Billionaire Math Doesnt Add Up the Way Yours Does Mother Jones 2026-09-22 | Billionaire Math Doesnt Add Up the Way Yours Does
You Can Blame the Supreme Court for America’s Decade of Voter Suppression Mother Jones 2023-06-23 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com/politics/2023/06/blame-the-supreme-court-for-americas-decade-of-voter-disenfranchisementThis is what gutting the Voting Rights Act looks like.The main reason that Republicans are able to target Black representation so ruthlessly is because of Shelby County v. Holder, a 2013 Supreme Court ruling holding that states with a long history of discrimination no longer needed to approve voting changes and electoral maps with the federal government—a process known as “preclearance.”June 25th marks the 10th anniversary of the decision, which has had a devastating impact on voting rights in the South. Shelby County laid the groundwork for a wave of new voter suppression laws and racially gerrymandered maps. Decades of advances for minority voters have been wiped out in the past ten years.“History did not end in 1965,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his majority opinion in the 5-4 ruling, alleging that “things have changed dramatically” in the South. But Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s fiery dissent, where she compared the decision to “throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet,” now seems far more prescient.“It’s pouring right now in the South,” says Hilary Harris Klein, a senior counsel for the North Carolina-based Southern Coalition for Social Justice. “Absolutely pouring.”Since 2013, more than thirty states have passed new restrictions on voting, including 85 percent of states that were previously required to get federal approval for their voting changes, either statewide or in select jurisdictions. Twenty new laws impeding voting access and fair election administration were passed in the former preclearance states following the Shelby decision, according to an analysis by the Voting Rights Lab provided to Mother Jones. The last redistricting cycle also marked the first without preclearance, leading civil rights groups to challenge maps for Congress or the state legislature in ten of eleven Southern states based on allegations that they discriminated against minority voters. At least 21 Black lawmakers lost their seats last year in the former Confederate states, according to a review by the Washington Post of data from the National Conference of State Legislatures.“Because of the makeup of Southern legislatures, they’re starting to act pre-1960s,” says Dan Blue Jr., the minority leader in the North Carolina Senate. The history of the South shows how quickly gains and rights for formerly disenfranchised communities can be taken away. “From Reconstruction through to 1900, North Carolina elected 111 black legislators,” The Economist wrote last year. “For the next 68 years, it elected none.” That changed with the passage of the Voting Rights Act, but the steady progress made in the South since 1965 has been abruptly reversed by the Shelby decision.Ari Berman has a retrospective on America's decade of voter disenfranchisement. Check it out at MotherJones.com. #VotingRights #South #Politics #Trump -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
George Santos Lawyer Was Part of the Mob on January 6 Mother Jones 2023-06-08 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com George Santos, the lying and indicted GOP congressman from Queens, New York, has steadfastly refused to say where he was on January 6, 2021, while pro-Trump rioters were attacking the US Capitol to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.He was in Washington, DC, that day and photographed in the VIP section for the Donald Trump rally at the Ellipse that preceded the assault. His post-rally whereabouts remain a mystery. But photos and video footage of January 6 show that his attorney, Joseph Murray, was in the angry pro-Trump mob that trespassed on Capitol grounds.Archived footage obtained by Mother Jones from that day traces the movements of Murray and Angela Ng, who is listed on the website of Murray’s law firm as its office manager, as they marched from the Ellipse to the Capitol. Both Murray and Ng are retired New York police officers. Ng is also currently working for Santos in his Queens district office as a constituent services representative, according to LegiStorm.Part of the throng of irate Trump loyalists, Murray and Ng passed downed barricades, entered restricted grounds, and made their way up the steps of the north side of the building. There they watched and Murray filmed, as hundreds of rioters a few feet away broke doors and windows of the Capitol and poured into the building.Murray has represented Santos, ever since his surprise election to Congress last year triggered an avalanche of controversies and probes. When Santos appeared in federal court on Long Island on May 10 and pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of money laundering, wire fraud, and stealing public funds, Murray was standing next to him. Murray has regularly appeared in many news reports declining to comment on the latest Santos revelation. #GeorgeSantos #JosephMurray #January6 #Insurrection #Capitol -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
How Ron DeSantis Wants to Make America Florida Mother Jones 2023-05-23 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com/politics/2023/05/ron-desantis-laws It’s hard to remember a time when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wasn’t acting like a man thirsting for the presidency.But after endless speculation and refusals to make his ambitions official, he’s expected finally to announce that he is running for the Republican presidential nomination next week.So what would a DeSantis administration look like? The last chapter of The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival, his second memoir, is titled “Make America Florida,” which seems to make clear that DeSantis hopes to bring his twisted views on freedom to the White House. Look no further than his legislative record for specifics: The governor’s pen has been used to enact countless bans and restrictions on issues ranging from reproductive rights to property rights.Since they’ve been spewed out so frequently—sometimes in the dead of night as with his six-week abortion ban—we’ve put together a list of some of the key bills DeSantis signed into law this session to help keep track of all his work.Head here for the full reported list: motherjones.com/politics/2023/05/ron-desantis-laws #RonDeSantis #Florida #MakeAmericaFlorida #2024 -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Why Is George Santos Cozying Up to a Fellow Far-Right Liar? Mother Jones 2023-05-10 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com/politics/2023/05/george-santos-miles-guo-wengui-bannon Game recognizes game. And the far right scene in New York City is kind of a small world. So it’s weird, but not particularly surprising, that just days before being indicted on federal fraud charges, fabulist Congressman George Santos appeared on a livestream produced by devotees of Guo Wengui—an exiled Chinese mogul who allegedly orchestrated of a massive international fraud and is also a prodigious purveyor of misinformation.Guo, who also uses the name Miles Guo, is a longtime patron and professional partner of Steve Bannon. And Bannon’s allies in places like the fanatical New York Young Republicans Club are also big Santos backers. These ties likely explain how Santos showed up Friday at a cavernous, sparsely furnished Mahwah, NJ, mansion to tacitly back Guo supporters’ kooky conspiracy theory that their leader has been framed by the FBI at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party. The interview was broadcast on a program that Guo followers regularly share on Gettr, a right-leaning social media app over which, as Mother Jones has reported, Guo has exercised control.Guo made a fortune in Chinese real estate before fleeing that country in 2014 ahead of criminal charges there. In the US, he reinvented himself as a supposed Chinese dissident. Working with Bannon, Guo won followers in the international Chinese diaspora with aggressive attacks on China’s rulers, while also spreading bizarre conspiracy theories about topics like the 2020 election and Covid.Like Guo, Santos is an alleged fraudster and a definite liar. On Wednesday, federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York unsealed a 13-count indictment for wired fraud, money laundering, campaign finance violations, and false statements.Santos may well be hoping that by backing Guo’s claims that Guo is being unfairly prosecuted, he’ll encourage Guo’s fanatical supporters to make the same claim about him. And indeed, Guo fans took up Santos’ cause after his indictment.Santos capped his performance Friday by reminding those constituents that he works for them. This riff seemed to channel Oprah Winfrey’s famed “You get a car” episode, along with Tom Wambsgans’ shareholder address in a recent Succession episode. “You are an ATN citizen,” Tom lamely declares, pointing at crowd members. “And you are an ATN citizen. And I am an ATN citizen.” “You’re my boss,” Santos said, pointing at Guo fans. “You’re my boss. You’re my boss. That’s how this works.”For our full report head here: motherjones.com/politics/2023/05/george-santos-miles-guo-wengui-bannon #GeorgeSantos #SantosIndictment #MilesGuo #SteveBannon -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
The 5 Chapters of Tucker Carlsons Hate-Filled Extremism Mother Jones 2023-04-27 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com On Wednesday evening, Tucker Carlson broke his silence on his surprise firing from Fox News.After saying he’d taken a moment to step back, Carlson lamented that both political parties had cohered around a set ideology endorsed by cable news. But now, after his dismissal, he foretold an end. “This moment is too inherently ridiculous to continue,” Carlson said in a response video he posted on Twitter. “The people in charge know this. That’s why they’re hysterical and aggressive…but it won’t work when honest people say what’s true.”That is funny to hear because I’ve spent the last few days poring over hours of Tucker Carlson videos and archives, listening to what he has previously considered “true.” And, as you can see in five very clear chapters of footage, his truth has often involved promoting Nazi conspiracy theories; broadcasting racist and self-serving war propaganda; spewing hate about trans people and children; and pushing the Big Lie. (You can read more about that last part from our DC Bureau Chief David Corn at our website.)It’s unclear what will happen next for Carlson. On Monday, when Fox News announced they would be parting ways with the host of Tucker Carlson Tonight—one of cable’s most popular programs—the reasons were unclear. Rumors swirled as speculation about the split began. One theory focused on the legal trouble: Fox News had settled to pay Dominion Voting Systems over $785 million in their defamation trial against the news network following their network-wide promotion of Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. One of the most popular perpetrators of promoting those pretenses was, of course, Tucker. Had he been ousted for hurting the bottom line? Or was it the content of his text messages, many redacted, that pushed Fox to act?Tucker’s announcement implied he would continue broadcasting in some form. “The undeniably big topics, the ones that will define our future, get virtually no discussion at all. War, civil liberties, emerging science, demographic change,” Carlson said in his Wednesday night rejoinder, in what looks like the studio he built in Maine, which residents voted to approve. “When was the last time you heard a legitimate debate about any of those issues?”Yet, even in Carlson's response to his firing, he couldn't let go of some of the worst bullshit he's been known to amplify. #TuckerCarlson #FoxNews -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Racist trolls be racist trolls. But here’s how to actually respond to this. #blackhistory #howto Mother Jones 2023-03-23 | ...
Intro to our new investigation. Full vid on our channel! #politics #genderaffirming Mother Jones 2023-03-22 | ...
These Leaked Emails Reveal the Coordinated Attack on Trans Health Care Mother Jones 2023-03-17 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com/politics/2023/03/anti-trans-transgender-health-care-ban-legislation-bill-minors-children-lgbtq All those bans on gender-affirming care aren't random.On a Saturday afternoon in August 2019, South Dakota Republican state Rep. Fred Deutsch sent an email to 18 anti-trans activists, doctors, and lawyers with the text of a bill he planned to introduce that would make it a felony for doctors to give transgender children under 16 gender-affirming medical care. “I have no doubt this will be an uphill battle when we get to session,” Deutsch warned the group. “As always, please do not share this with the media. The longer we can fly under the radar the better.”The message was one in a trove of emails obtained by Mother Jones between Deutsch and representatives of a network of activists and organizations at the forefront of the anti-trans movement. They show the degree to which these activists shaped Deutsch’s repressive legislation, a version of which was signed into law in February, and the tactics, alliances, and goals of a movement that has sought to foist their agenda on a national scale.At the time, there was little precedent for such bills, and Deutsch’s legislation, called the Vulnerable Child Protection Act, was killed in the Senate after doctors showed up at the South Dakota statehouse to argue they should not be sent to prison for following the medical consensus. “Though our session in SD is now over and our efforts to protect gender-confused vulnerable children failed, I continue to receive ugly emails and social media posts,” Deutsch complained to the group in March 2020.Indeed, Deutsch’s bill has proved influential in the recent surge of anti-LGBTQ lawmaking. In this legislative session, at least 18 states have considered bills containing language closely resembling the text of the Vulnerable Child Protection Act. The leaked emails reveal how Deutsch’s proposal helped proponents of the national movement to restrict gender-affirming care and establish a playbook for their now-common attacks. Reporter Madison Pauly takes you behind the emails in our new video.For the full report, head here: motherjones.com/politics/2023/03/anti-trans-transgender-health-care-ban-legislation-bill-minors-children-lgbtq #TransgenderHealthCare #LeakedEmails #TransEmails #Exclusive #Investigation -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Meet the badass fighting who has been fighting for #reparations for generations. #blackhistory Mother Jones 2023-03-03 | ...
California is making history. So we went to check it out. #reparations #california Mother Jones 2023-03-02 | ...
What are reparations? (In under 60 seconds.) #reparations #blackhistory #explainer #california Mother Jones 2023-03-01 | ...
The Completely Predictable Resurrection of John Hagee Mother Jones 2023-02-24 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com/politics/2023/02/pastor-john-hagee-nikki-haley-donald-trump-gop-primary-extremism John Hagee’s been around. And around. And around.He has been a prominent figure in GOP presidential races for years, with his support sought after by candidates from the Bushes (H. and W.) to Trump—and now Nikki Haley. As the founder of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas (established in 1966), Hagee has made a name for himself not only as a televangelist but also for his offensive rhetoric, including blaming gay people for Hurricane Katrina, claiming that God sent Hitler to create Israel, and suggesting that women are only good for childbearing and motherhood. (Among other things.)Although he has yet to endorse anyone, former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley prominently featured Hagee in her presidential campaign launch event in Charleston, South Carolina, the day after Valentine’s Day. “Pastor Hagee, I still say I want to be you when I grow up,” Haley said following his opening prayer.Hagee’s appearance is kind of a big deal. It marks his return to yet another political cycle—after being rejected by John McCain and even Sarah Palin. But it’s also among the first punches Haley threw Trump’s way in the burgeoning 2024 primary race.Hagee is the founder of Christians United for Israel, one of the largest pro-Israel organizations in the US, and he has been able to use this position to gain access to former president Donald Trump’s Oval Office, becoming a key figure in the decision to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, despite foreign policy experts recommending against it. Trump and Hagee go back: Hagee endorsed Trump early in 2016, and then Trump went on to win the presidency with a big lift from the pastor’s key demo: Evangelicals.So it’s no surprise that Hagee’s re-emergence might be getting under you-know-who’s skin, given his influence in the evangelical community. Right after Haley’s event, the former president sent out one of his infamous email blasts, calling out Haley on a variety of issues, including her well-documented statements of support for a Trump 2024 run.But it also reveals that for all of Haley’s talk about being a more moderate option for suburban women and independent voters, she isn’t afraid to put extremist voices, once pushed to the fringe of the GOP, smack-bang in the center of her appeal to voters. #JohnHagee #NikkiHaley #DonaldTrump #Evangelical #GOPprimary -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
This is the untold story of the #privateequity investors behind the #abortion pill. Mother Jones 2023-02-06 | ...
The Other Big Lie Mother Jones 2023-01-04 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Ahead of the second anniversary of the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Mother Jones video journalist Garrison Hayes teamed up with contributing essayist Anthony Conwright to examine the overlooked motivations of the mob. While much of the nation's attention has been consumed by Trump's “Big Lie”, Conwright argues that there is a familiar—and very American—motive being minimized in the reckoning: racial resentment. Tracing this white grievance to the post-Civil War period, Conwright hears a distinct historical echo in how white paramilitary groups used violence and intimidation, often with the help of pro-slavery Democrats, to steal elections and maintain power after the abolition of slavery.A quick history lesson: By the 1870s, Congress had unshackled a powerful new voting bloc. But with the 1875 elections in Mississippi came a brutal backlash: White extremist groups mobilized to steal the election and blame Black people and Republican officials for their actions. “This fear of ‘Negro rule’ animated Southern Democrats and their white supremacist militias,” Hayes explains. “They intimidated would-be Black voters who showed up at the polls, spread lies about widespread voter fraud, murdered hundreds of Black citizens who tried to vote, and kidnapped and executed both Black and white political leaders in the weeks and months leading up to the election, all to ensure a particular outcome.”The U.S. Senate formed a committee to investigate the violence and condemned the white grievance at the heart of the insurrection. However, Congress failed to protect Black voting rights or punish the perpetrators of the stolen election, despite their efforts to protect Black Americans with the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. The stolen election was allowed to stand, and two years later, a back-room pact allowed Republicans to keep the presidency after the disputed 1876 elections in exchange for removing federal troops from the South—ushering in Jim Crow.Conwright concludes by drawing a comparison to the Capitol riots, arguing the attack wasn't just about Trump. It was driven by an even darker element of American myth-making and the need to protect white power: “There is a belief that America is a white country that they own, what democracy is, and what it looks like, and how it can be implemented. That to me is at the core of what happened.”Conwright's essay can be found in the latest edition of Mother Jones and at motherjones.com. -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Souls and Polls: Christianity Is on the Georgia Ballot Mother Jones 2022-12-02 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com So. Much. Prayer.Kicking off debates, woven into speeches, and emanating from pulpits serving as campaign pit stops, God is everywhere in the Senate runoff between Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and his Trump-backed challenger Herschel Walker. Mother Jones Creator-in-Residence Garrison Hayes grew up in the Southern Bible Belt, and even he has been blown away by the sheer amount of Jesus inundating the campaign as the final vote draws near.During his recent trips to Georgia to visit family and friends, it became clear that in addition to voting red or blue, voters also will be choosing between two wildly different visions of Christianity itself, as embodied by these two dramatically contrasting candidates: One, whose religious lineage traces directly from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement; the other, who preaches the gospel of right-wing Christian nationalism, where the waters between church and state are muddy and the topics of conversation revolve around incendiary culture war politics. Mother Jones viewers don’t need me to point out which is which.Christianity itself, in other words, is on the ballot in Georgia. This video explores the contrasts between right-wing Christian Nationalism and a more inclusive faith tradition with roots in the Civil Rights movement, in this bruising battle for Georgia's soul. -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
How the Story of Soccer Became the Story of Everything Mother Jones 2022-11-14 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com A country smaller than Connecticut is set to host one of the biggest events in the world: The 2022 FIFA World Cup.But how we got here is more about soccer as a whole. For decades, the world's favorite sport has slowly been overtaken by oligarchs, private equity, and Big Oil.Enter Qatar, which boasts the highest GCP per capita in the world thanks to extensive oil reserves. They seem to exemplify what Senior Reporter Tim Murphy calls sports-washing—using a highly coveted world sporting event to gain international recognition and image. But to host such an event has meant spending over $200 billion to build new stadiums, airports, and even a whole new city.And all that labor comes with a heavy price: Thousands of migrant workers have died on World Cup projects. (Qatar is inhospitable in other ways—same-sex relationships are criminalized.)That is not the story Qatar wants you to hear. It has paid soccer superstar David Beckham over $200 million dollars to tell another one. Appearing in ads for Qatar Airways and promotional videos for Visit Qatar, Beckham touts a luxury experience.In Murphy's November/December cover story, he details how oligarchs, private-equity moguls, and petro states took over the sport—and the world.#DavidBeckham #FIFA #WorldCup2022 #BigOil #Qatar -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
If Republicans Retake Congress in November, Heres What Their Agenda Will Look Like Mother Jones 2022-10-17 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com You don’t have to wait until after the November midterm elections to know what a vast faction of Republicans have in mind. A little-noticed budget document, the Blueprint to Save America, released in June by the Republican Study Committee, details the group’s priorities.Since nearly 75 percent of Republican House lawmakers are RSC members, these priorities are shared by a majority of the GOP caucus. The 122-page manifesto, containing a laundry list of longstanding conservative desires, calls for significantly reducing the size of America’s social safety net, drastically limiting abortion access nationwide, effectively throwing in the towel on combatting climate change, raising the age requirement to receive full Social Security benefits, cracking down on transgender rights, and making it easier for Americans to carry concealed weapons.The vast majority of recommendations included in the RSC budget would not have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, even if Republicans regain control. Nor is it likely that President Joe Biden would sign legislation containing many of the suggestions outlined in the budget if they somehow passed both chambers.But that doesn't mean Republicans won't force a government shutdown to get their way.Mother Jones reporter Abby Vesoulis sits down to walk us through some of the toplines of the RSC's budget proposals, and what they could mean for America. For her full report and much more from the wish list:motherjones.com/politics/2022/07/republican-aganda-after-midterms-guns-abortion-social-security-epa #Midterms #GOP #KevinMcCarthy #RepublicanAgenda -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
The Decades-Long Saga of How the GOP Went Crazy Mother Jones 2022-09-20 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Many have bolstered the notion that the current GOP, with its cultlike embrace of Trump and his Big Lie, and its acceptance of the fringiest players, is a break from the past. But was the GOP’s complete surrender to Trumpism an aberration? Or was the party long sliding toward this point?About a year ago, Mothe Jones DC Bureau Chief David Corn set out to explore the history of the Republican Party, with this question in mind. What he found was not an exception, but a pattern.Since the 1950s, the GOP has repeatedly mined fear, resentment, prejudice, and grievance and played to extremist forces so the party could win elections. Trump assembling white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Christian nationalists, QAnoners, and others who formed a violent terrorist mob on January 6 is only the most flagrant manifestation of the tried-and-true GOP tactic to court kooks and bigots.It’s an ugly and shameful history that has led the Party of Lincoln, founded in 1854 to oppose the extension of slavery, to the Party of Trump, which capitalizes on racism and assaults democracy.In his new book “American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy,” Corn lays out this sordid history in great detail. But even a highlight reel makes it clear that the GOP has bowed to, depended on, and promoted far-right extremists and conspiracists for the past 70 years.Trumpism is the continuation, not a new version, of Republican politics.We’re publishing an exclusive excerpt from Corn’s new book, which you can read here: motherjones.com/politics/2022/09/it-didnt-start-with-trump-the-decades-long-saga-of-how-the-gop-went-crazy #GOP #RepublicanParty #DonaldTrump -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Steve Bannon Brags About Defeating Clinton While Calling Her a “Bitch” Mother Jones 2022-08-18 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.comMother Jones first revealed the Halloween 2020 meeting in which Steve Bannon explained that Donald Trump planned to declare victory on election night, regardless of the actual results, was not supposed to be a big deal.The gathering was intended for Bannon to help associates of his patron, exiled Chinese mogul Guo Wengui, plan election night coverage on GTV News, one of Guo’s media companies. But Bannon wanted to talk.He explained repeatedly that Trump would announce early that he had won and would suggest that any apparent Biden victory had resulted from fraud. “He’s just gonna go in—remember, this is just with like 20 percent of the vote counted, Trump’s just gonna walk in and go, ‘I’m the winner,'” Bannon said.Joe Biden “was very close to winning outright then and shutting down Trump,” Bannon continued. “The hard drive from hell stopped his momentum and drove up his negatives.” Bannon argued that Joe Biden’s failure to respond to allegations about Hunter Biden, including false ones, had driven up negative perceptions of the former Vice President. Bannon compared the Hunter Biden material to WikiLeaks’ release of hacked Democratic emails in 2016. And he boasted about his efforts as Trump’s campaign chief that year to attack Hillary Clinton.“I had been…ten years on that bitch,” he said, laughing. “I just beat her. I just beat her every day, right?” Bannon made slapping noises while he said that.Bannon’s comments, which went on for nearly 58 minutes, were an elaborate exercise in projection and rationalization. Like many cynics, he justified his own malfeasance by asserting that his opponents did worse. Mother Jones is releasing the full transcript of the leaked audio for your eyes. Head to MotherJones.com to read.#SteveBannon #DonaldTrump #HillaryClinton--For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.comFacebook: facebook.com/motherjonesTwitter: twitter.com/motherjonesInstagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
She never hurt her kids. So why is she in prison? Mother Jones 2022-08-10 | He abused her child and got 18 years in prison. She didn’t and got 30 years in prison. This is failure to protect. 📙 Read the full story here: bit.ly/3BQiKeZKerry King was stuck in an abusive relationship. But her nightmare had just begun. One night in 2015, her boyfriend John lashed out at her 4-year-old daughter, leaving the girl covered in bruises and cuts. Tipped off by a worker in the neighborhood, the cops arrested John. And then they came back for Kerry. After more than a year in jail and a brutal trial in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Kerry was sentenced to 30 years in prison—12 more years than John, the man who’d assaulted her and her daughter. How did this happen? Reporter Samantha Michaels reveals the unequal consequences of “failure to protect” laws in a groundbreaking new investigation for Mother Jones. These obscure rules, which punish parents for failing to shelter children from abuse, are found in most states. Oklahoma has one of the harshest penalties, and prosecutors there are using the law mainly to incarcerate women, our data deep-dive showed, especially women of color. “It’s sexism,” says ACLU lawyer Megan Lambert. “It’s the assumption that women are responsible for all the goings-on in the home.”In this documentary by MoJo filmmaker Mark Helenowski, you’ll travel with Samantha to Oklahoma to meet Kerry’s family, hear from a juror who has second thoughts about the trial, discover the life-shattering consequences of this legislation, and meet a formerly incarcerated mother fighting for change. -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
MORE LEAKED AUDIO: Steve Bannon Bragged That He Used Porn to Help Smear Hunter Biden Mother Jones 2022-07-26 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Steve Bannon’s machinations around the 2020 presidential race were, at least according to his own words, sleazier and more cynical than even some of his harshest critics might have guessed.In leaked audio previously revealed by Mother Jones, the former Trump White House strategist said shortly before the 2020 election that Trump intended to declare victory on election night even if he was losing—part of a preexisting plan, Bannon made clear, to falsely assert that any Trump defeat was due to fraud.But that wasn’t all. Bannon also boasted on the recording about his efforts to help position Trump for his big election-fraud lie. Aiming to hurt Joe Biden’s chances and at least narrow the election results, Bannon ensured that sexually explicit material from Hunter Biden’s laptop was widely publicized. For that, he enlisted help from his patron, exiled Chinese mogul Guo Wengui. Bannon also expressed approval of lies by Guo and his associates about what that material actually showed, referring to their false accusations that Hunter Biden committed salacious crimes as “editorial creativity.”Reporter Dan Friedman has the full report. Head to MotherJones.com for more. #SteveBannon #DonaldTrump #JoeBiden #HunterBiden -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Leaked Blake Masters Video: Ive Got the War Paint On Mother Jones 2022-07-18 | ► Read the full article: bit.ly/3Pzet38In a 2008 video leaked to Mother Jones, Trump-endorsed Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters rapped while wearing mock Native American face paint to deride the “political correct police.” The video is part of a new investigation into Masters’ rise from Peter Thiel’s right-hand-man to a US Senate frontrunner.The video references Columbae, or "C-bae", a left-wing vegetarian co-op at Stanford where decisions were made by consensus. Blake Masters lived there his sophomore year and remained active in the community even after moving off campus his junior year. For a Columbae talent show that Masters couldn’t attend during his senior year, he sent a video in which he rapped while wearing what was meant to resemble Native American-style warpaint. “I’ve got the war paint on, as you can see,” he rapped over a beat. “Who said what about cultural insensitivity?”For more from this wide-ranging investigation by Noah Lanard, based on interviews with more than a dozen people who’ve known Masters, old emails, deleted blog posts, a chat server for his top donors, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.comCorrection: At 1:53 in the video, “specialty” should read “Special D,” short for "Special Dinner", the name of the talent show.Facebook: facebook.com/motherjonesTwitter: twitter.com/motherjonesInstagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
LEAKED AUDIO: Trump planned to falsely claim victory, according to Bannon Mother Jones 2022-07-12 | ► Read the full article: bit.ly/3P56pr9 On the evening of October 31, 2020, Steve Bannon told a group of associates that President Donald Trump had a plan to declare victory on election night—even if he was losing. That’s the big take-out from a leaked tape, obtained exclusively by Mother Jones, which provides stunning new details about Trump’s plan to falsely declare victory while tens of millions of votes were still being counted. Trump knew that the slow counting of Democratic-leaning mail-in ballots meant the returns would show early leads for him in key states. His “strategy” was to use this fact to falsely assert that he had won, while claiming that the inevitable shifts in votes toward Joe Biden must be the result of fraud, Bannon explained in the nearly hour-long audio recording.“What Trump’s gonna do, is just declare victory. Right? He’s gonna declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s the winner,” Bannon, laughing, told the group. “He’s just gonna say he’s the winner.”The recording stands out for the striking candor and detail with which Bannon described a scheme to use lies to subvert democracy. Bannon also predicted that Trump’s false declaration of victory would lead to widespread political violence, along with “crazy” efforts by Trump to stay in office. Bannon and his associates laughed about those scenarios at various points in the recording. Bannon and his attorney, Robert Costello, did not respond to questions about the recording.Read more from Dan Friedman’s exclusive reporting at motherjones.com #SteveBannon #DonaldTrump #January6 -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
The secret economy that runs EVERYTHING Mother Jones 2022-05-11 | ► Read it all here: motherjones.com/PrivateEquity🏙 Visit Private Equity City (THE capitalist utopia): youtu.be/DXgYhDuyaJg Private equity billionaires are looting the country, leaving everyday Americans to clean up the mess—and fight for the scraps.Known as “private equity,” they invest in transactions that are walled off from the public markets. In just a few decades they’ve bought up everything from dental offices to international call centers to Taylor Swift’s sorrowful ballads and mined them all for profit.Private equity’s favored methods for taking over companies have been back in the news this spring, thanks to Elon Musk’s $44 billion LBO of Twitter, where Musk has himself played the role of a private equity firm, securing billions in debt that he plans to load onto the social media company. Covid-19 did not slow private equity’s rise: In 2020, the private equity sector generated about $1.4 trillion—about 6.5 percent of the United States’ GDP, and a jump from two years prior when it was 5 percent of GDP. Private equity firms also managed $7.3 trillion in assets in 2020—roughly the value of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Tesla combined.Nearly 12 million workers—one in every 14 employees in the United States—collect paychecks from companies run by private equity.That private equity is gorging on the US economy is something of an open secret.While reporting for this package, I heard from friends and colleagues who’ve eyed the new private equity owners of their doctor’s office, their fertility clinic, or their apartment building with a mix of skepticism and fear writes reporter Hannah Levintova. I got a letter informing me that the electric and gas provider in my home state of Rhode Island—a local, independent company—was about to be purchased by a company heavily invested with a private equity fund based in Manhattan. But what most of us probably don’t know is how this juggernaut came to be.In the popular imagination, private equity is often portrayed as a vulture or some other scavenger that feasts on the sick and dying. Gross but unavoidable. But the bulk of the work done by modern-day private equity firms is not to finish off sick companies, but rather to stalk and gut the healthy ones.For our latest issue, we investigate the vulture capitalists chewing up and spitting out American businesses, the politicians enabling them, and the everyday people fighting back. Head to motherjones.com/PrivateEquity to read. #PrivateEquity #Finance #Explainer -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
WE COUNTED 🔢 Men v. Women cited in leaked Roe opinion #shorts Mother Jones 2022-05-11 | ► Read more at Mother Jones: bit.ly/3l18ve0 If you read the leaked draft of the Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, and especially if you have a uterus, you may notice several factual errors about women and pregnancy made by its author, Justice Samuel Alito. (My colleague Pema Levy, in fact, chronicles a few here.) Those errors, it turns out, may have something to do with whom Alito is citing: In all its 98 pages, the draft cites very few women.I know because I counted. Or, at least, I tried. The opinion includes more than 75 citations from legal experts, historians, and scholars of philosophy. By my tally, just four are women. I also counted the number of times Alito cited a judge, either on the Supreme Court or lower courts. In all, he cites a judge or justice more than 90 times. Of those, just five were women. I’d also like to point out that Alito cites himself at least six times. I repeat: The man who authored the opinion to effectively end the right to abortion in the United States has cited himself more times than he cited female scholars combined. #RoeVWade #Alito #SCOTUS -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Private Equity City is a capitalist utopia 🌈 😌 Mother Jones 2022-05-09 | For more: motherjones.com/PrivateEquityWith more than $4.5 trillion in investments in thousands of companies across dozens of industries around the globe, private equity is everywhere—from the stores you shop at and the companies you work for to the food you eat and the music you listen to. You don’t have to go to the Hamptons to live the private equity life; just take a walk down your street. So what are you waiting for? Explore what the industry can do for you. -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
I am angry: Elizabeth Warren on Roe v. Wade SCOTUS leak #shorts Mother Jones 2022-05-03 | ► Read more at Mother Jones: bit.ly/3w4bo2L“The United States Congress can keep Roe v. Wade the law of the land,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said in a brief but heated interview recorded in front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday by Willy Lowry of the National. “They just need to do it.”Warren joined the growing chorus of pro-choice politicians who support codifying Roe as national law. But doing so with an evenly divided Senate would likely require a vote to reform the filibuster, which Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) seem unwilling to do.“Republicans have been working toward this day for decades,” Warren said. “They have been out there plotting, carefully cultivating these Supreme Court justices so they could have a majority on the bench who would accomplish something that the majority of Americans do not want.”According to a 2021 Pew Research Center poll, 59 percent of Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.#RoeVsWade #Warren #SCOTUS -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Marjorie Taylor Greene REACTS to our video while under oath Mother Jones 2022-04-22 | 📝 Read our original reporting from January 2021 here: bit.ly/3rNluE9🎥 Watch our original video here: youtu.be/J4rY-KL2JHIToday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) had to testify at an administrative hearing in Atlanta about her alleged involvement in the Capitol riot—and even answer for a video we unearthed of her endorsing political violence.When Mother Jones‘s video of MTG was played during the hearing as evidence Greene’s lawyer said incredulously: “Mother Jones? I’m sorry, I’m not going to rely upon them to give an accurate depiction.” (That lawyer, by the way, is the guy responsible for Citizens United. We wrote about that, too.)Anyway, here’s an “accurate description” of what brought Greene to the stand: A small group of voters in her district has argued that she should be ineligible for reelection because of a section of the 14th Amendment that forbids members of Congress who have taken part in an insurrection to run for office.It’s a legal long shot. But the hearing makes Greene the first Republican member of Congress to testify under oath about January 6.Greene asserted, “My words never ever mean anything for violence.” Still, one illustrative moment came when Greene was asked, “Did you advocate to President Trump to impose martial law as a way to remain in power?” She responded, “I don’t recall.” #MTG #January6 #Disqualification -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Inside Russias Anti-Putin Protest Movement Mother Jones 2022-03-10 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: bit.ly/37dCmwl Strict suppression of the media has made it difficult to ascertain how the invasion has been playing in Russia, where Putin has framed it as a rescue mission to save Russian speakers from Ukrainian neo-Nazis and drug dealers. Yet even when the reprisals for speaking out are severe, the attack on Ukraine has prompted an unusual surge of outrage and acts of civil disobedience. Thousands, mostly young people in their 20s and 30s but also a few families, have taken to the streets in cities across the country to demonstrate for peace. So far about 13,000 people have been arrested in about 150 Russian cities for protesting since the start of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine. Sunday, March 6, was the largest day of protests and arrests yet. Nearly 5,000 people were detained in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and 66 other Russian cities. Most people face about 15 to 30 days in prison depending on how many times they’ve been caught at demonstrations before, but those who have been caught three times in a year may be sent to prison for up to five years.Mother Jones contributing reporter Molly Schwarts speaks to protesters taking incredible risks for this look at the growing movement. “They feel like this issue and what's at stake—the future of Russia, its role in the world, the lives of people in Ukraine—that's worth taking those risks and fighting for,” Molly says. Read her report here: bit.ly/37dCmwl -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
John Bolton: Ukraine, Impeachment, and Trumps Infatuation with Putin Mother Jones 2022-03-08 | ► Read the full article at Mother Jones: bit.ly/3pOhjae As Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion kills Ukrainian civilians and raises fear of nuclear war, Donald Trump and his minions have repeatedly insisted that this war would have never happened had Trump won a second term.That, says former ambassador John Bolton, is bunk. In an interview with Mother Jones this week, Bolton, who was Trump’s national security adviser from 2018 to 2019, discussed Trump’s lack of concern for Ukraine during his White House tenure; Trump’s odd relationship with Putin; Bolton’s decision not to testify during the first Trump impeachment; a big secret about Trump that Bolton is not at liberty to fully reveal; and more. #JohnBolton #Trump #Putin #Ukraine #China #Xi -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
How Trump enabled Putin #shorts Mother Jones 2022-03-05 | ► Read the full article at Mother Jones: bit.ly/35rjI3E Here’s how Trump’s Russia “hoax” led to death and destruction in Ukraine, according to Mother Jones Washington, DC, bureau chief David Corn. -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
HIGHLIGHTS: Joe Biden’s First State of the Union Speech Mother Jones 2022-03-02 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com President Biden forcefully denounced Vladimir Putin during his first State of the Union address, outlining further steps to damage the Russian economy and declaring that, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the European Union this week, “Light will win over darkness.”Biden also drew the audience’s attention to the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, and—with a nod to the disabled community—asked the attendees to stand if they were able to. Many audience members wore yellow and blue, the colors of Ukraine’s flag.After suggesting a 15 percent minimum tax rate for corporations, to grumblings from Republicans, Biden called on Congress to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour—which it failed to do as part of the Covid relief package passed last year. In the same breath, he issued a call to extend the Child Tax Credit, garnering applause from most Democrats, but not from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), who has long refused to support the poverty-relieving measure without a work requirement. Manchin, who has been rumored to have considered leaving the Democratic Party, notably sat in the Republican section of the chamber, near moderate Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).Biden did not dedicate more than a few sentences to the push for voting rights, which animated Congress earlier this year but failed to gain traction in the Senate when Republicans and two Democrats voted against the Senate rules reform that would have made passage of the Freedom to Vote Act or the John Lewis Voting Rights Act feasible. Instead, he focused on (ostensibly) less polarizing issues: beating the opioid epidemic; addressing mental health; supporting veterans, including by expanding health benefits to those suffering from nine respiratory cancers; and increasing congressional funding for cancer research. #JoeBiden #StateoftheUnion #SOTU -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
How Bannon’s “Billionaire” BFF Built an Empire of Bull$#!+ Mother Jones 2022-02-23 | Meet the fugitive Chinese tycoon and Steve Bannon benefactor who spreads Covid lies, lives in a $68 million apartment, and says he’s broke—all while claiming he is doing battle with the Chinese government.This is the wild tale of Miles Guo, who joined Bannon to blanket the web with far-right propaganda, and in the process build and monetize a vast misinformation machine.In Mother Jones reporter Dan Friedman’s gripping new portrait, Guo emerges as a social media influencer, allying himself with powerful figures in Trump’s inner circle like Rudy Guliani and Michael Flynn to build a media operation that includes the Chinese-language video platform GTV, featuring Guo’s regular broadcasts, along with dubbed versions of Bannon’s incendiary podcast, “War Room”. There’s also a website, GNews, that runs articles summarizing Guo’s pronouncements. Guo also developed an early version of Gettr, the right-wing social media site now run by former Trump aide Jason Miller.Sprawling and ill-defined, Guo’s operation has become a major source of disinformation, and his network includes an expanding base of followers that do Guo’s bidding, online and off.#MilesGuo #GuoWengui #NewFederalStateofChina #SteveBannon #CCP -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Rep. Raskin on Two Unthinkable Tragedies: Jan. 6 Attack and His Son’s Suicide Mother Jones 2022-01-12 | ► Read the full article at Mother Jones: bit.ly/3nkkHsaOn the last day of 2020, Tommy Raskin, the 25-year-old son of Rep. Jamie Raskin, ended his own life. Days later, Raskin was at the Capitol on January 6, with his daughter Hannah and the husband of his other daughter, Tabitha, for the certification of the electoral vote. The three lived through the harrowing hours, as Trump-inspired insurrectionists attacked Congress and tried to stop the transfer of power. These two traumas were distinct, one personal and intimate, the other with ramifications for an entire nation. Yet for Raskin, his wife, Sarah, and their daughters, these different nightmares were intertwined, each striking at and undermining core assumptions about life and their world. One could be broken by either.Yet Raskin, amid the deepest grief, took on a weighty assignment: leading the House managers for the second impeachment of Donald Trump. That entailed devising the legal arguments and strategies for the trial in the Senate—and assuming the high-profile role as chief prosecutor. How to do that with the burden of immense suffering? The trial ended in a majority vote for conviction, 57 to 43, with seven Republicans finding Trump guilty, and the other members of the minority party essentially accepting Trump’s betrayal. That was 10 votes shy of the 67 votes required for a conviction but the largest bipartisan vote for an impeachment conviction in US history. Quite an accomplishment for a former constitutional law professor, especially under the horrific personal circumstances.Mother Jones Washington, DC, bureau chief David Corn interviewed Raskin—his friend and neighbor—about it all in this wide-ranging and poignant discussion. -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Here are the panicked texts from Fox News hosts on Jan. 6 Mother Jones 2021-12-15 | ► Read the full article at Mother Jones: bit.ly/3ypOtzMOn Monday, the House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol released text messages sent to Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, on January 6. These messages contained a deluge of concern from every stripe of Republican that the riot had—to quote a text that Donald Trump Jr. sent to Meadows—“gotten out of hand.”Interesting.Since then, we have not heard much of that from Republicans. In fact, we’ve been told it was not that bad, a “normal tourist visit.” And even if it was a semi-coup… maybe it was antifa? The FBI? And wait, sorry, it also was not really that bad—it was maybe even good.Yet, on the day, the texts painted a different picture. They show three hosts from Fox News—Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Brian Kilmeade—asking for Trump to do something to stop the attack. They show Trump administration officials freaking out.And they show Meadows—who has been on a media tour to promote his new book, even as Congress moves to hold him in contempt—agreeing he needs to get Trump to do something (“I’m pushing it hard,” he messaged) about the harsh reality that the lie the administration spread about a stolen election had sparked a violent attempt to overthrow the government.All of this was put forward by Republican Liz Cheney as part of her statement in front of the committee.It makes something clear. For a moment, the reality pierced through to Fox News, Republicans, and Trump administration officials that they had been trying to wreck democracy—and would even have to live with those consequences.--For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.comFacebook: facebook.com/motherjonesTwitter: twitter.com/motherjonesInstagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Manchin Is Considering Leaving the Democratic Party—and He Has an Exit Plan Mother Jones 2021-10-20 | ► Read the full article at Mother Jones: bit.ly/3m10fwc Today, Mother Jones published an explosive new scoop by our Washington, DC, bureau chief, David Corn: In recent days, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has told associates that he is considering leaving the Democratic Party. He has even prepared a two-point exit plan.Manchin said he was prepared to bolt earlier this week and even mentioned the possibility to President Joe Biden. But after encouraging conversations with fellow Democrats, he didn’t yet see a reason to take the step. Still, he has informed associates that because he is so out of sync with the Democratic Party, he believes it is likely he will leave the party by November 2022.A big part of the decision rests with whether Biden and his colleagues on Capitol Hill can agree to his demand to cut the size of the social infrastructure bill. Manchin has said that if this were to happen, he would leave his party and declare himself an “American Independent.” The stakes are very real, and very high: It’s not clear if Manchin would still caucus with Democrats as an independent, but without his vote, the Democrats cannot pass anything in the 50–50 Senate. David Corn broke the news, and now he’s here to explain it. Watch the video, and head to bit.ly/3m10fwc for the full report.#Manchin #Democrats #BuildBackBetter -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
You Better Not F*ck in Texas: Texas abortion ban protest song by Jill Sobule Mother Jones 2021-10-13 | Jill Sobule is an acclaimed singer-songwriter who had a few cool hits in the 1990s, including, “I Kissed a Girl.” Her songs are witty, sassy, and, occasionally, heart-breaking. (Check out “Mexican Wrestler.”) From time to time, she gets topical, such as with her wry attack on jingoism, “America Back.” And she recently grabbed her pen and guitar to lash back at the extreme new Texas law banning abortions after six weeks (with no exceptions) and allowing anyone to sue abortion providers and people who assist women obtaining abortions. (On Wednesday, a federal judge blocked implementation of the law.) Here is the world premiere of Sobule’s “You Better Not F*ck in Texas”:This video originally appeared in "This Land," a newsletter from Mother Jones' Washington DC bureau chief David Corn. About twice a week, David sends an exclusive email that, as you'd expect, covers the news of the day and delivers his no-BS analysis. But it's all the unexpected features—behind-the-scenes stories from DC or his rock ’n’ roll days; book, film, and music recommendations; interactions with readers—that make This Land unlike anything else in your inbox. It's a fun read and makes you smarter. Start your free trial here: bit.ly/3iYlzQM -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Robinhood’s design won awards. Now, it’s the problem. Mother Jones 2021-10-07 | Mother Jones senior digital producer Mark Helenowski has used the Robinhood trading app since 2015, the year it launched. Like millions of others, he was drawn by the promise of commission-free trades and the lack of account minimums. Also, the design: It was approachable, simple, and fun: Clean-lined, with interactive animations, a modern color palette, and punctuated, at the time, with colorful confetti explosions.But that award-winning design is part of the reason critics are slamming Robinhood. The company has been on something of a rollercoaster over the past year. In January, the company halted trading on Gamestop stock after it was driven to stratospheric levels by online investors, resulting in headline-grabbing public backlash and a Congressional inquiry. It’s been hit with record-breaking fines from regulatory bodies. In late August, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler announced that a ban targeting a controversial practice called “payment for order flow”, which nets Robinhood a majority of its revenues, is “on the table.” Another SEC announcement signaled an investigation into “digital engagement practices” on trading platforms, to include elements like “behavioral prompts, differential marketing, [and] game-like features.”Helenowski partnered with Mother Jones reporter Hannah Levintova to interview digital and psychology experts about those tactics and tools, learning how they take advantage of the way brains tick to encourage users to trade more. Drawing on her previous reporting, Levintova explains how company profit motives seem to guide its user experience and app design.Robinhood removed confetti from the app earlier this year, along with other design features that evoked gambling or games of chance, like scratch-off tickets. But as the SEC, lawmakers, and other regulators bear down on Robinhood, it’s facing tough questions. The confetti may be gone. But its critics are not.For more, visit Mother Jones: bit.ly/3iCEPmMAnd for Hannah Levintova’s deep reporting on the suicide of Alex Kearns, a young Robinhood trader, and how the app turns young and inexperienced investors into Wall Street profits, visit: bit.ly/3owYNmT #Robinhood #Design #SEC -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
NEW EVIDENCE: Trump Rioters Brought Guns to the Capitol Mother Jones 2021-09-30 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.comFor more than eight months, Republican lawmakers have sought to rewrite the harrowing events of January 6.They have repeatedly whitewashed the assault on the US Capitol despite copious footage showing mobs of Trump supporters ransacking Congress, assaulting journalists, threatening to kill Vice President Mike Pence, and viciously attacking scores of police officers with chemical spray, fire extinguishers, hockey sticks, and flagpoles.“It was not an insurrection,” Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia declared at a House hearing in May, suggesting that most participants were engaged in “a normal tourist visit.”“By and large it was peaceful protest,” said Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin after the May hearings.This attempted political cover-up has hinged on another specific claim: that no one who stormed the Capitol had guns.“This didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me,” Johnson said five weeks after the attack, adding, “When you think of armed, don’t you think of firearms?” During the May hearings, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona claimed “zero firearms” were found among suspects charged with breaching the Capitol. “There were no guns whatsoever,” former President Trump declared repeatedly during a Fox News interview in July.Evidence of numerous firearms among January 6 perpetrators shows those claims to be false.A Mother Jones investigation drawing on public video footage, congressional testimony, and documents from more than a dozen federal criminal cases reveals that various Trump supporters descended on DC that day armed for battle with guns and other potentially lethal weapons. At least four people arrested in connection with the insurrection are facing charges for carrying firearms on Capitol grounds. Additionally, at least 10 others carried knives or tasers, including two defendants who allegedly committed assaults with tasers, according to FBI and court documents.Multiple others arrested downtown and in the vicinity of the Capitol had rifles, pistols, explosive materials, and large supplies of ammunition. And communications among numerous January 6 suspects detailed in court documents indicate that many of their fellow insurrectionists were armed with guns.Head to motherjones.com for our full investigation.#January6 #CapitolInsurrection #CapitolRiots #Investigation--For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.comFacebook: facebook.com/motherjonesTwitter: twitter.com/motherjonesInstagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
The Texas Abortion Ban and Right-wing Vigilantism Mother Jones 2021-09-03 | Texas banned abortions after six weeks—when many still don't know they're pregnant. But as reporter Becca Andrews explains, this has not only been a long time coming, it's also part of a larger theme of vigilantism in the Republican party. -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
How the Supreme Court green-lit Republican attacks on voting rights Mother Jones 2021-06-25 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com On June 25, 2013, Chief Justice John Roberts gutted a key section of the Voting Rights Act, ruling that states with a long history of voting discrimination no longer needed to get federal approval for changes to their election procedures.“Things have changed dramatically” since the law’s enactment in 1965, Roberts wrote in Shelby County v. Holder, implying that there was no reason to think those states would pass discriminatory voting restrictions in the future.But since that decision—which Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg compared to “throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet”—new voter suppression laws have proliferated across the country. Twenty-six states have enacted new restrictions on voting since the Shelby ruling, according to an analysis by Mother Jones on the eighth anniversary of the decision, based on data provided by the Brennan Center for Justice and NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Roughly 40 percent of these states previously had to clear their voting changes with the federal government—meaning that new restrictions on voting enacted by states such as Arizona, Georgia, and Texas likely would have been blocked if not for the Shelby decision.“What we’ve seen since Shelby is a raft of voting restrictions across the country,” says Eliza Sweren-Becker, a Brennan Center attorney. “That trend has never been more obvious than in 2021, when we have seen so many states pass new voter suppression laws.”The Shelby decision opened the floodgates to the suppression we’re seeing today. Watch our video explaining what’s happened in the eight years since.#SCOTUS #VotingRights #SupremeCourt #VoterSuppression -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
REVEALED: The “Dark Money” Playbook for Rigging US Elections Mother Jones 2021-05-18 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Last week, Mother Jones and the watchdog group Documented broke the story of a top conservative dark money group boasting to donors about writing laws restricting access to the ballot in key battleground states such as Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, and Texas.“In some cases, we actually draft them for them,” Jessica Anderson, the executive director of Heritage Action for America, a sister organization of the Heritage Foundation, told the foundation’s donors at an April 22 gathering in Tucson, “or we have a sentinel on our behalf give them the model legislation so it has that grassroots, from-the-bottom-up type of vibe.”Mother Jones released a three-minute excerpt of the most explosive moments from the leaked video, detailing a massive right-wing effort to draft and pass model bills restricting voting access, which Anderson said was intended to “right the wrongs of November.”Now we’re bringing you an in-depth video featuring five extended highlights from our investigation, exposing Heritage Action’s $24 million campaign over the next two years to roll back access to the ballot and block congressional Democrats’ sweeping democracy reform bill, the For the People Act. This video takes you inside the strategy Heritage is using to weaponize Trump’s Big Lie and rewrite the country’s voting laws to the GOP’s benefit—from creating “echo chambers” with 20,000 ground troops to sneakily passing bills that “nobody noticed” to claiming to write the legislation themselves. #Politics #DarkMoney #HeritageAction #HeritageFoundation #VotingRights -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Leaked Video: Dark Money Group Is Writing Voter Suppression Laws Mother Jones 2021-05-13 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com In a private meeting last month with big-money donors, the head of a top conservative group boasted that her outfit had crafted the new voter suppression law in Georgia and was doing the same with similar bills for Republican state legislators across the country. “In some cases, we actually draft them for them,” she said, “or we have a sentinel on our behalf give them the model legislation so it has that grassroots, from-the-bottom-up type of vibe.”The Georgia law had “eight key provisions that Heritage recommended,” Jessica Anderson, the executive director of Heritage Action for America, a sister organization of the Heritage Foundation, told the foundation’s donors at an April 22 gathering in Tucson, in a recording obtained by the watchdog group Documented and shared with Mother Jones. Those included policies severely restricting mail ballot drop boxes, preventing election officials from sending absentee ballot request forms to voters, making it easier for partisan workers to monitor the polls, preventing the collection of mail ballots, and restricting the ability of counties to accept donations from nonprofit groups seeking to aid in election administration.All of these recommendations came straight from Heritage’s list of “best practices” drafted in February. With Heritage’s help, Anderson said, Georgia became “the example for the rest of the country.”The leaked video reveals the extent to which Heritage is leading a massive campaign to draft and pass model legislation restricting voting access, which has been swiftly adopted this year in the battleground states of Georgia, Florida, Arizona, and Iowa. It’s no coincidence that so many GOP-controlled states are rushing to pass similar pieces of legislation in such a short period of time. Mother Jones Senior Reporter Ari Berman breaks down the video here. And for the full investigation, co-bylined by Documented's Nick Surgey, head to motherjones.com. #HeritageFoundation #Scoop #VotingRights #Georgia #BrianKemp -- Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Watch Donald Trump, Jr. Praise Stephanie Winston Wolkoff Mother Jones 2021-04-29 | Watch Mother Jones Washington DC Bureau Chief David Corn analyze this newly unearthed tape: youtu.be/BtlawSTyfKI--Mother Jones obtained documents and a video indicating that Donald Trump Jr. apparently made false statements in his sworn testimony in the Trump inauguration scandal lawsuit. Trump Jr. said in sworn testimony he didn’t know and “had no involvement with” the lead producer of his father’s inaugural events. But the tape suggests otherwise. Read Corn's full investigation, here: bit.ly/2Pu2F92 For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Newly Obtained Video Shows Trump Jr. Apparently Contradicting His Own Sworn Testimony Mother Jones 2021-04-27 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: bit.ly/2Pu2F92 On February 11, Donald Trump Jr. gave a video deposition. He swore to tell the truth. But documents and a video obtained by Mother Jones—and recent legal filings—indicate that his testimony on key points was not accurate.The matter at hand was a lawsuit filed in 2020 against Donald Trump’s inauguration committee and the Trump Organization by Karl Racine, the attorney general of Washington, DC. The suit claims that the inauguration committee misused charitable funds to enrich the Trump family. Racine has taken depositions from two of Trump’s adult children, Ivanka and Donald Jr., among other officials. Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a top producer for the inauguration committee, was deposed as a lead witness cooperating with the investigation.One of the clearest instances of Trump Jr. not testifying accurately came when he was asked if he knew Winston Wolkoff. He replied, “I know of her. I think I’ve met her, but I don’t know her. If she was in this room I’m not sure I would recognize her.” He added, “I had no involvement with her.”This footage is from a tony candlelight dinner held at Union Station in Washington, DC, the night before Trump’s inauguration. This soiree was one of the official inauguration events. (A million-dollar contribution to the inauguration committee earned a Trump donor a ticket.) Here Trump Jr. can be seen profusely praising Tom Barrack and Winston Wolkoff for the “incredible” work they did. So it seems that he did know her.In this video, David Corn analyzes the newly unearthed tape, and two other instances from his reporting. To see more evidence, read David Corn’s exclusive investigation at motherjones.com. -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: bit.ly/2Pu2F92 Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Heres How Oath Keepers Train to #Stopantifa Mother Jones 2021-03-25 | ► Read the full article at Mother Jones: bit.ly/3rmv5yFFederal prosecutors have charged 10 members of the far-right Oath Keepers with conspiring to storm the US Capitol on January 6 and allege that militia members prepared for the “operation” by “attending or scheduling trainings to learn paramilitary combat tactics.” Video and images reviewed by Mother Jones show that three of the those indicted Oath Keepers attended two “gunfight oriented training” sessions last fall at the Ares Firearms Training Facility in Leesburg, Florida. Prosecutors have not cited these specific trainings, held before Election Day, on September 20 and October 25, in documents charging Oath Keepers. But the sessions are notable. In the first, an instructor coached the three militia members and others on how to “drop” adversaries by shooting them in the heart, lungs, or head. The instructor, a Florida resident named Andrew Smrecek, who describes himself as a former Marine Corps rifleman, posted the video and images from this training online with hashtags that include “#stopantifa,” “#stopcommunism,” and “#giveviolenceachance.” Members of the group at the training, including Smrecek, later acted as security guards for Roger Stone at “stop the steal” events where the longtime Trump adviser claimed Donald Trump had been cheated out of an election win in November and urged Americans to fight to keep Trump in office.In a video from the September 20 session, Smrecek wears a shirt from a company he runs called Combat Art Training with the slogan “Keep Fighting Communism” on the back. He instructs the group of six on how to shoot foes “to stop a threat” and suggests aiming at the collar line in hopes of hitting the heart or lungs to create “massive hemorrhaging” or “a sucking chest wound.” He also tells trainees to “think about a head shot” at close range and to aim “in between the eyes…[at] the squishy stuff.”--For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.comFacebook: facebook.com/motherjonesTwitter: twitter.com/motherjonesInstagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
FULL: 13-minute Capitol Insurrection Video from Trumps Second Impeachment Mother Jones 2021-02-09 | 🎥 WATCH: Our insurrectionist investigation: youtube.com/watch?v=UJ79PBr6seQ🎥 WATCH: Trump Made This Happen: youtube.com/watch?v=s56aQFykD1E The second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump kicked off on Tuesday with a powerful, unflinching video montage chronicling the events leading up to the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol attack—and the harrowing violence that ensued once pro-Trump insurrectionists stormed the Capitol building.The video, presented by Democrats’ lead impeachment manager Jamie Raskin as a straight, “just the facts” play-by-play of the deadly event, was immediately damning, even for those well-acquainted with the most familiar images from the murderous attack. It also included Trump’s remarks encouraging his supporters to take matters into their own hands while he repeated his false claims that the election had been stolen from him. “We love you,” Trump is seen telling the insurrectionists in a video just two hours after the attack. “You’re very special.”“You ask what a high crime and misdemeanor is under our Constitution?” Raskin said once the video ended. “That’s a high crime and misdemeanor. If that’s not an impeachable offense, then there’s no such thing.” #Impeachment #Trump #FullOpening -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
13 Accused Capitol Rioters: Trump Incited Us Mother Jones 2021-02-08 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.comSince Donald Trump left office, most Republicans in Congress have backed away from holding him responsible for inciting the insurrection on January 6. Yet, with Trump’s impeachment trial, Democrats are set to highlight broad evidence of how the former president ignited the mob—some of whose participants said explicitly that Trump motivated them to act.According to our investigation, of the 194 federal criminal cases brought against insurrectionists so far, at least 13 people charged cited Trump explicitly as the reason they marched on the Capitol. At least three suspects who said Trump compelled them to join the siege were seen in video footage amid violent altercations: One who allegedly struck a police officer with a fire extinguisher, another who allegedly struck an officer with a baseball bat, and another who was among a group breaching the Speaker’s Lobby doors just before one pro-Trump rioter was fatally shot by a police officer. Among those charged in the insurrection to date are at least five members of the neofascist Proud Boys, whose Long Island chapter announced on social media in December that Trump had given them “the green light” for January 6.While many in the crowd of thousands who went from Trump’s rally at the White House to the Capitol building may not have broken laws, the mob comprised of people from across the country was united by a central narrative: Trump’s sustained lies about the presidential election being “stolen.” Dozens of those arrested indicated they were motivated by those claims from Trump.As the Justice Department continues to build conspiracy cases, many of those arrested have been charged with a range of crimes including illegally entering restricted grounds; vandalism; intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of Government; and carrying firearms or other dangerous weapons on Capitol grounds. Details on the Trump-motivated rioters in our investigation are drawn from federal charging documents, additional court filings and news reports. This video is a preview. For the full report, go to bit.ly/3cZXMOt.--For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.comFacebook: facebook.com/motherjonesTwitter: twitter.com/motherjonesInstagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
The Coffee Brand Beloved by Domestic Extremists Mother Jones 2021-02-08 | ► Read the full article at Mother Jones: bit.ly/39Ss1ot Black Rifle is, at heart, a coffee company. But unlike the vast majority of coffee companies, it markets its beans with a highly militaristic branding that leans on gun-heavy, special-ops themed photoshoots with goofy product placement. Of course, guns and coffee don’t really have a lot in common. A shooting range session might leave you amped like back-to-back espressos, but that’s about it. One is a liquid and the other is a gun. You drink one, and you fire bullets at over 1,000 miles an hour out of the other. They aren’t even strange bedfellows—they are two separate things that Black Rifle Coffee Company has smashed together. -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
Stop the Steal Organizer Called for “Execution” of Trump’s Foes Mother Jones 2021-01-29 | ► For more, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Weeks before the murderous mob of insurrectionists stormed the US Capitol on January 6 to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory, a leader of the so-called Stop the Steal movement stood before a crowd of angry Donald Trump loyalists in California and called for the “execution” of those who had supposedly plotted against Trump. Afterward, he posted a video of his demand for blood on YouTube. On December 12, Trump supporters, ahead of the official counting of electoral votes, staged protests across the country, with the main demonstration in Washington leading to violence, as the Proud Boys rampaged through the district and clashed with Antifa activists. A smaller gathering occurred in Huntington Beach, California. A hundred or so Trump devotees, some waving Trump and “Fuck Biden” flags, assembled at the town’s picturesque pier. The man leading the protest was Alan Hostetter, a police-chief-turned-yoga-instructor who last year became a prominent foe of COVID shutdowns in the Golden State.Hostetter, who heads a group called the American Phoenix Project, praised the Trumpers, “as America from the ground-up fights back against this communist takeover of our country.” Reading from a prepared text, he declared, “Both foreign and domestic enemies and traitors surround us. They are protected and enabled by a corrupt and evil…mainstream media. And this mainstream media joined forces with an even more corrupt group of tech tyrants in the Silicon Valley.”As the demonstrators cheered, he said, “President Trump and his ground troops here with the patriots—we’re going to fix this….There must, absolutely must be a reckoning. There must be justice. President Trump must be inaugurated on January 20.”Hostetter had a very specific idea of justice: “The enemies and traitors of America, both foreign and domestic, must be held accountable. And they will. There must be long prison terms, while execution is the just punishment for the ringleaders of this coup.” #StopTheSteal #Trump #Politics -- For more award-winning independent reporting, visit Mother Jones: motherjones.com Facebook: facebook.com/motherjones Twitter: twitter.com/motherjones Instagram: instagram.com/motherjonesmag
