Odds and Ends — 12 October 2026

preparedwombat(78)

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“So many books. So little time.” — Frank Zappa

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

Ledger confirms unauthorized hardware implant, says losses may exceed $86M

https://x.com/MikeElgan/status/2109033547684348363

Ripple-Backed Evernorth Hits Nasdaq Holding 473 Million XRP Worth Far Less Than It Paid

Coronavirus and Public Health:

Very severe long COVID linked to differences in lung and mouth microbiomes

Goodbye joint replacements? Stanford scientists found a way to regrow cartilage and stop arthritis

Iran:

How the Iran war could make Trump an accidental climate president

The Iran war was supposed to be a short, sharp strike that brought down the regime within a few weeks. Instead, the US finds itself enmeshed in a conflict that’s upending the world’s energy system.
As oil and gas prices soar, there have been noticeable shifts toward clean energy, and it’s raised a profoundly weird question: Could this war make President Donald Trump an accidental climate president, at least on the global stage?
It would be a deep irony, if so. Trump is the climate-denier-in-chief. He has called global warming a “hoax,” clean energy a “scam,” pushed fossil fuels, and unraveled a slew of climate and environmental protections.

Politics:

The Deleted Tweets of Trump’s New Press Secretary

Donald Trump’s new press secretary has had a sordid online history of spreading vaccine conspiracy theories, calling for the upending of constitutional norms, and encouraging the president to run for a third term in office—much of which she appears to have tried to expunge from the public record sometime before ascending to her new job.

https://x.com/JuddLegum/status/2109301794488635738

War Through Weakness

We know the phrase “peace through strength.” Its logic is self-evident. A strong country can deter others from making war. A strong country can support reconstruction after a conflict. A strong country attracts allies and builds relationships. If necessary, a strong country can win a war. Under Donald Trump, the United States is not a strong country in any of these senses, or indeed in any sense at all. Instead, it is a country that generates and extends war through weakness.
Donald Trump poses, luridly and increasingly absurdly, as a strong man. But he is not seen as such anywhere in the world. And that is for very good reason: in his year and a half of office, he has brought about what can only be described as a superpower suicide. When I first spoke of superpower suicide in April, I had in mind Trump’s rapid and obvious defeat in Iran and his persistent submissiveness to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, as well as domestic policies that undermine the future bases of American strength. Six months on, the self-destruction is even more glaring. The failure in Iran is all the more obvious, and it has provided Trump with another pretext to seek further defeat in Russia. Weakness has become the occasion for more weakness.

https://x.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/2109625163339739547
https://x.com/BillKristol/status/2109631020400357612
https://x.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/2109650266416922773
https://x.com/marceelias/status/2109653671458083045

———— Stab in the Back ————

https://x.com/Oct7NeverForget/status/2109305176322453896

U.S. Threatens to Block Arms for Ukraine

The Trump administration is threatening to stop the procurement system that provides Ukraine with weapons in order to press Kyiv to halt its deep strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, according to officials in Europe.
The officials, who received calls from American officials on Saturday and Sunday or were briefed on them, said the U.S. was lobbying European capitals and Kyiv in an attempt to end the attacks on Russian oil refineries.

https://x.com/anneapplebaum/status/2109689605050257486

With just under a month until Election Day, the political environment is as brutal for Republicans as any I’ve seen in at least 20 years.
The structural advantages Republicans counted on to protect them from big losses in this election — a favorable Senate map, redistricting wins, and a huge financial edge — are no longer holding. Middling Republican enthusiasm, as well as massive defections from the Trump 2024 coalition’s Latino voters and independents, have turned many safe GOP seats into nail-biters. Meanwhile, Democrats’ willingness to crawl over proverbial hot coals to send President Donald Trump a message at the ballot box has been elevated all cycle and shows no signs of abating.
The difference between a bad loss and a catastrophic one for Republicans this fall now depends almost entirely on their ability to get their disaffected voters in traditionally red states and districts to the polls. In other words, will negative partisanship be a more powerful force in this election than high energy prices and inflation? Today, the economic environment feels like a more powerful force.

https://x.com/JonathanPieNews/status/2108952641133007055