Easy Desserts From the Pentagon?

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Tucked among the many U.S. Department of Defense emails in my inbox this week, nestled, in fact, between “Border Concerns” and “Coalition Forces Detain 12 Suspects in Iraq Operations,” was the rather more provocative subject line: “Easy Desserts.”

Yes, the Pentagon Channel has a cooking show. It’s called “The Grill Sergeants.”

Personally I was unable to get beyond “Turkey Time,” but perhaps you’ll have more luck than I did with “Flourless Chocolate Cake, Pumpkin Pie Cake, and Caramelized Apples.”

Anyway, check it out. It’s wistful and telling and weird in all the ways you don’t typically hear when you hear about the war.

Plus, where else can you learn how to cook the world’s largest turkey from a chef who says, “Can I get a military cadence?” to a uniformed band self-styled “The Tastebuds?”

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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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