Odds and Ends — 27 August 2025

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

China could leverage crypto control over Trump family wealth

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1960314557693301202
- atrupar

Thailand Taps KuCoin as First Global Exchange for Tokenized Bond Program

Coronavirus and Public Health:

US CDC taps vaccine skeptic to lead COVID committee

Politics:

Lawyers for Jack Smith, the former special counsel who investigated Donald J. Trump, have struck back for the first time against some of the accusations conservatives have leveled against him, denouncing an ethics complaint as ‘imaginary and unfounded.’
For months, Mr. Smith has remained silent as the president and some of his senior advisers, including top Justice Department officials, publicly attacked him, accusing Mr. Smith of engaging in wrongdoing for overseeing two criminal inquiries and indictments of Mr. Trump. The investigations involved whether Mr. Trump mishandled classified documents after he left office as well as his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

https://twitter.com/covie_93/status/1960070741707420009
- covie_93

Trump Knee-Caps America’s Institutions

President Trump is gradually testing, stretching and gutting the independence of America’s major institutions, leaving few stones unturned in his pursuit of unchecked power.
In Trump’s vision of America, authority flows only from his consent.
In just seven months, Trump has consolidated vast power by following a simple playbook: Capture what he can, contest what he can’t and punish those who resist.

Denmark summons top US diplomat over alleged Greenland influence operation

———— The Epstein Coverup ————

https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1960513450901148035
- donwinslow

———— The District (and beyond) ————

https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1960357506909102114
- emptywheel

'The most illegal search': Judges push back against D.C. criminal charges

"It is without a doubt the most illegal search I've ever seen in my life," U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said from the bench. "I'm absolutely flabbergasted at what has happened. A high school student would know this was an illegal search."
The judge said Torez Riley appeared to have been singled out because he is a Black man who carried a backpack that looked heavy.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1960423323025785168
- atrupar

———— Lisa Cook ————

Fed governor Lisa Cook will sue over Trump’s attempted firing of her

Does It Matter That Firing a Fed Governor Is Illegal?

Yesterday Donald Trump said that he had fired Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors… Cook has said that she will not resign.
So at this point the immediate onus is on Jerome Powell, the Fed chairman. He has the right — I would say the obligation — to say, ‘Show me the legal basis for this action.’ If Trump’s officials can’t provide that basis, he should declare that as far as he is concerned, Cook is still a Fed governor.
If Powell caves, or the Supreme Court acts supine again and validates Trump’s illegal declaration, the implications will be profound and disastrous. The United States will be well on its way to becoming Turkey, where an authoritarian ruler imposed his crackpot economics on the central bank, sending inflation soaring to 80 percent.

https://twitter.com/GregTSargent/status/1960393859067683028
- GregTSargent

———— Autocracy R Us ————

Judge tosses Trump administration’s lawsuit against Maryland’s 15 federal judges, calling it a ‘constitutional free-for-all’

Cullen, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, also wrote a scathing rebuke of the Trump administration, saying it is intentionally trying to smear the justice system.

https://twitter.com/jonfavs/status/1960332478390112468
- jonfavs

Time to Stand Up and Fight

Trump’s buffoonery makes him very possible to defeat… but if enough people surrender to him, he could wind up fully destroying the republic, incompetence and all. And the history of autocracy is full of those who regretted failing to stand up and fight when they still could.

https://twitter.com/WajahatAli/status/1960167935496098149
- WajahatAli

‘You Have Committed a Federal Crime’

Probably more than one. In fact, if you’re an average professional who has filled out lots of government forms, signed and mailed contracts, has semi-complicated taxes, some investments, financial relationships, and a mortgage, you’ve almost certainly run afoul of several federal statutes over the years.
Though plenty of people get swept up in life-ruining investigations by overly zealous prosecutors, most Americans go about their lives, occasionally breaking federal laws without fear of prison, because no free country would unleash its prosecutors to pursue every violation of every statute in our labyrinthine criminal code.
Federal prosecutors make choices. This vague concept of prosecutorial discretion prevents millions of technical lawbreakers from losing their freedom or suffering the devastating consequences of a criminal accusation by the government.
Not long ago, conservatives dreaded the possibility that an unconstrained executive branch might unleash its prosecutors to pursue violations of every law on the books.

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1960698617418654079
- RonFilipkowski

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

https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1960382492419948664
- RonFilipkowski

———— Bonfire of the Vanity Fair ————

Vanity Fair Boss Sparks Fury With Melania Trump Cover Idea

The new editor of Vanity Fair has enraged his staff by considering putting Melania Trump on the magazine’s cover—which then sparked a MAGA backlash to the backlash.

Mid-level editor there minces no words

“I will walk out the motherfucking door, and half my staff will follow me. We are not going to normalize this despot and his wife; we’re just not going to do it. We’re going to stand for what’s right.”

———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————

Trump’s utterly incoherent Ukraine strategy

https://twitter.com/ArturRehi/status/1960598203666952233
- ArturRehi

Putin's New Simp: JD Vance

There are bad takes, and then there are “Did this guy sleep through the 20th century?” takes.
JD Vance (R-Waiting For Trump To Die), appearing on NBC this weekend as the latest MAGA hand-puppet for Putinism, decided to roll out a little amateur-hour ahistorical twaddle over the Trump team’s desire to hand over Ukraine to the ravening madman and MAGA dream-date Vladimir Putin…

———— Smoot-Hawley 2.0 ————

Full Weight of American Tariffs Slams Into Effect Against India

…Trump on Wednesday followed through on his threat to impose a 50 percent tariff on nearly all goods arriving from India, leveling one of his most punitive tariffs at a country with deep ties to the United States.
The 50 percent rate, half of which is punishment for India’s buying Russian oil, is expected to damage many Indian exporters that collectively employ millions of people. The move could rupture America’s expanding economic relationship with India, where two-thirds of the largest U.S. corporations have offshore operations. The tariff also undermines the stability of billions of dollars of foreign investment in India’s stock market, the world’s fourth largest.

India, US to lose from Trump tariffs as Russia wins

———— DOGE ————

DOGE Put Critical Social Security Data at Risk

Members of the Department of Government Efficiency uploaded a copy of a crucial Social Security database in June to a vulnerable cloud server, putting the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans at risk of being leaked or hacked, according to a whistle-blower complaint filed by the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer.
The database contains records of all Social Security numbers issued by the federal government. It includes individuals’ full names, addresses and birth dates, among other details that could be used to steal their identities, making it one of the nation’s most sensitive repositories of personal information.