The Affogato: MyPillow Guy on Trial, Universal Basic Income, and Family Month
Plus, Day 7 of Where in the World Is John Zmirak?
A federal lawsuit that’s been two years in the making finally headed to trial last week in Denver.
American Voting System on Trial
MyPillow CEO and election integrity advocate Mike Lindell is currently standing trial, thanks to a defamation lawsuit from former Dominion Voting Systems strategy director Eric Coomer. In 2020, Lindell made an appearance on Joe Oltmann’s podcast Conservative Daily, and the two men discussed the discrepancies each of them noticed during the election; Coomer filed the complaint in 2022 against Lindell for repeating Coomer’s public statements about Dominion.
During the podcast, Oltmann and Lindell discussed a September 2020 conference call between Antifa members that Oltmann had infiltrated in which he allegedly overheard someone he later said to be Coomer make claims which sounded like election interference. According to a summary judgment within the lawsuit, Lindell holds Coomer responsible for being fired by Newsmax after Coomer reached a defamation settlement with the network. According to Lindell, Newsmax owner Christopher Ruddy said he could no longer come onto the network to talk about MyPillow or anything else because of a deal he made with Coomer and his lawyers.
In a March 2023 deposition statement, Lindell said, “This isn’t about a Democrat or a Republican, this is about the evidence that China intruded in our election. Did your guy do it? I don’t know and I don’t care, but I know what he did to me, I know what he did to me at Newsmax. And that’s [why] I went after him with one paragraph calling him a traitor, and I did, and a criminal, because what he did to MyPillow was criminal.”
If this bit of lawfare succeeds, expect to see many more baseless lawsuits against truthtellers filed by bad actors with very deep pockets. If you wish to follow this crucial trial, here’s someone reporting on it day by day:
DAY 7 OF COOMER V LINDELL
Back in court. Some motions to include Kill Chain clips — TBD. Will post first update on morning break.Reminder that these posts are summaries from my notes. Please excuse typos & tag for corrections.
Lindell back on the stand this am.
— Ashe in America (@AsheinAmerica) June 10, 2025
Would Universal Basic Income Benefit Us?
The rise of the machines and of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a major force replacing original work by humans with collages of content plagiarized from them leaves many of us unsure what to think — and wondering if anything can be done to preserve people’s livelihoods. Some take comfort in the fantasy that if AI keeps generating wealth, society will be so rich it can just pay us all to breathe — via a Universal Basic Income (UBI), an increasingly popular concept that involves providing regular, unconditional cash payments to individuals or families.
Catholic artist and scholar Hillary White has a monster thread on X that unravels why that would be a catastrophe worse than Soviet Communism by several orders of magnitude:
I seriously can’t think of a more catastrophic idea than Universal Basic Income. Economically, socially, morally UBI is the fast lane to total collapse. If imposed everywhere in the developed world, it will bring us either to a tyranny so horrific it will make every dystopia…
— Hilary White (@HilarityjaneArt) June 9, 2025
Family Month
We at The Stream have morbidly joked about “Pride Month,” asking when we can expect Sloth Month to come along — or if activists were simply too lazy to get around to declaring that a thing. Lately, we’ve featured The Ruth Institute’s coverage of people seeking help to “leave pride behind.” Now we’re happy to see some in the U.S. Congress try to strip this grim 30-day celebration of suffering and sin of its federal status. The Cowboy State Daily reports:
Wyoming U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman is among the sponsors of a new Republican-backed bill that would change the designation of June from “Pride Month” to “Family Month.”
The measure, introduced last week by Rep. Mary Miller, R-Illinois, would recognize “the traditional nuclear family” and highlight the way “mothers and fathers play a crucial and irreplaceable role in the upbringing of their children.”
If passed, this bill would also nullify former President Bill Clinton’s annual recognition of June as “Pride Month,” which he instated in 1999.
Where in the World Is John Zmirak?
John seems to have thrown you off his scent by crossing a body of water. Let’s see if you can spot him underground.
The Affogato summer series game: Where in the World is John Zmirak?
This location was built in the sixth century during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I.
Remember, the person with the most correct (or close to correct) submissions will get a free gift from us at the end of the month.
Do you think you know where John is? Send your guesses to us at [email protected] or visit our Facebook page.
Along The Stream…
Yesterday, John Zmirak brought us a piece of silver lining: “The Up Side of the War Between Trump and Musk.”
Coming up at noon today, Stream contributor Jules Gomes brings an eye-popping story about Santa Clara University: “Catholic University Parades Sexual Perversions in Counselor Training Program.”
Gayle McQueary is The Stream’s social media specialist. She has a background in production and is a scary judge of harming — or celebrating — the traditional family.