In early June, a conspiracy nutter, pretend veterans advocate, and wannabe rightwing star named Lewis Arthur got himself about two weeks' worth of social media fame after he decided that an abandoned homeless camp in the desert near Tucson, Arizona, was actually a child sex trafficking site, complete with a "dungeon" and a "rape tree." No evidence whatsoever, but he seemed so certain about it that some local TV stations that should have known better gave it coverage, and the wingnuttosphere glommed on to it as the latest "proof" of the vast imaginary pedophile network that started with #Pizzagate and later morphed into the insane QAnon troll drama that the kids are so into these days. The Internet, which has an attention span shorter than Donald Trump's, moved on to other things, but instead of gracefully fading away like Numa Numa videos, Arthur is determined to regain his brief moment of online glory. He seems determined to be a complete asshole about it, and may just end up getting people killed.

As the invaluable militia-watcher JJ MacNab explains, a month after his brief fling with being the hottest new shit in wingnut world, Arthur finds himself with stagnating online support, mostly because "People have gotten bored watching hour after hour of Lewis pointing to trash and calling it proof that traffickers were there just before he and his crew ran them off."

Mind you, it was a good run -- Alex Jones briefly mentioned Arthur, but later pulled any mention of him from InfoWars, which earned Arthur the dubious distinction of pushing a conspiracy claim that was "too wild for Alex Jones." Stewart Rhodes, the wingnut leader of the anti-government "Oath Keepers," went to Tucson to see if he could get in on the grift, but eventually concluded Arthur was too unstable to profitably associate with. Even the great journalists at the Gateway Pundit decided Arthur wasn't on the level. Yes, add "too unreliable for Gateway Pundit" to the list.

As MacNab notes, Arthur seems to have decided on a new tack: Instead of looking for the child sex traffickers that he can't seem to find, Arthur and his "Veterans on Patrol" (a group Arthur originally started to help homeless vets; he himself has never served but is very big on military-speak) will now start going after illegal immigrants, because obviously a bunch of loons in the desert looking for migrants to harass will bring an end to the child trafficking, too.

In another of his rambling Facebook videos, Arthur lays out his plan of action: He demands a meeting with Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild (of course the conspiracy loons went crazy about that name, do you think they're new here?), to demand that the city put an end to do-gooders leaving caches of water in the desert for migrants to find -- you know, so's they don't die. What's more, Arthur declared war on one of the groups, Humane Borders, that leaves supplies in the desert for migrants, because after all, they may say it's humanitarian aid, but they're really supporting child trafficking!!!! Here's an excerpt:

Lewis Arthur has a real cool plan: He's gonna go out and find every single cache of supplies left to help migrants, "confiscate" the water, food, and medical supplies, and then place them in national parks and monuments (and maybe national forests -- he seems unclear on the concept) so they can be used by Americans. At one point he claims he and his group will "re-open" the national parks, which he seems to think have been shut down by the constant flow of human traffickers and drug mules all over public lands.

Why, no, he doesn't seem to have given any thought to whether National Park Service staff want him setting up watering stations with pilfered stuff. Why wouldn't they welcome him with open arms? He's a patriot, dammit!

Arthur then explains he's going to work with the local sheriff's office (except for the actual Pima County Sheriff, Mark Napier, who is eeevil) to shut down all the trafficking/smuggling/migrant trails in southern Arizona. Whether they want his help or not:

Arthur and his crews also claim to have "liberated" several hilltops in the desert from the cartels -- which, of course, have been using them to send signals to ranchers in the area who are in league with their drug and human smuggling operations. (On VOP's Facebook page, you can watch nearly six minutes of a flag waving at night on a hill, proving it has been reclaimed from the cartel scouts.) Never one to worry about seeming grandiose, Arthur promises in the video his gang will "be building OPs [observation posts] on some of these mountains."

About those ranchers: Arthur has decided that a number of ranchers and farmers in the Tucson area are definitely in bed with the cartels and child sex traffickers, because he just knows they are. Seems he and his gang actually walked into some rural homes while the owners were away and rummaged through them to find evidence of trafficking -- like toys in a kid's room. You call it breaking and entering, he calls it investigating. Who's to say? Arthur's predilection for insisting ranchers who wouldn't "cooperate" with him simply had to be pedophiles teaming up with the cartels was just one of several reasons the Oaf Keepers backed away from him in a hurry.

As MacNab points out, Arthur's latest paranoid fantasy about eliminating illegal immigration (with the help of his remaining loyal viewers) isn't just xenophobic bullshit. It's dangerous:

Long story short: Lewis Arthur certainly isn't going to be setting up any water stations in national parks. But the damn fool's likely to destroy water supplies for migrants crossing the desert in Arizona's summer heat, and that may very possibly lead to people dying. You wouldn't be amiss in sending a few dollars to Humane Borders, which has this crazy idea that even though crossing the border is illegal, it shouldn't be treated as a death sentence.

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[JJ MacNab on Twitter / SPLC]