Call him the MiAutogolpe Guy
Mike Lindell's behavior is both farcical and dangerous.
Look, it is hard to read the sentence “President Trump, isolated and watching the clock count down on his time in the White House, spent a few minutes of it on Friday with the C.E.O. of MyPillow, Mike Lindell, who brought some notes with him” (source) and not find it to be some level of amusing.
Likewise, this headline does not strike one as serious, but rather as surreal (via WaPo): A pillow salesman apparently has some ideas about declaring martial law.
But here’s the bottom line: a CEO of an American company, who has cultivated a following in right-wing media via both his commercials and as a frequent TV guest/commentator showed up at the White House with a plan for the president to engage in an autogolpe (a self-coup) to stay in power by reshuffling key offices (such as CIA Director) and by instituting martial law.
Note that Lindell helped finance the March for Trump bus tour (via Reuters):
Another important player and financier of the post-election protest movement was Mike Lindell, founder and CEO of the My Pillow company, whose advertisements and political commentary are a fixture on conservative media. Lindell – a self-described former cocaine addict and alcoholic who says he found sobriety through Christianity – helped sponsor a two-week March for Trump bus tour that ended in Washington on Dec. 14 and spoke at five stops.
My Pillow is a major advertiser and sponsor of the Right Side Broadcasting Network, a conservative media group that went along on the tour to provide daily coverage.
Lindell said his financial backing of the bus tour ended in mid-December. He emphasized to Reuters that he did not help finance subsequent trips to promote the Jan. 6 rally that would devolve into riots. He said he did, however, attend the rally before the march to the Capitol that day, and he spoke the day before during rallies at Freedom Plaza, near the White House.
And here is Lindell trying to downplay the capitol insurrection:
The video is a super weird combination of downplaying the actions of the crowd while at the same time calling it a “battle.” The Antifa lie is just galling and his assertions of “God’s hand” being at work ranges from insulting (that God would be on the side of lies and violence) to just plain kooky (I can’t conjure an appropriately academic-sounding word, TBH).
His promise that Trump will “100% be president” is delusional.
But, hey, his nieces and some Minnesotans were down there, so I guess that forgives breaking into the building, disrupting a constitutional process, causing the Vice President to have to flee for his life, and the death of a police officer (but I digress).
Now, the good news is, as per the NYT report on the meeting, is as follows:
White House officials said nothing came of the roughly five-to-ten-minute meeting between Mr. Lindell and Mr. Trump, which Mr. Lindell said came after he’d been asking to get on the president’s calendar for days.
That Lindell’s meeting with Trump was quite short and that he had been having trouble getting on the calendar are both good things. That Lindell has been helping to bankroll lies and that he was able to get into the White House at all are both very bad things.
Setting aside the MyPillowness of it all, the nation is in a bad place where a person holding these ideas and suggestions a) spends substantial amounts of money on promoting those ideas, b) has an ongoing platform to spout those ideas on national television, and c) had any ability whatsoever to see the President of the United States.
On the comedic/absurdist side of all of this is stuff like this:
Although my favorite is political scientist Larry Sabato’s self-deprecating humor concerning his resemblance to Lindell.
He should probably just go ahead and change the name to “Mein Pillöw.”
I think the word you are looking for is “whackaloon”.
@OzarkHillbilly:
And the always popular “whackadoodle” 🙂
@Mikey: “My Pillow” in German is actually “Mein Kissen” but that would confuse non-German-speakers.
@Mikey:
Min kissen der Trumpenarsch.
I don’t know if this is true – I have to look it up. Gonna look it up after I share an uninformed opinion.
First time I saw one of his commercials I said out loud: that man is from St. Cloud.
He has a specific type of Minnesota accent.
“several forks short of a picnic basket” would do as well.
@de stijl:
Mankato?!
Never would have guessed that ever.
He sounds like mid north. Not Duluth and not Fargo. Between. Brainerd.
For the best night’s sleep
In the whole wide world
Go to a Trump camp in McAllen and die of exposure.
Such tragic news: The Pentagon has denied Trump’s request for “a huge (yuge) military-style send-off” as he departs Washington hours before Biden’s inauguration.
Doesn’t he have a company to run?
@Mikey: No, Germany learned from its fascist moment and grew up. Please don’t besmirch the country’s language with something they’ve been actively condemning and suppressing for 70 years and counting, especially given how we look in comparison.
Watching the above video, it is apparent that that his delusion is ebbing. His time spent with the dear leader during this time, and it’s his nieces’ reporting that is the source of his intelligence, and reassurances.
From his body language, I’m picking up an “I gave up crack for this shit? I sure can use a hit right now, just to get my mind right” vibe.
Sad, yet hilarious.
Ya sure, you betcha
Beyond the near comical Minnesota accent, was he drunk??
My wife, a child of Minnie-snow-ta, tried one of his pillows, she moved it to the guest bedroom.
My sister in law, texted us today that her neighbor is My Pillow Guy’s brother, wonder if the criminal nieces are the daughters?
Is his love for Trump so great that he will destroy his business?
@Sleeping Dog:
I think his business is very heavily wrapped up with right-wing media, especially Fox News Channel.
The crucifix on his lapel is the key indicator of his main malfunction, another obsessive-compulsive Boomer who lost crack and found Jesus, the wrong kind of Jesus. OCD can be a valuable feature in peddlers, and the customer reviews of his product shows this great invention is but cotton bags filled with with foam-bits and hyperbole.
Evangelicals come well-configured for a Trump: Substance is nothing, feelings are everything.
@dazedandconfused:
IMO, 99.95% of the “miracle” revolutionary products sold on TV are not that useful. Some work as advertised, yes, but if they were so indispensable and practical, you’d see tons of imitators all over the place.
All the latest kitchen gadgets that come and go, mostly remain gone. Meantime whisks, knives, spatulas, plain potato peelers, etc. remain staples of the kitchen, made by a very wide variety of manufacturers in pretty much every country on Earth.
There was a Ferengi Rule of Acquisition that more or less said “Sell the sizzle, not the steak.” That’s the key to the success of many of these products. Not the product per se, but the salesman.
@Kathy:..All the latest kitchen gadgets that come and go, mostly remain gone.
Who can forget the The Bass-o-matic!
Nothing like live TV!
@Mister Bluster:
Actually prepping a fish from hook to pan is damned tricky and hard work.
Kill it.
Slit it.
Pull the guts out.
Skin it.
Fillet it.
Bone it.
Fry it.
Serve it.
Eat it.
I would welcome a kitchen miracle that eliminated those steps.
Or else I could just buy fish. Frozen. From like a store.
Either way.
The artisan way is cool too. Minnesota has the traditional shore lunch. Walleye is tasty af.