Odds and Ends — 6 April 2025

I got these four books for $3.25 at the Friends of the Library sale!

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

Crypto Outperforms Nasdaq as BTC Becomes 'U.S. Isolation Hedge' Amid $5T Equities Carnage

https://twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/1908545281463115957

Solana, Chainlink Support Coming to Both PayPal and Venmo

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

COVID-19 may put patients at risk for other infections for at least 1 year

Politics:

Trump Is Gaslighting Us

Gaslighters are manipulative and controlling, comfortable belittling and insulting others. They are accomplished at denying, lying, and projecting. And sometimes, if they’re lucky enough and skilled enough, they make it to the White House. When they do, the horrors that are usually visited on an individual are instead visited on an entire nation.
At that point, the enormous machinery of the federal government, supported by outside groups and media outlets, becomes part of a massive and relentless disinformation campaign. The aim is to provoke distrust, confusion, and disorientation, which corrodes people’s confidence in institutions and undermines their grasp of reality. The ultimate goal is to divide and weaken civil society, and to undermine its ability to mobilize and cohere.

Huge crowds gather in 'Hands Off' rallies nationwide in protest of Trump administration

Palestinian medics say a video of Gaza rescue crews under fire refutes Israeli claims

https://twitter.com/adgirlMM/status/1908319402703163678

———— Smoot-Hawley 2.0 ————

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1908478110485430632

https://twitter.com/anneapplebaum/status/1908077315306684751

There Are No Adults in the Room

There was no process. There are no power brokers. On questions of trade, there’s Donald Trump’s whims, his collection of clown car enablers, and maybe an intern who plugs some things into ChatGPT. That’s pretty much it.

https://twitter.com/tokitaeII/status/1908206498507088028

The freaking Commerce Secretary seems to have no concept of comparative advantage:

https://twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/1908580646152224893

Trump Has Already Botched His Own Bad Tariff Plan

Once you’ve said you might negotiate, nobody is going to believe you when you change your mind and say you’ll never negotiate.

https://twitter.com/SpencerHakimian/status/1907872662178717741

Jaguar Land Rover pauses shipments to US in April

It's Interesting How Truth Social Moved to Sell Stock Right Before Trump's Tariffs Were Announced

Canada Behind Anti-Tariff Billboards

Black and white billboards that popped up throughout Michigan have a simple message: ‘Tariffs are a tax.’
Paid for by the Canadian government, the billboards have been placed on key highways in 12 states and Washington D.C. in response to an escalating trade war with the United States.

https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1908333288348930399

https://twitter.com/1goodtern/status/1908419410508853365

‘Liberation Day’ Was Even Worse Than Expected

This is perhaps the worst economic own goal I have seen in my lifetime.

https://twitter.com/SpencerHakimian/status/1907929554649313594

———— Kalaallit Nunaat ————

https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/1908527242285559994

———— Autocracy R Us ————

https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1908299594464702627

DOJ attorney placed on leave after expressing frustration in court with government over mistakenly deported man

https://twitter.com/OrganizerMemes/status/1908194661065458172

Judge Weighs Holding Trump Officials in Contempt

At an emergency hearing, Boasberg temporarily blocked the administration from deporting alleged gang members to El Salvador without due process. Trump and his allies soon began calling for the judge’s impeachment. Online influencers, Republican lawmakers and the White House spokeswoman joined the attacks, drawing warnings from constitutional scholars about the need to respect the independence of the legal system.
Boasberg’s next decision may be one of his most fraught: whether to begin proceedings to potentially hold Trump officials in contempt for defying one of his orders in the deportation case.

———— Putin&Krasnov ————

It Should Not Have Been a Surprise to Anyone

As I’ve said for years about Putin, and which applies to other autocratic personalities like Trump: ‘Dictators always lie about what they’ve done, but are often quite plain about what they want to do.’ ‘Trump would never…’ is the new ‘Putin would never…’
Such people do and take whatever they can, unless they are stopped. That they don’t always succeed does not mean they were not sincere in their ambitions and won’t keep trying to fulfill them. Trump has only been emboldened by the sycophantic GOP this time around.

https://twitter.com/TimInHonolulu/status/1908698160677179708

———— Melon Husk ————

https://twitter.com/Adam0902731/status/1907970498723721630

———— Signalgate ————

https://twitter.com/FPWellman/status/1908508389451137395

https://twitter.com/TrueFactsStated/status/1908579955694305783

———— Mors Imperii ————

Bonus Quote of the Day

“He’s at the peak of just not giving a fuck anymore. Bad news stories? Doesn’t give a fuck. He’s going to do what he’s going to do.” — A White House official, quoted by the Washington Post, on Donald Trump.

https://twitter.com/madrid_mike/status/1908268514554888222

An Orwellian Solution to Pay for Trump’s Tax Cuts

Senate Republicans on Wednesday decided their party alone would control how math works. This is a pressing legislative question at present, because pretzeling budgetary outcomes into prettier shapes and sizes will determine whether Republicans can pass President Donald Trump’s promised tax cuts.
Those cuts are very expensive. Not only do they include extensions of the 2017 tax law provisions (set to expire this year), but they also lower corporate rates as well as carveouts for tips, auto loan payments and other goodies. In total, Trump’s preferred tax agenda could cost between $5 trillion and $11 trillion over the next decade.
This is inconvenient. Republicans like to pretend they’re fiscal conservatives (at least some of the time). They would prefer not to acknowledge the hefty price tag, and they also don’t want to fully offset it with unpopular spending cuts.
So, they’ve devised a cheat. Rather than admitting how much their tax agenda would cost, they are simply asserting that they get their first $4 trillion — free!

This never gets old:

https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/727604522156228608

Serendipity:

Foreign aid cuts could mean 10 million more HIV infections by 2030 – and almost 3 million extra deaths

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