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David A. Kay, the weapons proliferation expert who led a CIA-run operation in 2003 that concluded former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein had built no weapons of mass destruction, sharply undermining the chief justification for the U.S.-led invasion earlier that year, died Aug. 13 at his home in Ocean View, Del. He was 82.
The cause was cancer, said his wife, Anita Kay.
https://chqdaily.com/2022/08/at-cwc-bec ... in-latvia/At CWC, Beckers, Lahey to discuss Chautauqua’s ‘86 U.S.-Soviet political, arts exchange in Latvia
by DEBORAH TREFTS on AUGUST 2, 2022 209 VIEWS
Fourteen weeks after Mikhail Gorbachev was elected as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and thus its de facto head of government, Chautauqua Institution opened its 1985 season with a week-long program of political and artistic exchange: The Chautauqua Conference on U.S.-Soviet Relations. “The importance of this week was (in part that) it occurred just after the ascension to power of Secretary Gorbachev and before his proclamation of increased openness in relations which finally culminated in the Reagan-Gorbachev Geneva Exchange Initiatives,” Daniel L. Bratton, the Institution’s president at the time, wrote in his published account, The Journey to Jūrmala. Bratton continued: “During the week’s program Andrei Parastaev of the Soviet Embassy raised the possibility of a reciprocal trip by Chautauquans to the Soviet Union in 1986.”
In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the first cultural accord with the USSR, signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, his daughter Susan, executive director of the Eisenhower World Affairs Institute at Gettysburg College, partnered with Chautauqua in organizing a five-day Chautauqua-like meeting in the USSR in September 1986. At 9:15 a.m. Thursday at the Chautauqua Women’s Club, Jane and Tom Becker, and Jane Lahey, will discuss this unforgettable trip and conference — their “Journey to Jūrmala” — that they participated in nearly 30 years ago. A city along the Baltic Sea, the Jūrmala that the Beckers and Lahey visited was within what, at that time, was Soviet-controlled Latvia. The city was chosen as the site for the Chautauqua Institution/Eisenhower Institute Conference on U.S.-Soviet Relations: A Journey to Open Diplomacy.
When American journalist Nicholas Daniloff was arrested by KGB agents in Moscow on Aug. 30, 1986, and detained in jail as a spy, it was nearly derailed. “At that time, President Reagan and his conservative spokespeople were calling the USSR the ‘Evil Empire,’ ” Jane Becker said. “… There’s an enormous story between (Aug. 30) and Sept. 11, when we did leave (for the conference). Behind the scenes, there was big ‘P’ politics (between the United States and Moscow), and small ‘p’ Chautauqua politics (about) how to respond to it.”
Not sure about that (in Russia). I suspect the Putinistas and other Great Russia Nationalists view him as a traitor who caused the collapse of the Soviet Union, the 20th century incarnation of the Russian Empire, leading to Russia being ridiculed and humiliated by other nations rather than being feared.orlylicious wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 5:31 pm Gorbachev did so much to free people there and break down the Cold War. I think he will be remembered with a lot of respect. And he loved Jazz music![]()
Wow.Estiveo wrote: ↑Fri Mar 25, 2022 11:59 pm Taylor Hawkins, 50, drummer for the Foo Fighters.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/musi ... y-1327112/
https://www.foxbusiness.com/business-le ... tock-valueThe executive vice president and chief financial officer of Bed Bath & Beyond who plunged to his death from the 18th floor of a New York City skyscraper on Friday was the subject of a class action lawsuit alleging that he and majority shareholder, Gamestop Chairman Ryan Cohen, had artificially inflated the company’s value in a "pump and dump" scheme.
Gustavo Arnal, 52, and Cohen, are listed as defendants in the class action lawsuit filed last month in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
According to the lawsuit, Cohen approached Gustavo about his plan to accumulate shares of BBBY and assume command of the company’s publicly-available shares.
"With control over a significant portion of the public float, Cohen would essentially act as a price support for the stock while Gustavo would act in a similar capacity by controlling the sale of shares by Insiders," the lawsuit says. "Under this arrangement, defendants would profit handsomely from the rise in price and could coordinate their selling of shares to optimize their returns."
Jean-Luc Godard, Daring Director Who Shaped the French New Wave, Dies at 91
The Franco-Swiss filmmaker and provocateur radically rethought motion pictures and left a lasting influence on the medium.
By Dave Kehr and Jonathan Kandell
Sept. 13, 2022
Updated 2:56 p.m. ET
Jean-Luc Godard, the daringly innovative director and provocateur whose unconventional camera work, disjointed narrative style and penchant for radical politics changed the course of filmmaking in the 1960s, leaving a lasting influence on it, died on Tuesday at his home in Rolle, Switzerland. He was 91.
His longtime legal adviser, Patrick Jeanneret, said Mr. Godard died by assisted suicide, having suffered from “multiple disabling pathologies.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/13/movi ... -dead.html
Ken Starr, Independent Counsel in Clinton Investigation, Dies at 76
Mr. Starr’s family said he died of complications from surgery.
By Peter Baker
Sept. 13, 2022, 4:50 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — Ken Starr, the independent counsel whose investigation uncovered President Bill Clinton’s affair with a White House intern and led to his impeachment for lying under oath and obstructing justice, died on Tuesday at a hospital in Texas. He was 76.
Mr. Starr’s family said in a statement that he died of complications from surgery at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston but gave no further details.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/13/us/p ... -dead.html
Monica Lewinsky (she/her) @MonicaLewinsky wrote: as i’m sure many can understand, my thoughts about ken starr bring up complicated feelings… but of more importance, is that i imagine it’s a painful loss for those who love him.
Pé🌻 @4everNeverTrump wrote: so... nobody?
Shouldn't this be in the special master thread? Good riddance to bad rubbish.RTH10260 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 13, 2022 5:08 pmKen Starr, Independent Counsel in Clinton Investigation, Dies at 76
Mr. Starr’s family said he died of complications from surgery.
By Peter Baker
Sept. 13, 2022, 4:50 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — Ken Starr, the independent counsel whose investigation uncovered President Bill Clinton’s affair with a White House intern and led to his impeachment for lying under oath and obstructing justice, died on Tuesday at a hospital in Texas. He was 76.
Mr. Starr’s family said in a statement that he died of complications from surgery at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston but gave no further details.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/13/us/p ... -dead.html
https://www.winespectator.com/articles/ ... dies-at-79Brendan Jay $Sullivan @MrBrendanJay wrote: RIP Two Buck Chuck
“When asked how Bronco Wine Company can sell wine cheaper than a bottle of water, Fred Franzia famously retorted, 'They're overcharging for the water. Don't you get it?'"
I suggest "Burn in Hell mother [expletive deleted]!!!"