Month: October 2021 (Page 1 of 2)
December 16th (11am ET) DCA/Zoom Hybrid
Don Loomis will moderate a discussion on the Voting Rights Act, H.R.1, H.R.4, and the actions being taken by the states to reform their voting laws. What does it all mean for future elections? Free and fair elections have been the bedrock of our democracy. Where do our voting rights come from and how did we get to our current status concerning voting rights.
Bert von Stuelpnagel will host a discussion of Europe’s War on Technology companies
Europe’s War on US Tech is motivated by at least two principal motives: The fear that American technology companies, while clearly ahead of their European rivals, do not provide sufficient privacy protection; and the widespread opinion that they do not pay their fair share of taxes, given their outsized income. The Current Affairs discussions on November 19 will ask two questions: Are these valid concerns; and should the European point of view be shared by Americans?
Recommended Reading
Google loses key appeal against 2.4 billion EU shopping antitrust case
Opinion | You Are the Object of a Secret Extraction Operation
Intelligence Squared US, Europe has Declared War on American Tech Companies, October 22, 2019
https://intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/europe-has-declared-war-american-tech-companies
BBC London, EU Reveals Plan to Regulate Big Tech, December 15, 2020
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55318225
Tax Foundation, What European OECD Countries are doing about Digital Services Taxes, March 25, 2021
https://taxfoundation.org/digital-tax-europe-2020/
Thomson Reuters, Demystifying the 2021 EU’s Value Added Taxes, August 2, 2021
https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/tax-and-accounting/eu-vat-myths/
Avalara, Global VAT and GST on Digital Services, undated 2021
https://www.avalara.com/vatlive/en/global-vat-gst-on-e-services.html
Tax Foundation, Evaluating Proposals to Increase the Corporate Tax Rate and Levy a Minimum Tax on Corporate Book Income, February 24, 2021
https://taxfoundation.org/biden-corporate-income-tax-rate/
SizzlingStocks Newsletter, Largest Tech Companies by Market Cap, undated (2021)
https://companiesmarketcap.com/tech/largest-tech-companies-by-market-cap/
New York Times, Facebook Whistle-Blower Brings Campaign to Europe after Disclosures, October 25, 2021
New York Times, Why Europe is Hard on Big Tech, April 22, 2021
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/22/technology/europe-tech-regulations.html
Brookings Institute, An Agenda for US-EU Cooperation on Big Tech Regulation, August 9, 2021
https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/an-agenda-for-us-eu-cooperation-on-big-tech-regulation/
9to5MAC, Europe can’t agree on how to regulate tech giants like Apple or Google, October 11, 2021
https://9to5mac.com/2021/10/11/how-to-regulate-tech-giants/
Dr. Joshua Lader, a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist at Stamford Health Medical Group (Stamford Hospital), will speak to us about “Advances in the Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation.” This is a condition of irregular heartbeat that especially affects the age group of our membership, with approximately 70% of individuals presenting with AFib falling between 65 and 85 years of age. Dr. Lader graduated from New York University and has a medical degree from the NYU School of Medicine. Through a fellowship at NYU School of Medicine, Dr. Lader conducted research aimed at explaining some of the basic molecular underpinnings of AFib. He believes that when targeted lifestyle modifications fall short, this marks the beginning of an age where heart rhythm disturbances are treated, and even prevented, by targeted treatments at the molecular level. Dr. Lader is a member of a collaborative team at Stamford Health that addresses rhythm disturbances from a multidisciplinary point of view.
Arranged by Charles Salmans
Marti Denny Peterson graduated from Darien High School in 1963 and from Drew University in 1967. Married in 1969, she accompanied her husband, a CIA officer, to Laos. After he tragically was killed in a helicopter crash, Marti joined the CIA and became a case officer beginning her own 30-year CIA career. After learning Russian, she was one of the first women to be assigned to Moscow, a very difficult operational environment. “The Widow Spy” is her first-hand account of that experience, where she walked the dark streets of Moscow alone, placing dead-drops and avoiding the relentless eye of the KGB. Her book chronicles the clandestine activities that eventually led to her arrest and detention in Lubyanka Prison. She retired from the CIA in 2003 and now lives in Wilmington, N.C.
Arranged by Charles Salmans
Darien has much to be proud of in terms of fiscal management. The Darien Board of Finance is responsible for approving most budgets and expenditures and designing the tax and financing plans that fund the town. Jim Palen, Chairman of the Darien Board of Finance, will take us inside this process of financial management and discipline in a local Town Economics 101 presentation. Jim has been a member of the Board since 2015 and became chairman in 2021. Prior to that he served eight years on the RTM, including as Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee which is responsible for analyzing and reporting on financial and budgeting matters. He also is Chairman of Darien’s Audit Committee and has served on various building committees. Additionally, he has been a member of the negotiating team for numerous town and school union contracts. Jim’s career includes more than 25 years in investment banking, primarily focusing on the transportation sector. He is currently a Managing Director at Jefferies LLC, specializing in airlines and other private sector transportation clients. Previously he had a similar specialty at Credit Suisse and Bear Stearns, including specializing in municipal finance for transportation infrastructure. Jim and his wife Hallie, who have three children, have lived in Darien for 18 years during which Jim has been very involved in his children’s sports activities, has taught boating safety with the Darien Sail & Power Squadron, and has served on and been Chair and Vice Chair of the Darien Republican Town Committee.
Arranged by John Wolcott
The Presidency of Martin Van Buren is the subject of a talk by DMA member Mark Nunan. Van Buren, our eighth president from 1837 to 1841, is not well known, but arguably he transformed US politics, uniting factions into workable two-party system. Amazingly, having along with Andrew Jackson been instrumental in founding the Democratic Party, late in life he was influential in the launching of the Republican Party. As a boy growing up modestly at the close of the Revolutionary era, Van Buren knew personally Alexander Hamilton and other prominent leaders of the new country. America and its institutions were still young and as Van Buren reached political prominence he was a keen analyst of the factional, cultural and regional interests of his time. He became critical of Federalist dominance, including Hamilton’s success in establishing the Bank of the United States. It cost him dearly when as president he was blamed for the “Panic of 1837” and he was not re-elected. Van Buren continued to press for financial and labor reforms through three presidential runs at a time of changing politics in the country and the run-up to the Civil War. His career contains lessons about how to mitigate the potential for factional feuds and political violence through the unifying power of a strong and successful party system.
Mark Nunan, who has previously spoken to the DMA about the lives of Robert Moses and Fiorello LaGuardia, was born in Cork, Ireland. At an early age his family moved to Alabama. He graduated from the University of Alabama in 1976 and continued his education at Stanford University where he was awarded a master’s degree in 1979 and a Ph.D. in 1983. During that same period, he was a Fellow at L’ENS normale superieure at the University of Paris-Sorbonne as part of his Ph.D. program. In 1984, he joined COS, Inc., a firm that assists companies and governments in researching and implementing new business opportunities, retiring as a senior vice president in 2018. He splits his time between Darien and Slovenia where he has family connections.
Hamish Lutris is Associate Professor of History and Political Science at Capital Community College, Hartford, where he receives top ratings from students as an engaging lecturer. He credits his ability to teach with a job when he was in college as an interpretive ranger at Gettysburg National Military Park, where his job was to talk about the battle and cemetery where Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address. “With over 1.5 million visitors a year, not only was my job to provide accurate information, but to also entertain.” He has worked in some of America’s premier natural and historical sites, leading hiking and historical programs. He has also lectured extensively in the United States, Europe, and Canada, presenting programs on wide-ranging historical topics, including Native American history, the Civil War, Scientific History, Social and cultural history, World War I, World War II, and the American West
Arranged by Charles Salmans
Special Olympics is a movement that transforms lives by inspiring inclusion, understanding and respect for people of all abilities, both on the playing field and in communities across the state and around the world. Beau Doherty will talk about Special Olympics Connecticut, which provides year-round sports training and competitions for over 12,000 athletes (individuals with intellectual disabilities) and Unified Sports® partners (individuals without intellectual disabilities who are the athletes’ teammates).
Beau has been with Special Olympics for more than 39 years beginning when, at the former Paul A. Dever State School in Taunton, Mass., he witnessed the isolation and separation that the intellectual disability community experienced. He is Godfather of Special Olympics Unified Sports.
The program also brings athletes with and without intellectual disabilities together to play sports, gain physical fitness and develop friendships
Special Olympics Unified Sports® is also offered in 95% of public high schools across the state, as well as middle and elementary schools.
Connecticut athletes also have opportunities to compete globally – at Special Olympics’ USA and World Games.
The group also promotes a healthy lifestyle by offering free health screenings at events, and providing participants with the education and resources to improve their sports performance and enhance their overall health and fitness.
Monica McNally was elected Darien’s First Selectman in the November 2021 election. Previously, for eight years, she was an elected member of the RTM, and for the last three years chaired the RTM Public Works Committee, which led to a ban on single-use plastic bags. Monica and her husband Mark Filanowski have been residents of Darien for 27 years and have two children, Helen (25) and Stephen (23). The First Selectman graduated from the University of Wisconsin and spent nine years in the financial services sector as a financial consultant for Smith Barney. She has been a volunteer in a number of local civic organizations including OPUS, served as President of the YWCA Women’s Club, President of the Tokeneke Association Women’s Club, and Fundraising Chair for Green’s Farm Academy.
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Marissa Gillett is Chairman of Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA). She also serves as one of Connecticut’s representatives on the Board of Directors of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. In this role, she advises the Governor and the state legislature on technical, legal and policy matters related to offshore wind procurement, statewide energy efficiency programs, advanced metering infrastructure, grid reliability issues and electric vehicles. Prior to her appointment, Ms. Gillett was Vice President of External Relations for the Energy Storage Association, the national trade association representing the energy storage industry. From 2011 to 2018 she worked at the Maryland Public Service Commission. She received a B.S. degree in Bioengineering from Clemson University and a J.D. degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law.
Arranged by Geoff Rezek
Mark LeClair, professor of economics at Fairfield University where he has taught for 33 years, will discuss the outlook for Connecticut’s economy, assessing our state’s strengths and weaknesses. His areas of specialization include international finance and trade, industrial organizations, and regional economic development. In addition to nearly two dozen scholarly articles, Dr. LeClair has published four books, including Regional Integration and Global Free Trade (1997), International Commodity Markets and the Role of Cartels (2000), Cartelization, Antitrust and Globalization in the U.S. and Europe, and Philanthropy in Transition (2014). His current research centers on the regulatory environment in the not-for-profit sector. Dr. LeClair has taught courses for both the Lifelong Learning program in Fairfield and the Learning in Retirement program in Stamford for over a decade.
Arranged by Charles Salmans