A smiling Green leader Annalena Baerbock knows she is in a good place. Her party finished third in the recent German elections, won 118 seats in the Bundestag and will be part of the governing coalition in Berlin. 

This is new territory for the Greens who started out as a fringe environmental party nearly 40 years ago. They’ve come a long way and now are reaping the reward for their political hard work.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 10.7.2021

In Germany, the political pendulum has swung toward a “traffic light coalition” — named for the colors of the parties involved: red for the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), yellow for the FDP, and green for the environmentalist Greens.

But there are fundamental differences in the parties’ platforms. The FDP is against the SPD and Greens’ plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest to deal with the pandemic and the resulting national debt. At first glance, the liberals appear also at odds with their climate policy, which envisions a stronger government hand. The FDP wants market-driven solutions to the climate crisis.

It’s on EU, foreign and security policy that the three parties seem to be most aligned.

The potential coalition members agree on maintaining a strong partnership with the United States and NATO, including when it comes to confronting China, Russia and Iran. Differences remain over certain points, such as the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline between Russia and Germany.

Just how viable the three-way coalition could be is what the parties want to clarify from the start of their exploratory talks together.

FDP leader Christian Lindner has expressed the most skepticism and made it no secret that his party is more naturally aligned with the conservatives. However, he has said he is open to the possibility of a traffic light coalition. In pre-exploratory talks with the Greens, he seems to have made peace with his opponents, which he has long considered a “prohibition party.”

Talks have moved from bilateral to trilateral, bringing the SPD — and chancellor hopeful Olaf Scholz — on board. All eyes, including abroad, are on the struggle to put together Germany’s first government without Merkel for the first time in nearly 16 years.

“From the perspective of European partners, Scholz presents a certain amount of continuity for the post-Merkel era and, with it, stability and reliability,” Antonios Souris, a political scientist at Berlin’s Free University, told DW.

Given the parties’ pro-EU bent, Souris said, any modernization program for Germany could have a ripple effect across Europe.

Exploratory talks are just the first step toward negotiations. But there is precedent for a traffic light coalition at the state level, something Lindner’s party colleague, Volker Wissing, knows well. Until May, he was the economy minister for the western German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

The traffic light arrangement there has worked so well under the leadership of the SPD’s Malu Dreyer, that it was continued following state elections earlier this year. Wissing’s experience in a traffic light, and his involvement now in negotiations at the federal level, could give talks a boost of confidence, Souris said.

Dreyer sees herself as a moderator within a governing team, Souris said, which possibly sets a good example for the federal level. “Olaf Scholz will follow her style quite closely,” he said.

The history of the traffic light is not positive everywhere. The city-state of Bremen, in northern Germany, had the first-ever such coalition — in 1991. The alliance broke down over a disagreement between the FDP and Greens regarding conservation efforts vs industrial development.

So far, the conditions seem right for the three to find a way to work together. However, differences remain, which could lead to a “very thick coalition agreement with many details spelled out,” he added.

 

 

 

Singapore is a world  leader in Orwellian surveillance.

If there is a Top Ten for State Instrusion in Private Behavior, Singapore would rank near the top of the list.

Excerpted from The Guardian 10.6.2021

“There are no privacy law constraints on what the government can or cannot do,” said Indulekshmi Rajeswari, a privacy lawyer from Singapore who is now based in Germany.

Singapore has trialled patrol robots that blast warnings at people engaging in “undesirable social behaviour”, adding to an arsenal of surveillance technology in the tightly controlled city-state that is fuelling privacy concerns.

From vast numbers of CCTV cameras to trials of lampposts kitted out with facial recognition tech, Singapore is seeing an explosion of tools to track its inhabitants.

That includes a three-week trial in September, in which two robots were deployed to patrol a housing estate and a shopping centre.

Officials have long pushed a vision of a hyper-efficient, tech-driven “smart nation”, but activists say privacy is being sacrificed and people have little control over what happens to their data.

 

Singapore is frequently criticised for curbing civil liberties and people are accustomed to tight controls, but there is still growing unease at intrusive tech.

The government’s latest surveillance devices are robots on wheels, with seven cameras, that issue warnings to the public and detect “undesirable social behaviour”.

This includes smoking in prohibited areas, improperly parking bicycles, and breaching coronavirus social-distancing rules.

“Please keep one-metre distancing, please keep to five persons per group,” a robotic voice blared out, as a camera on top of the machine trained its gaze on them.

Frannie Teo, a 34-year-old research assistant, was walking through the mall during the recent robot patrol trial.

“It reminds me of Robocop,” she said.

It brings to mind a “dystopian world of robots … I’m just a bit hesitant about that kind of concept,” she added.

Digital rights activist Lee Yi Ting said the devices were the latest way Singaporeans were being watched.

“It all contributes to the sense people … need to watch what they say and what they do in Singapore to a far greater extent than they would in other countries,” she told Agence France-Presse.

But the government defended its use of robots, saying they were not being used to identify or take action against offenders during the tech’s trial, and were needed to address a labour crunch as the population ages.

“The workforce is actually shrinking,” said Ong Ka Hing, from the government agency that developed the Xavier robots, adding they could help reduce the number of officers needed for foot patrols.

The island of about 5.5 million people has 90,000 police cameras, a number set to double by 2030, and facial recognition tech – which helps authorities pick out faces in a crowd – may be installed on lampposts across the city.

There was a rare public backlash this year when authorities admitted coronavirus contract-tracing data collected by an official system had been accessed by police. The government later passed legislation to limit its use.

But critics say the city-state’s laws generally put few limitations on government surveillance, and Singaporeans have little control over what happens to the data collected.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/06/dystopian-world-singapore-patrol-robots-stoke-fears-of-surveillance-state

Germany’s Nazi era crashed and burned over 80 years ago but the plague of antisemitism still rears its ugly face in the European nation.

Things have changed in at least one positive way. Jewish people and their supporters will react with solidarity when attacked.  That is the only way to fight these abhorrent philosophies. Rise up and strike back.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 10.5.2021

A hotel in the eastern German city of Leipzig was facing accusations of antisemitism on Tuesday after a musician said he was denied service for wearing a Star of David.

The incident  sparked swift condemnation from Germany’s Jewish communities.

“The antisemitic hostility against Gil Ofarim is appalling,” Josef Schuster, the president of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, said in a statement posted on Twitter.

He said he hoped the Westin would take action against those involved and hoped that Jewish people in Germany “will be met with solidarity in the future whenever we are attacked.”

In a video posted on social media, German musician Gil Ofarim said he attempted to check in to the Hotel Westin in Leipzig on Monday evening. Ofarim, who is Jewish, was wearing a necklace with a Star of David pendant.

Due to technical issues with the hotel’s computers, a long line had formed at the reception. Ofarim noticed that others in the line were waved forward, but he was not called up. “What’s going on? Why is everyone else being called up ahead of me?” Ofarim says he asked the worker behind the desk.

The hotel employee then told him they were trying to reduce the line, but did not acknowledge that Ofarim was also standing in line.

“Then someone called out from the corner: ‘Put your star away,'” the singer says.

Ofarim said that the hotel worker then repeated the call for Ofarim to remove or hide his Star of David, saying that “once you put it away, then you can check in.” A visibly upset Ofarim ends the video with the words: “Germany, 2021.”

 

Police ‘informed’ about incident

Leipzig police told DW they were alerted to Ofarim’s video and were currently processing it.

How has the hotel responded?

A spokesperson for the Westin Leipzig told news agency dpa that the hotel was deeply concerned and was taking the case “extremely seriously.”

Ofarim did not name the hotel in his video, but at one point tilted the camera in such a way that it could be identified.

Protesters gather in Leipzig

The incident described in Ofarim’s video prompted a wave of shocked responses on social media. On Tuesday evening, hundreds of protesters in Leipzig gathered in front of the hotel to demonstrate against antisemitism.

At least 600 people were in attendance, according to local newspaper Leipziger Zeitung. Hotel employees also stood near the entrance, holding up a banner in what appeared to be a show of solidarity.

The 39-year-old is the son of Israeli star musician Abi Ofarim.

In 2017, he won “Let’s Dance,” the German version of the celebrity ballroom dancing show Dancing with the Stars or Strictly Come Dancing, and has also acted in several TV shows and done voiceover work for dubbed films.

https://www.dw.com/en/put-your-star-away-jewish-singer-refused-service-at-german-hotel/a-59415284

 

California is a leader in many areas including the protection of endangered species. Despite the fact disgraced President Trump took the gray wolf off the Federal endangered species act, the gray wolf is protected in California.

Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 10.4.2021

“We always knew wolves would come back. This is historic wolf habitat,” said Jordan Traverso, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. “The track record of applying the right protections and management throughout the state has made it a hospitable place for wolves to roam again.”

In 2014, gray wolves were listed as endangered in California, which currently protects them from being hunted even after the Trump administration removed the species’ federal protected status last fall.

An Oregon-born lone gray wolf that made headlines after making his way through California, then disappearing in April when his transponder stopped working, has likely been spotted in Ventura County.

Called OR-93, the male wolf was born in Oregon in 2019 and fitted with a transponder before he traveled into the state in February and then headed south through the Sierra Nevada and eventually made it to San Luis Obispo County.

Last month, the Department of Fish and Wildlife received three separate tips of wolf sightings in northern Ventura County, and then officials found wolf tracks nearby. There’s no definite forensic proof that it’s OR-93, but the recent reports match the wolf’s description, according a statement released by the department Friday.

“OR-93 is pretty identifiable,” said Amaroq Weiss, referring to the wolf’s bright purple radio collar that stands out against his light gray fur. A senior wolf advocate at the Oakland conservation organization Center for Biological Diversity, Weiss has worked in wolf protection for about 25 years. “He is frankly the first radio-collared wolf wearing a purple collar I know of.”

Gray wolves used to roam California freely before being hunted into extinction almost 100 years ago. They began reappearing in the state about 10 years ago, a long-term result of being awarded federal endangered species status in 1973. Previously there hadn’t been a wolf in the southern part of the state since 1922, when one was spotted in San Bernadino County, or in the Central Coast for even longer, said Weiss.

“We always knew wolves would come back. This is historic wolf habitat,” said Jordan Traverso, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. “The track record of applying the right protections and management throughout the state has made it a hospitable place for wolves to roam again.”

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/California-s-missing-and-adventurous-lone-gray-16509230.php

 

Lee Heidhues 10.3.2021

The current over wrought political drama to designate less than three miles of roadway in San Francisco, The Great Walkway along the Pacific and JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park, is causing a virtual civil war.  

San Francisco has 1200 miles of roadway for automobile usage.

The fact that the long entitled, selfish and “we want it all” motorists are able to harass and browbeat City officials is a complete disgrace.  All the “progressive” talk about San Francisco being a leader in fighting climate change and global warming is just a lot of hot air.

No elected official from Mayor London Breed on down to  faux progressive Supervisor Connie Chan has enough political will and courage to tell the long self entitled motorists, it’s time for change. Instead these politicians make excuses and equivocate.

San Francisco elected officials and bureaucrats, even those who think of themselves as “progressive” are engaged in self delusion. 

Once the car owners start to yell and scream Official San Francisco caves in.

The attached article, The Copenhagen Index breaks down the top 20 cities globally for their bicycle friendly policies.

There is not one American city in the Copenhagen Index.  Pathetic.

Excerpted from The Copenhagen Index

THE 2019 COPENHAGENIZE INDEX OF BICYCLE-FRIENDLY CITIES

Welcome to the Copenhagenize Index – the most comprehensive and holistic ranking of bicycle-friendly cities on planet earth. As the fifth edition of the biennial Index since 2011, this year’s effort was made possible through months of intensive teamwork, research and outreach. Creating an inventory of urban cycling in all corners of the world is no small feat – and this year we are as excited as ever to share the most fascinating cycling stories from across the globe.

How to read the 2019 Copenhagenize Index

 

With each iteration, the Copenhagenize Index evolves. This year, we have again expanded the total number of cities to examine well beyond the 80 we ranked in 2011. The data set continues to grow year-by-year and accounts for hundreds of cities representing every region of the world.

2019 offers up a number of surprises yet again. The three-horse race at the top is as close as ever, with Utrecht being nudged back down to #3 by Amsterdam taking the 2nd position with its bold steps taken in the past years. Meanwhile, Copenhagen continues impressive investments and innovations for cycling to hold onto the #1 spot, but for how long, no one knows. All three of these cities remain role-models for all of the friendly competition below.

The second pack sees a tightening gap between Antwerp, Strasbourg and Bordeaux, as these three cities all strive for greater and greater bicycle friendliness. And at the lead of the third pack is Oslo – the bicycle urbanism darling that shot up in ranking over the last 4 years to an impressive degree.

This year also sees a number of new faces from all over the world on the Top 20 like Bogotà, Bremen, Taipei and Vancouver – newcomers that are showing other cities how possible it is to make our urban centres better for the bicycle. The margins between cities in the third pack of the Top 20 are tight, and those that are innovating, investing and pushing forward with political and citizen action every year, see results in the Copenhagenize Index. Just outside of the Top 20 sit a number of cities all on the cusp of breaking through, each one requiring that sustained investment and implementation of bicycle innovations to see better rankings in 2021.

This year, we have also added a new section called “Success Stories” – sharing a number of inspirational bicycle stories from around the world, outside of the Top 20. These stories show us how bicycle friendliness can come in many shapes and forms, with each new step offering critical utility to the urban citizens that need it.

The 2019 Copenhagenize Index shows the world that it is no longer only the Danish and Dutch cities that are really taking the bicycle seriously. Through a combination of ambition, culture and better streetscapes, cities all around the world are starting to push the envelope for what it means to be bicycle-friendly.

Enjoy this year’s edition of the Copenhagenize Index.

https://copenhagenizeindex.eu/

 

The San Francisco Giants, who the experts predicted would finish at the back of the National League pack, have stunned the baseball world.

The Giants 107 wins is a team record and one of the best win totals in the history of major league baseball.

The Giants put the frosting on the 107 win cake crushing the San Diego Padres 11-4.

Next come the playoffs on Friday with the winner of the St. Louis Cardinals – LA Dodgers Wild card game coming to Oracle Park to begin a best of five game series.

Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 10.3.3021

There is no overstating how extraordinary the Giants’ season has been. Entering the year, many questioned if San Francisco would even break even. “We knew what the projections were and what the industry thought of us as a club,” manager Gabe Kapler said in a postgame address to the crowd, noting that the team’s intangibles weren’t taken into consideration “and the first intangible is toughness.”

There would be no messing around and relying on the Dodgers to lose as far as Logan Webb was concerned. The 24-year-old from Rocklin did it all Sunday, lifting the Giants to the NL West title on the strength of his arm and his bat.

In an Ohtani-like day, Webb crushed his first major-league homer and he turned in magnificent work through his first seven innings of work to propel San Francusco to an 11-4 win and the team’s first division crown since 2012, sending players pouring out of the dugout to celebrate on their home field. Buster Posey drove in three runs, and his two hits on the final day of the season gave him 1,500 for his career.

Lee Heidhues 10.2.2021

Leave it to the Germans to be a leader in changing people’s attitudes.

Psychedelics have long been part of the culture.  Sadly, psychedelics became part of the reactionary war on drugs which has seen thousands of people imprisoned for selling and consuming these drugs.

Now, decades later, the medical profession is taking a dispassionate and clinical look at psychedelics and their benefits to society.

Maybe the phrase from the Beatles song, “I get high with a little help from my friends” will become widely accepted in the world culture.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 10.2.2021

Psychedelic substances have returned to where they once stood in the 1950s and ’60s — to the center of psychiatric, medical and psychological research.

Experts are already enthusiastic. “How ecstasy and psilocybin are shaking up psychiatry” a headline of the science magazine Nature gushed at the beginning of the year.

Millions of people in Germany have been diagnosed with depression. Researchers believe that drugs such as LSD and psilocybin can offer an effective treatment. They could also bring big profits.

On July 13, there was a rainy sky above the southern German city of Mannheim. But, despite the uninspiring weather, it was a day of hope for millions of people with depression — because the first patients of a research project run by the Central Institute of Mental Health were scheduled to have a psychedelic experience.

They wore a blindfolds and headphones that played music and were accompanied by two therapists. The hallucinogen used for the inner journey is called psilocybin.

This active ingredient was isolated about 60 years ago. It gives the magic mushrooms their “magic” — i.e., their mind-altering effect. And it has been banned almost worldwide, including in Germany, for over half a century.

Even for the Mannheim researchers, “obtaining the substance has proven to be the highest hurdle.” That’s according to researcher and psychiatry professor Gerhard Gründer.

“There are not that many manufacturers in the world from whom you can obtain such a substance in the required quality. It was a long and laborious process,” he said.

But that laborious process is becoming more common. Hallucinogenic trips have long ceased to be solely the recreational pastime of hippies. A growing number of scientific studies point to the potential of psilocybin-assisted therapy for treating depressed patients — even those for whom other therapies have been exhausted. The Mannheim study, with a total of 144 patients, is now large enough that Gründer “expects statistically robust conclusions.”

Depression is a widespread condition

According to estimates by the World Health Organization, about 300 million people worldwide live with depression. In Germany, that number is an estimated 5 million, and the Health Ministry has referred to it as a “widespread disease.”

A conservative estimate is that around one in five patients cannot be helped with conventional treatment methods. “There is a huge need,” Gründer said, adding that his institute is almost overrun with inquiries from patients.

In conventional therapies, patients are treated with daily doses of antidepressants. The new approach is fundamentally different.

This could be seen in mid-September in Berlin, when the Insight 2021 conference took place, organized by the Mind Foundation. According to its website, the foundation advocates the “evidence-based, safe and legal use of psychedelic experience in medicine and society.” The venue for the meeting of the center of international psychedelics research is the Berlin Charite, one of Germany’s most prestigious medical institutions.

For four days, attendees discussed neurological processes, compared the effects of LSD, psilocybin and other drugs with diagrams, and presented the state of research in a wide variety of fields. Even an employee of the German drug approval authority, the federal authority for drugs and medical devices, was there.

“We managed to destigmatize the topic; a discourse has emerged,” Mind Foundation co-founder Andrea Jungaberle said in summary. “How this discourse will affect day-to-day medical business remains to be seen.”

https://www.dw.com/en/how-psychedelics-are-returning-to-the-world-of-medicine/a-59380189

 

 

 

Lee Heidhues 10.1.2021

The environmental movement  scored a major victory with the long overdue confirmation of Tracy Stone-Manning as director of the federal Bureau  of Land Management (BLM).

Republican senators waged a vicious and incendiary campaign to bring down the nominee for her alleged involvement in still disputed events which took place over 30  years ago.

To the credit of the Democrats in the Senate, they stood firm and were not intimidated by the slash and burn tactics of their Republican colleagues.

Excerpted from Washington Post 10.1.2021

Liz and Lee Heidhues – 9.30.2021

The de Young Museum, overreaching its sense of entitlement and connections, has hired lobbyists to convince San Francisco politicians and bureaucrats to erase the will of The People and bring back cars to JFK Drive.

Conceding  public sentiment is moving away from decades of entitlement, the Swells and their enablers will take any action to achieve their goal.

Money is not a problem with the ruling class. The patricians will spend whatever it takes to crush all who oppose them.

The priviliged class has pliant elected Supervisors who do their bidding.  Even those politicians who ran on a platform of supporting the environment.  

Supervisor Connie Chan, who represents an area adjacent to Golden Gate Park, has put her chips on the table with the wealthy, entitled and most “reactionary elements” of San Francisco. 

Following the message from Parker Day is our blog post from last May 15. An open letter to Thomas Campbell, CEO de Young Museum.

 

Message to Thomas Campbell, Director and CEO – Fine Arts Museums SF

San Francisco Chronicle 5.12.2021

“Thomas Campbell, director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, said JFK Drive should be reopened to cars ‘as soon as possible’ while the city studies the issue, saying its closure has limited visitors’ and staff’s access to the de Young Museum and hampered its logistical operations.

‘Advocates for closure of JFK have taken advantage of COVID and the temporary Safe Streets closure of JFK to push their agenda for permanent closure in part by creating a false sense of crisis that is based on distorted statistics and unsubstantiated emotional rhetoric,’ Campbell said.”

Attn:  Thomas Campbell – Director and CEO FAMSF

Mr. Campbell,

My wife has been a long time member of the FAMSF. She teaches English to international students.  She introduces a private student to the DeYoung collections when she brings them on public transit to the DeYoung as her guest.  Her student often returns to do a more thorough visit to the DeYoung paying the steep admission price of a non San Francisco resident.

I carefully read your comments re Car Free JFK Drive and am all the more shocked after reading the attached article published in Hyperallergic, particularly the following,

As New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art Director, “Campbell faced accusations of poor money management. Toward the end of his tenure, the Met faced a steep $40 million deficit that caused retirement buyouts, hiring freezes, and a postponement of the heralded $600 million expansion of its modern and contemporary wing. News of the deficit came on the heels of the Met’s high attendance numbers and its decision to sign an expensive eight-year lease on the Breuer building. (Now, years later, the Frick Collection is said to be taking over the last three years of the lease in 2020, and the Met has begun charging a mandatory ticket fee to non-New Yorker visitors in order to manage its deficit threat.)”

https://hyperallergic.com/468793/thomas-campbell-new-director-of-san-francisco-museums/

Are you serious?  How can you, having a dubious history of museum management, speak seriously about a car free JFK Drive and the DeYoung having its logistical operations “hampered?”

It is not a problem.  You know it, too. Your entire statement is misleading. The loading docks just off JFK have been used continuously during the Pandemic. I cycle by them frequently and see large trucks and vehicles parked in the loading docks and on JFK Drive.  “Visitors and staff’s access” has not been “hampered.”

I agree that the people about whom you speak admittedly have to walk a short distance. It truly isn’t that great a hindrance.

Most importantly you fail to mention the 800 car garage which sits directly underneath the Concourse.  It was before your time in San Francisco that this garage was built at the behest of Dede Wilsey; expressly to accommodate the concerns of those who feel they need easy access to the Museum.

As a newcomer to San Francisco you need to support San Francisco’s Transit First program and an environmentally friendly JFK Drive.  Do not use your specious, untrue and ridiculous comments unbefitting a person who is  leading the Fine Arts Muesums into the 21st century.

Thoughtfully,

Liz and Lee Heidhues

Native San Franciscans

Photos on JFK Drive – Liz and Lee Heidhues

Los Angeles has decided to phase out and ban gas and oil production.

Home of the stars and one of America’s largest urban oil fields, Los Angeles has come down on the side of the environmetalists in the time of climate change.

The energy companies are predictably not happy that their polluting and profit generating spigot is being turned off.  Good riddance.  Los Angeles will be the better for it.

Excerpted from The Gleaner – Jamaica 9.29.2021

Supervisors of California’s Los Angeles County voted unanimously recently to phase out oil and gas drilling and ban new drill sites in the unincorporated areas of the nation’s most populous county.

Over 1,600 active and idle oil and gas wells in the county could be shuttered after the 5-0 vote by the board of supervisors. A timetable for the phaseout will be decided after the county determines the fastest way to legally shut down the wells.

Among the sites is the Inglewood Oil Field, one of the largest US urban oil fields. The sprawling, 1,000-acre (405-hectare) site, owned and operated by Sentinel Peak Resources, contains over half the oil and gas wells in the county’s unincorporated areas. The field produced 2.5 million to 3.1 million barrels of oil a year over the past decade, according to the company.

“The goal is to provide direction to county departments to begin addressing the variety of issues, environmental and climate impacts created by these active and inactive oil and gas wells,” said Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell, who represents the district where most of the Inglewood Oil Field is located.

Mitchell, along with Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, made the motion to phase out drilling in the county’s unincorporated areas.

The California Independent Petroleum Association, representing nearly 400 oil and gas industry entities, opposed the measure. In a letter to the board, CEO Rock Zierman said a phaseout of oil and gas production would threaten hundreds of jobs, raise gas prices and make California more dependent on oil from foreign countries.

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/business/20210929/oil-gas-drilling-being-phased-out-la-county