The Zone of Interest was selected as best International film at this past Sunday’s Academy Awards. The accolade is well deserved.
The film also captured a much deserved award for best sound. I was genuinely happy. The sound in the film is captivating, eerie and unnerving. The sounds capture in the most banal manner the sounds of death at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Hitler’s Third Reich.
Germany has its own Donald Trump party, formerly known as the Republican party in America.
Trump’s Republican party is free to run roughshod over American democracy. What will remain of it should “far right” extremist Trump win the presidential election this November.
The difference between Germany and America is the presence of a judicial system which is not beholden to fascist organizations like The Trump party.
The German judiciary is now taking up the matter of the extremist AfD and may label it a case of “suspected case of far-right extremism”
Labeling The Trump party “far right” extremists will never happen in America.
Particularly since the Supreme Court is now doing Donald Trump’s political chores. Ironically The Trump party is using the safeguards of the American Constitution to cement Trump’s “far right extremism” hold on the American government.
America’s fascist roots run deep. Trump is trolling the swamp.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 3.12.2024
AFD – Alternative for Germany “far right” extremists. Just like the Trump Republican Party in America.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party is challenging the country’s domestic intelligence agency in court, saying it was not justified in labeling the party a “suspected case of far-right extremism” in 2021.
The designation makes it easier for the BfV spy agency, known by the English title the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, to investigate and surveil AfD members. It can also facilitate the use or recruitment of informants from within the organization.
The higher regional court for North Rhine-Westphalia in Münster has scheduled two days for the hearing, which opened on Tuesday. Whether a verdict would follow on Wednesday was not immediately clear.
The AfD unsuccessfully challenged the designation at a different court in 2022, this is its second appeal.
It cited reports and evidence provided by the domestic intelligence agency, and the party appearing to use ethnicity as a key factor in its definition of a German people. This runs contrary to Germany’s postwar constitution, drafted soon after Adolf Hitler’s Nazi dictatorship, that explicitly forbids racial persecution. It also noted evidence of xenophobic agitation and some of the party’s members’ more extreme comments and statements.
American Nazis – The Atomwaffen The Atomwaffen Division (Atomwaffen meaning “atomic weapons” in German), also known as the National Socialist Resistance Front, is an international far-right extremist and neo-Naziterrorist network. Formed in 2013 and based in the Southern United States, it has since expanded across the United States -excerpted from Wikipedia
Mayoral hopeful Daniel Lurie, billionaire scion of the historic Levi Strauss & Co. family, has hired one of the City’s most shrill political attack dogs as his liaison to the Asian American Pacific Islander Community (AAPI).
Political opportunistMan Kit Lam.
Kit Lam stands behind Mayor London Breed at the swearing in of Brooke Jenkins as DA. Kit Lam is now working to defeat the Mayor whose law and order campaign to oust Chesa Boudin satisfied his opportunistic political goals in 2022 – July 8, 2022
To describe Kit Lam as simply a political operative understates his true skill.
Unleashing shrill and over the top attacks on political opponents in the street, the ballot box and the courtroom is his forte. District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Members of the San Francisco School Board. Individuals and political causes. Any and all which have questioned and opposed his incendiary tactics.
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
Kit Lam was instrumental in the 2022 Recall of three Progressive school board members and the 8M funded political coup d’etat which ousted District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
Not satisfied with hanging those political trophies on his wall Kit Lam went after a young man who, in a moment of agitation, attempted to confiscate school board recall petitions. The young man was charged by the DA for this transgression. Not satisfied with the criminal court punishment, Kit Lam sued the young man in Superior Court. Forced him to issue a public apology. Kit Lam, as part of that lawsuit, deposed members of the San Francisco Berniecrats. A blatant act of political harassment.
After the successful recalls Kit Lam then went to work for Supervisorial candidate Joel Engardio who was striving to oust the incumbent Gordon Mar. Engardio’s campaign was successful. Kit Lam was rewarded for his political chores with a job on now Supervisor Engardio’s staff.
Kit Lam with his political stepping stone Supervisor Engardio
Obviously Kit Lam has higher ambitions. By hitching his wagon to Daniel Lurie’s Levi’s star he hopes to put his rabble rousing past behind him and move into a comfortable sinecure in the Mayor’s office next January.
Top photo: Daniel Lurie and Man Kit Lam -3.11.2024
I thought Jimmy Kimmel was just doing a comic riff when he closed the Oscar ceremony by reading a message from Donald Trump on his phone.
It was for real:
Kimmel fired back at Trump onstage by saying, “Blah, blah, blah … Okay, now, see if you can guess which former president just posted that on TruthSocial. Anyone? No? Well, thank you, President Trump. Thank you for watching, I’m surprised you’re still — isn’t it past your jail time?”
The audience roared.
Trump will be in a Manhattan courtroom in two weeks as he faces 34 felony charges. Paying off his porn star mistress Stormy Daniels in 2016 to keep news of their affair out of the tabloids.
Trump’s priorities are dishing his enemies. There are plenty.
Following is Trump’s Truth Social message which Jimmy Kimmel read to the audience and viewers worldwide.
“Has there EVER been a WORSE HOST than Jimmy Kimmel at The Oscars. His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be. Get rid of Kimmel and perhaps replace him with another washed up, but cheap, ABC ‘talent,’ George Slopanopoulos,” Trump wrote, likely meaning George Stephanopoulos. “He would make everybody on stage look bigger, stronger, and more glamorous.”
“Also a really bad politically correct show tonight, and for years – Disjointed, boring, and very unfair,” Trump continued. “Why don’t they just give the Oscars to those that deserve them. Maybe that way their audience and TV ratings will come back from the depths. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The Hush Money trial Donald Trump fears the most is soon to kickoff. It combines what Trump is all about. Sex. Money. Politics. The payoff to a porn starto secure the presidency in 2016.
The tabloids worldwide will be in a feeding frenzy as Trump will be dragged through the swamp of his own personal behavior. Which resulted in the payoff to porn actress, his alleged one time mistress, prior to the the 2016 presidential election.
Trump, famous for his blatant sexism, as evidenced in the notorious 2005 “Hollywood Access” tape, which nearly torched his victory. Will now be called to a criminal legal accounting for his behavior in his hometown. New York City.
INTOUCH – MY AFFAIR WITH DONALD
Excerpted from The New York Times 3.7.2024
The trial draws nearer — it is set to start on March 25 in Manhattan — it’s become apparent that prosecutors would like to tell a wide ranging story full of tabloid details, one that could be personally embarrassing to Donald Trump.
The hush money case, which is being prosecuted by Alvin Bragg, the district attorney in Manhattan, has always been an awkward mix of the serious and the profane, based around a seamy tale of extramarital sex, business records and presidential politics.
Trump’s aides are blunt that he particularly hates this case given the nature of the story that prosecutors intend to put in front of the jury.
WSJ: Trump Paid $130K to Porn Star
The hush money case arguably is an election interference case, centering on allegations that, on the eve of the 2016 presidential race, Trump falsified business records as part of a scheme to buy the silence of a porn star to keep her from going public with claims that they had an affair.
The basics are these: In the waning days of Trump’s first run for the White House, the porn star Stormy Daniels threatened to reveal an affair she says she had with him — a scandalous development that could have damaged his campaign. So, according to prosecutors and their star witness, the former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, Trump arranged to buy her silence. In so doing, employees working at his direction falsified a series of invoices, checks and ledger entries to cover his tracks.
Donald Trump at his Manhattan arraignment – April 4, 2023
San Francisco Progressives were blasted on election night. There’s no denying it.
Money carried the day.
Not only did virtually all of the GrowSF candidates win, their insidious ballot measure E which will eviscerate the Police Commission, permit more surveillance and, essentially, unleash the police passed with a 60 percent YES vote.
The only positive note for Progressives is the retention of two Judges targeted by the reactionary cadres for their alleged soft on crime judicial rulings. lt seems that for some tossing Judges to the whims of the law and order mob was a bridge too far to cross.
Otherwise, it was one of the worst nights in history for San Francisco progressives.
San Francisco Chronicle 3.6.2024
The winds of change are blowing Reactionary in San Francisco fueled by an influx of venture capital and hi tech money. San Francisco voters need a scapegoat for the phantom crime wave and the purported “Doom Loop” eviscerating the downtown business community.
San Francisco Standard – 3.6.2024
In the neighborhoods the billionaire deep pockets class poured over 1.5M into what is normally the sleepy Democrat County Central Committee selection. Money worked. So called “moderates” captured, at the latest count, 21 of 24 seats on the DCCC. It’s important, if only because the DCCC will make endorsements in this November’s Mayoral, District Attorney and six Supervisorial contests.
In my mailbox I received 11 mailers supporting DCCC candidates.
DCCC mailers for “moderate” candidates
San Francisco Standard post election analysis – 3.6.2024
San Francisco Police Officers Association. A big winner in Tuesday’s election.
Artwork on top by Liz Heidhues: Garry Tan. Big Daddy contributor to GrowSF. Major player in the world of taking down San Francisco Progressives.
Thank goodness there’s a federal judge, Hon. James Donato, who is “incredulous” that the US Attorney has presented a plea deal which will absolve the drunken driver who ran down beloved cyclist Ethan Boyes last April in The Presidio.
Seriously. What kind of message does this send? That it’s ok to use your several ton vehicle while drunk and kill a cyclist.
Shaken and distraught mourners at a memorial service in the Presidio at the site where Ethan Boyes was killed by a drunken driver
It’s horrible. This US Attorney needs to tear up this Deal and get Real.
One year in jail with no admission of malice or gross negligence.
The perp needs to pay the price for taking a life and causing so much grief to the tight knit San Francisco cycling community. Ethan Boyes was only 44 and a beloved figure in the bicycle world.
Ethan Boyes, a champion cyclist, was killed on a street in San Francisco’s Presidio.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 3.4.2024
“Isn’t being intoxicated gross negligence in itself?” Judge James Donato said, incredulous.
Arnold Kinman Low, 81, is facing one count of vehicular manslaughter and one count of driving under the influence of alcohol in the fatal crash that killed USA Cycling champion Ethan Boyes, according to court documents. Federal prosecutors and Low’s lawyer appeared in court Monday to discuss the possible plea and agreed to return at a later date.
A memorial in The Presidio a the spot where Ethan Boyes was run down by a drunken driver in April 2023
Assistant U.S. Attorney George Hageman told District Judge James Donato that attorneys had gotten “very close” to reducing the charges to misdemeanors that would carry a maximum sentence of up to one year in prison.
“For killing someone,” Donato replied. “Under the influence of alcohol.”
Under the terms of a plea deal, Low, 81, would admit he “did unlawfully kill a human being … without malice and without gross negligence.”
Cyclists gathered to mourn for Ethan Boyes
That question, Assistant US Attorney George Hageman said, was “up for interpretation.”
The judge replied that interpreting the severity of the alleged crime was Hageman’s job as federal prosecutor. He then asked Hageman about the length of possible prison time, to which the prosecutor said Low could spend up to one year in prison.
The People should stand up and shout out against the worldwide growth of antisemitism. Which has grown exponentially in the wake of of the State of Israel’s ferocious deadly reaction to the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel last October 7.
Israel’s five months long carnage has leveled Gaza and resulted in the deaths of 30,000 people by the Israeli military with weapons supplied by America.
In condemning The State of Israel with increasing antisemitism a dangerous bright line has been crossed.
People need to differentiate between Jewish people and the State of Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). These are all State actors. Condemning Jewish people as a group is a dangerous activity which only breeds further hate and mistrust.
It’s the philosophy which bred Nazism, led to the rise of Adolf Hitler, his ascension to power in Germany in 1933 and the subsequent holocaust which took the lives of six million people.
It is one thing to support the people of Palestine and demand a halt to the carnage being imposed by the State of Israel. It is quite another matter to engage in blatant antisemitism.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 3.3.2024
“Can you hear me?” Sheryl Sandberg, former chief operating officer of Facebook parent Meta, asked the crowd at San Francisco City Hall before launching into a story about her gradual decision to speak out publicly against antisemitism.
Warsaw, 1943: SS troops bring a group of ✡️ people, including women and children to a railway–station collection point for deportation to Nazi death camps.
Describing how she initially asked her son to stop wearing his Star of David necklace out of concern for his safety, Sandberg, who is Jewish, said the months after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel had taught her the importance of reaching out to friends for support. Despite mounting fears for her family’s well-being, Sandberg said she had started wearing her own Star of David necklace in an effort to create a world in which the symbol can be worn “safely and proudly.”
Thousands of Jewish demonstrators and their supporters braved the rain Sunday afternoon at San Francisco’s City Hall to condemn antisemitism, especially in schools and on college campuses across the Bay Area.
Members of the National Socialist Movement (NSM) march to their rally near City Hall on April 17, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. An NSM anti-illegal immigration rally in October in Riverside, California resulted in fights between the neo-Nazis and counter-protesters. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
Addressing crowds huddled beneath umbrellas as rain clouds intermittently doused the event, speakers including California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, Mayor London Breed and state Sen. Scott Wiener described escalating anti-Jewish rhetoric amid a stark rise in hate crimes against the Jewish community.
“It’s been shocking to watch how divided we have become,” Mayor London Breed told the assembled crowd.
The mayor said one-third of the city’s hate crimes last year had been directed at Jewish people, a trend she called “terrifying.”
The demonstration, billed as a “unity march” against antisemitism, drew people from across the Bay Area. Many present told the Chronicle they chose to attend amid what they viewed as worrying trends playing out in the region’s schools and college campuses.
The recent buzz about Donald Trump’s criminal indictments has been about how successful he’s been in delaying the inevitable. His day in criminal court.
Apparently lost in all the hand wringing by pundits that Trump will not be facing a jury soon is one undisputable fact. Trump goes to Trial on March 25 in a Manhattan courtroom.
At issue. A 34 count criminal indictment. The hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels. In an effort to stop news of Trump’s relationship to become public before the 2016 presidential election. It worked.
Soon a jury of 12 New Yorkers will soon decide if Trump is criminally responsible for these hush money payments.
The Trial will make for great legal, political and tabloid reporting.
Excerpted from The New York Times 3.2.2024
Donald Trump faces steep odds in his first criminal case, which was brought by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg. Mr. Trump’s belligerent courtroom antics might not resonate with a jury in Manhattan, where only about 12 percent of voters supported him in the 2020 election.
Donald Trump mugshot – 2023
Mr. Bragg’s evidence is extensive, featuring documents, tape recordings and testimony from Mr. Trump’s onetime confidants.
“I would expect Trump to try to act up,” said Ty Cobb, a veteran lawyer who worked in the White House Counsel’s Office during the Trump administration and who has since been critical of the former president. He added: “He needs to be aggressively muzzled by the lawyers if he is to avoid offending the jury.”
To avoid conviction, his defense team, led by Todd Blanche and Susan R. Necheles, will have to be stellar. They will most likely argue that the evidence does not directly implicate Mr. Trump, and that the witnesses are liars.
Lawyers who have represented Mr. Trump view the prospect of him testifying before Justice Juan Merchan as potentially disastrous. The judge is a no-nonsense jurist who presided over the conviction of Mr. Trump’s family business in a tax fraud trial.
If Mr. Trump insists, he could pose a make-or-break challenge for Mr. Blanche and Ms. Necheles.
The headlines – April 5, 2023
They recently appeared before Justice Merchan at a pretrial hearing with their client mostly silent beside them, and seemed to test the tightrope he will walk during the trial. Mr. Trump wanted to delay it, but the judge promptly set a March date.
Mr. Blanche lodged objections, none of which swayed Justice Merchan, who quickly bridled. “Tell me something you haven’t already said today,” the judge said.
Shortly thereafter, Justice Merchan asked Mr. Blanche if he was done talking. He was not, but the judge cut him off, instructing Mr. Blanche to “please have a seat.”
“Yes, your honor,” Mr. Blanche replied, sitting down with Mr. Trump.
It’s been nearly two years since London Breed and her handpicked mercenary Brooke Jenkins led the Recall, funded with 8M in MAGA money, which resulted in the political lynching of progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin.Replaced by scheming political climber Brooke Jenkins. An ambitious prosecutor who betrayed the man for whom she worked and was rewarded for her treachery by Mayor London Breedwith the top law enforcement job in San Francisco.
San Francisco is reaping the whirlwind for embedding itself with the most reactionary fascist leaning elements in our country.
After a long hiatus from the public forum Chesa Boudin has now put in writing what the result of this political coup d’etat has resulted in for San Francisco.
Published in The San Francisco Standard 3.2.2024
Chesa Boudin is the founding executive director of the Criminal Law & Justice Center at Berkeley Law School and the former district attorney of San Francisco.
Chesa Boudin being sworn in as District Attorney by Mayor London Breed. She would be the behind the scenes leader in his ouster
For the last eight years, politicians in San Francisco and California have used Donald Trump as a foil. “Standing up to Trump” has been a rallying cry meant to motivate voters and showcase democratic bona fides. It’s, therefore, all the more offensive that some of those same politicians are looking to Trump-appointed judges to excuse their own failures on homelessness.
San Francisco’s elected political elite protested outside the federal courthouse while Gov. Gavin Newsom mused about doxing the federal judge who had issued the ruling. 8.23.2023
By turning to the Trump-packed U.S. Supreme Court for relief, these politicians are admitting, once again, that they prefer sound-bite policies—policies that have repeatedly failed in the past and will actually harm our ability to address other crucial needs in our community.
It didn’t have to be this way.
In 2018, despite the opposition of Mayor London Breed, voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition C, which levied a tax on big business to fund solutions to homelessness. Thus, San Francisco’s homelessness budget for 2021-2022 was nearly $700 million, fully half that of New York City, which serves a population 10 times our size. Given these substantial resources, San Francisco had a unique opportunity to make progress on homelessness by creating more shelters, transitional housing and expanding essential services.
MAGA cadres disrupting Chesa Boudin rally. Alamo Square Park – March 5, 2022
Unfortunately, whether because of corruption, indifference, incompetence or bad policies, San Francisco’s approach is failing. Numerous news stories have detailed how: Slow referrals and poor conditions have left available single-room occupancy units empty; those who did get placements were too often kicked out for minor rule violations; hundreds of positions needed to address the crisis remain vacant; poor community outreach hamstrung opportunities to create new treatment or living centers.
Instead of grappling with that failure, San Francisco’s leadership has chosen to double down on another sound-bite strategy—criminalizing poverty and homelessness.
Drunken delirious supporters celebrate the political lynching of DA Chesa Boudin – June 7, 2022.
Other Western cities have tried handcuffs rather than homes in response to housing crises. In 2022, in a case out of Grants Pass, Oregon, the Ninth Circuit prohibited prosecution of people setting up tents on public property when no alternative shelter was available, deeming it cruel and unusual punishment. Despite the dissent of a Trump-appointed judge, that decision was binding on most of the American West.
In light of that and similar rulings, San Francisco’s Coalition on Homelessness asked a federal court to enjoin the city from a police response to tents. A federal judge agreed and ordered the city to stop punishing sleeping in public unless there were available shelter beds. This decision should not have been a surprise to anyone who was paying attention—the lower court was following established precedent, and San Francisco was clearly violating its own regulations. But what happened next is shocking.
Blatant red baiting campaign which politically lynched DA Chesa Boudin on June 7, 2022
In behavior reminiscent of Trump’s attacks on a judge whose ruling he disagreed with, San Francisco’s elected political elite protested outside the federal courthouse while Gov. Gavin Newsom mused about doxing the federal judge who had issued the ruling.
It is totally understandable that government officials want more power to address real problems. But it is becoming dangerously common for members of the political branches to blame the judiciary for long-standing policy failures. And let’s be clear: That’s exactly what happened here. The court ruled that people cannot be prosecuted for setting up tents if there is no alternative shelter. The inability to create that shelter is a failure of San Francisco, not the courts.
San Francisco leaders lean on Trump judges
That reality, however, didn’t stop San Francisco from rushing to Trump justices to escape its responsibility. San Francisco has joined with some of the most conservative voices in the country in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review and reverse the Grants Pass decision. The Court promptly agreed to review the case (leading to the pending case against San Francisco being paused). In a brief filed Friday, San Francisco tried to take a middle-of-the-road position, conceding that a “total prohibition on sleeping outside”—precisely what the ordinance they ask the court to reinstate does—“would effectively criminalize unhoused,” but still urges the court to reverse.
Indeed, Trump appointees are expected to reverse and rule that, even if there is no other available shelter for the unhoused, local governments may freely arrest and prosecute people for sheltering on public property.
To be sure, many taxpaying residents are sick of seeing tents and associate visible poverty with other real public safety challenges. But the power San Francisco’s politicians seek from the Supreme Court will be no solution at all. California law enforcement agencies are spending more but solving fewer crimes than ever before.
DA Boudin in the courtroom.
The San Francisco Police Department is solving just 20% of reported robberies and even lower percentages of rapes, burglaries and car break-ins. Meanwhile, hundreds of cases the police did solve are now being dismissed because of the DA’s failure to prepare and limited courtrooms. It’s hard to see how clearance or conviction rates will improve if we divert limited resources to the impossible task of policing and prosecuting poverty.
In a few months, when the Supreme Court overturns Grants Pass, San Francisco will double down on its refusal to invest in housing or even short-term shelter in favor of handcuffs and prosecutions. The city will surely succeed in making life for the unhoused more “uncomfortable” and undermining our collective humanity while giving Trump, his tactics, his pundits and his judges the last laugh. The city’s actions in this moment will not only affect the lives of all those who call San Francisco home but also will define our legacy as a beacon of progress or a cautionary tale of lost values.
And when, inevitably, these same politicians tout how they “stand up to Trump,” just remember they were more than happy to seek refuge in his justices to cover their own failures.
Chesa addresses his supporters on the night of the political coup e’tat which drove him from office – 6.7.2022
Top photo: DA Chesa Boudin on the night of his inaugural accepting congratulations from his supporters. January 8, 2020
Lee's Perspective 