Odds and Ends — 5 December 2025

@preparedwombat 78

2 months ago

oddsandends

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

Italy sets hard MiCA deadline for crypto platforms to comply

Brexit’s slow‑burn hit to the UK economy

Precious Metals Soar, Bitcoin Stalls as Investors Hedge Fed 'Policy Error'

Coronavirus and Public Health:

Updated COVID-19 vaccine formula produces antibodies nearly three times longer than earlier versions, Emory study finds

Politics:

Grand jury declines to indict N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James, less than two weeks after the first case was dismissed

Morale in the U.S. Foreign Service Craters

One shocking stat: 98% of the roughly 2,100 Foreign Service members who responded to the voluntary survey reported poor morale.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1996544443139404228

Trump Delegates Pardon Power to Subordinates

When Donald Trump issued a sweeping pardon for allies in his bid to subvert the 2020 election, he stretched the boundaries of the pardon power in unprecedented ways.
The pardon’s language is so vague and limitless that it could apply to thousands of people. And now Trump’s Justice Department says it’s up to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Pardon Attorney Ed Martin to decide who, and which possible crimes, Trump actually meant to cover.
There’s no modern precedent — and maybe no historical precedent, either — for a president to delegate his pardon power to subordinates on a pardon this vaguely worded.

Justice Department Still Names Lindsey Halligan

Federal judges in Alexandria, Virginia, have lashed out at the Justice Department as they continue to list Lindsey Halligan on court documents — some going as far as striking her name from paperwork from the bench.

———— Stark. Raving. Mad. ————

Mad Man

I don’t know what is wrong with Donald Trump, but something clearly is. Yes, yes, he’s never been what one might call stable, but his instability is more apparent now, dangerously so. I mean, 150-160 overnight tweets on December 1—some incomprehensible, others just crazy. Michelle Obama controlling Joe Biden’s autopen?
And yet—this is kind of crazy, too—none of the great legacy newspapers have done, to my knowledge, an in-depth analysis of what he may have been thinking, what caused these effusions, whether there was any kind of pattern or explanation—or linked them to Trump’s nappiness at the Cabinet Obeisance Festival the following day, where, struggling not to doze off, he called Minnesota’s Somali community ‘garbage.’
Crude is on the crazy spectrum. Crazy is being defined down before our eyes. Trump is in a spitball lather, damp, mushy projectiles exploding in every direction.

Trump Is Fuming Over Coverage of His Health

The judge said Miller had made erroneous claims about warrantless arrests.

https://twitter.com/gilduran76/status/1996428539512680669

https://twitter.com/moorehn/status/1996605743206670561

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

https://twitter.com/cturnbull1968/status/1996594145654194669

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1996610553134129433

———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————

https://twitter.com/Microinteracti1/status/1996471009138905481

https://twitter.com/maria_drutska/status/1996496193296159043

https://twitter.com/Euan_MacDonald/status/1996595516860240003

The ‘Useful Idiots’ From America Whom Putin Is Playing Like a Flute

https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1996626603938386203

https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/1996620254227923435

https://twitter.com/visionergeo/status/1996577803920142440

https://twitter.com/NormOrnstein/status/1996700650722271525

———— Melon Husk ————

https://twitter.com/DarrigoMelanie/status/1996683167110222116

———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————

https://twitter.com/rgoodlaw/status/1996370386548887562

https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/1996439943506538712

https://twitter.com/rgoodlaw/status/1996609148381765715

'New York Times' lawsuit creates a new headache for Pentagon chief Hegseth

https://twitter.com/allenanalysis/status/1996443138940862809

https://twitter.com/SenBlumenthal/status/1996605781639123333

https://twitter.com/MikeNellis/status/1996679123633127748

https://twitter.com/HDruzin/status/1996594811072057535

———— Mors Imperii ————

University of Alabama shutters Black, female student magazines

A school official cited July guidance from Attorney General Pam Bondi.

https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1996613466476429527

Trump to Stop Considering LGBTQ Safety Standards

The Department of Justice has instructed inspectors to stop evaluating prisons and jails using standards designed to protect transgender, intersex and gender-nonconforming people from sexual violence.

https://twitter.com/svdate/status/1996674281472708713