The Wall Street Journal, after deliberating, published my Comment in response to Michael Shellenberger MD, author of the incendiary hit piece posing as non-fiction “San Fransicko”, proud Climate Change denier and author of the scurrilous Op Ed in The 11.27.2021 print edition of the WSJ attacking San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
Mike Shellenberger MD with Fox News flamethrower Tucker Carlson
“Scion”. Who cooked that up? The WSJ @FoxNews Nightcrawler headline writer or Michael Shellenberger? Doesn’t matter. Your Op Ed is propaganda masquerading as intelligence from a Trump MAGA camp follower. Insurrectionists in the failed January 6 Coup. You are aligned with America’s reactionary cadres who hope to take down the San Francisco fairly elected District Attorney. What this MAGA propaganda piece does not not say is that the DA Recall campaign spent 1.4MM using paid mercenaries from around the country to gather signatures at an average $17.08 each. The Recall will meet the same fate as did the DA Losers in Los Angeles who couldn’t gather sufficient signatures to qualify for the ballot. More apt is Philadelphia where Larry Krasner, a “Progressive”, re elected with 70 percent of the vote. Intelligent voters can see through these Right Wing extremists and their collaborators who, unhappy with an election subvert the will of the electorate. It won’t work.
It was nearly 50 years ago on September 11, 1973 that America’s man in Chile Augusto Pincochet overthrew the democratically elected Socialist Salvador Allende (pictured above voting) ushering in a 17 year regime of oppression and terror.
Next month the Chilean people will select a new President to serve a four year term. One of the candidates José Antonio Kast, an admirer of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro and especially of Pinochet— could be elected.
It is a disconcerting prospect for all who remember the promise of the Allende presidency and the terror which followed his overthrow and death.
Excerpted from The Nation – Ariel Dorfman 11.22.2021
It is hard to believe that half a century has passed since Para Leer al Pato Donald (How to Read Donald Duck), a book I wrote with the Belgian sociologist, Armand Mattelart, was published in Chile in November 1971.
We never anticipated that our essay would become an international best seller, translated into dozens of languages. It had been born, quite modestly, as a way of participating in the unique Chilean experiment of building socialism, for the first time in history, through electoral and nonviolent methods, without eliminating our adversaries. This meant that the government of Salvador Allende, which had captured the presidency in September 1970, would have to win the battle for public opinion in a situation of considerable inequality, since most of the media was in the hands of the enemies of the revolution.
Chileans take to the streets of Santiago in 2021
The tract—conceived in 10 feverish days—caused furor and fury when it appeared. A second massive printing was soon published the next year, and a third one was ready to go on sale when General Augusto Pinochet overthrew Allende in September 1973, and all those copies were cast into the bay of Valparaíso. First water, then fire. Forty years after the Nazis had incinerated so many “degenerate” volumes, it was Chile’s turn. Days after the coup, in a safe house where I was hiding, I saw, on television, no less, a group of soldiers throwing hundreds of subversive texts into a bonfire. Among them was Para Leer al Pato Donald.
Exactly 50 years after of our book appeared, the first round of the presidential elections has just been held.
Of the seven contenders who were in the race, the one who garnered the most votes ( 27.89 percent) is José Antonio Kast, an admirer of Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro and especially of Pinochet—an ultra-conservative who personifies the traditional ideas about work, family, sex, competition and fear of change which we criticized in our book. I don’t know if Kast, who was seven years old during the 1973 coup, saw the burning of our helpless duck on television. It is probable that his father, a Nazi officer who sought refuge in Chile after the fall of the Third Reich, celebrated those inquisitorial pyres that reminded him of Hitler’s good times.
On the other hand Gabriel Boric, the second candidate in the runoff, with 25.83 percent of the vote, represents a Chile that seeks to free itself from the past and create a different future of justice for all, embodying the vast contingents of protestors who— brazenly indeed—took to the streets of Chile over the last two years with such ardor and audaciousness that they imposed the need to write a new, fully democratic Constitution.
There is a chance, of course, that the cryptofascist Kast will manage to sow so much fear that he will become President. But Boric has a better chance, I think, to appeal to a wider coalition of dignity and courage, and lead the country to a rebirth on December 19th. If that is the case, I can only hope that How to Read Donald Duck—drowned and burned, seized and left for dead a thousand times—will itself be reborn as well in the streets of the prophetic cities of the Chile where it first saw the light five decades ago.
Augusto Pinochet with American Secretary of State Henry Kissinger – 1976
The Wall Street Journal, the written news satellite of the Fox News empire (see top photo), published a Michael Shellenberger MD blatant hit piece on San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin carrying the headline –
The Weather Underground scion isn’t the first district attorney they’ve elected on a soft-on-crime platform.
I responded on Twitter to his Account @ShellenbergerMD.
For telling Michael Shellenberger MD my opinion of his writing (see below) in a public forum he blocked me from accessing his Twitter account. Furthermore, The WSJ rejected my opinion in its Comments section.
Weather Underground Scion. Who dredged up that canard? The WSJ @FoxNews
Nightcrawler headline writer or YOU? Doesn’t matter. Your Op Ed is trash talk masquerading as intelligence from a Trump MAGA camp follower. Insurrectionists of the failed January 6 Coup. You are aligned with America’s reactionary cadres
This self proclaimed intellectual spokesman for the Law and Order and a vigorous climate denier is receiving a lot of buzz for his latest broadside “San Fransicko”
Michael Shellenberger MD with Tucker Carlson on Fox News
A book length disingenuous diatribe casting blame on all the problems impacting San Francisco at the doorstep of Progressive policies. DA Chesa Boudin is his current Progressive out of flavor of the month.
Michael Shellenberger MD with his fellow climate change deniers
Further information about Michael Shellenberger MD Environmental Progress foundation based in Albany, California can be found by accessing the attached link.
Prosecutor Dunikoski made the controversial decision to down play the obvious racial aspects of Ahmaud Arbery’s February 23, 2020 shotgun murder by three white men who alleged they were making a Citizen’s Arrest. Her strategy before a Jury of 11 whites and one black was the right call.
Excellent feature on a veteran brought in from the Atlanta area to handle the Ahmaud Arbery trial. Must read for those who follow the law and want a perspective on a prosecutor who knows her job and does it well.
Ahmaud Arbery
Excerpted from The New York Times 11.26.2021
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — The lawyer was from out of town, a prosecutor who had spent the bulk of her career in a large, liberal city, and she had been brought in to try the biggest case of her career: the murder of a Black man on a sunny afternoon by three white men just outside a small city pinned to the South Georgia coastline.
Despite the evidence of racism she had at her disposal, Linda Dunikoski, the prosecutor, stunned some legal observers by largely avoiding race during the trial, choosing instead to hew closely to the details of how the three men had chased the Black man, Ahmaud Arbery, through their neighborhood.
Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski
The risks went beyond her career and a single trial. Failure to convict in a case that many saw as an obvious act of racial violence would reverberate well outside Glynn County, Ga. For some, it would be a referendum on a country that appeared to have made tentative steps last summer toward confronting racism, only to devolve into deeper divisions.
On Wednesday, Ms. Dunikoski’s strategy was vindicated when the jury found the three men guilty of murder and other charges after deliberating for roughly a day. The convicted men — Gregory McMichael, 65; his son Travis McMichael, 35; and their neighbor William Bryan, 52 — are now facing life sentences in prison. They are also facing trial in February on separate federal hate-crime charges.
Kevin Gough, the lawyer who represented Mr. Bryan, credited Ms. Dunikoski with threading the most difficult of needles. She mentioned a racial motive just once during the three-week trial, in her closing argument: The men, she said, had attacked Mr. Arbery “because he was a Black man running down the street.”
“She found a clever way of bringing the issue up that wouldn’t be offensive to the right-leaning members of the jury,” he said. “I think you can see from the verdict that Dunikoski made the right call.”
Top photo – Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski meets the Press and public after the verdict.
The American stock market took a deep dive on Friday as the new B.1.1.529 variant raises alarm bells around the globe.
That is always a reaction to bad news and a potential harbinger of things to come.
Excerpted from The Guardian 11.26.2021
Top US infectious disease official Dr Anthony Fauci said on Friday that a ban on flights from southern Africa was a possibility and the United States was rushing to gather data on the new Covid-19 variant.
No decision to halt flights had yet been made, he said.
Global authorities have reacted with alarm to the new B.1.1.529 variant detected in South Africa, with the European Union and UK among those tightening border controls as scientists seek to find out if the mutation was vaccine-resistant.
The World Health Organization (WHO), however, has cautioned against hasty measures [see 1.49pm.] and South Africa said a British ban on flights seemed rushed.
“There is always the possibility of doing what the UK has done, namely block travel from South Africa and related countries,” Fauci said in an interview on CNN.
“That’s certainly something you think about and get prepared to do. You’re prepared to do everything you need to protect the American public. But you want to make sure there’s a basis for doing that,” he said.
“Obviously as soon as we find out more information we’ll make a decision as quickly as we possibly can.”
Fauci said US scientists would speak with South African counterparts on Friday about the new variant, called B.1.1.529, which has raised concern about its transmissibility and whether it might evade immune responses.
He added that there was no indication that the new variant was already in the United States.
Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci is receiving uniformly rave reviews. Particularly the performance of Lady Gaga. Rather than post one of those reviews I am giving you the innovative take from the Vulture.
Excerpted from Vulture – New York Magazine – 11.24.2021 Jackson McHenry
In the Gucci family, according to the film House of Gucci, there are many cherished traditions, most of which involve spending a lot of time caring for the fancy Tuscan cows that form the basis of their leatherworking empire and betraying each other.
This year, if you are engaging in this standard American family Thanksgiving activity, you might once again be in need of a film to all watch together. There are a good number of options this year — but I have determined that, empirically, House of Gucci is the most Family Thanksgiving Movie out there. Is it a good movie? Who knows! That’s not the point. But I promise that it is guaranteed to serve this purpose well.
Reason 1: House of Gucci is very long.
The movie is two hours and 37 minutes long! You might think this is a point against it, because maybe some family members will get bored and fall asleep, but this is actually great for a Family Thanksgiving Movie. You’ve already killed so much of the evening watching the movie together (less time to bicker about other things) and avoided those crucial after-dinner lulls where someone might say something like, “What do you all think about the state of the American political experiment?” Or worse: “Are you dating anyone right now?”
Reason 2: House of Gucci has an actor everyone can talk about.
A crucial part of any family movie discussion is when everyone gets to share where they saw an actor previously and nod sagely while they discuss how their performances compared. Younger generations can talk about Tisch alumna Lady Gaga (as she is famously credited in a season-three episode of Gossip Girl), older generations can talk about Pacino and Jeremy Irons, too-online children can say that they want Adam Driver to step on their face, moms who watched Call My Agent! can say it’s nice that Camille Cottin shows up briefly, and weird cousins can discuss the merits of Jared Leto, cinema’s weirdest cousin.
Reason 3: House of Gucci has accents everyone can talk about.
There is nothing more fun than being an armchair expert about the accents of movie stars. Are they good? Are they bad? Are they damaging to the status of Italians in the media? Should Ridley Scott have just shot the movie in Italian? Everyone can weigh in!
Reason 4: House of Gucci will make you all have to Wikipedia things.
You’re guaranteed to get at least another hour out of looking up various plot points like “Is Salma Hayek’s psychic character real?” (yes) and “What did Tom Ford do at Gucci” (design G-strings) and “Lake Como home how expensive” (very expensive).
Reason 5: House of Gucci is not for children.
Actually, this is somewhat of a downside if your family has a lot of children, but in that case, assign them some teenage cousin chaperone, send them off to Encanto(fun songs!), and then stick with Gucci for the adults. There’s a whole sex scene on a desk that is quite vigorous! Again, maybe you consider that a downside, but personally I believe Family Thanksgiving Movies are better when they’re a little scandalous. Gives everyone a little something to grumble and titter about.
Reason 6: House of Gucci is about the essential rot of wealth.
The movie’s got a lot of glamour, but it’s structured as a sort of tragedy of the collapse of a family, and their loss of control of their business due to the vicissitudes of the market. It’s an apt fit for a holiday that is superficially cozy, but really a commemoration of colonization. Make everyone do a little reflection on that.
Reason 7: House of Gucci will give you all many inside jokes to reference.
Even if you don’t like the movie, you will be bonded by making fun of its most ridiculous moments (when Lady Gaga announces, “It’s taime to take out thee trash”; when Jared Leto does anything) and then get a whole new set of inside jokes to reference. Families need inside jokes and mutual shared references in order to survive, otherwise they would just have to talk to each other directly. No one wants that.
In conclusion, I am taking my family to see House of Gucci this Thanksgiving, so I’m just hoping this works out on my end.
It’s a sad day when someone who has reported on San Francisco matters for decades and should have more sophistication is now in synch with the most reactionary MAGA, Fox News, right wing posse which spent 1.4MM on paid mercenaries to qualify this obscene Recall attempt.
Coming close on the heels of your column calling for cars to be given total access to The Great Walkway is just another exclamation point on your shameless pandering to the most revanchist groups in San Francisco.
Your skills would be better suited as a Shill for the San Francisco Police Officers Association (POA) and the American Automobile Association (AAA).
You should have remained a Sports reporter where your ability to trash talk on important matters was limited.
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Three white men were found guilty of murder and other charges on Wednesday for the pursuit and fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, in a case that, together with the killing of George Floyd, helped inspire the racial justice protests of last year.
The jury has found William Bryan, who filmed the fatal encounter with Ahmaud Arbery, not guilty of malice murder. He was found not guilty of one count of felony murder and one county of aggravated assault, but guilty of three counts of felony murder and three other charges.
The jury has found Gregory McMichael, Travis McMichael’s father, not guilty of malice murder, but guilty of all other counts he faces, including felony murder.
The jury has found Travis McMichael, the man who shot Ahmaud Arbery, guilty on all nine counts, including malice murder and felony murder.
My lifelong partner Liz Heidhues. Fighter for Justice, a car free Golden Gate Park and The Great Walkway is also a dedicated steward of the environment.
Liz was an early volunteer in San Francisco’s Adopt a Drain program. Come rain or shine, Liz has been maintaining the drain.
Liz is a stellar citizen and an asset to San Francisco.
Excerpted from SF Gate 11.23.2021 – Tessa McLean
Most San Franciscans pass at least a few neighborhood storm drains every day. But only a few residents probably realize they may have been rudely walking by, not acknowledging the drains by name.
Yes, the iron grate on your corner may not just be an anonymous piece of infrastructure. It might be named Yoda, in honor of the Jedi of course, or it might be dubbed “It’s Draining Men,” forcing the catchy tune into your head. It could pay homage to a popular actor by way of the nickname “Drain the Rock Johnson” or it may anthropomorphize the utility with a moniker like “Big Thirsty.” It might even be called “The Best Storm Drain in SF,” though no one is running a contest.
Outer Richmond resident Elizabeth Heidhues named hers after her sister Donna, who lives in Montana. They don’t get to see each other all that much, but Heidhues thinks of her every day when she passes by the storm drain at the end of her street. She also loves the play on words it creates, especially with her Italian side of the family. “I named it Donna after her because everything goes ‘DOWN-A’ the drain. It’s a spoof on Italian English.”
While most people may not love being associated with wastewater and sewage, Donna the person thinks it’s funny. She’s from San Francisco, passionate about the environment and she jokes she’s famous among her friends in Montana for it.
Heidhues has been caring for Donna the drain since 2017 (following photo), as soon as she saw the Adopt a Drain program advertised on a San Francisco Public Utilities Commission calendar she picked up from a local store. As a runner and a cyclist without a car, she said she was always encountering flooded intersections, so her motivation to adopt the drain was to keep her intersection from becoming flooded. She looked online and saw the drain on her corner was available, and she’s been caring for it ever since.
Liz Heidhues with her newly adopted Drain – January 2017
“You feel very close to your drain. You’ve named it, you feel responsible for its well-being and you feel guilty if it doesn’t behave itself because you’ve neglected it,” Heidhues said with a laugh. “It’s like being a parent almost.”
Obviously it’s not as much maintenance as a child or a pet, although she said she does clean it thoroughly once a month. Most of the time, the drain becomes obstructed with leaves, weeds, sand, cigarette butts and rocks, but every once in a while Heidhues finds something out of the ordinary. She’s found kid’s toys and plenty of masks and gloves.
Once, she said she found a BCBG dress in her size in a plastic bag that she dry-cleaned and kept and eventually wore on her birthday.
Since she adopted Donna, she’s even motivated a few of her neighbors to adopt drains, and they keep each other motivated to keep them free of debris. It’s a great way to stay involved in the community and the upkeep of the neighborhood, Heidhues said.
SFPUC gives out initial supplies to aid in the cleaning process, which is how Heidhues got her safety vest with “volunteer” in big letters across the back. She said she loves when people honk their horns and say thank you as they drive by when she’s cleaning. But she wishes she could convince even more people to join the program.
Liz at work November 2021
The initiative was created because the city crews just couldn’t keep up with the maintenance of the more than 25,000 storm drains, said SFPUC spokesperson Sabrina Suzuki. They needed help from citizens and were inspired by a program in Boston in which residents could adopt a fire hydrant. Allowing residents to name their drains and plotting them on a digital map would make it personal. Today, 3,557 drains throughout the city have been adopted by 2,345 drain adopters.
Everyone old enough to remember can recollect what he/she was doing on November 22, 1963 when President John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
Time stood still and this country was changed forever at that moment.
November 22, 2021
Dallas Morning News the morning of November 22, 1963President Kennedy in Ft. Worth the morning of November 22, 1963An invitation to the dinner President Kennedy was to have attended in Austin, Texas the evening of November 22, 1963President Kennedy’s motorcade at the moment of his assassinationA still from the Zapruder film at the moment of President Kennedy’s assassinationShock and grief on November 22, 1963President Kennedy’s accused assassin was shot dead by Jack Ruby in the Dallas jail basement while being transferred on November 24, 1963
Lee's Perspective 