September 21, 2017

The Alabama Senate Debate Went Totally Off the Rails

“Sodomy, sexual perversion sweep our land.”

Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore smiles before announcing his candidacy for US Senate in Montgomery, Alabama.Albert Cesare/The Montgomery Advertiser/AP

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Luther Strange and Roy Moore—the Republican candidates vying for Attorney General Jeff Session’s former Senate seat—took the debate stage in Montgomery, Alabama, Thursday night, in the final event before Tuesday’s primary runoff. Moore, an ultra-conservative former judge, attacked Sen. Strange, who has been holding the seat since February, throughout the debate as being the establishment candidate, having been endorsed by President Trump and supported by the super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Luther got in a few jabs, but Moore really owned the night.

Though the debate went off the rails early. In what was perhaps the most attention-grabbing portion of the evening, Moore, as a Westpoint grad and Vietnam vet, emphasized his desire for a strong military before going on to explain his plans for the economy and to lament the fact that “crime, corruption, immorality, abortion, sodomy, sexual perversion sweep our land”:  

A few more lowlights here:

Watch the whole thing 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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