Why State Department Employees Despise Mike Pompeo
Chip Somodevilla/Getty For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.The most shocking thing about President Donald Trump’s decision to fire State Department Inspector General Steve Linick on Friday was how routine and predictable it felt. Linick, the fourth independent watchdog the president has recently purged, had been investigating Secretary of…
Trump’s Pick for Intelligence Chief Tried to Assert His Independence. It Didn’t Always Go Well.
Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) defended President Trump fiercely during the impeachment inquiry. Now he is Trump’s nominee to be director of national intelligence.Drew Angerer/Getty For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) might be President Trump’s pick to lead the nation’s intelligence agencies, but that doesn’t…
Tunnel Vision: Lessons in the Impermanence of Permafrost
A metal boardwalk extends into the interior of the Fox tunnel. Whitney McLaren/Undark For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.This piece was originally published in Undark and appears here as part of our Climate Desk Partnership. To enter the Fox permafrost tunnel—one of the only places in the…
Senate Democrats Blast Pentagon Over Coronavirus “Failure”
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper speaks alongside President Trump. Alex Wong/Getty For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.Ten Senate Democrats are blasting the Defense Department’s response to the coronavirus crisis, criticizing leaders in a letter released Monday for a “slow and disjointed response” that left troops at risk. “Civilian…
Progressives Want Congress to Stop Bailing out the Pentagon During the Pandemic
White House/Zuma For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.Since the coronavirus crisis first took hold in the United States, the Defense Department has received $10.5 billion in emergency funding from Congress. Despite national security spending for this fiscal year now exceeding $756 billion, the Pentagon isn’t finished making…
Boeing Wants a Government Bailout. The Pentagon Already Gave It One.
Seattle Aviation/Zuma For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.A brutal 2019 for Boeing was turning into an even more torturous 2020. After weathering the enormous cost of grounding its scandal-plagued 737 Max jets, Boeing stood to lose even more money from the devastating impact of the coronavirus crisis…