Odds and Ends — 31 May 2026

about 1 hour ago

For at least the past year, and even more so in the three months since the idiotic American-Israeli attack on Iran, I’m routinely shocked by the price increases I’ve been seeing while shopping for groceries. And we’re a middle class family, arguably upper-middle. How are lower-middle class and poor families surviving this onslaught of inflation? How long until quiet suffering morphs into anger? How much can people take?

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

Bitcoin sentiment reaches most ‘lopsided positive’ ratio for 2026: Santiment

https://twitter.com/kasthomas/status/2060314500876607798

Wintermute Is Providing Liquidity on Kalshi and Polymarket, Linking Two Giants

Coronavirus and Public Health:

Ebola response puts Trump on collision course with global health body

Iran:

https://twitter.com/thejackhopkins/status/2060463900961714394

https://twitter.com/covie_93/status/2060367943393837495

U.S. Has Not Confirmed Mines in Strait of Hormuz

The U.S. military has not confirmed that Iran placed mines in the Strait of Hormuz despite continued searches of the critical waterway, adding to growing confusion around the war.
The military searches using underwater drones, water robots and manned and unmanned aircraft have found some objects that could be mines, but none have been definitively identified.

https://twitter.com/mark_dow/status/2060060492312330503

Politics:

Indiana Lt. Governor Calls Islam a ‘Demonic Death Cult’

Said Beckwith: “I am going to call on others to hate it, because I hate Islam. It is a death cult. Now I love Muslims, because they make great Christians when Jesus gets a hold of them, but I hate Islam. And we need to be okay with hating again.”

https://twitter.com/TonySeruga/status/2060382179834921299

Why the GOP Would Rather Talk About Testosterone

Miller’s slur was not a one-off. Indeed, the White House troll was signaling the GOP’s go-to strategy for propping up its scandal-infested senate nominee: portraying his opponent, Democrat James Talarcio, as a light-in-the-loafers, low-t, possibly gay, tofu-eating vegan.
None of that is true, but the GOP absolutely thinks this will work, because they think it was the kill-shot in 2024.
And obviously, the GOP would much rather talk about Talarico’s manlinesss than about inflation, gas prices, corruption, the Epstein Files, endless wars, Ken Paxton’s corruption, or the character of the man who has grabbed their party by its etiolated balls.

https://twitter.com/Ike_Saul/status/2060467758433775932

Trump Clears Way for Companies to Avoid Taxes in Havens

A year ago, the Trump administration withdrew from a global effort to curb offshore tax-dodging by multinational companies. That decision has been a huge gift to corporate America, enabling companies to avoid at least $40 billion in income taxes since the beginning of 2025.
A New York Times review of securities filings from nearly 500 companies showed that they avoided taxes by attributing hundreds of billions of dollars in earnings to low- or no-tax foreign locales like Cyprus, Bermuda, Switzerland and the Cayman Islands. Often, corporations funneled the profits through subsidiaries in places where they had no employees, offices or customers.

https://twitter.com/AmericaFirstCon/status/2060556327773143072