DL Open Thread: Thursday, June 29, 2023

Filed in Featured, Open Thread by on June 29, 2023

Some Florida-Sized Corruption By DeSantis.  How about a $92 mill highway construction project on behalf of a guy who gave the Governor a ‘golf simulator’?:

The administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) steered $92 million last year in leftover federal coronavirus stimulus money to a controversial highway interchange project that directly benefits a top political donor, according to state records.

The decision by the Florida Department of Transportation to use money from the 2021 American Rescue Plan for the I-95 interchange at Pioneer Trail Road near Daytona Beach fulfilled a years-long effort by Mori Hosseini, a politically connected housing developer who owns two large tracts of largely forested land abutting the planned interchange. The funding through the DeSantis administration, approved shortly after the governor’s reelection, expedited the project by more than a decade, according to state documents.

Hosseini plans to develop the land — which includes a sensitive watershed once targeted for conservation by the state — into approximately 1,300 dwelling units and 650,000 square feet of nonresidential use, including an outdoor village shopping district. He has called the Woodhaven development, which has already begun construction, his “best project yet” and promised topull out all the stops for its success.

Kinda makes the Minner/Brainard ‘Make It Happen’ NKS (aka ‘Tigani’) warehouse pale in comparison.

Biden Administration Playing Mind Games With Russia?  If so, it would be a welcome turnabout.  I, however, am skeptical:

A senior Russian general had advance knowledge of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plans to rebel against Russia’s military leadership, according to U.S. officials briefed on American intelligence on the matter, which has prompted questions about what support the mercenary leader had inside the top ranks.

The officials said they are trying to learn if Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the former top Russian commander in Ukraine, helped plan Mr. Prigozhin’s actions last weekend, which posed the most dramatic threat to President Vladimir V. Putin in his 23 years in power.

General Surovikin is a respected military leader who helped shore up defenses across the battle lines after Ukraine’s counteroffensive last year, analysts say. He was replaced as the top commander in January but retained influence in running war operations and remains popular among the troops.

Sounds like disinformation to me, but I’m not a paranoid Russian dictator.  Which is not to say that I’m not paranoid…

El Lay Planned Massive Sweep Of Homeless Canceled After E-Mail Leak.  Talk about inhumane, check out the e-mail:

“Everyone will be arrested and all their belongings will be taken away by sanitation,” the LAPD officer wrote.

She suggested that the operation would be executed covertly, calling the effort a “hush hush task force” so police could arrest everyone there.

“As always, do not approach these individuals experiencing homelessness. I want to make sure all are there at the encampment on the 29th so I can arrest them,” her email said. “This is a hush hush task force.”

I can’t even…

Is Delaware Hiding Rogue ‘No Labels’ PAC?  It’s possible likely:

As a nonprofit, No Labels must file tax returns that are public. The most recent return publicly available covers 2021. That year, No Labels raked in $11.3 million from unidentified patrons. The document reports that $2.4 million—a whopping 21 percent of all the money that came in—was given as a grant to a group called Insurance Policy for America, Inc., which was incorporated in Delaware on December 20, 2021 and located at the same Washington, DC, address as No Labels.

In a filing submitted to the IRS, IPFA noted that its president, treasurer, and secretary was Jerald Howe Jr., a top executive at Leidos, a defense, aviation, information technology, and biomedical firm (formerly known as Science Applications International Corporation). Howe is a co-founder and treasurer of No Labels. 

I’ll save you the trouble: Jeff Bullock remains unavailable for comment.

What do you want to talk about?

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  1. bamboozer says:
    June 29, 2023 at 9:51 am

    The homeless are what you get when you close the mental hospitals, ship all the manual labor factory work out of the country and make housing but a distant dream for many. Twenty years of endless war and hundreds of thousands of cases of PTSD add to the problem as well. This is the third world and I hope the politicians like it, the rich certainly do. As for the using the police to attack the homeless and take their few possessions it don’t get no more Nazi then that. And the Republican base would love it.

  2. Another Mike says:
    June 29, 2023 at 10:13 am

    There’s nothing to worry about. The author of that email will undergo extensive training on homeless people, according to the LAPD. I feel better.

  3. El Somnambulo says:
    June 29, 2023 at 11:29 am

    Buh-bye, affirmative action. To the surprise of virtually nobody:

    https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/06/29/us/affirmative-action-supreme-court

    Must’ve missed the Court decision banning legacy admissions…

  4. Andrew C says:
    June 29, 2023 at 5:55 pm

    https://www.lambgoat.com/news/39417/year-of-the-knife-involved-in-accident-vocalist-madi-watkins-in-critical-condition/

    The greatest Delaware band none of you listen to was involved in a horrific traffic accident yesterday, and their lead vocalist is in critical condition. The blistering hardcore group Year of the Knife has an incredible albeit brief discography, including their 2018 EP “First State Aggression.”

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