Odds and Ends — 17 June 2026

The president is an impetuous man who would not be able to contain himself if the written MOU were of even marginal benefit to the United States; he would be far more comfortable exposing it and exaggerating the marginal benefit as if it were a coup. The fact that the Trump administration refuses to publish the MOU — refuses even to brief the Gang of Eight on it — is powerful implication that it is at least as bad as close watchers suspect it is.

https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/2066989214546161874

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/2067297139886096785
https://twitter.com/CattardSlim/status/2067296106615332898

https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/2066857494337482765

Trump Warns U.S. Will ‘Go Right Back to Dropping Bombs’

“It’s a memorandum of understanding, and if I don’t like it, we’ll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs on their heads. I don’t like it if they don’t behave. We’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head.”

https://twitter.com/DavidShuster/status/2066677406685897135

https://twitter.com/alifarhat79/status/2066863065098821857

https://twitter.com/DougJBalloon/status/2066909252346601817

https://twitter.com/DavidMKeyes/status/2066570009590018205

Politics:

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/2066865066658373762

GOP has a new plan to kill off Medicare and Social Security

Mike DeWine Calls to End Executions

Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday that Ohio should abolish the death penalty, saying it is no longer a deterrent to violent crime.
Said DeWine: “I no longer believe the death penalty is a deterrent to murder. I believe Ohio should abolish the death penalty.”

Department of Education taking major step in dismantling itself

———— The Dumbest Trump ————

https://twitter.com/adamscochran/status/2066328485174354216

https://twitter.com/Rhino184/status/2066335536604762534

https://twitter.com/theliamnissan/status/2066622244441534830

https://twitter.com/daviddunn177/status/2066553456366698680

———— The Epstein Coverup ————

The Untold Story of Jeffrey Epstein’s Death

At the time of his death, Epstein was alone in his cell in spite of clear guidance to the contrary, while the guards assigned to his section of the jail neglected to conduct their rounds for hours. The jail’s security-camera system partially failed, and the video it did record showed an orange blur — the color of an inmate’s uniform — moving toward Epstein’s corridor shortly before his death. After Epstein’s body was found, evidence from his cell was not cataloged carefully, and photographs and objects gathered there seemed difficult to reconcile with aspects of his autopsy report. Two pathologists present at that autopsy had differing interpretations of the injuries to his neck.
There were so many people with an ostensible stake, one way or another, in Epstein’s death. Was it possible that all of this just happened?

“…Epstein was alone in his cell…” Well, yes, that is the official story.

https://twitter.com/Furbeti/status/2067037394986008633

On Sunday Donald Trump celebrated his 80th birthday with a cage match on the White House lawn. The match and the events that surrounded it — especially the press conference with UFC fighters, shown above, held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial — were a desecration of America’s capital, whose monuments and buildings have always endeavored to represent small-r republican virtues. The whole affair was an affront to the values on which this nation was founded and also unspeakably vulgar.
That last criticism may strike some readers as elitist and trivial. Yet the vulgarity that is the hallmark of Trump and his surrounding circle of oligarchs is a symptom of something not at all trivial: The collapse of social norms.