It's Been a While
So I thought I'd stop by and offer some thoughts, and some recommendations
Shortly after I started this Substack I started contributing to The Voice of San Francisco, a rather brilliant collection of old hands that has regularly broken news about the grease between the gears of San Francisco politics, thanks to top dog Susan Dyer Reynolds. Much of my writing has been about the monster election. But I’m doing much more now at The Voice as editor-in-chief, hence my absence. Very rewarding, very busy.
(BTW: If you’re a good writer who understands how San Francisco City Hall works, talk to me. We’re always looking for good writing. We’re also looking for passionate work about life in the city.)
That said, sooner or later, I will feel compelled to write something that may not be best served at what is now my main gig, so I’m keeping this space open and humbly ask you all to keep watching it. I still intend to use it to regularly share things that have informed and entertained me down the line, and I hope they do the same for you.
Like, for instance:
The Guardrails Are Already Crumpling - Jonathan Last on the recent decisions to pull presidential endorsements at the Washington Post (and by implication, the Los Angeles Times). The reason these events should scare you is not about journalism. It’s about business. In Last’s words, “It’s a situation analogous to what we saw in Russia in the early 2000s: We are witnessing the surrender of the American business community to Donald Trump.”
And:
Timothy Snyder: Obeying in Advance - “A problem with the very wealthy is that, alas, the least vulnerable have a tendency to think of themselves as the most vulnerable.”
“And from that position they harm everyone else, while proclaiming that they are simply being neutral or following business interests. But doing what Trump wants in advance only makes it more likely that Trump will have power, and only teaches him that you are easy to intimidate. You are giving the authoritarian power he would not otherwise have. The irony is that the rest of us will have to save the billionaires from their own cowardice.”
Ezra Klein: The Hidden Politics of Disorder: '...At the same time, Democrats I know are frustrated. Violent crime is down, not up. Why won’t people look at the numbers... I think there is something missing in the violent crime data.
That thing is disorder.'
And now on the lighter side of things: LTA Research’s (Google’s) rigid airship Pathfinder II had its first untethered flight this week one year after FAA approval. Not much news coverage, but here it is. This is one of a number of lighter-than-air projects in motion but this is the only one that closely resembles the airships of the past. What is old is new again.
