Lee Heidhues 6.3.2022

The attempted political Coup d’etat to overthrow San Francisco’s Progressive District Attorney is based on the false tune that Chesa Boudin’s administration has become a Public Defender’s office.

 This is a blatant falsehood.

The MAGA crowd and its $6,000,000 can’t sway the voters to engage in this Coup next Tuesday and oust the democratically elected DA.

The following commentary by an Assistant District Attorney sets the record straight.

He rebuts yet another advertising falsehood being pitched by the multi-millionaire right wing anti-democratic insurrectionists.

San Francisco cannot allow itself to be conned.

The Recall is anti-democratic. Chesa has administered the District Attorney’s office exactly the way he pledged during his successful 2019 campaign. From Day One the Losers have gone after Chesa. Now, aided by Trump like MAGA millionaires, the Recall collaborators have spent over $6,000,000 to subvert Democracy.

These law and order screamers are going to reap a whirlwind for their treacherous self serving behavior. It is one of the most disgraceful events in the history of San Francisco. There will be an accounting for all those who joined in the subversion of Democracy in this international City.

The Whole World’s Watching.

Just wait.

RYAN KHOJASTEH

San Francisco Assistant District Attorney

Proponents of the “Yes on H” campaign have labeled us prosecutors under District Attorney Boudin as soft on crime.

The recall campaign yearns for the era of tough on crime policies.

I’d like for us to step back from the tough on crime vs. soft on crime (or “progressive”) dichotomy. The work we do is much more nuanced than that. I’d like to introduce a different term—and what I personally subscribe to—into the political discourse. And that is: fair and balanced. I am a fair and balanced prosecutor.

What does that mean?

The job of a prosecutor is to balance all the competing interests within the system. We have to balance the need to protect the public and do right by the harm done in the community with the rehabilitative goals of the defendant.

It’s not an easy job and there isn’t a one size fits all approach. It’s a case-by-case review of a lot of information—from the victim, from our partners in law enforcement, and from the defense attorney. This is a heavy responsibility and we need to have the right people in these roles making these decisions.

Following is a link to the entire article.

Critics say the DA’s Office is run like the Public Defenders Office. That’s not true

Top photo:  DA Chesa Boudin in Superior Court

Lee Heidhues 6.2.2022

America is proud of its exports.  For the most part.

There is one American export which should not be available in this country.

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

It should not be available in any country.

Unfortunately Racism, Hate, anti-Semitism and Violence have no boundaries.

I blogged about the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in Germany in early 2019.

https://leesperspective.com/2019/01/16/german-police-raid-suspected-kkk-homes/

Deutsche Welle 6.2.2022

After spending years investigating a far-right group that sought to establish a German branch of the extremist Ku Klux Klan (KKK), German prosecutors said on Thursday the probe has been dropped.

The case first came to light in January 2019 following raids against members of the group, which called itself the “National Socialist Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Deutschland” — a name indicating the group also had neo-Nazi roots.

Public prosecutors in Stuttgart opened an investigation into 57 alleged members of the German KKK group in 2019, suspecting them of founding a criminal organization.

After three years of investigations, however, authorities weren’t able to establish that the group intended to commit crimes “with a degree of certainty necessary for an indictment,” a spokesperson told the dpa news agency.

During police raids across Germany, authorities seized over 100 weapons — including knives, machetes, swords and air guns. Cell phones and data storage devices were also seized.

The suspected members, who at the time ranged in age from 17 to 59 years old, were suspected of glorifying Nazis. In some cases, chats between members showed some harbored “violent fantasies.”

Investigators were unable to definitively prove, however, that the group sought to take action on their extremist beliefs by committing acts of violence or other crimes, the spokesperson told dpa.

While the main case has been dropped, investigations are still continuing into 23 members of the group.

Several are still suspected of violating Germany’s weapons and drug laws. Others are facing accusations of incitement and the illegal use of symbols from anti-constitutional and terrorist groups — likely a reference to their use of the banned swastika Nazi symbol.

The KKK has its roots in the United States and is known for a white-supremacist, racist ideology and violent crime, particularly targeting Black and Jewish people.

The group is well known as a hate group in the US, but has not caught on as a mass movement in Germany. Research from recent years, however, shows that there are activities by similar groups in Germany, and the KKK’s symbols are also used by other far-right and white-supremacist groups in Germany.

https://www.dw.com/en/german-prosecutors-halt-probe-into-kkk-group/a-62011518

Lee Heidhues 5.31.2022

The vicious political coup d’etat will reach its denouement on June 7 when the multi-million dollar campaign to overthrow Progressive DA Chesa Boudin meets its fate at the polls.

The latest local politician to align himself with the MAGA reactionaries is  Supervisor Matt Dorsey.  

The same Matt Dorsey who, until two weeks ago, spent his time shilling for the San Francisco Police Department and by extension its Union, The Police Officers Assocation.

The very same POA which spent over $700,000 to defeat candidate Boudin in 2019.

The same POA which has spent the past  29 months attacking and excoriating DA Boudin.  Now this Cadre of repressive law and order have a mouthpiece on the Board of Supervisors.

Matt Dorsey is wasting no time in carry out the desires of his ultimate masters.  Law enforcement and those City Hall politicians who are actively collaborating in this attack on Democracy.

Matt Dorsey – Interim San Francisco Supervisor and former PR talking head for San Francisco Police Department 

“I’m convinced, personally and professionally, that San Francisco needs to do better. That’s why I’ll vote yes on Prop H in the June 7 election.”  

https://www.sfgate.com/politics-op-eds/article/Matt-Dorsey-endorses-Chesa-Boudin-recall-17210485.php?IPID=SFGate-HP-CP-Spotlight

Top Photo – Matt Dorsey and Mayor London Breed

Lee Heidhues 5.30.2022

It is shameful that Mayor London Breed, born and raised in the housing projects of the Western Addition, has yet to come out against the Recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

Her silence on the attempted Recall of the Progressive DA is a matter of life and death importance to the Black community from which she came.

District Attorney Boudin has received the endorsement of the influential Rev. Amos Brown, her predecessor as Supervisor in the District she represented before becoming Mayor.

The District Attorney has been endorsed by the Reverend Arnold Townsend, a long time community activist in San Francisco whose local roots go back to the 1968 Strike at San Francisco State University which resulted in the creation of the Black Studies Department.

Local Black community newspapers, The Sun Reporter at which I worked as News Editor in the 1970’s, and The San Francisco BayView have come out against this vicious assault on Democracy funded by the most right wing financiers in America. A despicable group with whom Mayor Breed is now aligned by her Silence.

A leader should never forget her roots. Mayor Breed appears to have left her past behind her and gone into the service of those who would destroy Progressive San Francisco and all that stands for in 2022.

Lee Heidhues 5.30.2022

Is Washington debunking fake news, disseminating fake news of its own, promoting deep fakes or simply dispensing good old fashion propaganda?

Last week Nina Jankowicz was interviewed (link attached) on the prestigious and highly viewed Amanpour and Company. Ms. Jankowicz stepped down as head of Disinformation Governing Board after a month in the position. She was assailed by all sides of the Washington political sprectrum.

Ms. Jankowicz has been published in the ultra establishment Foreign Affairs. She presents a benign and seemingly straight forward persona to the Media of which she is an expert practitioner. Manipulator?

She can be followed on Twitter. @wiczipedia

https://www.pbs.org/video/why-biden-admins-disinformation-chief-stepped-down-uiw35g/

I wanted to learn more about the Disinformation Governing Board and Ms, Jankowicz. The Nation has been covering this volatile story and takes a different perspective than that presented on Amanpour and Company.

It’s an interesting tale in the information wars.

Excerpted from The Nation 5.12.2022

Late last month, the Joe Biden administration publicly confirmed that a “Disinformation Governing Board” working group had been created within the Department of Homeland Security.

The news prompted a flood of concern about the impact of such an Orwellian organ on America.

But there’s no need to engage in hypotheticals to understand the dangers. One has to only consider the past of Nina Jankowicz, the head of the new disinformation board.

Jankowicz’s experience as a disinformation warrior includes her work with StopFake, a US government-funded “anti-disinformation” organization founded in March 2014 and lauded as a model of how to combat Kremlin lies.

Four years later, StopFake began aggressively whitewashing two Ukrainian neo-Nazi groups with a long track record of violence, including war crimes.

During Jankowicz’s tenure with StopFake (her last known episode aired May 21, 2017), the disinformation site continued being touted as a pioneer in combating Russian propaganda. In March 2017, a fawning Politico story heralded StopFake as the “grand wizards” of the anti-fake news ecosystem.

It was an ironically prophetic description, given that Jankowicz’s misleading “nothing to see here” report about the battalions turned out to be a mere fraction of what StopFake has done for Ukraine’s far right.

By 2018, StopFake started defending C14, a neo-Nazi gang that conducted horrific pogroms of Ukraine’s Roma. After media outlet Hromadske described C14 as neo-Nazi, one of StopFake’s founders tweeted “for Hromadske, C14 is ‘neo-Nazi,’ in reality one of them—Oleksandr Voitko—is a war veteran and before going to the war—alum and faculty at @MohylaJSchool, journalist at Foreign news desk at Channel 5. Now also active participant of war veterans grass-root organization,” as if the fact that the gang has a veteran somehow precludes it from being neo-Nazi.

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/meet-the-head-of-bidens-new-disinformation-governing-board/

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

Lee Heidhues 5.28.2022

The Cannes Film Festival just concluded its two week extravaganza. 

Crimes of the Future received plenty of expected controversial buzz

David Cronenberg, 79, has never ceased to shock during his long career making dystopian, shocking, squeamish and thought provoking films. His latest is no exception. American audiences will be fascinated and, perhaps, shocked.

Some viewers may exit the theater. Others will be totally obsessed with the story.

Excerpted from Rogerebert.com – Tomris Laffly – 5.24.2022

Through a shocking sequence that plays like an oblique explanation of its title, David Cronenberg’s evasive mind-and-body-bender “Crimes of the Future” cracks open in its early moments, tracing a harrowing crime that gets committed during some nondescript time in the future, in the grim corners of a near-derelict home.

It’s a nimble, stylish prologue that functions as a keyhole into the vast and fleshly world the writer/director has erected: a little boy enters a grubby bathroom and starts to devour a trash can hungrily, like a freshly-minted vampire overeager to quench his newfound thirst for blood.

Though this betrayal to the human-body-as-we-know-it wouldn’t be the only (or the actual) crime we’d witness. Soon, in an act of desperation, the boy’s repulsed mother would murder her offspring, having just witnessed the boy’s inexplicably inhuman appetite for plastic.

Based on this confidently uncanny opening alone, it makes sense to learn that it was towards the end of the 20^th Century when Cronenberg conceived this story, in which our kind has mutated to grow new organs and evolved to make the notion of pain near-extinct. After all, that was the era that defined his carnal brand of cinema—namely, his preoccupations with the human body and the ways flesh intersects with the mechanisms and advancement of modern technology—and more or less ended with 1999’s “eXistenZ,” before concerns of the more visceral kind (of course, still with droplets of body horror) took hold of his filmography on this side of the 2000s.

In that regard, “Crimes of the Future” (which shares a title and nothing else with a 1970 picture by the filmmaker) finds “the king of venereal horror” operate squarely in a universe that earned him this aforesaid label: you know, a world made up of the sliced torsos of “Videodrome,” the injured appendages of “Crash,” and the deliciously wicked eroticism that somehow flows through it all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimes_of_the_Future_(2022_film)

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/crimes-of-the-future-movie-review-2022

This afternoon at 1pm is a public hearing to save a beautiful New Zealand Christmas tree which has been standing for decades in the northwest corner of San Francisco.

 The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission plans to destroy this landmark.  

All in the name of playing Caddie to a priviliged class. Golfers.

We have already alerted the public to this environmental destruction. Nearly 400 people have viewed the earlier Blog.  Today is your chance to stand up and be heard. A link to the hearing is attached. 

You can contact:  JStreeter@sfwater.org  and glyman@sfwater.org

SFPUC Notice to Public 4.27.2022

Liz Heidhues 5.27.2022

ARGUMENT: SAVE STREET TREE 39^TH AVE. and CLEMENT ST. 5.27.2022 LIZ HEIDHUES ORAL

Nothing in the PUC Brief arguing to remove a healthy, well-established tree addresses the points we brought up in our Appeal to spare the tree’s life.

What emerges in studying the Brief is a process for arbitrary decision-making suitable more for an autocratic bureaucracy leading to low engagement and a toxic environment than for a public service agency priding itself on inclusiveness and sustainable outcomes.

In the PUC Brief, it states that the healthy, well-established tree is in direct conflict with the new modifications to the irrigation system of the Lincoln Park Golf Course.

I disagree for the following reasons:

(1) The tree was there before the PUC undertook its grand scheme to diversify the irrigation system of the golf course.

That said, the tree is not causing the direct conflict. The PUC is.

The tree must not be sacrificed for the political negligence of the PUC.  Its removal will undermine our dwindling tree canopy and does not serve the interests of residents who use and enjoy public green space differently than a privileged class — golfers.

(2) The PUC omits any mention of a viable work-around to connect the recycled water line to the pump station while maintaining the air gap separating recyclable water from potable water lines.

I have researched the required air gap distances. I have found there are no set requirements other than minimum measurements for air gap distances between recyclable and potable water lines. Maximum distances between different parallel lines are undefined. The PUC position does not address the possibility of reconfiguring the air gap.

Were the recycled water line to enter the pump station building from the route extending from the cement path which we have identified in our Brief, the work-around would spare the tree’s life.

Joint elbows offer flexibility in reroute of the recycled water pipeline to areas surrounding the pump station which are devoid of healthy trees.

In the PUC’s omission of a work-around to install the air gap, the PUC is misinforming the public, an important stakeholder in the mission of the PUC, and betraying the public’s trust.

The decision to hew this beautiful tree is invoked in the interest of irrigating the lawns of an elite class of citizens occupying the Lincoln Park Golf Course.

It has been documented that golf courses are an incredibly wasteful and inefficient use of outdoor public green space.

Hewing the healthy street tree runs counter to the goals of two service organizations committed to preserving San Francisco’s dwindling urban canopy: Urban Forestry (DPW) and Friends of the Urban Forest.

The PUC taking off the tree’s head is akin to the Queen of Hearts in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” screaming “OFF with his, her, their HEAD” to anyone or anything standing in her way. It is the only way an autocratic power has to settle all difficulties, great or small.

A minuscule fraction of the PUC combined $1BN budget would be required to fund a work-around sparing the street tree’s life.

Liz Heidhues

Lee Heidhues 5.25.2022

Several weeks ago I blogged that the Recall of DA Chesa Boudin is a political lynching. I sent the Blog to San Francisco Mayor’s London Breed’s office and was asked to take it down. I did not. I will not. The Recall is a coup d’etat and political lynching.

This campaign has been aided by the craven and shameless endorsement by local collaborators with the Reactionary anti-Progressive forces:  Supervisor Catherine Stefani, 2019 DA candidate Nancy Tung, former Chair of the Democratic County Central Committee Mary Jung and Andrea Shorter, who is being paid $16,000 monthly to lead this political coup d’etat.

When Chesa was elected I told him, “They’re going to come after you”.  

I had no idea it would be so vicious.  Chesa has done everything he promised during the campaign to use the District Attorney’s office to bring a new look to the pursuit of Justice in San Francisco.

 I was an Usher at his inaugural in the Marines Memorial Building. It was a joyous occasion. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor endorsed his ascension to office in a video address.

His supporters told Chesa they would be holding him accountable for keeping to his campaign promises.  A pledge he has kept from Day One.

San Francisco is going to reap a Whirlwind on June 7 when a slothful and credulous citizenry vote to Recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin. The anti-Recall campaign is telling San Francisco “Don’t be Conned”.

To the detriment of San Francisco the citizenry is ignoring the message and drinking the kool-aid offered up by the treacherous deep pocketed Recall campaign.

City Hall insiders have never taken to Chesa Boudin.  Particularly when he defeated Mayor London Breed’s hand picked interim DA Suzy Loftus in the November 2019 election.  The political knives were unsheathed virtually the moment after his inaugural on January 8, 2020.

No mind. The incendiary and anti-Democratic Recall campaign which spent $1,500,000 on mercenary signature gatherers and the subsequent millions in MAGA right wing money have done their job well.

Excerpted from 48 Hills – Tim Redmond 5.25.2022

A strange thing is happening in the local and national news media as they address the attempted recall of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin:

The media outlets claim that Boudin is suffering from bad news media­—and don’t seem to recognize that they are playing a role.

The reality: This recall effort is entirely a media-created monster.

The local news media have been obsessed with three themes: Crime is a growing problem in San Francisco. Locking people up is the best solution. Because Boudin isn’t locking up enough people he’s responsible for the alleged crime wave.

A corollary: Drug deaths from Fentanyl are a crisis that is best addressed by arresting and prosecuting dealers. Boudin isn’t locking up enough small-tine street dealers, so he’s responsible for the overdose epidemic.

None of these things are true. The data makes clear than none of them are true. And yet that’s the message we keep hearing, over and over—and it’s exactly the message that the Recall Boudin campaign is trumpeting.

For the record: Boudin is doing exactly what he said he would do when he ran for office. There is no evidence that he is corrupt or incompetent (even the very conservative Chron, which has been a big part of this media myth, said he shouldn’t be recalled.)

Every prosecutor in the country has faced challenges during a global pandemic. Courtrooms have been closed; judges have limited access to the most serious cases. Crime patterns have shifted in San Francisco; while overall crime is down, property crimes that used to happen in tourist areas have moved to the neighborhoods.

The Boudin recall is entirely based on local media mythology. They should own it.

Art work at top from ‘Soul of a Nation’ Exhibit – deYoung Museum, San Francisco 11.8.2019

It takes a sports guy to say it all.

ESPN – 5.24.2022

DALLAS — Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr didn’t want to talk about basketball in his pregame news conference heading into Game 4 of the Western Conference finals against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night.

“When are we going to do something?” Kerr yelled, slamming his fists on the table. “I’m tired. I am so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there. I am so tired of the, excuse, I am sorry, I am tired of the moments of silence. Enough!”

Kerr has long been outspoken against gun violence. His father was shot dead in a terrorist attack in Beirut in 1984, and he has spent much of his professional life calling for gun law reform.

Basketball, he said, didn’t matter.

“Since we left shootaround, 14 children were killed, 400 miles from here. And a teacher,” Kerr said, referring to the mass shooting that occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, earlier Tuesday.

The death toll has since risen to 19 children and two adults, according to a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. The 18-year-old suspect, a student at Uvalde High School who entered the elementary school with a handgun and possibly a rifle, is also dead, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said.

On numerous occasions, including Tuesday, Kerr has pointed to H.R.8, a bill that would tighten background check rules for firearm purchases. That bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives in early 2021, but it never got to the Senate floor.

“There’s a reason why they won’t vote on it,” Kerr said. “To hold on to power.”

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33979219/warriors-steve-kerr-delivers-impassioned-plea-gun-control-texas-school-shooting-get-numb-this

Lee Heidhues 5.23.2022

When I think of Vangelis I will always think of his score from the cult classic “Blade Runner”. I have viewed the Ridley Scott film several times in the theater and watched it countless times on DVD, and now streaming.

Vangelis soundtrack sets the tone for this dystopian futuristic tale which still resonates 40 years after its cinematic release in 1982. Absent Vangelis’ score I don’t know if “Blade Runner” would have its lasting impact.

Excerpted from Variety 5.19.2022

Vangelis, the electronic-music pioneer who won an Oscar for “Chariots of Fire” and composed such other landmark film scores as “Blade Runner,” died May 17 the Athens News Agency reported. He was 79. Greek media reports say he died in a French hospital while being treated for COVID-19.

The Oscar for “Chariots of Fire” made him immediately bankable as a film composer. Ridley Scott hired him for his science-fiction film “Blade Runner” and Costa-Gavras engaged him for the Jack Lemmon drama “Missing,” both in 1982 and both nominated for BAFTA awards. The Mel GIbson remake of “The Bounty” followed in 1984.

The self-taught musician enjoyed a long career in European pop music before the magical textures and colors of his 1970s solo albums brought him to the attention of film and TV producers. The use of a track from his 1975 album “Heaven and Hell” as the theme for Carl Sagan’s 1980 PBS series “Cosmos” brought his name and music into prominence in America.

But it was his music for the 1981 film “Chariots of Fire” that brought him worldwide fame. Producer David Puttnam made the unorthodox choice for his period sports drama after hearing Vangelis’s music for the French nature documentary “Opera Sauvage” and the studio album “China.”

He declined to attend the Academy Awards, where he won in March 1982. “They put a lot of pressure on me to go to America for the Oscar,” he told a British journalist at the time, “but I don’t like to be pushed, and especially for that. I hate the idea of competition.”

Subsequent scores, also for historical dramas, included Ridley Scott’s “1492: Conquest of Paradise” (1992) and Oliver Stone’s “Alexander” (2004), both less celebrated but still musically compelling for their mix of electronics with conventional orchestra and choirs. He also scored Roman Polanski’s erotic thriller “Bitter Moon” (1992).

Vangelis was born Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou on March 29, 1943, and raised in Athens. A self-taught pianist, he formed a rock band, the Forminx, in 1963, playing pop music and Beatles covers, but began working on film scores and sessions a few years later. After relocating to Paris, in 1968 he formed the progressive-rock quartet Aphrodite’s Child with a group of Greek expatriates, including Demis Roussos. The group enjoyed chart success in several European countries, particularly the single “Rain and Tear.”

After that group dissolved, he declined an offer to replace Rick Wakeman in progressive-rock legends Yes and instead focused on solo work and film scores. However, after moving to London in 1975, he began collaborating with Yes singer Jon Anderson, with whom he released four albums as “Jon and Vangelis” between 1980 and 1991, one of which reached the British top 5.

Increasingly reclusive, he gave few interviews, preferring studio work to publicity and promotion. Yet in one 1980s interview, he said this: “People say that a synthesizer is a machine, not a natural sound. Everything is natural. The first instrument built – a flute or maybe a tom-tom – was a machine to create sound. Acoustical conventional instruments, like a guitar, are fantastic, but they are restricted and always give the same sort of sound. It allows us to go beyond what we have known. You can start from a beep, and develop a whole range of sounds with endless variations. It is incredible.”

https://variety.com/2022/music/news/vangelis-dead-chariots-of-fire-blade-runner-1235272061/