Bear with me for a minute.

I want to acknowledge caucus99percent as a special place, an online community that all of us are fortunate to have discovered and, for many of us, to join as members.

We now have at c99 some of the best writers on politics and progressive activism on the entire internet in my opinion. I am not going to name names, because there are so many wonderful writers here. Some you see on the front page on a regular basis, but a great many more post valuable and thoughtful essays to Community Content. These writings, and the comment threads for them, are the equal of anything I've read anywhere on any blog or news media site. Some essays are laced with humor, while some describe the tragic and terrible crises we and people around the globe face. Others include a plethora of in depth analysis on economic, scientific and political issues. Many speak passionately to us about the many outrages that have occurred in our country, while others tell heartbreaking stories of personal experiences. I admire and respect all of the people who write them for they are my teachers.

And the best thing about getting to read their work is that I know that no one censors the content of their speech here. No dictatorial decrees come down from on high telling us what we can or cannot discuss, either in the essays we post or in the comments we make. No one offers us snide remarks that if we don't like the website owner's rules we can always start our own damn blog.

Now there are other places that have created havens for those of us who left Daily Kos and other progressive blogs that suddenly (or not so suddenly) became toxic and full of malice directed toward anyone who did not come to heel and toe the official "Blue Line." For example, I admire the heck out of the folks at the sub-reddit site, Kossacks_For_Sanders, for what they have created. However, even there they have to be careful about what they can allow to be posted as this statement by their moderators makes clear regarding the rules that can make it difficult for people to always speak their minds.

S4P [Sanders For President]and its offshoot Political Revolution are reddit subs. That puts us all on the same web site and subject to the constraints imposed by the administrators of the site. They generally take a dim view of running battles between subs and have the power to put subs into indefinite quarantine. We don't want to risk that happening here.

In light of those concerns we have been following a practice of removing posts that appear to us as an effort to carry on the S4P battles on KFS. We have not previously publicly posted it as a moderation policy. We are doing so now. We ask for your cooperation.

Thankfully we are not subject to those same kinds of pressures. And we owe that privilege to the people who created this website and maintain it. I had the good fortune to meet one of them, Joe Shikspack, in Philadelphia last Saturday. He is a lovely man, with a calm, warm and engaging personality, and I told him in person how grateful I am for this place. He and JtC have done a lot for me personally behind the scenes, and for that I also want to express my gratitude.

We live in "interesting" times right now, as the ironic proverb goes, but I do not feel cursed by our times in one sense, because they have led me here.

So, thank you, Joe and JtC and all the other people who helped create and maintain this site. Thank you also to all the wonderful people of this community, whether they post essays, leave comments or merely lurk and read. All of us are blessed to have found one another. All of us are fortunate to call ourselves c99ers.

By the way, I did not write this "note" seeking donations for c99. However, if anyone wishes to do so, please click on the yellow Donate button in the upper left hand margin of the main page, or go to this link for further information on how to send a donation to keep this place up and running.

All my best to you,

Steve