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Closing Hours of 2020 Mini-Fundraiser for Water Cooler!

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By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Dear Readers,

I have received permission to run the Water Cooler fundraiser into a second day because we have not met our goal of 300 donors: We are 176 178 — thank you! — so I hope there are 300 – 178 = 122 of you who can see your way clear to throwing a tip into the jar foe all last year’s Water Coolers, and encouraging me to keep going for the coming year (which is shaping up to be very, very busy). If I come down with the virus, heaven forfend, I promise to keep blogging right through it!

Here are some of the reasons contributers have for giving*:

“Contribution made, thanks for all the great work over the year.” –PlutoniumKun

“Your work supports and strengthens us all.” — EN

“Water Cooler is one of my must-read web destinations every day!” –MS

“One of the best ways to stay sane in these looney times!” –DB

“Thanks for the superb work!” –Mr. Dinosaur

“Thank you for your hard work!!” –JM

“Thank you so much for all that you do! It’s much appreciated.” –HN

“I’ve been reading Naked Capitalism for 12 years now and really appreciate the work you all do. And I’m proud that I’m veteran enough to remember when Water Cooler was added!” –AR

“Water Cooler has absolutely been *the* place to be during the primary season and accelerating slowpocalypse. Thanks for all your hard work!” –kramshaw

“I am deeply grateful to you, reminding myself frequently, for thinking and researching independently far outside of dominating narrative matrices.” –DR

“Thank you so much for everything you do…. Your level of commitment is amazing. Water Cooler makes me laugh. And cry. It raises my blood pressure. It exercises my brain (or what’s left of it.” –Eclair

“Although I do not read Water Cooler that often, I do appreciate all you do for Naked Capitalism. Thank you!’ –JT [lambert, preening, pauses]

“Thank you as always, as much for your commentary as your compilations, if not more so.”–GG

Yesterday’s reasons for donating still hold true:

1) You should support Water Cooler to protect us all against increased levels of ambient bullshit. If we had Bullshit Meter, in 2020 it would be pinned.

2) You should support Water Cooler to help us become even more knowledgeable citizens and voters. This includes all aspects of citizenship, from elections through sewing masks, if need be.

3) You should support Water Cooler for random, serendipitous reasons. Like lots of cryptic allusions, ancient reggae 45s, snowclones, and under-rated tweets. Also, although I do not wish to bring the really personal aspects of my life into the blog, I do have people who it is my pleasure and duty to support, and I really, really, really want to keep doing that for them, especially now. This is a new thing for me, and I’m quite nervous about it.

So, if you can’t contemplate social distancing without the day’s Water Cooler, please go to the Tip Jar and give what you can. If you can give a lot, give a lot. If you can give a little, give a little. Yellow waders don’t come cheap! Thank you!

NOTE * It would be remiss of me not to mention all the plant images, links, and suggestions sent in by readers. The NC commentariat is truly the best commentariat, and Water Cooler would not be what it is without you.

* * *

2019’s Water Cooler fundraiser went very well, and we would like 2020’s to go just as well. Our goal is 300 donors. What Yves wrote in 2017 is true this year as well:

To be crass, Lambert is making well under a living wage for his work on Water Cooler and that is not right. We need you to live up to what we hope is one of the widely-held values in the commentariat, that people should be paid fairly for their work, especially work that has already been done! That means digging into your wallets, whether a little or for a lot, and chipping in for Water Cooler.

Readers, I couldn’t write Water Cooler without independent funding from you; there’s no mainstream market for calling out bullshit. You are paying me for work I have already done — unlike the Naked Capitalism fundraiser proper, which sets the budget for the following year — and so having played the fiddle, I am now passing my cap. Please click the Donate button below and contribute what you can. Even if you can only make a small contribution, we’d still appreciate that, because we also have readers who can make much bigger donations. Again, our target is 300 donors, and we’d like to return to our regularly scheduled programming as soon as possible. I really enjoy writing Water Cooler, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Thank you!

* * *

To make the business relationships clear, Yves writes:

Water Cooler is a separate store front within Naked Capitalism to pay for [Lambert’s] considerable effort on it over and above all the work he already does on the site… Yes, Lambert also gets paid out of the annual fundraiser, but that is for the considerable amount of work he does besides Water Cooler, such as DJing the site, helping manage the comments section, managing a lot of the tech issues, and helping in tooth-gnashing over other “business of running the business” matters.

* * *

Readers, you may donate here:




Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated.

If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!

If you hate PayPal — even though you can use a credit card or debit card on PayPal — you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check.

And if you have any technical difficulties, do feel free to send me a note at the address above.

NOTE: If you have PayPal One-Touch™ enabled — maybe from donating through ActBlue? — PayPal will take you directly to a PayPal screen, by-passing the credit card option. You can disable it from inside PayPal, although — do this at your own risk — I blew away all my cookies at one point and it went away.

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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31 comments

  1. Queenslawyer

    Money sent. Thanks for all you do. A truly worthwhile service in a sea of crapified [family blog]

  3. Fastball

    I’ve been reading Water Cooler for years. Donation made, and money well spent. Thank you, Lambert.

  5. Aleric

    Donated! Thanks for keeping the quality information flowing during the crisis.

    This may sound morbid – does it seem like a good idea to set up a registry of names and addresses of regular contributors, so that we know what happened to them if they go silent? If things go as poorly as many expect, lots of people could be gone without a chance to say what happened.

    Not assigning work to Lambert or any of the NC crew – but if they could select someone trustworthy and knowledgeable of security as a keeper…

  6. Oguk

    Water Cooler has helped me navigate the choppy waters of the US primaries and helped me avoid storms, squalls, shoals, icebergs, etc. while watching from a safe distance. Even provided some binoculars on occasion. Thank you!

  8. antidlc

    Contributed, but would like to know why we can’t post links from wall street on parade.

  10. Wadge22

    Longtime daily reader here donating for the first time, trying to make up for neglecting this great resource for so long.

    While I value everything that this site provides, water cooler is the standout favorite.
    I probably click through and read similar numbers of stories from the morning links and water cooler. It is the excerption and the commentary that Lambert has built in to Water Cooler that really sets it above. Here I am most conveniently in control of how far I might delve into a given topic. How valuable!

    Keep up the great work, all.

  15. barefoot charley

    Almost closing time? Gotta pay up fast! Water Cooler is my information firehose, I can’t pay enough for all I get, thanks Lambert and all who hang around it.

  18. katiebird

    I wish I could be another donor! I sent my donation yesterday but didn’t say how much the Water Cooler and Naked Capitalism mean to me.

    For years I relied on you for political links. And this year I already depend on you for virus updates. I can get info to family and friends that we wouldn’t have without you.

    So I thank you and hope you stay safe and well.

  19. CoryP

    Ponied up! I am still in awe of all the work that goes into this site. Even just READING the great content and comments can consume so much of my time; I can scarcely imagine what the mods must have to deal with!

    As a healthcare worker I still have an income for the foreseeable future. But I decided that mailing a paper cheque might be a bad idea so PayPal (curse them) it is!

  20. dcrane

    Missed the fundraiser notice yesterday. Will send snail mail donation pending receipt of address. Thanks!

  22. Eureka Springs

    I no longer think about ground hog day, I just want to know when the orange kitty in Maine shows up.

    Thank you!

  24. thoughtful person

    Thanks for extending, got distracted by life (somehow). Much appreciate your links upon occasion and water cooler just about every day!

  25. kareninca

    I hate PayPal. But I like Lambert more than I hate PayPal, and so I didn’t want to mail him a check from a hot zone (Santa Clara County, CA). You never know with germs. So I used PayPal, oh well.

  26. Freethinker

    Donated. I greatly enjoy your daily water coolers as well as your more focused dives into class politics.

  27. Left in Wisconsin

    Sorry to be late to this party. I couldn’t give what you deserve but I hope every bit helps.

  28. Random Limey

    Hope I wasn’t too late – kinda busy now for some reason :) How about a longer fundraiser next year?

  29. ckimball

    I have to give my apologies. Had to close my income stream.
    I can’t donate. I would love to and will as soon as I can.

Comments are closed.