You can’t force Supreme Court judges to retire. As long as they are still alive they get to stay until they say otherwise or are impeached. People can try to encourage them (as I suspect Anthony Kennedy was) but if they refuse there is not much to be done about it.
IIRC there was at least one time a Supreme Court justice had dementia pretty badly and remained a justice.
I’m pretty sure that with the reference to “natural (or not-so-natural) causes” the forced retirement being suggested was of a more final sort.
I pretty hardcore accusation, even in speculation, but given the lines that’ve already been crossed…
Ok, let’s call that the first one (although as has also been pointed out in this thread, Nixon’s Vietnam peace accord just before the '72 election came before the '80 election). The difference is that both the Vietnam and Iran things involved actual Americans.
If a signing ceremony with the leaders of Israel and UAE is their idea of an October surprise to win voters in the middle of a pandemic and economic meltdown, I’m further convinced the Trump admin is looking to Selina Meyer as a model president.
Not October, it’s August.
Just for the record I will mention a story in yesterday’s times about a judge with diagnosed Alzheimer’s who was finally convinced to retire. It was a sad case, but she had grown increasingly erratic.
A bit early to be the October Surprise, but guilty plea pending for the FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, I mentioned.
I presume that more prosecutions may ensue, with a couple big names being the October Surprise?
Trump may just be relying on whatever worked last time.
The Crew Dragon launch date has just been set for October 23 (true). Trump announces he’ll be on it.
Greenland’s ice sheet totally collapses, sea level rises 2 meters within a day, flooding Mar-a-Lago, along with much of Florida.
I support either/both of those. 
But foreign policy is not going to be an important issue in this election.
I happen to be reading a book about the 1932 election. A lot of the candidates were making a big issue out of their position on prohibition. Some candidates made a big point out of calling for a repeal of the 18th Amendment and some made a big point out of supporting it.
Franklin Roosevelt pretty much ignored the issue. He didn’t put forward a position and when he was asked, he equivocated (and he was a master at that). Some people at the time thought Roosevelt was a fool to not make his position clear on this vital issue of the day.
But Roosevelt saw the big picture. He realized that while the politicians were caught up in this battle, the general public wasn’t. They thought the economy was the important issue of the day. To the voters, these arguments over prohibition made the candidates seem out of touch. Roosevelt emerged as the only candidate who seemed in accord with the public mood because he discussed the economy as his top issue.
This is what I feel will happen to the Trump administration if he tries to treat the Middle East or the stock market as the main issues of his campaign. The voters aren’t going to follow him down that path. They want to hear about the pandemic, jobs, and rioting - issues that they feel affect them directly. If Trump doesn’t focus on these issues, he’ll seem out of touch with the public.
I don’t know if it counts because it wasn’t engineered, but I think President Obama’s handling of the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy helped him greatly in 2012.
It was a stunning display of bipartisan competence - the two men walking through the rubble of the storms, Obama, using the power of the government to come to New Jersey’s rescue and comforting Christie with a little bit of bromance. Then there were the visuals, Obama looked trim and fit in his windbreaker walking next to Christie. He projected the image of the smart popular kid in high school that was always nice to the fat kid. Then there was that moment when Obama picked up the phone and called his buddy Bruce Springsteen and asked him to be nice to the fat kid, too. The whole scenario could’ve been written by a scriptwriter working for his campaign and Christie played his role perfectly.
God, I miss Obama.
Interesting parallel, and lesson.
Current op-ed (Aug. 21) in WaPo by Mike Murphy, adviser to Republican Voters Against Trump, warning how he thinks Trump could still win.
TL;DR: He thinks a Covid vaccine – or rather, simply just a hint of a whiff that one may be about ready – could be the October surprise that creates such elation and euphoria that it could hand the election to Trump, and of course Trump will be quick to make the most of any such news, or even manufacture such news.
(“irreverent” in the original; I assume he meant “irrelevant”.)
I’ve already seen claims of a vaccine and frankly, the only response I’ve seen so far is complete distrust.
There won’t be a traditional surprise like in 2016 with James Comey and Clinton’s e-mails. The “surprise” will be just how much cheating Trump will engage in and how much will he be able to get away with.
It seems to me that the Trump base that refuses to even wear masks because of “freedom” are the least likely people imaginable to get a vaccine against the “Chinese hoax”. Anti-vaxxers exist on the left and right, but I suspect there are a lot more on the right.
I agree with this, at least in America for as long as the Trump Administration remains in place. Likewise for that rush-job vaccine that Russia recently announced. In fact, Trump has announced a news conference for sometime this evening (Sunday Aug. 23) to proclaim some game-changing new therapy for Covid-19. I have no idea what it might be, but I already don’t trust it. Concentrate d’Eau d’Oleander perhaps?
ETA: I, for one, would probably not take any Covid-19 vaccine for the duration of the Trump administration. After that, I probably would.
Speaking of this (perhaps this belongs in Cafe Society), has anybody seen any collection of good oleander recipes yet? Perhaps some good salad combinations based on dandelion and oleander? Do oleander leaves go good in stews like bay leaf?
Any broccoli-oleander-cheese casseroles? Any ready-to-heat-and-eat frozen or canned spinach-and-oleander combos? Any oleander vape products?
Before Trump goes public with this, I want to be in on ground floor with my oleander investments. It’s going to be YUGE!
I think it goes well with colloidal silver.