May 12, 2019

A Photographic Tribute to Mankind’s Greatest Achievement

That’s right: the limited-access superhighway, brought to its peak in the freeways of Southern California. As you descend into John Wayne Airport, first you’ll see the mighty interchange between highways 57 and 91. If you follow the 57 south out the bottom left of the picture you’ll end up at Angel Stadium:

May 10, 2019 — Aboard Delta flight 1328 above Anaheim, California

Next up is Interstate 5, aka the Santa Ana Freeway in this neck of the woods. Go north for a while and you’ll get to Disneyland. Go north for a little while longer and you’ll end up in Seattle:

May 10, 2019 — Aboard Delta flight 1328 above Tustin, California

Finally, just before you touch down, you’ll fly over the 405, right where it meets up with the 55. In the background is South Coast Plaza and the buildings that surround it:

May 10, 2019 — Aboard Delta flight 1328 above Irvine, California

So that’s that: five freeways in five minutes. What would Julius Caesar have thought about all 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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