Dominion Sues MyPillow And Mike Lindell For $1.3B

[Gregg]

evolution=bad.

[Luke]

This should be good, what side will DL2XIT supporters take? Gab v Frank

Mike Lindell's Frank 'Free Speech' Site Labeled 'Rip Off' by Gab CEO Andrew Torba
BY JASON MURDOCK ON 4/14/21 AT 10:32 AM EDT

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is gearing up to launch a social media platform next week, and one ally was not pleased with the news. Andrew Torba, the founder of Gab, a platform pitched as a "free speech" alternative to Facebook and Twitter, complained in a post on Tuesday that Lindell's site appeared to be a "rip off" of his own vision, including plans to expand into commerce.

Lindell, a Donald Trump-supporting businessman who was banned from Twitter in late January for spreading misinformation, has spent recent weeks hyping up a project called "Frank," which he has claimed is a mix of Twitter and YouTube. Lindell said in a video posted to a placeholder website this week that "VIP early access" will start on Thursday this week, before launching for the wider public on April 19. He indicated that, like Gab, it will focus on maintaining "free speech" values.

On Monday this week, Lindell told Steve Bannon's War Room podcast that he would be launching an online marketplace to rival Amazon, dubbed MyStore. Torba was not happy. In a post on Gab, which has since been edited, the CEO shared a link to Newsweek coverage of Lindell's claims and alleged the idea was stolen. Torba said that Gab revealed its own marketplace plans roughly a week before Lindell's announcement, and complained that he had previously poured resources into helping Lindell host a documentary that was being removed by YouTube and Vimeo. "The competition doesn't bother me, competition is good," the Gab founder wrote in a post to the platform on Tuesday, which has since been updated.

"What bothers me is how Mike led me, and the Gab community, on to believe that he was going all in on supporting Gab only to turn around and blatantly rip off our free speech platform vision as his own," he added. "I don't think Mike understands what he is getting into with these projects, but he will soon enough. I wish him all the best." In the edited version of the Gab post, Torba said he is still on "good terms" with Lindell and there were "no hard feelings" about his future business plans. He wrote: "I think the Amazon thing is in his wheelhouse and makes sense. I just wish he had been more upfront that he was building his own social platform months ago when we first started chatting instead of me learning about it through the press."

In the video posted to the placeholder site this week, Lindell said that despite his site allowing users to speak their mind, it won't be without restrictions. He said swearing, posting pornography or taking "God's name in vain" will all be off-limits. Lindell is facing a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit filed by the voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems in relation to his debunked claims about the election. Lindell falsely claimed the presidential election had been rigged in favor of Joe Biden.

https://www.newsweek.com/mike-lindell-f ... ff-1583545

Confirmed:

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell says Costco has stopped selling his products

My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell said that Costco is going to stop carrying his products over his claim that there was widespread fraud during the 2020 election. “Costco basically did a slow cancellation, slower than the other stores,” Lindell told The New York Post. Lindell said in February that more than 20 retailers decided not to sell his products anymore and that he lost $65 million for his support of former President Trump's election claims. Lindell said Costco “said they were going to discontinue us but they were going to honor their contract, which I’m not sure what that means.”

He believes Costco’s decision was a part of “cancel culture” that led other companies to drop him for his political beliefs, the New York Post reported. “Management has no comment at this time,” a Costco spokesperson told The Hill. There has been a petition with more than 108,000 signatures urging Costco, Walmart and Amazon to drop Lindell’s products.

Lindell said the company will lose between $4 million and $10 million in annual sales and that 40 jobs have been affected by Costco’s move. Although some jobs were able to be moved to other parts of the company, some people had to be laid off. “My Pillow has 2500 employees. They all have families and stuff to support and, you know, shame on all of them, including Costco, that they did this to My Pillow. We've been with these companies for a long time,” Lindell told The Hill. “They are doing this because I’m speaking out about something I believe in,” he added.

Lindell is being sued by Dominion Voting Systems for $1.3 billion for his false fraud claims that the use of Dominion voting machines cost Trump the election.

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing ... elling-his


Here's the Kimmel monologue about Frank & MyStore:






This is funny --

If Commercials were Real Life - MyPillow
2,892,813 views•Jun 30, 2019

[jcolvin2]

OMG. I'm not up on wingnut propaganda. Who is Donald The Cavemann supposedly clubbing with his We The People club?

That is in fact a subliminal knock at evolution. Anything dinosaur in conservative propaganda is put there to plant the idea in your mind that evolution=bad.

Especially when a dinosaur is portrayed as a contemporary of a human.

Also notable is the fact that the cartoon's math regarding the "savings" in buying the Donald the Caveman books with the promo code is just plain wrong. With the promo code, each $20 book can be purchased for $15, and the entire set (with a $60 regular price) can be obtained for $35. Yet, the ad states "Save $5 individual or $15 in bundle With Promo Code." The savings on the "bundle" is $25 ($60 - $35), rather than $15. That a conservative propagandist cannot do math does not speak favorably of his or her ability to understand science.

[pipistrelle]

My Pillow has 2500 employees. They all have families and stuff to support and, you know, shame on all of them, including Costco, that they did this to My Pillow.

No, toots, shame on you that your lies have done this to your employees.

[zekeb]

My Pillow has 2500 employees. They all have families and stuff to support and, you know, shame on all of them, including Costco, that they did this to My Pillow.

No, toots, shame on you that your lies have done this to your employees.

2500 employees? That must be one big factory. Maybe he's including retail outlets. How does Costco's decision affect those employees, I might ask.

[Gregg]

[RVInit]

According to a Google search MyPillow employs 1500 people as of 2017. That is more than I would have thought.

[pipistrelle]

I really doubt he has 2500 employees. The motorcar company has, in 3 plants totaling more than 10,000,000 square feet under roof, has less than 6,000 employees to build about 6 million transmissions a year. And all clutches and gears and parts that go in the transmissions.

If he's using 2500 people to make pillows, I promise you (and whoever buys the place out of bankruptcy soon) that I can make more pillows in the same space and ditch 500 deadweight the first year, and 500 more the second. Then we can start the cost cutting and layoffs for real in the third.

Manufacturing is the real gangsta...

I thought the same given the auto plants I know about. Prolly 3/4 of those “employees” are sales people on commission.

[Chilidog]

According to a Google search MyPillow employs 1500 people as of 2017. That is more than I would have thought.

Assuming that all the employees only earn minimum wage, that's still around $30 million a year in payroll.

Are there really that many suckers out there who'll pay $60 a pop for a crappy pillow?

Don't answer that....

[johnpcapitalist]

Lindell said the company will lose between $4 million and $10 million in annual sales and that 40 jobs have been affected by Costco’s move. Although some jobs were able to be moved to other parts of the company, some people had to be laid off. “My Pillow has 2500 employees. They all have families and stuff to support and, you know, shame on all of them, including Costco, that they did this to My Pillow.

If 40 out of 2500 MyPillow jobs are Costco-related, and losing the account is costing him $4 million to $10 million, then his total annual revenue is somewhere between $250 million and $600 million. That cross-checks with a normal rule-of-thumb that I use at Global Capitalism HQ that says revenue per employee is often around $250,000 across a broad cross-section of industries. Lower in fast food and way higher in software/internet, iPhones, etc. But it's a reasonable approximation. That supports the $600 million number, to my surprise. Of course, he could be lying his ass off about the number of employees he has.

Another crosscheck: figure that if he's selling at retail, a $60 pillow will bring him somewhere between $20 and $24, FOB his dock (in other words, he doesn't have to pay freight; retailers typically do). If he's pulling in $600 million in revenue, then he's gotta be blowing out 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 pillows per year. That seems high. And if Costco was doing $4 to $10 million, then that's about 200,000 to 400,000 units per year. With around 550 stores, that's about 3,500 to 7,500 units/store/year, or about 70 to 150 units/store/week, a common performance metric in the retail industry. That's plausible.

But I just can't see that many units in total. I don't know how many commodity bedding pillows are sold in the US each year, but if you assume 2/person and a 3-4 year replacement cycle, then you're looking at a total market of about 150 million to 200 million pillows sold per year. Giving this guy 15% of that market seems a little rich, as the big guys have economies of scale of distribution that Lindell probably can't match. On the other hand, if you can convince me that the market is double that, then Lindell could be a strong niche player with 5% to 7% of the market, yielding a number in the range above.

So while a couple of cross-checks support $600 million per year in MyPillow revenue, I think $250 million is a more reasonable guess, and he's probably counting seasonal temp workers in that 2,500 employee figure. With 20% margins and one owner, he's not doing all that badly steady-state, but he's probably seeing some serious negative OpEx leverage at the moment and probably doing only a little better than breakeven. It wouldn't take more than about a 30% sustained decline in sales to bury him unless he really takes a chainsaw to his employee base.

[Gregg]

[Slim Cognito]

According to a Google search MyPillow employs 1500 people as of 2017. That is more than I would have thought.

Assuming that all the employees only earn minimum wage, that's still around $30 million a year in payroll.

Are there really that many suckers out there who'll pay $60 a pop for a crappy pillow?

Don't answer that....

Sorry, can't help myself, but I figure there are a lot of trumpanzees who will buy them to support the guy, realize how uncomfortable they are, stuff them in the closet then brag they're the best pillows evah!

I'm pretty sure I bought one a million years ago, then threw it in the trash within the week.

[pipistrelle]

Good Housekeeping.

Best Overall Pillow: Coop Home Goods Adjustable Pillow
Best Value Pillow: AmazonBasics Down Alternative Pillow 2-Pack
Best Down Pillow: Parachute Down Medium Firm Pillow
Best Down Alternative Pillow: Tuft & Needle Down Alternative Pillow Set
Best Solid Foam Pillow: Tempur-Pedic Neck Pillow
Best Foam Cluster Pillow: Layla Kapok Memory Foam Pillow
Best Latex Pillow: Purple Harmony Pillow
Best Gel Pillow: Blu Sleep Ice Gel Pillow
Best Adjustable Pillow: Brookstone Biosense Layer Adjust Pillow
Best Organic Pillow: Naturepedic Organic 2-in-1 Latex Pillow

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

I luvs me some Fogbow Breakdown!

[sterngard friegen]

When I saw the klown Lindell advertising his pillows while prominently wearing a cross I knew who he was pandering to. And it wasn't me.

That it turns out he was a crack addict, that his pillows are crap and that he's blown up his company with his Trump lunacy is not a surprise. Ordained, in fact, based on my first impression of him.

[sterngard friegen]

Nathan Lewin, an old heavyweight, has entered an appearance for My Pillow. His Wikipedia entry is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Lewin

His daughter is also appearing with him.

In reviewing his notice of appearance he may be past his prime. Even though the form allows an attorney to select the district for his appearance from a dropdown menu, someone acting for Mr. Lewin has typed in the "Distric of Columbia." Yes, on the notice of appearance there is an own-goal typo for the court in which Lewin is appearing. I attach the document.

Impressive start.

[dan1100]

He's gonna lose it all within a year, if people being horrified as they see what a fanatic he is, or stories about his crack relapse (allegedly) don't tip that 30% applecart over, Dominion will end up forcing him to sell the place in a Bankruptcy auction.

Whatever way, he's managed to blow the business up. Him, and not anyone else.

Between the lawyers and his up and coming Jesus friendly Twitter clone, he's got to be burning through cash fast and no one legit is going to loan him any money with a billion dollar lawsuit against him.

The cash crunch has to be coming and when it does...

[Luke]

This is true:

Best Overall Pillow: Coop Home Goods Adjustable Pillow

What's great about this pillow is they include extra stuffing, you can unzip it and add/remove to your liking. So it never wears out and with neck issues it can quickly be readjusted. We love ours. They have another with some sort of gel infusion but we got ours in 2018 and they didn't have that.

[Luke]

Excellent

Mike Lindell Says Criticism of Donald Trump Allowed on 'Free Speech' Site Frank
BY JASON MURDOCK ON 4/15/21 AT 4:49 AM EDT

Mike Lindell has said users of his new social media platform will be allowed to criticize former President Donald Trump. The MyPillow CEO, a staunch Trump supporter who has been banned from Twitter for spreading election misinformation, is launching a "free speech" site called Frank, set to open to the public on April 19.

In an interview with the conservative host Graham Ledger on Monday, Lindell said denouncing the policies of the twice-impeached president would not be forbidden on the site. Ledger asked: "Your platform is going to allow Graham Ledger to come on and say, 'I don't like the policies of Barack Obama or Joe Biden.' At the same time, it's going to allow someone else to come on and say, 'I don't like the policies of Donald Trump.' You are not going to snuff that voice out either, are you?" Lindell replied: "Absolutely not. Everyone is going to be able to talk freely … When you come over now you are going to be able to speak out and have opinions."

Little is known about the platform, which opens for VIP early access at midnight on Thursday. Lindell has claimed it is a mix of YouTube and Twitter, but appeared to struggle when asked by Ledger to describe what it would actually look like. He told the host: "You have your videos or you have people—at that time they won't be able to stream live, we're preventing some of this stuff in the beginning—but everyone can be able to comment and comment on the videos and talk freely. "So, basically, what it does, it gets the podcasters, people out there that want to put out the word, and then everybody commenting on it, no matter who you are."

Lindell claimed the site would be resistant to takedowns by technology giants such as Google or Amazon because he owns the servers it is running on, and made lofty predictions about how many people would sign up. In the interview with Ledger, it appeared the businessman's forecasts were largely based on how many people had watched a documentary he made. He said he would like to see 10 million people the first day and eventually 1 billion users.

https://www.newsweek.com/mypillow-mike- ... mp-1583750


Looks like YouTube took it down (ETA: Graham has two strikes on YT), but it's on Rumble (about halfway in): https://grahamledger.com/videos/exclusi ... port-1118/

MyGenius' Zoom feed keeps cutting out and showing a default profile pic. He's delusional for 15 minutes, he expects a BILLION people to use it. "It's historical".

[northland10]

Between the lawyers and his up and coming Jesus friendly Twitter clone, he's got to be burning through cash fast and no one legit is going to loan him any money with a billion dollar lawsuit against him.

The cash crunch has to be coming and when it does...

When he starts reappropriating cash from his foundation, the IRS will come calling.

[Chilidog]

What do you want to bet that's happening already.

[poplove]

This is true:

Best Overall Pillow: Coop Home Goods Adjustable Pillow

What's great about this pillow is they include extra stuffing, you can unzip it and add/remove to your liking. So it never wears out and with neck issues it can quickly be readjusted. We love ours. They have another with some sort of gel infusion but we got ours in 2018 and they didn't have that.

Absolutely true!! I LOVE my Coop pillow!!!!

[Slim Cognito]

Excellent

Mike Lindell Says Criticism of Donald Trump Allowed on 'Free Speech' Site Frank
BY JASON MURDOCK ON 4/15/21 AT 4:49 AM EDT
...

MyGenius' Zoom feed keeps cutting out and showing a default profile pic. He's delusional for 15 minutes, he expects a BILLION people to use it. "It's historical".

And that's just in the USA. Pretty soon he'll have eleventy brazillion members.

[zekeb]

Anything with feathers instead of those damned foam pillows. I hate foam pillows. Solid or miracle-intertwined foam.

[Gregg]

pillow cube