These are red deer at Knockreer House in Killarney National Park. I made a trip out there specifically to see the deer, and I ended up seeing a lot of them—but only by flagrantly flouting the rules. There was no fencing along the path when I spotted them, so I just stepped off and mushed my way through the bramble to get closer. This particular herd included four or five males, about a dozen females, and a few adolescent types. The females were pretty interested in me, but the males maintained a dignified attitude of not caring about some hairless little mammal with only two legs and no antlers.

Anyway, it turns out I wasn’t supposed to step off the path, but I didn’t know it at the time. I probably would have done it anyway, though. If I was going to be denied a visit with puffins,¹ I was sure as hell at least going to see the red deer. Naturally I really wanted to see them rutting, but no such luck. Maybe that’s a morning activity.

¹We were there at the wrong time. The puffins had all gone home to Iceland by the time we arrived. Boo.

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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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