April 30, 2019

Stephen Moore Now on Knife Edge of Fed Confirmation

Jeff Malet/Newscom via ZUMA

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Herman Cain is already history and now Stephen Moore is close to following him:

President Trump’s plan to put ally Stephen Moore on the Federal Reserve Board appeared on the edge of failure on Tuesday, after one Republican Senator said she was “very unlikely” to vote for Moore and several others sharply criticized him.Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) became the first senator to go on record as a likely “no” vote.

….Beyond Ernst, three other female Republican senators — Susan Collins (Maine), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) and Shelley Moore Capito (W. Va.) — expressed serious concerns about Moore. They cited his comments saying there would be societal problems if men were not the breadwinners in the family, denouncing co-ed sports and saying female athletes do “inferior work” to men.

Look, if Moore fails to be confirmed, I’ll take the win no matter the reason. But are we really at the point where even massive incompetence and lack of qualification isn’t enough to get Republicans to stand up to Donald Trump? Instead we have to waste our time digging up troglodyte comments about women?

There’s no need to answer. It was a rhetorical question. And I have another one: are there any Republican men who object to Moore’s views about women?

No need to answer that either.

POSTSCRIPT: So what will be Trump’s revenge? Nominating Ivanka to the Fed? Or maybe Oliver North?

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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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