Odds and Ends — 19 March 2025
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, and Debt:
SEC will drop its appeal against Ripple, CEO Garlinghouse says
EOS Token Spikes 30% as Network Rebrands to 'Vaulta'
Coronavirus and Public Health:
The COVID Mistake No One Talks Enough About
Deaths in isolation have been treated as a painful memory, not as a problem that hospitals need to address.
Trump Weighs Major Cuts to Domestic HIV Prevention
The Health and Human Services Department is weighing plans to drastically cut the federal government’s funding for domestic HIV prevention.
The discussions come as the Trump administration is preparing for deep cuts of personnel at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, part of a reorganization of the agency.
Politics:
MAGA Already Looking to Annoint J.D. Vance
Just eight months after President Trump picked J.D. Vance to be his vice president, Vance is already positioned to be MAGA’s heir apparent for 2028.
Said Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN): “I think it’s inevitable at this point that Vance will be the nominee in 2028. He’s the future of the America First movement and he’s already proven himself.”
“>Many of Trump’s longest-serving aides and most fervent supporters now see the vice president as the vehicle to lock in Trump’s worldview for at least the next decade. In their view, Trump broke the old Republican Party — and Vance can finish building the new one.
How Oklahoma’s Right-Wing Superintendent Set Off a Holy War in Classrooms
Teachers, parents, and pastors are mounting a mass resistance against Ryan Walters’s mandate requiring that public school students learn from the Bible.
Navajo Code Talkers disappear from military websites after Trump DEI order
https://twitter.com/TheFl0orIsLaVa/status/1902015201420988680
Chinese Nationalists Praise Trump’s Cuts to Voice of America
Chinese state media is gloating about drastic budget cuts to Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, U.S. government-funded media outlets that have for decades drawn protests from Beijing over their coverage of human rights abuses in China.
Voice of America and Radio Free Asia had long transmitted news into countries where access to accurate information from the outside world was severely limited.
El Salvador’s President Sees Opportunity in Trump’s Deportations
President Nayib Bukele’s role in the Trump administration’s deportation strategy signals a new level of power and global visibility for the young leader.
Judge Blocks Trump’s Transgender Military Ban
A federal judge on Tuesday indefinitely blocked implementation of President Trump’s executive order effectively barring transgender people from serving openly in the military, a stark blow to the administration’s efforts to curb transgender rights.
https://twitter.com/Michell33650674/status/1901897927913624002
National Security Officials Scramble Over JFK Documents
President Trump’s national security team was stunned and forced to scramble after he announced on Monday that he would release 80,000 pages of documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy with only 24 hours’ notice.
Administration officials had been working on releasing the records since January, when Mr. Trump signed an executive order mandating it. But that process was still underway on Monday afternoon when Mr. Trump, during a visit to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, said the files would be made available the next day.
By the time the files were made public on Tuesday evening, some of the country’s top national security officials had spent hours trying to assess any possible security hazards under extreme deadline pressure.
———— The Rule of Law ————
The problem with the language of ‘crisis’ is that it simply doesn’t prepare supporters of the republic for the reality of the situation, which is a series of long fights, some high profile and some not, many of which will have unclear and complicated outcomes…
The worst temptation — and I think a ‘crisis’ framework encourages it by treating single conflicts as the final battle until it’s over and the next final battle approaches — is for supporters of the republic to declare defeat and even to mock those still fighting.
https://twitter.com/EbrightYon/status/1901731552662618313
Chief Justice Rebukes Trump Over Threat of Impeachment
Chief Justice John Roberts said the impeachment of federal judges is ‘not an appropriate response’ to disagreement with their rulings.
The extraordinary statement from the leader of the Supreme Court comes hours after President Trump called for the impeachment of a judge who tried to pause the deportation of hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members.
Said Roberts: “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/1902003455205490787
Here’s what federal judges could do if they’re ignored by the Trump administration
https://twitter.com/Angry_Staffer/status/1901854657292509375
What Trump Means by ‘Impartial Justice’
The president’s definition of law and order is a narrow one.
https://twitter.com/acnewsitics/status/1901992920179482765
Even Trump’s Sister Would Have Said Mahmoud Khalil’s Abduction Is Unconstitutional
———— Authoritarianism R Us ————
https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1901861690779599064
———— Elon Musk ————
Judge Finds Musk Role in USAID Closure Likely Unconstitutional
Although the decision on Tuesday is limited to the US Agency for International Development, it marks the most direct ruling to date regarding the lawfulness of the role that the billionaire chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. has occupied in the White House since President Donald Trump took office in January.
Musk’s DOGE Is Inspired by Pro-Kremlin Monarchists and 1930s Technofascism
Musk’s top DOGE operative is linked to a Russian American network of anti-West pro-Kremlin monarchists inspired by the 1930s counter-democracy “Technocracy” movement, of which Musk’s grandfather was a member
———— Losing Allies ————
https://twitter.com/pothen/status/1901708448699449360
Trump Considers Giving Up NATO Command
For nearly 75 years, it has been a distinctly American responsibility to have a four-star U.S. general oversee all NATO military operations in Europe — a command that began with then-World War II hero and future president Dwight D. Eisenhower.
But the Trump administration is considering changing that.
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1902147244024799724
———— Putin vs. Ukraine ————
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1902063269311082797
https://twitter.com/acnewsitics/status/1902032478447309031
https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1902055518631555090
Putin Only Wants an Energy Infrastructure Cease Fire
Translation: Ukraine’s recent series of attacks on Russian refineries have been very effective.
https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1902122071796351192
https://twitter.com/berlin_bridge/status/1902067582041223491
https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/1902068007746121938
Serendipity:
Houston Man Jailed for 18 Years Without a Trial
Last spring, as local officials were taking a closer look at the thousands of inmates in the Harris County Jail, they discovered something shocking: a man who had been locked up for 18 years without a trial.
I don't have the stomach for all of this 😟 How do you find it? Just read the one about COVID's anniversary. Brought it all back. I'm sure we all knew people who died. I was in New York at the height of the epidemic. Friends are gone. We put those memories to rest, but now, I read that beautiful, haunting article and it all comes back.
Can't read anymore of you very important notices.
I probably need to get a life. Or at least find time to write more fiction.