Odds and Ends — 28 April 2025
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, AI, and Debt:
Strategy Adds $1.4B in Bitcoin, Nears Limit of Equity Offering Program
Trump Team Brushes Off Economic Concerns
As President Donald Trump nears the 100th day of his second term, members of his administration are brushing off a wave of dismal economic polling, insisting that American consumers — and the economy — are still on solid footing despite anxiety over tariffs, inflation and financial market turmoil.
Japan denies report citing Bessent's push for strong yen
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
What to Eat When You're Living With Long COVID
Politics:
Ron and Casey DeSantis were plotting a political dynasty in Florida. Then came a scandal
https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1916666407015915824
Man Who Fell Asleep at Pope’s Funeral was Already Going to Hell, Says God
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1916633606438457517
Tensions over Kashmir and a warming planet have placed the Indus Waters Treaty on life support
———— Autocracy R Us ————
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1916630811631092080
https://twitter.com/johnpavlovitz/status/1916682420260135384
However Scared You Are, You Are Not Scared Enough
https://twitter.com/Gabino_Iglesias/status/1916245406343721086
———— Smoot-Hawley 2.0 ————
https://twitter.com/dotkrueger/status/1916499860368372222
UK and EU to defy Trump with ‘free and open trade’ declaration
https://twitter.com/acnewsitics/status/1916551507878564042
Trump Dodges Key Question on Team Tipping Off Wall Street Execs
Members of Donald Trump’s team reportedly gave Wall Street executives a heads-up about a coming trade deal.
https://twitter.com/Mollyploofkins/status/1916444214616826335
CEOs Slash Spending as Tariff Uncertainty Swirls
The new directive inside C-suites: Trim anywhere you can.
The unpredictability of President Trump’s stop-start trade offensive is paralyzing companies on just about every front except one—taking an ax to costs.
https://twitter.com/BonkDaCarnivore/status/1916637228110905550
———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————
Trump Tells Americans What Putin Wants Them to Hear
Bloomberg used a Large Language Model to scan more than 300 of Trump’s public comments between August 2024 and mid-March as well as more than 3,000 social media posts from the president and members of his administration since the start of 2025. The technique allows for comparing meaning across large volumes of text, even if the specific wording differs.
The results showed a correlation between Trump administration contacts with Putin and subsequent comments that echoed the Russian leader’s own positions.
———— Melon Husk ————
https://twitter.com/NickADobos/status/1916185360478224391
DOGE's $160 billion in savings have cost $135 billion, analysis finds
https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1916477704376852869
———— Mors Imperii ————
“What kind of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter.” — Terry Pratchett
https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1916650793647902720
The rapid remaking of a nation, in 100 days
https://twitter.com/John_Beckham14/status/1916284335931457606
Elite Universities Form Private Collective to Resist Trump
Leaders of some of the nation’s most prestigious universities have assembled a private collective to counter the Trump administration’s attacks on research funding and academic independence across higher education.
The informal group currently includes about 10 schools, including Ivies and leading private research universities, mostly in blue states. Strategy discussions gained momentum after the administration’s recent list of demands for sweeping cultural change at Harvard, viewed by many universities as an assault on independence.
The collective, as some are calling it, represents a separate, quiet and potentially more potent effort than recent public resolutions from university-aligned groups.
https://twitter.com/marlene4719/status/1916630240710778922
I went to a Christian men’s retreat in rural Virginia to try to understand what American guys see in Donald Trump. What I found changed how I see even myself.
https://twitter.com/guelphgirlchris/status/1916623689648664615
Serendipity:
https://twitter.com/ThatEricAlper/status/1916266038921986279
Chubby Checker, Outkast and the White Stripes Will Join The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, Bad Company and Soundgarden — but not Oasis or Phish — are also part of the 40th anniversary class.
Oh, that’s just wrong. Chubby Checker should have been inducted way before this. What took so long? He was hugely influential when I was a little kid, and I’m now a geezer. At least they did it while he’s still alive (83), but this is overdue.
Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber
A series of purposely brutalizing psychological experiments may have confirmed Theodore Kaczynski’s still-forming belief in the evil of science while he was in college.
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