The RIP Famous Person Thread

[S Landreth]

^Just noticed what Misskit had posted and wondered why. So I looked up Kool and the Gang and saw the news.

• Olympic Figure Skater Oleg Protopopov Dead at 91

Oleg Protopopov, one of Russia's most decorated figure skaters, died on Tuesday. He was 91.

The Russian Figure Skating Federation announced the news of Protopopov’s death on Saturday. They reported that he died in his sleep.

Protopopov was a two-time Olympic gold medalist who competed as a pair skater alongside his wife, Ludmila Belousova, throughout the 1960s.

The couple, who wed in 1957, won gold at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and then again at the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble, France, according to the International Olympic Committee.

Protopopov and Belousova made history as the first pair of skaters from the then-Soviet Union to reach international success. From 1965 to 1968, they won the World and European Championships four times, but were eventually “eased” out of the competition world after placing second and third at consecutive international appearances.

They made their final joint showing in a competition in 1972, winning bronze at the Soviet Championships before retiring from competition.

The couple then worked for several years at the Leningrad State Ballet on Ice (now called the St. Petersburg State Ballet on Ice) before moving to Switzerland, where they continued to skate both recreationally and in professional ice shows.

In 2017, Belousova died at age 81 after battling a “long illness,” per the Russian Figure Skating Federation. Up until her death, she and Protopopov had been regularly skating and performing in Switzerland.

[harrybarracuda]

NEW YORK, NY.- Roger Kastel, an artist whose painting for the “Jaws” poster — of a menacing shark with bared teeth looming below an insouciant skinny dipper — became one of the most enduring images in modern pop culture, died Nov. 8 in Worcester County, Massachusetts. He was 92.

Roger Kastel, 'Jaws' poster artist, dies at 92

[S Landreth]

• Michel Ciment, veteran French film critic, dies aged 85

Michel Ciment, the celebrated French film critic and longtime editor of Positif magazine, has died aged 85. The magazine reported the news on social media, describing him as Positif’s “master architect” after a 60-year career.

Born in Paris in 1938, Ciment fell in love with cinema as a student, and joined Positif in 1968, becoming editorial director in 1973; he said he admired Positif over Cahiers du Cinéma because the magazine was “left wing” and influenced by surrealism. Ciment published a string of books about prominent film directors, including Kazan by Kazan (1973), Conversations with Losey (1979) and Stanley Kubrick (1980).

Ciment also contributed to the Guardian, writing an essay in praise of Italian director Francesco Rosi, the subject of another book, Le Dossier Rosi, published in 1996.

John Boorman, the British director of Point Blank and Deliverance, and about whom Ciment wrote in his 1985 book Boorman: A Visionary in His Time, told the Guardian: “To say that Michel was passionate about the cinema was to do him an injustice. He lived and ate and dreamed cinema. I loved him and admired him, he was an original, his ideas were various and he always defended them.”

Boorman, who was a regular contributor to Positif, added: “It wasn’t enough that you liked the film he was promoting, you had to love it. He was passionate about the cinema and the last member of the little group who decided categorically whether a film is good or bad. He had his editorial meeting about the contents of the magazine on Sunday mornings over coffee and croissants; passionate views were held and if you disagreed with Michel you had to be very sure of your facts!”

Gilles Jacob, former president of the Cannes film festival, said on social media: “Michel Ciment was not only a great critic, an internationally recognised historian, but was also a curious mind about cinema and art.”

[S Landreth]

• Rosalynn Carter, wife of Jimmy Carter and former first lady, dies aged 96

Rosalynn Carter, wife of the 39th president Jimmy Carter, has died at the couple’s Georgia home aged 96.

Carter, who became one of the nation’s leading mental health advocates during and after her husband’s time in the White House, was diagnosed with dementia in May.

On Friday, her family announced she had entered hospice care at home, joining her 99-year-old husband in end-of-life treatment in the Plains one-story residence they shared since before Jimmy Carter was elected a Georgia state senator in 1962.

The former president has been in hospice care there since February after declining further medical intervention for his own health issues.

The former first lady was born Eleanor Rosalynn Smith in August 1927, in Plains, a small rural town of fewer than 600 people where her husband was also born and raised.

She was a fiercely loyal ally throughout his political career, both in the White House and during his years as a respected international diplomat after his single term in office ended in 1981. But she also forged her own identity for her mental health advocacy and as a social justice activist.

She founded the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers in 1987, and remained active in the organization into her later years.

The Carter Center, a human rights non-profit founded by the couple, paid tribute to her work in its statement earlier this year announcing her dementia diagnosis.

“Mrs Carter has been the nation’s leading mental health advocate for much of her life. We recognize, as she did more than half a century ago, that stigma is often a barrier that keeps individuals and their families from seeking and getting much-needed support,” it said.

“We hope sharing our family’s news will increase important conversations at kitchen tables and in doctor’s offices around the country.”

Rosalynn Carter and her husband were also supporters of Habitat for Humanity, raising awareness and funds for the Carter Work Project named for them, and frequently tackling projects themselves as “some of our best hands-on construction volunteers”.

One of the couple’s final public appearances was at the Plains Peanut Festival in September, days before Jimmy Carter’s 99th birthday, when they rode the parade together in the back of an SUV.

Their families were already known to each other when they met while Jimmy Carter was at the US naval academy in Maryland during the second world war. They married in 1946, and helped run the Carter family’s peanut farm together until his political career took off.

She wore the same gown to Carter’s 1977 presidential inauguration as she had when he was elected Georgia governor in 1970.

The couple, who celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary in 2021, had four children, Jack, Chip, James and Amy. Their sons were adults by the time Carter was elected president, but Amy, aged nine, was the subject of massive media attention and became one of the most famous child residents of the White House.

[Happy As Larry]

Joss Ackland, star of White Mischief, dies aged 95

British veteran actor also starred in the Hunt for Red October and the TV version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

British actor Joss Ackland has died at the age of 95, his family have said in a statement.

He appeared in films such as White Mischief, on TV playing CS Lewis in Shadowlands and in many stage productions including as Juan Perón in Evita.
He also appeared in the Hunt for Red October alongside Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin, as well as the 1979 television adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

The actor died “peacefully” and was “surrounded by family”, according to a statement given to the PA news agency.
It added: “With his distinctive voice and commanding presence, Ackland brought a unique intensity and gravitas to his roles. He will be remembered as one of Britain’s most talented and beloved actors.”

Ackland was also a “beloved father” and had been married to his wife, Rosemary, for 51 years before she died from motor neuron disease in 2002.

The actor received a CBE for services to drama in 2001. On stage he appeared alongside Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Judi Dench and Tom Courtenay.
Ackland starred in composer Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music at the Adelphi theatre in 1975, in which he played Fredrik Egerman, a middle-aged lawyer married to a young wife but attracted to the worldly thespian Desiree Armfeldt.

He was later cast as Argentinian president Perón in the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice musical Evita three years later, alongside Elaine Paige.

Away from the stage, the Bafta-nominated actor starred alongside Greta Scacchi and Charles Dance in director Michael Radford’s 1987 film White Mischief.
Ackland played Jock Delves Broughton, who was tried for the murder of Lord Erroll in Kenya in 1941. He received a Bafta nomination for his portrayal.

Another renowned performance came in a TV play by Michael Frayn, First and Last (1989), in which he played a retired man who walks from Land’s End to John o’Groats.

Ackland’s final screen appearance came in 2014 when he played Rufus in Decline of an Empire, which was also one of the last acting credits for Peter O’Toole.

Born Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland in North Kensington, London, in 1928, he had seven children and 34 grandchildren

[harrybarracuda]

Good innings.

Don't forget Lethal Weapon 2.

[S Landreth]

• Hall of Fame golfer Betsy Rawls has died at age 95

Betsy Rawls, 4-time US Open champion and top administrator, dies at 95

Betsy Rawls trained to be a physicist and instead devoted her life to golf, first as a four-time U.S. Women's Open champion and later as a tournament administrator, a remarkable career that landed her in the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Rawls, who won eight majors in her 55 LPGA Tour titles, died Saturday at her beach home in Delaware, the LPGA Tour confirmed. She was 95.

“There are simply not many careers that can compare to Betsy's,” said Mike Whan, the CEO of the USGA and former LPGA Tour commissioner.

He cited her 55 wins and eight majors — Rawls ranks sixth on both lists — along with her induction into the LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame, the Bob Jones Award and her 17 years as tournament director of what was then the LPGA Championship.

“She was a legend in the game who would have been successful in anything she pursued, so we are all lucky she made golf her passion,” Whan said.

The intention was always in the field of physics. That's what Rawls was studying at the University of Texas when she connected with fabled swing coach Harvey Penick. She won the Texas Women's Amateur in 1949 and 1950, and she finished runner-up to Babe Zaharias in the 1950 U.S. Women's Open.

“I had every intention of being a physicist,” Rawls said in a story posted on the LPGA's website. "I played golf for fun and never considered turning professional. Then I decided it would be more fun to be in golf than physics, and Wilson paid me a salary and all my expenses. They paid my expenses for 20 years. One year, I gave 120 clinics.”

[S Landreth]

• Rosalynn Carter's funeral service to be held next week in Georgia

The life of former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 96, will be celebrated next week with memorial events and a funeral service in her home state of Georgia.

The public will be able to pay their respects when the family motorcade carries her remains to Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, her alma mater, on Monday, Nov. 27, The Carter Center shared in a schedule of events. Past and present members of Carter's Secret Service detail will accompany the motorcade.

Wreaths will be laid at the university before the motorcade continues to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, where the former first lady will lie in repose for several hours.

On Tuesday, Nov. 28, there will be a tribute service for Carter at Glenn Memorial Church at Emory University in Atlanta.

Her funeral service will be held the following day, Wednesday, Nov. 29, at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains. Former President Jimmy Carter taught Sunday school at the church for decades and into his 90s.

Rosalynn Carter funeral arrangements: Schedule, motorcade route in Atlanta and Plains, Ga.

[misskit]

Marty Krofft, of producing pair that put ‘H.R. Pufnstuf’ and the Osmonds on TV, dies at 86

Marty Krofft, a TV producer known for imaginative children’s shows such as “H.R. Pufnstuf” and primetime hits including “Donny & Marie” in the 1970s, has died in Los Angeles, his publicist said. Krofft was 86.


He died Saturday of kidney failure, publicist Harlan Boll said.


Krofft and his brother Sid were puppeteers who broke into television and ended up getting stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Along the way, they brought a trippy sensibility to children’s TV and brought singling siblings Donny and Marie Osmond and Barbara Mandrell and her sisters to primetime.


The Osmonds’ clean-cut variety show, featuring television’s youngest-ever hosts at the time, became a lasting piece of ’70s cultural memorabilia, rebooted as a daytime talk show in the 1990s and a Broadway Christmas show in 2010. The Kroffts followed up with “Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters,” centered on the country music star; it ran from 1980-82.


Like the Osmonds, “H.R. Pufnstuf” proved to have pop culture staying power. Despite totaling just 17 episodes, the surreal show, featuring an island, a witch, a talking flute, a shipwrecked boy and a redheaded, cowboy boot-wearing dragon, came in 27th in a 2007 TV Guide poll ranking of all-time cult favorites.


More than 45 years after the show’s 1969 debut, the title character graced an episode of another Krofft brothers success, “Mutt & Stuff,” which ran for multiple seasons on Nickelodeon.


“To make another hit at this time in our lives, I’ve got to give ourselves a pat on the back,” Marty Krofft told The Associated Press ahead of the episode’s taping in 2015.


Even then, he was still contending with another of the enduring features of “H.R. Pufnstuf” — speculation that it, well, betokened a certain ’60s commitment to altering consciousness. Krofft rebuffed that notion: “If we did the drugs everybody thought we did, we’d be dead today,” he said, adding, “You cannot work stoned.”


Born in Montreal on April 9, 1937, Krofft got into entertainment via puppetry. He and his brother Sid put together a risqué, cabaret-inspired puppet show called “Les Poupées de Paris” in 1960, and its traveling success led to jobs creating puppet shows for amusement parks. The Kroffts eventually opened their own, the short-lived World of Sid & Marty Krofft, in Atlanta in the 1970s.


They first made their mark in television with “H.R. Pufnstuf,” which spawned the 1970 feature film “Pufnstuf.” Many more shows for various audiences followed, including “Land of the Lost”; “Electra Woman and Dyna Girl”; “Pryor’s Place,” with comedian Richard Pryor; and “D.C. Follies,” in which puppets gave a satirical take on politics and the news.


The pair were honored with a Daytime Emmy for lifetime achievement in 2018. They got their Walk of Fame star two years later.


Sid Krofft said on Instagram that he was heartbroken by his younger brother’s death, telling fans, “All of you meant the world to him.”


While other producers might have contented themselves with their achievements far earlier, Marty Krofft indicated to The AP in 2015 that he no had interest in stepping back from show business.


“What am I gonna do — retire and watch daytime television and be dead in a month?” he asked.

Marty Krofft, of producing pair that put '''H.R. Pufnstuf''' and the Osmonds on TV, dies at 86

[S Landreth]

Nice ceremony

Carter grandson gets laughs with first ladies tribute: ‘We also welcome your lovely husbands’

Start at 1 : 20 : 00

[misskit]

Henry Kissinger, America’s most famous diplomat, dies at 100

Henry Kissinger, a ruthless practitioner of the art of realpolitik who had an outsize impact on global events and who won a premature Nobel Peace Prize for ending a war that kept going, has died.


A cunning, erudite strategist whose transformative diplomatic efforts helped to reshape the world, Kissinger was 100.


His death Wednesday was announced in a statement by his consulting firm.


The former secretary of State will be forever connected with President Richard M. Nixon, particularly for their efforts in three areas: getting America out of the Vietnam War, opening diplomatic relations with China, and reducing tensions with the Soviet Union. For decades thereafter, Kissinger’s work with Nixon and President Gerald Ford earned him the role of the Republican Party’s elder statesman when it came to foreign policy.


“The Middle American professional politician and the German-born Harvard professor,” wrote George C. Herring in “America’s Longest War” of Nixon and Kissinger, “could hardly have been more different in background, but they shared a love of power and a burning ambition to mold a fluid world in a way that would establish their place in history. Loners and outsiders in their own professions, they were perhaps naturally drawn to each other.”


MORE Henry Kissinger, America’s most famous diplomat, dies at 100

[pickel]

Hope it was painful.

[harrybarracuda]

A cunning, erudite strategist

More like a detestable fucking arsehole.

Henry Kissinger turns 100 this week. He should be ashamed to be seen in public.

[S Landreth]

• George Cohon, founder of McDonald's Canada who brought Big Mac to Soviet Union, dead at 86

Canadian businessman George Cohon, who founded McDonald's Canada and helped open the fast-food company's first franchise in the Soviet Union, has died, his family said on social media. He was 86.

"Last night we said farewell to my dad," Mark Cohon, a former CFL commissioner, wrote Saturday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

"Our family, Canada and the world lost a remarkable man."

Cohon was born in Chicago in 1937 and worked at his father's law firm after graduating from law school.

While working at the firm, he learned in 1967 of a client looking to acquire McDonald's franchisee rights in Hawaii, according to an article by The Canadian Press in January 1991. Cohon found out that similar franchisee rights were up for grabs for Ontario — and the rest of Canada east of the province — prompting him to borrow $70,000 to buy them.

He moved with his wife and two children to Toronto and, in November 1968, Cohon would open his first McDonald's location in London, Ont. — a year after the fast-food chain expanded north of the border with its first Canadian location in Richmond, B.C.

He also founded Ronald McDonald House Charities Canada in the 1980s, a non-profit organization that provides travel and temporary accommodations for families with seriously ill children. Cohon's work with the organization helped him become a member of the Order of Canada in 1988, and he was later promoted to a companion of the Order of Canada in 2020.

Cohon held the position of chairman, president and CEO of McDonald's Canada until 1992, according to a profile of him on the Canadian Business Hall of Fame website. He became a Canadian citizen in 1977.

Cohon "was an accomplished businessman who never stopped giving back, and who dedicated himself to lifting others up," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday on X.

"Our families' paths crossed multiple times over the years, and his passion for serving — and supporting — others was always evident."

To Russia with fries

In the late 1980s, Cohon was charged with expanding McDonald's into the Soviet Union. He found a system that was years behind North America's, and the company couldn't find reliable suppliers of power or gravel for construction, let alone beef and potatoes.

"In Moscow, we had explored all sorts of meat plants and dairies and bakeries and found that they weren't up to our standards," Cohon wrote in his 1997 autobiography, To Russia with Fries, whose proceeds from sales went to Ronald McDonald House. "The simplest things became logistical headaches."

The company built a $40-million "McComplex" food-processing plant and invested in farmers' equipment, irrigation, soil and transportation networks. The investments helped modernize Russia's production system.

The first location opened in Moscow on Jan. 31, 1990, and locals began lining up near Pushkin Square as early as 4 a.m. Cohon used appropriately gigantic scissors to cut the ribbon.

At the end of the day, 30,000 new customers had passed through the doors — to mixed reviews — and the restaurant had set a McDonald's record for most customers served on an opening day.

The unequivocal success of the first day of his new venture brought out the poet in Cohon, who supposed that Russian writer Alexander Pushkin might have written a poem praising the availability of "meat, bread, potatoes and milk — of the highest quality."

The restaurant, along with all McDonald's locations in Russia, closed in March 2022. According to the Reuters news agency, the company pulled out of the country in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

[cyrille]

^^...with a Nobel peace prize.

[happynz]

Henry Kissinger, America’s most famous diplomat, dies at 100

[misskit]

Henry Kissinger Was A War Criminal, But Presidents And Celebrities Smiled With Him

Henry Kissinger, America’s most famous war criminal, died on Wednesday at age 100. As secretary of state and national security adviser for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, he micromanaged, presided over or provided crucial support to deadly conflicts on three continents.

In his eight years in power, he unnecessarily prolonged the Vietnam War for five years, ordered the carpet-bombing of Cambodia and Laos, provided arms for Pakistan’s brutal war in Bangladesh, gave the green light to Argentina’s “dirty war,” endorsed General Augusto Pinochet’s deadly coup in Chile, enabled a genocide in East Timor and fueled civil wars in southern African countries.

The estimated death toll for foreign policy follies connected to Kissinger sits between 3 million and 4 million. The 350,000 to 500,000 Cambodians killed by American bombs, however, are most directly connected to him. As secretary of state, Kissinger personally approved thousands of bombing raids in the country while closely overseeing the campaign. Cambodia’s government collapsed amid the U.S.’s secret bombing, allowing the strongman Pol Pot to fill the vacuum. His short rule ended with the slaughter and starvation of 1 million more.

All those deaths came as part of Kissinger’s pursuit of a version of realpolitik that placed U.S. national interest above all other considerations ― moral, ideological, political — and that made him an elder statesman, bestselling author and sought-after confidant for political figures of all partisan persuasions and nationalities over the years.

Kissinger was a private adviser to former President George W. Bush ― who initially offered him the role of 9/11 Commission chairman. He consulted with then-Vice President Dick Cheney on the Iraq War. He was a confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought out his counsel and praised him during her 2016 presidential campaign. Kissinger visited the White House to advise President Barack Obama more than once. And in 2016, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter presented Kissinger with a distinguished public service award from the Defense Department.

All of the top 2016 Republican Party primary candidates, save for Donald Trump, met with Kissinger in hopes of gaining his foreign policy cred by osmosis. Trump later met with Kissinger multiple times. He remained, up to his death, a member in good standing of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Atlantic Council and the Aspen Institute. And he held a seat on the board of Theranos, the fraudulent Silicon Valley blood-testing corporation, from 2014 to 2016.

Unlike his predecessors President Joe Biden has not met with Kissinger since taking office. However, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, USAID administrator Samantha Power and CIA director Bill Burns attended Kissinger’s 100th birthday celebration in New York in 2023.

He also remained a cultural figure who dined and partied with the celebrities and socialites of Manhattan high society.
Kissinger’s history of evading any responsibility for war crimes also provided a generation of U.S. and global leaders with the knowledge that they would never face consequences for their actions in office, whether those be launching an illegal war, creating a torture regime, using drones to kill U.S. citizens, or operating concentration camps. He provided a visionary example for our 21st-century age of unaccountable power.

PICS Henry Kissinger Was A War Criminal, But Presidents And Celebrities Smiled With Him | HuffPost Latest News

[harrybarracuda]

"Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel peace prize."

- Tom Lehrer on why he stopped writing satirical tunes.

[S Landreth]

• Charlie Munger, investing genius and Warren Buffett’s right-hand man, dies at age 99

Billionaire Charlie Munger, the investing sage who made a fortune even before he became Warren Buffett’s right-hand man at Berkshire Hathaway, has died at age 99.

Munger died Tuesday, according to a press release from Berkshire Hathaway. The conglomerate said it was advised by members of Munger’s family that he peacefully died this morning at a California hospital. He would have turned 100 on New Year’s Day.

“Berkshire Hathaway could not have been built to its present status without Charlie’s inspiration, wisdom and participation,” Buffett said in a statement.

In addition to being Berkshire
vice chairman, Munger was a real estate attorney, chairman and publisher of the Daily Journal Corp., a member of the Costco board, a philanthropist and an architect.

In early 2023, his fortune was estimated at $2.3 billion — a jaw-dropping amount for many people but vastly smaller than Buffett’s unfathomable fortune, which is estimated at more than $100 billion.

During Berkshire’s 2021 annual shareholder meeting, the then-97-year-old Munger apparently inadvertently revealed a well-guarded secret: that Vice Chairman Greg Abel “will keep the culture” after the Buffett era.

Munger, who wore thick glasses, had lost his left eye after complications from cataract surgery in 1980.

Munger was chairman and CEO of Wesco Financial from 1984 to 2011, when Buffett’s Berkshire purchased the remaining shares of the Pasadena, California-based insurance and investment company it did not own.

Buffett credited Munger with broadening his investment strategy from favoring troubled companies at low prices in hopes of getting a profit to focusing on higher-quality but underpriced companies.

An early example of the shift was illustrated in 1972 by Munger’s ability to persuade Buffett to sign off on Berkshire’s purchase of See’s Candies for $25 million even though the California candy maker had annual pretax earnings of only about $4 million. It has since produced more than $2 billion in sales for Berkshire.

“He weaned me away from the idea of buying very so-so companies at very cheap prices, knowing that there was some small profit in it, and looking for some really wonderful businesses that we could buy in fair prices,” Buffett told CNBC in May 2016.

Or as Munger put it at the 1998 Berkshire shareholder meeting: “It’s not that much fun to buy a business where you really hope this sucker liquidates before it goes broke.”

Munger was often the straight man to Buffett’s jovial commentaries. “I have nothing to add,” he would say after one of Buffett’s loquacious responses to questions at Berkshire annual meetings in Omaha, Nebraska. But like his friend and colleague, Munger was a font of wisdom in investing, and in life. And like one of his heroes, Benjamin Franklin, Munger’s insight didn’t lack humor.

“I have a friend who says the first rule of fishing is to fish where the fish are. The second rule of fishing is to never forget the first rule. We’ve gotten good at fishing where the fish are,” the then-93-year-old Munger told the thousands of people at Berkshire’s 2017 meeting.

He believed in what he called the “lollapalooza effect,” in which a confluence of factors merged to drive investment psychology.

A son of the heartland

Charles Thomas Munger was born in Omaha on Jan. 1, 1924. His father, Alfred, was a lawyer, and his mother, Florence “Toody,” was from an affluent family. Like Warren, Munger worked at Buffett’s grandfather’s grocery store as a youth, but the two future joined-at-the-hip partners didn’t meet until years later.

At 17, Munger left Omaha for the University of Michigan. Two years later, in 1943, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps, according to Janet Lowe’s 2003 biography “Damn Right!”

[david44]

In hi dotage he joined a campaign of which I am member of a campaign contra nuclear proliferation, none of which excuse the war crime.
Join ICAN here.

Just a moment...

In my opinion he' the outtanding German

Via triangulation he broke the link between Russia which led to the end of cold war and broke s grip.
An scholar and diplomat , like Marx a Rhinelander who changed the world.

Churchill bombed , Truman Japan the German Rotterdam he was not alone in killing civilian.

A World Free of Nuclear Weapons

Read articles authored by Henry A. Kissinger on topics such as United States foreign policy, international affairs and diplomatic history.
6 min. read
View original

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The Wall Street Journal
January 4, 2007
Nuclear weapons today present tremendous dangers, but also an historic opportunity. U.S. leadership will be required to take the world to the next stage — to a solid consensus for reversing reliance on nuclear weapons globally as a vital contribution to preventing their proliferation into potentially dangerous hands, and ultimately ending them as a threat to the world.
Nuclear weapons were essential to maintaining international security during the Cold War because they were a means of deterrence. The end of the Cold War made the doctrine of mutual Soviet-American deterrence obsolete. Deterrence continues to be a relevant consideration for many states with regard to threats from other states. But reliance on nuclear weapons for this purpose is becoming increasingly hazardous and decreasingly effective.
North Korea's recent nuclear test and Iran's refusal to stop its program to enrich uranium — potentially to weapons grade — highlight the fact that the world is now on the precipice of a new and dangerous nuclear era. Most alarmingly, the likelihood that non-state terrorists will get their hands on nuclear weaponry is increasing. In today's war waged on world order by terrorists, nuclear weapons are the ultimate means of mass devastation. And non-state terrorist groups with nuclear weapons are conceptually outside the bounds of a deterrent strategy and present difficult new security challenges.
Apart from the terrorist threat, unless urgent new actions are taken, the U.S. soon will be compelled to enter a new nuclear era that will be more precarious, psychologically disorienting, and economically even more costly than was Cold War deterrence. It is far from certain that we can successfully replicate the old Soviet-American "mutually assured destruction" with an increasing number of potential nuclear enemies world-wide without dramatically increasing the risk that nuclear weapons will be used. New nuclear states do not have the benefit of years of step-by-step safeguards put in effect during the Cold War to prevent nuclear accidents, misjudgments or unauthorized launches. The United States and the Soviet Union learned from mistakes that were less than fatal. Both countries were diligent to ensure that no nuclear weapon was used during the Cold War by design or by accident. Will new nuclear nations and the world be as fortunate in the next 50 years as we were during the Cold War?
* * *
Leaders addressed this issue in earlier times. In his "Atoms for Peace" address to the United Nations in 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower pledged America's "determination to help solve the fearful atomic dilemma — to devote its entire heart and mind to find the way by which the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his death, but consecrated to his life." John F. Kennedy, seeking to break the logjam on nuclear disarmament, said, "The world was not meant to be a prison in which man awaits his execution."
Rajiv Gandhi, addressing the U.N. General Assembly on June 9, 1988, appealed, "Nuclear war will not mean the death of a hundred million people. Or even a thousand million. It will mean the extinction of four thousand million: the end of life as we know it on our planet earth. We come to the United Nations to seek your support. We seek your support to put a stop to this madness."
Ronald Reagan called for the abolishment of "all nuclear weapons," which he considered to be "totally irrational, totally inhumane, good for nothing but killing, possibly destructive of life on earth and civilization." Mikhail Gorbachev shared this vision, which had also been expressed by previous American presidents.
Although Reagan and Mr. Gorbachev failed at Reykjavik to achieve the goal of an agreement to get rid of all nuclear weapons, they did succeed in turning the arms race on its head. They initiated steps leading to significant reductions in deployed long- and intermediate-range nuclear forces, including the elimination of an entire class of threatening missiles.
What will it take to rekindle the vision shared by Reagan and Mr. Gorbachev? Can a world-wide consensus be forged that defines a series of practical steps leading to major reductions in the nuclear danger? There is an urgent need to address the challenge posed by these two questions.
The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) envisioned the end of all nuclear weapons. It provides (a) that states that did not possess nuclear weapons as of 1967 agree not to obtain them, and (b) that states that do possess them agree to divest themselves of these weapons over time. Every president of both parties since Richard Nixon has reaffirmed these treaty obligations, but non-nuclear weapon states have grown increasingly skeptical of the sincerity of the nuclear powers.
Strong non-proliferation efforts are under way. The Cooperative Threat Reduction program, the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, the Proliferation Security Initiative and the Additional Protocols are innovative approaches that provide powerful new tools for detecting activities that violate the NPT and endanger world security. They deserve full implementation. The negotiations on proliferation of nuclear weapons by North Korea and Iran, involving all the permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany and Japan, are crucially important. They must be energetically pursued.
But by themselves, none of these steps are adequate to the danger. Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev aspired to accomplish more at their meeting in Reykjavik 20 years ago — the elimination of nuclear weapons altogether. Their vision shocked experts in the doctrine of nuclear deterrence, but galvanized the hopes of people around the world. The leaders of the two countries with the largest arsenals of nuclear weapons discussed the abolition of their most powerful weapons.
* * *
What should be done? Can the promise of the NPT and the possibilities envisioned at Reykjavik be brought to fruition? We believe that a major effort should be launched by the United States to produce a positive answer through concrete stages.
First and foremost is intensive work with leaders of the countries in possession of nuclear weapons to turn the goal of a world without nuclear weapons into a joint enterprise. Such a joint enterprise, by involving changes in the disposition of the states possessing nuclear weapons, would lend additional weight to efforts already under way to avoid the emergence of a nuclear-armed North Korea and Iran.
The program on which agreements should be sought would constitute a series of agreed and urgent steps that would lay the groundwork for a world free of the nuclear threat.

• Changing the Cold War posture of deployed nuclear weapons to increase warning time and thereby reduce the danger of an accidental or unauthorized use of a nuclear weapon.
• Continuing to reduce substantially the size of nuclear forces in all states that possess them.
• Eliminating short-range nuclear weapons designed to be forward-deployed.
• Initiating a bipartisan process with the Senate, including understandings to increase confidence and provide for periodic review, to achieve ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, taking advantage of recent technical advances, and working to secure ratification by other key states.
• Providing the highest possible standards of security for all stocks of weapons, weapons-usable plutonium, and highly enriched uranium everywhere in the world.
• Getting control of the uranium enrichment process, combined with the guarantee that uranium for nuclear power reactors could be obtained at a reasonable price, first from the Nuclear Suppliers Group and then from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) or other controlled international reserves. It will also be necessary to deal with proliferation issues presented by spent fuel from reactors producing electricity.
• Halting the production of fissile material for weapons globally; phasing out the use of highly enriched uranium in civil commerce and removing weapons-usable uranium from research facilities around the world and rendering the materials safe.
• Redoubling our efforts to resolve regional confrontations and conflicts that give rise to new nuclear powers.

Achieving the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons will also require effective measures to impede or counter any nuclear-related conduct that is potentially threatening to the security of any state or peoples.
Reassertion of the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons and practical measures toward achieving that goal would be, and would be perceived as, a bold initiative consistent with America's moral heritage. The effort could have a profoundly positive impact on the security of future generations. Without the bold vision, the actions will not be perceived as fair or urgent. Without the actions, the vision will not be perceived as realistic or possible.
We endorse setting the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons and working energetically on the actions required to achieve that goal, beginning with the measures outlined above.
A conference organized by Mr. Shultz and Sidney D. Drell was held at Hoover to reconsider the vision that Reagan and Mr. Gorbachev brought to Reykjavik. In addition to Messrs. Shultz and Drell, the following participants also endorse the view in this statement: Martin Anderson, Steve Andreasen, Michael Armacost, William Crowe, James Goodby, Thomas Graham Jr., Thomas Henriksen, David Holloway, Max Kampelman, Jack Matlock, John McLaughlin, Don Oberdorfer, Rozanne Ridgway, Henry Rowen, Roald Sagdeev and Abraham Sofaer.

[harrybarracuda]

I always chuckle at her role as the crusty physician in Outland.

Frances Sternhagen, Tony-Winning and Emmy-Nominated Actress from Cheers and Sex and the City, Dead at 93



Frances Sternhagen, the award-winning actress best known for her roles on Cheers and Sex and the City, has died. She was 93.

The late star’s family announced the news of her death in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.

“It is with great sadness that we share the news that our dear mother, actress Frances Sternhagen, died peacefully of natural causes in New Rochelle, NY, on November 27th, 2023 at the age of 93,” the family shared.

“She is survived by her 6 children, 9 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren. A celebration of her remarkable career and life is planned for mid January, near her 94th birthday,” the statement continued. “We continue to be inspired by her love and life.”

Frances Sternhagen Dead: Cheers, Sex and the City Actress Dies at 93

[S Landreth]

• Charlie Munger, investing genius and Warren Buffett’s right-hand man, dies at age 99

Charlie Munger’s best quotes on investing, life and everything in between

Here are some of his most memorable musings.

On investing in tech:

“We were not ideally located to be high-tech wizards. How many people of our age quickly mastered Google? I’ve been to Google headquarters. It looked to me like a kindergarten.” - Berkshire Hathaway meeting, 2018

On algorithmic trading:

“We have computers with algorithms trading against other computers. We’ve got people who know nothing about stocks, being advised by stockbrokers who know even less.” - Berkshire Hathaway 2022 meeting

On learning:

“I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than when they got up and boy does that help—particularly when you have a long run ahead of you.” - 2007 USC Law School Commencement Address

On sitting tight:

“There are huge advantages for an individual to get into a position where you make a few great investments and just sit on your a**: You are paying less to brokers. You are listening to less nonsense. And if it works, the governmental tax system gives you an extra 1, 2 or 3 percentage points per annum compounded.” - Worldly Wisdom by Charlie Munger 1995 - 1998

On marriage:

“I think life is a whole series of opportunity costs. You know, you got to marry the best person who is convenient to find who will have you. Investment is much the same sort of a process.” - 1997 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting

On the government deficit:

“A man who jumps out of a building is OK until he hits the ground.” - 2023 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting

On mastering our emotions:

“A lot of people with high IQs are terrible investors because they’ve got terrible temperaments. And that is why we say that having a certain kind of temperament is more important than brains. You need to keep raw irrational emotion under control. You need patience and discipline and an ability to take losses and adversity without going crazy. You need an ability to not be driven crazy by extreme success.” - Kiplinger interview, 2005

On problem solving:

“Invert, always invert: Turn a situation or problem upside down. Look at it backward.” - Poor Charlie’s Almanack

On passion:

“You’ll do better if you have passion for something in which you have aptitude. If Warren Buffett had gone into ballet, no one would have heard of him.” – Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, 2008

On mismanagement:

“Invest in a business any fool can run, because someday a fool will. If it won’t stand a little mismanagement, it’s not much of a business.” - Poor Charlie’s Almanack

On inflation:

“If I can be optimistic when I’m nearly dead, surely the rest of you can handle a little inflation” – 2010 annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting.

On success:

“It’s so simple. You spend less than you earn. Invest shrewdly, and avoid toxic people and toxic activities, and try and keep learning all your life, etcetera etcetera. And do a lot of deferred gratification because you prefer life that way. And if you do all those things you are almost certain to succeed. And if you don’t, you’re gonna need a lot of luck.” - Poor Charlie’s Almanack

On old age:

“The best armor of old age is a well spent life preceding it.” – Tao of Charlie Munger:

[KWAN]

Shane MacGowan, Pogues songwriter and Irish music legend, dies aged 65

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/nov/30/shane-macgowan-pogues-singer-dies

[david44]

Off to the Holy Ground

[Stretchy]

Former Chancellor Alistair Darling has died.