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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   8186 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 24, 2026

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I might have more thoughts on this later (i.e. tomorrow), but my first question is about the specifics of the contract. The military gave General Dynamics a contract to build a factory, but failed to specify that the factory had to work? Or that any useable shells had to be produced?

The contract did specify that the factory had to work (they had specific milestones and deadlines) but apparently it was too legally difficult to put any teeth in, any way of getting money back when the factory didn't work.

I suspect people had their snouts in the trough or expected to get some cushy job in retirement.

I can't find the contract award specific on govspending, which isn't unusual for this class of stuff, but may be a sign it's not available for the public, which is pretty common for military stuff. Alternatively, this report says "according to ACC officials, the contract for the Mesquite facility was issued as a task order under the property management contract for the Scranton Ammunition facility and not as a separate contract", which would make specifying the requirements harder, so it may just be extremely poorly drafted. Or both.

That same document does show (pg 6) a letter of concern in October 2024 and a stop work order in August 2025, which points to there being some metric. That said, there's also just a general any-cause ability for the feds to stop payments for work not yet completed, as many contractors who have performed well have learned at significant cost, so it doesn't mean a ton.

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