September 9, 2015

Quote of the Day: Even Donald Trump’s Lottery Number Is Better Than Yours

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From Donald Trump, explaining why he never served in Vietnam:

My number was so incredible, and it was a very high draft number. Anyway, so I never had to do that, but I felt that I was in the military in the true sense because I dealt with those people.

The part of this that we’re all supposed to be amused/outraged/stupefied by is the second sentence. I don’t think anyone who’s actually served in the military—especially in a warzone—would think much of Trump’s assertion that he served “in the true sense” because he attended a tony military prep school as a teenager.

But it’s the first sentence that tickles me. Trump’s draft lottery number was completely random. And yet it’s not just high, it’s “incredible.” Because, by God, if it’s Donald Trump’s lottery number, then it’s just got to be the very best. Low draft numbers are for losers.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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