Odds and Ends — 18 May 2026
I recently decided to get around to reading some of the classics I’ve just never gotten around to. Finished The Count of Monte Cristo yesterday and now getting started on Moby-Dick. I’m woefully under read for the great Russians. I read War and Peace 30-some years ago but other than that and some Chekhov short stories, I’ve got many to get to. And one of these days, I want to tackle Ulysses but it’s daunting and I might have to ease into Joyce with Dubliners. If memory serves, I’ve yet to read anything by Jane Austen.
“So many books. So little time.” — Frank Zappa
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, AI, and Debt:
https://twitter.com/OrevaZSN/status/2055993046261448991
Saylor’s Strategy scoops $2B Bitcoin, holdings reach 843,738 BTC
https://twitter.com/FrankConniff/status/2054726915609489516
China’s economy loses steam in April as retail sales hit 40-month low
https://twitter.com/CostaKapo/status/2055647181676126390
Bitcoin Slides Under $77K as Crypto Liquidations Top $672M Amid Bond Sell-Off
Analysts flagged that geopolitical shocks no longer "hit crypto directly" thanks to institutional transmission via ETF flows.
https://twitter.com/k1rallik/status/2055750533986836883
Coronavirus and Public Health:
‘We’re not ready’: US lags on pandemic preparedness after Covid
Iran:
https://twitter.com/Menergyfuture/status/2055917770961785240
https://twitter.com/thatdayin1992/status/2055188936377385437
U.S. Commander Dismisses Reports of Civilian Deaths
The senior U.S. officer overseeing combat operations in Iran told the Senate on Thursday that the military had identified only one potential incident in which Iranian civilians were mistakenly killed out of about 13,600 U.S. airstrikes, a statement that human rights groups and some lawmakers said was not remotely credible.
https://twitter.com/andrewperezdc/status/2055037763100041348
Politics:
https://twitter.com/JoshEakle/status/2055105128361857407
https://twitter.com/PhillipsPOBrien/status/2055207403503669356
Xi Jinping Was Only Humoring Trump
In Beijing, a lame-duck president personified the decline of American power.
https://twitter.com/ItsTheEnforcer/status/2055763314014069210
https://twitter.com/ItsTheEnforcer/status/2055076101979070523
———— Tina Peters ————
https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/2055401303963013125
https://twitter.com/theliamnissan/status/2055411877811818851
https://twitter.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/2055675251074486563
https://twitter.com/jimstewartson/status/2055468712929734866
https://twitter.com/hissgoescobra/status/2055434618397159650
https://twitter.com/crunchyrugger/status/2055470437962768778
https://twitter.com/DeepNotShallow/status/2056199990511558750
———— The Epstein Coverup ————
https://twitter.com/CentristMadness/status/2055376450627494117
———— Cuba ————
https://twitter.com/slayerofhate444/status/2056077762482274396
https://twitter.com/AlabamaBobbycue/status/2056143411153879183
———— Autocracy R Us ————
Trump-Ordered Citizenship Lists for Voting Are Not Reliable
Citizenship lists that the Trump administration has ordered be compiled and shared with state election officials this year are likely to be incomplete and unreliable for determining voter eligibility, the Justice Department told a federal judge on Thursday.
The admission, in Federal District Court in Washington, came in a lawsuit challenging an executive order President Trump signed in March that would create state registries of citizens using federal data, and require the U.S. Postal Service to regulate mail-in voting.
———— Blatant In-Your-Face Corruption ————
https://twitter.com/RepDonBeyer/status/2055387427141832753
https://twitter.com/danielsgoldman/status/2055091158938698230
https://twitter.com/TimHannan/status/2055327155471437824
https://twitter.com/hutchinson/status/2055411351955350012
https://twitter.com/KFaulders/status/2055611760883671495
https://twitter.com/realKyleKeegan/status/2055729238834106597
———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————
https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/2056332755869249561
https://twitter.com/DVKirichenko/status/2054612006922342602
———— Melon Husk ————
https://twitter.com/jimstewartson/status/2055676087762592045
———— Mors Imperii ————
https://twitter.com/highbrow_nobrow/status/2055015517191024922
https://twitter.com/GTP_Podcast/status/2055519027305615663
Serendipity:
https://twitter.com/woofknight/status/2054896998117937464
https://twitter.com/vincempls/status/2055844946259648635
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Jane Austin is fun. You'll be able to skip right through those. I would recommend Dostoyevsky as your next challenge. I think he has more meat in him, if you are looking for philosophical discourse (oh, the Russians are good for that). Start with the Idiot and go to Crime and Punishment. I think it would be hard to find a more influential novel than Crime and Punishment. So many times I've read references to a complex character in the book, Raskolnikov.
If I were you, I would skip Ulysses, unless you just want bragging rights. That book is full of scholarly references. It's like a puzzle, the most challenging long Sunday Crossword puzzle that tests your knowledge of classical references. If you like that sort of stuff, go for it.
Anyway, that's my opinion. My favorite author of all time was always Dostoyevsky. I was disappointed later in my life to find some dreadful instances of anti-semitism. Be ready for that if you read the books. He was a creature of his time, I guess.
I hope you don't mind the long commentary. I spent a lot of time reading literature from all over the world (it's what I studied in graduate school). I do have strong opinions. You write a blog like this and you get my attention :)
Happy reading.
If I do at some point tackle Ulysses, I'd want to do so with one of the “guidebooks” for it — I’ve read that The Cambridge Ulysses is excellent. But realistically that might not happen, I’ve got so much else to read and the sand is pouring through my life’s hourglass.
By the way, I did read Crime and Punishment about 50 years ago but have only vague memories of it. Probably should read it again as it would be essentially new to me; I don’t even remember who Raskolnikov murdered.
😇
From what I remember, it's not so much who he killed as why he killed them. It became a whole philosophical discussion about crime and guilt.
I love Dostoyevsky. First read him when I was in high school, and I was stunned. Opened up a world for me. The Idiot was my first book. I didn't know people had those thoughts, that there could be such a way of looking at life. Of course now I see that Dostoyevsky was flawed, but he was profound. That's what I was looking for, I think, when I was young.
Anyway, here I go again :))