and not of riches. Whereas a week [more!] ago Linda and Cosmos were only worrying over Pete Hegseth’s* insistence that Anthropic AI abandon its principles and gift his Department of Armageddon unlimited Access to Everything, a point made immediately moot as the principals
of all Antropic’s pals’ AIs had no principles at all – so hey, take that you moralizing wokesters – and anyway, hey, suddenly it was Holy War Time! What fun when really it’s only an Israeli war criminal manipulating OLD’s eternally bruised two year old psyche into unleashing the Wrath of Idiocy in their personal Operation of Epic Distraction, charming the MAGAs and appalling
everyone else while Christian Nationalist Cultists dementedly rejoiced under the full foolish moon as a billion dollars a day got sucked out of a USA[!] Treasury that a year ago couldn’t afford school lunch programs, soft diplomacy [obviously for losers], college debt forgiveness
and much much more. Onward Christian Soldiers!
Nothin’ to see here though, as L remained laid low by the flu, I took evasive
action even if only very occasionally making it as far as my chaotic little mark making station.
In other news, yes, there’s a human under there, “The Pirate” we call him. He’s been around Benicia for years but is lately tending increasingly…unhinged. Sign of the times…
The week,
plans delayed, went on by but finally Saturday,
after Adan came by to patch the stucco and look at the warped patio blocks, I made a third trip to Safeway, noted that gas at the Chevron by Safeway is now wartime-priced at…$5.79 a gallon! as well as finally went to the Library for “Linda Fleming. A library of Ideas”,
the installation from which she brought home her Dire Flu, now fortunately receding…
*Before the week was over our self-styled Secretary of WAR additionally warned representatives from sixteen Latin American and Caribbean countries that if they don’t adopt more aggressive strategies against drug cartels, the Trump administration will do it for them. Hegseth urged the countries to remain “Christian nations, under God, proud of our shared heritage with strong borders,” and not be led astray by “radical narco-communism, anarcho-tyranny…and uncontrolled mass migration.” Tiago Rogero of The Guardian reported that Latin American countries resisted the framing of Hegseth’s speech. The title of his article used the word “dismay.”
In Miami Trump and his advisors convened a “Shield of the Americas” summit with twelve of Latin America’s Trump-aligned leaders. At the meeting, Trump called for an “anti-cartel coalition” that would use military might to crush drug cartels. Former homeland security secretary Kristi Noem told the group: “Now that America is secure, and our borders are secure, we want to focus on our neighbors and help our neighbors with their borders and the challenges they have.”
In Need to Know, David Rothkopf today called out the madness of the fact world trade and global security is being shattered by a single man. “Not since Adolf Hitler blew his brains out in a bunker beneath the garden of the German Reich Chancellery on April 30, 1945, have the lives of so many people around the world been so buffeted by the psychosis of a single man.”
Why has Trump launched a war against Iran on a whim, attacked other countries, and upended world trade, Rothkopf asked. “Because he’s insane. Because he’s venal. Because he’s a malignant narcissist. Because he’s a sociopath. Because he has a fragile ego. Because those around him exacerbate and play to those traits to advance their own interests. Because CEOs and investors do likewise to fill their coffers. Because to some people, whether he is insane or malevolent or repugnant or not matters less than whether his actions will feather their nests, increase their power.
“Because they, the billionaires…play their games and the consequences for the little people down below, the consequences for us, hardly matter a whit.”
On Thursday, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) called attention to another factor in play. In a speech to the Senate, Whitehouse noted that throughout his second term, Trump has advanced policies that help Russia, pausing weapons shipments to Ukraine, easing sanctions on Russia, and pushing a peace deal favorable to Russia. Last summer, he welcomed Putin to American soil, and administration officials have parroted Russian propaganda. Russian state media gloated when Trump “installed Russia apologist Tulsi Gabbard as his director of national intelligence,” and Attorney General Pam Bondi upon taking office stopped the anti-kleptocracy work that had targeted Russian oligarchs.
Trump’s new national security policy threw traditional U.S. allies overboard and favored policies that Russian government officials praised as “largely consistent” with their own.
“If Trump were purposefully doing Russia’s bidding,” Whitehouse said, “it is hard to see what he would be doing differently. The United States is the most powerful nation in the world. Russia is a weak, corrupt regime. My old friend Senator John McCain used to say that Russia is a gas station, run by gangsters, with an army. It doesn’t make sense that the President of the United States, who insists—insists—on being dominant in essentially every relationship, is so submissive to one person and that one person is Russia’s dictator, Vladimir Putin.”
…all of the above lifted from Heather Cox Richardson’s post of March 7 but enough of that…too much, too much Trouble Comin’ Every Day.