Whenever I tried to explain my husband to other journalists around a water cooler, I’d tell people he’s a doctor who hates golf and prefers to hang out in his hangar. Yes, he’s a private pilot who used to own a Piper Arrow 4 seater, until he sold it after his stroke. In the past, I’d laugh about my analogy – it would paint an accurate picture of an iconoclastic renegade. A doctor who doesn’t golf is like a newspaper reporter who doesn’t like gossip!
Lately, airplane hangars have been taking a lot of grief. First, it was Caitlyn Jenner talking about her buddies who are packing up their private jets and leaving California. That’s the talk around small, municipal airports she said. That seems like a good reason to run for Governor.
But today I learned that the fomenting of the BIG LIE around the 2020 election actually started a few years earlier in an airplane hangar in Texas!
When I would hang around Bob’s airplane hangar, I’d be impressed into duty; checking, cleaning, and generally tidying things up. If the kids were there, we might even wash the plane. If one of his buddies stopped by, they’d talk about the flying conditions, some idiot who clipped his wing on another hangar, and the next trip. And there was a lot of talk about why JFK Jr went down on his way to the Vineyard. I mean that was all single-engine plane owners could talk about back then. But we were in the minor leagues.
With money to burn, and pilots to hire, these BIG business people buy or charter super light jets like a Gulfstream. They come with showers, board rooms and can sit up to 11 people. The hangars are also luxurious. This is an extremely select group of movers and shakers, men like Bill Gates and a random Republican Texas billionaire salesman named Russell J Ramsland Jr… what a Dickensian name. Once he dabbled in “wellness technology,” but selling his skepticism proved more lucrative.
Among other claims, Ramsland was repeating the ominous idea that election software used in the United States originated in Venezuela and saying nefarious actors could surreptitiously manipulate votes on a massive scale. As the 2020 election approached, he privately briefed GOP lawmakers in Washington and met with officials from the Department of Homeland Security, documents and interviews show.
ASOG’s (Allied Security Operations Group, a GOP pac that began a quixotic attempt to find evidence of widespread fraud where none existed) examination by last summer had already cost more than $1 million, according to a document the company gave government officials that was obtained by The Post. Ramsland had sought funding from Republican donors whose fortunes were made in the oil, gas and fracking industries.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2021/trump-election-fraud-texas-businessman-ramsland-asog/?itid=hp-top-table-main-0430b
This may help explain why an Arizona audit is looking for bamboo fibers. Ramsland actually converted his hangar into his office. The man who once opened up lots of Tex Mex eateries was now looking for funding to spread widespread voter fraud conspiracies. Usually it’s difficult to find out where a fire started, but it was good investigative reporting that uncovered the spark for the biggest threat to our democracy – disavowing a free and fair election.
I mean remember the hanging chad in Florida? I hated the outcome of that election, I cried about the SCOTUS decision. But I didn’t plan a riotous coup in the Capital.
Since most of us are working from home, and I haven’t been in a news room for quite some time, the typical water cooler gossip has gone virtual. Today, Covid numbers are trending down – in fact Davidson County’s new cases just dipped under 10 per 100,000. But even if we all start traveling and eating indoors again, remember the GOP is still spreading the BIG LIE and stealthily planning a comeback. Their golden orange idol has actually started his own blog. Now Mr T can spread his lies the old school way, complete with misspellings.
I told Bob I wasn’t flying with him unless he learns how to pilot a Cirrus, a plane that has its very own parachute. Nashville has a flying club and it owns one of these pretty planes. You can never be too careful.
MountainMornings 