Friday Cat Blogging – 14 April 2017

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This is Hilbert taking a look at the outside world as Marian and I returned from a walk. He was so thrilled to see us that we couldn’t stop him from jumping down and following us. This is bad, bad, bad, and in the end Marian had to pick him up and carry him the rest of the way home, just to make sure he didn’t start getting any ideas. Backyards good. Outside world bad.

The problem with the outside world is that it’s sort of like heroin: once you get a taste you want more and more, and you end up like this cat. “Terrific stuff by the cat!” says the announcer in the video, and it surely is. Nonetheless, the cat spent the rest of the night cowering behind the center field wall, trying to figure out how to escape. Let this be a lesson to all housecats: There’s no place like home.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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