Podcasts about Defense Logistics Agency

Experts from across CNA join the show to discuss their research on challenges the industrial base faces in meeting U.S. government demands.  Guest Biographies  Dr. Charles A. Cartier is a research scientist in CNA's Gaming and Integration Program. He was a lead analyst and co-designer of the CAMOLAND wargame on Clothing and Textiles for the Defense Logistics Agency.  Dawn Thomas is a co-director of the Center for Emergency Management and Operations and director of the Center for Critical Incident Analysis. She is an expert in large-scale incident planning and response. April Cho is a research scientist in CNA's Data Science Predictive Analytics Program. She has worked on various projects supporting the Navy, including the munitions industrial base study for the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition.    Further Reading CNA Report: Camoland Clothing and Textile Industrial Base Wargame Report The Blue Book Project Registration Link: Blue Book TV Hosts: Planning for National Security Emergencies

Today, we're diving into a mind-blowing conversation with Kevie Hendricks, a 20-year veteran in the government contracting world and founder of National Materials Supply Company. Known as the DLA Guru, Kevie has secured thousands of contracts for both federal and commercial customers. He'll reveal how his journey from working at Anheuser Busch and Boeing on multimillion-dollar foreign military sales led him to become a key supplier for the U.S. Military through the Defense Logistics Agency. Whether you're new to contracting or a seasoned pro, this episode will open your eyes to the opportunities and challenges in today's post-pandemic contracting landscape. In this episode, Kevie shares the strategies that helped him build his empire, insights into how the federal supply chain has evolved, and the biggest mistakes contractors make when starting out. From managing warehouses in St. Louis to navigating lucrative DLA contracts, Kevie's story is a blueprint for success. Grab your notebook, sit back, and get ready for an episode packed with actionable advice and insider tips that could land you your next big contract. Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevie-hendrix-mba/  YouTube: https://youtube.com/@thedlaguru  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the_dla_guru  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NmsHec  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedlaguru/  Twitter X: https://twitter.com/theDLAguru 

Citing the fact at the armed services are all undergoing transformation, a crucial combat support agency is too. The Defense Logistics Agency is striving to keep up with a new strategic plan. Joining me with the highlights, the DLA director, Army Lieutenant General Mark Simerly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Citing the fact at the armed services are all undergoing transformation, a crucial combat support agency is too. The Defense Logistics Agency is striving to keep up with a new strategic plan. Joining me with the highlights, the DLA director, Army Lieutenant General Mark Simerly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Breaking into government contracting is a challenge for small businesses, and the Aerospace and Defense sector adds another layer of complexity. In this episode, we provide insights into best practices for small businesses pursuing opportunities in this high-demand industry. Learn how to build relationships with key stakeholders, navigate the government procurement process, manage lengthy timelines, and identify the right partners. Whether you're new to the sector or looking to fine-tune your approach, this episode offers actionable advice to help your business thrive.Guest Bio:Our guest, Dwight Deneal, serves as the Assistant Administrator for NASA's Office of Small Business Programs. He brings over a decade of experience in leading small business and federal acquisition programs, having previously directed programs for the Defense Logistics Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard. Mr. Deneal is also the Vice Chairman of the Federal Interagency OSDBU Directors Council, a key platform for collaboration among federal small business programs. He holds a Business Management degree from Hampton University and completed executive education at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.Call(s) to Action:Help spread the word about Unveiled: GovCon Stories: https://shows.acast.com/unveiled-govcon-storiesDo you want to be a guest or recommend a topic that you would like to learn or hear about on the podcast? Let us know through our guest feedback and registration form.Download the NASA Mobile Application at [add link]TBD [Note to NASA: please add any calls to action you want to include in the show notes]Links:NASA Office of Small Business Programs: https://www.nasa.gov/osbp/ Doing Business with NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/doing-business-with-nasa-osbpNASA Vendor Database: https://www.nasa.gov/osbp/vendor-database/ NASA Active Contract Listing (ACL): https://www.nasa.gov/osbp/active-contract-listings/ TBD [Note to NASA: please add any links you want to share in the show notes]Sponsors:The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the hosts and guests, and do not reflect the views or endorsements of our sponsors.Withum – Diamond Sponsor!Withum is a forward-thinking, technology-driven advisory and accounting firm, helping clients to be in a position of strength in today's complex business environment. Go to Withum's website to learn more about how they can help your business! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Red Cat (RCAT) recently received $1.6 million from the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency. The drone company will also assist with Hurricane Milton relief efforts. Red Cat has shown promise with its contracts and partnerships, and as George Tsilis explains, there's signs demand will accelerate beyond the company. ======== Schwab Network ======== Empowering every investor and trader, every market day. Subscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribe Download the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185 Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7 Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watch Watch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-explore Watch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/ Follow us on X – https://twitter.com/schwabnetwork Follow us on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/schwabnetwork Follow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwab-network/ About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about

The Defense Logistics Agency has just rolled out its mentor protégé program. It's designed to help small companies navigate federal contracting and improve their business and even technical skill. The types of reimbursable assistance available to small businesses range from business development itself to human resources training also obtaining quality certification, even machine set up. For more, Federal News Network's Anastasia Obis spoke to the DLA's Office of Small Business Program's Daniele Kurze. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Defense Logistics Agency has just rolled out its mentor protégé program. It's designed to help small companies navigate federal contracting and improve their business and even technical skill. The types of reimbursable assistance available to small businesses range from business development itself to human resources training also obtaining quality certification, even machine set up. For more, Federal News Network's Anastasia Obis spoke to the DLA's Office of Small Business Program's Daniele Kurze. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alixzandra P. Peña of Washington, D.C., a Floresville High School alumnus, has been commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Navy. She graduated from a five-week Naval Officer program, Officer Development School, in Newport, R.I., on May 3, 2024. On July 29, she was commissioned as a U.S. Navy ensign, as a Direct Commissioned Officer, sworn in by retired Col. Randy Bruett of Floresville. After further required training, Peña will be a supply officer at the Defense Logistics Agency at Fort Belvoir, Va. Her first salute was from her husband, Vincent Gonzaba of San Antonio, a U.S. Navy veteran. Additionally,...Article Link

In this episode of BioTalk, Rich Bendis, President and CEO of BioHealth Innovation, Inc., welcomes guests from ARPA-H: Craig Gravitz, Director of the Project Accelerator Transition Innovation Office (PATIO), and Jenica Patterson, Ph.D., Portfolio Lead at ARPA-H. Together, they provide a comprehensive overview of ARPA-H's mission and innovative programs.   Craig Gravitz and Jenica Patterson share their educational and career backgrounds, setting the stage for a discussion about ARPA-H and its various initiatives. They provide insights into how ARPA-H differentiates itself from other agencies like HHS and NIH, while also highlighting their collaborative efforts.   Listeners will learn about the Project Accelerator Transition Innovation Office (PATIO) and its crucial role within ARPA-H. Jenica Patterson discusses her portfolio, including key areas and projects, and provides details on the new women's sprint for health initiative and its funding tracks.   The conversation highlights examples of ARPA-H investments and milestones achieved, as well as the processes involved in determining future programs and investment priorities. Craig and Jenica also discuss the unique Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) program and how it supports ARPA-H projects.   About Craig Gravitz: Craig Gravitz is designing and implementing the transition and commercial strategy for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).  Prior to joining ARPA-H, Mr. Gravitz launched and ran a research and development program at the Defense Logistics Agency. He is a licensed attorney and has previously serviced as a contracting officer.   About Jenica Patterson, Ph.D.: Jenica Patterson, Ph.D is a Portfolio Lead at ARPA-H within the Project Accelerator Transition Innovation Office (PATIO) and leads the Sprint for Women's Health. Formerly Dr. Patterson served as the Director of the Technology Transfer and Transition (T3X) Division in the PATIO office, where she oversaw public-private partnerships for transition and the small business program for ARPA-H. Dr. Patterson received her Ph.D in Neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and served as a Science and Technical Advisor at the Defense Advance Research Project Agency, and a Program Director at NIH prior to joining ARPA-H.   Tune in to BioTalk for an informative discussion with Craig Gravitz and Jenica Patterson as we explore the innovative work of ARPA-H and its impact on health research and development.

Leaders at the Defense Logistics Agency say they are still assessing the effects of an aggressive return-to-office policy that's led to widespread employee dissatisfaction and two formal allegations of unfair labor practices, but that so far, the policy does not appear to have had a serious negative impact on recruiting and retention. DLA's new policy is one of the most prescriptive in the federal government, but officials say it's necessary as part of a broader effort to “transform” the agency for great power competition. The changes took effect in January, requiring all employees to be in the office at least three days each week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leaders at the Defense Logistics Agency say they are still assessing the effects of an aggressive return-to-office policy that's led to widespread employee dissatisfaction and two formal allegations of unfair labor practices, but that so far, the policy does not appear to have had a serious negative impact on recruiting and retention.DLA's new policy is one of the most prescriptive in the federal government, but officials say it's necessary as part of a broader effort to “transform” the agency for great power competition. The changes took effect in January, requiring all employees to be in the office at least three days each week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this week's episode, we had the honor of hosting Janetta Brewer, Esq., a luminary figure in federal acquisition regulations. With an illustrious career spanning multiple federal agencies, including pivotal roles in the US Navy, Defense Logistics Agency, Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense, Janetta's insights into the dynamic landscape of FAR and DFARS are unparalleled. Her tenure as a senior member of the Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy staff provided her with a unique vantage point in the evolution of acquisition regulations. She played a pivotal role in shaping and implementing regulations that have significantly impacted contract execution outcomes, streamlining processes for both government entities and industry stakeholders. During our conversation, she emphasized the challenges faced by both contractors and the government in implementing Congress-mandated directives. Her pragmatic perspective highlighted the limitations within which agencies must operate while striving to minimize the impact on contractors. One of the standout takeaways from the episode was her invaluable advice for small businesses navigating the intricate landscape of federal contracts. She emphasized the importance of comprehensive knowledge and understanding of obligations and responsibilities, empowering businesses to engage confidently and effectively with the government. Currently at the helm of Blue Alchemy Consulting, she continues to leverage her extensive experience to assist government and industry clients alike. Her company focuses on providing cutting-edge policy processes, IT systems, and workforce development solutions, further solidifying her status as a trailblazer in the realm of federal acquisitions. Tune in to this episode for an insightful discussion with Janetta, offering a roadmap for businesses seeking to navigate the complex terrain of federal acquisitions amidst evolving regulations. 

In this episode of the GovFuture Podcast we feature a panel discussion from the November 16, 2023 GovFuture Forum DC event that took place in Washington, DC. The hot topic panel focused on “IT Modernization, Data, and Analytics”. The panel discusses how they are exploring emerging technologies, such as AI, machine learning, and IoT to The post November 2023 GovFuture Forum DC Hot Topic Discussion: IT Modernization, Data, and Analytics Featuring Dept. of Energy, Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), and FDA [GovFuture Podcast] appeared first on GovFuture.

This interview was inspired by an article that Lt. Col. (Rev.) Paul McCullough wrote. Check it out here: https://www.ausa.org/articles/accomplish-mission-love Lt. Col. (Rev.) Paul McCullough, U.S. Army retired, is president of the Association of the U.S. Army's Penn & Franklin-Greater Philadelphia Chapter and an Army Reserve Ambassador from Pennsylvania. He served 20 years in the Army, retiring in 2018 as deputy director for supplier operations, Defense Logistics Agency. He deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2005, and in 2017 as commander of the DLA Support Team-Kuwait. He holds a doctorate in business administration from Walden University. Find out more about the NEW Military Bible Challenge App by visiting: https://www.revdrpaul.com/ You can also download the app: Apple or Android Sign up for our monthly newsletter here! For more content and resources visit www.life-giver.org We want to hear from you - It helps us serve you better! Send us an email at podcast@corieweathers.com Want to work with Corie? Check out https://www.corieweathers.com/ for more info. Song Credits: "You and Me" Tamas Kolozsvari

What are the strategic priorities for the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)? How is DLA modernizing acquisition and supply chain management? What is DLA doing to expand industry engagement and foster innovation while maximizing value? Join host Michael Keegan as he explores these questions and more with Vice Admiral Michelle Skubic, Director, Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) next week on The Business of Government Hour Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What are the strategic priorities for the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)? How is DLA modernizing acquisition and supply chain management? What is DLA doing to expand industry engagement and foster innovation while maximizing value? Join host Michael Keegan as he explores these questions and more with Vice Admiral Michelle Skubic, Director, Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) next week on The Business of Government Hour

Our interview is with Steve Forster, a data scientist from the DLA. Steve started in the warehouse and through years of struggle and hard work managed to rise to the position of Senior Data Strategist. This parallels the transformation that the DLA is undergoing. The DLA was formed in 1961 and has over 25,000 people supporting the Department of Defense worldwide. To reduce costs and improve service to the military, the DLA is undergoing a transition from an outdated COBOL warehouse system to a modern system. Much of the warehouse has sensitive military equipment and as a result, the data that controls them must be secure. When it comes to keeping data safe, Steve draws an analogy to owning a firearm. During the interview, he said, “And just like any gun, you keep in a locked cabinet inside your house, data has to be treated the same way.” Effectively handling data in a large organization allows everyone to be on the same page.  You need to have a common construct so everyone can have the same level of understanding of that information.  Steve had attended several sessions at the Qlik Public Sector World conference – a few highlighted the ability of Chat GPT to assist in data management.  From a high-level perspective, Steve thinks AI will cut down his learning time for new technologies.  From a practical, down-to-earth view, Steve has seen demonstrations where technologies like Chat GPT can help in classifying unstructured data to make it usable for leaders in much less time.   Follow John Gilroy on Twitter @RayGilray Follow John Gilroy on LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-gilroy/ Listen to past episodes of Federal Tech Podcast  www.federaltechpodcast.com          

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: What exactly is organic food? The USDA wants to make sure everyone follows the rules. A long time federal employee advocate reacts to the latest civil service reform gambit. The Defense Logistics Agency moves away from a legacy application in COBOL. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today's episode of the Federal Drive with Tom Temin: What exactly is organic food? The USDA wants to make sure everyone follows the rules. A long time federal employee advocate reacts to the latest civil service reform gambit. The Defense Logistics Agency moves away from a legacy application in COBOL. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Kyle Casillas is the Lead Strength & Conditioning Specialist at Sanford Sports in Grand Forks, ND. He has served in this capacity since the summer of 2021 after a brief stint as a performance coach with Future. Casillas spent nine years in the United States Marine Corps, finishing off his last contract as an Infantry Platoon Sergeant. During that time he was able to intern with the University of Hawaii's strength and conditioning department from 2015-2016 before serving in a self-employed coaching role and later working in hospital and health systems as a human performance specialist at Altru Health System powered by EXOS from 2019-2021. He has worked in other capacities involved with the military such as Purchasing Agent for Defense Logistics Agency in Joint Base Pearl Harbor from 2018-2019, but now finds himself full-time invested in strength and conditioning. Casillas continues to train and has channeled and utilized his military experience and his passion for weightlifting into the athletes he works with on a daily basis. He is still an avid lifter, a military dependent, and father of 3 daughters that keep him very busy. Samson Equipment Samson Equipment provides Professional Weight Room Solutions for all your S&C needs.Cerberus Strength Use Code: STRENGTH_GAME at Cerberus-Strength.com

Justin was born and raised in Emporia VA and moved to the Outer Banks NC during high school. Joined the Marine Corps straight out and went into Air traffic control. Did that till I got out in 2017 for 5 years never deployed and stayed in NC the whole time. Met my wife during this time. Decided to stay in the area when I got out and wanted to stay in the aviation field. Picked up some odd jobs until I got on with Northrup Grumman working on the F35 for a little bit. Then got a job with the federal government with Defense Logistics Agency and have been moving around within them since. Got into flying paramotors pretty much because it was the cheapest way to get me in the air and the freest form of flying you can have. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jade-lear/message

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Thursday, March 23rd, 2023. Alps Precious Metals Group THE PAST WEEK HAS BROUGHT SOME “EXCITEMENT” TO THE MARKETS. BANK RUNS. STOCK COLLAPSES. WHAT WAS THOUGHT TO BE STABLE SUDDENLY APPEARS UNSTABLE. AND YET, GOLD’S PRICE *WENT UP* AS THE HEADLINES BECAME MORE OMINOUS. ALPS PRECIOUS METALS WAS ESTABLISHED BECAUSE WE BELIEVE THE BEST WAY TO PROTECT ONE’S HARD-EARNED WEALTH FROM THE SERIOUS FINANCIAL PROBLEMS THAT ARE UPON US IS BY OWNING PHYSICAL GOLD AND SILVER. CALL JAMES HUNTER OF ALPS AT 251-377-2197, AND VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.ALPSPMG.COM TO DISCOVER HOW YOU CAN BUY PHYSICAL PRECIOUS METALS FOR YOUR INVESTMENT AND IRA PORTFOLIOS. OWN THE ASSET GOD SPECIFICALLY MENTIONED AS “GOOD” IN THE 2ND CHAPTER OF GENESIS, AND OBTAIN A PEACE OF MIND THAT CAN BE HAD WITH FEW OTHER INVESTMENTS. AGAIN, CALL JAMES HUNTER OF ALPS PRECIOUS METALS AT 251-377-2197, AND VISIT WWW.ALPSPMG.COM TO LEARN HOW TO OWN THE BEDROCK ASSET OF THE AGES.   https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-grand-jury-investigating-trump-over-hush-money-called-off-for-wednesday-delaying-possible-indictment-vote?utm_campaign=64487 Grand jury investigating Trump over 'hush money' called off for Wednesday, delaying possible indictment vote According to two law enforcement officers, the grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump for his alleged involvement in a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election has been canceled for Wednesday. The grand jury has been meeting on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays to hear evidence related to the payments made to Daniels. It is unlikely the grand jury will meet for the rest of the week, delaying the process into next week, one source said to Business Insider. The grand jury's deliberations are secret, and prosecutors are prohibited from discussing what happens during them. The pause in the grand jury's activity follows the unexpected testimony on Monday of Robert Costello, who was allowed to address the grand jurors at the defense's request. Business Insider reports: "Star prosecution witness Michael Cohen had told reporters as recently as last week that he had expected to be the grand jury's final witness. Had that remained the plan, Cohen's testimony, which concluded last Wednesday, would have been quickly followed by deliberation and a vote." Costello, who previously served as Cohen's legal advisor, said he attacked his former client's credibility during his testimony. It is not known why Alvin Bragg, the District Attorney, temporarily halted the grand jury's proceedings. Trump commented on the grand jury's proceedings on Truth Social, claiming that Bragg is having a hard time with the grand jury. Prosecutors are prohibited from disclosing grand jury details. Bragg's office has not yet commented on the matter. https://www.dailywire.com/news/deadly-drug-resistant-fungus-spreading-in-hospitals-across-u-s?fbclid=IwAR0ou0XGKdkBSFMurCwvw59_oBlcsNrLTuKNvt1GkEw4_luK0NsSgBLc2I4 Deadly Drug-Resistant Fungus Spreading In Hospitals Across U.S. A new report warns of a potentially deadly fungus — that resists drugs — spreading in hospitals around the country. Candida auris, or C. auris, can be fatal for people who already have weakened immune systems; roughly one-third of people who contract the fungus die, as the fungus attacks through infections in the bloodstream, brain, and heart. Healthy people are not at risk of dying from the disease. “Unfortunately, multi-drug resistant organisms such as C. auris have become more prevalent among our highest risk individuals, such as residents in long-term care facilities,” Tammy Yates, spokesperson for Mississippi State Department of Health, stated. Since November, four people have suffered “potentially associated deaths,” due to the fungus in Mississippi, Yates noted. “If [the fungi] get into a hospital, they are very difficult to control and get out,” William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University Medical Center said. “They can persist, smoldering, causing infections for a considerable period of time despite the best efforts of the infection control team and everyone else in the hospital.” The fungus’ existence in the U.S. was first widely reported in 2016; four people reportedly died from the disease. The report released by the CDC contends that clinical cases in the United States soared from 476 in 2019 to 1,471 in 2021. “We’ve seen increases not just in areas of ongoing transmission, but also in new areas,” Dr. Meghan Lyman, who led the study, asserted, Acknowledging the findings are “worrisome,” infectious disease expert Dr. Waleed Javaid cautioned, “But we don’t want people who watched ‘The Last of Us’ to think we’re all going to die. This is an infection that occurs in extremely ill individuals who are usually sick with a lot of other issues.” The fungus can be spread not only through people but also through contact with patient rooms. “By its nature it has an extreme ability to survive on surfaces,” Javaid explained. “It can colonize walls, cables, bedding, chairs. We clean everything with bleach and UV light.” Dr. Graham Snyder, medical director of infection prevention at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, warned that stopping the spread of the fungus was imperative, recalling how the bacteria MRSA, also drug-resistant, spread. https://www.dailyfetched.com/biden-admin-spending-50-million-a-year-just-to-store-trumps-border-wall-materials/ Biden Admin Spending $50 Million a Year Just to Store Trump’s Border Wall Materials The administration pays private landowners to store 20,000 unused border wall sections at 20 project sites. Other costs associated with storing the border wall materials included security cameras, electrical and stormwater materials, and overhead lights, Fox News reported. Republican Senate Armed Forces Committee members sent a letter to assistant secretary of defense for homeland Defense and hemispheric affairs Melissa Dalton detailing the situation. “Every day, the Department of Defense pays $130,000 to store, maintain, and secure these materials,” the senators wrote. “Since you were sworn in as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs a year ago, you have allowed the Department to pay over $47 million to store these panels,” they said. Dalton was asked why the Defense Department did not dispose of the unused materials. The Defence department is required to remove such materials in coordination with the Defense Logistics Agency to reutilize, resell, or demilitarize military property. “We assume you are well aware of this capability since the Department used the program to transfer 1,700 border wall panels to the state of Texas early in your tenure,” the senators wrote. The USACE confirmed President Biden’s administration’s cancelation of the border wall contracts in 2021 “left a variety of excess materials,” and the “total costs to store, maintain, and secure all the materials across all sites is estimated to be approximately $130,000 per day.” “Some of these materials, including security cameras, overhead lights, and electrical and stormwater materials, are being disposed of in accordance with federal excess material disposal laws and regulations,” the USACE stated. “Overall, 61% of non-bollard panel materials and 4% of bollard panel materials have been transferred to other government agencies or disposed of through the DLA disposition process. The total value of these materials is estimated at approximately $300 million. However, the cost to the government cannot be finalized until audits are completed and negotiations with contractors are concluded.” As The Epoch Times noted: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has so far apprehended 2,999 Chinese nationals who illegally attempted to cross the southern border in the fiscal year 2023, a 719 percent increase over 2022. Most of the illegal fentanyl in the United States is manufactured in Mexico by cartels and then trafficked into the United States with the support of the Chinese Communist government in Beijing. According to a report issued by Senate Republicans in 2021, Biden’s attempt to suspend or end border wall construction cost American taxpayers $3 million per day. On March 9, Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and several Republican senators introduced a bill that would allow the Biden administration to resume construction of Trump’s border wall to stop the massive influx of illegal immigrants Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, who is largely to blame for the mess at the border, is facing impeachment charges in the Republican-controlled House over his handling of the crisis. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) filed his second article of impeachment against Mayorkas in February, accusing him of exacerbating the crisis. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy-environment/biden-to-create-two-new-national-monuments Biden to limit development on 500,000 acres in Texas and Nevada with new monuments The White House announced plans to establish two new national monuments as part of President Joe Biden's land conservation agenda, which it said would protect and conserve 514,000 acres of public land in the West. Biden will sign a proclamation Tuesday at the White House Conservation in Action Summit establishing the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Nevada and the Castner Range National Monument in El Paso, Texas. The designations will restrict development in the areas, including drilling and mining and possibly the construction of renewable energy facilities. The Avi Kwa Ame designation honors tribal nations that consider the area sacred, the White House said. Avi Kwa Ame is home to one of the world’s largest Joshua tree forests. The monument at Castner Range covers the site of a former training and testing site used by the U.S. Army during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. It also contains cultural sites significant to tribal Biden set a goal of conserving at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 and, in October, established a new national monument encompassing Camp Hale, another former U.S. Army base, and the site of the Continental Divide in north-central Colorado. In a separate action Tuesday, Biden will direct Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to consider initiating a new National Marine Sanctuary designation to protect all U.S. waters around the Pacific Remote Islands.

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Thursday, March 23rd, 2023. Alps Precious Metals Group THE PAST WEEK HAS BROUGHT SOME “EXCITEMENT” TO THE MARKETS. BANK RUNS. STOCK COLLAPSES. WHAT WAS THOUGHT TO BE STABLE SUDDENLY APPEARS UNSTABLE. AND YET, GOLD’S PRICE *WENT UP* AS THE HEADLINES BECAME MORE OMINOUS. ALPS PRECIOUS METALS WAS ESTABLISHED BECAUSE WE BELIEVE THE BEST WAY TO PROTECT ONE’S HARD-EARNED WEALTH FROM THE SERIOUS FINANCIAL PROBLEMS THAT ARE UPON US IS BY OWNING PHYSICAL GOLD AND SILVER. CALL JAMES HUNTER OF ALPS AT 251-377-2197, AND VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.ALPSPMG.COM TO DISCOVER HOW YOU CAN BUY PHYSICAL PRECIOUS METALS FOR YOUR INVESTMENT AND IRA PORTFOLIOS. OWN THE ASSET GOD SPECIFICALLY MENTIONED AS “GOOD” IN THE 2ND CHAPTER OF GENESIS, AND OBTAIN A PEACE OF MIND THAT CAN BE HAD WITH FEW OTHER INVESTMENTS. AGAIN, CALL JAMES HUNTER OF ALPS PRECIOUS METALS AT 251-377-2197, AND VISIT WWW.ALPSPMG.COM TO LEARN HOW TO OWN THE BEDROCK ASSET OF THE AGES.   https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-grand-jury-investigating-trump-over-hush-money-called-off-for-wednesday-delaying-possible-indictment-vote?utm_campaign=64487 Grand jury investigating Trump over 'hush money' called off for Wednesday, delaying possible indictment vote According to two law enforcement officers, the grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump for his alleged involvement in a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election has been canceled for Wednesday. The grand jury has been meeting on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays to hear evidence related to the payments made to Daniels. It is unlikely the grand jury will meet for the rest of the week, delaying the process into next week, one source said to Business Insider. The grand jury's deliberations are secret, and prosecutors are prohibited from discussing what happens during them. The pause in the grand jury's activity follows the unexpected testimony on Monday of Robert Costello, who was allowed to address the grand jurors at the defense's request. Business Insider reports: "Star prosecution witness Michael Cohen had told reporters as recently as last week that he had expected to be the grand jury's final witness. Had that remained the plan, Cohen's testimony, which concluded last Wednesday, would have been quickly followed by deliberation and a vote." Costello, who previously served as Cohen's legal advisor, said he attacked his former client's credibility during his testimony. It is not known why Alvin Bragg, the District Attorney, temporarily halted the grand jury's proceedings. Trump commented on the grand jury's proceedings on Truth Social, claiming that Bragg is having a hard time with the grand jury. Prosecutors are prohibited from disclosing grand jury details. Bragg's office has not yet commented on the matter. https://www.dailywire.com/news/deadly-drug-resistant-fungus-spreading-in-hospitals-across-u-s?fbclid=IwAR0ou0XGKdkBSFMurCwvw59_oBlcsNrLTuKNvt1GkEw4_luK0NsSgBLc2I4 Deadly Drug-Resistant Fungus Spreading In Hospitals Across U.S. A new report warns of a potentially deadly fungus — that resists drugs — spreading in hospitals around the country. Candida auris, or C. auris, can be fatal for people who already have weakened immune systems; roughly one-third of people who contract the fungus die, as the fungus attacks through infections in the bloodstream, brain, and heart. Healthy people are not at risk of dying from the disease. “Unfortunately, multi-drug resistant organisms such as C. auris have become more prevalent among our highest risk individuals, such as residents in long-term care facilities,” Tammy Yates, spokesperson for Mississippi State Department of Health, stated. Since November, four people have suffered “potentially associated deaths,” due to the fungus in Mississippi, Yates noted. “If [the fungi] get into a hospital, they are very difficult to control and get out,” William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University Medical Center said. “They can persist, smoldering, causing infections for a considerable period of time despite the best efforts of the infection control team and everyone else in the hospital.” The fungus’ existence in the U.S. was first widely reported in 2016; four people reportedly died from the disease. The report released by the CDC contends that clinical cases in the United States soared from 476 in 2019 to 1,471 in 2021. “We’ve seen increases not just in areas of ongoing transmission, but also in new areas,” Dr. Meghan Lyman, who led the study, asserted, Acknowledging the findings are “worrisome,” infectious disease expert Dr. Waleed Javaid cautioned, “But we don’t want people who watched ‘The Last of Us’ to think we’re all going to die. This is an infection that occurs in extremely ill individuals who are usually sick with a lot of other issues.” The fungus can be spread not only through people but also through contact with patient rooms. “By its nature it has an extreme ability to survive on surfaces,” Javaid explained. “It can colonize walls, cables, bedding, chairs. We clean everything with bleach and UV light.” Dr. Graham Snyder, medical director of infection prevention at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, warned that stopping the spread of the fungus was imperative, recalling how the bacteria MRSA, also drug-resistant, spread. https://www.dailyfetched.com/biden-admin-spending-50-million-a-year-just-to-store-trumps-border-wall-materials/ Biden Admin Spending $50 Million a Year Just to Store Trump’s Border Wall Materials The administration pays private landowners to store 20,000 unused border wall sections at 20 project sites. Other costs associated with storing the border wall materials included security cameras, electrical and stormwater materials, and overhead lights, Fox News reported. Republican Senate Armed Forces Committee members sent a letter to assistant secretary of defense for homeland Defense and hemispheric affairs Melissa Dalton detailing the situation. “Every day, the Department of Defense pays $130,000 to store, maintain, and secure these materials,” the senators wrote. “Since you were sworn in as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs a year ago, you have allowed the Department to pay over $47 million to store these panels,” they said. Dalton was asked why the Defense Department did not dispose of the unused materials. The Defence department is required to remove such materials in coordination with the Defense Logistics Agency to reutilize, resell, or demilitarize military property. “We assume you are well aware of this capability since the Department used the program to transfer 1,700 border wall panels to the state of Texas early in your tenure,” the senators wrote. The USACE confirmed President Biden’s administration’s cancelation of the border wall contracts in 2021 “left a variety of excess materials,” and the “total costs to store, maintain, and secure all the materials across all sites is estimated to be approximately $130,000 per day.” “Some of these materials, including security cameras, overhead lights, and electrical and stormwater materials, are being disposed of in accordance with federal excess material disposal laws and regulations,” the USACE stated. “Overall, 61% of non-bollard panel materials and 4% of bollard panel materials have been transferred to other government agencies or disposed of through the DLA disposition process. The total value of these materials is estimated at approximately $300 million. However, the cost to the government cannot be finalized until audits are completed and negotiations with contractors are concluded.” As The Epoch Times noted: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has so far apprehended 2,999 Chinese nationals who illegally attempted to cross the southern border in the fiscal year 2023, a 719 percent increase over 2022. Most of the illegal fentanyl in the United States is manufactured in Mexico by cartels and then trafficked into the United States with the support of the Chinese Communist government in Beijing. According to a report issued by Senate Republicans in 2021, Biden’s attempt to suspend or end border wall construction cost American taxpayers $3 million per day. On March 9, Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and several Republican senators introduced a bill that would allow the Biden administration to resume construction of Trump’s border wall to stop the massive influx of illegal immigrants Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, who is largely to blame for the mess at the border, is facing impeachment charges in the Republican-controlled House over his handling of the crisis. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) filed his second article of impeachment against Mayorkas in February, accusing him of exacerbating the crisis. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy-environment/biden-to-create-two-new-national-monuments Biden to limit development on 500,000 acres in Texas and Nevada with new monuments The White House announced plans to establish two new national monuments as part of President Joe Biden's land conservation agenda, which it said would protect and conserve 514,000 acres of public land in the West. Biden will sign a proclamation Tuesday at the White House Conservation in Action Summit establishing the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Nevada and the Castner Range National Monument in El Paso, Texas. The designations will restrict development in the areas, including drilling and mining and possibly the construction of renewable energy facilities. The Avi Kwa Ame designation honors tribal nations that consider the area sacred, the White House said. Avi Kwa Ame is home to one of the world’s largest Joshua tree forests. The monument at Castner Range covers the site of a former training and testing site used by the U.S. Army during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. It also contains cultural sites significant to tribal Biden set a goal of conserving at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 and, in October, established a new national monument encompassing Camp Hale, another former U.S. Army base, and the site of the Continental Divide in north-central Colorado. In a separate action Tuesday, Biden will direct Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to consider initiating a new National Marine Sanctuary designation to protect all U.S. waters around the Pacific Remote Islands.

In this episode, I share one extremely helpful tool for conducting market research, the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS), which is a database of government contracts. By searching for contracts related to your industry or product, you can gain valuable insights into which agencies are buying what, how much they are spending, and who the top vendors are. To use FPDS effectively, it's important to understand the various codes and classifications used in the system. PSC codes, for example, are used to categorize products and services, and can help you identify potential markets within your industry. By sorting contracts by PSC code, you can get a sense of which products or services are in high demand and which areas may be oversaturated with competition. Another useful classification in FPDS is NAICS codes, which are used to classify businesses by industry. By searching for contracts related to your industry's NAICS code, you can see which agencies are most likely to be interested in your product or service and who your main competitors are. By understanding the data available in FPDS and using other research strategies, you can identify the most promising markets and position your business for success. Tune in to this episode to learn how.

How to run your business like the U.S. Navy with Martin GrooverIn the Navy, nothing is left to chance. Every strategy is tested, and every resource is utilized with minimal excess and remarkable efficiency. This streamlined convergence of people, processes, and technology is the pinnacle of productivity and its benefits resonate far beyond military endeavors. Martin Groover is a Retired Naval Officer with a passion for driving business outcomes with Operational Technology. He is a leading Partner in the Industry 4.0 practice for the C5MI business transformation firm. Marty has generated tens of millions of dollars for dozens of Fortune 100 companies, including Caterpillar, John Deere, Rivian Motors, and The Defense Logistics Agency. With more than two decades as a surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy, Marty is a recognized thought leader in the SAP partner base and is known for his extensive insight in production planning, lean manufacturing, and ERP systems. In his Wall Street Journal award-winning book Speed of Advance, Marty shows you how to create an enhanced, synchronized system between technology and the people who use it-a process that will lead you into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Purchase your copy of Speed of Advance here - https://www.amazon.com/Speed-Advance-Convergence-Technology-Industrial/dp/1544525702Connect with Martin here - https://speedofadvance.com----Click here to Become a VIP supporter of Lead On Purpose: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1583287/supportFull Transcript, Quote Cards, and a Show Summary are available here:https://www.jjlaughlin.com/blog-----Website: https://www.jjlaughlin.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6GETJbxpgulYcYc6QAKLHA Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JamesLaughlinOfficial Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jameslaughlinofficial/ Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/life-on-purpose-with-james-laughlin/id1547874035 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3WBElxcvhCHtJWBac3nOlF?si=hotcGzHVRACeAx4GvybVOQ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameslaughlincoaching/James Laughlin is a High Performance Leadership Coach, Former 7-Time World Champion, Host of the Lead On Purpose Podcast and an Executive Coach to high performers and leaders. James is based in Christchurch, New Zealand.

How to run your business like the U.S. Navy with Martin GrooverIn the Navy, nothing is left to chance. Every strategy is tested, and every resource is utilized with minimal excess and remarkable efficiency. This streamlined convergence of people, processes, and technology is the pinnacle of productivity and its benefits resonate far beyond military endeavors. Martin Groover is a Retired Naval Officer with a passion for driving business outcomes with Operational Technology. He is a leading Partner in the Industry 4.0 practice for the C5MI business transformation firm. Marty has generated tens of millions of dollars for dozens of Fortune 100 companies, including Caterpillar, John Deere, Rivian Motors, and The Defense Logistics Agency. With more than two decades as a surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy, Marty is a recognized thought leader in the SAP partner base and is known for his extensive insight in production planning, lean manufacturing, and ERP systems. In his Wall Street Journal award-winning book Speed of Advance, Marty shows you how to create an enhanced, synchronized system between technology and the people who use it-a process that will lead you into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Purchase your copy of Speed of Advance here - https://www.amazon.com/Speed-Advance-Convergence-Technology-Industrial/dp/1544525702Connect with Martin here - https://speedofadvance.com----Click here to Become a VIP supporter of Lead On Purpose: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1583287/supportFull Transcript, Quote Cards, and a Show Summary are available here:https://www.jjlaughlin.com/blog-----Website: https://www.jjlaughlin.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6GETJbxpgulYcYc6QAKLHA Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JamesLaughlinOfficial Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jameslaughlinofficial/ Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/nz/podcast/life-on-purpose-with-james-laughlin/id1547874035 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3WBElxcvhCHtJWBac3nOlF?si=hotcGzHVRACeAx4GvybVOQ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameslaughlincoaching/James Laughlin is a High Performance Leadership Coach, Former 7-Time World Champion, Host of the Lead On Purpose Podcast and an Executive Coach to high performers and leaders. James is based in Christchurch, New Zealand.

What are the strategic priorities for the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)? How is DLA modernizing acquisition and supply chain management? What is DLA doing to expand industry engagement and foster innovation while maximizing value? Join host Michael Keegan as he explores these questions and more with Vice Admiral Michelle Skubic, Director, Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) […]

What are the strategic priorities for the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)? How is DLA modernizing acquisition and supply chain management? What is DLA doing to expand industry engagement and foster innovation while maximizing value? Join host Michael Keegan as he explores these questions and more with Vice Admiral Michelle Skubic, Director, Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) next week on The Business of Government Hour.

What are the strategic priorities for the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA)? How is DLA modernizing acquisition and supply chain management? What is DLA doing to expand industry engagement and foster innovation while maximizing value? Join host Michael Keegan as he explores these questions and more with Vice Admiral Michelle Skubic, Director, Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) next week on The Business of Government Hour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It's called Foundry 4.0—a partnership between the Defense Logistics Agency and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining, and the University of Northern Iowa and Youngstown State University. The idea is to provide American-based foundries with a competitive edge in technology while optimizing productivity, output, and product quality. In December 2022, two members of the NCDMM team spent a week in Cedar Falls to view the University of Northern Iowa components, including on-site visits with many Iowa industries. Two entities under the UNI Business and Community Services operation play a significant role in the Industry 4.0 Foundry partnership…the Center for Business Growth and Innovation, and the Metal Casting and Foundry 4.0 Centers. Program manager Brian Schmidt and senior program engineer Ken Carson of NCDMM discussed the project with Jeff Stein of the Iowa Business Report in Waterloo on December 15, 2022.   Presented by Advance Iowa, on line at advanceiowa.com; search for "Advance Iowa" on LinkedIn and Facebook, as well. Additional support comes from the Iowa Business Council, online at iowabusinesscouncil.org. 

On this edition of the Iowa Business Report: Foundry 4.0 is a partnership between the Defense Logistics Agency and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM), and the University of Northern Iowa and  Youngstown State University. The idea is to provide American-based foundries with a competitive edge in technology while optimizing productivity, output, and product quality. Brian Schmidt, program manager, and Ken Carson, senior program engineer, with NCDMM were in Iowa last month to visit UNI's program and Iowa manufacturers, and share information about the partnership.Last year, the Iowa legislature passed income tax reform; this year, leaders have their sights set on property tax reform. Iowa Speaker of the House Pat Grassley tells how this effort will be different from property tax reform attempts from the past. And in this week's "Business Profile", we'll introduce you to Ryan Avila-Burillo, co-owner of Chophouse Downtown, a Cedar Rapids restaurant.For more, go to totallyiowa.com and click on the "radio programs" link.    Presented by Advance Iowa, on line at advanceiowa.com; search for "Advance Iowa" on LinkedIn and Facebook, as well.Additional support comes from the Iowa Business Council, online at iowabusinesscouncil.org.    

(11/17/22) - In today's Federal Newscast: The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is actually leading to stuff being fixed. The Defense Logistics Agency gets a step closer to hitting the spot with G-Invoicing. And the GSA looks to Arkansas for nuclear and renewable energy sources for federal agencies.

The Department of Defense's zero trust strategy is in the public review process now and should be reviewed soon, according to DOD Chief Information Officer John Sherman. Jeremy Grant, managing director of technology business strategy at Venable LLC and coordinator of the Better Identity Coalition, discusses the progress agencies across government are making in identity management and achieving their zero trust goals. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has new guidance for “Transforming the Vulnerability Management Landscape.” Matt Coose, founder and CEO of Qmulos and former director of Federal Network Security for the National Cyber Security Division at the Department of Homeland Security, breaks down the new guidance from CISA Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Eric Goldstein. The Defense Logistics Agency will use 5G technology to get materials into the hands of warfighters faster. Manny Casas, research & development program manager at DLA, tells Scoop News Group's Wyatt Kash about the scope of his agency's work. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.

In Episode 15 of the "All Things Financial Management" podcast, presented by the American Society of Military Comptrollers (ASMC) and Guidehouse, host Tom Rhoads sits down to discuss military service financial operations with. Mr. Shawn Lennon, the deputy Director J8 and Director of Financial Improvement Audit Remediation for the Defense Logistics Agency.

The Department of Homeland Security is delineating its cyber responsibilities in a new fact sheet. The fact sheet spells out the jobs of each of the organizations inside DHS that touches cyber. Bob Kolasky, senior vice president at Exiger and former director of DHS' National Risk Management Center, discusses the significance of the fact sheet. The Defense Innovation Unit is asking commercial industry to help it test and evaluate hypersonics. DIU believes commercial companies can help the Pentagon move faster on cutting edge technologies. Brian MacCarthy, vice president of the chief technology office at Booz Allen Hamilton, explains how commercial vendors can help infuse innovation in the Department of Defense. This interview is underwritten by Booz Allen Hamilton. The Defense Logistics Agency is working through its first major technology transformation in 25 years, and data is a key part of the transformation. In an interview with Scoop News Group's Wyatt Kash, DLA Chief Information Officer George Duchak gives an update on the ongoing transition. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.

The Defense Logistics Agency reached a major milestone on its cloud journey.  It recently completed the migration of its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to the cloud.

(8/11/22) - In today's Federal Newscast: If you want to troll the Air Force Facebook page...no problem. The U.S. Forest Service and Defense Logistics Agency are teaming up to fight fires. And President Biden appoints the first woman to head up the National Cancer Institute.

Some $339 million, set aside for small business, went to some of the largest defense contractors, in a single year. That's according to the Project on Government Oversight. POGO reviewed spending patterns of the Defense Logistics Agency, under its Special Operational Equipment Tailored Logistics Support program. The Federal Drive got details from POGO's senior investigator, Nick Schwellenbach.

In today's Federal Newscast, the Defense Department wasted an estimated $5 million in a single year by buying items it already had in its inventory.

When the government establishes a mandated source of supply, that means there's no way around it. That's what the Defense Logistics Agency found when it issued a solicitation for body armor parts. Smith Pachter McWhorter procurement attorney Joseph Petrillo shared more about the case on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

The Postal Service is probably the biggest public face for the government's efforts to supply Americans with at-home COVID tests. But behind the scenes, it's actually the Defense Department that's doing a lot of the heavy lifting, specifically the Defense Logistics Agency. The agency's DLA Distribution arm has been in charge of storing and moving those test kits to their final destinations, and tracking the supplies all the way through the process. To talk more about DoD's role, the Federal Drive with Tom Temin spoke to four individuals from DLA Distribution: Commander Maj. Gen. Keith Reventlow, Deputy Commander Perry Knight, Col. Todd Walker, the director for current operations, and Steven Forster, a supply management specialist.

In this week's Fatal Conceits Podcast, we are joined by long time friend of the Bonner Private Research group, Mr. Byron King... A Harvard-trained geologist, ex navy pilot and nuclear weapons expert, Byron lends us his unique insights into the unfolding situation in the Ukraine… including sanctions blowback, the bifurcation of the global monetary system, a gold/methane-backed ruble… and what it all mean for the US and Europe. We also touch on the continued erosion of trust in America's once-great institutions in the wake of the Supreme Court leak, why inflation is here to stay, where the stock market is headed from here… and what individuals can do to avoid the fallout. It's always a pleasure catching up with Byron. We hope you enjoy this conversation, a transcript of which will be available – gratis – on the website (or below)…Please feel free to drop your comments in the section below and to share it with friend and foe alike. Cheers,Joel BowmanHost of The Fatal Conceits PodcastThank you for reading Bonner Private Research. This post is public so feel free to share it.“[T]hat's not central banking. That's band-aiding a hemorrhaging, suppurating compound fracture of a wound. It's a sucking chest wound and you're giving the patient an aspirin saying, ‘I hope you feel better.' Doesn't work.” ~ Byron King, geologist and editor, Lifetime Income Report TRANSCRIPT:Joel Bowman:All right. Well, welcome back to the Fatal Conceits Podcast, dear listeners, a show about money, markets, mobs, and manias. If you haven't already checked out our Substack page, please feel free to do so, where you can sign up for our daily e-letter. We have hundreds of articles on the sites there, covering everything from lowly politics to high finance and everything else in between. Of course, you'll find research reports and more conversations just like this one. That's bonnerprivateresearch.substack.com. And now, today, I'm very, very excited to welcome our special guest, longtime friend of the show and of the Bonner Private Research family, Byron King. Byron, welcome to the show, mate. How are you doing?Byron King:Very well. Thank you, Joel. It's a pleasure to be here. And hello to all of our Bonner Private researchers out there who subscribe and make it all possible. Thank you.Joel Bowman:Yeah, outstanding. Mate, as you and I discussed over a couple of emails before we scheduled today's show, there's so many things that I want to get your insights and expertise on, not least of which the unfolding situation on the Eurasian steppe. We've got supply chain issues to talk about, we've got inflation heating up, there's market meltdowns, there's all kinds of things going on here. But I thought just out the gate, worth speaking the day after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's announcement of his 50 basis point rate hike, which, for those at home paying attention, puts the Fed a long way behind the curve with regards to real inflation, which, pick a number, is running anything from 8.5% officially to maybe some multiple of that, depending on how you calculate it. Markets, I'm just looking at right now, are awash in red this morning after a brief window of optimism yesterday afternoon. Byron, what's your take, 24 hours in?Byron King:Well, I wasn't surprised to see the 50 basis point raise. It was telegraphed well in advance. But if you want to see central banking, that's not central banking. That's band-aiding a hemorrhaging, suppurating compound fracture of a wound. It's a sucking chest wound and you're giving the patient an aspirin saying, "I hope you feel better." Doesn't work. You want to see central banking? Look what the Russian Central Bank did two months ago when the sanctions hit. The conflict started in Ukraine they jacked up their interest rates in Russia to 20%. Bam, just like that. That was their way of saying to the world, "You might not like us. You might not like what we're doing and you're putting sanctions on us and kicking us out of SWIFT and everything else, but our rule book is still a valuable item and we're going to pay you 20% for the rubles. And oh, by the way, we're going to buy gold based on rubles."Joel Bowman:Right.Byron King:You want to see central banking, that's central banking. What we saw yesterday is just American politicking. And it's the same silliness that we've seen in monetary policy and so much of everything else that passes for policy in America these days. We have an ungovernable country run by people who don't know how to govern and a lot of people who don't want to be governed. Where does that leave us?Joel Bowman:Right. Something of an ineptocracy at hand here. What would the Fed have to do, in your opinion, to kind of “pull a Volcker,” if you will, and stand strong behind its currency? What would it have to do to get out ahead of the curve and send a strong enough signal to the market that it was serious about protecting the integrity of the greenback?Byron King:Well, if they did pull a Volcker and they raised interest rates to well above what we see as inflation, they would have to do, I would say, at least 10 or 12% rate rise, which, of course, is politically impossible. And it's utterly fantastical to even think of our Washington DC policymakers doing something like that because they're cowards and they can't really do things that require bravery. The markets would crash, people would hate them. We would certainly get the Supreme Court and the Roe v. Wade decision off the front page for at least a day or so if they did that. But of course, America's concentrating on that, as opposed to other things that are important, like, oh, the value of the dollar going forward, or perhaps even a nuclear war with Russia. Who cares about that when we have some little toady in the Supreme Court who can leak out a decision in advance. This gets into a lot of different things, but Paul Volcker should just be rolling in his grave.He did what he had to do, he jacked interest rates up to 19% and he killed inflation and the country lasted another, let's say, 35 or 40 years, although monetarily it's been just sort of falling apart, certainly since the 2008 crash, which was never properly addressed. Gets into a lot of different things. But people write books on this stuff. We're just having a conversation.Joel Bowman:It is almost unfathomable to think about what kind of havoc a 10 or 12% rate hike would wreak upon the markets. I'm looking at the tickers on the broader indexes this morning after just 50 bps and we see, as I'm reading the scroll here, the Dow's off 3%, over 1,000 points down. S&P down 3 1/2. The NASDAQ, tech-heavy NASDAQ, of course, was down over 5% earlier this morning. So this is with just a half a percentage. It's almost unthinkable to imagine the carnage that would come down the pike if they pulled a Volcker or jacked up as did Putin.But you bring up an interesting point there, of many interesting points, Byron, and maybe this is a little off topic here, but just given the Roe v. Wade leak and the timing of it all, without getting into that sort of quagmire of a debate, what do you think this says about the confidence or the lack of confidence, just in the institutions of the United States which have been the backbone, the scaffolding of the democracy, or the republic, rather, that the founders envisioned. They've become extremely politicized and one can't help but imagine that this leak whiffs of timing with the upcoming election and whatnot, but it does seem to indicate a kind of erosion in the confidence of America's institutions. Is that the way that you read that?Byron King:Oh, I think it's a major crack in the dam. And I mean, nobody trusted Congress. They leak like a sieve. Nobody trusts the executive office. They leak like a sieve. You can agree or disagree with what the Supreme Court does in its decision making. I don't think anybody who really follows the court would ever have a question, though, that they are a collegial bunch who, they engage in their debates behind closed doors. And when they are finished, out come the decisions. Whatever the decision is in Roe v. Wade, it is what it is. I mean, there's going to be a decision one way or the other. It is what it is. All that the leak did was put it into play in a public sort of way. And you lose confidence in the whole process.People may know it. I have a Navy background. I was in the anti-submarine warfare business. Rule number one of electric boat, you don't talk about electric boat. Rule number one about submarines, people who know a lot about submarines don't talk about submarines. People who don't know a lot about submarines try to tell you, convince you that they do. You don't talk about submarines, you know? Yeah, that's where I come from. You don't talk about submarine stuff because that's how quiet you want to keep it. You don't talk about what happens in the Supreme Court. If you're a clerk and you go there and I don't care how much you really want to, "Oh, I know this, I know this. I have to tell somebody."No, no, no, no, no. You cut your wrists, you jump off a bridge, you take a pill, whatever you have to do to not... You don't do that. You don't do that. Somebody did it. I mean, was it a clerk? I don't know. We may never know. But it's just the idea that in a broad sense, the US is becoming more and more ungovernable. It's big country, 350 million people. They say 330, but really there's like 20 million that the Census Bureau doesn't count just for political reasons. But big country, it's widely diverse, massive disparities of wealth, massive disparities of opinion. And can the country still function? Well, there was this one little place on the top of Capitol Hill, the white marble building with these stone statues in front of it where we could at least have a little bit of confidence that, okay, there's rational thinking going on behind the bronze doors. I guess not. I guess not.Joel Bowman:It seems like just another in a long list, or a long convoy of institutions, from academia to corporate America that now seems to, as you said, enter the fray for hyper-politicization. And I'm wondering as we can talk a little bit about the situation on the Eurasian steppe and sort of get into all that. But just to kind of preface that, it does seem, to your point about political polarization, it does seem now that every week there's a shiny new object, a shiny new subject on Twitter or on the social media channels, whereby everybody has to fall immediately in line with their partisan kind of checkbook. And it seems that no matter where a rational, level-headed, circumspect inquiry might lead you, there's no time for that.You immediately need to make up your mind on subject A, B or C, and it needs to be in complete alignment with the rest of party left or party right politics. And of course, we saw that with everything happening over in the Ukraine. You know a lot more about this than I do, but I was very, very surprised to see the rapidity with which people who I had long friendships with who had never mentioned the Ukraine before, who gave no indication that they were experts on Eastern... I've got some traffic outside here, but who gave me no indication in our 20 or 30 years of friendship that they were PhDs in the history of Eastern European geopolitics, and within three days, knew exactly which flag they needed to put up, whether it was a Russian flag or a Ukrainian flag, to indicate their position. Talking about an ungovernable country, I'm wondering what role our media platforms play in this polarization of the body politic.Byron King:If you have studied, let's say, World War I, for example, the First World War, and as it played out in Europe, if you studied what happened in the United States, there are a lot of eerie similarities. In the US, they took the British side, although there was a very large German population in the United States. First thing the British did when the war broke out was they cut the cables under sea from Europe, from mainland Europe, to the United States. So the only news that came to the US was filtered through London, through the British sources.And in the US, as World War I progressed and eventually as the US entered the war there was a tremendous war fever, an anti-German fever. They banned speaking German, they banned teaching German, they burned German books in the United States. A big part of the Prohibition movement that eventually became the Prohibition Amendment had to do with bias against beer, which was considered a German substance. The ancient Egyptians actually invented beer, but that doesn't matter. Doesn't matter when you're trying to make a certain point here. And so here we are today. I mean, you are in Argentina, I'm in the US. I'm not in the Ukraine, okay? I watch what's going on.I'm a Navy guy. I was combat-coded air crew in the US Navy. I was a nuclear weapons guy. If they had said, "Go out there and bomb that spot," that's me. If there had been a nuclear war that would've been me blowing holes in the ocean. I hate war, man. I want nothing to do with it. I did Desert Shield, Desert Storm. I was in the Middle East in the '90s. I visited a lot of people in the last 20 years who got their legs blown off in Iraq and Afghanistan. What's going on over there is just human tragedy. Russia invaded Ukraine. They should not have done that. There's a lot of things that could have happened to keep that war from happening, but it happened and it's there.But the idea that a whole lot of outsiders are now... We're all in it to win it, as certain politicians in Washington are saying. Politicians on the outside are saying, "Oh, we're behind you. We're going to fight to the last drop of your Ukrainian blood against those terrible Russians." I have to wonder about that. When the politicians go to Kyiv and they're getting medals for bravery, we're trying to reenact World War II again. We talk about World War I, trying to reenact World War II. We got Churchillian rhetoric. "We're going to fight on the beaches and on those forests and on the hillsides." Okay, I get it if your country's being invaded, you say things like that. But we're talking about Lend-Lease. It's like, oh, for God's sakes, we're going to do Lend-Lease again.We give 50 crappy destroyers that leak to Britain and we get all this other stuff back. I don't see the balance of what's going on there. We're feeding these weapons into Ukraine and we're prolonging this conflict. And people are saying, "We're going to fight this war for months, for years. We're going to weaken Russia. We don't want Russia." I mean, if you're the Russians what do you think about that? There was an article, it was in The New York Times, the headline of The New York Times at the top of The New York Times just yesterday that US intelligence is going to Ukraine and this is how the Ukrainians have killed these Russian generals.And even if it's true, even if it's true, you don't say things like that. For me to help this guy kill a general, I'm an accessory to murder. That's an act of war, by the way, when you feed information to somebody and say, "Here, go kill that guy." And especially a Russian general. I mean, what are we doing? What are our policy makers doing? People say, "Well, should we just let Ukraine get overrun?" Here we are. I'm thousands of miles away from this situation. We're dealing with two people. I've met real Ukrainians, real live Ukrainian Ukrainians. I can't say I've ever met a Nazi, though.Maybe I have, I just didn't know. But I've met Ukrainians and I understand kind of this Ukrainian conception, and I know a lot of Russians, and I understand this Russian conception. These tribes have this thing that goes back centuries, 1,500 years, something like that. And I'm over here in the United States and I don't quite get it. I get that they have something, but why is there something, my something? And as a great power, as the United States, as a great power, even though it's ungovernable, even though we can't decide on policy, we can't decide on how much to spend or not to spend, we fight over leaks from the Supreme Court, despite all of that, we're a great power and we have to be careful about getting involved in big wars with big countries.And Russia's a big country. It's big geographically, and it has lots of nuclear weapons. These guys have 6,000 nuclear weapons and they have ways to deliver them. We're not talking about embargoing Cuba. We're not talking about beating up on Iran. We're not talking about beating up on North Korea, not that that has ever done us any good either. We're not talking about fighting some little third-rate army, like Iraq or something like that. We're talking about a nuclear superpower, and it's very troubling from my end. I'm not making policy, I'm not in Washington DC, but I don't know that the people in Washington DC know what the hell they're doing either.Joel Bowman:No, well, they're giving us plenty of reason to think that they don't know what they're doing, which brings me to this concept of this law of unintended consequences. And as we all rush to formulate and broadcast our opinions, sometimes called virtue signaling, as quickly as we possibly can to show that we're on one side or another side and let all our friends know that we're with them, I wonder that in our haste to enact policies such as the various sanctions that have been visited upon not just Russia as a state, but also Russian individuals.And we're talking about confiscation of private property and extra-jurisdictional confiscation of private property, which, if you were trying to set an example of not acting like a global authoritarian dictatorship, you might want to have a look at some of the things like the rule of law and start abiding by those. But all that aside, just from a kind of reputational standpoint, how have these sanctions, particularly those from the West against Russia, do you think, damaged our credibility in the eyes of other nations that may not be so sympathetic to our causes, such as, obviously China, India, et cetera?Byron King:I think sanctions have been an ongoing disaster for many years. When I was writing Whiskey & Gun Powder and other newsletters with the Agora Group over the years, I often mentioned that sanctions are not working, sanctions are not effective. They don't change behavior of people who don't want to change their behavior. And so with the sanctions against Russia, we've basically backfired against ourselves. To say that, we don't want to buy your oil or your gas, or we're going to kick you out the SWIFT system, we're going to kick you out of all these other international organizations, we're confiscating your sovereign wealth, we're confiscating your oligarch wealth.It's a disgraceful abuse of the US Constitution in the sense that... The idea that we go to, let's just pick oligarchs for a second here. I don't think I know any oligarchs. Again, it's kind of like, I don't... I've met Russians. I don't know that I've ever met a Russian oligarch. I've never been on a Russian oligarch yacht. I have seen a couple in my travels and they're pretty impressive, but nobody ever invited me on board. But the idea that okay, you're a Russian oligarch and we don't like you, and we're going to take all your money and we're going to seize your yacht, and we're going to take your real estate from London, or wherever it happens to be, I was kind of, wait a minute. This Russian oligarch, did he drop a bomb on somebody and kill them in Ukraine?Was he driving a tank? I missed that part of the logical connection here. What'd this guy do? Why are we taking his money? And then the sovereign part of it, the sovereign wealth, "Oh, Russia, you have, whatever the number is, $300 billion. We're going to scoop that and just drag it off the table." It's kind of like, whoa, we just told everybody in the whole world, every country in the whole world that buys US treasuries or that keeps money in US banks or US institutions or US bonds or US... That if we don't like you, and maybe it's something very bad that we don't like you about, but if we don't like you, we're going to take your stuff.You've just diminished the credibility of the dollar, you just diminished the credibility of your whole system. During the Crimean War in the 18- early '50s, 1853, Russia was fighting Britain, France, over Crimea, of all places, but Russia and Britain were still having commercial dealings. Russia paid interest on bonds, Britain paid interest on... Because this is what proper businesses did. And this was during a real war. Right now, it's Ukraine and Russia, with obviously NATO's backing it up. But call me old-fashioned but I missed the declaration of war against Russia if there was one. Technically, we are not at war with these people although we're doing everything short of it. And who knows? Perhaps we're doing everything necessary to egg it on eventually, which talk about...Joel Bowman:It does seem a little bit, just watching some congressional testimony from... It used to be the case that, and I'll just use sort of air quotes here, if we're doing audio only for this podcast so listeners know, but it used to be that there were neocons on the Republican side who were hawkish, who never met a war that they didn't want to march somebody else's son off to, but then you had this socially progressive liberals at home in the United States who were again, air quotes, supposed to be dovish when it came to interventionist foreign policy.But it does seem now on Capitol Hill that you have, to use your term, egging on, you have a whole bunch of congressmen and women from the floor that are looking for any excuse to, "When do we get to send the fighter jets in? In what scenario would we deploy the next level up of weapons?" You almost get this kind of mad rush for war. And I'm just wondering if we're not sort of thinking all of the consequences through as the situation escalates.Byron King:Absolutely. Outside of the certain cadres within the military, very few people in America, and very few people in American policymaking understand the military and/or war making. You can study all sorts of history in colleges across the country: social history, diplomatic history, environmental history, history insight, history in this, history in that. You can study all different species of history, but try to find a program at a reputable university in military history. You won't. There are a couple, they're very few.So Americans tend intellectually, and certainly in our policymaking intellectual classes, they tend not to understand issues of military, military thinking, military history. To understand modern military matters takes a degree, and probably an advanced degree, in a hard science, lots of math, lots of physics, whatever. I think the last war that people could have understood without knowing chemistry, physics and math was maybe the Spanish-American War, because by World War I, with radio, with sonar, with long-range artillery, it was starting to get into calculus. World War II-Joel Bowman:The cavalry was already the last war by that stage.Byron King:Exactly, exactly. By World War II, we were doing lots of math and lots of physics and lots of chemistry. Again, radio, radio electronics, radar, sonar, nuclear power, jet engines, things like that. If you don't understand some of the basics of those things you don't really get... You can read a lot about it, and you can read a lot of comic books about it. You can read a lot of fantasy fiction books about it and think that you know what's going on. But the people who are out there banging the drums, saying, "Oh, let's do a no-fly zone," they don't know what they're talking about in terms of what that involves and what you're up against.Certainly when you want to do a no-fly zone against Russia, are you kidding me? Give me a break. And one more thing, let me just add to that. I've talked to people and they say, "Well, you know the Russians, they suck. Their tanks blow up or kill other guys. I've seen the pictures." Yeah, they have bad equipment, bad training. They had a bad plan when they started out. But a lot of people start their wars with bad plans and they learn and I think the Russians have learned. And when you've got a country like Ukraine with whatever the number is, 44 million, or 40, or 35 million, or 32 million, whatever that number is now because people have been moving out and this and that, versus Russia with 144 million people, and the legacy of the Soviet militarization of that entire continent, you got a hell of a fight.When people say, "Oh, the Russians, they're going to run out of weapons. They're going to run out of missiles," and I say, "Are you kidding me? No, they're not." They have entire cities devoted to cranking out ammunition. "Well, they were using junky artillery shells that didn't explode." Yeah, so what? They've got train loads of that stuff that's going to come in and it will explode. And "Well, they're going to run out of advanced missiles." I don't think so. They have entire factories in the mountains that crank out those missiles like sausages. So I'm just saying that if you want to get into a fight with these guys, you better appreciate what that involves. For the last, pick a number, 75 years, the United States has never fought against a country that can really, truly hit back at us.I mean, the Korean War, we fought China. Soviet pilots fought against American pilots in the Korean War and they actually did pretty well, frankly. And in North Vietnam, Soviet equipment and Soviet advisors and Soviet trainers were right behind the North Vietnamese. And although it's hard to really say that technically we ever fought mano-a-mano, American against the Soviet in North Vietnam it's not hard to imagine that they were right behind. And the Vietnam War in certain respects was a real slap in the face to American military might. We lost 10,000 aircraft in the Vietnam War. 3,500 were high-performance jets shot down.I talk about this a little bit. I was fortunate in my life and in my Navy days to be... I went in the Navy after the Vietnam era, but I had instructor pilots who were there. I was trained by guys who had dodged service-to-air missiles over Hanoi and Haiphong. And we talked about this stuff. And the Soviet equipment in the '60s was pretty good for its time and it has gotten better and better and better over the years. So when people say, "Well, the Russians..." Do not dismiss what's going on over there, just because over what we've seen in the last month and a half. Okay? You saw a line of burnt out tanks. Okay, yeah. That happened.But don't dismiss them as a military power. The policymakers are so cavalier in Washington about this. They just think that war is a video game, war is a comic book, because they don't understand it. They never studied it in college. Never studied it in grad school. A lot of them, most of them, never spent one day of their life in a US military uniform, never did one push up for one drill instructor, and they don't know what the hell they're talking about. They're more than happy to send the kid down the street over there to get his legs blown off. Just saying.Joel Bowman:Right. What's that old Creedence Clearwater Revival song? Reminds me of the Fortunate Son. I always have that lyric, "I ain't no senator's son." They aren't going to be marching off to war anytime soon. But it's interesting that you mentioned the resilience of the Russians. As if we needed to underscore that point, surely the most of the 20th century went to illuminating the point that Russians can go scorched earth, they can hunker down, they can withstand sieges. And I even saw during the last few months certain reports that they were going to be running out of energy. And that's when I thought that surely we've jumped the shark here. Russia run out of energy?Anyway, so we can maybe use that to segue-way into speaking a little more broadly about the energy markets, because it does seem that Russia have a lot of aces up their sleeve, and again, this isn't a commentary on the political situation, this is just sort of hard facts on the ground. You've written fairly extensively about a version of either a gold or methane or gold and methane-backed ruble. First of all, maybe just sort of tell us what you mean by that and then we can get into some of the ways that impacts the situation, both in Russia and in the US directly.Byron King:Okay. It goes back to what we were talking earlier about what does a real central bank look like? Russia, when they got sanctioned, they raised interest rates to 20% and they said, we're going to pay 5,000 rubles per gram of gold. Now, since then, they've said, well, we'll negotiate that 5,000, but it's still around that number. So when you do the math, a gram of gold, 31.1 grams is an ounce, you do the math, you translate it from rubles to dollars on the exchange rate or whatever, depending on what your ruble rate is, the Russians are saying that we will pay, back then it was about not quite $1,600 an ounce of gold. Today with the exchange rate of the ruble, that 5,000 rubles per gram, it's up well over $2,000 an ounce for gold.What the Russians did with that was they basically put, let's call it a bumpy floor underneath the price of gold, or, well, they backed their ruble indirectly with gold and they put a floor under the price of gold. Because if you're a paper gold trader, if you're a paper trader and you try to trade it down and really crash the price, if you get too far below that Russian gold ruble number you're going to get arbitraged, right?Joel Bowman:Yeah.Byron King:But then the next thing they did, and this is part of it, these things all fit together, the Russians said, we're only going to sell our natural gas for rubles. We want rubles. And so it's like, wait a minute. They want rubles for their gas, that they got rubles over here that they'll pay for gold. All of a sudden, you've just connected the price of natural gas, methane gas, to the price of gold. Now they're saying, over time, we're going to sell our oil for rubles as well. We just haven't got there yet because there's been a lot of contracts in the way and there's a lot of legalisms that worked out, and there's just a lot of mechanics involved in something like that. And then just the other day... And I forwarded it to you, in fact, I believe you saw it. The Russians are saying that if you sanction us, we're going to sanction you, unfriendly countries, we're not going to sell our products to you; oil, gas, uranium, which is a big part of what Russia exports, other metals; nickel, titanium, fertilizer, whole list of things.So to the extent that Russia has now said, we're not going to take your dollars or your euros or your yen or your pounds, or what have you. We're only going to take rubles for the goods that we export. And they've tied their ruble to the price of gold. Russia has just basically created a commodity global economy that is tied to the price of gold. And now, you can say, "Well, we're not going to play that game. We in the West, we're not going to play that game." Fine. Go without the Russian gas, go without the Russian oil, without the Russian titanium, without the Russian fertilizer, without the Russian you name it, without the neon gas that you use to make the computer chips, without the sapphire substrates that you need to make the computer chip, without all that stuff that the nuclear-armed gas station over there exports, you go ahead.Be yourself. We're creating, in a sense, instead of a global world, we're deglobalizing, that's for sure. Then we're creating two different economies. There's going to be this debt-based fiat economy where the central bank doesn't have the guts to raise interest rates to kill inflation. And then we've got this commodity-based economy over here where Russia says, "We have lots of oil. We have gas, we have nickel, we have palladium. You come and pay us in rubles." But now you've got to get across that barrier and "How do I get some rubles? How do I get me some of those rubles?" So, there's your commodity-based ruble, a commodity-based global currency. And then the other side of that, the big 800-pound gorilla on the other side of the room here is that here's Russia, here's China. China needs everything.They need the oil, they need the gas, they need the nickel, the palladium, you name it. Whatever Russia exports, China will take it all if they can. It's the Halford Mackinder concept of the world island on steroids. It's the Heartland theory. It's these geopolitical theories that have evolved in the last 120 years or something. You got the Alfred Mahan navalist Influence of Sea Power theory. You've got the Julian Corbett theory of sea power influencing land. You've got Halford Mackinder with his Heartland theory. You've got Nicholas Spykman in the 1940s with kind of that Rimland theory. But basically, you've put Russia with its resources and China with its industry and its people together and they've created that core world island. And China's already well on the way with its Belt and Road to kind of tie the Heartland together. Add up the numbers of people involved; China, throw in India while you're at it.Joel Bowman:I was going to say, India, yeah, it's right there.Byron King:You're looking at four and five billion people on the face of this earth. And you can have a hell of an economy when you take four billion people and you tie them all together with resources and a form of trading where people settle their accounts routinely. The West is just going to be... We're going to be on the Rimland, so to speak, on the outside.Joel Bowman:And I think are the Indians buying that sort of Urals blend at whatever discount it is now, 20% or something? There's some meaningful discount, isn't there, between West Texas, Brent and the Urals blend? It was about 20% when I last checked, but it might have come up a bit since then.Byron King:The numbers that I saw, and this was just a couple days ago I was looking at it, if the global number was $105, $110 a barrel, Russian oil was going for about a $25 to $30 discount. So let's say $75. Well, guess what? Russia produces oil at an internal cost of far less than $75. Their production cost per barrel could be... Let's say that it's $25 a barrel. It's actually less than that, but I'm just going to use it because the math is easy. But if they sell it for 75, they're still making 50 bucks a barrel.And okay, so they're leaving that $30 on the table for some Indian guy or some Chinese guy or some other global trader or whatever, that's the slot that they're going to get out of it. And there's all sorts of tricks going on where the Russian tanker will come out off shore and they'll offload their oil into another tanker and then they'll put some other oil in it from a completely different source. But as long as you got 51% not Russian oil, or only 49% Russian oil you can still sell it as just... Nobody can say, "Oh, this isn't Russian oil anymore." Only the chemists would know and even-Joel Bowman:And they're probably paid not to know at some level.Byron King:When you have a refinery to run and you've got to put the product in over here to get the product out over there sometimes you just don't worry about where it came from as long as you can check off the boxes on paper.Joel Bowman:Yeah. And you can turn the light on. Talk us through a little bit, because you and I spoke about this, we've spoken about it a couple of times now. And of course, when we first touched base after some time at our emergency winter catastrophe summit, this was back in December 2021, we can't have known all that was going to come down the pike geopolitically within just a few months from then. But you were banging the table back in late last year about Germany having surrendered a huge amount of its energy independence by sort of decommissioning its nuclear plants, and this kind of green pipe dream, and then having to revert to lignite.Now they're in a very precarious situation indeed. But just with regards to taking Russian raw materials, and you can take Ukrainian raw materials off the table for that matter as well, while we're speaking. But what does it mean for people in the West to no longer have access to, or have very restricted or very conditional access to, for example, 30% of the world's fertilizer or chicken feed or organic seed, all of the things that you just mentioned. How, when an American goes to a grocery store, three, six, nine months from now, what is the reality that is going to confront them that they might not have fully processed yet?Byron King:Well, here we are. We're talking in the early part of May and it's the spring planting season in the Northern Hemisphere. And you plant the seeds, you put the fertilizer on there, and a whole lot of other inputs and hard work and expenses over the growing season. Without the upfront fertilizer, which you might say it's available, but it's very expensive. So this reports I hear that a lot of farmers are just, we're going to use less, we're not going to use as much, whatever. Come the fall, come the harvest we're going to have lower harvests.And in terms of where the ags are going, as the commodity traders say, price of wheat, price of corn, price of everything's going to be going up, so there's going to be less just raw food being produced from the farms and the fields. The processing isn't going to be any cheaper at all, because costs of energy are high and getting higher. Diesel, which is what we run tractors on and what we run tractor trailers on and generators and things like propane or the things that farmers use to dry the grain when they harvest it, it's wet and they put it in the silo and then they pump warm air through it to dry it out, so otherwise it rots.All of those inputs are going up in price. So in terms of individuals, what are you going to do, Joel? What am I going to do, Byron? The listeners out there, the watchers, what are they going to do out there? You're going to go to the store and you're going to say, "Oh, my goodness. A gallon of milk is almost as expensive as a gallon of diesel fuel." That's a joke. It's a macabre joke. A loaf of bread is pick a number, $2, it's going to be $5. There will be things that happen. Farmers will say, "Oh, I can't afford to keep these livestock fed." So off they go to the slaughterhouse.So great, there's going to be a time when pork chops are cheap or there'll be a time when certain kinds of beef is cheap or something like that. Yeah, that's because they're killing all the cows, killing all the hogs, because can't afford to feed them. And so off they go. As this unfolds, I expect to see scarcity across the world. Parts of the world are going to experience extreme scarcity. Parts of the world that have money and have supply chains and sophisticated logistical systems, there will still be things on the shelves.But I remember about two years ago, little over two years ago, just when COVID was kicking off, I wrote an article in Whiskey & Gun Powder, and I actually said something like, we're probably going to see National Guard units guarding supermarkets to control crowds as people go in and out just to buy their food with their masks on and all their anti-COVID gear and everything, because everybody bought into that narrative as well. I certainly think that the price of food historically has always been a revolutionary point in time. When Marie Antoinette said, "If they have no bread, let them eat cake, ha ha," well, she got her head chopped off, didn't she? When you look at all those color revolutions 10 years ago, 11, 12 years ago, that started... The Tunisia revolutions-Joel Bowman:The whole Arab Spring?Byron King:Yeah, the whole Arab Spring. It started in Tunisia with a food seller who had a little cart. And he was just eking out a bare existence, a bare living. And along came the cops to rough him up and take his cart. And he killed himself and the next thing you know the country was in revolution.Joel Bowman:I think he set himself on fire.Byron King:Set himself on fire?Joel Bowman:Yeah, if I remember correctly. Yeah. I don't think many of us are wondering what's going to be on the shelves in a few months time, our favorite cereal or whatever. But for those who don't have a whole lot of wiggle room, you dip below that minimum daily caloric intake level and all of a sudden civil unrest becomes not just an attractive alternative, but the only thing you've got. And you get enough people together who feel like that and all of a sudden governments can topple and dominoes can fall.Byron King:Well, it takes us back to what we mentioned at the beginning about the US becoming an ungovernable country. Because you don't have to read too many news articles or go too far to see articles about these store lootings that go on. And certainly in big cities where people just crash into some drug store or a convenience store, whatever, and these flash mobs, and they just kind of loot everything off the shelves they can stuff into their bags and run away. And it has to do with the whole concept of how hard do we police the country anymore. Are the district attorneys going to prosecute? California has the $950 law, so that if you steal anything under $950, they won't even bother. You just walk away with it. There's that. But transform that. Imagine that transformed into supermarket mobs, where hungry people are out there saying, "Oh, no, I only have 50 bucks in my pocket and it's going to take $200 to buy the food that I need to feed the family."Next thing you know there's going to be a flash mob down at the Shop 'n Save or a flash mob down at the Vons or something like that. And you're going to have National Guard troops outside with their vests and their guns and their helmets and stuff kind of letting people in, one at a time, one at a time. It's going to be like the Soviet Union, where you'd walk into some store, you'd go and some shelf that had almost nothing on it, you'd say, "Oh yeah, I want one of those." They give you a ticket. You go and you pay for it, take the ticket back. Then the surly clerk behind the counter, okay. They wrap it up in a piece of greasy newspaper and hand it to you, something.Joel Bowman:Rock hard piece of bread and some crusty, brand imitation gruel or some such. I feel like it's not as if we haven't... Not to sound conspiratorial, but we have been conditioned, or gaslit or whatever terminology you want to use, to expect boots on the ground in certain cities to ward off so-called, euphemistically-termed “peaceful protests.” We have gotten accustomed to a lot more authoritarian overreach from the state, especially during the past couple of years of lockdowns. Who would've thought that just a couple of years ago you had told or, say, 30 months ago, if you had told an American, maybe just in heartland America, "By the way, there will be officers of the law handing out fines if you don't have your face covered in public areas. You won't be able to leave your home or your apartment. There'll be all these kind of mandates that encroach in a way that we had never experienced before." They would've thought you had lost your marbles.Byron King:It has been surreal. It has been surreal. I remember I wrote about this in Whiskey & Gun Powder two years ago where the Los Angeles police arrested somebody for paddle boarding in the Pacific Ocean.Joel Bowman:I saw that. Yeah. Amazing.Byron King:This guy is like... He's like 200 yards offshore.Joel Bowman:He couldn't be more socially distant.Byron King:He's just paddle boarding and they send out the boat police or whatever, the fish police or whatever to arrest him. But we saw it everywhere. We saw it in Britain. We saw it in Australia. We saw it in New Zealand. The cops brought out their inner whatever it is that makes people not like them. Obeying these stupid edicts from the people above, if you're walking in the park without a mask and there's nobody within a quarter mile, "Oh, we're going to cite you for that." Not too far from where I live there was a woman who was sitting in the far section of the stands in front of a sports field, watching her kid play soccer or football or something, I don't know. And some cop just sort of walks up to her and arrests her for not wearing a mask. Well, there was nobody there. And then she resists and now it's sort of like, "Oh, well, you resisted arrest so now we're really going to arrest you."Joel Bowman:Goodness gracious.Byron King:This is a country where a year ago or a year and a half ago people burned down entire sections of cities and got away with it. But at the same time, little old ladies got ticketed and hauled into court for not wearing a mask. I mean, it's crazy.Joel Bowman:It is certainly an opportunity for everybody to bring out their little Eichmann, I like to call it, their little petite fonctionnaire rule-following impulses, and get to boss a bunch of other people around. Byron, I know I'm pressing up on your time, which you've generously given to us today, but I do want to get just your take on one more issue, which just came across the news wires this morning. And I would be remiss if I didn't get your input on this. And this is news that the Biden administration have announced that they will supply bids to restock the SPR, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. I know you had been writing about that. I wrote about them having drained it not so long ago, after many senators... By the way, just a little backstory here for our listeners.It was a couple of years ago when a fashionably unpopular president suggested refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserves at, I think, something like 22 or 25 bucks a barrel. When prices are low, you're supposed to buy, according to conventional wisdom. Anyway, that was quashed because it was marketed to the public as an unwarranted and unearned subsidy to big oil and big gas. And so you had people like Senator Chuck Schumer skiting and gloating that he had put the kibosh on refilling the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And then we saw late last year, and then earlier again, in 2022, the Biden administration tap that Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And now with prices way back up over 100 bucks, he's talking about... Well, not just talking about, he's giving the markets advance notice that he will be purchasing something in the order of 60 million barrels.Then there'll be three tranches, so it'll be 180 million barrels, thereby sending the price even higher in expectation. It reminds me a little bit of Gordon Brown's Brown Bottom when he told the market in advance that he was going to be unloading half his majesty's gold coffers and that way tank the price in advance of the auctions. But is this just more unintended consequences? Is it stupidity? Is it arrogance? Is it just something that we're not seeing? Is it genius in the disguise of idiocy? What are we looking at here?Byron King:I actually hope that it's not stupidity because if it's stupidity, these people really are pathetically stupid. I had an old professor who used to talk about the too dumb to live rule, the guy who crawls underneath the bus to get his hat after it blows off his head and the bus pulls out and squashes him. Well, some people are just too dumb to live.Joel Bowman:Another Darwin Award contender, yeah.Byron King:Yeah, really. You've summarized it very well. My real worry is that these people actually do understand what they're doing. We're going to drain the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for some political spectacle. We're going to say, "Oh, we're selling the oil. We're going to sell the oil and drive the price down." Of course, it didn't drive the price down. And of course that particular oil, those barrels that have been coming out of the SPR, most of them have been going on a tanker and sent off to foreign destinations. They're not going to some refinery in Houston or some refinery in Philadelphia, some refinery in Long Beach so that Americans can put it in their tank and burn it up as they drive around. No, no, no, no, no.Most of that oil went overseas. It still is. But here we are, we're going to refill the reserve. My solution, my suggestion to that is that what the US government should do is what it has long done. It should take a royalty, what's called a payment in kind, from oil companies that are producing oil on US federal leases; federal lands, federal offshore. Okay, let's say you're an offshore oil production platform out in the Gulf of Mexico and you produce, pick a number, you produce 10,000 barrels a day. Well, your royalty to the government's 12.5%. But rather than write a check to the government, give us 12.5% of the oil that comes out and that'll go to the salt domes in Texas or Louisiana. That's what they ought to do.And that way there's no real cash burn that goes. But for the US government to just go out and say, for whoever it is that's going to buy this, Department of the Interior, the Defense Logistics Agency, whoever, to say, "Oh, yes, we'll write you guys checks and we're going to bring in tanker loads of oil, from where? From Nigeria, from Saudi, from whatever and we're going to pump it into... It's just crazy economics. And it actually brings us back to the very beginning of our talk today, which is the US has this incredible debt. And our federal bank, our central bank, is doing these tiny, little baby half percent steps to address the inflation problem.And it's all just window dressing, it's all narrative and it's not even good narrative anymore. It's kind of like really dumb comic book narrative. It's dumb comic book governance, governance by imbecility or something like that, policymaking by imbecility. I'd like to think that Winston Churchill was right when he says America will always do the right thing after it's tried everything else. Maybe we will, but for now just invest the best you can. Go for hard assets, energy, mines and minerals, gold, silver, land, ag, real stuff. Companies with real factories full of smart people that make real things, that kind of stuff.Joel Bowman:Yeah. Well, speaking of that, Byron, tell our readers and our listeners or our viewers, depending on the medium in which they're imbibing this, your insights and expertise, tell everyone where they can follow you, where they can get your latest research and keep up to date with your thinking as America tries everything else but the best thing on that long road.Byron King:Well, you'll find me writing a periodic article in a St. Paul research pub called Lifetime Income Report. And you'll sometimes find me here at Bonner Private Research. I know that I promised the readers a couple of times that I'd give them a few updates, and I'm behind on that so I do need to catch up. I am going to be at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference in Vancouver in May, 16 and 17, I'm giving a talk on the 17th. That'll probably be on YouTube. And I sometimes write for an outfit called Investor Intel, which is up in Toronto. I send them an article every now and then. So I get around. But I certainly enjoy talking with you, talking with the old hands from the olden days of Agora, because everything has changed and transformed so much.Joel Bowman:Indeed, it has.Byron King:I'm around and I'm not going anywhere. I'm not writing Whiskey & Gun Powder anymore, which was a publisher's decision. And it's too bad because I kind of miss that format.Joel Bowman:Yeah, I love that. One of my long time favorite reads from the Whiskey Rebellion onward. Well, Byron, as you know, your insights and expertise always have a grateful home at Bonner Private Research. Whenever you want to flick us over an article, we're more than happy to forward it on to our readers and listeners. And so on that note, do check out our Substack page. Again, it's bonnerprivateresearch.substack.com, and I'll include all the links to Byron's various writings. And he is a man of letters, so they are prolific and they can be found in many different places. So I'll put links to all of those down below where you can follow on with Byron's work. And Byron, I think I got to about a quarter of the things that I wanted to ask you today, but maybe that just means we've got many more productive conversations in the near future.[Ed. Note: See more of Byron's work at St. Paul Research, right here. Also his many, many memorable columns at Whiskey & Gunpowder.]Byron King:What it means is we have to do this again, huh?Joel Bowman:Outstanding. Byron King, thank you so much for your time today, mate. I really appreciate it. Until next time.Byron King:Thank you, Joel. And good luck to everyone out there.Thank you for reading Bonner Private Research. This post is public, so feel free to share it with friend and enemy alike...© 2022 Bonner Private Research, Carrick Road, Portlaw, County Waterford, Ireland. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, copying, or distribution, in whole or in part, is prohibited without permission from the publisher. Information contained herein is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. It is not designed to meet your personal circumstances–we are not financial advisors and do not give personalized financial advice. The opinions expressed here are those of the publisher and are subject to change without notice. It may become outdated and there is no obligation to update any such information. Investments should be made only after consulting with your financial advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company or companies in question. You shouldn't make any decision based solely on what you read here. Neither Bonner Private Research nor its employees and writers receive any compensation for securities or investments covered herein. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bonnerprivateresearch.substack.com/subscribe

On today's episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has new guidelines for its software builders. The Department of Defense's new Office of the Defense Innovation Unit is open for business in Chicago. Chris Smith, director of engineering at Applied Insight, and Chad Beaudin, chief engineer for DevSecOps at Boeing, discuss the benefits of “pre-made” solutions for federal technology transformation efforts. This interview is underwritten by AWS in collaboration with Applied Insight and Boeing. The Defense Logistics Agency is six months into its Digital-Business Transformation. Adarryl Roberts, program executive officer for DLA Information Operations, discusses what the agency has accomplished so far, how it's creating a culture for transformation and what's on the horizon for the effort. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.

On today's episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, the U.S. Transportation Command is migrating its cloud applications to the Air Force's Cloud One platform. A Marine Corps financial management transition to a system at the Defense Logistics Agency is complete. Former Deputy Chief Financial Officer at the Department of Defense Mark Easton discusses how transitions like this help organizations audit themselves and help external auditors audit them better. Agencies have another year to move contracts to the new Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) vehicle. 15 agencies got failing grades in the recent FITARA scorecard for their transition to EIS. Jim Williams, principal at Schambach and Williams Consulting and former deputy administrator and acting administrator of the General Services Administration, explains the challenges agencies are having in moving to EIS and how they can be resolved. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is fusing commercial solutions and unclassified information in the cloud. Chris Johnson, deputy chief technology officer at NGA, tells Scoop News Group's Wyatt Kash explains how NGA is using cloud technology to support its mission. This interview is part of FedScoop's “Cloud-Driven Innovation in Federal Government” video campaign, sponsored by AWS. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.

Special Interview Series - THP05: Bill Smith / Infinity Fuel Cell and Hydrogen - Today's interview is going to be unique. The company we're going to discuss is Infinity Fuel Cell and Hydrogen, which has many years of combined military and space fuel cell experience, designing the next generation of air independent fuel cells, and regenerative fuel cells. With the support of NASA and several other government agencies, they have achieved key breakthroughs in fuel cell design, that have significantly reduced the complexity of these systems and dramatically improved performance and reliability. I think Infinity is an absolutely fascinating company. And there's so much to unpack here that I might have to beg Bill to come back and talk more on the show. Bill's the founder and president of Infinity Fuel Cell and Hydrogen. He started the company in 2002, focusing on the application of PEM technology to fuel cell and hydrogen systems. He is the program manager and principal investigator for most of the major infinity programs, including programs with the FAA and the NASA Glenn Research Center, DOD fuel cell projects for the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, the naval undersea warfare center, the Defense Logistics Agency, and for the General Atomics LDUUV program with the Office of Naval Research, and that just scratches the surface of what they're doing right now. Bill holds a degree in physics and got his MBA at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy the podcast. Please feel free to email me at info@thehydrogenpodcast.com with any questions. Also, if you wouldn't mind subscribing to my podcast using your preferred platform... I would greatly appreciate it. Respectfully,Paul RoddenVISIT THE HYDROGEN PODCAST WEBSITEhttps://thehydrogenpodcast.comCHECK OUT OUR BLOGhttps://thehydrogenpodcast.com/blog/WANT TO SPONSOR THE PODCAST? Send us an email to: info@thehydrogenpodcast.comNEW TO HYDROGEN AND NEED A QUICK INTRODUCTION?Start Here: The 6 Main Colors of Hydrogen

Modernization takes technology, it takes people and it takes programs. At the Defense Department, the agile process is set to bring a new wind to the agency. DevSecOpps will bake security in from the start for national security programs. As part of GovExec Media's Roadmap to Modernization event recently, Nextgov Staff Correspondent Brandi Vincent spoke to Dr. George Duchak, Chief Information Officer at  Defense Logistics Agency and Maj. Christopher Olsen, Military Deputy at Office of the Department of the Air Force Chief Software Officer. In this episode, they talk about how Agile and DevSecOpps are being deployed at the Pentagon.

U.S. Transportation Command's first attempt to reform the military moving system got derailed by a successful bid protest. Now it's reawarded the Global Household Goods Contract to one of the companies that lost the first time around. The initial award is worth an estimated $6.2 billion over the next three year, and could be worth up to $20 billion if DoD renews its options for a full nine years. The winning firm this time is called HomeSafe Alliance. It's a new joint venture owned by KBR and Tier One Relocation. Al Thompson is HomeSafe's CEO, and a former director of the Defense Logistics Agency. He talked with Federal News Network's Jared Serbu about how the contract and the reforms will work.

Today's guest, Jean Ibañez Payne is the founder and owner of TI Verbatim Consulting (TIVC). Jean is a navy veteran with nearly 20 years of workforce training, culture assessments, strategic communications, program and risk management, diversity and inclusion programs TIVC  is a SBA 8a and 100% Hispanic, Service Disabled Veteran and Women Owned Small Business with three business core capabilities; Workforce Development, Translation and Interpretation and Workplace culture organization their mission is to “Help People Work Better Together”.  To be honest I didn't know what that meant in terms of a business model, but throughout the interview Ms. Ibanez Payne offers examples of how corporate and government clients use her teachings and workshops to retain great employees, win top talent, and improve the bottom line. TIVC has earned the trust of customers such as Dominion Energy in Virginia, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, Department of Treasury, Defense Logistics Agency, Department of Homeland Security, NASA and many others. What I can appreciate about her as an owner is that prior to us opening up for the interview she said to me I could ask any question that I wanted and she was not afraid to be vulnerable. Throughout the interview we discuss her morning routine, the latest Amazon purchase that made her happy, examples of translation service for the government, and life experiences that shaped her as a person and set the company on a path to success. Her firm is a GSA contract holder, Navy Seaport awardee, ISO certified and part of the SBA's exclusive 8a group. Hope you enjoy today's interview with our next Govcon Giant, Jean Ibañez Payne.

On today's episode of The Daily Scoop Podcast, new legislation on Capitol Hill would require government agency leaders to brief Congress within seven days of a cyber breach in their organization. Goldy Kamali, Founder & CEO, Scoop News Group, sits down with Francis as the winners of the 2021 FedScoop 50 Awards are announced. Scoop News Group received more than 700,000 votes across eight categories this year. Hellion Flowers, Deputy Chief of Staff, Defense Logistics Agency, joins the podcast as DLA celebrates its 60th anniversary. Flowers reflects on his more than 30 years at the agency, and the modernization efforts that he's seen take place over the last three decades. Ann Dunkin, Chief Information Officer, Department of Energy, speaks with Scoop News Group's Senior Vice President for Content Strategy, Wyatt Kash, about how the shift to remote work has led to an influx of data at the department. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every weekday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. And if you like what you hear, please let us know in the comments.

Big transformations in government are tough; tougher still during a pandemic. @DLAMIL Program Executive Officer Adarryl Roberts offers key lessons about transformation success at one of the organizations helping government perform its most important missions.

John Heid recently retired from the Defense Logistics Agency after working for 37 years as a Fuel Specialist. His career has taken him to over 50 countries and he shares some memories from his travels. John grew up in Ohio and now resides in North Carolina, but he was a proud member of the Foothill Citrus Football Officials Association while he lived in California. He discusses the details of his career, what made football officiating so much fun, the importance of fossil fuels, working with the military, the many places he has lived, Ohio sports, and a few of his favorite beverages. To quote John: "Someone is looking after all of us if we just paid attention." --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/15mph/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/15mph/support

Cybersecurity holes lurk everywhere. As the Defense Department hurries to get its chain of suppliers to tighten up, it's got a major unlocked backdoor of its own — namely, the inventory management systems operated by the Defense Logistics Agency. It's made some progress, but there's still a ways to go. Federal Drive with Tom Temin got the latest from the director of information technology and cybersecurity issues at the Government Accountability Office, Vijay D'Souza.

Agencies information technology are moving on from automation pilots, and taking the next step by setting their network-traveling bots free to work around the clock. The Defense Logistics Agency has released nearly 100 unattended bots, and the DoD Comptroller is gearing up to run its own unattended automation scripts. The Pentagon isn't alone. Citizenship and Immigration Services is rolling out automation as a service to help its workforce get more done. For an update on this work, Federal News Network's Jory Heckman spoke with the RPA program manager at USCIS Meikle Paschal. And, who you'll hear first, the Robotic Process Automation program manager for the DoD Comptroller's office, Erica Thomas.

Col Gerald Acosta is currently the chief for the Director's Action Group, J3, of the Defense Logistics Agency. In this episode, he presents some of the research he has done on the nexus between China's One Belt, One Road Initiative, and the Suez Canal. Intro/outro music is "Evolution" from BenSound.com (https://www.bensound.com) Follow the Krulak Center: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thekrulakcenter Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekrulakcenter/ Twitter: @TheKrulakCenter YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcIYZ84VMuP8bDw0T9K8S3g Krulak Center homepage on The Landing: https://unum.nsin.us/kcic

Atlantic Diving Supply has been a successful federal contractor, but one that has attracted controversy. Mainly over whether it is in fact a small business in winning positions on contract vehicles set aside for small business. For what the company itself has to say, the Federal Drive spoke with its general counsel, Adam Casagrande.

It's paid false claims fines. It's been investigated by the Justice Department. Members of Congress have expressed outrage over it. It appears to be a large enterprise. And yet this year Atlantic Diving Supply received a slot on a $33 billion, 10-year deal from the Defense Logistics Agency, for which only small businesses were supposed to qualify. We'll hear what the ADS says about this. But first, from the Project on Government Oversight, senior investigator Nick Schwellenbach.

In speaking about his incoming administration, President-Elect Joe Biden has promised to rebuild trust in the government and rebuild trust in government work. In doing this, federal human capital will be integral into workforce modernization and development over the span of Biden’s time in office. That will have to start now, during the transition, and will continue into the administration. Jeffrey Neal is Principal at ChiefHRO, LLC and a National Academy of Public Administration fellow. He’s also the former  Chief Human Capital Officer at the Department of Homeland Security and, before that, was Chief Human Resources Officer at the  Defense Logistics Agency. He joined the podcast to discuss personnel issues during the transition in during the upcoming Biden administration. 

Vanessa Short Bull is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. She was born on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota. She is a direct descendent of Chief Red Cloud, Young Man Afraid of His Horses, Little Wound, and the Ghost Dance leader Short Bull. She is a graduate of the University of South Dakota. She has served as the Co-chair for the Native Research Network. She was board member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe Research Review Board and the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, SD Affiliate. She was previously a Nike-endorsed fitness athlete for the N7 shoe. She resides in Philadelphia, PA.   She was the former Miss SD USA 2000 and Miss SD 2002. She has competed at both the Miss USA and Miss America Pageants. She is the first woman in South Dakota to garner both titles and was the first Native American to win both state titles. Vanessa is also a classically trained dancer. She studied Dancing at the University of Utah, Ballet West Conservatory, and School of Cleveland Ballet. She was featured in the American Indian College Fund’s campaign Have You Seen a Real Indian and in the book Real Indians. She served as an officer in the Army Reserve Medical Service Corps.   Her parents are Thomas Short Bull, President of Oglala Lakota College, and Darlene Short Bull, a retired Indian Health Service RN with over 30 yrs of service. Her husband, Major Christopher Gorham, is an entomologist with the Defense Logistics Agency, prior active duty Army officer, currently serves with the Army Reserves Medical Readiness Training Command, Ft. Dix, NJ.

The Qualified Products List maintained by the Defense Logistics Agency turned ugly for one small business when it received a corrective action notice and things went down-hill from there. But the issues are about more than disputed small parts. For how it all ended up in court, procurement attorney Joseph Petrillo.

In today's Federal Newscast, the Defense Logistics Agency said it's making sure all warfighters have a home-cooked meal with all the trimmings this holiday.

Everybody agrees that we can all take an inspiration or two from the Marine Corps when it comes to leadership. It’s not just because of the highly disciplined and regimented way of doing things that we generally associate with military life. Most importantly, it teaches us that “leaders eat last” – that concept of servant leadership that puts emphasis on supporting each member of the team and setting them up to succeed. Retiring as a Marine Corps Major after honorably serving the country for 24 years, Chris Lovell took the skills that he acquired from the military to take various leadership roles at Amazon, Lexmark International and the Defense Logistics Agency, and now, in his own federal-level medical supplies company, Lovell Government Services. In this conversation with Alicia Couri, he shares the most important leadership lessons that he learned during his years in the Marines and how he applies them every day as a company leader.

Federal leaders gathered to discuss innovations and capabilities of cloud computing during our Nov. 19 Cloud Summit. Catch up on these highlights from leaders at the Department of Homeland Security, Defense Logistics Agency, FedRAMP and learn more about zero trust capabilities and streamlining ATO processes.

Face masks might be great for preventing germ spread, but they and other personal protective gear can get might gross mighty fast. People breathe, sweat, cough and lord knows what else. Now the Defense Logistics Agency has awarded a contract to develop equipment that can disinfect protective gear. Joining the Federal Drive with Tom Temin, the DLA's director of research and development, David Koch.

Defense and intelligence agencies say 2020 is about getting their data houses in order. Both the Defense Logistics Agency and the intelligence community have big moves to the cloud coming up this year. For DLA, the cloud will kick-start a full-throated effort to adopt more artificial intelligence platforms. And for the IC, the cloud will finally bring a much-needed north star for its 17 components as a group. Federal News Network's Nicole Ogrysko spoke to the Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) invites you to attend a conversation with SAIC’s Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Defense Systems Customer Group Jim Scanlon. Mr. Scanlon is responsible for leading strategy, business development, and program execution for approximately $2.9 billion in support to the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and Defense Logistics Agency. The discussion will explore the implications of the growing emphasis on technology competition with near peers and how the benefits of big data and artificial intelligence, highlighted in the Army Future Command data strategy, could be brought to the operating force. These overarching issues have important implications for technical services companies, whether they develop algorithms or balance system engineering tradeoffs. Jim Scanlon will discuss not only the role SAIC may play, but will also analyze the larger services market as it has been shaped by the complexity of multi-domain operations that are reliant on a diverse mix of interacting systems.   The purpose of the Main Street Defense event series is to highlight the unique opportunities and challenges faced by ‘Main Street’ companies in the defense industry. By broadening the conversation to include entities headquartered in America’s towns and cities beyond the top five defense contractors, and by providing a public platform for discussion, CSIS engage new voices and provides a setting for a dialogue on important factors affecting the entire defense and security sector today, different from those that we usually hear about.   Mr. Andrew Hunter will moderate the discussion with Mr. Scanlon. Please join us on Thursday, January 23 for this timely conversation. This event is made possible through general support to CSIS.  Featuring  

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) invites you to attend a conversation with SAIC’s Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Defense Systems Customer Group Jim Scanlon. Mr. Scanlon is responsible for leading strategy, business development, and program execution for approximately $2.9 billion in support to the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and Defense Logistics Agency. The discussion will explore the implications of the growing emphasis on technology competition with near peers and how the benefits of big data and artificial intelligence, highlighted in the Army Future Command data strategy, could be brought to the operating force. These overarching issues have important implications for technical services companies, whether they develop algorithms or balance system engineering tradeoffs. Jim Scanlon will discuss not only the role SAIC may play, but will also analyze the larger services market as it has been shaped by the complexity of multi-domain operations that are reliant on a diverse mix of interacting systems.   The purpose of the Main Street Defense event series is to highlight the unique opportunities and challenges faced by ‘Main Street’ companies in the defense industry. By broadening the conversation to include entities headquartered in America’s towns and cities beyond the top five defense contractors, and by providing a public platform for discussion, CSIS engage new voices and provides a setting for a dialogue on important factors affecting the entire defense and security sector today, different from those that we usually hear about.   Mr. Andrew Hunter will moderate the discussion with Mr. Scanlon. Please join us on Thursday, January 23 for this timely conversation. This event is made possible through general support to CSIS.  Featuring  

The Defense Logistics Agency and the General Services Administration have a long-established partnership aimed at making both Defense and civilian acquisition more efficient. Now they're about to take a comprehensive look at how to refresh the work. It's called a Federal Supply Class review. The GSA account manager at the Defense Logistics Agency, Jay Schaeufele, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to explain what it's all about.

LTG Thomas Seamands, Deputy Army Chief of Staff for Personnel, and Casey Wardynski, assistant secretary for Manpower & Reserve Affairs at the Army, discuss how the branch’s new personnel strategy will improve their workforce and job selection, and how the rollout is progressing. Adarryl Roberts, program executive officer at the Defense Logistics Agency, and Martina Miles Johnson, Research and Development Manufacturing Technology Integrator at DLA, discuss how they’re looking to utilize new capabilities, and the agency’s upcoming industry day. Mike Madsen, director of Strategic Engagement at DIU, outlines the office’s AI efforts, and how they’ll help the Navy and other military branches perform maintenance. Government Matters caps off our AUSA 2019 coverage with a recap of what top Army brass had to say about modernization at the branch.

In today's Federal Newscast, the General Services Administration and Defense Logistics Agency are conducting the first comprehensive Federal Supply Class review in almost 50 years.

Today's guest, Ms. Janetta Brewer, is the  owner of Blue Alchemy Consulting. She has an extensive federal contracting background, which includes roles with the Office of Secretary of Defense, US Navy, Defense Logistics Agency, US Army Corps of Engineers, US Air Force, Department of Homeland Security and in her last federal, she was a senior member of the Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy staff, which means she developed acquisition regulations and guidance for approximately 35,000 contracting professionals that streamline acquisition process across the federal government and improve contract execution outcomes for and in excess of $400 billion in annual contract spin. In today's episode, we discuss how heavily the government relies on industry to help with the process of implementing change to both the FAR and DFARs considering the impact from small businesses. We also discuss merges and acquisitions, False Claims Act, program office versus small business office. For show notes visit: https://govcongiants.com/podcast/

In today's Federal Newscast, the Pentagon’s inspector general is investigating whether DoD is complying with a law meant to protect domestic suppliers.

This week, ITT Cannon, a division of ITT Inc., agreed to pay $11 million to settle False Claims Act allegations that it supplied untested electrical connectors to the military.According to the Department of Justice, ITT sold six models of connectors to the government directly through distributors and to government contractors who designed them into equipment sold to the government. From September 2008 to March 2017, ITT allegedly failed to perform required periodic testing on the connectors. In December 2010, the government found out about it, and ITT agreed to conduct remedial testing. Two months later, ITT was performing the tests when it experienced several failures. Instead of notifying the government, ITT said that the tests were running behind. It wasn't until March 2017 that the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) issued an order to stop shipment. In June 2017, ITT formally disclosed the test failures. It also revealed changes in materials, construction, sourcing as well as connector design. The connectors were removed from the Qualified Products List (QPL), which prevented the parts from being sold to the military. As of July 2019, ITT has only requalified one of the connectors for sale.The allegations came from whistleblower Ralph Tatgenhorst, a former regional quality manager at ITT's Santa Ana facility. As a result of the settlement, Tatgenhorst will receive $2,090,000. As a result of the settlement, there is no determination of liability.According to Nicola T. Hanna, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, the settlement is designed to prevent ITT from future misconduct. It also serves as a "warning to any government contractor who is not completely upfront about its testing results."

Let's say you wanted to become a company officer. In your interview, you probably told them it was because you felt your leadership could help the department, and you meant it. Even if you also felt that a promotion would give you a raise. Or more prestige. Or, mistakenly, less work. But if those were your real reasons for wanting the job, you're headed for trouble. Here to explain why and what a company officer really needs to know and do is Kelly Lemmons. Kelly is the Deputy Chief of the Colonial Park Fire Company in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He is also a firefighter/EMT for the Defense Logistics Agency. He's served over 19 years in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, and is a Staff Sergeant serving as an Infantry Advance Leaders Course Instructor. Kelly was awarded the Purple Heart after being injured in combat in Iraq in 2005. Support this podcast

Michelle Jacobs, the director of DLA’s hosting office, said the agency is using commercial cloud services to host more than 60 percent of its applications and wants to move toward a software-as-a-service model. Jacobs joined Federal News Network's Jason Miller on Ask the CIO.

The Defense Logistics Agency supplies practically everything military units all over the world need, short of ordnance. Everything from uniforms to jet engine parts. Occasionally things don't go as planned with DLA suppliers and therefore potentially with customers. DLA Ombudsman Tim Stark joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin on Federal News Network to explain what he has to do when he's called in.

Until recently, the Defense Logistics Agency spent a good deal of time and money printing and mailing hard copies of its unclassified maps in order to be archived. In a small but significant bit of digital transformation it no longer does that. Program manager Robert Rogers joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for the details.

The Defense Logistics Agency is five months into using its new Business Decision Analytics tool and the impact is obvious for them. The platform is giving DLA contracting officers more specific and better information to know what they are buying isn’t counterfeit or filled with computer malware. For more, Federal News Radio's Jason Miller spoke with Michael Scott, the deputy director of DLA’s logistics operations, and Kathy Cutler, the director of DLA’s Information Operations and chief information officer, on Ask the CIO.

When bidding for contracts, vendors are entitled to know all of the criteria the agency will use in making the award. A recent protest which the Defense Logistics Agency lost arose when the DLA kept certain selection criteria to itself. Procurement attorney Joe Petrillo of Petrillo and Powell joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to share the fine points of this deal gone wrong.

If they come out with an after-action review or lessons learned from Iraq and all it talks about is how officers executed the war, then you know the Army missed an opportunity. WAR ROOM welcomes Command Sergeant Major Christopher Martinez who retired from the U.S. Army after culminating his career as Command Sergeant Major of the U.S. Army War College. In this interview with WAR ROOM Editor-in-Chief Andrew A. Hill, CSM Martinez reflects on his thirty years of military service. How have the responsibilities of senior enlisted leaders has changed over time, and how can they uniquely contribute to strategic decision making?   Christopher Martinez is a retired command sergeant major from the U.S. Army whose most recent assignment was Command Sergeant Major of the U.S. Army War College. Andrew A. Hill is Editor-in-Chief of WAR ROOM. The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Army War College, U.S. Army, or Department of Defense. Image: Collage depicts current or retired command sergeants major from the U.S. Army as of May 2018. Top row from left -- CSM Paul E. Biggs (CSM, Military District of Washington), CSM Christopher Martinez (U.S. Army War College until May 2018), CSM Rakimm Broadnax-Rogers (CSM, Martin Army Community Hospital, Fort Leonard Wood), CSM John W. Troxell (Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff). Bottom row from left -- CSM Steven L. Payton (CSM, United Nations Command/Combined Forces Command and U.S. Forces Korea), Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel A. Dailey, CSM Charles Tobin (Senior Enlisted Advisor, Defense Logistics Agency until July 2017), and CSM Mulholland (Command Sergeant Major, 86th Training Division until February 2016) Image Credit: Tom Galvin Releases from the Leader Perspectives series: A TRANSATLANTIC PERSPECTIVE ON NATO (LEADER PERSPECTIVES)OBSERVATIONS FROM NATO’S NORTHERN FRONT (LEADER PERSPECTIVES)ALLIES ARE MORE THAN FRIENDS (LEADER PERSPECTIVES)THE CHALLENGES OF KEEPING SPACE SECURE (LEADER PERSPECTIVES)TENSIONS AND PARADOXES FACING SENIOR LEADERS (LEADER PERSPECTIVES)LEADING AND WINNING IN GREAT POWER COMPETITION (LEADER PERSPECTIVES)LEARNING ABOUT LEADERSHIP THROUGH THE CLASSICS (LEADER PERSPECTIVES)WHAT IT TAKES FOR COLONELS TO BE SUCCESSFUL (LEADER PERSPECTIVES)BALANCING BETWEEN CIVILIAN LIFE AND SERVICE IN THE NATIONAL GUARD“WHAT GOT YOU HERE WON’T GET YOU THERE” — AND OTHER CAUTIONARY TALES FOR LEADERSWHEN THE MILITARY IS NOT IN CHARGE: DEFENSE SUPPORT TO CIVIL AUTHORITIESWHAT DOES ‘SUCCESS’ MEAN AS A STRATEGIC LEADER?STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP AND CHANGING THE US ARMY IN EUROPETHE CHALLENGES OF SENIOR LEADER COMMUNICATIONTHE SENIOR NCO AS A STRATEGIC LEADERSTRATEGIC LEADERSHIP FROM AN AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVEWHAT DO THE BRITS THINK OF AMERICAN OFFICERS?PERSPECTIVES ON STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP — GEN. ROBIN RAND, U.S. AIR FORCE GLOBAL STRIKE COMMANDGROWING AFRICAN PEACEKEEPING CAPACITY

On today's episode of Loud & Clear, Brian Becker and John Kiriakou are joined by financial policy analyst Daniel Sankey and Steve Keen, the author of “Debunking Economics” and the world’s first crowdfunded economist.The stock market yesterday had its largest intraday point drop ever, despite strong economic data that was released last week. What accounts for this volatility? The hosts look at the underlying reasons.An internal audit of the Defense Logistics Agency by the Big Four accounting firm of Ernst & Young found that the Pentagon failed to keep track of nearly $800 million that it now cannot account for. The auditors said, across the board, the agency’s financial leadership is so weak that it is simply unable to account for its money. Lawrence Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a senior adviser to the Center for Defense Information, and former Assistant Secretary of Defense during the Reagan Administration, joins the show.A British court has upheld an arrest warrant for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, rejecting arguments that the warrant is moot because Assange is no longer wanted for questioning in Sweden. Brian and John speak with Randy Credico, an activist, a comedian, and the former director of the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice.Senators John McCain, a Republican, and Chris Coons, a Democrat, have come up with a bipartisan immigration bill that they believe will be attractive to both parties. The White House, though, already has rejected it. But will it still be the basis for real immigration reform? Immigration attorney Alan Diamante joins the show.The government is set to run out of money again at the end of the week, while Congress scrambles to come up with another continuing resolution. Observers say that the Democrats will not move to shut down the government and instead will seek a standalone bill to address immigration, rather than tying it to the budget. Dr. Wilmer Leon, a political scientist, author, and host of a nationally broadcast talk radio show on Sirius/XM channel 126, joins Brian and John.The Trump Administration is continuing its internal deliberations over what it euphemistically calls a “bloody nose” policy for North Korea. If fact, it’s a policy to attack North Korea militarily. At the same time, Victor Cha, a Bush Administration official and Georgetown University professor whom Trump had named as Ambassador to South Korea, had his nomination withdrawn after saying that the policy was a bad idea. Meanwhile, a group of Democratic senators have published an open letter saying that the President does not have Congressional authorization to launch any strike on North Korea. Chris Black, an international criminal lawyer who is on the List of Counsel before the ICC, joins the show.Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has signaled his support for a coup in Venezuela, praising the history of military rule in Latin America and calling the armed forces an “agent of change”. Brian and John speak with Gloria La Riva, the Director of the Cuba and Venezuela Solidarity Committee.

On this week's episode of the Defense & Aerospace Business Report podcast, sponsored by Bell Helicopter, a Textron company, we discuss the possibility of a second government shutdown in 2018, the US Defense Department's 2018 Nuclear Posture Review, Ernst & Young's audit of the Defense Logistics Agency, UPS' Boeing 747 order and more. This week's guests include Gordon Adams, PhD, American University professor emeritus and Stimson Center distinguished fellow, Ron Epstein, PhD, of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Sash Tusa of Agency Partners.

How can Federal agencies successfully streamline their support services, such as HR and IT, to boost efficiency and improve results? We get insights from Jeffrey Neal (@JeffNealHR), a leading expert in human resources issues. He served for 33 years in the Federal government, including as the Chief Human Capital Officer for the 23,000-employee Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) from 2000 to […] The post Transforming support services in Federal agencies: An interview with Jeffrey Neal, Former Chief Human Capital Officer, Defense Logistics Agency and Department of Homeland Security – Episode #139 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

Do we only see what we can understand? And if we refuse or are unable to understand, are we then not seeing all of the elements of our reality? If beings and creatures from alternate realities truly exist, then what is their origin story? What is their purpose and what are we to them, or more to the point, what do they want with us? In Part 4A of our series on the Mothman of Point Pleasant, WV, we examine some of these questions and try to find conclusions of our own, outrageous though they may seem to be. Tonight's Quote: “I have adopted the concept of 'Ultraterrestrials' — beings and forces which coexist with us but are on another time frame; that is, they operate outside the limits of our space-time continuum yet have the ability to cross over into our reality. This other world is not a place, however, as Mars or Andromeda are places, but it is a state of energy.” — John A. Keel, The Mothman Prophecies Show Links: We've found that some sites are not showing these links as clickable unless they are URLs, so until those outlets improve their show notes section, we are providing actual URLs next to the clickable description of each link to make things easier for our listeners! Loren Coleman's list of people who have died in connection to Mothman http://bit.ly/2fXtuLw Gray Barker’s Book of Bunk Mothman, Saucers, and MIB by John C. Sherwood http://bit.ly/22xjKKJ Gray Barker's Secret by David Halperin http://bit.ly/2fXFcWp Mass Hysteria http://bit.ly/2fYZvpW Behavioral Contagion http://bit.ly/2fyu9py The Law of Vibration http://bit.ly/2g0pk7h Massive bird spotted in Alaska! http://cnn.it/2fH4HvP Dalnegorsk, Russia http://bit.ly/2fYXpGH 11, 13 and 33 http://bit.ly/2f2hA25 Ben Folds - Rockin' the Suburbs http://bit.ly/1lTtPgh Search for the Mothman documentary http://bit.ly/2fzoaPa Aperture hatch on the Millennium Falcon http://bit.ly/2fDuho9 NBC News article on Infrasound http://nbcnews.to/2g0fdkW Vic Tandy and infrasound on Wikipedia http://bit.ly/2fzhEYP Vladimir Gavreau and his infrasound experiments http://bit.ly/2fEtCiO The Haunted Hum (infrasound) on Mythbusters http://bit.ly/2eMp1xr Adam Savage's Indiana Jones Sankara Stones stolen! http://bit.ly/2eE2vmM NICAP's The 1967 UFO Chronology - The Mother of All Sighting Waves http://bit.ly/2eUVIpL The Silver Bridge disaster - the collapse rendered in computer animation http://bit.ly/2eMl1gq Report on the Silver Bridge collapse by the West Virginia DOT http://bit.ly/2fExe4f Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse http://bit.ly/1VFh2T2 Colorized footage of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse http://bit.ly/2fExTma Radiolab episode on Dreams http://bit.ly/2eUWQK4 Wake Up and Dream on Radiolab - confronting your fears with Lucid Dreaming http://bit.ly/11CdB5C Project MKUltra http://bit.ly/1ihJLqO Could a sonic weapon make your head explode? http://bit.ly/1un5Uty "Gaslighting" on Wikipedia http://bit.ly/1sUQyvs Gaslight the movie (1944) http://imdb.to/2fDurvM Origin of the "Time exists" quote http://bit.ly/2g0gDfA Weather report for the day of Mrs. Roy Grose’s 4:45 a.m. UFO sighting http://bit.ly/2fcSyCx Linda Scarberry's obituary on Cryptomundo, one of the 4 original teenagers to see Mothman http://bit.ly/2eW9DwQ Silver Bridge http://bit.ly/2flwFjC Riverside Golf Club where Connie Carpenter saw the Mothman, formerly the Mason Co. Golf Course http://bit.ly/2eMpLDl I Love Lucy entertains the cosmos http://n.pr/2eh2I0c How far have human radio broadcasts reached into our galaxy? http://bit.ly/1qAd9iI Can our TV signals be picked up by other planets? http://bbc.in/2eW80PC Actinic Conjunctivitis http://bit.ly/2dRkXIu Defense Logistics Agency website http://www.dla.mil/ Defense Logistics Agency on Wikipedia http://bit.ly/2dRmAWv Chief Cornstalk http://bit.ly/2eMmVhW Chief Cornstalk's curse http://bit.ly/2dRmDl2 Lord Dunmore's War http://bit.ly/2eXAs2l Fort Randolph, West Virginia http://...

At 5:00 p.m. on December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge which connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio, collapsed. Being rush hour in mid-December, the bridge was full of commuters on their way home from work and holiday shopping trips. The collapse sent 32 vehicles into the frigid waters of the Ohio river and 46 people lost their lives, with 2 bodies never to be found. The cause was as prosaic and understandable as it was tragic - a minute defect causing stress corrosion in a suspension eye-bar. However, what we may never understand is a connection some claim between the collapse and the first sightings of the Mothman, widely thought to be 13 months previously, to the day. Was there a warning that no one could comprehend? Even if a warning could be interpreted by someone who was starting to put all these strange puzzle pieces together, would their findings even be believed? Could this tragedy have been prevented, or was it inevitable? It might behoove us all to start taking notice, as correlations to sightings of bizarre creatures and catastrophes around the world continue to this day. Tonight's Quote: They’ve done it again. Those lousy bastards have done it again. They knew this was going to happen...and when. And they gave me all that bilge about a power failure. They knew. They just didn’t want me to be able to warn anyone. — John A. Keel, The Mothman Prophecies Show Links: We've found that some sites are not showing these links as clickable unless they are URLs, so until those outlets improve their show notes section, we are providing actual URLs next to the clickable description of each link to make things easier for our listeners! Ben Folds - Rockin' the Suburbs http://bit.ly/1lTtPgh Search for the Mothman documentary http://bit.ly/2fzoaPa Aperture hatch on the Millennium Falcon http://bit.ly/2fDuho9 NBC News article on Infrasound http://nbcnews.to/2g0fdkW Vic Tandy and infrasound on Wikipedia http://bit.ly/2fzhEYP Vladimir Gavreau and his infrasound experiments http://bit.ly/2fEtCiO The Haunted Hum (infrasound) on Mythbusters http://bit.ly/2eMp1xr Adam Savage's Indiana Jones Sankara Stone stolen! http://bit.ly/2eE2vmM NICAP's The 1967 UFO Chronology - The Mother of All Sighting Waves http://bit.ly/2eUVIpL The Silver Bridge disaster - the collapse rendered in computer animation http://bit.ly/2eMl1gq Report on the Silver Bridge collapse by the West Virginia DOT http://bit.ly/2fExe4f Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse http://bit.ly/1VFh2T2 Colorized footage of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse http://bit.ly/2fExTma Radiolab episode on Dreams http://bit.ly/2eUWQK4 Wake Up and Dream on Radiolab - confronting your fears with Lucid Dreaming http://bit.ly/11CdB5C Project MKUltra http://bit.ly/1ihJLqO Could a sonic weapon make your head explode? http://bit.ly/1un5Uty "Gaslighting" on Wikipedia http://bit.ly/1sUQyvs Gaslight the movie (1944) http://imdb.to/2fDurvM Origin of the "Time exists" quote http://bit.ly/2g0gDfA Weather report for the day of Mrs. Roy Grose’s 4:45 a.m. UFO sighting http://bit.ly/2fcSyCx Linda Scarberry's obituary on Cryptomundo, one of the 4 original teenagers to see Mothman http://bit.ly/2eW9DwQ Silver Bridge http://bit.ly/2flwFjC Riverside Golf Club where Connie Carpenter saw the Mothman, formerly the Mason Co. Golf Course http://bit.ly/2eMpLDl I Love Lucy entertains the cosmos http://n.pr/2eh2I0c How far have human radio broadcasts reached into our galaxy? http://bit.ly/1qAd9iI Can our TV signals be picked up by other planets? http://bbc.in/2eW80PC Actinic Conjunctivitis http://bit.ly/2dRkXIu Defense Logistics Agency website http://www.dla.mil/ Defense Logistics Agency on Wikipedia http://bit.ly/2dRmAWv Chief Cornstalk http://bit.ly/2eMmVhW Chief Cornstalk's curse http://bit.ly/2dRmDl2 Lord Dunmore's War http://bit.ly/2eXAs2l Fort Randolph, West Virginia http://bit.ly/2fcSDGp The late Beau Sher...

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Mothman! Well, we're pretty sure "Mothman" isn't any of those things, neither a moth nor a man, or some unholy combination of the two. If the descriptions by over 100 witnesses are accurate and the symptoms of seeing such a sight are related, then whatever this creature is, it's abilities may go beyond even what is considered possible for an earthly cryptid. Magical flight, a burning, mesmerizing gaze, and haunting dreams are some of his reported traits, but is clairvoyance also one of them? What if Mothman knew your fate, but wasn't capable or allowed to tell you? And for an even bigger stretch of the imagination, what if Scott goes "off the chain" in this episode? Now, this may all seem like silly balderdash to your sophisticated and skeptical nature, but what kind of hosts would we be if we couldn't deliver a tale of a real monster in time for Samhain? After all, it is Halloween. Tonight's Quote: “UFO’s do not seem to exist as tangible, manufactured objects. They do not conform to the accepted natural laws of our environment. They seem to be nothing more than transmogrifications tailoring themselves to our ability to understand." — John A. Keel, author of The Mothman Prophecies Show Links: We've found that some sites are not showing these links as clickable unless they are URLs, so until those outlets improve their show notes section, we are providing actual URLs next to the clickable description of each link to make things easier for our listeners! Weather report for the day of Mrs. Roy Grose’s 4:45 a.m. UFO sighting http://bit.ly/2fcSyCx Linda Scarberry's obituary on Cryptomundo, one of the 4 original teenagers to see Mothman http://bit.ly/2eW9DwQ Silver Bridge http://bit.ly/2flwFjC Riverside Golf Club where Connie Carpenter saw the Mothman, formerly the Mason Co. Golf Course http://bit.ly/2eMpLDl I Love Lucy entertains the cosmos http://n.pr/2eh2I0c How far have human radio broadcasts reached into our galaxy? http://bit.ly/1qAd9iI Can our TV signals be picked up by other planets? http://bbc.in/2eW80PC Actinic Conjunctivitis http://bit.ly/2dRkXIu Defense Logistics Agency website http://www.dla.mil/ Defense Logistics Agency on Wikipedia http://bit.ly/2dRmAWv Chief Cornstalk http://bit.ly/2eMmVhW Chief Cornstalk's curse http://bit.ly/2dRmDl2 Lord Dunmore's War http://bit.ly/2eXAs2l Fort Randolph, West Virginia http://bit.ly/2fcSDGp The late Beau Shertzer, whose Bloodmobile was almost carried off http://bit.ly/2eBAQqh Men In Black in a Niagra Falls hotel lobby? http://bit.ly/2eBCIiR The 1966 Cadillac De Ville http://bit.ly/2dRoxSM Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia http://bit.ly/2eXF6NS Gallipolis, Ohio http://www.cityofgallipolis.com/ Morse Code, for when you want to communicate with a UFO using your flashlight http://bit.ly/1zxQZNV Mothman and Other Curious Encounters by Loren Coleman https://amzn.com/B00AWBQF88 The Mothman Prophecies - A True Story by John A. Keel https://amzn.com/0765334984 The Mothman Prophecies - The Movie https://amzn.com/B0000648X0 The Woodrow Derenberger interview with Ronald Maines, Gen. Mgr. of WTAP https://youtu.be/5HxY4suVjSo Point Pleasant, West Virginia http://bit.ly/2euHGdZ Gallipolis, Ohio basecamp for John Keel and the Mothman Prophecies movie crew http://bit.ly/2e3aZpU Visit the Mothman Museum! http://bit.ly/2enKY4d Attend the Mothman Festival in beautiful Point Pleasant, WV! http://bit.ly/1pjsSMO Scott always stays at the Lowe Hotel when searching for Mothman! http://www.thelowehotel.com/ Point Pleasant's "TNT Area" where the Mothman dwells http://n.pr/2drLM5A Explosion and munitions risk at the "TNT Area" http://bit.ly/2eIfuJD Inside the Eerie TNT Storage Bunkers of West Virginia on Wired http://bit.ly/2e8qeyV The Mothman and Indrid Cold story on WeekInWeird.com http://bit.ly/2eI4OuC Mothman on Wikipedia http://bit.ly/2dQ3dhn 1st sighting of the Mothman accord...

Your long-tenured PM is leaving the firm. The rider that advisors have been selling the heck out of is going away. Your new business processing is delayed by 10 days. All bad news - and all messages that are no fun to deliver.  Which is why Steven Gaffney is here to visit with us in this episode. Steven is the global authority on teaching organizations to tell the truth and communicate more effectively - and not from a place of righteousness. He teaches honest communication because it is a better business strategy. His experience spans almost 20 years and his results are unmatched. His client list is staggering and includes a diverse range of leaders, including military officers and top executives of multinational corporations such as: Lockheed Martin, Marriott, Northrop Grumman, SAIC, General Dynamics, BP, Citigroup, Allstate Insurance, American Cancer Society, NASA, U.S. Marine Corps, Defense Logistics Agency, and Barrick Gold Corporation. Steven has been a regular contributor to some of the most respected national television, radio, and print media outlets, and he is the author of six publications: "Just Be Honest", "Honesty Works!", "Honesty Sells", and “Be A Change Champion: Mastering Momentum.” Steven Gaffney is also an esteemed member of the Million Dollar Speaking Group of the National Speakers Association. People across the globe credit his speaking engagements, seminars, television and radio appearances, books and multimedia products, with making immediate and lasting positive changes in both their organizations, as well as their personal lives. Book Steven for your next event through Wholesaler Masterminds Speakers Bureau.  

Kevin Wayne Johnson is a John Maxwell Team certified speaker, teacher, coach and mentor as of October 2015. John C. Maxwell is a New York Times best-selling author, speaker, and pastor who has written many books, primarily focusing on leadership. Kevin Johnson will discuss "golden nuggets" of leadership; speciifcally how to mentor your staff for growth and development. He will also discuss relationship versus "tasking." Johnson, who is also an author, is a professional in government as well as private industry. For 30 years, he has performed successfully in numerous middle and senior-level positions in the areas of workforce development, training, organizational change, acquisition/procurement, customer service, client relationships, and program management, to include the Departments of Defense and Treasury, the Government of the District of Columbia, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Department of the Army, Defense Logistics Agency, and in the private sector at Vivendi Universal and Reuters America. He has testified before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Small Business and has prepared testimony that was presented before the District of Columbia Committee on Government Operations. Johnson is a graduate of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Graduate School’s Executive Potential Program. During this program, he assisted the Office of Federal Procurement Policy with several procurement reform initiatives that were tied to the National Performance Review under the Clinton Administration. Johnson maintains an active involvement in community service and retains membership in several professional and civic organizations. Growing leaders and leaving a legacy of leadership. That's what this show will explore.

Aquila 1 courtesy Facebook “Polivation” policy briefing, UAS registration update, multicopters crash in Seattle, charges of misrepresenting UAS to the US Government, Google and Facebook want to be ISPs, and the tower industry looks ahead to UAS. Implementing Polivation to Achieve Autonomy: A Path Forward David tells us about the policy briefing he attended where panelists addressed issues of “polivation,” the intersection of policy making and innovation. Held at the City Club of Washington (D.C.) on November 12, 2015, the event was moderated by Gloria Story Dittus, chairman of Story Partners, a leading strategic communications firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. The panelists were: Major General Marke "Hoot" Gibson [PDF], Senior Advisor on UAS Integration for the FAA. John Verdi [PDF], Director of Privacy Initiatives, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S.Department of Commerce Lisa Ellman, Partner, Hogan Lovells and co-chair of the firm's Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Group. Gretchen West, Senior Advisor, Hogan Lovells, focusing on innovation and technology and a member of the firm's Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Group in Silicon Valley. Travis Mason, Public Policy and Government Relations, Google[x]. UAS Registration Task Force Update Day 2 Update “The discussion focused on developing and recommending a registration process, how to prove the UAS is registered and how to mark a UAS. The discussion about the registration process focused on the type of system that should be built and the type of information that should be collected.” Day 3 Update “The group focused on reaching a consensus on a recommended process for registration. The discussions included how an operator might prove a UAS is registered, how the aircraft would be marked, and how to use the registration process to encourage or require UAS operators to become educated on basic safety rules. The group also continues to gather data and analyze which types of UAS would need to be registered and which would not. The Task Force will now finalize its recommendations for delivery to the FAA Administrator by November 20.” News Drone hits Seattle's huge Ferris wheel; SPD investigating A drone struck the Seattle Great Wheel, a 175-foot tall ferris wheel. There were no reports of injury or damage, but police confiscated the drone. Man charged for Seattle drone crash that knocked woman out Recall that in June, a drone crashed into a building and struck a woman in the head. The operator has been charged with reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor charge with a maximum penalty of 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine. The Seattle City Attorney's Office said the charge is not because it was a drone, but because of the actions taken with the drone. Met wants a drone register to manage the UAV menace Drones were a topic at the Web Summit show in Dublin. Chief inspector Nick Aldworth of the Metropolitan Police and Ralph James of the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) agreed that Ireland needs a drone registry for security and privacy protection reasons. Drone Company Misled Military into Buying UAVs that Were Basically Toys: Lawsuit A motion has been filed in civil court alleging that Florida company Prioria Robotics misrepresented its Maveric UAS, a bird-like, portable, fixed-wing UAV that can be launched by a single-person. According to Prioria, the Maveric is capable of autonomous operation, weighs 2.6 pounds, with a 45-60 minute endurance. The Prioria website describes military, public safety, and commercial applications. Prioria has won contracts with the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, NASA, and other federal agencies. The Defense Logistics Agency paid $240,000 per Maveric system. UAS vendor and Maveric retailer Condor Aerial says the specs are inaccurate and Prioria is charging military-grade prices for what is essentially a hobby drone. Facebook's laser drones v Google's net-beaming balloons

Forest fires are part of the landscape in Northern California especially from June to October. One group of heroes that put their lives on the line to battle the fires are the USDA/U.S. Forest Service Smokejumpers. DLA is now proud to support these heroes of the forest with many of the supplies they need to contain and put out a fire

“2014 Points of View” Diverse voices, common themes,” the year in review podcast shares the story of a profession on the cusp of change, as we heard opinions on what it takes to be a good PM, the role of critical thinking, quality, agile approaches and the role of project management in bringing change to our workplaces and our community at large. Do you have comments or thoughts about this episode? Join the discussion on our Facebook page atwww.facebook.com/PMIWDC PDU Information You can earn 0.25 Category "A" PDUs for each PM-POV podcast you listen to Use the following information in PMI's CCRS system to register the PDUs for this podcast: PDU Category: Cat A: Registered Education Provider/PMI Component Activity Type: "Find an Activity" Provider Number: C046 Activity Number: 12302014PC » More PM-POV Episodes About the Speaker Kendall Lott, PMP   M Powered Strategies, Inc. PMIWDC Chapter Chair A seasoned consultant and management professional, Kendall has been a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) of the Project Management Institute (PMI) since 2002. His volunteer service in promoting the project management profession has included his work on the international Program Management Standards Committee for PMI and in serving as a volunteer PMP Certification instructor. His volunteer service with PMIWDC has extended over 10 years, and now as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chair of the chapter, he is starting his 7th year as a member of the board. Previous positions he has filled on our board include Vice Chair, Director At Large, Vice President of Marketing, and Assistant Vice President of Communications. He also served as the chapter’s education outreach volunteer and started his volunteer career on the registration desk at our monthly dinners. With a strong admiration for the value of project management as a management science and method of bringing the reality of constraints to public problems, Kendall enjoys employing the basics of project management to way too many areas of his life…including scoping, scheduling and performing risk analysis (much to the family’s chagrin) on family vacations. And, he also uses the PM basics in his consulting practice often. Beyond volunteering at the chapter, his experience with public service extends through his consulting experience, to his civil service experience at the US Department of Justice and Department of Agriculture. He started his service focus with the US Peace Corps in the Federated States of Micronesia. Kendall’s career has focused on modernization and transformation, particularly in the area of information technology (IT), bringing Project Management, Program Management, and Organizational Change Management practices to bear on government problems. While overseas, he managed multi-cultural international teams in India, Malaysia, and Jordan. These projects focused on education, government operations, and citizen-facing services. For the U.S. Government, Kendall has worked with senior executives and managers to enhance organizational effectiveness within the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Energy, and the Defense Logistics Agency. Kendall holds a Master of Pacific International Affairs degree from the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science from Indiana University, Bloomington.

Nik Seetharaman is a consultant for a government client in the DC area. He spent 11 years in the United States Air Force where he served in the intelligence and joint special operations communities. Nate Kenyon (@L2Nate) spent 5 years in the Marine Corps doing everything from pulling cable to configuring routers and switches. After leaving the USMC he worked for several defense contractors working with the US Navy and Defense Logistics Agency doing firewall, IPS and network configurations. He currently works for a large corporation working on wired and wireless intrusion detection systems and security product evaluations. Michael Farnum has worked with computers since he got a Kaypro II and an Apple IIc during his middle school years. Michael served in the US Army, where he drove, loaded, and gunned on the mighty M1A1 Abrams main battle tank (which is where he got his "m1a1vet" handle). Dave Kennedy worked for the United States Marine Corps and deployed to Iraq twice for intelligence related missions. He also holds the World Record for most hugs given at a conference and is founder and principal security consultant of TrustedSec - An information security consulting firm located in Cleveland Ohio. RazorEQX is a A CEH, OSCP certified Security professional with over 25 years’ experience and a proven leadership track record. Experience in most aspects of Information Technology, in a wide range of industries and disciplines; specializing in in-depth Malware, intelligence collaboration the past 4 years. Sno0ose (@Sno0ose) served as Combat medic for a combat aviation unit. Was wounded overseas during a 1 year tour of duty. Now a consultant with focus on incident response, vulnerability assessment, reverse-engineering malware, and penetration testing. Co-host of Grumpysec, and lead coordinator of BSidesMSP.