{"id":45483,"date":"2026-03-10T03:26:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T03:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mikesmooreptgs.com\/wordpress\/?p=45483"},"modified":"2026-03-10T15:31:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T15:31:19","slug":"an-embarrassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikesmooreptgs.com\/wordpress\/?p=45483","title":{"rendered":"An Embarrassment…"},"content":{"rendered":"

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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<\/p>\n

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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<\/p>\n

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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<\/p>\n

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and much much more. Onward Christian Soldiers!<\/p>\n

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Nothin’ to see here though, as L remained laid low by the flu, I took evasive<\/p>\n

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action even if only very occasionally making it as far as my chaotic little mark making station.<\/p>\n

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In other news, yes, there’s a human under there, “The Pirate” we call him.\u00a0 He’s been around Benicia for years but is lately tending increasingly…unhinged.\u00a0 Sign of the times…<\/p>\n

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The week,<\/p>\n

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plans delayed, went on by but finally Saturday,<\/p>\n

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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 next door is now wartime-priced at…$5.79 a gallon! as well as finally got to the Library for “Linda Fleming. A library of Ideas”<\/a>,<\/p>\n

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the installation from which she brought home her Dire Flu, now fortunately receding…<\/p>\n

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*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\u2019t adopt more aggressive strategies against drug cartels, the Trump administration will do it for them. Hegseth urged the countries to remain \u201cChristian nations, under God, proud of our shared heritage with strong borders,\u201d and not be led astray by \u201cradical narco-communism, anarcho-tyranny\u2026and uncontrolled mass migration.\u201d Tiago Rogero of The Guardian<\/em> reported that Latin American countries resisted the framing of Hegseth\u2019s speech. The title of his article used the word \u201cdismay.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Miami Trump and his advisors convened a \u201cShield of the Americas\u201d summit with twelve of Latin America\u2019s Trump-aligned leaders. At the meeting, Trump called for an \u201canti-cartel coalition\u201d that would use military might to crush drug cartels. Former homeland security secretary Kristi Noem told the group: \u201cNow 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Need to Know<\/em>, David Rothkopf today called out the madness of the fact world trade and global security is being shattered by a single man. \u201cNot 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why has Trump launched a war against Iran on a whim, attacked other countries, and upended world trade, Rothkopf asked. \u201cBecause he\u2019s insane. Because he\u2019s venal. Because he\u2019s a malignant narcissist. Because he\u2019s 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…”<\/p>\n

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 \u201cinstalled Russia apologist Tulsi Gabbard as his director of national intelligence,\u201d and Attorney General Pam Bondi upon taking office stopped the anti-kleptocracy work that had targeted Russian oligarchs.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s new national security policy threw traditional U.S. allies overboard and favored policies that Russian government officials praised as \u201clargely consistent\u201d with their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Trump were purposefully doing Russia\u2019s bidding,\u201d Whitehouse said, \u201cit 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\u2019t make sense that the President of the United States, who insists\u2014insists\u2014on being dominant in essentially every relationship, is so submissive to one person and that one person is Russia\u2019s dictator, Vladimir Putin.\u201d ”<\/p>\n

…all of the above lifted from Heather Cox Richardson’s post of March 7<\/a> but enough of that…too much, too much Trouble Comin’ Every Day.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikesmooreptgs.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikesmooreptgs.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikesmooreptgs.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikesmooreptgs.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikesmooreptgs.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45483"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/mikesmooreptgs.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45553,"href":"https:\/\/mikesmooreptgs.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45483\/revisions\/45553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikesmooreptgs.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikesmooreptgs.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikesmooreptgs.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikesmooreptgs.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}