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The biggest problem with Donald Trump is that he’s a charlatan and a demagogue who could do immense damage to the United States. But this is my blog, which means everything is about me me me. And my biggest problem with Trump is trying to figure out just how much to mock the guy. Given the amount of crap that spills out of his mouth daily, I could do nothing but mock Trump and easily keep this blog churning along for the next six months.

For example, a few weeks ago Trump was asked if women who get abortions should be punished. “The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment,” he said. “Yes, there has to be some form.” Today, Jonah Goldberg passes along Trump’s follow-up on Morning Joe:

WILLIE GEIST: What about what you told Chris Matthews a few weeks ago, which is that women who get abortions should be punished? Do you still believe that to be true?

 TRUMP: No, he was asking me a theoretical, or just a question in theory, and I talked about it only from that standpoint. Of course not. And that was done, he said, you know, I guess it was theoretically, but he was asking a rhetorical question, and I gave an answer. And by the way, people thought from an academic standpoint, and, asked rhetorically, people said that answer was an unbelievable academic answer! But of course not, and I said that afterwards.

That’s so Palinesque it makes me nostalgic for the 2008 election. But is it ridiculous enough to deserve a place on the blog? Or is it just garden variety Trump?

Also: I’m going to spend a lot of time over the next few months agreeing with people like Jonah Goldberg, which is not something I’m used to. Ditto for conservatives agreeing with me, which they’re not used to either. This is going to be a weird campaign season.

POSTSCRIPT: The great part about Trump’s answer is that, basically, he said, “Hey, the guy asked me a question, so I gave an answer. What are you gonna do?” This is his excuse. It doesn’t mean he actually meant what he said. And apparently his supporters are fine with this.

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GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

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