The 5G Coronavirus Hoax: Or How I Got Polio From FDR’s Old Flashlight?

Given that the belief is straight out off Trump’s climate change denial playbook, does the idea that 5G internet networks causes COVID 19 more dangerous than the pandemic itself?

By: Ringo Bones

The dismissal of the COVID 19 pandemic as a hoax and questioning of scientific experts is straight out of President Trump’s, and other right-wing populist demagogue’s, playbook of climate change denial that got them elected in the first place. The 5G theory about radio waves transmitting or activating the virus, for example, is a reworking of long running conspiracy fears about mind control experiments, subliminal messaging and supposed United States military weapons projects that has since been a staple of Hollywood’s TV and movie industry way before the runaway mid 1990s success of The X-Files. Add to that an utter lack of how science works of most of Trump’s supporters and it is no longer a mystery that the belief that 5G internet networks causes and spreads the COVID 19 virus is very popular in the United States.

The 5G coronavirus conspiracy theories, and related Trumpism hoaxes, are particularly challenging to debunk by normal educated people with a working grasp of science – never mind tenured government scientists - because they bring together people from very different parts from the political spectrum. On the other hand, they attract the far-right Trump supporters who see them as part of a technological assault by big government and the “rich liberal elite” on the freedom of individuals. On the other, they appeal to the well established “anti-vaxxer community” who are often allied with those distrustful of Big Pharma. Getting COVID 19 from 5G internet networks is probably like someone getting polio from FDR's old flashlight by shining it into their face - seriously? 

President Donald J. Trump’s Coronavirus Hoax: The World’s Most Dangerous Hoax?

Given that he actually labeled the coronavirus health emergency as a “hoax” in his South Carolina reelection rally back in February 28, 2020, is President Trump perpetrating the world’s most dangerous hoax?

By: Ringo Bones

During one of his so-called reelection rallies in South Carolina back in February 28, 2020, President Trump actually labeled the coronavirus as a hoax and said Democrats are trying to use the coronavirus to damage him – and called that “their new hoax”. And more recently, President Trump even jokingly remarked that Hillary Clinton’s e-mails caused the coronavirus pandemic. This was after a growing furor over the Trump Administration’s lackluster response of a growing global public health emergency declared by the World Health Organization after the disease spread at an alarming rate from China near the end of January 2020.

Donald Trump has a long history of branding things he doesn’t like as “hoaxes”. Trump used the word to dismiss the Russia collusion investigation and the more recent impeachment as a hoax. Worse still, President Trump enacted an executive decision to slash the budget of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention back in 2018 focused on eliminating the funding of Obama era disease security programs and also of the Health and Human Services. Back in 2018, the White House eliminated a position on the National Security Council tasked with coordinating a global pandemic response.

During a federal government budget proposal meeting for the 2020 US Government Budget held back in 2019, the Trump Administration sought to cut the CDC’s annual budget for the fiscal year 2020 by as much as 16-percent. On average, the Trump Administration had been slashing the annual budgets of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services by almost 15-percent on an annual basis since 2018.

Is President Donald J. Trump A Moon Landing Hoax Believer?

From Birtherism to Senator Ted Cruz’s dad assassinating JFK, is President Trump also a so-called “Moon Landing Hoax” believer?

By: Ringo Bones

Well, back in 2011, it seems that what Donald J. Trump is best known for – beside his popular reality TV show The Apprentice – was his belief on “Birtherism” – i.e. that the then US President Barack Obama was born in Kenya, as opposed to the state of Hawaii which is a part of the United States and that the NASA moon landings were a hoax and he also says that Russian intelligence might have proof of this. Fast forward to July 20, 2019 when America recently celebrated the 50^th Anniversary of the Apollo moon landing, the now US President Donald J. Trump suddenly went “inexplicably” quiet when it comes to the issue of whether the Apollo moon landings were a hoax. Stranger still, in a recent poll, it seems as much as 25-percent of Americans still believe that the moon landings were a hoax and 90-percent of them are so-called Millennials – i.e. born after 1982 – who voted for Trump back in 2016.

The origin of the idea of the so called “moon landing hoax” dates back to 1974 where a self published book by Bill Kaysing titled “We Never Went To The Moon” began selling in substantial numbers. Bill Kaysing’s aura of believability stems from his experience working as a technical writer at Rocketdyne during the 1950s – i.e. the company that made the Saturn V moon rocket’s F1 rocket engines. If the “secret agents” of the then Soviet Union had not manage to reveal any proof of the claim that the moon landings made by NASA were a hoax during the late 1960s onwards, then why would any rational person believe in the moon landing hoax conspiracy nonsense? If the Russians did then Trump would probably got the proof from his buddy Vlad the Dictator before 2011.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s Swedish Massacre Hoax: Trump Fake News In Action?

Given his open mistrust of the “dishonest mainstream media”, is Trump’s Swedish Massacre Hoax a sure sign that he’s already out of touch with reality? 

By: Ringo Bones

With the whole world still reeling after Kellyanne Conway’s Bowling Green Massacre Hoax, people who are already questioning the sanity of President Trump may had earned credence of their claims with the recent “Swedish Massacre” tirade on Twitter as Trump tries to justify his anti-immigrant stance. The Swedish Massacre Hoax was apparently invented by Trump during a campaign-style rally of his supporters in an aircraft hangar in Melbourne, Florida. When former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt Tweeted: “Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound.” It wasn’t long that everyone realized that Trump’s “Swedish Massacre Hoax” is about as real as his presidency. 

President Trump’s bizarre nonexistent terror attack on Swedish soil may have been due to his rejection of other more reliable news media in preference to a conservative far-right news channel called Fox News, where the night before Trump’s Melbourne, Florida rally, he was watching a documentary made by a right-wing demagogue claiming that Swedish crime rates are on the rise because of the Swedish government relaxing its restrictions in accepting Syrian war refugees in 2015. But the truth is crime rates across Sweden had been in decline since 2005. Trump’s war on the “dishonest media” has unforeseen consequences indeed. By often referring to CNN and the BBC, amongst others, as “fake news”, it seems Trump has apparently lost all contact with reality this time. 

Kellyanne Conway’s Bowling Green Massacre Hoax: The Massacre That Never Was?

Given that it forms the bulk of her raison d’être of U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s so-called “Travel Ban”, is Kellyanne Conway’s Bowling Green Massacre Hoax a triumph of President Trump’s obsession with so-called “Alternative Facts”?

By: Ringo Bones 

Looks like U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s obsession with so-called “Alternative Facts” had backfired when her former campaign manager and current Counselor Kellyanne Conway during a press interview defending his proposed “Travel Ban” – which is widely viewed as the notorious “Muslim Ban” – managed to create the so-called “Bowling Green Massacre Hoax”, which allegedly, according to Kellyanne Conway, is a result of a “slip-of-the-tongue”. Despite of this press interview faux-pas, is Kellyanne Conway’s Bowling Green Massacre Hoax has a kernel of truth contained in it? 

Various small-town mom and pop bread-and-breakfast establishments in the United States deep-south region had been quick to exploit the “tourism potential” of Kellyanne Conway’s so-called Bowling Green Massacre incident, the truth is the origin of the now famous “journalistic hoax of 2017” that have since gone viral has a rather mundane origin. During Kellyanne Conway’s press interview in defense of U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s notorious “Muslim Ban”, Conway cites an incident of a supposed massacre perpetrated by a group of “radicalized Muslim-Americans” that happened in Bowling Green, Kentucky. 

But the true origin of Kellyanne Conway’s “Bowling Green Massacre Hoax” was the 2013 Justice Department announcing that it has sentenced two Iraqi citizens living in Bowling Green, Kentucky to federal prison after they confessed to attacking U.S. soldiers in Iraq and assisting Al Qaeda in Iraq by sending money and weapons. In truth, the so-called bloody massacre that Kellyanne Conway cited as an example to defend U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s notorious “Travel Ban” during a press conference actually never happened. Unfortunately, the truth (or was it U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s so-called “Alternative Facts”?) is still powerless to stop unscrupulous tour operators exploiting Kellyanne Conway’s Bowling Green Massacre Hoax even if their town is only coincidentally named Bowling Green - and not Bowling Green, Kentucky – for monetary gain. In truth, Kellyanne Conway’s “Bowling Green Massacre” is about as real as Gene Roddenberry’s Sino-Indian War.

The New York Sun’s Moon Hoax: America's Greatest Journalistic Hoax?

Even though it no longer registers on the consciousness of most everyday Americans this day and age, is the New York Sun’s Moon Hoax still America’s greatest journalistic hoax?

By: Ringo Bones 

Though many of his detractors associate former US President George W. Bush’s search for nonexistent WMD’s in Iraq back in March 2003 as America’s greatest journalistic hoax of the 21^st Century due to the death’s of 5,000 or so young Americans in their prime who undertook in such a fool’s errand, many scholars cite that America’s greatest journalistic hoax happened in the 19^th Century. It may not have the tragic consequences of the March 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom that still affect us to this very day but, still, it did manage to hold that position for over a hundred years. But does the New York Sun's "Moon Hoax" still qualify as one of America's greatest if not the greatest of the journalistic hoaxes then and now? 

Back in 1835, the New York Sun’s “Moon Hoax” had the claim to fame as the most celebrated hoax in American journalism. It originally consisted of a series of articles, allegedly reprinted from the nonexistent Edinburgh Journal of Science, relating to the alleged discovery of life on the moon by an eminent British astronomer.  Through a then new and powerful telescope, the scientist related, that he had been able to make out oceans, beaches, trees, vegetation, bison and goats, cranes and pelicans – and, finally, furry, winged, bat-like moon-men. By the time the fourth installment appeared, the New York Sun – which had then the largest circulation of any newspaper in the world – and rival editors, pretending to have access to the original articles, began to reprint the “original” New York Sun’s series. But then the New York Sun’s senior editor at the time named Editor Day admitted the hoax, which had been originally authored by a bright young man on his staff named Richard Adams Locke. 

Phuc Dat Bich Name Hoax: Facebook’s Fault?

Even though this “name hoax” could not have gone viral but is Facebook to blame?

By: Ringo Bones 

Name hoaxes are not new and as history had told us they tend to get a life of their own – just like Thomas Nast’s Santa Claus. But in today’s fast-paced social media scene, can a social media platform, like Facebook, tend to inadvertently give name hoaxes a life of its own as it goes viral? 

A few days ago, an Australian man of Vietnamese descent who made global headlines after saying he was fighting to use his “real name” on Facebook, admits it was a hoax. The man had claimed Facebook would not allow his real name as could be considered offensive. But he later said on Facebook that his real name was “Joe Carr” (or perhaps Joker). He said what he started as a joke between friends “became a prank that made a fool out of the media.”  

But he said it also brought out the best in people and gave encouragement to people with “truly interesting and idiosyncratic names”. The hoaxer is of Vietnamese origin. His name was given as Phuc Dat Bich – which when properly pronounced in the Vietnamese language, which is a tonal language, it actually sounds like “Phoo Dah Bi”. At present, Facebook have not responded to the BBC and other news organization’s requests for comment. Not to mention most people's lack of knowledge of the Vietnamese language also plays a part.

Ever since Facebook started, it has been used as a platform for political satire criticizing how the Bush administration and other right-leaning conservative groups conduct their “War on Terror” and how they use religion and their almost unlimited monetary resources to ridicule environmentalist crying out their concerns on climate change and global warming. Such grassroots environmental and social justice movements managed to engender “idiosyncratic” accounts on Facebook like Jesus Hitler Christ, GOP Jesus, Climate Change Jesus, Global Warming Jesus, Crude Oil Jesus, White Supremacist Jesus, etc.