Shameful Washington Post caves into President Musk’s dictatorship

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 2.16.2025

Top graphic: – June 1971. Washington Post cartoon by Herblock decrying the Nixon Administration attempt to quash publication of the Vietnam War Pentagon Papers. Now this same newspaper is engaging in a form of Prior Restraint by kow towing to the White House. Refusing to run a political ad critical of Elon Musk.

Elon Musk is the de facto President of the United States. Even the wealthiest people kow towing to his bullying threats.

Including the Amazon monolith Jeff Bezos owned Washington Post. Which in an act of craven cowardice refused to run an ad titled “Fire Elon Musk.”

If the World needed to see who is running America, one need look no further than this report. It’s not Donald Trump. It’s the world’s wealthiest man Elon Musk.

The Hill 2.16.2025

The Washington Post this week backed out of a “Fire Elon Musk” advertising order that was to run as a wrap on some of its Tuesday editions, according to the advocacy group Common Cause. 

Common Cause learned on Friday The Post would not run the outside-the-paper ad criticizing Musk.

“Is it because we’re critical of what’s happening with Elon Musk? Is it only ok to run things in The Post now that won’t anger the president or won’t have him calling Jeff Bezos asking why this was allowed?” she said, referring to The Post’s owner, who is also the founder of Amazon and the space company Blue Origin.  

She said The Post did not provide an explanation for why it decided not to run the wrap ad.  

The group said it signed a $115,000 agreement with The Post to run the ad that would have covered the front and back page of the Tuesday paper as well as a full-page ad with the same theme inside the paper. It said it planned to purchase the ad in collaboration with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund.

The ad’s design features a large picture of Musk with his head tilted back, laughing, along with a cutout image of the White House and large white text: “Who’s running this country: Donald Trump or Elon Musk?”

Lower down on the page it features smaller font text stating: “Since day one, Elon has created chaos and confusion and put our livelihoods at risk. And he is accountable to no one but himself.”

“The Constitution only allows for one president at a time. Call your senators and tell them it’s time Donald Trump fire Elon Musk,” it says, followed by the URL FireMusk.org.

Common Cause President Virginia Kase Solomón said The Post’s advertising sales representative was informed of the nature of the ad and seemed confident that running it over the paper wouldn’t be a problem.

Washington Post backs out of ‘Fire Elon Musk’ ad order

Tilda Swinton on top of the Cinema world at Berlin Film Fest

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 2.15.2025

Berlinale Palast. Venue for the the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival
Tilda Swinton acceptance talk at the Berlin International Film Festival – February 2025

One of my favorite actors Tilda Swinton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilda_Swinton will be feted at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival. One of my favorite movies is the 2007 Michael Clayton for which Tilda Swinton, portraying a relentless corporate attorney, won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In case you don’t recognize him, that’s George Clooney.

Tilda Swinton and George Clooney spar in the final scene of “Michael Clayton.”

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 2.13.2025

The 75th Berlin International Film Festival, which runs from February 13-23, kicks off on Thursday with the world premiere of “The Light,” by Tom Tykwer. The German filmmaker behind “Run Lola Run” (1998) and the series “Babylon Berlin” returns with a drama starring Lars Eidinger and Nicolette Krebitz. It depicts a middle-class family whose routine is upturned when a housekeeper from Syria enters their lives.

Tilda Swinton in the 1992 film “Orlando”

During the opening event, Tilda Swinton will receive the Honorary Golden Bear, which recognizes her lifetime achievement. The Scottish actor has attended the Berlinale many times over the years, whether as jury president in 2009 or to accompany her films — 26 of which have been featured at the film festival.

One of Swinton’s trademarks is her androgyny, her otherness among more traditionally feminine Hollywood actresses. The tall, lanky Scot wears her hair short and often prefers suits to gowns on the red carpet. She has often played men or ostensibly gender-fluid characters. 

In her late 20s, Swinton — then an unknown actress — took a long trip through West Berlin on her bike for Cycling the Wall. In the three decades since, Swinton’s become one the Europe’s biggest and most interesting film stars, and Berlin has blossomed into one of Europe’s most vibrant cultural centers. 

Hilda Swinton in the 2016 film “Hail, Ceasar.”

Beyond the glitzy red carpet events, the festival is also putting the spotlight on different current and historical events.

With the film festival taking place 80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, screenings of Claude Lanzmann’s monumental “Shoah” (1985) is part of the special program, as well as a new documentary revisiting the groundbreaking work that revolutionized the representation of the Holocaust in cinema, titled “All I Had was Nothingness,” by Guillaume Ribot.

“My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow” is a documentary about intellectuals being driven in to exile under Russia’s current regime. “Das Deutsche Volk” revisits the racist shootings in Hanau in 2020. And “A Letter to David” is a cinematic letter to Hamas hostage David Cunio, who is still detained in Gaza.

Tilda Swinton in the disturbing psychological mind bender 2011 film based on the novel “We Need to Talk About Kevin.”

https://www.dw.com/en/what-to-expect-at-the-2025-berlinale/a-71554165

Never Again and Again.”Would you call it (Gaza) a Genocide?”

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 2.10.2025

Art Spiegelman won a Pulitzer Prize with his graphic cartoon history of the Holocaust MAUS. Now he has stepped four square into the Middle East cauldron with an unvarnished takedown of the Israeli assault against the Palestinian people of Gaza. Spiegelman and fellow artist Joe Sacco have created a graphic cartoon story which is sure to be praised by many and scorned by others.

Maus,[a] often published as Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Art Spiegelman, serialized from 1980 to 1991. It depicts Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. The work employs postmodern techniques, and represents Jews as mice and other Germans and Poles as cats and pigs respectively. Critics have classified Maus as memoir, biography, history, fiction, autobiography, or a mix of genres. In 1992, it became the first and only graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maus

The February 27, 2025 issue of the oft times staid New York Review of Books (NYRB) is running a brief, powerful indictment of the Israeli government titled NEVER AGAIN..AND AGAIN…AND AGAIN..AND AGAIN. By the Power of Modern Cartooning, Two Comic Artists Have Drawn Themselves Into The Gaza Strip.

Super Bowl Sunday – Surfing through the shoppers at Safeway

San Francisco – Safeway at Ocean Beach

Lee Heidhues 2.9.2025

UPDATE: New Orleans, Louisiana. The Philadelphia Eagles demolished The Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 and capture the 59th Lombardi Super Bowl Trophy. In 2026 the Super Bowl will be played at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. Home of the 49ers.

The All-American pastime. The Super Bowl. And what more appropriate way to spend the time before the 3:30 kickoff. Shopping at the Supermarket.

We took a walk through the car free slow street near the Safeway a mile from our home. And an hour later boarded the bus carrying bags and backpacks full of food and household item.

Getting ready to chow down on Super Bowl Sunday.

The Super Bowl ads are always a signal of the current state of life in America.

The ads this year are light on substance with strong bows to the boomer generation. So, this photo montage concludes with the classic rock song by It’s a Beautiful Day, “White Bird.”

The crow watches over Safeway at the Beach in San Francisco.
The Super Bowl sugar fix ensemble. Complete with the team colors of Kansas City and Philadelphia
It’s not all the sugar fix at Safeway. Healthy oranges and apple abound.
Liz holds aloft a cabbage destined to be a marvelous Coleslaw salad. Check out that Erin Andrews 49ers sweatshirt. Maybe next February at Levi’s Stadium the home team will make another Super Bowl appearance.
Aisles and aisles of San Francisco consumer staples.
Blogger Lee loves those cookies.
The well stacked and surprisingly empty Safeway Deli section on Super Bowl Sunday.
For the non Super Bowl fan there are plenty of periodicals available to pass the hours.
Liz carefully looks over the organic chicken drumstick selection.
An abundance of organic produce at Safeway.
Heading home.
“White Bird” the classic late ’60s song and appropriate for a beautiful day on Super Bowl Sunday.
It’s a Beautiful Day is an American band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1967, featuring vocalist Pattie Santos along with violinist David LaFlamme and his wife, Linda LaFlamme, on keyboards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Beautiful_Day

State Farm pleads poverty. No way. It has $100BN in the Bank

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 2.8.2025

The Wall Street Journal buried the lede in its recent feature about the home insurance industry in California concentrating on the financial losses incurred by State Farm, “the nation’s largest home- and auto-insurance company, with more than 90 million customers nationwide.”

To mitigate these losses State Farm has cancelled thousands of home insurance policies in California. In a move to protect its bottom line.

Percentage of insurance policies State Farm
said last year it would not renew, by ZIP Code – The range is <5 percent in the lighter colors to > 50 percent in the darker colors

The reality is quite different as a deep dive into the WSJ piece clearly indicates. The truth about State Farm’s financial solvency can be found. It is buried deep in the investigative report.

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 2.6.2025

State Farm, the nation’s largest home- and auto-insurance company, with more than 90 million customers nationwide and a million home policies in California, has a strong credit rating and a surplus of well over $100 billion.

The California unit, by contrast, was heavily in the red even before the latest fires. Over the past nine years, it has spent $1.26 for every dollar collected in premiums, resulting in over $5 billion in underwriting losses, the insurer said last Monday. 

Consumer advocates said they believe State Farm may be exploiting the separation between the California subsidiary and the parent company to make the unit appear distressed and alone—rather than part of an extremely healthy national insurer—and so bolster its rate demands. 

A burning house in Pacific Palisades last month.

“Chicken Little in Bloomington will tell you that the sky is falling,” said Douglas Heller, director of insurance at the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer-advocacy group, referring to the insurer’s national headquarters in Illinois.  

A State Farm spokesman said the company “strongly disagrees” with any suggestion of financial engineering. 

“Chicken Little in Bloomington will tell you that the sky is falling.”

State Farm reorganized in 1998 to silo its subsidiary that sells home-insurance in California—called State Farm General Insurance. The company created a similar structure for its Florida home-insurance subsidiary, which operates in risky, hurricane-prone coastal areas. The Florida subsidiary threatened to leave that state in 2009 before dropping tens of thousands of policyholders in hurricane-prone areas. State Farm is a mutual company, owned by its policyholders, which uses a series of subsidiaries to sell insurance and investment products.

Meanwhile, industry representatives have argued in favor of the rate increases in California, saying consumers would suffer if the company collapsed. “This is a very serious situation. We want the market leader to stay,” said Rex Frazier, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California, which represents State Farm and other insurers. “How much more serious does it have to get before people will approve the rate increase needed?”

Regulators have pushed back on State Farm’s previous demand for a 30% increase. Among their questions to the insurer, according to state filings: Given its claims of financial distress, does it plan to cut bonuses for executives? Or commissions for agents? State Farm responded no to both queries, according to the filings. 

https://www.wsj.com/business/state-farm-california-pulled-plug-fires-c702fff8?st=jNGJVW&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Top photo: A State Farm storefront was destroyed by fires in Altadena, Calif., last month. Photo: Michael Nigro/Bloomberg News

The Elon Musk – Donald Trump Nazi American Coup d’etat – 2025

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 2.7.2025

Quick and brutal like Germany in 1933. Nazis Donald Trump and Elon Musk have their Reichstag fire. It’s happened and nobody has taken notice as the 250 year old democracy in America is burned to the ground.

The Nazi Felon President Trump may not like it.

The latest Elon Musk cover photo in Time tells an inconvenient truth about the presidency. Time Magazine which just two months ago The Nazi Trump was feted as Person of the Year for 2024.

The truth is fellow traveler Elon Musk has gleefully implemented The Nazi President’s coup d’etat in America with barely a whimper from devastated, somnolent and out maneuvered Democrats.

This is the condition of America in 2025.

An American Nazi takeover. So fast and effective.

The Reichstag fire (German: Reichstagsbrand, pronounced [ˈʁaɪçstaːksˌbʁant] ⓘ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday, 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch council communist, was the culprit; the Nazis attributed the fire to a group of Communist agitators, used it as a pretext to claim that Communists were plotting against the German government, and induced President Paul von Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree suspending civil liberties, and pursue a “ruthless confrontation” with the Communists.[1] This made the fire pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire

That’s why Elon Musk wants more than America to succumb to his Nazi ideology. He is campaigning for extremist the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) in the February 23rd national election.

Alternative for Germany (German: Alternative für Deutschland, AfD, German pronunciation: [aːʔɛfˈdiː] ⓘ) is a far-right[4] and right-wing populist[5][6] political party in Germany. The AfD is Eurosceptic,[7] and opposes immigration into Germany, especially Muslim immigration.[8] The name of the party reflects its resistance to (uncontested by mainstream parties) policies of Angela Merkel with her insistence on Alternativlosigkeit (lit. ’alternative-less-ness’, a German version of “there is no alternative“).[9] The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, has classified the party as a “suspected extremist” organization.[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_for_Germany

Elon Musk. Soul mates with the German far right party and its standard bearer for Chancellor Alice Weidel

January 6, 2021. Nazi Trump got his coup d’etat four years later

Liz Heidhues soon to achieve the penultimate Kung Fu Black Belt

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 2.4.2025

It was a stormy Tuesday in February and a sunny day of accomplishment for Liz Heidhues in San Francisco.

Liz achieved her Red Belt in martial arts at the Tat Wong Kung Fu Academy in the city’s Richmond District. Where she has been sharpening her mind and body training in the ancient martial arts. An intellectual and physical pursuit Liz undertook after the first of her two ‘citizen’s arrests’ and incarcerations in April 2018. Both were discharged by the San Francisco Superior Court.

From her beginning at Tat Wong Kung Fu Academy Liz Heidhues has fully engaged in the martial arts – 2019 photo

Despite living under a state of constant fear and duress Liz relentlessly perseveres in achieving her goal.

Liz has been a member of Tat Wong’s exclusive Black Belt Club several years.

Master Chow awarded Liz her Red Belt today.

Master Chow and Grandmaster Tat Mau Wong, the founder of Tat Wong Academy with schools all over the world, mentor and provide spiritual guidance to Liz for the last psychologically stressful seven years.

Master Chow gives Kung Fu Red Belt awardee Liz the thumbs up – 2.4.2025

Despite life-disrupting trauma being inflicted on this San Francisco native, Liz will always fight for her rights. She’s a warrior.

She’s learned from the martial arts instructors how to hold her head up high and battle adversity with guts and integrity.

Conductor Jonathon Heyward leads the Seattle Symphony in “Mars” from Holst’s The Planets at Benaroya Hall. #ListenBoldly

Top photo: Liz’s martial arts belts proudly displayed on her kitchen table. The Black Belt is next.

“There are signs it is beginning to rot from within” Margaret Atwood

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 2.1.2025

Anti-AfD protesters carry banners which read ‘No place for fascism!’

Now and Then in Germany….America is Now Back in the Day of Then

DID I WEEP? 

YES:  TEARS CAME OUT OF MY TWO VISIBLE EYES, MY MOIST WEEPING HUMAN EYES. 

BUT I HAD A THIRD EYE, IN THE MIDDLE OF MY FOREHEAD. 

I COULD FEEL IT:  IT WAS COLD, LIKE A STONE.  IT DID NOT WEEP:  IT SAW.  AND BEHIND IT SOMEONE WAS THINKING:

 I WILL GET YOU BACK FOR THIS.  I DON’T CARE HOW LONG IT TAKES OR HOW MUCH SHIT I HAVE TO EAT IN THE MEANTIME, BUT I WILL DO IT.

Margaret Atwood – “The Testaments”  (2019) – Page 149

Margaret Atwood – “The Testaments”  (2019) – Page 149. One of my favorite books about the perils of unchecked fascism.

“Sister Morphine was my Frankenstein.” Marianne Faithfull
The Crow keeps a watchful eye on The Zone of Interest.
Despite the perils of fascism blogger Lee and Liz persevere and spend happy times together – Lunch at Asian Box Cafe – Asian Art Museum – 1/31/2025

Marianne Faithfull one of the ‘Parachute Women’ off to the sweet hereafter

‘Parachute Women’ The Rolling Stones ongoing sexual odyssey

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 1.30.2025

It was just days ago that I wrote about the ‘Parachute Women’ in the lives of the Rolling Stones. Today Marianne Faithfull, perhaps the most famous of the ‘Parachute Women’, has died at age 78 and with her death an icon of the 1960’s and beyond passes into cultural history.

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

Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger – circa late 1960’s

The Stones and Marianne Faithfull collaborated musically and romantically. Perhaps the most famous collaboration is the 1969 song ‘Sister Morphine’‘

Marianne Faithfull’s 1969 version of Sister Morphine which the Rolling Stones sang in their 1971 Sticky Fingers album

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

“Sister Morphine” is a song written by Marianne Faithfull, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Faithfull released the original version of the song as the B-side to her Decca Records single “Something Better” on 21 February 1969. A different version was released two years later by the Rolling Stones for their 1971 album Sticky Fingers.

Marianne Faithfull – December 29, 1946 – January 30, 2025

Axed from Lurie’s team. Kit Lam San Francisco rabble rouser.

Season of the Opportunist. Kit Lam goes on campaign trail for Levi’s scion
‘Power Play’ San Francisco Standard 1.29.2025

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 1.29.2025

The first day of The Year of the Snake is not a happy one for San Francisco political rabble rouser Man Kit Lam.

Kit Lam is out of Mayor Daniel Lurie’s administration after less than a month.

San Francisco Chronicle page one announcing Kit Lam’s “joining” Daniel Lurie’s mayoral campaign. March 12, 2024

Last March it was all smiles as then candidate Levi Strauss & Co. scion Daniel Lurie brought Kit Lam aboard as a liaison to the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.

After Lurie’s victory in the Mayoral election last November, Kit Lam joined the incoming administration. It was a short lived tenure in the Mayor’s office.

His fate with Daniel Lurie is similar to that of his brief tenure with Supervisor Joel Engardio. Kit Lam managed Engardio’s 2022 successful Supervisorial campaign. He then came on as one of Engardio’s legislative aides. He left after a year.

Supervisor Joel Engardio and Kit Lam

At the time Kit Lam left Supervisor Engardio’s employ I was told he had a difficult working relationship with fellow legislative aides in City Hall. Then Mayor London Breed’s office also had a difficult time working with Kit Lam.

In both instances, Kit Lam said publicly he left for “personal reasons” and said he still supported both his former employers.

During 2021 and 2022 Kit Lam was active in the successful campaigns to Recall three School Board members and District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

Man Kit Lam, campaign manager for D4 supervisor candidate Joel Engardio, argues with Rev. Amos Brown of the NAACP at SFUSD Headquarters at 555 Franklin Street in San Francisco, Calif., on June 22, 2022, regarding Lowell High School admissions. | Camille Cohen/The Standard

Prior to entering the electoral arena Kit Lam did investigative work for the San Francisco school board. He was laid off several years ago.

In Hong Kong Kit Lam worked for law enforcement.

Top photo. Jason Kruta and Kit Lam confront each in the San Francisco Richmond District other during the School Board Recall petition campaign in 2021.

San Francisco MSM trumpeted the settlement of Man Kit Lam’s civil law suit against Jason Kruta. The young man who briefly disrupted his successful campaign to recall three Progressive School Board members in February 2022. An act for which Jason Kruta was fired from his job and was criminally prosecuted. A prosecution which was not enough for vengeful Man Kit Lam. He sued Mr. Kruta in San Francisco Civil Superior Court. A lawsuit which concluded in 2023.