Are Americans paying attention to this fast breaking evolving crisis?
WHERE IS VLAD? – Putin has phone calls with allies as Russian leader’s location remains unclear – NY Post – 6.24.2023
Excerpted from Moscow Times 6.24.2023
“The U.S. government is not able to coordinate evacuation of private U.S. citizens from the Russian Federation. As underscored in longstanding U.S. travel advisories for Russia, we continue to urge U.S. citizens to not enter Russia at this time, and that U.S. citizens remaining in Russia depart immediately if it is safe to do so.
Wagner mercenaries near Southern Military District headquarters
The United States Embassy in Moscow has sent out a security alert to U.S. citizens in Russia, advising them to “prepare for any security developments” that arise.
“The U.S. Embassy in Moscow is aware of the reports of fighting between Wagner Group forces and the Russian Armed Forces in southwest Russia. The security situation in Russia continues to be unpredictable. We will continue to monitor the situation, but U.S. citizens should be aware that the Embassy has limited ability to assess security conditions in Moscow and other locations in the Russian Federation in real time,” the embassy said in an emailed advisory.
It urged U.S. citizens to “monitor local conditions and be prepared for any security developments.”
History repeating itself? A truck carrying Russian revolutionaries in 1917, in the city then known as Petrograd, later as Leningrad and now as St. Petersburg.Credit…Hulton Archive/Getty Images
It’s difficult to discern what is really happening in Putin’s Russia.
Reporters who tell the story may end up in jail. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been imprisoned since late March for his honest reporting from Russia.
Reporters aren’t the only ones threatening Putin’s ironclad rule. Now the head of the mercenary Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin has pledged retaliation after the Russian military allegedly attacked his forces. The Kremlin denies the charges and said he is attempting a “mutiny.
“This is not a military coup. This is a march for justice,” Prigozhin said.
Naturally the Western media is falling all over itself to advertise what it hopes is Russian fratricide which could damage, if not destroy Vladimir Putin.
An image released by Yevgeny V. Prigozhin’s press service that it said showed him with Wagner fighters in Bakhmut, Ukraine, last month.Credit…Concord Press Service, via Reuters
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 6.23.2023
The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said on Telegram that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s actions could see him sentenced behind bars for 12 to 20 years.
FILE PHOTO: The United States announced on March 3, 2022 they were imposing sanctions against Russian oligarchs, including Yevgeniy Prigozhin (seen in an FBI poster), as it targeted Russia’s super-rich and others close to President Vladimir Putin, further ratcheting up financial pressure over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. FBI/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Prigozhin is a Wanted Man in both Russia and the United States.
The office said Prigozhin was charged under Article 279 of the Russian Criminal Code for organizing an armed insurrection.
“His actions will be given a proper legal assessment,” the office added.
Russia on edge as defiant head of Wagner mercenary group calls for armed rebellion – Missoulian 6.23.2023
The San Francisco Police Department has guidelines for engaging in high speed pursuit.
Looking at the photographic evidence on display from today’s smash up into a former Italian Restaurant in the heart of the Mission leaves one wondering if the cops read their own rule book.
Excerpted from Mission Local 6.21.2023
In the midst of a high-speed car chase, a San Francisco police SUV ran a stop sign, clipped a motorcycle it appeared to be trying to avoid and injured a child as it crashed into the front of the storefront that was formerly Lucca’s deli on the corner of Valencia and 22rd Street, witnesses said.
Witnesses saw two people transported by ambulance, one of whom was a child. A witness said he aided both the victims after the crash and that their injuries did not appear life-threatening.
Neither the police department nor San Francisco General Hospital, the city’s go-to trauma center, responded to requests for comment. The victims’ conditions are unknown.
“I was just sitting next to the stop sign and a red car was flying through the stop sign, and the second after that I saw a police cruiser going just as fast,” said Chris, who said he was on 22nd Street west of the intersection and that the speeding red car was going “50 to 60 miles per hour” towards Valencia.
The car sped down 22nd Street, Chris said, followed by “a police cruiser chasing it with lights on.”
Lucca Deli before its closure in 2019
Chris ran down 22nd following the chase and saw the police SUV had crashed into Lucca’s facade, he said. The red car, witnesses said, sped off westbound on 22nd.
Robert Reyes, who lives on the corner directly opposite the store and was standing on the corner, said he saw the entire incident. He was waiting to cross the street when he saw a maroon Mercedes-Benz run a red light on Valencia Street, followed by the police SUV.
He said that the red car “slowed down” when it approached the intersection before speeding up and fleeing down 22nd Street. The police car, sirens on, followed and ran the red light, striking a motorcyclist cruising on Valencia.
SFPD surveys the damage after its car demolished the former Lucca Deli at 22nd and Valencia
San Francisco Police Department GENERAL ORDER 5.05 Rev. 05/22/13 Eff. 06/26/13 EMERGENCY RESPONSE AND PURSUIT DRIVING
IV. VEHICLE PURSUITS A. PURSUIT GUIDELINES
WHEN A PURSUIT IS AUTHORIZED. Except as otherwise provided in this order, an officer in an emergency vehicle may initiate a pursuit of an individual: a. Suspected of a violent felony; or b. When there is an articulable reasonable belief that the individual needs to be immediately apprehended because of the risk that individual poses to public safety.
Native Americans left the Supreme Court last week with raised heads and full hands.
The Supreme Court Voted to Uphold the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act
The Wall Street Journal published a totally callous and unfeeling editorial bemoaning last week’s Supreme Court decision in ‘Haaland v. Brackeen’ upholding the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act.
Even worse, many of the WSJ readers commenting agree with the editorial. This was my comment fighting the tide of White American colonialist thinking.
What all the Comments bemoaning the 7-2 Haaland v Brackeen ruling fail miserably to realize or admit.
Native Americans were in North America before the White colonialists; i.e. American occupiers stole their land and engaged in a pattern of systemic genocide.
The Supreme Court realizes thankfully, the totally clueless Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alioto notwithstanding, the Native Americans were the victims of White man’s Genocide.(In his dissent Thomas referred to Native Americans as “Indians.”)
This Decision is an important marker affirming their rights.
Fortunately Democracy Now, amongst other media outlets, chose to look at this important story in more historic terms. Not the narrow minded view of State vs Federal jurisdiction.
Democracy Now spoke with Cherokee journalist Rebecca Nagle about a major victory at the Supreme Court in a case that could have gutted Native American sovereignty.
In a surprise 7-2 ruling Thursday, the court upheld the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which protects Native children from being removed from their tribal communities for fostering or adoption in non-Native homes.
The court rejected an argument from Republican-led states and white families who argued the system is based on race. Nagle has covered the case closely for The Nation and her podcast, This Land, and says the far right is attacking the Indian Child Welfare Act as part of a broader conservative agenda to destabilize federal Indian law.
She calls the decision “really encouraging,” noting it is “good not just for Native nations and families, but for the rule of law.”
Native Americans – March 1881
Neil Gorsuch, a staunch conservative Justice, has become a leader on the Court affirming the rights of Native Americans. He wrote in a concurring opinion.
Often, Native American Tribes have come to this Court seeking justice only to leave with bowed heads and empty hands. But that is not because this Court has no justice to offer them. Our Constitution reserves for the Tribes a place—an enduring place—in the structure of American life.… In adopting the Indian Child Welfare Act, Congress exercised that lawful authority to secure the right of Indian parents to raise their families as they please; the right of Indian children to grow in their culture; and the right of Indian communities to resist fading into the twilight of history. All of that is in keeping with the Constitution’s original design.
When I got the news that Daniel Ellsberg died yesterday I was saddened. He was a true hero. A man who stood by his convictions and was ready to pay the price.
My memory jumped back to May 1969. Two years before the Pentagon papers were published in June 1971. Setting off a Constitutional battle over press freedom and sending President Nixon down the road which led to his resignation three years later.
In 1969 this was all in the future. I was a journalism student at San Francisco State University on assignment for the campus newspaper, The Phoenix. I convinced my faculty advisor to let me attend The World Affairs Council meeting at Asilomar in Monterey, California. Over 700 people including journalists, politicians and leading lights of the day were in attendance.
On the second evening of the event I spent the evening with Daniel Ellsberg. My journal entry captured the moment.
“I DRINK BOURBON AND WATER ALL NIGHT AND CHAT WITH A MAN NAMED ELLSBURG(sp.) FROM RAND CORPORATION WHO IS WELL TANNED, ARTICULATE AND PRECISE.” – Journal 5.3.1969Few new ideas – Foreign policy experts meet -San Francisco State University Phoenix – 5.15.1969
I returned to San Francisco and wrote an article. Not mentioning Daniel Ellsberg.
Two years later Liz and I are living in Germany working at the Ramstein Air Base when the following appears at the Base newsstand.
Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U.S. Involvement – New York Times 6.13.1971
THE PENTAGON PAPERS – Copy I purchased at the Ramstein Air Base book store in July 1971
Shortly thereafter all the World knew that Daniel Ellsberg, the articulate guy with whom I had spent an evening two years earlier had just upended the entire American government.
The Most Dangerous Man in America – Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers – 2009 Academy Award nominated documentary
The Most Dangerous Man in America-Trailer
TIME – THE WAR EXPOSES: Battle over the Right to Know – Daniel Ellsberg – July 5, 1971
Top photo – Tony Russo, Daniel Ellsberg and Patricia Marx after all Espionage charges dismissed by Federal Judge William Matthew Byrne because of gross governmental misconduct and illegal evidence gathering – May 11, 1973
Liz Heidhues – Special to Lee’s Perspective – 6.16.2023
Garry Tan – MAGA financier whose money was crucial in the ouster of Progressive DA Chesa Boudin
Garry Tan and London Breed are pressing the fleshwith like minded law and order San Francisco keepers of the venture capitalist status quo.
Stablegains raises $600K and joins Y Combinator’s W22 batch
Perhaps Garry Tan – MAGA financier whose money was crucial in the ouster of Progressive DA Chesa Boudin – is seeking a bailout fromSan Francisco Mayor London Breed. The highest paid mayor in US ($357K ‘22) who has run the City into a 780M budget deficit.
Stablegains faces lawsuit after losing $44MM on failed UST stablecoin
Tan is barking up wrong tree. Breed is an incompetent money manager, just like Tan. Breed sankThe City into miasma of financial distress and dystopiascreaming law and order every step of the way.
How Y Combinator Garry Tan turned a $300K bet on Coinbase into a $680MM ‘Golden Ticket’
Tan ignited SVB bank collapse and owns other losses. San Francisco is in a free fall.Garry and London are the last people anyone should have guiding the financial fortunes of San Francisco.
SEC sues Coinbase for allegedly acting as an unregistered crypto broker
MORAL HAZARD! – GARRY $$ TAN – The Boy Who Cried Bail me out!
Top photo – Garry Tan and London Breed pressing the flesh as San Francisco spirals downward into the Doom Loop
Liz Heidhues response to Cara Levine, an artist grappling with some of the most pressing issues of our time, including police brutality, climate change, and the Covid-19 pandemic, inviting the public to share personal stories of loss.
“Cara Levine – To Survive I Need You to Survive”
Theexhibit opens at the Contemporary Jewish Museum February 16, 2023.
Liz Heidhues has been a CJM member for nearly a decade.
Today, I am grieving…
A true story of Injustice in 21st Century San Francisco …
my loss of innocence, civil liberties, and life savings …
from two False Citizen’s Arrests in my old age 4.12.18 and 2.8.20 …
I was to go to the Symphony the afternoon of 4.12.18 …
Instead I lay on a hard wooden ledge in a filthy prison cell waiting for my husband to ride his bicycle with $20K cash in 200 $100 bills stuffed…
Mayor London Breed, born and raised in the housing projects of San Francisco, took the podium of the Board of Supervisors and lashed out at her number one tormenter. Dean Preston. Who happens to be white and progressive.
“Here we go, another white man talking about Black and Brown people as if you’re the savior of these people,” Breed told Supervisor Dean Preston, a frequent critic of both the mayor and police, whose district includes the troubled Tenderloin neighborhood.”
District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston and Mayor London Breed got into a heated exchange after Preston posed questions about Breed’s approach to the drug addiction epidemic in the city at a Board of Supervisors’ meeting on Tuesday. | Courtesy SFGovTVProgressive and white Dean Preston – Anathema to Mayor London Breed
What London Breed surely knows is that Supervisor Dean Preston is married to the grand daughter of Dr. Zuretti Goosby. A one time member of the San Francisco Board of Education and long time significant presence in San Francisco politics.
Before his death in 2000 Dr. Goosby was appointed to the War Memorial Board of Trustees by Willie Brown.
I was the one time News Editor of the San Francisco Sun Reporter, the black community newspaper in San Francisco. Owned and published by the late Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett. A prominent City street is now named after “The Doc.” The street which runs in front of London Breed’s City Hall office in room 200. ‘Carlton B. Goodlett Place.’ The street was named during Willie Brown’s Mayoral tenure.
London Breed surely knows Da Mayor. She babysat for his kids as a teenager.
In front of a map, dentist and education leader Dr Zuretti Goosby greets three seated people at Third Baptist Church, San Francisco, California, 1980. (Photo by Clarence Gatson/Gado/Getty Images)
In 1972 I interviewed Dr. Goosby. It was a memorable experience. A copy of that interview follows.
“A (San Francisco) police officer at Central Station expressed sympathy for the theft but told him the police had been “defanged” and that nothing would likely be done to help recover his equipment.”
SFPD “Defanged”? Hardly
When Chesa Boudin was District Attorney the cops had a lame excuse for their chronic ineptitude. Just blame Chesa. Casting aspersions on the Progressive DA who was holding them accountablefor their misconduct. The whole notion of respecting the rights of ALL citizens was (and still is) anathema to SF cops.
Well, Chesa was ousted a year ago with the active collaboration of their own Police Officers Association.
The question now becomes. Who is responsible for the “defanged” San Francisco Police Department? I am sure London Breed and her handpicked crony Brooke Jenkins, successor to Chesa, can provide a ready made excuse now that their Scapegoat is gone.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Standard 6.14.2023
A filmmaker took to Twitter to blast San Francisco police and crime after his car was broken into and $30,000 worth of camera equipment was stolen Wednesday near Lombard and Hyde streets, a wealthy area popular with tourists.
“Defanged” SFPD on the job
“SF police do nothing,” wrote Steele on Twitter. “While dealing with our situation we see more robbers pulling up in a Mercedes and looking into cars. We yelled at them. They pulled a gun on my friend. He’s filing his report now. Not one police officer showed up.”
Filmmaker Eli Steele first tweeted that he had lost around $15,000 worth of camera gear after his rental car windows were smashed at around 11 a.m. near the famous winding street.
Upon further inspection, he said $25,000 to $30,000 worth of filming equipment was taken in the theft. He told The Standard via text message that a total of $30,000 worth of equipment had been stolen.
San Francisco Police Department confirmed Steele reported the crime and did not comment on the criticism aimed at them in the tweet thread. Police said no arrests have been and the investigation remains ongoing.
Steele said he is in San Francisco to film a documentary starring his father Shelby Steele, and the film is a look at how George Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police officers affected America.
Lee's Perspective 