Odds and Ends — 15 February 2025

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

Grayscale Files for Cardano ETF, Its First Standalone ADA Product

Javier Milei-endorsed Libra token crashes after $107M insider rug pull

Wisconsin Boosts Bitcoin ETF Holdings, Going All-In on BlackRock

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

Trump Bars Funding Schools with Covid Vaccine Mandates

…Trump signed an executive order Friday that prohibits schools and colleges with Covid-19 vaccine mandates from receiving federal money, though no states currently have such a requirement.

Politics:

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1890441001514185066
- RonFilipkowski

https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/1890178307578294742
- RadioFreeTom

https://twitter.com/danielsgoldman/status/1890481691744969010
- danielsgoldman

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1890450191246872762
- RonFilipkowski

DOJ Enters The Darkest Period In Its Long History

The mass resignations at the Justice Department mark the most serious crisis in its history, a darker moment than its previous low point during Watergate…
Unlike the Saturday Night Massacre, when the top officials at the Justice Department held the line and resigned rather than carry out President Nixon’s corrupt order to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox, here the higher-ups have acquiesced to and are furthering the corrupt scheme. This time, the resignations are coming from lower down in the chain of command because Bondi and Bove are doing President Trump’s bidding rather than holding the line in defense of the law, DOJ guidelines, and their own ethical obligations as lawyers.

https://twitter.com/BarbMcQuade/status/1890431228085473411
- BarbMcQuade

We serve The Leader, not the Constitution: House Republicans plot impeachment against judges blocking Trump, DOGE

Turning Payback Into Policy

Mr Trump is not just returning to the ways of American presidents before the Watergate scandal, which led to reforms meant to insulate the Justice Department and FBI from presidential pressure. Those earlier presidents tended to be furtive in their use of government to punish adversaries: Richard Nixon’s ‘enemies list‘ was a secret.
Mr Trump is up to something new. He not only wants to punish critics and officials, down to the lowliest bureaucrats, who do not embrace him and his priorities. He wants all America to know he is doing it. Revenge, for him, is best served publicly. His new aides are pulling down official portraits of former aides who crossed him, firing prosecutors and FBI agents who investigated him and demanding the names of thousands more agents involved in the inquiry into the attack on the Capitol on January 6th 2021.
As Trump said recently: “I have certain hatreds of people.”

https://twitter.com/spooked75/status/1890338109868453983
- spooked75

A Month Away from a Republican Shut Down

What almost everyone is missing: This country has roughly one month until the government runs out of money, and things like paychecks to troops, food-inspection programs, disaster-relief payments, and aid to low-income families could all be caught up in a chaotic game of chicken. Republicans could keep the lights on all on their own, but probably won’t.
Said Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY): “They control the House, the Senate and the presidency. It’s their government.”
Jeffries is factually correct. Even still, Republicans may end up needing a bailout from Democratic lawmakers before March 14. That gives Democrats their first real leverage in Trump’s second term, but it’s entirely unclear if they will use it or to what end. While a unified plan has yet to emerge, wisps of fight-ready ambitions are starting to move from the fringes to the mainstream, albeit more slowly than most rank-and-file Democrats would like.

https://twitter.com/buccocapital/status/1890217682072662438
- buccocapital

https://twitter.com/RBReich/status/1889705008658083999
- RBReich

Elon Musk’s DOGE Posts Classified Data On Its New Website

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1890433893091680744
- kyledcheney

There’s a Term for What Trump and Musk Are Doing

Despite its name, the Department of Government Efficiency is not, so far, primarily interested in efficiency. DOGE and its boss, Elon Musk, have instead focused their activity on the eradication of the federal civil service, along with its culture and values, and its replacement with something different. In other words: regime change…
This appears to be DOGE’s true purpose. Although Trump and Musk insist they are fighting fraud, they have not yet provided evidence for their sweeping claims. Although they demand transparency, Musk conceals his own conflicts of interest. Although they do say they want efficiency, Musk has made no attempt to professionally audit or even understand many of the programs being cut. Although they say they want to cut costs, the programs they are attacking represent a tiny fraction of the U.S. budget.
The only thing these policies will certainly do, and are clearly designed to do, is alter the behavior and values of the civil service. Suddenly, and not accidentally, people who work for the American federal government are having the same experience as people who find themselves living under foreign occupation.

Hundreds Laid Off at Nuclear Weapons Agency

Hundreds of staff at the agency responsible for maintaining the U.S. nuclear stockpile were fired Thursday in the wave of mass Trump administration terminations.

Officials Fired Nuclear Staff Not Knowing What They Did

Trump administration officials fired more than 300 staffers Thursday night at the National Nuclear Security Administration — the agency tasked with managing the nation’s nuclear stockpile — as part of broader Energy Department layoffs.
Sources told CNN the officials did not seem to know this agency oversees America’s nuclear weapons.

https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1890113233220141461
- igorsushko

https://twitter.com/ratlpolicy/status/1890117868999892999
- ratlpolicy

https://twitter.com/IAPonomarenko/status/1890418140598923776
- IAPonomarenko

NATO In Disarray

In just one speech by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week, the most powerful member of NATO has thrown the world’s biggest military alliance into disarray, raising troubling questions about America’s commitment to European security.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1890528858035626304
- RonFilipkowski

German Chancellor Rebukes J.D. Vance

Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany on Saturday accused Vice President JD Vance of unacceptably interfering in his country’s imminent elections on behalf of a party that has played down the atrocities committed by the Nazis 80 years ago.
A day after Mr. Vance stunned the Munich Security Conference by telling German leaders to drop their so-called firewall and allow the hard-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, to enter their federal government, Mr. Scholz accused Mr. Vance of effectively violating a commitment to never again allow Germany to be led by fascists who could repeat the horrors of the Holocaust.

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1890298176038682905
- ZelenskyyUa

https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1890143274892988572
- JayinKyiv

https://twitter.com/samagreene/status/1890172987024027709
- samagreene

https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1890314899672220045
- McFaul

https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1890373260614697229
- jimsciutto

Trump Administration Erases ‘Transgender’ and ‘Queer

The National Park Service has removed references to transgender and queer people on its web page for the Stonewall National Monument, which marks the site of the New York City inn where LGBTQ rioters – including now-legendary transgender activists – galvanized a movement for LGBTQ rights.
On the NPS web page, the term ‘LGBTQ+’ was also shortened to ‘LGB,’ according to an archived version of the page.

https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1890398534807027816
- JayinKyiv

https://twitter.com/Angry_Staffer/status/1890423068301889700
- Angry_Staffer

https://twitter.com/karlykingsley/status/1890403357631615380
- karlykingsley

J.D. Vance Met with Leader of Far-Right German Party

J.D. Vance has met with the leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, breaking a taboo in German politics as the Trump administration continues to court and promote far-right populist parties across Europe.
Vance met with Weidel just weeks before a German election in which the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim party appears poised to take second place on a wave of growing anti-establishment sentiment.