It’s been a little over a week since the crash of a private plane, which according to the White House was transporting President Rudolfo “Rudy” Ruiz from Turner Falls to a “private fundraiser” at Cibolo Creek Ranch1 in West Texas, resulted in the death of the most-loved and most-hated president of the modern era. The New York Times has reported that the plane was registered to the pastor of Turner Falls’ New Life Church, Kathy Donaldson, a longtime ally and mentor to President Ruiz.

For now, the Rudy Ralliers who descended upon Turner Falls for the president’s memorial events have mostly emptied out from area parks and campgrounds, and things are sort of starting to return to something like normal around here.

Although what value the word “normal” has these days is probably up for debate. Officials in Washington, D.C. have instituted a 9 p.m. curfew following what is now going on nine days of protests and demonstrations in and around the Capitol complex, leading to dozens of arrests — mostly of left-leaning #FreezeRuiz activists, who have clashed with the right-wing “Pink Bandana Brigade” and “Rud Boys,” student offshoots of the LibertyNow! movement.

So far the only reported serious injuries/hospitalizations have come after a handful of “Rud Boys” were hospitalized with gunshot wounds late Sunday night after an “unfortunate accident.” (If you didn’t catch John Oliver’s “unfriendly fire” bit about this … do yourself a favor: crank up that VPN and give it a download.)

Some have expressed surprise that there haven’t been more incidents of outright violence in D.C. since Ruiz’s death, but I think we’re simply seeing more evidence that Harrow restrictions on unauthorized public gatherings, combined with nationwide open carry allowances, have had a chilling effect on free speech — i.e., Ruiz’s campaign-trail promise to “cancel cancel culture” is working as intended. Recall that a Reuters report last year found that “left or left-leaning” groups were denied Harrow permits nearly four times more often than “right or right-leaning” groups.

But y’all can follow the national news any old time. You’re here for the Gallum County scoop. And I do think there might be something interesting going on …

If you follow me on Twitter, you know I’m an avid Redditor, and I joined the r/EastTexas forum when I moved back to Turner Falls. The forum nearly shuttered last week amid all the Ruiz news; conspiracy theories were flying left and right, and the mods have only today started taking a lighter touch with letting content through. So it caught my eye when a post about a couple of vans in the New Life Church parking lot spent about 20 minutes online today before it was replaced by a question about local wildlife.

I managed to grab a screenshot before it disappeared:

It’s not very clear from my screenshot, but someone named “texastechboiiiiii” (I am not going to fact-check how many “i’s” are on the end of that username, sorry) spotted two vehicles parked outside the New Life campus, speculating that they had something to do with Carron Nielsberg, the Finnish billionaire biotech executive who recently relocated his latest unicorn startup from San Jose, CA to Austin. In the now-deleted post, “texastechboiiiiiiiiiii” (or whatever) said he’d done some online sleuthing, tracing the logo on the vans, which feature the words “REVTECH / Rise Up” printed under a sun imprinted with an “on” button image, to a placeholder domain registered to — you guessed it — the same address as Nielsberg’s Austin outfit. I couldn’t recreate his research, and I was prepared to let it go as just another post-Ruiz tinfoil-hatter trying to connect the red yarn between New Life and Nielsberg (who attended Ruiz’s funeral at the church last week and has released nothing publicly about it).

But — and go with me on this — I think “texastechboiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii” is at least running a pretty entertaining scam, and might really be on to something.

I reached out to Nielsberg after news broke about his attendance at the Ruiz service, as I’ve stayed in touch with him off and on since I profiled him for Forbes back in early 2020.

The story is paywalled now, but if you’ll allow me to quote myself:

[Carron] Nielsberg has spent most of the late 2010’s bailing out failed Silicon Valley biotech operations, most famously taking over what remained of Theranos, the company founded by the embattled and bloodthirsty2 Elizabeth Holmes. He’s acquired so many flailing startups that he’s now being called the “Savior of Silicon Valley,” sometimes to his face — a fact that both amuses and annoys the avowed atheist.

Nielsberg hasn’t gotten back to me (he literally left my text on read) but “RevTech” tracks with some of his usual naming conventions — he owns dozens of companies, among them TipTech (a secure messaging platform for journalists), BevTech (a drink-rating social media site), and ServTech (a server management system).

I spent most of the day furiously checking my phone hoping for a response from Nielsberg, so when a pretty alarming drone photo of a Turner Falls trailer park featuring what look like branded “RevTech” tents landed in my inbox about a half-hour ago, I didn’t really know what to think. The photo came from an anonymous tipster, and I’m not sure who else the email went out to, but I haven’t seen anyone else post about it online, so it’s possible I’m either very gullible, or potentially scooping on this.

My thoughts: it’s possible this is “texastechboiiiiiii” trying to drum up sympathy for his deleted Reddit post, or a weird coincidence, or two separate individuals noticing the same thing at the same time. But I’m not not convinced that the logos on those vans and the logo on the side of this tent aren’t substantially similar, or even the same.

Apologies for my bad Photoshop job:

Here’s a zoomed-in image of the tent, which the tipster says is set up at the Treetops Trailer Community off I-30:

… those look pretty similar to me? I’m not shadow-of-a-doubt convinced that that’s a sun with an “on” button imprinted on it, but I’m struggling to think what else it could be. Or maybe my brain is making connections that aren’t there.

This New York-turned-repatriated-Texas gal doesn’t have a vehicle at her disposal, so I’m waiting on my stepfather, affectionately known to me and most of Turner Falls as Daddy Deke, to return home from his shift at Turner Meats before I cruise out to Treetops to verify the tip.

In the meantime, let the speculation begin.

What else I’m reading right now:

• “Texas A&M Celebrated a New Journalism Director. Then Came the Complaints.” (NYT)

• “First Amendment group sues Texas Governor and others over the state’s TikTok ban on official devices” (AP)

• “Why thousands of fish washed up on these Texas beaches” (NPR)

• “Texas has high rates of RSV in kids. A doctor says a new vaccine can help older adults.” (KERA)

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