Odds and Ends — 26 April 2025

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

Australian Radio Station Used AI DJ For Months Before Being Discovered

The Coming Economic Nightmare

Trump’s tariffs could cause stagflation for the first time in decades. It may go on for a long, long time.

Germany downgrades 2025 growth forecast to zero

Impact from Trump trade wars set to prolong the longest economic slump in country’s postwar history

https://twitter.com/RepSwalwell/status/1915590267857408143
- RepSwalwell

Consumer expectations crater to three-decade low amid Trump tariff chaos

Coronavirus and Public Health:

https://twitter.com/DrIanWeissman/status/1915602606912688189
- DrIanWeissman

Studies detail high rates of long COVID among healthcare, dental workers

Politics:

Why Trump Backed Down on Foreign Student Visas

It took more than 100 lawsuits and 50 restraining orders from dozens of federal judges. But after 20 days of court losses, the Trump administration capitulated, reversing a decision that threatened the legal status of thousands of foreign students in the United States.
The Trump administration’s abrupt move, announced by a Justice Department lawyer in court Friday, tacitly acknowledged what judges in two dozen states had been saying since early April: Terminating university students’ immigration records from a federal database — a step which appeared to jeopardize their legal authorization to remain in the country — was almost certainly illegal. And it was implemented so ham-handedly that judges felt compelled to intervene.

Are Things Falling Apart for Trump?

Even as Trump nears that milestone by which new administrations have increasingly gauged their early progress, there are myriad signs that his second-term project may be falling apart.
A man who came into office vastly exaggerating the mandate that voters had just given him — and has governed accordingly — appears to have, per public polling, squandered whatever mandate he was given with his brazen actions. And indicators are increasingly dire on a number of significant policy fronts for him.

https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1915517096844550172
- davidfrum

Inside the Fiasco at the National Security Council

On the priorities that matter most to the president, Waltz has less influence than Stephen Miller… Miller treats the advisory body not as a forum to weigh policy options, current and former officials told me, but as a platform to advance his own hard-line immigration agenda.
Meanwhile, Waltz’s authority to hire and fire his own staff has been swept out from under him.
The disorder at the NSC, officials told me, stems from Trump’s impatience with process, disregard for the law, and insistence on loyalty in place of expertise.

https://twitter.com/AntiTrumpCanada/status/1915744700754956625
- AntiTrumpCanada

———— Autocracy R Us ————

FBI Arrests Wisconsin Judge

FBI Director Kash Patel said Friday that the bureau had arrested a Milwaukee judge and charged her with obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week — the first known instance of the Justice Department prosecuting a local official for allegedly interfering with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.
Patel announced the arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan in a post on the social media platform X, which he deleted moments after posting. The post accused Dugan of ‘intentionally misdirecting’ federal agents who arrived at the courthouse to detain an immigrant who was set to appear before her in an unrelated proceeding.

https://twitter.com/FPWellman/status/1915780572414087480
- FPWellman

https://twitter.com/Julius_Kim/status/1915794082099536360
- Julius_Kim

https://twitter.com/chrisdmowrey/status/1915789090437452174
- chrisdmowrey

https://twitter.com/emiliepfrank/status/1915935985306574920
- emiliepfrank

Federal Prosecutor Queries Leading Medical Journal

A federal prosecutor in Washington has contacted The New England Journal of Medicine, considered the world’s most prestigious medical journal, with questions that suggested without evidence that it was biased against certain views and influenced by external pressures.

Judge says 2-year-old US citizen appears to have been deported with ‘no meaningful process’

DOJ ends Biden-era policy against subpoenaing journalists

https://twitter.com/DarrigoMelanie/status/1915856768757834091
- DarrigoMelanie

Multiple ICE Impersonation Arrests Made

Authorities in at least three states have arrested individuals allegedly impersonating Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers…

How the Trump Administration Flipped on Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Officials were developing a plan to get him back to the United States. Why did they stop?

———— Smoot-Hawley 2.0 ————

Trump Claims He’s Made ‘200 Deals’ on Trade

Um, (A) there aren’t even 200 countries in the world, and (B) if even a half dozen deals had been made, news would have leaked, on our end or theirs. He’s just flat-out lying.