In a sudden juggle of positions that came relatively out of nowhere,
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan announced on Tuesday that he
is withdrawing himself from consideration for the position. This move
came following the emergence of a 2010 domestic violence incident involving Shanahan and his family, with Shanahan not wanting to see this rehashed during a confirmation hearing.
Shanahan had a long career at Boeing, rising to a vice president of the
major US armsmaker before taking up with the Trump Administration as a
Deputy Defense Secretary, and later Acting Defense Secretary.
Which is not to say that the politically powerful arms industry is
losing the post, as it has been announced that Mark Esper, himself a
former vice president for Raytheon, will be taking over the post. Esper
was previously Secretary of the Army.
And while media reports emphasize Esper’s service in the military
in the 1990s, his rise to prominence came after, with Raytheon, where
he rose to vice president of government relations. He was also twice
named, in 2015 and 2016, as one of the most powerful corporate lobbyists in DC.
There is no reason to expect the transition from Shanahan to Esper will
portend and major US policy changes, though it is likely to portend more
sales growth for Raytheon that the man who was only too recently
responsible for getting those sales approved by the Pentagon will now be
running the show.
At the same time, it’s likely to raise questions about the firm’s undue
power in the administration,coming just weeks after State Department
official Charles Faulkner, another former Raytheon lobbyist, was sacked for his direct involvement in pushing through Raytheon arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Draining the swamp …?
If confirmed as Sec of Defense, Mark Esper would be the latest member of the Rockefeller CFR to hold that position. Others include: Carter, Hagel, Gates, Rumsfeld, Cohen, Perry, Aspin, Cheney, Taft, Carlucci, Weinberger, Brown, Schlesinger, Richardson, Laird, McNamara, Gates, and McElroy.
Note that Lockheed, Boeing, Northrop and Raytheon are CFR sponsors, along with Citigroup, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Exxon, Chevron, Shell, Time-Warner, Reuters, Google and Facebook. See lists in the CFR annual report.
yummy
What is the REAL reason? The SWAMP does not want any engineers with real technology experience in that position. He is known for railing against F-35 both the cost, the technology deficiency and overruns. With the hugest pile of money coming up for awards — ranging from supersonic to space —one needs a guy with experience in — public relations.! Now that should protect our money from the piranha style clean up of our funds.
We should have seen it coming. Merger with United Launch Alliance is a sign of muscling in on Boeing.
In August, Boeing and ULA are planning a manned craft, Starliner to ferry astronauts to ISS. But the engine UL uses us Russian licensed RD-180. Musk, however, has been paid handsomely since 2014 to produce equivalent heavy duty engine, and failed. US heaviest rocket Atlas V cannot lift without UL furnished Russian engine. Musk cheated when he out Tesla Roadster into space. First, the engine was a strapped together pack if three smaller ones . Second, total weight of Tesla was less then the RD-180 maximum load. The Crew Dragon vehicle recently tested for docking with space station — and tested for ferrying crew to ISS in July, just got destroyed in explosion. And even the successful docking test was completed only after Russia asked for and got testing performed by NASA to insure safety of ISS. Many defects were found in Musk design, remedied through NASA.
The point here is — we are proudly calling this privatization of space services— commercial. Thus resupply craft carrying supplies to ISS is proudly called COMMERCIAL RESUPPLY SERVICES (CRS), as opposed to Russian services, called just plain ISS. You see — Russian service is STATE, ours Is private ir commercial. Yet, how is it private ir commercial if they exist on public dole?
When Elon Musk chargers for lifting commercial satellites— he cheats by undercutting competitors prices. How does he do it? By then charging Government satellites launching three times the price. There are others in this business that are taking “government contracts” that is taxpayers money while the decisions these companies make are largely out of our control.
Especially as the former PR man gets to head the effort of dolling out the money, without any understanding of this technical gobbledygook.
What?
a) The Defense Dept has a whole public relations and marketing department already.
b) I disagree with ‘privatization’ too. It only drives costs up but the free marketeers won’t hear it – private industry by definition is as efficient as it gets, they think wrongly.
“Free marketeers” oppose the fake kind of “privatization” you refer to.
Fake privatization: “The government is going to remain in charge of this activity. Taxpayers are going to continue funding this activity. The most politically connected businesses, instead of government employees, will carry out this activity. What could possibly go wrong?”
Real privatization: “The governmnent will no longer be involved in this activity. Government employees currently working in this activity have just received 90 days notice, and will spend the next 90 days arranging for the auction of their departments’ assets and cleaning out their desks. Good luck, everyone!”
Note that I’m not saying there aren’t arguments against real privatization. But they aren’t the same as the arguments against the fake version.
From the exploding cannon barrels of the Union Army, to the non functional Mark IV torpedoes of 1942, to the F-35, private arms manufacturers are no freinds of the US serviceman.
If they’re government contractors, they’re not “private.”
Yup, here comes Trump, the outsider who’s going to shake up DC.
Has the administration been called out on their insanely poor employee retention? I don’t remember there being this much high level turnover ever.
You say that like it’s a BAD thing that the worlds biggest source of death, destruction and human misery is in disarray.