Does anyone remember Dr. Simone Gold and the group of COVID-19 contrarian physicians who early in the pandemic branded themselves “America’s Frontline Doctors” (AFLDS) even though none of them were ever truly pandemic frontline doctors? The first time I ever wrote about these grifters was in July 2020, when they held a news conference that went viral in which they promoted the unproven (and at that time increasingly disproven) COVID-19 hydroxychloroquine. The group consisted of founder Dr. Simone Gold and a motley crew of misfit grifters including Dr. Stella “demon sperm” Immanuel and Dr. Joseph Ladapo, a pandemic minimizing antivax doctor who is now, unfortunately, Surgeon General in Florida, where he is making his COVID-19 denial and antivax disinformation official state policy. By 2021, America’s Frontline Doctors were suing over a “coverup” of deaths due to COVID-19 vaccines. Not long after that, AFLDS was caught in grift involving a prescription mill for ivermectin, which is about as effective as hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19, as in not effective. (As I like to say, ideology or not, it’s always also about the grift. Grifters just can’t resist.)
Now, a year later, there’s more hilarity going on at AFLDS that shows grifters turning on each other, which is particularly amusing for this quack group that shills for right wing COVID-19 denial and opposition to public health. In particular, it involves a power struggle between the founder of AFLDS, Dr. Simone Gold, and AFLDS counsel Joey Gilbert. Dr. Gold, as you might or might not be aware of, is also known for appearing at QAnon rallies and all manner of right-wing “anti-lockdown,” antimask, and antivax rallies. Moreover, her Arizona nonprofit, Free Speech Foundation, was started last year with a million-dollar annual budget and fiscal sponsorship from the Tea Party Patriots Foundation.
I first became aware of this power struggle a few days ago, thanks to a Twitter thread that revealed that the group’s attorney was suing America’s Frontline Doctors for misuse of funds, defamation, and more. I’ll embed the first four Tweets in the thread, but it goes on and on, and I’ll discuss it, particularly in light of how this lawsuit over competing grifters has made the news:
A couple of days later, Anna Merlan reported on the internal strife in the group for VICE and MedPage Today also picked up the story.
America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS), the pseudo-medical group that rocketed to pandemic infamy by spreading bad information about COVID, advocating for discredited treatments, fearmongering about vaccines, and attempting to influence state legislation, is suing one of its founders in federal court, months after her release from prison.
Oh, did I forget to mention that Dr. Gold went to prison for having taken part in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol? Unfortunately (and predictably), she was greeted as a hero upon her release a couple of months ago by people like Rep. Louie Gohmert. I would have preferred that she go to prison for fraud, but better a little prison than none at all for her. In any event, her fellow grifters at America’s Frontline Doctors think she’s trying to take back control of their group:
AFLDS filed suit on November 4 against Dr. Simone Gold, accusing her of misappropriating AFLDS funds to buy a $3.6 million home, rent another property, purchase three luxury vehicles, and fund a housekeeper, personal security detail, and thousands of dollars a month in other, unspecified personal expenses. The suit also accuses Gold of tortious interference, claiming she’s seeking to “to take back control of AFLDS and restore herself into a leadership role with the organization.” In September, Gold finished serving almost 60 days in prison on a trespassing charge after she entered the U.S. Capitol during the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
The suit was filed by AFLDS and top official Joseph Gilbert, a former boxer and current attorney who, according to the lawsuit, took over as the group’s chair, CEO, and “Director of Strategy” in February 2022. It offers an unusually frank and detailed look at how much money AFLDS has made pushing discredited COVID cures and bad science, and how much is at stake for those currently fighting for control of the organization.
Quack fight! Quack fight!
Clearly, whatever is going on, this appears to be a power struggle over which set of grifters would run the organization. Dr. Gold, fresh off her martyrdom fighting for “freedom” on January 6, seemed to think that she could take back control of the quack organization that she had founded. After all, why wouldn’t she, given the most excellent lifestyle the group had afforded her?
Per Merlan:
The suit also accuses Gold of using AFLDS funds to buy “a Mercedes Benz Sprinter van, a Hyundai Genesis, and a GMC Denali” for her personal use, as well as paying a personal security officer $12,000 per month and a housekeeper $5,600, “and otherwise spending money for personal items on AFLDS credit cards at a rate of nearly $50,000 per month.” The suit also alleges the home was used by GoldCare employees; GoldCare is a telemedicine service founded by Gold that charges $1,000 per year for individual memberships, and—of course—does not accept insurance.
Righteous bucks for personal security and a housekeeper! Of course it was in Florida, too.
Telemedicine? That’s how AFLDS sold ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine prescriptions last year. It teamed up with a telemedicine company (SpeakWithAnMD.com), which uses Cadence Health as a platform. People who signed up then then paid $90 for a phone consultation with “AFLDS-trained” physicians (grifters) who would prescribe treatments such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin to prevent and treat COVID-19. There’s a caveat, though, namely if if patients ever got the consultation; many customers reported that they’d never received the call after paying. So, basically, a few months after AFLD’s telemedicine grift had been exposed, Dr. Gold apparently decided to start up her own telemedicine service. What could possibly go wrong?
The fight between grifters gets even uglier:
It gets even better. Over at MedPage Today:
Plaintiffs also allege that Gold “currently lives in this home with John Strand, rent free.” Strand is a former underwear model and boyfriend of Gold’s who was arrested with her in connection with the January 6, 2021 insurrection in the U.S. Capitol. She moved with Strand to Florida this year from Los Angeles, where she had been an emergency room physician.
Grifters gonna grift. Always. I have to admit that it struck me as hilarious that Gold has a boyfriend who’s been called a MAGA Derek Zoolander and an insurrectionist underwear model:
Unsurprisingly, Strand was also a participant in the insurrection at the Capitol last year, as you can see in the image above and was reported in Rolling Stone:
The silver loafers he wore on Monday were typical for Strand, who seems to have put more thought into styling himself than his legal defense. He worked as a model and actor prior to the pandemic, scoring contracts with Wilhelmina Models and Envy Models, landing features in industry publications, and appearing in shows like Vanderpump Rules and Breaking Amish: LA. Strand and his abs also scored a spot on the cover of the erotic wolf romance novel Howl For It.
Strand’s focus seemed to have shifted to pushing Covid-19 conspiracy theories after the pandemic began. He served as the spokesperson and creative director for America’s Frontline Doctors, an anti-vax group founded by Simone Gold, who is also his former partner. Strand and Gold were in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, and were among the first throng of rioters to breach the Capitol. In a text message to his brother displayed before the court, Strand bragged that he and Gold were “with the first dozen patriots” to enter the building. “We literally made history just now,” he wrote. Gold, unlike Strand, accepted a plea deal for her role in the riot and in June was sentenced to 60 days in prison. She was released in September.
You can’t make stuff like thus up. At least, Orac can’t. Howl for it, indeed!
Indeed, the grifters together are like a soap opera:
He testified that their relationship was “highly imbalanced” from the beginning, characterizing Gold, who is “quite a few” years older than him, as a bully.
And a grifter among grifters.
Since news of the lawsuit broke, open warfare has broken out over at AFLD, with the two sides issuing competing press releases on company letterhead.
For instance, here’s a press release from November 2 on the AFLDS website:
Dr. Simone Gold, Prominent Doctor, Lawyer, Founder of AFLDS and Challenger of the Covid Narrative, Presents Board Investigation and Review of Internal Safeguards to Ensure the Fiscal Health of AFLDS Going Forward
Tucson, ARIZONA – recently returning from a hyper-partisan political incarceration, Dr. Simone Gold reaffirmed her leadership role as Founder, President, and Board Chairman of America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) at the company meeting this week. Due to the hostile environment that AFLDS was operating in because of Gold’s persistent challenges to the government’s coronavirus propaganda, in the Spring of this year Gold discussed with her fellow Board members the possibility of her transitioning away from the Board in the best interest of the organization.
Those discussions were never legally actualized, however, with Gold nevertheless admirably performing her professional obligations despite organizational assurances to her remaining unfulfilled, amidst increasing government and media opposition.
For months, as Gold worked through her numerous personal and professional challenges and subsequent imprisonment, the following scripture was one of two that sustained her – Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Although Gold continues to rely on most of her management team to continue the day-to-day operations of AFLDS as she returns to resume her role as Board Chairman, Gold regrettably announced today that Joseph Gilbert, Esq., a board member as well as a paid consultant at AFLDS for some time, was being investigated for directing inappropriate expenditures, hirings, and firings for his personal benefit. Gold stated: “It is with great sadness that I must announce that Mr. Gilbert has repeatedly acted unethically, exhibiting a clear pattern of inappropriate and damaging behavior…including numerous instances of self-dealing and threats made to employees of financial retaliation and termination if they failed to comply with his demands…AFLDS will not tolerate corruption, nor allow a culture of fear and bullying.” An internal audit and investigation are currently underway to review financial records and board actions taken while Gold was indisposed in prison.
“Prominent Doctor, Lawyer, Founder of AFLDS and Challenger of the Covid Narrative”? Quoting scripture as though God Himself had appointed her president of AFLD? Talk about a hyper-inflated sense of one’s own abilities and self-worth!
Then,, three days ago, this appeared on the AFLDS website:
AFLDS President and Board Chairman Dr. Simone Gold Continues to Direct Board Investigation and Formal Response to Recent Legal Complaint Based on Demonstrably False Claims
Tucson, ARIZONA – after returning from a hyper-partisan political incarceration, Dr. Simone Gold remains a target of attacks against her credibility and leadership as Founder, President, and Board Chairman of America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS). A result of Gold’s outspoken opposition to government propaganda and abridgments to civil liberties, the latest in a continual stream of disparaging press includes a legal complaint filed by a disgruntled Board member who was recused from their position pending an internal investigation of ethics complaints filed weeks earlier.
The legal complaint is founded on several demonstrably false claims and reveals why AFLDS must separate itself from the persons perpetrating this action. Online reports of this complaint have misrepresented the action as being initiated by AFLDS against Gold, whereas the persons filing this complaint are improperly representing themselves as active agents of the organization.
Again, all I could think was: Quack fight! Make no mistake, there are few things that I like more than a good quack fight, particularly when the quacks involved are such grifters. Meanwhile, Dr. Gold has been keeping up the attacks, for instance, in an article on the AFLDS news site entitled America’s Frontline Doctors founder again tyrannized – in staged embezzlement. It’s not credited to anyone by name, just to Frontline News Staff, whoever that is.
The whole thing is quite amusing to read, particularly the end, which finishes with a flourish of “questions” about Gilbert designed to portray him as so Machiavellian that he had entrapped and tricked Dr. Gold:
Did Gilbert plan all along to purchase a property for AFLDS and recommend that Dr. Gold live in it as part of her compensation package only to later claim that he discovered that Dr. Gold embezzled funds to purchase that property?
Sounds…plausible, (Not really.)
My favorite, however, is:
Why did Gilbert try to remove the doctor who founded America’s Frontline Doctors and replace her with a board of non-doctors when the very name of the organization indicates that it is run by doctors?
If man evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?
I don’t know who’s telling the truth and who’s lying here, and it really doesn’t matter because both sides are awful and AFLDS is a quack medical group designed to spread (and profit off of) COVID-19 disinformation. Most likely, both sides are lying about some things and telling the truth about others.
Another thing that I don’t know for sure is where the balance between belief in ineffective “miracle cures” for COVID-19 and grift falls. I’ve been writing about quacks for nearly 20 years now, and my experience has led me to believe that most, if not all, quacks at least start out believing in their quackery. Sure, there are exceptions, such as Kevin Trudeau, who wrote Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You To Know About and almost certainly was in it for the grift all along. However, most quacks do tend to start out believing. Look at Stanislaw Burzynski, for instance. In the early 1970s he started out doing research that led him (falsely) to believe that he had discovered peptides that were part of the body’s natural anticancer defense system and that he had discovered a highly effective cancer treatment. In 1976 left his university and started practicing, using his “antineoplastons” to treat cancer patients because he was rash, impatient, and disgusted with the slowness of the process of clinical research necessary to determine whether his antineoplastons were effective and safe or not. Over the 45 years since then, he charged more and more for his “cure,” becoming wealthy in the process. He still believed (after all, he kept trying to do clinical trials—badly—to show that his treatment worked) but he also profited.
So it appears to be with America’s Frontline Doctors. I have little doubt that many of them, probably including Dr. Gold, started out believing that hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, and all the other “miracle cures” for COVID-19 that they were pushing worked. Also, as I just mentioned, they were prone to believing such things for the simple reason that, if miracle cures for COVID-19 existed, it would help them argue that neither lockdowns nor mask and vaccine mandates are necessary. So when did belief turn into grift? Who knows? In retrospect, I now suspect that it didn’t take long after their infamous hydroxychloroquine press conference in the summer of 2020. Now, they give every appearance of being all about the grift, with belief being secondary. For snake oil salesmen, it usually is about the belief (or at least starts out that way), but it’s also always about the grift, and Dr. Gold is a grifter who loves the product of her grift.
What I also know is that this sort of conflict is to be expected whenever an organization made up of grifters starts to make real money. It’s very clear to me that America’s Frontline Doctors started out being primarily about the politics. It was a group designed to provide a patina of medical credibility to cover right wing ideologues who wanted to block nonpharmaceutical public health interventions against the pandemic, such as “lockdowns” (although nowhere in the US was ever under a true lockdown) and masks. Then, being grifters, they discovered that their grift based on ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and other unproven and ineffective remedies was highly profitable, while their alignment with right-wing pundits and politicians greatly facilitated that grift and profit.
Now, as grifters often do, they’ve fallen into conflict, dividing themselves into factions, and have started to consume themselves and the organization they formed. I will admit that it’s glorious to watch in the short term. However, I fear that the result will be more grifter groups splintering off from the original.
46 replies on “It’s still always about the grift—and the grifters”
Lol 🤣 Pharma shills complaining about ‘grift’ is magical.
That fact that you don’t like the dishonesty of the con people you support doesn’t matter john: it’s more telling that despite all of your complaints about the dishonesty and corruption in the “pharma” industry you never have any real data to support your rants.
But then you have a shitty track record concerning what you think data is.
America’s Front Lawn Dog Turds
But johnlabarge, but why does Orac ** not have a Substack account to monetise his work like many alties do?
It’s an easy way to get money and from some of the crap I’ve read there, anyone can do it.
There are other ways to make money off of websites as well.
** or any of his followers/ regulars who write
I do have a Substack account. However, I have not used it to publish anything yet for a number of reasons. First, I don’t like a lot of the associations given the number of COVID-19 cranks and outright fascists who are monetizing their work there. Second, it’s ugly AF. (I mean, seriously, can’t Substack invest some of its profits to make it possible to make the
blogs“newsletters” there at least as attractive as this bare bones WordPress installation that I use for this blog?) Finally, trying to monetize my writing would mean that most of you wouldn’t get to read any of my posts reserved for paid subscribers. True, Substack doesn’t require you to monetize your writing, and I could just make every post free to everyone, but again go back to the first two reasons to explain why I only use my Substack account for its convenient features that let me organize and keep track of good Substacks that I follow and read on a regular basis.@ Orac:
My main point to johnlabarge was that you aren’t in it for the money- it actually costs you money.
You have other ways of making money on-line like ads.
JLB toots again with the Grifter Marching Band playing a Grifter favorite — ‘You’re the Grifter because I say you are!” and “I got the words to make it look legit”.
Yeah, everyone is on the conspiracy but you of course.
Sure sure. If you get vaccinated you won’t get Covid. We haven’t tested that, but it sure sounds good…
Which nobody said john, and which has absolutely fuck-all-nothing to do with your first comment.
Your ignorant troll game is especially weak today.
Haha yeah no one said it would prevent infection in your special world.
And again, you twist what was actually said.
NOBODY has said that the vaccine will drop your odds of getting COVID to 0%. What WAS said was that the vaccine would significantly lower your odds of getting a breakthrough infection, significantly lower your odds of needing hospitalisation if you got a breakthrough infection, and significantly lower your odds of dying from COVID if you needed hospitalisation.
Nobody has ever said vaccines are 100% effective. You are making a straw man argument.
Biden said it.
Joe Biden said that vaccines are 100% effective?
When and where did he say that? Link to a full quote so I know you’re not twisting his words.
You know who could figure all this out? Simone Gold’s Probation Officer.
I’m tempted to donate a kilo or two of crystal meth and a great big crate of knobbly sticks and lengths of chain to the cause.
I especially like the fact that they have embroidered lab coats. Do they have an “AFLD” clinic somewhere? This is almost as bad (As Orac has pointed out before) as wearing scrubs on your TV talk show. (I wonder if Oz would have won if he would have worn scrubs to all his events?)
As an actual frontline doctor, that was one of the first things that made me think “quack quack quack” nobody wears those fomites except people who want to cosplay
Years ago I was on a flight with a guy in scrubs (but thankfully not a lab coat) and my first thought was “eww” and my second thought was “where are you going to put your phone, those things don’t have pockets”.
(Confession: I wore scrubs as pajamas for years, because they’re comfy.)
Scrubs have the best pockets! At least nurse’s scrubs do.
I’ve only worn surgical (I think) scrubs which had one tiny breast pocket, clean room scrubs (no pockets, but why bother because you’re just going to put a bunny suit on over it) and animal facility scrubs, which also had no pockets to reduce the transmission of fomites (we weren’t even allowed to bring paper into that facility, and they wanted everyone to shower in Dial Gold).
It’s good to know that nurses at least get good pockets!
“.. $3.6 million home in Naples..”
Are alties flocking there?
I know about this place because it is one of Null’s bases ( see his sites or Rational Wiki for images ): according to city data, the average age of residents is 67! and their annual income is well over 100K USD. If you look at real estate sites, it is loaded with homes for sale- ALWAYS – some very expensive.
It was recently hit by a disastrous hurricane that devastated properties near the ocean. Null brags about what a wonderful place it is and how he runs into emigres from NY/NJ/CA nearly every day who are also thrilled with the place. Sayer JI lives nearby in a somewhat less affluent town- also battered by the storm. Florida is adored by health freedom advocates since Covid due to the governor and Dr Ladapo.
In other news:
Del ( The Highwire, yesterday) featured his friend in the Senate who was re-elected, Ron Johnson. He predicts that Rand Paul will lead investigations of vaccines, lockdowns and pharma crimes.
Yes, sadly if Oz had been elected he wouldn’t have even been close to the worst MD in the senate on public health matters, and actually relatively sane (only relatively, mind you) in comparison to other GOP legislators like Johnson and MAGA members of the House.
WA District 3 GOP candidate Joe Kent — who has called for Tony Fauci to be tried for murder (not sure if for creating COVID, creating killer vaccines, or both) — is trailing, but closing the gap in a tight race that’s too close to call. Then there’s anti-COVID magic mist guy Herschel Walker heading for a run-off in GA. It’s (almost) enough to make a total atheist like me pray for Reverend Warnock.
Sadly, I can’t disagree with you that, had Dr. Oz been elected, he’d probably have been one of the more “reasonable” Trump-endorsed legislators. The question, of course, is “Reasonable” compared to what? In any event, Oz has always been part true believer, part grifter. However, the grifter part of him has been steadily growing relative to the true believer part since at least 2008, to the point where I don’t know how much, if any, true believer is left.
The Tucson/AZ connection here smells of AAPS oversight/alliance.
I despise these people.
Such a connection, if it is found to exist, wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
The surprise to me was that AFLDS had that much money to misappropriate. I find it hard to imagine there was that much profit in their online HCQ and ivermectin sales, and no matter how profitable they were, that much of that would accrue to AFLDS the organization, as opposed to payments going to SpeakWithAnMD.com and the “AFLDS-trained” physician/grifters doing the “consultations”. Well, I did a little clicking and got to a couple pertinent financial details Orac left out.
AFLDS is (hold the laughter or cries of anguish) a non-profit, charitable organization chartered in Arizona, and Gilbert’s lawsuit against Gold lists the plaintiff as “FREE SPEECH FOUNDATION, INC.d/b/a AMERICA’S FRONTLINE DOCTORS, an Arizona nonprofit corporation, and JOSEPH GILBERT.” The suit refers to Gold’s primary function within the organization as “the ‘face’ of AFLDS… using her marketing skills to raise money for AFLDS.” It then goes on to make “tortious interference with business relationships claims” against Gold including that she “intentionally and without justification interfered with Plaintiff AFLDS’ relationships with its donors and prospective donors.”
From this, I surmise the gravy train Gold is siphoning off is the largesse of the Tea Party Patriots Foundation and other billionaire-backed right-wing political organizations funneled through the Free Speech Foundation for the purpose of supporting the (not) Frontline Docs COVID denial activities in general. Following that, my guess is that the telemedicine prescription scam was less about raking in big bucks than PR, displaying the commitment of AFLDS to (charitably, natch) provide the good freedom loving citizens of the US to those miracle cures for COVID the pharma-Fauci-fascists were repressing in favor of those horrid gene-therapy 5G-nanobot vaccines. [yes, that’s /irony]
Oh, there are more connections between AFLDS and far right dark money than you know. I just didn’t have time to get into them in this post, although I probably should have linked to a source listing most of the known ones:
https://counterdisinformationproject.substack.com/p/americas-frontline-doctors-report
I suppose there’s some irony in your linking to post on Substack outlining a vast (right wing) conspiracy theory, but hey, I totally believe that’s how the Koch-head billionaires roll. : – )
I was a bit surprised, but then not surprised, to see ALEC involved in birthing and funding AFLDS, given that the pharmas have a history of significant financial support of ALEC. I wonder what it would do to Labarge’s head if he knew he was in thrall to actual pharma shills, but facts ain’t gettin’ in there, so I won’t be expecting a Scanners scene brought to life, or anything.
Not all Substack is bad. There’s actually some very high quality content there if you know what to look for. Prof. Jason Stanley, for instance, writes there. (He’s the philosophy professor who wrote an excellent primer on fascism that I’ve referenced before.”) The problem is, because Substack has no filter when it comes to misinformation, there’s also a lot of quackery, antivaccine propaganda, and disinformation there too.
“Dr. Simone Gold, Challenger Of The Covid Narrative”
I can picture those words on the back of her super-heroine cape, as it ripples in the wind.
Grifting never grows old,
Rewarding docs that are bold,
..But with a mansion too glam,
..And a boy toy, hot damn!
Quacks turn their backs on Gold.
When I see this,
“Dr. Simone Gold, Prominent Doctor, Lawyer, Founder of AFLDS and Challenger of the Covid Narrative”
I can’t help seeing this (from Good Omens),
“the Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is called Dragon, Prince of This World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan and Lord of Darkness”
Bringer of Rain…Slayer of Theokoles…
Auomatic, systematic and hydromatic, no less.
In related news….
Bill Maher admitted he was wrong about the red wave. He probably had no choice as his guests were progressive elected guys and a political reporter who would have schooled him well . He underestimated the power of women, minorities and youth.
He scoffed earlier about trans people, “woke-ism” and student loan amnesty being paid for by the working class – sounding much like the right wing – but these issues probably helped stave off a tsunami.
HOWEVER he did go on about mandates/ vaccines related for Covid and the Colorado governor, after saying that PH measures were necessary because of hospitals being nearly full, partially agreed that later on, it was the responsibility of individuals.
Philadelphia Inquirer: Gen Z and younger millennials tipped the balance especially in Pennsylvania and Michigan.
POC certainly helped as well.
A story is going around that some conservatives want to raise the voting age to 21. What! Take away a right that was established over 50 years ago! Can’t happen!
They must be very afraid of the future as GenZ increases its hold and POC become the majority.
The idea that demographic changes are a harbinger of inevitable progressive victory reflects massive overconfidence at best and is delusional at worst.
https://time.com/6142138/young-voters-unhappy-washington/
Younger voters as part of a coalition with ( some) women, POC,
( some) college grads, non-religious, city dwellers, LGBTQA etc.
What worries me is that I have four close, long-term friends who were never-Trumper Republicans who wrote in another candidate in 2016 and now seem to have been drawn into the black hole.
One was arguing with me about the media lying about Kari Lake after I sent him a video of her saying the election was stolen. He used to be a completely rational, reasonable guy. I think these are the folks Maher is in tune to.
There are a lot of people in this country, a LOT, who don’t want what the Democrats are selling-especially on social issues. I work around them, I treat them, I live next door to them.
These senate races were won with the victor getting like 48.9% and the loser getting 48.2% or whatever. If it had gone 78% to 21% you could argue the Democrats are on the right course.
Besides the money, Gold at least is likely also motivated by the power and attention.
I need to read this lawsuit and address the legalities, but it won’t be this week: I will be prioritizing finishing grading students’ last midterms before their exam period. But I will say going in that while usually defamation is a non-starter for these kind of public personas, in this case she made specific claims about Joey Gilbert and he may actually have evidence she knows they’re not true. It will be interesting to follow. I think Gilbert is a limited public figure here, because of his twitter activity on these issues.
Strand (fitting) does have mad skillz — I guess you have to pull the right one and then put it back again before the music stops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmKp9OkbtYM
Oh, oh. I better not poke fun at Simone’s bo else she sic lin wood on me: https://twitter.com/BarrettWilson6/status/1289000840192237569
Just as an addendum, Simone Gold gets a humorous ribbing from The Young Turks in this segment.
https://youtu.be/gssanXiMgfM
[…] made his name promoting hydroxychloroquine as a cure-all for COVID-19 with the grifting right wing conspiracy group known as America’s Frontline Doctors, and then pivoted to opposing in essence any COVID-19 […]
[…] really frontline, but all of whom were into the selling of all manner of quackery, including an ivermectin telehealth prescription mill and then later degenerated into legal wrangling between quacks and grifters over control of the […]
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[…] it because they embraced pseudoscience, quackery, and conspiracy theories. Many of them embraced COVID grift in a huge way. As I like to say, it might be about ideology and belief at first, but very often it […]
[…] Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who, not coincidentally, was a member of the hydroxychloroquine-pushing grifting group of doctors known as America’s Frontline Doctors. Dr. Ladapo, as you might recall, was appointed to lead […]