Bully Donald Trump escalates his war on the First Amendment.

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 7.15.2026 UPDATED

New York Times – 7.15.2026
Washington Post – 7.11.2026

Donald Trump wants nothing more than to stamp out the First Amendment.

This wannabe dictator will use his final 925 days in the White House unleashing the Department of Justice and abusing the levers of presidential power to stifle, harass and prosecute his political enemies by any means necessary.

First it was former national security advisor John Bolton who published “The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.” Bolton plead guilty to one charge against him and is looking at a 2.5M fine and five years prison time.

Now Trump is going after The New York Times

The media world needs to rise up and defend the right to free speech without being intimidated and bullied.

Prior Restraint by Government – Herblock in the Washington Post 1971 Pentagon Papers – Wikipedia

Excerpted from The New York Times 7.10.2026

The Trump administration issued subpoenas on Friday to several journalists for The New York Times, after the news outlet reported this week on security concerns involving President Trump’s new Qatari-donated Air Force One.

The smirking bully Trump

The Times journalists who received subpoenas included Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt, who reported on Wednesday that Mr. Trump had departed Turkey on the old Air Force One as a security precaution at the urging of the Secret Service. On Thursday, The Times reported that the new Air Force One, a Qatari-donated Boeing 747-8, lacked some of the advanced security features of the older aircraft, including antimissile capabilities. Both articles cited sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues.

The subpoenas — which seek to force the reporters to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan on Wednesday — were an extraordinary escalation in President Trump’s efforts to threaten and intimidate independent news organizations.

In some cases, the subpoenas were delivered by federal agents who showed up at reporters’ homes.

The Times denounced the administration’s actions.

“The appearance of federal law enforcement agents on the doorstep of news reporters should shock the conscience of any American who believes in the Constitution and the press freedom it protects,” said David McCraw, The Times’s top newsroom lawyer, in a statement on Friday evening.

How do Germans cope with having Nazi grandparents?

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 7.10.2026

Adolf Hitler perished in his bunker in bombed out Berlin over 81 years ago as the Russian closed in.

Hitler may be long gone physically but his insane 12 year Third Reich lives on. No more so than in the hearts and minds of the German public. Memorialized worldwide in countless historical works, fiction recreations, movies and documentaries.

It’s no surprise that Deutsche Welle would ask the question, “How do Germans cope with having Nazi Grandparents?” Leave it to the bureaucratic Germans to make publicly available online the names of Nazi party members. There were over 8,000,000 members.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 7.9.2026

Germany is now regarded abroad as a world leader in how to confront a country’s dark past. There are 100,000 Stolpersteine (“stumbling stones”) embedded in streets to commemorate the victims of National Socialism, a Holocaust memorial stands in the heart of Berlin, and schools place a particular focus on the Nazi era.

Since millions of NSDAP membership cards have been made available online, many Germans have been surprised to discover that their ancestors weren’t always as innocent as family stories had led them to believe.

“I always thought of my grandfather as a left-wing unionist, and now he’s turned up in the NSDAP database,” Hanno Dannenfeldt told DW. It was always said in the family that his paternal grandfather had clean hands.

Now that the National Archives of the United States has published its collection of National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) membership cards, Dannenfeldt is one of countless Germans eager to find out whether their relatives were members of the party that ruled Germany during the Nazi era from 1933 to 1945.

This has not been an easy task: The site is often inaccessible because of heavy traffic, and the user interface is difficult to navigate.

A German tool simplifies the search

The German weekly newspaper Die Zeit has developed a tool that simplifies the search. Users simply enter the name and perhaps the year and place of birth of a person — and the results appear immediately. These records are sure to be of interest to people in South America, as well: Many Nazis went into hiding there after World War II. However, a subscription is required to use the service.

What users find there can be painful. Often, it means suddenly looking at their families in a very different light. Memories of a loving grandfather who was always full of fun and energy can contrast sharply with evidence now presented in black and white that the very same grandfather was a member of the National Socialist Party.

After the war, few families spoke about the crimes of the Nazi era, let alone their own role in them. According to a study, more than two-thirds of Germans believe that their ancestors were not Nazis. Nearly 36% believe that their relatives were among the victims, and over 30% believe that their ancestors helped victims of the Nazis — for example, by hiding Jews.

But this can’t possibly be true. Only about 1% of Germans actively resisted. In 1945, one in five adult Germans was a member of the Nazi Party — which had a total of 8.5 million members — thereby lending their support, at least on paper, to that unjust system.

And yet, nationalism is on the rise in Germany again. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is gaining influence. Dannenfeldt wonders whether Germans might again embrace the justifications of the Nazi era. “Some people might think, ‘I’ll join the AfD and make a career for myself,’ he said. “When you realize that your own family didn’t put up much of a fight back then, it makes you think about just how great the danger is today, as well.” 

https://www.dw.com/en/how-do-germans-cope-with-having-nazi-grandparents/a-77886590

Nazi sentiment has always been widespread in America. Perhaps the most factual documentation is the Academy Award nominated “A Night at the Garden.” The Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in 1937.

Republicans ‘Own Goal’ funds Planned Parenthood

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 7.4.2026

In World Cup terminology the only way to describe it is an “Own Goal” by the Republican Congress for its failure to pass an extension of an abortion defunding bill.

In World Cup terminology the only way to describe it is an “Own Goal” by the Republican Congress for its failure to pass an extension of an abortion defunding bill.

The best event on the Fourth of July for the blogger is to learn that Planned Parenthood funding has been restored.

The anti-choice crowd is in an uproar. Having fully expect their reactionary allies in Congress would continue to do their bidding.

Pro-choice advocates have fought hard and need to remain vigilant. The foes of a woman’s right to control her body are relentless.

Excerpted from Politico 7.4.2026

Planned Parenthood’s beleaguered network of clinics will regain access to hundreds of millions in Medicaid funding this weekend — the fallout of Republicans’ failure to pass an extension of the one-year defunding provision they approved last year.

Though Republicans pushed last year to include a decade-long or even permanent defunding of Planned Parenthood in their megabill, a ruling from the Senate parliamentarian forced them to scale back to a one-year measure. Anti-abortion activists — who warned at the time that the GOP would struggle to pass an extension in the lead-up to the midterms — have demanded in vain that Republican leadership ignore or fire the parliamentarian in order to get it done.

Nora Walsh-DeVries, the vice president of political and legislative affairs for Planned Parenthood, said the past year of defunding caused “irreparable damage” to many communities where access to health services is already scarce.

The group reported this week that two-thirds of the health center closures occurred in rural areas, medically underserved areas, or areas with shortages of health workers. Across the national network, there were 250,000 fewer visits compared to the year before. And while nearly a dozen progressive-leaning states where abortion is legal, including California, Illinois, New York, and Massachusetts, dug into state coffers to backfill some of the lost funding, red states that prohibit the procedure did not, resulting in the shuttering of many facilities that only provided non-abortion services like contraception and pelvic exams.

A rally partcipant holds up a sign during the Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s Stand with Texas Women Rally at Discovery Green in Houston, Texas. The Rally highlighted the abortion restriction bill, House Bill 2 being Pushed in Austin. The Parenthood Action Fund will held the rally in Houston as part of the statewide Stand with Texas Women tour. Tuesday, July 9, 2013, in Houston. ( Billy Smith II / Chronicle )

Starting July 5, clinics around the country can once again bill the federal program for reimbursement after providing non-abortion services, like birth control and screenings for sexually-transmitted infections, to low-income patients.

Though other funding threats loom, it’s a lifeline for the struggling organization, which has closed nearly 30 health centers nationwide that collectively served more than 40,000 patients since the defunding provision in the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act took effect in July 2025.

Leaders of the anti-abortion movement say the restoration of taxpayer resources to one of the right’s longtime nemeses is an even bigger blow to voters’ morale than their other grievances with the Trump administration, such as its inaction on abortion pills, because they view it as backsliding on something already achieved.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/04/planned-parenthood-abortion-medicaid-congress-00985879

‘Mississippi Burning’ – You won’t see this cinema in the Trump era

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.30.2026

Mississippi Burning – Wikipedia

What’s happened to American edgy political film making? Hollywood has been cowed during the Trump regime and is afraid to speak of racism and violence on the screen.

The 1988 film ‘Mississippi Burning’ is the Hollywood telling of murders of three civil rights workers in Mississippi on June 21st 1964 and the subsequent investigation by the federal government.

‘Mississippi Burning’ is violent and political. Church burnings, lynchings and blatant racism.

The performance by Gene Hackman portraying a home grown FBI agent is arguably the strongest performance in the story of American racism and all its ugliness. Hackman was awarded the Silver Bear for best Actor at the 1989 Berlin Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award as best Actor.

The following clips from Mississippi Burning are vivid examples.

Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner – Wikipedia

On June 21, 1964, three civil rights movement activists, James ChaneyAndrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, were murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi by local members of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Earlier the same day they were arrested for speeding, and after being released were followed by local law enforcement and others affiliated with the authorities, all of whom were associated with the Klan.[1] After being followed for some time, the three were abducted by the group, brought to a secluded location, and shot and killed. They were then buried in an earthen dam. All three activists were associated with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) and its member organization, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). They had been working with the Freedom Summer campaign by attempting to register African Americans in Mississippi to vote.

Chaney was Black, and Goodman and Schwerner were both Jewish. The three men had traveled roughly 38 miles (61 km) north from Meridian, to the community of Longdale, Mississippi, to talk with congregation members of a Black church that had been burned; the church had been a center of community organization. The disappearance of the three men was initially investigated as a missing persons case. The burnt-out car the three were using was found parked near a swamp three days after their disappearance.[2][3] An extensive search of the area was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), local and state authorities, and 400 U.S. Navy sailors.[4] Their bodies were not discovered until seven weeks later, when authorities received a tip leading them to the remains of the three activists. During the investigation, it emerged that members of the Ku Klux Klan, the Neshoba County Sheriff’s Office, and the Philadelphia Police Department were involved in the incident.[1]

The murder of the activists sparked national outrage and an extensive federal investigation, filed as Mississippi Burning (MIBURN), which later became the title of a 1988 film loosely based on the events. In 1967, after the state government refused to prosecute those involved in the murders, the United States federal government stepped in and charged 18 individuals with civil rights violations. Seven were convicted and another pleaded guilty, and all received relatively minimal sentences. Outrage over the activists’ murder helped pass of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Forty-one years after the murders took place, one perpetrator, Edgar Ray Killen, was charged by the state of Mississippi for his part in the crimes, and in 2005 was convicted of three counts of manslaughter and was given a 60-year sentence.[5] On June 20, 2016, federal and state authorities officially closed the case. Killen died in prison in January 2018.

Smug and smiling in Mississippi – 1964

San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan on the precipice of power

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.17.2026

Connie Chan’s political opponents unfairly label her a “Progressive.” She is more than that deceptive label implies.

Connie Chan (politician) – Wikipedia

A label which is unfair to Connie. If fighting for the working class, affordable housing and health care as Chair of the Board of Supervisors budget committee then we should all be labeled “Progressives.”

Connie is a practical political policy driven operative who, during her nearly six years as a San Francisco Supervisor, has fought for practical solutions to everyday problems.

Connie Chan has come a long way since she eked out a 125 vote victory to be elected a San Francisco Supervisor in 2020.

Six years later congressional candidate Connie is on the precipice of power having finished second in the June 2nd election. Defeating self funded centimillionaire Saikat Chakrabarti who spent nearly 10M of his own money.

Now, Saikat has endorsed Connie and committed himself, along with his bankroll and campaign staff, to push Connie’s effort. She will need all the help available because her opponent, State Senator Scott Wiener, is the errand guy for the deep pockets real estate industry.

San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan speaks flanked by Mayor Daniel Lurie to her right at a press event in front of San Francisco City Hall on Oct. 29, 2025.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Examiner 6.17.2026

In a potential boon to San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan’s congressional campaign, centimillionaire Saikat Chakrabarti has endorsed her candidacy and is converting his campaign committee to support her against state Sen. Scott Wiener in the race to succeed U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a Chakrabarti spokesperson said.

Chakrabarti — who finished behind Chan in the June 2 primary election despite having loaned or contributed nearly $10 million of his own money to his campaign — changed the name of his election campaign committee to the SF Solidarity PAC, an independent-expenditure committee, according to federal filings.

The former candidate had made offers to about 220 campaign employees who could work on Chan’s behalf as part of the independent effort, said spokesperson Nate Albee.

With almost all of the ballots from the election counted Monday, Wiener — a former San Francisco supervisor and a state legislator of nearly 10 years — won first place, with 95,720 votes, or 40.73%. Pelosi’s 11th Congressional District covers all but a southern chunk of The City.

Chan — who got Pelosi’s coveted endorsement on May 18, late in the primary race — came in second place with 69,823 votes, or 29.71%. Chakrabarti came in third with 41,990 votes, or 17.87%.

The results showed Wiener was dominant in most of The City, but Chan was particularly strong in the heavily Asian American Richmond and Sunset districts, according to data on the website Election Map.

Centimillionaire Chakrabarti to fund operation backing Chan | Politics | sfexaminer.com

Supervisor Chan and supporters at a reelection rally in 2024

In addition to the Chakrabarti endorsement Connie Chan recently announced she has hired a powerful Union organizer as her campaign director, Rudy Gonzalez.

Rudy Gonzalez’s Endorsement of Connie Chan

Rudy Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council (SFBCTC), publicly backed Connie Chan in her campaign for the U.S. House seat vacated by Nancy Pelosi heritagereview.com.

Gonzalez’s endorsement came in the context of a high-stakes Democratic primary race in San Francisco’s 1st district, where Chan was competing against state Sen. Scott Wiener and tech entrepreneur Saikat Chakrabarti. While the California Democratic Party had endorsed Wiener, Chan secured backing from a wide coalition, including labor unions, former mayors, and other community organizations Mission Local.

When asked about the endorsement, Gonzalez did not frame it as the result of a public feud between Pelosi and Wiener, but he did note that “I don’t know if they have a relationship to speak of,” implying a lack of personal connection between the two heritagereview.com. This comment underscored the political dynamics at play — Pelosi had bypassed her own party’s front-runner to choose Chan, and Gonzalez’s support aligned with the broader labor and progressive base that had rallied behind her.

Gonzalez’s role as head of the SFBCTC, one of the largest and most influential unions in San Francisco, gave his endorsement significant weight. His backing reinforced Chan’s position as a candidate with strong labor support, which has been a cornerstone of her campaign messaging occupysf.net.

In sum, Rudy Gonzalez’s endorsement of Connie Chan was both a labor union endorsement and a strategic political move, adding to Chan’s coalition of support in a competitive race.

Top photo: Connie Chan cited by San Francisco Police at a May Day 2026 protest at San Francisco International Airport

If Trump gets his way Team USA will not be enjoying the World Cup

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.15.2026

Trump’s anti-immigrant crusade may snag its biggest prize. The current star of the American soccer world.

Team USA stunned its fans and media pundits when it soundly defeated Paraguay4-1 in its opening World Cup match last Friday in SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The most goals ever scored by America in a World Cup game.

The man responsible for this feat is Folarin Balogun, the 24 year old Nigerian who earned “Birthright Citizenship” when his pregnant mother was obliged to stay in New York City during her pregnancy. Medical authorities told her it was unsafe to return to Nigeria. Folarin was born on July 23, 2001 and became an American citizen.

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

Now Donald Trump is attempting to take away Birthright Citizenship which was deemed legal in 1898. The Supreme Court heard arguments months ago and will soon issue its Decision. United States v. Wong Kim Ark – Wikipedia

United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), is a landmark decision[3] of the Supreme Court of the United States which held that “a child born in the United States, of parents of Chinese descent, who, at the time of his birth, are subjects of the Emperor of China, but have a permanent domicile and residence in the United States, and are there carrying on business, and are not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China” became “at the time of his birth a citizen of the United States by virtue of the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.”[1]

Wong Kim Ark was the first Supreme Court case to decide on the status of children born in the United States to alien parents. This decision established an important precedent in its interpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.[3]

Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco, had been denied re-entry to the United States after a trip abroad, under the Chinese Exclusion Act, a law banning virtually all Chinese immigration and prohibiting Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens. He challenged the government’s refusal to recognize his citizenship, and the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, holding that the Citizenship Clause should be interpreted “in light of the common law”.

Excerpted from The Hill 6.15.2026

U.S. men’s soccer striker Folarin Balogun scored two goals in the Americans’ victorious opener of the FIFA World Cup on Friday, a performance that would not have occurred had his mother not traveled to the U.S. just before he was born. 

Folarin Balogun scores for Team USA in the World Cup in Los Angeles – 6.12.2026

The performance has also put President Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship back in the spotlight. A challenge to Trump’s executive order ending the policy is before the Supreme Court

Balogun’s mother, Florence Balogun, traveled to New York while she was seven months pregnant with the future soccer star in 2001. Florence Balogun and her husband, Ben Balogun, were born in Nigeria and lived in London at the time. 

While Florence Balogun was at the airport to head back to England, airline employees refused to allow her to fly — saying she was too pregnant, according to an ESPN profile of her son from 2023.

As a result, she stayed with her sister-in-law in Brooklyn and gave birth to Folarin in America on July 3, 2001, ESPN reported. Nearly 22 years later, and despite coming up in the Arsenal academy and playing for England’s under-17, under-18 and under-21 teams, Folarin Balogun decided to play for the U.S. senior national team.

That decision paid off on his World Cup debut, as the 24-year-old scored the second and third goals of the Americans’ 4-1 victory over Paraguay on Friday. The win marked the most goals the U.S. has ever scored in a single World Cup game, and it’s one more than the three goals it netted in the entire 2022 tournament.

But if the Supreme Court were to rule in favor of the president on birthright citizenship, Folarin Balogun may not be able to play for the U.S. 

The president’s executive order, which he signed on his first day back in office, stated that the 14th Amendment “has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.” 

Netanyahu needs to stop his whining and kvetching.

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.15.2026

Netanyahu needs to stop his whining and kvetching. Much of the World is totally disgusted with what this Guy is doing to the historic reputation of Israel.

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 6.15.2026

Israel Is Alarmed by Trump’s Deal With Iran

A man waves a Hezbollah flag in Tehran on Sunday. Vahid Salemi/Associated Press

Critics say the deal eases pressure on Tehran too soon, while others say it shows the war was a mistake

TEL AVIV—President Trump’s deal to wind down the war with Iran set off alarm bells in Israel, where top officials are wrestling with the consequences of easing the pressure on Tehran and the risks of opening a rift with the U.S. over the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

It is a harsh comedown from Israeli hopes that the war would bring fundamental change to the region by toppling or crippling the Iranian regime and paving the way to diplomatic relations with more of Israel’s Arab regional counterparts under an American security umbrella, said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington.

The tension has been heightened by the lack of certainty about what exactly Trump has agreed to in the deal, which is expected to be signed later this week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was urgently trying to set up a meeting with the president to sort out the competing issues, a person familiar with the matter said. 

An Israeli strike over the weekend on Beirut in response to Hezbollah attacks on Israel almost derailed the agreement and set off a last-minute scramble by the White House and mediators to keep the deal on track.

Trump criticized the strike in an interview with The Wall Street Journal and said on social media that Israel had to stop its attacks across Lebanon. That was at odds with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement earlier in June that only required Israel to end the fighting if Hezbollah also stopped. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the U.S. was on the hook to end Israel’s attacks and aggression in Lebanon, state media reported.

Defying those claims, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military would hold its so-called security zone in Lebanon indefinitely, saying it was needed to protect communities in northern Israel. He also said Israel would act independently to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons if necessary. 

Israel is concerned that Trump has agreed to a deal that could provide Tehran with the financial relief it needs to rebuild its shattered economy but doesn’t include a commitment to turn over its enriched uranium.

Trump’s 80th birthday ‘Cage Fight’ as G7 protesters police clash in Geneva

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.14.2026

It figures that the G7 would be postponed for a day to accommodate Donald Trump’s 80th birthday 60M cage fight match in front of the White House.

The 52nd G7 Summit is a scheduled annual summit of the G7 to be held from 15 to 17 June 2026 in Évian-les-BainsHaute-Savoie, France.[1][2]

The summit had initially been announced for 14-16 June 2026, but was later moved by one day to 15-17 June, to avoid a clash with US president Donald Trump‘s birthday.[5]

Évian-les-Bains previously hosted the 29th G8 summit in 2003. The 2026 summit will therefore make Évian the first French town to host a G7 or G8 leaders’ summit twice.[2][3]

Background

The summit is being held on the French shore of Lake Geneva, close to the border with Switzerland. As several delegations are expected to arrive through Geneva Airport, the event requires security coordination between France, Switzerland and the Swiss cantons of GenevaVaud and Valais.[4]

French president Emmanuel Macron made the reduction of global economic imbalances a priority for France’s G7 presidency, citing industrial overcapacity, underinvestment, excessive debt, deregulation and low private investment in developing countries among the threats to economic stability.[6]

Deutsche Welle 6.14.2026

52nd G7 summit – Wikipedia

Protesters in Geneva clashed with police, set a car on fire and smashed the windows of a bank to show their opposition to the G7 G7 – Wikipedia summit taking place across the border in France.

Clashes broke out between protesters and police near the United Nations (UN) building in Geneva on Sunday on the eve of the G7 summit in the nearby French resort town of Evian.

Leaders from the Group of Seven wealthy nations, including US President Donald Trump, are set to gather in Evian on Monday for a three-day meeting.

The demonstration was taking place in Geneva because France refused to issue permits for protests near the G7 summit venue, the Geneva city government said.

Macron and Trump. Who’s the puppet?

Demonstrators threw bottles, stones and firecrackers at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons.

Witnesses cited by the AFP and Reuters news agencies said protesters targeted the offices of the UN’s telecommunication building and threw flares as police tried to clear them from the site.

Thousands of security personnel were deployed in Geneva, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Evian, ahead of the protest organized by an anti-G7 coalition. 

G7 protest not allowed in France

Some 20,000 people gathered for a march that began peacefully in the early afternoon before violence broke out.

Some protesters tore down the plywood panels fitted to protect shopfronts and smashed windows, pelted projectiles at police, and set a Tesla on fire.

Protests are common at G7 gatherings, with demonstrators at the summits often voicing anger over capitalism, globalization, inequality and other issues.

The agenda is expected to be dominated by wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.

https://www.dw.com/en/police-fire-tear-gas-at-anti-g7-protesters-in-geneva/a-77548464

Trump DOJ wants prison time for the former adviser John Bolton

 SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.4.2026

The blogger is no fan of John Bolton.

It’s a scary notion that a well respected government official can be persecuted for exercising his right to free speech.

The arch conservative when it comes to American hegemony. I have seen him appear on The News Hour, Deutsche Welle and the BBC. I have read his writings in Foreign Affairs magazine and The Wall Street Journal.

I certainly disagree with John Bolton on his Hawkish views regarding American hegemony. But nobody can question his integrity, sincerity or convictions.

Bolton is being unfairly persecuted by Donald Trump’s Department of Justice. The convicted felon President doesn’t like what he wrote in his book, ‘The Room Where It Happened’ The Room Where It Happened – Wikipedia after leaving the White House during his first term.

The entire Editorial in the Wall Street Journal can be found by accessing the following link.

John gives Trump the Eye

President Trump may hate being the target of lawfare, but he sure knows how to wield it against anyone who crosses him.

That’s the story of John Bolton, his former national security adviser, who is agreeing to a plea deal essentially for the sin of writing a critical book about his time advising Mr. Trump.

The President has been determined to seek revenge against Mr. Bolton, who wrote his well-regarded memoir, “The Room Where It Happened,” based on his 17 months running the National Security Council in Mr. Trump’s first term.

Mr. Trump first tried and failed to block publication, then went to court to confiscate the royalties. He lost that fight too. But on Mr. Trump’s return to office, his Justice Department charged Mr. Bolton with a coercive 18-count indictment for keeping diary notes on a home computer that included “national defense information.”

Mr. Bolton has now decided to plead guilty to a single felony count for retaining classified information. He will pay a $2.5 million fine, which is best understood as an attempt to deny Mr. Bolton the earnings from the book.

Like most similar defendants, Mr. Bolton had little choice.

Rail travel is the SMART trip. North Bay voters just said YES for 30 more years

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.3.2026

It is very reassuring to know that voters in Marin and Sonoma County have overwhelmingly endorsed the SMART train which currently runs from Larkspur in Marin to the far reaches of Sonoma County.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonoma%E2%80%93Marin_Area_Rail_Transit

At a time when voters in car centric America are loath to fund public transit the results coming from Marin and Sonoma Counties prove that voters appreciate the value of sustainable passenger rail travel.

Perhaps North Bay voters have experienced rail travel outside the United States where public transit is an essential part of daily life.

The blogger can only bemoan the sordid history of how the automobile industry worked hard to destroy public transit in the United States. (see attached link).

https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/demise-american-public-transportation/183456

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle and Marin Independent Journal 6.3.2026

SMART’s (Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit) critical sales tax extension rode to passage Tuesday.

Officials in the public transportation world have something to cheer about andare trying to remain optimistic, pointing to a SMART train sales tax extension on Tuesday that won 70% of the vote in Marin and Sonoma counties.

To many observers, it demonstrates not only that residents value transit but that they view SMART as a centerpiece for a new wave of development.

With 100% of precincts reporting, results from Marin show 70.25% of voters in favor and 29.75% opposed. In Sonoma County, with 72% of precincts reporting, returns showed 70.44% voted yes and 29.56% were opposed.

Measure B renewed the quarter-cent sales tax for 30 years. The tax generates about $51 million annually for SMART, equal to more than half of its annual operating budget.

Marin County has 173,082 registered voters, while there are 319,260 in Sonoma County.

The citizens’ initiative required a simple majority vote to win, as opposed to a traditional two-thirds threshold. If the measure had failed, the existing tax would have expired on June 30, 2029.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with the results we’re seeing right now,” said Suzanne Smith, chair of the SMART initiative committee.

“I think it’s a testament to SMART as an organization and the services they provide to the community,” said Smith, a former executive director of the Sonoma County Transportation Authority. “We, as a committee, were lucky enough to have such a great project to sell to voters, to tell voters about, and voters see that value, so we’re pretty excited.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/smart-tax-renewal-measure-heading-toward-passage/ar-AA24ILgV?ocid=BingNewsSerp