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Josh Marshall today:

The UK always had one foot in and one foot out of the EU. (This is the main reason departure seemed such folly; the UK had already opted out of the worst parts of EU membership.)

I’ve seen a lot of people making similar comments. Britain wasn’t part of the euro. They aren’t part of Schengen. They’re not fully part of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. They’ve retained a case-by-case opt-out in Justice and Home Affairs issues. They get a special rebate on contributions to the EU budget. And earlier this year, David Cameron negotiated a further package of British opt-outs.

So what’s the deal? What more did the British want?

The answer is simple: an end to immigration. That’s it. Elderly Brits didn’t vote to leave because of EU laws over the shape of bananas. They voted to leave because they had reached their “breaking point” over the flow of immigrants. They didn’t want any more Poles or any more Muslims or any more Pakistanis.

It’s pretty simple: 52 percent of the electorate voted to keep Britain white. Let’s not overthink this.

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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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