Psychos with psyringes. The Military-Industrial-Complex and me.
20221227
A Midwestern doctor is one of the the greatest things to come out of the Covid episode. All of his pieces are long and worth it.
Today he discusses Dr. Peter Hotez, a fanatical vaccine advocate. Here is a 51 second clip produced by PR experts at the World Health Organization to scare the bejesus out of the unvaccinated and condemn us resolutely unvaccinated as the antichrist.
The Midwestern Doctor provides a lengthy back story. Hotez is a pediatrician. His autistic 25-year-old daughter still lives with the family. She had the complete schedule of childhood vaccines including the MMR and objects DPT, which have been statistically associated with autism.
He resolutely rejects any possible connection, asserting with unfathomable certainty that his daughter’s problems could not possibly have been related to her vaccinations. And he continues to attempt to force jabs on the entire world through the WHO. He is supported and very generously funded by Bill Gates, among others, and is currently nominated for both a Nobel prize and a leadership position in the WHO.
I find this frightening. If you have the time, it is well worth reading the entire piece from the Midwestern Doctor. Absolute certainty in anything is frightening. When that absolute certainty includes the conviction that he knows what you and I should do with our own bodies, it is appalling. When a multibillionaire like Bill Gates is supporting the madness it makes me want to run for cover. To, say, a far country where there is nothing more dangerous to worry about than murderous Russians.
I wrote yesterday expressing my doubts that there was a great deal of corruption in military procurement here in Ukraine. Reflecting on the subject, it occurs to me that I should relate my not insignificant experience with military procurement.
I spent 1968 to 1972 in Vietnam with IBM. As part of the military-industrial complex we supported the world’s first computerized war. I spent 1972 to 1976 in Germany doing the same.
During that time in Germany I worked with subscriber Ron Glidden to develop two pieces of software that the Army really needed. The first was a division level automated supply system, to manage a couple of thousand line-items of spare parts inventory at the lowest level in the maintenance echelon. The second was a maintenance management system – keeping track of work orders to fix the equipment at that level. You can read about them in my biography, around page 40.
The second of these became an Army standard system. Ron and I got quite a boost out of that. It is certainly one of the few times in history that a single person conceived of and convinced the Army that it needed a standardized automated system, and another single person programmed and implemented it.
As an independent consultant I implemented another supply system in the form of licensed software and sold a couple of copies to the Navy, one in Puerto Rico and another couple in Korea. I was a better programmer than businessman, and didn’t have the instincts, desire or the stomach to deal with military procurement. It didn’t go far.
I went on to write a cost modeling system for federal government proposals made by IBM and then to lead the development of another one for Honeywell Federal Systems after I became an independent consultant.
Along the way I worked for Booz, Allen, which made a lot of money from foreign military sales. It is a corrupt business. As you can read in my biography, in my judgment a $50,000 IBM computer would have been adequate to handle spare parts for the two ships involved in the Saudi Navy Expansion Program. That was altogether too little for the US Navy, which was administering the program. They had me booted from the project, sent to a job in Argentina, and convinced the Saudis that they needed a $2,000,000, gymnasium-sized computer.
I would be surprised if Booz is not involved in supporting Ukraine in some way, with the same shenanigans going on. It is corruption. It is not only Booz, but the whole beltway bandit complex. Ukraine may be somewhat complicit, but the corruption has deep roots elsewhere.
When all is said and done, Ukraine is fighting the fight for which the US has long been preparing. However corrupt the system that produces them, NATO is supplying us with the best armaments in the world.
I should add that IBM and some of my clients like Computer Sciences Corporation were more conscientious about providing value for the dollar than Booz and the beltway bandits. They suffered from the problems that beset every organization – sometimes lackluster management and uninspired employees – but they did seem to respect their clients. I was pleased to work with CSC on three contracts for the Saudi Ministry of Petroleum and Minerals. They made good use of my skills to produce software that met the clients needed.
That’s the news from Lake WeBeGone. Yesterday’s light snow has melted and there is none in the 10 day forecast. We are getting back to bicycle weather. I wore sneakers instead of boots to take Zoriana to kindergarten this morning. The house has been back up to 68° for four days now. The kids are healthy and we are back to our normal routine.
Alionushka has often remarked that Vova's alertness and behavior changed radically after he was injected with all those vaccines at once when he was under a year old. I try not to think about it that much as it is too painful to realize that I allowed my boy to be damaged by these monsters out of blind ignorance.
The electricity (for now) has become more predictable. Little by little, my various battery and generator systems are providing reliable heat and internet, both of which I need to continue to generate some income. My wife reminds me that we are indeed blessed. Our home still stands, and we've lost no one close to us. Yet the loneliness of being without her feels like a dagger in my stomach. For now, I am guarding the fort, and she is with the kids. She believes it better that they are safe in Germany. My heart asks, "how long?"
What always amazed me was software developers who never involved users. As a systems guy, I worried over the system - hardware, software, people. While I would collect requirements and specifications, of necessity they were incomplete outlines of the work. Trying to get developers to work with users was like pulling teeth.
I admire the efforts I see with spiral development in that the feedback from users is embedded. Build some stuff, try it. Don't pretend to have all the answers at once. Work the pieces and get parts right. Segmented, boxed code allows for that. While I've been out of the game for ~ 20 years <sigh>, from those I talk with that approach seems to be working.
In my years building command post facilities, each had to be grander than the others. Huge displays were on the BOM. At the time, quite expensive state-of-the-art stuff. Rarely easily maintained. I hated bleeding edge technology. But the bosses wanted grandeur. I often wondered what the retro-fits have cost.