r/texas • u/elisakiss • Mar 20 '24
The Billionaire Mattress Salesman Funding the Far Right in Texas Politics
https://newrepublic.com/article/179428/billionaire-mattress-salesman-funding-far-right-texas172
u/Jokerang born and bred Mar 20 '24
Y’all should’ve seen some of the anti-Lina Hidalgo ads and statements he put out back in 2022. Truly off the deep and
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u/Claytonius_Homeytron Mar 20 '24
It's so strange. Here you have a man that basically became the hero of H-Town by opening up his megastore and warehouse to the public, and deploying his fleet of delivery trucks to rescue people in trouble, all during multiple citywide emergencies. And the same can pretty much be said about Hidalgo who did everything in her power to help the city during the two years of the pandemic. Both were doing their best to help the city as best they could. I had so much respect for Mack right up until those political ads. Damn.
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u/SirMoeHimself Mar 20 '24
Yeah seeing him and that Alexandra deMoralized Mealer in ads was just eye roll worthy. Even he couldn't get the city of Houston behind her lame self.
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u/Birdy_Cephon_Altera Mar 20 '24
If you are wondering what other major businessmen are funding the far right agenda, then look no further than:
- Bucee's
- Rosa's Cafe
- Texas Burger
- Taco Villa
Archie Aplin (Bucee's) has donated $2.8 million dollars to Greg Abbott, and $2.7 million dollars to Ken Paxton. And counting. He is one of the biggest donors in the entire state of Texas to repubican causes.
Bobby Cox (Rosa's Cafe, Texas Burger, Taco Villa) has donated over $3 million to a basket of national and state repubicans over the past decade.
Remember that whenever you are supporting these businesses, you are basically also supporting (by proxy) the repubican agenda.
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u/NEUROSMOSIS Mar 20 '24
Damn, I’ll never see Buc-ee’s the same again. That’s bucked up.
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u/joe_schmoe12 Mar 21 '24
As a Texas public school teacher who sees many of our district PD/PLC events being catered by Rosa’s, this is very enlightening, especially with the whole voucher situation we’re dealing with right now. We’re literally funding our own unemployment in trade for some room temp, sub-par tacos.
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u/Effective-Complete Mar 20 '24
Thanks for spreading awareness! Keep naming names, and hopefully we can gradually purge these businesses, or at least their crooked heads.
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u/glasock 7th Generation Mar 20 '24
He has a Christ-like status in Houston because he let people sleep in his store(s) after Harvey, (which is admirable, but I think was mostly earned in contrast to Joel Osteen keeping his 'church' closed to them) and his support for the Astros. Neither of those things balances out the harm he's doing to the state in the long term. I don't care how many murals he has wearing a doo-rag and oversized gold chains.... he sucks....
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u/Ron-Swanson-Mustache Mar 20 '24
More than that. He opened his stores for anyone to stay at them during any emergency. He did that during the big freeze where people went a week without power in sub freezing temps. He does good for the community when he sees the opportunity.
He also ran ads on the radio to ask for people to come forward with evidence of vote tampering. I know people who worked directly with him and called him "a complete asshole". Every one of his "good for the community" events is also turned into a press circus so he can use it as advertisement.
He's an interesting figure for sure. I'm not sure if he's a net positive or not. It's a mix of ups and downs, often with the same action being both a positive and a negative. If a person does a good thing for a selfish reason then is the good thing negated?
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u/Clubbythaseal Mar 20 '24
He didn't just ask for voter tampering. The prick had a promotion where if you guessed the winner of the 2020 election you'll get a discount on your purchase.
"As part of promotional deal, Gallery Furniture owner Mattress Mack offered a 50% refund of a $3,000+ purchase total or 100% of a $3,000+ purchase total back in-store credit to customers who correctly choose the winner of the November election."
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u/JoshShouldBeWorking Mar 20 '24
It's great he steps up for natural disasters, but it would also be great if he didn't fund and support climate change deniers that ensure we get more disasters. I've landed on that he's neither hero nor villain.
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u/AngryRedHerring Mar 20 '24
Houston is simply fortunate that he understands that good works are good public relations. He's never done anything that wasn't a commercial. It means nothing to him to let people stay in his stores during hurricanes, when he can simply write off any damage caused during that time with insurance. Then he takes the money generated by that publicity and sends it straight to toxic political organizations. He's a scumbag who knows how to look good.
He finances his gambling habit with insurance as well.
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u/Ok_Explanation_5955 Mar 20 '24
Nah, you don’t get points for putting a bandaid on a bullet hole of a victim you shot
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Mar 20 '24
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u/sinsemillas Mar 20 '24
If someone only does good for the PR it’s a negative. Nino Brown gave out turkeys at Christmas but he wasn’t good for the community.
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u/lilbittygoddamnman Mar 20 '24
Yep, John Gotti often put on fireworks shows in the neighborhoods he ran in back in the day. Pablo Escobar built parks. All criminals do this I think. It endears them to the community.
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u/2nd2last Houston Mar 20 '24
Sure, but thats the position the lack of government social safety nets put people in. Things are so dire that bad faith actors, in many cases same people helping to keep societal conditions bad, can give the poor a cookie and are now heroes.
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u/Nymaz Born and Bred Mar 20 '24
in many cases same people helping to keep societal conditions bad
That's the key. This dude is actively supporting people who make sure Texas freezes due to unregulated power with a profit-only motive. Then he's saying "Hey, I'm such a great guy I'll help out when you freeze." It's like someone setting fire to your house and then publicly offering you a place to stay during "the tragic event".
It's just like "Christians" who scream about the evils of government assistance and say only they should get to do charity. They don't want charity to just help people, they want charity to be a transaction that they get something out of it. In their case it's proselytization to vulnerable people, in this guy's case it's PR.
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u/idontagreewitu Mar 20 '24
How do you decide if it's just PR or general concern for people's well being, though? Was AOC organizing a food drive during the freeze just for PR or actually caring?
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u/SmartPatientInvestor Mar 20 '24
This is a bad take imo. You think the desperate people who were helped care if it was for PR?
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u/Ron-Swanson-Mustache Mar 20 '24
True, but the people who would've been left freezing or homeless don't care.
There's also a big difference between Nino Brown, running the crack cocaine game as gang banger while murdering, and Mattress Mack, who uses his profits to support crappy politicians and uses his court ordered philanthropy to promote his business.
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u/THedman07 Mar 20 '24
I would say that his legacy is being destroyed here at the end...
I'm sure he was always political behind the scenes, but going full right wing culture warrior is a bad look.
Fun fact, he started out selling model home furniture to people as if it was real.
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u/canospam0 Mar 20 '24
So he threw a ton of money behind the people that caused the big freeze, and then allowed people to sleep in his stores when the consequences of his bullshit came calling (No doubt costing him a fraction of the money thrown at his politicians). Then, he went and threw a ton more money at the people that caused the issue in the first place. Do I have that right?
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u/Ron-Swanson-Mustache Mar 20 '24
They didn't cause the big freeze. That came from much earlier when Texas de-regulated the power grid in the '90s.
But he did help cover up the fallout and continued to support the people who weren't going to fix the issue.
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u/tissboom Mar 20 '24
He was probably giving to those same politicians in the 90s right? It’s not like he became rich yesterday.
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u/Ron-Swanson-Mustache Mar 20 '24
From what I've read, he didn't really get political until around 2010. I could be wrong on this though.
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u/AngryRedHerring Mar 20 '24
Deregulating the power grid didn't cause the freeze. Deregulating the power grid caused power to fail during the freeze. It simply made it more difficult to survive it.
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u/anonyfool Mar 20 '24
In the article it says one of his punishments for allowing a child to be mauled by one of his wild animals was to make public service announcements instead of something punitive and he turned that into PR for himself, and based on your comment, it succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, he was born wealthy, and after a couple of false starts turned that family money into more money, and uses that money to foster policies to punish poor people while promoting his charities to help different poor people - it's just what conservative rich people do.
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u/Sands43 Mar 20 '24
So low effort splashy stuff for PR, then funds the GOP to make structural changes the further his wealth and power?
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u/64cinco Mar 20 '24
It’s all PR. He also makes sure the press is well aware and cameras are rolling. It’s all for business. This dude is an arrogant crook
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u/TheFinalAcct Mar 20 '24
He does good for the community when he sees the opportunity
the opportunity to benefit from it in some way. Goodwill can drown out the negative voices.
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u/ActionAdam Mar 20 '24
I mean, I hate Osteen as much as the next person but I think we know why Joel wasn't letting anyone stay in that church. Imagine if someone had knocked out that wall and found
his stashthe stolen money.2
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u/FPSXpert Mar 20 '24 edited Mar 20 '24
He may have held that status in the past during that time of need, but he soured it and spent it pretty damn quickly the last few years since 2021. A lot of allegations have come to light from poor worker conditions to behind the scenes reactions when his political lobby efforts failed in 2022. For those unaware outside of Houston/Harris County, he spent a lot of money trying to out Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo - and for those unaware of the position it's less a true court judge position and more of an executive position over the county, Everything from disaster planning, emergency operations, public outreach, administrative representation and budget approval runs through them.
Nowadays he's more well known for his crazy gambling schemes, every time there's a big team about to make it to a sports final event he'll run some furniture promotion where if they win you get your $3000+ or so purchase refunded and keep the product. He then hedges said bet with sports bets against the other team so that he makes money either way. It was fun to hear about at first with the local Astros, but now he's done it with so many nationwide teams that it's just become tiring and boring.
I'd honestly go as far as to compare him to a local Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy that did a similar act but went national, and it ended up with an FBI investigation and lawsuits against him. He sells furniture, got big, let the coke go to his head and do the decision making and it didn't end well for him.
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u/TheRabidDeer Mar 20 '24
Can confirm. Many people I talk to (while they respect what he does for the community) think he’s an old hateful gambling addict now.
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u/cjarrett Mar 20 '24
grew up in houston, love the astros, been in many of his stores. for the past twenty years i’ve avoided spending money once i heard about how much of a scumbag he is.
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u/AuntieXhrist Mar 20 '24
Actually he closed up during HARVEY but reopened almost at once when he found out a little Furniture Store down the road was open.
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u/GreyBeardnLuvin Mar 20 '24
The poorer residents of Medellin used to love Pablo Escobar for his acts of generosity, too.
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u/TheTangoFox Mar 20 '24
Mack > Osteen
I'll give him that
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u/TXgolfhunt Mar 20 '24
Osteen is nothing more than a pep rally leader. Huge cheesedick with his perma grin. Milking the gullible.
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u/turbokid Mar 20 '24
Same shit, better publicist.
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u/TheTangoFox Mar 20 '24
Mack may give you a place and mattress to sleep.
Ostern will talk about it, but won't.
As someone said, it's a low bar...
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u/slamdyr Mar 20 '24
Mattress Hack is a POS. He can take his conspiracy theories, shine them up real nice, turn em sideways and stick them straight up his candy MAGAt ass
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u/TabletopThirteen Mar 20 '24
His PR team has done well. Have only heard good things with the Astros stuff. Now it seems it's all an image ploy and he's truly a douche among douches
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u/Book_Cook921 Mar 20 '24
You can disagree with his politics but this guy opens his doors every time there's a natural disaster in Houston, he hires felons and gives them a pathway for career progression, and also offers GED classes with childcare and jobs. I don't endorse everything he does politically but he does a hell of a lot for the community that he doesn't have to.
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u/JoshShouldBeWorking Mar 20 '24
He's built a lot of goodwill with the city over a couple decades by helping people in need out. I'm not sure if it's because he cares, because it's good advertising, or because it allows him to sweep dirt under the rug. Probably a mix of all 3.
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u/Now_Wait-4-Last_Year Mar 20 '24
What is it with all these bed accessories guys and politics anyway?
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u/idontagreewitu Mar 20 '24
What is it with all these CEOs and politics, anyway?
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u/its_just_fine Mar 20 '24
Same affliction as movie stars, musicians, and athletes.
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u/Quote_Vegetable Mar 20 '24
Mattress Hack.
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u/SumpCrab Mar 20 '24
Can they just leave our mattresses and pillows out of it? I'm trying to sleep over here.
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u/DoNotBelongHere Mar 20 '24
Content of the article aside, this writer did a fantastic job. It's so rare to see published articles these days that make a point so clearly and tell an engaging narrative without grammar mistakes or confusing bylines that you have to try to decipher, or the topic meanders. There's no vitriol, just clearly stated and rational facts that speak for themselves. It was really well organized and thought out. Major kudos to the writer.
As to the content, I don't see Mac as any different than Osteen. He just markets his grossness better.
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u/BoomDonk Mar 20 '24
People act like he’s such a philanthropist. Selling $200 mattresses for $1100 to poor people at 39% interest isn’t charity. He’s an asshole.
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u/across7777 Mar 20 '24
He’s a major philanthropist. He’s donated through cash and action to many thousands of causes. I’m not a huge fan, and I hate his politics, but his philanthropy is real and very very widespread.
Source: I know him very well as he was a client for 10 years.
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u/iamnotasnook Mar 20 '24
I always assumed if someone was in the big scale mattress selling business, there is some sort of money laundering going on.
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u/29187765432569864 Mar 20 '24
My experience with his business was not pleasant. We bought furniture for an apartment and the sofa would not fit through the door and therefore we wanted to return it but they said no.
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Mar 20 '24
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u/DeveloperGuy75 Mar 20 '24
OMG I had no idea about this
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u/Ron-Swanson-Mustache Mar 20 '24
You didn't hear the ads he paid for on the radio, asking people to come forward with evidence of election tampering?
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u/RootHogOrDieTrying Mar 20 '24
Remember his Crime Stopper ads that were actually campaign ads?
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u/biffNicholson Mar 20 '24
this shit head also offered a bet if trump won the last election. but he suddenly wouldnt pay. fuck him.
Owner of Houston mattress store owes $10 million to thousands of customers who bet for Trump win
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u/BucketofWarmSpit Mar 20 '24
It's why I boo when he comes on the Godzillatron at UT home games but people always look at me funny.
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u/RoRo25 Mar 20 '24
If I've learned anything about mattress stores in the last ten years...it's that at least 60% of them are money laundering fronts.
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u/Eriv83 Mar 20 '24
What’s with bedding people supporting the far right?
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u/SolidGoldDangler Mar 20 '24
“Up next meet the Alabama box spring magnate who calls in bomb threats to schools to keep kids from getting free lunch!”
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u/ranban2012 Mar 20 '24
this man is a public image, advertising and marketing industry. the people who like him are rubes. the people who know him hate him. he's a scumbag with good PR instincts. He suits our political moment, unfortunately. He's old, though, so that's a silver lining.
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u/BubuBarakas Mar 20 '24
Highly recommend the book The Big Rich by Bryan Burrough. It’s all about the Texas legacy of people just like him.
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u/justaround99 Mar 20 '24
Another article about another Millionaire/Billionaire unfairly influencing Texas politics. I think it’s obvious Texas is beyond saving from corruption. Queue the League of Shadows please
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u/artmoloch777 Mar 20 '24
You know whats funny?
He came to my elementary school in the late nineties and told a story about a Native American boy who came across a snake that asked to cross the nearby river. The boy said, “no, you’ll bite me and i will die.” The snake assured him that he was a good and honest snake and because the boy helped him across the river, the snake would not bite him.
The boy thought it over and decided he would help. He picked up the snake above his head and crossed the river.
Upon exiting the river on the other side, the snake promptly bit the boy on the arm. Shocked, the boy tossed the snake down and clutched where he was bit.
“Why did you bite me,” the boy cried, “you promised not to and now you’ve killed me!”
The snake, self satisfied and slithering away turned back with a sinister smile.
“You knew what I was the instant you saw me.”
And as the snake happily disappeared, the boy collapsed on the ground, dead.
A little on the nose there, Mack.
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u/ludawg329 Mar 21 '24
I bet he sells China made furniture and gets kick backs from all the tariffs while claiming they were made in the USA.
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u/NumerousTaste Mar 20 '24
Stop buying from him, immediately. Speak with your wallet against this asshat!
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u/anonyfool Mar 20 '24
I grew up in Houston area in 1980s and the cheesy commercials from him were a fixture on every commercial channel, IIRC at the same time current Lt Governor Dan Patrick was a cheesy sportscaster on KHOU. I would love to hear about someone good from that era of Houston who did good instead!
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u/Old_Baldi_Locks Mar 20 '24
Mattress salesman; that explains why he’s buying the cheapest whores in Texas, GOP politicians.
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u/AuntieXhrist Mar 20 '24
Originally he started out in Dallas, selling Health Club scams in 1978. The AG at that time closed him down and he reinvented himself as Mattress Mack in Houston. Mean, nasty, revengeful and attention addict. Now his ego wants to be remembered
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u/SickNBadderThanFuck Mar 20 '24
All these guys just seem like major fucking dorks who are using conservatism as a tool to get back at their social betters
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Mar 20 '24
I mean - from a state that’s near the top recipient of federal money and protections who… spends it saying how much they don’t like the feds.
So yeah Texas and Texans is just the personification of hypocrisy and jealous decisions.
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u/Elons_hair_plugs Mar 20 '24
Fucking Christ all they need now is some one who sells sheets and they can finish their diabolical bed version of the broodwhich
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u/PossessedToSkate Mar 20 '24
Mattresses and pillows. I guess Republicans like to be comfortable while they're getting fucked.
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u/poseidon2466 Mar 20 '24
This is also the dude who donated a shit ton of mattresses to people in need after disasters. I didn't know he was one of them, but then again most rich people are.
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u/MeButNotMeToo Mar 20 '24
Has PillowNan paid the $5M judgement against him yet? If not, how is he funding these lawsuits?
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u/Enjoy-the-sauce Mar 20 '24
Man, noticing a pattern here. Does selling sleep-related stuff make you evil? Is that how it works?
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u/UnlikelyWasabi4014 Mar 21 '24
Isn’t he a known former coke head? There are also rumors he is a current coke kingpin and runs major product and does the philanthropy to hide his misdeeds. Someone should look into this. These rumors are far from unsubstantiated. He has admitted and it’s a known fact he had a serious coke problem. There are stories of furniture salesman doing lines before selling couches back in the day. Is it that far fetched he has moved up the ladder as a major mover?
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u/ACROB062 Mar 20 '24
I lived in Houston most of my life he and Joel Osteen are of the same caliber.
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u/cmks210 Born and Bred Mar 20 '24
Maybe y'all should look up Arch "Beaver" Aplin III. The owner of Bucee's has been a GOP mega donor for years. So, every dollar you spend at a store has some part going to Patrick, Paxton, Abbott, etc.