Tag: news

Whose “hair is on fire”? Trump tosses Israel and the War Hawks into the Straits of Hormuz

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.24.2026

Trump does the “surrender” walk

Some commentators describe The Atlantic piece as War Hawk neo con talking points blasting Trump for “surrendering” to Iran.

Such talk is only correct by half. Yes Trump may be surrendering. But not for the reasons the War Hawks argue.

Trump is the prototype, for better and worse, transactional operator. He realizes belatedly the entire assault on Iran, pushed by Israel, has been a disaster from Day One on February 28, 2026. Now he is seeking an exit ramp realizing he’s made a shambles of the global economy and guaranteed the MAGA brand is going to take a beating on election day next November 3rd.

Excerpted from The Atlantic 5.21.2026 – Robert Kagan

According to one U.S. official, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “hair was on fire” after the May 20th call with Donald Trump—for good reason.

The outlines of President Trump’s endgame in the Iran war are now emerging. In a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu May 20th, Trump reportedly explained that the United States was negotiating a “letter of intent” with Iran that would “formally end the war and launch a 30-day period of negotiations” on Iran’s nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz

Trump’s repeated threats to resume attacks since then have proved to be bluffs. The leaders in Tehran have been calculating for two months that Trump would not launch another attack, and for this reason they have made no concessions despite the damage they suffered from 37 days of relentless strikes. On the contrary, their terms for a settlement are those of a victor: They demand war reparations, no limits on uranium enrichment, recognized control of the strait, and an end to sanctions.

The purpose and effect of such an agreement should be clear: The United States is walking away from the crisis. Trump may launch another limited strike to look tough and satisfy the demands of the war’s supporters, but it would be a performative gesture. Endgame in this case is a euphemism for “surrender.”

Trump no doubt hopes that he can slip away without Americans noticing the magnitude of this defeat. The financial markets may stabilize if it is clear that oil will eventually start flowing again through a reopened strait, even if under the new Iran-controlled system.

The Iran war may end up as the single most devastating blow to Israel’s security in its brief history. On the present trajectory, Iran will emerge from the conflict many times stronger and more influential than it was before the war. It will exercise leverage with dozens of the richest nations in the world, all of which will have an acute interest in keeping Iran happy. They will be unlikely to take Israel’s side in any conflict that it has with Tehran or with its proxies in Lebanon and Gaza, because Iran will have the means to punish them if they do. Israel will emerge more isolated than it has been at any time in its history—and not least from its only reliable protector, the United States. When Trump turns his back on Israel, as he must do to implement this policy, MAGA will gladly follow. The bipartisan anti-Israel consensus in the United States will grow and harden.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2026/05/trump-surrender-iran-endgame/687252/?gift=og7bP-I2jPZ31wYIETbx1vmTNzK9tVbSb56RgKFzK1U&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

Death of CBS radio news is a victory for Trump over free speech

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 3.21.2026

The blogger has listened to radio news for a lifetime. One of the first stations was KCBS-740AM in San Francisco. Long before the days of National Public Radio.

The omnipresent CBS Radio News sign on

Make no mistake the shutdown of CBS radio news has nothing to do with money despite what corporate management insists.

Donald Trump has railed against mainstream media which fails to bow down. The death of CBS radio news is another victory over mainstream media free speech for Trump.

The Trump administration approved Mr. (David) Ellison’s purchase after Paramount paid $16 million to settle a suit brought by President Trump against “60 Minutes.” – NYT 3.20.2026

Excerpted from The New York Times 3.21.2026

It transported Americans onto the rooftops of London in the Blitz and into the bleak embers of concentration camps in liberated Nazi Germany, an aural atlas to world events thousands of miles away.

Edward R. Murrow broadcast from Buchenwald Concentration Camp April 1945

In more recent years, it transmitted eyewitness dispatches from world capitals to hundreds of local stations in rural and sparsely populated parts of the country.

CBS News Radio was a pioneer and stalwart of the mass media century, the proving ground of star journalists like Edward R. Murrow, with a distinctive five-tone chime that became synonymous with breaking news — long before the rise of 24-hour cable and the internet.

Now, its venerable airwaves are crackling to a close. Paramount Skydance, the parent company of CBS, announced on Friday that the radio news network would sign off, after 99 years, near the end of May.

Excerpted from the New York Times 3.20.2021

CBS News came under the control of David Ellison, a billionaire tech heir, after his Hollywood studio Skydance absorbed the media giant Paramount last year. The Trump administration approved Mr. Ellison’s purchase after Paramount paid $16 million to settle a suit brought by President Trump against “60 Minutes.”

Mr. Ellison said he wanted CBS News to appeal to a centrist audience, and he installed Bari Weiss, an opinion journalist and critic of the mainstream news media, as its new leader.

CBS News eliminated its century-old radio division, which broadcast Edward R. Murrow’s World War II dispatches from London, amid a round of layoffs on Friday announced by the network’s editor in chief, Ms. Weiss.

CBS radio news journalists on election night November 1936

More than 60 employees, or roughly 6 percent of the news division, are set to be laid off under the plan, according to a person who requested anonymity to share internal details.

“Certain parts of this newsroom need to get smaller in order for us to make room for the things that we need to build to remain competitive in the future,” Ms. Weiss, who started her job in October, said during a newsroom-wide conference call on Friday, according to a recording.

CBS News Radio, which has roots in the Jazz Age, was once among the premier news broadcasters in the country. “CBS News Radio served as the foundation for everything we have built since 1927,” Tom Cibrowski, the president of CBS News, wrote in a memo.

Original CBS Radio news headquarters in New York City- circa 1939

Police profiling of the ‘unhoused’ aka the ‘homeless’ is despicable

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 2.2.2026

Law enforcement harassment of the ‘unhoused’ population is amongst the worst form of discrimination. Whether the ‘unhoused’ person is behind the wheel of a vehicle, riding public transit or living on the street.

San Francisco Transit Authority ‘minder’ and a rider – photo Lee Heidhues

This type of economic profiling illuminates law enforcement at its worst. Taking advantage of the most vulnerable amongst us.

Official harassment of the unhoused is also an easy way for the cops to buttress their statistics. Giving the impression they are performing meaningful work.

It is nothing more than a form of blatant economic racism.

Unhoused man grabs some sun rays on a winter day – photo Lee Heidhues

The truth of the matter is that many people fear the homeless. And therefore feel the best way to handle this population is to keep it down and out of sight. The cops are the useful vehicle to serve the paranoid fantasies of the better off citizenry.

Excerpted from the San Francisco Chronicle – Bob Egelko – 2.2.2026

Unhoused citizen at Bus stop – Geary and Masonic – photo Lee Heidhues


When police in California stop a driver or pedestrian whom they believe to be homeless, they’re far more likely to search, handcuff, deploy force against and arrest that person than others they pull over, according to a new state report.

The ninth annual report by the Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board, or RIPA, based on data from 5.1 million police stops in 2024, reaffirmed previous findings that Black and HIspanic drivers were much more likely than others to be stopped than other motorists. But the disparity in treatment of those who appear to be homeless was new information that officers were first required to provide in January 2024.

Among more than 181,000 stops of people perceived by officers to be unhoused, the report said, 43% were then searched or frisked; 37.9% were handcuffed; 38.68% were subjected to use of force and 47.3% were arrested.

Unhoused in San Francisco – San Francisco Chronicle photo

The report comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 2024 ruling, in a case from Grants Pass, Ore., that opened the door for cities and states to evict homeless people from street encampments, confiscate their property and subject them to criminal prosecution. The 6-3 decision said such actions do not violate the constitutional ban on “cruel and unusual punishment.”

Trying to get some rest in San Francisco

The ruling has led to a wave of local ordinances authorizing sweeps of street camps and imposing criminal penalties for camping or sleeping on public property, even when no shelters are available.

San Francisco responded with hundreds of arrests and seizures of property from homeless encampments, though the city agreed to pay nearly $3 million last year to settle a lawsuit by the Coalition on Homelessness for similar actions it had taken before the Supreme Court ruling.

San Francisco unhoused at Geary and Park Presidio Boulevard – photo Lee Heidhues

Top photo: Unhoused person at a bus stop – photo Lee Heidhues

Racism is the sad reason why the SF former Mayor still out of work

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 1.25.2026 UPDATED

People in supposedly tolerant and enlightened San Francisco may be loath to admit it. The harsh reality is that former Mayor London Breed is still out of work because of systemic racism all pervasive in America.

LURIE & LONDON – SF Standard Power Play 1.25. 2026

If the former Mayor was a white guy or gal he/she would have been swept up by a political action committee or consulting firm the day after leaving office. Not only was London Breed Mayor for over six years, she was twice elected Supervisor and was President of the Board of Supervisors.

London Breed is a black woman raised in the Western Addition housing projects just blocks from City Hall who worked her way up through hard work and political smarts.

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

Breed definitely didn’t enjoy the privileged upbringing of the white man who defeated her in November 2024, having spent millions of his own money to capture City Hall. The billionaire scion of the Levi Strauss & Co. family fortune, Daniel Lurie.

Mayor Breed on the City Hall steps at a rally decrying hate and bigotry

As Mayor Breed was definitely a fighter for the issues she believes in, mainly funding the police department and pushing for housing development. Breed brawled consistently with San Francisco White progressives whom she looked down at with thinly veiled disdain.

Perhaps Mayor Breed’s most crowning achievement was her advocacy for car free spaces. This advocacy resulted in the voter approved car free JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park, Sunset Dunes Park along the Pacific Coast shoreline and numerous car free streets throughout the city. That will will be her environmental legacy. One for which Breed has not received enough credit.

Then Mayor London Breed talks with Liz Heidhues at the 4th anniversary of JFK Promenade – 4.28.2025 – photo Lee Heidhues

Philosophical and political positions which one would think would be a calling card amongst the billionaire class for future employment.

Not, yet. Heather Knight, former columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle, and now New York Times reporter took a look at London Breed one year removed from office.

Excerpted from The New York Times 1.16.2026

London Breed has said little in the year since she left office. She has thoughts on the praise that the current mayor, Daniel Lurie, has received.

Mayor Breed and her most vigorous Progressive antagonist, then Supervisor Dean Preston, who represented the District she represented and catapulted her into the Mayor’s office in 2018. Both were voted out of office in November 2024.

Ms. Breed said that she wanted Mr. Lurie to be successful. It’s just that it has been hard for her to see him get so much credit, she said, and she wondered if race was a factor.

London Breed needs a job, and she wants you to know that.

A year ago, she left her post as the 45th mayor of San Francisco — and its $383,000 salary — after losing her re-election bid to Daniel Lurie, the heir to the Levi Strauss fortune.

London Breed puts on a smiling face with Daniel Lurie, the billionaire who defeated her, on his inaugural day – January 8th 2025

Past mayors have used the office as a springboard. San Francisco’s 38th mayor, Dianne Feinstein, became a longtime U.S. senator who once chaired the Senate Rules Committee. The 42nd mayor, Gavin Newsom, is finishing his second term as California governor and has his sights on running for president.

Ms. Breed, 51, is still unemployed. She didn’t serve long enough to qualify for a municipal pension and health care benefits, and is living off her savings.

“I need to get myself out there,” she said in an interview with The New York Times.

Mr. Lurie, a political neophyte, has reaped the benefits of strong poll numbers and praise for the city’s turnaround.

It is common for former elected officials to resent their successors, especially if a prosperous stretch follows. And in the glow of San Francisco’s recovery, Ms. Breed has been largely forgotten as she has retreated to the political wilderness.

Top photo: Mayor Breed with a group of San Francisco Police Department officers

ICE agents. What are they really?America’s real domestic terrorists.

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 1.17.2026

Fascism on the rise in America. Department of Homeland Security. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Homeland_Security

State sanctioned terrorists.

Federal agents detain a protester outside of the Broadview ICE processing facility, after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered increased federal law enforcement presence to assist in crime prevention, in Broadview, Illinois, U.S. September 26, 2025. REUTERS/Jim Vondruska

Now that convicted Felon turned President has been unleashed, again, for a year he has turned loose his version of State sanctioned domestic terrorists on the immigrant population and citizens exercising their Constitutional rights.

Who are these well paid mercenary thugs? Deutsche Welle takes a deep look.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle – 1.17.2026

Donald Trump’s second presidential term has seen a rapid rise in the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. But who are these people, and where is the US government finding them?

Once a relatively obscure branch of law enforcement, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have fast become the sharp point of Donald Trump’s mass deportation initiative.

Since Trump took office a year ago, the number of ICE agents has jumped from 10,000 to 22,000, thanks largely to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recruitment drive to sign up what they call “qualified patriotic Americans from across the country.”

The Trump administration said it deported 605,000 people between January 20 and December 10, 2025, and 1.9 million immigrants had “voluntarily self-deported.”

America’s State sanctioned – ICE mercenaries on the job assaulting protesters

Such a significant upscaling of a branch of law enforcement is unusual — and unprecedented in the history of ICE, which was formed in 2002. The effort raises questions about screening and the suitability of candidates, of which DHS said there were 220,000 in the last year.

Training time cut as numbers rise

ICE training has been cut from 16 to eight weeks in the drive. The requirement to learn some Spanish, the language of most of the country’s unauthorized immigrants, has also been axed. ICE did not respond to a series of questions from DW on its recruitment.

American Official thuggery on the job assaulting citizens exercising their Constitutional rights.

Concerns about the training of agents and the perceived politicization of ICE have grown in the wake of the death of Renee Nicole Good, which has sparked countrywide protests across and lead to the resignation of a dozen federal prosecutors in the state of Minnesota on Wednesday.

Recruitment poster
Homeland Security
@DHSgov·
A Heritage to be proud of, a Homeland worth Defending. American Progress – John Gast

The advertising bill for what the DHS has described as a “wartime recruitment” drive in 2026 is $100 million (€86 million), according to a 30 page document seen by The Washington Post newspaper. The pace looks set to at least continue, given that Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” handed ICE a $170 billion budget over the next four years for border and interior enforcement.

https://www.dw.com/en/how-are-ice-agents-recruited-and-who-are-they/a-75506003

America has come a long way from the 1963 film “The Great Escape” and its iconic opening theme. A time when the Nazis were the bad guys. Now these lawless thugs in the guise of ICE agents are running the American political terror circus. There’s no Great Escape for the democracy loving citizen in the United States.

5 years since 1.6.2021. America suffers from political Amnesia

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 1.7.2026 UPDATED

Straight out of the 1930’s Nazi Germany playbook
Wall Street Journal – 1.7.2021
Wall Street Journal 1.7.2026

It is nearly five years since Donald Trump led the insurrection and tried to violently overturn the November 2020 election.

The place Trump belongs. Prison

As rebellion flared up in the nation’s capitol America failed its biggest test. Putting this criminal insurrectionist back in the White House a year ago. He should be in prison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_6_United_States_Capitol_attack

The American sheep like people continue to suffer from Amnesia and are all too willing to let this abhorrent event fade into the historic background.

On this New Year’s Day I went into the PBS FRONTLINE archives. Resting there for all who care to view is the graphic documentary originally broadcast on January 26, 2021. Reasonable people thought this criminal would land in jail. Wrong.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/trumps-american-carnage/

As rebellion flared up in the nation’s capitol America failed its biggest test.

There is one Hero amongst the somnolent lazy American public. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Smith_(lawyer)

Excerpted from The New York Times 12.31.2025

Jack Smith, the former special counsel, defended his decision to twice indict President Trump, accusing him of “exploiting” violence on Jan. 6, 2021, to overthrow the 2020 presidential election, according to a transcribed interview released by House Republicans Wednesday.

Mr. Smith, a former prosecutor vilified by Mr. Trump as a partisan, spent much of the eight-hour, closed-door session on Dec. 17 before the House Judiciary Committee rebutting a range of Republican claims, including the accusation that he had improperly obtained metadata on phone calls involving Trump-allied lawmakers.

“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to prevent the lawful transfer of power,” Mr. Smith said, according to the transcript.

Bloviating mindless January 6th insurrectionists were pardoned by Donald Trump the first day he returned to office 1.20.2025

In the interview, Mr. Smith sought to undermine the narrative that the president was an innocent figure persecuted by partisans who weaponized federal law enforcement, a core belief among many Trump supporters.

Trump malicious “Stick of dynamite” blows up weather center

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 12.18.2025

How tone deaf is the Felon President Trump. A totally cruel malevolent luddite with no concept of the danger fossil fuels increasingly threatens the longevity of Planet Earth.

The rainstorm season is about to hit San Francisco.

Out of some warped sense of political animus Trump wants to dismantle and destroy one of the premier weather monitoring agencies. The National Center for Atmospheric Research.

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

Why? It’s based in Blue Colorado. An American State which has vigorously battled the Felon Trump. It is mind boggling that the spineless Republicans continue to bow down before this abhorrent man.

Excerpted from The Hill 12.18.2025

A Democratic senator involved in the negotiations over passing a five-bill package of appropriations bills before Christmas said that Donald Trump’s attempt to dismantle a premier weather and climate center based in Boulder, Colo., was like a “stick of dynamite” that exploded any chance of a bipartisan breakthrough on spending.

A potential deal to fund large swaths of the federal government, including the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services, collapsed on Thursday night after Colorado senators demanded that Congress stop President Trump’s efforts to dismantle a key climate agency.

Out of some warped sense of political animus Trump wants to dismantle and destroy one of the premier weather monitoring agencies. The National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a leading Democratic voice on climate issue, called the research a “global crown jewel of science” that “helps us learn a great deal about whether which matters a great deal to everyone.”

Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet (D) and John Hickenlooper (D) objected to moving forward with the so-called minibus spending package that, if enacted into law, would result in 85 to 90 percent of the federal government being funding through September of 2026.

But Bennet and Hickenlooper took the lead in bringing the package to a dead halt by objecting to an agreement to set up date and amendment votes on the Senate floor.

Trump move to dismantle climate agency blows up Senate funding deal

And people ask ‘why do drunk drivers get away with murder?’

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 12.11.2025

And people ask why do drunk drivers literally get away with murder?

Let’s Talk about being rewarded for criminal behavior.

It is unconscionable that a drunken driver engaged in one of the most sordid, cowardly and shameful crimes. Hit and run.

The perpetrator ran over an 88 year old woman on increasingly dangerous Streets of San Francisco. She died.

The SFPD finally corralled the perp. What does the Judge do? Grants ‘home detention’ until the Trial. Blowing off the District Attorney’s Motion to keep this killer in jail until Trial.

San Francisco Chronicle 12.11.2025

A man suspected in an Ingleside hit-and-run that killed an 88-year-old woman in October has been charged with murder, prosecutors said Thursday. 

Prosecutors asked that Le be held without bail while awaiting trial, but a judge ruled that he would be released to home detention with electronic monitoring, officials said. 

Hai Van Le, 48, faces additional charges involving driving under the influence and leaving the scene of the crash. He was arraigned Wednesday and pleaded not guilty, according to the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. 

On the evening of Oct. 26, victim Lau Sim Lui was struck by a driver at the intersection of Ocean and Ashton avenues. Police arrived at the scene just after 6:40 p.m. and found the woman on the ground in a crosswalk.

Medics declared Lui deceased at the scene a few minutes later, from what officials later said was a severe head injury. 

A witness at the scene provided police with dashboard footage of the incident, which showed Le’s vehicle stopped at a red light and then proceeding through the intersection after the light turned green, prosecutors said. 

The vehicle is then seen running over Lui, who was in the opposite crosswalk, officials said. Officials said the video shows the vehicle’s brake lights briefly activating before the driver continues east on Ocean Avenue. 

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/hit-run-murder-charge-sf-21237496.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL2NyaW1lL2FydGljbGUvaGl0LXJ1bi1tdXJkZXItY2hhcmdlLXNmLTIxMjM3NDk2LnBocA%3D%3D&time=MTc2NTUyMTc5NjE0OA%3D%3D&rid=OTJhM2RhZWItNDMzYy00ZjMxLTgyMTQtZTU2ZjE2NDIzNDRl&sharecount=NA%3D%3D

MAN CHARGED WITH MURDER IN CONNECTION TO FATAL DUI HIT AND RUN

A genuine Nazi. Trump dropped a flamethrower on the News Media.

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 12.5.2025 – UPDATED 12.9.2025

More seriously—more sinister—the White House has just put up a wall-of-shame webpage tracking media outfits and reporters who “misrepresent” or “lie” about the administration. Names are named, outfits identified and shamed. All this is meant to intimidate; it institutionalizes attacks on the media and, considering the broader context, potentially prompts and gives permission to unstable people who might want to act in the president’s supposed defense. The webpage, paid for by taxpayers as part of the White House website, looks not like an insult but part of a sustained campaign. It is a threat. It should be taken down. Peggy Noonan in Wall Street Journal 12.6.2025 – https://www.wsj.com/opinion/were-in-an-era-of-political-violence-cc359449?mod=hp_opin_pos_3

Donald Trump is a Clear and Present Danger to democracy.

I don’t know what’s more distressing.

The White House launching a Media Offenders Website titled ‘Hall of Shame’ https://www.whitehouse.gov/mediabias/ or the general silence with few exceptions from the American media whose First Amendment rights are being trampled.

The shock of all this is that the publishers should be at the proverbial barricades. Press freedom and the First Amendment are under attack. Journalists, editors and publishers must be aware that when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933 he destroyed the free press in Germany. If they’re not unaware they’re deluding themselves.

‘Art of Catastrophe’ – Charlotte Salomon

Trump will never get that far. But his intimidation tactics using the power of the Federal government is sending a chilling message

Trump’s genuine Nazi like assault on the media. Utilizing the White House to intimidate journalists

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 12.5.2025

A new government website lists journalists and media outlets that Donald Trump’s administration considers liars. Experts say the move endangers free media ― and thus erodes democracy in the US.

The website set up by the Trump White House amounts to threatening media outlets, Jonathan Katz, a fellow in governance studies at the think tank Brookings Institution, says, too.

“It can have a chilling effect on free speech, on independent media,” Katz told DW. “We’re watching carefully to see how this affects press freedom in the United States.”

It’s no secret that the current US administration doesn’t have too high an opinion of journalists. President Donald Trump recently called a female reporter asking him about his involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal “piggy.”

And in a press briefing on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt talked about how much of her job is taken up by dealing with what she labeled inaccurate characterizations published by White House correspondents.

“The fake news that we see pumped out of this building on a day-to-day basis — it’s honestly overwhelming to keep up with it all,” she said.

In response to what Leavitt said were “fake news and … attacks” being spread by reporters, the White House has created a website that lists media outlets and reporters who, according to the government, publish false, biased or misleading stories.

The new “Media Offenders” website includes featured “Offenders of the Week” as well as a “Hall of Shame” that consists of four pages (at time of publication) of media reports the White House has sorted into the categories bias, lie, false claim, malpractice, omission of context, mischaracterization, circular reporting, failure to report and left-wing lunacy.

In a statement released on December 1, the White House said by creating the website, it “dropped a flamethrower on the Fake News Media.”

Adolf Hitler addressing fellow Nazis – The crushing of the press in Nazi Germany is something Donald Trump would like to do in America

https://www.dw.com/en/how-white-house-attack-on-journalists-affects-us-press-freedom/a-75040640

Top photo: Donald Trump only wants to hear what makes him look good. He closes his ears to everything else.

Felon Trump is envious. His buddy warmonger Putin jails journalists

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 12.4.2025

Soul mates Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump–

It’s no surprise that Felon Trump is best buddies with Russian thug war mongering president Vladimir Putin. The former KGB agent who has no problem with his compliant courts jailing Russian journalists and political foes.

Vladimir Putin with his KGB ID circa late 1980’s

What Putin does to journalists in Russia is something that Felon Trump would like to do in America.

And not to only journalists. Felon Trump wants to prosecute his political foes. Trump has been successful in 2025 in making the once independent Department of Justice led by his flunkie Attorney General https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pam_Bondi a revenge sledge hammer.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 12.4.2025

A Moscow court on Thursday upheld five-and-a-half year prison sentences for four Russian journalists, including two former Deutsche Welle reporters who previously worked for the organization’s Moscow bureau. 

Konstantin Gabov and Sergey Karelin, along with Antonina Favorskaya and Artyom Kriger, were convicted in April on charges of participating in an “extremist organization” — a reference to the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), an NGO founded by opposition leader Alexei Navalny. 

Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin, died in February 2024 while imprisoned in an Arctic penal colony.

Russian authorities classified the FBK as an extremist organization in 2021, a designation that has since been used to prosecute journalists, activists and opposition figures associated with Navalny’s movement. 

Prosecutors said the group created materials for the FBK YouTube channel. All four journalists denied the charges, saying they did not work for the foundation but merely reported on its activities.  

Following Thursday’s judgment, the group is now expected to be transferred from pre-trial detention centers to penal colonies to serve their sentences.

Their conviction has sparked international criticism and raised concerns about press freedom in Russia. 

Konstantin Gabov and Sergey Karelin, along with Antonina Favorskaya and Artyom Kriger, were convicted in April on charges of participating in an “extremist organization”

https://www.dw.com/en/russia-appeal-rejected-for-journalists-tied-to-navalny/a-75019836