It was five years ago that Ahmaud Arbery, a young black jogger, was shotgunned to death in cold blood by two white men, father and son as he jogged through a white neighborhood in Georgia as they tried to make a vicious and without justification Citizen’s Arrest.
The two men, father and son, were convicted of murder and sentenced to long prison terms.
This image from video posted on Twitter shows Ahmaud Arbery running on a street in a neighborhood outside Brunswick, Ga., on Feb. 23, 2020, as a pickup truck is stopped in front of him. Two men in the truck, Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory McMichael, confronted Arbery and less than a minute later he was fatally shot. (Twitter via AP)
After this abhorrent and vicious abuse of Georgia’s Citizen’s Arrest statute the state changed its draconian Citizen’s Arrest statute.
Sadly, California which labels itself as enlightened still has its heavy handed Citizen’s Arrest statute on the books.
Excerpted from Atlanta News First 2.23.2025
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Sunday marks the fifth anniversary of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder.
Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was chased down by three white men while he was jogging in southeast Georgia on Feb. 23, 2020.
According to investigators, father and son Greg and Travis McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan grabbed their firearms and chased Arbery down in the street, shot and killed him, after confronting him about recent burglaries in the area.
The Georgia General Assembly declared Feb. 23 as “Ahmaud Arbery Day.” As part of the resolution, state representatives encourage people to walk or run 2.23 miles on that day and reflect on how Arbery’s life was cut short while jogging in 2020.
In just 32 days The Felon President Trump has done more to destroy Democracy as we know it in America.
Words don’t suffice.
So I ignore all the media hand wringing about the turn to fascism in America. I sooth my jangled nerves by watching for the umpteenth time The Cure at Glastonbury, England in 2019 blast out their classic song. Burn. A song which can be found in the soundtrack of the cult classic film, The Crow.The star Brandon Lee, 28, died following a tragic incident during filming. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Lee
Clarksdale, Mississippi Press Register crushed in the Courtroom
A Mississippi judge ordered a newspaper to remove an editorial criticizing the mayor of Clarksdale and city leaders after the officials sued the news outlet, leading press advocates to criticize the order as one of the most egregious First Amendment violations in recent years.
Charlie Mitchell is the former executive editor of the Vicksburg Post and an attorney. He is a assistant professor at the University of Mississippi’s School of Journalism and New Media, where he has taught media law for years. He told Mississippi Today there were so many issues with the judge’s order that he didn’t even “know where to start.”
“The First Amendment allows restraint of expression, including by the media, only extremely rarely and only when there is clear evidence of immediate and irreparable risk to the public — such as blocking publication that would identify confidential informants,” Mitchell said.
Hinds County Chancellor Crystal Wise Martin issued a temporary restraining order against the Clarksdale Press Register
Without a hearing for the newspaper, Hinds County Chancellor Crystal Wise Martin issued a temporary restraining order against the Clarksdale Press Register on Tuesday after the news outlet wrote a Feb. 8 editorial titled “Secrecy, Deception Erode Public Trust.”
The column criticized the city for not sending the newspaper a notice about a meeting city commissioners held over a proposed effort to ask the state Legislature for permission to enact a local tax on alcohol, marijuana and tobacco.
As of Thursday morning, the news outlet had removed the editorial from its website, but Wyatt Emmerich, the newspaper’s owner, told Mississippi Today that he intended to fight the judge’s order in court, which he called “absolutely astounding.”
The United States Supreme Court in the famous New York Times v. Sullivan has stood strongly for the right to publish without interference of censorship by government authorities.
Adam Steinbaugh, a lawyer at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which supports free speech, criticized the city’s lawsuit, writing on social media that it was “wildly unconstitutional.”
He said that governments “can’t sue for libel” under New York Times v. Sullivan, the landmark First Amendment decision issued by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1964.
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964), was a landmarkU.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled the freedom of speech protections in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution limit the ability of a public official to sue for defamation.[1][2] The decision held that if a plaintiff in a defamation lawsuit is a public official or candidate for public office, then not only must they prove the normal elements of defamation—publication of a false defamatory statement to a third party—they must also prove that the statement was made with “actual malice“, meaning the defendant either knew the statement was false or recklessly disregarded whether it might be false.[2]New York Times Co. v. Sullivan is frequently ranked as one of the greatest Supreme Court decisions of the modern era.[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._Sullivan
There are still climate killing cars on Great Highway Park four months after San Francisco voters, by a 55 percent majority, approved creation of the permanently car free sanctuary along San Francisco’s Pacific Coast shoreline.
Cars continue to pollute Great Highway Park four months after the passage of Proposition K. Cars should have vanished by now.
The OCEAN BEACH landmark near Great Highway Park
We took this photo montage the afternoon of February 18th. A graphic exposition of the land and streets nearby the newly voter mandated Great Highway Park.
Liz passes by an exercising couple.
Why the delay in implementation of the voter mandate?Where is it, San Francisco City Hall??
Hands up for Tai Chi.
Two old guys parley off the beaten path in the park while practicing martial arts.
San Francisco is full of fascinating people and places.Great Highway Park will add to the international city’s allure.
The well trodden path only a wanderer can appreciate.
Two elves in the bush.
During our trek, we met the genuinely friendly inhabitants of this great city. They were not sitting in their cars. They were out enjoying nature and cherishing the environment.
Liz sitting on a log in Golden Gate Park musing about Great Highway Park while birds sing in the background.
Lee stands amongst the remains of a fallen tree in Golden Gate Park.A group of young students learn about nature off the beaten path in Golden Gate Park near The Chain of Lakes.Liz was greeted by a Recreation and Park staff member in Golden Gate Park.
Explore the natural unspoiled scenery sans the Car of the two neighborhoods running the length of Ocean Beach.
A coot in her home territory.Orange mushrooms in the park. Colorful and potentially deadly.
It is as easy as a walk in the park when you toss your car keys and put on comfortable shoes and a backpack.
Lee surrenders to the impassable path in Golden Gate Park.
Be aware that the car-craving penchant to drive rather than walk to stores a short distance from your home may not be a common occurrence.
A Waymo leads the caravan of climate killing vehicles through a section of Golden Gate Park where cars can still pollute.
But be assured it’s a healthier life style than sitting in a car and experiencing road rage.
Luna and her owner greet Liz and Lee.
It’s always a Dog’s Day in Golden Gate Park.
Cycling on a beautiful February morning in Golden Gate Park.
Father and child enjoy a February cycle in Golden Gate Park.
The go-getter shopper expending the time and physical exertion to turn a shopping trip into an outing can show off their photos. To natives and tourists alike, giving insight into what’s uniquely San Francisco.
The San Francisco Fire Department hook and ladder truck. An essential tool for the safety of all citizens and animals.
Entrance to the now shut down Equestrian corral in Golden Gate Park.
A worker from Rec and Park, dog walkers, a legacy business dog stylist, the servers at the historic Java Beach Café where the colorful N-Judah train reaches the end of the line at the Pacific Ocean, and a fashion model-looking Hungarian shopping at Safeway, all are staples of San Francisco life.
Lee peers through a portal as the Muni Metro rumbles by.Portal to the San Francisco Muni Metro ‘N’ Judah line.
The end of the Line …or the beginning .. of the N Judah line in San Francisco.
We saw many aspects of the legendary San Francisco people oriented culture. From a Hippie mother and daughter reminiscing over lunch at the Café to a class of school children studying the habitat and wildlife of Golden Gate Park.
Liz and Lee enjoy their triple decker sandwiches at Java Beach Cafe.
The people oriented and the politically charged, the nostalgia for what’s gone and the anticipation for what’s to come. All juxtaposed together as only two San Francisco old timers can view and appreciate it. The genuine San Francisco as experienced during our adventurous outdoor trek through the Richmond and Sunset districts on a beautiful day in February.
A community wall of art at Judah and 43rd Avenue in San Francisco.
Liz swapped Italian heritage stories with Matt the dog groomer who bathed our dogs for years.
A colorful display drying food in the sun graces the front and balcony of a pink home.
An old house in the Sunset neighborhood displaying a poster, “VOTE FOR REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM.”
Newly constructed affordable housing adjacent to an old funky house with roped off CAUTION tape on 43rd Avenue
Our trek through the Park was ostensibly about shopping for staples at Other Avenues, a supporter of Great Highway Park, the worker owned co-op store, and the monolithic Safeway at Ocean Beach Supermarket at either side of Golden Gate Park.
Liz proudly displays her Miyokos plant butter. The alternative to saturated fat.
Soak in the occult at the bath soap section of Other Avenues Co-op.
Liz in Safeway at the Beach holds aloft her organic bananas at the end of the trek.
We are waiting for the scene of cars being towed from car free Great Highway Park. We have never owned a car.
A car being towed on Street Sweeper Day at 43rd and Irving. This is the fate which should await the motorists who violate The Great Highway Park sanctuary.
We won by a 55 percent majority. Open The Great Highway Park NOW!!!
Top photo: Lee stands frustrated as cars whiz by on what should be car free Great Highway Park.He’s been assured the car free oasis is coming soon.
The extremist right wing Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), if the polls are correct, will gain over 20 percent of the seats in the Bundestag. Potentially giving the AfD 130 seats in the 630 member parliament. Making this party of extremists and, some would say, Neo-Nazis a major player in Germany and the whole of Europe.
Elon Musk is actively campaigning for the AfD. Vice-President JD Vance went to Munich last week and sang the praises of these extremists.
Excerpted from Wall Street Journal Editorial 2.18.2025
The AfD’s foreign-policy views should give Americans pause. Party co-leader Tino Chrupalla in December suggested Germany should withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization because NATO is too dominated by America. Alice Weidel, the party’s candidate for chancellor, said in September she believes “U.S. interests in Germany are diametrically opposed to our security interests.” The party taps into a deep well of suspicion of the U.S. and sympathy for Russia among its voters in the former East Germany.
Nor can Americans be blind to the extremism within the AfD. Björn Höcke, a party leader in Thuringia state, criticized construction of Berlin’s Holocaust memorial, says the word Lebensraum (the Nazi concept of an ethnic German zone in Europe) should be revived, and has peppered speeches with a nationalist slogan once adopted by Hitler’s storm troopers. Alexander Gauland, an AfD leader in the national parliament, once described the Nazi era as “bird s—” in the context of Germany history.
Ms. Weidel and other leaders haven’t purged these elements from the AfD. That is in contrast to Marine Le Pen’s purge of antisemites from her party in France, expelling even her own father from the party he founded. Ms. Le Pen’s party has cut ties with the AfD at the European Union level in Brussels.
This explains why mainstream German parties have erected a “firewall” around the AfD—something Mr. Vance criticized last week. Mr. Vance is right that Europe’s failed mainstream politicians can’t run from their voters forever, but it doesn’t follow that an American Vice President should throw his weight behind an anti-American party.
Top graphic: – June 1971. Washington Post cartoon by Herblock decrying the Nixon Administration attempt to quash publication of the Vietnam War Pentagon Papers. Now this same newspaper is engaging in a form of Prior Restraint by kow towing to the White House. Refusing to run a political ad critical of Elon Musk.
Elon Musk is the de facto President of the United States. Even the wealthiest people kow towing to his bullying threats.
Including the Amazon monolith Jeff Bezos owned Washington Post. Which in an act of craven cowardice refused to run an ad titled “Fire Elon Musk.”
If the World needed to see who is running America, one need look no further than this report.It’s not Donald Trump. It’s the world’s wealthiest man Elon Musk.
The Hill 2.16.2025
The Washington Post this week backed out of a “Fire Elon Musk” advertising order that was to run as a wrap on some of its Tuesday editions, according to the advocacy group Common Cause.
Common Cause learned on Friday The Post would not run the outside-the-paper ad criticizing Musk.
“Is it because we’re critical of what’s happening with Elon Musk? Is it only ok to run things in The Post now that won’t anger the president or won’t have him calling Jeff Bezos asking why this was allowed?” she said, referring to The Post’s owner, who is also the founder of Amazon and the space company Blue Origin.
She said The Post did not provide an explanation for why it decided not to run the wrap ad.
The group said it signed a $115,000 agreement with The Post to run the ad that would have covered the front and back page of the Tuesday paper as well as a full-page ad with the same theme inside the paper. It said it planned to purchase the ad in collaboration with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund.
The ad’s design features a large picture of Musk with his head tilted back, laughing, along with a cutout image of the White House and large white text: “Who’s running this country: Donald Trump or Elon Musk?”
Lower down on the page it features smaller font text stating: “Since day one, Elon has created chaos and confusion and put our livelihoods at risk. And he is accountable to no one but himself.”
“The Constitution only allows for one president at a time. Call your senators and tell them it’s time Donald Trump fire Elon Musk,” it says, followed by the URL FireMusk.org.
Common Cause President Virginia Kase Solomón said The Post’s advertising sales representative was informed of the nature of the ad and seemed confident that running it over the paper wouldn’t be a problem.
Berlinale Palast. Venue for the the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival
Tilda Swinton acceptance talk at the Berlin International Film Festival – February 2025
One of my favorite actors Tilda Swinton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilda_Swintonwill be feted at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival.One of my favorite movies is the 2007 Michael Clayton for which Tilda Swinton, portraying a relentless corporate attorney, won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.In case you don’t recognize him, that’s George Clooney.
Tilda Swinton and George Clooney spar in the final scene of “Michael Clayton.”
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 2.13.2025
The 75th Berlin International Film Festival, which runs from February 13-23, kicks off on Thursday with the world premiere of “The Light,” by Tom Tykwer. The German filmmaker behind “Run Lola Run” (1998) and the series “Babylon Berlin” returns with a drama starring Lars Eidinger and Nicolette Krebitz. It depicts a middle-class family whose routine is upturned when a housekeeper from Syria enters their lives.
Tilda Swintonin the 1992 film “Orlando”
During the opening event, Tilda Swinton will receive the Honorary Golden Bear, which recognizes her lifetime achievement. The Scottish actor has attended the Berlinale many times over the years, whether as jury president in 2009 or to accompany her films — 26 of which have been featured at the film festival.
One of Swinton’s trademarks is her androgyny, her otherness among more traditionally feminine Hollywood actresses. The tall, lanky Scot wears her hair short and often prefers suits to gowns on the red carpet. She has often played men or ostensibly gender-fluid characters.
In her late 20s, Swinton — then an unknown actress — took a long trip through West Berlin on her bike for Cycling the Wall. In the three decades since, Swinton’s become one the Europe’s biggest and most interesting film stars, and Berlin has blossomed into one of Europe’s most vibrant cultural centers.
Hilda Swinton in the 2016 film “Hail, Ceasar.”
Beyond the glitzy red carpet events, the festival is also putting the spotlight on different current and historical events.
With the film festival taking place 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, screenings of Claude Lanzmann’s monumental “Shoah” (1985) is part of the special program, as well as a new documentary revisiting the groundbreaking work that revolutionized the representation of the Holocaust in cinema, titled “All I Had was Nothingness,” by Guillaume Ribot.
“My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow” is a documentary about intellectuals being driven in to exile under Russia’s current regime. “Das Deutsche Volk” revisits the racist shootings in Hanau in 2020. And “A Letter to David” is a cinematic letter to Hamas hostage David Cunio, who is still detained in Gaza.
Tilda Swinton in the disturbing psychological mind bender 2011 film based on the novel “We Need to Talk About Kevin.”
There are sometimes amusing moments in the most stuffy and deadly serious courtroom environment.
Only in a 21st century San Francisco courtroom. A Hitchcockian tale of suspense.
“Are you an expert on tarot cards?”
That was the question posed to a witness who testified about black cats and the Tarot in a San Francisco courtroom on Valentine’s Day.
The courtroom was vexed and intrigued by the testimony that a Black Cat Tarot Card could be used as a tool of harassment.
So was the blogger whodid some research. He learned something about the black catand its influence in the centuries old Tarot card.
Will the Black Cat Tarot Card devour its enemies? Will its caretaker be burned at the stake for witchcraft? Has 15th century justice landed in the courtroom? Stay tuned for the next encounter.
The black cat at her feet shows that luck favors her, as black cats are viewed as bringers of good or bad luck.
The nature of cats may also show that she has tamed her darker impulses yet understands and follows her own instincts, thus representing her self-aware and independent nature. Black cats are also commonly associated with occultism and the dark arts, suggesting intuitive understanding of the world.
Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play tarot card games.[1] In English-speaking countries, where the games are largely unknown, tarot cards came to be utilized primarily for divinatory purposes.
Its keywords include: attractive, wholehearted, energetic, cheerful, and self-assured.
The sign of Leo is strongly associated with this card due to the lions adorning her throne, as well as the lion pendant clasping her cape. She is holding a sunflower, which may represent a fertile and joyous life, but may also further suggest a connection to Leo. In their bud stage, sunflowers face and track the sun in its motion across the sky, a behavior called heliotropism. The sun in astrology is considered to be the ruling planet of the sign of Leo.
Soundtrack from the 1958 Alfred Hitchcock movie “Vertigo” filmed in San Francisco
Our lives exist in a parallel world with art. A friend who read the blog post informed me that 12 hours after posting“Are you an expert on tarot cards?” with its “Vertigo” soundtrack…the film was shown at The Legion of Honor. Just a short walk from our home.
Top photo: The black cat devours the flagpole of St. Joan of Arc. She was born on January 6, 1412. She was charged as a relapsed heretic and burned at the stake on May 30, 1431in Rouen, France.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc
Joan of Arc statue at the 100 year old Legion of Honor in San Francisco.
Art Spiegelman won a Pulitzer Prize with his graphic cartoon history of the Holocaust MAUS. Now he has stepped four square into the Middle East cauldron with an unvarnished takedown of the Israeli assault against the Palestinian people of Gaza. Spiegelman and fellow artist Joe Sacco have created a graphic cartoon story which is sure to be praised by many and scorned by others.
Maus,[a] often published as Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Art Spiegelman, serialized from 1980 to 1991. It depicts Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. The work employs postmodern techniques, and represents Jews as mice and other Germans and Poles as cats and pigs respectively. Critics have classified Maus as memoir, biography, history, fiction, autobiography, or a mix of genres. In 1992, it became the first and only graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maus
The February 27, 2025 issue of the oft times staid New York Review of Books (NYRB) is running a brief, powerful indictment of the Israeli government titledNEVER AGAIN..AND AGAIN…AND AGAIN..AND AGAIN. By the Power of Modern Cartooning, Two Comic Artists Have Drawn Themselves Into The Gaza Strip.
UPDATE: New Orleans, Louisiana. The Philadelphia Eagles demolished The Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 and capture the 59th Lombardi Super Bowl Trophy. In 2026 the Super Bowl will be played at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. Home of the 49ers.
The All-American pastime. The Super Bowl. And what more appropriate way to spend the time before the 3:30 kickoff. Shopping at the Supermarket.
We took a walk through the car free slow street near the Safeway a mile from our home. And an hour later boarded the bus carrying bags and backpacks full of food and household item.
Getting ready to chow down on Super Bowl Sunday.
The Super Bowl ads are always a signal of the current state of life in America.
The ads this year are light on substance with strong bows to the boomer generation. So, this photo montage concludes with the classic rock song by It’s a Beautiful Day, “White Bird.”
The crow watches over Safeway at the Beach in San Francisco.
The Super Bowl sugar fix ensemble. Complete with the team colors of Kansas City and Philadelphia
It’s not all the sugar fix at Safeway. Healthy oranges and apple abound.
Liz holds aloft a cabbage destined to be a marvelous Coleslaw salad. Check out that Erin Andrews 49ers sweatshirt. Maybe next February at Levi’s Stadium the home team will make another Super Bowl appearance.
Aisles and aisles of San Francisco consumer staples.
Blogger Lee loves those cookies.
The well stacked and surprisingly empty Safeway Deli section on Super Bowl Sunday.
For the non Super Bowl fan there are plenty of periodicals available to pass the hours.
Liz carefully looks over the organic chicken drumstick selection.
Lee's Perspective 