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Topic: Charlie


Charlie McMillan has quite the record of failure under his bespoke Italian leather belt.

* There was the screw-up over multiple years in building the new security system at TA-55 that LANL was force to pay for to make amends.

* There was his female Dep. Director whose husband gained lucrative LANL contracts and for which she failed to inform LANL -- and Charlie knew about this obvious conflict of interest for years and did nothing!

* There was the horribly mis-handled $6 billion plutonium lab planned for LANL which now appears will never be built due to massive cost over-runs.

* There are the upgrades of the radioactive waste disposal pipelines that, just like the proposed plutonium lab, are now spirally massive out of control in terms of costs and completion deadlines.

* There is the on-going (now one year and growing) shut-down of all activity out at TA-55.

* And the final piece to his "glowing" career? Probably billions in cleanup costs as his mismanagement of LANL results in the "kitty litter" fiasco which will, at the very least, shut down WIPP for years to come and make the state of New Mexico wonder if any of those 500 barrels might someday blow open and spew radioactive fumes into the air.

Heckavajob, Charlie. How much does LANS pay you for this stellar record? Is it one million or two million these days?
Anonymous said...
May 25, 2014 at 10:20 PM


Ha, Charlie will laugh at you fools all the way to the bank. The only legacy is how much money you make not about what you do. He played to win, and he won, you on the other hand are are the loser. The deputy also played to win an in the end got a lot of money she did the honorable thing and stepped down, I doubt a single one ya all ould have done than that. If you cannot play the game and win the big $$$ than that is just because you suck at the game not because the game is evil. We all play and you have be honest about it, just admit you are playing as well and would take every dollar that came your way. The people that put down our management are sore losers and have absolutely no right to judge. Only God judges and heaven helps those that help themselves and that is the way it goes. You can say all the bad things you want about Charlie but he will make out much better than you.
Anonymous said...
Those corporate managers at Enron played to win too. By your logic they are heroes and those employees and mom and pop investors that lost their life savings were losers.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Don't forget those under "Charlie" are responsible too and perhaps more so.
Anonymous said…
With all these mishaps I think it is becoming clear that the United State no longer has the capability to run any kind of large complex system such less the labs. We simply no longer have the know how, the manpower, capabilities, or the will to run such operations.
Anonymous said…
With all these mishaps I think it is becoming clear that the United State no longer has the capability to run any kind of large complex system...

May 26, 2014 at 7:12 PM

YOu almost got it right. Not "the United States" but "the United States government." Plenty of private corporations (not government creations like LLNS and LANS) are doing quite well with large, complex systems. They have the manpower, capabilities, and will.
Anonymous said…
Plenty of private corporations (not government creations like LLNS and LANS) are doing quite well with large, complex systems. They have the manpower, capabilities, and will.


Like GM, and Chrysler. or maybe Bank of America, citigroup ...
all of them only survived thanks to the US govt.
Anonymous said…
Like Ford, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, etc.... The fact that the federal government poured in billions of taxpayer money to prop up obvious losers doesn't support any argument that the government is competent or capable.
Anonymous said…
The fact that the federal government poured in billions of taxpayer money to prop up obvious losers doesn't support any argument that the government is competent or capable.

Completely agree with your statement. Now, since you are so good in logic, could you please point out where the poster May 27, 2014 at 4:36 AM made this point?

Or is it just your usual "I hate government" reflex, which lets you see flying pigs everywhere? Along the lines
" I am not paranoid just because I hear voices"

And finally: I hope you are not working at one of the federal labs, it would make your position even more untenable.
Anonymous said…
The discussion was about the government's capabilities to deal with complex systems. May 26, 2014 at 9:21 PM agreed and expanded on the point. May 27, 2014 at 4:36 AM made counterarguments.

If you're "reflex" is to think the government is competent, you are simply not paying attention. And it is perfectly reasonable, and quite common, to work for an incompetent boss and still do good, meaningful work and get paid well. You seem very good at ideology, logic not so much.
Anonymous said…
Ford, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, Intel

So where are the complex systems here? A car, a network switch a search engine, an operating system? and you compare this with a national lab which does global security works on the stock pile, does basic research. That is pretty laughable.

Part of the problems the labs have is that anytime there is a mishap happening, congress and all the politicans are grandstanding.

If DOE would have rolled out a disaster like Google+ (even Google internally admits its not what they were hoping for), they would find themselves in front of a congressional shooting squad.

Let me also remind you that the Labs are run by private companies, but you probably have failed to notice that. Since the LLC's have taken over, things have become much worse.

Anonymous said…
The LLCs are not natural companies - they were created and exist only to serve the government in the relevant contracts - no other existence. When the contracts end, the companies end. Your assertion that what the national laboratories do is much more complex than what the major multi-national companies, and high-tech corporations do is what is laughable. And arrogant to the extreme.
Anonymous said…
And arrogant to the extreme.

May 28, 2014 at 7:16 PM

And commonplace at LANL. And preached most loudly by those in ULM that grew up in the town. And one of the underlying reasons why UC lost the contract.
Anonymous said…
chip on your shoulder?
Anonymous said…
chip on your shoulder?

May 30, 2014 at 5:33 AM

Do you even know what that phrase means? Apparently not. Hint: it applies to May 28, 2014 at 4:12 PM.

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