Contractor Who Was Awarded $34.5 Million in Government Money and Provided Zero Masks Pleads Guilty to Fraud
J. David McSwane / ProPublica— The VA and FEMA agreed to pay a first-time vendor in a desperate search for protective equipment. Now Robert Stewart admits he defrauded three federal agencies and lied about being in the Marine Corps.
When billions of dollars are at stake, the crooks appear as surely as ants at a picnic.
I don’t know why humans so often fail to use their ability to project the future based on the knowledge of the past, but here we are again.
Here are some simple propositions:
- The Coronavirus vaccines are, currently, the most valuable liquids on Earth.
- Almost zero lip service (and, alas, security service) is being given to ensuring a fair and equitable rollout to ALL Americans.
- Plans mentioned are to ship the vaccine directly to pharmacies.
- The potential for bootlegging, theft and sale to those who will pay a premium is STAGGERING.
It doesn’t take a lot of thought to parse that out, but in the Kumbaya of trying to vaccinate everybody, that basic human urge to make money from tragedy is all but ignored in all reporting, and, sad to seem [sic], policy.
I will stick with my pre-election suggestion:
The best (and most secure) logistics operation in the world is run by the US military.
Why the hell don’t we use the armed forces for logistics and the National Guard for vaccinations?
This is an EMERGENCY goddamit. We are facing one 9/11 or Pearl Harbor every damned day.
As it stands, the scandal of stolen and black market vaccines will hit the news any day now.
But you heard it here first.
And it was entirely preventable.
Occam’s Razor and all that.
Courage.
cross-posted from his vorpal sword
A writer, published author, novelist, literary critic and political observer for a quarter of a quarter-century more than a quarter-century, Hart Williams has lived in the American West for his entire life. Having grown up in Wyoming, Kansas and New Mexico, a survivor of Texas and a veteran of Hollywood, Mr. Williams currently lives in Oregon, along with an astonishing amount of pollen. He has a lively blog, His Vorpal Sword (no spaces) dot com.