Rachel Pizzolato Is The Most Interesting Woman On Instagram Right Now, Alabama Defense Contractor Show, MEAT
It's defense contractor industry showtime!
He mesmerized the Screencaps community with his report from a Russian defense contractor show that turned into one of the most-requested editions in the history of this column.
He took us on a journey that was straight out of a novel.
Now he's back with a report from U.S. soil on the state of the military industrial complex and what's hot right now.
— Brandon C. reports from the road:
So it's been a while since I reported on the doings at a major defense show. Well it's a good time to catch-up, because the first defense funding bills are up under Trump II- Electric Boogaloo, and that nicely coincides with the SMD Symposium in Huntsville, AL! (Held at the Werner Von Braun Center who was you know, a Nazi rocket scientist before he was extricated to the US, settled in northern Alabama to help found the US space program, and got turned into a cartoon duck by Walt Disney.. but that's old news nowadays)
The SMD Symposium is the annual gathering of missile defense and Army space / missiles / electronic warfare industry held in Huntsville because that's where the Missile Defense Agency, Army's Space and Missile Defense Command, and NASA Marshall Space Center (Space camp!) are headquartered. With the Golden Dome for America prominent this year, there's a huge buzz.
They filled up three conference halls and a the concert arena for this conference. Industry booths are in the main hall, smaller contractors and universities are in the minor hall, and keynote speeches and industry panels are in the concert center. Keynotes are especially well attended this year because the 4* in charge of Golden Dome is finally Senate confirmed so this is his first big public speech since being officially put in that chair. And GD has a LOT of money going to it that is basically all new work, so it's a shark tank between the big defense primes.
The big booth swag at this conference is bourbon giveaways. You're about a hour south of the Jack Daniels distillery in TN and almost every contractor with a local Huntsville office has a bottle of a craft distillery bourbon up for giveaway if you drop a business card in the bucket. Odds of you getting a bottle of $100+ bourbon? 1 in 15000. Odds of you getting spam emails from a defense company you want to do nothing with? 100%.
I've attached some photos of displays. Lots of missiles and drones for sale if you want them! Also, radars, comm jammers, navigation systems for GPS denied environments, and the new hotness.... AI enabled everything! Target recognition software? Check. Tasking software? Check. Logistics software that monitors your toilet paper usage and MRE supplies? Yep!!
As for non-bourbon swag, we have a lot of Army friendly giveaways. Paracord bracelets with a compass, pocket knives, wilderness tool kits out of a REI catalog? All for the low price of a kind glance and a token reading of their brochure material. Next to the coffee carafes are vats of sweet tea and lemonade... It just means more, y'all.
It's the South, so booth babe manning is definitely better than your average def conference in DC or Boston or Silicon Valley. Lots of "former social coordinator for Delta Delta Delta" who married into an Army senior officer and got their MBA or PMP certification along the way. Think more Charlotte Flair than Tiffany Stratton to use some WWE references. The business version of the SEC sundress is the tailored sport coat with just above the knee skirt and sleeveless blouse. Retired Army dudes and dudettes are much more sociable than your average AF retiree who's just looking for that next Sr VP or consultant gig. Most of them still carry rucksacks around and pound Kind bars like they're about to get deployed to Kabul.
I'll report back next week on the difference between this and a space conference I'm going to as well. Nerd factor will be cranked up to 11.
Photos are in order: comm jammer, missile targets, cruise missile, a trainer for javelin missiles, and a display of miniature deployable missile defense vehicles.
Kinsey:
Brandon C. tells me there's an upcoming defense contractor conference coming to Detroit. This might be my moment to shine. I need to see what this world is all about.
Will you be at the Detroit show? NOT TO GO ALL DAVID HOOKSTEAD ON YOU GUYS, BUT I WANT TO SEE WEAPONS!
EMAIL: JOE.KINSEY@OUTKICK.COM OR USE MY GMAIL ACCOUNT
Look at where we're at with the Aldi grocery era: It's ‘bougie’
Great, the NY Times is telling the elitists that Aldi is the ‘it’ store right now. It was a great run while it lasted. Those of us who loved rolling into Aldi hungover, dirty from mowing the grass to grab a few items, etc. may never experience our favorite grocery store as it was ever again.
The elitists are coming for our favorite store where the lights are purposely barely on. Have you ever experienced that at your Aldi? I'll walk in and it's like they didn't pay their electric bill.
And before someone attacks me, YES, we spend a TON of money at our local hometown grocery stores. I have the points on my shopping card to prove it.
What about Costco?
I've cut way back on my spending there. I'm very frustrated by the amount of dirtbags who clog up the place. The weirdo Walmart element has infiltrated and it has me going there less and less.
Is it virtue signaling when someone leaves their Aldi shopping cart behind instead of chaining it up and taking the quarter with them?
My concern is that the elitists will show up and refuse to chain up their carts because it's just a quarter. Is it time for Aldi to raise it's cart rental fee?
EMAIL: JOE.KINSEY@OUTKICK.COM OR USE MY PERSONAL GMAIL
I can't believe I'm agreeing with Travel Ball Hardo Chris B. in Houston on the Little League World Series
— The Hardo writes:
I like it that you remember my previous rants about the LLWS being played on too small of a field. Not only are the fences too short for advanced 12 year olds, their bases are too short, the mound is too close and goodness gracious those boys are way beyond ready to be playing open bases with lead offs & real steals.
To say that I hate Little League couldn't be further from the truth though. They do alot of things right, for example their pitch count rules are very good, but at the LLWS they just have big boys playing little boy baseball.
That 46'/60' field and closed base rules are intended for much younger & less experienced boys (9-10 year olds at our league) that are just coming out of coach pitch / machine pitch, so the pitchers can just focus on learning to pitch and not worry about holding runners. In my opinion those LLWS boys should be playing real baseball rules on a 50'/70' field or maybe even 54'/80'.
Keep up the great work.
— Sheriff John in Houston checks in on this topic:
First, congrats to the Lamar team from Richmond, TX. That's our local league and I managed probably 250-300 rec games in that league over the years during the fall and spring when my kids were playing. Every year our 12's were supposed to be good enough to go to Williamsport and never did. Good on these kids for finally breaking through. For what it's worth, the year I got to manage the 12U all stars, we were not very good as most of our really good players quit when they were 10 and went to play travel ball instead and didn't play little league at all. We were playing with the C string that year. Nonetheless, lots of good memories.
Second, on the subject of travel ball, yes, Little League lets travel ball kids play, but these kids are not just coming in for the tournament (around here we call it "select" baseball, but it's the same thing). To be eligible for the all star team, you have to play something like 85% of the regular season games and eligibility is definitely checked and verified. Lots of kids will play on their select teams and little league teams simultaneously in the spring (none of the select ball kids play little league in the fall), but they have to be on a Little League team for the full spring season in order to be playing on the all star team in the summer.
(and before I get accused of being a shill for travel/select ball kids, let me state unequivocally that I hate it. It's more for the parents' egos than it is for the kids and all it does it make the parents' feel important and make the kids feel entitled.)
Also, it's not entirely uncommon for the better kids from certain leagues to form their own travel ball team and play together all of the time from age 7 or 8 up until they get to Little League 12U all stars.
Every team you see on television this time of year has probably been playing together for 4-5 years. These aren't just "travel ball kids" these are entire travel ball TEAMS whose players get sprinkled around the little league during the regular season and then come back together for the tournament.
We even did this with our C-string kids a few years ago for that one year, because we knew they were going to be the all stars the next year and they needed to get more reps together so we played a few local select tournaments in the fall. It didn't really matter, we still got killed when the LL tournament started.
Finally, regarding the field dimensions, Little League knew it had a problem a few years ago with the field dimensions but since most of the local parks couldn't be expanded they modified the bats instead. It made an enormous difference. Prior to the change, it was starting to get ridiculous and dangerous all at once.
There were a handful of home runs in every game and the pitchers were at serious risk being so close to the batters. Nowadays home runs are very rare (I think that there were only two in the entire SW region tournament this year out of 12 games). The bats that you see the kids playing with in the LL tournament on the smaller field are much less lively than the bats that the same kids use on the bigger fields in travel ball.
— Gregg B. says Florida intentionally walked a kid to load the bases and then this happened:
Kinsey:
BAN THE INTENTIONAL WALK IN 12U BASEBALL. THEY'RE NOT SIGNING NIL DEALS OR COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIPS IN A MONTH. WHAT ARE WE DOING?
Week One NFL broadcast teams
— Kirk B. in Duluth writes:
CBS Announced that the Announcement Team for the 4:25 edt Lions vs Packers will be
Jim Nantz & his loyal lap dog Tony Romo
I looked at the announce teams besides Kevin Harlan, who's way better than Romo, anyway for Christmas sake put Harlan & Nantz together send Tony with the rest of you who are you on the CBS Bench of Announcers ????
Gonna Rock as a Packers Fan starting Saturday night we get three preseason games being called by the Great Kevin Harlan life is good for the next 3 1/2 weeks
Kinsey:
Harlan and Nantz are play-by-play guys. You can't put them together. That's not how this works.
That said, another benefit of having the Sunday Ticket is that I'm guaranteed the Harlan games. I don't know if there's scientific data to back this up, but I feel like Harlan has more exciting games than Nantz.
Harlan can make a rainy, nasty Arizona Cardinals-Seahawks game in late November seem exciting. The guy is a treasure.
Harlan was just 25 when he called this game on the radio:
What day of the year would you celebrate your birthday if you could pick an alternative day?
— Gene in the Rock has a strategy:
January 1 seems kind of counterproductive. But (since birthdays are evidently portable), maybe I'll make mine December 31 so I can be a year younger for 70+ extra days.
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That is it this morning. I did hear from Indy Daryl immediately after Wednesday Screencaps where there was a mention of him buried inside the edition. More from Indy Daryl tomorrow.
The sun is out. It's hot. The kids are out of school for a few more days. It's time to get after another day of life.
Go dominate.
Email: joe.kinsey@outkick.com or use my personal Gmail