Behind the Scenes in Republican-land

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Mike Konczal has a post today that provides a rare inside look at what non-insane Republicans think about their more exuberently ideological colleagues. It’s long, and might take a couple of readings to fully appreciate, so I’ll just set the stage for you. It’s about a Republican member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Peter Wallison, who seems a wee bit less interested than he should be in actually getting at the roots of the financial crisis (at one point, he tells his fellow conservatives that it’s “very important” they do nothing to “undermine” the goals of the GOP caucus in the House).

On a more technical level, Wallison’s big hobbyhorse is making sure that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac get blamed for the financial crisis. The other Republican members of the FCIC, it turns out, basically know that Wallison is nuts, but they’re unsure about whether he’s independently nuts or merely parroting the views of a fellow nut at AEI named Edward Pinto. The actors in this melodrama are Wallison; two fellow FCIC members, Bill Young and Douglas Holtz-Eakin; and a couple of Republican staff members. You can read the whole thing here. When you’re done, Andy Kroll has more on the story here.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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