Odds and Ends — 13 August 2025

2 days ago

One of the things we did during our recent long weekend getaway was a stop at Starry Eyed Brewing where we sampled beverages. I brought home some of their damn fine Oatmeal Stout. Lucy asked politely for a bottle of it but I resisted those big brown eyes.

Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, AI, and Debt:

Skynet 1.0, before judgment day

Monero 51% Attack: Why AI Protocol Qubic Says It'll 'Help' the Privacy Chain

Ether Price Target Lifted to $7.5K at Year-End and $25K in 2028 at Standard Chartered

Coronavirus and Public Health:

A recent common cold may nearly halve risk of COVID-19, study suggests

Scientists May Have Identified a Natural Alternative to Ozempic

Politics:

Russia Is Suspected to Be Behind Breach of Federal Court Filing System

https://twitter.com/ArtieVandelay1/status/1955338859425783997

Ammon Bundy Must Pay $52 Million Judgment

Anti-government activist and former Idaho gubernatorial candidate Ammon Bundy cannot discharge a $52 million civil court judgment through declaring bankruptcy.
Judge William Thurman, a federal bankruptcy judge in Utah, ruled against Bundy late Tuesday afternoon, siding with St. Luke’s Health System, Idaho’s largest hospital network.
“…the Court concludes that the Idaho Court fully adjudicated that Mr. Bundy acted in a willful and malicious manner in defaming the St. Luke’s Creditors,” Thurman wrote.
Bankruptcy courts can discharge most kinds of debt including in some cases civil court judgments, but not if they are earned through “willful” and “malicious” means.

The White House plans to conduct a far-reaching review of Smithsonian museum exhibitions, materials and operations ahead of America’s 250th anniversary to ensure the museums align with President Trump’s interpretation of American history.

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” ― George Orwell, 1984

Pentagon plan would create military ‘reaction force’ for civil unrest

Trump Nominee Suggests Suspending Jobs Report

President Trump’s nominee to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics, E.J. Antoni, told Fox News he might suspend the bureau’s flagship monthly jobs report.

https://twitter.com/krassenstein/status/1955228710983843840

———— Blatant In-Your-Face Corruption ————

https://twitter.com/marybeth5025/status/1955321200298577925

———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————

Trump alone in a room with Putin is a recipe for disaster – just look to their last meeting

———— Smoot-Hawley 2.0 ————

Trump’s Pay-to-Play Economy

Donald Trump’s zeal for dealmaking knows no bounds. In the first 200 days of his second term, the US president has been in constant negotiations. He has threatened and imposed tariffs on America’s trading partners in a bid to extract various concessions. He has also wielded the threat of steep sector-specific tariffs to goad businesses at home and abroad into making billion-dollar investment commitments in the country.
But in recent days his quid pro quo approach has taken an even more ominous turn.

———— DOGE ————

We live in the stupidest timeline: ‘Big Balls’ May Get Presidential Medal of Freedom

An ex-DOGE staffer known as ‘Big Balls’ could end up receiving the highest civilian honor in the United States, placing him in the company of luminaries such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa.

Yeah, well, Mother Teresa had some issues.

———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————

Hegseth subverts Congress by ordering racist Confederate monument’s return to Arlington

———— Mors Imperii ————

Trump law will cut food stamps for 2.4 million people as work rules widen

Republican-led cuts to public assistance programs – carried out at the behest of Donald Trump’s administration – will lead to 2.4 million fewer Americans receiving food stamps, among them families with children.

https://twitter.com/mjfree/status/1955313768558198976

Every VA Medical Center Has Severe Staffing Shortages

The independent watchdog for the Department of Veterans Affairs said the agency’s health system is facing a severe staffing shortage of clinical and nonclinical workers that has worsened since last year — at the same time the agency has shed tens of thousands of workers and recruited fewer medical workers.

https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1955292021771346339

Trump Is Making Immigration Courts Dysfunctional

The immigration court system was already strained when Donald Trump took office in January. Since then, he’s taken dramatic steps to undermine it even further.
Over the last seven months, Trump has fired immigration judges, weakened due process rights for those facing deportation and pressured judges to rule in the administration’s favor.
Some of those fired judges, immigration attorneys and other experts say the end result will be that these courts are either destroyed or left so dysfunctional that they can’t effectively guarantee basic rights.