Odds and Ends — 14 June 2025

@preparedwombat 78

1 day ago

oddsandends

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

Shopify to Enable USDC Payments on Coinbase's Base for Merchants Worldwide

How Will the Israel-Iran Conflict End? Here's What AI Models Predict

30 Bitcoin price top indicators hint at $230K bull market peak

Coronavirus and Public Health:

https://twitter.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1933509265190158499

Politics:

Two Democratic Lawmakers Shot in Minnesota

Two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses were shot by someone impersonating a police officer.
A source tells ABC News that two of those shot are state Sen. John Hoffman of Champlin and state Rep. Melissa Hortman of Brooklyn Park. Both were shot at their homes, and authorities believe the shooter was impersonating law enforcement, the source says.

https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/1933333185703583975

U.S. Diplomacy Served as Cover for Surprise Attack

With a sixth round of talks between Trump administration envoy Steve Witkoff and his Iranian counterparts set for Sunday in Oman, Israeli and U.S. officials warned of military action if Iran didn’t agree to end its production of fissile material that can be used in nuclear weapons.
Instead, Israel hit first, achieving tactical surprise through a devastating series of blows that killed three top Iranian generals and key nuclear scientists and hit sites linked to the country’s nuclear programs.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1933610116718473472

https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1933489517056700474

Appeals Court Won’t Overturn E. Jean Carroll Verdict

A federal appeals court in an 8-2 vote Friday declined President Trump’s bid to rehear his appeal of a jury verdict finding him liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, leaving the Supreme Court as Trump’s only remaining pathway.

E. Jean Carroll’s Uneasy Peace

In the year and a half since defeating Trump for the second time, she’s written a secret book — and learned to shoot.

https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1933597553460920394

https://twitter.com/TheMaineWonk/status/1933524210669736134

———— Autocracy R Us ————

https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1933631764947222857

Worse than Orbán: Trump is trying to bring his opposition to heel

In Orbán's Hungary, it's "respectable fascism." Here in the U.S., it's something else

https://twitter.com/PiperK/status/1933441563339964871

https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1933477668235686397

A Judge Smacked Down Trump’s National Guard Takeover in the Most Sweeping Way Possible

https://twitter.com/Weinsteinlaw/status/1933260301761438160

Trump ‘Doesn’t Speak With Precision’

The Justice Department urged a judge to ignore Trump’s admission he “could” bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia if he wanted to.
A lawyer for Donald Trump’s Justice Department recently argued in court that sometimes the president just says stuff — and it doesn’t matter if what Trump says is or isn’t accurate, because his comments aren’t necessarily reflective of the government’s position on a given matter.

https://twitter.com/propublica/status/1933105475010134157

What Trump Will Do When His Revolution Sputters

The logic of revolution often traps revolutionaries: They start out thinking that the task will be swift and easy. The people will support them. Their cause is just. But as their project falters, their vision narrows.
At each obstacle, after each catastrophe, the turn to violence becomes that much swifter, the harsh decisions that much easier. If not stopped, by Congress or the courts, the Trump revolution will follow that logic too.

https://twitter.com/TheTNHoller/status/1933581020382560383

https://twitter.com/JamesTate121/status/1933198141982978367

Either L.A. is being targeted by partisan disinformation, or I am the world’s worst father

https://twitter.com/Cathy2NotToday/status/1933344203955724772

https://twitter.com/smc429/status/1932824380792582170

‘America cannot function’: Karoline Leavitt lashes out at judges blocking Trump orders at record rate

https://twitter.com/CaitlinPacific/status/1933577630940606572

Four detainees escape from migrant facility in New Jersey

https://twitter.com/ExistentialEnso/status/1932929263482667436

https://twitter.com/TheTNHoller/status/1933299843213996394

———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————

https://twitter.com/slantchev/status/1933497760164295008

https://twitter.com/SpaghettiKozak/status/1933403806823268496
https://twitter.com/mhmck/status/1933469084185694542

———— Smoot-Hawley 2.0 ————

Trump Is Losing His Trade War

The tariffs would do everything at once. They would protect U.S. industry from foreign competition without raising prices, and generate vast revenues that would finance other tax cuts. Americans could eat their cake, continue to have the cake, and trade the same cake for pie—all at the same time…
The advertising rapidly proved false. The U.S. economy is slowing because of the Trump tariffs; China’s is thriving in spite of them. Team Trump falsely promotes vague five-page outlines with alienated former allies as big deals; China is successfully wooing some of its former rivals, such as Vietnam. America’s standing in the world is measurably sinking; China’s is measurably rising. Courts are ruling that Trump’s tariffs are illegal; public opinion mistrusts the tariffs, regarding them as expensive and unproductive. The promise of huge flows of painless money from tariff revenues is evanescing as the fantasy it always was.

Trump Steel Tariffs Expanded to Hit Home Appliances

Washing machines, refrigerators and other common household appliances made with steel parts will soon be subject to expanded tariffs.
The department said in a notice that levies would take effect on so-called steel derivative products on June 23 and will be set at 50 percent, the current level for all other steel and aluminum imports. The new tariffs will apply to the value of steel content in each import.

———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————

Playing Secretary

As war looms, Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon is beset by infighting over leaks, drugs, and socks. How long will Trump stand by his man?

https://twitter.com/DavidCornDC/status/1933546244858671326

———— Mors Imperii ————

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1933639026415972690

The Most Regressive Legislation in Decades

The Republican megabill now before the Senate cuts taxes for high earners and reduces benefits for the poor. If it’s enacted, that combination would make it more regressive than any major tax or entitlement law in decades.
The bill as passed by the House in May would raise after-tax incomes for the highest-earning 10 percent of American households on average by 2.3 percent a year over the next decade, while lowering incomes for the poorest tenth by 3.9 percent, according to new estimates by the Congressional Budget Office.
The shape of that distribution is rare: Tax cut packages have seldom left the poor significantly worse off. And bills that cut the safety net usually haven’t also included benefits for the rich. By inverting those precedents, congressional Republicans have created a bill unlike anything Washington has produced since deficit fears began to loom large in the 1990s.

https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1933524053513630160

Judge Blocks State Department Layoffs

A federal judge in California has halted a State Department plan to lay off almost 2,000 employees, marking a setback to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s push to rapidly downsize the agency.

Trump Confronts Sudden Upheavals at Home and Abroad

Five months into his presidency, the ground has shifted underneath President Donald Trump as he’s confronted with crises at home and abroad.
Trump’s ambitious vows to end conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s war on Ukraine remain unfulfilled, while his tariff policy has seen a series of advances and retreats, undermining his image as a singularly effective dealmaker ahead of a meeting with the leaders of world’s most powerful democracies in Canada next week.
At home, meanwhile, Trump’s immigration crackdown is drawing growing protests and risks turning one of his strengths with voters into a liability.

https://twitter.com/Timodc/status/1932936076378697940