The Power of Words, Social Welfare Edition
I was browsing through the 2018 General Social Survey again and happened to come across a pretty astounding example of how important question wording can be. Or, perhaps, how important words can be in general. GSS nerds will be unsurprised by this, but here’s how white people feel about helping the poor. It all depends…
Trump’s Second Veto Keeps America Involved in Yemen’s Bloody Civil War
President Donald Trump at the White House on April 15.Andrew Harnik/AP Despite President Donald Trump’s vocal opposition to America’s longstanding wars—”great nations do not fight endless wars,” he said in his State of the Union in February—yesterday he vetoed bipartisan legislation that would have ended US support for the Saudi Arabia-led war in Yemen, a…
Can a Prosecutor Ever Truly Be Progressive? Ferguson May Be the Ultimate Test Case.
Credit: Mother Jones; Jeff Roberson/AP On the night Wesley Bell unseated longtime St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch, Kayla Reed celebrated a progressive electoral victory and a personal promise fulfilled. Reed has been protesting and organizing in the St. Louis area ever since Darren Wilson, a white cop, shot Michael Brown, a black 18-year-old, in…
Mexico’s Monarch Butterflies Are in Grave Danger. Scientists Are Moving an Entire Forest to Save Them.
Monarch butterflies on a rock at the El Capulin Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Macheros, Mexico.Richard Ellis/ZUMA Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here. Tree by tree, Mexican scientists are planting the first stages of a new forest in the mountains…
John Hickenlooper Has a Curious Connection to a Trump Cabinet Secretary
Mother Jones illustration; ZUMA Press Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper’s ties to the oil and gas industry run deep, especially when compared to those of other candidates in the unwieldy 2020 Democratic field. In some ways, given that Hickenlooper served two terms in the fifth-largest oil-and-gas-producing state, these connections are not surprising. But what may…
We Need to Bury the Columbine Shooters
Mother Jones illustration; Getty Two of the future shooters were just infants and a third wasn’t even born yet when Columbine happened. But by the time they each attacked their schools last year, all three young men had drawn inspiration from the pair who committed suicidal mass murder at their Colorado high school on April…