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I have an appointment this morning to renew my driver’s license. If you never hear from me again, at least you know what happened.

10:30 UPDATE: The DMV has no record of my appointment. Also, if I had wanted a Real ID so that I can fly on airplanes, I should have brought my passport, Social Security card, and a current bill. I have none of that. Anyway, without an appointment I have to go off to a little room and fill out an application on one of the computers.

10:45 UPDATE: All done!

10:46 UPDATE: I’m at the first window. Do I have my confirmation number? No. You should have written it down. There’s a pen at every station. What was I supposed to write it on, my hand? Oh, they’re supposed to give you a piece of paper. They didn’t. Can you look it up by my last name? No, sorry, here’s a piece of paper. Do it again.

10:53 UPDATE: My second attempt was successful and I have been assigned # G249. We are currently serving # G193.

11:15 UPDATE: We are up to # G219.

11:40 UPDATE: For some reason, the G series has stalled at #G248.

11:49 UPDATE: # G249 has finally been called!

11:54 UPDATE: No credit cards are allowed. Only cash and debit cards.

11:55 UPDATE: Off to the camera line.

12:04 UPDATE: Done. That’s 94 minutes from start to finish. Is that good or bad these days?

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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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