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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 16, 2026

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Robert Mueller dies at 81

If you're like me and you barely paid attention to the Mueller Report while it was happening and don't remember anything, the article is a decent summary. I was under the impression that Russia did stuff, Trump didn't actively participate but didn't put up a protest either, and some of his team got busted for lying to investigators (Trump's lawyers were worried about him also getting involved in perjury but successfully managed to get him to "not recall" everything).

Anyways I still don't see what the big deal was, other than lying to investigators. They didn't do any hacking themselves or ask anyone to do it. Knowing about it in advance, or using it as part of campaign strategy, isn't a crime either.

Trump of course has a take on the event:

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

Rude, but I can't say I'd be any nicer to the guy who tried to put me in prison.

Yeah I feel like Trump going off on Rob Reiner after he was stabbed to death by his own son was considerably worse

Could've gone with the Rickover classic:

He is dead now. I trust God will treat him as he merits.

Gives a fig leaf to the rudeness.

Could've gone with the Rickover classic:

He is dead now. I trust God will treat him as he merits.

I can't find any reference to that anywhere; DuckDuckGo returns no results, the Wikiquote page for Admiral Hyman Rickover does not list such a quote either by or about him, and Wikipedia redirects 'Rickover' to the Admiral's page without any disambiguation page for others of the same name. Are you referring to the Admiral or someone else, and was the quote said by or about them?

Gives a fig leaf to the rudeness.

"I hope the rest of your day is as pleasant as you are."

It's from what I believe is his final congressional testimony as admiral: Economics of Defense Policy, Hearing Before the Joint Economic Committee Congress of the United States Ninety-Seventh Congress Second Session Part 1 January 28, 1982. Page 55, PDF page 59:

Senator PROXMIRE. I recall that several years ago, a former Tenneco lobbyist, the late Thomas Corcoran, is to have lobbyed extensively in the White House and in Congress to block your reappointment. Is that true?

Admiral RICKOVER. That is correct. He is dead now. I am sure God will treat him as he merits.

Looks like I was off by two words, which may have been throwing off your search results. The Wikiquote page for the Kindly Old Gentleman is missing a great many of his best lines, IMO... such as the one where he compared cleaning up the patent lawyer profession to Hercules cleaning the Augean stables:

In coming here, I feel a bit like Eurystheus of Greek mythology. The Augean stables housed three thousand oxen and had not been cleaned for thirty years. Eurystheus did not have the wherewithal to clean the stables himself. But he did point out the problem to Hercules—who cleaned them by diverting two rivers.

In similar vein, I can only hope that some of you will take on the Herculean task of cleansing the legal profession. This is well worth the effort, even if you have to drown a few oxen in the process.

The Wikiquote page for the Kindly Old Gentleman is missing a great many of his best lines, IMO

Then update it.

Whoever owns the page will just delete them again.

This page (Wikiquote, not Wikipedia) has been the subject of five edits (including the one that I just made in order to add the first quote mentioned above) in two years. I don't think anybody cares enough to camp on it.