Snopes Daily Debunker - A Snopes Exclusive: The True Origins of the Anti-Lockdown Protests

A Snopes Exclusive: The True Origins of the Anti-Lockdown Protests Amid COVID-19 coronavirus stay-at-home orders in the U.S., Snopes writers Alex Kasprak and Bethania Palma pieced together "a sometimes second-by-second chronology" of the Facebook users who shared invites to anti-lockdown rallies in one hotspot: Michigan. By combining that data with “hundreds of pages of campaign-finance records and local news reports,” the writers demonstrated that the push came from “a small circle of fervent activists who have been protesting almost constantly since well before the onset of the pandemic.” The ladder of players in this investigation rises all the way to the family of U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Numerous protests have created “the perception of widespread discontent with public health measures largely supported by the American populace, and are part of a campaign playbook self-evidently resulting in an increasingly radicalized base of Trump supporters as the 2020 general election approaches.” Read more

 

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In the News Pompeo Denies Retaliation But Won’t Explain Watchdog Ouster Pompeo told reporters that he was unaware of any investigation into allegations that he may have mistreated staffers by instructing them to run personal errands for him and his wife. Read more   Trump Flouts the Experts, Even in His Own Government Trump appears to be disregarding what has long been considered the special responsibility of the American president to set an example for the nation. Read more   Johnson & Johnson to Stop Selling Talc-Based Baby Powder in US, Canada Johnson & Johnson is ending sales of its iconic talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder in the U.S. and Canada, where demand has dwindled amid thousands of lawsuits claiming it has caused cancer. Read more   Cash, Long a Refuge in Uncertain Times, Now Under Suspicion No longer a thing to be shoved mindlessly into a pocket, tucked into a worn wallet, or thrown casually on a kitchen counter, money's status has changed during the virus era — perhaps irrevocably. Read more   Judge: Salvage Firm Can Recover Titanic’s Telegraph Machine A federal judge in Virginia has ruled that a salvage firm can retrieve the Marconi wireless telegraph machine that broadcast distress calls from the sinking Titanic ocean liner. Read more

 

Staff Pick Is a Testicular Blow Exponentially More Painful Than Childbirth? There are no real winners in this contest. Read more

 

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