Adults trying to live up to the example set by a teenager

Yesterday I wrote about the list of excuses Republicans and the nasty guy have been saying to justify having classified documents at his for profit estate. Hunter of Daily Kos explains why those excuses are actually hurting him. One excuse was that the nasty guy was so distraught over the failure of his coup that White House workers did the packing, also known as The Butler Did It. But that implies classified papers were scattered about the White House and mixed with his own possessions so that workers couldn’t tell one from another. So the nasty guy didn’t mishandle classified documents while packing, he mishandled them as a normal part of doing his duties. Simply declassifying documents in his own head and not telling the rest of the government exposes assets – spies – to exposure. Another claim is the nasty guy didn’t take the documents on purpose. But once at his estate he played games with investigators to make sure the boxes stayed hidden. This was intentional. A reason why this is so bad is by running his estate as a for profit club a lot of members it attracts are spies. Hunter also reported the current Republican sentiment. If the nasty guy broke the law that means the law must be repealed. Soon there would be no law, no rule of law, and no America left. Laura Clawson of Kos is amazed that it was the despicable John Bolton who came up with a great follow up question. When someone says the documents should be declassified simply because the nasty guy said so, the response should be:

Do you believe those should be put on the internet and printed in the newspapers for everyone to see?

He then summed up the situation rather well:

When somebody begins to concoct lies like this, it shows a real level of desperation.

Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Kos, quoted a tweet from Ted:

The fact that he was flushing documents down the toilet in a house that literally has 28 fireplaces should prove that he’s not fit for office.

Dworkin quoted a tweet by Mike Madrid, who quoted Julia Davis of The Daily Beast. First is Davis.

Meanwhile in Russia: Putin's mouthpieces on state TV are taunting America about "Top Secret" documents sought during the raid of Trump's estate, which they claim had to do with the newest nuclear weapons developed by the US and gleefully imply that Moscow already got to see them.

Madrid added:

I’m not saying Trump let Russia see our nuclear secrets – Russia is saying Trump let them see our nuclear secrets.

Dworkin also quoted a tweet from Alex Burns of the New York Times discussing the mini Build Back Better bill that Biden just signed and quoting Jesse Jenkins:

This bill does about two-thirds of the work we need to do to hit our climate goals, which for a single piece of legislation is a really big deal.

This tweet includes a chart of greenhouse gas emissions that show the difference between where the current policies would take us and where this new bill will take us. There are a couple other things of interest from this chart. The good news is the peak in emissions was in 2005 and have been declining since. The bad news is the 2030 goal of cutting emissions to 50% of the 2005 level means we’ll still be pumping out over 3 billion metrics tons of CO2 per year. The reduction is a good thing – it will lower the overall heat of the planet and slow down the long term effects. But the consequences of all that CO2 in the air are pretty dire already. While I was gone there was a primary in Kansas. On the ballot was a provision to change the state’s constitution to remove the right to an abortion to allowing the state legislature to set the policy. It was sold as a way of allowing voters, through their elected representatives, to have a voice in the policy. Voters saw right through that ploy. Dworkin, in a pundit roundup from August 5th, quoted several analyses of what happened during that primary. Republicans put that vote on a primary election because there would be a low turnout, in which only dedicated voters would vote. But the turnout was historically high and the measure lost big – by 18 percentage points. Yeah, that was an earthquake that reshaped the political landscape – it showed Democrats could run on this issue this fall. It also highlighted the width of the gulf between how voters think about the right to abortion and what Republican legislators are doing. Yesterday, Christopher Reeves of Kos reported Republicans of Kansas are trying to fund a recount of this issue. To do a recount for an issue that lost that badly someone has to pay the cost and do it within a short amount of time. It looks like they had to scale the recount down to just nine counties. Rebekah Sager of Kos reported Big Lie supporters are taking voting machines to unauthorized locations for unauthorized inspections. One of those incidents happened in Michigan and one of the perpetrators was allegedly Matthew DePerno. That name is important because he is the Republican candidate for Michigan’s attorney general and endorsed by the nasty guy. The current AG, Dana Nessel, requested a special prosecutor so she isn’t seen investigating her election rival. Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Secretary of State, the person in charge of elections, reminds us getting ahold of election equipment is illegal, especially if getting it is done through intimidating election officials. Also, machines that have been outside of the control of election officials cannot be used again and must be replaced. Benson also called for law enforcement to look for broader connections between incidents. This hasn’t happened just in Michigan. It has happened at least in Georgia and Ohio. The Brennan Center has stepped in to advise election officials on how to handle deniers they may confront and to prevent unauthorized access to their machines. Clawson, in a post from a few days after the Kansas primary, reported that Republicans are sore losers and that is a big problem. After documenting a few cases, with the help of a story by Axios, Clawson wrote:

These moves are “exceedingly dangerous, because a democracy depends on losers’ consent,” Rick Hasen, the director of UCLA Law's Safeguarding Democracy Project, told Axios. “If people believe the other side is consistently stealing elections, first of all, you completely delegitimize people in office ... but second, you create the conditions where people might be more willing to engage in fraud themselves as a way of trying to even the score.” Indeed, the Colorado man who pleaded guilty to forgery for casting a ballot in the name of his missing (and presumed dead) wife told the FBI it was “Just because I wanted Trump to win. I just thought, give him another vote. I figured all these other guys are cheating.” Republicans are telling their voters not to accept any election result they don’t like. They’re telling their voters the other guys are cheating, with the implication that cheating is the only way to fight back. They’re training thousands of poll workers in these beliefs. Donald Trump’s late 2020-early 2021 coup failed. But it laid the groundwork for 2022 and 2024.

Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, shared the story of the little Patmos Library in Jamestown, Michigan, a little place southwest of Grand Rapids. Local voters rejected a renewal of a millage that supports the library’s operating budget. They were annoyed that the library has books by LGBTQ authors or had LGBTQ characters. Jesse Dillman recognized the library as important to the town so set up a GoFundMe page to support it. In two weeks the fund raised $140K of the $245K goal. All these adults trying to live up to the example set by a teenager. That observation is from Jeff Seidel of the Detroit Free Press. The teenager was Tate Myre, one of the four students killed in the Oxford High School shooting last November 30. The adults include Tate’s father Buck. Buck knew that his son was a caring person. After Tate’s death his father began to hear how caring. People would come up to Buck and say this is what Tate did for my child. One of those children was Preston who had experience a lot of trauma. Tate had been a mentor to him. Tate had a huge group of friends. After the shooting the friends wanted to just hang out in Tate’s room. After a while Buck asked them to list Tate’s traits.

The final list reads like a map on how to be a good, decent person: being trustworthy, caring, fun, positive, teachable, humble, confident, selfless, hard worker, respectful, accountable and loyal.

That list of Tate’s Traits became the core principles of the non profit organization 42 Strong, named after Tate’s football number. The goal of the organization is to match high school student mentors with middle school students who need friendship and guidance. More than 100 high schoolers volunteered to be mentors. The students are the ones who look for their peers who need to be in the program. They want to find the kid who doesn’t have a friend to make sure the kid doesn’t become the next shooter. There are already requests to replicate it at other schools. Running that program turned into a second job for Buck. Zach Line, the high school’s football coach, convinced Buck to be an assistant coach for the football team Tate had been a part of. Buck had been a coach, but pulled out when Tate joined the team. He didn’t want to be seen to be playing favorites. Line had a reason beyond football expertise to ask Buck to join the team. That was to be an example for Tate’s teammates of how to grieve. Buck isn’t afraid to cry in front of people. As part of his coaching Buck can be watching for the boys that want to retreat from the pain. This has become Buck’s third job. Line has a new slogan “Show up and shut up.” Be there for the boys. Don’t feed them answers. Listen to their pain. It is good to see something wonderful come from Tate’s death. However, I think about how awesome it would have been if Tate were there to shape it.