Odds and Ends — 5 October 2025

preparedwombat(78)

Published in

#oddsandends

Words

431

Reading

2 min

Listen

Play

Why, yes. We did go to the Jack o Lantern Spectacular at the Minnesota Zoo last night. However did you guess?

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

Confidential lending will unlock trillions for DeFi markets

'Sell Shovels': This Firm Makes Dashboards for Strategy and Dozens of Bitcoin Treasuries

Coronavirus and Public Health:

Vaccinated but Still Got COVID? A New Study Helps Explains Why

Politics:

Populist billionaire and Trump supporter Babis cruises to Czech election win

Russ Vought’s Plan Was Decades in the Making

The memo symbolized Vought’s methodical march to accumulate power within the executive branch — and the outsized role he has played in getting to this moment. Vought’s vision for how to deconstruct Washington’s sprawling federal bureaucracy, shaped by his years toiling in Republican circles, is now being enacted.
Vought has transformed a role typically focused on the weeds of congressional appropriations into the Trump administration’s primary instrument to dismantle, piece by piece, federal agencies and spending plans.

https://twitter.com/SykesCharlie/status/1974495146009108722
- SykesCharlie

American Jews Turn on Israel Over War in Gaza

Many American Jews sharply disapprove of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza, with 61 percent saying Israel has committed war crimes and about 4 in 10 saying the country is guilty of genocide against the Palestinians.
The findings are striking given the long-standing ties between the U.S. Jewish community and Israel, suggesting the potential for a historic breach over the Gaza war.

https://twitter.com/scarylawyerguy/status/1974191102501806193
- scarylawyerguy

Have Cubans Fled One Authoritarian State for Another?

In the past few years, as many as two million people have escaped the island’s repressive regime and collapsing economy. Those who’ve made it to the U.S. face a new reckoning.

https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1974498972996599930
- JayinKyiv

———— The Epstein Coverup ————

Mike Johnson hasn’t sworn in this new Democrat. Is it because she wants to release the Epstein files?

Yes.

———— Autocracy R Us ————

Judge Blocks Trump’s Deployment of National Guard

A federal judge on Saturday blocked the Trump administration from using Oregon National Guard soldiers to help quell nightly protests at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, Oregon.
Judge Karin Immergut, of the U.S. District Court in Oregon, sided with Democrats who run the state government when she issued a temporary restraining order blocking the mobilization. President Trump and the Defense Department had ordered 200 Oregon soldiers for a 60-day deployment.