Bechtel - Rhymes with Hell?

Is this an ugly logo or what?
Sherwin-Williams-esque "We can Paint the World in Blood"?

When the big sell-off of one of this nation's scientific jewels finally made it to the auction block and the only two bidders left standing were Bechtel and Lockheed (with UC and UT as trophy wives on their elbows), the good Doctor thought it was six of one, half-dozen of the other.

We thought it really didn't matter what huge corporation we got sold off to, it was gonna suck either way. Except maybe We didn't trust UT's motives and circumstances, them being from the same state as our clearly questionable (Was he really elected? Is he competent? Is his staff and cabinet honorable?) President.
And maybe We'd seen too much of what Lockheed-Martin has done at Sandia National Laboratory. And maybe the Doctor still felt a little loyalty to UC who had treated us pretty well (at least in retrospect and excepting the year of NanosManagement).


So maybe the Doctor was actually rooting for UC-Bechtel as the lesser of evils. Maybe We didn't really know who Bechtel was... that they were the ones who have botching Boston's "Big Dig" project for around a decade... or that the received the second largest no-bid contract at the start of the Iraq war, only to subcontract a big chunk of it to Halliburton (the first-largest no-bid contract winner, now offshoring themselves to Dubai!). Maybe We didn't know that Bechtel was entirely privately held and thus most of their business dealings was entirely opaque to anyone. Maybe We didn't realize all of the under-the-the table connections to the House of Bush and the House of Saud.


So no, Bechtel, under the thin beard of LANS owns us. Somewhere there is a branding iron with the creepy Bechtel Logo being heated white-hot to lay down their brand on the milky-white(mostly-white) flesh of the many thousand scientists, engineers, technicians and other support staff. While their series of succinct policies being published are refreshing in their relative clarity and directness, there is an ominous undertone. They all seem contrived to establish their dominance over their now at-will workers. They are all contrived to establish just-cause for firing anyone they don't like or trust, or perhaps even understand.

And what's to understand? Bechtel is a huge successful government contractor. What do LANL staff know that Bechtel management needs? They know everything they need to to do their job. If one scientist or engineer cannot do their job, they will find another. Replaceable parts, we are. If they need to fire one of us because we aren't at our desk at 0730 one day, or because the Ibuprofen, Vicks 44, poppy-seed muffin, or diet pills we have been consuming generate a false positive on our surprise piss-test, or because one of our guests from out of state snaps a picture of the NSSB
while we are driving them up SR 4 to the valle grande, or because their records show that we took a peek at LANL-THE-REST-OF-THE-STORY from a LANL computer or during work time... well they know exactly what the need to know...

Bechtel is good at obtaining and cashing in on government contracts. They might be good at hiring and firing people (from the perspective of swift and efficient processes, not human value). They might be good at writing reports that show that they have completed all tasks on time and on budget, even if they've requested (and been granted) numerous extensions and plus-ups. But are they good at science? Are they good at managing creative, educated, intelligent people?

Bechtel has no technical agenda. At least Lockheed-Martin seems to like to fly things into space, under the radar, over the horizon, down the hole. But Bechtel seems to have only one agenda... acquiring more money and power... yes, We said one, they are duals.

And was that what they were given the contract to do?

We guess we will see.

- The Doctor, waiting with 'bated breath.