Dem
47
GOP
53
On one hand, you hate to kick a guy when he's down. On the other hand, the guy in this case is MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell, who spent years harming individual people, as well as democracy in general, and who is now paying the piper.
That's metaphorically paying the piper, mind you, as Lindell does not have the cash to actually pay... well, anyone. His behavior over the past 4-5 years has alienated a huge number of potential customers for medium-quality-at-best pillows. And the problem is that big retailers—Walmart, Target, HomeGoods, etc.—aren't like cable news: They don't cater to just one political faction or the other. So, they dumped him, and Lindell's retail sales have dropped to nearly zero. His mail-order sales are catering to only a fraction of the electorate, many of whom have already bought as much MyPillow product as they can use.
Consequently, in a desperate attempt to keep his once-thriving business afloat, Lindell has taken out a series of increasingly predatory payday-style loans. The reason he was in the news this week is that he has sued to have his latest loan canceled. It's for $1.6 million, at an eye-watering annual interest rate of 409%. And no, we did not forget a decimal in there.
Lindell claims he was tricked by the lender(s), Cobalt Funding Solutions and Streamline Advance. We are skeptical of that claim, especially since Lindell is an inveterate liar. And while we are not experts in this area of the law (or any area of the law, for that matter), his odds of prevailing in the case do not seem great. Assuming he took out the loan in Minnesota, state law says that there is no limit on the interest that may be charged on loans of $100,000 or more.
In any event, you will note that we wrote that Lindell has taken out "loans" not "loan." There's one for $10 million, one for $2 million, one for $600,000, and then this one, for $1.6 million. And those are just the loans that happen to be publicly known because Lindell defaulted on them and the note holder sued. This is what a "death spiral" looks like.
And so, another shady Trumper is about to pay the price for his misdeeds, even if Trump himself appears to be bulletproof. Oh, and note, incidentally, that Lindell has sacrificed everything for Trump, and now that he (Lindell) is down on his luck, Trump is nowhere to be found. Seems like we've heard that story before... (Z)