OHIO – While offering a mask for Americans looking for a breathable alternative to mainstream face masks, an Ohio company is also taking on cancel culture – and winning.
At Fake Mask USA, shoppers can find two versions of earloop face masks, The Incognito Fake Mask, and The Offensively Fake Mask.
The Incognito version features dark mesh fabric to cover the nose and mouth. The description reads:
“Guess what? Cloth masks don’t do anything. Neither does this masterpiece. But at least you can breathe now.
“The Fake Face Mask is the most breathable, comfortable face covering on the market! This version provides incredible breathability while still giving the illusion that it is a real mask.
“Great for ultra Karen environments such as airplanes, banks, PTA meetings, etc.”
@VitalVegas I hope those mask mandates around the pool are pulled back soon. Not looking forward to that next month. I do have a great #fakemaskusa to bring in case 😂 pic.twitter.com/6Cdoxv7cDD
— ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ (@Tank5280) April 8, 2021
The Offensively Fake version features lighter, nearly invisible mesh covering the nose and mouth. Its description reads:
“This masterpiece is 99.99% breathable and 100% guaranteed to piss people off!
“The Offensively Fake Face Mask takes breathability to a whole new level – it’s almost like there’s nothing there at all!
A gaiter version is also available, and in addition, the company offers other items such as T-shirts and window clings.
Please help out the good people at #FakeMaskUSA. It’s the only mask I’ve ever worn to go into a store. Their claim: “it’s just as worthless as any other mask for a virus- but it gets you in stores) – as you can imagine, the Ohio-based company is cancelled left and right. Help- pic.twitter.com/Ux5jeZwlV8
— 𝔻𝕣𝕃𝕪𝕟𝕟𝔽𝕪𝕟𝕟 🇺🇸 👩🏽⚕️🧬💊🥼🩺🦠🌿 (@LynnFynn3) March 27, 2021
The website indicates that the purpose of the masks is to take on oppressive governmental policies and allow freedom for the wearer.
In its “About Us” section, the site explains:
“Your mayor is not your king. Your governor is not your king. If you were the subject to a king, you would smite him as our forefathers did 200 some years ago.
“The Fake Face Mask is the sword of the oppressed.
“Free yourself from suffocation and reclaim your oxygen.”
The page continues:
“But really, we’re just a few dudes from Ohio on a mission to destroy cancel culture and help people breathe better.”
We at Law Enforcement Today were able to land an exclusive interview with one of those “dudes from Ohio,” a co-founder of the company.
Due to death threats, this entrepreneur prefers to keep his name out of the spotlight.
The company owner told us that the founders of Fake Mask USA are Marine Corps veterans who achieved extensive, successful entrepreneurial experience with Internet business ventures during the last six years.
He added:
“We knew a thing or two about making Internet listings and websites, and so we tried selling [the masks], and next thing you know, we couldn’t make them fast enough.”
They were able to find a good manufacturer fairly easily, as companies had been quickly set up to make cloth masks in the face of an N95 shortage and high demand for alternative facewear.
This guy is a marketing genius! Only mask I’ll ever wear again❤️ #TikTok https://t.co/Hex0AH8QcT
— Jake (@im_justjake) March 30, 2021
Our source continued:
“We took one of those companies that had already been set up to manufacture masks and we said, we need you to make one slightly obnoxious change.
“The next day we had a thousand of them already, because the guy was just ready, he was already set up to pump something like this out.”
And “pumping out” was necessary, as sales quickly skyrocketed. The company was set up in December of 2020, and by March 5, they reported sales of 75,000 masks.
By March 17, they had sold over 100,000, and as of now, they have sold approximately 115,000 masks.
As the owners indicated on their “About Us” page, quoted above, they are about more than facial freedom. They are taking a stand against cancel culture as well.
The co-owner explained:
“We ourselves have been cancelled countless times. We can’t advertise our brand on billboards, we can’t advertise it on television ads.”
In addition, Paypal refuses to do business with them.
Also, two website hosting platforms have shut them down “because they did not agree with [their] product,” and Facebook has shut down three different pages for the same reason.
Refusing to be silenced, the owners have implemented successful ways to get around cancellation.
Our source noted:
“We’re done with cancel culture, but now that we’ve found a way that people cannot cancel, and we’ve been able to do this extremely profitably, we’re winning. Finally.
“So we’ve been fighting this battle against being cancelled for months and months and months, and we just got a stronghold.”
They moved their social media presence to TikTok “because it’s less regulated,” and created humorous, tongue-in-cheek videos about their product. TikTok is reporting nearly six million views of their videos.
@fakemaskusa
They also implemented widespread advertising via airplane banners, since billboards and television were off-limits.
Their first foray into airplane advertising was in the city of Columbus in March. The company hired five airplanes to fly over the city with banners that displayed their website link in addition to phrases such as:
“Your governor is a trashball,”
“Cancel Deez Nutz,” and
“Your mayor is a trashball.”
Our source told us:
“We’re flying all these airplanes around, and even with no event, and no context as to why they were flying at all, it was just a massive success.”
Anti-@MikeDeWine banner over Columbus: “Your governor is a trashball” pic.twitter.com/CZIuP37vuH
— Jeremy Pelzer (@jpelzer) March 27, 2021
After receiving praise and requests from Cleveland residents for the airplane banners, the next stop for the airplane advertising was Cleveland, during the Cleveland Indians’ season opener on April 5.
The Cleveland Indians are continuing to distance themselves from, or in other words, cancel, “American Indian” symbolism and the Chief Wahoo logo. The team recently announced a ban on fan dress that includes “headdresses and face paint styled in a way that references or appropriates American Indian cultures and traditions.”
The co-founder told us:
“[T]he people of Cleveland reached out to us and were just like, we saw what you did in Columbus, that was really funny, can you cook something up, like maybe can you cook up some Chief Wahoo stuff for us?”
And cook it up, they did, with banners again saying “cancel Deez Nutz” and calling the governor a trashball, as well as “Chief Wahoo did your mom.”
The co-owner notes that after sifting through Facebook and Twitter responses to the banners, “there was a lot of chatter about it, which is how we know it was working.”
He added:
“Really what makes the sale at the end of the day is documenting the publicity stuff that we do to get around the cancel culture and then posting it to some sort of social media like TikTok, and if it’s an entertaining enough video, and people support our message enough, they will find out who we are and go to the website to make a purchase.
“So they want to see planes flying over their city.”
The popularity of Fake Mask USA and its messaging is not only evident in the social media feedback and the massive sales, but also in customers’ willingness to do a little extra to support the venture.
The co-owner told us:
“We’ve been entrepreneurs for six years, but this company has been alive for 4-5 months.
“I have never seen the kind of love from the customers for Fake Mask USA, like this, ever before. It’s unbelievable, the amount of support that we have.”
He added:
“So there’s an option on the back end of our website where you can buy us a beer. They’re speaking with their money.
“They’re buying us $50 worth of beer a day, it’s like we don’t even know what to do with all the beers, because we do actually go buy beers from local breweries with it, and it’s just getting to the point where we don’t even know what to do with all the beer that the customers buy.”
He went on to say:
“So those are customers speaking with their money, but we also got an influx of love emails. They’ll hit the contact us form, just saying I love what you’re doing and I want to support you somehow, what’s the best way?”
They had some pretty good ones in Columbus last last week
— Rose (@Rose04933133) April 5, 2021
The co-owner continued:
“Or, holy cow, you guys, I am forced to wear a mask at my job, and I work outside in the Metro parks, and I have to wear a mask all day outside, but I don’t know how I could do it if I didn’t have a breathable mask.”
Our entrepreneur source projects that “we are on track to probably do $3 to 4 million in revenue by the end of 2021.”
Not all the response has been favorable, as one might expect.
Our source noted:
“It has been extremely polarizing….
“I do have to do things like keep my name off of publications because of death threats….
“Just the most heinous things you could ever imagine come out of some people’s mouths.”
One commenter emailed:
“Hey pieces of sh*t I will make sure you a**holes are dead. I hope if any of you have children, that you all get covid and f***ing rot in hell.
“And then I hope your dead daughters f***ing body gets raped in front of you as you gasp for air. F***ing pieces of sh*t.”
Another wrote:
“I truly pray someone takes all you f***ers out.”
Another said:
“You’re truly a c***sucking scum f*** and I hope you get covid and infect your erlderly (sic) parents and they die and then you die.”
After sharing these threats to “cancel” his family members physically, the co-founder said:
“Like, geez, man, I get it, you don’t like us, but, you want to promote murdering? Promote rape over it? You know what I mean?
“It’s just, which one of these is the lesser of two evils, right? The guy that’s making a mockery of it or the one that’s trying to murder entire families?”
Don't wear masks, but if you go to that place where you have to…. get the #FakeMaskUSA https://t.co/HirK9pnJzK
— Trump 45 🇺🇲🦅🙏 (@Trump_Train_45) March 30, 2021
Vicious attacks and threats have not slowed the company down, however.
Our source noted:
“I think one thing I can say for certain is that if you want to be a success, you can’t walk in the middle any more.”
As for the future, the company plans to roll with their momentum and continue facing cancel culture head-on.
The co-owner stated:
“Aside from the masks, like I said, we’re going to take the leverage that we have as a successful company that’s selling breathable masks, and we are going to turn all of those guns and aim them at the cancel culture pandemic.
“T-shirts that are against cancel culture, jewelry against cancel culture, bottle openers against cancel culture, it’s just never going to end. We need to be able to fuel the message.
“If we’re going to continue flying banners across the country, which we are absolutely going to do, we’ve taken over Columbus, we’ve taken over Cleveland…”
#FakeMaskUSA They canceled us…again. on Vimeo if you saw the anti Dewine planes around Columbus thank this guy! https://t.co/Vc8C9YtjQv
— HoneyBadger_498 (@498Honeybadger) April 1, 2021
He added:
“As long as we have the support of the American people, we are going to keep doubling down and you won’t be able to look outside without one of our planes flying overhead.”
Fake Mask USA’s co-founder has the following message for the American people:
“If you are fed up with cancel culture, and you support me and my American company, we will continue. We will wage a war on cancel culture like the American people have never seen.”
—
Company gets death threats – and explosive sales – after launching ‘I identify as being vaccinated’ ‘passports’
As the Biden administration works with private companies to develop a COVID-19 “vaccine passport,” one startup is taking a tongue-in-cheek approach to the potential requirement of proof of vaccine, and it is offering a patriotic faux “passport” for Americans who identify as vaccinated.
According to the Washington Post, the Biden White House has been coordinating efforts of government agencies and private companies to develop a vaccine passport system that is supposedly to assist in returning the country to “normalcy.”
The passports are reportedly expected to be free to consumers and in the form of a smartphone application or a printable version, complete with a scannable code to enable access to areas requiring it.
The Post reports that there are at least 17 proposed passport initiatives.
The anticipated requirement to prove vaccinated status has, of course, been a hotly contested issue, with many seeing vaccine passports as an intrusive onslaught against freedoms Americans enjoy.
Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida and Governor Greg Abbott of Texas have both issued orders banning businesses from requiring proof of vaccination.
Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts has also openly declared his opposition to the passports, as has South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. Arkansas, Montana, and Ohio are anticipated to take a similar stance.
The @joebiden #CovidPassport proposal is one of the most un American ideas in our nation’s history. We as Americans should oppose this oppression.#freedom
— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) March 30, 2021
Although Dr. Anthony Fauci has recently indicated that the federal government will not be a “leading element” in the arena of the vaccine passport, some areas have already proceeded in accordance with the work the Biden administration has been coordinating, and have implemented vaccine passports.
According to CBS News, New York has a voluntary vaccine passport program that uses a phone app to verify vaccination status. The app shares vaccination information via scan when the user enters a business requiring a vaccine.
In addition, CBS also reports that California will soon be implementing a new policy wherein event venues are permitted to require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test for entry.
One company’s answer to this apparent overreach into private medical information and the squelching of individual freedoms has been to create a faux COVID-19 vaccination “passport,” complete with messaging about freedom and patriotism.
American Freedom Passport offers on their website a customized vaccination “passport” card and a vaccination “passport” book.
The website clearly notes that these are “tongue-in-cheek” offerings, adding:
“This is not meant to actually try and misrepresent yourself as having been vaccinated for COVID-19. Let’s not be confused with those people.
“They are the people who wear masks alone in their Prius and wear condoms alone in bed at night.”
Requiring Americans to show proof of vaccination, or a ‘vaccine passport,’ in order to engage in society is outrageous and un-American. This isn’t about containing a virus, but is just another dangerous idea from the Left in their quest for more power and control.
— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) April 5, 2021
Calling on potential buyers to “‘identify’” as being vaccinated today and “let’s save America,” the website points out that those who wish to identify as having received the vaccine should be able to do so, in accordance with the logic of today.
The site goes on to say:
“Oh, you want to stick me with a needle? I’ll tell you where to “stick it”.
“Here’s the thing. They all screamed “my body, my choice” – so let’s make a choice.
“If you can put on a wig and pretend to be a woman, we can carry this “passport” and pretend to be vaccinated.”
The website further declares:
“This is a passport for those of us who “identify” as being vaccinated. For those of us who are sick and tired of being told what to do with our bodies.
“And for the growing number of Americans who are just… done.”
American Freedom Passport takes additional jabs at illogic in the pro forced masking, pro vaccine requirement culture, saying:
“Let’s open America back up!
“Sick of being told small businesses are super spreaders but big box stores are safe?
“That church is dangerous but liquor stores aren’t?
“That the ‘rona won’t bite if you’re eating at a restaurant?
“Get your ‘passport!’”
The website’s home page continues:
“Time to end the confusion!
“Confused on how you’ll get the ‘rona walking the wrong way down a grocery store aisle?
“Wondering where the flu went?
“Not sure where common sense and logic went?
“The ‘passport’ makes the problems disappear.”
One of the company’s offerings is a Customized Vaccination “Passport” Card featuring a spot for the recipient’s name. It lists nationality as “Unapologetically American,” race as “Human,” and sex as “There Are Only Two.”
Patriotic images are also featured, including Mount Rushmore with former President Trump’s face added, “because that’s where it belongs.”
“Evil triumphs when good men do nothing,” reads the caption for the Mount Rushmore image.
The other item is a Vaccination “Passport” Book, which features the same imagery along with additional patriotic pictures.
The inside of the “passport” book displays the same demographic information as the card, along with spots for stamps, the preamble to the United States Constitution, and a “Green Eggs and Ham”-inspired “letter” from a “doctor” called “Uncle Sam I Yam,” which includes verses like:
“You do not even have to ask
“I do not want to wear a mask….
“I do not want to live in fear
“Last I checked there’s freedom here…
“‘My body, my choice,’ the liberals told us
“Except if we’re scared they also then told us…
“And so as the ‘doctor’ I’m simply here to say
“This passport carrier identifies as vaccinated today….
“-Dr. Zeus (Earned ‘medical’ and ‘law’ degrees on Facebook like millions of other know-it-alls.)”
The company’s owner, who wishes to remain anonymous at this time, told us:
“The letter in the passport plays off the insane cancel culture that we are facing in America right now.
“The irony of course is that we knew it would trigger the cancel culture crowd to come for us – and we are ready for the fight.”
Not surprisingly, this particular startup venture has indeed faced a variety of responses to its offerings, from support to violent threats.
The popularity of the vaccine “passports” was almost immediately evident, as approximately two thousand orders were received on the day of the American Freedom Passport website’s launch.
However, the naysayers also came out in force, with one writing:
“Anyone who doesn’t believe we should all be vaccinated is an anarchist and enemy of the state and should be treated as a domestic terrorist.”
Another took up the “all cops are bad” narrative, stating:
“You must be a cop. Obviously you believe in killing innocent people.”
One even wished death upon the owner, saying:
“You should be hung on public television for trying to infect America.”
The owner employs veterans and law enforcement at his various companies, where he “saw an opportunity to keep giving back while filling a need here in America.”
As for his plans for the proceeds earned from selling the “passports,” the owner told us:
“What am I going to do with the money?
“Use it to buy guns and shake hands with people and travel the country talking about Jesus.”
Although the Biden administration is actively engaged in developing vaccine passports for U.S. residents to prove their vaccine or testing status, it has actually released illegal immigrants into this country without testing or vaccination.
Here is our previous report from February on that:
Sheriff: Illegal immigrants being released into US without virus tests under Biden’s Catch-and-Release policy
JACKSON COUNTY, TX – A Texas sheriff confirmed that illegal immigrants detained by ICE are being released into the country without COVID-19 testing, claiming a recent memo issued by Homeland Security Secretary David Pekoske was a move to “defund ICE by memo.”
The comments were made during an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson Monday night.
Jackson County Sheriff A.J. Louderback warns of border policy's severe consequences.#UnitedStates #Texas #TexasSheriff #joeBiden #ICEmemo #AJLowderback #BidenImmigration #DefundedICE #SheriffClaimshttps://t.co/9LJwN5KA0G
— mAgA (@utooob2020) February 10, 2021
Jackson County Sheriff A.J. Louderback responded to a question by Carlson asking if reports that illegal immigrants in Texas were being released with coronavirus testing. Louderback responded:
“It’s absolutely true, absolutely true. It’s even — if I could continue, Tucker, the memo that I received this last week, it’s essentially a defund ICE by memo, by memorandum that was sent out by David Pekoske on January 20 of ’21.
“So, this is a particularly devastating document for Texans and Americans here in the United States. The message really has been sent, when I read it first and looked at it, it’s a message to the world, you can come here illegally, you can commit crimes here against Americans, and remain here illegally.”
@TuckerCarlson Texas sheriff claims Biden has 'defunded ICE by memorandum'💥
Jackson County Sheriff A.J. Louderback warns of border policy's dangerous consequences😷 He is basically tongue-tied and cannot even express the DANGER🇺🇸https://t.co/Wm9QDSUi76— Joni Job (@jj_talking) February 9, 2021
The sheriff also said that the Biden administration was in too much of a hurry to open the borders, and did not take the safety of Americans into consideration:
“It (testing) was not a forgotten item. I don’t know, but in their haste to open the border for everyone, something that I expected to some degree, we walked this path from 2008 to 2016, this program that they released by memorandum overlooked the coronavirus.”
Jackson County Sheriff A.J. Louderback: "The memo that I received this last week, it's a defunding-ICE- by memorandum, sent out January 20, 2021, it's a message to the world that you can come here illegally, you can commit crimes here against Americans, and remain illegally."
— Ms. Patriot USA (@MsPatriotUSA) February 9, 2021
Sheriff Louderback blasted the administration for creating a dangerous situation. He said the memo created a “lawless situation” that would “get people injured (and) killed.” He said President Biden’s immigration policy will cause “irreparable harm”:
“Every peace officer in the United States should be extremely concerned about the attitude, the complete lawlessness, the abject removal of law. The nullification of law here going on.
“The public has no idea the strength of a memorandum that’s been filed here in the United States by the administration.”
It's the return of "catch & release" which will encourage more illegal immigration. This Biden-Harris policy is clearly anti-American and pro-open borders.
https://t.co/vMr25ga14C— George Rodriguez, El Conservador (@el_conservador) February 5, 2021
The sheriff explained that immigration enforcement officials and ICE officers were handcuffed by the memo, and local law enforcement does not have the federal jurisdiction to enforce immigration laws.
The sheriff thanked Carlson for allowing him to use his program to warn the public:
“To get the word out and spread what’s happening right before our very eyes of what this administration is doing.”
Biden's immigration policy is threatening safety in Texas.
A prisoner convicted of child sex assault is set for release today, but has an ICE detainer that should have him deported.
BUT, Biden is releasing him into our community.
I'm asking the Texas AG to take legal action.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) February 5, 2021
The memorandum, issued by Pekoske, on Inauguration Day, directs United States Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) to pause enforcement actions for 100 days unless the illegal immigrant is a national security threat, an “aggravated felon,” or was not inside the country before November 1, 2020.
The memo states:
“These priorities shall apply not only to the decision to issue, serve, file, or cancel a Notice to Appear, but also to a broad range of other discretionary enforcement decisions, including deciding whom to stop, question, and arrest; whom to detain or release; whether to settle, dismiss, appeal, or join in a motion on a case; and whether to grant deferred action or parole.”
BREAKING — Starting Friday, the Biden administration will pause deportations for immigrants facing removal "to ensure we have a fair and effective immigration enforcement system focused on protecting national security, border security, and public safety." pic.twitter.com/nSSFvxeqk3
— Camilo Montoya-Galvez (@camiloreports) January 21, 2021
Brownsville, a city in southern Texas, has decided to take unilateral action by testing illegal immigrants as they are released by USCBP. The city received 10,000 COVID-19 test kits from the State of Texas and is testing the immigrants at the bus station as they are released by federal authorities.
Brownsville joins the Texas city of McAllen, which started testing immigrants who were caught and released by the Border Patrol at the Catholic Charities Humanitarian Center last week.
Tomorrow @BTxRGV Brownsville begins testing newly released #migrants for #COVID at bus station after getting 10k tests from @TDEM. Concerns that dozens have boarded buses untested since @DHSgov @CBPRGV began paroling some families. My #BorderReport story. https://t.co/fhhFWed3St
— Sandra Sanchez (@SandraESanchez) February 5, 2021
State Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa told Border Report that the actions by Brownsville and McAllen were not happening in other border towns. He criticized the administration’s catch and release policy:
“(Border Patrol agents) were just dropping them off at the bus station without testing them. Obviously, that’s very alarming to all of us in that they’re coming from Central America and through Mexico and to be released into the United States without being tested for COVID is really unconscionable.”