Odds and Ends — 3 June 2025

12 days ago

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

Singapore orders local crypto firms to cease overseas activity by June 30

The U.S. Plan to Hobble China Tech Isn’t Working

The U.S. has tried almost everything to win the tech race against China—across areas as varied as AI, energy, autonomous vehicles, drones and EVs. So far, none of it has worked.

US Food and Drug Administration Launches AI Platform to 'Modernize' Agency

What could possibly go wrong?

Coronavirus and Public Health:

Behind the Scenes on the Science of The Last of Us

Behavioral ecologist David Hughes, who consulted on the video game that inspired the hit TV show The Last of Us, speaks about how our experience with the COVID pandemic changed the way we relate to zombie fiction.

Politics:

Iran Says U.S. Nuclear Proposal Is ‘Incoherent’

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1929610302145900656

Dutch Government Collapses Over Migration Dispute

The governing coalition in the Netherlands collapsed on Tuesday after the populist leader Geert Wilders withdrew his party over a dispute about migration policy, ending a rocky 11-month reign by the country’s first far-right government and triggering early elections.
The move by Mr. Wilders shows how much a debate over unauthorized migration continues to roil European politics, a decade after a large-scale influx of people fleeing wars or seeking better economic opportunities unsettled the region.

https://twitter.com/PaulRudnickNY/status/1929585530481557697

———— Palantir ————

https://twitter.com/JasonBassler1/status/1929222661730889735

https://twitter.com/theliamnissan/status/1929295300226580614

https://twitter.com/jimstewartson/status/1929540506037489895

https://twitter.com/JasonBassler1/status/1929586559348887561

https://twitter.com/ArtCandee/status/1929548511101456738

https://twitter.com/JasonBassler1/status/1929283059758899622

———— Medicaid ————

Republicans Are Flat-Out Lying About Their Medicaid Cuts

As President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ heads to the Senate, Republicans are trying their hardest to sell voters on the prospect of deep cuts to Medicaid and other social safety net programs in order to fund tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy. The process has involved plenty of bold-faced lying to constituents.
Republicans’ current reconciliation bill will kick an estimated 15 million Americans off of their health care coverage by 2034. The expected coverage rollback will primarily be fueled by increased requirements for Medicaid recipients, as well as changes made to Affordable Care Act marketplace policies and the failure of the bill to renew tax benefits for ACA plan purchasers.

———— Autocracy R Us ————

Beware: We Are Entering a New Phase of the Trump Era

As in a country at war, reports of human tragedy and extreme cruelty have become routine — not news.

https://twitter.com/cwebbonline/status/1929388166483701920

Scientists Ordered Not to Publish Without Approval

Senior officials at the US Department of Veterans Affairs have ordered that VA physicians and scientists not publish in medical journals or speak with the public without first seeking clearance from political appointees of Donald Trump.

———— Blatant In-Your-Face Corruption ————

Trump is the most corrupt president in history, here’s why he keeps getting away with it.

Trump Has Gutted Anti-Corruption Efforts

For decades, the FBI and the Justice Department have been the main enforcers of laws against political corruption and white-collar fraud in the United States. In four months, the Trump administration has dismantled key parts of that law enforcement infrastructure, creating what experts say is the ripest environment for corruption by public officials and business executives in a generation.
Trump aides have forced out most of the lawyers in the Justice Department’s main anti-corruption unit, the Public Integrity Section, and disbanded an FBI squad tasked with investigating congressional misconduct. They have issued a series of directives requiring federal law enforcement agencies to prioritize immigration enforcement. And they have ended a 50-year policy of keeping the Justice Department independent of the White House in criminal investigations.

———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————

https://twitter.com/KreusHakki/status/1929170999443853330

https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1929461348515074263

https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1929268113909948796

Ukraine Attacks Bridge Connecting Russia and Crimea

Ukraine said on Tuesday that it had hit the bridge connecting Russia and the occupied Crimean Peninsula with explosives planted underwater, in its third attack on the vital supply line for Moscow’s forces since the full-scale war began in 2022.

https://twitter.com/berlin_bridge/status/1929449646205653077
https://twitter.com/rshereme/status/1929524143910797426

Senators Say Putin Is Preparing for More War

Russian President Vladimir Putin is stalling at the peace table while preparing a new military offensive in Ukraine, two senior U.S. senators warned Sunday, arguing that the next two weeks could shape the future of a war that has already smashed cities, displaced millions and redrawn Europe’s security map.

https://twitter.com/KvotheTheArcane/status/1929320617771204931

https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1929544645647687951

https://twitter.com/ArturRehi/status/1929555692379058374

https://twitter.com/cossackgundi/status/1929587579630100722

https://twitter.com/TrentTelenko/status/1928312635419771105

I have no way to verify this but, if true, it’s icing on the cake:

https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1929721072682926339

https://twitter.com/PaasoMinna/status/1929273280923398479

———— Smoot-Hawley 2.0 ————

Trump Pushes Countries for Best Trade Offers

The Trump administration wants countries to provide their best offer on trade negotiations by Wednesday as officials seek to accelerate talks with multiple partners ahead of a self-imposed deadline in just five weeks.

If they’re smart, their “best offer” should be something along the lines of status quo ante.

The No. 1 Rule for Understanding Trump

In the past four months, President Trump has announced tariffs on Canada, paused tariffs on Canada, restarted tariffs on Canada, ruled out tariffs on certain Canadian goods, and then ruled in, and even raised, tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.
And that’s just for starters. On April 2, so-called Liberation Day, Trump announced a broader set of tariffs on almost every country in the world. Soon after, the plan was half-suspended. Then Trump announced a new set of elevated tariffs on China, from which he backtracked as well. Next the courts, as often happens, took over the job of erasing the president’s previously announced policies. Last week, a trade court struck down the president’s entire Liberation Day tariff regime as unconstitutional, only for a federal circuit court to reinstate the tariffs shortly thereafter. Now a higher court has the opportunity to do the funniest thing: undo the undoing of the undoing of the tariffs, which have been in a permanent state of being undone ever since they were created.
Got all that? No, you most certainly do not, and neither does anybody else.

———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————

https://twitter.com/RepJackKimble/status/1929561080226812103

https://twitter.com/covie_93/status/1929298239271870711

———— Mors Imperii ————

Trump Overshadows Supreme Court Ruling Season

The beginning of June marks the start of the traditional monthlong ruling season at the Supreme Court, when the justices hand down decisions in their biggest and most contentious cases.
But this year is different.
President Donald Trump’s second term has disrupted the court calendar, with the nine justices now spending as much time, if not more, juggling consequential emergency cases that need to be handled quickly as they do on the regular docket of cases that have gotten months of attention and deliberation.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1929660330466029570

Trump to Open Alaskan Wilderness to Drilling

The Trump administration said on Monday that it planned to eliminate federal protections across millions of acres of Alaskan wilderness, a move that would allow drilling and mining in some of the last remaining pristine wilderness in the country.

With petroleum prices having dropped about 15% from a year ago and drillers scaling back, why would petroleum companies want to try to develop in a high-cost region like the North Slope if the next Democratic President could just reverse Trump’s policy?

https://twitter.com/NotHoodlum/status/1929642953733296347

Think Trump’s Unpopular Now? Just Wait.