Odds and Ends — 18 February 2026

Adventures in Round Number Bias:

Yesterday, I passed the 100,000 Hive Power mark.

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

Bitcoin's plunge signals coming AI crisis, but massive Fed response will drive new record high: Arthur Hayes

https://twitter.com/books_rum/status/2023755920719945973
- books_rum

The great computer science exodus (and where students are going instead)

https://twitter.com/aakashgupta/status/2023639820007064020
- aakashgupta

California Begins Enforcing State-Level Crypto Licensing With DFAL

Flash Fiction:

”Preparations are on schedule. All systems are nominal.”

”Um, why are you talking like someone at NASA’s Mission Control?”

”Ten, nine, we have ignition sequence start. The engines are on. Four, three, two, one.”

”Well guess what! The grill is ready for steaks.”

”We have commit. We have liftoff!”

Written for this prompt.

Coronavirus and Public Health:

FDA reverses course and will review Moderna’s mRNA flu shot

Politics:

https://twitter.com/StarbuckUA/status/2023853692408263063
- StarbuckUA

Trump's immigration approval hits new low, according to Reuters/Ipsos poll

https://twitter.com/loganb/status/2023795633736610292
- loganb

———— Minnesota Under Siege ————

ICE officials knew use of force was rising well before Minneapolis shootings

Internal agency emails show a surge in reports of ICE officers using more force going back nearly a year, but DHS leadership did not see it as a concern to be addressed.

https://twitter.com/JessicaLBurbank/status/2023795037017145429
- JessicaLBurbank

https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/2024132718687064094
- BillKristol

https://twitter.com/MinneapoliSam/status/2023835241249652853
- MinneapoliSam

———— Jesse Jackson ————

https://twitter.com/JoeMurphyLondon/status/2023753582932079005
- JoeMurphyLondon

https://twitter.com/DannyDeraney/status/2023800692360835511
- DannyDeraney

———— The Epstein Coverup ————

https://twitter.com/cem_uk_/status/2023855161802965421
- cem_uk_

https://twitter.com/BadgerStew/status/2023806113922068952
- BadgerStew

———— Palantir ————

https://twitter.com/MmisterNobody/status/2023780218650194110
- MmisterNobody

https://twitter.com/TheBTCTherapist/status/2023818483398811997
- TheBTCTherapist

https://twitter.com/NastyOldWomyn/status/2023540745119097234
- NastyOldWomyn

https://twitter.com/EwanMacKenna/status/2023862523192369439
- EwanMacKenna

———— Lindsay Graham ————

https://twitter.com/OJoelsen/status/2023874646492192892
- OJoelsen

https://twitter.com/Mpolymer/status/2023891198772199882
- Mpolymer

https://twitter.com/NormOrnstein/status/2023861444849348736
- NormOrnstein

———— Concentration Camps————

https://twitter.com/PabloReports/status/2023783585296064964
- PabloReports

Trump’s Deportation Goals Collide with Reality

Trump campaigned in 2024 on overseeing ‘the largest deportation in the history of our country.’ He has frequently said that his Administration is deporting ‘the worst of the worst criminals.’ Yet those two goals have proven to be incompatible.
In reality, tens of thousands of people with no criminal record or pending criminal charges have been being pulled off the streets by immigration agents and put into detention centers. If that pattern were to stop, the Trump Administration’s deportation stats would likely plummet.

https://twitter.com/MoiraDonegan/status/2023737113666072913
- MoiraDonegan

https://twitter.com/karlykingsley/status/2023819921621479793
- karlykingsley

https://twitter.com/BlisterPearl/status/2023755627068301522
- BlisterPearl

https://twitter.com/EllenBarkin/status/2023801169299337502
- EllenBarkin

———— Autocracy R Us ————

The cruelty is the point:

https://twitter.com/garykoepnick/status/2023842267589665050
- garykoepnick

https://twitter.com/MotherJones/status/2023502701561106869
- MotherJones

ICE Expands Watchlist Effort

https://twitter.com/BlueATLGeorgia/status/2023884817251676200
- BlueATLGeorgia

https://twitter.com/PETEKEELEY/status/2023847783569178872
- PETEKEELEY

Angry Trump Humiliated as Effort to Prosecute Dems Backfires Again

A grand jury laughed Trump’s prosecutors out of court—but new details about these nakedly political prosecutions reveal serious abuses of power that are no laughing matter.