Lee Heidhues 5.1.2023

Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich recently wrote in The Guardian that the Republican treatment of transgender people is akin to what the Nazis did to transgender and gay people in Germany after Hitler assumed power in 1933.

Reich feels this increasing suppression of transgender people and their civil rights is another step on the American road to Fascism.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/30/republican-attacks-trans-people-fascism

One look no further than the American State of Montana where the State legislature banished transgender legislator Zooey Zephyr. Claiming Zephyr was a disruptive force as the excuse for violating the civil rights and human rights of this citizen legislator.

Excerpted from Montana Free Press 5.1.2023

“If you vote yes on this bill and yes on these amendments, I hope the next time there’s an invocation, when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands,” Representative Zooey Zephyr said on the Montana House floor April 18.

Missoula Rep. Zooey Zephyr has filed a lawsuit challenging the disciplinary action that banned the Democrat from the House floor, anteroom or gallery, the latest in a standoff between Zephyr and Republican leaders consuming the final days in the 68th Montana Legislature.

The lawsuit, filed Monday by the Montana American Civil Liberties Union and a pair of private law firms, alleges that the order barring Zephyr from participating in floor debates violates her constitutional rights and deprives her 11,000 constituents from representation. 

“Duly elected representatives to the Montana House have constitutional rights that they do not lose when they walk into the state Capitol,” Alex Rate, the legal director of the ACLU of Montana, told Montana Free Press Monday. “The House is free to pass whatever rules it wants, but those rules have to pass constitutional muster.”

The suit, which names the state, House Speaker Matt Regier and House Sergeant of Arms Brad Murfitt as defendants, specifically contends that the decision to discipline Zephyr violates her rights to free speech and equal protection under the law. It asks a Helena district judge to prevent Regier, R-Kalispell, and the other defendants from enforcing the terms of Zephyr’s censure and to compel them to recognize Zephyr to speak on the House floor. 

The House voted to censure Zephyr last week following a protest in the gallery that challenged Regier’s ongoing decision not to recognize Zephyr to speak on bills up for consideration on the floor.

Regier suggested that he would not recognize Zephyr, a transgender woman, again until she apologized for remarks she made on the floor about Senate Bill 99, legislation that bans gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bill last Friday.

Zephyr said she would not apologize, and Regier told her that her comments broke decorum and that he would not recognize her on the floor until he believed she could “maintain decorum” moving forward, according to the lawsuit. 

https://montanafreepress.org/2023/05/01/zephyr-constituents-challenge-house-disciplinary-action-in-lawsuit/

Attached is a link to a PBS News Hour interview with Zooey Zephyr

https://www.pbs.org/video/trans-in-america-1682544281/

Lee Heidhues 4.30.2023

I was literally speechless watching the Warriors dismantle the Sacramento Kings on the road.

Beyond amazing was the 50 point performance by Steph Curry. The all time scoring record in the seventh game of an NBA playoff game.

Equally impressive and hopefully given prime time exposure was the performance by Warriors journeyman Center Kevon Looney. He snagged 21 rebounds and dominated the Kings.

The Athletic 4.30.2023

The Golden State Warriors defeated the Sacramento Kings 120-100 in Game 7 of their high-octane first-round playoff series on Sunday at the Golden 1 Center, advancing to the second round. Here’s what you need to know:

• Stephen Curry broke out for 50 points, a playoff career high, and set the NBA record for points in a Game 7. Curry went 20-of-38 from the field with seven 3s.
• Kevon Looney continued his stellar rebounding run, grabbing 21 boards for Golden State.
• Domantas Sabonis paced the Kings with 22 points. Sacramento shot 37.5 percent from the field and 25.5 percent from beyond the arc.
• The Warriors will face the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals.

Kevon Looney comes up HUGE in the @warriors Game 7 win!

11 PTS
21 REB (10 OREB)
4 AST

LAL/GSW Game 1: Tuesday, 10pm/et, TNT pic.twitter.com/JnXfukV1Mz

— NBA (@NBA) April 30, 2023

Curry made history — but Golden State needed Looney, too

The two Warriors’ stat lines that matter most in Game 7: Curry’s and Looney’s.

Curry just took a career-high 38 shots. This was as aggressive as he’s ever been. Curry made 20 of those 38 shots and seven 3s. He scored 50 points, the most ever in a Game 7 in league history.

But Looney may have been equally important on this night. He had 21 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive glass. Eight of those came in a dominant third quarter, when the game changed.

https://theathletic.com/4474653/2023/04/30/kings-warriors-game-7-result/

Lee Heidhues 4.30.2023

Cheerleader Michael Rains is the Ultimate Cop Shop Attorney.

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

A guy who probably has never met a cop he thought is guilty.

I would love to see invoices Michael has sent to the various Police Officers Associations and law enforcement groups who have made him the go to guy for the misbehavin’ Boys (and Girls) in Blue.

Excerpted from SF Gate – Bay City News 2.16.2023

Family members of a man fatally shot by a San Leandro police officer in 2020 are prepared to do what’s necessary to get justice for their loved one.

The family of Steven Taylor thinks attorneys for former Police Officer Jason Fletcher are making them jump through hoops and they are prepared to jump through any number of hoops.

Taylor allegedly tried to shoplift a tent and bat from the Walmart at 15555 Hesperian Blvd. in San Leandro on April 18, 2020.

Fewer than 40 seconds passed between when Fletcher entered the store and when he shot Taylor, according to prosecutors.

A trial date for Fletcher is expected to be set on May 19.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/bayarea/article/family-of-man-killed-by-police-prepared-to-jump-17789703.php

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/law-firm-seeks-disqualify-da-price-prosecuting-17921616.php

Top photo – Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price

Lee Heidhues 4.29.2023

Russian dictator and warmonger Vladimir Putin may be a pariah in Europe and the United States as he continues his war of aggression against Ukraine.

The former KGB operative and now strongman in Russia can count on at least one set of friends.

The Russian biker community of Night Wolves with their black attire and heavy duty motorcycles.

This group of Putin bikers intends to drive the roads between Moscow and Berlin with a detour through the war torn Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. That’s how Putin waves the Russian flag to his captive audience back home.

Moscow Times 4.29.2023

Hundreds of Kremlin-loyal bikers under the banner of the Night Wolves motorcycle club took to the streets of Moscow on Saturday for a “patriotic” rally across Europe.  

The motorcade headed by club founder and leader Alexander Zaldastanov, known as “The Surgeon,” aims to complete the rally in Berlin by May 9.

Zaldastanov, who has described himself as a “friend” of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is under Western sanctions for his support for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 and the Russian offensive in Ukraine. 

In May 2015, he was banned from entering Poland, where he wanted to organize “a motorcycle victory rally” across Europe. The ban had provoked the ire of Russian diplomacy

Several participants at the rally waved Russian and Soviet flags. Some had the letter “Z” fixed to their bikes — a symbol of Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine launched in February 2022. 

Dubbed “the roads of victory,” the rally adopted the traditional slogan of the Russian offensive in Ukraine: “We do not let down our own.”

According to organizers, the motorcade plans to reach by May 1 the city of Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, the site of a bloody battle between Soviet and German Nazi troops that marked a turning point in World War II toward victory for the Soviet Union and its allies. 

The bikers will continue their journey to the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, the scene of heavy fighting, where they will distribute humanitarian aid to civilians and Russian soldiers. 

“The inhabitants of the Donbas and us, we are the same people,” 34-year-old Artyom told AFP before embarking on the race.

Hundreds of Kremlin-loyal bikers under the banner of the Night Wolves motorcycle club took to the streets of Moscow on Saturday for a “patriotic” rally across Europe.  

Several participants at the rally waved Russian and Soviet flags. Some had the letter “Z” fixed to their bikes — a symbol of Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine launched in February 2022. 

 

Top Photo – Vladimir Putin and Night Wolves leader Alexander Zaldastanov, known as “The Surgeon”

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/04/29/pro-putin-bikers-launch-rally-bound-for-berlin-a80988

Lee Heidhues 4.28.2023

It was three years ago on April 28, 2020 when Mayor Breed, during the midst of the Pandemic, decreed that a 1.5 mile portion of JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park would be a dedicated pedestrian and cyclist oasis.

Three years later JFK Promenade is now a permanent fixture in the San Francisco landscape. It was not an easy victory. Advocates had to wind their way through the City’s byzantine bureaucracy of multiple agencies and different agendas. Finally, the Board of Supervisors voted 7-4 to make JFK Promenade permanent.

But that was not the end. Motorists do not shut off their rhetorical engines quietly.

A lawsuit was filed and went all the way to the California Court of Appeal before being dismissed. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco sponsored a ballot measure to bring cars back to JFK Promenade. The Board of Supervisors put a competing measure on the ballot to maintain JFK Promenade. It won a smashing victory with 63 percent of the vote in November 2022.

To celebrate the third anniversary of this car free oasis a large number of people of all ages came out on a foggy afternoon to bask in the well earned and hard fought victory.

https://sfrecpark.org/1538/JFK-Promenade

Lee Heidhues 4.27.2023

Carolyn Bryant, the then 21 year old woman responsible for the gruesome murder of 14 year old Emmet Till in Mississippi nearly 68 years ago, which upended the civil rights debate in America is dead.

Excerpted from The New York Times 4.27.2023

Only two people knew exactly what happened during the minute they were alone together in the general store in Money, Miss., on Aug. 24, 1955.

One, Emmett Till, a Black teenager visiting from Chicago, died four days later, at 14, in a brutal murder that stands out even in America’s long history of racial injustice.

The other was Carolyn Bryant. She was the 21-year-old white proprietress of the store where, according to her testimony in the September 1955 trial of her husband and his half brother for the murder, Emmett made a sexually suggestive remark to her, grabbed her roughly by the waist and let loose a wolf whistle.

Now Mrs. Bryant, more recently known as Carolyn Bryant Donham, has died at 88. On Thursday, Megan LeBoeuf, the chief investigator for the Calcasieu Parish coroner’s office in Louisiana, sent a statement confirming the death, on Tuesday, in Westlake, a small city in southern Louisiana. Ms. LeBoeuf did not provide further information.

With Mrs. Bryant’s death, the truth of what happened that August day may now never be clear.

More than half a century after the murder, Timothy B. Tyson, a Duke University historian who interviewed her, wrote that she had admitted to him that she had perjured herself on the witness stand to make Emmett’s conduct sound more threatening than it actually was — serving, in Dr. Tyson’s words, as “the mouthpiece of a monstrous lie.”

The murder of Emmett Till was a watershed in United States race relations. Coverage of the killing and its aftermath, including a widely disseminated photograph of Till’s brutalized body at his open-casket funeral, inspired anguish and outrage, helped propel the modern civil rights movement and ultimately contributed to the demise of Jim Crow.

Top photo. Carolyn Bryant in the Mississippi courtroom with her accused husband – September 1955

Lee Heidhues 4.26.2023

There’s a major missing political component to the story regarding the altercation between a former Fire Commissioner and a homeless man in the City’s Marina neighborhood.

Where is the mainstream media scorn and outrage being directed towards Brooke Jenkins, London Breed and the entire City Hall gang which politically lynched Chesa Boudin in June 2022?

District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, who rode to office as a cheerleader and instigator of the political lynching of her one time boss Progressive DA Chesa Boudin is getting an unjustified pass.

This incident, had it occurred a year ago, would have been grist for the mill for Brooke Jenkins, Mayor London Breed and the entire toxic law and order crowd polluting San Francisco.

It appears likely that the Superior Court judge assigned to this case will soon discharge Garrett Alan Doty. Why? The public defender has presented ample evidence that Don Carmignani instituted the altercation earlier this month.

It will be yet another embarrassment for the Mayor’s hand picked DA.

Legally speaking the Court will be taking the correct action in releasing Mr. Doty.

In addition, if the evidence is correct, obtaining a conviction would be very difficult. It would require a unanimous verdict in a criminal trial.

Were Chesa Boudin District Attorney the mainstream media, Mayor Breed and the paranoid San Francisco public would be piling on. Bloviating endlessly that San Francisco has become a dystopian cesspool of rampant crime and lawlessness. Scapegoating Chesa Boudin relentlessly, viciously and without let up.

Now the mob’s Scapegoat is no longer available to kick around.

Ex-fire commissioner accused of vigilante attacks on homeless

The Mission Local, hardly the MSM, is one outlet reporting the details of the story. But, even this respected journal has not criticized Brooke Jenkins directly.

Top photo – Mayor London Breed and her handpicked DA Brooke Jenkins surround themselves with the Flag at San Francisco City Hall – July 7, 2022

Lee Heidhues 4.24.2023

Make no mistake. The mainstream media is already hard at work undermining Alameda DA Pamela Price all under the rubric of responsible journalism. In reality the MSM is cherry picking the police blotter with a goal to shoot down progressive Justice.

It’s been nearly a year since the 9MM MAGA funded coup d’etat in San Francisco politically lynched and drove from office Progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Replacing him with the ethically challenged hand picked by Mayor London Breed photo op opportunist Brooke Jenkins.

Now the same MAGA crowd in Alameda County is stealthily working to undermine and overthrow Progressive DA Pamela Price who was elected in November 2022.

Utilizing a couple of crimes to their full advantage the MAGA, abetted by the MSM crowd, has a public face to this latest attempted political lynching. A small group of disgruntled citizens who don’t respect the will of the majority.

Make no mistake. The same MAGA reactionary millionaires who ousted Chesa Boudin is the same perfidious crew at work again to destroy progressive Justice.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Standard 4.24.2023

Less than a year after San Francisco voters unseated progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin, a similar dynamic is underway in the East Bay.

“There are people who wanted to recall her before she was elected,” Rivka Polatnick, a criminal justice reform activist who helped organize a rally on April 23. “There’s been efforts to undermine her. They’re following the same playbook.”

Last November, civil rights attorney Pamela Price became Alameda County’s first Black district attorney in a closely watched race, in which she successfully campaigned against the status quo and on a reduction in incarceration. Although Price only took office in January, critics are always homing in on what they say is a soft-on-crime approach. 

More than 100 of Price’s supporters rallied in Downtown Oakland on Sunday to emphasize their approval of the new DA and her mandate from voters to instill the reforms she campaigned on. Media criticism, they allege, has been excessively negative—even biased.

“When you show up for freedom and justice, you have to be ready for the backlash,” Price told the crowd outside the Alameda County Courthouse. “I am not fearing the backlash that they call a recall, because I believe in the engagement and the activism of this community.”

Supporters attested to Price’s long history of defending victims of sexual harassment and discrimination. To them, she is the right person for the job that Alameda County voters elected her to do less than six months ago.

Since her election in November, Price has moved to overhaul how her office handles law enforcement, reopening investigations into officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths. It’s also brought high-profile cases to the fore, which has netted frustration with the new DA.

A Change.org petition demanding a recall that misspells Price’s name has over 15,000 signatures. 

https://sfstandard.com/criminal-justice/as-talk-of-a-recall-grows-supporters-of-alameda-da-pamela-price-push-back/

Lee Heidhues 4.23.2023

Here’s today’s “All’s well that ends well” story for the Golden State Warriors.

With 41 seconds remaining, the Warriors up by five points, in possession of the ball against the Sacramento Kings.

Superstar Steph Curry made a mistake which would have haunted him forever had his team lost.

Curry’s miscue resulted in a technical foul and a free throw which the Kings made. The Kings were then awarded the ball and promptly sank a three point shot to close the gap to one point.

The Warriors failed to score on their next possession. Sacramento got the ball with 10 seconds remaining. All Warrior fans exhaled when former Warrior Harrison Barnes missed a three point shot as the final buzzer sounded.

Warriors win 126-125 and tie the series at 2-2. The next game is in Sacramento on Wednesday night.

Stand up guy. Warriors coach Steve Kerr took responsibility for Steph Curry’s gaffe.

Excerpted from SF Gate 4.24.2023

The Golden State Warriors committed a mental error.

Steph Curry was bringing the basketball up the floor when the Kings trapped him behind halfcourt. With 42 seconds left in the game, Curry let his instincts take over and called a timeout to prevent the turnover in the backcourt.

The problem was that the Warriors had no timeouts remaining. This was because Steve Kerr called for a challenge on an illegal screen foul that came against Kevon Looney a couple of possessions earlier. Kerr, who understood this fact, nearly fell to his knees in disbelief at what his star player had just done.

Not only did the Kings get a technical foul free throw, but they also got possession immediately afterward. Sacramento made good on the opportunity, with De’Aaron Fox scoring a 3-point basket to turn what was a 126-121 deficit to a 126-125 deficit.

Though the Kings got the final possession of the game, the attempted game-winner from forward Harrison Barnes clanked off the back of the rim as time expired, allowing Golden State to tie the series at 2-2 with a 126-125 win.

https://www.sfgate.com/warriors/article/warriors-pull-chris-weber-called-late-timeout-17914045.php

Top photo: Warriors fans show varying senses of emotion as Harrison Barnes launches his final second three pointer for the Kings. It missed. Time to exhale – photo. San Francisco Chronicle

Lee Heidhues 4.22.2023

I was going to do a blog post about another of my favorite films. The 1968 filmed in San Francisco. ‘Bullitt’

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

Looking for some interesting items to accompany a post on the original ‘Bullitt’ I came upon the news that Steven Spielberg is directing a remake of the 1968 classic. I don’t know. Everyone loves Spielberg. Not me. This is a director who can take the most serious topic and by the end of the movie turn it into some type of maudlin mush.

With all due respect for one of Hollywood’s favorites, Spielberg is not the Guy to bring this neo noir masterpiece into the 21st century.

In addition to being a great film, the Lalo Schifrin soundtrack in the 1968 release is one of the all time movie musical masterpieces.

Excerpted from IndieWire 11.17.2022

Steven Spielberg has found his Bullitt. Bradley Cooper has been cast in the director’s upcoming original film about Frank Bullitt, the character made famous from the 1968 Steven McQueen thriller.

Based on the 1963 novel “Mute Witness” by Robert L. Fish, the original “Bullitt” starred the late McQueen as the title character, a San Francisco Police Department lieutenant seeking to take down Chicago mobster Johnny Ross (Pat Renella).

Spielberg will direct the new Warner Bros. film, which will not be a remake of the original movie by Peter Yates, instead telling a completely original story starring Bullitt. Sources close to the project confirmed the news to IndieWire.

Cooper will join Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger as producers on the film — the three also serve as producers on Cooper’s upcoming feature “Maestro,” about the life of Leonard Bernstein. That film, currently in post-production, is set to release on Netflix in 2023. Oscar-winning “Spotlight” screenwriter Josh Singer will pen the screenplay for the new Bullitt film, with McQueen’s son Chad and granddaughter Molly executive producing.

In addition to McQueen and Ross, the original Bullitt also starred Robert Vaughn and Jacqueline Bisset. The film was a critical success, winning a best editing Oscar at the Academy Awards, and grossed $42.3 million on a $4 million budget. The movie is perhaps McQueen’s, who died in 1980, most famous role, and has come to be viewed as a huge influence on action films as a genre. In particular, the film’s car chase scene through San Francisco is widely regarded as iconic and has been the subject of many homages and parodies in the years since.