The View From My Windshield: The Last Free Place

Test ticker

Monika Bauerlein,
CEO

Dear Reader,

December is make-or-break for Mother Jones’ fundraising. We have a $350,000 goal that we simply cannot afford to miss. And in "No Cute Headlines or Manipulative BS," we explain, as matter-of-fact as we can, how being a nonprofit means everything to us. Bottom line: Donations big and small make up 74 percent of our budget this year and are urgently needed this month, and all online gifts will be matched and go twice as far until we hit our goal. Please pitch in if you can right now.

December is make-or-break for Mother Jones’ fundraising, and in "No Cute Headlines or Manipulative BS," we hope that giving it to you as matter-of-fact as we can will work to raise the $350,000 we need to raise this month. Donations make up 74 percent of our budget this year, and all online gifts will be matched and go twice as far until we hit our goal.

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.

Lead There be Light: Leonard Knight, 79, began building Salvation Mountain at the entrance to Slab City in 1986 (Photo: Tim Murphy). Lead There be Light: Leonard Knight, 79, began building Salvation Mountain, outside Niland, California, in 1986. I’d hesitate to call anything made from gallons of paint “green” except in a strictly colorful sense, but Knight does get creative, constructing “trees” out of stacked tires, adobe, and large sticks. Mostly, though, the place is about getting the message out: God = Love. In recent years, Knight’s legend has grown with appearances in Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild,” and the John Waters-narrated documentary, “Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea” (Photo: Tim Murphy).