Just as I was writing last night word came about the death of former Michigan Senator, Carl Levin, 87, who was the longest serving U.S. Senator in Michigan history. Levin was from a very political family and he was the consummate politician who knew how to get things done and knew how to treat people with respect and kindness regardless of political party. I want to share what Nolan Finley wrote about Levin this morning. Former Sen. Carl Levin, who died Thursday at age 87, was an honorable man with whom I enjoyed a cordial relationship, despite our political differences, going back to his days on The Detroit City Council. He was proof that a politician can be decent and civil while still standing strong for his principles. He would call now and then to discuss politics and policy, and I never recall an instance in which the conversations became unpleasant, no matter how much we disagreed. I still have a very kind note he wrote to me when I first started writing columns for The News. The people of Michigan didn’t care that he was one of the Senate’s most liberal members. They cared about the fact that he cared deeply about them. Maybe he was the last of his breed. I hope not. I hope not, also.
The Department of Justice has been in the news big time in the last 24 hours. Yesterday, it announced it would not defend congressman for any legal action taken against them for actions leading up to the January 6 insurrection. This means the congressman are on the hook for paying their lawyers out of their own pockets (or probably campaign funds). Also, the Justice Department ruled today the Treasury Department must turn over six years of former President Donald J. Trump’s tax returns to House investigators. This is a long way from over since Trump still has legal recourse in the courts.
The NY Times published a great article today about Covid-19 patients who did not get the vaccine. Here are brief excerpts from the article. Amid a resurgence of coronavirus infections and deaths, some people who once rejected the vaccines or simply waited too long are now grappling with the consequences, often in raw, public ways. A number are speaking from hospital beds, at funerals and in obituaries about their regrets, about the pain of enduring the virus and watching unvaccinated family members die gasping for breath. As Mindy Greene spent another day in the Covid intensive care unit, listening to the whirring machines that now breathed for her 42-year-old husband, Russ, she opened her phone and tapped out a message. “We did not get the vaccine,” she wrote on Facebook. “I read all kinds of things about the vaccine and it scared me. So I made the decision and prayed about it and got the impression that we would be ok.” They were not. Her husband, the father to their four children, was now hovering between life and death, tentacles of tubes spilling from his body. The patient in the room next to her husband’s had died hours earlier. That day, July 13, Ms. Greene decided to add her voice to an unlikely group of people speaking out in the polarized national debate over vaccination: the remorseful. “If I had the information I have today we would have gotten vaccinated,” Ms. Greene wrote. Come what may, she hit “send.” Please get your vaccine. If not for you, but for your family.
On a personal and sad note, Leah’s brother, Bill Kleinow, 77, passed away today following complications of a major heart attack on June 1. Since I started dating Leah when she was 15, I have known Bill for a very long time. He always made me feel welcome into the Kleinow family even before Leah and I got married. He was a police officer in River Rouge and South Lyon before working security at General Motors. His dry sense of humor was always good for a laugh. I found I could talk to him about anything. He was much more well versed than he liked to let on. I am so glad that Leah and I were able to spend an afternoon with Bill and Jan and their daughter Stephanie a few weeks before his heart attack. Leah and I are going to miss Bill.
Stay safe. Social distance. Wear your mask. Wash your hands regularly. Get your vaccine.
Orchid of the Day: MLB Trade Deadline as 37 of 40 MLB teams made a trade prior to today’s 4 PM trade deadline as some teams are jockeying for a playoff position and others are hoping to build a stockpile of young players who will develop into MLB starters.
Onion of the Day: Mo Brooks, Republican congressman from Alabama for saying his speech to the insurrectionists right before they stormed the capital on January 6, was nothing more than a 2022 and 2024 campaign speech. Really?
Quote of the Day:. “The Eagle has landed.” Mike Koskuc to Chris Pertunen after Chris put his second shot into the woods when Chris was trying to reach a par 5 in two shots so he could have a potential eagle putt.