The Trump Administration Paid Millions for Test Tubes — and Got Unusable Mini Soda Bottles | Talking Points Memo

Trump went to Jared.
Jared went to Google.
Google showed science-teaching videos for third graders - which he could understand.
His belief that he is smarter than anyone else sent him straight to the order form.

Scientists, who needs them?

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It’s my understanding that there was actually quite a bit of improvisation in Western art music of previous centuries. Bach and Beethoven were famously good at it. And it wasn’t just ornamentation, there were cadenza sections where it was pure improvisation. I don’t know why that stopped, but it was certainly part of the music then.

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All the da capo sections in Handel’s Messiah become much more interesting when a period expert adds the improvisation that was expected but not written down.

ETA “expert” not “export”. I really hate autocorrect.

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If the company fulfills its contractual obligation to provide 4 million tubes, it will receive a total of $10.16 million.

Quick look on amazon: test tubes in retail quantities average 10 to 80 cents a tube, depending on size. How does 4 million tubes require $2.50 a tube?

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Some of that extra cost includes the (more expensive) phosphate-buffered saline solution they put in each tube.

However, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were still charging a 100+% markup.

Because they have non-existent contamination prevention, the actual value of those tubes are $0.

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Great song.

I like the line about “comin’ back in a garden, bunch of carrots and little sweet peas.”

Always makes me smile.

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Iris is a favorite of mine.

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I don’t know…I’m kind of partial to pay-per-view guillotine action on the national mall. It’d be a good boost for the economy, and would save a lot on prison costs going forward.

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You could make keychains out of them I bet, so it’s not a total loss.

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Even if the bottles were the right size, experts say, the company’s process likely contaminated the tubes and could yield false test results. Fillakit employees, some not wearing masks, gathered the miniature soda bottles with snow shovels and dumped them into plastic bins before squirting saline into them, all in the open air, according to former employees and ProPublica’s observation of the company’s operations.
… … … …
trump’s impression of how to do science

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One important fact is omitted here. How much did Fillakit’s CEO contribute to the Trump campaign?

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FEMA has the power to claw back money paid to contractors, remove them from the government’s list of approved vendors or refer them to the agency’s inspector general.

Go ahead - remove them from the government’s list of approved vendors. Fillakit will simply declare bankruptcy, Wexler open up another scam company under a new name and get back in line.

Most corrupt administration ever!

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Well, they filled the wrong kind of far cheaper tubes that weren’t sterile with the wrong kind of solution that wasn’t sterile. It was a lot of work.

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All the same problems again and again. Don’t depend on expertise and experience. Assume no job is hard and anybody can do most of them. Direct this kind of stuff from the highest levels. Assume “disruptors” are a good thing, by definition, because existing people, processes, companies, etc are inefficient, evil, whatever, also by definition. Team Dunning Kruger.

And how many doses of hydroxychloroquine does the federal government now own that will go out of date before they find any use? At what cost?

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Photo taken at Fillakit:

Ivanka

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In this case, instead of a delicate, magical display, there’s be an ever-growing pile of dead birds as thousands collided and tumbled to the ground below.

Really strange these contracts when I could get 300+ sterile bottles by having my admin call a supplier in late March. Did FEMA even try the usual scientific supply houses?

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Why do this? Just call Fisher Scientific or other lab supply company and buy the shit right. If you need shit load of tubes just give Fisher the specs and intended usage and they’ll get them there fast.

Laboratory vials used for analytical or biological purposes are produced in a sterile vacuum. They come in many sizes and materials. Ordering lab glassware is a like ordering a car part. You don’t order an intake manifold. You order and intake manifold for a dual carb 1968 350 CI Chevy block. Specifications are very tight on that stuff. The vials must fit special purpose centrifuges or rack up with specific dilution and pipetting equipment.

Does anyone know WTF they’re doing here? Send the fucking soda bottles back and cancel the check.

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Javanka could always fill the soda bottles with disinfectant and serve them at the Tulsa revival meeting for the GOP’s Second Coming of God this weekend.

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None of the vials will be used until we’ve identified what’s in them and that they are safe for use.

They’re going to test the vials. That’s the problem!

If they didn’t test them, they wouldn’t be unsafe.

[From “The Wisdom of the Donald” – currently in press]

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