If you are reading this, you know we’re all in a heap of trouble if we don’t alter course.

You are here because, like us, you’re unhappy with the direction the political winds are blowing.

You know the system is rigged against the working class.

You are tired of Israeli propaganda and the ongoing suffering of Palestinians.

You are fed up with Trump’s fascist, authoritarian creep and the Democrats’ complicity.

You don’t believe anyone is “illegal” and that ICE is acting as Trump’s Gestapo.

You worry that attacks on free speech will continue to silence dissent and movements for social justice.

You are concerned that the planet’s future is at risk because capitalism’s (and AI’s!) reliance on fossil fuels is causing irreversible damage to the climate.

You recognize that the United States was founded through colonial genocide and built with slave labor, the reverberations of which still shake today.

You know corporate media is compromised and often used as a tool of Empire.

You are here, reading CounterPunch, because few others tell it like it is.

It’s with this that I must inform you about the state of our situation.

First, there has never been a time in our publication’s history when freedom of the press has been more threatened. Trump, with significant Democratic support, is attempting to revoke the non-profit status of organizations like ours.

Second, since we first went online over 30 years ago, we have never faced such a rapid and organized attack from bots. These relentless efforts are sophisticated, targeted and difficult to trace, bearing all the hallmarks of a powerful government operation (here’s looking at you, Israel).

As these various threats to CounterPunch grow, so do our costs.

We really hate this annual fund drive. We aren’t professional fundraisers. We don’t have a grant writer on staff, and we don’t tug at the coattails of billionaires. We are only able to keep publishing stories five days a week because our readers (YOU!) support us.

We want to keep it that way; our independence depends on it.

I’m not going to sugarcoat it. If we don’t reach our modest goal in this fund drive, we must figure out where to make up for the lost resources. We will have to trim the fat and have any fat left to trim. This could mean one or both of the following: first, we might be forced to run ads, which could generate a lot of revenue for us given our traffic, and second, we will have to reduce the number of articles we publish.

We want neither!

Here’s the good news: a generous donor has promised to match every donation of $25 or more for the next two weeks. That means if you contribute $25, it will become $50. It’s a big opportunity, and if you can afford it, hard to pass up.

Don’t have $25? How about $5 a month? That’s the price of a bad cup of coffee or less than a cheap beer at your local dive. A monthly donation of $5 or more qualifies for the matching grant. You can also subscribe to CounterPunch+, our member area, or pick up some merch. Every penny counts.

Thank you so much if you have already donated, and for reading and sharing CounterPunch with others. We are an eclectic family of sorts. Yes, we argue and disagree, but in the end, we all come together for a common cause: to beat the devil, as Alex Cockburn would say.

Onward,

Joshua Frank

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This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.