Robert Mueller died last night.
He was 81 years old. He had a wife who loved him for sixty years. He had two daughters, one of whom he met for the first time in Hawaii, in 1969, on a few hours of military leave, before he got back on the plane and returned to Vietnam. He had grandchildren. He had a faith he practiced quietly, without performance. He had, in the way of men who have seen real things and survived them, a quality that is increasingly rare and increasingly mocked in the country he spent his life serving.
He had integrity.
And tonight the President of the United States said good!
I have been sitting with that word for hours now. Good. One syllable. The thing you say when the coffee is hot or the traffic is moving. The thing a man who has never had to bury anyone, never had to sit in the specific silence of a room where someone is newly absent, reaches for when he wants the world to know he is satisfied. Good. The daughters are crying and the wife is alone in the house and good.
I want to speak directly to the Americans reading this. Not the political Americans. Just the human ones. The ones who have lost a father. The ones who know what it is to be in that first hour, when you keep forgetting and then remembering again, when ordinary objects become unbearable, when the world outside the window seems obscene in its indifference. I want to ask you, simply, to hold that feeling for a moment, and then to understand that the man you elected looked at it and typed a single word.
Good.
This is not a country having a bad day. I need you to understand that. Countries have bad days. Elections go wrong. Leaders disappoint. Institutions bend. But there is a different thing, a rarer and more terrible thing, that happens when the moral center of a place simply gives way. Not dramatically. Not with a single catastrophic event. But quietly, in increments, until one evening a president celebrates the death of an old man whose family is still warm with grief, and enough people find it acceptable that it becomes the weather. Just the weather.
That is what is happening. That is what has happened.
The world knows. From Tokyo to Oslo, from London to Buenos Aires, people are not angry at America tonight. Anger would mean there was still something to fight for, some remaining faith to be betrayed. What I see, in the reactions from everywhere that is not here, is something older and sadder than anger. It is the look people get when they have waited a long time for someone they love to find their way back, and have finally understood that they are not coming.
America is being grieved. Past tense, almost. The idea of it. The thing it represented to people who had nothing else to believe in, who came here with everything they owned in a single bag because they had heard, somehow, across an ocean, that this was the place where decency was written into the walls. That idea is not resting. It is not suspended. It is being buried, in real time, with 7,450 likes before dinner.
And the church said nothing.
Seventy million people have decided that this man, this specific man who has cheated everyone he has ever made a promise to, who has mocked the disabled and the dead and the grieving, who celebrated tonight while a family wept, is an instrument of God. The pastors who made that bargain did not just trade away their credibility. They traded away the thing that made them worth listening to in the first place. The cross they carry now is a costume. The faith they preach is a loyalty oath with scripture attached. When the history of American Christianity is written, this will be the chapter they skip at seminary.
Now I want to talk about the men who stand next to him.
Because this is the part that actually breaks my heart.
JD Vance is not a bad man. I have to say that, because it is true, and because the truth matters even now, especially now. Marco Rubio is not a bad man. Lindsey Graham is not a bad man. They are idiots, but not bad, as in BAD! These are men with mothers who raised them and children who love them and friends who remember who they were before all of this. They are not monsters. Monsters are simple. Monsters do not cost you anything emotionally because there is nothing in them to mourn.
These men are something more painful than monsters.
They are men who knew better, and know better still, and will get up tomorrow and do it again.
Every small compromise they made had a reason. Every moment they looked the other way had a justification that sounded, at the time, almost reasonable. And now they have arrived here, at a place where a president celebrates the death of an old man and they will find a way, on television, to say nothing that means anything, and they will go home to houses where children who carry their name are waiting, and they will say goodnight, and they will say nothing.
Their oldest friends are watching. The ones who knew Rubio when he still believed in something. Who knew Graham when he said, out loud, on the record, that this exact man would destroy the Republican Party and deserve it. Who sat next to Vance and thought here is someone worth knowing. Those friends are not angry tonight. They moved through anger a long time ago. What they feel now is the quiet, irrecoverable sadness of watching someone disappear while still being present. Of watching a person they loved choose, again and again, to become less.
That is what cowardice costs. Not the coward. The people who loved him.
And in the comments tonight, the followers celebrate. People who ten years ago brought casseroles to grieving neighbours. Who stood in the rain at gravesides and meant the words they said. Who told their children that we do not speak ill of the dead because the dead were someone's beloved. Those people are tonight typing gleeful things about a man whose daughters are not yet done crying. And they feel clean doing it. Righteous. Because somewhere along the way the thing they were given in exchange for their decency was the feeling of belonging to something, and that feeling is very hard to give up even when you can no longer remember what you gave for it.
When Trump is gone, they will still be here.
Standing in the silence where the noise used to be. Without the permission the crowd gave them. Without the pastor who told them their cruelty was holy. They will be alone with what they said and what they cheered and what they chose to become, and there will be no one left to tell them it was righteous.
That morning is coming.
Robert Mueller flew across the Pacific on military leave to hold his newborn daughter for a few hours before returning to the war. He came home. He buried his dead with honour. He served presidents of both parties because he understood that the institution was larger than any one man. He told his grandchildren that a lie is the worst thing a person can do, that a reputation once lost cannot be recovered, and he lived that, every day, in the quiet and unglamorous way of people who actually believe what they say.
He was the kind of American the world used to point to when it needed to believe the story was true.
He died last night. His wife is alone in their house in Georgetown. His daughters are learning what the world is without him in it. And somewhere in the particular hush that falls over a family in the first hours of loss, the most powerful man and the biggest loser on earth sent a message to say he was glad.
The world that loved what America was supposed to be is grieving tonight. Not for Robert Mueller only. For the country that produced him and then became this. For the distance between what was promised and what was delivered. For the suspicion, growing quieter and more certain with each passing month, that the America people believed in was always partly a story, and the story is over now, and there is nothing yet to replace it.
That is all it needed to be.
A man died. His family is broken open with grief.
That is all it needed to be.
Instead the President said good.
And the country that once stood for something looked away ๐บ๐ธ
Gandalv / @Microinteracti1
*BASEBALL COACHES*
With the help from our infield coach @b_szink12 I have created a Google Drive with 300+ videos dedicated to infield, outfield and team defense. If you have interest in something like this, hit the RT and I will reach out on how to access it. Preview below:
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Sammy Dart @sammydart6
2027 LHP/1B
Spanish Fork HS
@PB_Uncommitted
Flat out Ballplayer. High IQ and gets it done in any way necessary to help contribute to wins. If you need to win a game vs a high quality team or in a big spot, you feel good giving Sammy the ball. Great outing in GA this week ๐๐ผ #BeSeen
๐ง๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฎ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐๐ฐ๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด
Max FB Velocity - 87.3
Max FB IVB - 17.3
FB Range: 83-86
CH: 74-76
CV: 72-76
๐ฃ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ณ๐ถ๐น๐ฒ
๐ https://t.co/6x0SRRTHEA
@prepbaseball | @CoachBerg801 | #FG2025
๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐๐๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ฆ๐๐ฌ๐
Kayden Lambson @KaydenLamb58130
2027 RHP/3B
Spanish Fork HS | MBA 2027
@PB_Uncommitted
๐ญ๐ผ๐ป๐ผ๐น๐ฌ๐บ ๐ฎ๐จ๐ด๐ฌ๐บ 2025 ๐ท๐จ๐น๐ป๐ฐ๐ช๐ฐ๐ท๐จ๐ต๐ป
What a RISE itโs been for Mr Lambson this year! Had the pleasure of watching him throw in the playoffs during that incredible run for the Dons, and Kayden was crucial on the bump in multiple starts! His mound presence, calm and confident demeanor stood out then, and he looks even better now ๐ฏ the command for the FB/CV is there, not to mention both are ++ pitches and the CH shows high upside! Overall one of the more impressive outings of the event belonged to Kayden. See you in GA big dawg! ๐ค๐ผ #BeSeen
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Max FB Velocity - 91.9
FB Range: 89.9-91.9
CH: 80-81
CH Spin: 1740
CV: 75-76
CV Spin: 2400
๐ฃ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ณ๐ถ๐น๐ฒ
๐ https://t.co/NtUAjWVbub
@ShooterHunt | @prepbaseball
Thankful to have personally spent time with 16 of the 18 young men selected in the @MLBDraft that have represented @TroskyTeams over the years. Grateful for all the opportunities from @NateTrosky and @Vartradamus to continue in the game I love!
Having fun playing with my boys on Trosky/Brewers Scout this summer. Here are my summer stats so far:
21.2 IP
1 ER
0.32 ERA per 7 innings
10 hits allowed
1 BB
17 strikeouts
0.154 BAA
1 CG
FB, CB, SL, CH mix
Fastball 82-85 T86
@PrepBaseballUT@CoachRuiz_TN@Vartradamus
The Spanish Fork Dons complete one of the most impressive runs we have seen in any playoff.
In their run to the 5A Title the #20 Dons beat #13 (twice), #4 (twice), #5, #1 (twice) and #2 (twice) losing only one time in the entire postseason run.
What an absolutely incredible run by Spanish Fork as they take home another Baseball Championship!
@kslsports@mkomma2@TABBank@SFHSBaseball@Pratt_morley013@bostonduvall_26@NixonWarren08@mataijohnson22@trigg_cloward
2024 ๐ญ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐๐ซ๐ญ
@sammydart6 ~ 2027 Sam Dart, LHP/1B, 5-11 158 (Spanish Fork HS/Mountain West) #PBFG24
๐๐ฅ๐จ๐จ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐๐ฌ: 2 brothers are either former D1 players or commits (Zac - RHP, BYU) and (Will - SS/2B, Utah Tech)
Dart with his infectious personality, keeps the dugout hopping, but more importantly is a solid avg athlete with upside on the mound as the #4 ranked player in the โ27 #BeehiveState class!
Showed poise and mound presence at @LakePointSports as one of the youngest players in attendance!
@TrackManBB (Pitching)
FB Range: 78-83 T84
FB Max Spin: 2,200+
CB Range: 72-74
CB Max Spin: 2,200-2,300+
CH Range: 74-75
CH Spin: 1,700+
(Hitting)
Max EV: 88.2
Max Distance: 310โ
Launch Angle: 15.8 (LDโs)
Sweet Spot%: 77.8 (Abv Avg)
Line Drive%: 61.1 (Abv Avg)
@Blast_Bsbl
Max Hand Speed: 20.6
Avg Hand Speed: 19.2
Max Bat Speed: 67.4
Avg Bat Speed: 63.5
#BeSeen
#SwarmingBees ๐
@ShooterHunt@B_HarrisonPBR
2024 High School Varsity and Summer season pitching:
2027 LHP
Fastball 80-83, T85
2024 PBR Future Games
46.2 innings pitched
36 hits allowed
10 BB
51 strikeouts
67.2% strike percentage
9 ER
1.36 ERA
@PrepBaseballUT@MTNWESTBsebll
๐ป๐๐ ๐ท๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐ ๐ฅ
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@PBR_Uncommitted ~ @sammydart6 2027 Sam Dart, LHP/1B, 5-11 160 (Spanish Fork HS/Mountain West)
2024 @prepbaseball Future Games Invite
The #3 ranked player in the class, Dart hails from a baseball family with older brothers Zac (former-BYU) and Will (Utah Tech commit)
Athletic with FB velo in-line w/where he needs to be as a rising sophomore w/plus sink. K thrower w/medium depth to the CB and has that winning competitor mentality!
@TrackManBB
FB Max Velo: 83
FB Range: 78-82
FB Max Spin: 2,244
CB Range: 72-73
CB Max Spin: 2,292
#BeSeen ~ #BeehiveState
#SwarmingBees ๐
@ShooterHunt@B_HarrisonPBR
Mr. Consistent is going up ๐
Please join us in congratulating outfielder Andrew Pintar on his promotion to Double-A Amarillo! Pintar's .919 OPS, 9 HR's and 17 SB's all led the team this season. We wish him the best of luck on his trip to the MLB!
#AllHoppedUp