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The Quarterly Report – News From San Francisco – November 2025

The Quarterly Report: A brief synopsis of the news in San Francisco over the last three months. You are now reading “Slow News That Doesn’t Break” – the exotic internet.

Weather

October and November are always pleasant months in San Francisco. The marine layer pushes back and we get warmer weather, often beautiful sunsets and good surf.  The water temperature at Ocean Beach was often around sixty degrees which is warm for around here. A large swell came in and surf at Maverick’s near Half Moon Bay had some forty foot ridable surf. The longer period swells from the Alaska always means storms in California. Starting on November 13, 2025 the seasonal rain began. Hopefully this is just an omen for a good snow year, but these days anything can happen.

If you are visiting San Francisco, bring a light jacket, layers and a rain jacket.

National Politics

There were a few weeks in October when people in San Francisco were a bit on edge. Donald Trump threatened to send in Federal Agents into San Francisco.  Somehow, Mayor Daniel Lurie convinced Trump that there was no reason to send in the troops. He told him that the fentanyl situation was getting better and that the city has things under control. Lurie must have read some behavior management and child psychology books about how to deal with toddlers as he was able to redirect Trump away from the beautiful city where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars. It probably helped that Lurie is a very wealthy white guy (a millionaire, for sure,  but no one knows) so he surely knows how to deal with other wealthy white guys.  For the time being Trump has forgotten about San Francisco. This is good. Please, for the love of God – stay away. There are already enough creepy billionaires around here.

October 2, 2023 New Yorker cover humorously commenting on the geriatric qualities of people in power these days.
October 2, 2023 New Yorker cover humorously commenting on the geriatric qualities of people in power these days.

https://www.newyorker.com/

Nancy Pelosi, will be retiring and not seeking another term. She has had a long and illustrious career in the United States House of Representatives and was a huge force in the ACA (Affordable Care Act). Time to move on and let the younger folk take over. This probably should have happened a decade ago. Her contemporary Senator Barbara Boxer retired in 2017.

My favorite curious episode involving Nancy Pelosi is when in 2019 she let on that she prays for President Donald Trump, for which Trump took great offence. I felt at the time that this was interesting seeing as his base are Christian Nationalists. I have a feeling that Trump’s religious education is a bit lacking. Remember, there are still a few Trump Afterlife Insurance policies left so make sure to call and get yours by midnight tonight!

“Even worse than offending the Founding Fathers, you are offending Americans of faith by continually saying “I pray for the President,” when you know this statement is not true, unless it is meant in a negative sense. It is a terrible thing that you are doing, but you will have to live with it, not I!”
– Donald Trump’s letter to The Honorable Nancy Pelosi – 12/18/2019

Please do not pray for the President – It Creeps Him Out

The San Francisco Journal would like to thank Nancy Pelosi for her epic public service and for always being an adult in the room.

Local Politics

If you want to keep track of San Francisco politics, probably the best place is https://missionlocal.org/. They actually have a few beat reporters and report on things like homelessness and the police.

In September, District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio lost his recall election. The Sunset District is very car-centric and people in his district want to be able to drive their cars on the Great Highway. The rest of the city wants to use it as a park – Sunset Dunes.  Stayed tuned for how this will play out, but let it be known that Sunset Dunes, on a clear day is a great place to get outside and play by the ocean. It is getting a lot of use. San Francisco kids will be healthier because of it. More young people will be riding bikes.

Sunset Dunes Park – San Francisco

There is not much else to report on the local front except the Waymo driverless cars are everywhere, sometimes running over cats. It seems the Waymos are retreating to a barn at night and somehow procreating. They are starting to drive around San Francisco in litters.

Waymo Driverless Taxi
Waymo Driverless Taxi

Sporting News

The San Francisco 49ers are 6-4. I do not often pay attention to that sport until the playoffs.

Speaking of the playoff, in baseball the lead up to and the MLB World Series in 2025 was one for the ages. In the end, the Los Angeles Dodgers won in seven games. The quality of the games throughout the playoffs was amazing. The Yankees got booted out in five. The Brewers were looking good but then ran out of gas and faced what was to be a very difficult opponent – Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the LA Dodgers. The Toronto Blues Jays were looking good until they had to face Yamamoto and could not connect with their bats. The Dodgers had been slumping at the plate until Game 6 when they slowly came to life. Like as it happens so often in baseball, it was almost as if the tide began to turn. First Mookie Betts got a key hit. Then veteran Venezuelan journeyman Miguel Rojas, playing second base, starts making plays and hitting the ball and you knew the Dodgers had it. The Blue Jays ended the baseball season by hitting into a double play with the winning run on second. And so it goes.

Congrats to the L.A. Dodgers. We will see you next year.

That is The Quarterly Report – November 2025

Photo Gallery of SF

The Quarterly Report – November 2025

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October San Francisco Photos

October is a special time of year in San Francisco. The fog usually moves out and the long period swells start rolling in. The surfing gets good. This year we have had some early season rain which is quite welcome seeing as fires have been a major problem of late. With the cumulous clouds in the sky the sunsets have been magical.

There is no reason to send in the National Guard or troops of any kind into San Francisco. As you can see by the photos there are no major disturbances. There is a fentanyl problem but that was actually started by the U.S. pharmaceutical industry and both the City of San Francisco and many non-profits are working on the problem and helping those involved. On Saturday many of us will take to the streets for a No Kings – No Thrones – No Crowns  protest.  If George Washington were alive, he would surely be joining us.

We are not crazy. We are the Americans.

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The Quarterly Report – News From San Francisco – August 2025

The Quarterly Report: A brief synopsis of the news in San Francisco over the last three months. You are now reading “Slow News That Doesn’t Break” – the exotic internet.

Weather

The weather in San Francisco in the summer is always foggy and cold. This year has been one of the coldest on record. Unlike many parts of the state, country and world, 2025 so far has been a year when San Franciscans have not had to deal with wildfire smoke, however, there are many months to go before the typical rainy season in the winter.

Historically, summertime is when people leave The City and go inland. There are entire neighborhoods in Oakland that were built in the early twentieth century that are mostly cottages for people escaping the fog. In the summers I like to head to the mountains and feel the sun on my neck and get some fresh air. When the skies are clear, it is difficult to get too much of the Sierra.

Lake Alpine

National Politics

Good grief! I need not write about the state of the federal government  and the current president. Recently, Californian Governor Newsom has taken to rhetorically mocking him. It may be the only way in this Age of Delusion. Below is a quote by Newsom published on a social media website  concerning attempts at redistricting and gerrymandering.

A follow-up post tonight read: “DONALD ‘TACO’ TRUMP, AS MANY CALL HIM, ‘MISSED’ THE DEADLINE!!! CALIFORNIA WILL NOW DRAW NEW, MORE ‘BEAUTIFUL MAPS,’ THEY WILL BE HISTORIC AS THEY WILL END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (DEMS TAKE BACK THE HOUSE!). BIG PRESS CONFERENCE THIS WEEK WITH POWERFUL DEMS AND GAVIN NEWSOM—YOUR FAVORITE GOVERNOR—THAT WILL BE DEVASTATING FOR ‘MAGA.’ THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER! —GN”

It is 2025 and politics is now truly a place of sarcasm, dark humor and unavoidable childishness. I think “Donald Taco” is a good one. Let’s stick with it

Local Politics

If you want to keep track of San Francisco politics, probably the best place is https://missionlocal.org/. They actually have a few beat reporters and report on things like homelessness and the police. For the last few months there has been a lot of coverage about 16th and Mission Street, a place that has for decades been a bit rough around the edges. With the crackdowns of activity in the Tenderloin, many people moved on to the Mission District This has happened many times in the past.

Who needs humans?

If you drive down Interstate 101, most of the billboards are for tech companies and speak in terms only programmers would understand. Many are for selling AI. Of course, politicians are embracing the new technologies as a panacea for all our problems. AI plus crypto currency? Sounds like a disaster to me. It is definitely the formula for the next financial crash. You heard it here first.

Sporting News

As of this posting the San Francisco Giants are nine games out of first place and are under five hundred. And so it goes. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION ON THIS MATTER!

That is The Quarterly Report – August 2025

Photo Gallery of SF

The Quarterly Report – August 2025

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The Three Crosses – Reflections on a California Journey

This is a follow up essay from my bike trip down to Big Sur last month – The Henry Miller 2025 – Bicycle to Big Sur.

The Bixby Bridge along Highway 1 south of Carmel
The Bixby Bridge along Highway 1 south of Carmel

Recently, I tried to explain to a friend why I like doing these weeklong bike trips, camping out, eating in diners, living the simple life. I explained that what is really valuable is that the trips make me much more aware of the world. When you get done with the trip, you notice things in your everyday surroundings that you did not before you left. You start hearing things that you had somehow ignored. You see things about your city that you never noticed. Trees. Graffiti. People waiting for the bus. It helps to make a person fully alive.

When I was on the ride I discovered an interesting theme – the crucifix. While I was not riding El Camino Real, the road that the first missionaries traveled, I did pass by a number of old churches. In the end, I realized that there were three crosses that told a story of my journey and of the time and geography I had pedaled.

ACT 1: RIP Our Beloved Eurovan

RIP Our Beloved Eurovan 12-4-2001 - 7-27-2023
RIP Our Beloved Eurovan 12-4-2001 – 7-27-2023

You would never see this cross from a car. It is along Skyline Boulevard, about 20 miles outside of Santa Cruz, high on the road, before you make it to Highway 9. If you were in a car you would have zipped by it and never knew it was there. I saw it out of the corner of my eye and had to stop, thinking it was a cross for some poor person who had perished in an automobile accident. I paused and drank some water and took it all in. Fortunately, it was just a van. Obviously, the climb up the coastal range  finally did in the German engineering. The Eurovan surely had a good life and was much loved but maybe overheated and the engine seized? The twentieth century and into the twenty-first was a time when the internal combustion engine became something often more loved than other humans. At some point we are all guilty of this fetish. We all at one point gave our cars names and bathed them on the weekends. Cleaned their hubcaps. Worried about their overdue oil changes. That we anthropomorphize them to the point of an afterlife is a bit strange but it sort of makes sense. This must have been a Christian Eurovan. Surely Catholic.

ACT 2: Mission Carmel Basilica

Of course, Mission Carmel Basilica was the second mission in California, and was one of the places where in California the “saving of souls” all began. In this land where all the manmade things are so new, something that has a bit of history stands out.  I wonder what the first Indians thought of this place and the cross that adorns the top?  The story of the tragic demise of the native peoples and the history is well-known at this point. RIP dear friend. I am sorry you got one of those nasty viruses that came over on the boat. Some day your great, great, great grand daughter will be able to drive a Ford F150 pickup and get vaccines for the diseases that wiped your people out. Let us pray.

ACT 3: Henry Miller Library

Christ on the MacPlus's - Henry Miller Memorial Library
Christ on the MacPlus’s – Henry Miller Memorial Library

The third cross that I came across, that really grabbed my attention, was this sculpture above at the Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sur. The cross is made out of old Apple MacPlus computers, stacked up so that you do not realize what you are looking at. Jesus, is but a twist of wiry vines, dried and dead.  Is this a statement on the futility of progress and the modern life? Is it a complex diagram of our soulless world that has been usurped by technology, where even Christ gets eaten up by the mayhem of technology and becomes but a tangled mess? Is it a battle between the inorganic and the organic, where the machines always win and both sides die in a tragic death? One obsolete trash. The other just a tangled mess of organic wires impersonating their master? Who’s to say, but it does seem like a tragic omen to our feeble chances of survival.

This genre of art I like to call technomacabre. Along the coast you see it every now and then. Found objects from our recent technological past that are turned into a statement of demise, oppression, humor or even violence. There is no service out here anyway. These things are useless.

Technology, Nailed to the Fence - Mendocino County
Technology, Nailed to the Fence – Mendocino County

There is no ACT 4. There is no coda. That is all.

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The Quarterly Report – News From San Francisco -June 2025

The Quarterly Report: A brief synopsis of the news in San Francisco over the last three months. You are now reading “Slow News That Doesn’t Break” – the exotic internet.

Weather

April turned into May and now it is June. Summer in San Francisco has begun. Along the coast you often have a marine layer, otherwise known as fog. This marine layer will sometimes burn off in the afternoon and then we get the strong onshore northwest winds. It is a time for morning walks and afternoon kiteboarding. The surf season is pretty much over until the fall as most days the ocean is blown out. If you are visiting San Francisco, bring a light jacket and layers, maybe even a beanie. Summer is great time of year to walk along the Embarcadero or better yet to visit wine country where it is much warmer. If you have more time, head to mountains and enjoy the streams and lakes.

Sunset lighting San Francisco City Hall
Sunset lighting San Francisco City Hall

National Politics

Nothing to report on the national politics front that you probably do not already know. The news cycle is manufactured for the attention span of gnats. The current president is a cunning and treacherous man (pay not attention to that strange man behind the curtain). His weird notion that raising tariffs will bring back manufacturing is silly and naïve and more of a marketing play for some nostalgic bygone era.  In the twentieth century,  the growth of U.S. manufacturing was a decades-long process. We have sold all the manufacturing equipment to Mexico, China and Brazil (Punching Out – One Year in a Closing Auto Plant by Paul Clemens).

Matt Stoller in his Newsletter Big illuminates this slow news quite well.

In truth, America’s vast productive capacity was built on skill with machine tools, which are the specialized tools that cut, bore or bend metal. In the 20th century, it was America’s capacity to create factories that sparked the “arsenal of democracy,” and America led the world until the 1960s in machine tooling. We were a high productivity and high wage nation, and the basis was a fierce competitive drive to pull out costs in production as aggressively as possible, using our ability to wield machine tools creatively and cheaply.
 China Is Not Why America Is Sputtering – Matt Stoller on Substack

In the 1980s, the United States economy moved to finance and transferred power to Wall Street where the easy money is had and the people in power could make a quick buck. All the major industries: housing, healthcare, pharmaceuticals,  banking, transportation are controlled by Wall Street. It is but a financial game where the oligarch leaders are the casino dealers and they get to count cards. Sorry for the buzz-kill Donald. Tariffs will simply be a tax on mostly poor people. Price inflation on consumer items will be the only result. The factories are not coming back. We are truly living in the Age of Delusion.

What is really happening, if one looks at the larger picture, is that we are in an economic state of Technofeudalism as outlined in Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis. Big data now dominates our lives and we are unknowing serfs volunteering our time and energy for the oligarchs who rule the day. Pretty fair assessment. Yanis Varoufakis solutions are a bit overidealistic and impractical, but his birds-eye view of our modern economy is right on.  Very chilling.

Another of Donald Trump’s deplorable initiatives is deporting migrants, many whom are in the U.S. legally, and most who do not have a criminal record. Most are here to simply work, make $15-$20 an hour and send some money back home. This is all more than ironic as Mr. Trump is a convicted felon. Our supposed free press has done a deplorable job investigating Trump’s businesses hiring practices. It is common knowledge that people who do the grunt work in hotels, real estate and golf courses are often recent immigrants, often undocumented and living in the shadows.  Where are you New York Times and Washington Post? It’s pathetic.

Local Politics

When you visit San Francisco this summer, you may be surprised that there are less unhoused people on the streets. Major Daniel Lurie has done a fine job getting them out of Civic Center, 5th Street and Market Street areas. Often times they do end up getting services and he has been creating more beds. Sometimes the homeless simply move on to the next neighborhood. The Mission District around 16th Street has had a new influx of unhoused people. Indeed, they have made it five miles south of downtown all the way to the sidewalks of the Excelsior District where they camp out on a sidewalk with a  fifth of something strong and a cardboard sign pleading for mercy. We have seen this playbook before. However, I do give Mayor Lurie credit. The Civic Center is free of tents and Park & Rec are there with some cool games to play.

Jerry Day in McLaren Park is around the corner on August 2nd

Sporting News

The Golden State Warriors made it to the playoffs but were trounced by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Steff Curry was injured. the team is getting a bit older and without the usual depth. As the saying goes: you can’t win them all.

AT&T Park where the SF Giants play
AT&T Park where the SF Giants play

As of this writing, the San Francisco Giants are playing well and just 2.5 games behind the Dodgers in a tough Western Division.

Paul Lyons and Trumpeter Luis Gasca
Author Paul Lyons and Trumpeter Luis Gasca (85 and still doing it)

Road Repairs, Parking Tickets, Do Not Parks Signs and Other Treacherous Endeavors

I recently had to get a new set of tires after just four years for a car that rarely leaves San Francisco. Many of the roads in San Francisco are terrible. This is especially true in the less affluent parts of town.. The City tries but it is odd that high-traffic streets like Mission Street get very little love (this was once the “royal highway” where the early missionaries first traveled). It must be pretty high maintenance for the 14 and 49 Mission buses that bounce their way down the El Camino Real. Below are some of the photos of the roads that I took without even trying. There are worse spots on Mission Street. No bueno!

That is The Quarterly Report – June 2025

Some photos from the last few months.

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Earth Day Celebration – High on a Wire

In celebration of Earth Day here is a song I wrote last year in 2024 named High On a Wire. Paul Lyons on guitar and voice. Bird recording is from the Kickapoo River in Wisconsin at dusk that I made while on a bike tour (there are seven different bird songs). Indeed, we are “burnin’ this place down.” I have a strange feeling that the birds will again outlast us.

Em7/B A7/C#  Am7 G

VERSE 1
Those are birds
that sing them songs.
Been doing that
all along .

Those are birds
that sing them songs
Quite alright
to sing along.

VERSE 2
High on a wire
they sure looked tired.
From that flying
around.

High on a wire
They sure looked tired.
Chased away
by a fire.

CHORUS 1
D C G //
We’ve been burnin’ this place down.
Just like they said we would.
Got to move now
to higher ground.
A7 // D7 //
The river’s rising all around.

VERSE 3
Up in a tree
they build a nest.
Looks like now there’s
thirty-three

Up in a tree
they dance around.
And sing their songs
because their free

CHORUS 2
D C G //
Sixty-five million years ago
her grandma once roamed these same lands.
Had a big tail and very small hands.
Never played in no rock-n-roll band.

VERSE 4
Those are birds
that sing them songs.
Been doing that
all Along.

Those are birds
that sing them songs.
If you want
just sing along.

Paul Lyons – San Francisco, CA – 6/2024

All Rights Reserved

 

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The Quarterly Report – News From San Francisco -March 2025

The Quarterly Report: A brief synopsis of the news in San Francisco over the last three months. You are now reading “Slow News That Doesn’t Break” – the exotic internet.

Weather

After a very dry January, while Los Angeles burned, San Francisco had weeks on end of glorious sunshine. Then in February  we got two major storms.  The wind hit from the west and the storms came down good and hard. The roads turned into rivers and snow piled up in the mountains. People had to drive with chains, just like the good ‘ole days. At Donner Summit they have had over 250″ of snow.  I think in the next decade or so people will begin to realize that the weather is actually the real news. Water will be all that really matters as we guard our front doors with our Second Amendments rights terrified that someone will steal a few gallons of Hetch Hetchy. March arrives with unsettled weather and reservoirs not quite full. The snow pack in the mountains is less than average.

National Politics

Donald Trump took office in late January and began a sort of mobster data coup. His billionaire henchman Elon Musk and his minions started snooping around the Federal Payment systems causing havoc. Cutting off payments to USAID, various research grants and much more. If I was talented in the graphic arts I would make a comic where you see Donald Trump sitting on a toilet and there on the toilet paper rolls is the constitution: “We the People… ” …in scribe of course. And to top it off he is taking a dump while looking at his phone. Such is the state of our world.

On March 4 he gave an address to Congress were he lied continually. He spews out lies and more lies and people begin to believe the lies. I think people are so numb to his antics that the use of the word “lie” has been purged from the English language.  I read a transcript of the speech as I have not time to listen to his performances. It is full of lies.

Local Politics

Daniel Lurie is Mayor of San Francisco. The City is still here. For the average citizen it is difficult to notice that anything is changing. The forces in our world are far greater than any individual.  He just started the gig and if he can solve homelessness in San Francisco he could set his sites on running for higher office. I am not holding my breath.

Sporting News

Nothing major to report on the sporting front. The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Kansas City Chief in the Super Bowl 40-22.  This is important knowledge for when you have to remember such trivia years later.  Of course, far more important than the actual Super Bowl are the people that you watch the Super Bowl with. For me this a “third space” type of group who has returned to a sacred ground near a sacred screen often with sacred herbs,  tobacco and cigars.  Wagers are made. People marvel at the passage of time. Consumption becomes naturally moderated.  We marvel at the connections. See you next year. Same place. Same time. We need some constants in life.

Road Repairs, Parking Tickets, Do Not Parks Signs and Other Treacherous Endeavors

As predicted they are heading north up Mission Street and repaving the bus stops and intersections. Its and big job and everyone seems to be able to drive around the mess. At some point they may have to actually repave where we drive on Mission Street, but anything is progress.

That is The Quarterly Report – March 2025

Photo Gallery of SF

The Quarterly Report – March 2025

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The Quarterly Report – News From San Francisco – December 2024

The Quarterly Report: A brief synopsis of the news in San Francisco over the last three months. You are now reading “Slow News That Doesn’t Break” – the exotic internet.

Local and National Politics

On November 5th, 2024 Daniel Lurie was elected mayor of San Francisco and Donald Trump is now the president-elect of the United States. Two billionaire white guys defeated two Bay Area Black women. In the case of the presidency it will have have grave consequences. And so it goes.

Look like nothing’s gonna change
Everything still remains the same
I can’t do what ten people tell me to do
So I guess I’ll remain the same, yes
(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay
– Otis Redding

In San Francisco, Proposition K passed. This means that The Great Highway will be closed seven days a week. Of course many people who live out in the Sunset District are not too happy about this result as they use the highway as an inner-city freeway of sorts. For those who ride bicycles, run and surf, love the sound of the ocean, having The Great Highway closed is amazing.

The Great Highway. Where kids learn how to ride a bikes.

Sporting News

The San Francisco 49ers football team, who but a year ago played a losing game in the Super Bowl are not playing very well as the season drags on and key players get injured. It is such a violent sport. Best wishes on speedy recoveries.

Weather

Fortunately, we started getting some rain in early November, then a full week of rain and good storm. Now the Sierra, at 7000 feet, are covered with about 60 inches of snow. The ski resorts have opened.  See https://cssl.berkeley.edu/.

Now in early December 2024 we are experiencing glorious San Francisco weather with clear skies, light east winds and solid long-period surf.  The light has been golden.  For a week the ocean swell has been around 5 feet and 15 seconds. This means waves are around 8 feet tall. Grab your board and head to the beach!

Ocean Beach

Road Repairs, Parking Tickets, Do Not Parks Signs and Other Treacherous Endeavors

Statewide ‘Daylighting Law’ Warnings Begin Nov. 11, 2024 and perhaps one thousand parking spots in this seven-by-seven mile plot of land called San Francisco have vanished. While safety is an important concern, I am not a fan of this law. People need to park somewhere. Perhaps there needs to be more education about how to be a pedestrian in the city. People walking around, looking at their cellphones, oblivious to their surroundings, bumping into telephone poles – walking out into crosswalks without even looking to see if there are cars or other moving objects about.  Common sense is not so common anymore.

Furthermore, this law discriminates against people would work third shifts and get home late at night only to discover there are absolutely no places to park.

That is The Quarterly Report – December 2024

Photo Gallery of SF

The Quarterly Report – December 2024

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George Washington’s Farewell Address – Warnings For Our Times

From Washington’s Farewell Address – To The People Of The United States, written in 1796 with help from Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, around halfway in you read:

All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force—to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party; often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common councils and modified by mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
Washington’s Farewell Address – To The People Of The United States

Presidential farewell addresses are the exit interview, whereby the employee can be candid. Calling out systems that do not work. Noting people who are problematic. Reminiscing on administration successes. Ignoring failures and scandals. Predicting future problems. Eisenhower warned us of the “Military Industrial Complex.” Reagan embraced all sorts of immigrants and the “shining city on a hill” but warned that Americans would begin to take for granted their freedoms.  A book about presidential farewell addresses is overdue. It would be a great way to teach United States history.

It is eerie how George Washington in 1796 could have predicted the character of a man hundreds of years into the future – “…by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people” explains precisely the method of Donald Trump. And to think that Washington probably wrote the address with a quill pen and inkwell.

Download Washington’s Farewell Address. Print it out and read it. It is slow news that does not break. It is only twenty-six pages.

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On Tranquility of the Mind – Seneca Quote

We ought to take outdoor walks, to refresh and raise our spirits by deep breathing in the open air. Sometimes energy will be refreshed by a carriage drive, a journey, a change of scene, good company and a more generous wine. Upon occasion we should go as far as intoxication, half-seas over, not total immersion. Drink washes cares away, stirs the mind from its lowest depths, and is a specific for sadness as for certain maladies.
From The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca – On Tranquility of the Mind

Deep breathing, travel, company, half-seas over quantity of wine. Sounds like stoicism to me.

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Traffic Lights, Artificial Intelligence and Driverless Cars Stopped at Red Lights

Driverless Car is San Francisco

You see them everywhere is San Francisco these days – driverless cars. Waymo uses a Jaguar with cameras all over the place. George Orwell is probably mumbling “I told you so!” from his grave. Driverless cars are found on slow streets, going up and down hills in neighborhoods, in downtown during rush hour, on crowded streets by Golden Gate Park – sometimes two, one after another.  No one in the driver’s seat. Rarely a passenger in the backseat. They creep me out.

I was thinking about these cars that often clog up our busy streets, endlessly mapping the terrain, when at an intersection where everyone was going nowhere -everyone was waiting at a  red light. I thought: how hard would it be to put a little artificial intelligence (AI) into urban traffic signals? It seems now the traffic signals all are all on egg timers.

Like most things in large organizations, like cities and counties,  large companies and corporations, things move slowly when adopting new ideas and technology. This is both good and bad..

Half of San Francisco’s traffic signals were built more than 30 years ago.
– Traffic Signals Program

Half of San Francisco’s traffic signals were built more than 30 years ago. This means that they were built to last but the actual technology in the signals is from the 1990s or older.

The failure of many of the technological transformations of our society is that they are done without a very holistic mindset. The larger consequences are rarely considered. Economics and a quick buck seem to be the driving forces.

What if just 10% of the technology of the fancy driverless cars went into more responsive and “smarter” traffic lights? A traffic signal could sense that even though there is a left turn signal there are no cars there, and by the way, the through traffic is backed up due to a sporting event just ending. There are many more scenarios like this, and I would think that the actual programming would be pretty simple if/else statements.

I did inquire with the City or San Francisco and got a quick response. This is what they said:

“To your inquiry about traffic signals and AI, the majority of signals in San Francisco are pretimed, or the timing is predetermined based on minimum requirements and estimated demand.  Some locations have sensors that change traffic signals based on actual demand or presence of certain vehicles like buses.  But no set of signals operated based on algorithms that optimize based on artificial intelligence.”  – sfgov,org

In other words, almost all traffic lights are are on egg timers, or “pretimed.” If any of our readers know of any companies or municipalities developing more modern traffic signals, feel free to comment below.

 

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Kamala Harris and Tim Walz – How Myths and Fiction Become Reality

The national political scene, with all the pundits and polls, the constant news updates, the never-ending spectacle, the name calling, the disrespect all make for a wild and sometime entertaining ride for our modern-day, short attention spans. What often goes unnoticed is how art, in particular films, have often  predicted our political realities and the miraculous turn of events. This is rarely mentioned in the mainstream press.

ACT 1

When Joe Biden decided to retire I could relate. Eighty-one years old and all the slogging through the blizzards of bullshit, spin doctors, fundraising speeches, jet-lag, international turmoil beyond your control, family tragedies so grave and tragic most people would either hit the bottle hard or have just crawled under a rock. So Joe exited stage right and Kamala rode in on her horse.

It all reminds me of the movie Blazing Saddles where instead of Cleavon Little riding into town it is Kamala Harris. Like when another black sheriff rode into town on a horse named Hope, some folk still can’t fathom the concept of a black president. Now the additional shocker is that she is a woman.

And then there is the new sheriff’s sidekick, Tim Walz. Like Gene Wilder in Blazing Saddles, Walz can shoot a gun better than most and fortunately does not have a drinking problem. And in an even stranger similarity, in both cases the duos are in town to save the day from a wave of thugs, crooks, liars and big corporate railroad types wanting to buy and control little people’s pocket books and even their souls .

Once again, art becomes reality. Once again art foreshadows the future. Once again, art and imagination pave the way for justice. Mel Brooks was on to something.

“America and think about it. After all the promise of America is what makes it possible for [me and] Tim Walz [to be] together on this stage today. Think about that. Think about that. Think about it. Two middle class kids, one a daughter of Oakland, California who was raised by a working mother. I had a summer job at McDonald’s. The other a son of the Nebraska plains who grew up working on a farm. Think about it. Think about it. Only in America is it possible that the two of them would be running together all the way to the White House.”
– Harris and Walz rally Las Vegas, August 10, 2024

ACT 2

A few months back I was thinking about it… thinking about who would be the best person to run if Joe Biden dropped out. Who could possibly be the hero who saves the day. After much thought I came up with the only person who would easily win – Tom Hanks.

Tom Hanks has done it all. He has flown an Apollo mission and returned to earth with the help of a little duct tape. He has had AIDS. After his FedEx plane crashed in a violent  storm he survived for years on a deserted tropical island eating only coconuts and killing fish with a spear. He has saved Private Ryan. He has battled against Somali Pirates and won. He has jogged from one side of the country and back again. He has coached an all-woman baseball team. He is a person of mythic proportions and everyone would vote for him. He is someone who always seems to do the right thing. He could get us out of this political mudslinging and toxic delusional silliness. He seems to always play the hero.

So when Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz as her running-mate, you could tell right away that it was the right choice. Not some buttoned down careful politician whose family had been in the politics for generations. Not an Ivy League type. Not a show business person with perfect hair and a smile made for T.V.. Instead, someone a little like a fictional Tom Hanks.

Tim Walz grew up on a farm in Nebraska and was in the Army National Guard for decades. He has taught internationally and spent a year in China. In a small town in Minnesota he taught high school geography and social studies. The high school football team had lost 27 straight games when he joined the coaching staff as a defensive coordinator. Three years later, in 1999, the team won its first state championship. He sponsored a gay-straight alliance student organization at the small town high school after a student at the school wanted to start the group. You can’t make this stuff up.

In other words, his life is waiting for a Tom Hanks movie. Tim Walz is a Tom Hanks character – someone who deals with adversity and overcomes it through character, good decisions, common sense, great people skills, luck and hard work. And he has a rural way of speaking and communicating that has been missing in American politics since Jimmy Carter.

Hollywood. The script is still writing itself. I am not sure Tom Hanks plays the role but time will tell.

“We have some hard work ahead of us. But we like hard work. Hard work is good work. And with your help this November, we will win.”
– Harris and Walz rally Las Vegas, August 10, 2024