Odds and Ends — 25 February 2026

@preparedwombat 78

about 6 hours ago

oddsandends

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

Amazon’s CEO just made a scary prediction for 2026. Economists worry he’s right

The Looming Taiwan Chip Disaster That Silicon Valley Has Long Ignored

https://twitter.com/alex_prompter/status/2026226107104817207

US senator launches probe into Binance over Iran, Russia sanctions claims

Flash Fiction:

”We’re all wondering, what’s in the box?”

”Well sir, we’ve tried everything short of forcing it open. X-rays, CAT scan, MRI. What’s really strange is that each method produces images wildly different from the others. Whatever is in there must be very, very strange.”

”Let’s open it. Use the robot to do it. Behind the blast wall just in case.”

”Roger that. Okay people! Non-essential personnel to Sector Two. Lieutenant, instruct the robot to force off the lid from the box found in Dr. Pandora’s office the day she vanished.”

Written for this prompt.

Coronavirus and Public Health:

The Deaths Doctors Never Thought They’d See in the U.S.

For years, the worst outcomes of measles were all but unknown in the U.S. Now they look inevitable.

Politics:

Trump Voters Telling Pollsters They Never Voted for Him

There is a curious polling phenomenon where a nontrivial share of respondents falsely claim to have voted for the winner of the last election. Whether they’re lying, misremembering, or rewriting history, ‘winner’s recall’ is common enough that many reputable pollsters have observed it in past elections.
In our national polling of registered voters, though, we’re finding something different: a nontrivial chunk of people who are mad at Trump seem to suddenly have amnesia and no longer admit to having voted for him in 2024.
Voters abandoning the winning candidate is a pretty big reversal of a well-established phenomenon. But we now have enough data to suggest that it’s both real and the direct result of Trump’s unpopularity.

https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/2026666305789563086

The Pentagon's UFO Psyop

What happened when The Wall Street Journal reported a massive military disinformation operation — then stopped

The Supreme Court ruling, which included two justices appointed by Trump, is crystal clear: Trump did not have the authority to levy this tax on American businesses and consumers.
The tariffs were illegal. Trump took your money.
And it wasn’t a close call. The Court did not reverse itself or change precedent. This was not a novel reading of the Constitution or legislative text. Trump’s tariffs relied on an incredibly aggressive and unprecedented interpretation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Many legal experts — including Republicans — warned that Trump was on shaky legal ground and that even a very pro-Trump Supreme Court could strike them down.
Yet Trump took your money anyway, and now he won’t give it back.

———— Melon Husk ————

https://twitter.com/TheWarMonitor/status/2026104048668028989

https://twitter.com/hissgoescobra/status/2026128044440899904

https://twitter.com/JosephPolitano/status/2026428792965624014

———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————

https://twitter.com/JenGriffinFNC/status/2026384132360605892

https://twitter.com/karlykingsley/status/2026408689125544284

https://twitter.com/WesRoth/status/2026307377344213406

Anthropic Drops Flagship Safety Pledge

Anthropic, the wildly successful AI company that has cast itself as the most safety-conscious of the top research labs, is dropping the central pledge of its flagship safety policy…