Lee Heidhues 10.6.2022

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco has spent nearly $700,000 to destroy JFK Promenade.

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco just dumped another $75,000 into its selfish greed driven campaign to destroy Golden Gate Park’s car free Oasis and bring cars back to JFK Promenade. (see attached)

FAMSF 75K 10.3.2022

On September 24, 2022 The ‘Access for All, Yes on I, No on J Sponsored by Corporation of the Fine Arts Museums and Open the Great Highway Alliance’ reported TOTAL CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED $618,135.65 (see attached)

FAMSF Form 460 9.29.2022

I have reported earlier that the Corporation of the Fine Arts Museums is using its Staff to work on the attempt to destroy JFK Promenade.

https://leesperspective.com/2022/09/28/desperate-de-young-museum-paying-its-employees-to-destroy-car-free-jfk-drive/

It can be expected that in the next 33 days the Fine Arts Museums will do whatever it takes to destroy JFK Promenade.

Lee Heidhues 10.5.2022

This has been a shameful dismal performance by San Francisco officialdom.

Joshua Klipp, Liz Heidhues and I went through the entire Appeal process to preserve the beautiful New Zealand Christmas Tree at 39th Avenue and Clement Street.

We prevailed. Yet, the City went its own merry way and totally blew off the Decision by its own SFPUC Hearing Officer.

It has been nearly month since we learned that the City and County of San Francisco willfully ignored the Final Decision by an San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Hearing Officer on July 6, 2022. Workers from the Recreation and Parks Department wantonly cut away a 9″ root on the tree.

In that Decision the Hearing Officer ordered the City to preserve the decades old New Zealand Christmas Tree at 39th Avenue and Clement Street.

WD-2852_Decision_on_appeal_Tree_Removal_lyman

On September 26, 2022 after nearly three weeks of imploring the SFPUC, The Department of Public Works, the Bureau of Urban Forestry and the Recreation and Parks Department we received the following on September 26.

It now appears the mission to install a water pipe to accommodate the entitled class of golfers at Lincoln Park Golf Course is complete. The tree has been severely damaged in the process.

Whether it is able to survive only time will tell.

Lee Heidhues 10.5.2022

It’s takes a lot of guts for a journalist to stand up to war mongering thug dictator Vladimir Putin.

There is no freedom of the press in Russia where the media is nothing more than a State owned subsidiary of Putin.

Marina Ovsyannikova says she refuses to comply with a restraint order because she is ‘completely innocent’.

The Guardian 10.5.2022

Marina Ovsyannikova, the former state TV editor who interrupted a news broadcast to protest against the Ukraine war, has said she decided to escape house arrest because she was “innocent”.

“Put a tag like this on Putin,”  Ovsyannikova said, pointing to what appeared to be an electronic ankle tag. “It should be him, not me, who has to be isolated from society and prosecuted for committing genocide in Ukraine.”

On Monday, Russia put her on a wanted list after her ex-husband said she had escaped house arrest with her young daughter.

Ovsyannikova’s lawyer, Dmitry Zakhvatov, said she failed to attend a court hearing on Wednesday morning, which was held in absentia after investigators were not able to establish her location.

“I consider myself completely innocent, and since our state refuses to comply with its own laws, I refuse to comply with the measure of restraint imposed on me as of 30 September 2022 and release myself from it,” Ovsyannikova said on Wednesday in a statement posted on her social media channels.

Ovsyannikova also published a short video from an undisclosed location, in which she criticised Vladimir Putin for the war in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian-born Ovsyannikova, 44, gained international attention in March after bursting into a studio of Channel One, her then employer, to denounce the Ukraine war during a live news bulletin, holding a poster reading “no war”. At the time, she was fined 30,000 roubles (£460) for ignoring protest laws.

Ovsyannikova continued protesting against the war after quitting her job at Channel One and was charged in August with spreading false information about the Russian army for holding up a poster that read “Putin is a murderer, his soldiers are fascists” during a solo protest on the Moskva River embankment opposite the Kremlin. She was subsequently placed under house arrest in Moscow to await trial and was facing up to 10 years in prison if found guilty.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia has launched an unprecedented crackdown on protesters, independent news outlets and foreign social media networks. In early March, Putin signed off on a draconian law imposing a jail term of up to 15 years for spreading intentionally “fake” news about the military, in effect criminalising any public criticism of the war.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/05/russian-journalist-fled-house-arrest-marina-ovsyannikova

Lee Heidhues 10.4.2022

AMERICAN MASSACRES – UC COLLEGE OF LAW SAN FRANCISCO EDITION

The arrogance of White Americans in denying their brutal racist history continues.

No sooner did Governor Newsom sign legislation changing the name of UC Hastings from one which honored a landowner who sponsored massacres against Native Americans did heirs of Serranus Hastings file a lawsuit.

Rather than acknowledge the family’s history in crimes against Californian’s original inhabitants these Entitled people want compensation for the crimes of their forbear.

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

Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 10.4.2022

Days after Gov. Gavin Newson signed a bill to reverse an 1878 law requiring that UC Hastings College of the Law forever keep its founder’s name — or the state must repay descendants $100,000 plus interest — six family members sued on Tuesday to get their money back.

Historians say that Hastings, a wealthy rancher who was angry at cattle thieves, petitioned the government for militias to carry out the massacres.

“There’s no denying there were atrocities against the Native people,” plaintiff Scott Hastings Breeze of Oregon, Serranus Hastings’ great-great-great grandson, said at San Francisco Superior Court.

“Serranus Hastings petitioned the government for militias for protection” for his cattle. “There’s no direct proof” that he committed crimes, he said.

Besides, “it was a different world in 1860.”

The suit rejects the claim that the founder was a racist who sponsored massacres of Native people. It says that unless the state keeps the name, it must pay up.

Descendants of the Round Valley and Yuki tribes massacred during the 19th century participated in the process.

“This was done fairly and justly,” said Nikcole Whipple, secretary of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, Yuki Committee formed in 2020 to work with the school on a name change. Although the Yukis chose Powe’ N’om, meaning “one people,” as their preferred name, “we most definitely opposed ‘Hastings,’” Whipple said.

If California persists in removing Hastings’ name from the law school on Jan. 1, the interest rate would be an annual 7%, family and supporters said Tuesday at a press conference outside San Francisco Superior Court.

After 144 years, California would owe Serranus Hastings’ descendants more than $1.7 billion, The Chronicle calculated. That’s a lot of money, even if it were split among countless Hastings descendants. But the family members who filed the lawsuit said they’d be happy just keeping the name “Hastings.”

Their suit accuses the state and the Hastings directors of breaching the 1878 contract and seeks an injunction to stop the name change. One of the Hastings directors is himself a great-great grandson of Hastings, and voted this summer to get rid of the name.

Harmeet Dhillon, the family’s lawyer, said that Hastings, who was also the first chief justice of the California Supreme Court, has been the victim of “hit pieces.”

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Descendants-of-Serranus-Hastings-sue-state-and-UC-17487289.php

Top photo – Governor Gavin Newsom, surrounded by California Native Americans signs legislation renaming UC Hastings the UC College of Law

Lee Heidhues 10.3.2022

Quote of the Day – 10.2.2022

It is great that little girls now have role models so they, too, can grow up to be crazed world leaders — Arwa Mahdawi

Thanks to Zoe Kelman on Twitter – San Francisco

And, hey “Progressive” San Francisco.  

Don’t forget our ethically compromised role models.  Interim District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and her equally compromised benefactor, Mayor London Breed.

Arcelia Hurtado is a former Assistant District Attorney fired by Jenkins. She  argued earlier that London Breed’s brother, currently serving a 44 year prison sentence for murder, should have his sentence modified. A modification which ousted DA Chesa Boudin approved.

Nonetheless, Breed wants Breed’s brother to remain in prison.

“The mayor’s appointed DA is desperate to make the public believe that she is not a mayoral puppet,” Hurtado said.

Brooke Jenkins crosses her benefactor.

Throws London Breed’s brother to Wolves for political expediency.

The worm turns for Breed.

The Man she drove from office argued to have Breed’s brother’s sentence modified. Jenkins will do anything and throw anyone under the bus to achieve her goals.

Innocent defendants. Chesa Boudin. London Breed. San Francisco’s law and order mob got what it deserved. A totally corrupt, compromised, cunning crook as DA.

Excerpted from The Guardian 10.2.2022

What a fine few weeks for feminism it has been!

First Liz Truss became Britain’s third female prime minister and now Giorgia Meloni is expected to be Italy’s first ever female prime minister.

The former is a deeply unserious person who used to be most famous for a viral rant about cheese before gaining global recognition for helping to crash Britain’s economy in record time.

The latter is the most right-wing Italian leader since 1945: a bigot with a history of homophobic, anti-immigrant and anti-choice views who represents a post-fascist party and hasn’t definitively distanced herself from fascism.

Scrap all those inconvenient facts, though. It’s not their policies or their moral compasses that matter: the most important thing about Truss and Meloni is that they are women. Sisters are doing it for themselves, and all that. (“It” being far-right politics and crashing the economy.)

Like it or not, representation matters: you can’t be what you can’t see. I might not agree with Truss and Meloni’s policies but I can put my lefty political leanings aside for a moment and admit that they are both inspirational trailblazers.

Little girls can finally grow up secure in the knowledge that they have what it takes to help drive the pound to record lows. They can go to sleep at night knowing that authoritarianism isn’t just for the boys. That’s progress, isn’t it? That’s worth celebrating, right?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/27/it-is-great-that-little-girls-now-have-role-models-so-they-too-can-grow-up-to-be-crazed-world-leaders?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Top photo – Italy’s new leader. Far right politico Giorgia Meloni

Lee Heidhues 10.2.2022

They say the Pen is mightier than the Sword.

Liz Heidhues latest cartoon with the caption – “Sure I reaped Fat Bounty ramming SF public safety into Dirty Politics iceberg… 153K for my crass ambition .. Crony appointment to be Puppet DA.”

The political cartoon can be mightier than the written word.

Liz Heidhues political cartoons characterizing the State of Play in San Francisco offer a stinging Indictment of the corruption which seeps from every pore of City Hall.

Liz in a way better than words can convey is illustrating The Corrupt Police State of San Francisco.

Mayor Breed with her Cronies. Puppet DA Brooke Jenkins, appointed Supervisor Matt Dorsey and wannabe DA and failed Police Commission appointee Nancy Tung. Now top assistant to Puppet DA – September 2022

Lee Heidhues 10.1.2022

Several thousand people took to the streets of San Francisco to protest the murder by “morality police” in Iran of a 22 year old woman.

What was her alleged offense? Mahsa Amini refused to wear her hijab properly.

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

It’s positively frightening to realize there are still countries where women are still treated as second class citizens. And are denied basic human rights.

The same can be now said of America where the “morality police”, aka the Supreme Court and Republican legislators, have denied American women the right to choose what to do with their bodies.

Excerpted from The Standard 10,.1.2022

A grassroots organization rallied upwards of 5,000 people to the streets of San Francisco on Saturday to call for justice for Mahsa Amini and freedom in Iran.

The rally was organized by the same group of SF Bay Area Iranian American community leaders that organized a human chain across the Golden Gate Bridge on Sept. 25.

“What’s happening in Iran is the fight towards freedom for all. What you’re witnessing is the biggest movement in the world calling for women’s rights and feminism,” says Farnaz Dadashi, 31, one of the volunteer organizers for the event. 

Amini was a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who was detained by Iran’s so-called “morality police” for allegedly failing to wear her hijab properly. Witnesses say she was beaten while in custody though the police say she experienced heart failure. Amini slipped into a coma and died three days later.

The “Freedom Rally for Iran” crowd repeatedly chanted “Mahsa Amini!” as they marched from Union Square to the steps of City Hall.

Amini’s death has launched protests in Iran and around the world calling for human rights and an end to the country’s dictatorship led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

https://sfstandard.com/community/freedom-rally-for-iran-san-francisco-mahsa-amini/

Photos of San Francisco march by Chris Victoria – The Standard

Lee Heidhues 9.28.2022

Putting it bluntly the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco campaign to destroy JFK Promenade is one of the most disgraceful brazen political efforts in a City in which conniving, bribery, back room deals and cronyism is the coin of the realm.

To date over $750,000 has been reported to the SF Ethics Commission in the attempt to destroy JFK Promenade. Most of it coming from people for whom money is no object when it comes to achieving their goal.  Destruction of a car free sanctuary in Golden Gate Park.

In San Francisco the wealthy benefactors of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, realizing their scorched earth attempt to destroy JFK Promenade is failing, is throwing its own employees into the battle.

The latest disclosure to the Ethics Commission shows  a report of $13,600 listed as

NON-MONETARY CONTRIBUTION OF STAFF TIME

Lets hypothesize and say the FAMSF is paying each employee $100 hourly for her/his work to destroy JFK Promenade. That would translate into well over 100 hours of time in the employ of this environmental destruction derby by the wealthiest connected in San Francisco.

I think there is a better use of these employees time than trying to defeat Proposition J on November 8.

Like making the De Young Museum a welcoming place for its visitors.