FEVER DREAMS

Inside the Church of Bleach Drinkers

A scammy father-son duo have been peddling the dangerous substance as a “cure” for COVID-19 and other ills under the guise of religious freedom.

So, remember when President Donald J. Trump insanely told the United States that injecting yourself with bleach might be a cure for the coronavirus? It turns out that there’s a whole slew of wackos who have been promoting bleach drinking—disguised under the name of “miracle mineral solution”—for a range of health problems long before #45 took office and let more than 400,000 Americans die from COVID on his watch.

Daily Beast reporters Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng walk us through the truly terrifying world of extremist bleach enthusiasts—who, surprise surprise, have found a following among the QAnon crowd—on the latest episode of their Fever Dreams podcast. That includes a scammy father-son duo who tried to form a church of bleach so they could claim it was their religious right to sell their chlorine dioxide snake oil. The feds didn’t buy it and now they’ve been indicted (after a brief stint on the lam in South America) in the biggest takedown yet of these dangerous bleach peddlers.

Speaking of QAnon, erstwhile 8chan troll Ron Watkins—who has been credibly fingered as ‘Q’—has a new obsession: the Arizona recount. Oh, you thought the election was over and settled? Think again, libs. For the fearless Republicans of the Copper State have gone and hired a virtually unknown firm—with the very professional name of Cyber Ninjas—to scrutinize ballots in the Democrat-friendly county of Maricopa. Tune in to listen to Will Sommer explain why a mysterious UV light and the various shirt colors of election officials are now being religiously parsed by Watkins and his ilk.

FEVER DREAMS

He Was Partners With ‘QAnon.’ Now He Wants Them Arrested.

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As goes Major League Baseball, so goes the nation. And our podcast guest David Roth (not of Van Halen fame, but equally badass), walks us through how anti-vaxx stubbornness among some players is causing bigtime chaos for the ball clubs. Plus, don’t miss Roth’s madcap account of what it’s like to make up a fake Trump quote—about a fake book the mogul never wrote—only to have the then-future leader of the free world fall for said fake quote with a midnight retweet.

Listen to Fever Dreams on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.

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