Mother Jones
How exactly did white people become “white” people? It seems like most white people have no idea about how they came to identify as “white”. That’s a problem. Overlooking this part of our history, I think, means white people can misunderstand ongoing critiques of white identity politics in today’s culture wars. So, I’ve broken it […]
Mother JonesHow exactly did white people become “white” people? It seems like most white people have no idea about how they came to identify as “white”. That’s a problem. Overlooking this part of our history, I think, means white people can misunderstand ongoing critiques of white identity politics in today’s culture wars. So, I’ve broken it […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. That Phoenix is hot should come as no surprise. The heat is often the first thing that comes up when someone from out of state asks locals about living in the Valley of the Sun. “How can […]
Mother JonesAs a trans guy I feel an affinity to Ken. No body hair? No male genitalia? Parted hair? Fashionable outfits? And the undying belief that women are wonderful? Sign me up! So, I donned my best Beach look (this wasn’t hard: I already own a matching, patterned swim-trunk, button down combo) and showed up ready […]
Mother JonesElon Musk made his most brazen overture to white nationalists yet on Monday, tweeting about the “white genocide” conspiracy theory in South Africa. In response to a video of South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters party posted by right-wing influencer and serial plagiarist Benny Johnson, Musk tweeted, “They are openly pushing for genocide of white people […]
Mother JonesLet’s face it. It’s bleak out there. Book banning is a whole political stance. It’s scorching hot just about everywhere. And Donald Trump is vowing to run for president—from prison. But one wholesome TikTok trend is reminding me of the light. Against one of the most contentious times for public libraries in recent memory, supporters […]
Mother JonesA state judge in Georgia has rejected Donald Trump’s bid to throw out a grand jury report and disqualify the Fulton County district attorney from investigating the former president’s efforts to overturn that state’s 2020 election results. The ruling could potentially clear the way for criminal charges in the case. The nine-page order comes from a man […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. An alliance of rightwing groups has crafted an extensive presidential proposal to bolster the planet-heating oil and gas industry and hamstring the energy transition, it has emerged. Against a backdrop of record-breaking heat and floods this year, the $22 million […]
Mother JonesWildfires raged in Canada and in 10 countries around the Mediterranean. Heat waves blanketed much of North America, Europe, and Asia. Each day from July 3 to July 6 set records for Earth’s hottest day ever. Now, the World Meteorological Organization and Copernicus, a European Union climate observation agency, have announced that July is “extremely […]
Mother JonesAfter former president Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, he raised more than $250 million in donations by pushing the “Big Lie”—claiming that he had actually won and needed the money to contest the results. Some of the money that came pouring in went to pay down his campaign’s debts, or into the bank accounts of […]
Mother JonesOn Saturday, a federal judge in Arkansas temporarily blocked a new law that would have allowed local prosecutors to file felony charges against school and public librarians who loaned out material considered considered “harmful to minors.” The law—which also created a new process to challenge the “appropriateness” of books and force them to be moved […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Hakai Magazine and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The Cook Islands’ main harbor is a small indentation in the island of Rarotonga, which is the most developed of the nation’s 15 islands, yet still the kind of place where you give directions in mango trees and neighbors, […]
Mother JonesFlorida Governor Ron DeSantis has built his political brand on attacking “wokeness” and refusing to back down—his super-PAC is even called Never Back Down—but his support for Florida’s new education standards that include the claim that slavery helped African-Americans develop skills for their “personal benefit” is testing how well those two strategies can co-exist. The […]
Mother JonesLegal challenges to Donald Trump keep piling up, but despite his best efforts, the former president’s attempts to use the legal system to target his enemies keep coming up short. His latest defeat comes from a federal judge in Florida—a Trump appointee no less—who dismissed a defamation lawsuit Trump had filed against CNN for its […]
Mother JonesThe extraordinary heat stifling the country—and much of the globe—this summer continued to grind on Saturday, with nearly one-third of Americans under some type of heat advisory or warning. But GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), whose previous work experience before being elected in 2020 was as a college football coach, mocked the idea anyone might […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by High Country News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Just inside the rolled-up door of a pumphouse garage, Cole Benak pulled on a pair of black Nitrile gloves. Outside, morning sunshine warmed the quiet wooded hillside. From the room next door, three massive water pumps whined, pushing thousands […]
Mother JonesThe damage from the rollback of a key pandemic-era measure that provided healthcare for low-income Americans continues to unfold. Nearly 4 million people are no longer covered by Medicaid, the Washington Post reports, with many of those dropped for administrative reasons despite still qualifying for coverage. The report is based on a new analysis from […]
Mother JonesElon Musk might not be able to effectively manage Twitter, build a Hyperloop, or fly a rocket into space without exploding. But at least the business that brought him global fame and wealth can deliver on its core promises, right? Wrong. A new Reuters report calls into question Tesla’s ability to do the one thing […]
Mother JonesGreta Gerwig’s Barbie movie starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling has been smashing box-office records left and right. It brought in $162 million during its opening weekend—the biggest debut of the year—and became the best-selling Monday ever for Warner Bros. I just watched the film described in the Atlantic as “a charming blockbuster adventure about the tribulations […]
Mother JonesThe New Federal State of China, a conspiracy theory-promoting group launched in 2020 by Steve Bannon and exiled Chinese mogul Guo Wengui, who the Justice Department has indicted for running a massive fraud scheme, held its gala third-anniversary event in June. Among the mostly Chinese emigres at the event were some notable House Republicans. Fabulist and […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Across the United States, more and more companies are pledging to zero out their greenhouse gas emissions using “voluntary carbon offsets”—credits that represent some amount of climate pollution that’s either prevented or removed from the atmosphere. These credits, bought and sold on […]
Mother JonesFrom the water, the White River canyon was a scene worthy of Ansel Adams. Swallows darted in and out of mud houses packed on the underside of the soaring sandstone cliffs. A lone elk wandered the hillside, while sheep noshed along the water, tended by a man on a horse striking an iconic Western pose […]
Mother JonesSince the 2020 election, GOP-controlled state legislatures have enshrined Donald Trump’s Big Lie by giving partisan actors unprecedented control over how elections are run and how votes are counted. According to the Voting Rights Lab, 29 states have passed 73 new laws impeding the administration of fair elections with efforts that include state legislatures seizing […]
Mother JonesFormer President Donald Trump told a maintenance worker at his Mar-a-Lago club to “delete security camera footage at the Mar-a-Lago Club to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury,” a new indictment charges. The new superseding indictment filed Thursday by special counsel Jack Smith in Florida says that on June 27, […]
Mother JonesThis story was originally published by Wired and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. It turns out that eating ivermectin is good for something after all. If you’re a deer, that is. And if the goal is to kill the ticks that are biting you—ticks that carry diseases that threaten humans. The antiparasitic drug, which […]
Mother JonesUpon learning that Florida’s new K-12 curriculum standards require teaching middle-schoolers that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,” I tweeted, facetiously, “Hey, this slavery thing sounds swell! A great learning experience—with free room and board.” The “personal benefit” provision was one of two stunningly tone-deaf requirements related […]
Mother JonesOn Wednesday, a House Oversight subcommittee held a highly anticipated hearing on “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAP)—more commonly known to the public as UFOs. Though Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) explained in his opening remarks that “we’re not bringing little green men or flying saucers into the hearing,” the hearing still got pretty…far out. The subcommittee heard […]
Mother JonesA plea deal between President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and the Justice Department after a years-long investigation—and that Republicans have attacked as too lenient—hit an unexpected bump on Wednesday when the federal judge overseeing the case questioned the agreement. Hunter Biden last month agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax crimes of failing to […]
Mother JonesIt happened again. A high-profile right-wing figure had to fire a staffer for connections with Nazi stuff. On Tuesday, according to Axios, the DeSantis campaign communications staffer Nate Hochman, somewhat famous as a rising intellectual on the right, was fired for creating a video with the Black Sun (also known as the Sonnenrand), a popular neo-Nazi symbol. […]
Mother JonesThe 2024 presidential election cycle has begun, and the white working class once more has commanded the spotlight. Pollsters obsess over how their economic struggles and resentments influence their political choices. Democrats and Republicans jockey to win their favor, each promising— through different cultural and political appeals—to address their individual and collective needs while igniting a new […]