June 6, 2016

Candidate for Missouri Governor Conducts Military Assault Against Empty Field

Talk about political firepower.


One thing Election 2016 most certainly is not about is subtlety. But Donald Trump isn’t the only one in on the act. Eric Greitens, a Republican running for governor of Missouri, launched a campaign ad on Monday that is, well, pretty explosive.

Introducing himself as a “conservative Navy SEAL,” Greitens (a Navy reservist who served in Iraq and Afghanistan) opens the 30-second spot with the most predictable of rhetoric: Missouri is in thrall to corrupt lobbyists and special interests while average folks are hurting, etc. Except Greitens is standing on an empty rural road, an assault rifle in hand. “Well I’m no career politician,” he says, donning a pair of safety glasses. “I’ll take dead aim at politics as usual.” Then he kneels, pops in a mag, and unloads a barrage into a field, promptly blowing up…something. Watch:

Greitens continues a long tradition of politicians posing with guns. But hey, at least he didn’t threaten to shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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