Would You Jump Out of an Airplane – Without a Backup Parachute?

I know I wouldn’t.  But I wouldn’t jump out of an airplane with a half dozen chutes – all of them already open upon departure.  Leaping out of a perfectly good airplane – ain’t my thing.

But it is the thing for lots and lots of people.  Do they jump with but one chute?  Heavens no.

How Many Parachutes Does a Skydiver Have?:

“What do gloves, shoes, shotgun barrels, earplugs and skydiving parachutes have in common? They always, always, always travel in pairs–or you simply don’t use them.

“Though most of the uninitiated think that skydiving systems only include a single parachute, nothing could be farther from the truth. Sport skydivers have carried a reserve parachute along for the ride since the dawn of the sport in the 1950s….”

Is government this rudimentarily intelligent?  Do they carry spares and backups – when spares and backups are absolutely necessary?  Heavens no.

The same government that is this duplicative-ly stupid when it makes no sense whatsoever:

$45 Billion Wasted in Redundant Federal Programs: GAO

Decides to fly naked when it comes to things that absolutely demand spares and backups:

Defense Dept Gives Trump Enemy Bezos Ten-Year, Monopoly Cloud Contract

When we wrote this in March – it looked like a done deal for Amazon.  And only Amazon.

Thankfully, the Donald Trump Administration caught wind – and weighed in:

Breaking: Amazon’s Defense Dept Cronyism Comes Under Trump Administration Review

Which put the brakes on the runaway monopoly Amazon deal.  And again opened up the Defense Department (DoD) backup cloud computing bidding process.

Except – most likely due to stupid, crony muscle memory – DC is reverting to original form:

Uber-Crony Amazon – Is About to Get the Biggest Crony Deal in DC’s Awful History

OMB Updates Cloud Computing Plan as DoD Lags Behind Schedule:

“The Pentagon is behind schedule in its effort to award a multi-billion dollar cloud computing contract over a lack of clarity in its request for proposals, and it’s come under fire from industry stakeholders for appearing to favor one company on the way.”

Putting the Pentagon $10B JEDI Cloud Contract into Perspective:

“Many vendors have publicly expressed unhappiness at the winner-take-all, single vendor approach, which they believe might be unfairly tilted toward market leader Amazon. Still, the DOD, which has stated that the process is open and fair, seems determined to take this path, much to the chagrin of most vendors, who believe that a multi-vendor strategy makes more sense.”

DoD’s Still Got Some JEDI ’Splainin’ to Do:

“The Department of Defense in charging ahead with its Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud program, despite the latest round of criticism and a congressional roadblock to its funding.

“DoD officials overseeing JEDI’s development and execution continue to take heat from industry, former officials, Congress and other stakeholders.

“But besides an extension of a deadline for bids from Sept. 17 to Oct. 9, leaders remain steadfast in plans for a single-award contract projected to be worth some $10 billion….

“The lack of strategy is a chief concern about JEDI, second only to the single-award approach that industry leaders almost uniformly denounce as antithetical to best practice.”

This monopoly nonsense demonstrates yet again – two inherent hallmarks of government:

• Doing something really stupid.
• Not learning from doing something really stupid – and doing the exact same stupid thing over and over and over again.

The DoD-Amazon monopoly cloud contract – is just the latest in a LONG line of nigh identical errors.  Government is really, REALLY good at cutting stupid, monopoly, crony deals.

Government Has An Ongoing Problem Issuing Monopoly, Crony Contracts

Government – And Its Crony, Monopoly Straight-Jacket

Government and Crony Contractors – You’d Better Shop Around

Cronyism: Having Your Ex-Employees Award Government Contracts

Bad Business: Billions of Taxpayer Dollars Wasted on Hiring Contractors

Federal IT Outsourcing Alarmingly Poorly Managed

Amazon Is the Scariest Part of The CIA’s New Amazon Cloud Storage:

“Megalomaniacal internet retailer Amazon began as an online seller of books – as CEO Jeff Bezos once explained it to a horrified Kansas City bookseller – because it allowed the company to gather data on affluent, educated shoppers.

“Their latest customer is the entire intelligence apparatus of your democracy. Checkmate!…

“The fact that the cloud’s $600 million budget will be parceled out from the CIA kitty over the next ten years, in some ways, confuses the issue.

“All 17 agencies that comprise the U.S. intelligence community will be making use of Amazon’s cloud, including, selected at random, the NSA, the DEA, the Department of the Treasury, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, and Coast Guard Intelligence – which you’d think you would have heard of by now.”

Crony Defense Budget Hands SpaceX a Monopoly – Why?

Heck, we have divisions within the DoD – making the exact same stupid, monopoly, crony mistake the entire DoD is about to make.

Navy, Air Force to Spend $180M on Commercial Cloud Services:

“The Navy awarded CSRA, a General Dynamics Information Technology company, a five-year $95 million blanket purchase agreement through the General Services Administration’s Schedule 70 vehicle for commercial cloud service providers….

“The Air Force agreed to test out the enterprise IT-as-a-service approach with AT&T.”

The Defense Department’s looming $10 billion cloud computing contact – is the biggest example yet of all the stupid, crony, monopoly government nonsense we have here so thoroughly chronicled.

Therefore it is the best and most opportune moment – for the government to FINALLY do…what people buying gloves, shoes, shotgun barrels, earplugs and skydiving parachutes do.

Buy more than one.

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