Politics

Congress wants to go further and faster on Ukraine When it comes to Washington’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, one dynamic has been consistent throughout the crisis: Congress has generally pushed for a more aggressive on sanctions on Russia and support for Ukraine whereas the White House has hewed to a more cautious course. Nowhere is that clearer than on the question of an embargo on Russian oil. Yesterday, Antony Blinken said the US was working with allies on an import ban. That came after days when the administration had talked down the possibility, even as voices on the Hill calling for the move grew louder. The White House might be warming to the idea, but it remains behind Congress.

Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Virginia (Ginni) made the cover of the New York Times Magazine on February 27 amid an eleven-page article titled “The Long Crusade of Clarence and Ginni Thomas.” The authors are Danny Hakim and Jo Becker. It is in essence a hit piece, and the latest of several in the left-wing media aimed at undermining the legitimacy of Justice Thomas’s jurisprudence. The first salvo came in late January from Thomas’s long-time antagonist Jane Mayer in The New Yorker, but other eager journalists have stepped through Mayer’s muddy footprints. Three of their publications — the New Yorker, the Guardian, and CNN — contacted me because Ginni Thomas serves on the advisory board of my organization, The National Association of Scholars (NAS).

It was a beautiful moment of bipartisan unity when, left and right, American and European, young and old, united to call Lindsey Graham a moron. The South Carolina senator made headlines Thursday night after appearing on Sean Hannity’s show on Fox. He openly called for Vladimir Putin to be assassinated: How does this end? Somebody in Russia has to step up to the plate. Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there more successful Col. Stauffenberg in the Russian military? The only way this ends, my friend, is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out! You would be doing your country a great service and the world a great service. Graham doubled down on his insanely dangerous comments on Twitter right after. Best to put this kind of stupidity in writing, in case there was any confusion.

I hate going back, again, to Orwell, but since the world is intent on using Nineteen Eighty-Four as an instructional guide, I have no choice. So proles, take note: this week's Two Minutes Hate will be split between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. They apparently share the goal of destroying American democracy via the invasion of Ukraine. Something very sinister has happened in the American mind-space over the last few days. Ukraine, a country of little importance to the United States, suddenly became the sole focus of most media-consuming Americans. This was constructed to appear organic, but it is impossible not to imagine guiding hands behind the shift of every single media outlet to a single story told in a single way.

Biden’s vibe shift Ahead of last night’s State of the Union, the Biden White House had promised a reset. What he delivered certainly fell short of the full system reboot a president with such dire approval ratings needs. But there was a change in tone. A vibe shift, if you will. Out with the FDR tribute act, in with a torpid moderation. Not an enthusiastic tack to the center but a partial acknowledgment of political reality. The president may not have offered an especially energizing reboot to his presidency in his speech, but it nonetheless felt like a page was turned last night. That was most immediately obvious when it came to the pandemic. Democrats had contrived to make March 1 the day the pandemic ended: rules lifted on the Hill, in the White House and across Washington.

The Putin Party myth In recent weeks, the two most influential men on the American right have come under close scrutiny for their views on Russian president Vladimir Putin and his increasingly indiscriminate attack on Ukraine. The first is Donald Trump, whose repeated insistence of Vladimir Putin’s “genius” and “savvy” have earned him unflattering headlines. The former president certainly seems to have an unhealthy fascination with, and, on a certain level, admiration for, strongmen, authoritarians and dictators. Out of office, he is reportedly pen pals with Kim Jong-un, for instance. However, it’s not just a stretch but a straightforward misrepresentation to describe Trump as pro-Putin.

Will he or won't he? Americans tired of the rampant speculation are surely having a relief-filled two months. First Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady responded to a hasty ESPN report by announcing his retirement from the NFL. Then, former president Donald Trump told a roaring crowd at CPAC that he intends to run for America's highest office a third time. "We did it twice, and we’ll do it again,” Trump said. “We’re going to be doing it again." Trump's announcement is a gut punch for other 2024 contenders who secretly hoped he'd step back and play kingmaker.

Bewilderment, a novel by Richard Powers issued last September, has been praised to high heavens by Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, Naomi Klein, and reviewers at NPR, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The New Republic, among others. This ought to be enough to warn any sensible reader to stay far away from its pages and to resign promptly from any reading group that nominates it for collective perusal. But I am not always sensible. The title lured me, for what better word to describe our Zeitgeist?

Biden picks Brown Jackson The president has chosen Ketanji Brown Jackson, a judge on the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court, multiple outlets have reported. Biden had interviewed two other candidates: Leandra Kruger, a judge on the California Supreme Court, and J. Michelle Childs, the South Carolina judge backed by Jim Clyburn and Lindsey Graham. With Russian troops laying siege to the Ukrainian capital, some will question the timing of this announcement. And with all eyes on Eastern Europe, the ceremony promises to be one of the most low-key in recent memory. The White House has good reason to expect a reasonably smooth nomination process.

War in Europe When Joe Biden addresses the American people later today, he will find himself in a changed world. His Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin outlined an imperialist vision of Russia fit for a czar on Monday. In the early hours of this morning, he backed up that nineteenth-century sentiment with nineteenth-century action: the start of a full-scale great power conquest of a sovereign neighbor. The events of the last twelve hours are something that my own end-of-history generation was brought up to believe would never happen in our lifetimes. And yet here we are. More recently, we were told that modern warfare was all cyber attacks and disinformation, deep fakes and propaganda.

The Canadian truckers might have been driven out of Ottawa, but a copycat protest is brewing in the United States. Cockburn hears that police are preparing for demonstrations that could gridlock the DC area, and they could start as soon as Wednesday. Honk honk! The truckers are coming to Washington — just in time for President Biden's State of the Union address next week. Cockburn has been a fan of truckers ever since he decided to see whether he could hitchhike across America using only Jim Beam trucks (he could, as it turns out). But in this case, the big riggers may be in need of a friendly correction.