Monday, April 26, 2021

Hometown Ramsey MN - Somebody's idea, where somebody else is expected to become a joiner.

 Lead item on town news sheet, Ramsey Resident.

 The City of Ramsey is gathering sponsorships as part of its Adopt-a-Flag Program designed to bring the community together and show our patriotism by sponsoring an American flag. The Adopt-a-Flag Program calls for community partners – both in the business and residential community – to sponsor a flag that will be affixed to a light pole along Sunwood Drive. As the program grows, flags may also be affixed to other light poles within the COR.The City can’t do this without your help! If you are interested in sponsoring a flag, please contact Kathy Schmitz at 763-433-9844 or kschmitz@cityoframsey.com. A Friends-of-the-Flag Level Sponsorship is $50 and a Patriot Level Sponsorship is $500. This covers the cost of supplies as well as an engraved plaque which will be on display at Ramsey City Hall. Patriot Sponsors will also have an engraved nameplate affixed to the light pole. Adopting a flag can also serve as a symbol to honor the memory of a loved one. Sponsorships can be purchased online at: www.cityoframsey.com/778.

Friends of the flag?

Patriot Level Sponsorship?

And don't stop short. Add a little bit of demagoguery from a little man waving a prop. Demagoguery of that kind goes well with you waving your flag.

 


And Hang Mike Pence - Or do I misunderstand the motive, mentality and personalities behind the latest beautiful really great right wing Ramsey thing?

_______UPDATE_______

The worse:

Who elected this disgrace? Who wants any part of it in Ramsey? We, as a community, are better than this. Why are new councilmembers the way they are?

In fairness: Yes, on who elected -- the other choice was Clintons-redux. There is that truth. A shame on Democratic Party inner party bullying karma. 

SO - One term came out of competing uglinesses. Where you know who to blame.

The greatest shame attaches to those in-denial souls who wanted to reelect  Prop-Man.

Sunday, April 25, 2021

The Hill runs an op-ed.

Link, and this from start of the item:

'Real Housewives of the GOP' — Wannabe reality show narcissists commandeer the party
© Getty Images

Donald Trump has proven to be a loser — and a sore one at that — but he has won something. He managed to transform the GOP into a party in his own image: an outsized, narcissistic cast of mini-me sycophants. Just like the maestro, none of them appears to care about actual governing. They’re building their brand first, then following fame and the money.

This has transformed the GOP from a party that once had ideas and credibility into a lame variation on the “Real Housewives” reality TV franchise. Forget the red hats. The real mantra of this new GOP isn’t “America First” — it’s “Me First.”

Like the TV “Housewives,” these new Republicans seek attention, fame and fortune, ignoring credibility.  Their success is sometimes short-lived, and often ends in relationship troubles, legal troubles, and worse. 

The most obvious recent example is Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

TV Insider ran a piece recently detailing the troubles of seven of the TV “Housewives” from various cities. Fame and money are intoxicants. Add a bit of power and the realization that there are people “out there” who buy your special brand of assininity, and the tragedy begins to unfold.

The one thing all “Housewives” have in common is performative outrage.

The item goes on to do a one-by-one examination of the four who are pictured.

My big question, if Ted Cruz really wants to look like Fidel his cap should be red star and not Lone Star. Beyond that, these are not the nation's best and brightest. 

_________UPDATE_________

Thinking of the four, Pete Hegseth, though never an office holder, nonetheless comes to mind. Republican in outlook - Trumpian Republican - as is each of the four featured in the item from The Hill. Hegseth served. Without taking time to confirm, Gaetz has not served, Graham is believed to have served, and for the other two there is not even a Crabgrass guess. (Readers are encouraged to use the net to see whatever service record exists for each of the four).

The bond - Hegseth is as much a diva as each of the other four. In fairness, Hegseth's name has been associated with some good for some veteran housing in Anoka, MN, with the effort seeming successful and open to scaling beyond pilot project size.

This is the latest reporting found online by Crabgrass about Hegseth, beyond FOX stuff, and readers may or may not be impressed. It is remindful of John Kline, former Minnesota CD2 Republican rep. It goes unmentioned on the Hegseth Wikipedia page. 

The feeling at Crabgrass is as much an opportunist and narcissist as the four office holders, but apparently with private sector income only - so far.

Hegseth has a social media presence. At CPAC. Loud. Some Crabgrass readers might find this CPAC speech impressive and effective. Few, at a guess.

Trump and Wall. And absurdity of one of the two. (Actually absurdity of both.)

Link

Trying to keep it simple, a link given, no excerpting, and an ending opinion - Mineapolis and redefinition of policing need and policy.

Link.

Opinion - neither of these two should be allowed anywhere near the debate among civil, reasoning and open minded public officials:

 

Let them sell pillows or some such.


________UPDATE________

Besides those two white guys "tough on crime," some additional links may help.

Guardian, here, here, and here. And in total honesty, Chauvin was prosecuted with a black Attorney General leading things. Prosecuting cops in Minneapolis is something which, historically, did not happen earlier so that things worsened.

Millions of excuses can be fashioned. The aim is from here into a future, the need for fashioning excuses for the likes of those two pictured above, will be unnecessary and avoided. Via civilized, thinking policy instead of selling "tough on crime" as policy slogan aimed to gain political office and advancement.

Yes, finger pointing is easy. However, it is even easier to simply sweep hard truth under a rug while pearl clutching over how we need to do things better, tomorrow.

Yesterday led to today, and denying that is a poor starting point for change.

FURTHER: Worth quoting, the words of Kenen Malik, in a previously linked Guardian item - closing paragraph:

Many policing reforms are urgently required, from demilitarisation to greater community oversight. But until the police stop seeing themselves, and being seen, as “an armed force to repress” the poor, until they stop being used as a means of managing inequality, and that inequality is challenged at its roots, little is likely to change.

Also, another Guardian item on Minneapolis policing, in a troubling catalog/listing form, showing case after case in chrono order.

The Fong Lee case in the chronology is particularly troubling over "he had a weapon" police testimony contradicted by other evidence - something which body cam usage may help counter. Ditto for Jamar Clark's case. Remember that Chauvin was subject to video evidence of the police-suspect encounter. Absent that, we might only guess at how the case may have played out. Body cams must be used and two reforms arguably would help: if a non-defective body cam is not turned on during a fatal encounter firing of the officer should be automatic; and in court proceedings the absence of body cam complete footage should create a rebuttable presumption that misconduct was at play (rebuttal by clear and convincing evidence being requisite).

Friday, April 23, 2021

Parler is back online. See what you missed.

 Link. If they don't call them tweets, what do they call them? Parls?

I agree with Popovich. The three has ruined basketball. Basketball was best when Detroit had the Jordan rule and games over a hundred, either team, were rare.

 Link. Spread the floor. Drive and kick for the corner three. Yawn. Boring.

James Harden at Houston. Curry at Golden State. Yes they shoot lights out.

So what?

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Some things persist beyond their useful lifetimes.

 Here.

Here

Compare.

It might be time to shut Crabgrass down. There is useful lifetime, and then there is beyond that.

Only a thought for now.

Monday, April 19, 2021

The ultra-Trumpist bedding savant (and company) is now being represented by Karen Monahan's lawyer, Doug Wardlow's boss for about half of Wardlow's legal career.

 Strib: https://www.startribune.com/mypillow-sues-dominion-which-is-already-suing-mypillow/600047670/

That lawyer being Andrew Parker: background links here and here

Also, here.

One might say Parker attracts interesting clients. Which is not necessarily a compliment. Let the circle be unbroken, etc. This time, Lindell and Wardlow and Parker are tied together; Monahan not a player in this theater production.

__________UPDATE_________

Lindell's launch of his own "social media site" called "Frank," gets coverage.

Frank - the image comes to mind, it stays, it resonates:

 



Four assholes, Biden-Harris, and Trump-Pence. All I could do was vote against the perceived greater evil.

 Biden-Harris won because of many like me. Why this post? NYT exit polling seems to want to intentionally obscure the key issue - LESSER/GREATER EVIL as the only real choice.

Biden is mediocre, and a career corporatist beholden to big money. Harris is mediocre, and a career flip-flopper beholden to big money. Each is in a millionaire but traditional spousal pairing. As such, each is entirely unrepresentative of US on wealth; closer to mainstream marriage norms, among US. 

Gender, race, and East/West Coast diversity. Dems had it. But, so what? Pick the Coasts, damn the rest? Put a conservative old white guy atop the ticket? Because you can? For each ticket. And New York + Indiana against Delaware + California, again, so what? Big money backed both tickets; one having to be the perceived greater evil. Just remember, whichever, you voted for, your choice was evil.

BOTTOM LINE:

Only mediocre made the day. Super inept-and-scary mediocre failed to win.

Tell that to the NYT - but, oh, that's not news. Nor fit to print. 

Too true. Too direct. INSTEAD - Ask a bushel full of dumb exit questions, fuzz up the truth. Hope it does not shine through the smokescreen.

Friday, April 09, 2021

Colorado Crappy-beer Congress Critter. Who else but Lauren Boebert?

At least not Coor's lite. But trash beer, trash person.


 Progressives drink micro-brewery decent tasting designer beer, with taste variety, not cheap, bad watered-down swill tapped out of Clydesdales. (Upscale progressives drink Leonneti.)

Then there is this image, from here, compare this image.  First image, Three Percenters? Second image, three pointer.

European style there is no symbology confusion. A point cinema fans might remember from Inglourious Basterds - pub scene. So, full circle back to beer.

_______________________

Above image source.

Friday, April 02, 2021

Heinous anus; a/k/a Rep. Gaetz. [UPDATED]

Why call him that? Well, before the latest news about the gentleman, this

Loud and stupid.

Then, cherry atop the man's Gestalt:

Few in GOP rush to defend Gaetz amid sex trafficking probe

WASHINGTON — The political peril for conservative Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz deepened Friday as the often outlandish, Trump-styled provocateur appeared politically isolated amid a federal sex-trafficking investigation.

Few Republicans rushed to offer any kind of support to the three-term Florida congressman known for espousing high-volume attacks — sometimes against those in his own party — during his frequent media appearances. Several GOP lawmakers and top aides who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive situation said Gaetz's prospects for remaining in Congress were bleak and were complicated in particular by his unpopularity among colleagues in his own party.

Federal prosecutors are examining whether Gaetz and a political ally who is facing sex trafficking allegations may have paid underage girls or offered them gifts in exchange for sex, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Friday.

The scrutiny of Gaetz stemmed from the Justice Department's probe into the political ally, Joel Greenberg, the people said. Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector, was indicted last year and is accused of a number of federal crimes. He has pleaded not guilty.

Republican congressional leaders have largely been silent about the investigation, which continues.

That reflected the serious nature of the charges in a story that seems to add new elements by the day, giving lawmakers little motivation to attach themselves to Gaetz.

Part of the investigation is examining whether Gaetz, 38, had sex with a 17-year-old and other underage girls and violated federal sex trafficking laws, the people familiar with the probe told the AP. Federal agents suspect Greenberg may have enticed the girls and then introduced some of them to Gaetz, and they are examining whether both men may have had sex with the same girls, the people said.

Crude, rude and lewd? (Excerpt is taken from Strib's carry of the AP feed.) 

Even his GOP colleagues keep distanced. That heinous

___________UPDATE___________

Innocent until proven guilty being the rule, prejudging Gaetz on recent allegations might be unwise. No matter how widely anonymously sourced "facts" are reported by multiple outlets.

Looking at Gaetz, my major beef is with the CPAC appearance video, where he shouts as if volume equals credibility, veracity, and truth, with what he says being amateurishly inflammatory - style and substance - while not hanging together all that well. 

So, Gaetz writes his own op-ed, where saying (aside from asides about others) that nobody has come forward by name, no woman, saying he did this or that illegal thing(s), at least not publicly, (where grand jury testimony is supposed to remain confidential). So far, reporting seems only sourced anonymously, as to any criminal thing Gaetz is said to have done. Names of women being withheld.

There is Joel Micah Greenberg, whose conduct and legal exposure ostensibly led to the Justice Department consideration of Gaetz. Whatever the Gaetz sexual conduct was, it is irrelevant to how diligently and intelligently he represented his district. It goes to character, as does the question of how close Gaetz wished to put himself into the Trump orbit, and why. Now Greenberg and counsel are exploring a possible plea, and what he can deliver is his own testimony about Gaetz; i.e., he can snitch. 

Arguably the most curious of all Gaetz - Greenberg coverage, this.

Then there is this, (more on that perhaps later) this, this and this. Dots connect or they do not, while we only know what we read on the web. Including this (nobody has published any good timelines).

click image to enlarge and read

While much pearl-clutching coverage has passed with more to come over Gaetz, hula hoops, whatever, the verdict at Crabgrass is: loud, belligerent, immature, posturing, ill-informed, opinionated poor little rich boy, not worth a pinch of dirt. That might be wrong, but again, what we read on the Internet (and that CPAC video) is what our judgments rest upon.

Likely little else about Gaetz will be posted in the future on Crabgrass. However, close the UPDATE with an image, where readers will think what they think when they view it:


 image from here

__________FURTHER UPDATE__________

WARNING TO READERS: This is speculation, hypothesizing a story behind a story, to make motive a part of the story more than chance. 

Not saying it is so-and-so and not the common explanation, but that it could be.

A few more dots to contemplate. Following the money - always to contemplate. The big pork barrel is the DoD, what it looks at, what it buys, what invested interests see as threats to their place at the trough.

Forbes, last summer.

In September, a devastating attack on Saudi oil refineries brought wider attention to a threat that’s been of mounting concern for the U.S. Department of Defense: small, cheap drones can evade detection and overwhelm traditional air defenses.

It’s causing a shift in emphasis toward defensive systems for a U.S. military that has long primarily focused on projecting force to attack, says Brian Schimpf, CEO of the controversial Silicon Valley defense startup Anduril Industries. “Having awareness of the environment, being able to make informed decisions about what’s a threat or not a threat and how do I respond, this is the seminal challenge DoD has right now,” says Schimpf.

Deep-pocketed Silicon Valley investors are betting Anduril has a promising solution. The company has raised a fresh $200 million in a C Series funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, it announced Wednesday. The investment values the company at $1.9 billion post-money, almost double its last funding round in September.

Schimpf says the money will enable Anduril to expand its development efforts in scale and scope as it tries to bring a fast-paced Silicon Valley approach to the slow-moving world of defense contracting. [...]

Anduril was founded in 2017 to fill that gap by one of the most prominent conservative and pro-Trump figures in tech, Palmer Luckey, along with Joe Chen, an early employee of Luckey’s virtual reality startup Oculus, and Schimpf, Trae Stephens and Matt Grimm, who are all veterans of Palantir, a data analysis startup co-founded by the libertarian billionaire Peter Thiel. Thiel’s Founders Fund, where Stephens had become a partner, has been a major investor. 

 [italics added] People always matter. They know other people, etc. Forbes continues

Luckey, now 27, went to Facebook after Oculus was acquired by the social media giant in 2014 for $2 billion but was pushed out in a cloud of controversy in 2017 after a news report that he had donated money to a pro-Trump group called Nimble America that planned to put up billboards featuring anti-Hillary Clinton memes ahead of the 2016 election. [Yet, ...] says Schimpf. “We’ve never needed to dip into the Palmer pot.”

The first project tackled by Anduril: border security, making it a target of immigrant rights advocates amid the Trump administration’s heavy-handed attempts to shut off the flow of illegal immigration through Mexico. It’s sold U.S. Customs and Border Protection solar-powered surveillance towers equipped with radar and cameras. [...]

 There is more in the Forbes report - so read the original.

 YouTube.

Think about fallout from disruption of a status quo comfortable to many, i.e., think: F-35 boondogle vs. unmanned options. Battle hardware for protective human transport, vs distant, secure, remote deployment.

A company blog touts its chops. And peoples up. And then some. Disruptorsnever sleep. So what strategy/tactics remain for their elders at the trough? Disruptive elements against a DoD/industrial complex status quo cash flow might not have many friendships among friends of the status quo. Defensenews.com reports:

 How President-elect Biden can reinvigorate defense innovation

 The world is on the cusp of a new era of warfare dominated by unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, networked weapons and sensor fusion. We recently got a glimpse of this future in the rapid devastation that Turkish-backed Azeri forces delivered to the Armenian military with low-cost drones and smart weapons. While China and Russia exploit advances in emerging technologies, the United States military struggles to adopt them. If the U.S. does not adapt quickly to this new way of fighting wars, we will become vulnerable to attacks from authoritarian regimes that pose an existential threat to our national security, our democracy and our way of life.

Donald Trump ran for president as a disruptor, and one area he promised to disrupt was national defense. But while speaking the language of disruption, Trump spent even more on the same old ships, vehicles and aircraft at the expense of emerging technology. He got historic increases in defense spending from Congress and squandered them on the past.

President-elect Joe Biden and his team must do what Trump promised and failed to do: Disrupt national defense. To his credit, Biden has acknowledged that the United States’ decline in military technology is a threat to our national security. But while recognition is a crucial first step, the Department of Defense needs a new innovation playbook. As Air Force Chief of Staff Ge. C.Q. Brown said: “We must accelerate change, or lose.”

We recommend the Biden administration pursue the following initiatives to stay ahead of China and defend American values at home and abroad:

Think software first: As the congressional Future of Defense Task Force has concluded, the DoD will need to engage nontraditional defense companies to build the “essential technology” that will maintain the United States’ military advantage. The DoD must understand these technology systems are valuable because of the complex software they run on, not the hardware casing on the outside. Unfortunately, the DoD remains mired in old habits, attempting to acquire these leap-ahead capabilities by making software subservient to hardware and subordinating AI, autonomy and software-to-hardware manufacturers.

In order to recruit software companies to build the next generation of defense systems, the DoD needs a cultural shift on its approach to software. DoD leaders must understand that the engineering challenges of building a fighter jet and those of building AI-powered systems are of equivalent magnitude and should be treated with equivalent respect. And they must start awarding major defense programs to nontraditional defense contractors, who can draw upon the world’s most talented software engineers in ways the traditional defense base cannot.

The DoD should also revisit its approach to software data rights (the term for license rights in government contracts). The DoD’s insistence on owning source code and reserving the right to pass that code from one vendor to another is a nonstarter for commercial companies. It means that they are neither guaranteed any meaningful recurring revenue nor are they able to effectively sell their products to multiple customers, destroying their incentives to sell to the military. The DoD’s concerns about vendor lock-in can be addressed in less obtrusive ways, such as requiring that software companies building their government software be “open” — interoperable, extensible and adaptable to solutions from industry.

Pick winners: The DoD is paralyzed by a cultural and bureaucratic aversion to “picking winners” — worrying that by handing out contracts, it is engaging in favoritism and anti-capitalist behavior. But nothing could be more anti-capitalist than failing to reward the best talent and ideas.

We cannot choose winners blindly, of course. The DoD should hold more frequent demonstrations and competitions to assess who is building the best technology. However, once the best technologies have proven themselves, the DoD should spend large sums scaling these technologies into programs of record.

After picking winners, the DoD should loosen its financial sustainment requirements for some systems. Requiring decades-long sustainment plans made sense during the Cold War: Our adversaries were predictable, meaning our technology was usually a step ahead, and many of the most important systems we procured were clearly intended to be operational and relevant for decades. Neither is true today: China is a dynamic adversary constantly innovating, and important tech like software and attritable aerial systems improves every year.

We used to be better at this. [...]

[italics added] Not enlarging the trough, but wedging aside non-winners? Things for some might become tightly squeezed, where countermeasures might appeal.

 The conjecture in a nutshell - if people knowing people puts self-proclaimed "disruptors" in Congress to aid the ends of private-sector DoD contracting disruptors, or has found ones already there and created alliances, entrenched military-industrial forces may not want to see upstarts eating their lunch. They might look for indirect ways to clean out disruption, and in doing so might not play fair, even stooping to innuendo and classic smear tactics, or by searching for any means to weaken or compromise "the enemy," short term.

In the long term we're all dead anyway, so "news" today is where Gaetz has been putting his pecker or what's stored on his cell phone and shown others, because such a level of "news" sells as more lurid with more of a punch than policy wonk stuff such as dry weapons system rethinking toward better bang for the buck. Disruptive contractors with aims to supersede, (and like-minded souls in office), vs. those with much skin already in the game may find impediments looming.

Zero sum game? Yes, no, maybe? Friend of my enemy is my enemy?

Does that simply make Gaetz a victim of circumstance as well as a victim of his own indiscretions? A "collateral loss" as military-speak would have it? Collateral to robotics' incursion into established man-centric warfare norms of powerful interests?

There can always be alternative theories

Many boats exist which powerful ones do not want to see rocked by disruptive operators.

 ___________FURTHER UPDATE__________

More dots. Connected to FBI investigation, or unrelated, that is an opinion guess, and again we only know what we can find online.

Who else might be sharpening knives for Rep. Gaetz with dissatisfaction over what he's been advocating? "For the district?" And against established interests holding political power?

Oil and gas? A websearch where several items are returned where readers may want to look. Petroleum fuels conventional war. There are joint interests.

Entrenched man-centric military ways and means have beneficiaries in Eisenhower's still active money churning "military industrial complex." So? That thought has already been part of earlier updating, but there might be more dots.

Two items not getting much press, but returned in web searching: This, from this web search. Also, this from another web search. Read each. Each fleshes out circumstantial evidence.

Expanding on the previous updating, there is:

https://www.nwfdailynews.com/ --- Gaetz has vision for technology park outside gates of Eglin AFB, Jan. 30, 2020; stating in part:

Retired Air Force Capt. Nathan Nelson, military affairs director for Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., unveiled a proposal for a technology park outside the gates of Eglin Air Force Base during a Thursday session of the Defense Leadership Forum’s 2020 Air Force Contracting Summit at the Sandestin Hilton resort.

SANDESTIN — A proposed $400 million Eglin Air Force Base research facility could become the catalyst for a “Futures Park,” combining military, contractor and education facilities just outside the gates of the base.

“Futures Park,” a vision of Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., whose district includes Eglin Air Force Base and a number of other military installations, was outlined briefly Thursday by retired Air Force Capt. Nathan Nelson, Gaetz’s director of military affairs.

“We want to shine a great big spotlight on Northwest Florida,” said Nelson, who was among the speakers on the opening day of the Defense Leadership Forum’s 2020 Air Force Contracting Summit. Now in its seventh, and largest year at the Sandestin Hilton resort, the conference brings together hundreds of contractors, large and small, with military contracting officers.

The proposed Eglin research facility, dubbed the Weapons Technology Integration Capability, is in line for the 2022 federal procurement process. As that process moves forward, with the sobering recognition that $400 million is a large request for military construction funding, Gaetz and his office have been talking up the “Futures Park” as a way to leverage that investment.

Creating a facility like Futures Park could, Nelson said, attract investment beyond the federal government’s military construction dollars. In return, he explained, Northwest Florida would get a facility that expands higher education in the state, providing students with on-site internships and allowing them to start working on their security clearances for a smooth transition from school to the working world.

[...] Parker Luckey's venture (see above) presently is headquartered in California, but a Florida branch, following allocated federal spending would not hurt it. With Genifer Luckey now the Gaetz fiance, family melding exists reminiscent of feudal aristocracy arrangements. Moreover, the report stating, "The proposed Eglin research facility, dubbed the Weapons Technology Integration Capability,[...]" meshes uniquely with the Luckey venture touting, as the prior Forbes quote said, "[...] money will enable Anduril to expand its development efforts in scale and scope as it tries to bring a fast-paced Silicon Valley approach to the slow-moving world of defense contracting." There are vested defense contracting entities who might not want any innovative eating of their lunch; with Gaetz in their crosshairs as an instigator of status quo upheaval not in their interests. 

Nelson shows up again, https://www.850businessmagazine.com/thinking-synergistically/ in wanting to get a supercomputer on the cheap, in the Gaetz district as a part of the previously quoted hope and plan; 

 Nathan B. Nelson, the director of military affairs in the office of U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, addressed the Air Force Contracting Summit at Sandestin on Jan. 30 [2020 - same date as above quoted item].

Extending due south into the Gulf of Mexico from a point at 86° 41’ West longitude is a line of mission-critical importance to Air Force bases in Northwest Florida and the region’s economy.

The Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 established a moratorium on oil and gas leasing and any related activity in the Gulf east of that line, which originates near Eglin Air Force Base. But that prohibition is due to sunset on June 30 of next year.

“The Military Mission Line enables the Air Force to do all of the weapons development, testing and training that it does,” Nathan Nelson reminded participants in the seventh annual Air Force Contracting Summit, held at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa.

“That training range is a national treasure,” emphasized Nelson, who is the director of military affairs in the office of U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fort Walton Beach). Nelson stressed that the extension of the moratorium beyond June 2022 is not a given.

“Flying experimental missiles over an oil drilling area is a bad idea,” Nelson said. “That should be self-evident. But there are companies motivated by their own self-interest, and they are desperate to get into the Eastern Gulf and explore and drill.

“We have precious little time. The next NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) is our last chance to get an extension. If I could ask just one thing of you, it would be to contact your elected officials in support of the Military Mission Line and impress upon them how vital it is.”

Pending and future MILCON (military construction) requests and other proposed investments in Panhandle installations may become hard to justify if the Mission Line is erased.

Proposed projects include a $400 million Weapons Technology Integrated Capability (WTIC), essentially an updated Air Force Research Lab, at Eglin.

Nelson said Eglin leadership is open to the idea of building that facility outside the gate at the base so that other entities could be co-located with it in a collaborative “Futures Park.”

Nelson described a “fantastic vision” whereby educational institutions, industry and a reutilized supercomputer capable of running sophisticated simulation programs would be situated next to the WTIC. The resulting synergy, he said, would aid in workforce development and provide for better, more immediate flow of information from the military to the private-sector businesses that support it.

Students completing internships at the Futures Park could work on obtaining security clearances prior to graduating and be ready to go to work as soon as they receive their diplomas.

Nelson envisions an anchor Department of Defense presence surrounded by Class A office space, a large technology farm and satellite university campuses. The supercomputer would be used primarily by Eglin personnel, but would also be made available to academic institutions and potentially contractors.

 Might a Parker Luckey defense contracting branch in Florida, adjacent to Elgin, be on of the potential contractors Nelson imagined?

The item resumes:

“The Futures Park is something that we are very excited about,” said Nathan Sparks, the executive director of Okaloosa County Economic Development. “We are in lockstep with Congressman Gaetz and his team in this endeavor.”

Okaloosa County is home to 375 military contractors, Sparks said, reflecting the fact that the missions of local bases are contract driven.

“Seven of the top 10 defense contractors in the country — Boeing and Lockheed and the others — have a presence here,” Sparks noted. “Those companies are generally located throughout the county wherever they find a place to do business.

“They believe and Team Eglin believes that there would be great value in developing a true research park that is located strategically in close proximity to program offices on base. It could become a real epicenter for developing both talent and products.”

About that possibility, Nelson makes no effort to curb his enthusiasm.

“We want to shine a great big spotlight on Northwest Florida and show people that we are on the cutting edge of science and technology and weapons development,” Nelson said. ‘The Futures Park could be transformative for our region and help supply the high-value, highly skilled talent that military contractors need to keep their businesses going.”

So, the big players are already there, without having the Nelson/Gaetz inspired supercomputer aim to "show people that we are on the cutting edge," an edge which Parker Luckey's Anduril firm touts as already theirs, to nuture and grow. 

And that firing range in the Gulf - don't let oil/gas drilling there, it is incompatible - is likely a theme that might bristle oil/gas drilling interests. Gaetz and colleagues might have overreached, with a consequent will of big players to trim his wings.

Perhaps not. But the Daily Beast item cited without comment in prior updating stated, 

In a subsequent phone interview with The Daily Beast, Nelson said the pair of FBI special agents who came to his door asked him just two questions regarding Gaetz: Whether it was true that he left because he became aware of illegal activity, and whether he knew of any other staffers who might have such knowledge. The answer to both, Nelson insisted, was “no.”

He told The Daily Beast he then spent more than an hour explaining to the agents what he said was the real reason he left: an economic development project the goal of which is to obtain a government contract and a military supercomputer and provide training and security clearances to local engineers.

The entity behind this plan, Northwest Florida Supercomputer Research Group Inc., was incorporated at Nelson’s address in 2019—though Florida business records show it became inactive last September, shortly before Nelson exited Gaetz’s office. Nelson said he did not know why this had happened.

But he confirmed at the press conference that the company had sought funding from Triumph Gulf Coast, a state-controlled nonprofit led by Gaetz’s father that doles out money to communities that suffered damages from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil spill. Nelson said his business had dropped its application, and he told The Daily Beast he never had any conversations with the congressman or the elder Gaetz about this proposal.

 The proposal - per the "sought funding" link above was "Updated  5/1/18;" while the elder Gaetz managed money trove turned it down, finally and officially by a rejection letter dated October 26, 2020 (the turn-down letter, screen captured, appears in earlier commentary in this post). 

Oct. 2020 is the month Nelson left the Rep. Gaetz payroll. The entire hopes and dreams Nelson was involved in form an interesting backdrop to Gaetz and his District. Yet they are things the current pearl clutching sex-drama stuff appears to find uninteresting.


.......................................

NOTE: All speculation is not in defense of Gaetz and anything he's done or may be accused of doing. It is merely blind guessing whether there is any follow-the-money aspect which might be a play aimed at rendering the man's political chops less threatening to existing ways and means. 

Trump's silence over Gaetz events and reporting may indicate the former White House resident may not want to rock "wrong" boats while bloviating about 2024 and raking in donated cash.

Steve Bannon was pardoned for things worse for the nation and for gullible souls with his skimming on the notion of privatized build-the-wall -- in comparison to Gaetz and women and lusts without any policy dimension or big-buck aspects. 

Bannon was pardoned, but, he'd accumulated a mailing list of donors keen to see a Trumpian wall, however funded. Willing to give money. Added value that way, to the man on the way out of the White House after a single tumultuous and eventful term, who is to say how or if that factored into the Bannon pardon? 

Circumstantial evidence often leaves multiple conclusions possible for inquisitive minds. Dots may or may not connect.

One interesting departing thought: Joel Micah Greenberg, despite all his anti-social chutzpah, is no threat to anyone's money and ongoing doing of business. If the Deep State and its minions wished to cut a "no impact" plea deal with nobody's entrenched ox standing to be gored, except Gaetz', there'd be no better candidate for such a deal than Greenberg. Consonant with the Biden promise to Comcast and other big money "Nothing will fundamentally change," would be a deminishment of Gaetz and his trouble making boat-rocking potential, which, surprisingly, is happening.

Compare a deal being cut with Greenberg, with how Jeffrey Epstein subsequent to a cushy deal kept going and then ended up in prison, to where coconspirators we can only guess at ended up snuffing him while he was imprisoned so that he could not name names to implicate sexual misconduct of others (or to identify sponsorship behind his compromise-'em activity). 

In the Gaetz instance, the forces choosing to use personal non-mainstream sexuality as a tool and weapon appear to be set to prosper against a target. 

Methodology the same, only those facing fallout are different. Power is as power does. For all we are told, Ms. Maxwell's insight in things seems to be, "Silence is golden." Publicly so. Thus far. In jail but still sucking air. If she's told anything to anyone, it would be the Deep State, which has not publicly divulged a thing.

All for now.

FURTHER: Well, not all for now. After finding links and reading all the interlocking coverage of allegations via anonymous sourcing about Gaetz and his sex life; and finding other stuff online - if you dig - then in a way the Gaetz speech at CPAC might hang together more than it seems at first blush; since Gaetz knew of his being targeted by the time he spoke there. 

Gaetz did speak of big tech and free speech; big tech as a worry.

Bernie; per Politico, Axios, NY Mag - on misgivings over Twitter banning Trump, and over the degree of present "information shaping" concentration being a thing to question. But that's been a decades-long problem, not new with the Internet; with past decades having had Walter Cronkite more trusted by more people than Senate, House, or White House occupants, back when three broadcast networks dominated "news" before cable even (99 channels and nothing on). 

Whether there was more besides Trump - MAGA obsequiousness and other things district-oriented as noted above, plus the ever present talking head role on FOX, which would make Gaetz a target to intentionally bring down; that is a question ripe for sincere "news" analysis, but don't hold your breath waiting for decent levels of policy analysis to come from MSNBC, or FOX. (Maddow being her own similar-but-different version of Tucker, to the detriment of cable news quality.)

Decent cable broadcasting will not happen. "Alternative facts" the Conroy lady said. Shallow, unfortunately so, but it is what focus groups show as correlated to maximizing viewer ratings numbers. 

Watch the film, "Network," again, to reinvigorate your understanding of the mechanism. Are you mad as Hell, and unwilling to take it any longer?

All for now, hopefully. But Gaetz at CPAC was worth rethinking.

________FURTHER UPDATE________

The link to the "dad wore a wire" Gaetz interview with Tucker Carlson.

This item, an op-ed discussing a complaint about Gaetz by managing persons of apparent public-interest astroturf operations is reported, with a link to the 44 page item the report references, posted on Scribd, with a lot of stuff included therein showing Gaetz tweeted a lot, loved to post his image, and was generally an ass. That is not a crime. DC is full of comparable Twitter users, the outlet seeming to attract idiots.

 There was a Florida land use proposal, "River Cross." Florida Republicans are discussed, this link. Land use proposals often face opposition and usually are proposed to gain somebody, a promoter, a pile of money. Whether that stuff reflects on Gaetz in any questionable way would involve delving into Florida Republican political lore and reporting, which any reader who cares can take up, but Crabgrass posts this update info without any further care.

Latest online stuff - per a websearch done 4/24/2021, time frame = last 24 hours; search terms  = gaetz medical marijuana

That websearch is open to further research by interested readers. It appears to be more thrown against the wall to see what sticks. The wheels of justice turn slowly, sometimes showing a surprise. Gaetz is a disgrace to good reasoning and sound policy, but is not alone that way, nor is such a status necessiraly a crime. Why anyone ever voted for the asshole is an indiscernible fact of bad politics in the U.S. of A. (That being an opinion and not intended to be viewed as a statement of fact.)

- end of story -

 

Thursday, April 01, 2021

NOTICE - Another blogger from Minnesota, Gary Gross in St. Cloud, MN, is still posting despite hacking problems with his LFR blog. Gary posts from a Republican perspective, (far from my progressive outlook), but Gary deserves the courtesy of this NOTICE BEING POSTED HERE for the time and effort he puts into his posts, year after year..

 LFR = Let Freedom Ring Blog, for those unfamiliar. Gary is posting despite the current

http://www.letfreedomringblog.com/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi

Gary is not a victim of a hosting service takedown, as with Parler, but there was hacking that shut that posting site down.

Currently, Gary is posting on Blogger, which might be temporary, or permanant, depending upon ability to reinvigorate the original LFR site. He posts at:

https://libertyprosperityblog.blogspot.com/ 

Many of Gary's readers might already know this.  

This post is for the handful of Gary's followers who might also check Crabgrass from time to time and who might not know that Gary remains currently active on the web.