Frustration is an occupational hazard in journalism. Often the source of it is disappointment in not being able to nail down a story. For several years, I have pursued a highly credible tip about a Very Important Person who was allegedly involved in a very sleazy billion-dollar deal in the Middle East—bribes, kickbacks—involving a religious organization. But I have failed to obtain the proof. Many years ago, I chased a solid lead on an influential congressional chairman who was supposedly being blackmailed by several prominent corporations. I even had an insider who claimed firsthand knowledge, but I could not unearth confirmation. So it goes.

Another cause of frustration is the story that does see the light of day but that doesn’t draw much attention. That happened this week. Allow me to kvetch.

I reported what I believed to be an important piece of information: Donald Trump had invited a QAnon supporter to be a “special guest speaker” at the big rally he is scheduled to hold in Arizona today. That person is Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, a Republican running for secretary of state. Finchem is a full-throated Big Lie conspiracist, which is probably how he landed Trump’s endorsement for his GOP primary campaign. And Finchem has hobnobbed with the deranged QAnon movement. Three months ago, he was a featured speaker at a QAnon conference in Las Vegas. (At one point, the audience was chanting, “No more sheep.”) For those of you who have been fortunate enough to avoid the QAnon madness, this mother-of-all-conspiracy theories holds that the world is dominated by an evil cabal of cannibalistic pedophiles that includes prominent Democrats and liberal billionaires, and that Trump has been waging a titanic and clandestine battle against this nefarious force. From this baseline lunacy, QAnon adherents spin out other unhinged notions: Trump will be restored to the presidency and oversee the mass arrests of...well, just about everyone, and John F. Kennedy Jr., who tragically died in a 1999 plane crash, is actually alive and helping Trump in his crusade against the evildoers.

QAnon is nuts and dangerous. QAnoners were a major part of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. (It wasn’t just one shaman.) And their noxious paranoia and irrationality are destabilizing forces within American politics. That’s why I thought Trump’s welcoming of a QAnon supporter would draw notice. A former president who’s currently the GOP’s 2024 frontrunner joining up with someone connected to this political psychosis and providing him a national platform—isn’t that worrisome? During the 2020 campaign, Trump refused to disavow the QAnon conspiracy theory. Asked about it at a town hall event, he said, “I don’t know anything about QAnon.” But then he added, “Let me just tell you what I do hear about it is they are very strongly against pedophilia and I agree with that.” Hmmm, was he sending a message to the QAnoners? No doubt, some of that lot saw it that way. So how will they process Finchem’s presence on the stage with Trump? It sure can be read as a sign of encouragement.

Yet the story on Trump recruiting a QAnoner for his yuge rally didn’t get much pickup. Some interest on Twitter, but not loads. Other media outlets let it be. And I wondered why. Two possibilities occurred to me. People are just damn weary of all the Trump craziness and have expended all their outrage. I know, we’ve been saying that for almost seven years. But might there come a time when that’s true? Another option: Trump promoting a QAnoner is now a dog-bites-man story. Of course he would. It doesn’t seem abnormal because so much of his extremism and fringe conduct has been normalized. For over a year, he has relentlessly pushed a baseless conspiracy theory—a massive and diabolical band of villainous plotters stole the election from him in states across the country without leaving a trace of evidence—and spurred a violent, insurrectionist raid on Congress that prevented the peaceful transfer of power. So what’s a little canoodling between him and a QAnoner?

Trump has shifted the Overton Window so far that it’s in a different house—or a different county. The news media can get worked up over the question of whether Biden attends too many funerals. But Trumpist extremism now seems ho-hum.

It is easy to dismiss the crazies. But the madness can have awful consequences. Pizzagate, a cousin of QAnon, drove a shooter to a Washington, DC, pizzeria. And if you want a good fright, read the hair-raising indictment released this week for Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the right-wing Oath Keepers militia-wannabes. He was charged with seditious conspiracy related to the January 6 attack. The indictment alleges that Rhodes and his comrades were plotting to overthrow the US government, and it states that in preparation for the January 6 action he went on a massive weapons-buying spree and contemplated violent schemes to keep Trump in office.

In recent weeks, we have seen evidence of how the Trump gang got close to its goal of blocking the congressional certification of the election on January 6, with the aim of either replacing slates of Biden electors with pro-Trump slates or throwing the election into the House, where the one-vote-per-state-delegation rule gave Republicans the edge. In such a close call, every nutball counts. A few more Oath Keepers, a few shots fired by the Trump brownshirts—who knows how that would have played out?

On the evening of January 6, according to the Justice Department, Rhodes, who had been on the Capitol grounds during the assault, declared, “Patriots entering their own Capitol to send a message to the traitors is NOTHING compared to what’s coming.” And near the day of Biden’s inauguration, Rhodes allegedly messaged other Oath Keepers and told them to organize local militias to oppose the Biden administration. Rhodes is unlikely to be much of a direct threat now that he’s a Justice Department target. But there are plenty of extremists who still believe Trump’s lies and QAnonish swill. When Trump during the first 2020 presidential debates told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by,” the far-right extremist group celebrated this as a message of support. It doesn’t take much to work up violent fanatics. And the Trump-loving Proud Boys ended up playing a key role in the attack on the Capitol. Who knows what his embrace of a QAnoner will lead to?

Trump, with his never-ending, untethered-from-reality whining about the 2020 election, may have become tiresome. But any move he makes to encourage extremism deserves attention and calling out. The threat he inspires has not gone away.

Got anything to say about this item—or anything else? Email me at thisland@motherjones.com.

Dumbass Comment of the Week

In recent days, you could swing a dead cat in the Senate and hit a crowd of contenders for this week’s prize. Let’s start with Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.). During a hearing with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Marshall demanded that Biden’s Covid adviser disclose his financial investments, hinting that Fauci might be hiding something sinister. (Marshall was playing to the right-wing and loony conspiracy crowd that has claimed Fauci whipped up Covid fear and pushed vaccines, masks, and other public health measures to make a fortune for himself.) Fauci informed the senator that each year he indeed does fill out a financial disclosure statement that is publicly available. (Fact-check: true.) “You’re so misinformed,” the doctor told Marshall. “It’s extraordinary.” Still, Marshall wondered why he couldn’t find the disclosure statement, continuing with innuendo that something was amiss. At the end of the exchange, a hot mic picked up Fauci uttering, “What a moron.” (Fact-check: mostly true.)

At the hearing, Fauci threw a sharp elbow at Sen. Ran Paul (R-Ky.), who has leveled a series of scurrilous claims at Fauci and said he should be locked up. Paul’s disgusting war on Fauci has fueled the right-wing demonization of Fauci that has spurred death threats against him. And when Paul tried yet again to denigrate Fauci, the doctor, attempting an impossible task, tried to shame Paul.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was in the running this week. After President Joe Biden delivered a fiery speech calling for changing the Senate filibuster to allow passage of voting rights legislation, McConnell, on the Senate floor, assailed Biden for delivering a “rant.” He harrumphed, “President Biden has rejected the 'better angels of our nature.' So, it is the Senate's responsibility to protect the country. This institution was constructed as a firewall against exactly—exactly the kind of rage and false hysteria we saw on full display yesterday.” Reminder: In February, just weeks following the January 6 attack—for which McConnell said Trump was “practically and morally responsible”—McConnell said that he would “absolutely” support Trump if he becomes the GOP presidential nominee in 2024. That is, he would back the guy he pegged as responsible for a deadly assault that sought to overturn an election. Now McConnell speaks of “better angels”? That’s rich.

And who thought this was a good look for Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa)?

Finally, there was Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Whatisshethinkingland). In declaring her opposition to reforming the Senate filibuster to permit votes on bills to protect voting rights (which she acknowledged were desperately needed in the face of GOP efforts to curtail voting), she intoned, "I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country." Huh? She was saying that as divisive partisans take steps to weaken democracy, she will not act to counter them—for that would be divisive. This was twisted—and self-defeating—logic. She wins. (Read Ari Berman for more on her nonsensical position.)

Let’s give a runner-up prize to MyPillow guy Mike Lindell. He says he now has evidence of that grand election-fraud plot that stole the White House from Trump: "We have enough evidence to put everybody in prison for life, 300 and some million people." Three hundred million people were in on this? That’s a helluva conspiracy. But if they all end up in jail, the prison system is going to need a lot of pillows:

The Mailbag

It was not surprising that many readers had a strong reaction to the interview with Rep. Jamie Raskin, my friend and neighbor, about his son’s suicide, the January 6 attack, the second Donald Trump impeachment, and his new book, Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy. Some reported they had been moved by the video of Tommy Raskin performing his poem “Where War Begins.” I was happy to see that several hundred people watched it after Raskin and I discussed it. If you missed the Raskin interview, you can watch it here. We released a few clips on Twitter. This was my favorite:

Kristin Hall emailed:

The only word I could summon after listening to Tommy’s poem was “eviscerated.” What an unimaginable loss for his family and everyone who knew and loved him. But what a loss for us all: I am constantly sickened by the lack of compassion and empathy in people and here was a person who exuded those qualities towards all living creatures. I can understand, though never condone, his exiting this world. It’s poisonous, toxic, full of hatred and violence and it eats away your soul if you still have one. I wish this world, especially this country, could give people like Tommy hope instead of despair. I wish he could have stayed. We need him. Thank you for your wonderful newsletter. It’s worth every penny and it gives me hope and an anchor. Give Moxie a scratch behind the ears from me.

PB Wells wrote:

Beautifully written piece about absolute heartbreak and unwavering commitment. Thank you.

Joanelle Wood Mulrain observed:

I hope Jamie Raskin will print—you should fund—his son’s essays and poems. They may help others transitioning to the darkness each of us has within. The first time I heard Jamie Raskin speak, I admired his frankness. These two tragedies—personal and professional— are extraordinary. He uses words as part of his healing—not to blame, but to present.

Raskin tells me that his family is looking at how it can publish and disseminate Tommy’s work.

There was also reader reaction to my article declaring that Attorney General Merrick Garland should break with standard operating procedure and tell the public whether he is investigating Trump for January 6 or his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Several readers disagreed and argued Garland was right to stick by department protocol. Doug Pierre summed up this position:

Merrick will not break the Justice Department tradition and indicate whether the DOJ is investigating Donald Trump. We just have to be satisfied with the AG's statement of [January 5]. For him to make a disclosure [of an ongoing investigation] would fly in the face of everything Garland has been trying to accomplish since he became the nation's top law enforcement officer. I too would like to know whether the former president is being investigated. But I place my faith in the attorney general. I hope that faith is not misplaced.

Sarah Wall saw it differently:

I concur with your assessment David. I only hope Merrick Garland has the stones to realize that this is bigger than “seeming” impartial.

Alas, there was no mail for Moxie this week. And a reminder: If you write to us at thisland@motherjones.com please include your full name.

MoxieCam™

Moxie had a big scare during the holidays. We were hiking with friends through a snowy forest in the West Virginia mountains. On such walks, Moxie often bolts ahead, sniffs about, and returns to the pack. She never runs off. She’s a good dog. As we got closer to the bridge that crosses the river near our lodging, Moxie darted out of view. I heard a large splash. It seemed she had jumped into the river or an adjacent pond. Damn, I thought, she’s going to get quite cold and ice could form in the crevices of her paws. That might mean trouble getting back. I ran toward the sound and spotted her struggling in the middle of a pond. She had tried to cross the thin ice on the surface and had crashed through. She was now treading chilly water about 25 feet out and surrounded by a circle of ice submerged in the water. She tried swimming toward me at the pond’s edge, but she kept bumping into the ice. She paddled in other directions and was repeatedly impeded by the ice floating below the surface. She couldn’t get out. She looked terrified.

I shouted at her to come to me, hoping she could swim over the ice. But she was trapped and spinning in circles. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and was about to toss it to the side and dive in after her. But I had an idea. “Jump!” I yelled. “Jump!” It’s a command she knows, though usually it means clearing a fallen tree or leaping on to a bed. I can’t say if this registered. But she now tried to thrust herself out of the water. “Jump! Jump!” I repeated. “Jump!” With great exertion, she propelled herself up but fell back into the water. “Jump!” I screamed. She tried again and managed to land her front paws on the ice. It cracked beneath her and a passage opened. She pushed through it, found her footing, and crawled out of the pond. She was wet, cold, and traumatized. She jumped up on me for comforting.

“Let’s go,” I said. We quickly walked back to the lodge. I dried her off by the large fireplace. She climbed on to a couch and curled into a tight ball. I wrapped a towel tightly around her, and there she remained a long while.

Read Recent Issues of This Land

January 11, 2022: My interview with Jamie Raskin about his son’s suicide, January 6, and the second Trump impeachment; Aaron Sorkin’s one big mistake in Being the Ricardos; Slow Burn’s look back at the LA riots; and more.

January 8, 2022: It’s time for Merrick Garland to reveal if the Justice Department is investigating Donald Trump; Dumbass Comment of the Week; the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

January 4, 2022: The lesson of January 6: Tragedy does not yield national unity; Ayman Mohyeldin’s impressive American Radical podcast; and more.

December 23, 2021: Farewell to a stupid year; Dumbass Comment of the Year; Mailbag, MoxieCam™; and more.

December 21, 2021: How the GOP is establishing political apartheid; Donald Trump’s most outrageous email, spending time with The Shrink Next Door; Susanna Hoffs’ delightful new album; and more.

December 18, 2021: Mark Meadows, the chief’s chief coup plotter; Dumbass Comment of the Week; the Mailbag, MoxieCam™; and more.

December 14, 2021: Denounce Julian Assange, don’t extradite him; why WandaVision is marvelous; hanging out with Neil Young and Crazy Horse in an old barn; and more.

December 11, 2021: Trump’s newest—and biggest—potential conflict of interest; Dumbass Comment of the Week (Tucker Carlson Edition); the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more.

December 7, 2021: John Lennon and the NRA—four decades later; Chris Christie: Trump is afraid to lose in 2024; an inspiring documentary about Jacques Cousteau; and more.

December 4, 2021: Donald Trump and the Cruddy Pan Theory of human behavior; Peter Thiel, kingmaker?; Dumbass Comment of the Week; the Mailbag; MoxieCam™; and more