Odds and Ends — 7 February 2026
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, AI, and Debt:
Three signs that Bitcoin price could be near ‘full capitulation’
South Korean Crypto Exchange Accidentally Gave Away $95 Billion in Bitcoin
The error was quickly corrected, but not before Bithumb users sold off billions in Bitcoin, temporarily crashing its listed price.
Coronavirus and Public Health:
How COVID and H1N1 swept through U.S. cities in just weeks
Politics:
Trump Officials Push Citizenship Question for Census
The Trump administration is moving forward with a field test of a citizenship question as part of early 2030 U.S. Census planning, raising fresh alarm that the question could make a comeback after being blocked in 2019.
https://twitter.com/TheTNHoller/status/2019774915151298977
Pardoned Capitol Rioter Pleads Guilty
A New York man accused of threatening to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries pleaded guilty Thursday, a year after President Donald Trump pardoned him for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2019898452365217976
Summing Up the Redistricting Wars
When Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called the newly-proposed Virginia congressional map “a brazen abuse of power and an insult to democracy” because it would flip four seats to Democrats, Virginia state Senate Pro Tempore Louis Lucas (D) responded: “You all started it and we fucking finished it.”
———— Minnesota Under Siege ————
https://twitter.com/UR_Ninja/status/2019736822256107925
https://twitter.com/Suzierizzo1/status/2019829376599162939
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/2019787072542810540
https://twitter.com/FrederickMelo/status/2019802672904188131
https://twitter.com/daviss/status/2019840902286758236
https://twitter.com/LePapillonBlu2/status/2019926821043617863
https://twitter.com/WedgeLIVE/status/2019880921067888971
———— Racist-in-Chief ————
https://twitter.com/Dexter__Wright/status/2019818383777362362
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2019819993626792019
https://twitter.com/cturnbull1968/status/2019825258333933609
https://twitter.com/mattmfm/status/2019821355164930160
https://twitter.com/Strandjunker/status/2019788892317028775
Trump Won’t Apologize for Racist Post
“No, I didn’t make a mistake. I look at a lot of — thousands of things. And I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine.”
https://twitter.com/OvieO/status/2019816074120925255
https://twitter.com/ChadHartmanShow/status/2019861043053216054
https://twitter.com/JamieBonkiewicz/status/2019863978760077630
https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/2019899844316242172
———— The Epstein Coverup ————
https://twitter.com/realstewpeters/status/2019859918405226730
Lutnick and Epstein Were in Business Together
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said he had ‘limited interactions’ with Jeffrey Epstein, but documents show they were in business together as recently as 2014.
Lutnick and Epstein each signed on behalf of limited liability companies that agreed on Dec. 28, 2012, to acquire stakes in a now-shuttered advertising technology company called Adfin, documents released among the so-called Epstein files show.
https://twitter.com/CatherineBelton/status/2019911780579897689
The Truth Is Out There: How the Epstein files turned everyone into conspiracists.
QAnon is premised on the idea that a global cabal is engaged in the rampant sex-trafficking of minors, and one takeaway from the never-ending Epstein blowback is that we really are governed by an overclass of degenerate elites.
What’s more, the crude underlying logic of QAnon is being reinforced with every new screen-grab of a terse missive from [email protected], making the universe of conspiracy thinking increasingly legible to the rest of us and creating a cycle of perpetual astonishment at the discovery of previously unsuspected webs of influence and intrigue.
In other words, the Epstein files are making us more like Marjorie Taylor Greene.
https://twitter.com/LauraEWebsterr/status/2019850166304747592
https://twitter.com/TelvinGriffin/status/2019804524383478236
———— Tulsi Gabbard ————
https://twitter.com/MarkWarner/status/2019837297408012425
https://twitter.com/MilesTaylorUSA/status/2019788842996224143
———— Autocracy R Us ————
https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/2019843604597047370
https://twitter.com/SeidelContent/status/2019875129879413000
https://twitter.com/David_J_Bier/status/2019797506687734190
https://twitter.com/TheJFreakinC/status/2019775978797510746
https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/2019976236475228226
Elections Officials Brace for Possible Trump Interference
Top bipartisan election officials from around the country are growing increasingly alarmed by what they see as President Donald Trump’s unprecedented push to interfere in the midterm elections.
A series of recent moves — from his administration’s requests for access to state voter rolls to a surprise FBI raid at a Fulton County election office — have solidified those concerns, with more than a dozen election officials from both parties telling Politico they fear Trump is laying the groundwork to undermine results still months away.
https://twitter.com/clearing_fog/status/2019605865687576633
DHS’s account of two Venezuelans shot by border patrol falls apart in court: ‘a smear campaign’
Immigration officials said agent shot two ‘vicious gang members’ in Portland, but records obtained by the Guardian reveal US prosecutor contradicted claims
https://twitter.com/amyklobuchar/status/2019763813680062582
https://twitter.com/johnbourscheid/status/2019806357239869482
https://twitter.com/TheJFreakinC/status/2019811565336166804
———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2019755359347294446
Don’t mention ‘Article 5,’ Finland warns US on Ukraine
https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/2019794651243245864
———— Mors Imperii ————
https://twitter.com/FT/status/2019557152977740249
For much of Trump’s first year in office many Democrats were reluctant to challenge his immigration policies, because their defeat in 2024 was widely seen as in part a response to surging immigration during the Biden years. Until recently, Democrats tried to keep the national conversation focused on affordability and Trump’s obvious failure to deliver on his promises to bring grocery prices way down.
While the Democratic strategy was an understandable response to a shattering electoral defeat, it rested on a cynical and nihilistic view of American voters: that they couldn’t be trusted to vote against a party that reveled in inflicting cruelty and injustice as long as the price of gasoline fell.
But recent events refute this nihilistic cynicism. Yes, Americans still name the economy as the most important political issue. But moral outrage over the Trump administration’s brutality (and its corruption, but that’s a subject for another post) has exploded as a political force over the past two months.
https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/2019825514450743464
The Intellectual Edgelords of the GOP
Macho displays and transgressive memes mark a significant shift in how the federal government sees and promotes its mission—and sanctions state violence. It may be tempting to see this change as an organic or bottom-up phenomenon, as if federal agencies are appealing to Proud Boys to lure more ICE recruits.
But the reality is that this transformation is the culmination of years of work by niche groups of conservative intellectuals who have long rejected America’s liberal traditions—and now dominate the halls of power.
https://twitter.com/Smorgasboredom/status/2019948220432990435
Serendipity:
https://twitter.com/isaiah_bb/status/2019774665149821240
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I checked through to one of your links (on the bitcoin selloff). Took a screenshot of one paragraph. Who taught these market analysts English?
Why can't they just write plain language? For instance this could be:
Pressure to sell has brought about the second largest Bitcoin selloff in two years. The forced selling is associated with increased market insecurity. Bitcoin holders are looking for investment positions that limit risk.
I don't know anything about the stock market or investing, but someone ought to talk to people in the industry about toning down the jargon.
Forgive the rant, but listening to market analysts is like listening to someone speaking a foreign language. The terminology is deliberately obscure. Why?