Odds and Ends — 17 July 2026

@preparedwombat 79

about 8 hours ago

oddsandends

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

Strategy became a symbol of the dot-com crash: Could history repeat?

Generative AI Is an Engineering Disaster

A shockingly inefficient trillion-dollar project

Coronavirus and Public Health:

Who needs another COVID vaccine – and who might be able to skip it?

https://x.com/RadioFreeTom/status/2077588440095359464

Iran:

Trump Risks Another American ‘Forever War’ in Iran

No one starts a war expecting it to last forever.
Yet, since Vietnam, American presidents have repeatedly gotten into conflicts that seem like they could last forever, at least until the next president — or the one after that — decides that the expense and political pain are not worth it, declares victory and goes home.
On Iran, President Trump may have fallen into the same trap.

U.S. Strikes Iran for Fifth Straight Day

Iran responded to the U.S.’s barrage on military targets such as command centers and missile sites by firing upon American bases in Kuwait and Jordan. The Jordanian government said it intercepted eight missiles.
Tehran seems in no mood to back down in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s warning that he’ll escalate strikes until the Islamic Republic reopens the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that’s now the focal point of the war.

Politics:

https://x.com/HQNewsNow/status/2077784370492940346

https://x.com/factpostnews/status/2077469054864933214

———— Trump Rants About 2020 Election ————

https://x.com/MilesTaylorUSA/status/2077931868066914542
https://x.com/TheRickWilson/status/2077928440221540651

https://x.com/samstein/status/2077935273539723471

Trump Makes Outlandish Election Safety Claims

…Trump made at times outlandish claims about the safety of American voting systems in a White House address on Thursday night, drawing selectively from documents his aides published online to insinuate that U.S. elections have been compromised for years and that government officials had suppressed the evidence.
Mr. Trump, who has in recent months increasingly pressed his yearslong and unsubstantiated argument that the outcomes of U.S. elections have been ‘rigged’ by various forces, also laid out a purported effort by the Chinese government to undermine him in 2019. But the documents posted by the White House, although heavily redacted, were far more guarded in their conclusions.

https://x.com/TomJChicago/status/2077871344071631077

Trump Just Did More Damage to American Elections Than China

His speech was a mashup of charges that aren’t supported by the documents he released.

https://x.com/RadioFreeTom/status/2077966379722936557

https://x.com/OldManLefty1/status/2077969041382330521

Trump Media and Technology Group, the company behind President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, announced Thursday it’s launching a service that will sell faster access to posts on the site — including Trump’s regular markets-moving diatribes.
A spokesperson for Trump Media told Reuters that the application, called Truth API, will give paying users access to posts from the 10 most influential accounts at a faster pace than normal Truth Social push notifications. Trump is by far the most followed account on the platform, with 12.9 million followers.

https://x.com/NiallStanage/status/2077790633951977503

———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————

https://x.com/Kasparov63/status/2077762406034325812

———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————

https://x.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2077752700968554581

https://x.com/SethAbramson/status/2077784081967059135

https://x.com/CattardSlim/status/2077482772042789265

———— Mors Imperii ————

https://x.com/gtconway3d/status/2077774864094515566

Trump Fires New Prosecutor in Seattle Within Minutes

President Donald Trump fired the new top U.S. prosecutor in Seattle on Wednesday less than an hour after the attorney was unanimously appointed by the federal judges in the district, highlighting tensions between the courts and the president over the powerful positions.

https://x.com/MrGlobal2025/status/2077535719434723770