Felon Trump Ends Protection for 58M Acres of National Forests

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.23.2025

While the Felon President Trump is waging war in the Middle East back home he is busy destroying decades of environmental protections. Protections backed by presidents of both parties.

Callous Trump doesn’t care. As long as his golf courses remain pristine playgrounds for his wealthy corporate bankrollers.

Excerpted from The New York Times 6.23.2025

The Trump administration said on Monday that it would open up 58 million acres of back country in national forests to road construction and development, removing protections that had been in place for a quarter century.

The unspoiled land in question includes Tongass National Forest in Alaska, North America’s largest temperate rainforest; Reddish Knob in the Shenandoah Mountains, one of the highest points in Virginia; and millions of acres of the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho.

“Most Americans value these pristine backcountry areas for their sense of wildness, for the clean water they provide, for the fishing and hunting and wildlife habitat,” said Chris Wood, the chief executive of Trout Unlimited, an environmental group.

When President Bill Clinton used executive authority to protect the forests weeks before leaving office in 2001, it was hailed by conservationists as the most significant step since President Theodore Roosevelt laid the foundation for the national forest system. It blocked logging, road building and mining and drilling on 58 million acres of the remaining undeveloped national forest lands.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced plans to repeal the 2001 “roadless rule” that had preserved the wild nature of nearly a third of the land in national forests in the United States. Ms. Rollins said the regulation was outdated.

“Once again, President Trump is removing absurd obstacles to common-sense management of our natural resources by rescinding the overly restrictive roadless rule,” Ms. Rollins said in a statement. She said the repeal “opens a new era of consistency and sustainability for our nation’s forests.”

Environmental groups said the plan could destroy some of America’s untouched landscapes and promised to challenge it in court.

Edvard Grieg memorialized the beautiful Norwegian landscape with his Peer Gynt suites. Trump wants to destroy America’s environmental legacy.

They ain’t cheap. High Costs Ended the Love Affair With Cars

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.21.2025

It’s about time. I can say with no small amount of braggadocio that we realized early on that a car is an expensive and wasteful encumbrance.

Even the Wall Street Journal, which gains a substantial part of its advertising income from the behemoth auto industry and its ancillary gatekeepers; i.e. the gas industry felt it time to write about the insidious cost of owning a car. And its impact on the average car owners budget.

It ain’t cheap.

There are a few of us who realized early on how wasteful and expensive is a climate destroying waste of resources. The automobile.

We have never owned a car and successfully fought off the blandishments of the auto industry advertising for nearly six decades. We purchased property. We raised a family, went to work, did our shopping and traveled.

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 6.20.2025

You love them, you want them, you can’t live without them…and they’re costing you a fortune in repairs, insurance and shockingly expensive replacement parts. Dan Neil on why our national obsession with the automobile has turned dangerously codependent.

Most of the yelling is about money. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the total cost to own and operate an automobile averaged a frightening $12,296 in 2024, roughly 30% higher than a decade ago. Driving the numbers are new-vehicle prices, now averaging $48,883, according to Cox Automotive’s latest data. With middle-income buyers priced out of new cars, demand for used cars has strengthened, now averaging around $25,500.

Go ahead, throw a dish. It’ll make you feel better.

Among the major stressors: car insurance. Lexis-Nexis Risk Solutions’ annual report found average insurance costs rose 10% in 2024, after soaring 15% in 2023. Full-coverage policies now average $2,680 annually, up 12% from June 2024, says Bankrate.

And whatever you do, don’t mention depreciation. In 2024, the AAA calculated the average new vehicle loses an eye-watering $4,680 in value every year, over the first five years. Edmunds reported that in the last quarter 2024, one in four consumers were underwater on a car loan—meaning that they owed more than the vehicle’s market value.

It’s surprising how many of the current discontents are the consequences of good intentions. Take, for example, collision repair.

The cost of fixing damaged cars has skyrocketed 28% since 2021, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The collision-repair industry blames the rising cost of replacement parts; a shortage of trained technicians; and the increasing complexity of new cars, with special scorn directed at Advanced Driver-Assist Systems, or ADAS.

https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/cars/americas-love-affair-with-the-car-has-soured-over-money-4b73670f?st=prjfcu&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

A little ‘Brand New Car’ music courtesy of The Rolling Stones

The true San Franciscan will never forsake this City’s downtown.

SAN FRANCISCO – DOWNTOWN

Liz and Lee Heidhues 6.20.2025

The true San Franciscan will never forsake this town.

**The temperature was a windy 59 degrees at noon on Montgomery and Sutter Street**

On the Summer Solstice, a cold day in San Francisco, we ventured downtown to the place we have spent our time and money boosting the city’s economy and seeing the sites for decades.

**Patrick & Co. a historic 150 year old business on Market Street.**

**Liz stretches out her purchase of hard to find large size rubber bands at Patrick & Co. on Market Street.**

Fortunately, despite the economic tumult impacting this international city brought on by the pandemic there are still businesses which have survived and still prosper.

**Maxferd J&L which calls itself the “Oldest Pawn Shop in the Country” at the corner of Kearny and Sutter Street.**

On this day we shopped at several of them and poured some money into the economy.

**The Sherman Clay & Co. building on Sutter Street.**

The 150 Patrick & Sons Stationery store; Cinta Aveda Beauty School and historic Macy’s in Union Square

**Liz holding her purchase from Aveda as a smoker eyes the blogger.**

Sadly there are too many boarded up businesses which gives downtown a somewhat morose feeling. Which proves that the City’s full recovery from the pandemic will always be problematic.

People got accustomed to sitting at home and shopping on-line.

**Liz disembarks the 38R Muni bus to begin her Summer Solstice shopping trip.**

Market Street which has been car free since 2020 has become a pedestrian, cyclist and public transit thoroughfare making it a much friendlier place to shop and dine.

Brick and mortar shopping has been dealt a serious blow. Not just in San Francisco. But countrywide in America.

**A 4th of July display at Patrick & Co., the 150 year old brick and mortar store, awaits the intrepid shopper**

**The Wilkes Bashford store. The place for the well connected politically and socially in San Francisco to shop for clothes.**

**Teuscher Chocolates of Switzerland on Sutter Street.**

**A local citizen takes a nap on the Union Square steps.**

While downtown Liz chatted up the store clerks in Macy’s. One clerk in “The Cellar, where foods and housewares can be found, is May, a native daughter. We traded stories about the schools both of us and our kids attended in our youth. An integral part of San Francisco lore is to learn which high school you attended.

**Everyone shops at Macy’s. Even an SFPD officer on his break.**

Upstairs on the the 7th floor we found the same sales associate who helped us during a holiday shopping trip in December 2023. She is stationed right next to the Cheesecake Factory and, as decades long Macy’s shoppers, she made sure we got the best sale prices for our purchase.

**The well stocked shopper on the way home after pouring several hundred dollars into the local economy. Proof that people of all ages still appreciate what San Francisco has to offer.**

**The final stop**. **Liz and Lee toted our haul into the lobby of the Union Square Building where Liz renewed acquaintances with the concierge Andre. A venue where Liz taught ESL as a Berlitz Language School instructor**.

Before catching the Muni 38R bus home in front of the Westin St. Francis Hotel Liz chatted up the longtime Concierge “Andre” at the historic Union Square Building at the corner of Geary and Powell Streets. Liz taught ESL at the Berlitz Language School in this building and explained San Francisco’s vibrant street life just outside their classroom window which enthralled students from all over the world.

**Liz and Union Square Building concierge Andre renewed acquaintances.**

**Who says downtown is a ghost town? There’s people everywhere. It’s vibrant.** Customers line up at the Nintendo Store across the street from Union Square **and around the corner from the bus stop which brings us home.**

**The popcorn stash purchased for a bargain price at The Macy’s Cellar**

**Downtown is lively and vibrant. It’s nice to come back to our neighborhood just blocks from the Pacific Ocean.**

The San Francisco anthem. “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” – Tony Bennett https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Left_My_Heart_in_San_Francisco

Orwellian Apple iPhone video ad. “Your browsing is being watched.”

San Francisco

Lee Heidhues 6.20.2025

Last night I was watching the NBA finals and my attention was immediately grabbed when amongst all the junk food and car ads.

Large drone flying over construction site in downtown Los Angeles

An ad for the Apple iphone Safari search engine had me saying “Wow!!!”.

**Street camera for surveillance and business icons over cityscape background.**

The creator of this piece of shock advertising definitely needs to be acknowledged.

The less than two minute video says more than a million words about the Surveillance society enveloping the planet.

https://adage.com/creativity/work/apples-safari-curbs-surveillance-birds-tracking-people-global-privacy-film/2569861/

S.F. Supes committee names Police Commish after bruising hearing

SAN FRANCISCO CITY HALL – BOARD OF SUPERVISORS CHAMBERS

Lee Heidhues 6.16.2025

Everything is politics in San Francisco. Particularly when law enforcement is involved.

Today provided a vivid example of the political brawling involved in the selection of a panelist for the seven member Police Commission. Particularly when the Commission will be a major player in the selection of a new Chief of Police. Replacing eight year incumbent Bill Scott.

The Board of Supervisors Rules Committee heard a couple of hours of testimony.

**People lined up to testify at the Rules Committee hearing.**

The most graphic and political testimony was provided by Randy Shaw, Director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic a supporter of the eventual nominee Pratibha Tekkey; and Nancy Tung, Chairperson of the San Francisco Democratic Party, a supporter of Marjan Philhour.

Portions of the their respective testimony follow.

Randy Shaw – Director Tenderloin Housing Clinic – Pratihba Tekkey supporter spoke at the two hour: 35 minute: 50 second point in the televised hearing.

Randy Shaw – Director Tenderloin Housing Clinic – Pratihba Tekkey supporter in suit jacket waiting in line to speak. Sitting wearing glasses is Tracy McCray newly named SFPD “Commander” and currently President SF Police Officers Association.

“There has never been anyone from the Tenderloin on the Police Commission… Some people, including the head of the Democratic party Nancy Tung..if you don’t support Marjan you’re politicizing the process. But here we have the head of the Democratic Party in San Francisco doing more lobbying than anybody. That seems to be politicizing that which should be a non-political process. She also said that ‘everyday people’ support Marjan. I saw a lot of ‘everyday people here today. Everyday people who never come to City Hall to testify came out for Pratihba Tekkey.“

Nancy Tung – Career Prosecutor – Marjan Philhour supporter spoke at the two hour: 41 minute: 05 second point in the televised hearing.

“I want to pull back the curtain a little bit. People want to think these actions of this committee are apolitical. The actions of this Board and these committees often times show they are not (apolitical). In 2020 I was nominated for Mayoral appointment not in competition with anyone else for this very commission and was voted down by a majority of the Board of Supervisors. Including (current) Board President Mandelman. Do I take offense to this? No. Because this is not a decision, a decision that happens in a vacuum. It is a political decision and I want people to understand that. Was it bonkers? Maybe to some. But more than anything else the vote was political.”

A link to the entire hearing is attached. Open the link and go to the RULES COMMITTEE 6.16.2025 meeting.

https://sfgovtv.org/recent-archives

https://www.ebar.com/story/155276/News/Mandelman%20becomes%20powerbroker%20in%20high-stakes%20police%20commission%20fight

Top photo: Rules Committee members Stephen Sherill; Shamann Walton; and Rafael Mandelman

Again. Thugs and punks vandalize Sunset Dunes Park at Ocean Beach

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.15.2025

The Open the Great Highway losers will undoubtedly decry this latest act of wanton vandalism. But the pathetic unmistakable reality is there for all to see. They are loving every act of vandalism and destruction.

These motorists and their ilk refuse to accept the will of the 55 percent of San Francisco voters who used the ballot box to create Sunset Dunes Park. The unending public tantrum has given flaccid criminal loonies and wingnuts license to destroy The People’s public property.

**These are the entitled motorists who by design or unwittingly are responsible for the bringing out the wingnuts. Their goal is to destroy Sunset Dunes Park and bring down those who are its sponsors.**

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 6.15.2025

A community piano beloved by visitors to San Francisco’s Sunset Dunes has been destroyed amid a spate of vandalism targeting community property at the recently opened park, advocates said.

This is the latest in a series of acts of vandalism targeting Sunset Dunes since the 2-mile, 50-acre park opened in April, months after San Franciscans created it by voting to close a section of the Great Highway to cars. The measure has been highly controversial, and the supervisor who championed it, Joel Engardio, will face a recall election in September driven by groups opposed to the Upper Great Highway’s closure.

An Outer Sunset resident who went to play the instrument, known colloquially as the “wave piano” due to its proximity to the ocean, found that almost none of the keys worked early Saturday, said Lucas Lux, president of the volunteer nonprofit Friends of Sunset Dunes. Lux was also the campaign manager for Proposition K, the measure voters approved in November 2024 that closed the Upper Great Highway to cars and opened the park.

A vandal destroyed the community piano at San Francisco’s Sunset Dunes park by ripping off most of the felted hammers that control the keys. Friends of Sunset Dunes

All the evidence points to someone “very intentionally” damaging the piano, ripping off the felted hammers controlling all but 10 of its keys, political communications consultant Catie Stewart told the Chronicle. Piano maintenance experts have since confirmed the instrument is damaged beyond repair.

The vandalism, Lux said, has largely occurred in two separate waves. The first occurred right after the Upper Great Highway closed on March 14, with murals and asphalt marred by graffiti, and the second began shortly after Engardio’s recall qualified in late May.

**Sunset Dunes Park mural. Vandalized by entitled motorist punks and thugs**

On Thursday, just two days before the wave piano was found destroyed, park visitors discovered heavy damage to the nearby “Ocean Calling” exhibit — a public art installation consisting of a phone booth that visitors can use to make symbolic phone calls to deceased loved ones. Someone had ripped the phone from its cord, tossed dirt and rocks into the booth and damaged its wooden frame, according to photos and videos taken shortly after the discovery.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/sunset-dunes-vandalism-great-highway-20378038.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL2JheWFyZWEvYXJ0aWNsZS9zdW5zZXQtZHVuZXMtdmFuZGFsaXNtLWdyZWF0LWhpZ2h3YXktMjAzNzgwMzgucGhw&time=MTc1MDAzNjczNTgxOQ%3D%3D&rid=OTJhM2RhZWItNDMzYy00ZjMxLTgyMTQtZTU2ZjE2NDIzNDRl&sharecount=Mw%3D%3D

Top photo: Opponents of Sunset Dunes Park revved their motorcycles and gunned their engines at Noriega and Lower Great Highway. Disrupting the opening of the Park. The City shut down the street to bring an end to this temper tantrum. April 12, 2025

Massive crowd descends on SF Ocean Beach – ‘No Kings’ protest

SAN FRANCISCO – OCEAN BEACH AT THE PACIFIC COAST SHORELINE

Lee Heidhues 6.14.2025

**The view from on high along Sutro Heights bluffs**

It was a breezy mild Saturday morning at Ocean Beach as a massive crowd in the usually quiet outer Richmond district gathered in the sand to voice their opposition to the Felon wannabe American oligarch Trump.

**To the Ocean marched the protesters.**

The oceanside rally was just one of several in the Bay Area. It’s estimated approximately 50,000 people marched in downtown San Francisco. Starting in the Mission District, heading towards City Hall and continuing down Market Street.

**The massive turnout on Market Street – photo SF Standard**

**Liz Heidhues proudly attired in Old Glory and her “Childless Cat Lady” T-shirt**

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/human-banner-sf-ocean-beach-no-kings-20377563.php

American People say “enough.” The Felon Trump is No King.

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.13.2025

The People have had enough of this thug Felon who has destroyed American democracy since he lied his racist, misogynistic way into the White House on January 20, 2017.

Now he’s back, untethered and without restraints with the goal to lay waste to the country.

The descent into American fascism must be crushed.

**Felon thug Donald Trump’s fascist America.**

Murderous Israeli regime continues Middle East onslaught

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.12.2025

The Israelis continue their aggression throughout the Middle East.

Rise and Kill First – The Israeli Way

Murdering over 50,000 children, women and men in Gaza since October 7, 2023 following the Hamas attack which killed 1300 people, mostly Israeli civilians. Israel’s response is being called “Genocide” and a “war crime.”

Now the Israelis have upped the ante in a much more dangerous manner. Attacking Iran. It’s ominous.

Excerpted from Al Jazeera 6.12.2025

Iran says US will also be responsible for Israel’s ‘adventure’

Iran’s Foreign Ministry says Tehran has a “legal and legitimate” right to respond to Israeli attacks under the UN Charter.

“The dangerous and far-reaching effects and consequences of the Zionist regime’s aggression against our beloved homeland of Iran will be the responsibility of this regime and its supporters,” the ministry said in a statement.

**The sky over Tehran after the Israeli preemptive strike**

“The Zionist regime’s aggressive actions against Iran cannot have been carried out without the coordination and authorization of the United States.

Accordingly, the United States government, as the main supporter of this regime, will also be responsible for the dangerous effects and consequences of the Zionist regime’s adventure.”

Mostly women and children among 50 injured in Israeli attack: Report

Iran’s Tasnim news agency is reporting that at least 50 people injured in the Israeli attack have been transferred to the Chamran Hospital in the northern Tehran district of Tajrish.

According to Tasnim, 35 of those who were injured were women and children.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/6/13/live-explosions-reported-in-iran-amid-israel-tensions?update=3771142

Killer of my fellow journalist friend Chauncey Bailey paroled

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.10.2025

I read the news tonight that the killer of my fellow journalist and friend Chauncey Bailey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauncey_Bailey has been paroled.

In the 1970’s Chauncey and I were both reporters at San Francisco’s black community newspaper The Sun Reporter. We worked on a number of stories together. Perhaps the most famous and notorious occurred when we exposed an undercover operation by the SFPD. A female cop posing as a prostitute was stationed in the city’s Western Addition. Her mission was to arrest customers, “johns”, who were soliciting her for tricks. We caught it on camera. SFPD had to stop the program.

Chauncey Bailey meeting President Jimmy Carter from an unnamed newspaper clipping. Family photos of Chauncey Bailey, the editor of the Oakland Post who was killed on August 2, 2007, in Oakland, Ca. Photo by Carlos Avila Gonzalez/

Chauncey went on to establish himself working for the Hartford (Connecticut) Courant and other publications. He eventually returned to his East Bay roots becoming editor of the Oakland Post. He was gunned down in cold blood on the morning of August 2, 2007. Chauncey had been working on a story to expose corruption within the Your Black Muslim Bakery.

I was mortified and saddened when I learned of Chauncey’s political assassination. Assassinated for doing his job.

Equally mortifying and disgusting is the fact Donald Trump used Chauncey’s assassination to gain political advantage during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Excerpted from The Oaklandside 6.9.2025

The hitman who shot-gunned Oakland newspaper editor Chauncey Bailey to death nearly 18 years ago in one of the most horrific attacks on a journalist in American history has been released from state prison.

Bailey’s sister, Lorelei Waqia, said she was notified this week by the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation that Devaughndre Monique Broussard has been paroled. He is living in Southern California.

Broussard, then 19, killed Bailey on Aug. 2, 2007. He eventually admitted that he did so on orders from Yusuf Bey IV, the leader of Oakland’s now defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery, to stop a story Bailey was writing about the bakery. He also admitted killing another man, Odell Roberson, in revenge for Roberson’s nephew killing Bey IV’s brother in 2005.

How Donald Trump Weaponized the 2007 Murder of My Fellow Journalist, Chauncey Bailey

Last fall, Broussard suddenly became fodder in the presidential campaign when Donald Trump claimed Bailey’s killing was an example of then Vice-President Kamala Harris being soft on crime during her time as San Francisco district attorney in the mid 2000s. It centered on Broussard’s beating and robbery of a man on a San Francisco Muni train in 2005.

Trump alleged that Harris went light on Broussard by agreeing to a plea agreement that resulted in Broussard being placed on probation, the first year of which he served in county jail. Rather than being free to kill Bailey two years later, Trump claimed Broussard should have been in prison. But legal experts called that claim overblown for a first-time offender and said the case — which Harris played no role in — was handled properly.

https://oaklandside.org/2025/06/09/chauncey-bailey-murdered-oakland-journalist-devaughndre-broussard-released-prison/

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Iran says US will also be responsible for Israel’s ‘adventure’

Mostly women and children among 50 injured in Israeli attack: Report

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