Sac Sem’s annual Holiday/Christmas/Hanukkah Lunch is at Noon this Friday, December 20 at Perry’s. Book your spot today by emailing Dennis Wheatley to indicate if you and a guest will attend at dennis@triticum.com. Your editor will have the honor to preside at the festivities in his very temporary role as acting chai
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SAC SEM’s Spring CIVIL WAR Battlefield Tour has been canceled. There were insufficient sign-ups, making a tour with a professional guide and bus financially unfeasible.
2025 Sac Sem dues are now due. It’s now time to mail in your $200.00 check payable to Sacramento Seminar, Inc. for your annual dues for 2025. Please mail the check to Dennis Wheatley, 72 Heritage Drive, San Rafael, CA 94901. If members have questions, Dennis’ e-mail address is dennis@triticum.com
UPCOMING SEMINARS:
Sacramento Seminar will be dark. There will be no seminars after this Friday UNTIL Friday, January 10.
Mark Sunday, January 5 on your calendar. At 2:00 p.m. at the University Club (Powell & California Streets) for a Memorial/Celebration of Life for our late chair Jon Rubin. It’s not too early to RSVP to Dennis Wheatley at dennis@triticum.com
Bob Powers, the General Manager of BART, will be our speaker on Friday, January 10th. Bob will be introduced by Seminarian Steve Heminger. Bob’s extensive history in the public transit industry is detailed at https://www.bart.gov/about/gm
John W. Busterud will be our speaker on Friday, January 17. John will discuss his time as the Regional Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency during the Trump administration. He was appointed to the Trump administration in 2020. He’s a retired Senior Director and Managing Counsel, Environment and Real Estate, Law Department, Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Mr. Busterud is a retired U.S. Army Colonel with multiple Combined, Joint and Interagency assignments, including active-duty deployments in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and Combined Forces Command Korea.
Veteran Seminarians will recall that John's father, John A. Busterud, was the last Republican to represent the Haight Ashbury in the California Assembly, served as President of the Commonwealth Club of California and was President of the Committee to Save The Marin Headlands. In 1971, President Nixon appointed John A. Busterud to be the first Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Environmental Quality, and he subsequently served as the Chairman of the President's Council on Environmental Quality under President Jerry Ford. Sac Sem Speakers Committee Chair Mike Fitzgerald will have the introductory honors.
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OTHER THOUGTHS: "A new axiom of American politics: ‘It’s the culture, stupid.’” Michael Baharaeen, in “The Liberal Patriot
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