Odds and Ends — 14 August 2026

2 days ago

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

Tether completes first full financial audit, receives clean KPMG opinion

U.S. Retail Sales Fall by the Most in More Than a Year

U.S. retail sales fell in July by the most in more than a year as consumers pulled back on purchases of autos and at online stores.

Ireland’s New AML Strategy Brings ‘Enhanced Checks’ on Private Crypto Wallets

Coronavirus and Public Health:

Major COVID study that fueled vaccine skepticism retracted over ‘misinformation’

Iran:

Few Ships Cross Hormuz Despite U.S. Claims

…Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. has total control of the Strait of Hormuz. The reality on the water tells a different story.
Ship-tracking data shows that just 14 vessels on Tuesday crossed a waterway that routinely handled more than 130 a day before the war. Eleven of those ships took the route administered by Iran. Traffic was slow throughout July, with an average of 26 crossings a day, and in June, with 33 a day, as renewed Iranian attacks on ships cut short a deal to open the strait.
The disconnect shows how Tehran has managed to squelch traffic through the crucial energy chokepoint with relatively little military force, only a handful of drone and missile attacks on ships. Iran doesn’t need to defeat the U.S. Navy. It just needs shipping companies, captains and insurers to fear that defying it could put their ships at risk.

https://x.com/PrepperCanadian/status/2088034688589808079

Politics:

Ukrainian Drones Defeated U.S. Forces in Exercise

U.S. Army troops faced off against Ukrainian drone operators at a military exercise in Germany earlier this year. It didn’t go well for the Americans.
During the exercise, called Combined Resolve, Ukrainian drone units easily spotted and defeated U.S. troops and armored vehicles on rotation from Fort Hood in Texas.

When they didn’t find fraud while testing a voting machine for the Trump admin, this cyber firm faced a wave of backlash

Trump, aides chase vote-rigging claims even after latest probe finds nothing

https://x.com/EdKrassen/status/2087920704343736475

https://x.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/2087775669786902732

———— Minnesota Under Siege ————

Homeland Security Targeted Liberal Groups

Four days after Alex Pretti was fatally shot while filming officers taking part in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, the Homeland Security Department quietly opened an investigation at its office in St. Paul.
The target was not the Border Patrol agents who had killed Mr. Pretti, a 37-year-old government nurse, in late January. Instead, it was several left-leaning political organizations — labor unions, a climate change group, socialist collectives — that investigators believed had provided help and money to what they described as the ‘violent opportunists and agitators’ on the street.

———— Air Farce One ————

CIA Had ‘Low Confidence’ in Iranian Threat

U.S. intelligence officials were skeptical of an Iranian assassination threat against President Donald Trump that was relayed by Israel and prompted an extraordinary clandestine maneuver that saw him secretly fly out of Turkey in an alternate military aircraft.
The assassination threat was relayed by the Israeli government to the CIA, where analysts did not view the intelligence as compelling and relayed that skepticism to Trump administration officials.

https://x.com/HormuzReport/status/2087789382539616453

https://x.com/SethAbramson/status/2087690713647501385