Justice Clarence Thomas Hospitalized With ‘Flu-Like’ Symptoms, Expects To Be Released Soon
“His symptoms are abating, he is resting comfortably, and he expects to be released from the hospital in a day or two.
Today's Liberal News
Nuts & Bolts—Inside the Democratic Party: Nothing is inevitable
Welcome back to the weekly Nuts & Bolts Guide to small campaigns. Over the course of more than a decade, I’ve taken time to speak with campaign managers, field directors, communications directors, finance directors, and, of course, been a part of as many campaigns as I could.
Liz Cheney Says Jan. 6 Committee Exploring ‘Enhanced Criminal Penalties’ For Trump
The Wyoming Republican who co-chairs the House panel also said the probe’s findings will reveal new information about the insurrection on the Capitol.
Ukraine Update: A whole lot of carnage in Ukraine’s bloody stalemate
Some odds and ends observations for this Sunday afternoon/evening.
* Twitter and Telegram had an above average number of pictures and videos of destroyed Russian equipment and more dead Russians than I’ve seen all war. Ukraine seems emboldened, and in particular, it appears to be pressing its advantages in northwest Kyiv and in the Mykolaiv region—the best evidence yet of continued counter-offensives by the defenders.
‘No City Anymore’: Mariupol Survivors Flee On Train To Safety
The heat on the train was as thick as the anxiety as Ukrainian survivors of one of the most brutal sieges in modern history fled to the safer western city of Lviv.
Journalist Marina Ovsyannikova On TV Protest: ‘It’s Putin’s War, Not Russian People’s War’
The editor, who rushed onto a live state-run broadcast to protest propaganda, said she was partly trying to show that many Russians are against the war.
Surgeon general: No need to panic over latest Covid spike in Europe
Vivek Murthy said the nation is in a good position to get through new waves.
The Change
Illustrations by Miki LowePoems about the seasons tend to get a bad rap. Soft snowfall, chirping cardinals, bare feet on soft grass, crisp autumn leaves: These are obviously lovely scenes that, in their unambiguous beauty, are sometimes perceived to lack complexity or literary worth.Yet some of the greatest poems derive depth as well as beauty from the seasons.
The Court Ketanji Brown Jackson Knew
This is not an article about Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. It is, rather, a look back at the Supreme Court she once knew—knew intimately, in fact, during the 1999–2000 Court term, when she was a law clerk to Justice Stephen Breyer, the justice whom President Joe Biden recently nominated her to replace.From a certain perspective, nothing is unique about Judge Jackson’s status as a former Supreme Court law clerk. A majority of the justices are former clerks, Breyer among them.
The Three Rules for Canceling Russia Fairly
In the West, nearly every country has embraced draconian sanctions against Russia. Countless private actors have joined sweeping economic and cultural boycotts of the country, hoping to pressure President Vladimir Putin into ending his unjust war of aggression against Ukraine.Whether this approach will work is not yet clear. Years of sanctions have failed to stop other murderous regimes from staying in power and waging war.
Moderna asks FDA to authorize second booster shot for all adults
FDA is set to convene its advisory committee of vaccine experts next month to deliberate how to approach Covid booster shots.
Europe’s Covid spike has Biden officials concerned, could lead to return of masks
Over the past two years, the U.S. has experienced Covid waves similar to those in Europe — only several weeks later.
U.S. inflation soared 7.9 percent in past year, a fresh 40-year high
The increase reported by the Labor Department reflected the 12 months ending in February and didn’t include most of the oil and gas price increases that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb.
Russia oil shock looms over Fed inflation fight
The Fed is already expected to begin a campaign of interest rate increases next month in a bid to remove its support for economic growth amid a blistering job market and rapidly rising prices.
Biden takes victory lap with January jobs report
“America’s job machine is going stronger than ever,” Biden said at the White House.
U.S. employers shrug off Omicron, add 467,000 jobs in January
The burst of jobs came despite a wave of Omicron inflections that sickened millions of workers, kept many consumers at home and left businesses from restaurants to manufacturers short-staffed.
Opinion | Why Are Minority-Owned Banks Disappearing? Washington Holds the Smoking Gun
Congress needs to create a new safety net for such lenders — not let regulators squeeze them out of business.
“Who Does the West Consider Worthy of Saving?” Asks Matthieu Aikins, After Journey with Afghan Refugees
Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last year, the country has faced a humanitarian crisis with half of the population experiencing acute hunger. The U.N. Refugee Agency says 3.
Raj Patel: Global South Faces Brunt of Soaring Food Prices Amid War in Ukraine, World’s “Breadbasket”
The United Nations is warning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could lead to a “hurricane of hunger and a meltdown of the global food system” that would be especially devastating for the Global South. Wheat and fertilizer prices have soared since the war began three weeks ago. Global food prices could jump by as much as 22% this year as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupts exports from two of the world’s largest producers of wheat and fertilizer.
U.S. Accuses Russia of Using Cluster Bombs in Ukraine as Both Refuse to Endorse International Ban
President Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal for the first time Wednesday for atrocities in Ukraine, as the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing on whether Russian forces have been using cluster munitions in populated areas in Ukraine. Cluster bombs explode in midair and spew hundreds of smaller “bomblets.” The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said their use in Ukraine may amount to war crimes.
Syrian Activist Condemns Russia for Targeting Civilians & Hospitals from Aleppo to Mariupol
As the war in Ukraine enters its fourth week, Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have increasingly attacked civilian areas to pound Ukrainian cities into submission, a strategy Russia has employed to devastating effect in Syria, where the Russian Air Force has bombed many cities to rubble in an effort to support the government of Bashar al-Assad since entering the war in 2015.
Ukraine update: Where things stand on Sunday morning in Kyiv
As of Sunday morning in Ukraine, fighting continues in Mariupol as territorial defense forces struggle to prevent Russia from capturing more of the city. Meanwhile, additional sources have confirmed the story that Russian forces put local citizens on buses and took them out of the area, either to Donetsk or into Russia. For those not already kidnapped or engaged in a firefight, the situation remains dire.
A look back on the lengthy electoral career of Don Young, the longest serving Republican in Congress
Republican Rep. Don Young, who was first elected in 1973 to Alaska’s sole House seat, died Friday at the age of 88 after losing consciousness while on a flight. Young’s 49-year tenure made him the longest-serving sitting member of either chamber of Congress, as well as the body’s oldest member. Young additionally holds the record for longest-serving Republican in congressional history.
WTF Roundup: Propaganda for whom, exactly? Also, it turns out Sarah Palin is still around!
What is there to say about Fox News and the right-wing-o-sphere that hasn’t been scratched by the nails of demons into the toilet stall walls of hell? Every day, every hour, every minute, Fox News and the propaganda machines it has birthed are either selling their audience lies, misinformation, and disinformation about the world, or selling them pillows, telling them to sell their gold, and saying that the way out of debt is to give Magnum P.I. your home in a reverse mortgage.
Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: How Putin handles losing is the key question
WaPo:
Putin’s KGB past didn’t help him with intelligence on Ukraine
The botched invasion suggests that—as happens with many authoritarians—his analysts told him what he wanted to hear
Putin’s present problems can be reduced to two main options: Either he ignored the advice of his national security and intelligence advisers; or, as with so many authoritarian leaders before him, he set the conditions under which his subordinates only told him w
A lot of action on the Jan. 6 docket, including incoming cooperation from perps
Friday made for a very busy day in court as deals were struck, guilty pleas were entered and sentencing dates scheduled for defendants facing charges—including conspiracy—related to the Jan. 6 assault of the U.S. Capitol.
First up before Senior Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C., was ex-police officer Jacob Fracker. The 30-year-old pleaded guilty Friday to corruptly conspiring to obstruct or impede the counting of votes by Congress on Jan. 6.
Disney World Now ‘Regrets’ Racist Dance Routine By High School ‘Indianettes’
At one point in the routine the troupe chanted: “Scalp ’em, Indians, scalp ’em.
U.S. health officials seek Covid-19 hospital safety complaints following POLITICO report
America’s hospital regulator wants patients to report facilities that request they remove their masks.
Why Robert Pattinson’s Grim Batman Is Cause for Optimism
In The Batman, Matt Reeves’s long and grim superhero epic, Robert Pattinson plays a brooding sophomore of a dark knight. He wears mascara. He journals. He is vengeance. He is the shadows. But despite all the memes and fanboy hand-wringing generated from the Twilight actor’s casting, Pattinson’s is a back-to-basics Batman. He isn’t the tired, aging crimefighter played by Ben Affleck, nor is The Batman the umpteenth pearl-scattering origin story for the character.
Kyiv’s Sublime Urban Spaces Are in Danger
Kyiv is often described as the cradle of Slavic civilization. According to legend, the city was founded in 482, when a group of siblings from a royal Slavic tribe staked out a settlement along the banks of the Dnipro River. By the end of the millenium, under the leadership of Volodymyr the Great, it had become the capital of a major European civilization—Kyivan Rus. At this point, Moscow was barely a village.