Atrios today:

Luxury Canned Goods

A weird thing about the US is that we don’t really have those. Yes, sure, you can go to a specialty shop and buy anything, including $50 imported marmalade or whatever, but mostly the idea that there’s a better caliber of canned goods is not a part of our food culture. In other countries, $20 cans of cockles, or similar, are a normal thing, as is opening up the tin and serving it to your impressed guests.

I wouldn’t normally have anything to say about this except that it reminds me of an odd area where Americans do indeed believe in luxury canned goods: cat food. I mean, check this out:

Hell, this looks more mouth watering than what I normally eat. And while I get that there’s a touch—just barely—of humor intended in these ads, cat food in general is advertised these days as if your cats routinely dine at Buckingham Palace.

And what’s with the veggies? Very popular these days, but aren’t cats obligate carnivores? Is this solely to appeal to humans who think veggies = healthy, or is there some actual reason that leavening cat food with a few carrots is good for them?

POSTSCRIPT: As for my personal opinion, in 60 years of cat-owning it’s clear to me that they couldn’t care less what their food looks like. I can buy any food in the market, and as soon as they hear the rustle of kibble or the whir of a can opener they gallop over as if they haven’t been fed since the Middle Ages. So don’t worry about it.

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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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