Odds and Ends — 23 August 2025

@preparedwombat 78

8 days ago

oddsandends

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

Are struggling firms using crypto reserves as a PR lifeline?

https://twitter.com/madrid_mike/status/1959001436391448832

Is Bitcoin's 4-Year Cycle Over? Why BTC May Finally Break the Trend

Coronavirus and Public Health:

US COVID markers continue upward trend

Politics:

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1958951683607994589

Far-Right Agenda Enters the Mainstream

During President Trump’s first turn in the White House, right-wing extremists like the Proud Boys were on the streets, weekend after weekend, raising their voices — and oftentimes their fists — about issues such as immigration, the squelching of conservative speech and the removal of Confederate-era statues.
But in the first seven months of Mr. Trump’s second term, there has been a conspicuous absence of far-right demonstrations. And that, some leaders of the movement say, is because the president has effectively adopted their agenda.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1959052990658085143

Former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton warned earlier in the month that President Donald Trump was coming for him when asked about being on FBI Director Kash Patel’s “enemies list” by ABC News’s Jonathan Karl.

Trump’s FBI Raid of John Bolton’s Home Looks Like a “Five-Alarm Fire”

https://twitter.com/smc429/status/1958911787900051813

The Retribution Phase of Trump’s Presidency Has Begun

There was a certain awful predictability about the FBI’s Friday-morning raids targeting the former Trump adviser turned critic John Bolton.

———— Autocracy R Us ————

The Bolton Raid Feels Like a Warning

In just one week, the administration has targeted dozens of its perceived critics, leaving national-security officials angry and afraid.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1959040243958497406

"Trump's Enemy’s List Is Now the Docket"

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about President Trump; and God knows I’ve learned it the hard way, it’s that he never forgets a grudge. He nurses it, feeds it, waters it like a plant until it blooms into a weapon. Retribution isn’t just a theme for him; it’s a religion. He campaigned on it, he promised it, and now he’s delivering. And the American people, whether they like it or not, are witnessing what it looks like when the full power of the presidency is bent not toward governance or justice, but toward settling scores.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1958902094326378670

Mortgage-Fraud Accusations Are Trump’s New Weapon

The Trump administration has a new weapon at its disposal in its efforts to take down Democrats and their appointees: mortgage records.
Members of the administration have now alleged three public officials have committed mortgage fraud, referring each to the Justice Department. The administration has signaled that it has just gotten started: U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin was recently tapped ‘to investigate fraud by public officials in mortgages,’ according to a letter Martin sent.
The targets have denied wrongdoing, but the probes represent an aggressive new spin on opposition research that has long dug into tax records and financial disclosures public officeholders have to make. Mortgage applications go beyond the typical disclosure requirements.

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

https://twitter.com/DarrigoMelanie/status/1958642577860653069

———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————

https://twitter.com/ArturRehi/status/1958815950280495341

Trump told Orbán he’s ‘very angry’ at Ukraine over pipeline attack

https://twitter.com/Prune602/status/1958925396226748582

https://twitter.com/AndrewPerpetua/status/1958843750710452299

———— Smoot-Hawley 2.0 ————

https://twitter.com/JustinWolfers/status/1958880355894628563

European postal services suspend shipment of packages to U.S. over import tariffs

———— DOGE ————

https://twitter.com/propublica/status/1958851685801250918

———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————

Hegseth Will Allow Troops in D.C. to Carry Weapons

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has signed an order authorizing National Guard troops deployed in Washington, D.C. to carry weapons if their mission requires it.

https://twitter.com/themaxburns/status/1958919358522302732

Purge of National Security Agencies Continues

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the latest senior military or intelligence officer to lose his position in a wider purge of national security agencies’ top ranks.

https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/1958952274648072223

https://twitter.com/idreesali114/status/1959005657920938174

———— Mors Imperii ————

https://twitter.com/JoJoFromJerz/status/1958884169875968195

IRS Wants to Rehire Workers It Lost

The IRS plans to ask workers who accepted offers of deferred resignation and early retirement to come back to work — an attempt to make up for staffing losses after the agency found it had vacancies in critical jobs.
The tax agency — which lost nearly 25,700 employees, or 25 percent of the workforce, from buyouts, resignations and firings — told employees that it now wants to reverse some of those losses by reassigning workers, asking workers who took buyouts to return and launching a hiring campaign.

https://twitter.com/middleageriot/status/1958909205349552466

https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1958954359200653490

https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1959002682372628939