The San Francisco Experience

In her memoir, Helen illustrates the power of the Chinese word for Crisis: the two characters for the word are Danger and Opportunity. She seems to have found opportunities where others might have stepped away. 

Vivek lays out a critique of stakeholder capitalism, saying it robs everyday Americans of our voice, money and identity by mixing morality with consumerism. Instead he prescribes a different approach to capitalism based on Excellence, Opportunity and Civility. He has founded Strive Asset Management which will manage investments based on those principles.

The white supremacist group the Patriot Front, planned a riot in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho on Saturday, June 11 during the Gay Pride Parade. They were apprehended and arrested and charged before they could carry out their plan. Quinn Welsch has been covering the story for the Spokane newspaper.

Kris' latest mystery is set in Sacramento, California. It's an intricate and multi-layered story with several plotlines and well crafted characters that continue to reveal secrets until the very end of the book. Lots of twists and turns with an unexpected outcome ! A must read.

Art Hogan shares his investment insights with us. As Art says, It's always darkest before the dawn and the US and Global economy is certainly faced with strong headwinds. But he brings the perspective of a 25 year career in the financial markets and has weathered numerous economic cycles successfully. He has an engaging style while being very informative.

The historic recall of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin and the first place showing for former Republican Rick Caruso - a billionaire - in the first round of the LA Mayor's race, have triggered political shockwaves throughout California's Democrat establishment. Is this the end of Defund the Police and other Progressive core values ? Will these two standout results have an impact on th...

San Francisco Women Artists Gallery was founded 100 years ago to identify, support and promote the talents of women artists in San Francisco and across the Bay Area. It provides opportunities for emerging and established artists to exhibit their art and for the public to experience it.

Professor Lara Bazelon recounts the first exoneration case successfully presented by the Commission when Joaquin Cirica was freed after 32 years in prison, having been wrongfully convicted. This Innocence Commission is the only one of its kind in the United States.

Top Gun Maverick, Tom Cruise's sequel to the 1986 film Top Gun, opened last weekend to rave reviews and $154 million in revenues. In this episode, Shaun Chang and I discuss the plot, the cast and popular reaction to the film.

124 artists studios in Sonoma County  will be open to the public on June 4th and 5th as well as June 11th and 12th. To view the catalog for Art at the Source go to www.sebarts.org.

Lena Horne, Moms Mabley, Memphis Minnie and Yolande du Bois Williams were four accomplished  Black women whose careers took off before World War II and each one made her mark. Tara Green recounts their path to self-actualization - pleasure - in their personal and public lives.

With the historic campaign to recall San Francisco's District Attorney drawing to a close as election day - June 7th - looms before us, the two campaigns are in high gear. Brooke Jenkins with the recall campaign makes the closing arguments with a data driven approach. In contrast  ,the  No on Recall campaign strategy has been to paint the recall  as a Republican conspiracy, in a cit...

In her latest book, Lara Bazelon demolishes some popular myths about working Moms : the perfect life/work balance, the selfless mother and toxic female ambition among other tropes. She calls on women to embrace the imbalances of working and raising kids and to demand flexibility in the workplace and the home. The book is a blend of personal memoir and interviews of numerous career women and their...

Neutral Sweden and non-aligned Finland will join NATO in reaction to Putin's invasion and war against Ukraine. An adamant foe of NATO expansion, Putin has achieved what he long railed against - NATO on Russia's doorstep. 

Truffaut's 1973 ensemble comedy is a movie about making a movie. Jacqueline Bissett was one of the cast members and principal lead. The movie won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1974 with French filmmaker Truffaut accepting the award. It is one of his best films and worth re-watching.

Robert Altman's 1975 drama takes place in Nashville, Tennessee and chronicles the intersecting lives of numerous people - the main cast numbers 24 actors - with country music, the entertainment industry and politics the principal themes. The film runs 2 hours and 40 minutes and at times feels like a documentary.  A 1970s classic.

Abortion in Canada  was decriminalized in 1988, 15 years after the American Roe v Wade decision. While the Roe decision treated abortion as a woman's right, Canada treats it as a medical procedure to be discussed and agreed to by the pregnant woman and her doctor. Has Canada's approach been better than America's ?  Sean Fine walks us through our neighbor's very different approach to term...

Last week's unprecedented leak of an unpublished Supreme Court decision - the first time in the Court's history - has rocked Washington. And the prospect of overturning a 49 year old legal precedent which will take away a woman's right to an abortion at least nationally, is just beginning to sink in. Will other Supreme Court decisions such as legalization of contraception or gay marriage be under...

Freezing Order is a true story of money laundering, murder and surviving Vladimir Putin's wrath. Bill Browder's latest expose of Russian graft and criminality recounts a Russian tax refund scam, that the Interior Ministry created for the financial benefit of Putin's oligarch cronies, and then sued Browder in US courts as the engineer and beneficiary. With Vladimir Putin as one of the likely recipi...

Elon Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion on April 25. The deal will close later this year. Musk has stated that he believes in Freedom of Speech and looks forward to ensuring that the social media messaging platform continues to remain open to all. But major changes are bound to follow in the business operations of Twitter once Musk takes control. 

Two months ago Russia's foreign reserves were frozen and crippling economic sanctions were imposed on the country. The goal was and is to push Russia into a deep  recession,  cause runaway inflation and bring a speedy end to the war in Ukraine.  Have they started to bite ? But could they be thwarted by  China, India and Israel providing a back door lifeline to bust the sanction...

 San Francisco's District Attorney faces an unprecedented recall election in less than seven weeks - June 7 - and the polls augur ill for him. 68% of San Francisco voters want to get rid of Chesa Boudin, mid way through a four year term. Bungled cases, judicial admonitions, high staff turnover and rising crime rates show Boudin has an uphill struggle to hold onto his office. Can he engineer a...

In the ranks of global spycraft, the UK continues to punch above its' weight, competing with the US, Russia, China and Israel. And at the heart of any nation's intelligence operation is a sophisticated information gathering apparatus consisting of Signals Intelligence (Sigint) and Communications Intelligence (Comint). GCHQ is the UK's equivalent of America's NSA.  Professor John Ferris of the...

Matt Continetti is a Senior Fellow at The American Enterprise Institute and a frequent contributor to The New York Times, Atlantic, Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. He has also been a contributing editor to the National Review and Commentary magazine. In his latest book, The Right, he traces the evolution of the American Conservative movement from 1920s populism, through the Goldwater...

Women have rarely participated in peace negotiations, though they suffer a disproportionate share of civilian injuries and suffering in modern day conflicts. Enter Sanam Naraghi Anderlini who has worked tirelessly for over 25 years both on the frontlines as a mediator and at the international level as a policy advocate to ensure that women play their rightful role in peace negotiations. Sanam is t...