Odds and Ends — 17 August 2026

preparedwombat(78)

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2026-08-17 14:28

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

Binance gave Moscow client details used to charge Russian over Ukraine donations

https://x.com/adamemedia1/status/2088648752403714446

Hackers Are Abusing a macOS Screen Sharing Flaw to Secretly Mine Monero

Flash Fiction:

There may be a worse way to spend a 104°F afternoon in a car without air conditioning than being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for miles right behind a truck full of squealing swine on their way to a pig auction, but I wouldn’t put money on it.

Written for this prompt.

Coronavirus and Public Health:

False claims about miscarriage risk from Covid-19 vaccines are spreading online. They use a faulty interpretation of data

Iran:

https://x.com/Acyn/status/2089089375372279942?s=20

Persian Gulf Allies Grow Frustrated with Trump

Frustration with Washington is growing in the Persian Gulf region, where U.S. allies are increasingly concerned that President Donald Trump is unable to manage the diplomacy necessary to secure peace with Iran, Arab and Western officials say.
Trump in recent weeks has repeatedly issued threats against Iran, only to withdraw them, citing progress in talks. After months of conflict, and continuing missile and drone strikes by Iran and its proxies, the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain are now united in their aggravation with the administration.

https://x.com/PeterCronau/status/2088450596861026802

Trump Threatens to ‘Bomb the Shit’ Out of Oman

https://x.com/jessmargera/status/2088994924926566559

Politics:

https://x.com/MeidasTouch/status/2088496593255411771

Hakeem Jeffries No Longer Backs Medicare for All

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) indicated that he does not currently support Medicare for all legislation after co-sponsoring similar bills from 2013-2021.

He’s essentially saying that when Democrats take the House, he’s not really interested in being Speaker. Medicare for all is very popular with the Dem base and a bunch of candidates are running with it as part of their platforms.

https://x.com/davidsirota/status/2089085678302998543

https://x.com/LiamSroka/status/2089102113913577802

https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2082155828627608055

https://x.com/atrupar/status/2088713138040696895

———— Air Farce One ————

https://x.com/HelenfegusonogG/status/2088818931347640624

https://x.com/smc429/status/2088649490060497078

https://x.com/atrupar/status/2089045386761765020

———— Mitch is Undead ————

Beshear Says He’s Heard Nothing From McConnell

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Sunday that he hasn’t heard back from Sen. Mitch McConnell following formal requests for updates on his health last month amid a weekslong hospitalization that prompted widespread speculation and concern.

I don’t understand why Beshear doesn’t play hardball here.

It should surprise no one that the man who made his living selling Trump-branded condos to Russian mobsters through anonymous LLCs, and who paid a ten million dollar fine to FinCEN in 2015 as a settlement in his money-laundering case involving his Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City (which was found to have willfully and repeatedly violated the Bank Secrecy Act), had his supplicant Treasury Secretary gut the Corporate Accountability Act this week; effectively opening the floodgates to unlimited money-laundering and a tsunami of political and financial corruption.
This follows a Trump-appointed regulator preliminarily approving a federally chartered trust bank for his family’s World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency firm, which is run by Zach Witkoff, son of Steve, Trump’s erstwhile Special Envoy.

https://x.com/davetroy/status/2089033107659710601