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This Friday, July 19, Sac Sem's round table is scheduled to begin at 12:15 p.m. in person at Perry’s On Union. The topic will be determined by whatever national developments break this week. If the Zoom chat after Dan Walther’s talk at last Friday’s seminar is a clue, everyone present will be eager to share their strong opinions. To set the tone, before Friday's seminar, read Lincoln Mitchell's 's latest on-line column: "American Brezhnev." It's at
https://substack.com/inbox/post/146526133?utm_source=email&inbox=true
RSVP TO ATTEND any upcoming seminar. To assist Perry’s kitchen staff with planning for our Friday lunchtime meetings please email Dennis Wheatley at [email protected] if you plan to attend and indicate if you’ll be bringing a guest. Dennis DOES NOT need to know you are not attending. If members have RSVP’ed a “yes” and need to cancel, please tell Dennis before the cutoff of Thursday noon prior to each seminar.
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UPCOMING SEMINARS:
On Friday, July 26 Sac Sem’s guest at Perrys is San Francisco’s elected City Attorney David Chiu. https://votedavidchiu.com/ The Cleveland, Ohio native previously served in the California State Assembly as a Democrat representing the 17th Assembly District, which encompasses the eastern half of San Francisco. He is a graduate of Boston College, Harvard Law, and the Harvard Kennedy School.
Britain’s Consul General in San Francisco Tammy Sandhu, MBE, will be our guest on Friday, August 2 at Perry’s. Tammy has previously had diplomatic postings to Morocco, Brussels and India, and has served in Iraq and Kenya. She has worked across political and economic affairs, bilateral trade and investment, as a Government spokesperson, and on their response to crises dealing with high profile kidnaps of British nationals overseas. Her service to Diversity and Inclusion was recognized in 2021 when she was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honors. Seminarian Sherri Ferris will introduce Consul General Sandhu.
Mark Buell is Sac Sem’s guest speaker on Friday, August 9. Mark is a Democratic Party mega-donor, real estate developer, and philanthropist from San Francisco. He is married to Susie Thompson Buell, also a Democratic Party donor and close confidant of Hillary Clinton who co-founded sportswear companies The North Face and Esprit with her first husband, Douglas Tompkins. The Buells are well known in Bay Area social and political circles and are founding members of the Democracy Alliance, a left-leaning funders’ collaborative.
Marjan Philhour, the “moderate” candidate for San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors in the First District (Richmond, Sea Cliff, Lone Mountain) will be Sac Sem’s guest on Friday, August 16. She is running against the “progressive” incumbent Connie Chan. A Richmond District small business owner, the UC Berkeley grad has been on the staff of Gray Davis, Tom Lantos, and was a senior advisor to Mayor London Breed.
Sean Elsbernd, Mayor Breed’s chief of staff and former San Francisco supervisor, will be our featured speaker on August 23. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Elsbernd
On Friday, September 6, John King, the architectural and urban design critic for the San Francisco Chronicle returns to the Seminar. The two-time Pulitzer Award finalist will be introduced by Seminarian John Tysell. King is the author of Portal, San Francisco’s Ferry Building and the Reinvention of American Cities.
https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324020325 Your editor enthusiastically recommends Portal for those who those who enjoy San Francisco history.
Gerard de Graaf is our speaker on Friday, September 13. He is senior Envoy for Digital to the U.S. and head of the EU office in San Francisco. Until his recent appointment, Mr. De Graaf was involved in the EU’s Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts, two landmark pieces of legislation which have been adopted in the European Union to keep the Internet safe, protect fundamental rights and enhance competition in digital markets. From the Netherlands, he studied Economic Geography & Regional Planning at the Free University in Amsterdam and European Economics and Law at the Catholic University Leuven (Belgium).
Lori Brooke, co-founder of Neighborhoods United SF and longtime Cow Hollow Neighborhood leader will be our speaker on Friday September 27 at Perry’s On Union. Seminarian Jim Fuller will introduce her. Ms. Brooke was featured in the SF Standard https://sfstandard.com/2024/06/07/san-francisco-zoning-housing-element-united-neighborhoods/
California’s top political pollster, Mark DiCamillo, himself a Seminarian, returns to update the Seminar on pre-presidential election poling trends on Friday, October 25. Mark is with the University of California (Berkeley) Institute of Governmental Studies. https://igs.berkeley.edu/people/mark-dicamillo where he conducts the IGS poll focusing on California issues and campaigns.
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OTHER THOUGHTS: “You never know what worse luck you bad luck has saved you from.” Cormac McCarthy
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Jon Rubin, Chair, The Sacramento Seminar, Inc. [email protected] Tel: (415) 753-0289
Dick Spotswood, Weekly Update editor. E-mail: [email protected] Tel: (415) 260-3235. Address: 6030 Shelter Bay Avenue, Mill Valley, CA 94941
Find us on the web at www.sacsem.net
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