Editors’ Blog

According to Ukrainian defense officials, Russia has begun a major new offensive in the east of the country. So far these statements are from the head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council and also the General Staff.

There seems to be some definitional disagreement on this. The U.S. appears less clear that this is actually the beginning of the major offensive, as opposed to preliminaries to set the stage for it. Again, perhaps a definitional or semantic question.

A number of you have written in to say that comments are currently down along with some other small site glitches. We did a site/software upgrade over the weekend and as often happens there are some small breakages that came with that. Our team is working to get everything ironed out as soon as possible. To respond to some of your questions: no, there is no change in commenting policy or anything about commenting. This is simply a tech issue which we will have resolved shortly. We appreciate your patience.

TPM Reader RS pointed something out to me which I think may answer some of the questions I had about the sinking of the Moskva (see this post from yesterday). As I mentioned, I was trying to understand what specific insights Ukraine might have had about the Moskva’s technology or operational practice that may have helped with its successful missile strike against the ship. Here is maybe part of that answer.

This is one of those posts where I am not reporting news but rather walking you through my own efforts — thus far incomplete — to do so. You’ve likely heard that Ukraine attacked and sank the Russian missile cruiser Moskva off Ukraine’s Black Sea coast. In the modern Russian Navy the Moskva was essentially a capital ship though I don’t know if it was technically considered one. So this was a big big deal. How was Ukraine able to pull it off? What now seems largely undisputed is that Ukraine fired two Neptune anti-ship missiles (produced by Ukraine itself) which struck the Moskva and (possibly along with detonation of the ship’s own armaments and ammunition) sank the ship.

A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Kate and guest host Nicole Lafond discuss the red state rush to outlaw abortion, even while Roe v. Wade is still in place.

You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.

From TPM Reader CB …

Here’s my thing: Republicans are doing a bunch of insane things and the media barely mentions them. Nothing new there. But with Abbot stopping trucks at the border–why isn’t Biden forcing a showdown? Constitutionally, Abbot just doesn’t have that right, does he? So why doesn’t Biden make a move?

From TPM Reader JB …

It seems like it is another time to discuss how the democrats get the coverage they ask for. Axios can leave out the republican damaging portion because democrats answer questions and republicans use the opportunity to frame news as bad for dems. Democrats are still waiting for that moderator in the sky to say that they are right and then feel ok. Life doesn’t work that way on the playground or battlefield or boardroom or bar. If you stand for something, you don’t wait for other people to validate you, you don’t look back for approval, you say out loud and proud that you are right. Let’s practice, “Anyone not voting to reduce insulin prices is killing patients and impoverishing their families. You can’t go to heaven if you are knowingly killing people.”

As I mentioned yesterday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is violating the federal constitution in at least two ways in order to drive up inflation and create food shortages in the US, all to pressure President Biden and help himself get reelected. Here’s a good run-down on what’s happening from Josh Kovensky.

As he has with most trendy right-wing political stunts, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) refused to be left out of the abortion-banning race.

It’s hard to keep up these days with the tides of Republican malevolence and press failures. But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention this one. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been mounting various stunts in recent weeks to keep the border immigration issue at a boil for his own 2022 reelection campaign. His latest move was to impose universal safety inspections on trucks coming from Mexico into Texas to snarl the border, drive up prices and possibly create food shortages in the United States. The proximate reason for this move is President Biden’s decision to phase out COVID-era restrictions on asylum seekers. Price spikes and border chaos are his weapon against Biden.