Paranoid Right-Wing Email of the Day (Maybe)

President Barack Obama (D) laughs after reading the latest insane conspiracy email about him. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom">Barack Obama</a>/Flickr

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Wondering how the far-right might handle an Obama victory on election night? Here’s a clue, in the form of a fundraising pitch from something called the American Conservative PAC. It features “busloads” of Somalis and Facebook postings from North Carolinians, so you know it’s legit:

From Ohio to Nevada (and who knows where else), voting machines are selecting “Obama” when early voters cast their vote for Romney — and it happens repeatedly when voters catch the error before submitting their ballot and try again only to wind up with Obama, again.
A North Carolina Democrat bragged on Facebook about voting four times already and planning to vote a fifth time tomorrow.

Early voting Somalis — with their TRANSLATORS — are arriving at polling stations by the busloads courtesy of Obama supporters. (Now, we don’t know about you, but we don’t know any U.S. CITIZENS that do not either speak or read English well-enough to vote…)
In Florida, conservative voters are receiving bogus letters falsely informing them that he or she will be unable to vote in this election due to miscellaneous (and non-existent) voter registration issues.

And if all that wasn’t bad enough, the Obama-bots even have the help of an international body condemning our states trying to stand up to the infiltration of our polling booths!

Of course, giving a PAC money on election day wouldn’t really accomplish very much. And American Conservative PAC hasn’t really raised very much money—according to FEC filings, it has raised just $8,100 this cycle. But these conspiracies have gained traction on the far right. The Somali voter concern—notwithstanding that Somali-Americans are obviously allowed to vote—was parroted most notably by prominent anti-Muslim blogger Pamela Geller, who notably helped jumpstart the career of Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.). The Facebook post in question was a joke, but that hasn’t prevented the man who posted it from receiving death threats. People are terrible.

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.

payment methods

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.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate