Odds and Ends — 27 June 2025

@preparedwombat 78

5 days ago (Edited)

oddsandends

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

Adventures in unit bias milestones: last night while sleeping, my Hive Power passed 90,000.

Barclays to ban crypto transactions on credit cards

US Treasury Secretary Predicts 15x Stablecoin Growth — Bitcoin ‘Super Cycle’ To Follow?

Coinbase US Perpetuals Are Arriving Next Month as Stock Soars to New Heights

Coronavirus and Public Health:

RFK Jr.’s Advisers Rescind Recommendations for Vaccines

An advisory panel recently appointed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voted on Thursday to walk back longstanding recommendations for flu vaccines containing an ingredient that the anti-vaccine movement has falsely linked to autism.
The vote signaled a powerful shift in the way federal officials approach vaccines, putting into action Mr. Kennedy’s deep skepticism about their safety and delivering the first blows to a scientific process that for decades has provided effective vaccines to Americans.

https://twitter.com/GeneralMCNews/status/1938273917933932789

Measles Cases Soar in California

California has already reported more measles cases this year than in all of 2024, a worrisome development that comes as the nation is suffering its largest outbreak of the super-infectious disease in decades.
The extent of the national outbreak has rocketed measles from a back-of-mind issue — one rarely, if ever, encountered by a whole generation of Americans — to a pressing public health concern.

https://twitter.com/IrwinRedlenerMD/status/1938095307570512222

Politics:

Conservative Judges Shun Retirement Under Trump Second Term

Federal judges are retiring at a historically slow pace at the onset of President Donald Trump’s second term, most strikingly among those appointed by his Republican predecessors.
Few of the roughly 70 Republican-appointed judges eligible to take a form of partial retirement or completely step down from the bench as of June 1 have done so, denying Trump the chance to pick their replacement.
The lack of new vacancies is thwarting Trump’s plans to continue replacing an older and more moderate generation of Republican-appointees with younger and even more conservative jurists.

https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1938434823300804636

https://twitter.com/lawindsor/status/1938218925952770334

America’s New Language of Climate Denial

The Trump administration has moved from outright denying the science of global warming to simply dismissing it.

https://twitter.com/acnewsitics/status/1938280661028376801
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1938378245269033343

Republicans are calling on Trump to revoke Mamdani’s citizenship and deport him

https://twitter.com/WalshFreedom/status/1938330196517482971

———— Israel/Krasnov/Iran ————

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1938335072215830977

https://twitter.com/wmhuo168/status/1938228892390854820

Trump Threatens to Sue the New York Times and CNN

…Trump on Wednesday threatened to sue The New York Times and CNN for publishing articles about a preliminary intelligence report that said the American attack on Iran had set back the country’s nuclear program by only a few months.
The Times’ attorney responded: “No retraction is needed. No apology will be forthcoming. We told the truth to the best of our ability. We will continue to do so.”

https://twitter.com/allenanalysis/status/1938289202191323496

https://twitter.com/Angry_Staffer/status/1938368726966964626

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1938381581669798031

https://twitter.com/PrincessBravato/status/1938274286235713827

———— Autocracy R Us ————

Judge Ridicules Trump Admin in Kilmar Abrego Garcia Case: 'Defies Logic'

”At bottom, the Government asks the Court to save it from itself because it may suffer irreparable harm completely of its own making,” the judge wrote…

https://twitter.com/grantstern/status/1938216550311362639

“Pete Hegseth was a paid liar for Fox. Now he’s Donald Trump’s appointed liar.” — Lawrence O’Donnell

https://twitter.com/DecodingFoxNews/status/1938228618208981245
https://twitter.com/JoJoFromJerz/status/1938272278682206307

https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1938248422378651783

https://twitter.com/allenanalysis/status/1938216310690677150

———— Mors Imperii ————

They’re eating the checks, they’re eating the balances: Some Republicans Want Senate Parliamentarian Fired

The Senate’s top rules arbiter has some Republicans fuming, casting a harsh spotlight on the obscure but powerful official.
On Thursday, some Republicans called for the firing of Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough after she effectively blocked a number of GOP proposals central to their fast-track budget legislation, hampering party leaders’ ability to quickly pass President Trump’s sprawling domestic-policy bill.

https://twitter.com/RepJackKimble/status/1938095872853549109

Support Rises For Giving Most Undocumented Immigrants A Pathway To Legal Status vs. Deportations

Nearly two-thirds of voters (64 percent) say they prefer giving most undocumented immigrants in the United States a pathway to legal status, while 31 percent say they prefer deporting most undocumented immigrants in the United States, according to a Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pea-ack) University national poll of registered voters released today.
This is a change from roughly six months ago. In Quinnipiac University's December 18, 2024 poll, 55 percent of voters said they preferred giving most undocumented immigrants a pathway to legal status and 36 percent said they preferred deporting most undocumented immigrants in the United States.

https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/1938275538713358606

Former Supreme Court Justice Kennedy says ‘democracy is at risk’