Flying the Hamas flag may be reprehensible to many. Before becoming too outraged don’t forget that the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan right to brandish the abhorrent swastika is protected speech in America.
Nazi flag waving Americans on the march. Protected free speech.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 3.18.2025
“There’s nothing illegal about it,” said San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
The First Amendment protects even speech that advocates for unlawful action, said First Amendment Coalition Legal Director David Loy. Speech turns into a crime only when it involves a threat to commit harm, he said.
“Speech alone cannot be a crime,” David Loy said.
A San Carlos resident’s decision to fly a Hamas flag outside their home in recent days has stirred outrage among some residents of the Peninsula city, who said they viewed the flag’s display as an endorsement of terrorism.
Some residents said they reported the flag to federal law enforcement officials and their counterparts in San Mateo County. The flag displays the Islamic oath and creed in white calligraphy on a green background.
Flying the flag is protected under free speech laws, legal experts said. It’s unclear whether the flag, flown atop a pole in front of a house on Crestview Drive on and off in the past two weeks, has triggered any kind of government investigation.
Despite the uproar, experts said the display of the flag amounts to symbolic speech protected under the First Amendment.
This is the Nazi felon Donald Trump Amerika in 2025. And it’s only going to get worse.
Excerpted from The Daily Mail UK 3.5.2025
A German tattoo artist says she was locked up in solitary confinement after she was detained 46 days while trying to walk through a checkpoint on the southern border.
‘After nine days, she said she went so insane that she started punching the walls and then she’s got blood on her knuckles.’
Brösche insisted the alleged solitary confinement was ‘like a horror movie.’
Jessica Brösche, 26, was arrested by US Customs and Border Protection as she tried to enter the country through San Diego, from Tijuana, on January 25th, ABC10 reported.
‘I just want to get home, you know? I’m really desperate,’ she told ABC 10.
Her detainment included a ‘horrible’ eight days in solitary confinement, she added.
However, the company that owns the detention center – CoreCivic – told the outlet Brösche ‘was not in any kind of restrictive housing for eight days.’
But Brösche insisted the alleged solitary confinement was ‘like a horror movie.’
‘They were screaming in all different rooms,’ Lofving said.
German tattoo artist Jessica Brösche, 26, says she was left in solitary confinement with over a week after being arrested while trying to legally cross the US-Mexico border
Lofving said she did not know where her friend was taken until she pleaded for help online and used the the federal Detainee Locator website.
She also claimed that a psychologist tried to prescribe Brösche anti-psychotic medicine, which she has refused to take.
Brösche was traveling with her American friend Nikita Lofving as a tourist under the ESTA visa waiver program. The two had met in Tijuana and were carrying tattooing equipment.
Brösche was traveling with her American friend Nikita Lofving
Immigration officials reportedly accused Brösche of working in the US the last time she entered the country with the ESTA program, an electronic system that determines whether someone is eligible to enter the US without a visa.
ESTAs are only intended for tourists and people are not allowed to work in the US while visiting on one.
Lofving told the outlet she asked officials if Brösche could be sent back to Mexico, but they said she would be deported to Germany in three to five days because she could not offer proof of residence in the Latin American country.
But Brösche says she spent days in a cell at the San Diego border before she was taken into ICE custody and brought to the the Otay Mesa Detention Center, where she was held for more than a month.
Chained, detained for weeks and eventually deported, two German tourists trying to enter the United States were recently tangled in a system responding to President Trump’s push to sharply restrict entry and deport people en masse.
The cases of Jessica Brösche, held for 46 days, and Lucas Sielaff, held for 16, and accounts of their rough handling by immigration officers, have grabbed headlines in Germany as a sign of what being caught on the wrong side of the White House’s immigration policy could mean for European travelers. New York Times 3.13.2025
Top photo: German tattoo artist Jessica Brosche incarcerated 46 days.
On Thursday, Antonina Favorskaya, Artyom Kriger, Konstantin Gabov and Sergey Karelin were set to deliver their closing arguments. The verdict must be handed down within five days.
Now, this deadline has been pushed back by a week, with the defendants now scheduled to make their final statements on March 20. The circumstances for the delay were unknown at the time of publishing.
The trial has taken place behind closed doors. Few details are known, but the imprisoned journalists (outlined below) have been writing letters to stay in touch with the outside world.
3.12.2025
The convicted felon Donald Trump must be salivating as four Russian journalists stand trial and face six year prison terms for alleged “extremist” ties. The entire assault on the press is nothing more than a show trial so Vladimir Putin can show the Russian people who’s boss.
Two thugs agree the Press is an “Enemy of the State.”
Trump’s thug buddy Vladimir Putin treats journalists in a manner the criminal American president wishes he could introduce to America. Harassment, kangaroo court and imprisonment.
Fortunately there is the First Amendment in America which protects all journalists, including bloggers. Even the wannabe dictator Trump will be trumped in his rhetorical assault on the free press.
Americans can never forget that thug Putin detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich for over 16 months as an intimidation tactic against the press. He was freed. Unfortunately, Russian reporters can’t expect the same verdict.
One has to hope that a free press in America survives Donald Trump.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 3.12.2025
Four Russian journalists are currently on trial in Moscow, charged with involvement in an “extremist” group.
Left to right: The journalists Konstantin Gabov, Antonina Favorskaya, Artyom Kriger and Sergey Karelin have been on trial for alleged “extremist” ties Image: Maxim Shemetov/REUTERS
The group in question is the Foundation for Fighting Corruption, founded by the late opposition leader Alexei Navanly, who died in early 2024 in an Arctic penal colony under unclear circumstances. In 2021, Russian authorities designated and banned the foundation as extremist.
All four defendants deny the charges and argue they did not work for the foundation but rather were reporting on it independently.
On Thursday, Antonina Favorskaya, Artyom Kriger, Konstantin Gabov and Sergey Karelin will deliver their closing arguments. The verdict must be handed down within five days.
If found guilty, the defendants face up to six years in prison. The Russian human rights project Political Prisoners Memorial has classified them political prisoners.
The trial has taken place behind closed doors. Few details are known, but the imprisoned journalists (outlined below) have been writing letters to stay in touch with the outside world.
Top photo: Antonina Kravtsova in handcuffs being taken to court is more widely known under her pseudonym Antonina Favorskaya
The entitled motorists have an ally in Room 200 at City Hall.
In a brutal last ditch attempt to halt creation of an environmental oasis by the Pacific Ocean, Levi’s scion and billionaire Mayor Daniel Lurie has enlisted his legal fixer to destroy Great Highway Park
Proposition K was approved by 55 percent of San Francisco voters last November.
Daniel Lurie has been Mayor only nine weeks and his attempt to slash and burn the environmental legacy of his predecessor London Breed is evident for any who care to notice.
Rather than come out and publicly say he opposes Great Highway Park, approved by 55 percent of the voters last November, Mayor Lurie enlisted his campaign lawyer to slash and burn the voters will.The only conclusion one can draw from this turning his back on The People is that the Mayor has been bullied into submission by the entitled motorists.
It’s a crass political calculation that the environmentalists who have waged a successful battle can be safely politically ignored.
It’s a shame that even though the proponents of a more pedestrian and cyclist friendly San Francisco have emerged victorious in all the major battles; JFK Promenade, Slow Streets and Great Highway Park the spoiled rotten entitled motorists refuse to acknowledge reality.
Former Mayor London Breed was a champion for the environment and car free streets. She advocated for JFK Promenade and Great Highway Park. Those halcyon days of environmental progress are over.
Former Mayor London Breed, champion of both JFK Promenade and Great Highway Park, signs enabling legislation creating JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park – May 7, 2022 – photo Lee Heidhues
Excerpted from The San Francisco Standard 3.10.2025
Opponents of Proposition K, the ballot measure that authorized the closure, and created Great Highway Park last November were expected to file a lawsuit Tuesday arguing that San Francisco voters don’t have the right to close the street to cars.
The lawsuit, led by Jim Sutton, alleges that the city ignored the state’s authority and unlawfully placed a measure before San Francisco voters. Sutton was Mayor Daniel Lurie’s campaign attorney.
Advocates for Proposition K – Great Highway Park. Will Daniel Lurie destroy their success?
The lawsuit also questions how the measure was put on the ballot, saying it bypassed the California Environmental Quality Act review process.
“This lawsuit is about standing up for the people who are being left behind,” said Albert Chow, a Sunset small-business owner and plaintiff. “Seniors, kids, and families will be forced to navigate more dangerous streets just so City Hall can score political points.”
Prop. K passed with 54% of votes in November 2024 after being placed on the ballot by five supervisors, including Joel Engardio of the Sunset, where the stretch of road is located. Approximately 64% of Sunset residents opposed the measure. Some have launched a recall effort against Engardio.
Top photo: Daniel Lurie prays that his Hail Mary to destroy Great Highway Park succeeds.
American justice is disgraceful. The convicted felon Donald Trump is in the White Housewhile the ex Presidents of The Philippines and Brazil have been indicted for their criminal acts and face major jail time. In these countries a compliant judiciary will not save them.
Where Trump belongs.
In the Philippines former President has been indicted by the International Criminal Court.
Excerpted from The New York Times 3.10.2025
Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, was arrested on Tuesday in Manila, after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity in his war on drugs in which, human rights groups say, tens of thousands of Filipinos were summarily executed.
He was taken into custody at the airport in Manila after returning from a trip to Hong Kong, according to the Philippine government. Mr. Duterte’s lawyer, Salvador Panelo, said the arrest was unlawful, partly because the Philippines withdrew from the court while Mr. Duterte was in office.
Mr. Duterte, 79, who left office in 2022, is a populist firebrand who remains one of the Philippines’ most influential politicians, and he has enjoyed relative immunity despite several accusations against him in connection with his antidrug campaign.
But Mr. Duterte’s arrest could be a major step toward accountability for thousands of Filipinos who have long sought justice for their loved ones, many of whom were gunned down by police officers, hit men and vigilantes. Activists say the vast majority of victims were poor, urban Filipinos, some of whom were minors and people who had nothing to do with the drug trade.
In Brazil Jair Bolsonaro has been indicted for attempting to overthrow an election he lost.
SAN FRANCISCO – SITE OF GENE HACKMAN CINEMATIC GEM “THE CONVERSATION”
Lee Heidhues 2.27.2025
I am truly saddened to read about the passing of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa. The cause of their deaths is raising many questions which may eventually be answered.
One thing which will never be in doubt is Hackman’s greatness as a performer.Five years ago I published a blog post about this incredible film and am reprising it to commemorate Gene Hackman. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Hackman
In my mind his most compelling role was that of private investigator Harry Caul. The Francis Ford Coppola psychological mind bender filmed in San Francisco and released in 1974.The Conversation won the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film, the highest honor at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. The film was also nominated for three Academy Awards for 1974,but lost to Francis Ford Coppola’s own The Godfather Part II. It won the National Board of Review Award for Best Film. – excerpted from Wikipedia.
Francis Ford Coppola and Gene Hackman during filming of The Conversation in San Francisco
Considered one of the best San Francisco movies of all time, “The Conversation” featured Hackman as Harry Caul, a surveillance expert and a loner who has been hired to record the conversation of a couple as they walk through Union Square. Retired San Francisco Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle 2.27.2025
The opening scene in San Francisco’s old Union Square is unforgettable.
Hackman appeared in another film which portrayed the perils of surveillance. The 1998 Tony Scott directed “Enemy of the State.” In its Appreciation of Gene Hackman the Wall Street Journal wrote, “Mr. Hackman would essentially reprise his character for a flashier thriller, the 1998 Will Smith man-on-the-run tale “Enemy of the State,” which was prescient about the potential for technology to keep tabs on us all.”
Two-time Oscar winning actor Gene Hackman and his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, were found dead Wednesday afternoon in their home northeast of the city.
Although investigators do not suspect foul play in the deaths of the longtime Santa Fe residents, who over more than 30 years here became known for their involvement in the local cultural and business scenes, the circumstances of their deaths were “suspicious enough” to warrant a thorough search and investigation, according to law enforcement.
A search warrant affidavit filed by Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies offers scant answers to the question of what happened to the couple, who were both found dead along with one of their dogs inside their house just outside Santa Fe city limits Wednesday afternoon.
Betsy Arakawa and Gene Hackman at the Academy Awards – 2003
The bodies of Hackman, 95, and Arakawa, 65, were each found lying on the floor in separate rooms of their Hyde Park-area home, the affidavit says, and one of their three dogs was found dead in a kennel or crate in the closet, Sheriff Adan Mendoza told CBS. The door to the home was ajar.
It was five years ago that Ahmaud Arbery, a young black jogger, was shotgunned to death in cold blood by two white men, father and son as he jogged through a white neighborhood in Georgia as they tried to make a vicious and without justification Citizen’s Arrest.
The two men, father and son, were convicted of murder and sentenced to long prison terms.
This image from video posted on Twitter shows Ahmaud Arbery running on a street in a neighborhood outside Brunswick, Ga., on Feb. 23, 2020, as a pickup truck is stopped in front of him. Two men in the truck, Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory McMichael, confronted Arbery and less than a minute later he was fatally shot. (Twitter via AP)
After this abhorrent and vicious abuse of Georgia’s Citizen’s Arrest statute the state changed its draconian Citizen’s Arrest statute.
Sadly, California which labels itself as enlightened still has its heavy handed Citizen’s Arrest statute on the books.
Excerpted from Atlanta News First 2.23.2025
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Sunday marks the fifth anniversary of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder.
Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was chased down by three white men while he was jogging in southeast Georgia on Feb. 23, 2020.
According to investigators, father and son Greg and Travis McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan grabbed their firearms and chased Arbery down in the street, shot and killed him, after confronting him about recent burglaries in the area.
The Georgia General Assembly declared Feb. 23 as “Ahmaud Arbery Day.” As part of the resolution, state representatives encourage people to walk or run 2.23 miles on that day and reflect on how Arbery’s life was cut short while jogging in 2020.
Clarksdale, Mississippi Press Register crushed in the Courtroom
A Mississippi judge ordered a newspaper to remove an editorial criticizing the mayor of Clarksdale and city leaders after the officials sued the news outlet, leading press advocates to criticize the order as one of the most egregious First Amendment violations in recent years.
Charlie Mitchell is the former executive editor of the Vicksburg Post and an attorney. He is a assistant professor at the University of Mississippi’s School of Journalism and New Media, where he has taught media law for years. He told Mississippi Today there were so many issues with the judge’s order that he didn’t even “know where to start.”
“The First Amendment allows restraint of expression, including by the media, only extremely rarely and only when there is clear evidence of immediate and irreparable risk to the public — such as blocking publication that would identify confidential informants,” Mitchell said.
Hinds County Chancellor Crystal Wise Martin issued a temporary restraining order against the Clarksdale Press Register
Without a hearing for the newspaper, Hinds County Chancellor Crystal Wise Martin issued a temporary restraining order against the Clarksdale Press Register on Tuesday after the news outlet wrote a Feb. 8 editorial titled “Secrecy, Deception Erode Public Trust.”
The column criticized the city for not sending the newspaper a notice about a meeting city commissioners held over a proposed effort to ask the state Legislature for permission to enact a local tax on alcohol, marijuana and tobacco.
As of Thursday morning, the news outlet had removed the editorial from its website, but Wyatt Emmerich, the newspaper’s owner, told Mississippi Today that he intended to fight the judge’s order in court, which he called “absolutely astounding.”
The United States Supreme Court in the famous New York Times v. Sullivan has stood strongly for the right to publish without interference of censorship by government authorities.
Adam Steinbaugh, a lawyer at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which supports free speech, criticized the city’s lawsuit, writing on social media that it was “wildly unconstitutional.”
He said that governments “can’t sue for libel” under New York Times v. Sullivan, the landmark First Amendment decision issued by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1964.
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964), was a landmarkU.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled the freedom of speech protections in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution limit the ability of a public official to sue for defamation.[1][2] The decision held that if a plaintiff in a defamation lawsuit is a public official or candidate for public office, then not only must they prove the normal elements of defamation—publication of a false defamatory statement to a third party—they must also prove that the statement was made with “actual malice“, meaning the defendant either knew the statement was false or recklessly disregarded whether it might be false.[2]New York Times Co. v. Sullivan is frequently ranked as one of the greatest Supreme Court decisions of the modern era.[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._Sullivan
The Wall Street Journal buried the lede in its recent feature about the home insurance industry in California concentrating on the financial lossesincurred by State Farm, “the nation’s largest home- and auto-insurance company, with more than 90 million customers nationwide.”
To mitigate these losses State Farm has cancelled thousands of home insurance policies in California. In a move to protect its bottom line.
Percentage of insurance policies State Farm said last year it would not renew, by ZIP Code – The range is <5 percent in the lighter colors to > 50 percent in the darker colors
The reality is quite different as a deep dive into the WSJ piece clearly indicates. The truth about State Farm’s financial solvency can be found. It is buried deep in the investigative report.
Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 2.6.2025
State Farm, the nation’s largest home- and auto-insurance company, with more than 90 million customers nationwide and a million home policies in California, has a strong credit rating and a surplus of well over $100 billion.
The California unit, by contrast, was heavily in the red even before the latest fires. Over the past nine years, it has spent $1.26 for every dollar collected in premiums, resulting in over $5 billion in underwriting losses, the insurer said last Monday.
Consumer advocates said they believe State Farm may be exploiting the separation between the California subsidiary and the parent company to make the unit appear distressed and alone—rather than part of an extremely healthy national insurer—and so bolster its rate demands.
A burning house in Pacific Palisades last month.
“Chicken Little in Bloomington will tell you that the sky is falling,” said Douglas Heller, director of insurance at the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer-advocacy group, referring to the insurer’s national headquarters in Illinois.
A State Farm spokesman said the company “strongly disagrees” with any suggestion of financial engineering.
“Chicken Little in Bloomington will tell you that the sky is falling.”
State Farm reorganized in 1998 to silo its subsidiary that sells home-insurance in California—called State Farm General Insurance. The company created a similar structure for its Florida home-insurance subsidiary, which operates in risky, hurricane-prone coastal areas. The Florida subsidiary threatened to leave that state in 2009 before dropping tens of thousands of policyholders in hurricane-prone areas. State Farm is a mutual company, owned by its policyholders, which uses a series of subsidiaries to sell insurance and investment products.
Meanwhile, industry representatives have argued in favor of the rate increases in California, saying consumers would suffer if the company collapsed. “This is a very serious situation. We want the market leader to stay,” said Rex Frazier, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California, which represents State Farm and other insurers. “How much more serious does it have to get before people will approve the rate increase needed?”
Regulators have pushed back on State Farm’s previous demand for a 30% increase. Among their questions to the insurer, according to state filings: Given its claims of financial distress, does it plan to cut bonuses for executives? Or commissions for agents? State Farm responded no to both queries, according to the filings.
The first day of The Year of the Snake is not a happy one for San Francisco political rabble rouser Man Kit Lam.
Kit Lam is out of Mayor Daniel Lurie’s administration after less than a month.
San Francisco Chronicle page one announcing Kit Lam’s “joining” Daniel Lurie’s mayoral campaign. March 12, 2024
Last March it was all smiles as then candidate Levi Strauss & Co. scion Daniel Lurie brought Kit Lam aboard as a liaison to the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.
After Lurie’s victory in the Mayoral election last November, Kit Lam joined the incoming administration. It was a short lived tenure in the Mayor’s office.
His fate with Daniel Lurie is similar to that of his brief tenure with Supervisor Joel Engardio. Kit Lam managed Engardio’s 2022 successful Supervisorial campaign. He then came on as one of Engardio’s legislative aides. He left after a year.
Supervisor Joel Engardio and Kit Lam
At the time Kit Lam left Supervisor Engardio’s employ I was told he had a difficult working relationship with fellow legislative aides in City Hall. Then Mayor London Breed’s office also had a difficult time working with Kit Lam.
In both instances, Kit Lam said publicly he left for “personal reasons” and said he still supported both his former employers.
During 2021 and 2022 Kit Lam was active in the successful campaigns to Recall three School Board members and District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
Man Kit Lam, campaign manager for D4 supervisor candidate Joel Engardio, argues with Rev. Amos Brown of the NAACP at SFUSD Headquarters at 555 Franklin Street in San Francisco, Calif., on June 22, 2022, regarding Lowell High School admissions. | Camille Cohen/The Standard
Prior to entering the electoral arena Kit Lam did investigative work for the San Francisco school board. He was laid off several years ago.
In Hong Kong Kit Lam worked for law enforcement.
Top photo. Jason Kruta and Kit Lam confront each in the San Francisco Richmond District other during the School Board Recall petition campaign in 2021.
San Francisco MSM trumpeted the settlement of Man Kit Lam’s civil law suit against Jason Kruta. The young man who briefly disrupted his successful campaign to recall three Progressive School Board members in February 2022. An act for which Jason Kruta was fired from his job and was criminally prosecuted. A prosecution which was not enough for vengeful Man Kit Lam. He sued Mr. Kruta in San Francisco Civil Superior Court.A lawsuit which concludedin 2023.
Lee's Perspective 