COACH TUBERVILLE IS SHOCKED: Shocked to find politics in Washington. Shortly after the Senate adjourned for about a five week summer break, the Pentagon announced that President Joe Biden had selected Colorado Springs, CO at the permanent home for the U.S. Space Command Headquarters. In its waning days, the Trump administration had announced its decision to put the headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama. A legitimate debate can be conducted about the best place to house the Space Command’s mothership (and, as some people have pointed out, Colorado IS closer to space than Alabama). But Senator Tuberville and friends have a sneaking suspicion that politics may have played a role. Of course – folks elsewhere believe politics were involved in the January 2021 decision to move the outfit from its current location in Colorado Springs to Huntsville. White House officials say this week’s decision was made purely on the merits. Pentagon officials privately admit that decision makers were not unaware that Tuberville has been holding up hundreds of flag and general officer promotions and assignments in a dispute over DOD policies. Senator Tuberville has attracted a lot of negative attention as a side effect of his stance on promotions. For example The Washington Postdid a deep dive on Tuberville’s false (or mis-remembered) tales of his father’s World War II exploits. Meanwhile, Tuberville vows that the HQ location dispute is “..absolutely not over.” To quote another military expert, John “Bluto” Blutarsky, “Over? Did you say ‘over’? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!” (Editor’s note: Before you send us an email informing us that it was the Japanese who bombed Pearl Harbor, we recommend some deeper research on the source, John Blutarsky.)
NO THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE: A new public opinion poll says that the U.S. public’s confidence in the military has reached it’s lowest point in over two decades. According to a Gallup poll, only 60 percent of Americans expressed “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in today’s armed forces. Noteworthy, is that the biggest dip in public support for the military comes from Republicans who traditionally have been highest on the troops. Politico notes that in the past three years, Republican confidence in the military “plunged from 91 percent to 68 percent.” Among the things analysts speculate may have chipped away at public pride in the military, is the messy exit from Afghanistan. Seems to us a bit unfair to blame the military for that, since the disorderly withdrawal was the product of political decisions made by two administrations. No word on any Gallup polls on the military’s confidence in its political leaders.
ADDING INSULT TO INQUIRY: Last week, three former military officials testified in a widely-watched congressional hearing, about what we used to call UFOs. Among their claims, was that the U.S. military has been hiding the fact that for years, it has been collecting crashed “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” craft and also has recovered non-human “biologics” from the vehicles. One Congressman asked a witness if anyone had been murdered to conceal information about UFOs, and the witness declined to answer – thus leaving the impression that perhaps something like that had happened. Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the head of the Pentagon’s “All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office” (AARO), pushed back on the even the notion that the DOD has attempted to stifle those who wished to report such incidents. Oddly, Kirkpatrick elected to object not through some official means – but by posting a letter on his personal LinkedIn page. He said that he found the claims at the hearing “insulting” to the officers from the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community.” Other Pentagon officials, like spokesperson Sue Gough, were also underwhelmed about some of the allegations that claimed the Department had no “…verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.” X-Files fans will not be pleased.
DUGGAN STILL DOWN UNDER: A December 2022 Dead Drop mentioned that a former U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot who later became an Australian citizen, had been arrested and was in the can in Canberra, accused of conspiring to help Chinese pilots learn how to land on aircraft carriers. Nine months later, Dan Duggan is still there and is fighting extradition to the United States. He claims that the crime he is accused of is not really a crime in Australia and that he is only a pawn in superpower politics. If only we could all use that defense.
CALL YOUR (NIGHT) AGENT: Back in March, we told you about a Netflix series that had just started streaming called, “The Night Agent” about a low-level FBI agent working in the basement of the White House who suddenly finds himself thrust into a conspiracy that leads all the way to the Oval Office. We watched it and found it mildly diverting but apparently others were more impressed. We learned recently that Matthew Quirk – the author of the book that the series was based upon – has just optioned another book to Hollywood. Quirk has posted on Facebook that his latest novel called “Inside Threat” has been snapped up by Chernin Entertainment for a fee in “seven figures territory.” This next story is about an attack on the White House that causes the President and his aides to flee to a secret underground government facility only to find the bad guys are there, too. We suspect the timing of Quick’s seven figure payday depends in large part, on whether the writers and actors strikes in Hollywood are resolved soon. Maybe if they locked both sides – the studios and the artists – in a secret underground facility, they might work something out.
WE ARE NOT SURE WE ARE BUYING IT: Jeremy Hurewitz who describes himself as a journalist, entrepreneur and “corporate spy” who has a business he calls “Sell Like A Spy,” says he has worked for several well-known consulting firms that had many former intelligence officers, military vets and ex-law enforcement officials on staff and he learned from them (among other things) how to “put people at ease and open up” — all of which helped his salesmanship. We hear Hurewitz has landed a book deal with Diversion Books for a tome that is set to come out next spring. Right now, we are unconvinced – but maybe Jeremy can sell us on it.
POCKET LITTER: Dead Droplets and bits and pieces of interesting /weird stuff we discovered:
THE FEW, THE PROUD, THE CONVICTED: Jakobie Timblin of Wisconsin, had a pen pal…while he was in the pen. Now 35, Timblin reportedly started exchanging letters with a woman in 2015, telling her that he was a Marine serving overseas. But he was actually in prison, serving time for armed robbery. Four years later, he got out of jail…but got into a USMC uniform from time to time while dating the woman. According to Marine Corps Times, someone claiming to be Timblin’s captain contacted the woman and got her to loan him $5,000 to purchase a gift for the fake Leatherneck to thank him for his heroism overseas. The woman’s stepmother kicked in another $6,500 for some other scam. Eventually, the stepmom got suspicious and local authorities (with USMC experience) saw photos of Timblin and became convinced that he had no idea how to assemble a genuine uniform. Long story short – Timblin is doing another three-year hitch in the slammer. Hopefully, someone is monitoring his outgoing mail.
NOT HIS FIRST RODEO: Retired Navy doctor (and current member of congress) Ronny Jackson was reportedly “briefly detained” by law enforcement last Saturday, at a rodeo near Amarillo, TX. His office later told reporters that he had been summoned to assist a 15-year-old girl who was having a medical emergency. Apparently, the local sheriffs didn’t realize he was trying to help. Jackson’s office stressed in their statement that the Congressman had not been drinking. May seem a weird thing to say but may have been included in light of past incidents when he was on active duty.
SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME: With all the hype surrounding the hit movie “Oppenheimer” there have been a lot of stories recently on the real-world events surrounding atomic weapons tests. One of our favorites from Military.com tells of how, in July 1957, the boffins (yes, that’s a word) at the Nevada Test Site got the bright idea of testing an “unguided nuclear air-to-air rocket” known as “Genie” and they placed five U.S. Air Force officers directly below where the rocket would explode. Exactly why these officers were selected for the mission – and what the mission was - remains a mystery. One of the participants was asked what protective gear he wore for the test, and he said “a baseball cap.” They all reportedly developed cancer later in life but – you know, maybe that was a coincidence.
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