Odds and Ends — 25 October 2025

6 days ago

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

Binance founder CZ’s presidential pardon is not an acquittal

A presidential pardon spares CZ from punishment but not guilt — cementing his conviction, blocking appeal options, and exposing Binance to civil lawsuits.

https://twitter.com/SweetFnLucifer/status/1981710606576275841

Trump Picks SEC Crypto Task Force’s Mike Selig to Run CFTC

Coronavirus and Public Health:

We’ve Entered the Gaslighting Phase of Covid in Prisons

Politics:

Keeping the House Absent, Johnson Marginalizes Congress and Himself

“I’m the speaker and the president,” Mr. Trump has joked…

Pentagon to use $130 million donation from anonymous Trump ‘friend’ to pay military members

https://twitter.com/PrezLives2022/status/1981827841500360771

———— The People’s House ————

https://twitter.com/SkylineReport/status/1981588184522731653

https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1981708748755509262

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1981873198179488045

My Quest to Find the East Wing Rubble

An entire part of the White House can’t just disappear.

https://twitter.com/dieworkwear/status/1981878055976288413

https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1981803127645913222

Bill Clinton once called the White House movie theater the ‘best perk’ of the job. It was destroyed this week

https://twitter.com/JaredEMoskowitz/status/1981769364732010847

https://twitter.com/ClueHeywood/status/1981878441113989234

https://twitter.com/TimHannan/status/1981669734178591230

https://twitter.com/JamesTate121/status/1981696744481276301

———— Stark. Raving. Mad. ————

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1981928940961685847

Can Trump really believe that Reagan loved tariffs? Stupidity or dementia might explain it.

———— The Epstein Coverup ————

https://twitter.com/BlueATLGeorgia/status/1981843801447481688

———— Autocracy R Us ————

https://twitter.com/propublica/status/1981495913844515112

In every banana republic you need enablers

In any so-called banana republic you need enablers. President Donald Trump has Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, and Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito leading the charge. Johnson is pulling Congress along with the justices who are the most ferocious defenders of Trump on the Supreme Court. It just takes a handful of enablers to allow a king to assume his crown – or to have a banana republic. And these guys are exceptionally good at what they do.

https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1981477653140902086
https://twitter.com/Mollyploofkins/status/1981723395294109727

US ‘on a trajectory’ toward authoritarian rule, ex-officials warn

A network of former intelligence and security officers says democratic decline is accelerating under Trump’s rule

https://twitter.com/MilesTaylorUSA/status/1981833913648525744

https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1981607509057048656

https://twitter.com/dutchessprim/status/1981472614217285754

Donald Trump triggered a new bout of global trade turmoil on Friday, as his administration cleared the way for new tariffs on China and the U.S. president lashed out at Canada, a day after having cut off talks with his country’s northern neighbor.

———— Are All Billionaires This Out of Touch? ————

Jeff Bezos Says He Doesn't Understand Why Anybody Alive Now Would Be 'Discouraged'—Because Soon, 'Millions Of People Will Be Living In Space'

———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————

Trump Will Not Seek Authorization for Cartel Strikes

…Trump said on Thursday that he would bypass Congress rather than seek its approval to carry out military strikes against drug cartels that traffic narcotics to the United States, even as he vowed to expand the operation from attacks at sea to targets on land.
Said Trump: “I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we are going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We are going to kill them, you know? They are going to be, like, dead.”

https://twitter.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1981704139659956349

White House Flaunts Its Indifference to the Law

Since he returned to office nine months ago, President Trump has sought to expand executive power across numerous fronts. But his claim that he can lawfully order the military to summarily kill people accused of smuggling drugs on boats off the coast of South America stands apart.
A broad range of specialists in laws governing the use of lethal force have called Mr. Trump’s orders to the military patently illegal. They say the premeditated extrajudicial killings have been murders — regardless of whether the 37 people blown apart, burned alive or drowned in nine strikes so far were indeed running drugs.