My Drivel
My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell is ordered to pay $5 million in the "Prove Mike Wrong" election fraud challenge.
By Michael P. Ramirez, April 23, 2023
During a Cyber Symposium held in Sioux Falls in August 2021, founder and CEO of MyPillow, Mike Lindell, dared anyone to prove his data challenging the validity of the 2020 election as wrong, and offered a “Prove Mike Wrong” $5 million reward.
On Wednesday, April 19th, an arbitration panel awarded $5 million to Robert Zeidman.
Zeidman is a 63 year-old conservative Republican computer forensics expert and Trump supporter, who voted for Trump twice. According to the arbitration documents by a panel from the American Arbitration Association, he has a “master’s degree in electrical engineering, an undergraduate degree in physics, and over 45 years of experience in software development.”
He’s not a RINO, or someone with Trump Derangement Syndrome. He actually attended the symposium because he believed real substantial evidence would be presented to confirm the election was stolen. After all, what fool would offer $5 million, if he didn’t have the goods?
It is the same fool who claimed hackers from Beijing switched 24,000 votes in rural Clark County, Wisconsin, even though Clark County has less than 17,000 voters, the election system is not connected to the internet, and all the votes are backed by a paper ballot… According to Christina Jensen, the Republican Clerk of Clark County.
Trump, won Clark County by 5000 votes. In fact, all ballots in Wisconsin are backed by paper ballots.
It is just one of a series of nonsense being peddled by Trump acolytes claiming the 2020 election was stolen.
Fox News just paid a $787.5 million settlement to Dominion Voting Systems.
I pointed out to a reader, “These types of lawsuits rarely win. Only in the extraordinary circumstance when the evidence of wrongdoing is overwhelming and the fabrications are so clearly obvious, do they even make it past the initial legal hurdles, and if they do, they rarely succeed. However, the truth is important. These unique cases will serve as a lesson of consequence, to those who do real harm by peddling conspiratorial nonsense disguised as journalism.” (cont. below)
The Judge had already ruled that the claims made about Dominion voting machines on Fox News were false. According to testimony in the defamation lawsuit, Rupert Murdoch admitted under oath that Fox News hosts “endorsed” stolen election lies. The remaining legal steps were mainly to determine what monetary value to assign to the defamation lawsuit.
The fact that the settlement was ten times Dominion’s 2018 value, is telling.
There are some who will hang on to these stolen election lies. They believe that $787.5 million settlements, like $1.6 million in criminal tax fraud penalties, $2 million charity foundation abuse fines, nearly $1 million in sanctions for frivolous lawsuits, and $280,000 doled out to porn stars and Playmates, are routine and meaningless.
They will ignore that 6 of the 7 contested states in the 2020 elections were run by Republican legislatures; that no evidence was produced to show a change in the election outcome in the 61 plus court cases in courts that included 36 Republican judges, several Trump-appointed judges, and a conservative majority Supreme Court with three Trump appointees; the idiotic “Cyber Ninja” recount in Arizona that found no voter fraud, additional votes for Biden, and cost nearly $9 million; the $3 million Wisconsin recount which produced an additional 132 votes for Biden; the second Wisconsin $1.1 million Gableman inquiry which produced well-founded criticism of drop boxes and nursing home votes, but little else; and all the Republicans, Republican appointees and Republican experts along the chain of election authority who have testified that the election was secure.
Trump lost the 2020 election.
Even if you gave him all the electoral votes from the three closest contested states, he would fall short of the 270 votes needed to win.
When I was at IBD, one of the things we looked for was voter fraud. We were convinced it was happening. What we found was these problems occurred during every election, but not to the extent that it significantly altered the outcome.
Republican claims of a stolen election are complete folly, in the same vein that liberal claims of voter suppression are total nonsense.
Elections should be structured to take the controversy out of something that should be simple and straightforward.
Ballot harvesting should be illegal.
Drop boxes should be dropped.
We should have in-person voting, with photo ID, proof of residency, and signature validation. There can be some exceptions for those who absolutely cannot vote in person, but those accommodations should be made as the exception and not the rule.
If you go to a liquor store, you have to show an I.D. to buy alcohol. The same goes to take a flight somewhere, using a credit card, or to simply check out a book. Voting is significantly more important.
Democrats say elections are important, that every vote should count, and elections are one of the most important elements to retaining our democracy.
I agree. But it is meaningless if you cannot guarantee a credible conclusive result.
Voting should be incontrovertible, not convenient.
Legitimizing elections is in the best interests of those who win, regardless of party affiliation. Validating these elections makes it easier to govern. It benefits all parties.
Mike Lindell seems like a nice guy. I met him once at CPAC. Unfortunately, the $5 million award is just the tip of the iceberg. A $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion still lies ahead. If the Fox News settlement is any indication of where that suit will end up, things look bad. I read recently that he had to take out a $10 million loan to fight these defamation lawsuits.
It is a shame that monetary, emotional, political capital, and limited resources are being expended to support nonsensical election drivel from the past. It would be better spent on sensible election reform that will make a difference in the future.
There could easily be a sweep for the GOP in the House, Senate and the Presidency in the next election. Opportunities await wise, level-headed Republicans in 2024. But there is danger ahead, and not from some imaginary force that stole the 2020 election… this one is REAL. And this one can do REAL damage to Republican election chances.
It is the conspiracy, election fraud movement promoted by Charlatans and opportunists for ratings, promotion, popularity, and profit. It is undermining the integrity and credibility of the GOP, and alienating voters.
It turned the “Red Wave” into a red tide.
If the GOP is to succeed, they will have to move forward and put these conspiracies to bed… with or without their MyPillow.
Have a great week.
Best,
-m
P.S. - My cartoon from Sept. 8, 2020, on absentee voting:
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I would really like to read the report of Zeidman. I really don't know what is going on here. What about the testimony of Col. Phil Waldron, the information war expert, who testified before Pennsylvania legislative committee that the Dominion machines are designed for vote switching (more precisely race based weighted counting). Why is he not being sued? And Dr. Shiva who has testified that these machines report fractional vote counts? How can you have a partial vote? Why can't we see the code? What about the hacking demonstration done (at Michigan State?) ? What about Dr. Douglas Frank's statistical analysis of vote counts? Voter turnout was sometimes very impressive.
Why is there any software used at all? Paper ballots mean nothing if software is involved.
Did you see the movie about Tina Peters? Something is going on. Was she the victim of lawfare?
What about Liz Harris being expelled from the Az legislature? Why did the Maricopa Board of Elections do everything possible to impede the audit? Have they ever turn over the routers?
Why did Fox news just fold? Spreading false information is not actionable, look at what all the media did with the Russian hoax.
There was no trial with Fox, so there was no Dominion discovery. We had no experts look at their code, for instance. Of course, it is hackable, every code is.
Who was this impartial arbitration board? Were their deliberations broadcast? Did Lindell defend? Did his experts testify?
We swim in an ocean of lies. This story is not over yet.
Basically, Mr. Ramirez, you are relying on authority, in this case a arbitration board. You need to look at primary sources.
Anything electronic can be hacked. The challenge with Dominion is proving it. Fox probably could have won on appeal, but rumor is Rupert Murdoch did not want to testify.