Odds and Ends — 2 December 2025

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

Poland’s president vetoes strict crypto bill, says it threatens ‘freedoms of Poles’

AI bubble a "key downside risk" to U.S. economy, OECD warns

PlayStation Goes Crypto? Sony Stablecoin Could Be Used for Gaming Payments

Coronavirus and Public Health:

Work Performance May Be Impaired Years After COVID

Politics:

The New German War Machine

After World War II, Germany embraced pacifism as a form of atonement. Now the country is arming itself again.

Eleven Indiana Republicans Targeted in Swatting Attacks

At least 11 elected Republicans in Indiana have been the targets of swatting attacks and other threats in the weeks since President Donald Trump publicly pressured state lawmakers to approve a new congressional map that would benefit Republicans.

———— The DC Shooting ————

An Extended Political Messaging Stunt

The shooter (the man in custody is suspected of, but not proven to be, that person) is guilty of the attack and the carnage surrounding it. Donald Trump is responsible for them. This episode is the collateral damage of, downstream of, Trump abusing his powers as president.

———— Best MRI Ever ————

———— The Epstein Coverup ————

Dan Bongino Scrambles to Explain Epstein Files Redaction Email

———— Autocracy R Us ————

Kristi Noem Defied a Federal Judge. Now the Trump Administration Faces a Full-Blown Constitutional Confrontation.

———— Blatant In-Your-Face Corruption ————

Why the Gulf Monarchs Shower Trump With Gifts

Until Donald Trump, no U.S. president had ever yielded to royal temptations from abroad. But in his second term, Trump has discarded that old inhibition in its totality. Since 2022, the Trump family has been promised hundreds of millions of dollars—in the form of investments, real-estate licensing deals, even an airplane—from Gulf monarchies and the business entities they control.
During his second term, and especially during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s recent visit to Washington, Trump has rewarded his benefactors with sweeping geopolitical favors. Their huge investments in his family’s businesses are hard to describe as anything other than the spectacular subversion of American sovereignty, wherein the nation’s foreign policy reads as a thank-you note to the president’s biggest financial boosters.
Really, Trump is adopting the governing style of his backers. In the Gulf states, hardly any distinction exists between public and private interests; the royal family governs the state and dominates the economy.

———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————

———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————

White House confirms Hegseth authorized second strike on drug boat

Pete Hegseth Needs to Go—Now

A man with such contempt for the military should not run the Pentagon.

Pete Hegseth, Moral Failure, and the Erosion of Military Legitimacy

After long periods of war or political strain, the greatest danger is not the enemy. It is the erosion of the values that distinguish the U.S. military from armed groups it confronts.

———— Mors Imperii ————

How Trump Will Try to Mess with the Midterms

It’s become sort of a common lament by some on the left that there probably won’t even be elections in 2026, no less 2028, and thus American democracy is functionally over. This is not just doomerism, but uninformed doomerism; canceling elections just isn’t what modern autocrats do.
What Trump will try to do, rather, is make sure that the surge in Democratic voters that will likely show up won’t have much power to change things — that is, he’ll try to make elections matter less — and he’ll try to do so in a number of pernicious yet predictable ways.

Serendipity:

The People Outsourcing Their Thinking to AI

Rise of the LLeMmings

The Man Who Was Supposed to Kill Martin Luther King Jr.

For years, one man complicated the official story of who murdered the civil-rights leader. Just before he died in October, he offered a jaw-dropping revelation.

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Badge thanks to arcange@arcange

cola wars source

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Odds and Ends — 2 December 2025 | Ecency