Tag: politics

Red baiting in New York City “It’s officially hot commie summer”

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.25.2025

The barons of the business world and the Felon Donald Trump are beside themselves angsting out over the prospect that a genuine, intelligent, charismatic newcomer could be the next Mayor of New York City.

In his first comments since Tuesday’s mayoral primary, President Trump called Zohran Mamdani “a 100% Communist Lunatic” while insulting his appearance, voice and intelligence. He added that Mamdani’s ascent was “a big moment in the History of our Country!”

The sense of the corporate freak out is already on full display in the mainstream media.

“It’s officially hot commie summer,” Dan Loeb, chief executive of hedge fund Third Point, and a major Andrew Cuomo backer, wrote on X.

Red baiting the NYC Mayoral candidate

The Red Scare label is sure to be the framework for the next several months. The corporate world, the Republicans and mainstream media work overtime to obliterate the candidacy of Zohran Mamdani. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zohran_Mamdani

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 6.25.2025

On Wednesday morning, the world’s epicenter of capitalism woke up to find it might soon have a socialist mayor.

Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s stunning win over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the New York City Democratic primary for mayor shocked Wall Street. Some of the world’s most influential and powerful financiers were left grasping to understand what Mamdani’s victory would mean for their industry—and whether they would leave the city.

Will Zohran Mamdani have the last laugh next November?

“It’s officially hot commie summer,” Dan Loeb, chief executive of hedge fund Third Point, and a major Cuomo backer, wrote on X.

Mamdani’s campaign was, up until a few weeks ago, a long shot. On Polymarket, which successfully predicted the outcome of the 2024 presidential election, Cuomo had odds as high as 92.5% on May 27. Negative ads against Mamdani paid for by Wall Street-funded super political-action committees, as well as also-ran candidate Whitney Tilson—himself an investor—blanketed airwaves and filled residents’ mailboxes. 

Mamdani’s platform includes increasing taxes on those making more than $1 million a year. He has said he would make the city more affordable by freezing rents on rent-stabilized apartments, investing $70 billion in publicly subsidized housing, providing free bus service and opening government-operated grocery stores.

Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani protesting the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/wall-street-panics-over-prospect-of-a-socialist-running-new-york-city-da7db7e4?st=7aMPXb&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Top photo: Zohran Mamdani like any solid New Yorker rides the subway.

Felon Trump Ends Protection for 58M Acres of National Forests

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.23.2025

While the Felon President Trump is waging war in the Middle East back home he is busy destroying decades of environmental protections. Protections backed by presidents of both parties.

Callous Trump doesn’t care. As long as his golf courses remain pristine playgrounds for his wealthy corporate bankrollers.

Excerpted from The New York Times 6.23.2025

The Trump administration said on Monday that it would open up 58 million acres of back country in national forests to road construction and development, removing protections that had been in place for a quarter century.

The unspoiled land in question includes Tongass National Forest in Alaska, North America’s largest temperate rainforest; Reddish Knob in the Shenandoah Mountains, one of the highest points in Virginia; and millions of acres of the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho.

“Most Americans value these pristine backcountry areas for their sense of wildness, for the clean water they provide, for the fishing and hunting and wildlife habitat,” said Chris Wood, the chief executive of Trout Unlimited, an environmental group.

When President Bill Clinton used executive authority to protect the forests weeks before leaving office in 2001, it was hailed by conservationists as the most significant step since President Theodore Roosevelt laid the foundation for the national forest system. It blocked logging, road building and mining and drilling on 58 million acres of the remaining undeveloped national forest lands.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced plans to repeal the 2001 “roadless rule” that had preserved the wild nature of nearly a third of the land in national forests in the United States. Ms. Rollins said the regulation was outdated.

“Once again, President Trump is removing absurd obstacles to common-sense management of our natural resources by rescinding the overly restrictive roadless rule,” Ms. Rollins said in a statement. She said the repeal “opens a new era of consistency and sustainability for our nation’s forests.”

Environmental groups said the plan could destroy some of America’s untouched landscapes and promised to challenge it in court.

Edvard Grieg memorialized the beautiful Norwegian landscape with his Peer Gynt suites. Trump wants to destroy America’s environmental legacy.

S.F. Supes committee names Police Commish after bruising hearing

SAN FRANCISCO CITY HALL – BOARD OF SUPERVISORS CHAMBERS

Lee Heidhues 6.16.2025

Everything is politics in San Francisco. Particularly when law enforcement is involved.

Today provided a vivid example of the political brawling involved in the selection of a panelist for the seven member Police Commission. Particularly when the Commission will be a major player in the selection of a new Chief of Police. Replacing eight year incumbent Bill Scott.

The Board of Supervisors Rules Committee heard a couple of hours of testimony.

People lined up to testify at the Rules Committee hearing.

The most graphic and political testimony was provided by Randy Shaw, Director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic a supporter of the eventual nominee Pratibha Tekkey; and Nancy Tung, Chairperson of the San Francisco Democratic Party, a supporter of Marjan Philhour.

Portions of the their respective testimony follow.

Randy Shaw – Director Tenderloin Housing Clinic – Pratihba Tekkey supporter spoke at the two hour: 35 minute: 50 second point in the televised hearing.

Randy Shaw – Director Tenderloin Housing Clinic – Pratihba Tekkey supporter in suit jacket waiting in line to speak. Sitting wearing glasses is Tracy McCray newly named SFPD “Commander” and currently President SF Police Officers Association.

“There has never been anyone from the Tenderloin on the Police Commission… Some people, including the head of the Democratic party Nancy Tung..if you don’t support Marjan you’re politicizing the process. But here we have the head of the Democratic Party in San Francisco doing more lobbying than anybody. That seems to be politicizing that which should be a non-political process. She also said that ‘everyday people’ support Marjan. I saw a lot of ‘everyday people here today. Everyday people who never come to City Hall to testify came out for Pratihba Tekkey.“

Nancy Tung – Career Prosecutor – Marjan Philhour supporter spoke at the two hour: 41 minute: 05 second point in the televised hearing.

Nancy Tung – Career Prosecutor – Marjan Philhour supporter

“I want to pull back the curtain a little bit. People want to think these actions of this committee are apolitical. The actions of this Board and these committees often times show they are not (apolitical). In 2020 I was nominated for Mayoral appointment not in competition with anyone else for this very commission and was voted down by a majority of the Board of Supervisors. Including (current) Board President Mandelman. Do I take offense to this? No. Because this is not a decision, a decision that happens in a vacuum. It is a political decision and I want people to understand that. Was it bonkers? Maybe to some. But more than anything else the vote was political.”

A link to the entire hearing is attached. Open the link and go to the RULES COMMITTEE 6.16.2025 meeting.

https://sfgovtv.org/recent-archives

https://www.ebar.com/story/155276/News/Mandelman%20becomes%20powerbroker%20in%20high-stakes%20police%20commission%20fight

Top photo: Rules Committee members Stephen Sherill; Shamann Walton; and Rafael Mandelman

MSM ignores S.F. DA Jenkins misconduct “It’s a pandemic over there.” 

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.23.2025

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins is a serial abuser of her office.

By and large San Francisco’s mainstream media has given this slick political operative a pass, instead giving big play to the successful prosecutions, while ignoring the dark underside of how Brooke Jenkins performs her job.

Her years shameful historical record of prosecutorial misconduct is well documented.

Brooke Jenkins history of prosecutorial misconduct started before she quit DA Chesa Boudin’s office in October 2021, labeled herself a “volunteer” (though she was being paid over 150K) and worked as a leader in his June 2022 Recall.

Brooke Jenkins, being rewarded for her political treachery, is sworn-in as District Attorney at City Hall in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, July 8, 2022. | Paul Kuroda for The Standard

Then being awarded for her political treachery by former Mayor London Breed. Selected as DA. Her incumbency has reeked of prosecutorial misconduct. Conduct which has resulted in several complaints lodged with the California State Bar.

The latest story in the Mission Local, a sordid tale which the mainstream media chooses to ignore is illustrative of this journalistic dereliction of its duty.

Excerpted from Mission Local 5.23.2025

The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office has, under Brooke Jenkins, made a “pattern and practice” of improperly withholding evidence in both misdemeanor and felony cases, the city’s public defenders assert. 

“That is the tip of the iceberg,” said Jacque Wilson, one of two misdemeanor managers at the public defender’s office. The 50 incidents of late discovery tracked by the public defender’s office is a conservative estimate, he said, since it only includes cases where public defenders are aware of a violation. “It’s a pandemic over there.” 

Under California law, prosecutors and defenders must disclose their evidence to one another at least 30 days before trial during the discovery process. This ensures the opposing side has enough time to review evidence before a court hearing.

But in a six-month period between Sept. 1, 2024 and Feb. 28, 2025, the public defender’s misdemeanor unit says it tracked 50 incidents of the district attorney’s office failing to turn over evidence on time. 

The DA has had some of this evidence “in their possession for weeks, if not months or years, before disclosure,” wrote assistant chief public defender Angela Chan in a document sent to the Bar last month and obtained by Mission Local.

At times, she added, evidence was withheld until the eve of a trial. And “in a number of egregious cases” important evidence was not disclosed until the middle of a trial, Chan wrote.

S.F. DA has ‘pattern and practice’ of withholding evidence, public defenders allege

Trump flunkies rip Germany for labeling neo-nazi AfD ‘extremist’

SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 5.3.2025

Felon fascist Donald Trump’s surrogate flunkies VP JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are interfering and lashing out at the German domestic intelligence Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV) agency after it labeled the Alternative for Deutschland “extremist.”

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (German: Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz or BfV, often Bundesverfassungsschutz) is Germany‘s federal domestic intelligence agency. Together with the Landesämter für Verfassungsschutz (LfV) at the state level, the federal agency is tasked with intelligence-gathering on efforts against the liberal democratic basic order, the existence and security of the federation or one of its states, and the peaceful coexistence of peoples; with counter-intelligence; and with protective security and counter-sabotage.[1] The BfV reports to the Federal Ministry of the Interior and tasks and powers are regulated in the Federal Constitutional Protection Act (Bundesverfassungsschutzgesetz (BVerfSchG)). The last President was Thomas Haldenwang; he had been appointed in 2018[2] and left office in November 2024. The next president is supposed to be assigned by a new government following the 2025 German federal election.[3] Excerpted from Wikipedia

That’s no surprise. Donald Trump is a kindred soul with dictators and the most incendiary, radical, far right political parties worldwide. During the recent German election campaign, Trump’s loudmouth cheerleader Elon Musk immersed himself in the effort to gain the Chancellorship for the AfD.

Felon fascist Trump is one of the most vilified and scorned people on the planet. The reputation of America as a beacon of enterprise and innovation is being destroyed by one man. Trump doesn’t care.

He’s a petty criminal despot who craves the attention. The Trump flunkies blast at Germany lays bare the extremist tenor of their leader’s mind.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 5.3.2025

Top-ranking officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration were quick to criticize Germany’s domestic intelligence agency BfV on Friday for designating the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as a “right-wing extremist” entity.

“The West tore down the Berlin Wall together. And it has been rebuilt — not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment,” VP JD Vance wrote on X.

In February, Vance met with AfD leader Alice Weidel in Munich after delivering a contentious speech at the Munich Security Conference in which he accused European nations of failing to defend free speech, calling out Germany in particular.

Vance complained that the AfD was being ostracized and called for it to end. The US vice president’s statements angered officials in Berlin.  

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also waded in on Friday, calling the AfD designation as a right-wing extremist outfit as “tyranny in disguise.”

“Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition,” Rubio said on X. “That’s not democracy — it’s tyranny in disguise.”

He said “Germany should reverse course.”

The BfV disagreed. The agency said the party’s positions on ethnicity were incompatible with democracy, noting that the AfD “aims to exclude certain population groups from equal participation in society.“

It also highlighted the party’s use of hateful rhetoric and incitement to undermine democratic institutions.

The BfV had previously designated several local AfD branches as right-wing extremist groups, but it now said it decided to give the entire party the label due to its attempts to “undermine the free, democratic” order in the country.

The designation gives authorities greater powers to monitor the party’s activities.

The AfD slammed the decision as “politically motivated.”

The AfD, founded in 2013, has surged in popularity over the past few years by capitalizing on fears over migration. It is now Germany’s largest opposition party, after securing over 20% of the vote in February’s election, a record result and behind only the center-right CDU/CSU bloc.

The AfD, however, remains excluded from government due to the other parties’ refusal to collaborate with it due to its extremist tendencies.

https://www.dw.com/en/us-criticizes-germany-for-labeling-afd-extremist/a-72423560

Judge ousted juror for refusal to convict. “I am not changing my mind.” 

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 4.7.2025

California criminal justice grinds slowly and not necessarily fairly. Particularly when the death penalty is at issue.

Why has it taken 16 years for the California Supreme Court to over turn a jury’s verdict now 16 years old?

Why did the trial Judge not declare a mistrial in 2009 when a holdout juror refused to convict?

Instead this Judge ousted the recalcitrant juror, empaneled an alternate juror who voted to convict. Kicking off a 16 year appeal process while the accused has languished behind bars since 2009.

What’s next? Another trial no doubt with witnesses whose memories have faded over time.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle – Bob Egelko – 4.3.2025

A California Supreme Court unanimously overturned Timothy Joseph McGhee’s convictions and death sentence for three gang-related killings in Los Angeles between 1997 and 2001. Prosecution witnesses said he had fatally shot members of rival gangs, while the defense said the witnesses had admitted being under the influence of alcohol and drugs and had been coached by prosecutors.

After three days of deliberations on his guilt, the court said, several jurors told the trial judge that another juror appeared to be incapable of making a fair decision, had expressed distrust of the police and had told them, “I am not changing my mind.” 

After speaking with other jurors, Superior Court Judge Robert Perry questioned the holdout juror, then removed him, saying he was biased and had refused to deliberate. He was replaced by an alternate juror who then joined unanimous verdicts for convictions and a death sentence.

In a unanimous ruling overturning the convictions and sentence, Justice Goodwin Liu said the juror’s stated refusal to change his mind about McGhee’s guilt did not amount to a refusal to deliberate, and he should have been allowed to remain on the jury.

The juror “was rejecting, not disregarding, the prosecution’s evidence, and the record as a whole indicates that his rejection was based on the evidence,” Liu said.

“There was an evidentiary basis for (the juror’s) concerns regarding the credibility of the witnesses who were central to the prosecution’s case,” Liu wrote. He said many of the prosecutions’ witnesses were current or former gang members, and some admitted having lied to the police.

McGhee, was initially convicted and sentenced in 2009 and who could still face death penalty charges from Los Angeles County’s newly elected district attorney, Nathan Hochman.

McGhee’s lawyer, Patrick Ford, said the ruling “sent the important message that our system won’t tolerate the removal of a dissenting juror,” especially one who was troubled by what Ford described as “massive police misconduct.”

Hochman’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case is People v. McGhee, S169750.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/rare-decision-california-supreme-court-tosses-20257596.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL2NyaW1lL2FydGljbGUvcmFyZS1kZWNpc2lvbi1jYWxpZm9ybmlhLXN1cHJlbWUtY291cnQtdG9zc2VzLTIwMjU3NTk2LnBocA%3D%3D&time=MTc0NDA4Njk0ODgxMA%3D%3D&rid=OTJhM2RhZWItNDMzYy00ZjMxLTgyMTQtZTU2ZjE2NDIzNDRl&sharecount=Mw%3D%3D

Talk about being nervy. SF DA Brooke Jenkins is shameless.

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 3.24.2025

Talk about being nervy and shameless. The current San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins is the same person who called herself a “volunteer” when in reality she was being paid over 150K as she joined the Recall against her one time boss Chesa Boudin.

This is the current DA who has been referred to the body which investigates prosecutorial misconduct for actions she took as an an assistant DA in San Francisco.

This is the current DA unhappy that a 15 year public defender and now Judge, was assigned to hear cases in criminal court. The Mission Local reported that the current DA has taken the virtually unheard of step challenging every criminal case to which this Judge is assigned.

This is the current DA who labeled legitimate protesters Hamas sympathizers when thousands marched on Market Street in October 2023.

“As San Francisco District Attorney it is my responsibility, and right, to share with the public the facts around what happens in criminal cases.  Although some judges on the bench may not like transparency around their decisions, San Franciscans have asked for, expect and deserve to know what is happening at the courthouse.” SF DA Brooke Jenkins

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 3.24.2025

LaDoris Cordell, retired Santa Clara County Superior Court judge and a prominent voice on criminal justice issues in the Bay Area, resigned from the San Francisco District Attorney’s Innocence Commission Monday.Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle 2021

Former Judge LaDoris Cordell, a prominent voice on criminal justice issues in the Bay Area, resigned from the San Francisco District Attorney’s Innocence Commission on Monday, blasting DA Brooke Jenkins’ criticism of local judges.

“The place for a prosecutor to disagree with a judge’s ruling is in the courtroom, not on social media and not in the streets, pandering to voters. …I cannot continue to associate myself with the office of a District Attorney who so flagrantly disrespects our judiciary.”

“I cannot continue to associate myself with the office of a District Attorney who so flagrantly disrespects our judiciary,” Cordell said in a letter to the commission’s chairwoman, Lara Bazelon.

She referred to Jenkins’ recent assertion that a majority of San Francisco judges “do not treat drug dealing as a serious crime.” When a judge sentenced a convicted auto burglar to four months in jail, Jenkins said local judges were allowing criminals “to use this courthouse as a revolving door.”

DA Brooke Jenkins. Catapulted into office by former Mayor London Breed.

In another case, Jenkins’ office recommended a felony prison sentence for a minor theft by a man who had a previous felony conviction, but Judge Gerardo Sandoval imposed a misdemeanor sentence punishable by no more than a year in jail. Jenkins accused the judge of ignoring not only her office but also “the clear will of the voters” who had passed Proposition 36 last November, allowing — though not requiring — prison terms in such cases.

Last year, Jenkins joined a protest by Asian Americans outside the courthouse of Superior Court Judge Kay Tsenin, who had suspended a sentence for a man who had stabbed a 94-year-old Asian woman on the street. Tsenin found that the defendant was mentally disturbed and ordered him to undergo five years of treatment after releasing him from jail, where he had spent 2 ½ years.

Last year, Jenkins joined a protest by Asian Americans outside the courthouse of Superior Court

After the protest, Cordell said, Tsenin received death threats and was forced to hear cases remotely rather than in her courtroom.

“Judicial independence is the hallmark of a democracy. Anyone who has graduated from law school knows this, which is why District Attorney Jenkins’ recent and scathing public attacks on judges are shameful and unethical,” she said in her resignation letter.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/retired-judge-blasts-da-jenkins-criticisms-s-f-20238988.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL3BvbGl0aWNzL2FydGljbGUvcmV0aXJlZC1qdWRnZS1ibGFzdHMtZGEtamVua2lucy1jcml0aWNpc21zLXMtZi0yMDIzODk4OC5waHA%3D&time=MTc0Mjg4MzYzOTc5NA%3D%3D&rid=OTJhM2RhZWItNDMzYy00ZjMxLTgyMTQtZTU2ZjE2NDIzNDRl&sharecount=MQ%3D%3D

Brazen acts of free speech. “Speech alone cannot be a crime.”

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 3.18.2025

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. 

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/hamas-flag-san-carlos-20228183.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL2JheWFyZWEvYXJ0aWNsZS9oYW1hcy1mbGFnLXNhbi1jYXJsb3MtMjAyMjgxODMucGhw&time=MTc0MjM1NzE4ODU3MQ%3D%3D&rid=OTJhM2RhZWItNDMzYy00ZjMxLTgyMTQtZTU2ZjE2NDIzNDRl&sharecount=MA%3D%3D

Nazi Trump burns Voice of America. “Massive gift to USA enemies”

UPDATE

Lee Heidhues 3.20.2025

Wall Street Journal editorial – 3.20.2025

The reaction to Nazi Felon Trump’s dismantling of Voice of America has been Swift. Regrettably, Trump will get away with this blatant censorship. And there’s more to come.

A headline from Trump’s first term in 2017. I knew eight years ago it would get worse.

Al Jazeera headline 3.18.2025

Chinese state media revel in demise of Voice of America, Radio Free Asia

Shutdown of US-funded news outlets ends more than 80 years of uncensored news broadcasts in China.

Lee Heidhues 3.15.2025

Step by step the felon Nazi Donald Trump is destroying the free press. Just like Adolf Hitler did in Germany shortly after he became Chancellor in 1933. Are books next?

Book burning in Nazi Germany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Empty_Library

On April 6, 1933, the Nazi German Student Association’s Main Office for Press and Propaganda announced a nationwide initiative “against the un-German spirit”, climaxing in a literary Säuberung, or cleansing, by fire.[2] Local chapters of the group were charged with the distribution of literary blacklists that included Jewish, Marxist, Socialist, anti-family, and anti-German literature and planned grand ceremonies for the public to gather and dispose of the objectionable material.[3]

In Berlin, the German Student Union organized the celebratory book burnings that took place on May 10, 1933, on a dreary, rainy evening.[2] 40,000 people crowded into the Opernplatz (as it was then known) as 5,000 German students proceeded past them, holding burning torches to ceremonially ignite the pile of books seized for the event.[4] Joseph Goebbels, Germany’s Reich Minister of Propaganda, spoke at the event, declaring that “the era of exaggerated Jewish intellectualism is now at an end… and the future German man will not just be a man of books… this late hour [I] entrust to the flames the intellectual garbage of the past.”[3][5] Thirty-four additional book burnings took place across Germany that month.[3]

Excerpted from France 24 3.15.2025

The head of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which started broadcasting into the Soviet bloc during the Cold War, called the cancellation of funding “a massive gift to America’s enemies.”

Nazis burning Books – May 10, 1933

“The Iranian ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years,” its president, Stephen Capus, said in a statement.

Hundreds of reporters and other staff at VOA, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe and other outlets received a weekend email saying they will be barred from their offices and should surrender press passes, office-issued telephones and other equipment.

Trump, who has already eviscerated the US aid agency and Education Department, on Friday issued an executive order listing the US Agency for Global Media as among “elements of the federal bureaucracy that the president has determined are unnecessary.”

Kari Lake, a firebrand Trump supporter and former Arizona news anchor who was put in charge of the media agency after she lost a US Senate bid, wrote — in an email to media outlets she supervises — that federal grant money “no longer effectuates agency priorities.”

A White House press official, Harrison Fields, took a much less legalistic tone in a post on X, simply writing “goodbye” in 20 languages, a sarcastic jab at VOA’s multilingual coverage.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250315-trump-freezes-voa-radio-free-asia-radio-free-europe

Top photo: President Dwight Eisenhower speaks on Voice of America – circa 1950’s

Putin justice. Russian journalists face major jail time in the Gulag

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 3.13.2025

UPDATE

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

https://www.dw.com/en/undue-process-russian-journalists-await-verdict-in-moscow/a-71901887