RTX (ex-Raytheon) busted for ‘extraordinary’ corruption
How bad do you have to be to get slapped with nearly $1 billion in fines?

Indictments of arms contractors for corruption and malfeasance are not uncommon, but recently revealed cases of illegal conduct by RTX (formerly Raytheon) are extraordinary even by the relatively lax standards of the defense industry.

The company has agreed to pay nearly $1 billion in fines, which is one of the highest figures ever for corruption in the arms sector. To incur these fines, RTX participated in price gouging on Pentagon contracts, bribing officials in Qatar, and sharing sensitive information with China.

Engaging in illegal conduct on this scale suggests that, far from being an aberration, this behavior may be business as usual for the company. Given the scale of RTX’s malfeasance, the Justice Department should take a close look at the practices of other arms contractors to determine whether these infractions are industry standard.

The company’s approach is reminiscent of the way arms companies did business in the 1960s, when, for example, massive cost overruns on Lockheed Martin’s C-5 transport plane drew fire from internal critics like Ernest Fitzgerald and congressional gadflies, like the-Democratic Sen. William Proxmire of Wisconsin.

Resorting to bribery has been less prevalent since Sen. Proxmire pushed through the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, which was a response to a massive scandal involving the bribery of officials in Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. The exposure brought about by the scandal – which covered events going back to the 1950s that were not known to the general public until a set of 1975 Senate hearings on the activities of multinational corporations showed the world how bribery was used to sway the decisions of foreign policy makers. This resulted in major consequences, including the conviction of former Japanese Premier Kakuei Tanaka, along with 10 other business people and government officials.

These days, with the exception of egregious cases like the recent conviction of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) for taking bribes from the Egyptian government, most arms companies are more subtle in their efforts to influence foreign government officials, as far as can be determined. Bribery as blatant as passing along bags of cash, as happened in a number of cases in the 1960s and 1970s, is no longer prevalent. Now bribes are hidden amongst business deals. For example, a precondition of most major U.S. arms sales is the creation of an “offset” or kickback agreement. Basically, if a country spends billions of dollars on a U.S.-supplied weapon system, the company making the sale is expected to give something back to the purchasing country. (...)

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Previously by Corey Doctorow: Surveillance pricing

 haresfur wrote: 
And what again were all the new things Putin started while Trump was in office ?

 kurtster wrote:
Fixed

 Proclivities wrote: 
Understood.  However, he did little to defend the country either.  He let the world walk all over us. Do pardon the oversimplification.

 kurtster wrote:
Jimmy Carter, president from 1977 to 1981,  never formally declared war or sought authorization to use force from Congress during his presidency.

 kurtster wrote:
Shooting the messengers, ignoring the facts.

Stuck on (Fox) stupid alright.

 R_P wrote: 
I strongly disagree with your first link and its overt bias.

The second one from the CFR.  You've got to be kidding.  Neocon central and you are citing them ?

I'm sticking to my story.

 kurtster wrote:
Only one month ago.

And not only "kinetic" wars: The Cost of Trump’s Trade War with China Is Still Adding Up

 thisbody wrote: 
This makes the case for Trump's foreign policy.  Coexist with our enemies, not disrupt them and try to democratize them.  And the case for borders and national sovereignty.

Live and let live.  It is not up to the US to overthrow evil dictators.  It is up to the people who are ruled by them to do that themselves.  Contain the "evil" to within the borders or country where it exists.  Invest in ourselves, defend ourselves and way of life and lead by example, not by the point of a spear.

This is where I remind everyone here that Trump was the most antiwar POTUS in my lifetime.

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote:
I just guess, you can't have it both ways, Bruce. One time (most often) it's world democracy at stake for you and the usual suspects need to be bombed, regardless of how many light-years away from American soil they live - and then, all of-a-sudden it's the global village that needs us to obey with some world-brotherhood ideas pulled somewhere from space, Swiss Davos, or not, you name it...

Check this out:
American Messianism by Paul R. Grenier, at Landmarks. - The deck: “Evil, when we are in its power, is not felt as evil but as a necessity or even a duty.”

Johnson & Johnson Agrees to $700M Settlement over Carcinogenic Talcum Powder

 thisbody wrote:
oh, I'm not defending Coca Cola in the least. But you were attacking America per se. Given that you are German, I'd first check your nation's own grubby record before smearing others.

And anyway, this nation-bashing approach is long obsolete. We live in a global village. Maybe we should start acting accordingly.

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote:
I'm sure you can do better than that.
Unbottling the truth: Coca Cola’s role in plastic pollution

 thisbody wrote:
Wonderful display of intellectual laziness. As though Germany weren't itself the progenitor of a shit-ton of damaging technologies and as for its democratic record.. well, I guess we are still working on that one.

 R_P wrote:
Yeah, and Coca Cola has brought PCB to my baby's genepool on terrestrial scale - ubi quitous ly.
All hail to Umrica, great suppressor of humane values on Earth.
The greatest veil of "democracy" the world ever encountered in a fake dress, always pretending '— something to be —' in the name of private enrichment of a few VAMPIRICALS immune to such critique.

Meet the premium oligarchy, meditated as DEMOCRACY in a pre-enlightenment fantasy of civilization!

Chiquita Found Liable for Colombia Paramilitary Killings

The Raiding of Red Lobster
The bankrupt casual restaurant chain didn’t fail because of Endless Shrimp. Its problems date back to monopolist seafood conglomerates and a private equity play.

Shrimp segue

More shrimp for sale.
Another example of how we cut corners with safety, equity and health for the sake of cheap product.

https://www.theoutlawocean.com...

Dollar General stores may be dirty, but at least they aren't India...which is getting some bad press lately (see coke and pepsi below):

The Associated Press reports on how, "with shrimp the leading seafood eaten in the United States, the largest supplier in this country is India, where the industry struggles with labor and environmental problems." The story notes that this week a new report as been released by the "Corporate Accountability Lab, a human rights legal group, that found workers face 'dangerous and abusive conditions'."

An excerpt:

"Many people in India struggle to survive amid endemic poverty, debt, and unemployment. The women AP spoke with said this work, despite the oppressive conditions, is their only chance to avoid starvation. The economic drivers go beyond shrimp, and beyond India, to issues of globalization and Western power.

"Desperately poor women told AP they weren’t paid overtime as mandated by law, in addition to not being paid India’s minimum wage. Some said they were locked inside guarded hostels when they weren’t peeling shrimp. The work was unsanitary to the point that workers’ hands were infected, and they lacked safety and hygiene protection required under Indian law. And it doesn’t meet U.S. legal food safety standards required for all seafood imports."

You can read the entire story here.

p.s., not that the 'average' consumer really cares, as long inflation doesn't drive up the cost of shrimp.