The French like nothing more than a good riot. Some of us remember May, 1968, when general strikes, university sit-ins and widespread civic mayhem almost brought that country to the edge. Now, theyre at it again. Whatare the French upset about this time? Just about everything, which makes it hard to Macron to figure out […]

NINETEEN YEARS AGO Bill Clinton was impeached for saying I did not have sex with that woman when everybody knew he did. Now we have Trump insisting I did not collude with the Russians when everyone knows he did.  Clinton, famously, was impeached. And Trump?  For three yearsone year of primaries and two years of […]

There could be a huge, unpleasant surprise at the end of this. Remember, Trump surprised us all on Election Day of 2016 when, with Putins help, and Republican voter suppression efforts, he actually won. Is he capable of surprising us again, by being let off scot-free by the Special Counsel? Like the rest of you, […]

  The Bush family made sure Trump kept his mouth shut at yesterdays memorial service for George H.W., at Washingtons National Cathedral. Has there been any service for a deceased president in our nations entire history, when a sitting president was not allowed to deliver public remarks? I can find none. And then there was […]

  March 18, 2021 The White House today released details of the upcoming Trial of Republicans for Sedition, to begin on June 1. The Great Hall of the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice, from where so many momentous announcements have been made, has been selected as the Trial Courtroom for the prosecution of Republicans […]

  I receive quite a few comments from rightwingers about things Ive written in my blog. The majority of these are along the lines of trump* is your president, get used to it. But what does my president mean? Its true that, technically, trump took the oath of office in January, 2017, and is currently […]

  Frontline, the pioneering PBS documentary series, recently aired an episode, New American Nazis, that shows in terrifying detail how white supremacist-fascist-neo-nazis are attempting to infiltrate the U.S. military and domestic law enforcement agencies. If you have read about the rise of the Nazis in Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s, yo...

  In Californias Sacramento Valley, the northern part of the great Central Valley, lies the little city of Dixon. With a population of just under 20,000, Dixon in many respects is a typical agricultural community, although its relative proximity to San Francisco, 62 miles away, makes it increasingly an exurban home for workers willing to [R...

  Every once in a while, I still get some wine to review, even though I retired three years ago. The latest batch includes a very good Zinfandel from Sonoma County, and eight wines from the Great Lakes State, Michigan. Beekeeper 2016 Montecillo Vineyard (Sonoma County); $65. This is one of those big, galumphing, blood-warming […]

  As he previously announced, President Trump has created his own T.V. network, because the Fox News Network is not conservative enough for his tastes. Programming begins tomorrow. This blog, steveheimoff.com, was given a secret advance copy of the schedule. Here it is: PROGRAM SCHEDULE, TRUMP T.V. NETWORK 4 a.m. Tweet With POTUS. Early-birds ...

  In a famous scene from The Godfather Part II, Frankie Pentangeli, who had worked as a lieutenant for the Corleone family, is set to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Michael Corleones criminal activities. The prosecution had flipped Pantangeli in exchange for a lighter sentence, but Michael Corleone had secretly arranged for Frank...

  I was down South for Thanksgiving at my cousin, Ellens, lovely home in the Malibu Hills. It was really nice to get away from the trump sickness and just relax and have a good time with family and friends. Malibu, as most of you know, is west of Los Angeles. The city is roughly […]

  As much as I loathe Donald Trump, the man, and his policies, I will give him credit for one thingalthough it was inadvertent on his part: He has shined a glaring light on the darkest recesses of the culture, where hate groups thrive and multiply. We always knew these groups existed. But they seemed […]

  With the POS in the White House, and his blubbering accomplices on the far right crazier than ever, it may not seem like theres much to be happy for this Thanksgiving. Im not going to lie and say All is well, dont worry, be happy. All is not well. All may not be well […]

  Because, really, it can be impossible to tell the difference. Bots (often from pro-Trump Russian interests) and pro-Trump human beings both resort to the same techniques: outrageous lies, preposterous accusations, the usual smears against the usual suspects (Hillary, Obama, Democrats), attacks on non-usual suspects who are newcomers to the p...

  The Blue Wave. Im grateful that millions and millions of Americans, including some who voted for Trump in 2016, have finally realized what a disgusting pig he is. We won the House in a historic landslide, we won more Governorships than ever before, and the only reason we didnt win Florida and Georgia was […]

  While Trump and his ever-smaller, beleaguered cult are crowing about gubernatorial elections in Florida and Georgia they won through voter suppression by Republican officials, heres a story about real victories that are causing heartburn in Republican circles. Californiathe fifth-largest economy in the world, the nations biggest, richest sta...

  Scene: The White House living quarters Present: Donald Trump, Melania, Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, Jared DT: Okay, everybody, were at war. Ivanka, whats your plan? Ivanka: Daddy, me and Jared are moving to the Saudi Embassy. I packed all my Stella McCartney ath-leisurewear and 40 pairs of shoes! Jared: Thats right, Sir. And I […]

  In the early Fall of 1938, the leaders of Great Britain, France and Italy met in Germany with Hitler, where they acceded to his demand that Czechoslovakia be dismembered, its Sudetenland region to pass to German control. This was the famous Munich Agreement, to which the Czechs themselves were not even invited, even though […]

  If you havent yet seen this picture, look at it. Study it well. Notice how almost all of the dozens of young white men have their right hands raised in the Nazi Heil Hitler salute. Notice, too, that some of them (the young man fifth from the left) have their fingers in the white […]

  My blog on transphobia, published yesterday, was highly critical of a University of California, Berkeley student named Isabella Chow, who claims to be a loving Christian but is one of the leaders on her campus to marginalize transgendered people and deprive them of their rights. After I published an open letter to her on […]

  Years ago, I wrote an article about transgendered people in the East Bay. This had been a population little known to the vast majority of Americans, including myself. But over a course of weeks of research, I came to know, and admire, these people, and still do. I dont pretend to understand the hows […]

  There is great rejoicing in California over Tuesdays election results. Gavin Newsom easily won the Governorship in a landslide over his hapless, colorless Republican opponent, and now finds himself on the national stagealbeit a very crowded oneof prominent young Democrats with promising futures. Dianne Feinstein also won, although only by ei...

  Yesterday was a long day. A reallllllly long day. By morning Id seen enough threatening comments to me from nazified online sources, like Brietbart, to realize that these thugs had no doubt whatsoever that there would not be a Blue Wave! Typical was this hate-filled rant from someone who appears to be unemployed, going […]

  Exactly one hundred and fifty-eight years ago tomorrowNovember 6, 1860–the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, was elected. The Republican Party had been founded in 1854-1855 for a simple, compelling reason: anti-slavery. Sentiment against slavery and the inclusion of new territories as slave states ran high throughout much of...

  A lot has happened since pro-trump forces sabotaged my blog for a couple of days, resulting in a message that read THIS SITE HAS BEEN SUSPENDED for anyone who tried to get in. Its stupid, of course, for these neo-fascist hackers to imagine that through dirty tricks they can end all the anti-trump news […]

Very short post today. After being down for days, my web hosting company has solved the problem and I'm back. You may have noticed the disturbing headline when you tried to get in: THIS ACCOUNT IS SUSPENDED. What happened was, my site came under what my host describes as "brute forced attacks." These overwhelmed my […]

  Trump is complicit in both the Sayoc bombing attacks and the Pittsburg slaughter at the synagogue. He caused the bombs to be sent. We can argue whether it was direct or indirect causation. It was not direct in the sense that (as far as we know) he did not personally tell Sayoc to make […]

  The Miami Herald reports that Cesar Sayocs former lawyer describes the would-be assassin of Democrats as an unsophisticated loner who wanted to impress people but failed at everything he pursuedhes been living this fantasy [of] acting on Trumps vengeful rhetoric as a way to fit into American society. Other media outlets reported that Sayoc [...

  Devin Nunes. Orrin Hatch The Koch Brothers Rudy Giuliani Tucker Carlson Mike Pence Jared Kushner Mitch McConnell James Woods Donald J. Trump

  Does anyone doubt who sent the bombs? We may not know who they are, but, lets face it, we know what they are: Republicans.The targets all were Democrats, or perceived as liberals. The targets, moreover, all have been slandered and smeared by Trump at numerous points: "Lock her up," "fake news," "worst president ever" […]...

  For those of us Democrats following the drama leading up to the elections, its been a time [alliteration alert!] fraught with frenzy. A few weeks ago, things looked great: Dems were guaranteed to take the House, were making a strong case for the Senate, and rising politicians like Beto ORourke and Andrew Gillam were […]

  Trump, in full alliterative mode, has declared this the election of Kavanaugh and caravans. If it is, hes in bad shape. Only 25% of Americansfar fewer even than the one-third that comprises his basebelieve Kavanaugh told the truth in his Senate confirmation hearings. That means three-quarters of us dont believe himbelieve that Kavanaugh is, ...

  Nancy Pelosi didnt do herself, or Democrats, any favors with her remark (reported in Sundays San Francisco Chronicle) that We have to put our hands into the pockets of the people who have [money]. She was referring to Proposition C, which is on the citys November ballot. It would tax San Franciscos biggest companies […]

  To some extent I sympathize with Trump in this MBS-Kashoggi incident. His attitudeportrayed as loathsome by critics including some Republicansis that America shouldnt let mere moral considerations interfere with our global, strategic interests. Saudi Arabia wants to invest hundreds of millions of dollars here, creating hundreds of thousands ...

  I dont think Stormy Daniels has a horse face, do you? Actually, I think shes quite pretty. Trump went beyond his usual misogyny when he called her a horseface. In fact, he insulted his own taste in women, since he had an adulterous sexual affair with her. So the question is, Mister President, why […]

  [Trump called Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) on Tuesday to inquire about the disappearance of Jamal Kashoggi, the journalist who was videotaped entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and never seen again.] Trump: How ya doing, Prince? MBS: Doing well, Donald. Were going to have to talk again about that Trump Tower […]

  Back in the 1970s there was a (mercifully) brief movement in American art, the so-called Velvet Painting style. It was characterized by scenes, painted onto black velvet, that were kitchy and cheap. These paintings were favored by poor, country people, who lived in what we now call red counties (Wikipedia says they were widely […]

  You heard over the last few days about that American pastor, Andrew Brunson, who had been held in jail in Turkey but was freed and then flown back to the U.S., where he held a highly-publicized prayer meeting with Trump in the Oval Office. Trump of course had made getting Brunson out of jail […]

Neither George W. Bush nor Donald J. Trump, the last two Republican presidents, drinks alcohol. Bush was a former alcoholic, so I understand; hed had substance abuse problems. But Trump didnt have such issues. He chose not to drink (if were to believe a pathological liar) for reasons hes never explained convincingly, although its likely […]

  There was an op-ed piece in the Washington Post the other day written by Dan Balz. His point: Democrats lack a unifying message and candidate in the 2020 presidential election. Balzs piece was titled Will the Democrats Wake Up Before 2020? and the subhead was They have no unifying leader and no clear message […]

  Cliffhangers are the most strategically successful audience draw in the history of show business, a guaranteed way of leaving viewers on the edge of their seats and yearning for more. The term is said to have originated in Thomas Hardys 1873 novel A Pair of Blue Eyes. A protagonist, Henry, while on an expedition […]

  Sunday was warm, dry and very windy in the Bay Area, the kind of day you had to hold onto your hat (if you wore one) lest it blow away. I was down in San Leandro, 6 BART stops away from my home, doing some shopping at the mall. Then I had some lunch […]

  In October, 2016, I fell ill with a major ailment, for the first time in my life, and I knew exactly what had brought it about: stress. All during that month, and the previous month, September, Id been increasingly worried about the outcome of the upcoming presidential election. Actually, worried is too mild a […]

  Cast Donald J. Trump (DJT) Donald Trump Jr. (DTJr) Ivanka Trump (IT) Kellyanne Conway (KC) Sarah Huckabee Sanders (SHS) Melania Trump (MT) KC: Mr. President, we can use this Kavanaugh crisis to rile up our base. DJT: Sounds good. But how do we do it? SHS: We organize pro-Kavanaugh rallies across the country. KC: […]

  The similarity between the angry, sullen masses who thrust Adolf Hitler to power, and the resentful, frightened conservatives who form Trumps base, have often been pointed out. Both groups are, of course, white. Both had seen their power evaporate, under forces they either did not understand, or chose to misunderstand. Both were under-educat...

  A few nights ago I pulled the Charles Krug 2008 Vintage Selection Cabernet Sauvignon (Napa Valley), which cost $75 on release. The color was still as inky dark as a young Cabernet, but after almost precisely ten years, the aromatics and flavors had turned the corner, picking up secondary (although far from tertiary) notes. […]

  It would be foolhardy of me to say that all old white males are moral reprobates, because Im an old white male! There actually are many old white men in politics whom I admire: Bill Clinton, Patrick Leahy, Al Gore, John Kerry, Jerry Brown, Bernie Sanders and Dick Durbin, among others. So, you see, […]