Odds and Ends — 28 July 2026

Diary entries released by a Republican senator in an attempt to damage Anthony Fauci also show the former top U.S. government science adviser’s growing disillusionment with Donald Trump in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, branding the president ‘rambling,’ ‘crazy,’ ‘desperate,’ ‘bumbling,’ ‘incompetent,’ ‘an idiot,’ ‘a true embarrassment,’ ‘totally nuts’ and ‘truly an obnoxious adolescent.’

Iran:

https://x.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2081417507823292481

U.S. military intentionally allowing some Iranian projectiles through defenses

https://x.com/lrozen/status/2081153855593541902

https://x.com/jimstewartson/status/2081025114569908368

Even Trump Can’t Spin This One

If President Trump has one true skill, it is conjuring up alternate realities and getting his supporters to accept them. The examples are everywhere: dismissing stories he doesn’t like as ‘fake news’ from corrupt media, casting the January 6 rioters as victims, election denial… Trump builds a world, and by virtue of his power and influence, all of us end up living in it in some way or another.
That era may be coming to a close, in large part because of the way he and his administration have bungled the war in Iran. Trump seems unable to spin this conflict, divert sufficient attention away from it with a new controversy, or end it outright. His social-media posts, which once acted as a de facto assignment editor for the mainstream media, no longer command the same attention or respect… His alternate universe is no match for the harsh reality of war.

https://x.com/imetatronink/status/2081055768141537707

https://x.com/lrozen/status/2081788699545636930

Politics:

https://x.com/MeidasClips/status/2081485033588568499

https://x.com/venetiamenzies/status/2081336870785393050

Dead-Enders

What’s More Dangerous Than a Cornered Malignant Narcissist? Three of Them.

https://x.com/passcoderonald/status/2080790187571896670

False Buttigieg Accusation Came From Unstable Source

Officials who separated former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg from his young twins last month relied on a vague and unsubstantiated allegation from an accuser authorities later deemed possibly ‘mentally unstable,’ according to previously unreported police records.

https://x.com/NortonMpls/status/2081035460441157691

https://x.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2081419620641075237

https://x.com/gtconway3d/status/2081794074642711022

America’s traditional democratic allies feel betrayed and baffled by the unpredictability of Trump’s pay-for-play diplomacy. But those willing to pay can suffer betrayals and bafflements of their own.
If not even the Saudis, who showered Trump and his family with cash and gifts, can trust Trump’s diplomacy, who else on earth can feel any confidence at all?

https://x.com/davidaxelrod/status/2081735566849142985