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Profit

Making A Killing From Killing

September 2, 2019 Paul Atwood, Counterpunch.org ,
Though I encounter students and other young people who have never heard the term I hope most Americans are aware of the “Military Industrial Complex.” In his final speech to the nation President Eisenhower, surprisingly since he oversaw much of its formation, warned citizens of the growing danger of the “permanent armaments industry” controlled by those who owned and profited greatly from this new scientific and technological establishment. Many of the giant arms industries...

More Money, Fewer Jobs

August 5, 2019 By Nia Harris, Cassandra Stimpson, and Ben Freeman, Tomdispatch.com , ,
A Marilyn has once again seduced a president. This time, though, it’s not a movie star; it’s Marillyn Hewson, the head of Lockheed Martin, the nation’s top defense contractor and the largest weapons producer in the world. In the last month, Donald Trump and Hewson have seemed inseparable. They “saved” jobs at a helicopter plant. They took the stage together at a Lockheed subsidiary in Milwaukee. The president vetoed three bills that would have blocked the arms sales of Lockheed (and other companies) to Saudi Arabia.

Wikileaks Releases And Environmental Causes

August 2, 2019 Staff, Defend Wikileaks , ,
WikiLeaks’ publication of more than 10 million documents has shed much-needed light on every corner of corporate and governmental secrecy. Within these files are scores of revelations about the ways in which the world’s most influential governments and corporations have put profit and power above environmental protections, undermining climate agreements, protecting their interests, and covering up environmental abuses. These disclosures, uncovering what the most powerful have wanted to keep secret...

The CEOs Destroying The Planet + Puerto Rico Protests Just Getting Started

August 1, 2019 Eleanor Goldfield, Occupy.com , ,
The destruction of our planet for profit is deeply personal – so why shouldn't we treat it that way when it comes to the people perpetuating that destruction? Next up, from the streets of Puerto Rico, a look at what happened, how, why, what's next and what we can learn from this powerful push for change.

As Charles Koch Cultivates Anti-War Image, Koch Industries Profits From Defense Contracts

July 30, 2019 Alex Kotch, Readsludge.com   , , ,
The right-wing billionaire has teamed up with unlikely ally George Soros on “military restraint,” but Koch Industries subsidiaries make millions by supplying the Navy with circuitry. Libertarian billionaire industrialist Charles Koch has gone to great lengths to paint himself as an anti-interventionist. He has funded foreign policy-focused think tanks and university centers such as the conflict-averse Center for the Study of Statesmanship at Catholic University and the Notre Dame International Security Center, which is directed by anti-NATO professor Michael Desch.

Corporate Gangster: Adani’s Pursuit Of Scientists

July 30, 2019 Binoy Kampmark, Dissidentvoice.org , ,
The Adani conglomerate should be best described as a bloated gangster, promising the earth even as it mines it.  Like other corporate thugs of such disposition, it will do things within, and if necessary outside, the regulatory framework it encounters.  Where necessary, it will libel detractors and bribe critics, speak of a fictional number of as yet non-existent jobs, and claim that it is green in its coaling practices. It will also hire legal firms claiming to be trained attack dogs and hector the national broadcaster to pull unflattering stories from publication and discussion.

How America Came Heartbreakingly Close To Universal Healthcare

July 24, 2019 By Mike Magee, Lithub.com , ,
As was recently, and perhaps shockingly, reported, life expectancy gains in the US, which plateaued in 2012, have declined for the past two years. The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics reported that the new average life expectancy for Americans is 78.7 years, 1.6 years behind the average in developed nations (including Canada, Germany, Mexico, France, Japan, and the UK), which is 80.3. As Dartmouth economists Ellen Meara and Jonathan Skinner remarked about the downward reversal of US life expectancy, “It is difficult to find modern settings with survival losses of this magnitude.”

Who’s Making Money From The Border Crisis? Private Prisons

July 23, 2019 Barbara Boland, Theamericanconservative.com , , ,
The Trump administration’s decision to vastly increase the number of immigrants held in prisons has proven controversial. It’s also big business. The vast majority of people jailed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are held in private facilities. The two companies that manage over half of the private prison contracts in the U.S., CoreCivic and GEO Group, earned more than $4 billion in 2017. Both have spent millions of dollars on lobbyists and campaign contributions, ostensibly to ensure that Washington continues to favor the $2 billion detention system.

Merger Mania: The Military-Industrial Complex On Steroids

July 17, 2019 By William D. Hartung, Tomdispatch.com , ,
When, in his farewell address in 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the dangers of the “unwarranted influence” wielded by the “military-industrial complex,” he could never have dreamed of an arms-making corporation of the size and political clout of Lockheed Martin. In a good year, it now receives up to $50 billion in government contracts, a sum larger than the operating budget of the State Department. And now it’s about to have company. Raytheon, already one of the top five U.S. defense contractors, is planning to merge with United Technologies.

Pilots Sue Boeing For Putting Profits Over Safety

June 29, 2019 Alan Weedon, Mobile.abc.net.au , , , ,
Boeing's 737 MAX series— first announced in 2011 and put to service in 2017 — is the fourth generation of its 737 aircraft, a widely popular narrow-body aircraft model that has been a mainstay of short-haul aircraft routes across the globe. By March 2019, the entire global fleet was suspended by a US presidential decree, following the second fatal crash involving a 737 MAX that killed 157 people in Ethiopia. The first crash involving the 737 MAX jet happened off the coast of Indonesia in October 2018, killing 189 people. In the time since the two fatal crashes, some of the families of the 346 people killed have sought compensation, while aircraft carriers — such as Norwegian Air...

SC Regulators Slap Down Duke Energy Rate Increase, Call Executives ‘Tone Deaf’

May 12, 2019 Haley Walters, The Greenville News Andrew Brown, Postandcourier.com , , , ,
State utility regulators on Wednesday reduced a proposed rate increase that would have affected 591,000 Duke Energy customers in the Upstate, and called executives of the energy company "tone deaf" for the proposal. Duke Energy requested last year to increase its Residential Basic Facilities Rate charge from $8.29 to $28, a spike that annually would've resulted in $236.52 more per customer in energy costs.The company later agreed to lower the charge to either $11.70 or $13.09.  The Public Service Commission is expected to announce a final decision on the rate increase in coming weeks.

Big Oil Is Set To Spend $5 Trillion On Fossil Fuels We Can’t Afford To Burn

April 24, 2019 Staff, Globalwitness.org , , ,
Our analysis found that all production from new oil and gas fields – beyond those already in production or development – is incompatible with reaching the world’s climate goals. Yet the oil and gas industry is set to spend $4.9 trillion (yes, trillion) over the next ten years on exploration and extraction in new fields. That’s an eye-watering amount of money to spend on fossil fuels we need to leave in the ground.

Financial Press: Boeing Should Charge Passengers Extra Not To Crash

April 4, 2019 Alan Macleod, Mintpressnews.com , , ,
CHICAGO — The Boeing Corporation is again under intense scrutiny, as news broke of a Southwest Airlines 737 Max 8 aircraft travelling, without passengers, from Orlando, FL to Victorville, CA that was forced into an emergency landing after an engine failure. All 376 of the aerospace giant’s 737 Max 8 aircraft are currently grounded after two crashes — Lion Air Flight 610 in October and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 in March — killed all 346 souls on board, leading to a public outcry and an investigation expected to be released imminently. A contributing cause of the crashes is widely reported to be the lack of sensors and other safety features that Boeing sells as pricey optional upgrades...

It’s The For-Profit Health Care Industry Telling Us We Can’t Afford Medicare For All

March 30, 2019 By Salomeh Keyhani, Economy For All   , ,
The most important question about Medicare for All is a simple one: If other industrialized countries can afford to offer high-quality universal health care to their citizens, why can’t the United States? We’ve been fooled to believe that the USA requires a uniquely expensive, fragmented and administratively complex system of health care coverage. But that’s just plain wrong. In a seminal paper published in 2003, Uwe Reinhardt and Gerard Anderson found “it’s the prices, stupid” that set the U.S. health care system apart. It’s not that care in the United States is higher quality. Nor is it that we use more of it than other countries.

Profit-Driven Health Care Is Killing The Dreams Of Young People. Young People Are Fighting Back.

February 11, 2019 National Nurses United, Medium.com ,
Briana Moss, 30, grew up in Dyersville, Iowa, site of the “field of dreams” (from the 1989 movie). Despite the reputation of her hometown, her own life dreams feel on hold. At age 30, when many young people are getting their careers off the ground, Moss’ life choices are guided by one thing: the need for insulin. “I know of people with diabetes literally dying because they cannot afford their insulin. It’s very scary and very real,” says Moss, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 12. She hadn’t yet finished college when her family insurance ended at 26, and after a few frantic months of insulin rationing, she found coverage through Iowa Medicaid.
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