Odds and Ends — 20 November 2025

@preparedwombat 78

8 days ago

oddsandends

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

Bitcoin recovery expected as liquidity conditions change, but US macro remains a threat

AI Threatens to Spoil Poland’s $1 Trillion Economic Party

Record Financial Pushes Real-Time Royalties on Avalanche to Modernize Music Payments

Coronavirus and Public Health:

The private notes and secret documents that tell the inside story of the UK's Covid response

Politics:

Suddenly, a Different Political World

Trump seems to be collapsing on multiple fronts, with the collapse on each front reinforcing the collapse on others. The Epstein affair is coming to a head even as the public loses all faith in his economic policy, and the whole structure of fear on which his regime rests appears to be evaporating.
He also seems to be unraveling personally. We always knew that President ‘Piggy’ despised women and admired tyrants, seeing nothing wrong with hacking up your critics with a bone saw. But even a few months ago I think he would have been self-controlled enough to be less obvious about it.
I don’t know how this ends, but all of a sudden a rapid implosion looks possible. No, I don’t know what that looks like. But the U.S. political universe looks very different than it did a few weeks ago.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1991099810573905935

Bolsonaro Faces Life Behind Bars

Two months after receiving a 27-year sentence for trying to ‘annihilate’ Brazil’s democratic institutions, former president Jair Bolsonaro finally looks jail-bound.
The convicted coup-monger – who has been living under house arrest in his mansion while a series of legal procedures and appeals play out – is widely expected to be incarcerated in the coming days, amid growing speculation that he will be sent to a notorious maximum security prison.

https://twitter.com/JamieBonkiewicz/status/1991132630071361553
https://twitter.com/KellyScaletta/status/1990886439899304374

———— The Epstein Coverup ————

https://twitter.com/EmmaVigeland/status/1991313437490622953

https://twitter.com/mychaelschnell/status/1990963655270076654
https://twitter.com/ImBreckWorsham/status/1991296190386786367

Trump’s Toddler Response to the Epstein Saga

Why has Trump chosen to inflict this wound upon himself? A Trump ally suggests to Politico that the president, like many young children, is expressing what some might call oppositional defiant disorder: ‘POTUS doesn’t like to be told what to do or give Dems a win, so he’s been fighting it.’ This theory might make more sense if releasing the Epstein files hadn’t been Trump’s own idea before he abruptly reversed course earlier this year.
Trump’s own responses to this very question are even less reassuring.
Asked on Air Force One last Friday why he won’t just release the files, Trump snapped at a female reporter, ‘Quiet, piggy.’ As a longtime married man, I have seen enough rom-coms to recognize the trope where Mr. Wrong, after having maintained a thin veneer of suitability for 90 percent of the movie while misbehaving just enough to make the audience root against him, suddenly rips off the mask and delivers a crass or entitled speech that makes the heroine snap out of her infatuation. A set piece in which the bad guy, under suspicion of misogynistic conduct and consorting with a trafficker of teenage girls, launches a sexist attack on an inquisitive female journalist would be too ham-handed even for the writers at the Hallmark Channel.

https://twitter.com/Mollyploofkins/status/1991189707460325760

https://twitter.com/AmoneyResists/status/1990999221386764583

———— James Comey ————

https://twitter.com/NotHoodlum/status/1991327605937561677

———— Autocracy R Us ————

https://twitter.com/MarkSZaidEsq/status/1991009319589195949

https://twitter.com/allenanalysis/status/1991193527875747979

https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1991232661923283313

https://twitter.com/HouseJudiciary/status/1991149456192831741

Judge Resumes Criminal Inquiry Into Trump Officials

A federal judge said Wednesday that he plans to ‘promptly’ move ahead with an effort to find out which Trump administration officials were responsible for flouting his orders in a high-stakes immigration case – and whether they will face punishment for their actions.

https://twitter.com/gregolear/status/1991261946511851879

https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1991267205863157961

https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1990958198551990425

———— Blatant In-Your-Face Corruption ————

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1991483252943773753

———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————

https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1990863832659439990

https://twitter.com/DashaBurns/status/1991130383644012790

Trump’s “peace plan” was written in Moscow. Even Stevie Wonder can see it’s D.O.A. In Kyiv.

https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1990814258100158753

———— Melon Husk ————

https://twitter.com/lmcgaughy/status/1991144476459352403

———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————

Top Military Lawyer Raised Concerns Over Boat Strikes

The senior military lawyer for the combatant command overseeing lethal strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats near Venezuela disagreed with the Trump administration’s position that the operations are lawful — and his views were sidelined.