23 June—The maleficent mullahs in Tehran are doing a particularly spirited virtual victory lap around the Strait of Hormuz—make that the world—as they gloat over the ceasefire agreement they foisted on Donald Trump’s totally inexperienced, incompetent, demonstrably unqualified team of faithful flunky negotiators. The agreement, of course, is nothing more than a toothless memorandum of understanding, known as a MOU.

As an initialism the letters of MOU are pronounced individually, “m-o-u.” As it happens, though, MOU should in this instance more appropriately be construed as an acronym, in this case a French word, pronounced “moo,” meaning “soft,” as in weak and spineless. And don’t forget the TACO acronym, Trump Always Chickens Out.

Of course, Trump and his flunkies continue to lie about what they insist is the United States victory over Iran and the magnificent MOU. But they lie about everything, so what else is new?

On the other hand, over 92 percent of 3,644 Israelis randomly surveyed by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Agam Institute see the writing on the wall, that Iran won the war, and 83 percent realize that the military campaign and diplomatic fiasco that totally ignored and dissed Israel has weakened Israel’s long-term security.

Leave it to Trump.

Meanwhile, back in Connecticut, remember Kosta Diamantis, the former Democratic state representative and politically appointed deputy budget director and head of school construction who last October was found guilty by a jury in the Bridgeport Federal District Court on all 21 counts he’d been charged with? Well, Kosta is still awaiting sentencing in September for that verdict as well as a whole new and unrelated second federal trial in December on other extortion, bribery, and tax fraud charges.

So it’s not surprising that Kosta has applied to his presumed hero and exemplar—and hoped-for savior—Donald Trump for a pardon. Kosta applied some time this year—records don’t indicate exactly when but it’s obviously ahead of sentencing—for a pardon after completion of sentence. Trump’s decision on that is pending, but given his execrable history of giving pardons to former elected officials, like once-convicted Rod Blagojevich and twice-convicted John Rowland, don’t bet against it.

Evidently Kosta, who is currently out on half-million-dollar bail, doesn’t expect and isn’t asking to avoid jail time—doubtless in a minimum-security country club slammer. But he reckons that a pardon of any sort would allow him to keep his $75,000 state pension. (Only after Rowland’s conviction did the Connecticut General Assembly pass legislation to deprive convicted felons of state pensions, so his pension, currently about $53,000, is intact.)

Who said crime doesn’t pay?