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Thread: The rest of the story

  1. #1
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    The rest of the story

    You can't make this stuff up:

    Florida’s budget this year—signed in June—continued this trend with a $12 million fund “to facilitate the transport of unauthorized aliens out of Florida.” According to Douglas Soule of the Tallahassee Democrat, that money came from interest on the $8.8 billion Florida got from the American Rescue Plan to address the coronavirus pandemic. Because it was interest, rather than principal, it was not covered by the federal requirement to address Covid-19, as the federal money itself was.
    The idea was to highlight federal transportation of “unauthorized” migrants into Florida, but by August the money was untouched because there actually weren’t large groups of migrants coming to the state. So DeSantis focused instead on Texas, where a woman the New York Times reporters identified as Perla Huerta, a U.S. Army veteran who was a combat medic and a counterintelligence agent for two decades before being discharged last month, recruited destitute migrants to go north with the promise of work. Vertol Systems, which charters airplanes and is well connected with Florida Republican politicians, was paid more than $1.5 million, but how they were hired and by whom is not clear.
    The people the operation targeted were legal asylum seekers, who were provided with fake maps and misled about where they were going.
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

  2. #2
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    Deception and subterfuge...Bidness as usual in politics......Ben
    The future is forged on the anvil of history...The interpreter of history wields the hammer... - Unknown author...

  3. #3
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    As a federal taxpayer.. i consider the interest earned on my $$$ as part of my $$$, I mistakenly assumed that such was understood.

    Additionally.. the people transported from Florida to Martha’s Vineyard were invited to Florida by the Government of Florida.. as invited guests, did they qualify for the funds?

    Someone wanted to play with the big kids.. maybe the Texas to Florida to Martha’s Vineyard fiasco is a point of endearment to a voting segment..

  4. #4
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    Heard he was calling them back to help clean up. LOL
    Fred

    "Everyday I beat my own previous record for number of consecutive days I've
    stayed alive."

    'Take care of yourself, and each other.'

  5. #5
    Join Date
    10-30-01
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sandman View Post
    ...i consider the interest earned on my $$$ as part of my $$$...
    One does not mess around with Fed funds. They audit a percentage of them annually and you risk losing them if they are not handled appropriately.

    Hunter
    I don't care if it hurts. I want to have control. I want a perfect body. I want a perfect soul. - Creep by Radiohead

  6. #6
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    This reminds me of a payment problem that I had many years ago. The "owner" was a township who had received a large HUD grant to construct much needed storm sewers. It was by far the largest sum of money this board of supervisors and the Township Manager had ever had control of.

    I was to be paid monthly progress payments which were first reviewed and approved by the engineering firm. All worked well up to the time to write the check---none was forthcoming. I ended up going to a monthly supervisors meeting. It was quiet simple---they had invested the Federal grant in CD's----and they would pay me as soon as their CDs matured. In those days, (I was in my 30's) I was kind of a fiery guy, and I lit up on that bunch of old guys. I finished with telling them that I was going to pull my crews out beginning in the morning and our next meeting would be in a courtroom.

    The next morning my lawyer got the Township Manager and the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors on the phone and very calmly explained to them what the law was, what they had violated and the fact that they were not in compliance with the terms of their grant---which they could end up losing---and still owe me a bunch of money---and be left with a town that was pretty well torn up---plus it would not come down quietly.

    They saw the light

    The grant is a contract between HUD and the recipient (the Township) and it not only conveys the monies it is very specific in how that money is to be managed---and they were not in compliance---there was an issue of "usery" that is a rather nasty word in legal matters.

    Long story short---they decided to forgo their interest, eat the penalties and pay me----from then on the job went smoothly.
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
    "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
    “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis

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