Odds and Ends — 8 August 2025

@preparedwombat 78

7 days ago

oddsandends

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

Ethereum Foundation Pledges to Match $500K for Roman Storm’s Legal Defense

Grok generates fake Taylor Swift nudes without being asked

Mixing AI and Nuclear Weapons Is Inevitable

Human judgement remains central to the launch of nuclear weapons. But experts say it’s a matter of when, not if, artificial intelligence will get baked into the world’s most dangerous systems.

Coronavirus and Public Health:

What do we know about the Covid-19 virus five years on?

The Race to Find a Measles Treatment as Infections Surge

As a record number of people in the U.S. are sickened with measles, researchers are resurrecting the search for something long-deemed redundant: treatments for the viral disease.
After the measles vaccine was introduced in the 1960s, cases of the disease plummeted. By 2000, federal officials had declared measles eliminated from the U.S. This success led to little interest in the development of treatments. But now, as vaccination rates fall and infections rise, scientists are racing to develop drugs they say could prevent or treat the disease in vulnerable and unvaccinated people.

Politics:

Bid to Expel Texas Democrats Heads to Court

Texas Democrats had been out of state for less than 48 hours when Gov. Greg Abbott moved to have their seats declared vacant.
The emergency legal filing represents an unprecedented escalation of Abbott’s effort to pass a new congressional map that adds additional GOP seats, as demanded by President Donald Trump. It flies in the face of Texas’ own founding documents, centuries of legal precedent and a recent Supreme Court of Texas ruling…
But just because legal precedent is not on his side doesn’t mean Abbott’s case is doomed. The long-shot filing is before the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court, where Abbott has appointed six of nine justices.

Europe Has a France Problem

For the French political elite, this is a moment of scarcely concealed glee. The Trump administration’s deep hostility toward Europe—including the imposition of steep new tariffs, verbal attacks on European values, open support for far-right parties, and threats to invade Greenland—vindicates the vision of a strategically autonomous continent held by generations of French leaders.
It was French President Charles de Gaulle, after all, who repeatedly expressed his belief in the 1960s that it was France’s mission to liberate Western Europe from its role as a de-facto U.S. protectorate after World War II.

Nancy Mace loses it after being fact-checked to her face.

———— The Epstein Coverup ————

Vance’s Meeting on Epstein Took Place at White House

A much-anticipated meeting between Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, Vice President JD Vance and others was moved from Vance’s residence to the White House Wednesday night after intense media coverage.

This is the meeting that they first said wasn’t happening, then they said was “cancelled,” then they went ahead with it anyway at a different venue. Nothing at all shady.

Epstein victims are a growing political threat to Trump

———— Theresienstadt in the Everglades ————

Federal Judge Halts Construction at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’

A federal judge in Miami on Thursday ordered construction to be paused at Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz, the first state-run detention center in the country opened to accommodate the Trump administration’s arrest of immigrants.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams for the two-week halt to new construction at the facility in the Everglades followed a hearing in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups and joined by the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians.

———— Gaza ————

Netanyahu Plans to Take Military Control of All of Gaza

https://twitter.com/DecampDave/status/1953236132625338510

Satellite Images Show Israel Building Up Forces

Commercial satellite images show the Israeli military building up troops and equipment near the border with Gaza that would support a possible new ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave.
The images show troop movements and formations that the four sources recognized as signs of an imminent major ground operation.

———— We Live in the Stupidest Timeline ————

Don Jr. Posts Image of Father Throwing a Dildo

———— Autocracy R Us ————

Pro-Trump group wages campaign to purge “subversive” federal workers

There are 175 federal employees, mostly civil servants, named on “watchlists” posted online by the American Accountability Foundation, “which wants them removed from their jobs for allegedly promoting liberal ideologies.
Many are women and people of color with long careers under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Most have little or no public profile and have spent their careers in behind-the-scenes government roles.

Trump Continues Purge of FBI Officials

The FBI is forcing out at least two agents, including a former acting head of the bureau, as the director, Kash Patel, continues a purge at the nation’s premier law enforcement agency.

———— Blatant In-Your-Face Corruption ————

Tim Cook’s Golden Gift

First, I simply must apologize to Mark Zuckerberg. As embarrassing and cringe-worthy as his shows of fealty to Donald Trump may have been in the past, they don’t hold a candle to the show Tim Cook just put on – in the Oval Office, no less. I mean, this video is just so comically pathetic that it almost makes you wonder if Cook has been brainwashed…
Visitors to the White House bestowing Presidents with gifts is nothing new, of course. The difference here, with this particular President, is all the overtly obvious quid-pro-quo going on.

https://twitter.com/allenanalysis/status/1953512940692177138

https://twitter.com/covie_93/status/1953512739042705817

———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————

US and Russia Plan Truce Deal to Cement Putin’s Gains in Ukraine

Washington and Moscow are aiming to reach a deal to halt the war in Ukraine that would lock in Russia’s occupation of territory seized during its military invasion.
US and Russian officials are working toward an agreement on territories for a planned summit meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin as early as next week… The US is working to get buy-in from Ukraine and its European allies on the deal, which is far from certain.

Far from certain is an understatement. This “deal” is designed to insure a Ukrainian rejection. Trump can then claim the Ukrainians aren’t interested in “peace” and permanently cut off aid.