Odds and Ends — 4 February 2026

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

South Korea gets rich from crypto… North Korea gets weapons

Tether Scales Back $20B Funding Push After Investor Resistance

Flash Fiction:

”Now see here 007, you can’t just use Her Majesty’s intelligence agencies as your own private escort service enabling your sex life.”

”But M, you’ve got to admit it’s reduced the champagne and oysters charges on my expense reports. Think of the savings to the government’s budget.”

”Even coming from you, that’s rather weak Bond.”

Written for this prompt.

Coronavirus and Public Health:

Long-COVID symptoms persist for years in nonhospitalized adults, study reveals

Politics:

https://twitter.com/Suzierizzo1/status/2018799713382797665

https://twitter.com/covie_93/status/2018778027618869611

Welcome to the Clicktatorship

Getting silenced on X is, and I realize how absurd it sounds, the worst professional fate a Trump official can face. It signals that Bovino is no longer a player in an administration that has, from top to bottom, merged a social-media-first worldview with authoritarian tendencies. I like to call it the clicktatorship. Political appointees in the clicktatorship are not just using online platforms as a mode of communication. Their judgment and decision making are hyper-responsive to what’s happening on the far-right internet. They view everything as content.
No one better exemplifies the clicktatorship than the president himself. Trump routinely makes policy announcements via social media. Consider when, in August, he attempted to fire the Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook on Truth Social. When a government lawyer was questioned by the Supreme Court on the lack of an appeals option for Cook, he suggested that Cook could simply have made her case on Truth Social. In the clicktatorship, due process is reduced to the right to post.

https://twitter.com/aaronklemz/status/2018775398348136712

The dildo of consequences often arrives unlubed: Republicans Are Freaking Out About Hispanic Voters

Republicans are in full-out panic mode over their plunging support with Hispanic voters after losing a special election in a ruby-red Texas district over the weekend.

https://twitter.com/caitlinmcgowan/status/2018703323361140814

https://twitter.com/swilkinsonbc/status/2018714723567501503

White House Falsely Accuses Man of Sex Crimes

———— Minnesota Under Siege ————

https://twitter.com/TheJFreakinC/status/2018427828799152171

https://twitter.com/WedgeLIVE/status/2018497112145633687
https://twitter.com/FordFischer/status/2018696528085319974

https://twitter.com/WIRED/status/2018775259726459336

Too little, too late: Border czar says feds will withdraw 700 law enforcement personnel from Minnesota immediately

About 2,000 agents will remain in the state after the drawdown, according to Homan. Pre-surge, the number was about 150. The reduction will not include "personnel providing security and responding to hostile incidents," Homan said.

Why should anyone take Homan’s assertion at face value? Just a few days ago, the DOJ said there were 3,000 agents here. We have no way of knowing if any of these numbers are accurate. It’s not as if the Trump regime has an aversion to lying to our faces.

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/2018848279681749138

https://twitter.com/rudyfunkmeyer/status/2018770084794155040

https://twitter.com/vincempls/status/2018732253589733783

https://twitter.com/Bongslinger86/status/2018775963878793269

https://twitter.com/maxnesterak/status/2018706960334352856

https://twitter.com/SenTinaSmith/status/2018802240602141172

———— The Kennedy Center ————

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2018652428686815566

https://twitter.com/literaryeric/status/2018683140198273323

https://twitter.com/AntiToxicPeople/status/2018558130238755326

———— The Epstein Coverup ————

https://twitter.com/MikeNellis/status/2018503412501844248

https://twitter.com/ImBreckWorsham/status/2018734642036134229

https://twitter.com/anniedufour99/status/2018809056136208787

Epstein, Israel’s Barak discussed ‘gigantic’ consultancy sums paid to Blair

https://twitter.com/JayShams/status/2018518557177618719

https://twitter.com/Daractenus/status/2018606846224052416

https://twitter.com/jimstewartson/status/2018804467265925339

Why the Epstein Scandal May Never Die

The internet is awash in speculation, suspicion and disgust over the millions of new pages of Jeffrey Epstein files released by the Justice Department on Friday.
Few believe the story is anywhere near finished.
The DOJ’s final release has delivered tantalizing revelations about Epstein’s ties to elite society. But it has brought neither clarity nor closure to the fundamental questions that have kept the scandal alive.

https://twitter.com/realstewpeters/status/2018558067894600169

https://twitter.com/covie_93/status/2018762294566826187

https://twitter.com/scarylawyerguy/status/2018798682045604021

———— Autocracy R Us ————

https://twitter.com/factpostnews/status/2018771055771333110

https://twitter.com/na_me_eso_atta/status/2018717698096505290

This Is Not a Drill

It’s only February, and the November elections are already in peril.
When I think back to the days and weeks before Jan. 6, 2021, one thing that’s clear is that many of us suffered from a failure of imagination. We knew President Trump’s lies and conspiracy mongering were dangerous, but it’s hard to think of a single person who predicted that a MAGA mob would storm the Capitol.
Very few people anticipated the sheer scale and scope of the effort to overturn the election or that an incredible 147 Republicans would vote not to certify Joe Biden’s clear and unambiguous presidential victory. We did not realize that they would go along with something that plainly corrupt and dangerous.
We must not make that mistake again.
And so I’m going to do something a little bit unusual. I’m going to ask you to imagine alongside me. But this is a different kind of imagination. It’s based on real events — things that are already occurring right in front of our eyes.

https://twitter.com/Bricktop_NAFO/status/2018599658587877703

https://twitter.com/shashj/status/2018659812490572010
https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/2018744071037104600

https://twitter.com/MilesTaylorUSA/status/2018685389452566951

https://twitter.com/leftcoastbabe/status/2018581428913811880

Intelligence watchdog shares whistleblower complaint involving Gabbard with Congress after monthslong delay

https://twitter.com/CarrieCnh12/status/2018520191290994692

Judge Limits Use of Weapons Against Anti-ICE Protests

A judge has ordered federal agents to stop firing tear gas and other crowd-control weapons at peaceful protesters and journalists who regularly gather outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Oregon

https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/2018750546190995483

https://twitter.com/Alterschwede66/status/2018681276849365474

https://twitter.com/nikosunity/status/2018752820124516553

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

https://twitter.com/CREWcrew/status/2018474637206642695

———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————

https://twitter.com/jimstewartson/status/2018497850720891173

https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/2018043856315392337

https://twitter.com/davetroy/status/2018779002668974413

———— Smoot-Hawley 2.0 ————

Profiles in Cowardice, Tariff Edition

By any reasonable standard, most of Trump’s tariffs are plainly illegal. Two lower courts have ruled against them. The Trump administration appealed those decisions, and in early November the Supreme Court heard arguments on the case. Many businesses that have found it impossible to make long-term plans with the fate of the Trump tariffs in limbo eagerly awaited the Court’s ruling.
They’re still waiting. And I can’t see any plausible explanation for the delay other than Supreme cowardice.

———— Melon Husk ————

https://twitter.com/adamscochran/status/2018722916708372757

———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————

https://twitter.com/rparloff/status/2018809391361954275

———— Mors Imperii ————

https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/2018748106960232601

Accountability for ICE and CBP

However bad you think the corruption and misconduct at ICE and CBP is — the reality is far far worse…
U.S. law enforcement has never experienced a scandal as big, as far-reaching, destructive, and as far-lasting as the wave of corruption and criminality that has overtaken CBP and the Border Patrol since 2005. It’s a story that too much of the public still doesn’t know and too many policymakers still don’t understand…
Criminality is so rampant inside CBP that it has seen one of its own agents or officers arrested every 24 to 36 hours since 2005. CBP’s misconduct scandal is so long-running that today it would be old enough to drink.

https://twitter.com/JonLemire/status/2018504193024102758

https://twitter.com/DavidPepper/status/2018817957623890102

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Wait, it’s all Minnesota? source

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