Updates Needed

~ Clarissa

I have to talk about the political news tomorrow but it’s the end of the academic year and I’m completely out of touch. I spent all day today battling Legal to let the sweet widow come to the award ceremony. I won. My definition of “including but not limited to” finally prevailed. But I have no idea what’s happening in the world.

Please update me, people. Please, pretty please. I’m a rescuer of sweet old widows, and I deserve help.

Unknown's avatar

Published by Clarissa

44 thoughts on “Updates Needed”

  1. Did you miss all the crazy Trump vs Pope Leo stuff? And the insane Trump as Jesus picture that someone created with AI and Trump posted on Truth Social, then took down because Christians of all strips found it blasphemous?

    Like

    Reply

    1. Clarissa often seems to miss the most insane Trump-developments. Cognitive dissonance I guess, it must feel very bad to know that one has voted for this absolute shit show. Like how do Trump voters feel about the killing of school children in Iran, about the blatant Epstein cover up etc? I guess they just ignore the news that could threaten their own self-image as good person making good choices?

      Like

      Reply

    2. You know why you never get what you need from the political process? Because you think that politics is the silly circus that you listed here.

      Democracy was a mistake.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Yes, it is partially a silly circus thanks to Trump. However the Epstein cover up is political, because it shows extreme corruption, and corruption is political. I also don’t see how going to war with Iran is silly circus. Are you that cynical that you think the suffering caused by Trump to people in other countries is not your problem and also not your fault? Why? You voted for him, knowing he is a dangerous sociopath who only cares about himself and does not listen to experts, this is the result, experts told him not to attack Iran because it would close the strait of Hormuz and cause world-wide problems (like energy shortages for poor people in other countries, how unimportant for American voters, I know!)

        I also don’t understand how you believe that symbols and stories of the nation state matter, but the symbolism of a president posting images as himself as Jesus doesn’t matter, just circus, can be ignored. How does that fit together, can you explain?

        It is really insane how you Americans are so decadent that your internal problems about how you exactly treat trans kids and your boring “race” issues caused you to vote for a president who is unhinged and makes idiotic decisions affecting people around the world. It feels like you show to the rest of the world that you can afford to be led by an idiot, sometimes it feels like a symbol of your wealth and power. The politician of our small countries have to be clever, have to make good decisions, yours don’t, because you can do whatever, because you have the strongest military, he can mistreat any country, you are now the bully of the world, must feel great to you. Probably similar to Russians feel about attacking Ukraine, very cool, we are a super power, we do what we want, we deserve it, everyone else is weak and unimportant.

        Morality has totally gone out the window for the Republicans, it is really astonishing to see, I cannot get used to it and I think you are a person with morals too, and so it just does not add up for me, I don’t get it!

        Like

        Reply

        1. One sits here, posting nice, wholesome posts about birthday pickles and helping elderly widows. Then all of a sudden, somebody shows up to cuss one out in very strong terms for no reason whatsoever.

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

        3. Only states can guarantee rights. Foreigners aren’t part of the state. Therefore there is no reason why they can’t be bombed back into the stone age.

          Like

          Reply

          1. We are at a stage where we can’t ask the 350,000 Haitians very politely to go home. Let’s not fantasize about any cruelty being done to them.

            Like

            Reply

              1. I beg to differ. Americans elected Trump mostly because we don’t want all these millions of new “locals” inflicted on us by Biden.

                Like

              2. They may have elected him for this reason, but it didn’t stop him from starting foreign wars.

                Like

  3. The Iran impasse is proof that the USA is no longer the world superpower most Americans thought it was: a giant with clay feet doesn’t cover it.

    Plus, whoever is in charge of communication at the White House should be fired promptly.

    Finally, what happened to serious political leadership in the US?

    Like

    Reply

  4. “spent all day today battling Legal to let the sweet widow come to the award ceremony. I won.”

    Congratulations! Feel free to wish her well and thank her for her generosity from your readers (if she has any idea they exist, which… she probably doesn’t) but anyway, the thought stands. Good for you (and her)!!!!

    Like

    Reply

  5. My “highlights” of the last days: Melania Trumps bizarre press conference about Epstein, the astonishing fact that Pam Bondi got out of her testifying under oath about the whole Epstein cover-up by being fired as AG, Trumps randomly attacking the pope and Meloni and posing as Jesus. American politics feels increasingly like the genius “Cicero” trilogy by Robert Harris about the end of the Roman republic. I wonder if you are still following the Epstein saga at all, I find it very illuminatig to check the top stories on reddit/r/epstein every day, so see who is still fighting for justice and accountability and who has left any decency and morals completely behind them.

    Like

    Reply

  7. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/business/strait-of-hormuz-blockade.html

    “more than 20 commercial vessels not linked to Iran had transited the strait in the first 24 hours of the blockade”

    So… not a total shutdown as some news sources advertised (and nyt doesn’t bother to mention until after most have stopped reading): US now controls the Strait.

    -Swalwell was apparently running for governor of CA? But DNC decided they needed him out so they #metooted him.

    -Convictions vacated for another group of J6ers, including Enrique Tarrio.

    -BBC released an investigative report showing lawyers (?) coaching migrants to pretend to be gay so they can get asylum. Which has obviously been happening: the more interesting question is why the BBC is reporting it. Controlled release?

    -ethyl

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

        1. If these people are refugees, why don’t we have refugee camps? it’s what everybody used to do with refugees.

          -ethyl

          Like

          Reply

    1. Finally interesting news, thank you.

      A Republican congresswoman is trying to pass a massive amnesty bill, and people fixate on some meme? I just honestly. Memes are more important than legislation these days. Neoliberalism has won so resoundingly that it’s not even funny.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Neoliberalism has made every legacy news source into a celebrity gossip tabloid: “OMG famous person said this outrageous thing!” “OMG did you see what famous person posted on social media?”

        Mainstream ‘journalism’ now amounts to monitoring the X feeds of celebrities on your phone I guess.

        -ethyl

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

        1. That’s precisely what I mean. It’s all about individuals. It’s all about words. Politics is no longer about the life of the polis. It’s about individual lives of famous people. Legislation doesn’t matter. Meme wars do.

          Like

          Reply

          1. All about words, except when it’s “OMG did you see what Melania was wearing?”

            Seriously. It’s all celebrity gossip now. And people mistake it for news.

            -ethyl

            Like

            Reply

            1. My point is that the individual foibles, qualities or beliefs of a politician are utterly unimportant in comparison with the results of his actions. I don’t care about motives, as I keep saying. I only care about the results.

              Like

              Reply

              1. To give an example, I have a colleague who insists that Putin must be good because she saw photos of him on Mount Athos. That’s an attitude I find befuddling.

                Like

  9. The Enlightenment ended for the hundredth time as the last prestige news source became a jumble of political opinion pieces, celebrity news, and randomly selected local headlines. Picking your favorite millionaire or billionaire (such as Clavicular or the US president) and following their social media, became the simplest method of obtaining a narrative about what matters, and what’s going on in the world. That was for humans anyway. Meanwhile, artificial intelligences talked to each other in the movements of stock prices and the bug fixes of code repositories, not quite ready to outright replace human oligarchic rule.

    Like

    Reply

  10. I would talk about recent elections in Peru. It will give you ample opportunities to put everything into historical perspectives. Also contextualize within Latin America now. Easy for you, in those times where you seemed busy.

    Ol.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Holy crap, are they really going to elect Keiko? She’s been campaigning for more than 15 years on the “get my dad out of jail” platform. I thought nobody liked her.

      -ethyl

      Like

      Reply

      2. Perú, a country that really deserves so much better, is trapped among the most moronic politicians in know history. And I don’t say this lightly.

        Like

        Reply

  11. Unfortunately, due to a combination of Conservative MPs abandoning their voters and recent byelections, Canada now has a majority Liberal government. Meanwhile, western alienation is solidifying, sadly we are once again in deep shit.

    Like

    Reply

  13. “How is immigration policy related to “foreign wars”?”

    Well it’s in Steve Sailer’s “invade the world, invite the world”, in that American misadventures (pretty much all foreign actions involving the military) tend to result in a wave of immigrants from the target of stupid American adventures….

    At present, it’s mostly Europe that bears the brunt of American half-assed special military operations…

    Related: Peter Magyar has rejected EU migration deals and gone further, saying he intends to end work permits for non-EU citizens by June 1 as he wants ethnic Hungarians to return to the country.

    Orban, like PiS in Poland, was playing a two sided game, wanting out of EU migrant quotas but handing out work permits to non-EU countries like candy.

    There are plenty of non-EU workers in Poland at present but most people don’t care as long as they’re working and not sucking the taxpayers’ teat….

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to oldcowboy3 Cancel reply