Clarissa's Blog

Last week, Putin gave one of his regular live press conferences where citizens could call in or email their most pressing concerns and have the president answer their questions live.

A woman wrote in from the region where Russian troops are amassed before being sent across the border to kill Ukrainians. She told Putin that her best friend wanted a puppy but the friend’s husband wouldn’t let her buy one. So the woman was asking Putin to tell the husband to get a puppy for his wife. So Putin did and now the woman finally has her puppy. It’s great that the country at war and in the midst of an economic crisis has managed to solve this very pressing issue.

The tradition of asking the tsar, the Secretary General, or the President to address such trivial issues is one of the most venerable in Russia. People maintain the belief that the only reason things don’t work is that the good tsar is not aware of problems. They are convinced that all they need to do is inform him of what’s happening and everything will magically improve.

Ukrainians, on the other hand, have a very different approach to their elected leaders. The good tsar mentality is one they have abandoned utterly and completely.

Our university is banning smoking on our entire huge campus, including outside and in the parking lots. All forms of tobacco – free smoking are under the same ban.

People are accepting this with vapid indifference. I find the whole thing pathetic in the extreme.

I went to the local mystery novel bookstore and was overwhelmed by the number of novels by writers from Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Norway.

I bought a novel by an Icelandic author and wondered if the current vogue for novels set in the dead of winter in Nordic countries has to do with an unspoken realization that the climate change is taking away the cold and the snow. Are people trying to get their fill of the snow before it goes away for good?

The Russian equivalent of FEMA refused to provide even a single vehicle to transport humanitarian aid to the regions in Russia that have been ravaged by forest fires.

The excuse?

“All of the vehicles are currently in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.”

Basia got a scholarship to go to Harvard for a semester to work on her book on the Ukrainian Revolution. I don’t know what makes me happier: Basia ‘ s success or the recognition that the book is needed.

But I will miss Basia while she is away.

When my sister is around, no matter what we set out to do, we end up at an outlet mall.

“I know why you are getting out your phone,” my sister said. “You are going to post on your blog saying that whenever I show up, we always end up going to an outlet mall.”

Sorry for the absence, everybody. I’ve been partying and celebrating my birthday. But now I’m back with a news update.

NATO will be holding military training in Estonia, next to the border with Russia. American troops are taking part in the training.

Now when somebody starts on with the ignorant “Putin invaded Ukraine because he was bothered by the NATO presence close to Russia’s borders”, you can tell that person to stop being an idiot and learn some facts instead.

N demonstrated that miracles do happen and understood that “But don’t you already have a handbag?” is not a fruitful line of reasoning.

The handbag is actually purple in color.

Basia ‘ s birthday was 2 days ago, and she asked everybody to avoid saying the word “Putin” around her on that day.

But I’m taking a different approach. On my birthday, I will speak about Ukraine as much as I want, and people will simply have to put up with it.

Just in case people want to keep asking me where I find all those Putinoid idiot lefties:

So, U.S. troops have arrived in Ukraine to train Ukrainian troops. The United States appears intent upon meddling with the situation between Russia and a state that was part of Russia for more years than the United States has existed before being split off during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, despite the fact that there are no (zero) national interests served by doing so.

The loser is so mind-bogglingly stupid  that he thinks Ukraine was part of Russia*,  yet he totally needs to keep opining on the region and promoting the goals of Putin ‘ s far-right government.

By the way, what happened to the idea that Liberals championed victims and opposed victimizers? And what happened to the belief that Liberals did not support regimes that eviscerated unions, worked to destroy reproductive rights, bashed gays, demolished the separation of church and state, invaded their neighbors, and promoted racism? Is the hatred for Ukraine so strong that all these values can be easily discarded?

And happy birthday to me, by the way.

* Ukraine was part of Russia in the same way as Mexico was part of Spain and the US was part of England. And if only anybody knew how tired I am of repeating this phrase. Why are people so smug in their stupidity?