Odds and Ends — 15 October 2025

@preparedwombat 78

16 days ago

oddsandends

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

Japan is working on new rules to crack down on crypto insider trading

Coinbase to Invest in India's CoinDCX, Expand in South Asia and the Middle East

Coronavirus and Public Health:

German businesses asked to repay COVID-19 emergency aid

For older Americans, the cost of poverty is 9 years of life, study finds

Politics:

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

https://twitter.com/covie_93/status/1978316605940453608

https://twitter.com/Daractenus/status/1977834848879567187

France Contemplates the End of the Fifth Republic

France, to borrow the words of Alain Duhamel, the veteran political observer, ‘has gone beyond a political crisis.’
It is now flirting with regime change.
The tailor-made system that Charles de Gaulle built in 1958 to save the country from the chaos of 22 governments in 12 years established one of the most powerful presidencies in the Western world.
It is now in disarray, and Emmanuel Macron, the president, stands at the center of a drama of his own making that some say could yet end the Fifth Republic.

https://twitter.com/hissgoescobra/status/1978291141700362554

Be careful what you ask for: Republicans Summon Jack Smith to Testify Before House Judiciary Committee

Trump Threatens to Disarm Hamas If They Do Not

Trump told reporters that the U.S. could step in “quickly and perhaps violently” if Hamas does not disarm, potentially one of the biggest sticking points in Trump’s 20-point peace plan, WaPo’s Amy Wang and Sammy Westfall report. “If they don’t disarm, we will disarm them. They know I’m not playing games,” Trump said.
To be very blunt, it’s not clear how this would work. But your Playbook author is old enough to remember when the Trump administration was saying there will be no U.S. boots on the ground in Gaza … Because it was JD Vance saying it only last Sunday.

https://twitter.com/KellyScaletta/status/1978090203613892734
https://twitter.com/PaulleyTicks/status/1978149787204563221

———— The Epstein Coverup ————

Mike Johnson faces bipartisan heat over delayed vote on Epstein files

———— Autocracy R Us ————

Rove Says Troop Deployments Are a ‘Loser’ for Trump

GOP strategist Karl Rove predicted that deploying National Guard troops to Democratic-led cities, over the objections of their respective states’ governors, will ultimately be a losing issue for President Trump.

https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1978249334152913199

It’ll Be Trump’s Fault

Donald Trump and Stephen Miller will probably get the blood in the streets they want eventually.”
We don’t know when or how it will unfold, or how the public will come to perceive it. But we do know that no matter how it unfolds or is perceived, it is already their fault, and everyone who cares about the future of the country should be prepared to blame them.

https://twitter.com/ReallyAmerican1/status/1978141612937977987

“This is no longer, the Department of Justice, it’s no longer the premier prosecuting office in America. What it is now is a capo regime who goes out and executes hits when directed by the Don to do so. That’s what it is.” — Former New Jersey Governor and U.S. Attorney Chris Christie (R)

https://twitter.com/BarbMcQuade/status/1978167628712563105

America Needs A Mass Movement—Now

Without one, America may sink into autocracy for decades…
For the United States, the question of the decade is: Why hasn’t a resistance movement materialized here? The second Trump administration has flouted court decisions in a third of all rulings against it, according to The Washington Post. It operates as a national extortion racket, using federal power to control the inner workings of universities, law firms, and corporations. It has thoroughly politicized the Justice Department, launching a series of partisan investigations against its political foes. It has turned ICE into a massive paramilitary organization with apparently unconstrained powers. It has treated the Constitution with disdain, assaulted democratic norms and diminished democratic freedoms, and put military vehicles and soldiers on the streets of the capital. It embraces the optics of fascism, and flaunts its autocratic aspirations.

https://twitter.com/JessicaUSAF/status/1977846262537019852

https://twitter.com/meiselasb/status/1978272053917626688

How two lawsuits could expand Citizens United and turn America into a kleptocracy — and how this nightmare can be stopped

https://twitter.com/tRumpnado2016/status/1978152465410199575

The Beacon of Democracy Goes Dark

If we are no longer a country that aims to make the world better, but rather a country whose foreign policy is designed to build the wealth of the president or promote the ruling party’s foreign friends, then we have fewer reasons to work together at home. If we promote cynicism abroad, we will become more cynical at home.
Perhaps expecting Americans to live up to the extraordinary ideals that they proclaimed in the 18th century was always unreasonable, but that language nevertheless shaped the way we thought about ourselves. Now we live in a world where America is led by people who have abandoned those ideals altogether. That will change all of us, in ways we might not yet be able to see.

https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1978270644224618956