2/05/2025

Changing My Cell Phone Number To 309 966 1616


I am changing my cell phone to the Illinois number 309 966
1616. This number was used by my wife in Illinois. 

My Florida number 941 312 1032 will still work, but will be a Google Voice number that will go to my computer. You can leave a message on that number.


The switchboard to the right was on Hill 327 near Danang, Vietnam. I was an old SB-86 with stacked SB-22's on top.  Very old and creaky. Wires everywhere.

Ron Leon asked me if I would watch the switchboard while he went to get the mail.

"Sure", I said, "show me how to do it." He showed me and took off.

I handled the first call ok. But as more calls came in I became confused. I was disconnecting calls, and ringing back into peoples ears, and in general screwing it up.

The board was totally lit up when Leon came back. This was not good.

 "Lieutenant, what did you do?" cried Leon!

"I screwed it up", I said, "Fix it!" and went back to my office.

The CO, the XO, and the S-3 all called me within minutes.


"Who the hell do you have on the switchboard? He is terrible!". 

They were somewhat profane, as angry officers can be.


"It was a new man, Sir,"  I said. "We will never put that idiot back on the board.

"Oh", they said. I think they felt a little bad about how I must have chewed out the poor idiot.



     ...............    I never put that idiot back on the switchboard.

                                        Craig Hullinger 








Government Spending And Reduction Efforts

 


In 2023, major entitlement programs—Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, and other health care programs—consumed 50 percent of all federal spending. Soon, this spending will be larger than the portion of spending for all other priorities (such as national defense) combined. https://www.federalbudgetinpictures.com/where-does-all-the-money-go/


Making government more efficient and reducing costs are a laudable and should and is an ongoing effort.  But giving Musk the power to do it without careful thought or congressional oversight is no way to do it.

You need to do it carefully, with minimal disruption. Carefully considered reduction in force can work, but you first need to make sure that your remaining work force can do the job.  And a wise leader does not demoralize their work force with threats and uncertainty.  No way to run a railroad or a country.

The illustration above shows where the money is spent. Half of government spending is on social security and medicare. Most Americans have paid into these two programs all their lives, and expect to receive benefits from those programs when they get older. There are likely reductions in workforce that can be made, but you do it carefully, with a deep look at where efficiencies can be made. 

What you don't do is what Musk did to Twitter, where he bought a company, decimated the workforce, ruined their morale, and now runs a company that is worth much less than when he bought it, and is filled with "free" hate speach. 

Elon Musk’s X is worth nearly 80% less than when he bought it, Fidelity estimates.  https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/02/business/elon-musk-twitter-x-fidelity/index.html

Musk is a fascinating fellow.  He did a brilliant job with Tesla and his rocket company.  But he failed when he took over Twitter, a large and successful company. So the take on him that he is great when building a company, but terrible when he takes his talents to an existing organization.

And this is the fellow we have entrusted to improve our government.  SAD. Nuts.


2/04/2025

Federal Employment Peaked In May 1990


The population of the United States grew from 132,164,569 in 1940 to 331,449,281 in 2020. So keeping the Federal workforce with little growth over that time period is impressive. And it includes the Department of Defence. And most of the people I observed were hard working, and a lot of them charged machine guns for minimum wage.

One thing we learned in the Marine Corps was that you take care of your troops, and your troops will take care of you.

And most of us found that to be true. And most of us thought that was the right way to be a leader.

And the corollary was screw over your troops, and your troops will screw over you. And that is also true. Your unit will be demoralized and angry, and the good competent people will quit. 

Trump and Musk are the new leaders of the United States and the Federal Government, a very large professional organization.

And they are screwing Federal employees. Locking them out of their computers and offices, and trying to get them to quit. 

A great way to ruin a fine organization. Our "Great Leap Forward". Doge is Dodgy. Musk is doing to our government what he did to Twitter - ruining it.

We Americans will suffer from a  demoralized work force with a lower level of service. And our prestige and respect among the nations will plummet. Already has. But not to worry - China will fill the void.

There are no doubt inefficiencies in such a large organization, and I have no problem with reducing waste. But you do that carefully, eliminating the fat but not the muscle. That takes careful study and review. You develop a plan to reduce your workforce that is understood by your stockholders (the American people) and by the employees. And you treat the people that you eliminate fairly. You don't just whack people - not if you are a competent and decent leader.  

Pathetic. No way for a great country to operate. SAD.