Lee Heidhues 9.22.2022

It won’t be a pretty picture in 2023 if, as most pundits and polls predict, Republicans take control of the House of Repesentatives.

What Trump didn’t accomplish on January 6, 2021with his attempted Coup d’etat will take place under the guise of the representatives of the People.

Excerpted from New York Intelligencer – 9.22.2022

Next year, if Republicans have the majority again, they will enter office with far more fury and star power than whatever the tea party brought to bear.

The new class of Republicans will be overwhelmingly loyal to Donald Trump, with many of them elected in primaries that have become, more than anything else, tests of how slavishly devoted a politician can be to the MAGA brand.

It’s Trump’s party in every way, even if he’s indicted, even if Ron DeSantis runs for president. Many of these House Republicans tout all of his conspiracies and fever dreams. They are devoted to the Big Lie of 2020, that Trump somehow didn’t lose an election to Biden.

Unlike the Senate Republican contenders, who have been forced to moderate themselves to appeal to statewide electorates, House Republicans face almost no such pressure, especially in gerrymandered districts. They can be as unhinged as they want to be.

The new class of MAGA Republicans will be far more formidable, in terms of their mass followings and messaging, than any of the kingmakers of the tea-party period.

The 2010s version of the Freedom Caucus never had anyone like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who — with her more than 1 million Twitter followers — possesses all of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s media savvy and will probably be able to mount a presidential bid someday.

Greene, like AOC, has found alternative channels to burnish her brand, growing into a right-wing social-media star almost overnight. Greene’s ascension to the majority will, at the minimum, catalyze all of her pet causes, like declaring the United States a Christian nation, railing against transgender surgery for minors, and QAnon.

Greene will have acolytes and rivals, those with their enormous fanbases in the new majority. Lauren Boebert, the Colorado congresswoman who gained fame for touting her love of assault weapons, is younger than Greene and has even more followers on Twitter.

Twitter isn’t real life, but with a weak speakership, personalities will matter. The two are not exactly friendly, but will be united in their hatred of Biden and the Democrats — or at least in their enthusiasm for impeachment. More young stars of the MAGA movement may be on their way. All of them will be positioned to deny the outcome of the 2024 election too, if Biden or another Democrat manages to triumph.

Presiding over all of this will probably be Kevin McCarthy, the Republican minority leader from California who is not known for his legislative prowess or ability to manage a caucus. He will be a weaker speaker than John Boehner or Paul Ryan, and will probably bow to whatever cause the far right wants to push in a particular month.

He will not be in charge of the House in any real sense, but rather captive to the conspiratorial currents online that fuel Greene, Boebert, and their ideological allies. As his resurrection of Trump after January 6 shows, he will, if necessary, subvert democracy to stay in power.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/09/the-maga-house-will-make-the-tea-party-look-tame.html

Lee Heidhues 9.20.2022

The TOTALITARIAN BIG BROTHER ‘POLICE STATE OF SAN FRANCISCO’ GOES FULL ORWELLIAN BIG BROTHER.

Mayor London Breed. A shameless craven MAGA servant.

Along with her Myrmidon Puppet DA Brooke Jenkins and a now unleashed gang of Cops will run amok and further destroy personal liberty for San Francisco citizens.

George Orwell is turning in his Grave to realize that his predictions in the novel 1984 are coming to pass in of all places, San Francisco.

The four courageous Supervisors who stood up to the pitchfork wielding crowd of paranoid citizenry will ultimately be vindicated.  Connie Chan.  Hillary Ronen. Dean Preston.  Shamann Walton.

The most bizarre moment in this entire tawdry abdication by elected officials came when a harried looking Pacific Heights Supervisor Catherine Stefani uttered the word “FASCIST.”  

Stefani went on to tell her fellow legislators that, “I have an Italian Passport and can leave the country.”  Stefani then voted for the Orwellian legislation.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 9.20.2022

San Francisco police will be allowed to temporarily monitor live video feeds from privately owned surveillance cameras in certain circumstances under controversial legislation approved by city supervisors.

The San Francisco Bar Association, which represents thousands of local attorneys and law firms, issued a blistering critique of the surveillance policy.

Yolanda Jackson, the group’s executive director, signed a seven-page letter to supervisors this month saying that the proposed version of the policy was too vague and far-reaching and would violate residents’ privacy by giving police “access to an ever-growing (and potentially limitless) network of cameras” from a central location without restrictions to prevent unlimited tracking.

“Public safety can be achieved without abandoning residents’ Constitutional rights in favor of unprecedented levels of surveillance,” Jackson wrote on behalf of the association.

The legislation authorizes a new 15-month surveillance policy for the San Francisco Police Department that spells out the conditions in which officers can view real-time security camera video — without first obtaining a warrant — if businesses or homeowners grant permission.

Approved in a 7-4 vote Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors, the policy reflects a compromise between Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Aaron Peskin, both of whom had at one point planned to put competing surveillance measures on the June 7 ballot. Breed and Peskin pulled their measures before the ballot was finalized and then negotiated a legislative deal with the police department.

Under the policy authorized by the legislation, police can request up to 24 hours of access to live surveillance video in three circumstances: to respond to a life-threatening emergency, to decide how to deploy officers during a large event with public safety concerns and to conduct a criminal investigation if allowed for in writing by a captain or higher-ranking SFPD official.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/SFPD-can-access-live-feeds-from-private-security-17455803.php

Lee Heidhues 9.19.2022

Mayor London Breed continues nonstop and unchecked in her attempts to turn San Francisco into a Surveillance Police State.

The Mayor has already accumulated power previously unseen in San Francisco.

The Mayor has placed her allies in many high level political positions.

After leading the Coup d’etat to oust Progressive Chesa Boudin, the Mayor appointed a Puppet District Attorney to do her bidding

Breed has appointed a City Attorney, a member of the Board of Supervisors, three members of the School Board and the General Manager of the Public Utilities Commission in addition to her myriad nominees to Boards and Commissions.

Mayor Breed is living in an alternative universe where she adopts an Orwellian surveillance strategy of rule by placing her allies in key positions, dismissing her critics and handing police all the power they desire.

Breed has made no secret about her goal of giving the cops unlimited power to monitor citizen activities.

Breed’s Orwellian surveillance proposal she is attempting to foist on the citizens of San Francisco will be on camera this week at the Board of Supervisors.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Standard 9.19.2022

Looming at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, is the growing size of the camera networks that SFPD wants to access in real time—and the willingness of their owners to let police use them.

A surveillance proposal heads to the full Board of Supervisors for a vote Tuesday afternoon after clearing the board’s Rules Committee last week in a 2-1 vote.

Richmond District Supervisor Connie Chan cast the dissenting vote at committee.  “To say that this is somehow an additional tool that will make us safer,” she said, “I have doubts.”

Andrew Ferguson, a law professor at American University Washington College of Law and expert on police surveillance, said there is vast difference between a private person using a camera network to do store security, for instance, and police gaining live access to a network.

The distinction is that police can infringe on a person’s rights by following as they go about their daily life—to religious centers or protests, for example.

“Giving police access with only weak police-controlled limitations means you are flipping an on-switch into next-level city surveillance,” he said.

Ferguson said the proposal might be received more critically if the police sought to set up its own citywide, public-facing camera system, rather than seeking live access to an already established privately run network.

“By outsourcing surveillance to businesses and getting the cameras without cost, police have escaped the usual forms of formal accountability,” he said.

Jennifer Jones, a technology and civil liberties attorney at the ACLU of Northern California, said a provision allowing police to do live access for a criminal investigation was particularly ripe for abuse.

The ACLU’s Jones said it was so broad that even a minor offense “could be used for justification for sweeping live surveillance.”

Proponents of legislation, which is sponsored by Mayor London Breed, have tried to strike a balance between civil liberties concerns and giving police a tool to fight crime. They also included a 15-month sunset provision and a requirement that SFPD publicly report on its live video usage.

https://sfstandard.com/criminal-justice/how-sf-is-about-to-take-police-surveillance-to-the-next-level/

Lee Heidhues 9.19.2022

$737,000 now spent by the wealthiest San Franciscans to strangle environmental progress and ignore climate change.

The De Young Museum Destruction Derby to Destroy JFK Promenade rolls along as wealthy politically connected donors continue to barrel ahead.

Just today the deep pockets benefactors of the De Young Museum, with their sense of entitlement and greed unlimited, dumped another $150,000 into their campaign to protect the profits of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

These wealthy people pay nothing more than lip service to the environment and a healthy San Francisco.

These people want cars, once again, to turn JFK Promenade into a parking lot to the detriment of thousands of San Franciscans who enjoy this car free oasis.

This evil, selfish campaign must be crushed on November 8, 2022.

FAMSF Contribution 75K 9.19.2022

FAMSF 75K II Contribution 9.19.2022

Lee Heidhues 9.18.2022

District Attorney candidate John Hamasaki kicked off his campaign to oust the Puppet DA Brooke Jenkins on a damp rainy Sunday at 518 Mission Street before an enthusiastic crowd of over 50 supporters.

John Hamasaki, a former member of the San Francisco Police Commission and criminal defense attorney, knows better than anyone how the political system works. The Puppet DA will have plenty of money and is a known commodity in the mainstream media.

Launching his campaign, Hamasaki jokingly told his crowd that he had to call up his high school friends from 25 years ago. “Hi. This is John. How’s it going? I’m running for DA and need your help.” The response, according to John, “You? Really?”

“Yes. I need some money.”

The stakes are high. Mayor London Breed was the leader of the 9MM MAGA funded Coup d’etat which ousted Progressive DA Chesa Boudin.

Breed continues to consolidate her power.

The Mayor cannot be allowed to continue running rough shod politically over San Francisco with her law and order Administration. Policies being aggressively implemented by her handpicked Puppet District Attorney who continues to tear down the work of her predecessor.

Supervisor Dean Preston, neighborhood activist Gloria Berry and a retired Judge exhorted the troops to push hard in the next 51 days to elect a DA who is independent, will fight for Progressive Justice and toss out the ethically challenged opportunist interim DA Brooke Jenkins.

The candidate steps out in the Mission District

Top photo – Liz Heidhues, fighter for Justice, flashes the V for Victory salute wearing her Me-Too-Cap. The same cap she wore to the Women’s March on Market Street the night of Trump’s inaugural – 1.20.2017.

Lee Heidhues 9.16.2022

The Speaker was in The House today.  Though the House she entered was not her usual place of business.  It was Berlin. Historic center of European history.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 9.16.2022

“We will persist until the guns are silent,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters at a news conference in Berlin on Friday, alongside the leaders of the German, Ukrainian and European parliaments.

“It requires substantial security support, humanitarian assistance, economic assistance — and sanctions, sanctions, sanctions that make sure that Russia feels the pain of this.”

Pelosi touted the bipartisan support for Ukraine, which is no small feat in bitterly partisan Washington, D.C.

“This war must be won,” she added, promising more money to come.

It was against this backdrop that Pelosi met with Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Friday. They met once before in their current roles, just days before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February.

Pelosi’s main reason for the journey is a G7 meeting with parliamentary counterparts, and her encounter with the chancellor was brief. But it was a chance for the two allies to size each other up ahead of a winter that is likely to be critical for both.

Don’t say it too loudly, but Germany is on a war-like footing. It may not feel like it, because bombs aren’t falling on German cities and German troops aren’t fighting in other countries. Yet the fiscal response to the pandemic, climate change, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put Germany in a state of crisis.

Whether it’s through efforts to save jobs, secure energy supply or rebuild its military, Germany is raising debt and splashing out billions in ways it has rarely done since World War II. As often happens in war, some goods have become scarce, and inflation is surging.

“It’s hard, particularly in Germany, to say that word ‘war,’ but it’s also important to say it and understand what it means,” JD Bindenagel, a former senior US diplomat to Germany and now senior professor at Bonn University, told DW.

“The gas is hybrid warfare. The collateral damage is the inflation,” he added, referring to Russia’s throttling of its natural gas deliveries, on which Germany has long been dependent.

https://www.dw.com/en/german-chancellor-olaf-scholz-meets-us-speaker-nancy-pelosi-in-berlin-amid-war/a-63146276

Top Photo – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz 9.16.2022

Lee Heidhues 9.15.2022

I, again, inspected the site of the New Zealand Christmas tree which City workers cut a major root and endangered this precious specimen,

Despite a binding Order from the Public Utilities Commission to preserve the decades old treasure.

The City has blatantly disregarded The Order.

Workers continue laying pipe to water the greens and benefit an elite entitled Class of Golfers at the City owned Lincoln Park Golf Course.

WD-2852_Decision_on_appeal_Tree_Removal_lyman

Despite sending numerous messages to the responsible City officials it appears work has again commenced.  The tree appears to be increasingly at risk. A Certified Arborist inspected the tree.

One of the Arborist’s qualifications is TREE RISK ASSESSMENT QUALIFIED.

What is the ‘Risk’ to the wantonly damaged tree?

What is the ‘Assessment’?

As a prevailing Party there needs to be transparency.

Lee Heidhues 9.13.2022

For those who like high wire political intrigue, Berlin Station is the series to watch.

I have been transfixed plowing through the three seasons of the Epix series.

The main characters work for the CIA at the American Embassy in Berlin next to the Brandenburg Gate.

Now viewing the third, and final, season released in 2018, I am struck at how prescient were the creators. The story line details a Russian attempt to take over Estonia.

Little did the creators realize what would happen in Ukraine in 2022.

Season one – 2016 – involves a Mole inside the CIA Berlin Station, the Islamic State and a terror plot against Berlin.

Season two – released in 2017 – involves the political machinations of a fictional right wing political party trying to win control of the German Bundestag. The fictional party is based on the actual Germany political party, Alternative for Deutschland. The AfD now has 80 seats in the German legislature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Station_(TV_series)Berlin

Lee Heidhues 9.12.2022

The People fighting to save JFK Promenade must understand they are up against Big corporate and political interests who will spend whatever it takes to drive their way to victory.

In the past two business days the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco has poured another 150K into its selfish profit driven fight to return cars to JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park.

FAMSF 75K contribution 9.9.2022
Name of Filer: ID number 1243227

Corporation of the Fine Arts Museums

FAMSF 75K contribution 9.12.2022
Name of Filer: ID number 1449299

Access for All, Yes on I, No on J, Sponsored by Corporation of the Fine Arts Museums and Open the Great Highway Alliance.

Note: The ‘Open the Great Highway Alliance’ is the same organization which sued the City and County of San Francisco earlier this year to force an immediate reopening of both JFK Promenade and The Great Walkway to cars. That case is now in the California Court of Appeal. Open the Great Highway Alliance v. Ginsburg et al. A164797.

The name of the Filers may be different but these organizations are different in name only on the California Form 497 Contribution Report.

The phone number for both “Contributions” is the same. It is the phone number for the Sutton Law Firm at 150 Post Street in San Francisco.

This information is public record and readily available at the San Francisco Ethics Commission website.

https://sfethics.org/