25 May 2022

TIME TO PRESS SNOOZE BUTTON: 'The Over-Priced Preferred Pillow of The Far Right'

Intro: Here's the latest on the frequently frivolous litigations of My Pillow CEO Mike Liddell's flights of folly over voting machine software manufacturers:
Live in fiction if you must, says a federal court. But don’t expect us to foot the bill for your bullshit lawsuits. Lindell is now being hit with sanction orders for allowing his masturbatory election fantasies to become half-assed realities by filing a federal lawsuit.

Judge Sanctions MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell For Wasting The Court’s Time

from the being-stupid-in-public-can-be-costly dept

"Mike Lindell just used to be a guy selling overpriced pillows to people who liked to buy overpriced pillows. But when Donald Trump was elected, he threw his entire company under the Trump campaign bus, making it clear Lindell was willing to ride The Donald’s coat tails into relevance. What used to be just a pillow manufacturer was now The Preferred Pillow of the Far RightTM, a social cause tied to sleep — the ultimate form of slacktivism.

When Americans unsurprisingly decided to dump an inveterate liar who proved incapable of handling a pandemic, Lindell sprung into action. As persona grata of the Trump campaign, Lindell was asked to provide his nonexistent legal expertise about the 2020 election. He agreed with Trump — another person who had no evidence of election fraud — that the election was fraudulent.

<div class=__reading__mode__extracted__imagecaption>Photo-illustration by Adam Maida / The Atlantic*

. . .The opinion [PDF] makes it clear Lindell is wasting public resources, something the court is unwilling to allow.

. . .All of Lindell’s claims (which range from the aforementioned RICO to the First Amendment to the Fourteenth Amendment) have failed. And Lindell was on notice these would fail, considering the absolute absence of precedent backing his views. Given these facts, the court says Lindell should be sanctioned for engaging in bad faith, politically motivated litigation.

> Lindell now owes Smartmatic money for dragging the company into his baseless “the election was stolen” lawsuit.

The Court agrees with Smartmatic that Lindell has asserted at least some groundless claims. See Sanction’s Mot. at 18 (contending that Lindell has asserted groundless “factual allegations, accusations of criminality, theories of liability within his existing claims, and causes of action . . . against Smartmatic”). In particular, the Court concludes that at the very least Lindell’s claim against Smartmatic under the Support or Advocacy Clause falls on the frivolous side of the line (other claims do too). As a result, the Court orders Lindell and his previous counsel to pay some of the fees and costs Smartmatic has incurred defending itself and moving for sanctions under Rule 11.

It’s unclear at this point how much this will cost Lindell and his pillow company. But there was a way to sell pillows and a way to steer clear of sanctions but Lindell has managed to screw up both efforts. There may be a small subset of Americans willing to buy pillows for political reasons, but Lindell’s decision to attach himself to the Trump Train is likely going to cost him far more in real dollars than can be made up by selling bedroom accessories to a small minority of US residents who think buying pillows is a political statement."

Reference: https://www.techdirt.com/2022/05/23/judge-sanctions-mypillow-ceo-mike-lindell-for-wasting-the-courts-time/ 

RELATED CONTENT ON THIS BLOG:

16 January 2021

Hmmm...Looks like more than "Pillow-Talk" Caught In Broad Daylight > NO TIME TO SNOOZE (New Scoop Added )

One more unexpected 'gambit' at the days wind down for The Donald who will not go quietly into the night on the day of The Inauguration. From media accounts, he's planning to split the public attention on the arrival of the new Admistration with his morning departure from The White House and a "Farewell Ceremony" at Andrews Air Force Base to be staged the same day.
Hold on - there's some more last-minute plans (see this report in The Guardian) >
Mike Lindell, chief executive of My Pillow, stands outside the West Wing of the White House. Photograph: Erin Scott/Reuters

Trump ally Mike Lindell of My Pillow pushes martial law at White House

Mike Lindell, chief executive of My Pillow, stands outside the West Wing of the White House. Photograph: Erin Scott/Reuters

First published on Fri 15 Jan 2021 18.11 EST
"My Pillow founder and Trump supporter Mike Lindell was photographed entering the West Wing of the White House on Friday, carrying notes which seemed to advocate the imposition of martial law. . .
Amid proliferating reports of plots to kidnap and kill lawmakers, and with further demonstrations by Trump supporters reportedly planned around inauguration day, Trump remains at the White House unable to use social media and apparently estranged from many of his closest advisers. . .
Lindell has risen to prominence among allies urging the president on in his attempts to deny reality. On his Facebook page on Friday, the mustachioed seller of sleep aids wrote:
“Keep the faith everyone! We will have our president Donald Trump 4 more years!’. . .
 

12 August 2021

Dominion Defamation Lawsuit Complicates The Days of Their Lives for Three Trump Promoters

Just another day in court for two Trump

Judge: Dominion lawsuits against Giuliani, Powell and Lindell can move forward

[ Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images ]

<div class=__reading__mode__extracted__imagecaption>Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

 
 
Insert copy >

"A federal judge on Wednesday denied Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell's motion to dismiss multibillion-dollar lawsuits involving their claims about the 2020 presidential election.

Why it matters: The lawsuits argue that the Trump allies' false claims of election fraud defamed the Dominion voting equipment company.

  • Powell, an attorney, and Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, both worked for the Trump campaign. Lindell is a conspiracy theorist whose bedding company took off after he began amplifying Trump's claims of fraud.
  • The defendants attempted to block the defamation lawsuits on procedural and First Amendment grounds.

What they're saying: "As an initial matter, there is no blanket immunity for statements that are ‘political’ in nature," U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols wrote in his opinion.

  • "It is true that courts recognize the value in some level of ‘imaginative expression’ or ‘rhetorical hyperbole’ in our public debate. … But it is simply not the law that provably false statements cannot be actionable if made in the context of an election. . ."

08 August 2021

Surprising Take-Away After Some Face-to-Face Time with Mike Lindell

Story from The Atlantic - just a teaser to get you started with no surprise right from the start.

The MyPillow Guy Really Could Destroy Democracy

In the time I spent with Mike Lindell, I came to learn that he is affable, devout, philanthropic—and a clear threat to the nation.

 

HuffPost Reveal: Rally Forge Revisited / Online Social Media Meme Inflluencers / Stealth Shilling

If your favorite memer had encouraged you to donate to Trump’s campaign but didn’t make it clear that they were being compensated to do so, you might have made a donation under the false impression that someone you trust was giving an independent endorsement rather than serving as a paid campaign mouthpiece

Trump Insiders Are Quietly Paying Teen Memers For Posts

Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy

Documents show that meme accounts rife with disinformation have also become shadowy advertising tools for some notable Republicans.

 
"In the fever swamps of Instagram, a network of right-wing meme accounts run by teenage boys and young men has erupted into an advertising powerhouse reaching millions. These memers — who regularly post far-right conspiracy theories, anti-vaccine propaganda and other incendiary clickbait — first caught the attention of obscure brands selling cheap MAGA merch, who started paying them to display ads to their rapidly growing conservative audiences. The money wasn’t great, as a few memers told HuffPost last summer, but it still felt like a big deal to watch their Instagram pages blossom into mini businesses.

Little did they know, members of Donald Trump’s inner circle would soon come knocking.

Since the 2020 election, these meme moguls have quietly collected payments to run ads for the Trump campaign’s “Election Defense Fund”; former senior Trump aide Jason Miller’s new social media network, GETTR; Trump confidant Mike Lindell’s bedding company, MyPillow; and, as recently as a few weeks ago, the National Republican Senatorial Committee. . ."

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