December 10, 2018

Bitcoin Strikes Back!

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Apparently the crypto folks are really mad at me. Overnight I received 9,546 pieces of spam email, asking me to sign up for newsletters, buy shoes, end world hunger, or a variety of other things that require my username and password. Although they come in many languages, by a remarkable coincidence a large proportion of them are in Russian. Here’s one:

According to Google Translate, here’s what it says:

Hello pomqwrth1979!

Thank you for registering with LLC NEO. Your account has been created and must be activated. You can activate your account by clicking on the activation link, or by copying the link to your browser: http://ctoneon.ru/index.php?option=com_user&task=activate&activation=…

After activating your account, you will be able to login to http://ctoneon.ru/ using the specified username and password:

Username – pomqwrth1979
Password – 5c0e76.

So charming. On the bright side, the email account they’re attacking has been so larded up with spam for so long that I hardly use it anymore. However, since this is obviously bot-driven, I suppose I ought to deactivate it for a while so their spam gets bounced.

These crypto folks are pretty easily offended, aren’t they? Maybe I should start using blockchain technology to operate my blog just to assuage 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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