Episodes

FaceBook will launch a new cryptocurrency the Diem and a financial wallet the Novi to complement it. Target date is early 2021. It will be backed by the US dollar so it will not be digital in the way that Bitcoin is digital. Further, it will have a governing board and the Diem Association which will include FB and other investors will be based in Switzerland. The strategic objective is to create a global consumer finance company based on FB's 2 billion users in 192 countries. Financial transacti...

With two new vaccines and their 94% effective rates against Covid 19 pending FDA approval, light is at the end of the tunnel for the Pandemic. But will Americans accept them enthusiastically ? Or will they protest like rejecting the mask mandates and social distancing rules ? The Anti Vaxxer Movement and Vaccine Hesitant Groups are gearing up for a fight. They have shrewdly allied themselves with Church Groups, civil liberties organizations and civil rights associations to fight mandatory vaccin...

Not even a once in a century global pandemic seems to be able to slow down the rise in California's robust residential real estate market. The median price for a home hit $712,000 and shows little sign of slowing down. Low interest rates and limited supply of new homes seems to be fueling the price rise. At the same time over 650,000 Californians left the state in 2019 because of unaffordable housing and a heavy tax burden. Yet San Francisco for example, struggles to keep city streets clean and ...

Governor Gavin Newsom will get to name a new US Senator to fill the vacancy left when Kamala Harris becomes Vice President. The Governor appears to be in no rush to name a successor. While he wants to make an historic appointment, he knows that it is fraught with risk. In the last 56 years, two California Governors appointed successors to fill vacant US Senate seats in 1964 and 1990 and in both cases the appointees went down to historic defeats. There are five frontrunners for the post with one ...

Twitter, Facebook and the other big social media companies moved toward a curated speech, censorship model during the 2020 campaign. As a result an Alt Tech social media ecosystem has grown up emphasizing the importance of Free Speech in social media. There are now a host of social media companies like Parler that are Free Speech oriented. While they are far smaller than the established players it remains to be seen if they can scale up and compete. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm...

November 22, 2020 marks 57 years since the assassination of the 35th President, John F. Kennedy. Yet key documents remain hidden from the public including 300 pages of files on George Joannides, a CIA operative who managed the Cuban student group DRE that Oswald tried to join. And most historians and scholars are reluctant to write the history as so many of the facts of the assassination are as murky as they were over 50 years ago. The passage of time has not cleared up the morass of the Kennedy...

A popular conspiracy theory in right wing circles is that Vice President elect Kamala Harris will soon take over from an incapacitated President elect Joe Biden. When you repeat such a theory you are giving it oxygen some argue, even if your intent is to dismantle and reject it. In today's podcast I will explain how this myth has materialized, its roots in American History and why it is never likely to come to pass. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/james-herlihy/message

Pfizer and its' German partner Biontech, announced on Monday November 9, 2020 that their vaccine has a 90% effectiveness rate in preventing Covid 19. This announcement is the first ray of hope that the Covid 19 pandemic which began in China and has swept the globe in 2020 can be stopped, vanquished and extinguished. Public euphoria was best summed up in the stock market as the Dow Jones surged 1300 points on the news reaching new highs. Pfizer will seek emergency use approval from America"s FDA ...

President Trump, in his 16 minute electoral fraud diatribe from the White House Briefing Room, Thursday November 5 has launched a Conspiracy Theory of a stolen election, before the American people and a global audience. His obvious motivation was anger at seeing his early lead in the election returns slip away in favor of Joe Biden. He has let the conspiracy genie out of the bottle publicly giving his 70 million voters a rallying cry, much like Hillary Clinton's supporters slogan " Resist". His ...

72 years ago today, November 2, 1948, President Harry Truman defied all expectations and won re-election, when the national polls had him down 6.5% versus Governor Tom Dewey. His come from behind win was a shock to the nation. Not only did he confound the pundits, but the Democrats recaptured the Congress with healthy majorities. How did he do it ? Are there lessons to be learned for Donald Trump and Joe Biden in tomorrow's election ? --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/james-herli...

The gray wolf, one of America's iconic symbols of the Old West, is to lose its' endangered species status. The Trump Administration argues that 45 years of protection has seen its numbers grow six fold to 6000. But conservationists contend that the wolf is not firmly re-established in America. The Pro and Anti wolf lobbies bring a visceral passion to the subject that some have compared to the Abortion campaign. Will the opponents succeed in overturning this delisting action ? --- Send in a vo...

2020 has been marked by extreme political polarization in the United States, and civilian unrest in most American cities. 56% of Americans polled expect political violence to follow the November 3rd presidential election regardless of who wins. While we have seen political violence in our past - 4 Presidents were assassinated and 18 out of the 45 Presidents were threatened with assassination - our elections and their results have been peaceful. Until 2020. --- Send in a voice message: https:/...

Gun sales in June surged to 3.9 million weapons, an 80% increase over the same month last year. More than 20 million new firearms have been purchased in 2020, fueled by national apprehension over the pandemic, unemployment, economic uncertainty, racial tension and political uncertainty. With more than 400 million weapons already in circulation in this country, there are enough firearms for every man, woman and child and then some. Are people fearful of losing police protection and turning to sel...

San Francisco is looking to re-name 44 of its' 114 schools. The move was prompted by a review of existing names for slavery links, genocide perpetrators, colonialists, white supremacists etc. 9 US Presidents' names would be stripped from our schools including, Washington, Lincoln and Roosevelt. Even Senator Dianne Feinstein would lose her place of honor and our Spanish Colonial historic roots expunged. But San Francisco's schools are still closed to in person learning and many, even in woke San ...

JFK took on anti-Catholic bigotry upfront in the 1960 presidential campaign, speaking before a conference of Protestant Pastors in Houston, Texas, September 12 regarding his Catholic Faith. Kennedy went on to win the Presidency, albeit narrowly with 112,000 votes. He reminded the clerics of the No Religious Test provision of the US Constitution (Article VI, Clause 3) and further spoke of his own WWII heroism in the South Pacific. We thought that the concept of Catholics being viewed as "Other" h...

The Wolverine Watchmen, a Michigan based militia group, plotted to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer, try her for treason, storm the State Capitol in Lansing with 200 men and foment a civil war. The FBI arrested the 13 plotters several days ago and charged them with terrorism, conspiracy to kidnap and weapons charges after tracking them on Social Media. Michigan has been a hotbed of militia activity for many years; even Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols the Oklahoma City bombers who killed 168 pe...

Wednesday night's VP debate was more anticipated than past vice presidential meet ups for a host of reasons. After last week's acrimonious shouting match that was disastrous for both Biden and Trump, Mike Pence had to steady the SS Trump which was taking on water; mission accomplished. Kamala Harris, however, had to introduce herself to the American people as a potential President while demonstrating her policy chops. Pence was in his element and confidently played his hand with aplomb, but with...

The quickening pace of the destruction of California's forests by wildfire is staggering. In the last 3 months four million acres of our 33 million acres of forest have burned. That's 12%. From 2000 to 2019 4 million acres burned and before that it took 66 years - 1933 to 1999- to burn 4 million acres. The exponential increase in the burn rate is an existential threat to the Golden State. Yet we still do not have an overarching strategic plan to bring the wildfire menace under control. The same ...

Who are the Proud Boys and why did Joe Biden and Chris Wallace give them oxygen at the Presidential debate ? A right wing group the Anti-Defamation League calls Alt-Lite, with a Disney film inspired name wasn't deserving of mention. But they are now part of the 2020 presidential campaign. What do they believe ? What is White Supremacy ? And what about Executive Order #13950 Combatting Race and Sex Stereotyping, dated 9/22/2020. Listen to today's podcast for answers. --- Send in a voice messag...

Deceit and Dirty Money is Jim Herlihy's debut novel written in the late 1990's - a simpler and gentler time before 911, Global financial crises, cell phones, the internet and electric cars. Set in San Francisco, this financial thriller with classic San Francisco Noir overtones, satirizes the City's social elite. Jim also gives an insider's explanation of the writing process and how he developed his unique voice and writing style. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/james-herlihy/me...