San Francisco can’t catch a break. The doom loop has even caught a historic brewery in its webin a form of “corporate Darwinism.”
The beer gods are abandoning San Francisco. At least in part. Iconic Anchor Brewing, now owned by Japanese brewing giant Sapporo, is canceling its annual holiday beer. And cutting back its national distribution.
It could be that Anchor workers unionized. This is how another corporation treats its workers and disrespects its loyal customers.
Anchor Brewery holiday hops – The bottle is empty
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 6.10.2023
Anchor Brewing Co. is significantly scaling back its distribution — and canceling Christmas this year.
Garrett Kelly, a former brewer at Anchor, said the recent news confirmed concerns he and others voiced after the sale to Sapporo. “The loss of a beer as iconic as the Anchor Christmas Ale, the first American holiday beer post prohibition, is a loss for not only beer nerds like me, but anyone with an interest in preserving culture against the grinding pressure of corporate Darwinism,” Kelly wrote to The Chronicle.
Anchor, founded in 1896 and rescued from bankruptcy in 1965 by longtime owner Fritz Maytag, was acquired by Japanese beer giant Sapporo in 2017. Fearing changes, workers of the brewery successfully formed a union in 2019. A representative for Anchor said it has just reached a tentative second contract with that union.
The San Francisco brewer will halt national distribution of all of its beers, including its signature Anchor Steam Beer. Currently, the beer is available in all 50 states.
Anchor Brewery – A diminishing classic
Going forward, Anchor beers will be available only within California, which represents 70% of its sales, according to a company representative.
Then, this coming holiday season, Anchor won’t be releasing one of its signature offerings: Anchor Christmas Ale, a dark winter warmer made annually since 1975. A small amount, however, will be for sale solely at Anchor Public Taps for visitors to the tasting room.
An Anchor representative cited “time-intensive and costly brewing and packaging requirements” as the reason for the change. Christmas Ale is unlikely to return next year, the representative said.
Either by random choice or conscious decision by the Federal Court in Florida a Judge, who has already shown extreme favoritism to Trump was assigned to the Case.
Judge Aileen Cannon’s rulings last year regarding the FBI search a Mar a Lago were so bad that she was over ruled and admonished by a three Judge Federal Appeals panel.
The legal pundits are already in overdrive on how Judge Cannon will handle her second go around with Trump.
At least, for now, Trump can’t whine and moan about Judge Cannon. That could all change. Quickly. Stay tuned.
Excerpted from The New York Times 6.9.2023
Even as prosecutors publicly unveiled a deep and detailed array of evidence against former President Donald J. Trump in the documents investigation on Friday, they suffered a potential setback with the surprise assignment of the case to Judge Aileen M. Cannon.
Judge Cannon, 42, a Trump appointee in Florida, shocked legal experts across ideological lines last year by intervening in the investigation and issuing rulings favorable to Mr. Trump, only to be rebuked by a conservative appeals court.
The chief clerk of court for the Southern District of Florida has said that new cases there are randomly delegated to its judges even if they are related to previous ones. It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Trump lucked out, or if an exception was made. Either way, legal specialists said Judge Cannon’s return was significant.
The unsealed indictment offered “a strong factual presentation,” said Paul Rosenzweig, a former Bush administration official and federal prosecutor who worked on the independent counsel investigation into President Bill Clinton. “If this were a normal person and a normal case, you’d be talking to your client about pleading guilty. So I think the Cannon draw is actually a serious blow to the prosecution.”
Donald Trump unlawfully kept hundreds of classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving the presidency — including papers detailing America’s conventional and nuclear weapons programs, potential weak points in US defenses, and plans to respond to a foreign attack, federal prosecutors charged Friday.
FILE – Prosecutor Jack Smith listens as Hashim Thaci, not pictured, makes his first courtroom appearance before a judge at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers court in The Hague, Netherlands, Nov. 9, 2020. Attorney General Merrick Garland named Smith a special counsel on Friday, Nov. 18, 2022, to oversee the Justice Department’s investigation into the presence of classified documents at former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate as well as key aspects of a separate probe involving the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and efforts to undo the 2020 election. (Jerry Lampen/Pool Photo via AP, File)
The 45th president stored boxes containing the documents throughout the Palm Beach property, including “a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room,” according to a 49-page indictment filed in Miami federal court Thursday.
Trump also wasn’t shy about showing off the material, according to prosecutors, who cited a recorded July 2021 meeting at which the ex-president reportedly displayed a “plan of attack” against Iran prepared by Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
It’s about time. Why have the Feds taken so long? Trump should have been indicted two years ago for his Insurrection and Sedition on January 6, 2021. Hopefully, that is coming soon. Along with an indictment in Georgia for his blatant 2020 election interference; i.e. “Get me another 11,000 votes.” In any other civilized country this Criminal Loser would have been behind bars, already.
January 6, 2021. Trump’s real crime. Insurrection and Sedition
Excerpted from The Guardian 6.8.2023
In a historic development Donald Trump has been indicted for charges connected to his alleged retention of national security documents.
The charges – which include willful retention of national security material, obstruction and conspiracy, according to a person familiar with the matter – came more than a year after federal prosecutors began investigating the former president for knowingly retaining the classified materials at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after he left office.
Federal prosecutors have charged Donald Trump with violating the Espionage Act and conspiring to obstruct the criminal investigation among other counts, according to a person familiar with the matter, a historic development marking the most significant legal peril yet for the former president.
The exact nature of the seven-count indictment, filed by the office of special counsel Jack Smith in federal district court in Miami, remains unclear. At least some of the counts include willful retention of national security materials, obstruction, scheme to conceal, false statements and conspiracy, the person said.
Trump and his legal team were told of the charges on Thursday afternoon. Trump is expected to surrender himself to authorities in Miami on Tuesday at 3pm, the person said, confirming what the former president posted on his Truth Social platform.
Lee Heidhues – June 7, 2023 IT WAS ONE YEAR AGO TODAY WHEN ONE OF THE MOST DISGRACEFUL EVENTS IN SAN FRANCISCO HISTORY OCCURRED. THE POLITICAL LYNCHING OF PROGRESSIVE DISTRICT ATTORNEY CHESA BOUDIN. LED BY MAYOR LONDON BREED AND FUNDED WITH 9M IN MAGA MONEY. THIS ACT OF TREACHERY HAS SENT SAN FRANCISCO INTO A DOOM LOOP OF INCREASING CRIME AND ECONOMIC COLLAPSE. FORTUNATELY, CHESA BOUDIN @chesaboudin HAS LANDED ON HIS FEET. HE HAS BEEN SELECTED AS THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE UC BERKELEY CRIMINAL LAW & JUSTICE CENTER @BerkeleyLawCLJC
I wrote the following the night before the June 7 vote. As the polls were closing at 8pm on election day I cycled out to Sutro Heights Park and took a walk around the grounds as the sun set on Chesa Boudin’s time as San Francisco District Attorney.
Ousted in a political Coup d’etat.
A moment of shame which San Francisco will never live down. It will rank up there with the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in November 1978. Sadly George Moscone’s widow, Gina passed away on election day.
DA Chesa Boudin in San Francisco Superior Court
George Moscone was sworn into office as Mayor on January 8, 1976.
Chesa Boudin was sworn into office as District Attorney on January 8, 2020.
Lee Heidhues 6.6.2022
Tomorrow at this time it will be an Obit or Valedictory of Chesa’s time as San Francisco…
Is ex-Prez Donald Trump about to be indicted, again? This time in Federal Court.
The investigation being led by Hague War Crimes Tribunal prosecutor Jack Smith.
The Feds only indict when the Case is solid. And Jack Smith is a tough guy. Having prosecuted War Crimes before taking the Trump criminal portfolio.
Excerpted from The New York Times 6.7.2023
Trump in New York Criminal Court indicted on State charges, April 4, 2023. Is the Federal indictment next?
Federal prosecutors have informed the legal team for former President Donald J. Trump that he is a target of their investigation into his handling of classified documents after he left office, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The notification to Mr. Trump’s team by prosecutors from the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, was the clearest signal yet that the former president is likely to face charges in the investigation.
It remained unclear when Mr. Trump’s team was told that he was a target of the special counsel’s inquiry, but the notice suggested that prosecutors working for Mr. Smith had largely completed their investigation and were moving toward bringing an indictment.
In court papers last year, prosecutors indicated that they were scrutinizing whether Mr. Trump had broken laws governing the handling of national security documents and whether he had obstructed government efforts to retrieve them.
Prosecutors Tell Trump’s Legal Team He Is a Target of Investigation
On May 7, 2018, Jack Smith was named to a four-year term as chief prosecutor for the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague, investigating war crimes committed in the Kosovo War,[8][9][13] including the case of Salih Mustafa.[16] He took up the post on September 11, 2018, and was appointed to a second term on May 8, 2022.[8]
The Washington Post reports that the US government has sufficient documentation to point the finger at Ukraine for the September 2022 Nordstream 2 pipeline explosion hundreds of feet beneath the Baltic Sea.
An explosion which severely damaged the Russian built pipeline which was to have carried natural gas from Russia to Germany.
Setting sights on who blew up Nordstream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea – September 2022
For nearly nine months the party responsible has not been conclusively named. Even today’s Washington Post story is receiving a healthy dose of skepticism and pushback.
If Ukraine is responsible the optics will not be positive. Particularly since the Biden administration has discouraged these aggressive actions by the Kyiv government as it pushes to gain funding for its ongoing defense of Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
Excerpted from The New York Times 6.6.2023
U.S. intelligence agencies learned from a European ally that the Ukrainian military had planned an attack on the Nord Stream pipelines, three months before saboteurs bombed the underwater network, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
A Russian graphic of the Nordstream 2 pipeline
The Post withheld some details of the intelligence, including the name of the European country giving the report to the United States, to protect the sources of the information.
American officials had previously told The New York Times that they believed pro-Ukrainian groups were responsible for the Nord Stream attack. More recently, American officials have said that groups loosely directed by Ukraine’s government were responsible for a series of covert attacks, including on the Nord Stream pipelines.
But an intelligence summary posted on a Discord server and obtained by The Washington Post showed that U.S. and European allies had reason to believe even before the September attacks that Ukraine viewed the pipelines as a tempting sabotage target — and had specific details about a planned operation using divers and deepwater equipment.
The C.I.A. shared the European intelligence report with Germany and other countries last June, The Post reported. When warning Germany, officials said, nothing was held back from what the U.S. government knew.
While some U.S. officials are becoming more comfortable with Ukraine’s covert attacks on Russia, concerns remain about the possibility of miscalculation by Ukraine while conducting such operations. Sabotaging the Nord Stream pipelines was exactly the kind of operation that would concern the United States — a symbolic attack with little military value that carries a high risk of fracturing the alliance supporting Ukraine.
So far, that has not happened. Even as Germany and other European countries have learned of Ukrainian involvement in the pipeline attack, they have nevertheless increased their military aid.
American officials insisted on Tuesday there has been no determination about who within the Ukrainian government may have planned or authorized the attack. If it is eventually pinned on senior officials, European attitudes about support for Ukraine could change.
Top photo – Detailed map of the Nordstream 2 pipeline. Mired in controversy deep beneath the Baltic Sea.
What is striking about political protest in Germany is the fact people take to the streets in what often become disruptive confrontations with the Police.
Leipzig– After clashes overnight, police broke up the demonstration when they were pelted with ‘stones, pyrotechnics and other objects
Confrontations which German police are organized to handle so that protesters, irrespective of political persuasion, are treated firmly. And treated by the Courts in a manner which respects their rights. While meting out to the accused firmly and, for the post part, fair sentences to the Guilty.
In America law enforcement more often comes down hard on progressive protestors. And, too often treats right wingers with the proverbial kid gloves.
Vigorous street protest is rarely seen in America where, for the most part, aggrieved Progressives satisfy themselves with generally peaceful marches and overheated rhetoric.
The same protest tactics can’t be said for the far right in America. Proud Boys, Q’Anon etc. The neo-fascist extremists whose attempted coup d’etat on January 6, 2021 laid bare the incendiary intentions of these political thugs.
The Courts in America seem unable to differentiate between neo-nazi extremists and legitimate political protest. In America the Courts often hand out unduly long prison sentences.
Particularly for political offenses; i.e. whistleblowing and making public government documents. Charged as serious crimes which do not deserve lengthy, if any, incarceration.
If nothing else, in Germany the Courts are more adept at making the punishment fit the crime.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 6.3.2023
Anti-fascist protest in Germany
Several police officers were injured in the eastern German city of Leipzig on Saturday in clashes with left-wing protesters.
Leipzig police spokesman Olaf Hoppe described the situation as “very dynamic,” with “sometimes massive clashes here in the south of Leipzig.”
He said that “roughly 1,500 people” turned up to the demonstration, even though several courts had refused to authorize it.
“According to our estimates, one-third of them were either inclined towards violence, or were actively seeking violence,” Hoppe said. “We observed numerous cases of people intentionally obscuring their faces, which is an offense in and of itself.”
Major protests in Germany require authorization from authorities. Local governments and courts can restrict them if they deem that the event could pose a risk to public safety, among other reasons.
The scheduled date for the verdict had been known for months, and Lina’s supporters evidently were not optimistic about her chances of acquittal, as they had been drumming up support for protests on the following weekend since last year.
Symbols of support for convicted 28-year-old Lina E. could be seen around Connewitz in southern Leipzig
They referred to it as “day X” (Tag X), a term often used in German to describe a moment in the future that you believe will be somehow decisive or crucial.
They wanted to stage the march under a motto that roughly translates as “United we stand — defend autonomous antifascists, in spite of all this.”
Leipzig city authorities and two courts in the city ruled that Saturday’s demonstration should not go ahead, saying that advanced online appeals calling on people to protest either showed a tendency towards violent acts or sometimes even included explicit calls for violence.
Lina E. hails from Leipzig, one of the three German cities — along with Berlin and Hamburg — that law enforcement often cite as the hotspots for radical left-wing activism
“Leipzig’s Higher Administrative Court is also of the conviction, that the city of Leipzig plausibly predicted that the protests could turn violent and therefore pose a threat to the broader public,” Leipzig’s Higher Administrative court said late on Friday when upholding the first court decision finding that the march should not be allowed.
The German Constitutional Court, meanwhile, said on Saturday that it would not hear a last-gasp emergency injunction on the issue, meaning the protesters had exhausted their legal avenues.
It was 55 years ago today that Andy Warhol was shot in New York City by Valerie Solanas.
The notorious event was memorialized in the 1996 film “I Shot Andy Warhol.”
In 2019 The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art had a retrospective of Andy Warhol’s massive works of art. My daughter Atlanta and I attended the Members Only preview. I took a number of photos. Four years after viewing the exhibit I am putting up a representative sampling of my photographic memories.
Atlanta studies Warhol’s famous Campbell Soup work
Jackie Kennedy. Top photo. Just prior to the assassination of President Kennedy and immediately after – 11.22.1963
Richard Nixon
Andy Warhol: Mao, 1972. Acrylic, silkscreen ink, and graphite on linen, 14 feet 8 1⁄2 inches x 11 feet 4 1 ⁄2 inches.
Marlon Brando – The Wild One
Elvis Presley
Attendees at the MOMA Members only preview – 5.17.2019
The Exploding Plastic Inevitable – live – ANDY WARHOL. THE VELVET UNDERGROUNDand NICO – circa 1967
Femme Fatale – NIco – Velvet Underground (1967)
Museum of Modern Art – San Francisco – May 17, 2019
I woke this morning to read that Chesa Boudin, who was recalled a year ago in a vicious political coup d’etat funded with 9M in MAGA money is back.
Chesa now has a forum at the prestigious University of California School of Law where he can advocate for true Progressive Justice reform. Unencumbered by swamp dwelling thinly veiled fascists who promote law and order in the name of public safety.
Interviewed in the The New York Times, Chesa was unsparing in his comments about the State of criminal justice and his unvarnished thoughts about the person who worked to destroy him and was awarded with his job as San Francisco District Attorney.
Chesa Boudin campaigning during the Recall election – May 2022
“I absolutely do not agree with scapegoating or attacking immigrants for what are clearly deep-rooted structural inequities and a public health crisis,” Boudin said. “It has never worked, and it’s often been a red flag for fascism. Scapegoating immigrants is not who we are in San Francisco, and it will not make us safer.”
Concerning the fatal shooting of Banko Brown by a security guard at a downtown drugstore last month, Boudin had sharp words for his successor, Brooke Jenkins, who declined to file charges in the case. Her handling of the case sparked protests, especially over her public statements early in the investigation that the case appeared to be one of self-defense.
“Any experienced prosecutor knows, and Jenkins should have known perfectly well, that you don’t come out while a case is still under investigation, at least allegedly, and make the defense’s case for them,” he said.
Top photo – Chesa Boudin with family and friends on the night of his ouster – June 7, 2022
DA Chesa Boudin in San Francisco Superior Court 
Lee's Perspective 