Friday mini-rant

[ancona]

Friday rant

It’s finally Friday, not that the aggravation stops, but I can sleep a little later tomorrow and avoid some of it.

I got a call about three hours ago from one of my superintendents in the field telling me that twelve people from various groups had descended upon the jobsite and were walking around. I instructed him to fade back a little bit and find out what they were doing. It turns out that they were responding to a phone call made by a former [and disgruntled] asbestos inspector from Space Gateway Support [or SGS for short] who were the previous contract holders for the environmental support term contract at NASA. This phone call was made because the disgruntled former employee saw we were performing asbestos abatement on the site and it appeared that we had removed our containment and left the site, as indeed we had. Well, he was walking around pointing at NASA printed stickers on a number of items that said “This Material Does Not Contain Asbestos” and indicating that indeed the material contained asbestos in quantities greater than 1%. These stickers are placed on an item or material when a survey is performed and empirical data show the absence of asbestos. When he was challenged about the stickers he simply said that a while back, they decided to place these stickers on a number of items that posed little to no danger because they were either in a tar/mastic matrix and couldn’t easily be made friable or in an inaccessible space.

At this point most of the folks at the cluster-fuck were confused and some of them were angry, but all of them agreed that the materials must be removed before commencement of demolition on Monday. Enter Anconas firm. We are under contract to perform roughly 360,000 dollars worth of abatement in several facilities slated for demolition and had just finished [I thought] this structure. We were directed to re-establish our containment and remove the materials which were clearly marked with NASA produced nomenclature declaring the materials asbestos free. Son OF A Bitch!! This means I have to pay time-and-a-half to guys already getting $22.97 per hour to work as many hours as it requires to complete this work by Monday. Want to hear the kicker? I may not get paid. That’s right, I may not get paid.

The original procurement documents contained a survey report that did identify some asbestos, but this particular material had an asterisk which meant it was only presumed to contain asbestos. During the original job-walk, ceiling tiles were removed and the A/C ducts were viewed since they were identified as having ACM in the mastic sealant. We all spotted the “No ACM” stickers and queried in the question and answer period about them, and were told in the response that the stickers meant what they said and the material didn’t have to be removed prior to mechanical demolition. However, the government has dug up a clause from the Federal Acquisition Regulations [FAR] that was last invoked at the Salem Witch Trials that will force us to proceed with the work and that the government will consider whether or not compensation is due. If compensation is due, it may not even be enough to cover my bare costs, and I assure you that these days the government is not very big on paying anything they can get away with not paying.

So to synopsize, the government identified something as not being something because it was convenient for them at the time, and now they want to re-classify it as something else because it suits them politically to do so and since I am conveniently located and happen to be under contract, they will impose their will on me simply because they can. What a bunch of mother fucking pussy communist dick eating bastards. I hope every single one of them rots in everlasting hell, and is personally tormented for eternity by fucking Satan himself.

On to high finance

It seems that Bank of America has decided that one of my money market accounts has so little money in it [12,500] that I am to be charged a 15 dollar “maintenance fee”. Can someone tell me just what in the hell they are maintaining here? Is it the high cost of all those pixels? Is it the banktarded computer guy who has to press a button that automatically sends me a statement each month declaring that I’ve been paid all three dollars in interest due? What the fuck are they doing that justifies charging me a fucking fee to hold my money at NO COST TO THEM, and then loan it out for a car note to some poor bastard at 8 percent? I guess the Dark Princes need to bump it up a notch to cover the increase in fuel for their mega yacht over in Monaco.

Sorry about the mini rant

 

[mmerlinn]

So to synopsize, the government identified something as not being something because it was convenient for them at the time, and now they want to re-classify it as something else because it suits them politically to do so and since I am conveniently located and happen to be under contract, they will impose their will on me simply because they can.

And you are surprised?

Think back a few months.

Isn't this the SAME thing they did with CRAPOCARE when it went before the Supreme Court? It's a fee, no, it's a tax, no, it's a fee, no, it's a tax, etc.

 

[Jay]

man Ancona, that sucks.

 

[ancona]

I would rather get beat with a sock full of nickels than deal with the full retard bullshit that gets tossed around like so much salad at NASA. For the one place that should by all that is right have the smartest mother fuckers on the planet working for them, they sure do pick some dog-shit stupid, feeble minded babblefucks.

I am still mad beyond all reckoning about this because as I sit here fuming and foaming, my guys are out there making $22,97 X 1.5 X 1.21 which is time and a half plus labor burden. I can smell the friction as dollars fly out of my fucking wallet at something approaching the speed of sound. I'm so mad I could spit fire. ;-()

 

[mmerlinn]

The asinine arcane ways that the government operates is WHY government hammers cost $1000, while the same hammer at your local hardware store costs $10. Government contractors MUST pad all bids by ridiculous amounts to cover government idiocy.

Can you imagine what would happen to baseball and other sports if the rules of the game changed FOR EVERY GAME and even DURING THE GAME? Utter chaos! Government contractors, such as you Ancona, must deal with this utter chaos every day. I really feel sorry for you and am surprised that you have lasted as long as you have.

Years ago I had a friend that owned a sheet metal business in the 1980s. The local public college needed a furnace repaired. He told them he could do it for $2000 and he would make a profit. Since it was over the threshold of what could be done by local initiative, the college passed the request up to the state level. Engineers there spent about $20,000 on engineering, then put the job up for bid. My friend bid, got the job for $6,000, and LOST MONEY! By the time everything was said and done, the job cost the college something over $30,000 and took months to accomplish. It cost every bidder money to prepare the bids and every bidder lost money, even the bidder who finally got the job. And I don't need to tell you who paid for that stupidity.

 

[Jay]

which is what makes Johns story about the drunks at NASA believable to me.

 

[ancona]

which is what makes Johns story about the drunks at NASA believable to me.

Jay,
I go in to facilities [mothballed ones mostly] and find their little love nests and what not, and some is recent but a lot is from distant times, like back in the Mercury Redstone days.

 

[Jay]

Jay,
I go in to facilities [mothballed ones mostly] and find their little love nests and what not, and some is recent but a lot is from distant times, like back in the Mercury Redstone days.

wow. the stories the rooms could tell. John wasn't my father, but he was as close to one as I ever had. He is the one who organized us to ride our bikes out several times a year to watch the liftoffs, etc. He told me many, many things. Who knows if they were true (he's dead now). They're true enough for me, though.

although a millionaire, he had no use for conventional economics. When he found out he was going to die, (doc told him he'd drop dead within two years of a massive coronary, which he did) he borrowed as much money as he could, with no intention of paying it back, in order to help others. (which made my money grubbing sister go apoplectic)