Odds and Ends — 3 April 2026

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

Americans nearing retirement say they plan to take Social Security 'as soon as eligible'

Blue Owl BDCs Impose Caps After Facing a Surge in Withdrawal Requests

Echoes of Bear Stearns?

Flash Fiction:

”I don’t mean to offend, but do you have any idea what you’re doing?”

”Of course I do! Benny Johnson may be toxic but his daughter’s wonderful, and I’m going to marry her.”

”Cynthia may be wonderful, but it’s the other daughter I’m concerned about. Beth makes Benny look normal. She’s a psychopath. A ticking time bomb on her way to being a serial killer. Marry Cynthia and you’ll be her first victim. If she hasn’t already killed.”

”Think I don’t know that? Two can play that game. I’ve got a plan.”

Written for this prompt.

Coronavirus and Public Health:

Pfizer, BioNTech halt US COVID vaccine study after recruitment struggles

Iran:

Trump Says It’ll Be ‘Easy’ to Wrap Up the War With Iran ‘Very Shortly’

President Donald Trump declared victory over Iran in a prime time address to the nation Wednesday night, saying that U.S. military objectives are “nearing completion” while suggesting that American forces would not be used to reopen the Strait of Hormuz because it will “open up naturally” once the conflict is over.

There is no Plan B.

Stock futures fall after Trump says Iran war will continue for weeks

“Over the next two to three weeks, we’re going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong,” the president said.
Stock futures slid during the speech, and oil prices surged.

Trump Declared Victory, But Admitted Defeat

One month into the war, Trump finally gave a nationally televised address — but instead of offering clarity or rallying the country to the cause, he delivered an overlong, low-energy, rambling speech that served no strategic purpose.
Not that anyone should be surprised, but at the moment of greatest need for the country and greatest peril for his presidency, Trump failed to deliver.
He waved the white flag on his war and his presidency. It’s possible we will look back on last night as the moment we knew Trump’s presidency was functionally over. He’s still in office and can still do great damage, but the momentum is gone. All but his most committed supporters have tuned him out. It’s all over but the shouting.

Donald Trump’s Case for War Fails to Mention How to Win It

The President poses an existential question: Can everything be going according to the plan with Iran if there is no plan?…
I suspect there was not a speechwriter who worked on this effort so much as an intern whose job it was to cut and paste the President’s Truth Social feed into a document that could be fed into his teleprompter.

Trump Is Losing the War in Iran

One month in, the Islamic Republic is winning merely by surviving.

Trump Asks for a ‘Little More Time’ in Iran

“With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE. IT WOULD BE A ‘GUSHER’ FOR THE WORLD???”

Politics:

Trump Official Says Truth Social ‘Blocking’ His Posts

Gregg Phillips, the Trump administration official in charge of FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery, accused President Donald Trump’s Truth Social of ‘blocking’ his posts on Wednesday after claiming to have teleported to a Waffle House 50 miles away.

Trump Betrayed His Own National Security Strategy

There is no doctrine, just whim…
It’s a conceit of foreign policy intellectuals to try to infer from statements and events a consistent doctrine underlying an administration’s activities. It should be clear by now that there is no such thing as a Trump doctrine. The administration itself tried to articulate such a doctrine last November when it went through the ritual of producing a National Security Strategy for the second Trump term.
It’s clear today that that strategy document bears no relationship to actual administration foreign policy.

———— Pam Bondi ————

Bondi fired because even she couldn't be as awful as Trump

Bye bye Bondi

Dems remain eager to hold her feet to the fire over the Epstein saga: “She will not escape accountability and remains legally obligated to appear before our Committee under oath,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top House Oversight Democrat, said in a statement. “She must answer for her mishandling of the Epstein files and the special treatment she has given Ghislaine Maxwell.… If they think we are moving on because they were fired, they are gravely mistaken.”

———— Birthright Citizenship ————

If you go back and read some of the debates in Congress leading up to adoption of the 14th Amendment, you will find that the phrase “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” was added specifically to exclude the children of diplomats. In the debates, members of Congress pointed out that even “Chinese and Hottentots” born here could become citizens at birth if the 14th was ratified. Senators fully understood that such children would be citizens at birth. They argued back and forth among themselves. BUT THEY PASSED IT ANYWAY, even though they knew they were establishing birthright citizenship. And states then ratified the 14th knowing full well that it included birthright citizenship. Don’t conservatives love to praise the “original intent” of the framers of the Constitution?



———— The Epstein Coverup ————

———— Stark. Raving. Mad. ————

———— Autocracy R Us ————

———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————

Ukraine’s drone army has done the incredible

Russia hoped winter would bring Ukraine to its knees. Here’s why it didn’t.

———— Smoot-Hawley 2.0 ————

The global economy turns out to be more resilient than we had feared

…the US is no longer a credible world leader. If it can elect this man twice, it has lost the plot. Why would it not elect someone even worse?

———— Melon Husk ————

———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————

———— Mors Imperii ————

Serendipity:

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Badge thanks to arcange@arcange

meme source

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Odds and Ends — 3 April 2026 | Ecency