January 29, 2017

Who the Hell Is Running Things at the White House?

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This is nuts:

  • On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security determined that President Trump’s immigration order didn’t apply to green card holders.
  • Later on Friday, Steve Bannon overruled them and said it did.
  • Saturday night, DHS confirmed that the order applied to green card holders.
  • Today, chief of staff Reince Priebus apparently overruled Bannon and said it didn’t apply to green card holders after all.

Who are Bannon and Priebus speaking for? Neither one of them has the authority on their own to issue these directives. DHS Secretary John Kelly has the authority. Whoever’s running the Department of Justice has the authority. Donald Trump has the authority. When are we going to hear from one of them?

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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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