Adam Serwer on Bloggingheads.tv: Memorial Day, Romney’s Conservatism, Bloomberg’s Soda Ban, and Obama’s Kill List


On Sunday, I did a Bloggingheads episode with Business Insider‘s Michael Brendan Dougherty. We talked about MSNBC’s Chris Hayes remarks about heroism and the military, Obama’s use of targeted killing, Romney’s conservatism, and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed ban on serving soda in containers larger than 16 ounces.

My point was that although the military is seen as apolitical and nonpartisan, in practice military leaders can be very adept at political maneuvering, whether we’re talking about raising troop levels in Afghanistan or repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. The military’s apolitical reputation is probably one of the reasons public faith in it as an institution remains high even as respect for other public institutions has suffered.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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