Let’s Talk Clinton: Michael Parenti

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. . . next luminary . . .

He could have moved in a big way to cut the military budget but it’s just like Bush’s, an enormous amount of money to pay for missiles pointed toward a country that no longer exists. He could cut back and not lose too many jobs. Create jobs in mass transit, conservation, alternative energy, and environmental preservation.

He could start a works project to reclaim the environment. Build affordable housing. A massive cleaning of air and water, and [development of] a high-speed rail system.

He could phase out nuclear plants and go thermal, solar, hydral, and tidal. We have a newly developed electric car that’s long-running and low-cost.

Infrastructures are crumbling in cities–electrical, power, water, bridges are coming apart. HUD is sitting on thousands of abandoned units and could rehabilitate those houses with workers. Homework for the homeless.

This would put him in collision with vested interests like real estate and housing. Mass transit would get the oil, auto, and tire lobbies on his neck.

But there’d be a political payoff for that kind of political courage. Job spending and reallocation would win masses of people. That’s how Roosevelt did it, and he had people behind him and was re-elected three times.

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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.

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