Today's Liberal News

Ukraine Update: Western artillery is already impacting the Battle of Donbas, and more is on the way

  • by

Ramzan Kadyrov, the warlord chieftain of Chechnya and a staunch Vladimir Putin ally, has claimed total and complete Russian control of Severodonetsk. He claimed full control of Mariupol about two dozen times (no exaggeration) before Russia actually, finally, expelled all Ukrainian defenders. In other words, he’s full of shit. 

So the fight continues as Ukraine reinforces the city, while observers scratch their heads in confusion.

Advocates say access to contraception will be the next battleground

This article was originally published at Prism.

Conservative lawmakers are targeting contraception access in the latest fight over reproductive rights. Legislators in states like Missouri, Louisiana, and Arizona have been vocal about challenging access to contraception like intrauterine devices (IUDs) and emergency contraception like Plan B, claiming that life begins at the moment of conception.

What Really Happens When Mercury Is in Retrograde

You’ve probably heard some version of the line, usually delivered with a sigh. Someone is having a crappy day. Or they’re in a weird mood. Or nothing seems to be going right, despite their best efforts. And they’ve laid the blame on Mercury, the smallest planet in our solar system, nearest to the sun. Everything is Mercury’s fault. The darn thing is in retrograde. And in fact, it’s happening right now.

Patriotic Songs for a Cruel Country

The nation has selected a new musical champion, and he sings with a twang. This week, American Idol crowned Noah Thompson, a scruffy-goateed 20-year-old construction worker from Kentucky, as its 20th season’s winner. On his debut single, “One Day Tonight,” Thompson imagines giving a girlfriend all that she pines for: a diamond ring, a fixer-upper in Denver, a honeymoon in Vegas.

The Sit-Up Is Over

When I think of a sit-up, my mind flashes immediately to the (carpeted, for some reason) floor of my elementary-school gym. Twice a week, our teachers marched us there for ritual humiliation and light calisthenics, and under the watchful gaze of a former football coach with a whistle perpetually dangling from his lips, we’d warm up with the moves we’d been told were the building blocks of physical fitness—jumping jacks, push-ups, toe touches, and, of course, sit-ups.

Gay Men Need a Specific Warning About Monkeypox

A disproportionate number of cases in the recent monkeypox outbreak have shown up among gay and bisexual men. And as public-health authorities investigate possible links to sexual or other close physical contact at a Pride event in the Canary Islands, a sauna in Madrid, and other gay venues in Europe, government officials are trying hard not to single out a group that endured terrible stigma at the height of America’s AIDS crisis.

The Ugly Truth About the Beautiful Game

The philosopher Roger Scruton once wrote that people become conservative as they experience loss; the sense of passing, of dying and death. Loss gives them a love of things as they are, a desire to hold, to protect, to conserve—even if all attempts to do so come too late.I thought of this recently when I found myself in the absurd situation of feeling sad that a multimillionaire French soccer player had decided against joining the world’s most successful club.

Patrick Cockburn Warns the West’s “Triumphalism” in Ukraine Could Prolong Conflict Indefinitely

As fighting continues in Ukraine, we speak with journalist Patrick Cockburn, who says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is peddling a “vague triumphalism” which is “obscuring just how dangerous and how bad the situation has become.” His recent CounterPunch piece is headlined “London and Washington are Being Propelled by Hubris — Just as Putin was.

Ukraine Update: Ukraine makes a move in Kherson, while things remain desperate in the east

  • by

Yesterday I wondered why Ukraine was so hell-bent on defending Severodonetsk,  isolated on a deep salient surrounded on three sides and no natural barriers, when those forces could simply cross the river and hold out in a much more defensible Lysychansk. Retired Australian general Mick Ryan pondered the same today, noting that “the tactical and political necessity to hold out in Severodonetsk is questionable.

News Roundup: A tough week for a nation beset by corporate greed and guns

It is Friday. This week has been a brutal reminder of what divided opinions on “American exceptionalism” in our leadership class really are. Children were murdered this week in a way that otherwise only exists in countries being bombed by missiles. While the overwhelming majority of Americans are demanding that action be taken to make our country safer for children going to elementary schools, corporate gun lobby money is a more powerful master to conservative lawmakers.