Odds and Ends — 22 October 2026

@preparedwombat 78

about 13 hours ago (Edited)

oddsandends

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

PHP flaw draws millions of exploit attempts, Cloudflare CEO warns

https://x.com/SteveRattner/status/2113268044877209941

Coronavirus and Public Health:

An inquiry into alleged COVID‑19 vaccine injuries fails to weigh the ethics and risks of Canada’s response

Iran:

https://x.com/maddenifico/status/2112734799769010554

“So Much Worse Than People Realize”: Never-Before-Seen Images Reveal Damage at U.S. Bases as Troops Describe Being Abandoned

Service members, contractors, and military families share photos, videos, and firsthand accounts of the Iran war that they say the Pentagon has kept from the American public

https://x.com/AdamKinzinger/status/2113319341336707396

Politics:

Trump Defends Ramaswamy Ad

…Donald Trump on Thursday defended a controversial campaign ad by Vivek Ramaswamy featuring the estranged mother of Amy Acton, his Democratic opponent in the Ohio gubernatorial race.
Said Trump: “The Press, in a concerted and well coordinated attack, is trying to get Vivek Ramaswamy to ‘take down the Ad.’ Frankly, anybody whose mother spoke about a daughter in that way would normally lead to the daughter being precluded from serving in Office, let alone the Office of Governor.”

Whoa: Senate Republicans Fear Mississippi Is in Play

Senate Republicans are weighing three last-ditch spending moves that would have been unimaginable six months ago: a cash infusion for Mississippi and even more money for South Carolina and Kansas.
It’s been 94 years since Kansas elected a Democratic senator, 44 years for Mississippi and 28 for South Carolina. But panic is spreading through the Republican Party.
Said one national Republican operative: “The wall has broken. The enemy is inside the fort. We are now fighting hand to hand.”

https://x.com/DeepWithoutDeep/status/2113258804771000370

The Bottom Falls Out for Trump

Polls can be wrong. Even A+ rated polls can be wrong. But the brand-new New York Times/Siena poll suggests that Republicans are in for a brutal election night. Republicans have been spinning that their numbers have improved in recent weeks, or at least stabilized.
The Times poll says otherwise.
Trump’s approval rating is 36%, down a couple of points from September, and Democrats’ lead on the generic ballot increased two points. Their 11-point lead on the generic ballot is the largest in any election since 2008, when Barack Obama won the popular vote by nearly 10 million votes.

https://x.com/VanityFair/status/2113328360243822624
https://x.com/hissgoescobra/status/2113434473438273788

The White House Blame Game Starts Early

Trump White House aides have started to cast about for a scapegoat to offer the president in the event of bad midterm election losses, as Republicans stare down brutal predictions in key House and Senate races, sources familiar with the matter say.
Republican political operatives say privately that the real blame lies with Trump for starting the Iran war in an election year, causing higher prices across the board and prompting a nationwide voter backlash, the sources say.
Said one Republican operative: “Clearly it’s the president’s fault.”
But Trump aides also know, for obvious reasons, they cannot say publicly or tell the president behind closed doors that his own policy decisions are at fault as they contemplate losing not just the House majority, but possibly the Senate.

Karoline Leavitt Offers to Help Find Trump a Press Secretary

Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has offered to help President Donald Trump find his next chief spokesperson after her successor, Katie Zacharia, lasted just five days in the job.

This is rich:

https://x.com/BBCWorld/status/2113105215540847085

The State Department has asked some foreign service officials up for promotion who they voted for in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 presidential elections, raising concerns the agency is violating a federal law that bars politicized personnel decisions within the nonpartisan ranks.
Top officials in the State Department made clear that only candidates who voted for President Donald Trump would be eligible for the mid-to-upper level foreign service roles. They also told candidates that their campaign donation history would be examined and any donation to Democrats would be disqualifying.

https://x.com/Malinowski/status/2113284264032612509

https://x.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2113285863975399499

https://x.com/WilliamMeservy/status/2112980606728491481

Federal Judge Curbs Hunt for Noncitizen Voters

A federal judge on Wednesday restricted the Department of Homeland Security from election-related investigations in nine states, finding that error-prone government lists could sweep U.S. citizens into the effort.

https://x.com/covie_93/status/2113304846044467376

https://x.com/donkoclock/status/2113288786020827607

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

https://x.com/byaaroncdavis/status/2112886825056382986

https://x.com/Amy_Siskind/status/2112873860685300149

https://x.com/SenWhitehouse/status/2112922478439752057

The Secret Terms of Trump’s Venezuelan Oil Deal

In late August, President Donald Trump announced what he called the ‘biggest oil deal in world history.’ Since then, the full text of the accord — which grants the U.S. sweeping access to Venezuela’s oil reserves — has been one of the most sought-after secrets in Washington, D.C..
ProPublica has reviewed a copy of the 18-page strategic partnership agreement signed for the United States by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The document reveals carefully constructed terms that favor U.S. interests at every turn and cements the power of a small group of people handpicked by the Trump administration to govern and profit from the deal. The role of the Venezuelan government and the potential benefits to its people are largely absent from the text.

———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————

https://x.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2112866857413759311

https://x.com/michaeldweiss/status/2112723858805371304

https://x.com/covie_93/status/2112669688262009138

https://x.com/RepJackKimble/status/2112784867880554573

———— Melon Husk ————

https://x.com/TWOTIMESABITCH/status/2112687449893994613

https://x.com/davetroy/status/2112993017628127290

Rubio and Hegseth Point to Elon Musk for Slowing Starlink

Top Trump administration officials are starting to point fingers squarely at SpaceX founder Elon Musk for the decision to slow down his company’s Starlink satellite internet services and its military counterpart Starshield for Ukraine, which has been muddled in uncertainty over the culprit.
Looking to deflect the controversial move — which was swiftly admonished by powerful congressional Republicans and Democrats — Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said Ukraine’s access to Starlink was up to Musk and not the White House.

https://x.com/TheFungi669/status/2113335522483654733

———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————

https://x.com/AnnevanLeur/status/2112931152596230174

Pete Hegseth’s Aides Broke Eisenhower’s Globe

Ordinarily, moving historical items within the building is a deliberate process overseen by trained curators. Instead, Hegseth’s staff dispatched its own team to relocate an Eisenhower globe.
They lost control of the artifact and dropped it, sending the globe crashing onto its base and impaling the fragile shell near Antarctica, according to those familiar with the incident. The resulting gash appears to be several inches wide.

https://x.com/MikeDrucker/status/2113273238474334715

https://x.com/caslernoel/status/2113272106528210947

———— Mors Imperii ————

https://x.com/mamoun_linda/status/2112452007911158179

The Bill for Trumpism Comes Due

The budget deficit for the fiscal year that ended on September 30 is about $2 trillion, or about $160 billion more than in Joe Biden’s last complete year as president. Next year’s deficit is likely to be even bigger. When Trump spoke of eliminating the national debt, total debt stood at nearly $35 trillion. On the current trajectory, total debt could reach $45 trillion by 2028.
To put that another way: The U.S. debt reached $10 trillion for the first time during the financial crisis of 2008. That once seemed a crushing burden. Now an extra $10 trillion in debt is the cost of just four years of Trump’s fiscal recklessness.

https://x.com/thedailybeast/status/2112945762770338274

https://x.com/GORMTHEOLD25/status/2112901255467286925

We live in the dumbest timeline: Republican Leader Embarrassed by Ali G Film Will Sue

The chair of the El Paso County Republican Party has said he intends to sue Sacha Baron Cohen over footage of the local politician used in new satirical comedy Ali G: Who Iz I?
In the film, Michael Aboud is shown taking part in a training program with another Cohen character, ex-Mossad terrorist expert Col Erran Morad, who instructs Aboud and fellow MAGA sympathizers in self-defense techniques including the wearing, over clothes, of protective plastic buttocks. He also schools them in how to fire bullets from the middle of these buttocks by the repeated up and down manipulation of a rubber penis.

It’s almost as if he’s never heard of the Streisand Effect.