Mother Jones
The narrative of the midterm elections goes something like this: the Supreme Court energized Democrats when it overturned Roe v. Wade in June. But since then, other issues, including inflation and crime, have drowned out abortion rights and will help Republicans win races across the country. The concern that voters would forget about abortion rights […]
Mother JonesKari Lake is good at TV, and she never lets you forget it. For decades, the election-denying, vaccine-rejecting Republican nominee for governor of Arizona was one of the state’s most popular local news anchors, a trusted face paid to keep residents charmed, informed, and always pining for more. Her five-minute campaign biography, a slickly produced […]
Mother JonesJust days before he took office in 2019, Florida’s newly elected governor published an op-ed in South Florida’s Sun Sentinel: “I will fulfill promises from the campaign trail,” it read. “That means prioritizing environmental issues, like water quality,” addressing toxic algal blooms, and putting Everglades restoration “into high gear.” The candidate, a self-described “Teddy Roosevelt conservationist,” […]
Mother JonesBilly Wooten has been running elections in Georgia’s Chatham County for about 25 years. First, as a poll worker; then as a trainer for other poll workers; and now as the county’s board of elections supervisor. For the most part, his instructions for the 15 or so poll workers who showed up for an October […]
Mother JonesDemocrats always have had a complicated relationship with campaign finance law. The party has long railed against the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision and the deluge of money it unleashed and vowed to clarify and better enforce the rules on who can give and how much. But at the same time, Democrats have often raised big money […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Less than a week after Elon Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion, the tech billionaire became embroiled in a series of scandals on his own platform. They included a spike in the use of hate speech on the website […]
Mother JonesAlaska’s conservative streak doesn’t extend to abortion. In fact, it’s a right in the state constitution—for now. Alaskans voting Tuesday will choose whether to keep or rewrite that constitution, putting abortion rights and more on the line. Every ten years, Alaskans get to vote on holding a constitutional convention, where state legislators would pick delegates […]
Mother JonesIf you’re like a lot of the people I talk to in the Mother Jones community, the political world feels pretty dark right now—and not like the darkness before the dawn. Conspiracy theorists, liars, and authoritarians are gaining ground; further rollbacks of civil and human rights seem inevitable; powerful people, including the world’s richest man, […]
Mother JonesOne of the most intense races in Arizona this midterm election concerns public education: Republican Tom Horne, the architect of a state law used to ban Tucson Unified’s Mexican American Studies classes a decade ago, is back on the ballot hoping to get reelected as state school superintendent. He’s challenging incumbent Kathy Hoffman. Horne, who […]
Mother JonesThe Republicans running for statewide office in Arizona, each among the most extreme in the country, earned endorsements from former President Donald Trump by peddling the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. But as three of these candidates campaigned in Tucson, Arizona on Sunday, they did not mention the 2020 election. Even Trump, who […]
Mother JonesIn 2016, a Navajo and Cherokee 10-month-old named Zachary arrived in the home of a white, evangelical couple named Jennifer and Chad Brackeen. The Brackeens lived on an acre lot outside of Fort Worth, Texas, with a pool and a zip line. The couple had come to believe that fostering children was one way, they […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. For Joe Biden, the United Nations climate summit in Egypt is the crowning stage to trumpet the US finally passing major legislation to slow dangerous global heating. But the thoughts of the US president and delegates from around the world are […]
Mother JonesIn spite of losing a reelection bid, getting twice impeached, and facing a litany of lawsuits, Donald Trump is all but certain to run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.GOP politicians have long treated the former president as their defacto frontrunner, failing to push back on his election lies, with many outright promoting them. Democrats, political pundits, and the […]
Mother JonesEditor’s note: The below article first appeared in David Corn’s newsletter, Our Land. The newsletter is written by David twice a week (most of the time) and provides behind-the-scenes stories about politics and media; his unvarnished take on the events of the day; film, book, television, podcast, and music recommendations; interactive audience features; and more. Subscribing costs just $5 […]
Mother JonesIn his 2008 book, Breaking Free: My Life with Dissociative Identity Disorder, Herschel Walker described 12 alters, or separate identities that used to take over his psyche. There was the “Consoler,” who soothed Walker as he was mocked for his weight and stutter during early adolescence; the “Hero,” who “put on the facade of not […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Governments meeting for vital climate talks have been accused of making positive commitments in public but denying them later in the privacy of the negotiating rooms by the Egyptian hosts of the summit. Wael Aboulmagd, the Egyptian diplomat in charge […]
Mother JonesThis piece was published originally by Capital & Main. They say everything is bigger in Texas—and that includes the scale and brazenness of voter suppression efforts. The 2020 election saw record turnout in the Lone Star State, an 8% increase from 2016 overall and a 9% increase among nonwhite Texans. In a healthy democracy, such a […]
Mother JonesSea levels are rising twice as fast as they were 30 years ago. Persistent drought in East Africa has plunged about 19 million people into crisis levels of food insecurity. Floods from record-breaking rainfall killed 1,700 people in Pakistan. And yet global greenhouse gas emissions are still increasing, according to the United Nations’ climate agency. […]
Mother JonesAbsentee ballot processing is kicking off today in Michigan, and the Trump-backed candidate running to become the state’s top election official is already trying to throw out tens of thousands votes—specifically in the Democratic stronghold of Detroit, which is 78 percent Black. Kristine Karamo, an election denier whose Secretary of State campaign is supported by the […]
Mother JonesRussian trolls and bots are coming back online ahead of the midterms—this time, amplifying right-wing vitriol on Gab, Parler, Gettr, and other minor social media platforms serving far-right audiences. Cybersecurity researchers have identified the reactivation of inflammatory accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency, a propaganda group associated with the Kremlin that has interfered in US […]
Mother JonesIn the final days of former mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, he honored a pledge made in his 2021 State of the City address: the creation of a commission to revise the city’s governing charter through amendments, in the form of ballot measures, to “uncover and attack” institutional racism in New York City. On Tuesday, voters will […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Most plastics marketed as “home compostable” don’t actually work, with as much as 60% failing to disintegrate after six months, according to research. An estimated 10 percent of people can effectively compost at home, but for the remaining 90 […]
Mother JonesAn already messy battle in Pennsylvania over mail-in ballots stepped up on Friday, with the NAACP and an alliance of other voting rights group filing a lawsuit to insist certain votes should be counted. The issue at hand is whether a state law says that mail-in votes can be counted if they have a valid date […]
Mother JonesRep. Liz Cheney used to be one of the standard-bearers of the Republican party—she’s literally the heir to one of the most prominent Republicans in modern history. But since she broke with former president Donald Trump, she’s strayed far from the party and is now not just campaigning against pro-Trump Republicans, she’s endorsing Democrats. After […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Countries’ climate pledges rely on “unrealistic” and “extensive” amounts of land for carbon removal projects like tree planting schemes, a new report from the University of Melbourne said. A landmass larger than the entire United States, about […]
Mother JonesShoe company Nike has paused its relationship with NBA star Kyrie Irving after he promoted an anti-semitic film on Twitter—and then subsequently refused to apologize for it. Irving, who plays for the New Jersey Nets, was also suspended for at least five games. On Oct. 27, Irving tweeted a link to an Amazon listing for […]
Mother JonesIf there’s one thing Dr. Mehmet Oz wants you to believe, it’s that his opponent Lt. Gov. John Fetterman is soft on crime. Oz, a celebrity talk-show host turned Republican politician, has hit this point over and over again as he attempts to close the gap in an increasingly tight race in Pennsylvania that could determine […]
Mother JonesAfter a lengthy period of “will he or won’t he,” that’s gone on since last April, Elon Musk finally bought Twitter for the hilarious price of $54.20 per share—$44 billion total—a much higher price than what many analysts consider the company to be worth. Following the acquisition, Musk started telling people that he planned to […]
Mother JonesTom Barrack, a fund manager and adviser to former President Donald Trump, was acquitted Friday of charges that he acted as an unregistered agent of the United Arab Emirates. The verdict was the latest in a string of recent blows to the Justice Department’s efforts to crack down on foreign lobbying. After deliberating for two days, […]
Mother JonesIf Mark Finchem, the Republican candidate for secretary of state in Arizona and a QAnon-friendly election denialist who was recently accused of antisemitism and who days ago attended a conference with conspiracy theorist extremists, wins on Tuesday, he will soon oversee all the state’s elections, including the upcoming 2024 presidential contest. That possibility has long […]