How about if we start to wind down the week with another view of the Blue Ridge Mountains? Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty more where this came from.

This is sunset from the Riprap Overlook, just north of Waynesboro, where the Virginia Skyline Drive ends and the Blue Ridge Parkway starts up. As usual for wide vistas, it’s a composite of two different exposures. The trees made it hard to register the two pictures precisely, and if you look at them closely (especially on the left side) you can see where dark and light versions of the same branches mesh together slightly imperfectly.

May 6, 2019 — Riprap Overlook, Skyline Drive, Virginia

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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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