Crackpots

Jared Holt reports at Right Wing Watch: Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow and a major Republican political donor, appeared at a White House coronavirus press briefing Monday and captured the attention of QAnon personalities. At the briefing, President Donald Trump introduced Lindell as a “friend” of his. Lindell​, who was there to explain how his company was creating face …

The Baton Rouge Advocate reports: The pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Central went ahead with an evening religious service Tuesday night just hours after city police cited him over allegations he violated a state order to limit crowd sizes during an outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Pastor Tony Spell is accused of violating provisions of Gov. John Bel Edwards’ …

Just in from the reliably insane Charisma News: Pastor Jim Kibler says he healed a woman of pancreatic cancer over the phone. He spoke to her on speaker phone, with her husband standing there in the hospital with her, and commanded the spirit of death to leave her. Kibler says all sickness is due to oppression of Satan. “I said, …

“One of the things that interests me is the hospitalization numbers. Because if you look at Drudge, if you look at the drive-by media, you would believe there is not a single hospital bed in this country, right? You have been led to believe that every hospital is overflowing. That dead bodies are in body bags and refrigerated trucks that …

Mediaite reports: Fox Nation hosts Diamond & Silk raised eyebrows when a recent clip of their questioning coronavirus death tolls as part of some larger anti-Trump conspiracy went viral. During a video blog post that went up Monday, the two suggested that the rising death toll as a result of a coronavirus was not actually real, but was some conspiracy …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump introduced those tuning into his nightly coronavirus task force briefing on Monday to a special guest: Mike Lindell, the multimillionaire inventor and CEO of the MyPillow empire. “Boy, do you sell those pillows,” Trump said, asking him to step up to the mic and tell Americans how his company was helping them deal with the …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: Worshipers gathered at a Tampa megachurch for services on Sunday, drawing a warning from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office about violating the safer-at-home order in place to limit the spread of coronavirus. A live stream on the River at Tampa Bay Church’s Facebook page showed congregants gathered for its Sunday morning “Main Event” service led …

Peter Montgomery reports at Right Wing Watch: DeAnna Lorraine, a right-wing activist who unsuccessfully ran in the Mar. 3 California primary to challenge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is now pushing new conspiracy theories about COVID-19, promoting the hashtags #coronavirustruth and #filmyourhospital. On Sunday, Lorraine filmed outside two hospitals in Los Angeles and found them quiet—which she took as a sign …

Politico reports: Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) on Monday said he thinks Democratic “radicals” in the House will attempt to “blackmail the country” and President Trump into signing “a new bill with everything they’ve ever wanted in life” in the next action to address the coronavirus crisis. “I think it’s very likely that the House, where the radicals are in …

Wired reports: Google has removed the Infowars Android app from its Play Store, extinguishing one of the last mainstream strongholds of infamous conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The takedown comes on the heels of a video, posted in the Infowars app last week and viewed by WIRED, in which Jones disputed the need for social distancing, shelter in place, and quarantine …

“In the name of Jesus, standing in the office of the prophet of God, I execute judgment on you, COVID-19! I execute judgment on you, Satan! You destroyer! You killer! You get out! You would break your power! You get off this nation! I demand judgment on you! I demand — I demand — I demand a vaccination to come …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump says federal guidance urging social distancing will stay in place through April 30. He backed off his hope that the country will be “opened up” by Easter Sunday, saying that deaths due to the coronavirus will likely peak in two weeks. ”Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won,” he …

“I believe that this is a time of supernatural sustenance. Every day, there will be multiplication. What you have in your hand will multiply. “You’ll look at your toilet paper, and you’ll think, I’m gonna run out of toilet paper, but you have another roll where that other one was! You don’t know. How did that even take place? Are …

The Daily Beast reports: A clear majority of the American public, including self-identified Republicans, do not believe the disinformation that President Donald Trump keeps pushing around the spread of coronavirus. A full 73 percent of respondents, including 75 percent of Republicans, said that it was not true that “anyone who wants to get tested can get tested.” Just 17 percent …

The Texas Tribune reports: Gun stores are essential business and should be allowed to remain open during the COVID-19 pandemic, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said today. Paxton said in his nonbinding opinion that state law prevents cities and counties from “adopting regulations related to the transfer, possession, or ownership of firearms, or commerce in firearms.” In a radio interview …

The Associated Press reports: Even as coronavirus cases mount in Latin America’s largest nation, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has staked out the most deliberately dismissive position of any major world leader, calling the pandemic a momentary, minor problem and saying strong measures to contain it are unnecessary. Bolsonaro says his response to the disease matches that of Trump, labeling the virus …

“I destroy and completely abolish every demonic system set in operation against the financial system of the U.S. and the world. Every evil perpetrator trying to extinguish monetary success and economic abundance, I rebuke you and diffuse your plans and purposes against our economy. “I command every disease agent, virus and pandemic to be utterly abolished, completely done. I order, …

“Could it be that God is using the coronavirus to get our attention so that we will listen to His message? “It’s time to pray! It’s time to turn away from our sin, self-centeredness and secularism, and turn to God in faith and trust. Now. “If we heed God’s message, He can calm the storm and bring us through to …

“People still have not yielded over their constitutional rights. They have a right to assemble, they maybe shouldn’t but they have the right to. And short of declaring martial law and putting us under that level of essential government control, a mayor doesn’t have the power just to say you can’t buy a gun, you can’t buy ammo. “In fact, …

“I think it’s imperative that we have somebody like Donald Trump, who is outside the establishment, expert class, who has a history of solving problems, to actually lead the country through this. “You know, we’ve talked about the ‘Deep State’ all these years since Trump was elected — the Trump-Russia collusion, the FBI — well, the Deep State extends very …