Odds and Ends — 5 October 2025

Why, yes. We did go to the Jack o Lantern Spectacular at the Minnesota Zoo last night. However did you guess?

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

Confidential lending will unlock trillions for DeFi markets

'Sell Shovels': This Firm Makes Dashboards for Strategy and Dozens of Bitcoin Treasuries

Coronavirus and Public Health:

Vaccinated but Still Got COVID? A New Study Helps Explains Why

Politics:

Populist billionaire and Trump supporter Babis cruises to Czech election win

Russ Vought’s Plan Was Decades in the Making

The memo symbolized Vought’s methodical march to accumulate power within the executive branch — and the outsized role he has played in getting to this moment. Vought’s vision for how to deconstruct Washington’s sprawling federal bureaucracy, shaped by his years toiling in Republican circles, is now being enacted.
Vought has transformed a role typically focused on the weeds of congressional appropriations into the Trump administration’s primary instrument to dismantle, piece by piece, federal agencies and spending plans.

https://twitter.com/SykesCharlie/status/1974495146009108722

American Jews Turn on Israel Over War in Gaza

Many American Jews sharply disapprove of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, with 61 percent saying Israel has committed war crimes and about 4 in 10 saying the country is guilty of genocide against the Palestinians.
The findings are striking given the long-standing ties between the U.S. Jewish community and Israel, suggesting the potential for a historic breach over the Gaza war.

https://twitter.com/scarylawyerguy/status/1974191102501806193

Have Cubans Fled One Authoritarian State for Another?

In the past few years, as many as two million people have escaped the island’s repressive regime and collapsing economy. Those who’ve made it to the U.S. face a new reckoning.

https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1974498972996599930

———— The Epstein Coverup ————

Mike Johnson hasn’t sworn in this new Democrat. Is it because she wants to release the Epstein files?

Yes.

———— Autocracy R Us ————

Judge Blocks Trump’s Deployment of National Guard

A federal judge on Saturday blocked the Trump administration from using Oregon National Guard soldiers to help quell nightly protests at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, Oregon.
Judge Karin Immergut, of the U.S. District Court in Oregon, sided with Democrats who run the state government when she issued a temporary restraining order blocking the mobilization. President Trump and the Defense Department had ordered 200 Oregon soldiers for a 60-day deployment.

https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1974625903151058963
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1974655958308798938

https://twitter.com/OccupyDemocrats/status/1974535212752347392
https://twitter.com/sarahlazare/status/1974545652492406864

https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1974639594684682536

https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1974541577361190957

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1974536166641914050
https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1974564321557611000

https://twitter.com/BenjaminBarr1A/status/1974491409026617466
https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1974211970808123410

———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————

https://twitter.com/officejjsmart/status/1974338731030294552

https://twitter.com/RafaMorgan64/status/1974258650391736444

https://twitter.com/NeilPHauer/status/1974212121308057603

https://twitter.com/ForeignPolicy/status/1965075908269629759

https://twitter.com/GloOouD/status/1974528406743130273

https://twitter.com/jaanikamerilo/status/1974472284304818490

———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————

https://twitter.com/KToropin/status/1974499798960030159
https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1974485666307469573
https://twitter.com/FPWellman/status/1974527273673085430

Questions After Quantico

———— Mors Imperii ————

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1974262572002980021

https://twitter.com/karlykingsley/status/1974494612996952455

Serendipity:

Nirvana “Will Resist With Vigor” as “Nevermind Baby” Appeals Judge’s Lawsuit Dismissal

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