August 22, 2016

We Are All Mike Pence Laughing at Donald Trump’s Outrageous Black Support Claim

Literally LOL.


On Friday, Donald Trump attempted to convince African-American voters to support his presidential campaign with the stark question: “What the hell do you have to lose?” After all, the real estate magnate reasoned, black people in America were jobless and impoverished and therefore risked nothing by rejecting his rival Hillary Clinton. Trump then announced that if he were elected president, he would secure 95 percent of the black vote by 2020.

When asked about the remarks on Monday, Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, couldn’t even maintain the illusion he took Trump’s assertions seriously. Instead, during an interview with Ainsley Earhardt on Fox news, the former Indiana governor joined the general response to the GOP candidate’s claim: he laughed out loud.

When Earhardt asked why he was laughing, Pence replied, “Well, that’s Donald Trump.”

(h/t Daily Beast)

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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.

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