50 cents and a bag of oranges

(Note:

This article was originally published on October 13, 2010. By some fluke in the blogger website, it recently got moved up to a more current date). 

On November 7, the church that I belong to will be hosting an ofrenda event. 

If you’re not familiar with that term, an ofrenda is a tradition of Mexico where the souls of those who have departed from this earth can be honored. On that day, people of the congregation will bring mementos of a person they wish to honor, and place them on the display table. After the service, there will be an opportunity for some of the members of the congregation to offer a brief oral remembrance of those being honored.

 This year, in addition to the usual pictures, medals, and scrapbooks, there will be a rather unusual addition to the traditional offerings: a bag of oranges and two quarters.

  The oranges and the quarters will be there in honor of my late father-in-law, Dick Lennartson, in remembrance of a Christmas that he endured many years ago. 

 When Dick was 12 years old, he contracted rheumatic fever. By that point in his life, his mother had divorced his father, and had remarried. Since she now had a new baby daughter to care for, she did not feel that she was able to provide for her son Dick, so she sent him off to a foster family on the other side of town.

 During one of the Christmases that he was at the foster family, probably in 1938 or 1939, Dick took a street car across town to spend time with his mother and brothers, Gordy and Ray. Times were tough for Dick’s mother, and she really couldn’t afford to spend money on anything that wasn’t essential for survival. At a time when a lot of kids were getting Lincoln Logs or new puppies for Christmas, Dick got a bag of oranges, and 50 cents. He also had to take the street car back “home” to the foster family. 

 As he would freely admit, he had an unhappy childhood, but he still turned out to be a good, decent man. When he was 16, he lied about his age, and joined the Navy in order to fight in WWII. For many years after he got out, he vowed that he would cross to the other side of the street if he saw his mother coming towards him. However, as they got older, they both mellowed, and they had a cordial relationship when she passed away at the age of 90.

 Like a lot of members of the group of people that Tom Brokaw called “the greatest generation”, Dick was pretty quiet about the things that he suffered through, and he never really developed the ability to have long, heartfelt discussions with his three daughters. All that he knew how to do was to work hard, and to try to teach by example, and he did the best that he could to do just that. 

 Fortunately for Dick, he met the right woman when he got out of the service, and their marriage on October 2, 1948 ultimately produced three daughters, one of whom I married nearly 40 years ago. From time to time, all of us struggle with our everyday problems. However, if you ever feel overwhelmed by your problems, think for a moment about Dick Lennartson, and the things that he endured, and you’ll feel very fortunate.

77 Sunset Strip

 

Lost in the flood of news that we are all subjected to on a daily basis this year was the death notice of a man that all of us knew very well when most of us were in elementary school.

Edward Byrne Breitenberger (July 30, 1932 – January 8, 2020), known professionally as Edd Byrnes, was an American actor, best known for his starring role in the television series 77 Sunset Strip. He also was featured in the 1978 film Grease as television teen-dance show host Vince Fontaine, and was a charting recording artist with "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)" (with Connie Stevens).

By the time of his death on January 8, 2020, he was no longer the handsome actor who had legions of fans across the country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edd_Byrnes

Byrnes was born in New York City, the son of Mary (Byrne) and Augustus "Gus" Breitenberger. He had two siblings, Vincent and Jo-Ann. After his abusive alcoholic father died^] when Edd was thirteen, he dropped his last name in favor of "Byrnes" based on the name of his maternal grandfather, Edward Byrne, a fireman.

Byrnes developed the urge to act at high school but did not seriously consider pursuing it until after he had tried a number of other jobs, such as: driving an ambulance, roofing and selling flowers. At seventeen, he found work as a photographer's model; this led to an introduction to prostitution. In his memoirs, he described this as a "strange world... Art, wealth, sadism, limousines, sex for money, theater and fine restaurants."

 

In 1956, Byrnes got an unpaid job in a summer stock theatre company in Connecticut, the Litchfield Community Playhouse. He soon began appearing in the company's plays as an actor; he also tried to get roles in Broadway theatre productions, but had no luck. Also that year, he was cast in an episode of the Crossroads TV program. Byrnes also appeared in episodes of the late-50s series Wire Service and Navy Log.

After a year, Byrnes moved to Hollywood. He appeared in a local stage production of Tea and Sympathy. Byrnes also appeared in episodes of The Adventures of Jim Bowie, and Telephone Time and in the film Fear Strikes Out (1957). Byrnes was third-billed in the film Reform School Girl (1957) for American International Pictures; that same year, he had a supporting role in the Warner Bros. film Johnny Trouble.

Byrnes was cast in Girl on the Run, a pilot for a detective show starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Byrnes played contract killer Kenneth Smiley, who continually combed his hair – Byrnes said this was an idea of his which the director liked and kept in. Around this time Byrnes decided to change his acting name from "Edward" to "Edd". "I just dreamed it up one day", he said. "Edward is too formal and there are lots of Eddies."

The show aired in October 1958 and was so popular Warners decided to turn it into a TV series: 77 Sunset Strip.^[Byrnes' character became an immediate national teen sensation, prompting the producers to make Byrnes a regular cast member. They transformed Kookie from a hitman into a parking valet at Dino's Lodge who helped as a private investigator. Zimbalist Jr. explained the situation to the audience:

“We previewed this show, and because Edd Byrnes was such a hit, we decided that Kookie and his comb had to be in our series. So, this week, we'll just forget that in the pilot he went off to prison to be executed.”

They transformed Kookie from a hitman into a parking valet at Dino's Lodge who helped as a private investigator. In a very short time, it became the most popular show on television.

Although Byrnes continued to act in a variety of roles until he was nearly 70 years old, his “Kookie” character always remained the high point of his career.

 

If you’d like to take a trip down memory lane, I’d recommend playing some of the opening themes for the show at various times during its 6 year run.

https://www.youtube.com/wat

Profiles in Courage

 

Profiles in Courage  is a 1956 volume of short biographies describing acts of bravery and integrity by eight United States Senators, written by then-Senator John F. Kennedy, extensively helped by Ted Sorensen. Kennedy is widely listed as the sole author and won the Pulitzer Prize for the work. The book profiles senators who defied the opinions of their party and constituents to do what they felt was right and suffered severe criticism and losses in popularity because of their actions. It begins with a quote from Edmund Burke on the courage of the English statesman Charles James Fox, in his 1783 attack upon the tyranny of the East India Company in the House of Commons.

The book focuses on mid-19th-century antebellum America and the efforts of senators to delay the American Civil War. Profiles was widely celebrated and became a bestseller.

In 1956, Kennedy gave a copy of the book to Richard Nixon, who responded that he was looking forward to reading it. After being defeated by Kennedy in the 1960 United States presidential election, Nixon was advised by Mamie Eisenhower to write a book himself. Nixon visited the White House in April 1961 and got the same advice from Kennedy: writing a book would raise the public image of any public man. Nixon wrote his book Six Crises (1962) in response to Profiles in Courage 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profiles_in_Courage 

In 1990, Kennedy's family created the Profile in Courage Award to honor individuals who have acted with courage in the same vein as those profiled in the book. Recipients since that time have included John McCain, John Lewis, Gerald Ford, Gabriella Giffords, George H.W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Nancy Pelosi. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profile_in_Courage_Award

Although many people might consider giving the award to JFK himself self-serving, he is just as deserving of the award as many of the other people on the list. The PT-109 incident got him early recognition as a courageous individual, but the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 highlighted the fact that he was a man who had courage in spades. The History Channel provided more details on the incident.

In a televised speech of extraordinary gravity, President John F. Kennedy announces on October 22, 1962 that U.S. spy planes have discovered Soviet missile bases in Cuba. These missile sites—under construction but nearing completion—housed medium-range missiles capable of striking a number of major cities in the United States, including Washington, D.C. Kennedy announced that he was ordering a naval “quarantine” of Cuba to prevent Soviet ships from transporting any more offensive weapons to the island and explained that the United States would not tolerate the existence of the missile sites currently in place. The president made it clear that America would not stop short of military action to end what he called a “clandestine, reckless and provocative threat to world peace.”

What is known as the Cuban Missile Crisis actually began on October 14, 1962—the day that U.S. intelligence personnel analyzing U-2 spy plane data discovered that the Soviets were building medium-range missile sites in Cuba. The next day, President Kennedy secretly convened an emergency meeting of his senior military, political, and diplomatic advisers to discuss the ominous development. The group became known as ExCom, short for Executive Committee. After rejecting a surgical air strike against the missile sites, ExCom decided on a naval quarantine and a demand that the bases be dismantled and missiles removed. On the night of October 22, Kennedy went on national television to announce his decision. During the next six days, the crisis escalated to a breaking point as the world tottered on the brink of nuclear war between the two superpowers.

On October 23, the quarantine of Cuba began, but Kennedy decided to give Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev more time to consider the U.S. action by pulling the quarantine line back 500 miles. By October 24, Soviet ships en route to Cuba capable of carrying military cargoes appeared to have slowed down, altered, or reversed their course as they approached the quarantine, with the exception of one ship—the tanker Bucharest. At the request of more than 40 nonaligned nations, U.N. Secretary-General U Thant sent private appeals to Kennedy and Khrushchev, urging that their governments “refrain from any action that may aggravate the situation and bring with it the risk of war.” At the direction of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. military forces went to DEFCON 2, the highest military alert ever reached in the postwar era, as military commanders prepared for full-scale war with the Soviet Union.

On October 25, the aircraft carrier USS Essex and the destroyer USS Gearing attempted to intercept the Soviet tanker Bucharest as it crossed over the U.S. quarantine of Cuba. The Soviet ship failed to cooperate, but the U.S. Navy restrained itself from forcibly seizing the ship, deeming it unlikely that the tanker was carrying offensive weapons. On October 26, Kennedy learned that work on the missile bases was proceeding without interruption, and ExCom considered authorizing a U.S. invasion of Cuba. The same day, the Soviets transmitted a proposal for ending the crisis: The missile bases would be removed in exchange for a U.S. pledge not to invade Cuba (which we had previously done on April of 1961 at the Bay of Pigs).

The next day, however, Khrushchev upped the ante by publicly calling for the dismantling of U.S. missile bases in Turkey under pressure from Soviet military commanders. While Kennedy and his crisis advisers debated this dangerous turn in negotiations, a U-2 spy plane was shot down over Cuba, and its pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson, was killed. To the dismay of the Pentagon, Kennedy forbid a military retaliation unless any more surveillance planes were fired upon over Cuba. To defuse the worsening crisis, Kennedy and his advisers agreed to dismantle the U.S. missile sites in Turkey but at a later date, in order to prevent the protest of Turkey, a key NATO member.

On October 28, Khrushchev announced his government’s intent to dismantle and remove all offensive Soviet weapons in Cuba. With the airing of the public message on Radio Moscow, the USSR confirmed its willingness to proceed with the solution secretly proposed by the Americans the day before. In the afternoon, Soviet technicians began dismantling the missile sites, and the world stepped back from the brink of nuclear war. The Cuban Missile Crisis was effectively over. In November, Kennedy called off the blockade, and by the end of the year all the offensive missiles had left Cuba. Soon after, the United States quietly removed its missiles from Turkey.

The Cuban Missile Crisis seemed at the time a clear victory for the United States, but Cuba emerged from the episode with a much greater sense of security. The removal of antiquated Jupiter missiles from Turkey had no detrimental effect on U.S. nuclear strategy, but the Cuban Missile Crisis convinced a humiliated USSR to commence a massive nuclear buildup. In the 1970s, the Soviet Union reached nuclear parity with the United States and built intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking any city in the United States.

A succession of U.S. administrations honored Kennedy’s pledge not to invade Cuba, and relations with the communist island nation situated just 80 miles from Florida remained a thorn in the side of U.S. foreign policy for more than 50 years. In 2015, officials from both nations announced the formal normalization of relations between the U.S and Cuba, which included the easing of travel restrictions and the opening of embassies and diplomatic missions in both countries.

If you want to read even more about the crisis that nearly started a nuclear war, you may want to consider one of several books titled “13 Days in October”, one of which was written by Robert F. Kennedy.

At this point, we are 11 days away from what is arguably the most important election of our lifetimes. If you still aren’t sure who to vote for, ask yourself this question:

If another Cuban crisis happened today, who would you prefer to be in charge – Joseph Biden Jr. or Donald J. Trump?  

A tale of two Brennans

 

 

Apart from knocking on some doors for the Democratic Party in Flagstaff, and helping Brian collect signatures when he was running for an alderman position in Tucson, I have never been ACTIVE in politics. Up until recently, I rarely donated money to any political figure, but decided to start this year because this election is probably the most important of my life.

In 2016, 127 million votes were cast, 97 million registered voters DID NOT VOTE – and the election was decided by less than 100,000 votes in 3 states. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 3,000,000 votes – and lost the election.

Throughout our country’s history, countless Brennans have served in political offices. Two Brennans that I REALLY miss are former CIA director John Brennan and former Postmaster General Megan Brennan.

John Owen Brennan (born September 22, 1955) is a former American intelligence officer who served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from March 2013 to January 2017. He served as chief counterterrorism advisor to U.S. President Barack Obama, with the title Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and Assistant to the President. Previously, he advised Obama on foreign policy and intelligence issues during the 2008 election campaign and presidential transition.

Brennan withdrew his name from consideration for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during the first Obama administration over concerns about his support, after defending on TV the transferring of terror suspects to countries where they might be tortured while serving under President George W. Bush. Instead, Brennan was appointed Deputy National Security Advisor, a position which did not require Senate confirmation.

Brennan's 25 years with the CIA included work as a Near East and South Asia analyst, as station chief in Saudi Arabia, and as director of the National Counterterrorism Center. After leaving government service in 2005, Brennan became CEO of The Analysis Corporation, a security consulting business, and served as chairman of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance, an association of intelligence professionals.

Brennan served in the White House as Assistant to the President for Homeland Security between 2009 and 2013. Obama nominated Brennan as his next director of the CIA on January 7, 2013. The ACLU called for the Senate not to proceed with the appointment until they confirmed that "all of his conduct was within the law" at the CIA and White House Brennan was approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee on March 5, 2013, to succeed David Petraeus as the Director of the CIA by a vote of 12 to 3.

On August 15, 2018, President Donald Trump announced that he had revoked Brennan's security clearance, although the White House reportedly did not follow through with the revocation process. Brennan had harshly criticized Trump several times since his election and responded to the revocation by stating "My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent."

Brennan serves as a senior national security and intelligence analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brennan_(CIA_officer)

This morning, Brennan posted an article in The Atlantic about the first time that he met Trump. It was the day after his father died. In his words, “The tears welled up in my eyes, as the memory of my father’s life and the example he set filled me with deep pride and overwhelming sadness at the same time. The mere thought of briefing President-elect Donald Trump that afternoon and then gathering with my family a few short hours later at the wake of my father—the moral, ethical, and intellectual antithesis of Trump—jarred my very soul.

I had decided beforehand that I would share the full substance of CIA intelligence and analysis on Russian interference in the election without providing any specific details on the provenance of our knowledge. The sensitive sources and methods related to counterintelligence and Russia are among the nation’s most prized jewels, and I lacked confidence that all the individuals in that conference room had the requisite understanding of classification procedures and controls—not to mention the personal discipline and integrity—to avoid devastating disclosures, either inadvertent or willful. Moreover, given his public praise of WikiLeaks, strange obsequiousness toward Vladimir Putin, and disdain toward the U.S. intelligence community, I had serious doubts that Trump would protect our nation’s most vital secrets.

His alertness never faded during the briefing, but his demeanor as well as his questions strongly revealed that he was uninterested in finding out what the Russians had done or holding them to account. Rather, Trump seemed most focused on challenging the intelligence and analysis underlying the judgment among the CIA, FBI, NSA, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that Russia interfered in the election and that the interference was intended to enhance his election prospects. It also was my clear impression—based on the thousands of such briefings I have conducted over more than three decades—that he was seeking most to learn what we knew and how we knew it. This deeply troubled me, as I worried about what he might do with the information he was being given.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/10/morning-i-met-donald-trump/616556/

Megan Brennan, a 34-year employee of the Post Office, retired on June 12, 2020.

When Megan Brennan became Postmaster General  in February 2015, the Postal Service was already facing some of the greatest challenges in its 245-year history. The internet was and is continuing to knock mail volume to significantly lower levels. During most of her tenure as PMG and Chief Executive Officer, the Board of Governors – the equivalent of a corporation’s Board of Directors – did not have a quorum.

This, along with a lack of any serious Congressional postal reform legislation, significantly constrained what she could do and led to mounting challenges. It also deprived her of advice and counsel from Board members, which is essential for any chief executive.

As PMG, Megan Brennan was also in the political arena from Day 1 on the job. She regularly dealt with strident and vigorous demands from Members of Congress, the Administration, labor unions, the mailing industry, and many others, including the Lexington Institute. ( The Lexington Institute was founded in 1998 by former U.S. Representative James Courter (R-NJ), former congressional aide Merrick Carey, and former Georgetown University professor Loren Thompson. As of July 2018, they are respectively the chairman, chief executive officer and chief operating officer of the Institute.⁾

The institute's political philosophy is center-right, peace through strength, defense of U.S. economic interests, energy independence, and market-driven solutions to social needs. Although the organization's mission statement does not describe it as "conservative" or "libertarian," it opposes tax increases, the creation of entitlements, and federal intervention in the daily lives of citizens.)

 

Megan Brennan has consistently addressed these matters with grace and poise and won widespread respect. For example, Dr. Peter Navarro, Director of The White House’s Office and Trade Manufacturing Policy, commended her “strong leadership” which was essential in overhauling the worldwide system of international package pricing, a formidable and important accomplishment as the previous system led to job losses and other economic costs in the United States. Dr. Navarro called Megan Brennan “one of my favorite people in this town.”

Megan Brennan announced her retirement on October 16, to be effective January 31. It was soon clear she would not be easy to replace.

The search for a new PMG is a challenging and arduous process. If the Postal Service were a business, it would be one of the 40 or so largest companies in the United States. The PMG must also deal with many politicians, given that the Postal Service serves all Americans and is part of the federal government.

As the Postal Service discussed in a May 6 news release, the extensive nationwide search for a new PMG was done with the help of two outside consulting firms and the Board of Governors “reviewed the records of more than two hundred candidates for the position before narrowing the list to more than fifty candidates to undergo substantial vetting.”

https://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/thank-you-postmaster-general-brennan/

Louis De Joy (who had NEVER worked for the Post Office) was not one of the 50 names, so how did he get elected Postmaster General?

1)  DeJoy has served as a major donor and fundraiser for a number of high-profile Republican Party politicians. He helped fund President George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, co-chaired Rudolph Giuliani's North Carolina fundraising campaign in 2008, and donated a combined $27,700 to Jeb Bush's 2016 presidential campaign. He donated $1.2 million each to Donald Trump's 2020 campaign, and to the Republican Party since 2016.

 

In April 2017, DeJoy was named one of three deputy finance chairmen of the Republican National Committee, along with Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen and the venture capitalist Elliott Broidy In May 2019, DeJoy became local finance chairman for the 2020 Republican National Convention, then-planned for Charlotte, North Carolina.

 

In September 2020 The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that according to former employees at DeJoy's logistics company New Breed, he participated in a straw donor scheme, reimbursing employees for making political donations. Employees, particularly managers, were expected to contribute to fundraisers for Republican candidates and organizations; they would then be reimbursed in full through the company's system of bonuses. Campaign finance records show that employees at New Breed gave substantial sums to Republican candidates and negligible amounts to Democrats.

 

Between 2000 and 2014, when New Breed was sold, 124 employees gave a combined total over $1 million. Many of these people had not donated before they worked at the company and have not done so since leaving. Pressuring employees to make campaign donations, reimbursements for such donations, and use of corporate money to support individual politicians are in violation of both North Carolina and federal election laws, although some statutes of limitations may have expired. At an August congressional hearing DeJoy emphatically denied having engaged in such practices. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has opened an investigation into the allegations and the possibility that DeJoy lied to the committee, and has called for the Postal Service to suspend him. North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein said that reimbursing someone for a political contribution would be a

violation of state law and that "Any allegation that’s this serious merits investigation."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_DeJoy

 

2)   The Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service is comparable to a board of directors of a publicly held corporation. The Board normally consists of up to nine governors appointed by the President of the United States with the advice and consent of the Senate. 

The nine governors select the Postmaster General, who becomes a member of the Board, and those 10 select the Deputy Postmaster General, who also serves on the Board. The Postmaster General serves at the pleasure of the governors for an indefinite term and the Deputy Postmaster General serves at the pleasure of the governors and the Postmaster General.

Currently, there are 7 members of the board, one of whom is Louis DeJoy. The governors are chosen to represent the public interest generally and cannot be representatives of special interests. Not more than five of the nine may belong to the same political party. They shall be chosen solely based on their experience in the field of public service, law or accounting. However, at least four of the governors shall be chosen solely based on their demonstrated ability in managing organizations or corporations (in either the public or private sector) that employ at least 50,000 employees.

All 6 of the current board members were nominated by Trump, and only 2 (Bloom and Moak) are Democrats.

https://about.usps.com/who/leadership/board-governors/

Louis DeJoy does not have a term limit, and the earliest date that any of the governors will leave the board is December of 2021.

3) Deputy Postmaster General Ronald Stroman was forced out on June 1, because he was a strong advocate of voting by mail.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/15/1969499/-Any-Investigation-into-the-Postal-Slowdown-must-find-out-if-Former-Postmaster-General-was-Forced-out

  If I were president Biden, I would IMMEDIATELY fire Louis DeJoy, ask Megan Brennan to fill in until another QUAILIFIED candidate is found, and nominate two more DEMCRATS to the Board of Governors.

God bless the Irish