JustPassingThrough

Former US Rep. Dan Benishek, who was a Republican member from Michigan from 2011 to 2017, died on Friday aged 69: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/10/17/former-united-states-representative-dan-benishek-northern-michigan-dies/8499328002/

Update to the update: Apparently now suffering health problems related to Grave's disease/thyroid condition, which not only has delayed the return of her show from September to October but she won't be well enough to return with it.

Update: Said "health issues" are apparently a breakthrough COVID case.

Wendy Williams won't be able to promote the next season of her show due to more "health issues," though a spokesperson says that she'll be back in time to do the actual show next Monday: https://deadline.com/2021/09/wendy-williams-health-issues-will-take-time-off-1234830989/

Australian Senator Alex Gallacher has died from lung cancer, aged 67: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/south-australian-senator-alex-gallacher-loses-battle-with-lung-cancer/news-story/59d8fb37c3a0afca6a052076e3bc0d18

I agree, there is no reason in the actual context of the situation, but that doesn't preclude more cynical, politically advantageous reasons. In any case, I think there's enough leeway with the timetable here that the Governor doesn't have to act before the recall (September 14) anyway, so he can kick the can down the road for now regardless of what he does.

It's worth noting that the Governor of California ultimately has to sign off for the parole to go through. Considering that he is facing a recall in two weeks and probably doesn't want to take a chance at anything that could garner negative headlines, I think there's a stronger than remote chance that he'll veto parole anyway.

Matthew Mindler, a former child actor best known for a supporting role in 2011's Our Idiot Brother, has gone missing. He was last seen leaving his university dormitory on Tuesday evening: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/our-idiot-brother-actor-matthew-mindler-reported-missing-from-university-1235004627/

Former US Rep. Paul Mitchell has died at 64. He retired from Congress last year and was diagnosed with stage 4 kidney cancer earlier this summer: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2021/08/16/rep-congressman-paul-mitchell-republican-died-conservative-independent/7877411002/

Getting a bit off-topic here, but I think just about any Democrat could have won in 2008. The Bush administration was extremely unpopular and they and the Republicans became very closely associated with the recession. Certainly some Democrats would have won narrower victories than Obama did, but I can’t imagine many serious candidates would have straight-up lost. i do agree though that I genuinely have no idea how Biden could have won the Democratic nomination that year though.

The thing that makes Carter's presidency interesting to me is just how much a product of its time it was. Presidents like Biden, Nixon, or Reagan ran multiple times before winning. Obama, had he not won in '08, would probably have been a top-tier candidate for decades to come. By contrast, the sequence of events that leads to Carter's presidency seems pretty intimately tied to him winning in the first post-Watergate election. The ideas he was running on and the image he presented were very much geared towards the moment. He was an obscure former governor from a state that was relatively unimportant at the time and somehow catapulted to the White House (where he was, arguably, in way over his head from minute one, but few politicians probably could have navigated that time very well). The Carter presidency seems like a historical oddity, like it shouldn't have even happened. The fact that '76 was so close and he was thrown out in a landslide four years later almost adds to this for me.

TMZ is now saying that it was "heart-related." Apparently, he was in really rough shape yesterday, but seems to be doing better now.

I might be overreading this, but >14 hours without any more news on Odenkirk feels a bit ominous. Doesn't mean it's anything tragically serious, but seems like this could be worse than, say, heat exhaustion or something. Hope I'm wrong though.

I've always found Edwards a strangely fascinating character, in good ways and bad. Despite it being common knowledge he was a crook long before he went away for it, he seemed to keep succeeding because he was somehow still able to convey (whether accurately or inaccurately) that he was a highly dedicated and driven leader who did good things for his state (though the main reason he was able to get re-elected as governor in 1991 was because his opponent was David Duke). Edwards was also famous for all of his one-liners, though like with many people famous for that, I'm guessing the further back in time you go with them the less you can actually prove which ones he actually said.

I guess a bit like the Brokenshire news, U.S. Representative Jim Hagedorn has announced today that his kidney cancer has returned. He had been diagnosed with stage IV kidney cancer in 2019 and seemed to be doing better after having his kidney removed last year, but a new occurrence was found over the weekend: