Odds and Ends — 24 March 2025
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, AI, and Debt:
Michael Saylor’s Strategy surpasses 500,000 Bitcoin with latest purchase
https://twitter.com/jhensonpogue/status/1903939921573999077
Bitcoin Has Been Trading Like a Tech Stock: Standard Chartered
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
A Clearer Picture of Covid’s Lasting Effects on the Body
Politics:
https://twitter.com/patdubois/status/1903570777221353523
Snap Election Pits Canada Against Trump
Prime Minister Mark Carney called a snap election on Sunday, saying he needs a mandate from Canadians to take on U.S. President Donald Trump.
The federal campaign kicks off days ahead of a new slate of Trump tariffs, and at a time when Canadians are increasingly worried the president will make good on his threats of economic and cultural takeover.
https://twitter.com/LHSummers/status/1903533238653460633
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1903967606295396700
Turkey Lurches Toward Outright Autocracy
Turkey took a sharp turn toward full autocracy on Sunday when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main political rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, was jailed amid a major crackdown on the opposition.
İmamoğlu, a highly popular secularist who was widely seen as the most likely next president to succeed the Islamist Erdoğan, responded with an impassioned call for mass demonstrations to save democracy in the NATO heavyweight of 86 million.
https://twitter.com/jordan_harper/status/1903821708945211710
The Disappeared: Trump’s Mass Deportation Machine and the Shadow Prison in El Salvador
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1903790089664176553
https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1903627877918162960
Trump's Domestic War on Terrorism
From Tesla vandals to college protesters, Americans are the new target
https://twitter.com/DavidAFrench/status/1903576774711366142
https://twitter.com/EdKrassen/status/1903791538917736885
Palestinian deaths in Gaza rise above 50,000 as Israel expands its military campaign
https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1903865669780967779
‘Deport every person under the sun’: ICE detains Cubans during immigration appointments
https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1903916962188816550
https://twitter.com/GretaGrace20/status/1903586502438801497
———— Melon Husk ————
Elon Musk’s Cuts Leave a Vacuum That China Can Fill
As the Department of Government Efficiency roars through agencies across government, its targets have included some of the organizations that Beijing worried about most, or actively sought to subvert.
And, as with much that Elon Musk’s DOGE has dismembered, there has been no published study of the costs and benefits of losing those capabilities — and no discussion of how the roles, arguably as important as a manned fighter, might be replaced.
https://twitter.com/DoctorHenryCT/status/1903617703270641824
Pam Bondi warns Jasmine Crockett to ‘tread very carefully’ in what she says about Elon Musk
Call it a guess, but Jasmine Crockett doesn’t give a rat’s ass about what Pam Bondi has to say.
https://twitter.com/OAlexanderDK/status/1903715026810134816
‘Lawsuit Inbound’: Musk Threatens He’s ‘Had Enough’ After Jamaal Bowman Calls Him ‘Nazi’ and ‘Thief’
If this evolves from a mere threat into an actual lawsuit, discovery could be a hoot.
https://twitter.com/HalfwayPost/status/1903605464761499824
———— Attacks on the Rule of Law ————
https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1903224718465044560
Emboldened Trump Signals Long Court Fight to Expand Power
https://twitter.com/DavidAFrench/status/1903905574636634547
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1903825982076666158
What the Venezuelans Deported to El Salvador Experienced
https://twitter.com/neeratanden/status/1903776733469237515
The Trump administration’s efforts to chill opposition among the elite legal class are working. Even before the Paul, Weiss deal, lawyers at major law firms in New York and Washington were struggling to find ways to collectively push back against the Trump administration’s efforts to punish disfavored law firms, which began with Covington & Burling and Perkins Coie.
Trump’s deal with the firm spurred phone calls and text messages across the elite legal class — many expressing shock and concern, and a relative few taking modest pleasure in the public blowback (which could prove to be a business opportunity for competitors looking to poach clients). Democratic legal strategist David Axelrod also posited that the deal could have more direct political effects on the Democratic Party by deterring lawyers at large firms from campaign fundraising.
…Virtually no one with any long-term standing in the private legal community is willing to speak publicly about it, partly out of fear that they or their firms could wind up in Trump’s crosshairs.
https://twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/status/1903832082729537543
———— Krasnov/Putin/Ukraine ————
https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1903808028324851971
https://twitter.com/A_SHEKH0VTS0V/status/1903711813079801922
https://twitter.com/Tom_Antonov/status/1903530858247823809
———— Jessica Aber ————
https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1903592258663813606
https://twitter.com/JamesTate121/status/1903911064439493092
https://twitter.com/BlackKnight10k/status/1903630451517878492
———— Grifters Gonna Grift ————
https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1903862846653653259
https://twitter.com/MikeOkuda/status/1903851593084379152
https://twitter.com/Jurgen80048425/status/1903842345658753290
Serendipity:
https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1903883268421816366
TIL that the silver medalist in that race was another Black man, Ralph Metcalfe, who went on to serve in WW2 and in America’s Congress. And that the bronze medalist was a Dutch asshat who later joined the SS and helped to deport Jews to concentration camps.
https://twitter.com/NoContextBrits/status/1903546687765012517
It is unrelentingly miserable at times, fair play for keeping at it!
An article I came across today...
https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/six-short-thoughts-on-the-most-insane-trump-story-of-all-time
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