Notable passings and other milestones

[Ah.hell]

For all the Koch hate, he also gave 100s of millions of dollars to non-political charities, 100s of millions to cancer research alone.  He ran for vice president on a platform that included gay rights, drug legalization, and criminal justice reform that was big on the rights of the accused, but I guess all that matters is the one thing lefties disagreed with him on to make him irredeemably evil.

[amysrevenge]

Looks like a "but hey, the trains ran on time" argument from here.

[xenu]

My biggest issue with the Koch industries are their strong libertarian political stand. They were tying to push the republican party to a hard core Libertarian platform. They did back democrats when they coincide with their ideology, but that was pretty rare. Libertarians like Koch like less government intervention because they are in a position to be their own government. People with less means don't have that luxury. I have some Libertarian leanings like most people. I am not sad to see him go.

[The Latinist]

Valerie Harper

[John Albert]

Gordon Bressack, writer of "Animaniacs," "Jimmy Neutron," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," and "Pinky and the Brain."

[Boßel]

Gordon Bressack, writer of "Animaniacs," "Jimmy Neutron," "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," and "Pinky and the Brain."

 

Froinlaven, Gordon Bressack, froinlaven.

[xenu]

Franco Columbo died 78

  Franco Columbu, a bodybuilder, boxer and actor who appeared in the films The Terminator and Conan the Barbarian alongside his close friend Arnold Schwarzenegger, has died. Columbu was 78. The Italian star passed away Friday after drowning in his native Sardinia, The Associated Press reported. He lived in Los Angeles…

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/franco-columbu

[CarbShark]

Jessi Combs dies while trying to break her land speed record - Los Angeles Times

Professional driver and TV personality Jessi Combs died in a crash Tuesday while trying to break her own land speed record. She was 39.

Combs’ North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger teammate Terry Madden confirmed Wednesday on Instagram that “we lost her yesterday in a horrific accident.”

“I was the first one there and trust me we did everything humanly possible to save her!!” Madden wrote of the crash that occurred around 4 p.m. in the Alvord Desert in southeast Oregon.

[CarbShark]

Kylie Rae Harris, country singer, dies in car accident - CNN

Kylie Rae Harris, a rising country singer from Texas, died in a car accident on Wednesday in New Mexico, Alex Torrez, the CEO of her management company, Torrez Music Group, tells CNN. She was 30.

[Calinthalus]

Kylie Rae Harris, country singer, dies in car accident - CNN

Kylie Rae Harris, a rising country singer from Texas, died in a car accident on Wednesday in New Mexico, Alex Torrez, the CEO of her management company, Torrez Music Group, tells CNN. She was 30.

I saw that on SCM this morning.  I didn't know if she was notable outside of my little circles. 


A few hours before she died, she posted this on her Instagram story:

“I’m alright, I look a mess. It’s because I’ve been crying. It’s a good cry. I just got to Taos, NM. But for those of you who don’t know, I spent the last 20 years of my life coming to Taos with my dad, my sisters, my grandparents lived here, my uncle still lives here. Literally everybody that was here has passed away, except for my uncle, including my dad. Driving these roads today—I’ve been driving for 12 hours—you would think that’s so exhausting and boring … And remembering my place in the back seat, and I started getting really sad…”

[arthwollipot]

Robert Mugabe, 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019.

[Sawyer]

Leslie H. Gelb, 82, Former Diplomat and New York Times Journalist, Dies

This is a week old but I wanted to post it here.  On a recent thread about the war in Iraq, I kept having minor quibbles with how people were missing part of the story by solely focusing on lies.  I realize now that my stance was largely informed by an interview Les Gelb did with On The Media a while back.  He talks about how frustrating it was to see public attention of the Pentagon Papers narrowly focused on the lies and screw-ups, whereas for the people originally involved in both creating and releasing them, one of the more shocking revelations was what our leaders actually believed.  He stresses how many people in our government treated the Domino Theory as absolute gospel, and how the more rational people in the Pentagon could not make inroads with them no matter how hard they tried.  He also notes that even in admitting a lot of awful stuff later on, McNamara and others still tend to distort the story of what the Pentagon Papers were in the first place.

https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/remembering-les-gelb

[Beef Wellington]

Austin Songwriting Genius Daniel Johnston Dead at 58

https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/music/2019-09-11/austin-songwriting-genius-daniel-johnston-dead-at-58/

[Awatsjr]

Jessi Combs dies while trying to break her land speed record - Los Angeles Times

Professional driver and TV personality Jessi Combs died in a crash Tuesday while trying to break her own land speed record. She was 39.

Combs’ North American Eagle Supersonic Speed Challenger teammate Terry Madden confirmed Wednesday on Instagram that “we lost her yesterday in a horrific accident.”

“I was the first one there and trust me we did everything humanly possible to save her!!” Madden wrote of the crash that occurred around 4 p.m. in the Alvord Desert in southeast Oregon.

She was the real deal up there with Shirley Muldowney, Angelle Sampey, Kitty O'Neal and Susan Oliver. Many others.

[arthwollipot]

You may not have known him, but Robert S. Lancaster was a friend of mine. I was privileged to have spent some time with him and his wife on my first trip to the USA. He passed away last weekend.