Clarissa's Blog

Whenever I catch a glimpse of the Republican primaries, I realize that I’m rooting for Trump. Because the greasy lizard is even worse.

I don’t like what this has done to me.

The American novel is dying, and Conroy’s South of Broad enacts its agony. Conroy is one of those Southern writers who know how to write magnificently. The problem, however, is that there doesn’t seem to be anything for American writers – even those as gifted as Conroy – to write about.

Conroy’s characters  (just like Franzen’s, Roth’s, or anybody else’s in American letters) are dying of boredom amidst the wealth they inhabit. All that Conroy can do to lend some interest to their sated lives is visit all kinds of sexual abuses on them. As a result, the novel reads as a list of sexual perversions that are rattled off in a perfunctory and often mechanical manner. The writer tries too hard to awaken the jaded sensibilities of his readers with tales of sexual outrage, and in the end the sheer number of sexual violations in the novel makes them mundane and boring.

This is not a bad book. I quite enjoyed reading it. I’m very glad, however, that I don’t specialize in contemporary American novel. I don’t want to be like one of those people who used to be told, “You specialize in Soviet satire? Wow, it must be fascinating to study something that doesn’t exist.”

Today in Moscow a billboard appeared with a picture of Stalin and the caption “That one died, this one will die, too.” I’m sure we all understand who “this one” is.

Obama’s presidency advanced a great number of liberal causes. Economy, healthcare reform, foreign policy, Cuba, Iran. Even gay marriage is now reality.

One area of human existence, however, saw no liberal advances whatsoever during the Obama years. To the contrary, it suffered one major blow after another. That area of life is women’s rights. Reproductive rights are in the toilet, parental leave is not on anybody’s radar, things for women have been getting worse during the presidency of our most liberal leader so far.

As the example of every country with strong achievements on women’s rights demonstrates, the only way to get pro-women policies in place is by electing a large number of women. Women always defend everybody else’s rights but nobody ever stands up for women’s rights except women.

Women, we need to vote for Hillary. Enough with trying to service men and responding to the unquenchable male needs. Enough with being apologetic for our needs. It’s the twenty-first century and it’s time to put ourselves first.

When the baby is hungry, she doesn’t cry or scream. She opens her mouth and looks around, expecting food to arrive in her mouth. The confidence which inspires her knowledge that food can’t fail to arrive is very touching.

We all come to this world expecting the best and knowing that things have to turn out just right. This knowledge gradually gets eroded in the process of living. Only a few of us are lucky to retain the certainty that good things can’t fail to come. And for those people, good things do materialize all the time.

The US spent the entire 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s trying to prevent the countries of Central and South America from experimenting with socialism. In the process, the US embroiled itself in ridiculous scandals, sponsored brutal dictatorships, wasted a ton of resources and lost face more times than anybody can count.

Then the US got tired of this silly game and let South Americans play out their socialist fantasy. Of course, that fantasy soon revealed itself to be completely bankrupt on every level. It had only persisted for so long because the US worked so hard to stave it off. The whole stupid thing could have died decades ago if it has been allowed to run its natural course.

The only reason why the South American socialist fantasy managed to exist for so long is, paradoxically, that the US believed that socialism could actually work. Had the US been true to its declared belief that socialism was doomed to fail, it would have let it fizzle out on its own much sooner.

MSNBC was about to cover Bernie’s rally in our town but then switched to some stupid OJ Simpson development instead. I understand that there is a popular new TV series on OJ being aired this month but do we have to drop everything and replay the stale old OJ drama on every news channel today?

Thanks to Bernie, we are now on the news! It’s like we actually exist or something. This is so cool. I’m now once again for Bernie.

No, I’m not. But it’s still very cool that Bernie came by. I hope it energizes our students and makes them interested in politics.

I wish there were a political figure who could muster the courage to tell voters that the only way manufacturing jobs are coming back is to be done by robots.

Of course, nobody who still wants to get elected anywhere can’t afford to burst this sad, pathetic bubble but how about people who aren’t going to run again? Obama could do that at the end of his last term, just as a kind, charitable thing to do. Voters won’t believe him but if they keep hearing this, they will eventually absorb the information.

It’s heart-rending to see how everybody dangles the carrot of manufacturing jobs in front of the people’s noses, knowing full well that it’s a lie and the reality where those jobs and the attendant lifestyle were possible is dead and gone.

20:03 – Trump calls Romney a failure. And he’s right, no matter how much people boo.

20:08 – oh God, Trump did go straight to Rubio’s penis allusions. This is such a mockery of the political process.

20:17 – the Fox moderators are so lazy. They use against Rubio the exact same taunt Trump used against him in the last debate. Could they at least come up with something original?

20:27 – nobody knows their numbers, nobody has anything to offer but wild promises and rhetoric.

20:30 – it’s disturbing how Kasich keeps attributing the oil boom to himself. Now would be a good time to ask him if he thinks he’s God.

21:02 – Trump slipped in that the 9/11 attackers were not from Iraq.

21:05 – Trump is actually absolutely right on flexibility. Enough already with the inane revelations that people changed their minds on something. Rigidity is a quality of dumb pricks like Ted Cruz. Even Trump realizes it.

21:33 – in order to bring back manufacturing jobs, Ted Cruz will repeal Obamacare. These people are deranged. There is no other word for it. Or, alternatively, they despise their voters more than I despise cockroaches.

21:52 – Kasich’s Trump / Putin ad is funny.

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Conclusion: this is very depressing.