Today's Liberal News

News Roundup: Judge Jackson weathers banal racism; Ukraine updates; Clarence Thomas should resign

It is Friday! What a week it has been. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is on the precipice of history, on the cusp of becoming the first black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Sadly, as in most great moments in American history where someone perseveres for years before achieving some great milestone for humanity, Judge Jackson must face off against the last burps of bigotry available to the ruling class who are impotent to stop this moment in time.

Ginni Thomas wanted to overturn the election. About Clarence Thomas’ Jan. 6 documents dissent …

From now on, every Supreme Court decision on which Justice Clarence Thomas is the deciding vote comes with a giant asterisk: This matter was decided by a man whose wife advocated for the overthrow of the government. Those aren’t the only Thomas votes that require the asterisk, though. Take the Supreme Court’s January rejection of Donald Trump’s attempt to block the Jan. 6 select committee from getting White House documents. Thomas was the only dissent on that.

That Supreme Court confirmation hearing was so racist. We can’t ignore it or normalize it

Let me fix that headline for you, Washington Post: It’s not “Race hovered over Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing.” It’s “Racism hovered over Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing.” Although, really, racism was so prevalent in the hearing that the way it hovered was, COVID-like, in the air after belching out of the mouths of Republican senators like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz.

Jan. 6 committee eyeing subpoena for Ginni Thomas

It’s going to be a long weekend for Ginni Thomas. 

The right-wing activist and Q-Anon conspiracy theory-spouting wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is reportedly on the cusp of receiving a subpoena from Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, CBS reported Friday.

Her World Began to Collapse, So She Started Keeping a Diary

War presents a unique challenge for the artist. When reality has ripped in two and extremes of emotion and opinion take hold, it becomes near impossible to do what art does best: scramble easy categories and introduce complexity into the world. The Ukrainian writer and photographer Yevgenia Belorusets, currently in Kyiv, is facing this dilemma head-on.

What the Controversy Over Turning Red Misses

One of the funniest moments in Turning Red lasts about a second at most. Mei, the 13-year-old heroine who shape-shifts into a giant red panda whenever her emotions escape her control, has once again morphed into a flustered fuzz ball when—oh no oh no oh no—she spots her crush. She tries to contain herself, of course. She stomps her feet. She holds her breath.

Is Ukraine Barreling Toward a COVID Surge?

There is no good time for a war, but there are certainly bad ones. Even as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its second month and the civilian death toll nears 1,000, the pandemic churns on. In Europe and parts of Asia, cases have shot up in recent weeks. A new and seemingly more transmissible variant has emerged, as we always knew it eventually would.

The Fall of the Azzurri

Updated at 12:58 p.m. ET on March 25, 2022.The apocalypse has come again for the Italian national soccer team. Italy has won more World Cups than any other nation save Brazil and Germany, but for the second time in a row, it has failed to qualify for the Mondiale, after Aleksandar Trajkovski, of North Macedonia, scored at the 92nd minute to end the contest 0–1.It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Start of a New Cold War? U.S. Hawks “Want to Jack up the Military Budget and Use Ukraine as an Excuse”

With NATO countries recommitting themselves to the alliance and passing sweeping sanctions against Russia as punishment for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, is this the dawn of a new Cold War? We speak with foreign policy expert William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute, who warns that hawks in Washington are pushing for a massive increase in the U.S. military budget, which is already a record-high $800 billion a year.

Yanis Varoufakis: The West Is “Playing with Fire” If It Pushes Regime Change in Nuclear-Armed Russia

A month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than 3.6 million Ukrainians have left the country as refugees, and the war risks becoming “an Afghanistan-like quagmire,” warns Greek lawmaker Yanis Varoufakis, founder of the Progressive International with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. He says the West’s sweeping sanctions on Russia and bottomless military aid to Ukraine risk escalating the conflict and foreclosing chances of a peaceful resolution.

Ukraine update: Russian ship sinks after explosions, fire; Ukraine liberates still more ground

It was a day of shifting narratives as media outlets, their pundits, and even the mapmakers began to cautiously explore a notion that was scoffed at in the days immediately before Russia invaded Ukraine: Could Russia lose? Not just face economic and diplomatic isolation, but suffer an on-the-ground military loss?

It’s no longer unthinkable, though the situation in Ukraine is far too unstable to presume it to be the most likely end scenario.