January 23, 2020

Which Day of the Trial Are We On? Depends Who You Ask.

Time is a flat circle.

Groundhog Day is more than a week away, but there’s evidence time might already be moving in a loop.

At least three of the country’s most prominent media outlets can’t seem to agree what day of the Senate’s impeachment trial the country is currently in.

On Thursday, House Democrats kicked off their second day of opening arguments against President Donald Trump, leading The New York Times to declare that we are in Day 2 of the trial.

Meanwhile, at CNN Thursday is the trial’s “third day.” They are counting Tuesday, when Senators debated rules that would govern the proceedings.

Over on C-SPAN, it’s “Day 4.” They are reaching back a full week and counting last Thursday, the day Chief Justice John Roberts and the senators were sworn in.

All three numbers make some sense. Debate them if you like, but time—and this trial—will charge ahead. We just might get there on different days. 

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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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