Senior officials throughout various departments and agencies of the Trump administration tell CNN they are alarmed at White House pressure to grant what would essentially be a no-bid contract to lease the Department of Defense's mid-band spectrum -- premium real estate for the booming and lucrative 5G market -- to Rivada Networks, a company in which prominent Republicans and supporters of President Donald Trump have investments.
The pressure campaign to fast track Rivada's "Request for Proposal" (RFP) by using authorities that would preclude a competitive bidding process intensified in September, and has been led by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who was acting at Trump's behest, sources with knowledge tell CNN. To push his case, Meadows has sometimes used as his proxy an individual identified by sources in the telecommunications industry as a top financial management official in the US Army.
Sources tell CNN that Trump was encouraged to help Rivada by Fox News commentator and veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove, a lobbyist for, and investor in, Rivada.
Untold billions are at stake. A government auction of 70 megahertz of spectrum in August went for more than $4.5 billion. The Rivada bid would be for 350 megahertz of spectrum -- five times that amount.
There’s nothing they need, nothing they don’t own already, nothing they even want. So you buy them a solar-powered waving queen; a belly button brush; a silver-plated ice cream tub holder; a “hilarious” inflatable zimmer frame; a confection of plastic and electronics called Terry the Swearing Turtle; or – and somehow I find this significant – a Scratch Off World wall map.
Some of that plastic stuff really stinks when you burn it, don't ask me how I know. 🔥 ♻
“MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY” Clipper 214 out of control. Here we go.” These were the final words of a “resigned” pilot of Pan Am flight 214 on the evening of December 8, 1963.
In his 22 years with Pan Am, Captain George F. Knuth had 17,049 hours total flying, with 2,890 hours flying a Boeing 707 but there was nothing he could do after a bolt of lightning struck the plane and triggered an explosion resulting in catastrophic damage. The event was a tragedy indeed but there were more tragedies exposed in the days and months following the crash.
Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Next Tuesday is Bill of Rights Day 📜. Snow showers, cloudy and 25 degrees in Delmar, NY. ❄ There is a north-northwest breeze at 5 mph. 🍃. Cold day today. Things will start to thaw out at tomorrow around 10 am. 🌡️
I stayed up much too late last night working on my animated map 🗺 code for the blog. At this point I’m pretty happy how it came out although I do want to make some improvements including fixing it so I can interrupt it while it is processing and tweaking the output file formats. For some animated maps it seems like mp4 video is better than gif – much smaller files and higher quality animation.
Skipped my morning walk and my evening one 🚶🏻 because it’s kind of cold and gray but I had a nice breakfast of French Toast and ham chopped steak. 🍞🥩 I promise myself to bundle and walk this evening. It was a good breakfast. 🥚 I like eggs but not everyday and the same thing with pancakes 🥞.
Another probably quite quiet work at home day. 🖥 The truth is most things I can do just using my phone and I’ve gotten very efficient at moving files 📂 between my phone and laptop. In two weeks though when my phone plan expires I’ll add the Hotspot option for a couple of months until either the weather warms or the pandemic is over. Thursday I’m going to work downtown at least for the afternoon.
Today will have a chance of flurries before 8am. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny ⛅, with a high of 32 degrees at 2pm. Six degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around December 27th. West wind 5 to 14 mph. A year ago, we had cloudy skies in the morning, which became cloudy by afternoon. The high last year was 37 degrees. The record high of 58 was set in 1927. 4.3 inches of snow fell back in 2001.❄
Solar noon 🌞 is at 11:48 am with sun having an altitude of 24.6° from the due south horizon (-46.2° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 13.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 3:38 pm with the sun in the southwest (231°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (239°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 4:23 pm after setting for 3 minutes and 23 seconds with dusk around 4:53 pm, which is 2 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 The best time to look at the stars is after 5:30 pm. At sunset, look for partly cloudy skies 🌃 and temperatures around 31 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 14 mph. Today will have 9 hours and 8 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 57 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will be partly cloudy 🌤, with a low of 23 degrees at 12am. One degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around December 10th. Maximum wind chill around 18 at 6pm; Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming light and variable in the evening. In 2019, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 37 degrees. The record low of -11 occurred back in 1902.
I tried out that electric heater fan I bought ♨ and for all the electricity it consumes its really not that hot. But I guess that’s to be expected – you can only draw about 1,500 watts from a 120 volt outlet under code – and while the fan turns 100% of that to heat, that’s only like 5,700 btu compared to the 18,000 btu propane heater I use for winter camping. But then again, electric generating plants dump a lot of their heat into the air and water. 💦 It’s still okay for warming my hands 👐🏻 when I’m cold and beats turning up the heat at home.
This is shocking and actually pretty sad. ⚡ In 1963, Pan Am Flight 214, a Boeing 707, is struck by lightning and crashes near Elkton, Maryland, killing all 81 people on board. 🛬 It’s not something that is talked about much anymore but airplanes have improved lightening safety a lot.
Not a particularly nice weekend on tap. ☔ Saturday, a chance of showers after 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 47. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Sunday, showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 49. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Typical average high for the weekend is 37 degrees.
Yeap it’s going to be a stay home weekend 🏡 but maybe at some point this week I’ll get out to Five Rivers. Maybe Saturday although I was thinking I could do lunch out there one day and then hike and work from my truck if it’s warm and sunny enough.
As previously noted, next Tuesday is Bill of Rights Day 📜 when the sun will be setting at 4:22 pm with dusk at 4:54 pm. On that day in 2019, we had partly cloudy, snow showers and temperatures between 44 and 28 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 36 degrees. We hit a record high of 61 back in 2015.
