A look at some notable recent deaths, after-the-jump ...
But first: Top Comments appears nightly, as a round-up of the best comments on Daily Kos. Surely ... you come across comments daily that are perceptive, apropos and .. well, perhaps even humorous. But they are more meaningful if they're well-known ... which is where you come in (especially in diaries/stories receiving little attention).
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Some recent deaths involve people I have written about in the past here in Top Comments … and deserve a final send-off.
Years ago, yours truly paid tribute to the Washington Post sportswriter John Feinstein, who was also a prolific author. While I am a sports fan, most sports books never interested me, as I wrote in 2014:
They often tend to be (a) hero worshipping, or (b) pining for the 'good old days', or (c) more interested in scuttlebutt and scandal, or (d) written by a devotee to one particular sport only, or especially (e) far too technical, X’s and O’s, inside-baseball for me.
John and the late David Halberstam were the exceptions, as I detailed in the essay above. John Feinstein made no secret of his liberal political beliefs, yet he never berated others, preferring to rely on reporting skills to gain access and trust.
In his obituaries: “He was very passionate about things,” his brother Robert Feinstein told the Associated Press. “People either loved him or hated him — and equally strongly.” His last column was published Thursday morning (just hours before his death was announced) about the 70-year-old Michigan State coach Tom Izzo's passion for his craft (which was often the case in his newspaper essays).
I always found a dichotomy between his books/newspaper essays — which were informative, humane and nuanced, as well as opinionated — versus when he was on TV/radio sports shows (contentious by nature) and on social media, where I sometimes found him to be unnecessarily combative — perhaps the nature-of-the-beast. Yet his passing at age sixty-nine means fewer books to bring on long train/airline trips, where I don’t want to read about politics.
The Wyoming GOP senator Alan Simpson (term from 1979 to 1997) was always something of a mystery to me. Fiscally, he was a hard-nosed conservative: when the Republican co-chair of Obama’s commission on the federal deficit, he called Social Security recipients (of which I am now) “greedy geezers.”
And yet, as one D/K essay noted in 2011, he had become a controversial figure within the GOP for his liberal views on women’s rights, abortion rights and gay rights. After he left the Senate, he even accepted a temporary position at the Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics. He and Professor Robert Reich had a one-season show on Boston public TV (“The Long and the Short of It”) that had disagreement, yet not of the combative style, which many viewers appreciated.
One thing I did not know was his other friendship with former Rep. Norm Mineta (D-CA). The two met as Boy Scouts when Mineta and his family were imprisoned as Japanese Americans near Simpson’s hometown of Cody, Wyoming during World War II. After leaving politics, both promoted awareness of the incarceration of some 120k people of Japanese ancestry in camps during the war.
Still, I wouldn’t have thought much: but for two essays that former Labor Secretary Reich wrote about him over the years. Reich noted the cruelty many on the right had towards him … with Strom Thurmond insulting on Reich’s 4’11” height as an example. By contrast, Alan Simpson (6’7”) and he got on fabulously well.
Please read his (not long) ode to Alan Simpson at this link — two passages:
When Trump first ran for president in 2016, I asked Alan why he thought more Republicans weren’t speaking out against Trump. “They’re scared,” he said.
“Scared of Trump?”
“No,” he said, lowering his voice. “They’re scared of the kind of people Trump is attracting and what he’s bringing out in them.”
“You mean, they’re scared of being physically harmed?”
“Friend, it only takes one nutcase.”
The last time we spoke was when I phoned to congratulate him on being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Biden (July, 2022).
“I saw it was you calling,” he said. “I wouldn’t have answered if it was anyone else.”
Alan Simpson (1931-2025)
Finally, just a few months ago: I noted in this space how many former star athletes go broke (for a variety of reasons) and how the few who have successful business careers often have such marquee names (such as Magic Johnson) that the public is drawn to them … and who also played in the days when salaries skyrocketed, so they had a larger financial base to invest.
By contrast, a former basketball player (a ‘sixth man’, who played in the NBA from 1975-1987) who made a good salary (by our standards) yet low (by LeBron and Shaq standards) was named Junior Bridgeman, who became wealthy by anticipating a post-career life, wise investing and even working the counters at his fast food restaurants so he knew how the businesses operated. I wrote part of a Top Comments essay about him at this link. He died last week at age seventy-one.
If you click through the post below by Magic Johnson, he lists all of the accomplishments/philanthropy Junior Bridgeman financed ...yet notes where he had started from:
What people don’t realize is Junior didn’t make a fortune as a player, but he turned what he earned into something extraordinary: becoming a billionaire African American businessman in this country.
Let’s close with this: hope that these three (and others) are indeed Flying Home.
Now, on to Top Comments (and maybe some Top Photos):
From kj in missouri:
In the diary by French Bear (siding with the actions of the Senate minority leadership) I have two nominations: this comment made by GrumpyOldGeek ... and this comment made by patricia13.
Highlighted by Denise Oliver Velez:
And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the front-page story about Tesla Cybertrucks being recalled — grumpynerd is among those citing Musk’s belief in his engineering genius that led to this debacle.
And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
