MULLINGS goes out via email twice a week. Some weeks, when events warrant, there may be a third, or even fourth edition. But, as a rule I write on Sundays and Wednesdays for delivery Mondays and Thursdays.
The annual fee of $30 is totally voluntary. You get to read MULLINGS twice a week whether you pay it or not. But, if you do, then you make it easier for me to get on an airplane, check into a hotel room, rent a car, maybe get a sandwich, and report from the places I write from.
During the refugee crisis in Europe, for example, I boarded a plane for Budapest, Hungary from where photographer friend (and MULLINGS Photo Editor) Tim Hyde and I set up shop, went to border crossings in Croatia, Serbia, and Austria, and wrote about what was being described as the largest human migration since World War II.
That's the kind of thing your subscription helps pay for.
But, the standard grist for the mill are the the regular columns about politics, culture, and anything else that strikes me as odd, funny, or moving.
I believe that MULLINGS might be the oldest continuous political blog in the world. I started it in March 1998 when I was the executive director at GOPAC. In its earliest form, MULLINGS was a 500-word essay blast-faxed to a limited number of recipients.
At the end of that year, email had become ubiquitous enough to begin the electronic version you still see twice a week. The original 500 word column that went to about 200 people is now standard newspaper column length - about 750 words - and as noted about goes to all the email recipients plus all those who read MULLINGS on-line at Mullings.com.
While the actual writing, editing, formatting, and sending MULLINGS takes a couple of hours for each edition, the background reading and cross-matching to make sure I'm not giving you fake news, can easily take several additional hours.
Given everything we've collectively been through since the last subscription drive up to and including the current impeachment business, MULLINGS, for many of you, has become a trusted information source.
You will not always agree with my interpretation of the news, but you can always be certain you are reading my true feelings based on the best factual base I could find.
I hesitate to say that this is a serious plea for support, but your $30 makes a tremendous difference in allowing me to spend the time necessary to keep MULLINGS going.
If you never have, I would really appreciate your thinking about subscribing this year. If you are a regular subscriber, thank you and please continue to support MULLINGS.