House of Eratosthenes

I’m automatically incredulous when it comes to conspiracy theories. The more I learn about people, the less faith I have in their ability to a) coordinate on details and b) to keep it all secret. Most of the time, when I see large numbers of people moving in a common direction, they do so the way grain or tall grass moves under a common breeze, with each stalk or blade moving of its own accord, responding in its own way to a common force. I believe in common motivations, not so much in “conspiracies.”

Still, at the height of the shutdown, you did have to do some thinking about this:

What is so sinister about a few signs, you ask? As stated above, it takes planning to purchase a large volume of anything in a large bureaucracy…it takes time to order produce and receive any manufactured item. And, that time increases as the size of the bureaucracy increases. While the paper work may be expedited to reduce the time to issue the PO, it still takes time to produce and ship the item.

The government shutdown signs were on hand and appeared the very first day at the WWII Memorial. That suggests that the shutdown was anticipated and somebody planned ahead to have the signs on hand to tell the world that the government was shutdown, that it was in everyone’s face and make sure everyone felt the consequences. The operative here is the planning and that it was done in advance.

And…something, probably relying on computers and probably relying on web exposure, worked. Flawlessly. It is a recurring theme in the Obama administration: When the objective is to inconvenience people, as opposed to something helpful like delivering on a campaign promise to get millions of uninsured people covered, all the pieces somehow fall into place. Winning arguments and elections against Republicans, ditto. Everything clicks. Inconveniencing people in order to win arguments against Republicans, well, now you’re looking at a well-oiled machine.

But then the time comes to actually help people and try to make a positive difference in their lives…and…

Confidential progress reports from the Health and Human Services Department show that senior officials repeatedly expressed doubts that the computer systems for the federal exchange would be ready on time, blaming delayed regulations, a lack of resources and other factors.

Deadline after deadline was missed. The biggest contractor, CGI Federal, was awarded its $94 million contract in December 2011. But the government was so slow in issuing specifications that the firm did not start writing software code until this spring, according to people familiar with the process. As late as the last week of September, officials were still changing features of the Web site, HealthCare.gov, and debating whether consumers should be required to register and create password-protected accounts before they could shop for health plans.

So how about just move the healthcare.gov web site over to the whatever-it-is…letsclosedownmountrushmore.gov. Or makeitpainfulsowecanblamerepublicansforit.gov. Maybe it’s called letsfuckwithrepublicansyetagain.gov? That “server” seems to be in tip-top shape, and so do all the processes that surround it. Delivers on-time, under-budget, with fantastic results.

Seriously, there’s a lesson here, but I’ve already talked about it so I’m going into broken-record mode. Everyone likes to think about producers being properly regulated, it seems, but nobody stops to think that maybe the regulators don’t know that much about how to produce. After all, if they did know, they wouldn’t be regulating they’d be producing. Regulators don’t create, they don’t preserve; they destroy. Put ’em in charge of your health care? You go down that road without me. Oh no, wait, maybe you don’t…law of the land & all that…

When push comes to shove, though, long-term there’s no reason to expect our aging bodies to function any better than that goofy website. The healthcare.gov disaster is an illustration of how government in general, and the Obama administration in particular, runs things. It’s only when they’re f00king with people that they can manage to get things right. The park-sign thing shows that, then, they can get it really, really, really right. They can do miracles when the goal is to obstruct or destroy.

Some of us have worked in data centers before. Some of us had the responsibility of keeping those servers working. On a tiny immeasurable fraction of a budget, compared to what HHS & crew had.

This is beyond incompetence. There is not succeeding, then there is not-even-trying. Two different things.

“This is beyond incompetence. There is not succeeding, then there is not-even-trying.”

Yup. Early on I was one of the opinion that while Obama was a socialist surly he didn’t want to necessarily and or intentionally cause harm to America. Maybe I wanted that to be true rather than ponder the legitimacy of the theory. Man, I was totally wrong.

As Rush stated – “Nobody is this stupid”. Alinsky would be proud.
- tim | 10/31/2013 @ 09:25
This is why I think Obama will be a gift. He is the perfect combination of arrogance, disingenuousness, corrupt, ineffectual, unaccomplished and petulant. He is an embodiment of how I perceive government. He oversold himself, his abilities and his vision to his supporters. There was no way he was going to be able to do what he wanted to. He believed his own hype and in his hubris never thought that he’d have to compromise. When reality showed up nothing worked out as planned. Even when he got his way. He got a trillion dollar stimulus that did nothing. The Green Jobs Revolution didn’t happen and I’ll be he doesn’t understand why. He believed the government would be able to run healthcare and it would be magical and it would be like the NHS in Britain but better. We’re watching that train wreck live on TV. All of this is great. Long term I think this will have echos louder and longer than Carter did with the Reagan Revolution that ushered in 12 years of grown ups running the show. If the GOP has a brain (there is much evidence to the contrary) and they run someone like Ryan or Paul or Cruz and not someone like Santorum, McCain or whatever milquetoast status quo “can’t we all just roll over so we get invited to the right cocktail parties” candidate they will bring in a decade, perhaps two of GOP control of all three houses.
- Duffy | 10/31/2013 @ 10:14

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A Suggestion For the healthcare.gov MessThursday, October 31st, 2013

A Suggestion For the healthcare.gov Mess
Thursday, October 31st, 2013