Mother Jones
Attorneys for both sides in Donald Trump’s sexual assault and defamation civil lawsuit made their final pleas to the jury Monday, with rival attorneys for Trump and E. Jean Carroll, the writer who says Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in 1996, talking for hours, trying to sum up their cases. Carroll’s […]
Mother JonesThe gun rampage at a shopping mall in Allen, Texas, on Saturday that left at least eight people dead, seven injured, and countless others traumatized is the latest in a worsening American phenomenon. The horrific event continues several trends, including some I reported on after the recent mass shootings at a school in Nashville and […]
Mother JonesAmid rising protests calling for justice in the case of Jordan Neely, his family is demanding charges against the man who put their loved one in a chokehold. Daniel Penny, an ex-marine from Long Island, choked Neely, who was reportedly unhoused and asking for food, on a New York subway car on May 3. On […]
Mother JonesOn Friday, a man in Cleveland, Texas, killed five of his neighbors after they complained about him firing an AR-15 on his property late at night. On Sunday, with the shooter still at large and “zero leads” as to his whereabouts, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that the victims weren’t so innocent either. Law enforcement […]
Mother JonesThe judge in Donald Trump’s civil rape and defamation trial denied a request by the former president’s attorney to grant a mistrial in the case on Monday. The motion, which was filed Sunday night by Trump attorney Joe Tacopina, amounted to a laundry list of complaints that Judge Lewis Kaplan hadn’t been fair to Tacopina, […]
Mother JonesLast week, the Republican-controlled Montana House of Representatives voted to bar Democratic Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the state’s first transgender woman lawmaker, from the floor for the rest of the session. Her offense? Telling GOP lawmakers that they had “blood on their hands” for supporting a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors. Zephyr’s expulsion from the […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. A leading private equity firm that claims to be an industry climate leader in fact almost doubled its average annual greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel investments over the past decade, according to new research. The Carlyle Group’s portfolio of […]
Mother JonesPresident Joe Biden, for those fortunate enough to have missed it, made a “Dark Brandon” joke Saturday night at the White House Correspondent’s dinner. This was no surprise. Biden’s reelection campaign already references this meme through a picture of the president with laser eyeballs. But the 80-year old president’s reference completes a process through which […]
Mother JonesThe success of Donald Trump, an asshole who became president, created a fallacy: Americans want an asshole as their president. This misapprehension greatly appeals, of course, to assholes, especially those in public office, who seem happy to drop the traditional practice of politicians pretending to be nicer than they really are in favor of trying […]
Mother JonesConservative Supreme Court justices padded their salaries and took gigs abroad that one critic likened to “all-expenses-paid vacations, with a little teaching thrown in,” courtesy of a law school that used access to the justices to boost its fundraising and status, the New York Times reported Sunday. The cozy ties of Justices Neil Gorsuch, Clarence […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Yale E360 and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. It is being hailed as a sea change in scientific understanding of the global ocean circulation system and how it will respond as the world heats up. A doomsday scenario involving the collapse of the circulation—previously portrayed in both peer-reviewed […]
Mother JonesCould a blossoming kinship, forged in the fire of unceremonious dismissals on the same day, be developing between Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon? Maybe. That’s one of the big takeaways from Brian Stelter, who reports for Vanity Fair that the two men, in addition to retaining the same entertainment lawyer, have reportedly exchanged several texts in […]
Mother JonesOn Friday, Montana joined an alarming number of states to ban gender-affirming health care for minors when its Republican governor, Greg Gianforte, signed a bill that had been condemned as “unconscionable” by the state’s first openly transgender lawmaker. Gianforte, who catapulted to the national spotlight in 2017 after body-slamming a Guardian reporter, signed the legislation […]
Mother JonesIn a wide-ranging interview with the Wall Street Journal, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito seethed against criticisms of the high court, appeared to mock the abortion pill, and suggested he knew who leaked the draft majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. “I personally have a pretty good idea who is responsible,” Alito said, declining to name […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Canada’s National Observer and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In an anodyne gray North Vancouver business park, Gavin Schneider is growing a whitish paste he believes will one day replace meat and feed astronauts on Mars. The paste is mycelium, the so-called “body” of fungi. This long-overlooked organism […]
Mother JonesSan Francisco’s public officials and tech execs have been crying for years that the city is becoming more violent: the “reign of criminals who are destroying our city,” Democratic Mayor London Breed said in 2021, ends “when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement.” When Cash App founder Bob Lee was […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Slate and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Ever since brutal winter storms blacked out much of Texas and killed hundreds of residents in February 2021, the state’s government has constantly talked a big game about bolstering its grid and shielding Texans from future disasters. There is shockingly little […]
Mother JonesIn his opening statement in the ongoing civil sexual assault and defamation trial against former president Donald Trump, his attorney Joe Tacopina was aggressive, scathing and snarling in his attacks on E. Jean Carroll, the writer who has accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in […]
Mother JonesWhen Florida Governor Ron DeSantis decided to go after Disney last spring for opposing his “Don’t Say Gay” law, he was making it an example. He chose a powerful, high profile target that had disagreed with his policy preferences, and he punished that company for crossing him. In doing so, he sent a clear warning […]
Mother JonesOn 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 […]
Mother JonesFox News on Monday announced that Tucker Carlson, by many measures America’s most-watched cable news star, is leaving. A reason was not immediately provided. “Mr. Carlson’s last program was Friday April 21st,” a statement read. “Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 PM/ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating FOX […]
Mother JonesIn recent years, there has been greater awareness of the need to recast American history by including the stories of this nation’s original inhabitants. Museums have created lesson plans to impart to students a more comprehensive understanding of the erasure of Native peoples and more universities are offering courses on Native history. Ned Blackhawk’s The […]
Mother JonesA version of this essay originally appeared in The London Review of Books. The “Special Military Operation” (the law forbids calling it anything else) got off to bad start – Russian armed forces crossed into Ukraine and found themselves stuck in the mud, low on fuel and provisions, surrounded by a hostile civilian population. Then […]
Mother JonesTennessee’s Republican lawmakers ended the legislative session early on Friday without taking action on gun control, less than a month after a mass shooter at a Nashville school killed three adults and three 9-year-olds. The state allows 90 days for each legislative session, but lawmakers adjourned after just 27 days, even as thousands of students, parents, […]
Mother JonesThe fight over the nation’s debt limit has been brewing in Congress for months and is now ramping up. On Sunday, several Democratic lawmakers called on Republicans to stop using the cap as a bargaining chip for the GOP’s broader efforts to cut social safety net spending, a negotiating strategy that could threaten the US […]
Mother JonesMyles Cosgrove, the former Louisville, Kentucky, police officer who fired the shot that killed Breonna Taylor in 2020, just got a new job at a nearby sheriff’s office. The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to local reporters on Saturday that it hired Cosgrove after he passed a background check; following investigations by the state attorney […]
Mother JonesIn a historic move, the Environmental Protection Agency will propose limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, according to the New York Times. If implemented, it would be the first time that the federal government has restricted carbon dioxide emissions from existing coal and gas-fired power plants, which produce 25 percent of the United […]
Mother JonesAfter a recent poll put him 13 points behind Donald Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, Ron DeSantis decided to lick his wounds and head to Utah, a state where he might actually be more popular than the former president. On Saturday, the Florida governor spoke at the state’s GOP convention, where, amongst pleasantries, promises, […]
Mother JonesTwitter’s blue check marks used to verify the identities of celebrities, public figures, and members of the media. Now, all it verifies is that you’ve got $8 to spend every month. On Thursday, CEO Elon Musk finally fulfilled his promise of stripping every legacy account, from Beyoncé to the pope, of their check marks. Now, […]
Mother JonesIn a major, if temporary, victory for abortion rights advocates, the Supreme Court on Friday granted the Biden administration’s emergency request to pause a lower court ruling challenging the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill mifepristone after a Texas judge suspended it earlier this month. The decision, the high court’s most consequential abortion ruling since overturning Roe […]