2016 Political Obituaries

[waltky]

Stalwart defender of Slick Willie...

Dale Bumpers, former U.S. senator and Arkansas governor, dead at 90
Sat January 2, 2016 - Dale Bumpers, a former U.S. senator and Arkansas governor who defended President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial, died Friday; Bumpers, a Democrat, died at his home in Little Rock after suffering from Alzheimer's disease and a broken hip

Dale Bumpers, a former U.S. senator and Arkansas governor who defended President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial, died Friday, his son, William, told CNN. He was 90. Bumpers, a Democrat, died at his home in Little Rock after suffering from Alzheimer's disease and a broken hip. An emotional William Bumpers told CNN Saturday that principle is what mattered most to his father. "He was a man of policy and honor and not politics," Bumpers said. "A lot of the stances he took were not politically expedient or popular back home, but they were the right positions to take."

President Bill Clinton laughs with former U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers, D-Arkansas, during the National Institutes of Health dedication ceremony of the Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center on June 9, 1999, in Bethesda, Maryland.​

Bumpers served as the 38th governor of Arkansas from 1971 to 1975, and represented The Natural State in the U.S. Senate from 1975 to 1999. He is perhaps best known for defending Clinton during his impeachment trial in the Senate, when he called the controversy over the Lewinsky affair "a sex scandal" and not an impeachable offense. "The American people are now and for some time have been asking to be allowed a good night's sleep," Bumpers told the chamber. "They're asking for an end to this nightmare. It is a legitimate request."

Clinton was eventually acquitted on the two articles of impeachment he was facing. "For more than 40 years, Hillary and I cherished his friendship," Clinton said in a statement Saturday afternoon. "I am grateful that his advice made me a better governor and President, and that we laughed at each other's jokes even when we'd heard them before. And I'm grateful that he welcomed Hillary to Arkansas and supported her in Washington." "I loved him. I loved learning from him and laughing with him. I will miss him very much," he added.

A progressive voice in Arkansas

 

[jwoodie]

This is why I hate most politicians: They are willing to damage their country for votes.

 

[waltky]

Wonder how that will affect the Kashmir situation?...

India's only Muslim home minister, former chief of Kashmir, dies at 79
Jan. 7, 2016 -- Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, an Indian politician for six decades and chief minister of contested Jammu and Kashmir provinces, died Thursday at age 79.

Sayeed was India's only Muslim home minister, serving in that position from 1989 to 1990. He also served twice as chief minister of the restive northern states of Jammu and Kashmir, partially claimed by ideological rival Pakistan.

Sayeed was a fixture in the politics of Kashmir, India's only state with a Muslim majority, beginning in the 1950s with the Democratic National Conference. He joined the India National Congress at a time when most Kashmiris supported Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, and was regarded as an excellent organizer and administrator.

Indian political leader Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, left, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sayeed died Thursday at 79.​

He was later a cabinet minister and a deal-maker and a leader of India's breakaway People's Democratic Party, whose numbers in Parliament grew from four seats in 1987 to 16 by 2002 and to 21 by 2008. Sayeed became an important bargainer in Indian coalition politics.

He had been hospitalized for a lung infection for two weeks before his death in New Delhi. Jammu and Kashmir announced a seven-day mourning period on Thursday, and Indian President Pranab Mukherjee said in a condolence message, "The contribution of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to Jammu and Kashmir and India through long years of public service will be always remembered."

India's only Muslim home minister, former chief of Kashmir, dies at 79

 

[waltky]

Boutros Boutros-Ghali passes away...

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, first UN chief from Africa, dies
Feb 16,`16 -- Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a veteran Egyptian diplomat who helped negotiate his country's landmark peace deal with Israel but then clashed with the United States when he served a single term as U.N. secretary-general, died Tuesday. He was 93.

Boutros-Ghali, the scion of a prominent Egyptian Christian political family, was the first U.N. chief from the African continent. He stepped into the post in 1992 at a time of dramatic world changes, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War and the beginning of a unipolar era dominated by the United States. His five years at the helm remain controversial. He worked to establish the U.N.'s independence, particularly from the United States, at a time when the world body was increasingly called on to step into crises with peacekeeping forces, with limited resources. Some blame him for misjudgments in the failures to prevent genocides in Africa and the Balkans and mismanagement of reform in the world body.

Former United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali gestures during an interview with the Associated Press on Wednesday, May 21, 1997 in New York. he U.N. Security Council has announced on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016 the death of former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.​

After years of frictions with the Clinton administration, the United States blocked his renewal in the post in 1996, making him the only U.N. secretary-general to serve a single term. He was replaced by Ghanaian Kofi Annan. In a U.N. Security Council session Tuesday, the 15 members held a moment of silence upon news of his death Tuesday in a hospital in the Egyptian capital. He had been admitted after suffering a broken pelvis, Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper reported last week. "The mark he has left on the organization is indelible," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. He said Boutros-Ghali "brought formidable experience and intellectual power to the task of piloting the United Nations through one of the most tumultuous periods in its history."

Ban pointed to Boutros-Ghali's landmark 1992 report "An Agenda for Peace," a proposal for how the U.N. could respond to and prevent conflict. Many of his proposals are still used by the United Nations. In his farewell speech to the U.N., Boutros-Ghali said he had thought when he took the post that the time was right for the United Nations to play an effective role in a world no longer divided into warring Cold War camps. "But the middle years of this half decade were deeply troubled," he said. "Disillusion set in."

MORE

 

[bendog]

Boutros Boutros-Ghali passes away...

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, first UN chief from Africa, dies
Feb 16,`16 -- Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a veteran Egyptian diplomat who helped negotiate his country's landmark peace deal with Israel but then clashed with the United States when he served a single term as U.N. secretary-general, died Tuesday. He was 93.

Boutros-Ghali, the scion of a prominent Egyptian Christian political family, was the first U.N. chief from the African continent. He stepped into the post in 1992 at a time of dramatic world changes, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War and the beginning of a unipolar era dominated by the United States. His five years at the helm remain controversial. He worked to establish the U.N.'s independence, particularly from the United States, at a time when the world body was increasingly called on to step into crises with peacekeeping forces, with limited resources. Some blame him for misjudgments in the failures to prevent genocides in Africa and the Balkans and mismanagement of reform in the world body.

Former United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali gestures during an interview with the Associated Press on Wednesday, May 21, 1997 in New York. he U.N. Security Council has announced on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016 the death of former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.​

After years of frictions with the Clinton administration, the United States blocked his renewal in the post in 1996, making him the only U.N. secretary-general to serve a single term. He was replaced by Ghanaian Kofi Annan. In a U.N. Security Council session Tuesday, the 15 members held a moment of silence upon news of his death Tuesday in a hospital in the Egyptian capital. He had been admitted after suffering a broken pelvis, Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper reported last week. "The mark he has left on the organization is indelible," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. He said Boutros-Ghali "brought formidable experience and intellectual power to the task of piloting the United Nations through one of the most tumultuous periods in its history."

Ban pointed to Boutros-Ghali's landmark 1992 report "An Agenda for Peace," a proposal for how the U.N. could respond to and prevent conflict. Many of his proposals are still used by the United Nations. In his farewell speech to the U.N., Boutros-Ghali said he had thought when he took the post that the time was right for the United Nations to play an effective role in a world no longer divided into warring Cold War camps. "But the middle years of this half decade were deeply troubled," he said. "Disillusion set in."

MORE

Great name. Sounded like something on a menu.

 

[deltex1]

Appropriate timing...dead man walking is giving a speech.

 

[deltex1]

Dead man drones on about the senate...sabotaging his nominee...his nominee will be dead before he answers the question.

 

[deltex1]

The man is such a whiner...

 

[NoTeaPartyPleez]

Appropriate timing...dead man walking is giving a speech.

Jeb! is on television?

 

[deltex1]

What massive military operation did Putin employ?

 

[waltky]

Mongo Castro, Fidel's older brother dies at 91

Ramon Castro, Cuban leader’s older brother, dies at age 91
February 23,`16 — Ramon Castro, a lifelong rancher and farmer who bore a strong physical resemblance to younger brother Fidel Castro, has died, Cuban state media announced Tuesday. He was 91.

Widely known by his nickname “Mongo,” the white-bearded Ramon Castro preferred tending crops and livestock to the revolutionary political life embraced by his younger siblings Fidel and Raul, who replaced Fidel as Cuba’s president in February 2008. Two years older than Fidel, Ramon was long used to getting double-takes from people who insisted he looked just like his famous brother. At times, Ramon was said to reply that because he was older, Fidel actually looked like him.

Ramon Castro during a rally, in Havana, Cuba. Castro, a lifelong rancher and farmer who bore a strong physical resemblance to his younger brother, Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, died Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, state media announced. He was 91.​

Ramon, Fidel and Raul were the second, third and fourth children of Angel Castro, a Spanish-born rancher, and his second wife, Lina Ruz. Angel Castro also had two other children from a previous marriage. The three brothers attended Roman Catholic schools in eastern Cuba, where their teachers complained about their pranks and trouble making, prompting Angel to pull them out of classes for some time.

Once grown, Fidel and Raul headed off to Havana for studies, then the business of launching a revolution against dictator Fulgencio Batista, who seized power in a 1952 coup. But Ramon Castro was content to remain in the village of Biran in eastern Cuba, where he helped his father with the family business.

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[waltky]

Rob Ford was your typical Canadian kinda guy...

Why Rob Ford was a typical Canadian
Wed, 23 Mar 2016 - Why the former mayor of Toronto was a typical Canadian

Canadian journalist Jordan Michael Smith reflects on the outrageous life of Rob Ford, the former mayor of Toronto. Was an overweight, crack-smoking loudmouth really so out of character compared to his fellow Canadians?

It is fair to say that Rob Ford brought more attention to Toronto at one time than the city has ever received in its history. The former mayor, who died on Tuesday, made the Canadian city internationally notorious in May 2013 when a gossip website described a video showing him smoking crack cocaine. The revelation was soon followed by an astonishing series of events: Ford's admission of crack-smoking, reports that the house where Ford was videotaped was well known for attracting drugs and violence, another video showing him drunk and using racial slurs, and yet another video showing him again smoking crack.

Part of what made Ford so headline-grabbing was, of course, the simple fact that he was a mayor engaging in felonious behaviour. That behaviour was tied into his entire persona, which seemed made for sensationalistic coverage - boisterous, boorish, and boozy. But another reason Ford became globally infamous was that he ran so contrary to national stereotypes. "Toronto's crack-smoking, hard-drinking mayor seems so, well, un-Canadian," as the Irish Times put it. "This is Canada we're talking about, supposedly an endless land of clean water, maple trees, Mounties and French secessionists," Time magazine summarised.

But Canadians defy popular notions of all kinds. They are among the heaviest drinkers of alcohol and smokers of marijuana in the world; they rank with the most obese and dependent on antidepressants, and they kill nearly half a million seals every year for fur. In light of this evidence, Rob Ford isn't so un-Canadian. Perhaps that's why many Torontonians simply didn't care about his conduct. It wasn't that shocking to them. And it was hardly unknown.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Father Daniel Berrigan passes on...

US anti-Vietnam war priest dies aged 94
Sun, 01 May 2016 - The American priest and poet Daniel Berrigan - famous for leading defiant protests against the Vietnam War - dies in New York aged 94.

Father Berrigan emerged as a radical Catholic voice against the war in the 1960s and won fame when he and his younger brother seized draft records of troops about to be deployed in Vietnam. The pair and other Catholics burned the files in rubbish bins. The brothers were convicted of destroying government property. But when they were due to be sentenced they went into hiding before eventually being arrested.

Released from prison in 1972 the left-leaning Fr Berrigan continued his peace activism until in his 80s, founding the anti-nuclear weapons Plowshares Movement in 1980. Fr Berrigan also protested against the Gulf War, the Kosovo War, the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and abortion. He was even reported to have taken part aged 92 in the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York's Zuccotti Park. The priest was born into a German-Irish Catholic family in Minnesota and joined the Jesuit order in 1939, becoming ordained in 1952.

He authored more than 50 books, with his first volume of poetry, Time Without Number, winning the Lamont Prize in 1957. He also wrote a play, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine. Fr Berrigan in the 1960s became an intellectual star of the Roman Catholic "new left", The New York Times reports. The paper says he argued that racism and poverty, militarism and capitalist greed were all interconnected and part of an unjust society. Asked in a magazine interview for an inscription for his gravestone, Fr Berrigan said: "It was never dull. Alleluia."

US anti-Vietnam war priest Daniel Berrigan dies aged 94 - BBC News

 

[waltky]

Elie Wiesel passes on...

Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and author, dead at 87
Jul 2,`16) -- Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, the Romanian-born Holocaust survivor whose classic "Night" became a landmark testament to the Nazis' crimes and launched Wiesel's long career as one of the world's foremost witnesses and humanitarians, has died at age 87.

His death was announced Saturday by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. No other details were immediately available. The short, sad-eyed Wiesel, his face an ongoing reminder of one man's endurance of a shattering past, summed up his mission in 1986 when accepting the Nobel Peace Prize: "Whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." For more than a half-century, he voiced his passionate beliefs to world leaders, celebrities and general audiences in the name of victims of violence and oppression. He wrote more than 40 books, but his most influential by far was "Night," a classic ranked with Anne Frank's diary as standard reading about the Holocaust.

"Night" was his first book, and its journey to publication crossed both time and language. It began in the mid-1950s as an 800-page story in Yiddish, was trimmed to under 300 pages for an edition released in Argentina, cut again to under 200 pages for the French market and finally published in the United States, in 1960, at just over 100 pages. "'Night' is the most devastating account of the Holocaust that I have ever read," wrote Ruth Franklin, a literary critic and author of "A Thousand Darknesses," a study of Holocaust literature that was published in 2010. "There are no epiphanies in 'Night. There is no extraneous detail, no analysis, no speculation. There is only a story: Eliezer's account of what happened, spoken in his voice."

Wiesel began working on "Night" just a decade after the end of World War II, when memories were too raw for many survivors to even try telling their stories. Frank's diary had been an accidental success, a book discovered after her death, and its entries end before Frank and her family was captured and deported. Wiesel's book was among the first popular accounts written by a witness to the very worst, and it documented what Frank could hardly have imagined. "Night" was so bleak that publishers doubted it would appeal to readers. In a 2002 interview with the Chicago Tribune, Wiesel recalled that the book attracted little notice at first. "The English translation came out in 1960, and the first printing was 3,000 copies. And it took three years to sell them. Now, I get 100 letters a month from children about the book. And there are many, many million copies in print."

In one especially haunting passage, Wiesel sums up his feelings upon arrival in Auschwitz: "Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. ... Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never."

MORE

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Boutros Boutros-Ghali passes away...

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, first UN chief from Africa, dies
Feb 16,`16 -- Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a veteran Egyptian diplomat who helped negotiate his country's landmark peace deal with Israel but then clashed with the United States when he served a single term as U.N. secretary-general, died Tuesday. He was 93.

Boutros-Ghali, the scion of a prominent Egyptian Christian political family, was the first U.N. chief from the African continent. He stepped into the post in 1992 at a time of dramatic world changes, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War and the beginning of a unipolar era dominated by the United States. His five years at the helm remain controversial. He worked to establish the U.N.'s independence, particularly from the United States, at a time when the world body was increasingly called on to step into crises with peacekeeping forces, with limited resources. Some blame him for misjudgments in the failures to prevent genocides in Africa and the Balkans and mismanagement of reform in the world body.

Former United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali gestures during an interview with the Associated Press on Wednesday, May 21, 1997 in New York. he U.N. Security Council has announced on Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016 the death of former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.​

After years of frictions with the Clinton administration, the United States blocked his renewal in the post in 1996, making him the only U.N. secretary-general to serve a single term. He was replaced by Ghanaian Kofi Annan. In a U.N. Security Council session Tuesday, the 15 members held a moment of silence upon news of his death Tuesday in a hospital in the Egyptian capital. He had been admitted after suffering a broken pelvis, Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper reported last week. "The mark he has left on the organization is indelible," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. He said Boutros-Ghali "brought formidable experience and intellectual power to the task of piloting the United Nations through one of the most tumultuous periods in its history."

Ban pointed to Boutros-Ghali's landmark 1992 report "An Agenda for Peace," a proposal for how the U.N. could respond to and prevent conflict. Many of his proposals are still used by the United Nations. In his farewell speech to the U.N., Boutros-Ghali said he had thought when he took the post that the time was right for the United Nations to play an effective role in a world no longer divided into warring Cold War camps. "But the middle years of this half decade were deeply troubled," he said. "Disillusion set in."

MORE

Great name. Sounded like something on a menu.

Shouldn't that say Boutros Boutros-Ghali died died?

 

[waltky]

What, Me worry?...

Mad magazine cartoonist Jack Davis dies aged 91
Thu, 28 Jul 2016 - Cartoonist Jack Davis, the "long-time legendary" artist on the US magazine Mad, dies at the age of 91.

Davis, who also created posters for films such as The Long Goodbye and Bananas, was one of the founding artists on the publication in 1952. He contributed to the magazine for several decades, drawing many portraits of its mascot Alfred E Neuman. Mad art director Sam Viviano said Davis' "immediately recognisable style revolutionised comic illustration".

'One of the greats'

A spokesman for the magazine, which began as a comic book in 1952, said a list of his "most legendary pieces would run to several pages in length". He added: "Among his most iconic parodies from Mad's comic book days are of The Lone Ranger and High Noon. "From the magazine, his notable parodies include spoofs of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Gone with the Wind, and M*A*S*H." The magazine's editor John Ficarra said there "wasn't anything Jack couldn't do". "Front covers, caricatures, sports scenes, monsters - his comedic range was just incredible. "His ability to put energy and motion into his drawings, his use of cross-hatching and brush work, and his bold use of colour made him truly one of the greats."

Davis began his career at the University of Georgia, where he drew for the campus newspaper - his depictions of the athletics teams, the Georgia Bulldogs, still grace the walls of the institution. The university's alumni association tweeted that Davis would be "missed by the Bulldog family". Georgia radio station WGAU said Davis' first success after university was to illustrate a Coca-Cola training manual, "a job that gave him enough cash to buy a car and drive to New York". Once there, he worked as a freelance cartoonist, before finding a role with EC Comics, contributing to a number of their titles, including Tales From The Crypt and Incredible Science Fiction.

The editors of those titles - William M Gaines, Albert B Feldstein and Harvey Kurtzman - went on to launch Mad, which Davis contributed to from the start as one of the "Usual Gang of Idiots", the magazine's spokesman said. Away from the magazine, Davis drew posters for films and designed a stamp for the US Postal Service in 1989, breaking the rule banning the portrayal of living people by sneaking in a self-portrait. He received the National Cartoonists Society's Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996 and the Reuben Award in 2000 and was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2003. Celebrities and fellow cartoonists paid tribute to Davis online. The Monkees' drummer Micky Dolenz retweeted a picture Davis had drawn of the group, while author Neil Gaiman said Davis was "so wonderful" and "a legend".

Marvel comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis described Davis as "one of the greatest cartoonists that ever lived", The Walking Dead artist Tony Moore said he was a "consummate professional and gentleman" and Gremlins director Joe Dante called him "the Maddest of the Mad artists". Davis' final cover for the magazine came in 1995 - a picture of magazine mascot Neuman plunging radio presenter Howard Stern in a toilet bowl, which the spokesman said "remains a Mad classic". Ficarra said Davis would "always be remembered for his charming modesty and Southern gentleman manner, which completely belied his rascally sense of humour and wry wit". "Everyone at Mad and DC Entertainment send their heartfelt condolences to Jack's wife, Dena, and the entire Davis family," he added.

Mad magazine cartoonist Jack Davis dies aged 91 - BBC News

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd says mebbe now we can go back to men bein' men an' womens bein' womens...

Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly dead at 92
September 5, 2016 | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Phyllis Schlafly, who became a "founding mother" of the modern U.S. conservative movement by battling feminists in the 1970s and working tirelessly to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment, died on Monday at the age of 92, her Eagle Forum group said.

Schlafly, who lived in the St. Louis suburb of Ladue, Missouri, died at her home in the presence of her family, Eagle Forum said in a statement. The cause of death was not given. She was still a conservative force and popular speaker in her 90s, endorsing Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and praising his policy on immigration. She was a delegate to the Republicans' convention in Cleveland. Schlafly once called feminists "a bunch of bitter women seeking a constitutional cure for their personal problems," Time said, while insisting that "women find their greatest fulfillment at home with their family."

Her political ardor did not fade with age and in 2014, as President Barack Obama pushed for pay equity for women, Schlafly sparked controversy with a column for the Christian Post saying a man's paycheck comes first. "The pay gap between men and women is not all bad because it helps to promote and sustain marriages," she said. "... The best way to improve economic prospects for women is to improve job prospects for the men in their lives, even if that means increasing the so-called pay gap." Schlafly promoted traditional family values and once told a reporter that she always listed her occupation as "mother" when filling out applications. But she was hardly a typical stay-at-home housewife/mother.

Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly introduces U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the Peabody Opera House in St. Louis, Missouri​

Shortly after marrying lawyer Fred Schlafly in 1949, she became active in Republican Party politics in Alton, Illinois, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress twice. She would go on to found the Eagle Forum grass-roots conservative group, write a newspaper column and newsletter and author some 20 books. Her crowning achievement was crusading to prevent the Equal Rights Amendment from being added to the U.S. Constitution and it made Schlafly a leader in the modern American conservative movement. "Phyllis Schlafly courageously and single-handedly took on the issue of the Equal Rights Amendment when no one else in the country was opposing it," said James C. Dobson, chairman and founder of Focus on the Family. "In so doing, she essentially launched the pro-family, pro-life movement."

Biographer Donald T. Critchlow said defeating the ERA helped usher in a conservative era in American politics and boosted Ronald Reagan to the presidency. In her decade-long fight against the ERA, Schlafly traveled across the country to speak at rallies and persuade state legislators not to approve the ERA. Along the way she often debated feminist writer Betty Freidan, who called Schlafly "a traitor to her sex" and once told her: "I'd like to burn you at the stake." The intention of the ERA was to ensure women were treated the same as men under state and federal laws. Schlafly's attack on the proposed amendment was based on the premise that the rights of women already were well protected by the U.S. Constitution. She said the ERA actually would erode women's standing, leading to homosexual marriages, women in combat, government-funded abortions and loss of alimony.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Shimon Peres of Israel passes on at 93...

Shimon Peres, former Israeli president, dies aged 93
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 - Former Israeli PM and President Shimon Peres has died aged 93 following a stroke two weeks ago.

Shimon Peres, who served twice as Israel's prime minister and once as president, has died at the age of 93. Mr Peres suffered a stroke two weeks ago. His condition had improved before a sudden deterioration on Tuesday. His son Chemi led tributes to "one of the founding fathers of the state of Israel" who "worked tirelessly" for it. Mr Peres was one of the last of a generation of Israeli politicians present at the new nation's birth in 1948.

He won the Nobel Peace prize in 1994 for his role negotiating peace accords with the Palestinians a year earlier. He once said the Palestinians were Israel's "closest neighbours" and might become its "closest friends". Mr Peres died in a hospital near Tel Aviv early on Wednesday, with his family at his bedside. He had been in the intensive care unit of the Sheba Medical Centre after suffering a major stroke on 13 September.

'Giant among men'

He "left us without suffering", said Rafi Walden, his son-in-law. Mr Peres's son, Chemi, said of his father: "He served our people before we even had a country of our own. "He worked tirelessly for Israel from the very first day of the state to the last day of his life. "My father used to say - and I'm quoting - you are only as great as the cause you serve." Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his "deep personal grief on the passing of the beloved of the nation".

Meanwhile US President Barack Obama called Mr Peres his "dear friend" in a statement, and said: "He was guided by a vision of the human dignity and progress that he knew people of goodwill could advance together." Britain's Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis called Mr Peres "a true giant among men" and "the greatest living example of an unshakable belief in the pursuit of peace against all odds". He added: "Tragically, thus far, we have not succeeded. But from Shimon Peres we learned that we must never let go of that audacious commitment to peace, even when all around us are ready to do so."

Who was Shimon Peres?

 

[waltky]

Famed American anti-war activist Tom Hayden has died aged 76...

Tom Hayden, famed anti-Vietnam war activist, dies aged 76
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 - Tom Hayden, progressive activist and a prominent figure in the US anti-Vietnam war movement, dies after a lengthy illness.

Hayden died in his home in Santa Monica "after a lengthy illness", the Los Angeles Times reports. He was a member of the "Chicago seven" charged with conspiracy over anti-Vietnam war protests in 1968 and eventually acquitted. Hayden later served in the California state assembly and Senate for nearly two decades. He was married to actress Jane Fonda between 1973 and 1990. Born in Michigan in 1939, he became an activist during his time at the University of Michigan, where he helped to found Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). While there, he wrote a policy document called the Port Huron Statement, which he styled the "agenda for a generation".

Mr Hayden and the SDS went on to become a major influence on the 1960s protest movement, particularly against the Vietnam war. "Rarely, if ever, in American history has a generation begun with higher ideals and experienced greater trauma than those who lived fully the short time from 1960 to 1968,'' he wrote in the essay Streets of Chicago. In 1968, Mr Hayden was part of a controversial anti-war demonstration in Chicago, timed to coincide with the Democratic National Convention. The protest turned violent, with eight people - including Mr Hayden - charged with conspiracy and crossing state lines to incite a riot.

In this Dec. 6, 1973 file photo, political activist Tom Hayden, husband of Jane Fonda, tells newsmen in Los Angeles that he believes public support was partially responsible for the decision not to send him and others of the Chicago 7 to jail for contempt.​

The so-called Chicago seven trial - originally the Chicago eight, before one defendant was tried separately - ran for years, with appeals and retrials. Mr Hayden was eventually cleared of all charges. In 1973, he married actress Jane Fonda, who was herself an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War. She was internationally famous and wealthy, while he was still seen in some quarters as an anti-establishment troublemaker. He would go on to reinvent himself in the coming decades, moving away from the image of a long-haired student protester. He turned his attention to mainstream politics in the late 1970s, earning himself a place in the California State Assembly in 1982. A decade later, shortly after his divorce from Fonda, he moved on to the California Senate. He also became a prolific writer of books and essays, and served as a columnist for several outlets.

Fifty years after he wrote the Port Huron statement, about a generation "looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit", he wrote that the concentration of wealth in the hands of the elite was a "mountain untouched" . Writing in The Guardian in 2012, he called the Occupy Wall Street protests a "new force in the world". "The Occupy movement, and kindred spirits from the Middle East to China, is driven by young people who feel unrepresented by the institutions, disenfranchised economically, and threatened by an environmental catastrophe," he said. "The direct action movement of the early 1960s was similar in nature." Hayden married actress Barbara Williams in 1993, and had a son, Liam.

Tom Hayden, famed anti-Vietnam war activist, dies aged 76 - BBC News

See also:

First woman to scale Everest peak dies at age 77
Oct. 22, 2016 -- Junko Tabei, who in 1975 became the first woman to successfullly scale Mount Everest, died at age 77, her family said.

Tabei, of Japan, scaled Everest at age 35, climbing all of the world's highest peaks by 1992 including Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Denali in Alaska. Her last ascent, of Mount Fuji, was in July with a group of high school students.

In 2012, she told The Japan Times she was proud of her accomplishment, which was widely seen as a push forward for the women's movement in Japan. "There was never a question in my mind that I wanted to climb that mountain, no matter what other people said," she said.

Tabei was diagnosed with abdominal cancer four years ago and died in a hospital.

First woman to scale Everest peak dies at age 77

 

[waltky]

PBS's Washington Week Gwen Ifill passes of cancer...

PBS journalist Gwen Ifill dies of cancer
November 14, 2016 — Gwen Ifill, co-anchor of PBS' "NewsHour" with Judy Woodruff and a veteran journalist who moderated two vice presidential debates, died Monday of cancer, the network said. She was 61.

A former reporter for The New York Times and The Washington Post, Ifill switched to television in the 1990s and covered politics and Congress for NBC News. She moved to PBS in 1999 as host of "Washington Week" and also worked for the nightly "NewsHour" program. She and Woodruff were named co-anchors in 2013. She moderated vice presidential debates in 2004 and 2008 and authored the book, "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama."

Ifill took a leave from "NewsHour" for a month this spring for health reasons, keeping details of her illness private. Her health failing, she left "NewsHour" again shortly before an election night that she and Woodruff would have covered together. "Gwen was a standard bearer for courage, fairness and integrity in an industry going through seismic change," said Sara Just, PBS "NewsHour" executive producer. "She was a mentor to so many across the industry and her professionalism was respected across the political spectrum. She was a journalist's journalist and set an example for all around her."

NBC News' Pete Williams, a former colleague, struggled to keep his composure Monday when announcing Ifill's death on MSNBC. "She had so many awards in her office you could barely see out the window," Williams said. Shortly before moderating the debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin in 2008, Ifill brushed aside concerns that she might not be fair because she was writing a book about Obama. "I've got a pretty long track record covering politics and news, so I'm not particularly worried that one-day blog chatter is going to destroy my reputation," she told The Associated Press then.

Ifill, who was black, also questioned why people would assume her book would be favorable toward Obama. "Do you think they made the same assumptions about Lou Cannon (who is white) when he wrote his book about Reagan?" she said.

PBS journalist Gwen Ifill dies of cancer