Russia Bombards Kharkiv As War Enters More Brutal Phase

Posted on by Cristina Cabrera

A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.

Heaviest Fighting In Second Largest City

Russian forces fired rockets into the center of Kharkiv, Ukraine on Tuesday, according to Ukrainian authorities. The regional administration building was hit, leaving seven dead and 24 wounded, the authorities said.

  • BBC: “Missile hits centre of Ukraine’s second-biggest city”
  • Washington Post: “Russian invasion escalates as massive convoy nears Kyiv and Kharkiv assaulted”
  • New York Times: “An explosion rocks Kharkiv a day after shelling in a residential neighborhood.”
  • CNN: “Crucial period ahead for Kyiv as massive Russian column closes in on Ukraine’s capital”
  • Wall Street Journal: “Russian Forces Target Ukrainian Civilian Areas as Missile Hits Central Kharkiv”

Dem Nevada Guv And Wife Threatened At Restaurant

A video first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal shows Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) and his wife Kathy Sisolak being harassed and followed around by a couple of men shouting about racist conspiracy theories at a restaurant on Sunday.

  • One of the men calls Sisolak a “New World Order traitor piece-of-shit bastard” and repeatedly asks him if he has security with him. The man also screams “you working-for-China piece of shit!” at Sisolak and his wife, who is of Chinese descent, as they leave the restaurant.
  • The other man says something about Sisolak “hiding the hydroxychloroquine,” right-wingers’ infamous COVID miracle drug, though most of what he says in that moment is inaudible. He also tells Sisolak and his wife that they ought to be hanged for treason.
  • Sisolak’s office responded to the incident later on Monday saying the matter was being investigated, and that the governor was “deeply disappointed in how this incident unfolded, particularly with the language used to talk about First Lady Kathy Sisolak’s heritage.” Sisolak’s daughter was with him at the restaurant.

McCarthy Says He Plans To Meet With MTG To Discuss White Nationalist Appearance

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said on Monday that it was “appalling and wrong” for far-right Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) to speak at the America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC) organized by white nationalist Nick Fuentes this weekend.

  • McCarthy told Punchbowl that he plans on meeting with Greene this week to discuss it. It’s unclear if he’s planning to do the same with Gosar.
    • The Arizona Republican’s attendance at the conference this year wasn’t even his first; he went to last year’s AFPAC too.
  • Greene defended her appearance at the conference on Saturday, claiming that she didn’t know about Fuentes’ well-established white nationalist beliefs.

Date Set For Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Confirmation Hearing

Senate Democrats plan to kick off the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on March 21, a Democratic aide told Politico.

WH Drops Blanket Mask Mandate Ahead Of SOTU

Effective today, the White House is lifting its requirement that fully vaccinated people wear masks in the area, ahead of Biden’s first State of the Union address tonight. 

  • The House withdrew its mask mandate in time for the speech too.
  • Biden will speak at 9:00 p.m. ET. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) is giving the Republicans’ response to his speech.

Manchin Joins GOPers To Block Abortion Rights Protection

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) voted with Republican senators to block a debate on Monday over the Women’s Health Protection Act, legislation that would codify access to abortion as red states chip away at reproductive rights and the Supreme Court threatens to strike down Roe v Wade.

Trump Appeals Judge’s Order For Him To Testify In NY Probe

The ex-president is predictably fighting a Manhattan judge’s order for him, plus Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., to testify under oath in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ (D) civil investigation into the Trump Organization.

Dem Rep. Ted Deutch Not Running For Reelection

House Ethics Committee Chair Ted Deutch (D-FL) announced on Monday that he’ll be leaving Congress when his term ends this year, having accepted an offer to serve as the chief executive officer of the American Jewish Committee. 

  • The tally of House Democrat-Republican retirements ahead of the 2022 midterms now stands at 31-13, per the House Press Gallery’s poorly-named “Casualty List.”

WTF Read Of The Day

“Dr. Bronner’s, the Soap Company, Dips Into Psychedelics” – The New York Times

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Where Things Stand: DeSantis Makes A Big Show Of Rejecting Biden Call For Nat’l Guard Troops Ahead Of SOTU

Posted on by Nicole LaFond

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted triumphantly this afternoon that he rejected the Biden administration’s request for states to send National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. ahead of Tuesday’s State of the Union speech.

Continue reading “Where Things Stand: DeSantis Makes A Big Show Of Rejecting Biden Call For Nat’l Guard Troops Ahead Of SOTU” →

Ukraine Weathers Russian Assault Into Sixth Day

One week ago, people across Ukraine were living their normal lives. Going to work, cooking meals at home, seeing friends, planning for the future.

Now, people are trying to survive — either by fighting the war, sending relatives or themselves to the nearest border, or sticking it out in long-unused bomb shelters or metro stations.

But so far, the country’s army and its volunteer territorial defense battalions have stuck it out, apparently repelling the first wave of Russia’s attack. The country’s capital Kyiv remains under government control, as does Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second city and a former capital.

The U.S., EU and other nations have ratcheted up sanctions on the Russian economy, cutting multiple Russia banks off from SWIFT access and pressuring Switzerland into clamping down on oligarch wealth.

European nations — some non-NATO — have also committed to steady weapons supplies to Ukraine. Former Warsaw Bloc nations reportedly are sending operable Soviet-era fighter jets to Ukraine.

It’s a devastating war with civilians and soldiers dying every day. Russian troops occupied Berdyansk over the weekend, a city of 100,000.

We’ll be following developments below.

Bizarreness Of EPA Case Takes Center Stage As Larger Executive Branch Questions Shunted Aside

Posted on by Kate Riga

The story of West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency was an utterly strange one from the beginning. 

Continue reading “Bizarreness Of EPA Case Takes Center Stage As Larger Executive Branch Questions Shunted Aside” →

Should We Be Surprised US Intelligence Got It Right?

Posted on by Josh Marshall

I wanted to address a few points that have come up in discussions about the Ukraine Crisis in recent days and which John mentions below. I’ll start with the question of U.S. intelligence estimates about an imminent Russian invasion which appear to have been very accurate both in the overall prediction and the specifics of how one would take place.

I’ve seen a number of people say this was a surprise or at least not a given because of the intelligence failure that preceded the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

But I view this very differently.

Continue reading “Should We Be Surprised US Intelligence Got It Right?” →

Supreme Court Hears Effort To Cripple EPA On Climate Change

The Supreme Court is hearing arguments Monday morning in West Virginia v. EPA, where red states and coal companies are asking the Court to dramatically limit the agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

Legal experts were stunned that the Court took up this case in the first place, since both agency rules in question, one from the Obama administration and its replacement from the Trump EPA, are no longer operational. The Biden administration asked the Court not to take up the case over the defunct rules, saying that it’s working on a replacement that will likely inspire more litigation then anyway.

The Court didn’t listen. That struck court watchers as ominous, perhaps signaling that the conservative justices are too eager to curtail the EPA’s power to wait.

What I Got Wrong About The US And Russia

Posted on by John Judis

I made several mistakes in judging the conflict with Russia over Ukraine. In so far as others may have made similar errors, it may be worth saying what these are, and what I think is still valid in my earlier criticisms of the U.S. policy. These observations bear on what is valid and not in the foreign policy outlook called realism.

Continue reading “What I Got Wrong About The US And Russia” →

GOPer Rails Against ‘Woke Sky’ As U.S. Conservatives Try To Shoehorn Culture War Nonsense Into Ukraine Crisis

Posted on by Cristina Cabrera

Amid conservatives’ ham-fisted attempts to blame Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on American “wokeness,” Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) apparently tried to make the same point in the form of an inscrutable rant via Twitter on Sunday.

Continue reading “GOPer Rails Against ‘Woke Sky’ As U.S. Conservatives Try To Shoehorn Culture War Nonsense Into Ukraine Crisis” →

Sea Change

Posted on by Josh Marshall

A number of you have asked me, where’s President Biden? Why aren’t we seeing him on TV? Note that he has a State of the Union address coming up which will provide an extremely high profile setting. But the real reason is almost certainly that the U.S. administration wants to have Europeans taking the most visible role announcing new sets of sanctions. I suspect they also want to avoid taking the bait of President Putin’s nuclear saber-rattling. Reports suggest that — wisely and unsurprisingly — President Biden has chosen not to match Russia’s nuclear forces alert status. First, there’s no need to. Our strategic nuclear forces are already on plenty of alert to manage the unthinkable. There’s no need for that kind of tit for tat escalation. We also don’t need competing press availabilities.

With all this said, though, there’s clearly something more happening here than just allowing Europe to take the lead in announcing measures the U.S. was trying to persuade them to take. There’s also clearly a sea change, both in the willingness to contemplate crippling economic sanctions as well as to openly arm the Ukrainian army.

Continue reading “Sea Change” →