Friday, January 30, 2026 at North Beach Restaurant: Sac Sem Roundtable
- tarmour2
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
There’ll be a Sac Sem roundtable this Friday, January 30 starting at 12:15 p.m. The roundtable’s topic will be, Greenland, Trump, the Nobel Prize and post-Davos. Many seminarians tell us that they miss roundtables. They’ll be scheduled more often in 2026. In the years after the Seminar was established, roundtables were the norm and Friday speakers the exception.
Food for thought for this roundtable from The Atlantic. Daniel Yudkin and Stephen Hawkins write,
“Trump’s political skills were forged in WWE arenas, on reality-TV sets, and in the luxury real-estate business—industries that live and die by their ability to capture attention, simplify narratives, and deliver emotional impact. These experiences taught him how to establish emotional bonds with audiences that far outweigh any connection based on shared ideology, Trump’s detractors may dismiss these bonds as empty or irrelevant. But for the people who experience them, they are very real. The relationship Trump has established with tens of millions of Americans offers them something they cannot attain through conventional politics. In his various roles, he embodies the reality that they want. This is the source of his power.”
RSVP TO ATTEND any upcoming seminar. To assist the kitchen staff with planning for our Friday lunchtime meetings, please notify DENNIS WHEATLEY at dennis@triticum.com NO LATER THAN MID-DAY ON the WEDNESDAY BEFORE EVERY SEMINAR if you plan to attend and indicate if you’ll be bringing a guest. Dennis DOES NOT need to know if you are not attending.
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Again, a Sac Seminarian makes it into big time journalism. Our own Alex Clemens is quoted in, “The Front Runner, Gavin Newsom Would Rather Be Wrong Than Weak” by Helen Lewis in The Atlantic. “As person, Newsom is enormously charismatic and is obviously performing. He is a good communicator,” the Bay Area political strategist Alex Clemens told me. “He tries very hard to be a good communicator, and some people latch on to the trying-hard, instead of the end result.” Find it at:
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UPCOMING SEMINARS:
Lori Brooke, a candidate for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors District 2, is our guest on Friday, February 6. Lori’s background and platform can be found at https://www.loribrooke.com/about The Second District includes The Marin., Pacific Height and Jordan Park. The appointed incumbent, Stephen Sherrill, will seek a full four-year term. The big issue is Mayor Dan Lurie’s plan for more multi-story apartments and condos in the City’s neighborhoods. Most of it will be clustered around commercial streets and along Muni bus and streetcar lines.
“Ace” Smith is our guest on Friday, February 13. Averell “Ace” Smith is the campaign guru behind Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom. Capitol Weekly says he’s “a legend among California political consultants, the San Francisco-based Smith has handled campaigns for president, governor, senator, local contenders and, perhaps most memorably, his own father.” (Past Seminarian and San Francisco District Attorney) Arlo Smith. https://capitolweekly.net/oral-histories/ace-smith-political-consultant/ Ace will be introduced by Sac Sem’s new speakers/program chair Brian Chase.
Alan Wong, the newest member of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors is the Seminar’s guest on Friday, February 20. Supervisor Wong was appointed by Mayor Dan Lurie to the board’s Sunset District-centered District 4 seat on December 1. The post had been held by Supervisor Joel Engardo until he was recalled over the conversion of the Great Highway to Sunset Dunes Park. A Lincoln High Grad, Supervisor Wong received degrees from UC San Diego and a master’s degree in public affairs from USF. He previously was an elected City College of SF trustee. He has served in the California National Guard for the past 15 years.
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Carl Nolte will return to Sac Sem on Friday, February 27. Carl writes the “Native Son” column on page 2 of each Sunday Chron., A lifelong San Franciscan, Carl was a beat reporter with the “Voice of the West” starting in the 1970s. Carl will look back and reflect on where and how The City has changed for the better and where change has been for the worse. Chair emeritus Dick Spotswood will introduce our guest.
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FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: Sac Sem members frequently send to your editor articles, books or on-line items they believe members will find of interest. While discretion is utilized in selecting items, whatever is posted does not necessarily represent the opinion of Sac Sem’s board of directors:
Seminarian Mike Barr sends us this snippet from Peggy Noonan’s article in The Wall Street Journal:
What’s new in Trump Two. “I see two big differences between Trump 1 and Trump 2. Mr. Trump has hardened. Many of those around him have hardened too. Their job isn’t to win you over but to win—that’s what will settle what history says, winning. Scholars and intellectuals dilating in their little books: None of that matters anymore. Because they don’t matter anymore.
Mr. Trump seeks not to persuade but overpower. There is a daily mood in his administration of finally settling all family business. That of course is a famous line from “The Godfather” and is uttered by Michael Corleone, the smart son, the day he kills the heads of the other mafia families. “Today I settle all family business.”
Mario Puzo, on whose novel the movie was based, created the iconic three brothers of the film—fiery Sonny, cool and methodical Michael, the incapable Fredo. It is a mainstay of political journalism that a political figure, especially one from a large family, is one of the brothers.
Mr. Trump in this term is the first president to be all three. He has a Michael side, but it’s overwhelmed by the Sonny side, and his Fredo side is more than a third of the whole. That is what is so exhausting about him (and yes, Trump intellectuals, so capacious, so Shakespearean—in a sense!) and for some horrifying, that he’s all three, and you never know which one is coming to work today."
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OTHER THOUGHTS: “My own sympathy has always been with the little fellow, the man without advantages.” Harry S. Truman
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