SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues with editorial assistance from Liz Heidhues 2.26.2024

The Buzz flying around San Francisco City Hall political circles is that District Attorney Brooke Jenkins already is scheming her next move. A knowledgeable source told me Brooke is plotting a run for Attorney General in 2026.

Incredulity is the first word that comes to mind.

The DA office is just a Stepping Stone for this aspiring pol from Union City.

Brooke Jenkins is a total political creature who owes her good fortune to Mayor London Breed, City Hall insiders and the dark monied contributors who fueled her meteoric rise.

Critics call S.F.’s new D.A. corrupt. Supporters say she’s a savior. Who is the real Brooke Jenkins?

Headline: SF Chronicle article by Heather Knight 8.26.2022

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/bayarea/heatherknight/article/Brooke-Jenkins-DA-17399111.php

This is Brooke Jenkins, fawningly portrayed in The Chronicle, who was a substantial factor in the political destruction of her one time boss DA Chesa Boudin.

A political destruction which Heather Knight, now San Francisco bureau chief for The New York Times, was a significant media operative. Utilizing her twice weekly column to regularly trash DA Boudin.

Jenkins. Quitting Boudin’s office in 2021 and doing political chores as a “volunteer” in the June 2022 Recall. Jenkins only admitted after the fact that she was paid 153K for these “volunteer” services.

https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/san-francisco-da-brooke-jenkins-secret-pay-scheme-underscores-lack-of-honesty/article_c26325e4-1e54-11ed-ad30-7ff582be1ec6.html

The Brooke Jenkins who disingenuously told the world she is not a political person. “I’m solution oriented.” Destroying Chesa Boudin as a stepping stone to the DA’s office.

Rewarded for her “volunteer” treachery by being named DA by Mayor London Breed.

London Breed. Behind the scenes leader in the recall of nettlesome DA Chesa Boudin. Never seen as a team player by Breed and her political cronies.

San Francisco now has a DA who walks in lockstep with the Mayor who made her career.

DA Jenkins committed misconduct in murder trial, Court of Appeal finds

Top photo: DA Brooke Jenkins and the ultimate City Hall insider Da Mayor Willie Brown

SAN FRANCISCO 2.25.2024

In the late 1930’s the Nazi Party was making inroads in America. In Donald Trump’s hometown New York City.

Nearly 100 years later, we have Donald Trump exhorting his followers at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). As he completes his takeover of the Republican Party. And boldly vows to decimate his foes should he win the election this November.

The shocking Academy Award nominated documentary “A Night at the Garden” tells the earlier story all too well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Night_at_the_Garden

Excerpted from The Guardian 2.25.2024

Donald Trump styled himself as a “proud political dissident” and promised “judgment day” for political opponents in an address on Saturday that offered a chilling vision of a democracy in imminent peril.

“They’ve replaced law, precedent and due process with a rabid mob of radical left Democrat partisans masquerading as judges and juries and prosecutors.”

Like demagogues of the past, the comedy and showmanship smuggled in a sinister undertow. Trump’s ability to play the crowd, turning its emotions from euphoria to fury as easily as flicking a switch, carry echoes that are hard to ignore.

Speaking days after the death of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Trump hinted at a self-comparison by adding: “I stand before you today not only as your past and hopefully future president but as a proud political dissident. I am a dissident.”

In classic carnival barker form, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination accused Joe Biden of weaponizing the government against him with “Stalinist show trials”. He pledged to crack down on border security and deliver the biggest deportation in US history if he wins the 5 November election.

“For hard-working Americans, November 5th will be our new liberation day,” Trump told a packed ballroom at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor in Maryland. “But for the liars and cheaters and fraudsters and censors and imposters who have commandeered our government, it will be their judgment day!”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/24/donald-trump-cpac-speech

Top Photo: Donald Trump wraps himself in the flag calling himself a “proud political dissident.”

SAN FRANCISCO 2.24.2024

Growing up I was surrounded by the world of the San Francisco Ballet.

My parents were regular attendees of performances at the San Francisco Opera House. Had dancer friends. Were close with the SFB hierarchy. And took ballet lessons themselves.

My mom worked at the San Francisco Ballet School for many years.

While I never danced myself, I definitely respected the physical ability and attractiveness of ballet dancers. I find the book ‘Swan Dive – The Making of a Rogue Ballerina by Georgina Pazcoguin’ utterly fascinating.

It is a thoroughly enjoyable engrossing read and definitely lays bare the tough world of professional ballet.

Excerpted from The New York Times 7.14.2021

The brave part wasn’t writing the book.

“The brave thing,” Georgina Pazcoguin said in an interview, “is going to be walking into the rehearsal studio Aug. 3.”

Like many ballet dancers these days (or so it seems), Pazcoguin has written a memoir. Hers is not timid. In “Swan Dive: The Making of a Rogue Ballerina,” this New York City Ballet soloist writes candidly about Peter Martins, the company’s former leader — she refers to him as her psychological abuser — as well as staff members and dancers, including Amar Ramasar, one of the male principals who lost his job after a photo-sharing scandal in 2018, and was later reinstated.

Pazcoguin now believes that part of the reason she was held back in the New York City Ballet company had to do with race. “A lot of feedback is presented in a correction,” she said. “Like you should correct this. Then you get the off comment, and you’re like, what? I can’t correct my features. And that’s when you’re like, what just happened?”

The company’s first female Asian American soloist — her father is Filipino and her mother is Italian — she is outspoken about her aim to bring equality to the ballet world. “Ballet is at a watershed moment,” said Pazcoguin, who with Phil Chan formed Final Bow for Yellowface, which aims to rid ballet of degrading and outdated depictions of Asian people. “We can either shift and become relevant or it’s going to fade off into the distance. That would be such a failure to me.”

Some of the experiences Pazcoguin relates are disturbing, others are just plain weird. She writes that for years, Ramasar would greet her in class “by sidling up close, whispering, ‘You look fine today,’ eyes locked on my chest, and then he’d zero in on the goal at hand by — surprise! — tweaking my nipples.” (In an email, Ramasar said “I flatly deny this allegation”; Martins didn’t respond to requests for comment.)

She writes about the time the repertory director Jean-Pierre Frohlich, rehearsing the dancers in Jerome Robbins’s “The Concert,” told them to imagine the beauty of spring and “women walking around in tank tops and short dresses, shorts! You know … ’” He paused, she writes, before ending “with this crazy bomb: ‘It’s amazing more women aren’t raped these days.’” (Frohlich said he hadn’t read the book and had no comment.)

Top photo: From left, Amar Ramasar, Robert Fairchild, Sara Mearns and Pazcoguin, who danced a villain role, in Peter Martins’s “Ocean’s Kingdom,” in 2011. Credit…Paul Kolnik

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 2.23.2024

Americans are too blissfully lazy and somnolent.

Ignoring the threat of the incipient fascism in America and the real possibility its standard bearer Trump could be president, again.

It’s a sad day when the most voluble outspoken critics of Trump come from the right wing of the American political spectrum. Nikki Haley and Liz Cheney.

In any civilized country, except America, this fascist Trump would be forever banned from being allowed to even visit the White House. Let alone preside over it.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 2.23.2024

Catholic bishops meeting in the city of Augsburg this week strongly condemned the rise of ethnic nationalism and right-wing extremism in German society.

“Right-wing extremist parties and those that run rampant on the fringes of this ideology can therefore not be a place of political activity for Christians and are also not electable,” they said in a statement.

On this point, the bishops made an explicit reference to the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD). They said the party’s beliefs are “incompatible with the Christian image of God and humankind.”

The statement is highly unusual because for the past 25 years, the Catholic bishops have been reluctant to offer any assessments of political parties.

The head of the Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Georg Bätzing, explained that the more than 60 bishops deliberated at length over making a statement, but agreed it was necessary. He also pointed out that the declaration had been adopted unanimously.

“After several spurts of radicalization,” the statement reads, “the AfD is now dominated by a nationalistic attitude.” It goes on to point out that the AfD oscillates between genuine right-wing extremism, which the domestic intelligence agency has documented in some regional branches and in the party’s youth organization, and less radical right-wing populism.

The statement specifically denounces hostility toward refugees, migrants and Muslims, and “to an increasing extent” Jews.

The bishops indicated that they will hold full-time church employees and volunteers to account. “Moreover, the circulation of right-wing extremist slogans — which includes racism and antisemitism in particular — is incompatible with full-time or volunteer service in the Church.”

https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-catholic-church-speaks-out-against-far-right/a-68352341

Top photo: German Christians have been speaking out against the far right using the slogan ‘our cross has no hooks’ (in reference to the swastika Nazi symbol)

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 2.22.2024

My reliable political source tells me politically savvy, hard working and blunt spoken Supervisor Aaron Peskin will enter the November 2024 San Francisco mayoral race shortly after the March 5th primary voting.

San Francisco progressives have been reeling since the 2022 recalls of District Attorney Chesa Boudin and three members of the School Board.

Help is on the way for beleaguered progressives. Now we have a genuine mayoral race in 2024.

This week Peskin, who has represented the North Beach/Chinatown District 3 for over 16 years, confirmed what has widely been rumored during a dinner with close allies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Peskin

With the Mayor being chosen by ranked choice, “Progressive” Peskin will undoubtedly have a strong vote in the first round. He needs to convince enough voters not scared off by the attack ads which will blast his record to vote for him as their second choice. He is a veteran someone who knows how City Hall works and gets things done.

Excerpted from San Francisco Standard 1.26.2024

The president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has a message for progressive supporters hoping he’ll run for mayor in November: hard pass.

“I’m not afraid of running,” said Aaron Peskin in an interview on Thursday. “I’m not afraid of losing. I’m afraid of winning.”

Aaron knows the four candidates in the race are law and order moderate/conservatives feeding at the trough of GrowSF, Garry Tan and assorted venture capitalists trying to takeover San Francisco.

Top photo: Aaron Peskin points the way to room 200 in City Hall.

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 2.20.2024

Words cannot describe the revulsion I feel watching the video of the 33 year old Russian/American ballerina being blindfolded, handcuffed and carted off to jail by Putin’s thugs.

https://t.me/rian_ru/232202

Excerpted from Moscow Times 2.20.2024

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has arrested a U.S.-Russian woman suspected of collecting money for the Ukrainian military, the law enforcement agency’s press service announced Tuesday. 

The independent news website Mediazona and legal rights group Perviy Otdel identified the woman as Ksenia Karelina, who had previously written on social media that she obtained U.S. citizenship in late 2021 after marrying an American man.

Russian authorities placed the U.S.-Russian woman in pre-trial detention, where she faces between 12 and 20 years of imprisonment if found guilty of high treason.

Video shared by state-run news agencies showed FSB agents escorting a handcuffed and blindfolded woman out of an apartment building and later into a courtroom where she was placed inside a glass defendant’s cage.

The arrest of the “33-year-old resident of Los Angeles” took place in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, over 1,400 kilometers east of Moscow. 

The FSB said the unidentified woman is accused of “proactively collecting funds since February 2022 in the interests of a Ukrainian organization, which were subsequently used to purchase tactical medicine, equipment, weapons and ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

“In addition, the citizen in question repeatedly took part in public actions in support of the Kyiv regime while in the United States,” the law enforcement agency added.

According to Perviy Otdel, Karelina donated $51.80 to a Ukrainian human rights non-profit from her American bank account on the day Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The Moscow Times could not independently verify either of the two reports.

Top photo: Jailed Russian/American ballerina Ksenia Karelina

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/02/20/russia-arrests-us-russian-woman-accused-of-treason-a84158

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 2.20.2024

The United States cannot call itself a beacon of human rights and press freedom as it pursues the extradition of Julian Assange from Britain.

Julian Assange shone a light on American perfidy in its overseas military intervention and catastrophic meddling in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Julian Assange made public, for all the world to see, the real militaristic bent of American foreign policy. It has never been about human rights and freedom. American policy is to protect American hegemony.

Excerpted from The Guardian 2.20.2024

Julian Assange faces the risk of a “flagrant denial of justice” if tried in the US, his lawyers have told a permission to appeal hearing in London, which could result in the WikiLeaks founder being extradited within days if unsuccessful.

Assange, who published thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, could be jailed for up to 175 years – “a grossly disproportionate punishment” – if convicted in the US, the high court heard on Tuesday.

Edward Fitzgerald KC, representing Assange, also argued that his client could be targeted by US state agencies for “extra-legal attack elimination” if he was extradited, particularly given “the real possibility of a return of a [Donald] Trump administration”.

Assange’s lawyers are seeking a full appeal hearing. If the two judges deny permission, all challenges in the UK courts will have been exhausted, leaving an intervention by the European court of human rights (ECHR) as Assange’s only hope to avoid extradition to the US.

Outside the court, scores of his supporters held placards and chanted, demanding his release. The WikiLeaks founder was granted permission to attend the two-day hearing but Fitzgerald said Assange was unwell.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/feb/20/julian-assange-risks-flagrant-denial-of-justice-if-tried-in-us-london-court-told

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 2.18.2024

Convicted financial fraudster and soon to be convicted criminal felon. Donald Trump has uttered not a word about the mysterious death of Russian opposition leader, now martyr, Aleksei Navalny in a Russian prison.

Nor has shyster con man Trump said anything about Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on Russians. Citizens courageous enough to speak out and protest Navalny’s death in a Russian Siberian gulag.

Why? Thug Putin is Trump’s kind of guy. Trump would like to treat Americans exercising their right to protest in the same vicious manner.

Excerpted from The The New York Times 2.18.2024

A bishop who planned a public prayer for the Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny was detained as he left his house. Two men were arrested for having a photograph of Mr. Navalny in a backpack.

A man who lay flowers at a memorial said he was beaten by police officers for the small act of remembrance.

Someone else placed a copy of Franz Kafka’s “The Trial” at the Solovetsky Stone , while others hung chains of paper cranes, candles, and a photo of Mr. Navalny smiling with fellow opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in 2015 in the shadow of the Kremlin.

Lena, who gave only her first name for fear of reprisal, started to cry. “They are scared of Navalny in jail,” she said, “they are scared of dead Navalny, they are scared of the people who bring flowers here to the Solovetsky stone.”

As thousands of Russians across the country tried to give voice to their grief for Mr. Navalny, who died in a remote Arctic penal colony on Friday, Russian police officers cracked down, temporarily detaining hundreds and placing more than two dozen in jail.

Until Mr. Navalny’s death at the age of 47, many observers had believed that the Kremlin would limit repression until after presidential elections in mid-March, when President Vladimir V. Putin is all but assured a fifth term. But many now fear that the arrests portend a broader crackdown.

Top photo: Police officers detained people who were paying tribute to Mr. Navalny at the Solovetsky Stone in St. Petersburg on Saturday. Credit…Associated Press

PLANNING COMMISSION – CITY HALL SAN FRANCISCO 2.15.2024

Lee Heidhues 2.17.2024

• MYOPIA – lack of imagination, foresight or intellectual insight.

After only a cursory hearing and without any detailed probing of the applicants or neighborhood opponents arguments the San Francisco Planning Commission waved through a building project doubling the height of a single family home. A decision only favorable to the self-centered property owners. It can only be described for what it is. LAND USE GLUTTONY.

The day after the Planning Commission approved this project I called the Planner, David Winslow. I told him the action the Commission took was “disgraceful in general and you in particular were disgraceful.“

David responded, “I’m glad you got it off your chest.”

MY PRESENTATION TO THE SAN FRANCISCO PLANNING DEPARTMENT IN OPPOSITION TO THE MONSTER BUILDING PROJECT AROUND THE CORNER FROM THE HOUSE WE HAVE OWNED AND LIVED IN SINCE 1984.

“With all due respect to Jeremy Paul and the property owners at 4820 Anza Street this project is all about LAND USE GLUTTONY and playing the Zoning Code to the maximum extent possible. This project (doubling the size of the existing building) should be rejected out of hand.

My name is Lee Heidhues,. My wife and I have lived around the corner 40 years where we raised our family.

I would simply ask you, Planning Commissioners, if you lived next door to this project “How would you feel?”

I have done a Public Records Request. The Commission asked this Project be scaled back in late 2021. Three months later the property owners said NO. A position they still maintain today.

A brief walk down Anza Street between 39th and 40th Avenues makes obvious these are all single family homes. A garage and one floor above. This project is totally out of scope with the neighboring single family homes. The owners at 4820 Anza Street know it. Their hired gun Jeremy Paul knows it.

This project should be rejected and sent back to the property owners.”

TOP PHOTO – LAND USE GLUTTONY

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 2.14.2024

Someone had to take a walk out the door following the 49ers shocking loss at the Super Bowl this past Sunday in Las Vegas.

For those who may have forgotten or weren’t paying attention the 49ers lost in overtime to the Kansas City Chiefs, 25.22.

All season the 49ers defensive coach Steve Wilks had received criticism for some of his play calling. After the 49ers were defeated in the most depressing fashion. In overtime. After leading much of the game and taking the lead in overtime. Someone had to go. Three days later it was Steve Wilks.

Excerpted from The Athletic – Steve Kawakami – 2.14.2024

49ers’ scapegoat?

Steve Wilks’ firing is a bad look. The mistake was hiring an ill-fitting defensive coordinator.

A year ago, Kyle Shanahan gave Steve Wilks a great opportunity that was also mostly unfair to him at the very same time. Both things. Built upon each other.

A great job because it was difficult enough that anyone who succeeded would be heralded as a great defensive mind and possibly delivered a head-coaching job at the next convenient moment. Difficult because it was loaded with great players, great resources, great responsibility and the greatest expectations.

Which is why it’s logical to say that Shanahan’s decision to fire Wilks as the 49ers’ defensive coordinator on Wednesday was two partially contradictory things at the same time — an extremely awkward moment of very public Super Bowl-loss scapegoating and also the logical conclusion of a failed year-long experiment.

It could’ve worked, if Wilks developed more chemistry with Fred Warner, Nick Bosa and the rest of the defense in the short time he had, but he didn’t. Wilks, who came up as a defensive secondary coach, was a bit more reserved and much more focused on the defensive backfield than they’re used to. And it became clearer every week that the 49ers’ top defensive players just didn’t fully believe in their DC.

It could’ve worked if Shanahan was willing to adjust some more, but he wasn’t.

It could’ve worked if the 49ers’ defense was a little more focused and a lot less confused during the playoffs. But those distracted moments kept piling up through the Green Bay and Detroit games and then all the way into the last minutes against the Chiefs, when Shanahan at one point called timeout to get the 49ers out of a defensive call he hated and then another when linebacker Oren Burks pinballed around the formation, looking anxiously toward the sideline, before a critical third-down snap trying to figure out where he was supposed to line up. Patrick Mahomes quickly completed a pass for a first down on that play, of course.

And then, in his postgame session, Bosa flatly said that the defense was not prepared well enough to defend Mahomes running the ball on two back-breaking plays. Once Bosa said this, it was pretty clear that Wilks’ status was in serious jeopardy.

Three days later, he was out of a job.

https://theathletic.com/5276062/2024/02/14/steve-wilks-fired-49ers-kawakami