Trump Isn’t Waging a War on Poverty. He’s Waging a War on Poor People.
Mother Jones illustration; Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Mr. Smith, a 45-year-old man living in Washington, DC, scrapes together what passes for a living selling a local newspaper as a street vendor, for which he earns $20 a day—on a good day. Each month, he receives $194 from the the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP…
Security Researchers Find Flaws in Online Voting System Tested in Five States
Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via ZUMA Press An online voting technology that has been tested in five states can be hacked to alter, block, or expose voters’ ballots, according to research published Thursday by a trio of MIT researchers. Voatz, a Boston-based company, claims its app allows for widely accessible and secure voting from smartphones by relying…
Trump Unleashed: The Trump Presidency Enters Its Most Dangerous Phase
Evan Vucci/AP Through the Trump Era, it’s been fashionable for some of his critics—especially on Twitter—to assail his actions as the coming of kleptocracy, autocracy, authoritarianism, and, yes, fascism to the United States. Recently, in an airport, an elderly women stopped me to say that she survived the Holocaust in a camp and now fears…
Let’s Tear Down the Ivory Tower of News
The two of us came of age in newsrooms at the cusp of the digital age—late enough that you could tell everything was about to change, but early enough that old habits still held unquestioned sway. Some of these (like smoking at your desk) were soon to vanish, but others have been stubbornly hanging around.…
Bill Barr Tells Trump to Shut Up
Attorney General Bill Barr said today that he wants President Trump to stop tweeting about criminal cases. “I cannot do my job here at the department with a constant background commentary that undercuts me,” he said. Among the liberal twitterati, there are two interpretations of Barr’s comments: Barr wants Trump to stop tweeting about criminal…
4Chan Trolls Target Scandinavian Airlines With Racist Harassment Campaign
Screenshot from Scandinavian Airlines new ad. Much of the online harassment directed at a major European airline in recent days appears to have come from users of a controversial 4chan message board, according to a review by Mother Jones. Earlier this week, the Sweden-based Scandinavian Airlines released a commercial as part of its “What is truly…