JustPassingThrough

There have been reports (all unsubstantiated so far, of course) that the White House might appoint Blum to some sinecure ambassadorship somewhere for the primary purpose of giving the increasingly senile Feinstein an easy, "dignified" way to retire from the Senate within the relatively near future.

Looks like the timing was both quick and completely expected, if that makes sense. According to the Axios article, he spent the weekend calling Carter, Biden, Harris, etc. to say goodbye, and wrote a message to his former staffers to be sent after his death. I think the suggestion earlier in the thread from @arghton that it might have been cancer sounds like it matches this.

The NYT's endorsement of him in 1984 said that he had "the flair of a trigonometry teacher" or something to that effect, which is quite a thing to say about the guy you're saying should be your country's next leader. It was, of course, more of an anti-endorsement of Reagan than an endorsement for Mondale. I've always thought of him as more or less a fundamentally decent guy, but certainly not suited for running for higher office. He was the kind of person who was better suited for a long career as a legislator than in the executive. Of course, nobody was beating Reagan that year anyway.

Sticking with Dole (who was also Mondale’s opponent for VP in 1976).

Schilling actually ran for another House seat last year, but didn't win the primary. Had he been elected, we might have had a situation where two sitting members of the US Congress (him and Alcee Hastings) died on the same day.

Has now been retracted. Lawyer says he was misinformed, and that DMX is currently still on life support.

AP is reporting that his health is deteriorating, and he now has trouble walking.

But she went on to lose to a Democrat in the election in 2020 to finish out the six-year term McCain won in 2016. Had McCain not died, that election would have never happened.

James Levine, who was the musical director of the Met until the Met could no longer publicly pretend they didn't know that he had roughly a half-century's worth of sexual misconduct allegations following him, died last Tuesday aged 77, though his death was not reported until today: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/obituaries/james-levine-dead.html

G.W. Mercier, a prolific set designer and costume designer who was nominated for the Tony Award for Scenic Design in 1997, died from cancer last Thursday aged 66: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/g-w-mercier-tony-nominated-set-and-costume-designer-dies-at-66

Steven Spurrier, who organized the 1976 Judgment of Paris wine competition, in which Californian wines scored better than French ones (to the great surprise of the French), has died at 79: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmariani/2021/03/09/steven-spurrier-international-wine-legend-dies-at-79-judgement-of-paris/?sh=246bf73b57a3

Michael Wolf Snyder, who worked as a sound mixer on current Oscar frontrunner Nomadland, has died by suicide, aged 35. His body was found on March 1, and it's thought he died a couple of days before: https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/michael-wolf-snyder-dead-dies-nomadland-production-sound-mixer-1234923361/

Hello!

Hi, thanks for the welcome! I am certain that I'm not an alt account of anyone else who has ever posted on this site. As for whether or not I'm a moron, well... I don't think I am, but I suppose I'm not the most objective judge of that

I've just made an account here after lurking for a while. I've also now just realized that the lack of spaces in my display name means the last couple of letters unceremoniously drop off (on desktop) next to my posts in a thread.

Frank J. Kelley, who served as attorney general of Michigan for 38 years (and thus gained the nickname "eternal general"), has died at 96: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/obituaries/2021/03/06/frank-kelley-michigans-eternal-general-dies-96/4303222001/ (I am a longtime lurker here who has finally made an account. Should I crosspost the above into the Political Frailty thread? My assumption is that this is supposed to be a catch-all thread with the rest discussed in the breakway threads if they fit, but I don't want to spam the same notice across multiple threads EDIT: Have now seen this was already shared in the law & order thread, nvm)