Odds and Ends — 23 May 2025

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

Bank lobby is 'panicking' about yield-bearing stablecoins — NYU professor

https://twitter.com/SketchesbyBoze/status/1925206162544505304

America's Biggest Banks Consider Teaming Up to Challenge $245B Stablecoin Market

https://twitter.com/shagbark_hick/status/1925554424455332251

Coronavirus and Public Health:

Johnson wanted tighter Covid rules, inquiry hears

Oh, he’s a scientist now? Trump says autism ‘has to be artificially induced’

Politics:

The Largest Upward Transfer of Wealth in American History

House Republicans worked through the night to advance a massive piece of legislation that might, if enacted, carry out the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history.
That is not a side effect of the legislation, but its central purpose. The ‘big, beautiful bill’ would pair huge cuts to food assistance and health insurance for low-income Americans with even larger tax cuts for affluent ones.

The ‘Triple B’ Plan

When Republican congressmen first crafted their so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’, some of President Donald Trump’s advisers dubbed it the ‘Triple B’ plan in internal meetings for brevity, or so I am told.
Future historians might well chuckle at the irony — and/or Trump’s lack of self-awareness. ‘Triple B’, after all, is also the tag that credit ratings groups use to designate the lower threshold of investment grade assets, before they become ‘junk’, with rising default risk.

https://twitter.com/GunnelsWarren/status/1925320142600257543

Judge Blocks Layoffs at Department of Education

https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/1925555257603436674

Now PBS Is Censoring a Film About Free Speech

A worrying pattern has taken hold in public television.

———— Kalaallit Nunaat ————

https://twitter.com/JohannaNyman5/status/1925570924784259378

https://twitter.com/marlene4719/status/1925600952108663236

———— Autocracy R Us ————

Trump Won’t Let Harvard Enroll International Students

The Trump administration on Thursday halted Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students, a major escalation in the administration’s efforts to pressure the college to fall in line with the president’s agenda.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1925641602816487838
https://twitter.com/covie_93/status/1925628735769702886

We all knew that Harvard would sue, we just didn’t know how fast they’d do so.

https://twitter.com/NicoPerrino/status/1925629919360381424

Nice Endowment You Got There

Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is coming for elite colleges’ money. The consequences would be unpredictable.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1925699740643033308

https://twitter.com/Timodc/status/1925524686798012443

https://twitter.com/LongTimeHistory/status/1925344605983449378

———— Deny. Defend. Depose. ————

https://twitter.com/DGlaucomflecken/status/1925348490680340979

The Guardian report: UnitedHealth secretly paid nursing homes to reduce hospital transfers

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

https://twitter.com/Ronxyz00/status/1925607149876502923

A Crypto Billionaire Who Feared Arrest in the U.S. Returns for Dinner With Trump

Crypto billionaire Justin Sun for years wouldn’t set foot in the U.S. for fear of arrest. The Chinese-born tycoon, facing scrutiny from U.S. authorities, even missed a chance to fly on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket despite paying $28 million for the opportunity.
Now, Sun isn’t just back in America. He is about to attend a dinner with President Trump as a VIP guest.
After weeks of industry speculation, Sun confirmed in a social-media post Tuesday that he is the largest holder of the president’s $TRUMP memecoin. His some $23-million stash catapults him into the exclusive circle of 25 investors who were invited to a private VIP reception with the president on Thursday.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1925727135391469821

https://twitter.com/rogertansey/status/1925238506747732421

———— Om wit te wees is nuttig. ————

https://twitter.com/PiperK/status/1925301087495758186

A Revealing Joke in the Oval Office

It has been said that the best jokes are dangerous because they are in some way truthful.
On Wednesday, a dangerous joke was told in the Oval Office. The South African president turned to the American president and said: ‘I’m sorry I don’t have a plane to give you.’
There was a lot packed into this one little aperçu. Nothing has so succinctly summed up the way the rest of the world feels it must now approach America as these 10 words…
The context was lost on no one.

https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1925636238851109042

———— Smoot-Hawley 2.0 ————

Trump Threatens 25% Tariffs If iPhones Not U.S. Made

Said Trump: “I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else. If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank your for your attention to this matter!”

Trump has always claimed that other countries pay tariffs. But now he’s explicitly saying that a company must pay.

Trump recommends 50% tariff on European Union starting June 1

The EU “has been very difficult to deal with,” Trump wrote of the 27-nation bloc. “Our discussions with them are going nowhere!”

Um, what happened to his assertion that trade wars are easy?

———— DOGE ————

DOGE went looking for phone fraud at SSA — and found almost none

———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————

https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1925543896240501073

———— Mors Imperii ————

https://twitter.com/Mollyploofkins/status/1925327206718296353

New Social Security Chief Had to Google His Job

The newly sworn-in head of the Social Security Administration told agency staff this week that when he was first offered the job in the Trump administration, he wasn't familiar with the position and had to look it up online.
Frank Bisignano, a former Wall Street executive, said during a town hall with Social Security managers from around the country on Wednesday that he wasn't seeking a position in the Trump administration when he received a call about leading the SSA.
"So, I get a phone call and it's about Social Security. And I'm really, I'm really not, I swear I'm not looking for a job," Bisignano said, according to an audio recording of the meeting obtained by ABC News. "And I'm like, 'Well, what am I going to do?' So, I'm Googling Social Security. You know, one of my great skills, I'm one of the great Googlers on the East Coast."

https://twitter.com/NickyFrank30/status/1925254276617556079

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1925897044205445228

Serendipity:

There's more film and television for you to watch than ever before — good luck finding it

Streaming used to be easy. Now it feels like a full-time job

https://twitter.com/JarettSays/status/1924850958498201929

^{Badge thanks to @arcange}

Sarah Connor source

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