Odds and Ends — 5 July 2025
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, AI, and Debt:
Bitcoin loses $108K as 14-year-old BTC sparks Satoshi rumors
https://twitter.com/GeauxGabrielle/status/1941138808617173026
Russian Arms Maker Wants Its Own Stablecoin Too—On Tron
Russian state-owned manufacturing firm Rostec has said it will roll out a ruble-pegged token called RUBx on Tron. And a payments platform to boot.
Coronavirus and Public Health:
Conspiracism and government distrust predict COVID-19 vaccine refusal
Politics:
https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/1941109127033549101
https://twitter.com/covie_93/status/1941180366473265199
Hamas Accepts Gaza Cease-Fire Proposal With American Assurances Over Talks to End War
https://twitter.com/KBAndersen/status/1941148925706351005
On average across pollsters and methods, 31% of Americans support the One Big Beautiful Bill, while 54% oppose it. That net rating of -23 is, to put it mildly, absolutely abysmal. That’s true in both absolute terms (having a majority against you with just a third in support is terrible!) and comparative terms.
According to data compiled by Georgetown’s Warshaw, the OBBBA is the second most unpopular piece of key legislation since 1990, and likely the most unpopular budget (I have to say ‘likely’ because we don’t have polls of every budget proposal) ever.
According to the polls, the only bill more unpopular than this year’s GOP budget bill is the 2017 Republican health care bill, which would have killed the funding mechanism for the Affordable Care Act, cut $800 billion from (basically eliminating) Medicaid, and slashed taxes on high earners.
Trump says ceasefire deal is near as Israeli strikes kill 138 Palestinians in Gaza
https://twitter.com/theLibraWay/status/1940983012143059112
https://twitter.com/soulkhan/status/1940860811431612618
https://twitter.com/lydiakauppi/status/1941158062259347621
Social Security Administration sends misleading email lauding Trump's new tax cuts law
———— Theresienstadt in the Everglades ————
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1941163418075156853
‘Alligator Alcatraz' signs go up outside migrant detention center in Everglades
https://twitter.com/MrsButters/status/1941249383925940602
———— Autocracy R Us ————
ICE + CBP + Palantir: A Tool of Mass Political Repression
With the passing of Trump’s bill, there is nothing preventing a total surveillance state backed up by state violence
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1941329165049036845
Trump’s Next Power Grab — “Election Reform” Is Here
The most dangerous chapter yet—and it’s already underway.
———— Blatant In-Your-Face Corruption ————
Trump’s Pardons Cost At Least $1.5 Billion
President Donald Trump’s pardons and commutations have cost more than $100 million in fines owed to the federal government and another $1.5 billion in restitution to victims.
———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1941093456946008184
https://twitter.com/covie_93/status/1941162566140703184
Donald Trump is giving Vladimir Putin every incentive to keep killing Ukrainians.
How the KGB recruited Donald Trump
Trump celebrates 38th year as a Russian asset
———— Mors Imperii ————
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1941119437979214088
July Fourth means community.
Pardoned Capitol Rioter Sentenced to Life
A Tennessee man pardoned by President Trump for taking part in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sentenced to life in prison for hatching a separate plot to assassinate the law enforcement officers who investigated his role in the riot.
Serendipity:
https://twitter.com/mariana057/status/1940971358181380495
‘Explosive increase’ of ticks that cause meat allergy in US due to climate crisis
Unusually aggressive lone star ticks, common in the south-east, are spreading to areas previously too cold for them
Paris opens river Seine for public swimming for first time since 1923
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Swimming in the Seine - wonderful!
I missed the story about Alligator Alcatraz flooding - what happened there?
Just a garden variety Florida summer rainfall. But hurricane season is just starting. The cynic in me thinks a disaster there is all part of the plan.