Odds and Ends — 13 March 2026
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, AI, and Debt:
https://twitter.com/peruvian_bull/status/2032129499706614181
Helium prices soar as Qatar LNG halt exposes fragile supply chain
https://twitter.com/Ross__Hendricks/status/2032243673417580686
https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2032311438937579896
Flash Fiction:
”Do you have any plans to get off your ass?”
”It was a long, hard week at work. I deserve some slack. Cut me some, okay?”
”You’re on thin ice. It was the same sob story last weekend and the weekend before that. You think you have an obligation to do nothing today?”
”I’m not going to mow the lawn in this hot sun. I’m just not. Maybe it’ll be cooler next weekend.”
”You’ll do it now! I’m guessing you don’t want the neighbors to hear your wife screaming at you.”
”You wouldn’t…”
Oh yes, she would. And did.
Written for this prompt.
Coronavirus and Public Health:
Florida Is Trying to Ignore Measles Until It Can’t
Iran:
Trump claimed in G7 call that Iran is "about to surrender"
https://twitter.com/g0dfr0y/status/2032217219279520134
https://twitter.com/TheMaineWonk/status/2032116811353759785
https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/2032103843362644391
Trump Surprised To Find He’s At War in Iran
The hardest thing for the media to wrap its hands around over the last year is that Donald Trump has no plan — for anything, ever. Time and again, national pundits and the White House press corps invent a logical Donald Trump who sets, announces, and later ‘changes’ real ‘policies’ or ‘plans,’ failing to convey what is clear to anyone who is actually following events closely: In each public appearance and social media post, the Mad King Donald Trump spouts a string of words, devoid of meaning or purpose, that may or may not represent anything at all.
Every single thing he says may, at any given time, be taken as an official hard-line policy of the US government, the opening gambit to a long flexible negotiation, or a random pronouncement that will be never be mentioned again. It’s impossible to know in real-time which is which — especially so if you’re actually in the US government and in charge of translating his words into actions and plans.
https://twitter.com/lawindsor/status/2032131663761662017
https://twitter.com/HQNewsNow/status/2032095561080271274
U.S. Plan to Insure Ships Collides with Reality
This U.S.-centric idea ran counter to the market realities… Maritime war risks policies are sold mostly out of Lloyd’s of London, with foreign insurers covering foreign ships and cargo.
U.S. officials called London insurers and brokers, trying to figure out how the market operates, industry insiders said. Some have received calls asking for confidential data on the Lloyd’s market that participants have been reluctant to share.
https://twitter.com/ojblanchard1/status/2032053039566070081
https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/2032155694338601278
This war is notable not for its use of Artificial Intelligence, but for the fact that it is the first war that feels like it’s been launched by A.I: It’s all been done on a level less than thought. Trump’s remarks, Hegseth’s speeches; they all sound like autocompletes or snippets of half-remembered things. When Trump bellows, “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,” he knows not what it means; he just heard it somewhere, probably on TV…
In the past, propaganda served the purposes of war; now war serves the purposes of propaganda. But the blood remains real.
A.I. will supposedly give us fully automated wars in the future, but it’s here, right now. There’s a blind automatism to this war; It’s a war without thought or deliberation, public or private. It’s war as autocomplete.
https://twitter.com/nxt888/status/2031982266499649617
https://twitter.com/GenghisMFKhan/status/2032128286696833196
https://twitter.com/jvgraz/status/2031988611533717662
Trump administration underestimated Iran war’s impact on Strait of Hormuz
Top Trump officials acknowledged to lawmakers during recent classified briefings that they did not plan for the possibility of Iran closing the strait in response to strikes.
https://twitter.com/hissgoescobra/status/2032262824265932908
https://twitter.com/caitoz/status/2032009480662384688
KC-135 Stratotanker crashes in Iraq, CENTCOM says
”The incident occurred in friendly airspace…”
Friendly Iraqi airspace seems like a bit of an oxymoron.
https://twitter.com/TheMaineWonk/status/2032300882495185241
Four Strategic Patterns Now Visible in the Iran War
https://twitter.com/rationalaussie/status/2032000443388441056
https://twitter.com/alon_mizrahi/status/2032174029923369120
https://twitter.com/thatdayin1992/status/2032174510087291363
https://twitter.com/Tazerface16/status/2032286793127903480
Politics:
https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/2032417771565260877
https://twitter.com/danielsgoldman/status/2031968821540454712
———— Minnesota Under Siege ————
https://twitter.com/isaiah_bb/status/2032157498715648192
———— The Epstein Coverup ————
https://twitter.com/stealthygeek/status/2032091169790849116
———— Autocracy R Us ————
https://twitter.com/PabloReports/status/2032215648638537986
———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————
https://twitter.com/theliamnissan/status/2032450012509069627
———— Mors Imperii ————
The U.S. Mint just dropped the olive branch from the dime. What does that mean for the country?
Serendipity:
https://twitter.com/lovedropx/status/2032231859682492666
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Lovely!