Belated Admiration

~ Clarissa

Turns out that while I was away I missed the funniest development of the year. Trump tricked everybody into thinking that he was going to declare war on Venezuela so that people would tune into his speech and there would be motivation to watch and air it on the networks.

And, obviously, there was no declaration of war. Instead, everybody had to listen to Trump explain his economic policy. Good for him. The “war is coming” crowd deserves that and more. I’m loving this trick.

This is what being out of the country does to you. You miss everything that’s happening.

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Published by Clarissa

11 thoughts on “Belated Admiration”

  1. This is a blatant misrepresentation of what has happened.

    Satellite imagery shows at least eight US military vessels have been operating in the Caribbean in December, as tensions between the US and Venezuela escalate.

    It follows a series of US air strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific in recent months, which the Trump administration says are necessary to stem the flow of drugs.

    The build-up involves thousands of troops and the world’s largest warship being positioned within striking distance of Venezuela,

    Deploying USS Gerald Ford, an aircraft carrier, to Venezuela, costing tens of millions of dollars a day if not more. Just as a troll. So people would watch his news conference. Sure.

    I’m loving this trick.

    What is there to love about this? If true, he spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a stunt to make people watch him on TV. If false, he folded like a cheap tent again. You don’t deploy your navy for shits and giggles. It just makes you look weak.

    It does seem to be a trick. Except you think it’s others who are being tricked when it’s the people clapping at this stunt who are the real marks.

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    1. I’m trying to find something positive about the administration. This is all I could scrounge up but if there’s something else, please let me know. Because the pickings seem very very slim at this point.

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      1. Oh I understand the impulse. I’m just saying this is not a “positive.” Unless by positive you mean “owning the libs” and no other accomplishment.

        And speaking of accomplishments, it’s so funny to see the entire administration acting like they’re journalists. “BREAKING NEWS: MORE FRAUD, MORE CORRUPTION!!” Yeah, motherfuckers, you’re in charge, are you going to do something about it?

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        1. Trump has this habit, which drove me nuts in the 1st administration, of acting like he’s still running his campaign. “Law and order;” he’d tweet. Or “Deport them!” like he’s completely excluded from power.

          So annoying.

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    2.  “…alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific…”

      Alleged, horseshit², those are drug smuggling boats. Try to keep up ;-D

       

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        1. That is a moral tough one, the oil belongs to the people of Venezuela. But, simply extorting/expropriating/seizing of American companies is a problem.

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          1. Sure. But let’s at least come to an agreement as to why this is happening. One week it’s drugs, then it’s oil.

            MAGA can be anything they want to be. During the campaign MAGA was “isolationism” and “no new wars.” Now MAGA is regime change.

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            1. I’d love to see some isolationism at this point because Trump passed the day today in round # 5,000 of the utterly useless Russia talks and I hear there’s meeting #5,000,000 with Netanyahu coming up. So maybe some gentle isolationism would be nice. Solve a couple domestic problems, maybe.

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            2. Unless, the expropriating “socialists” drive a once wealthy country into a third world hellhole; no longer able to even feed itself; forcing some into drug dealing, petty crime, and prostitution; driving them to emmigrate at numbers that destroy neighbouring countries; then finally deliberately exporting murderous criminal gangs into the American heartland while refusing to accept the criminals back. Don’t know about you, but I just might give this a miss ;-D

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  2. Some good news: 20% drop in murder in 2025, and a big reduction in crime in general-

    https://www.axios.com/2025/12/24/us-trump-murder-data-killing-crime-national-guard

    Bonus: very funny article and headline I found while searching for this-

    https://www.axios.com/2025/11/04/cities-homicide-rates-fall-2025

    “President Trump has sent, or threatened to send, National Guard troops to what he calls “hellhole” cities to fight escalating crime. But the latest numbers show homicides in several of those cities — namely D.C., Memphis, Chicago and Portland, Ore. — are dropping dramatically…

    “Memphis, where the National Guard was deployed in mid-September, reported a 19% drop in homicides over the first three-quarters of the year.

    “State of play: The stats are the latest signs that violent crime in America is starkly different from what Trump cites as his reason for sending federal troops to Chicago, Portland, D.C., Memphis and cities in California.”

    Apparently the Trump administration sending the National Guard to a city, followed by crime dropping in that city, is evidence that Trump was wrong to send the National Guard there.

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