Odds and Ends — 2 June 2026

@preparedwombat 78

about 2 hours ago

oddsandends

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

Capital B seeks $122B funding mandate to buy more Bitcoin

https://twitter.com/blackroomsec/status/2061247093059019220

https://twitter.com/jimstewartson/status/2061318161568575690

Andrew Yang's Noble Acquires Crypto-Fueled Helium Mobile Service

Coronavirus and Public Health:

Merck weighs use of COVID antiviral Lagevrio as Ebola outbreak worsens

Hospitals See Diseases Resurge as Vaccinations Decline

Doctors around the country say they are seeing more cases of serious, sometimes life-threatening illnesses that vaccines have long kept at bay, including whooping cough and bacterial infections that can cause pneumonia or meningitis.
The concern among doctors comes on the heels of a resurgence of measles nationwide, fueled by distrust in vaccines that grew during the Covid-19 pandemic, and that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and President Trump have amplified.

Iran:

Axios isn’t always the most reliable source and Ravid is not exactly an unbiased journalist, but for what it’s worth: "You're fucking crazy": Trump fumes at Netanyahu in call on Lebanon

https://twitter.com/EDeMarche/status/2061636128835584362

Trump Says Iran Negotiations Are ‘Very Boring’

For three months, President Trump has been deeply engaged in the Iran conflict, planning the 38 days of attack, struggling to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and proclaiming ‘a whole civilization will die tonight,’ then backing away to declare a cease-fire and a naval blockage of Iranian ports.
But on Monday, after days of haggling with Iranian officials through intermediaries on a preliminary agreement, Mr. Trump declared it was starting ‘to get very boring.’

https://twitter.com/jimstewartson/status/2061503483472498786

https://twitter.com/OurShallowState/status/2061466166930063859

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2061415501859790858

Politics:

Trump Picks Bill Pulte as Acting Intelligence Chief

President Donald Trump on Tuesday tapped Bill Pulte, who leads the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to serve as acting director of national intelligence.”
Pulte, who has no prior experience in an intelligence role, will keep his existing titles as FHFA director and chairman of the mortgage groups Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/2060336408238137675

China Aims AI at Predicting Who Could Pose a Political Risk

A Chinese company has been trying to develop artificial intelligence-powered technology that would enable authoritarian governments to not just monitor dissidents but also potentially predict who could become one in the future.”
The work, which appears to be in the research stage, is ripped out of dystopian science fiction, offering a glimpse of a world in which an authoritarian state is able to move against its citizens before they begin any public dissent.

———— Autocracy R Us ————

Why did the press ignore a gathering of the world's leading fascists?

Right-wing extremism is going mainstream, but it’s not getting the coverage.

You might have thought that presiding over such a celebration would be an easy success for Trump. He is a showman, after all. He loves parades and extravaganzas. It was all an easy layup, a gimme, a chance for a now-unpopular second-term president to reinvent himself as the leader of all of the American people. The only thing he had to do was—for once in his life—not act like an insane egomaniac.