Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

Robert Mueller, a former Marine, Bronze star combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient, as well as the longtime director of the FBI (2001-2013), died this week at the age of 81. 

Upon hearing the news, here is what the current President of the United States tweeted on his social media platform, word for word:

Robert Mueller is dead.  Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people! President DONALD J. TRUMP.

Im So Over It GIFs | Tenor
This man is exhausting

Yes, he wrote his name in capital letters and absolutely he used that exclamation point.  To not use both would mean taking a chance that you wouldn’t get his power AND rage

Though one person’s rage is another’s synonym for hysteria.  And what one man views as power is a different man’s example of desperation and insecurity.

Needless to say, I am the another and the different man in both statements.

It’s not that I expect any person, or even president, to take kindly to someone who led so public an investigation into his misdeeds as Mr. Mueller did into DJT via The Mueller Report. 

Reading the Mueller Report | Globecartoon - Political Cartoons - Patrick  Chappatte
That one was a doozy

Especially since that document, contrary to White House spin, never exonerated him of any number of misdeeds, including most egregiously receiving key help from Russia that allowed him to win the 2016 presidential election.

Still, as you learn when you grow up, there are many reasons to say I’m sorry

It will not kill you to say "I'm sorry" Here let me help you! | Apology  Ecard
Start with ahhhh

Number one being, anger and rage is a destructive force that can rot you from the inside and eat you alive, causing you endless personal misery in your most private moments.

Anyone who has ever been in therapy, or has been in a successful long-term relationship, has probably been met with that age old question:

Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?

You Might Be Right GIFs | Tenor
but you’ll never be happy!

Sometimes choosing personal happiness is as right as you can be in the long term.  It doesn’t mean the anger and rage wasn’t justified and real.  It’s more that if you spend your entire life getting even then, well, that will be your entire life.

Disconnection, conflict and a never-ending list of the ways you were wronged can never really make you right.  And as momentarily satisfying as revenge might be, it can’t alter the past and will never truly change a perceived enemy’s mind.

Not to mention, it’s tiring.  

And we expect more from presidents.

Or we did.

The Time Machine (1960) on Make a GIF
We really need a time machine

What could POTUS have done instead of that tweet and aside from nothing? 

Well, how about a simple We’re sorry for your loss to Mr. Mueller’s family?  Sure, it’s a non-apology apology but at least it would be something. 

And he could’ve still signed his name in ALL CAPS.

Angry Typing GIFs | Tenor
He’s literally a cat meme at this point

Speaking of apologies, I see you hiding in plain sight Timothee Chalamet.  And frankly, I expected so much more of you.

No, I don’t mean to put you in the same rageful category as any of the above from you know who.  But once again, there all are kinds of reason to say I’m sorry.  Particularly when you’re thirty years old, a gigantic movie star and more wealthy and powerful in the entertainment world than pretty much any other actor of your generation.

Timothée Chalamet Goes Full Y2K Boy Band in a White Suit and Goatee on the 2026  Oscars Red Carpet | Vogue
… which means we expect more than Backstreet Boy drag at the Oscars

Never mind what would have prompted TC – a guy whose mom and sister actually danced in the New York City Ballet – to suddenly say this publicly to fellow actor Matthew McConaughey in a sit down interview in Austin to promote Marty Supreme, a movie he starred in and produced.

I don’t want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though like no one cares about this anymore…

And then, adding insult to injury, continuing on with:

…All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there… (giggles) I just lost 14 cents in viewership…(more giggles) I’m taking shots for no reason.

Turn Away GIFs - Find & Share on GIPHY
That’s enough from you, Timmy

But the remedy for it would’ve also been sooooo easy.  Something like:

I am truly sorry for my insensitive words and acting like an arrogant jerk.  I have the greatest respect for my fellow artists and will try through my future actions, words and behavior to make this right. 

In his own voice, of course.  And then maybe follow-through, donate money, start a scholarship or even sit through a performance of… something.

Not because you like it, but because, well, perhaps it’s the nice thing to do and you will learn something.

Imagine GIFs | Tenor
Pearls Clutched

Yet, at a time in the 21st century when the bar is soooooo low for mea culpas, of any kind, that is not at all what we saw. 

Rather than actually admit a misstep, what we got were never-ending viral debates, memes and TikTok videos all culminating with probably the worst performance he has ever given – that of a front row, gracious loser (Note: In a white suit, no less!) at last weekend’s Oscar ceremony.

Perhaps he was sleep deprived when he made those public statements.  Or a bit high on his own supply.  Or simply an actor without a high-priced writer making him sound articulate.

But the real issue is, why not just say

I AM SORRY. 

I f-cked up.

 I’ll try to do better. 

And then move on. 

Mona Lisa Vito reaction gifs, just because. - GIFs - Imgur
You got that right, Chairy!

Is this the new American normal?  And if it is, do we want it to be? 

Just last week, convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein gave an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter where he was ranting on about the women who destroyed him. 

Say want you want about famed producer Scott Rudin, whose decades of unhinged, abusive behavior terrorized employees and ended more than a few careers, but at least he said he was sorry, got some therapy and stepped away for a few years before returning to the spotlight.

But that was in 2021. 

It’s now five years later and we’re in a new age.  One of disrespect and disconnection mixed with massive dollops of resentment and rage.

Hopefully, it’s not one in permanent disrepair.

K.D. Lang & Elton John – “Sorry Seems to Be The Hardest Word”

Notes from the Mueller Report

I spent the entire weekend reading The Mueller Report.  That means Friday night, all during the day and part of the evening on Saturday and half of the day and part of the evening on Sunday.

Yes, I’m a slow reader.

Still, it’s 448 pages and it’s dense.  Though it is not so dense that you need to be a lawyer to read it.  In fact, it probably helps to NOT be a lawyer. In that way, you don’t get lost in a mire of technicalities and convoluted, stretched-beyond credulity interpretations of federal and/or criminal statutes.

No TV lawyers either! #sorryAnnalise

What we laymen and laywomen (aka the voters) will ultimately see are the basics.  And then we will all have to ask ourselves some questions.  Those would be:

  1. Did Russia interfere in the 2016 election of Donald J. Trump to U.S. President?
  2. Did the Trump campaign work with Russia to get elected?
  3. Did Trump try to hide (aka lie about) his relationship to Russia?
  4. Does Trump have the qualities of someone we want to continue as President?

If you changed the name of Trump to Smith and every person who worked for him to nom de plumes like, say, Mitzie, Fritzie, Trixie and Vi in this exhaustive account, and then afterwards refrained from consulting with ANYONE who had legal expertise or skin in the game, I promise you there would be only ONE WAY to answer all of these questions.

  1. YES
  2. YES
  3. YES

and

     4. NO!!! No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Me, the entire weekend

But don’t take my word for it.  Here are only a few salient facts.

  1. Did you know that Smith’s campaign manager actually gave specific and ongoing polling information to Russia throughout the campaign about the Rust Belt States that eventually gave Pres. Smith his Electoral College victory? We’re talking about data from and about Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Minnesota – the very states that put him over the top.

Oh yeah, he did.  He met up with them and handed the facts not only right before the Republican convention in 2016 but in repeated contacts prior to, right after and right up until the November election.  Truly.  It jumps right out at you in the first half of the report (aka Volume I).

Reading the Mueller report like…

  1. You will also read in that same volume pages and pages on Smith surrogates such as Roger, I mean, Dodger FlintStone, among others. He and they were active participants in promoting fake, Russian-created groups with names like “Stop All Immigrants,” “Being Patriotic,” “Blacktivist” and “United Muslims of America.”   These groups were designed for and succeeded in fanning the flames of partisan anger and resentment on social media among your fellow voters.  Many hundreds of insurgent Russians, helped along by Dodger and the like, then sponsored fake live events where phony Russians (or Americans cooperating with phony Russians) posed as disgruntled or partisan Americans at rallies where shouting matches often ensued.

The anger generated by these events, spread through many other social media repostings from still more Russians and Smith-ers, then spawned other real and more partisan events until soon literally millions and millions of more people became angry, isolated, alienated and convinced that only Smith, who was usually programmed at still other events to coincide with the apex of said bubbling anger, could tout himself as the only one who could save them from such vitriol.

Fanning the flames

  1. You probably already know about that famed “whistle-blowing” organization named Leakie-Lots. But did you also know that the report delineates ways Dodger and the gang communicated between candidate Smith, Leakie and the Russian government tricksters illegally obtained hacked emails as well as other illegally obtained and damning information about the other side?

Oh sure, you’ll read excerpts from any number of Smith tweets and speeches that presage or capitalize on deadly information on his competitor that the Mueller Report connects to relationships between the Smith campaign, the Russians and still other people in the Dodger mold. Ilk.  Whatever.

Chairy, does this get better?

  1. The second half more specifically centers on the personal machinations of President Smith.  For instance, all during that year he spent on the campaign as Candidate Smith, denying he had ANY business dealings with Russia, his lawyer Fritzie, as well as his children Minnie, Ninnie and Nonnie, as well Minnie’s husband, Creamy, all KNEW that this was a big LIE.  In fact, each of them was periodically briefed during that time about ongoing plans to construct an enormous Smith Tower in Moscow.  In fact, this building was being touted as possibly THE potential luxury destination in all of Moscow, and perhaps the world.  And it could be worth countless millions, and in the end perhaps billions, to all of them.

Not as dumb as they seem

  1. But likely the most salacious documentations in the entire report confirm most of the news stories and, yes, gossip, about Smith’s personal behavior during his first two years in the White House. It seems our Electoral College POTUS really did order his closest non-family member advisors and cabinet officials to end the Special Counsel investigation into his relationship with Russia by every means necessary in fear that it would be “the end” of his reign.

His lawyers, appointees, cabinet members and friends (Note: All of whom he saw as Smith employees) tried to ignore his most outrageous requests, such as lying under oath to the SC about specific conservations he had with them and testifying to the exact opposite of what happened.  But it didn’t always work.  So if Smith persisted they would then be forced to prepare resignation letters that he would or wouldn’t accept (Note:  Sometimes he’d even just carry them around in his pocket and then lie about it to promote even more fear), stand their ground and get privately and/or publicly berated by him, or ultimately fired (though in the case of the latter, never by Smith in person).

working for the Smith administration

Various Smith retributions and temper tantrums occurred over other subjects but by far the worst had to do with Smith and Russia.  Despite whatever was observed first-hand, if Smith wanted his people to state it was raining outside, his people were expected to stand before the world in the blazing bright light of a sun-drenched day and convince everyone within ear and eyeshot to come inside in order to get away from the undeniable storm clouds pouring down on them from up above that no one but them and their fellow selected few who were also on the team could clearly see.

Still works #dated #delusional

Okay, perhaps this is all a bit cute….by half.  But it could be the only way to truly understand what the Mueller Report offers about our democracy is to change the names in order to not pre-determine an outcome.  Certainly, reality isn’t doing it.  Thus far about 40-43% of voters are still behind Electoral College POTUS Trump, I mean, Smith.

Think about it.  Then read the report for yourself.  And soon.

Ray Charles – “America The Beautiful”