Lee Heidhues 3.25.2022

Chris Hedges is one of the most outspoken and honest journalists in the United States.

His book “War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” is a primer on how nation states rally the population in time of conflict. Chris Hedges, even though he is a Pultizer Prize winning journalist who spent 15 years with The New York Times, is never interviewed on the Mainstream Media. His voice is effectively silenced.

A good friend provided me with an essay he published this week, “The Lie of American Innnocence.” I am attaching some excerpts along with a link to the entire article. It is sobering reading.

Chris Hedges – excerpted from Consortium News 3.22.2022

The branding of Vladimir Putin as a war criminal by Joe Biden, who lobbied for the Iraq war and staunchly supported the 20 years of carnage in the Middle East, is one more example of the hypocritical moral posturing sweeping across the United States.

But, like Putin’s Russia, those who expose these crimes are silenced and persecuted. Julian Assange, even though he is not a U.S. citizen and his WikiLeaks site is not a U.S.-based publication, is charged under the U.S. Espionage Act for making public numerous U.S. war crimes. Assange, currently housed in a high security prison in London, is fighting a losing battle in the British courts to block his extradition to the United States, where he faces 175 years in prison.

If we demand justice for Ukrainians, as we should, we must also demand justice for the one million people killed — 400,000 of whom were noncombatants — by our invasions, occupations and aerial assaults in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan. We must demand justice for those who were wounded, became sick or died because we destroyed hospitals and infrastructure.

We must demand justice for the thousands of soldiers and marines who were killed, and many more who were wounded and are living with lifelong disabilities, in wars launched and sustained on lies.

Civilians in every war since have been considered legitimate targets. In the summer of 1965, then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara called the bombing raids north of Saigon that left hundreds of thousands of dead an effective means of communication with the government in Hanoi.

McNamara, six years before he died, unlike most war criminals, had the capacity for self-reflection. Interviewed in the documentary, “The Fog of War,” he was repentant, not only about targeting Vietnamese civilians but about the aerial targeting of civilians in Japan in World War II, overseen by Air Force General Curtis LeMay.

“LeMay said if we’d lost the war, we’d all have been prosecuted as war criminals,” McNamara said in the film. “And I think he’s right … LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost. But what makes it immoral if you lose, and not immoral if you win?”

Chris Hedges The Lie of American Innocence 3.22.2022

Lee Heidhues 3.23.2022

Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is a blatant repulsive Southern demagogue. It’s regrettable the Mainstream Media does not call out this foul creature for what he really is. A swamp dwelling Racist.

He race baited his Black opponent during the 2020 election campaign. He is continuing this reprehensible style, which fits right in with Republican Party thinking, as he browbeats and tries to dominate Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Excerpted from New York Magazine 3.23.2022

Unlike some of his posturing colleagues, Lindsey Graham is on no one’s short or long list for president in 2024.

So if Graham doesn’t harbor presidential ambitions anymore, and he isn’t facing an election any time soon (he was reelected in 2020), why is he so out of control at the Jackson hearings? Maybe it’s just who he is.

Republicans participating in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson can mostly be sorted into two groups. Some are being fairly civil and more or less relevant in their questioning, pausing frequently to congratulate themselves for behaving better than Democrats did during Brett Kavanaugh’s hearings (which involved serious sexual-assault allegations). But some Republican senators aren’t behaving well at all, and their outbursts often have little to do with Jackson.

But none of these senators can match South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham in terms of heated, out-of-control expostulations. Maybe the fact that he brought up Kavanaugh at least three times is unsurprising since Graham was the face of Republican fury over the allegations against Kavanaugh when they arose in 2018.

But if possible, Graham is even angrier now. At one point on day three of Jackson’s hearings, Graham badgered the judge, demanding that she say how she’d feel if the Judiciary Committee confronted her with an “ambush” like the one that he claimed Kavanaugh had faced.

This wasn’t a lone, retroactive burst of petulance. In his first round of questions a day earlier, Graham got increasingly heated about policies that allowed the release of prisoners from Guantánamo Bay (which was only tangentially related to a long-ago case in which Jackson represented prisoners) and stalked out of the room when his tirade ended.

His 2016 campaign crashed and burned before voters even voted (the day before he suspended his campaign in December 2015, RealClearPolitics showed him with a polling average of 0.5 percent of GOP voters supporting his candidacy). 

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/03/lindsey-graham-behave-supreme-court-hearings.html

Lee Heidhues 3.21.2022

Supervisor Connie Chan, faux Progressive, is the most vocal foe of car free areas on JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park and along The Great Walkway adjacent to the Pacific Ocean.

A review of filing with the San Francisco Ethics Commission makes it clear that Connie has met regularly with lobbyists who oppose the car free designation.

Supervisor  Chan has met with Platinum Advisors, lobbyist for the Fine Arts Museum San Francisco (FAMSF), nine times since taking office less than 15 months ago.

The first meeting took place on March 10, 2021 shortly before supporters for a car free JFK Drive held their first rally in Golden Gate Park.

The most recent meeting took place on February 17, 2022.  At that time the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission and the Metropolitan Transit Authority were meeting to approve JFK Drive as a permanent car free zone.

Supervisor Chan met with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition seven times during 2021.  The last meeting was on December 9, 2021, over three months ago. 

She did not meet with them while this issue was being debated before City agencies.

Since assuming office in January 2021 representing the City’s Richmond District Connie Chan has met with registered lobbyists 55 times.  A list which includes 24 organizations. A review of the San Francisco Ethics Commission site makes it obvious Supervisor Chan has sat down with lobbyists far more than any of her 10 fellow Supervisors.

Connie Chan ran as a Progressive in 2020 vowing to protect the environment and signed her campaign mailers, “In Solidarity.”  The list of organizations with whom she has met hardly fit the “Progressive” description.

Amongst the lobbyists she has met the list includes such organizations as:

University of San Francisco – 6 times

San Francisco Travel Association – 5 times

Teamsters Union – 4 times

The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce – 3 times

The list includes other organizations. The most interesting is Hines. While Hines is not a household name it is huge. It is an 83.6BN multi-national which owns 101 California Street. It owns and manages companies worldwide. Hines lobbyist met with Supervisor Chan to discuss a project at 550 Howard Street.

Attached is a list from the San Francisco Ethics Commission of Supervisor Chan’s lobbying contacts along with a link to the Ethics Commission website.

Connie Chan Lobbyist meetings 3.21.2022

https://sfethics.org/

 

 

Lee Heidhues 3.18.2022

The past several weeks our block in the Outer Richmond District has been the focus of attention. Crews from the Department of Public Works and PG&E surveyed and marked a corroded lateral sewer line on our street.

When the preparatory work was complete a crew from DPW came out to do the heavy lifting of digging up the street and replacing the corroded pipe. Having a close vantage point I kept a photo journal of the project.

Following is a photo essay. of the City at work.

The DPW workers were very conscientious and tidied up the job site each day.

Department of Public Works marking the work site 1.28.2022

Photos – Lee Heidhues (except as noted)

Lee Heidhues 3.17.2022

San Francisco Standard 3.17.2022

Supervisor Connie Chan will advocate for a “compromise” on JFK Drive to balance access concerns with safety in Golden Gate Park and expects she has enough colleagues on her side to reach a compromise with Mayor London Breed.

“I’m cautiously optimistic that we will come to a compromise,” Chan said in an exclusive interview with The Standard. “When? I don’t know.”

Since Mayor London Breed introduced legislation to keep JFK Drive car-free, it’s now on the Board of Supervisors to decide the fate of the road. At the center of the debate is Chan, who represents San Francisco’s District 1, which encompasses the park. With several supervisors looking to Chan for guidance on how to vote, she is hopeful that she has the support to pass significant amendments to the current proposal.

Breed’s proposal would keep JFK Drive closed to cars permanently while committing to key improvements to the park, like added bike and bus transit options within the park and more Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant parking spaces.

The Standard sat down with Chan to learn the specifics of her alternative plan.

“I’m patient, but I think that the community feels like they can no longer wait for this to be resolved,” Chan said. “There are people who have felt like they’ve been kept out of the space.”
https://sfstandard.com/transportation/exclusive-connie-chan-says-shes-cautiously-optimistic-on-jfk-drive-compromise-with-the-mayor/

Lee Heidhues 3.16.2022

Putin’s Russian state apparatus is exercising the most draconian measures against its own citizens who have the courage to speak out against the War Crimes being committed in Ukraine. Fines and jail await those Russians of any age who speak out.

Three weeks into Putin’s assault on Ukraine and after thousands of arrests, Russian citizens are still taking to the streets in opposition to Putin’s inhumanity.

The only way Putin’s carnage against an independent nation will end is when the citizen’s of Russia bring this madness to a halt.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 3.16.2022

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine about three weeks ago, the police forces in Moscow and other cities have been cracking down on anti-war protests.

The Kremlin has restricted Russian citizens’ access to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, to prevent the reports and images of war from reaching them. Media are banned from using the terms “Invasion” or “war” to describe what Putin is doing in Ukraine. Instead, they have been ordered to refer to it as a “special military operation.”

Regardless of these measures, thousands of anti-war protesters have rallied across Russia since the war started, risking consequences such as fines, detention, and imprisonment.

On March 4, the government implemented a set of rules that criminalizes anti-war protests, and independent reporting on the war. According to Human Rights Watch, the laws make it illegal to spread “fake news” about the Russian armed forces, to call for an end to their deployment. Those who disobey can face up to 15 years in prison.

But as the authorities’ tolerance for demonstrations and rallies shrinks, activists continue to protests against the war in Ukraine, in various forms.

“No to war” on TV screens

Marina Ovsyannikova, an employee of a Russian state TV station,  interrupted a live news program on Monday, chanting “Stop the war!” She held up a cardboard sign that featured the Russian and Ukrainian flags, shouted “Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you.” Seconds later, the program was cut off.

In a video, recorded before her protest, Ovsyannikova urged Russians to join protests against the war and expressed regret for her part in spreading “Kremlin propaganda.”

“Russia is the aggressor country and one person, Vladimir Putin, solely bears responsibility for that aggression,” she said in the prerecorded video.

Ovsyannikova was arrested minutes after she stormed into the studio. She was released from custody on Tuesday and fined about 30,000 rubles (around $270). But she still awaits her trial, where she could receive a prison sentence.

A video went viral on social media last week, showing a woman being arrested by the Russian police for holding up a small piece of paper that reads “two words.”

The phrase “two words” (“два слова” in Russian) seems to hint at the forbidden slogan “no to war” (or “нет войне” in Russian).

https://www.dw.com/en/viral-protests-russians-continue-to-denounce-war-risking-imprisonment/a-61143188

Lee Heidhues 3.15.2022

It took a lot of guts for Russian state TV employee Marina Ovsyannikova to parade in front of a live TV camera on Russia’s biggest broadcast network and hold up her anti-Ukraine war sign. This is the kind of dissent which Thug Putin is trying to eliminate in his increasingly totalitarian State. This is the 21st century and people’s voices will be heard.

Moscow Times 3.15.2022

A Russian editor who protested against Moscow’s military action in Ukraine during a prime-time news broadcast on state TV was released with a fine on Tuesday after a court hearing.

A judge at Moscow’s Ostankino district court ordered state TV employee Marina Ovsyannikova to pay a fine of 30,000 rubles ($280) after she barged onto the set of Russia’s most-watched evening news broadcast holding a poster reading “No War”.

She also expressed regret over her work for state television, saying: “I’m ashamed that I allowed lies to be spoken from the TV screen. I’m ashamed I allowed Russian people to be zombified.”

The mother of two could have faced a maximum punishment of 10 days in detention for calling for illegal protests.

The charge was based not specifically on her interruption of the news broadcast, but on a video statement she released explaining the reasons for her protest and urging Russians to take part in anti-war demonstrations.

Ovsyannikova pleaded not guilty in court, saying: “I am still convinced that Russia is committing a crime”.

“These are very difficult days in my life,” she told reporters after the court ruling.

“I’ve spent two days literally without sleep.”

She said she had been questioned for more than 14 hours.

One of Ovsyannikova’s lawyers, Daniil Berman, told AFP earlier Tuesday that she also risked criminal charges with a penalty of up to 15 years in jail under new laws against “fake news” on the Russian military, introduced after President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine on February 24.

In her video statement, Ovsyannikova said her father is Ukrainian and her mother is Russian and she does not see the countries as enemies.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/03/15/russia-has-launched-exit-procedure-from-council-of-europe-a76944

Lee Heidhues 3.14.2022

The Oped in Sunday’s Examiner says it all. “His (Boudin) narrow victory upset a local political establishment with cliquish manners and a long memory.” THAT SENTENCE nails it. London Breed will not forget that Chesa beat her pick for DA.

Hope San Francisco Mayor London Breed enjoys her 10 days in Europe. Typical American tourist itinerary.

Moving right along. 

Looking at the local morning paper’s piece about the Mayor’s 10 day junket to London, Paris, Frankfurt and Rome to drum up tourism for San Francisco I was struck by the fact that some folks are bringing up the upcoming DA Recall vote into the conversation. 

The pitchfork crowd which has been calling for the DA’s head since the day he assumed office on January 8, 2020 can’t resist taking a shot even when the Mayor’s foreign trip is the topic.

However there were some surprising comments amongst the ususal anti-DA blather.

I appreciate the fact that FINALLY some folks in The San Francisco Chronicle  ‘Conversation’ are waking up to the harsh reality of what the DA Recall is all about.

It’s obvious to many people that SFPD has made a conscious decision to step back and not pursue perps.. Why? The cops want Chesa out by any means necessary. This is a craven insidious dangerous political strategy which the MSM has blithely ignored as it climbed in bed with the POA. This treachery will not go unanswered.

Excerpted from San Francisco Examiner – Gil Duran – 3.13.2022

With the school board recall out of the way, San Francisco voters face yet another consequential decision: Whether to boot District Attorney Chesa Boudin from office in June. If I had to bet, I’d put my money on Boudin getting recalled.

It will have little to do with his policy decisions. After all, Boudin’s doing what he said he would do when voters elected the former public defender as their chief prosecutor, making him one of those rare politicians who follows through on promises. No, Boudin will likely pay because he’s an inexperienced outsider politician — and because he makes a perfect scapegoat for our collective dissatisfaction with life in the 21st century.

Scapegoating is an ancient practice that’s even mentioned in the Old Testament. The word comes from the crude ritual of projecting all blame or sin onto a goat, then banishing the creature into the wilderness. I see a similar thing happening with Boudin.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/scapegoat

“Chesa Boudin is the scapegoat in The City for anything that happens that isn’t positive,” Supervisor Hillary Ronen told the San Francisco Chronicle last month.

I support holding politicians accountable, and I believe that people who depend on public approval for their jobs tend to get what’s coming to them. But the local outbreak of what some call “Chesa Boudin Derangement Syndrome” is on another level.

It’s absurd because one relatively green politician who’s only held office for two years cannot logically bear responsibility for decades of societal failure. Addiction, crime and poverty existed here 150 years before Boudin’s ascension and will persist after he fades into history.

In today’s San Francisco, however, everything seems to be the fault of Boudin. That’s because Boudin is more than a public official. He’s a symbol. Born to parents with infamous Weather Underground roots, educated at elite universities, he’s a bit like radical royalty. This pedigree might normally help him in a progressive city, but he’s an outsider here. His narrow victory upset a local political establishment with cliquish manners and a long memory. He benefited from The City’s convoluted ranked-choice voting process, beating the mayor’s hand-picked favorite, Suzy Loftus, by just over one point.

His close win signaled a key victory for the national movement to elect more progressive DAs, but timing is everything. The COVID pandemic, a national spike in violent crime and surging drug overdose deaths all provide his opponents with plentiful fodder to use against him. He also earned the ruthless scorn of the police union when he righteously decided to uphold his pledge to prosecute police brutality.

Of course, the police union also despised his predecessors.

Opinion: ‘Chesa Boudin Derangement Syndrome’ grips S.F. politics

Lee Heidhues 3.13.2022

There are no innocent bystanders in Thug War Criminal Putin’s brutal assault on the independent nation Ukraine.  In Vladimir Putin’s warped mind journalists are a lethal target whether at home or on the battlefield in Ukraine.

The latest casualty of war in Thug Putin’s unbridled aggression is American documentary film maker Brent Renaud. He was 50 years old.

Reporters take incredible risks traveling into war zones. Journalists are armed only with their writing tools and cameras. In the eyes of combatants journalists are not seen as truth seekers. Journalists are seen as troublemakers who will expose the horrors and inhumanity of ware.

Brent Renaud paid the ultimate price for his truth seeking. May he Rest in Peace.

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

BBC 3.13.2022

A US journalist working in Ukraine has been shot dead in the town of Irpin, outside Kyiv, police say. Brent Renaud, 50, was a journalist and filmmaker who was working in the region for Time.

Lee Heidhues 3.12.2022

It was  surreal and dystopian. I attended the event in the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park as Putin’s criminal war wages on against Ukraine. 

Music, poetry, speeches, costumes, Ukraine flags flying. Folks are chowing down at the nearby food trucks, visiting the Japanese Tea Garden, the DeYoung Museum, Steinhart Aquarium.  Enjoying themselves while thousands of miles away Thug War Criminal Putin continues to destroy Ukraine.

Perhaps this is why I feel so stressed and exhausted.  It seems like the whole World is just going to let this happen. If the World stands by and allows this monster to destroy Ukraine the monster won’t be satisfied. Thug Putin will keep pushing and pushing.

If countries supporting Ukraine participate militarily the entire Planet may be at risk. If these countries do nothing Thug Putin will destroy an independent nation. 

That is why I am perplexed that in San Francisco there is a Summer of Love type event with people literally wearing blue and yellow flowers in their hair.

Where’s the fear and outrage?

The photo montage shows the surreal and dystopian disconnect between the face of war and the peaceful event in San Francisco.

 

Golden Gate Park photos – Lee Heidhues