Odds and Ends — 19 June 2025
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, AI, and Debt:
‘Stablecoin summer’ as Coinbase, Circle stocks surge on new legislation
Bitcoin Scandal Fails to Topple Czech Government in No-Confidence Vote
https://twitter.com/FEELZ_____/status/1935453657631260882
The full study: Your Brain on ChatGPT
https://twitter.com/litteralyme0_/status/1934967278597967970
Coronavirus and Public Health:
How Ivermectin Became Right-Wing Aspirin
Once a suspect COVID treatment, now a cure for everything
Politics:
Conventional political analyses do not come close to describing the way our world has been turned on its head. Yes, the GOP lost its spine and its balls; Democrats flailed; the electorate realigned. The entertainment wing of the GOP routed the establishment. Much of the rest of the media has been enshittified.
But that really doesn’t capture the velocity or the scope of the transformation. It’s not just our politics. America has become dumber, crueler, crazier, and more violent. To much of the rest of the world, we have become unrecognizable.
Modi Pushes Back Against Trump’s Claim on Ceasefire
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi disputed President Donald Trump’s claims that trade deals were used to clinch a ceasefire with Pakistan during last month’s military conflict.
Mamdani Narrows Cuomo’s Lead in NYC Mayor’s Race
Trump’s Tax Bill Would Add $3.3 Trillion to National Debt
CBO’s analysis of the House-passed bill undercuts one of Republicans’ main arguments for the legislation. The bill’s authors have argued that critics are ignoring the economic boom that the tax cuts and President Trump’s other policies would create. That larger, faster-growing economy, they contend, would throw off enough extra tax revenue to cover the $2.4 trillion gap between the bill’s tax cuts and spending cuts.
The new CBO estimate says the opposite would happen. The bill would, effectively, un-pay for itself.
Donald Trump may project strength, but the defining feature of his presidency is weakness.
He’s routinely overruled — by courts, state officials and lawmakers in his own party. That shouldn’t be comforting to his critics. A president this easy to manipulate is a national vulnerability…
The real story isn’t which adviser won the latest round. The real story is Trump got played again.
———— Experimental Corpse Incubator ————
Baby of brain-dead woman delivered in Georgia
https://twitter.com/kristinspurs/status/1935111508280713638
https://twitter.com/JessPected/status/1935050699127054690
———— Autocracy R Us ————
A leader who uses military force to suppress his political opposition ought to lose the right to govern.
https://twitter.com/ruthbenghiat/status/1935089202720333938
https://twitter.com/JPHilllllll/status/1935044754510618903
ICE’s narrative quickly fell apart and charges were dropped.
Kristi Noem demoted to 'PR person' as Stephen Miller runs DHS: ex-insider
“There is an awareness that Stephen Miller is a problem. And even Trump calls him ‘Weird Stephen.’ Because he is weird, by the way. I mean, you can’t spend a moment with him and not say, ‘Oh, something’s off here.’”
https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1935096796344189347
Obama Offers Careful Warning of a Democratic Slide
Said Obama: “If you follow regularly what is said by those who are in charge of the federal government right now, there is a weak commitment to what we understood — and not just my generation, at least since World War II — our understanding of how a liberal democracy is supposed to work.”
He went on: “We’re not there yet completely, but I think that we are dangerously close to normalizing behavior like that. And we need people both outside government and inside government saying, ‘Let’s not go over that cliff because it’s hard to recover.’”
https://twitter.com/themaxburns/status/1935315355368399306
https://twitter.com/BillBramhall/status/1935383052412183036
———— Israel/Krasnov/Iran ————
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1935006237155824002
https://twitter.com/snarwani/status/1934954299659837821
Congress Dodges Any Preemptive Challenge to Trump
Senate leaders are avoiding direct answers on whether President Trump needs approval from Congress before taking any military action against Iran.
Congress is reluctant to second-guess the commander-in-chief before he actually authorizes strikes. But Democrats have a visceral distrust of Trump, and a growing GOP faction is deeply suspicious of foreign military interventions.
Inside the Clashes Between Trump and Tulsi Gabbard
As President Donald Trump privately mulled joining Israel’s campaign against Iran this month, one member of his Cabinet sent what he viewed as an audacious attempt to steer him in the opposite direction.
At 5:30 a.m. on June 10, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard tweeted a cryptic, three-minute video warning that ‘political elite and warmongers’ are ‘carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers’ — and that the world is ‘on the brink of nuclear annihilation.’
Trump saw the unauthorized video and became incensed, complaining to associates at the White House that she had spoken out of turn.
https://twitter.com/Angry_Staffer/status/1935014538711105553
https://twitter.com/lawindsor/status/1935016279028679129
Israel Built Its Case for War With Iran on New Intelligence. The U.S. Didn’t Buy It.
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1935052687227187213
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1935073539922542644
https://twitter.com/SirajAHashmi/status/1934815615073542569
Even Trump’s Base Opposes War with Iran
An Economist/YouGov poll found that only 16% of U.S. adults and less than a quarter of Republicans think the U.S. should get involved in the conflict between Iran and Israel.
Trump voters are even less enthusiastic than Republicans as a whole. Only 19% of 2024 Trump voters support U.S. involvement.
https://twitter.com/krassenstein/status/1935178647104798725
https://twitter.com/frankdpi/status/1935428744480702845
———— America For Sale ————
https://twitter.com/jgoldbeck/status/1934712028901593093
https://twitter.com/JacobAShell/status/1935037813315019075
https://twitter.com/TownsUsa/status/1935003456013832478
https://twitter.com/YIMBYLAND/status/1934994658205041066
———— Blatant In-Your-Face Corruption ————
Trump Mobile Pulls Coverage Map
…the venture pulled its coverage map after sharp-eyed users noticed a curious detail: the body of water south of Texas was labeled as the Gulf of Mexico instead of the Trump-preferred name, Gulf of America.
https://twitter.com/middleageriot/status/1935499896473161940
https://twitter.com/Scaramucci/status/1935080432875221445
———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1934943047575380180
———— Smoot-Hawley 2.0 ————
Swiss Exports to U.S. Collapse
Swiss exports to the US plunged for a second month as cross-border shippers wait for a trade deal to cushion tariffs proposed by President Donald Trump
———— Mors Imperii ————
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1935157837937676429
Texas Quietly Defunds Its Border Wall Program
Four years after Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas would be the first state to build its own border wall, lawmakers have quietly stopped funding the project, leaving only scattered segments covering a small fraction of the border.
That decision, made in the waning hours of this year’s legislative session, leaves the future of the state wall unclear. Just 8% of the 805 miles the state identified for construction is complete, which has cost taxpayers more than $3 billion to date.
Noem Visited Biohazard Lab Before Hospitalization
Kristi Noem was hospitalized for an allergic reaction one day after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shared a photo alongside Noem visiting a biosafety lab that was temporarily shut down due to safety concerns.
Florida Attorney General Held in Civil Contempt
A federal judge found Florida’s attorney general in civil contempt of court Tuesday for violating a restraining order, which required state attorneys to tell officers to stop enforcing a newly enacted immigration law.
That same judge, Southern Florida District Judge Kathleen M. Williams had issued a temporary restraining order in April halting the enforcement of a law that made it a state crime for any ‘adult unauthorized alien’ to enter or reenter Florida, with a mandatory minimum prison sentence of nine months. That law had been signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in February.
Cuts to FEMA's storm prep program hammer communities that voted for Trump
Serendipity:
Mindhunter Season 3 Hopes Reignited As Star Reveals Potential New Direction For Hit Netflix Thriller
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