Odds and Ends — 28 July 2025

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

Wrench attacks drive crypto investors to centralized custodians

The gulf is not the place to build the world’s AI infrastructure

Drone threats make the UAE and Saudi Arabia the wrong homes for critical AI data centers.

PayPal to Enable Businesses to Accept Bitcoin, Ethereum and Other Cryptocurrencies

Coronavirus and Public Health:

COVID Vaccines Saved More Than 2.5 Million Lives, Mostly Seniors

Politics:

U.S. Struggles to Rein In an Emboldened Israel

Israel has emerged from a string of stunning military successes with nearly unchecked power in the Middle East. Now Washington is struggling to adjust.
The Trump administration in recent days has expressed frustration with Israeli actions in Syria and Gaza. President Trump’s MAGA supporters, in particular, are growing more critical of his support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who they fear will drag the U.S. deeper into a morass of regional wars.

MAGA doesn't build anything

Why I think this political movement isn't going anywhere in the long term.

Bolton dismisses Gabbard’s Obama allegations: ‘She’s imagined evidence that doesn’t exist’

———— The Epstein Coverup ————

https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1949087270885065186
- SethAbramson

https://twitter.com/HalfwayPost/status/1949115429043228737
- HalfwayPost

https://twitter.com/FPWellman/status/1949090383830417918
- FPWellman

Trump Fumes as Epstein Scandal Dominates Headlines

…Donald Trump is increasingly frustrated with how his administration’s handling of the furor around the Jeffrey Epstein files has dominated the news and overshadowed his agenda.
His exasperation follows weeks of missteps and no clear strategy among top officials who underestimated the outrage, especially from the president’s base, and hoped the country would forget about the unreleased Epstein files and move on.

———— Autocracy R Us ————

Taking Aktion: Trump’s Plan to Disappear the “Work-Shy”

We are staring into the abyss of systematic mass cleansing that mankind might not recover from without intervention

LA Grand Juries Are Refusing to Indict ICE Protestors

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

Trump Hides Cost of ‘Free’ Air Force One

https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1949471383576359236
- gtconway3d

———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————

‘That idiot Putin wants to take it all’: Russia’s kamikaze tactics fuel a slow advance in Ukraine

———— Smoot-Hawley 2.0 ————

https://twitter.com/krassenstein/status/1949598072465436683
- krassenstein

Trump’s Tariffs Are Already Stunting World Growth

As Donald Trump barrels toward his latest tariff deadline, the damage to the global economy from American protectionism is becoming increasingly evident, even if financial markets seem to have decided they can live with it.

Trump’s ‘Trade Deal’ with the EU Is Still Unclear

One thing has become clear as we’ve gotten more detail about the E.U.-U.S. trade pact this morning: There are still huge outstanding questions.
European Commission officials have made it clear that what was signed yesterday is a legally non-binding outline, and that while negotiations are happening behind the scenes, they are working toward a statement that will lay out the details of the blueprint. This is more of set of agreed-upon principles than a set-in-stone deal.

France Rebukes E.U.’s Trade Deal With Trump

A day after the European Union and United States struck a trade deal on Sunday, the French government has come out swinging against the agreement, calling instead for tariff retaliation and warning that Europe would be politically weakened if it didn’t hit back.
Said Prime Minister François Bayrou: “It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, gathered to affirm their values and defend their interests, resolves to submit.”

———— Melon Husk ————

Elon Musk confirms Tesla has signed a $16.5 billion chip contract with Samsung Electronics

———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————

Hegseth Told to Stop Polygraph Tests

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of polygraph tests to search for people leaking information to the news media was stopped at the direction of the White House after a senior adviser to Hegseth raised alarm to senior officials there about being targeted.

———— Mors Imperii ————

https://twitter.com/TheTNHoller/status/1949241645234266253
- TheTNHoller

Competing Conspiracy Theories Consume Trump

No commander in chief in his lifetime has been as consumed by conspiracy theories as President Trump and now they seem to be consuming him. They have been the rocket fuel for his political career since the days when he spread the lie that Mr. Obama was secretly born overseas and therefore not eligible to be president. More than a decade later, Mr. Trump is coming full circle by trying to divert attention from the Epstein conspiracy theory with a new-and-improved one about Mr. Obama supposedly committing treason.
The harmonic convergence of competing conspiracies has overshadowed critical policy issues facing America’s leaders at the moment, whether it’s new tariffs that could dramatically reshape the global economy or the collapse of cease-fire talks meant to end the war in Gaza. The Epstein matter so spooked Speaker Mike Johnson that he abruptly recessed the House for the summer rather than confront it. The allegations lodged against Mr. Obama so outraged the former president that he emerged from political hibernation to express his indignation at even having to address them.

https://twitter.com/hemantmehta/status/1949079581027103036
- hemantmehta

Former Obama Aides Grapple with ‘Treason’ Allegations

To former aides who worked in Barack Obama’s White House, the Trump administration’s allegations of “treason” carried the stench of desperation from a president straining to shift the focus from a burgeoning scandal around Jeffrey Epstein.
Still, they’re grappling with how to contain the unprecedented accusations National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard has leveled, even as they dismiss them as asinine.