Odds and Ends — 5 June 2025
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, AI, and Debt:
Meta Shareholders Overwhelmingly Reject Proposal to Consider Bitcoin Treasury Strategy
U.S. Economy Stalled Last Month
The U.S. economy slowed to a crawl in May, with consumers pulling back on spending and businesses delaying hiring, according to the Federal Reserve‘s Beige Book survey released Wednesday.
According to the report, nine of the 12 Fed districts reported contraction in economic activity or no change in growth. The remaining districts saw slight growth.
Amazon to Spend $10 Billion on North Carolina Data Centers for AI Expansion
Coronavirus and Public Health:
Top CDC covid vaccine adviser quits after RFK Jr. ended recommendations
A top coronavirus vaccine adviser at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has resigned, citing concerns that she could no longer help vulnerable people after federal health officials rescinded long-standing recommendations to immunize children and pregnant women.
Is Meghan McCain that desperate for some extra cash? On Wednesday, she announced a partnership with a fringe ‘detox’ product marketed to people who ‘regret taking’ the Covid vaccine. On social media, she warned of ‘concerning data’ about mRNA shots and spoke of friends who she said suffered heart and menstrual issues after the jab—before plugging a supplement she claimed can flush the vaccine from your system…
For someone who spent years portraying herself as the voice of reason on the right, this is quite the grift.
Politics:
Gaza now worse than hell on earth, humanitarian chief tells BBC
Finally, a Republican Just Admits It
Maybe Joni Ernst is onto something.
———— Autocracy R Us ————
Trump Aims to Be Sole Arbiter of Judges
In an era where fidelity to the whims of Trump is far more important than allegiance to any conservative legal agenda, much less the rule of law, Trump aims to be the sole arbiter of who’s qualified and fit for federal judgeships.
If Trump can reduce or even eliminate both the ABA’s and the Federalist Society’s impact on the judicial selection process, he’ll become the only judge of judges who matters — which is exactly, I would posit, how he wants it.
https://twitter.com/joni_askola/status/1930191802516008999
Firings, pardons and policy changes have gutted DOJ anti-corruption efforts
“He’s dismantling not just the means of prosecuting public corruption, but he’s also dismantling all the means of oversight of public corruption. The law is only for his enemies now.”
This Russian Dissident Won Political Asylum. ICE Refuses To Release Him.
ICE Invaded Child’s Birthday Party Claiming It Was a Gang Meeting
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1930419044529696864
Judge Orders Trump to Give Due Process to Deported Migrants
A federal judge in Washington ordered the Trump administration on Wednesday to take steps toward giving nearly 140 Venezuelan immigrants who were deported to El Salvador in March under a rarely invoked wartime law the due process that they had been denied.
In a sweeping and at times outraged opinion, the judge, James Boasberg, compared the expelled men to characters in a Kafka novel. Judge Boasberg also asserted that they were likely to prevail in their claims that President Trump had treated them unfairly by deporting them without hearings to a brutal Salvadoran prison under the expansive powers of the wartime statute, known as the Alien Enemies Act.
———— Blatant In-Your-Face Corruption ————
In a matter of weeks, the flood of cash swirling around the White House swamped whatever bulwarks against corruption remained in American law and culture.
———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————
https://twitter.com/victoriaslog/status/1930017784366256181
The Myth of Trumpian Deterrence
He says Russia wouldn’t have attacked Ukraine if he were president. But Russia keeps attacking Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/olgatokariuk/status/1930312057901003169
https://twitter.com/mefimus/status/1930343836393357446
———— Smoot-Hawley 2.0 ————
https://twitter.com/SpencerHakimian/status/1930239980581839205
On May 12 Donald Trump suddenly reduced the tariff on China from 145 percent to 30 percent. This may seem like a big reduction. But while the higher rate would have completely cut off trade with China, even the lower tariff rate, by my estimates, would cut U.S.-China trade by two-thirds. It wasn’t clear that much had changed.
But many retail investors, engaging in wishful thinking, interpreted the apparent climb-down as proof of concept for TACO — Trump always chickens out. So the stock market began behaving as if Trump would soon find an off-ramp out of his whole tariff obsession. Notably, however, the bond and currency markets, dominated by pros, didn’t let up on the “sell America” trade — the dollar continued to fall while interest rates continued to rise.
So I’m not convinced that the worst is over.
https://twitter.com/Andie00471/status/1930197687220974073
———— Mors Imperii ————
We are witnessing the suicide of a superpower
The president’s assault on science dangerously undermines America’s superpower status.
https://twitter.com/allenanalysis/status/1930277574799675461
Trump Investigating Whether DEI Causes Plane Crashes
When President Donald Trump blamed diversity, equity, and inclusion programs for the deadly January crash at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, some aviation officials were appalled. Some were simply perplexed. But few officials inside the Federal Aviation Administration took the president’s remarks seriously.
Not so for the political leadership of the Department of Transportation. The FAA’s parent agency agreed in March to spend as much as $2.1 million on an investigation into DEI policies and their impact on recent safety incidents.
https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/1930398845390753957
Serendipity:
https://twitter.com/adrianmckinty/status/1930266020742042009
The US Grid Attack Looming on the Horizon
A major cyberattack on the US electrical grid has long worried security experts. Such an attack wouldn’t be easy. But if an adversary pulled it off, it’d be lights out in more ways than one.
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