Odds and Ends — 20 December 2025

@preparedwombat 78

21 days ago

oddsandends

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

US Senate confirms pro-crypto Selig to lead CFTC, Hill to head FDIC

It’s Not An AI Bubble. It’s A Black Hole.

How $400 billion in AI spending became a gravitational force that's distorting the entire economy.

'Bitcoin Senator' Cynthia Lummis Will Not Run for Reelection

Coronavirus and Public Health:

I Started Covering the COVID-19 Crisis in Albany, Georgia. This Moment Made Me Realize There Was a Bigger Story to Tell.

https://twitter.com/GeauxGabrielle/status/2001840777408942155
https://twitter.com/luckytran/status/2001743854777585894

Politics:

Trump’s Uninhibited Second Term

It all might make more sense if he actually were drinking. By all accounts, President Trump doesn’t touch the stuff. So when his own chief of staff said that he has ‘an alcoholic’s personality,’ she was talking about his larger-than-life nature rather than his consumption.
Yet in some ways, it may be an apt description for a president who seems even less inhibited than ever in a way that has many in Washington and beyond shaking their heads or even wondering if the leader of the free world has lost it. The word often whispered by Republicans and shouted by Democrats and Never Trumpers is ‘unhinged.’

Facing Trump's wrath, Jack Smith requests public hearing in House GOP probe

I can’t imagine that Republicans will say Yes.

https://twitter.com/BraddrofliT/status/2001829891235549234

Trump’s speech was his Joe Biden moment

The president's nationally televised address will haunt him like Biden's debate performance…
I was, quite literally, stunned. For a few moments I simply couldn’t form words. This is not a common occurrence for me — at least so I’ve been told on occasion. Yet, there I was, shocked into silence.
The president of the United States stood up and, in a nationally televised primetime address on Wednesday night that ran close to 18 minutes, sounded as if he had been shot out of a cannon — or was more than adequately caffeinated for an entire infantry division.

Pope names pro-immigrant pastor bishop of Florida diocese where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago is located

———— Venezuela ————

https://twitter.com/TheStefanSmith/status/2002027366080733389

———— The Epstein Coverup ————

https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/2002034020670914637

https://twitter.com/allenanalysis/status/2002045730056438001

https://twitter.com/DarrigoMelanie/status/2002044741534327278

Circles of Epstein Hell

Though association with the man is certainly worthy of scrutiny, not everyone in his network is guilty of participation in his abusive sexual enterprise—or necessarily guilty at all.

https://twitter.com/allenanalysis/status/2002077376230920698

https://twitter.com/doggintrump/status/2002126445083267369
https://twitter.com/theliamnissan/status/2002150394760409279

https://twitter.com/covie_93/status/2002167177776861381

https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/2002181903583990253

https://twitter.com/MisesChair/status/2002147401734189365