid fierce tensions between Moscow and Washington over Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine.

In August, Moscow said it was ready to discuss a prisoner swap for Griner, but there has been no apparent progress.

Media reports have suggested that Griner and another American jailed in Russia, Paul Whelan — a former U.S. Marine arrested in December 2018 and accused of spying — could be traded for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms trafficker serving 25 years in jail on a 2012 conviction.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/10/25/russian-court-rejects-us-basketball-star-griners-drug-sentence-appeal-a79187

Lee Heidhues 10.25.2022

The country of Norway has become enmeshed in Putin’s War of Aggression against Ukraine.

The arrest comes on the heels of the sabotage actions against the Nordsteam 2 pipeline which carries natural gas under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Europe.

Putin has severely limited the flow and it is suspected that Russia is responsible for the sabotage.

Deutsche Welle 10.25.2022

The Norwegian domestic security agency on Tuesday said it had detained a visiting academic, who entered the country as a Brazilian, on suspicion of being a Russian spy.

Norwegian officials have arrested several Russian citizens in recent weeks, amid heightened fears over the security of energy, internet, and infrastructure.

What do we know so far?

The Norwegian secret service PST was reported to believe that the man was in Norway working for one of Russia’s intelligence services under a false name and identity.

A spokesman for the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) confirmed a suspected spy had been arrested and that the case was “huge,” without going into further detail.

PST deputy chief Hedvig Moe told the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK that the man had been based at the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsoe.

She said the “Brazilian researcher” would be expelled from the Scandinavian country, “because we believe he represents a threat to fundamental national interests.”

Moe said the security service “is concerned that he may have acquired a network and information about Norway’s policy in the northern region.” “Even if this network or the information bit by bit is not a threat to the security of the kingdom, we are worried that the information could be misused by Russia.”

For the time being, a court placed the suspect under a four-week detention order.

Norwegian media wrote that the individual, who apparently had neither Russian nor Norwegian citizenship, arrived in Norway in 2021. He had reportedly been researching the northern regions, Norway’s Arctic policy, and hybrid threats.

The latest case comes after a slew of arrests of several Russian citizens for flying drones over Norwegian territory, violating a ban that officials imposed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Norwegian police have also arrested Russians on charges of illegally photographing sensitive sites.

There have been heightened fears about key infrastructure in European nations, particularly after underwater explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines. The conduits carry Russian natural gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany, although no supplies were flowing at the time.

Norway is the largest gas supplier to Europe after a drop in flows from Russia since its invasion of Ukraine.

Norwegian officials have said that protecting Norway’s gas exports to Europe against sabotage is a top priority.

After the suspected sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, Oslo deployed its military to protect its oil and gas installations, plus some 9,000 kilometers (5,600 miles) of pipelines.

https://www.dw.com/en/norway-arrests-researcher-as-suspected-russian-spy/a-63555182

Lee Heidhues 10.21.2022

In America the outrage against the Iranian regime quickly dissipated after some photo op protests following the death of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini.

The reality is that the Iranian government continues its violent crackdown targeting young people in a horrific effort to stifle dissent. The Iranian authorities would like to hold the West accountable for its crimes. It won’t work.

The Whole World’s Watching.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 10.21.2022

Security forces are increasingly raiding schools and targeting schoolgirls to put an end to the mass anti-regime protests roiling the country in recent weeks.

According to Amnesty International, at least 23 minors were killed by the unlawful use of force during the protests between September 20 and 30.

Asra Panahi, 16, was a student from the city of Ardabil in northwestern Iran. Wider and fiercer protests erupted in the city following reports that the teenager from the Azeri ethnic minority died on Friday after she was beaten to death by security forces.  

Authorities denied the reports, saying she died because of a chronic heart problem and police did not hit her.

Nevertheless, her death further fueled the public anger that was sparked by the recent death of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini after she was arrested by Iran’s so-called morality police in Tehran for violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.

The Middle East nation has seen mass anti-regime protests nationwide in recent weeks.

It’s reported that Panahi died after security officials raided the Shahed girls high school in Ardabil on October 13 and ordered a group of girls to sing a song praising the Islamic Republic.

When some students refused to participate, they were severely beaten, leading to a number of them being taken to hospital. Panahi was also among them. On Friday, she reportedly died in hospital due to injuries sustained at the school.

Despite widespread internet outages in Iran, the news spread quickly on social media networks.

News agencies close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, like Tasnim, quoted Panahi’s uncle as saying the high school student had died of a heart problem.

But shortly afterwards, a screenshot appeared on the internet, showing that Panahi was a competitive athlete. At the age of 12, she came third in a regional swimming competition in her province.

This information has since been deleted from the swimming federation’s website.

“The truth is that she took her own life,” the mayor of Ardebil was quoted as saying by the news portal Entekhab. “She had taken pills because she had family problems.”

Former national soccer player Ali Daei slammed Iranian authorities on Instagram, saying: “You are not telling the truth.” Many Iranians share this view. Daei, who also played in the German Bundesliga for Arminia Bielefeld, Bayern Munich and Hertha Berlin, is from Ardebil. “I know what happened in my city,” the 53-year-old said. 

This is not the first time authorities have tried to deny responsibility for the death of schoolgirls in the last four weeks.

“We have information showing that at least three more schoolgirls were killed by violent blows to their heads,” Raha Bahreini, Iran expert at Amnesty International, told DW.

Among those killed are 20 boys between 11 and 17 years old and three girls, one of whom was aged 17 and the other two were 16, Bahreini said. “Most of the boys died because the security forces shot at them unlawfully with live ammunition, often at close range. The three girls — Setareh Tajik, Sarina Esmailzadeh and Nika Shahkarami — had all suffered fatal blows to the head.”

The childrens’ families, however, have been pressured to say that their children died as a result of illness or suicide, she said.

https://www.dw.com/en/iran-deaths-of-schoolgirls-further-stoke-public-fury/a-63494532

Lee Heidhues 10.20.2022

If the video feed is to be taken at face value it was not a pretty scene at San Francisco State University on Thursday evening at the District Attorney candidates debate.

Interim DA Brooke Jenkins, who is under investigation for prosecutorial misconduct and ethics violations, made a hasty exit when confronted by  a group of angry protesters. Their anger was encapsulated by the attached poster.

During her 104 day tenure as interim District Attorney, Brooke Jenkins has refused to engage in a serious discussion with her critics. Instead, she has feasted on a fawning Media which has been more interested in her trip to the ice cream shop in West Portal.

Jenkins one dedicated mission is to tear down and undo everything that the Man she ousted in a political coup d’etat put in place during his 30 month tenure.

Brooke Jenkins doesn’t even deserve to be in the same room with Chesa Boudin.

In a debate two days ago, Jenkins was able to walk away unscathed because of the weak format organized by The League of Women Voters.

 Jenkins needs to account for her actions. Tonight’s protesters were making a clear and unambiguous statement they are fed up with her law and order pandering.

The people who are condemning the protesters are of the same ilk which drove a Progressive District Attorney from office.

These are the same type people who, during the four month strike at San Francisco State in the winter of 1968-1969, joined with Ronald Reagan and set him on his way to the White House.

 I was there. I know.

Police State fascism has always been an integral part of Political life in San Francisco. The Power Elite will not let go. Ever.  

Brooke Jenkins is their latest agent of Repression.

Lee Heidhues 10.20.2022

The name Stow Lake is due for a historic name change.

Stow Lake is about to get waved away by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.  Turns out William W. Stow was notorious for both his antisemitic rantings and being a member of the xenophobic Know Nothing party.

Stow Lake has held this name for nearly 130 years. Why it is taking so long to correct this historical error is a legitimate question given the fact Jewish people have long held a prominent political and social place in San Francisco.

Perhaps most prominent is Levi Strauss & Co., a worldwide corporation founded in San Francisco and whose founders were Jewish. 

The landmark Temple Emanuel is just a mile away from Stow Lake.

The Jewish News of California 10.19.2022

Three San Francisco supervisors introduced a resolution this week to change the name of Stow Lake, which for 129 years has honored an openly antisemitic Gold Rush-era politician.

The lake in Golden Gate Park is named after William W. Stow, a California state assemblyman elected in 1853. On the Assembly floor, while arguing with a Jewish tradesman, he said: “I have no sympathy with the Jews and would, were it in my power, enforce a regulation that would eliminate them from not only our county, but from the entire state.” He went on to call for a “Jew-tax so high” that Jews would no longer be able to operate businesses. His comments are recorded in the book “Jewish Voices of the California Gold Rush.”

The resolution, introduced Oct. 18 by supervisors Myrna Melgar, Aaron Peskin and Connie Chan, urges the Recreation and Park Commission to remove Stow’s name from the lake, the surrounding drive and an adjacent boathouse.

The measure lists problematic positions Stow held, his antisemitic rhetoric and policy suggestions, and his allegiance to the xenophobic Know Nothing party.

“Stow Lake is the biggest lake in Golden Gate Park and attracts many tourists and residents as a prominent site for outdoor enjoyment and activities, making it a landmark representing San Francisco and our values,” the resolution says. “Our parks and outdoor spaces are for everyone in our diverse community and should not enshrine names of persons who utilize their positions of power to promote hatred or exclusion.”

Melgar, whose District 7 encompasses Stow Lake, introduced the resolution with two fellow supervisors. Melgar and Peskin are both Jewish.

“I’m pretty confident [the resolution] will go through, because I’ve talked to all of my colleagues about it already,” Melgar told J.

The process starts in the Rules Committee, led by Peskin. If the issue is approved, all 11 supervisors will then vote on the resolution, which requires a simple majority to pass.

After approval by the Board of Supervisors, the resolution would head to the seven-member Recreation and Park Commission, which would have the final say on the name change. The final step would be to “convene a community working group to look at alternative names,” according to Melgar.

Stow’s 1895 obituary (he died “suddenly and wholly unexpectedly,” according to San Francisco’s Call newspaper) said he served as park commissioner and credited him with being responsible for much of the development of Golden Gate Park in the late 1800s.

Melgar said she first became aware of the issue in July when J. informed her about the lake’s namesake; she responded by pledging to take action, saying modern values like inclusivity ought to be reflected in public spaces.

Stow Lake is not the first San Francisco public space to see name-changing efforts. Three years ago, Julius Kahn Playground, named after a 12-term member of Congress in the early 20th century who supported an extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act, was renamed to Presidio Wall Playground.

S.F. supes’ resolution urges renaming Golden Gate Park’s Stow Lake, named for politician who proposed ‘Jew-tax’

Lee Heidhues 10.18.2022

The just concluded final District Attorney debate at the University of San Francisco was boring and infuriating.

Most of all It’s a sad commentary on the State of Political Play in San Francisco.

I kept thinking there is only one reason I am watching this so called debate. An event which never should have taken place.

Because of the Coup d’etat and political lynching of Progressive DA Chesa Boudin, I was forced to spend a wasted evening looking at the woman who was responsible for this charade at USF.

I kept looking for Chesa.

The moderator, Retired California Supreme Court Justice Ming Chin, was more fixated on keeping the audience under control rather than encouraging a genuine debate.

Justice Chin could have served up a more spicy encounter. It was a missed opportunity.

The nearly two hour debate sponsored by The League of Women Voters offered up no fireworks and no surprises because the format, pre-submitted questions, did not allow for any substantive discussion.

Instead, the four candidates answered a series of canned generally non-controversial questions. It would have been more constructive had the candidates been able to grill each other about their positions on the administration of Justice.

John Hamasaki got off the best line of the night when he gave credit to San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight for getting interim DA Brooke Jenkins political career started. A truism which got some laughs and boos from the crowd.

Had a robust fiery back and forth occurred I would have come away more informed. The person who most benefited from this Weak format was interim DA Brooke Jenkins. She was able to skate through the evening with a series of canned photo op style responses.

Actually all the candidates got off easy on what should have been a tough evening. Had it been a real debate….

• Interim DA Brooke Jenkins would have been forced to talk about her 153K “volunteer” payment received from wealthy donors after she resigned DA Chesa Boudin’s office and went to work for his Recall. A payment she only divulged after the Recall election in June. A payment being investigated by the San Francisco Ethics Commission.
• Interim DA Brooke Jenkins would have been forced to talk about her prosecutorial transgressions which the State Bar is now investigating.
• Joe Veronese would have been forced to talk about his proposal that a ballot measure be put before the voters which would enable the DA to select the Chief of Police.
• John Hamasaki would have been forced to talk about his proposal that Minors be allowed to carry firearms in certain situations.

The fourth candidate Maurice Chenier is a political unknown, who presented himself as the most strident tough on crime potential DA. To his credit, he did not disguise his beliefs.

A USF Law School graduate, Justice Chin made the only funny comment of the evening. He talked about his part time work as an “RA” while going through law school and quipped, “I had a lot of bad meals in the cafeteria. I’m glad they didn’t serve dinner tonight.”

Top photo – District Attorney Chesa Boudin on the night of the political coup d’etat which ousted him from office – 6.7.2022

Liz Heidhues 10.16.2022

Purple belt!!

A few weeks ago, I beamed with pride and positivity at Tat Wong Academy when Master Chow verified, I had reached the highest Intermediate level in Kung Fu Martial Arts. In traditional ceremonial flourish, Master Chow presented me with a Certificate of Appointment. He then untied my Green belt from around my waist and replaced it with a bold Purple belt embellished with a Black stripe in its center.

The Black stripe signifies I am a member of the Black Belt Club. Black belt is a rank I promised myself I would earn by the age of 74.

It takes a lot of discipline and practice to attain.

I originally started training in Kung Fu self-defense in 2018, after my first False Citizen’s Arrest and brutal handcuffing.

I shut down after that cruel and unusual experience. My posture was noticeably impacted.

When a colleague exclaimed when I walked by her “Elisabetta! You’re all hunched over!! Like this . .” and proceeded to demonstrate, I realized I was walking around looking like a chewed-up stick of chewing gum.

I had always been interested in self-defense.

Our son earned a Black Belt in Martial Arts when he was a teenager. He was beaten up by sighted kids (he’s Blind) coming home from school one day. He enrolled in a Martial Arts program for the Blind. No one could ever beat up the Blind kid again, even though they threatened to do so many times and once even tried to steal his expensive adaptive equipment off his back. His ferocity scared his attacker off.

Our son was my inspiration to venture into Tat Wong Academy to learn self-defense. If he could overcome his barriers with self-defense training, then I could learn to cope with the debilitating aftermath of a False Citizen’s Arrest in my old age.

Tat Wong Academy was welcoming and compassionate.

Learning how to block attacks and strike back in powerful ways boosted my self-esteem. Mastering the targeted blows and kicks released my anger at the Injustices I had had to swallow.

I advanced from Yellow to Green belts under three kind and highly skilled Masters – stabilizing my posture, improving my physical and inner strengths, growing in self-confidence.

Grandmaster Tat Mau Wong, founder of Tat Wong Academy, shared a few laughs with me whenever he visited the Academy. Age-wise, I placed in a pecking order over Grandmaster Tat Mau Wong, a few years younger than me. He liked to tease me that he was no match for my physical strength and fitness from a lifetime of running, cycling, never owning a car. I admired that his biceps were bigger than mine, and that his agility and adroitness far surpassed me. Grandmaster Wong ardently supported my quest for Black belt.

I felt I was becoming a good fighter. I could successfully punch and kick back at higher level classmates than myself.

But the bottom fell out of my life with a second False Citizen’s Arrest at the age of 70!

Again, I had to process inexplicable police abuse. Again, I had to seek out physical therapy for my back, injured in a second brutal handcuffing. The trauma became too much to deal with.

I totally shut down this time. I stopped doing everything – teaching English, Kung Fu training, relationships, caring about living. I retreated from the world and hid in my kitchen. I didn’t jog, didn’t kick nor hit at imaginary foes, and didn’t practice my religion.

Then the Pandemic hit. The floor dropped out from under me, and my life was forever changed. Tat Wong closed as well as the language school where I had been teaching.

It took 2-1/2 years after my second False Citizen’s Arrest and yet another nightmarish incarceration to return to Kung Fu training.

I am grateful to be back at Tat Wong Academy. I have been working on my self-defense techniques for four months now. I feel safer and more in control with every class I attend. I am making up for lost time.

No longer am I afraid to leave my house. I can hold my head up high and walk again with a straight back, not bent over with the oppressive memories of two False Citizen’s Arrests in my old age.

I’m a survivor. I’m not afraid of anything really, anymore. I have walked through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and I am a survivor.

My Martial Arts training is honing my body and mind to be a Warrior in my elder years – to fight for “Virtue In Action”. I am looking forward to the day when I will earn appointment to Black belt.

When that day comes, I want our Blind son to be there because I want him to know his mother never gave up.

For now – I am thrilled every time I don my Kung Fu uniform and cinch that hard-earned Purple belt with a Black stripe around my waist. It’s a good feeling to be back with my classmates at Kung Fu classes in Tat Wong Academy!

Lee Heidhues 10.16.2022

Putin’s War of Aggression against Ukraine has upended Germany’s goal to rid itself of nuclear energy and coal.

The German demand for energy has now trumped, at least temporarily, the nation’s long sought goal of having a clean energy society.

The Green Party may be part of Germany’s ruling coalition but the political realities are casting a dark shadow over their plans to radically change how the population gets its energy.

Excerpted from The New York Times 10.16.2022

LÜTZERATH, Germany — For months, die-hard environmental activists have camped in the fields and occupied the trees in this tiny farming village in western Germany, hoping that like-minded people from across the country would arrive and help stop the expansion of a nearby open-pit coal mine that threatened to swallow the village and its farms.

The protesters in Lützerath — balaclava-clad environmental activists, middle-class residents from nearby towns and a religious community that recently carried a cross around the village — say they are exhausted by their efforts but plan to keep fighting.

One activist, who refused to take off his white face covering or give his real name out of fear of legal retribution, has lived in a tree house in Lützerath since the spring, and said he was prepared for a showdown with the police when the bulldozers finally come.

They had reason to be optimistic.  Until…….

“Putin’s war of aggression is forcing us to temporarily make greater use of lignite so that we save gas in electricity generation,” said Robert Habeck, the German economy minister and a former leader of the Green party, referring to the low-grade coal under the village. “This is painful but necessary in view of the gas shortage.”

 

In June, Mr. Habeck announced the reopening of some coal plants — a bitter pill after the Greens’ success, just months earlier, at getting the new government to speed up its exit from coal by eight years. When a drought this summer compounded energy jitters by slowing coal transport on rivers, the government gave cargo trains carrying coal and other fuels priority over passenger ones.

Mass protests led the German government to step in and save an old-growth forest from coal expansion just two years ago. And the Green party notched its best showing ever in elections last year, a sign of how fighting climate change had become a winning political issue in Europe’s largest economy.

“If there were 50,000 on the street, politicians would have to do something,” said Eckardt Heukamp, 58, the last farmer remaining in Lützerath, who put up some of the protesters in apartments on his property. Others built tree houses, pitched tents or moved into abandoned houses in the village.

But the hoped-for surge in protesters never materialized. And last week, the government effectively sealed Lützerath’s fate by announcing that RWE, Germany’s largest energy company, needed the coal under the village — to make up for gas that had stopped flowing in from Russia.

The war in Ukraine, and the looming prospect of a winter without cheap Russian fuel, has cooled enthusiasm in Germany for greener policies, at least for now. In a nation that has pledged to wean itself off coal entirely by 2030, it has been an abrupt retreat — and for some, a difficult one.

And yet so far, there has been little public backlash.

A poll taken this summer found that 56 percent of Germans were in favor of turning coal plants back on, with just 36 percent against. That compares to the 73 percent of the population who supported ending coal use “as soon as possible” in a 2019 poll.

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

RWE has long been among the top targets of climate activists, in part as a result of a long-running, high-profile battle to preserve a forest in western Germany that is threatened by the planned expansion of one of the group’s coal mines. RWE also operates some of the largest coal-fired power stations in Europe.^[33]

In 2018, RWE was the largest producer of carbon dioxide emissions in Europe.^[33]

Since 2012, environmentalists have protested against RWE because of the Hambach surface mine situated in the area of Hambach Forest.^[44] In November 2017, in the lawsuit filed by Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND), the German arm of Friends of the Earth, the Higher Administrative Court in Münster ruled to end the tree cutting. According to BUND, Hambach Forest is a habitat type 9160 of annex I of the European Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992).^[45]

Opponents also argue that an environmental impact assessment study for the mine was never conducted. The Administrative Court in Cologne denied the necessity of such a study in November 2017, because the permission for the mining operations was given in the 1970s, long before environmental impact assessment studies became mandatory.^[46] In October 2018, an estimated 50,000 protesters turned out against the company’s planned continued forest clear-cutting for its open-pit coal mine expansion while a court order delayed the process until at least late 2020, to explore if it violated EU environmental regulations.^[47][8]

In September 2021, it was revealed that RWE are among a number of fossil fuel companies suing governments for enacting green policies against climate change. RWE are suing the Dutch government for $1.6bn following their move to phase out and shut down coal power plants.^[48]

Top photo – LÜTZERATH, Germany