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In a video posted Monday online, a group of people calling themselves Americas Frontline Doctors and wearing white medical coats spoke against the backdrop of the Supreme Court in Washington, sharing misleading claims about the virus, including that hydroxychloroquine was an effective coronavirus treatment and that masks did not slow the spread of the virus.

The video did not appear to be anything special. But within six hours, President Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. had tweeted versions of it, and the right-wing news site Breitbart had shared it. It went viral, shared largely through Facebook groups dedicated to anti-vaccination movements and conspiracy theories such as QAnon, racking up tens of millions of views. Multiple versions of the video were uploaded to YouTube, and links were shared through Twitter.

Facebook, YouTube and Twitter worked feverishly to remove it, but by the time they had, the video had already become the latest example of misinformation about the virus that has spread widely.

That was because the video had been designed specifically to appeal to internet conspiracists and conservatives eager to see the economy reopen, with a setting and characters to lend authenticity. It showed that even as social media companies have sped up response time to remove dangerous virus misinformation within hours of its posting, people have continued to find new ways around the platforms safeguards.

Misinformation about a deadly virus has become political fodder, which was then spread by many individuals who are trusted by their constituencies, said Lisa Kaplan, founder of Alethea Group, a start-up that helps fight disinformation. If just one person listened to anyone spreading these falsehoods and they subsequently took an action that caused others to catch, spread or even die from the virus that is one person too many.

One of the speakers in the video, who identified herself as Dr. Stella Immanuel, said, You dont need masks to prevent spread of the coronavirus. She also claimed to be treating hundreds of patients infected with coronavirus with hydroxychloroquine, and asserted that it was an effective treatment. The claims have been repeatedly disputed by the medical establishment.

President Trump repeatedly promoted hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug, in the early months of the crisis. In June, he said he was taking it himself. But that same month, the Food and Drug Administration revoked emergency authorization for the drug for Covid-19 patients and said it was unlikely to be effective and carried potential risks. The National Institutes of Health halted clinical trials of the drug.

In addition, studies have repeatedly shown that masks are effective in curbing the spread of the coronavirus.

The trajectory of Mondays video mirrored that of Plandemic, a 26-minute slickly produced narration that spread widely in May and falsely claimed that a shadowy cabal of elites was using the virus and a potential vaccine to profit and gain power. In just over a week, Plandemic was viewed more than eight million times on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram before it was taken down.

But the video posted Monday had more views than Plandemic within hours of being posted online, even though it was removed much faster. At least one version of the video, viewed by The Times on Facebook, was watched over 16 million times.

Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter deleted several versions of the video on Monday night. All three companies said the video violated their policies on sharing misinformation related to the coronavirus.

On Tuesday morning, Twitter also took action against Donald Trump Jr. after he shared a link to the video. A spokesman for Twitter said the company had ordered Mr. Trump to delete the misleading tweet and said it would limit some account functionality for 12 hours. Twitter took a similar action against Kelli Ward, the Arizona Republican Party chairwoman, who also tweeted the video.

No action was taken against the president, who retweeted multiple clips of the same video to his 84.2 million followers Monday night. The original posts have since been removed.

When asked about the video on Tuesday, Mr. Trump continued to defend the doctors involved and the treatments they are backing.

For some reason the internet wanted to take them down and took them off, the president said. I think they are very respected doctors. There was a woman who was spectacular in her statements about it, that shes had tremendous success with it and they took her voice off. I dont know why they took her off. Maybe they had a good reason, maybe they didnt.

Facebook and YouTube did not answer questions about multiple versions of the video that remained online on Tuesday afternoon. Twitter said it was continuing to take action on new and existing tweets with the video.

The members of the group behind Mondays video say they are physicians treating patients infected with the coronavirus. But it was unclear where many of them practice medicine or how many patients they had actually seen. As early as May, anti-Obamacare conservative activists called the Tea Party Patriots Action reportedly worked with some of them to advocate loosening states restrictions on elective surgeries and nonemergency care. On July 15, the group registered a website called Americas Frontline Doctors, domain registration records show.

One of the first copies of the video that appeared on Monday was posted to the Tea Party Patriots YouTube channel, alongside other videos featuring the members of Americas Frontline Doctors.

The doctors have also been promoted by conservatives like Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center, a nonprofit media organization.

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Misleading Hydroxychloroquine Video, Pushed by the Trumps, Spreads Online - The New York Times

Down with the Wall of Moms! Death to the Leaf-Blower Dads!

In George Orwells classic novel 1984, members of the Outer Party stood in front of their telescreens daily to revile Big Brothers enemies and exult in his power. Long live Boss Trump!

Just so Fox News excited coverage of Portlands Wall of Moms in their COVID-19 masks and bicycle helmets confronting Trumps mercenaries in full combat gear. A second group calling themselves Leaf-Blower Dads are using lawn equipment to force tear gas barrages back in the faces of the storm troopers who fired them.

Classic American ingenuity, if you think about it. Also a reminder that in Portland, the majority of dangerous, violent anarchists Boss Trump warns against are unarmed women and suburban men with yards and garages who know their way around Home Depot.

But theyre not having an invasion of Trumps personal Gestapo: paramilitary forces wearing no insignia, with no badge numbers or names, and accountable to nobody.

People are coming out in thousands to defend their community from an invasion. Theres also a Wall of Vets, and Teachers Against Tyrants. Thats why Portlands mayor, Oregons governor and its two U.S. senators have demanded the federal agents removal. Theyd had the situation under control before the troops arrived. Which is not to nominate protest leaders for sainthood. There are opportunists and fools of every political persuasion.

Also, history teaches, provocateurs are all too willing to smash windows, loot and burn for purposes of their own. During rioting at the Chicago Democratic convention in 1968, some of the angriest hotheads turned out to be cops impersonating anti-Vietnam War activists.

In Portland, however, Boss Trumps crowing about his agents tear-gassing Mayor Ted Wheeler as he addressed protest marchers (They knocked the hell out of him, he boasted on Fox News) was received with contempt: the boasting of a flabby blowhard whos hidden behind bodyguards all his life. He has approximately the same chance of winning Oregons electoral votes as I do and Im not on the ballot.

If that offends you, dear reader, riddle me this: What would have been your reaction if a phalanx of anonymous, masked federal agents had assaulted, say, a Tea Party demonstration during the Obama administration?

If youre a conservative, it might be like Paul Rosenzweigs, a career Republican who was one of Kenneth Starrs keenest sleuths in the Great Bill Clinton Sex Investigation. Writing in The Atlantic, he argued that invading Portland is a complete corruption of conservative ideals.

There is nothing conservative about unconstitutional police activity, and there is nothing conservative about unilateral federal intervention in state affairs. Those are the acts of an authoritarian.

Rosenzweig and co-author Arthur Rizer also quote Tom Ridge, former Republican governor of Pennsylvania and Secretary of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush: DHS was not established to be the presidents personal militia.

See, while prating about being a law and order president, Trump is doing everything he can to provoke violence, hoping it will frighten suburban voters into holding Joe Biden somehow responsible despite Bidens history as a pro-cop liberal throughout his long career. Hes also hoping to somehow distract voters from the 150,000 Americans who have died because of his negligence and incompetence in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of course, when Richard Nixon successfully played the law and order card in 1968, Lyndon Johnson was president. Nixons opponent was Vice President Hubert Humphrey. So far, polls show that Trump has had no success convincing anybody outside his hardcore base that others are responsible for the violence hes working so hard to provoke.

But there are three months to go, and discord is spreading across the country. Seattle; Oakland; Louisville; Aurora, Colo.; etc. Rival groups are carrying guns and itching for a fight.

In Austin, a man carrying an AK-47 was shot to death by a man in a car suspected of trying to run civil rights marchers down. The mayor of Richmond, Va., has alleged that White supremacists marching under the banner of Black Lives Matter violently disrupted an otherwise peaceful protest.

The only things restraining Trump are his cowardice and fear of getting caught. Rightly or wrongly, writes my man Charles Pierce in Esquire, this puts the responsibility on the protestors themselves. ... (I)ts time for the burning of police stations and other acts of violence to stop. Its time for folks to stop hurling themselves mindlessly into the face of faceless law-enforcement.

Way past time, actually. In Portland (and elsewhere), activists could foil Trump by simply staging demonstrations some distance from federal property.

Let the Trump Troopers gas each other. Activists need to shout down apostles of violence and turn vandals and arsonists over to legitimate law enforcement.

Above all, emulate John Lewis, the great civil rights icon, who understood the folly of rioting and the overwhelming moral authority of nonviolent mass resistance.

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The two-minutes hate, 2020 edition | Opinion - Indiana Gazette

On Thursday morning, minutes after news broke of the worst quarterly economic collapse in U.S. history, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested delaying this years election.

With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote??? he tweeted.

Trump has repeatedly railed against mail-in ballotswhich is how he casts his votesas an illegitimate form of voting, even though five states vote exclusively by mail and another 29 plus the District of Columbia allow no-excuse absentee ballots. (Which are, of course, sent by mail.) In the last presidential election, one-quarter of all votes cast were by mail. There is zero evidence that mail-in voting leads to increased voter fraud.

Trump doesnt have the authority to delay the electiononly Congress could do that, and even many Republican stalwarts in the House and the Senate were quick to shoot down Trumps suggestion on Thursday. But after almost four years of Trump, the idea that something cant happen just because it has never been tried or might be illegal doesnt reassure everyone.

To put Trumps suggestion in context, Foreign Policy spoke with Timothy Naftali, a presidential scholar at New York University. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

FP: Is there any precedent for Trumps suggestion to delay the election?

Timothy Naftali: No. I think the way to frame this is to look at how the United States managed elections in the Civil War and in World War II: In 1864 and 1944, the United States had elections. In both cases, especially the Civil War, the country was convulsed. In World War II, that country was in the middle of a national emergency. And even so, the election happened as it was supposed to on the day it was supposed to.

There was no call for delay. Remember, no one but a man who lacks any historical knowledge or any commitment to the Constitution is calling for this. We have to keep in mind whats going on here. Theres no national call to delay the election. There are no local or state leaders of any number who are suggesting that the presidential election cannot be held as required in November. There is only one man with a Twitter finger.

This is a distraction by a man who is facing a massive political rejection. Theres no grounding or history for what hes suggesting. And thats why serious people in the last couple of hours responded by saying that this cant happen.

FP: If we look at not just Trump but the whole of the Republican Party, would you put this suggestion within the wider trends of the Republican Party or solely as a Trump phenomenon?

TN: Oh, thats an interesting question. I think theres a radical element on the American right that has sought to undermine democratic norms to hold on to power as a minority position in this country. And Donald Trump reflects that, but he didnt create that; he has benefited from it. The election of Donald Trump is a perfect storm of all of these various phenomena that weve seen in the last 20 years but especially since the Tea Party movement gained traction.

The irony of this moment is that the argument of Trumpists was that we needed a strict constructionist interpretation of the Constitution. And it is that which will save us from a presidential delay of a presidential election because the Constitution makes clear its up to the Congress to decide when we vote for the president. Its not up to the president to decide. So if you follow this strict constructionist approach, Trump is done on this issue, but I dont think theres any consistency in the Trump worldview, other than presenting power for Trump himself and access to power for his family.

And so theres now a struggle for the future of the Republican Party. I mean, will it be renamed the party of Trump? Should it be carrying [Abraham] Lincolns banner anymore? Its up to Republicans to determine that, but what we have seen on the right is systematic. We see on the right, as demographics have shifted in this country, and as public opinion has shifted on cultural and social issues, there have been those on the right who tried to use and find every institution and lever of power available to prevent democracy from being expressed in this country.

FP: I suppose the question is whether this is the Republican Party that tried and failed to repeal Obamacare or the party that managed to deprive Merrick Garland of a Supreme Court seat.

TN: Well, I think that were not talking about an organization. I dont think theres a central strategic core to this organization because theres no logical consistency to the ideas that Republicans have professed as an institution in the last 10 years. They went from being pro-free trade and pro-balanced budgets to protectionists and not seeming to care about the budget. Theyve been all over the map on immigration. Theyve been strict constructionists, but then many of them supported the use of the national emergency power to fund the wall [along the border with Mexico].

I dont see any logical consistency among professed Republican ideas in the last decade. The consistency is the desire for power and the desire to use whatever instruments are available to suppress the vote, to limit democracy, and to stay in office. And Trump is what seemed to be the perfect instrument. And Trump, of course, was very happy to have these ideas and tactics floating about because he likes to win.

Im not sure he ever really understood what it meant to be president. Im not sure he still understands it, because he doesnt seek a national mandate, but he loves winning. And he also doesnt mind cheating. And hes found people in the Republican Party who dont mind cheating either.

And so [Thursdays] tweet is hoping to find a way to cheat, but the Constitution gives the power to Congress and Congress is divided, and theres no way the House would approve this. And, listening to some of the GOP reactions, Im not sure that the Senate would approve shifting the date. So hes desperately looking for a way to cheat to avoid defeat in November. Im not saying whats going to happen, but the tea leaves suggest that if he doesnt cheat, hes going to lose.

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'The Tea Leaves Suggest That if He Doesn't Cheat, He's Going to Lose' - Foreign Policy

Herman Cain remembered the 1996 moment that changed his political trajectory as clearly as any in his life.

The businessman was advising Jack Kemps vice-presidential campaign and accompanied the boss to the iconic Sylvias soul food restaurant in Harlem for an event. A man in the crowd shouted out to Cain and his colleagues: Black Republicans? Theres no such thing. The same man, in Cains telling, called them Uncle Toms. The episode so angered Cain that when he got home from that campaign swing, he switched from a registered independent to a card-carrying member of the Republican Party. And over the next quarter-century, the child of the segregated South became one of the best-known Black Republicans in the country, briefly rising to be his partys presidential frontrunner for the 2012 nomination and remaining one of the most quotable stars in conservative media.

So committed to his partys stick-it-in-the-eye ethos was Cain that he flew to Tulsa, Okla., for President Donald Trumps first return to the campaign trail after 100,000 U.S. coronavirus deaths, despite dire warnings from public health experts. At that indoor rally on June 20, the stage 4 colon cancer survivor posed for pictures without wearing a mask and sat in the packed stands with fellow fans of the President. On June 29, Cain tested positive for the coronavirus. On July 2, his aides announced he had been hospitalized. While fighting the disease, his Twitter account continued to criticize mask-wearing and to promote unproven endorsements of hydroxychloroquine. On July 30, Cain aides announced he had died. From the White House, Trump attributed the death to the thing called the China virus. Cain, among the most prominent Americans to die during this pandemic, was 74.

In many ways, Cain and Trump were cut from the same cloth. Neither had been elected to any political post before running for the White House. Both delighted in needling the Republican Partys establishment and the mainstream press. They shot from the hip, campaigned in slogans and didnt much care to learn the details. Both men were dogged by allegations of sexual affairs and inappropriate behavior, and both denied the allegations; they proved disqualifying for Cainwho ended his bid in December 2011 under intense scrutinybut they did not derail Trump just one election cycle later. They were also both savvy exploiters of the media, often saying things they knew would provoke outrage and thus amplify the celebrity at the core of their bids. Indifference towardif not hostility againstwhat had come before was a cornerstone of their strategy, not a flaw.

Cain was born in Memphis in 1945 to a domestic worker mother and a janitor father. When his dad was hired to be the chauffeur for the head of Coca-Cola, the family moved to Atlanta, where Cain would graduate from Morehouse College. He then completed his graduate studies at Purdue University after civilian service in the Navy. From there, Cain moved from engineer to executive with Pillsbury and its subsidiaries of Burger King and Godfathers Pizza, where he would be its C.E.O. In 1988, he oversaw Godfathers buyout from Pillsbury. Throughout the same time, he held positions with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. That part of his resum led Trump to consider Cain for a position in his Administration, a move that drew dissent from fellow Republicans who were not eager to revisit the allegations against Cain. For three years, Cain led the National Restaurant Association, a lobbying arm for the industry that paid settlements to at least two women who detailed Cains unwanted advances.

His was not a typical career in his post-C.E.O. years. Cain became a sought-after motivational speaker, an unsuccessful presidential candidate in 2000 and a Senate one in 2004. As the Tea Party movement started to organize after Barack Obamas election to the White House, Cain emerged as one of its strongest spokespeople. When the 2012 election cycle began, Cain decided to run the scrappiest of campaigns focused on an untraditional travel schedule that often seemed more like a book tour than an organizing effort. His novel 9-9-9 tax planproposing a 9% corporate business flat tax, a 9% personal income flat tax and a 9% national sales taxdrew eye-rolls from economists but curiosity from voters. Antipathy toward frontrunner Mitt Romney proved sufficient to give Cain a chance to rise in the late summer and fall of 2011, until his personal life just proved too much. But he didnt shrink from public life. Instead, he became a ubiquitous voice and reliable critic of Democrats.

Hell perhaps remain best known, though, for his tax plan that made little sense to most economists. Even with his death, the 9-9-9 sloganeering stayed on the front-burner. On Twitter, Romney took one last good-natured jab at the tax plan: St. Peter will soon hear 999! Keep up the fight, my friend.

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Write to Philip Elliott at philip.elliott@time.com.

Read more here:
Herman Cain Helped Define the American Black Conservative Movement. He Also Set the Stage for Trump - TIME

With COVID-19 soaring out of control again in most of our states, and the national death toll climbing rapidly toward 200,000, what do we get from the self-proclaimed very stable genius in the White House?

Columns share an author's personal perspective and are often based on facts in the newspaper's reporting.

With COVID-19 soaring out of control again in most of our states, and the national death toll climbing rapidly toward 200,000, what do we get from the self-proclaimed very stable genius in the White House?

Another dose of hydroxychloroquine and an endorsement of some voodoo medical opinions, thats what.

The Chief Tweeter took to his favorite communications medium this past week to once again promote the multi-syllabic anti-malaria drug as an effective treatment for the disease caused by the coronavirus. Scientific studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine can actually do more harm than good when used to treat symptoms of COVID-19, but science matters not to the Chief Tweeter, who also recently said that 99 percent of the victims arent really very sick and recover very quickly.

Would he be so blas about a terrorist bomb blast that killed more than 150,000 people in and around the Trump Tower in New York City? Im trying to imagine his response to such a calamity and pair it with his cold-hearted dismissal of the COVID-19 death toll.

The Chief Tweeters source of medical expertise this time was some members of a group called Americas Frontline Doctors, who took part in an event sponsored by Tea Party Patriots Action, a dark money group that has helped fund a pro-Trump political action committee.

I think theyre very respected doctors, the Chief Tweeter said.

Really? Lets look at the credentials of the most outspoken of these very respected doctors. That would be Dr. Stella Immanuel, a Houston pediatrician who is also the spiritual leader of Fire Power Ministries, a church that preaches doctrine that would boggle the mind of even the most evangelical of evangelicals. Ah, yes; an industrious multi-tasker is Immanuel.

As a minister, Immanuel preaches that female gynecological disorders are caused by sexual intercourse with demons. These demons, that she calls spirit husbands and spirit wives, once walked the Earth in physical form, but they were not permitted aboard Noahs ark and consequently were drowned in the flood. Now, says Immanuel, these formless creatures visit humans during the night in sexy dreams, which are not really dreams but are actually spirit spouses having their way with their sleeping hosts.

According to Immanuel, these demons are responsible for diseases of the female reproductive system, male impotence, most financial troubles, marital discord and spiritual malaise.

And that aint all, folks. As a doctor, Immanuel also claims that some therapeutic drugs contain alien DNA, and that government scientists are working on a vaccine to prevent religious faith. This clinical claptrap is actually available for public perusal on YouTube.

You could also find Immanuels very respected advice on the Chief Tweeters Twitter feed, where she lauds the power of hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 cure and tells the public that masks are not needed to fight the pandemic. More than 10 million Americans read this advice from a very respected doctor before Facebook took down her page.

Immanuel responded to Facebooks action by threatening to have Jesus unplug Facebooks servers. My question: If Immanuel has so much influence with Jesus, why doesnt she ask him to banish the coronavirus to Hades?

This is the expertise that the Chief Tweeter and his son, Chief Tweeter Jr., shared on Facebook and Twitter. To their credit, both Facebook and Twitter removed the content in an effort to keep their sites free of potentially harmful information about the virus. Of course, this brought forth conservative claims of censorship.

Another of the very respected doctors, Simone Gold, complained about this so-called censorship by tweeting that there are always opposing views in medicine. Okay, thats why a second opinion is needed about the consumption of hydroxychloroquine and the wearing of masks.

This second opinion, which is extremely negative on the use of the drug and extremely positive on the wearing of the masks, has been offered numerous times by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious disease expert. This has made Fauci the target of several critical tweets by White House aides and conservative members of Congress, some of which have been retweeted by the Chief Tweeter.

Fauci said this past week that he will deal with the attacks by keeping his head down and doing his job. Imagine how much better life would be for all of us if only the Chief Tweeter would keep his head down and do his job for a change.

Glenn Ickler of Hopedale is a retired newspaper editor.

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Column: If only the president kept his head down and did his job - Milford Daily News