Antidote to Too Much Politics on the Riff: M.I.A. Update!

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mojo-photo-miapreg.jpgSure, I’m as guilty as anyone. All of us here tend to get all whipped up into a frenzy every time something silly about Palin pops up over at HuffPo, for instance, but come on, doesn’t that say “Arts & Culture” up there under “The Riff”? Commenters (and even other MoJo contributors!) may find this arty little blog a lightweight intrusion into their serious non-profit matters, but I say we take a breather from the campaign and focus on what’s really important: what M.I.A.’s been up to. OMG, she’s got a wee Arulpragasam in the oven! The singer confirmed her pregnancy to Pitchfork, naturally, over the weekend, saying she’s “creating a baby,” assumedly with the help of her fiancé Ben Brewer. By the way, not only is Brewer the singer for New York band the Exit, he’s also the son of Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman. Hmm, is M.I.A. pulling a McCain, marrying up, for a little bit of—oh, damn, sorry, I promised I wouldn’t talk about politics.

Back to M.I.A.: while the singer grabbed headlines when she appeared to announce her retirement onstage at Bonaroo in June, she emerged from this brief hiatus on Saturday at a Diesel-sponsored shindig in New York to do a few numbers as well as her part in T.I.’s amazing “Swagga Like Us.” The party, which also featured Franz Ferdinand and N.E.R.D., was apparently the hottest ticket of the year, with thousands (!) of partygoers reduced to tears when they couldn’t get in. Vulture’s roundup of the event positively oozes with self-satisfaction at being one of the lucky V.I.P.’s who made it inside, but I admit I’m secreting massive amounts of jealousy. Ahem.

After the jump: More about M.I.A.!!!

The singer’s breakout hit, “Paper Planes,” has settled down to #17 on the iTunes most-purchased list, but is still hanging around the Billboard Top 10, slipping from 9-10 this week, after peaking at #4. She told Pitchfork that “Planes” turned into a hit the same week she found out she was pregnant, saying “it seemed like the whole world was reshuffled in one week.”

And finally, M.I.A. is one of a short list of artists whose music will now be made available on a new format: a teensy memory card they’re calling “slotMusic.” The little chippies will come loaded with DRM-free MP3s and will plug into lots of doodads, although why anyone’s still developing physical music formats is beyond me. Haven’t they heard of the internet?

Okay, this concludes your M.I.A. update. We now return to your regularly scheduled Palin-mocking, offensive political ad embedding, and presidential candidate Halloween mask statistics.

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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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