The San Francisco Experience

While US and Russian diplomatic relations remain frozen citizen diplomats continue to talk to each other despite limited official contacts.

The 2024 presidential campaign was especially momentous with an incumbent President leaving the race after a disastrous debate performance and the challenger being attacked by assassins two times. Unparalleled in modern times.

In January 1945 Art and Architecture magazine commissioned 8 nationally known architects to design contemporary, single family homes with a specific budget to meet the expected homebuilding boom in the post war era. 33 Case Study homes were built as models from 1945 to 1966. The Stahl House in Los Angeles is Case Study House #22 and is open to visit.

Bertrand Delhom was the first person with Parkinson's to sail around the world in the competitive Ocean Global Race (OGR). Building on that experience to raise public awareness of Parkinson's a fundraising regatta will be held on the SF Bay in April 2026 and the MJF Fdn will be involved with sponsoring the Neptune in the 2027 OGR.

Spark SF Public Schools is the official non profit partner of The San Francisco Unified School District. They mobilize philanthropic and community support for San Francisco's public school students ranging from mental health programs to reading at grade level literacy.

The United States has often used pressure tactics like sanctions, military threats and diplomatic isolation - Coercive Diplomacy - to achieve foreign policy goals. But from 1990 to 2020 the results of such actions has been mixed. Why ? Is Coercive Diplomacy still a statecraft tool for the US to use so frequently ?

Turner Classic Movies hosts a classic movie festival every year in Los Angeles. The theme this year was " Grand Illusions: Fantastic Worlds on Film ". Shaun Chang attended this year and shares his impressions.

Canada goes to the polls on Monday April 28, 2025 to choose a new government. Incumbent Prime Minister Mark Carney and Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre are the two main candidates for the top job. The election will be the first held against the backdrop of the Trump tariffs which have dominated the election campaign. The incumbent Liberals were likely to lose earlier this year but have surged back as President Trump taunted Justin Trudeau and suggested Canada should become the 51st state.

The Post War Consensus, based on the Open Society was crafted to dampen and eliminate passions that fueled nationalism, militarism, anti-semitism in WWI and WWII. The de-emphasis of traditional beliefs in family, flag, faith in favor of individualism, secularity and internationalism served to cool emotions and for 80 years in the Western Democracies peace prevailed. But that consensus is coming to an end as a wave of Populism has swept across the US, UK and other nations. What will replace it ?

The Ravensbruck concentration camp was a labor camp housing political dissidents from across the German occupied continent of Europe. The book tells the story of four French women who had a major impact for the good on the inmates, and their fellow countrymen. "Something must be done."