October 3, 2019

Today in the Fever Swamp: China!

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This morning’s big impeachment-related news is that President Trump publicly called on China to investigate Hunter Biden over—

Well, it doesn’t matter what it’s over, does it? As usual, there’s no evidence that either of the Bidens did anything wrong except in the fever swamps of Sean Hannity and Foxland. But Trump marinates in that fever swamp these days, and the fever swamp says that Hunter Biden used his father’s pull to coerce a Chinese stake in an investment fund he owned. If you’re interested, you may read an appropriately breathless account of Biden perfidy by the author of Clinton Cash and other conspiratorial books here.

So why is Trump blathering about this today? It’s not because China is going to investigate it. And it’s not because anyone outside of the fever swamp believes it. He’s doing it for a couple of reasons. First, he’s showing solidarity with the swamp. Second, he’s sending a signal that conservative media should be all over this.

That’s it.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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