Mother Jones: Posts

Mother Jones

Trump’s Choice of Fracking CEO Chris Wright as Energy Secretary Heralds a Swamp Revival

Americans of a certain age tend to throw around the term “Orwellian” willy-nilly. But the expression really suits in describing the behavior of our felonious, twice-impeached president-elect. In George Orwell’s classic novel 1984, a dictatorship represented by the all-powerful “Big Brother” dictates the reality its citizens must adhere to, however topsy-turvy. Official slogans include “ignorance […]

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Texas May Be Next State to Restrict Abortion Pills as “Controlled Substances”

Last month, Louisiana became the first state to begin classifying misoprostol and mifepristone—the two pills used in medication abortion—as schedule IV controlled substances. The move, driven by anti-abortion Republicans and unsupported by evidence, left the state’s doctors bracing for the worst—the pills also are used to manage miscarriages and treat postpartum hemorrhages, and the new law requires […]

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Gaetz Ethics Report Should Stay Sealed Because He’s a “Private Citizen,” Says House Speaker Johnson

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has debuted a new—and implausible—reason that the House Ethics Committee’s report into allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use by former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) should not be released: Gaetz is now a private citizen. In an interview on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper on Sunday morning, […]

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In the Wake of Trump’s Win, a Top Climate Scientist Finds Strength in the Bible

This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. For people involved with research and advocacy about climate change, the results of last week’s presidential election sting. To get a sense of what’s to come and what’s needed to ensure domestic climate action continues, I spoke with Katharine […]

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Trumpworld Pushes Back Against Dueling Pete Hegseth Controversies

Weekend Fox News host Pete Hegseth has already been an exceedingly controversial choice as Donald Trump’s pick for his Secretary of Defense. Hegseth and the Trump camp have spent recent days push back against two simultaneous controversies: allegations that Hegseth has “extremist” tattoos, as some critics have charged, and news broken by Vanity Fair on […]

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Alex Jones Is Trying to Halt the Sale of Infowars. Elon Musk’s X Just Got Involved in the Case

On Thursday afternoon, a federal bankruptcy judge in Texas ordered an evidentiary hearing to review the auction process that resulted in Infowars being sold to satire site the Onion, saying he wanted to ensure the “process and transparency” of the sale. Infowars’ founder, the conspiracy mega-entrepreneur Alex Jones, has unsurprisingly declared that the auction process […]

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The Many Contradictions of Trump’s Victory

As Donald Trump prepares to enter the White House for a second term, the reasons people voted him into office are becoming more clear. For Micki Witthoeft, it’s cause for celebration. Her daughter, Ashli Babitt, was shot and killed by a police officer after storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Today, Witthoeft is […]

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These Down-Ballot Election Results Will Slow States’ Transition to Clean Energy

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Some of the votes Americans cast on Tuesday that may have mattered most for the climate were quite a bit down-ballot from the presidential ticket: A handful of states held elections for the commissions that regulate utilities, and thereby exercise direct control over […]

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Trump’s Nephew Tells Democrats: Don’t Quit Now

Donald Trump’s nephew Fred Trump III doesn’t expect to be invited to his uncle’s inauguration this time around. He did, after all, write a book exposing some of the president-elect’s unsavory behavior, including the Donald telling Fred he should let his disabled son, William, die. View on Threads But Fred Trump still plans to spend […]

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The Plan To Silence Dissent

Donald Trump has made it clear that there are groups he’d like to punish. Much attention has been paid to his planned crusades for his next term against immigrants and trans people. But less discussed has been another group on the list: protesters. Building off the bipartisan crackdown on anti-war student dissent last year, Trump has […]

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“A Genuine Catastrophe”: Experts React to Trump’s Nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Public health experts, physicians, and scientists responded with fury and disgust to the news that Donald Trump will nominate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be the secretary of Health and Human Services. If Kennedy—who has also promoted dangerous and ludicrous ideas about fluoride, 5G technology, and the causes of HIV/AIDS, among innumerable other […]

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Of Misogyny, Musk, and Men

In the days before the election, when too many stories about deadlocked polls and undecided voters and the MAGAfication of young men began to wear on my soul, I turned to TikTok to see what women were thinking. Soon enough I was swimming in a sea of female excitement and angst. I watched videos of […]

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Study: Equal Pay for Disabled Workers Creates, Not Costs, Jobs

When the Fair Labor Standards Act was signed into law in 1938, first establishing a national minimum wage, it came with an exemption: employers could pay some disabled workers less than minimum wage. The federal exemption still stands, even as many states roll back their versions—and that wage can still be as little as 25 […]

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Trump’s Defense Secretary Pick Hopes for a Christian Crusade

On Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump announced former Fox News host Pete Hegseth was his pick for secretary of defense. The choice is iconoclastic to say the least. Although Hegseth served as an Army National Guard officer, he has no experience in government leadership that could inform the management of the federal government’s largest agency. What […]

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Oil Industry Openly Encourages Trump to Roll Back Crucial Climate Policies

This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. America’s oil industry released its wish list for the incoming Trump administration on Tuesday, a five-point plan that would eliminate many of the Biden administration’s most far-reaching efforts to reduce climate pollution and limit the warming that is driving ever […]

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One of the Greenest States Just Voted Against Electrification

Voters in Washington state narrowly passed a measure to preserve “energy choice” and block the state from discouraging natural gas—delivering a significant blow to climate efforts in one of the country’s greenest states. After days of counting, the measure, I-2066, passed Thursday with about 52 percent support, according to the Associated Press. I-2066, as I […]

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Infowars Acquired by The Onion, Will Become a Parody of Itself

Conspiracy mega-site Infowars, whose founder and main host Alex Jones has become the face of monetized suspicion in America, has been acquired at a bankruptcy auction by the satirical news company The Onion. They plan to relaunch Infowars as a parody of itself, with backing from Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for […]

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Trump Cabinet Picks Rubio and Stefanik Once Confirmed Putin Attacked the 2016 Election to Help Trump

For eight years, an article of faith within Trumpworld and the right-wing media cosmos has been that the Trump-Russia scandal was a hoax, a canard cooked up by nefarious Deep State actors and bolstered by their co-conspirators in the press and the Democratic Party to sabotage and destroy Donald Trump. Trump himself continues to rail […]

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My Platoon’s Fight to Survive—and Heal From—the Bloodiest Battle of the Iraq War

A caution to readers: This story is an unvarnished, unsanitized firsthand account of the Second Battle of Fallujah that includes descriptions and photos that are candidly disturbing. In telling this story, I promised my fellow Marines that I would not sugarcoat our experience. This story is published in collaboration with The War Horse. Narrow metal cages […]

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Mother Jones

My Platoon’s Fight to Survive—and Heal From—the Bloodiest Battle of the Iraq War

A caution to readers: This story is an unvarnished, unsanitized firsthand account of the Second Battle of Fallujah that includes descriptions and photos that are candidly disturbing. In telling this story, I promised my fellow Marines that I would not sugarcoat our experience. This story is published in collaboration with The War Horse. To hear us […]

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Mother Jones

Dear Joe Biden: Here’s How You Can Protect Reproductive Rights From Trump’s Zealots

Trump’s reelection has been described by advocates and experts as a final blow to reproductive rights. These fears are not unfounded. Trump appointed three of the five conservative Supreme Court justices who overruled Roe v. Wade ending the constitutional right to abortion and unleashing a health-care apocalypse. Vulnerable women found themselves in even greater danger […]

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How Trump Plans to Purge Thousands of Government Workers

In a campaign video from March 2023, Donald Trump laid out his goal to “dismantle the Deep State and reclaim our democracy from Washington Corruption.” Such rhetoric was common in 2016, too. But, this time, his incoming administration has an actionable plan for how to do it. The idea has existed for years and, as […]

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Lee Zeldin, Trump’s EPA Pick, Puts a Moderate Face on a Radical Plan

This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. By tapping former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to head the Environmental Protection Agency, President-elect Donald Trump opted to put his planned radical rollback of climate policy in the hands of a staunch ally who is skilled at projecting an […]

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Mother Jones

Dear Joe Biden: Here’s How You Can Protect Reproductive Rights From Trump’s Zealots

Trump’s reelection has been described by advocates and experts as a final blow to reproductive rights. These fears are not unfounded. Trump appointed three of the five conservative Supreme Court justices who overruled Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion and unleashing a health care apocalypse. Vulnerable women found themselves in even greater […]

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Mother Jones

Pete Hegseth Is Ready to Bring the Culture War to the Pentagon

Some of the nation’s legendary “great men”—leaders like George Marshall and Clark Clifford—have served the country as defense secretary. President-elect Donald Trump has tapped a Fox News host for the job. Pete Hegseth is a veteran of wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, but he stands out as being uniquely unqualified among his predecessors to […]

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Tulsi Gabbard Is a Uniquely Bad Choice For Director of National Intelligence

Donald Trump’s appointment announcements are getting weird. The president-elect’s selection of Susie Wiles as his chief of staff, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as his Secretary of State nominee, suggested a step toward GOP convention. But Trump’s selection of former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as his Director of National Intelligence—along with his announced plans to […]

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Trump to Nominate Sycophant and Famously Bad Lawyer Matt Gaetz for Attorney General

Rep. Matt Gaetz, one of Donald Trump’s most outspoken supporters in Congress, is the president-elect’s pick for attorney general, a stunning choice that builds upon Trump’s long-held views of the Justice Department as an extension of his White House. As my colleague Stephanie Mencimer wrote in a 2019 profile, the Florida Republican has made something […]

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The Republican Trifecta Looks Complete. What Happens Now?

Democrats needed to snap up just four seats in 2024 to gain control of the House of Representatives. But today it became clear Republicans would retain control of the House. The results complete a dismal year for Democrats: The House results nail in a Republican trifecta and ensure President-elect Donald Trump will be able to […]

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Infowars Is Being Auctioned Off, but Alex Jones Is Not Going Away

The court-ordered auction of conspiracy kingpin Alex Jones’ company Infowars took place on Wednesday. By late morning Texas time, Jones said the auction had been closed, but the winner, to be chosen by a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee, had not yet been announced. The proceeds will be distributed to Infowars’ creditors, with the large majority going […]

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“First Buddy” Elon Musk Is Already Pissing Everyone Off at Mar-a-Lago

Elon Musk’s election bets paid off the instant Donald Trump was reelected. But, even as the richest man in the world sits on the edge of enormous political power, Musk can’t seem to escape the essential fabric of his being: a deeply unlikable personality. According to multiple reports, Musk is everywhere you turn at Mar-a-Lago, […]

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