August 25, 2020

If the RNC’s Lies and Outright Lunacy Were Insufferable Last Night, Take Pharoahe Monch’s Timeless Advice

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Odds are good that the parade of absurdities, fantasies, and bizarreness at the RNC last night didn’t excite you about the Trump-Pence ticket, as surrogate after surrogate studiously tried to rewrite history with soaring racism and flag-draped propaganda. You might be looking for a creative fix. A catharsis. The kind of catharsis summed up in a tweet yesterday by one Pharoahe Monch, hip-hop truthteller celebrated for “Simon Says” and many other classics:

Th1rt3en is Monch’s latest, with Daru Jones and Marcus Machado, and Monch is busy producing what’s promised to be “the most amazing short film in music history.” Mark your calendar. Monch’s team is shooting visuals this month and next, and his music has always been both catharsis and call to action. To millions of fans he’s an engine of solidarity and stamina; immunity-boosting endurance for, say, another night of the RNC. “I alleviated the pain with a long-term goal,” Monch raps in “Simon Says.” Follow him for recharges all week, whether you’re tuned in to the RNC or mercifully, blissfully checked out.

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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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