Tag: news

Pathetic SF motorists sink to the depths of Recall selfishness

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 12.3.2024

PATHETIC LOSERS ALL OF YOU.

My message to the group of San Francisco west side spoiled rotten entitled motorists who are starting a Recall petition against Supervisor Joel Engardio.

Sore losers. All of them. Unhappy and refusing to accept the fact that the voters Citywide approved Proposition K on November 5th, 2024 with a 55 percent majority.

The creation of a Great Highway Park along the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco.

“Your involvement means the world to us, and we’re so grateful to have you on board. Together, we can make a real difference for District 4 and all of San Francisco.” The so called “world” is that of the spoiled entitled motorists. A group of sore losers who refuse to accept the 55 percent YES Citywide vote on Prop K..If you are unhappy with Joel Engardio vote him out in 2026. This misguided waste of taxpayer money when the City is staring down an 800M deficit is selfishness personified.

Quoted Language in blue border from the Recall website  recallengardio.com and my response in the email seeking support for the Supervisor Joel Engardio Recall

Excerpted from the San Francisco Standard 12.3.2024

A group of Sunset residents is launching a campaign to recall Supervisor Joel Engardio over his support of Proposition K, the ballot measure to close part of the Great Highway that was successful in the November election but roundly rejected by his district constituents.

A recall petition letter, filed Tuesday morning with the Department of Elections, accuses Engardio of violating his “campaign promises of transparency” and betraying voters in his district. 

Prop. K passed with 55% of the vote. But on the west side, including Engardio’s District 4, which encompasses the stretch of the coastal roadway affected by the measure, 64% voted against it.

About 80 residents signed the initial recall petition. The website recallengardio.com went live Monday night.

Supervisors Joel Engardio and Myrna Melgar at Prop K – Great Highway Park rally – 7.27.2024

Photos – Lee Heidhues

Politics by the Pacific. Chan win was driven by Car Centric Connie

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 11.20.2024

Chan acknowledged that her vocal opposition to Proposition K, a controversial ballot measure to close the Great Highway, may have helped her win by demonstrating to the district that she’s not an ideologue and will fight for the community. – SF Standard 11.18.2024

There’s no need for Connie “The Car” Chan to be shy. She drove her car to victory on election day.

During the past four years Connie has been the best friend of the entitled motorists in San Francisco.

Her car centric advocacy nearly destroyed JFK Promenade in 2022. Her strident opposition to Proposition K may have played well with her D1 constituents. Fortunately, 54.73 percent of the electorate citywide were having none of Connie’s car love and voted through Great Highway Park by 36,595 votes.

Advocates for the just enacted Great Highway Park need to be vigilant.  It’s safe to assume that Connie “The Car” Chan will do everything she can to ignore the will of San Francisco voters. Supervisor Chan will throw up every administrative roadblock at her disposal to impede the banishment of cars and slowdown implementation of Great Highway Park.

Connie the environmentalist in 2020

Artwork by Liz Heidhues

Reactionaries in Germany, Trump USA and my block in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 11.16.2024

A year ago we were in Berlin. Who would have thought that 12 months later Donald Trump would be preparing to move into the White House?

Liz and Lee in Potsdam, Germany November 2023

Who would have thought that the coalition government in Germany, which included the Green Party, would collapse?

German Green Party members in happier times

Well, it’s all happened. It’s fair to say arch conservative reactionaries are on the rise. It’s not a comforting thought for anyone who believes in personal freedom and the expectation to be free from the oppressors.

The reactionaries are rising in Germany, America and, perhaps, on my block in San Francisco. Where it pains me to write Trump got nearly 22 percent (179 votes) in my precinct.

Nobody is exempt from the rising tide of oppression.

US President Donald Trump holds up a Bible outside of St John’s Episcopal church across Lafayette Park in Washington, DC on June 1, 2020.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 11.7.2024

What now?

That was the question of the day after the collapse of the so-called traffic-light coalition — named for the colors of the three parties forming it: the center-left Social Democrats (red), the neoliberal Free Democrats (yellow) and the environmentalist Greens.

One day after the dramatic break-up, Chancellor Olaf Scholz‘s view was very different from that of the leaders of the center-right opposition, whose cooperation Scholz is seeking.

Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) – far right on the ascendency in Germany

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU) are not only the largest opposition bloc in the current parliament, they are also, according to current polls, most likely to emerge from new elections as the strongest force.

CDU leader Friedrich Merz who is tipped to become Germany’s next chancellor urged swift action. “The government no longer has a majority in the German Bundestag and so we have to call on the Federal Chancellor — with a unanimous decision by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group — to call a vote of confidence immediately, at the beginning of next week at the latest,” he said.

https://www.dw.com/en/political-wrangling-starts-after-german-coalition-collapse/a-70725678

Great Highway Park wins. I am relishing this moment of victory

SAN FRANCISCO – GREAT HIGHWAY PARK
Lee Heidhues 11.8.2024

I am beyond joyous that Proposition K which will see the creation of The Great Highway Park by the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco has been approved by a healthy majority of ALL the voters.

Liz and Lee at the kickoff for Proposition K – Great Highway Park – July 27, 2024

I will never stand down, will continue to fight and am relishing this moment of victory for a pedestrian, cyclist friendly San Francisco.

Victory of Proposition K is another affirmation that San Francisco voters can overcome the juvenile mentality of the spoiled rotten entitled motorists. Motorists who have fought viciously to protect their false sense of entitlement.

Two years ago these same dead enders with their false sense of car centric privilege waged a despicable campaign to stop JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park. Their effort to bring cars back to JFK Promenade, aided by over 800K in funding from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, was crushed. The voters said “We want this car free oasis” by a 63 percent YES margin.

Two years later these vitriolic motorists waged a war of threats and personal insult against Supervisor Joel Engardio who put Proposition K on the ballot. These motorists have no shame. Even now they pledge to continue their onslaught against all who oppose their selfishness.

Mayor London Breed, voted out of office this week, may have sacrificed her political career by advocating for JFK Promenade and The Great Highway Park. When the history of her tenure is written this environmental advocacy will be long remembered.

Liz and Mayor London Breed parley at the 4th Anniversary celebration of JFK Promenade. Were it not for Mayor Breed JFK Promenade would not be a reality today.

Personally, I have been ridiculed and vilified on social media for vigorously promoting the car free movement in San Francisco. The most egregious example being my banishment by Michael Durand, publisher of the Richmond Review for pushing back against the entitled motorists.

To celebrate this joyous moment I am including La Mer by Claude Debussy. Music Liz and I listened to 55 years ago when we lived on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Close by what is now The Great Highway Park.

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Chronicle gives Breed’s hand picked DA Jenkins election day pass

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 11.3.2024

San Francisco’s newspaper The Chronicle did not endorse DA Brooke Jenkins for reelection.

It’s lame coverage of the race for chief law enforcement officer in San Francisco is a de facto affirmation for this craven political creature.

Jenkins was Foisted into office by Mayor London Breed, the behind the scenes leader of the the 2022 Recall of DA Chesa Boudin.

The Chronicle has totally ignored the campaign of Jenkins opponent Ryan Khojasteh; the former assistant district attorney in the Boudin administration.

https://ryanforsfda.com/meetryan/

In its November 2nd piece on the DA race the Chronicle skates over the ethical lapses of DA Brooke Jenkins. Perhaps the most telling being the fact Jenkins called herself a “volunteer” during the Recall campaign. Only after the Recall did she admit to having been paid over 150K by the Recall funders for her “volunteer” political chores.

London Breed’s handpicked DA Brooke Jenkins called herself a “volunteer” after she resigned from DA Chesa Boudin’s office to work for his Recall. After the fact Jenkins admitted she was paid over 150K

Jenkins has refused to debate Ryan Khojasteh. Treating him in the most cavalier manner, dismissing his candidacy with the comment, “I don’t take Ryan to be a serious contender.”

During the 2022 election there was a debate at San Francisco State University with her foes. When pushed by people in the audience Jenkins, accompanied by her security detail, stormed out in a snit.

Brooke Jenkins at SFSU debate in 2022 moments before she stormed out of the event.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/2024-san-francisco-da-race-19877563.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL3BvbGl0aWNzL2FydGljbGUvMjAyNC1zYW4tZnJhbmNpc2NvLWRhLXJhY2UtMTk4Nzc1NjMucGhw&time=MTczMDY1NDY1MDc1OQ%3D%3D&rid=OTJhM2RhZWItNDMzYy00ZjMxLTgyMTQtZTU2ZjE2NDIzNDRl&sharecount=MQ%3D%3D

Brain Damage: The lunatic is in my head. Trump who would be POTUS

San Francisco

Lee Heidhues 10.8.2024

Election Day is 28 days away. So I gotta say it and play it.

“The Lunatic is (sadly) in my Head.”

Only in America.

The idea of this convicted felon and sociopath liar Donald Trump being President is incomprehensible. So, I gotta bury my fear and loathing accompanied by The Pink Floyd.

Lyrics

The lunatic is on the grass
The lunatic is on the grass
Remembering games
And daisy chains and laughs
Got to keep the loonies on the path

Bendi knows The lunatic is in the hall

The lunatic is in the hall
The lunatics are in my hall
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more

And if the dam breaks open many years too soon
And if there is no room upon the hill
And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon

The lunatic is in my head
The lunatic is in my head
You raise the blade
You make the change
You rearrange me ’til I’m sane
You lock the door
And throw away the key
There’s someone in my head, but it’s not me

And if the cloud bursts thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seems to hear
And if the band you’re in starts playing different tunes
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon

I can’t think of anything to say except, laughing is nice

A message to Donald Trump. Your Election Denier gets 9 years in jail

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 10.3.2024

Where is the Judge who will mete out a sentence to convicted criminal, liar and election denier Donald Trump???

When will the election deniers learn that doing Trump’s dirty work for him is a fools mission which will result in jail time?

Colorado Judge Matthew Barrett sentences former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters to nine years in prison

Excerpted from Colorado Public Radio 10.3.2024

Tina Peters is headed to prison.

The former Mesa County Clerk was sentenced to nine years of incarceration, most of which will be served in the Colorado Department of Corrections.

Convicted election denier Tina Peters in happier days

Peters was found guilty of three felony counts of attempting to influence a public servant and one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation. She was also convicted of first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty, and failure to comply with an order from the Secretary of State, all misdemeanors.

Her sentencing was handed down in a packed courtroom Thursday that included supporters of Peters, several uniformed sheriff’s deputies and local elected officials. Interested parties also gathered just outside the courtroom, streaming the proceedings on their phones from feet away. 

Peters was found guilty by a jury of Mesa County residents in August on seven counts, including four felonies after she helped facilitate unauthorized access to county voting equipment that she was supposed to safeguard. 

The Election Official Who Tried to Prove “Stop the Steal”
How a group of conspiracy theorists enlisted a county clerk in Colorado to find evidence that the 2020 vote was rigged. The New Yorker – September 7, 2022 https://www.newyorker.com/news/american-chronicles/the-election-official-who-tried-to-prove-stop-the-steal

During Thursday’s hearing, the prosecution argued that Peters should face the maximum penalty for each charge and said Peters should serve time in prison, noting her lack of contrition even after she was found guilty. 

“I don’t think anybody in this room would make a straight-faced argument that Mrs. Peters has demonstrated any respect for the law,” 21st Judicial District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said.  

https://www.cpr.org/2024/10/03/tina-peters-former-mesa-county-clerk-prison/