Lee Heidhues 10.3.2022

Quote of the Day – 10.2.2022

It is great that little girls now have role models so they, too, can grow up to be crazed world leaders — Arwa Mahdawi

Thanks to Zoe Kelman on Twitter – San Francisco

And, hey “Progressive” San Francisco.  

Don’t forget our ethically compromised role models.  Interim District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and her equally compromised benefactor, Mayor London Breed.

Arcelia Hurtado is a former Assistant District Attorney fired by Jenkins. She  argued earlier that London Breed’s brother, currently serving a 44 year prison sentence for murder, should have his sentence modified. A modification which ousted DA Chesa Boudin approved.

Nonetheless, Breed wants Breed’s brother to remain in prison.

“The mayor’s appointed DA is desperate to make the public believe that she is not a mayoral puppet,” Hurtado said.

Brooke Jenkins crosses her benefactor.

Throws London Breed’s brother to Wolves for political expediency.

The worm turns for Breed.

The Man she drove from office argued to have Breed’s brother’s sentence modified. Jenkins will do anything and throw anyone under the bus to achieve her goals.

Innocent defendants. Chesa Boudin. London Breed. San Francisco’s law and order mob got what it deserved. A totally corrupt, compromised, cunning crook as DA.

Excerpted from The Guardian 10.2.2022

What a fine few weeks for feminism it has been!

First Liz Truss became Britain’s third female prime minister and now Giorgia Meloni is expected to be Italy’s first ever female prime minister.

The former is a deeply unserious person who used to be most famous for a viral rant about cheese before gaining global recognition for helping to crash Britain’s economy in record time.

The latter is the most right-wing Italian leader since 1945: a bigot with a history of homophobic, anti-immigrant and anti-choice views who represents a post-fascist party and hasn’t definitively distanced herself from fascism.

Scrap all those inconvenient facts, though. It’s not their policies or their moral compasses that matter: the most important thing about Truss and Meloni is that they are women. Sisters are doing it for themselves, and all that. (“It” being far-right politics and crashing the economy.)

Like it or not, representation matters: you can’t be what you can’t see. I might not agree with Truss and Meloni’s policies but I can put my lefty political leanings aside for a moment and admit that they are both inspirational trailblazers.

Little girls can finally grow up secure in the knowledge that they have what it takes to help drive the pound to record lows. They can go to sleep at night knowing that authoritarianism isn’t just for the boys. That’s progress, isn’t it? That’s worth celebrating, right?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/27/it-is-great-that-little-girls-now-have-role-models-so-they-too-can-grow-up-to-be-crazed-world-leaders?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Top photo – Italy’s new leader. Far right politico Giorgia Meloni

Lee Heidhues 10.2.2022

They say the Pen is mightier than the Sword.

Liz Heidhues latest cartoon with the caption – “Sure I reaped Fat Bounty ramming SF public safety into Dirty Politics iceberg… 153K for my crass ambition .. Crony appointment to be Puppet DA.”

The political cartoon can be mightier than the written word.

Liz Heidhues political cartoons characterizing the State of Play in San Francisco offer a stinging Indictment of the corruption which seeps from every pore of City Hall.

Liz in a way better than words can convey is illustrating The Corrupt Police State of San Francisco.

Mayor Breed with her Cronies. Puppet DA Brooke Jenkins, appointed Supervisor Matt Dorsey and wannabe DA and failed Police Commission appointee Nancy Tung. Now top assistant to Puppet DA – September 2022

Lee Heidhues 10.1.2022

Several thousand people took to the streets of San Francisco to protest the murder by “morality police” in Iran of a 22 year old woman.

What was her alleged offense? Mahsa Amini refused to wear her hijab properly.

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

It’s positively frightening to realize there are still countries where women are still treated as second class citizens. And are denied basic human rights.

The same can be now said of America where the “morality police”, aka the Supreme Court and Republican legislators, have denied American women the right to choose what to do with their bodies.

Excerpted from The Standard 10,.1.2022

A grassroots organization rallied upwards of 5,000 people to the streets of San Francisco on Saturday to call for justice for Mahsa Amini and freedom in Iran.

The rally was organized by the same group of SF Bay Area Iranian American community leaders that organized a human chain across the Golden Gate Bridge on Sept. 25.

“What’s happening in Iran is the fight towards freedom for all. What you’re witnessing is the biggest movement in the world calling for women’s rights and feminism,” says Farnaz Dadashi, 31, one of the volunteer organizers for the event. 

Amini was a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who was detained by Iran’s so-called “morality police” for allegedly failing to wear her hijab properly. Witnesses say she was beaten while in custody though the police say she experienced heart failure. Amini slipped into a coma and died three days later.

The “Freedom Rally for Iran” crowd repeatedly chanted “Mahsa Amini!” as they marched from Union Square to the steps of City Hall.

Amini’s death has launched protests in Iran and around the world calling for human rights and an end to the country’s dictatorship led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

https://sfstandard.com/community/freedom-rally-for-iran-san-francisco-mahsa-amini/

Photos of San Francisco march by Chris Victoria – The Standard

Lee Heidhues 9.28.2022

Putting it bluntly the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco campaign to destroy JFK Promenade is one of the most disgraceful brazen political efforts in a City in which conniving, bribery, back room deals and cronyism is the coin of the realm.

To date over $750,000 has been reported to the SF Ethics Commission in the attempt to destroy JFK Promenade. Most of it coming from people for whom money is no object when it comes to achieving their goal.  Destruction of a car free sanctuary in Golden Gate Park.

In San Francisco the wealthy benefactors of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, realizing their scorched earth attempt to destroy JFK Promenade is failing, is throwing its own employees into the battle.

The latest disclosure to the Ethics Commission shows  a report of $13,600 listed as

NON-MONETARY CONTRIBUTION OF STAFF TIME

Lets hypothesize and say the FAMSF is paying each employee $100 hourly for her/his work to destroy JFK Promenade. That would translate into well over 100 hours of time in the employ of this environmental destruction derby by the wealthiest connected in San Francisco.

I think there is a better use of these employees time than trying to defeat Proposition J on November 8.

Like making the De Young Museum a welcoming place for its visitors.

Lee Heidhues 9.27.2022

The “Resignation” letter uproar rolls along.

Still, what The Chronicle continues to ignore is how this story began. See attached.

https://leesperspective.com/2022/09/23/she-breed-would-need-my-help-to-change-leadership-at-the-police-dept/

Interesting.

The Standard published The City Attorney Memo re “Resignation” letters. There’s a bit of History here. In 2003 Willie Brown was Da Mayor (In an earlier gig Breed babysat for his kids).

FINAL_Enforceability-of-Letters-of-Resignation

Anyway, in 2003 Prop H was approved by the Voters. Until then The Mayor appointed ALL Police Commissioners. He/she could fire them at Will.

Prop H passed. Now the appointments are split 4/3 between the Mayor and the Supes.

The only way a Mayor can fire an incumbent Police Commissioner is with a Vote by the Board of Supervisors. I gotta believe Prop H was put on the Ballot as a reaction to Willie’s way of governance. Breed is just following her mentor’s path.

Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 9.27.2022

The San Francisco city attorney said Tuesday that commissioners should not be asked to sign undated letters of resignation, after revelations that Mayor London required the controversial practice of several appointees.

While the policy memo said the city’s charter doesn’t ban the practice, it’s “inconsistent with the purposes underlying the Charter’s removal provisions and could threaten the independence of appointed officials from undue influence by the Mayor, the Board, and other appointing authorities.”

The memo said that appointing authorities “should not require resignation letters before or as a condition of appointment.”

Critics jumped on the unsigned letters, first reported by the San Francisco Standard , arguing it showed inappropriate political micromanaging, causing Breed to reverse the policy Sunday. The mayor had asked one of her appointees to the police commission, Max Carter-Oberstone, to sign such a letter, with critics suggesting the letter could be used to oust him if he strayed from her policies. Breed’s office denies that insinuation, arguing it would have only be used if someone abandoned their duties or committed corruption.

Carter-Oberstone and Breed recently clashed over the commission’s choice of a new president.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Second-S-F-police-commissioner-said-she-signed-17470249.php

Lee Heidhues 9.26.2022

It’s easy today to condemn Edward Snowden for abdicating his American citizenship and becoming a Russian citizen.

Do I applaud his Decision?  NO.  Do I understand why he made it?  YES.

People have forgotten how it came to this point. Snowden, the one time National Security Agency (NSA) computer intelligence consultant, in 2013 leaked highly classified information exposing global surveillance programs of the American government.

Edward Snowden faced the prospect of spending the rest of his life in an American prison. Had Snowden gone to most any other nation the American government would have sought his immediate extradition.  Like Julian Assange, now incarcerated in a British prison and awaiting possible extradition, Edward Snowden faced a similar fate.

Snowden will now have to live with his Decision to become a citizen of Putin’s Russia.

Excerpted from The Guardian 9.26.2022

Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday granting Russian citizenship to the US whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Snowden, 39, a former US intelligence contractor, has been living in Russia since 2013 to escape prosecution in the US after leaking secret files, published by the Guardian, that revealed vast domestic and international surveillance operations carried out by the US National Security Agency.

In 2020, Snowden said that he and his then-pregnant wife were applying for Russian citizenship in order not to be separated from their future son in an era of pandemics and closed borders. Russia granted him permanent residency rights the same year, paving the way for him to obtain Russian citizenship.

The whistleblower largely keeps a low profile while living in Russia, occasionally posting photographs of his family in Moscow. He has said in 2019 that he was willing to return to the US if he’s guaranteed a fair trial.

Snowden, who has previously criticised Kremlin’s human rights record, has not commented in public about the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Prior to the war, he repeatedly voiced doubts that Russia would start a war, blaming the media for “pushing” the conflict.

“I’ve just lost any confidence I had that sharing my thinking on this particular topic continues to be useful because I called it wrong,” Snowden wrote on Twitter on 27 February, three days after Russia sent its troops to Ukraine.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/26/putin-grants-russian-citizenship-to-us-whistleblower-edward-snowden

Wikipedia article on Edward Snowden

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

 

Lee Heidhues 9.25.2022

Our lives are inextricably tied to The Pink Floyd.

Living in Europe Liz and I saw The Pink Floyd in Saarbrucken, Germany in November 1970 and a few months later in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.  Eventually returning to San Francisco we saw the group at Winterland.  

Our music collection contains most of the group’s LPs and CDs.

Roger Waters may be a controversial figure in 2022 with his views about Ukraine, The Israelis, Facebook and his environmental advocacy.

In our minds Roger Waters will always and forever be the stand out musician of Pink Floyd and beyond.

Attached to this Post is the 23 minute piece Echoes from The Pink Floyd 1971 LP Meddle.

“So it’s a missive from Mark Zuckerberg to me… with an offer of a huge, huge amount of money and the answer is, ‘Fuck you! No fucking way!”

The musician explained his opposition to Zuckerberg and Facebook.

Deustche Welle 9.25.2022

Concerts by Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters have been canceled by a venue in the Polish city of Krakow, organizers said on Sunday after the artist’s comments on the war in Ukraine sparked a storm of criticism. “Live Nation Polska and Tauron Arena Krakow have canceled Roger Waters’ concert,” organizers said in a statement on the venue’s website. However, they did not elaborate on the reason for the cancellation.

In a social media post, Waters denied that he or his management had canceled the concerts and criticized Krakow councillor Lukasz Wantuch, accusing him of “draconian censoring of my work.”

On Saturday, state news agency PAP reported that a spokesman for Tauron Arena said Waters’ management had canceled the concert without giving a reason.

‘Persona not grata’ in Krakow

The Krakow city council is scheduled to debate a motion on Wednesday that would declare Waters “persona non grata.” One of the councillors, Lukasz Wantuch, had urged city residents to boycott the Waters concerts.

“Roger Waters, an open supporter of Putin, wants to play in Krakow … It would be shameful for our city,” Wantuch said earlier on social media. “Let him sing in Moscow.”

Waters says he only wants ‘negotiated peace’

“Lukasz Wantuch seems to know nothing of my history of working, all my life, at some personal cost, in the service of human rights,” Waters said.

Paraphrasing the words of his hit single “Another Brick in the Wall”, Waters also wrote: “Hey! Lukasz Wantuch! ‘Leave them Kids Alone!'”.

He said he had only wanted to urge the countries involved “to work towards a negotiated peace rather than escalate matters towards a bitter end.”

Wantuch said in a Facebook post on Sunday morning that he was in Ukraine and would respond to Waters’ statement in the evening.

https://www.dw.com/en/roger-waters-concerts-canceled-in-poland-because-of-his-ukraine-comments/a-63232688

Top photo – Pink Floyd group photo from LP Meddle – 1971

L-R:  Roger Waters, Nick Mason, David Gilmour, Rick Wright

Lee Heidhues 9.24.2022

This is sad.

 I worked in the neighborhood for 10 years where the Double Play is located. First at an import company, which now houses the San Francisco animal shelter, and later at the Best Foods Mayonnaise production plant at Bryant and Mariposa streets.

Down the street from the Double Play was the Oroweat Bakery store which I shopped at regularly.

Back then it was a working class neighborhood  with rail cars and big rigs delivering and picking up at both the import company and the mayonnaise factory.

Those days are long gone but the Double Play remained. Until today.

The San Francisco Chronicle 9.24.2022

The Double Play Bar & Grill, a beloved watering hole in San Francisco’s Mission District that first opened in 1909, was destroyed by a fire Saturday morning.

Jonathan Baxter, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Fire Department, said the blaze at the landmark establishment on the corner of 16th and Bryant streets started shortly after 5 a.m. Saturday.

The fire resulted in “a total loss” of the three-story building’s ground floor, which housed the Double Play, Baxter said. Video footage from the fire department showed the building’s first floor in flames as firefighters tried to extinguish the fire.

No one was hurt or displaced in the incident, Baxter said, and firefighters put out the blaze before it could spread to the apartments in the building’s two upper floors or adjacent buildings. A photo shared by San Francisco Fire Fighters Local 798 showed the fire caused exterior damage to at least two apartment units on the second floor.

Firefighters are investigating the fire’s cause.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/A-total-loss-Fire-destroys-S-F-Mission-17465003.php