May 25, 2023

Welcome to Hell

Cillian Sherlock/PA Wire/Zuma

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Last night, in a Twitter Spaces marred by glitches, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that he was running for president. Within hours, former President Trump took to Instagram with a seemingly AI-generated video so absurd that I had to double-check that it was in fact posted by @realdonaldtrump.

The video, laced with homophobic and anti-Semitic innuendo, sees Elon Musk, Ron DeSantis, George Soros, Klaus Schwab, Dick Cheney, Adolph Hitler, the devil, and the FBI in a fictional Twitter Space. In the video, DeSantis attempts to announce his presidential run but is interrupted by a babbling Soros, a coughing Cheney, a yelling Hitler, and an FBI representative who publicly wonders, “OK, so how are we gonna take out Trump, you guys?”

After DeSantis manages to spit out the words, “I’m running for fucking president, okay?” Trump’s voice—also seemingly AI-generated, despite coming from his own Instagram account—jumps in to make his 2024 presidential pitch: “The devil, I’m gonna kick your ass very soon. Hitler, you’re already dead. Dick Cheney, sounds like you’ll be joining Hitler very soon. Klaus Schwab and George Soros, I’m putting both your asses in jail. And Ron DeSanctimonious can kiss my big beautiful 2024 presidential ass.”

The video is a preview of a 2024 Republican primary that will see DeSantis and Trump rolling around in the muck, using whatever memes are at their disposal to score internet points and, hopefully, votes. If there was ever a time when presidential races were dignified and respectful, well, that’s long in the rearview. Welcome to 2024. Welcome to hell.

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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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