Lee Heidhues 6.4.2023

What is striking about political protest in Germany is the fact people take to the streets in what often become disruptive confrontations with the Police.

Confrontations which German police are organized to handle so that protesters, irrespective of political persuasion, are treated firmly. And treated by the Courts in a manner which respects their rights. While meting out to the accused firmly and, for the post part, fair sentences to the Guilty.

In America law enforcement more often comes down hard on progressive protestors. And, too often treats right wingers with the proverbial kid gloves.

Vigorous street protest is rarely seen in America where, for the most part, aggrieved Progressives satisfy themselves with generally peaceful marches and overheated rhetoric.

The same protest tactics can’t be said for the far right in America. Proud Boys, Q’Anon etc. The neo-fascist extremists whose attempted coup d’etat on January 6, 2021 laid bare the incendiary intentions of these political thugs.

The Courts in America seem unable to differentiate between neo-nazi extremists and legitimate political protest. In America the Courts often hand out unduly long prison sentences.

Particularly for political offenses; i.e. whistleblowing and making public government documents. Charged as serious crimes which do not deserve lengthy, if any, incarceration.

If nothing else, in Germany the Courts are more adept at making the punishment fit the crime.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 6.3.2023

Several police officers were injured in the eastern German city of Leipzig on Saturday in clashes with left-wing protesters.

Leipzig police spokesman Olaf Hoppe described the situation as “very dynamic,” with “sometimes massive clashes here in the south of Leipzig.” 

He said that “roughly 1,500 people” turned up to the demonstration, even though several courts had refused to authorize it. 

“According to our estimates, one-third of them were either inclined towards violence, or were actively seeking violence,” Hoppe said. “We observed numerous cases of people intentionally obscuring their faces, which is an offense in and of itself.” 

Major protests in Germany require authorization from authorities. Local governments and courts can restrict them if they deem that the event could pose a risk to public safety, among other reasons. 

The activists are demonstrating in the aftermath of a young woman from Leipzig, identified as Lina E., receiving a 5-year jail term earlier in the week for her part in organized attacks on neo-Nazis in Germany. She also received a last-minute reprieve of sorts, when the judge said she would only have to serve the remainder of her jail sentence should she also lose at appeal. 

The scheduled date for the verdict had been known for months, and Lina’s supporters evidently were not optimistic about her chances of acquittal, as they had been drumming up support for protests on the following weekend since last year.

They referred to it as “day X” (Tag X), a term often used in German to describe a moment in the future that you believe will be somehow decisive or crucial.

They wanted to stage the march under a motto that roughly translates as “United we stand — defend autonomous antifascists, in spite of all this.”  

Leipzig city authorities and two courts in the city ruled that Saturday’s demonstration should not go ahead, saying that advanced online appeals calling on people to protest either showed a tendency towards violent acts or sometimes even included explicit calls for violence. 

“Leipzig’s Higher Administrative Court is also of the conviction, that the city of Leipzig plausibly predicted that the protests could turn violent and therefore pose a threat to the broader public,” Leipzig’s Higher Administrative court said late on Friday when upholding the first court decision finding that the march should not be allowed. 

The German Constitutional Court, meanwhile, said on Saturday that it would not hear a last-gasp emergency injunction on the issue, meaning the protesters had exhausted their legal avenues. 

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-police-break-up-banned-far-left-protest-in-leipzig/a-65816770

Top photo – Police in Leipzig, Germany push away a protester

Lee Heidhues 6.3.2023

It was 55 years ago today that Andy Warhol was shot in New York City by Valerie Solanas.

The notorious event was memorialized in the 1996 film “I Shot Andy Warhol.”

In 2019 The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art had a retrospective of Andy Warhol’s massive works of art. My daughter Atlanta and I attended the Members Only preview. I took a number of photos. Four years after viewing the exhibit I am putting up a representative sampling of my photographic memories.

Photos: Lee Heidhues

Excerpted from Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Shot_Andy_Warhol

I Shot Andy Warhol is a 1996 biographical drama film about the life of Valerie Solanas and her relationship with the artist Andy Warhol.^[5] The film marked the feature film directorial debut of Canadian director Mary Harron. The film stars Lili Taylor as Valerie, Jared Harris as Andy Warhol, and Martha Plimpton as Valerie’s friend Stevie. Stephen Dorff plays Warhol superstar Candy Darling. John Cale of The Velvet Underground wrote the film’s score^[6] despite protests from former band member Lou Reed.^[7] Yo La Tengo plays an anonymous band that is somewhat reminiscent of the group.^[8]

The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.^[9] To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Teddy Awards, the film was selected to be shown at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2016.^[10]

Lee Heidhues 5.31.2023

I woke this morning to read that Chesa Boudin, who was recalled a year ago in a vicious political coup d’etat funded with 9M in MAGA money is back.

Chesa now has a forum at the prestigious University of California School of Law where he can advocate for true Progressive Justice reform. Unencumbered by swamp dwelling thinly veiled fascists who promote law and order in the name of public safety.

Interviewed in the The New York Times, Chesa was unsparing in his comments about the State of criminal justice and his unvarnished thoughts about the person who worked to destroy him and was awarded with his job as San Francisco District Attorney.

“I absolutely do not agree with scapegoating or attacking immigrants for what are clearly deep-rooted structural inequities and a public health crisis,” Boudin said. “It has never worked, and it’s often been a red flag for fascism. Scapegoating immigrants is not who we are in San Francisco, and it will not make us safer.”

Concerning the fatal shooting of Banko Brown by a security guard at a downtown drugstore last month, Boudin had sharp words for his successor, Brooke Jenkins, who declined to file charges in the case. Her handling of the case sparked protests, especially over her public statements early in the investigation that the case appeared to be one of self-defense.

“Any experienced prosecutor knows, and Jenkins should have known perfectly well, that you don’t come out while a case is still under investigation, at least allegedly, and make the defense’s case for them,” he said.

Top photo – Chesa Boudin with family and friends on the night of his ouster – June 7, 2022

Lee Heidhues 5.30.2023

Here is a story receiving not one iota of coverage in the United States.

Neither in the mainstream media nor on more Progressive outlets such as Democracy Now.

Four Germans are on trial for their physical assaults against neo-nazis between 2018 and 2020.

The trial of “Lina E” and three co-defendants is expected to reach its conclusion with a verdict on May 31 when the decision is announced at the Dresden High Court.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 5.30.2023

A 28-year-old German student is standing trial in Dresden accused of founding a criminal organization and committing six serious attacks on neo-Nazis, in an unusual case of violent left-wing extremism in Germany.

State prosecutors say Lina E.* and her three co-defendants — Lennart A., Philipp M., and Jannis R. — carried out a series of attacks on neo-Nazis in the eastern states of Thuringia and Saxony between 2018 and 2020, including two attacks on Leon R., a notorious far-right extremist who was himself arrested for allegedly forming a far-right extremist organization.

The group around Lina E. is believed to have raided a well-known neo-Nazi bar in the town of Eisenach in late 2019 and attacked Leon R. with hammers and batons. When the initial attack failed, the group attacked him again a few weeks later outside his car. Other neo-Nazis were left with broken bones and other injuries after the attacks.

German police are expecting the largest police deployment in two years for the autonomous left-wing “Day X” demonstration in the eastern city of Leipzig on Saturday, reported

As there are also calls for militancy and massive announcements of violence, the police are preparing “for a deployment with a partly unpeaceful course with a high potential for damage,” the Leipzig police directorate announced on Tuesday.

Prosecutors are asking for an  eight year prison term for Lina E., who has already spent well over two years behind bars as the long and complicated trial continued, and up to 3 years and 9 months in prison for the co-defendants. The defense called for Lina E. to be convicted only of the lesser charges of attempted bodily injury and theft.

https://www.dw.com/en/left-wing-extremist-on-trial-for-forming-criminal-network/a-65767893

Top photo – Protest march for Lina E. and her co-defendants. On trial for assaulting neo-nazis in Germany.

Lee Heidhues 5.29.2023

Crime continues to run amok in San Francisco. Working at a Bakery in the Chinatown neighborhood does not spare anyone from the current Dystopia.

All the law and order ranting coming from City Hall and the citizenry is obviously just so much bloviating and Hot Air

https://sfstandard.com/criminal-justice/one-person-stabbed-in-san-franciscos-chinatown/

Lee Heidhues 5.29.2023

After a long absence, we will be visiting Berlin later this year.

We look forward to having a respite from the depressing state of political life in America.

And immerse ourselves in European life for a few weeks

It will be so exciting to send blogs from the historic German capital.

Stay tuned

Top photo- Liz in the Tiergarten Park, Berlin

Lee Heidhues 5.27.2023

It’s amazing that War Criminal Henry Kissinger has lived to be 100 without being summoned to the International Court for Criminal Justice in The Hague.

Why Kissinger continues to, and still does, receive such adulation in some parts of the mainstream media speaks volumes to his self promotion. It is also a stinging indictment of the American media and its subservience to Power.

Kissinger’s record of malevolence and slaughter is well documented. In the 1950’s he wrote a book about nuclear war.

In 1969 he joined the Nixon Administration after telling the South Vietnamese government to not agree to a Peace Deal prior to the 1968 election. Promising the Saigon puppet regime it would get a better deal with Nixon.

Once in the White House Kissinger oversaw the secret bombing of Cambodia which drove out a neutral regime and, ultimately, led to the murderous Pol Pot dictatorship and slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians.

In 1972 Kissinger oversaw the ferocious Christmas time bombing of Hanoi which destroyed the Bach Mai Hospital.

Never to be forgotten is Kissinger’s role in the overthrow of the democratically elected Chilean President Salvador Allende and his replacement with Augusto Pinochet. 17 years of brutal dictatorship followed.

The list goes on and on.

Excerpted from Counterfire 5.25.2023

One of the world’s most notorious war criminals, Henry Kissinger, is about to reach one hundred years of age on 27 May. In the US, in 2021, there were only 89,739 centenarians, so, in a country with a population over 330 million, it’s fair to say that Kissinger has had a very good innings.

In any just society, Kissinger would undoubtedly be held accountable for his appalling track record of war crimes and human-rights abuses.

However, his brutal initiatives were undertaken in the service of an imperialist power that had need of his talents.

Prior to going into ‘public service’ in 1968, ‘Kissinger was a professor of international relations at Harvard.’ In this academic setting, he had already developed a view that ‘the United States should carefully pursue its own interests’ in such a way that, ‘Moral and ideological considerations … were less important than cold, hard evaluations of what could advance America’s strategic position.’

Not only has Kissinger lived long, but he has also prospered, with a net worth of some $50 million, largely attributable to his leading role in Kissinger Associates, an international consulting firm. We may also fully expect that the US establishment and its media will greet Kissinger’s birthday with effusive praise and lavish tributes. He will be honoured as a veritable national and international hero.

In 2015, the US anti-war organisation CodePink ‘attempted to perform a citizen’s arrest on former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger when he testified on global security challenges at a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting.’ It should be noted that the fact that Kissinger was making such a presentation before an official body only eight years ago, is an indication of his enduring status and influence in Washington.

The participants in the CodePink action wished to drive home the criminality of Kissinger on the world stage. They asserted that they were acting, ‘In the name of the people of Chile, in the name of the people of Vietnam, in the name of the people of East Timor, in the name of the people of Cambodia, in the name of the people of Laos.’

In any just society, Kissinger would undoubtedly be held accountable for his appalling track record of war crimes and human-rights abuses. However, his brutal initiatives were undertaken in the service of an imperialist power that had need of his talents.

Prior to going into ‘public service’ in 1968, ‘Kissinger was a professor of international relations at Harvard.’ In this academic setting, he had already developed a view that ‘the United States should carefully pursue its own interests’ in such a way that, ‘Moral and ideological considerations … were less important than cold, hard evaluations of what could advance America’s strategic position.’

War criminal lives long and prospers: Henry Kissinger at 100

Lee Heidhues 5.26.2023

Obviously Roger Waters fails to get the message. Even if his intention is to make a political statement.

Nazi era paraphernalia is verboten in Germany 78 years after Hitler perished in a Berlin bunker and the 12 year Thousand Year Reich of mass murder and genocide came crashing down..

German authorities are serious about stamping out any vestige of Hitlerism and all the horrific things for which Nazism stood for. This includes iconic entertainers who should know better.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 5.25.2023

“Good morning to every one but Roger Waters who spent the evening in Berlin (Yes Berlin) desecrating the memory of Anne Frank and the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry tweeted earlier this week.

The Pink Floyd co-founder wore a Nazi-style uniform at a concert in Berlin. Several other German cities previously tried to cancel the musician’s shows after he was accused of anti-Semitism.

Great news! Berlin police have launched a criminal investigation into Roger Waters following his concert in which he dressed like a Nazi SS officer holding a gun and denigrated the murder of Anne Frank.

Shockingly @AMCTheatres is promoting Waters currently. pic.twitter.com/6AlIHMmbR2

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) May 25, 2023

German police have launched an investigation into Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters after he appeared on stage in Berlin last week wearing a Nazi-style uniform and firing an imitation machine gun.

Waters’ outfit comprised of a long black coat with a red armband featuring a Swastika-like emblem of two crossed hammers.

“We are investigating on suspicion of incitement to public hatred because the clothing worn on stage could be used to used to glorify or justify Nazi rule, thereby disturbing the public peace,” a police spokesperson told the AFP news agency on Friday.

Nazi uniforms, flags and other symbols are banned in Germany, but police said Waters is being investigated under a separate law of “incitement of the people.”

Once the investigation is concluded, police will hand the findings to Berlin prosecutors who will decide whether to pursue any charges.

Waters is a well known advocate for Palestinians, but he has also been accused of anti-Semitism, which he denies.

During his German tour, including at the Berlin concert, he flashed the names of several deceased people on-screen.

Among these names were Anne Frank, the Jewish teenager who died in a concentration camp, and Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian-American journalist who was shot dead while reporting on violence in the West Bank, prompting accusations of Holocaust relativization.

Waters’ shows also often feature giant inflatable pigs emblazoned with aggressive or brooding slogans. Some of these had the Star of David painted on them.

Several German cities previously tried, unsuccessfully, to cancel Waters’ concerts after Jewish groups, including the Central Council of Jews, accused the rock star of anti-Semitism.

However, some fans came to the defense of Waters on social media, arguing that the performance in Berlin and the armband emblem were a recreation of the satirical scene from the 1982 the feature film based on the band’s hit album “The Wall,” which was a critique of fascism.

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-police-probe-roger-waters-over-nazi-style-uniform-at-concert/a-65748661

Lee Heidhues 5.25.2023

Last Generation could be called the next Generation of the Green Party. It needs to be remembered that the Greens got their start in Germany in the early 1980’s as anti-nuclear activists.

The German climate activists Last Generation are undaunted after a series of raids by police and being labeled a Criminal Organization.

In Germany much of the public, while being inconvenienced by their street actions, is generally supportive of their mission to fight climate change.

Now the Green Party is part of the ruling government coalition. It will be interesting to find out how the Green Party responds to the Last Generation.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 5.25.2023

Green Party legal expert Helge Limburg told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) that the “blanket assumption” of labeling the group Last Generation as criminal as a whole was legally dubious.

The group appeared defiant a day after police raids, launching a new website and rerouting their crowdfunding via a different organization. Labeling the group as possibly criminal also triggered a political debate.

Last Generation, or Letzte Generation, the group raising climate awareness using often controversial protest methods in Germany, continued to collect funds and call for protests on Thursday, a day after raids against members suspected of helping finance a criminal enterprise.

The group, whose website was blocked amid the raid, launched a new website with the domain .org, instead of the German .de domain. It also continued to rally for protests on its Twitter account.

The raids have sparked a political debate across Germany’s spectrum, with some Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politicians staunchly supporting the legal action, and others opposing the group’s “criminal” classification.

The decision follows near-daily protests and demonstrations around Germany, particularly in Berlin in recent months, for the most part seeking to disrupt traffic and roads. The group says it is doing this to raise awareness on climate issues; its critics allege that it’s annoying ordinary people and regularly wasting police time and resources. 

When blocking Last Generation’s official website on the .de domain, German authorities briefly redirected the website to a Bavarian police page which classified the group as a “criminal organization.”

The authorities later retracted the move, whose legality stirred controversy.

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-last-generation-plan-further-protests-after-raids/a-65736042

Top photo – German Greens in their earlier days protesting nuclear power.

Lee Heidhues 5.25.2023

Reality L. Winner, a former National Security Agency contractor was the first person prosecuted during the Trump administration on charges of leaking classified information. She served three years in Federal prison.

Liz encouraged me to watch the segment on Reality Winner broadcast on Amanpour & Company this afternoon.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2023/05/24/amanpour-reality-satter.cnn

Until now I had no idea who this woman is and why she is the subject of so much media attention.

Reality Winner was sentenced to five years in Federal prison in 2018.

Reality Winner, now 30, lives in her childhood home on the edge of a cattle ranch less than 100 miles north of the Mexican border. She came here after she was released from prison in summer 2021, now living alongside her mom and step-dad and a collection of stray animals.

A feature film “Reality” on HBO is being released today.

Earlier a documentary film “United States vs. Reality Winner” received critical acclaim.

Now I know more about the harsh treatment meted out to Reality Winner by the Federal government. And the catastrophic effect it has had on her life.

Reality Winner was also subject of a 60 Minutes interview in 2021.

The online publication The Intercept released documents which led to her arrest, charging, conviction and imprisonment. This was not one of the finest moments for The Intercept. Which, in hindsight, it failed to protect its source, Ms. Winner.

Excerpted from Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_Winner#:~:text=On%20June%202%2C%202021%2C%20Winner,not%20because%20of%20compassionate%20release.

The Intercept sent copies of the documents to the NSA on May 30, 2017 to confirm their veracity, and the NSA notified the FBI. According to Vice magazine, an FBI report said the documents “appeared to be folded and/or creased, suggesting they had been printed and hand-carried out of a secured space.” Through an internal audit, the NSA determined that Winner was one of six workers who had accessed the particular documents on its classified system, but only Winner’s computer had been in contact with The Intercept using a personal email account. On June 3, the FBI obtained a warrant to search Winner’s electronic devices, and she was arrested. Both journalists and security experts have suggested that The Intercept‘s handling of the reporting, which included publishing the documents unredacted and including the printer tracking dots, was used to identify Winner as the leaker. In October 2020, The Intercept‘s co-founding editor Glenn Greenwald wrote that Winner had sent her documents to The Intercept‘s New York newsroom with no request that any specific journalist work on them. He called her exposure a “deeply embarrassing newsroom failure” resulting from “speed and recklessness” for which he was publicly blamed “despite having no role in it.” He said editor-in-chief Betsy Reed “oversaw, edited and controlled that story.” An internal review conducted by The Intercept into its handling of the document provided by Winner found that its “practices fell short of the standards to which we hold ourselves”.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/reality-winner-interview-prison-nsa-1261844/