National Guard

What photo-op will Donald Trump get from his deployment of 800 National Guard troops to Washington? Let’s hope he does better this time around.

That was when he awkwardly stood outside the historic St John’s Church on June 1, 2020 holding a bible that Ivanka Trump conveniently whipped out of her handbag.

As cameras recorded Trump's photo-op, federal troops had just wrapped up their beating the brains out of peaceful protesters at Lafayette Park, who were demonstrating against racial injustice in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder.

Though Trump is a favorite among evangelical Christians, the president didn’t look too comfortable standing outside a house of worship.

It's a good thing that St. John's was closed for repairs following a small fire. Trump staffers may have advised him to go inside and say a prayer for himself.

Rev. Mariann Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of DC, was outraged at Trump’s photo-op. “He took the symbols sacred to our tradition and stood in front of a house of prayer in full expectation that would be a celebratory moment,” she told the New York Times.

Mark Miley, then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, apologized for his role in the charade.

Dressed in his signature battle fatigues, Miley walked behind Trump to St. John’s. “I should not have been there,” he said during a commencement address to National Defense University. “My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”

Miley repeated his opposition to Trump’s suggestion that federal troops be deployed nationwide to crack down on protests.

Trump’s recent deployment of soldiers to Los Angeles and DC are moves to “desensitize” Americans about the presence of armed soldiers patrolling the streets. [I still find it unsettling that in the aftermath of 9/11, National Guard troopers with automatic weapons are still inside Grand Central.]

The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon is mulling the creation of a “domestic civil disturbance quick reaction force” to quell unrest anywhere in the country.

Six hundred National Guard troops will be split evenly and based in Alabama and Arizona to handle disturbances east and west of the Mississippi River. They would be available around-the-clock and under the command of the president.

There is still time to reject Trump’s guard. The Pentagon documents outlining the rapid deployment force plans are marked “predecisional.”

Air Force General Dan Caine currently chairs the Joint Chief of Staff. Miley regrets being used as Trump’s stooge at St. John’s. Will "Razin" Caine have the yarbles to torpedo Trump’s bid to create his own militia force to go after perceived enemies?

Perplexed by the audacity of Perplexity? The AI start-up scores the PR play of the week by offering a whopping $34.5B bid to take the Chrome web browser off the hands of Google. The search giant may be forced to unload Chrome as part of an antitrust agreement.

Perplexity may be known in the world of artificial intelligence but it was a non-entity to the rest of us.

That’s no longer the case--thanks to the magic of PR. Perplexity’s astounding offer to Google received coverage in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, Variety, BBC, Times of India, Mexico Business News, TechCrunch, Reuters, CNN, Bloomberg and CNBC.

That’s pretty sweet. A sweetener: In the Aug. 12 offer letter that Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivasan sent to Alphabet chief Sundar Pichai, he asked for a response to the $34.5B bid by Aug 15.

How’s that for chutzpah!

Tavares tries again. Tavares, "America’s Seaplane City," is still looking for a government relations firm to handle state and federal matters.

The central Florida city had put out a call for a lobbying firm earlier this year, asking for proposals by April 24.

Things didn't work out as planned. There’s a new RFP with a deadline of Aug. 22.

Here’s a Tavares tidbit.

Alexander St. Clair-Abrams, a newspaper and railroad man from a Creole family in New Orleans, founded Tavares in 1880.

He named it after a Portuguese ancestor. By 1884, Tavares had a post office, hotel, three stores, sawmill and eight cottages.

St Clair-Abrams dreamed of Tavares replacing Tallahassee as the capital of Florida.

Alas, that didn’t happen. Tavares did get a consolation prize. It was named the seat of Lake County, which is now a fast-growing area of the Sunshine State with more than 400K people. That’s not too shabby.