On day one of his non-stop 72-hour “cyber symposium” pillow entrepreneur and Trump acolyte Mike Lindell babbled on and on, at one point insisting that “Communist China” was planning on taking over America in “3025,” which presumably meant 2025, one year after the next presidential election.

“It’s pretty easy” to take over the country, claimed Lindell, who is often called a conspiracy theorist and a propagator of false election fraud claims, speaking during the event which is being live-streamed by One America News (OAN), the far right media outlet that was sued today by Dominion Voting Systems for defamation. The event’s chyron is advertising his product and offers viewers “up to 66% off!”

“If you take an election, and you own an election and no vote ever matters again, then you get – you can make decisions on everything. You can order, you can order this, things like shut down the 50,000 union jobs you can order borders opened up, and fentanyl and human trafficking come in,” Lindell warned.

“You can, you can make up nonsensical things like they did in California when they put up things during this China virus they put up, they made them build outside enclosures like Minnesota at the restaurants, made ’em build it. We had to eat outside in the snow you ever had the highest snow may put their plate on top of it. It’s crazy, and California though, I’ll give you one example. I went out there to visit a friend of mine, and this was after the Superbowl. And there’s this beautiful restaurant you still couldn’t eat inside and just by building another building with plastic and stuff. And we talked about the Super Bowl, ‘yeah, I put all this money into the Super Bowl.’ You know what they did in California? It said, no TVs in the buildings for the Super Bowl is for the restaurants. Are you kidding me?” Lindell exclaimed.

“All I know is part of my family couldn’t go there. And then the Christmas, they gave us a little more. This is, this is insane.”

Watch:

Live on OAN, pillow salesman Mike Lindell says the Chinese government’s (nonexistent) plot to steal the 2020 election can open doors for it to “make decisions on everything,” from ordering fentanyl epidemics to making restaurants build covered seating outside. pic.twitter.com/VWE0QPDci8

— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) August 10, 2021

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Intelligence Committee Ranking Republican Member Devin Nunes Thursday afternoon appeared stunned when he questioned a U.S. State Dept. official during the impeachment hearings and did not get the answer he anticipated.

Rep. Nunes has been spewing far right wing conspiracy theories during each impeachment hearing over the past two weeks, including the thoroughly debunked lie that Ukraine – not Russia – attacked the U.S. 2016 election.

(Earlier one of today’s witnesses, Dr. Fiona Hill, publicly lambasted the spreading of the false Ukraine conspiracy theory as she sat just feet away from Nunes. The video is here.)

Nunes asked David Holmes, who is the State Dept.’s counselor for political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine about the “black ledger.”

That line of questioning did not go well for Nunes.

Nunes asked if Holmes had “ever heard of the black ledger.”

“I have,” Holmes replied.

“The black ledger – is that seen as ‘credible’ information?” Nunes asked.

“Yes,” Holmes responded without hesitation.

Surprised, Nunes repeated his question.

“The black ledger is credible?”

“Yes,” Holmes again replied.

Nunes did not look pleased.

“Bob Mueller did not find it credible. Do you dispute what Bob Mueller’s findings were? – They didn’t use it in the prosecution or in the report.”

“I’m not aware that Bob Mueller did not find it credible. I think it was evidence in other criminal proceedings. Its credibility was not questioned in those proceedings, but I’m not an expert on that.”

As Nunes goes back to the well of Ukraine 2016 conspiracy theories, Holmes shoots down his nonsense regarding the black ledger that exposed Manafort’s corrupt dealings in Ukraine: pic.twitter.com/JIo1mvl3Kt

— The Moscow Project (@moscow_project) November 21, 2019

Holmes is correct – it was used as evidence in prosecutions (see below).

The black ledger is a register of off-the-book payments made by the corrupt now-former ruling party of Ukraine – not today’s ruling party.

It contains details of 22 payments allegedly made to Paul Manafort, totaling $12.7 million, by his former client, the ex-President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych. Manafort later became Donald Trump’s election campaign chairman. When the ledger was exposed Manafort was forced to resign from the Trump campaign. He is now in prison, serving a 90-month federal sentence.

Mueller actually did find the black ledger credible, as The Washington Post reported one week ago. It was used as evidence in Mueller’s indictment against Manafort.

Rep. Nunes appears to believe the existence of the black ledger and its authenticity are conspiracy theories. He is the one spreading conspiracy theories. The black ledger is real.

The White House on Tuesday announced President Donald Trump and the First Lady had accepted an invitation to meet with Queen Elizabeth II in early June, for his first official State Visit.

As usual, the White House’s announcement contained a “Royal Mistake,” as People magazine noted. But the really royal mistake came hours later, early Wednesday morning, when the President of the United States accused British Intelligence of spying on him.

Citing far right wing conspiracy theorist Larry Johnson, who has accused former First Lady Michelle Obama of making a racist slur against white people, and former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry of rape via doctored audio, President Trump tweeted a supposed quote from One America News (OANN), a right wing media outlet more extreme than even Fox News.

“Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson accuses United Kingdom Intelligence of helping Obama Administration Spy on the 2016 Trump Presidential Campaign.” @OANN WOW! It is now just a question of time before the truth comes out, and when it does, it will be a beauty!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 24, 2019

The claim that British Intelligence spied on Trump is nearly two years old, and GCHQ, the British Intelligence agency that broke the Nazi Enigma codes in World War II, flatly denied the allegations.

But note the sheer excitement Trump displays in his tweet. He’s literally giddy that the British supposedly spied on him.

Tea with the Queen at Buckingham Palace should be fascinating.

Image by The White House via Flickr