I am watching the Spike Lee ‘Da 5 Bloods’ a thoroughly engrossing, thought provoking and intense story of four black GIs who return to Vietnam in honor of their slain comrade and in search of the literal pot of Gold they left behind nearly 50 years ago.
Spike Lee pulls no punches in dissecting the long term effects on the black soldiers who carried the brunt of the fighting and the Vietnam culture which bore the brunt of American destruction visited on their country.
Time has come today for Spike Lee’s Vietnam epic, which reentered the Best Picture conversation by taking Best Picture and Best Director honors from the National Board of Review, as well as a spot on the American Film Institute’s top-ten list. It’s an unexpected show of force for this June debut, a comeback made possible by the film’s fiery political message, the legacy of Chadwick Boseman, and possibly the fact that the months on the calendar have lost all meaning.
Best Director
Up
Spike Lee, Da 5 Bloods
Lee’s Best Director prize at the NBR was an encouraging Oscar precursor: Every winner since 2010 has seen their film go on to crack the Best Picture lineup. The trophy’s track record at predicting a Director nomination is less assured (it’s gone to famously snubbed filmmakers like A Star Is Born’s Bradley Cooper and The Martian’s Ridley Scott), but it’s a boost nonetheless to Lee, whose hypercinematic style stands out in a field full of stage-to-screen adaptations.
The ongoing saga of asserting my First Amendment rights to free speech in the face of Nextdoor’s Orwellian censorship continues. I apparently have violated a Nextdoor policy re “rants.”
At the same time the Nextdoor Supervisor readily admitsI have NOT been, “attacking your neighbors or using language deemed inappropriate.”
Attn Nextdoor Supervisor – Holly
Ranting??? Are you kidding?
Ranting – Oxford Dictionary definition
noun
a long, angry, and impassioned speech.
“at times, his rantings would become incoherent”
I presume your venue is outside San Francisco. If it is not, I stand corrected.
San Francisco is the most political City imaginable. Everything is a battle. When you have 850,000 people living within a 50 sq. mile radius that’s the reality.
It’s a sad commentary on Nextdoor policies that a disgruntled reader or readers have the power to violate my First Amendment right of free speech.
I could have blocked any number of folks who took exception to my commentaries on making the Great Highway by the Pacific Ocean permanently car free.
I have been personally attacked. The most egregious example occurred when someone told me I am putting myself “at risk” with my posts.
Other critics have told me I should leave San Francisco where I have resided for most of my life and move to Berkeley. Or, for example, being told I have no business posting on this subject because I don’t own a car.
Upon being released from Nextdoor purgatory I have no intention of going into a Group.
I will continue to exercise my right of protected free speech and advocate for issues in the way I have been doing.
A manner which Nextdoor itself admits have NOT been, “attacking your neighbors or using language deemed inappropriate.”
As I did with your co-workers previous message, I am going to post all of this on my blog
My name’s Holly, and I’m a supervisor with Nextdoor’s Support team. Your case was escalated to me for further review.
When we receive reports of anyone’s content, we will thoroughly review it and determine if it is in violation. In this case, this is the reason why your account is disabled. While I can confirm your posts were not attacking your neighbors or using language deemed inappropriate, they still fall under our Guideline regarding ranting.
If you’d like to continue posting about the highway, you’re encouraged to create a group dedicated to this topic so that neighbors interested can join and participate.
Thanks. I am going to forward this to 30 plus individuals, journalists and San Francisco officials to point out how absolutely absurd and ridiculous is the Decision to place me in the ‘Penalty Box’ for espousing a point of view which doesn’t sit well with SOME PEOPLE.
Thank you for providing me with the evidence, my own words, which beyond any doubt prove the absurdity of Nextdoor’s overarching willingness to bow to any complaint, specious as it may be.
Because one person or even 100 people took exception, I say “So what?”
There’s no personal attack. No inappropriate language. Nothing.
I am appalled at Nextdoor acting worse than a Helicopter mom.
Lee Heidhues
San Francisco
PS: The only thing missing below are the two Simpsons photos on the Nextdoor Great Highway Reality Check V post. They are included here.
Nextdoor Message 1.17.2021
Hi Lee,
Thanks for contacting us about this issue.
We temporarily disabled your Nextdoor account after we received a complaint regarding your recent content and found that you had violated our Community Guidelines on ranting.
Here is an example of the content that was brought to our attention: Great Highway Reality Check V
Having reviewed the nearly 500 comments since the GHRC series hit the shores of Nextdoor a week ago I found a potentially more apt title for this ongoing series. LIFE ON THE DISINFORMATION SUPER HIGHWAY with a little help from Bart Simpson
Great Highway Reality Check IV. Taking to the street
Today is the second day of the Lunar New Year of the Ox. To celebrate a group of 50 plus adults and kids cycled through the Richmond District of San Francisco. Many of the streets we traversed are now car free.
I had the opportunity to engage in conversation with several high placed City Hall functionaries who were along for the ride. I also spoke with a well known local print news reporter. I provided them with my unvarnished point of view about maintaining a CAR FREE San Francisco on The Great Highway. The City Hall executives listened carefully and are receptive to making permanent the long term initiatives now in place which they promoted.
Great Highway Reality Check Part II
Now that the Nextdoor community has expended its Exhaust I will now list some alternatives for the annoyed and besieged motorist. There are alternatives which every motorist knows full well but has yet to acknowledge. Why? Motorists would be obliged to go out of their way en route to the destination. • Going west coming off the GGP Panhandle. People can take Kezar Drive to Lincoln Way and continue to Sunset Drive. Drive south on Sunset to Sloat Blvd. Motor to the Great Highway and continue south. • Going south through Golden Gate Park.(Option 1). Motorists can enter the Park at 25th and Fulton. Continue to Transverse Drive. Continue to Lincoln Way. Turn West and continue to Sunset Boulevard. Drive to Sloat. Continue to the Great Highway and continue south. • Going south through Golden Gate Park.(Option 2). Enter the Park at either 36th or 30th Avenue. Head east on JFK Drive. Turn south at Transverse Drive. Continue to Lincoln Way. Turn West and continue to Sunset Boulevard. Motor to Sloat. Drive to the Great Highway and continue south. I am not providing the eastbound or northbound alternatives because the astute motorist can figure it out. Suffice it to say, there are feasible options.
As a result, your account will remain disabled until at least 02/20/2021. At that time, you can log into your account and access your Nextdoor neighborhood after checking a box stating that you agree to following the Guidelines.
Please let me know if I can help with anything else.
My initial exposure to Rosamund Pike was in the film Gone Girl, the adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s runaway best seller. Her understated and off kilter performance got my attention. In the intervening years Ms. Pike has made a number of films. This one has my attention.
San Francisco Chronicle – Mick LaSalle 2.17.2021
“I Care a Lot” does something difficult. It holds our attention even as it follows a character that we actively dislike and root against. This isn’t a “Richard III” situation, where we’re seduced into cheering on the villain. The villain is genuinely hateful here.
The movie stars Rosamund Pike, who is steadily becoming one of the most interesting actresses in movies, simply by accepting parts like this one. Just in the past few years, she’s played three women driven to death by their work — Marie Colvin in “A Private War,”Marie Curie in “Radioactive” and terrorist Brigitte Kuhlmann in “7 Days in Entebbe.” She’s equally driven here, for a performance that has already won her a Golden Globe nomination.
Pike is nominated for lead actress in a musical or comedy film, and if you can find a laugh (or a musical number) in “I Care a Lot,” be sure to let me know. Pike plays Marla, who is running a very evil scam. She has a legal guardianship business. She finds old people who have no power or influence and has herself appointed their guardian. Then she pays herself a handsome salary by selling off the assets. She does this with the help of corrupt doctors, nursing home operators and one particularly gullible judge.
In an early scene, we see how easy it would be for a judge to believe the word of this highly polished professional woman over some scruffy, emotional next-of-kin. And once the trap closes, it’s all but hopeless: Who seems more demented than an old person yelling and insisting that they’re not crazy?
Rosamund Pike in “I Care a Lot.”Photo: Seacia Pavao , Netflix
“I Care a Lot” (available on Netflix starting Friday, Feb. 19) might have been more unambiguously successful if writer-director J Blakeson had leaned into the comedy, allowing us to watch the action from a distance and regard Marla as more of a force of nature than a malevolent force. But successful movies are delicate mechanisms, and it’s just as possible that an extra push into comedy might have dampened the story’s thriller aspects.
As it stands, “I Care a Lot” keeps us watching from beginning to end, because we keep wanting to know what’s going to happen next. Dianne Wiest has one of her best recent movie roles as one of Marla’s victims, Jennifer. One morning, as she’s sitting in her nice kitchen in her nice house, listening to Debussy — a vision of blissful retirement — there’s a knock at the door, and before she knows it, she’s a prisoner in a state hellhole.
What makes Wiest such fun here is that the woman she plays is not exactly what she seems. The scenes with Marla are some of the best in the movie, in which Jennifer pierces through her with a drugged haze, letting Marla know that she’s picked the wrong woman to mess with.
As a writer, Blakeson understands that no character should be purely functional, and so he gives each character idiosyncrasies and the suggestion of a past history. Then, as a director, he brings those out in the actors. Consequently, “I Care a Lot” is notable for its colorful supporting and featured roles — Chris Messina as a mob lawyer, Peter Dinklage as a Russian mobster and Eiza Gonzalez as Marla’s girlfriend.
But the main attraction is Pike, who doesn’t try to make us like her. She commits to the character’s nature and holds us with her honesty, her intensity and her unmistakable pleasure in getting to play someone appalling.
M“I Care a Lot”: Thriller. Starring Rosamund Pike, Dianne Wiest and Peter Dinklage. Directed by J Blakeson. (R. 118 minutes.) Available on Netflix starting Friday, Feb. 19.
Rec and Park boss Phil Ginsburg, a master at shilling for the corporate dollar regardless of its environmental impact, is exasperated. His latest corporate boondoggle may be doomed to an early demise.
An irate citizenry is saying Enough!!!!!
Supervisors Connie Chan who represents the nearby Richmond District, Dean Preston from the historic Haight, Aaron Peskin from the North Beach-Chinatown area and Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton who represents the Bayview-Hunters Point are saying, Hold on. Not so fast.
San Francisco has always been about the almighty dollar. Perhaps there is change in the air. And the 150 foot carnival barkers dream may not be part of the skyline.
San Francisco Chronicle 2.17.2021
The public debate over whether to extend the SkyStar Observation Wheel in Golden Gate Park for four more years went round and round like the big wheel itself, at the meeting of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission Wednesday afternoon. At the end of three hours, the commissioners decided let it go round and round some more, as the issue was continued, by a unanimous 6-0 vote, to its next regular meeting on March 3.
Some members of the Historic Preservation Commission were willing to grant a six week extension to allow further study, and even that was shelved in favor of a continuation, at the request of Supervisors Connie Chan, Dean Preston and Aaron Peskin.
Leading up to the meeting, the commission had received hundreds of emails, two thirds of them opposed to the extension and even that might have been understating it.
People against the wheel questioned the economic benefit to the city and questioned whether the park should be in the business of providing economic benefit to begin with, and specifically to an out-of-state amusement operator.
“San Francisco doesn’t owe this business a thing,” said Tes Welborn, a board member for the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council.“We have lots of fun in Golden Gate Park but this commercial use must be stopped.”
And it may all start back up again Thursday when the Recreation and Park Commission jumps aboard to address the same issue. Both government agencies must approve the request by the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department to extend the contract for four more years so that the private operator of the attraction may recoup its investment and so that the wheel, which costs $18 a ride for adults and $12 for seniors and children, might serve as an engine of economic growth as the city comes out of the pandemic.
Rec and Park had pressed for a decision so that it might start making improvements to the SkyStar, which is powered by a generator that some citizens describe as too noisy, and under lights that some describe as too bright. The power has been kept on even though the attraction has only operated for 39 days, having been shut down twice by COVID-19 restrictions, which delayed its original opening from April 4, 2020 to Oct. 21.
“I don’t know where this went sideways,” said an exasperated Phil Ginsburg, general manager of the Rec and Park Department. “We’ve asked for four years. We don’t know when it will have a chance to run at full capacity. Six weeks won’t cut it.”
I have been banned on my San Francisco Nextdoor neighborhood site for advocating that the Great Highway adjacent to the Pacific Ocean be permanently designated a car free zone.
In the past week I posted a series ‘Great Highway Reality Check I-V.’ Four of these posts have been posted on this site and migrated to Twitter.
The latest Post ‘V’ was titled ‘Life on the Disinformation Superhighway.’ It included as graphics a couple of photos from The Simpsons TV series. The post made mention of the misinformation and exaggerations directed my way regarding making The Great Highway a car free environment.
There have been approximately 500 comments to date.
There was never one example where I showed personal disrespect toward a Nextdoor user. That is presumably a criteria for Nextdoor banning a user.
The irony of my expulsion is that I have been personally attacked for my views, including one comment directed at me saying I am placing myself “at risk” for opposing the unfettered right of motorists to drive wherever and whenever they choose.
I also been told I should move out of town to Berkeley and that I have no business discussing this matter because I do not own a car.
Like a story out of the best tabloid journalism the blaring headline trumpets the huge “spike in burglaries” in the City’s Richmond District.
What the story glaringly fails to analyze is how well the SFPD is, or is not, doing its job to “clear” or in more readily understandable language make an Arrest.
In the opening of 2021 SFPD has made arrests in less than 6% of the burglaries. In early 2020 the number of arrests was nearly 18 percent.
In reading the stats at the end of the article the question becomes.
Why have the number of arrests fallen so precipitously? That’s the story to be told.
San Francisco police define burglaries as an unlawful entry into a home or business to commit a felony or a theft. The department defines “attempted forcible entry,” “forcible entry” and “unlawful entry,” where no force is used, as different types of crimes.
As of Feb. 7, there were 56 forcible entries reported in the Richmond. Last year that number was at 12, according to San Francisco Police Department data.
The number of attempted forcible entries reported as of Feb. 7 was 26. Compared to last year’s single reported attempted forcible entry — a 250% jump.
In all of San Francisco, burglaries have increased by 57% from 2020, according to the police department’s crime statistics dashboard.
“The department has seen an increase in burglaries across the city, particularly after the COVID-19 shelter in place orders took effect,” SFPD spokesperson Michael Andraychak told The Chronicle in an email statement. “We are seeing a trend of garage burglaries in which bicycles are being stolen.”
San Francisco police and residents have seen an uptick in home burglaries since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The Richmond District and the Marina have been among the hardest hit by reported burglaries since late 2020. Police have acknowledged the difficulties in arresting burglary suspects, given that, without physical evidence or eyewitnesses, such cases can be particularly difficult to solve.
Reported car break-ins, on the other hand, have dropped after the shelter-in-place orders and travel restrictions cleared the city of tourists — frequent targets of break-ins — in mid-March.
Here are the number of reported burglaries reported as of Feb. 7 compared to last year in the Richmond, according to city data:
The eyesore which is the 150 foot tall ferris wheel standing astride the Concourse in Golden Gate Park is the worst example of the proverbial white elephant.
The Ferris Wheel, brought here by out of State money makers, was just the latest toy imported to San Francisco by the money hungry and corporate subservient Recreation and Parks Department.
The Pandemic has limited its use for nearly a year. One day the Pandemic will subside. The promoters are pitching the idea that San Francisco can keep this monstrosity four more years. Who will benefit on this desecration of the Park? The promoters who stand to have a nice four year long payday.
Take it down right now.
Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 2.14.2021
The 150-foot-tall SkyStar Observation Wheel in Golden Gate Park would stay for four more years under a plan by the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, but environmental groups and some residents of the area oppose the move.
Among those opposing the extension is Supervisor Dean Preston, who represents neighboring Haight-Ashbury. The Haight Ashbury-Neighborhood Council (HANC) has already voted to oppose the four-year plan.
“I’m not seeing the basis for such a long extension,” Preston said by text. “As one constituent said to me ‘this is a park, not an amusement park.”
Seconding that opinion is Sierra Club San Francisco Bay, which objects to the lighting. The local Audubon Society also expressed concern about the lighting.
“Wildlife needs darkness,” Katherine Howard, a member of the group’s executive committee, wrote on a club blog post. “Light pollution can have a negative impact on birds — both resident and migrating — as well as bats, insects, amphibians, and other animals.”
The Historic Preservation Commission, an agency of the San Francisco Planning Department, will vote on the plan Wednesday. If the commission grants the requested Certificate of Appropriateness, the big Ferris wheel will operate in the park until March 2025, and will re-open as soon as San Francisco is removed from the purple tier of restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We want to make good on our promise that people are going to have a ride on this thing,” said Tamara Aparton, spokesperson for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department.
The amusement arrived in March 2020 to be a major attraction for a citywide celebration of the 150th anniversary of the park, which had been scheduled for April 4. But due to the shelter-in-place order, it did not open until 200 days later, on Oct. 8 and then it was allowed to run at 25% capacity until it was shut down again on Nov. 8, after 39 days in operation.
It has been empty ever since and will stay empty until San Francisco is released from the most restrictive tier of COVID-19 lockdowns.
The SkyStar is operated by Skyview Partners, a private entity firm, and costs $15 to ride for adults, $12 for seniors and kids. Five hundred free rides per month were offered to underserved communities in San Francisco. The arrangement calls for a portion of ticket sales to go to the Golden Gate Park Fund. In its truncated life in the park, 65,693 passengers took the ride, which made three revolutions, lifting to 15-stories in height and affording views to the Pacific Ocean during daylight and to Salesforce Tower at night.
Projections were for half a million riders during the first year and the hope is to provide those 500,000 rides and recoup the costs of having the SkyStar sit idle, by extending it for four years.
The meeting of the Historic Preservation Commission is at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, and open to the public via livestream.
Today is the second day of the Lunar New Year of the Ox. To celebrate a group of 50 plus adults and kids cycled through the Richmond District of San Francisco. Many of the streets we traversed are now car free.
I had the opportunity to engage in conversation with several high placed City Hall functionaries who were along for the ride. I also spoke with a well known local print news reporter. I provided them with my unvarnished point of view about maintaining a CAR FREE San Francisco on The Great Highway.
The City Hall executives listened carefully and are receptive to making permanent the long term initiatives now in place which they promoted. I pointed out the entitled motorist community is a vocal and often obnoxious minority which will push unabashedly to drown out and overwhelm those with a different perspective.
I explained that my earlier posts have been the subject of personal attack, including one in which I was told by my advocacy for a CAR FREE Great Highway I am putting myself, “at risk.”
Trump may be gone and Biden may be trying to erase his scandalous legacy.
Sadly there are some things which will never change. Julian Assange performed a heroic public service in shining a light on the violence and illegality of American foreign policy.
He is a hero. President Biden if he is truly the compassionate man he claims to be would let Julian Assange get on with his life in peace.
Sadly when I think of Biden the first thought which comes to mind that this is the man who, as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991, greased the skids so that Clarence Thomas could be elevated to the US Supreme Court. A perch from which Justice Thomas has done everything he can to destroy American civil liberties for 30 years.
New York Times 2.12.2021
Advocates of press freedoms had urged the new administration to instead drop a Trump-era effort to prosecute the WikiLeaks founder.
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has signaled that for now it is continuing its predecessor’s attempt to prosecute Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, as the Justice Department filed a brief this week appealing to a British court to overturn a ruling that blocked his extradition to the United States.
This week, human rights and civil liberties groups had asked the acting attorney general, Monty Wilkinson, to abandon the effort to prosecute Mr. Assange, arguing that the case the Trump administration developed against him could establish a precedent posing a grave threat to press freedoms.
Rebecca Vincent, the director of international campaigns for Reporters Without Borders, said the group was “extremely disappointed” that the Biden Justice Department had pressed on with the effort to bring Mr. Assange to the United States for prosecution.
“This marks a major missed opportunity for President Biden to distance himself from the Trump administration’s terrible record on press freedom,” Ms. Vincent said.
She warned: “The U.S. government is creating a dangerous precedent that will have a distinct chilling effect on national security reporting around the world. No journalist, publisher or source can be confident that they wouldn’t be criminally pursued for similar public interest reporting.”
Ms. Vincent also characterized the case against Mr. Assange as “political.” In January, however, Judge Baraitser had rejected Mr. Assange’s arguments that the American charges against him were politically motivated, ruling that they had been brought in good faith. The Justice Department had said that it was “gratified” by that part of her ruling.
The Justice Department had been due to file a brief in support of its appeal of a judge’s ruling last month blocking the extradition of Mr. Assange on the grounds that American prison conditions are inhumane.
The appeal was lodged on Jan. 19 — the last full day of the Trump administration — so the decision to proceed with filing the brief was the first opportunity for the Biden administration to reconsider the disputed prosecution effort. A spokeswoman from the Crown Prosecution Office said on Friday that the American government filed the brief on Thursday.
The brief itself was not immediately available. Filings in British court, unlike in the United States, are not public by default. Marc Raimondi, a Justice Department spokesman, said the American government was not permitted to distribute it, but confirmed its filing.
Prosecutors have separately accused him of participating in a hacking conspiracy, which is not a journalistic activity. The immediate issue at hand in the extradition case, however, is neither of those things, but rather whether American prison conditions are inhumane.
In January, a British judge, Vanessa Baraitser of the Westminster Magistrates’ Court, denied Mr. Assange’s extradition — citing harsh conditions for security-related prisoners in American jails and the risk that Mr. Assange might be driven to commit suicide if held under them. She held that “the mental condition of Mr. Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States.”
In its new brief, the Justice Department was expected to defend how the federal Bureau of Prisons handles security inmates and to argue that such conditions were not a legitimate reason for the close American ally to block an otherwise valid extradition request.
During the Obama administration, Justice Department officials weighed whether to charge Mr. Assange. But they worried that doing so would raise novel First Amendment issues and could establish a precedent that could damage press freedoms in the United States, since traditional news organizations like The New York Times also sometimes publish information the government has deemed classified.
The Obama administration never charged Mr. Assange. But the Trump administration moved forward with a prosecution. Its first indictment merely accused Mr. Assange of a hacking conspiracy, but it then filed a superseding indictment charging him under the Espionage Act in connection with publishing classified documents.
In 2019, as Mr. Biden was seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, The Times asked whether he would keep or jettison the novel Espionage Act charges against Mr. Assange the Trump administration had brought.
“Journalists have no constitutional right to break into a government office, or hack into a government computer, or bribe a government employee, to get information,” Mr. Biden wrote, adding, “We should be hesitant to prosecute a journalist who has done nothing more than receive and publish confidential information and has not otherwise broken the law.”
Lee's Perspective 