'Made in China' Matt Pinnell
Last Tuesday night I attended the Konawa Tea Party to hear Gubernatorial candidate Gary Richardson speak and had to suffer through a speech by former GOP chairman Matt Pinnell. Pinnell is a RINO and hated by most of the Tea Party, 912 community, and the Ron Paul activists. So Matt is bragging on his accomplishments, his wife's accomplishments as an inventor, and his plans for bringing jobs to Oklahoma. As part of this, while bragging about his wife inventing a shopping cart hammock for babies, he mentioned his big warehouse in Bixby.
My ears perk up, warehouse, not factory.... and his wife is the inventor of the product so it would be obvious that she would also be making the product, right? Or importing it from China more likely. I had to force myself to behave and not ask where the product was manufactured but once I got home I did a quick Google search and found out that Lt. Governor candidate Matt Pinnell is indeed shipping jobs to China, Jiagang China specifically.
Now this isn't a difficult product to make, a few nylon straps and buckles, some fabric, a sewing machine....not like you need special machines with three phase power and crank out pollution to produce it. Nor would the labor be that much, a half hour, perhaps an hour of labor with packaging. But Pinnell would have to pay an Oklahoman minimum wage and taxes and insurance... instead of using child labor or workers willing to work for one tenth of minimum wage.
Now in Pinnell's boring speech last Tuesday night he explains how he would be the marketing arm of the state as Lt. Governor, reaching out to companies and trying to convince them to take root in Oklahoma yet he isn't willing to keep the manufacturing jobs for his own product here in the U.S. much less Oklahoma. On his campaign website he claims victory for the Tea Party victories of 2009 and 2010, neglecting to mention that the state had flipped before he came into office as GOP Chairman. Then he ran off to Washington D.C., after the debacle with the Ron Paul activists in 2012, bragging about his accomplishments despite the GOP being in control of the House and nothing being done about Obama Care, the border, while the federal debt skyrocketed.
On his campaign website he once again bragged about his business:
"A Businessman Who Will Grow Our Economy
Along with his wife, Lisa, Matt Pinnell grew a business after an idea for a new baby product became a reality in the kitchen of their Tulsa home. Now, the Pinnells' homegrown venture has turned into a successful international business.
Matt Pinnell understands the pressures and difficulties of being an entrepreneur and putting everything on the line for one's own business. Our government should focus on helping small business owners, not get in their way.
Matt Pinnell will use his first-hand business experience to be an effective and unwavering champion for small businesses in our state. Oklahomans work hard for their income...Matt will work just as hard to protect it."
International company? Does sending your manufacturing jobs overseas count as being "international"? Note that he claims the business as his own along with his wife. Ever the careful liar Matt said this in an interview found on his website: "They have a big warehouse in south Tulsa and a number of employees. Matt and Lisa ship their baby products all over the country and the world, he said. " Hmmm, ships their baby products all over the country and the world, doesn't say which way they are shipping, importing from China or exporting to other countries. It reads as if all the product is sold in the U.S. and "the world" part is where he ships the items in from a communist country. Probably need young workers with little hands to make baby products, our child labor is their child opportunity in Red China.
And it turns out that the product might just have some safety issues from reading these critical reviews on Amazon.com. Including babies falling out of the hammock or slamming face first into the bottom of the steel shopping cart after the hammock flipped! All for the almighty dollar, product liability insurance will settle the claims, eh Matt? One review talked about all the stains all over the product when it was received, leading one to conclude that a lot of returns are happening.
Oklahoma deserves better than some punk, wet behind the ears, self promoting huckster like Matt Pinnell. Dana Murphy isn't an angel by any means and there is a third candidate running for the office that you should look into, Dominique Block.
Matt Pinnell though? I'd say that Made in China Matt Pinnell needs to find a real job and get his snout out of the public trough. And bring those jobs back to the U.S..
