Lockheed Martin

BBB s2e1: Lockheed Martin [00:00:00] Christian: Hello. Everybody. And welcome to the Busted Business Bureau season two. This is the debut episode of season two. It is very exciting because I have a very special guest. She is the national organizer for CODEPINK. She's a rising superstar. If you are anybody in Chicago politics, you need to know her. It is Danaka. [00:00:30] Danaka: Thanks for having me. [00:00:31] Christian: Of course. [00:00:33] Danaka: Oh, I didn't know I was on the debut of season two. So that's exciting. [00:00:36] Christian: Yeah, this is how we're launching right into the second season. You are going to be fantastic on this episode because, I need to tell the listeners, usually the way we do the podcast is that I tell somebody who doesn't know any fucking thing about the business, all about it and record the reactions when they're, you know, drunk and full of brunch. But today the two of us know a lot about what we're going to be talking about. Today's topic is Lockheed [00:01:00] Martin, and if you pay taxes ever, and this is a must listen. And if you've lived in the city of Chicago for a full year, you've maybe heard the blight upon humanity that is the Air and Water Show [00:01:15] Danaka: oh yeah. [00:01:17] Christian: It's this insane celebration that we do every year where we just have a bunch of like military planes flying around Lake Michigan. Lockheed Martin is a staple of air and water show. They're constantly, you know, sending the new plane that they have to-- [00:01:32] Danaka: --Which is so fun because it's like the F-35's, I think. And they're like notorious for crashing. [00:01:41] Christian: They are! Or they're catching on fire. [00:01:44] Danaka: They can't fly in the rain and we're spending like $1.5 trillion of our tax dollars on it. It's fucking awesome. [00:01:51] Christian: Yeah. Not only that; it is personally inconvenient to me because they're so loud. It's so goddamn loud. Yeah. For like three days in [00:02:00] August, every single year. [00:02:01] Danaka: And then imagine if it crashed and you were trying to enjoy your time at the lake, because people are like at the lake tanning, swimming, enjoying time with their kids and dogs. [00:02:13] Christian: It's the largest free outdoor festival in Chicago, second largest. [00:02:15] Danaka: It's horrible. It's so damn loud. And you know, I mean, I dunno if you want to wait to get into it, but they do testing of the F-35 planes in Vermont. And, um, I was just talking to someone from Vermont who like works, uh, like on trying to kick at the F 35 testing out of Vermont, like on Tuesday or something. [00:02:34] Christian: For sure. [00:02:36] Danaka: And they're like 115 decibels, which is like not safe to hear all the time. They do testing four days a week, twice a day. I think, and they don't tell the residents when they're doing it because it's a quote "national security threat". Like... I don't know who's attacking South Burlington, Vermont, but, I mean, it's sad, but it's [00:03:00] kind of funny. The kids on playgrounds are like shitting their pants. The fucking planes are flying over the playground. And -and Vermont's in like a horrible housing crisis. And because of like the safety issue of, of the noise, um, they had to knock down 200 houses to do this, like F 35 testing. Yeah. And so all these people I was talking to from- from Vermont, they look like sleep deprived. They're not doing well. They've been doing it for years too. It's- [00:03:32] Christian: How is the - um - if you don't mind me asking -the progress on kicking out... [00:03:36] Danaka: No, it's not going -- it's not going well. 'Cause every politician in Vermont is like very ser-- like Bernie Sanders loves the F-35s ...so ... [00:03:46] Christian: I love that for him. A man with range. Yeah. [00:03:48] Danaka: He's, you know, he's, he sticks to his opinion. Certainly. [00:03:53] Christian: How delightful, how more apt of an introduction to Lockheed Martin then children shitting themselves on the [00:04:00] playground because of undisclosed testing. This is going to be an episode for the girls. If you are on your way to work, if you're at home cracking a cold one open, I want you to imagine yourself that we are all girls gossiping about Lockheed Martin. That's the scene I want to set because sometimes, honestly, when I talk about military stuff, I'm sort of like, (snoring sounds) [00:04:20] Danaka: Oh, but it has such a hilarious history. [00:04:24] Christian: This one has an incredible history. I promise you, you will not be disappointed because sometimes I hear like, someone's going to talk about military stuff and I'm like, oh, they're a nerd. And like, they're going to talk about how awesome tanks are and I don't care, but this is not that this is going to be very fun. It's very for the girls. So let's talk about the history of Lockheed Martin shall we? The origins of it. Now I'm to understand that you also did a lot of research on the origins [00:04:49] Danaka: And actually every, so-- [00:04:51] Christian: I read the same book!!!! [00:04:53] Danaka: Just in case our friends at Lockheed try and sue you. This is just... this sites, everything I'm going to say. [00:04:58] Christian: Okay. So she's [00:05:00] holding "Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin, and the Making of the Military Industrial Complex." (Is that the rest of it?) [00:05:04] Danaka: Yes, by William D Hartung, who I, who I work with. He's also a standup comedian. He's like an old standup comedian. He's awesome. [00:05:11] Christian: This is so fucking nuts. 'Cause I was literally going to say that I was mostly helped by this book because it's such a good read. [00:05:18] Danaka: It was so dense and took me so many days to get through. And I was reading it for a book club and he came to the book club and he was like, "honestly, I wrote this so long ago. I don't even, you know, you're probably going to say things that I don't remember." [00:05:30] Christian: So I can't believe you talked to, I feel starstruck talking to you, knowing that you talked to him. [00:05:35] Danaka: He's awesome. He's very, very funny. [00:05:37] Christian: Oh my God. That's also why the book is like, so eminently readable. Yeah. There's so many fucking funny ass quotes. So I cannot recommend "Prophets of War" spelled P R O P H E T S. . "profits" of War. Haha. [00:05:53] Danaka: He's at it again with those jokes. [00:05:56] Christian: You know, usually I would say we need to ban standup comedians, but he's the only one who's allowed to [00:06:00] be doing that. So the origins of Lockheed Martin extend all the way back to 1912 with Alan and Malcolm Lockheed, spelled L O U G H E A D, which becomes very contentious. At some point they do not-- they say in court when they changed the name because they changed it to LOC K H E E D. They change it. And they're like, everyone was calling us log-head yeah. That was like an anecdote from a book. They became interested in planes, because of the Wright brothers, they become, they were just like, oh, we can do that. One of them did not make it past elementary school. The other one I believe did. Um, but they're like planes we can build 'em. [00:06:41] Danaka: Yeah. I always find it interesting reading about old companies. Cause they're always started by, like, siblings. Like I'd never fucking start a company with my siblings ever. And the vibe I got from the book and --I don't know if it's like completely true. --It's like Alan was an idiot and then Malcolm was actually super smart. And I [00:07:00] think Malcolm was the older one. And then Alan just kept kind of dragging him back and do his things that he had planned that never seemed to go well. [00:07:07] Christian: No, there are several instances in which they're trying to like they, so they do build a plane. They are constantly trying to show it off and it crashes all the time at times, single time. [00:07:17] Danaka: Which is so funny. Cause they'd been dead for like forever and they haven't been in control of the company and in decades and decades, but that's still the legacy of this company is they build planes that crash. [00:07:30] Christian: They really, yeah. I couldn't have said it any better myself. And so I actually did less research on Allan and Malcolm Lockheed, knowing that you did, you were texting me all about it. And I was like, save it for the pod girly. So if there's anything you would like to add and, or subtract you, go for it. [00:07:46] Danaka: Okay, cool. I like that. So Wayne Biddle, the like, He's an aviation historian called the brothers carnival performers, who would become enmeshed in the birth of the aviation industry. [00:08:00] My favorite part about that story is when, like I forgot which time the airplane crashed because it happened like four or five times. And it was always in San Francisco. They're always crashing planes in the San Francisco Bay Area. After they were like, all right, fuck this. we're throwing in the towel. And then they tried prospecting for gold in California in like in 1925, like this, like the gold rush happened. They did not find the gold. [00:08:29] Christian: It was over. And they were like, you know what? They didn't look hard enough. It's like that meme where he's like, dig- I don't know why I just tried to describe a picture meme from like 2002, but there was also an instance in which they were up for contract, somebody else won, but that they had only built one plane and it crashed. So then they had to give it to Lockheed brothers. [00:08:50] Danaka: They had to give it to the Lockheed brothers. And it was for like the World's Fair and you know, I don't know a lot about, airplanes or, you know, how fast they're supposed to fly. [00:09:00] And I'm sure it's come a long way since 1920, but I was reading it and there in, uh, in the book and they were like... "the plane reached the highest speed of 63 miles per hour" I was like, whoa, like I've done that in my Toyota Camry in high school. [00:09:17] Christian: I've done that on like a rollercoaster unrestricted. After they build and crash several planes, they decide to get into commercially giving people, plane rides for fun and entertainment. That goes fine for a while. Then, uh, the war starts the great war, the first one, and that becomes an area of interest for them. They're not one of the main participators in the war. The first one that there were planes in. At the same time, what would become Martin Marietta is also-- it's the Glenn L. Martin company at this point-- is also participating in the war to much a greater degree of success. [00:09:57] Danaka: Yeah, I guess we should say the company that we're talking about right [00:10:00] now, it's just called Lockheed. It became Lockheed Martin in like 1995 when it merged with Martin Marietta and all of those big defense companies were merging in the nineties. [00:10:11] Christian: Cause Martin Marietta is already a merging of the Glen Martin company, and a different Marietta the company, which is also-- the Marietta one is, like also another merger. [00:10:19] Danaka: I think after world war one is where Malcolm split off and he was like, "my brother's an idiot. I can't fucking do this anymore." And he, and then Malcolm leaves. And like after that Allan had, has like a million different failures, but then Malcolm invents, the four wheel hydraulic braking system. [00:10:38] Christian: What? I didn't know that. [00:10:39] Danaka: Yeah! So he was the smart one the whole time. Like, I don't know what Allen was doing. [00:10:45] Christian: His best. [00:10:46] Danaka: Cool. It's pretty cool. [00:10:47] Christian: Yeah. I, I feel like any siblings you can perhaps relate to, uh, Just not being able to fucking take it anymore. [00:10:56] Danaka: Yeah. Also before World War One is when [00:11:00] Lockheed hired Jack Northrup, who was a very prominent aerospace engineer. Northrop might sound familiar because Northup Grumman is a top five weapons company. So he works for Lockheed Martin. And then I think he left for McDonald Douglas, which became Boeing. So Jack Northrop was like- [00:11:20] Christian: He's getting around! [00:11:21] Danaka: He was like Gordon Ramsey. What's the, what's the show where he like, goes into all the like- [00:11:26] Christian: Kitchen Nightmares. [00:11:28] Danaka: Jack Northrup's like, uh, the Gordon Ramsey of defense companies. Cause he made Lockheed like, uh, a viable business for a long period of time. [00:11:36] Christian: Do you think he was also like catty about it? [00:11:39] Danaka: Oh yeah. Yeah. He said he left Lockheed cause he got bored. [00:11:44] Christian: I love that for him. [00:11:45] Danaka: I mean I would too, yeah. [00:11:47] Christian: Barreling through. I pick up most of the intense research around the C-5A. [00:11:55] Danaka: That's some good stuff. [00:11:56] Christian: This is well after I'm pretty sure the Lockheed brothers are dead. Is there [00:12:00] anything you would like to add? [00:12:01] Danaka: Yes, so Lockheed Martin went out of business during the great depression. Yeah. Okay. And it was just Allan at this point. They couldn't effectively pivot to military contracting like they were supposed to-- like all the other companies did in world war one. So it went out of business. But an investor named Robert Gross tried to buy the company for $40,000. Someone else tried to buy the company too. And for like legal reasons I don't understand, they had to go to court and fight over it. And the judge said to Robert Gross when he when they approved him buying the company from Allan. Because Allan was such like a notorious idiot, the judge said to him, "I hope you know what you're doing young man," because he bought this company in 1932, which is like a year three of the great depression. [00:12:48] Christian: That's tough. "I hope you know what you're doing young man." [00:12:51] Danaka: Yeah. [00:12:53] Christian: You don't want to hear that from a judge. [00:12:55] Danaka: Oh, so before the C-5A plane, Lockheed's first like large [00:13:00] military contract was to Japan's military in. [00:13:05] Christian: I would assume it's in 1940 [00:13:08] Danaka: 1940, and Pearl - Pearl Harbor 1941, yeah.. I think that's hilarious. [00:13:14] Christian: That is a yes. And slay, uh. In the history of many yeses and slays for Lockheed Martin.. Before Vietnam, it was general practice that any arms company that wins the research and development part of any arms contract will also win the production contract, because why would you want another company to like start from scratch on research and development? By the time Vietnam rolls around companies are now required to estimate production costs when they win the original contract. So even though it is to be clear, two separate contracts because of this, you didn't have to propose a production budget. Once you won the research and development part of it, the government would just sort of deal with however much you decided to spend, which is still in practice, basically how it is. Um, so Lockheed Martin proposes the C-5A, which is supposed to be the [00:14:00] size of a fucking football field. [00:14:01] Danaka: Yeah. They called it the galaxy. That was Lockheed's version of the plane. [00:14:05] Christian: They decided that other cosmic bodies were not large enough. They didn't encompass. [00:14:10] Danaka: I think they had another plane called, like they're named after constellations so Galaxy was supposed to be like the biggest one and it was specifically for Vietnam. They needed a massive plane to transport, a bunch of stuff to Vietnam. Yeah. So instead of taking several trips, they're like just put it all on this one. [00:14:27] Christian: Pack it up. Let's go. Uh, I feel like we've been foreshadowing this whole time. Spectacular failure. [00:14:34] Danaka: Went horribly. [00:14:36] Christian: From Prophets of War quote. "In the case of the C-5A, slipping on schedule would bring penalties of over $12,000 per day with a maximum fime- FINE of up to one-uh, 11 million." I can read. "Lockheed would also be responsible for absorbing the cost of structural deficiencies." Some brag that the arrangement was probably "the toughest contract for a major defense system ever, ever entered into the Pentagon." However,[00:15:00] $11 million as a total penalty for a giant like Lockheed Martin wound up being fucking nothing. So it truly was like a slap on the wrist in terms of how much they went over budget. Like the government is paying them to make a plane. [00:15:15] Danaka: This is in the sixties, [00:15:16] Christian: The fucking sixties. [00:15:17] Danaka: It's a lot more money than it sounds like. [00:15:20] Christian: And it goes so terribly wrong for aerospace engineering reasons that like, I think one who doesn't have expertise in it could imagine building a plane, the size of a fucking football field that goes quickly? Hard. [00:15:32] Danaka: And they had to build, like, I think the government, well originally the air force wanted to choose Boeing's design. It was cheaper. And like Boeing had more of a rapport with the air force, but then Lockheed spent a bunch of money on lobbying and they were like, therefore, it's like, yeah, that's fine. We'll get yours. [00:15:47] Christian: The problem with this sort of contracting, as emerged during the history of the C-5A project was that companies were being asked to project prices over a long period of time. This left ample room for the time-honored concept of buying in [00:16:00] where an arms manufacturer would bid low in order to get a contract and receive hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars once it charged the Pentagon for the final and much higher costs of actually building the system. This is the bread and butter of Lockheed Martin like um, saying, oh, this is going to cost you nothing. And then being like, well actually we need to add this thing. Or actually we need to, you know, this part doesn't work. We need to replace it with a much more expensive part. Yeah. It's how they can make an incredible amount of money. [00:16:24] Danaka: Yes. And it depends on the year, but like 70 to 90% of Lockheed's revenue comes directly from the federal government. [00:16:32] Christian: Which comes directly from us. [00:16:34] Danaka: Yeah. It, yeah. It's our tax dollars. So we completely fund this company and they can't even build anything that flies. So bad. [00:16:44] Christian: Do you remember the- the story of Ernie Fitzgerald, an outspoken critic of the C-5A? [00:16:49] Danaka: Uh, was he the whistleblower in the air force? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:16:53] Christian: He, again is one of the first outspoken critics of the C-5A he's not the only one, but he's one of the more important ones uh, from Prophets of War: [00:17:00] "Fitzgerald's decision to speak out, came at high personal cost. In may of 1969, the Air Force's office of special investigations started an inquiry regarding Fitzgerald, a probe that was described by one Pentagon insider as a fishing expedition, looking for personal information, such as incidents of extra marital relationships, drugs, or alcohol abuse for homosexual contact. When none of these avenues of inquiry bore fruit OSI hung his hat on the false accusations that Fitzgerald had engaged in unauthorized circulation of classified documents." Later, "in a Kafka esque maneuver that was unprecedented even in the annals of the Pentagon, the air force moved to revoke Fitzgerald's career tenure on the grounds that the original letter bestowing it was a computer error." [00:17:43] Danaka: And I mean, we haven't even talked about like what he was telling people about, like the C-5A and that, and his, I think his issue was that the way that they were doing Pentagon contracts at the time, I forgot how many planes the government was buying from Lockheed to produce at this time. But it was 80 [00:18:00] or something. There was a first batch in the second batch, and then the way they did Pentagon contracts is that if there were, cost overruns on the first batch, they could be somewhat absorbed into the second batch. So the first batch was running 100% percent over budget, but it was a way more than that because the second batch would have been 240% over budget making the entire C-5A project, $2 billion over budget. [00:18:26] Christian: In fucking 1965. Holy shit.. Sometimes it's hard to abstract these numbers in your mind, especially when they're just like being thrown at you in the form of a podcast. But I want you to really pause and consider how much money that is, how much that could have gone to anything else. [00:18:47] Danaka: And the whole point was like, it was supposed to land on anything. Like you didn't have to land on a runway. Cause I don't know how much the listeners know about the Vietnam war, [00:19:00] but we didn't exactly have runway (Christian: No) to land our planes. [00:19:06] Christian: Especially it would have required a runway that's like three or four times the size of an actual normal runway. So yeah, that's a little hard to make happen during the Vietnam war. So, again, it must need to be remarked that it was a spectacular failure. There is not a C-5A that does the thing that it's supposed to be doing, which is be massive and land anywhere. Even as the C-5A scandal was unfolding, Lockheed's finances were rapidly eroding. This is also from Prophets of War, "the air force, met the company more than halfway and paying for the cost overruns, but the company still lost close to $500 million on the contract," which is fucking insane because-- [00:19:41] Danaka: Horrible business model, like Lockheed for all of its history has been going out of business every like 10 years. [00:19:49] Christian: And they managed to like talk to the right people, lobby of the right people and just continue to build shitty ass planes. They built, I guess, you know, some functional planes, which is why they remain a [00:20:00] business. [00:20:00] Danaka: Yeah. I mean, the c-5A is used, but I don't know. Do you know what happened to the first one delivered to the air force? Um, it exploded and set on fire for three hours. And then a bunch of them showed up. The other ones showed up missing parts. Like another one crashed, like you did not go well and they could not land. They could only land on paved runway. [00:20:29] Christian: So part of me kind of is obsessed with that aspect of Lockheed because they're constantly, um, wasting time on arms that don't work because also I think what should be in your mind this entire episode is that when this is successful, this results in like massive death and destruction, that's like uncalculable to the human mind. Incalculable, I should say. And so it's kind of funny. [00:20:53] Danaka: Yeah. Especially Lockheed's early history. It's like easy to laugh at because they are, you know, not doing very [00:21:00] well. And there's just like two dorky brothers. Like can't figure out how to make an airplane and they could just do anything else, but they exist well, and then they failed prospecting for gold, whatever. But now it's like Lockheed Martin is such a, they're the biggest arms manufacturer in the world. They make bombs, and they work on nuclear stuff too. Yeah. [00:21:19] Christian: So it's a bit of a sobering moment to think about. You know, the, again, incalculable suffering that comes from Lockheed Martin. In a way it's a little bit slay whenever they make something that doesn't work. [00:21:32] Danaka: I'm a fan. [00:21:32] Christian: I am in fact, a fan of the things that don't work. [00:21:36] Danaka: Do you, you know, about the coffee maker and the toilet seat? [00:21:40] Christian: Yes. I would like to hear it from you though. [00:21:43] Danaka: I mean, it happened later, but it was for the C-5A plan. [00:21:46] Christian: Let's do it. [00:21:47] Danaka: You know, we just said it went $2 billion over budget, the project, and the thing with like, when they give no bid contracts to these companies is they can charge whatever they want for whatever. And I'm just imagining like two douche [00:22:00] bags, engineering for Lockheed. And they're like, "you know what? We're going billions of dollars over budget. What if we charge the federal government $7,662 for every coffee maker that has to be on this airplane." And I, I, I wanted to drive myself a little crazy. So I went to like an inflation calculator. This happened under Reagan when they were adding the coffee makers to this. What do you make your coffee in, Christian? [00:22:30] Christian: I actually, I bought my girlfriend and a espresso machine. She's a huge coffee drinker. This machine, it was on Facebook marketplace. Um, I was a couple hundred bucks. It was like a very nice coffee machine. [00:22:43] Danaka: That's not bad. Yeah. I use a French press. I got it for $20, like six years ago. Um, so this coffee maker, adjusted for inflation cost $27,000. And the same thing happened with toilet seats. Like they, [00:23:00] uh, charged the government $600 per toilet seat. [00:23:03] Christian: At least the toilet seats and the coffee makers work. [00:23:08] Danaka: Yeah, and I hope the coffee is delicious. [00:23:11] Christian: It better be. I can only imagine what a $27,000 cup of coffee tastes like. [00:23:16] Danaka: Because I don't know what they're using those planes for anymore. I don't know what they were using. They never used them in Vietnam, Vietnam. [00:23:25] Christian: Uh, it's funny. And it's sad, but it's also very funny. As a result of the massive budget overruns of the C-5A during Vietnam, um, the federal government decides to bail out Lockheed Martin through a series of this is honestly where I kind of fall asleep like loans. And there's this specific stipulation for the loan. They got to pay this back. Stuff I don't understand. They are unable to pay back the original, whatever they're supposed to be paying back. And they decide to go a little rogue, to go a little nut-nut and bribe officials in west Germany, [00:24:00] Italy, Japan, the Netherlands Saudi Arabia to purchase Lockheed Martin shit. Yeah. This is such a fucking international scandal. They paid $22 million in bribes to foreign officials. Um, this led to a near abdication of the throne in Netherlands, such a national scandal there. [00:24:19] Danaka: I don't have any notes about it, but I remember the Japan situation being nuts. Like being crazy. [00:24:26] Christian: Fucking nut nut is the only way that I know how to describe it. They paid 2.4 billion yen to earn the contract from ANA. 500 million yen was received by the prime minister. And on October 30th, 1972 ANA announced its decision to purchase 21 Lockheed L-1011 Tri-Stars, which cost approximately $5 million each. The 1986, us presidents commission on organized crime revealed in 1969 to 1975, Lockheed to use deacon company, a large foreign exchange operator as the conduit to transfer the money [00:25:00] to bribe Japanese officials. It was disclosed that 8.3 million was moved to Deeks office in Hong Kong, where a Spanish born priest representing Lockheed took the cash and carried it to Japan. This is, this is the part that I wrote, um, just opened the Wikipedia page and pray. So all that was from Wikipedia. Um, but I feel like Lockheed Martin is so fucking huge that the 1976 bribery scandal like is only a footnote in my notes of like all of the other shit that they get into. [00:25:27] Danaka: They have so many scandals. [00:25:29] Christian: So many scandals and continue to be again, the number one defense manufacturer in the world. Again, like, I can't emphasize enough the scale of this one. This is the biggest one that Busted BusinessBureau's ever done, because usually I pick like one scandal from a really big company and talk about it. But this one there's just so many. [00:25:47] Danaka: Yeah. And they're also bad and it's good. It's just good for people to know, because like whenever they pay their taxes, I, I forgot what it is. Uh, the author of this book also CA uh, found this statistic. It's [00:26:00] like 30 cents of every dollar goes to like private defense contractors. [00:26:03] Christian: Yeah. That is fucking crazy. I cannot believe that. And again, this bribery scandal does not put Lockheed out of business properly, uh, because you've got things like the cold war happening, desert storm, the best thing that ever happened to Lockheed Martin was in fact nine 11. [00:26:21] Danaka: Yeah. [00:26:22] Christian: Post-9/11. It's basically in the bag for Lockheed Martin. This is also after all of the mergers of the nineties, the mergers being made out of necessity in the nineties, because once the Soviet union fell in 1990, it was like, well, what do we do now? Fuck our drag. [00:26:36] Danaka: That's that's the rhetoric started like. Um, cause all of the aviation companies had to pivot to military contracting, like before world war one, but it happened primarily after world war one. And like, that's that there was the messaging about Pentagon spending. Cause they knew all of their money was going to come from the Pentagon. Right. Then like they were like, okay, this [00:27:00] is like our only customer. Cause prior Lockheed was only kind of selling planes to like private pilots, like Amelia Earhart. [00:27:06] Christian: I totally forgot. [00:27:12] Danaka: Rest in peace. [00:27:13] Christian: Um, but it was the one that she's, I dunno if it's also the one she unsuccessfully flew, but when she successfully flew overseas was the Lockheed Vega five B yeah, yeah. TBD. [00:27:25] Danaka: Um, but that was the messaging that like all these companies pushed back then and still have to push right now is, like, even when the U. S. Isn't at war, we as taxpayers benefit from a massive Pentagon spending bills because of national security. [00:27:43] Christian: And in addition to that, uh, what a lot of, at least like politicians push to people is like, this'll create jobs. Like if there's a Lockheed facility and for example, Marietta, Georgia, it's going to create X amount of jobs. And I feel like I have ever seen the musical Hadestown or is this reference not gonna land? [00:27:58] Danaka: (bravely) I have not seen it.[00:28:00] [00:28:00] Christian: There's like a whole song where everyone's just like, oh, all we do is like work away all day. Like a, basically like a border wall for Hadestown. Oh, dang. And they're like, like literally the way that we make money is by building this defense wall for literally no reason. And it's like, I don't know. If you've ever seen a musical Hadestown, I feel like it very much applies to Lockheed Martin. And I'm the only one who's saying that I'm the only one. Brave enough to say. [00:28:22] Danaka: That actually- that's how they got a bunch of their contracts, like for the Cheyenne helicopter. I mean, that story is crazy. [00:28:28] Christian: I want to hear it. [00:28:30] Danaka: What year was that? It was also in the late sixties, early seventies. [00:28:34] Christian: How apropos! [00:28:35] Danaka: So it was a great two decades for them. [00:28:38] Christian: What a crazy time to be working at Lockheed Martin. [00:28:40] Danaka: This is the seventies. They were tasked with building this ridiculous helicopter that was supposed to fly forward, like a small plane. Like if you're familiar with how helicoptors work, but that it's not... like they're supposed to go up, like up to straight [00:29:00] forward. And OK.. They were awarded this contract and they had never, ever engineered a helicopter ever in the history of the company. And they were, it was, it was supposed to accomplish much more than the Cobra, which was the helicopter the military was primarily using at the time. They didn't have a prototype yet. They did build a helicopter ..And it crashed into the Pacific ocean, but the, the crazy, it's another scandal. It's like the guy from the, from the air force that awarded Lockheed this contract for the Cheyenne helicopter, uh, which cost triple in the research and development phases was supposed to. [00:29:41] Christian: How brave in the research and development phase! [00:29:43] Danaka: I know! Doing it immediately. Yeah. His name was Willis Hawkins. And the fun thing about Willis Hawkins is, uh, he worked in that position in the, in the military for a few years, awarded them this contract. Can you guess where he worked immediately prior? He was an [00:30:00] executive at Lockheed. And when he made the decision, he was getting deferred salary payments from Lockheed. [00:30:07] Christian: My god. [00:30:09] Danaka: Yeah. So he's cool. And that didn't work and they, they never built the helicopter. [00:30:14] Christian: No! I can't. I can't believe that we weren't able to build a helicoptor that flies like a small plane. [00:30:19] Danaka: Yeah, they might now I've no, I have no idea, but this was in the sixties. [00:30:28] Christian: Is it time to discuss the F 35? [00:30:30] Danaka: I mean, go ahead, fire it off. [00:30:32] Christian: This plane has been doomed to fail from the beginning, the basic idea. So this comes about around the nineties of like the idea for this plane. The idea is that it can be used by the army Navy and air force. And in order to satisfy all three of those things, it needs to be stealthy, but also needs vertical landing capabilities, but also fast, but also quiet, but also needs like larger wings for the Navy or whatever. [00:30:50] Danaka: It's not quiet. [00:30:51] Christian: It's not, they're not quiet, it did not work, it is not very stealthy. Skeptics said it couldn't be done. And honestly, they slayed. [00:30:58] Danaka: I love skeptics, [00:31:00] sometimes they're really right. [00:31:01] Christian: They really, yeah. And this one, they could not have been any more right. This is. Prophets of War "at the June, 2007 Paris air show, the company was embarrassed when schedule slippage meant that only one JSF a prototype had been produced. In lieu of having planes to show or to do stunts for the ever popular exhibitions, Lockheed Martin commissioned paintings portraying the imagery of the F-35s flying over each partner nation." [00:31:27] Danaka: I didn't know that they were like, Hey guys, we don't have shit to show you .Was it a bad painting? That'd be funny. [00:31:34] Christian: Oh shit. You know what? I didn't bother looking at the painting, but I think I will. And post on the Instagram. I think that's what we'll have to do. I can not imagine the thought process behind let's get a painting instead. Not like... honestly, I would think like let's animate a video of what it could do or let's do little [00:31:53] Danaka: So many options. [00:31:54] Christian: Or let's not say anything let's just drop out. I think you can live without it .Say we got sick, you know. [00:32:00] [00:32:01] Danaka: They got COVID in 2007. [00:32:05] Christian: So that is already, um, not great to hear about the F 35, right? That it's already falling behind schedule in 2007. It was already behind schedule before then. Um, the F -35s program program difficulties carried over until late 2009. Even after secretary of defense, Robert Gates had vouched for it as a worthy follow-up on the F 22. An internal Pentagon report, leaked in late November five months after Congress ended the F 22 program suggested that the joint strike fighter was so far behind schedule it could cost an extra 16.6 billion over a five-year period. They rushed to produce planes without full testing raised the specter of expensive fixes after the aircraft had been produced and thus the retention of large, expensive engineering staffs, much further into the life of the project than originally intended. It hurts. It hurts so bad. And this is also one of those things where they had purchased it before any sort of, again, meaningful prototype had been produced, which many people are very critical of like the fly before you buy..; Model of [00:33:00] getting planes and shit, because I do feel like that you need a worthy prototype in order to make such a lofty claim as this is going to work for the army ,Navy, and air force. [00:33:09] Danaka: Yeah. It's been so long now and you know, and now they're like, I mean, they terrorize people all over the world and like Saudi Arabia has a bunch of F-35s that they use in Yemen. The UAE has a bunch of F-35s, or I've been trying to buy F-35s from the U S for quite some time now. And now also they, they, I guess, terrorize, uh, children on playgrounds in Vermont and, and each test flight cost $36,000. And it's taxpayer funded. [00:33:41] Christian: Yeah. That is absolutely fucking crazy. Cause we're still talking about this in like 20, 21. There's still articles being written about how behind schedule and how not working it is. Um, from the New York times, quote, "one factor that kept sending the F 35 program off course was the level of control Lockheed exerted over the program. The company produces not only the [00:34:00] F 35 itself, but the training gear for the pilots and maintenance technicians, the aircraft logistics system, and it support equipment like carts and rigs. Lockheed also manages the supply chain and is responsible for much of the maintenance of the plane. This gave Lockheed significant power over almost every part of the F 35 enterprise. Quote. "I had a sense after my first 90 days that the government was not in charge of the program, said Bogdan, who assumed oversight as the program's executive officer in December, 2012. It seemed that quote, "all major decisions, whether they be technical, whether they be scheduled or whether they be contractual were really being made by Lockheed Martin. And the program office was just kind of watching something you want to hear from the guy who was overseeing the project." [00:34:37] Danaka: I think in that early two thousands, like as the F 35 system was like coming in, like, it's starting to be a thing. Lockheed was also trying to like, dip its hands into a bunch of different things. They really wanted, uh, Guantanamo bay detention facility in Cuba. Um, that was like, you know, arbitrarily, detaining, torturing hundreds of Muslims from the war [00:35:00] on terror, they really wanted to contract their interrogators. So they tried to like open up like a branch of Lockheed Martin. [00:35:10] Christian: Like a consulting firm! [00:35:12] Danaka: To send the, to send interrogators to Cuba. It didn't work. It didn't even work. [00:35:19] Christian: They can't build planes that can't fill the interrogation firms. They can't, they can't do a fucking thing. Right. It's part of the F-35's, I guess multiple scandals over the last fucking 20 plus years, um, involves a tweet. Danaka,, how much do you think a single tweet is worth? [00:35:37] Danaka: I don't know. [00:35:38] Christian: Um, in, oh God, what was it? Maybe 2016. Donald Trump tweeted " based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed F-35, I've asked Boeing to price out a comparable F 18 super Hornet exclamation point." Lockheed Martin shares were fell about 2% while Boeing's went up 0.5%. Trump's tweet shaved off $1.2 billion of Lockheed Martins market value.[00:36:00] [00:36:03] Danaka: That's awesome. That is the best thing he ever did. [00:36:05] Christian: I did not realize the power of a single tweet until that moment. And so he had Marilyn Hewson, the girl boss, CEO, for quite a period of time- [00:36:14] Danaka: -she just bought a beautiful home in DC. It's a stunning home. [00:36:18] Christian: At least she has taste. Yeah. They had a very, um, tense relationship, which is not a great thing to have when you're the number one defense contractor. And this is from Bloomberg "Lockheed Martin corporations, F 35 jet remains marred by more than 800 unresolved software and hardware deficiencies, varying severity that could undercut the readiness missions or maintenance", blah, blah, blah, blah, blah". "Canada will begin talks with Lockheed Martin to purchase 88 new F 35 war planes selecting the us aerospace giant over European rival to deliver fighter jets. As soon as 2025. [00:36:47] Danaka: I don't get it . Like, I mean, I get it. It's like, you know, whatever, like, okay, the us makes up 40% of the global arms trade. So if any of these deals were to fall through, it's like [00:37:00] our economy. That's, that's a big reason why we saw so many weapons, but, um, uh, what was I gonna say? I forgot it's gone. It's gone. Oh yeah. Canada. They're just buying like-- an F 35 crashes like every month. Yeah, it gets pretty frequent. [00:37:22] Christian: You can just look up F 35 crash. Like there was one in 2014 where it caught on fire before the pilot took off. And-- [00:37:27] Danaka: Oh, so... Rest in peace. I dunno. [00:37:29] Christian: No, he's fine. [00:37:29] Danaka: Oh, cool. [00:37:30] Christian: He got out. Had it caught on fire like 30 seconds later, he would, he would be resting in peace. Yeah. Um, because it was like, again, right before he took off so it caught on fire. He had to like get out. [00:37:39] Danaka: Lockheed martin tweeted a couple of weeks ago. They were like our first female F-35 pilot! [00:37:46] Christian: Okay, this has been going on since the nineties. Why now? Um, hashtag more girls in war planes. [00:37:52] Danaka: Like one just like in the last few months crashed into the south China sea and a bunch of like, uh, Chinese politicians [00:38:00] were like clowning it on Twitter. It's like a joke to every other country. They're like instead of giving Americans free college, they're making them pay for planes that crashed into the ocean. Like that's what we get. We don't get free medicine. We get airplanes that like make kids shit, their pants and south Burlington. [00:38:20] Christian: That is every single other country's joke on Twitter is to us for not having free healthcare or other issues that we have and it's like, man, they're really right. They really crushed it on that one dunk that they have. Um, yeah, the F 35, what a fucking nightmare through and through one of their uh, planes, the F 22 was so bad, it united John McCain and president Obama. They came together. This was, um, pre- F- 35. [00:38:53] Danaka: The F-35s are supposed to replace the F22-s and it hasn't worked out. [00:38:58] Christian: Oh, also the F 35. I [00:39:00] want it to say this. Um, one of the issues that has is that it has delayed video feed to the pilots, which I never thought was like, I, I, I guess I didn't really know how jets worked. Cause I thought pilots used their eyes to look out, but I guess they don't, they're looking at a video feed because they can't see everywhere. You know what, I understand what I'm saying. So I never understood that about military technology, but it was fricking nuts. So then I was in a YouTube rabbit hole of like watching plane, like jet footage from the eyes of the pilot. it's not very interesting, but I wanted to tell you and it's okay. You know what? I appreciated that you were nodding along, even though it was not very interesting. [00:39:35] Danaka: I mean, delayed footage seems like really bad. [00:39:38] Christian: It seems like really tough because it seems like it's already hard to see. Yeah. [00:39:43] Danaka: Especially if it's raining, I heard that didn't work out very well. [00:39:46] Christian: It's supposed to survive thunderstorms in it. Not a single one. No. Um, so anyways proceeded or I guess the thing that F-35s are replacing the F- 22. They had half the planes for twice the price because of [00:40:00] all the budget overruns And again, structural issues. There were two representatives who had wanted to lobby for this to no longer be a thing. "The army quietly, but firmly agreed." This is also from Prophets of War "officials then noted that the service could equip a whole division, as many as 15,000 soldiers, for the cost of one F 22." So the army is like, okay, let's get rid of the F 22. "Representative Phil Gingrey whose district contains the F 22 assembly plant searched frantically for somewhere to get the money to keep the F 22 going. He wants so far as to issue a bizarre statement to the effect that the plane should be funded in lieu of wasting money on, uh, developing a vaccine for the swine flu." [00:40:34] Danaka: Nice. That's awesome. NOICE. It's a man who rides for his constituents. [00:40:39] Christian: Yes. That is a ride or die. If I lived in his district, I'd be like, this man cares about me. [00:40:43] Danaka: You can keep your jobs, get the swine flu. [00:40:48] Christian: And again, this is something where John McCain and president Obama come together to cut the F 20 twos. That's honestly all I wanted to say about the F 20 twos, unless you wanted to add anything, I guess it's just like the same shit different toilet. [00:40:59] Danaka: Yeah. I [00:41:00] mean, for such a brief moment, like we thought we were going to abandon that kind of thing. Like, cause the F-22s were being faced out and have been, um, Essentially that Lockheed just lobbied up. Okay. But can you just buy a bunch of F-35s? Like we promise, we promise they'll exist one day. [00:41:19] Christian: And we're supposed to have them to like, what 2060 or 2070? Is like how far the contract goes, fucking crazy, you know? Um, and so if I may, for a moment, I would like to pivot away from the shitty technology that Lockheed Martin makes. I would like to talk about, um, diversity, equity and inclusion. The following bit, like this whole history of like diversity inclusion is the subject of several full length novels, because a Lockheed's existed for such a long time, people have been writing about its history of like racial integration at its facilities. There was an employee Harry Hudson, who was employed in the wake of the Korean war. His spidey senses started [00:42:00] tingling the second he got hired and he was like, I have to document every single thing that happens to me at Lockheed, or like all of my promotions, all my, whatever, consequently, he started, feverously documenting everything about his experiences, good and bad. His life work was to publish a memoir about it, which he was close to doing before he died. His family posthumously published the memoir, Working for Equality: The Story of Harry Hudson.. And honestly the book is thrilling to read. He, there was some quotes Talking about like race, social justice, all this stuff that's like pretty interesting and, you know, academically dense. But then he'll also say things like "some of the people in the plant protection at Lockheed Martin were the dumbest bastards that ever took a breath." quote, "I later learned that the director and assistant director had been brainwashed to the degree that they were showing their cost consciousness and company loyalty, to the extent that they didn't want raises. Sound stupid, you better believe it." And then there's another quote of his. "To be able to cuss out your boss is always to be done in private. Never, never in the presence of others, never embarrass him. State that conversation is man to man cut loose with everything except bodily injury. Nine times out of 10, the boss [00:43:00] will realize that he needs a little friendly advice and appreciates if you're right, if not, then that's number 10, so look for another job." Anyways. There's no like one insight you can pull from Hudson's memoir, but worth mentioning is that his perspective, which is pretty shared across the board is that integration was messy as hell. Um, cause most of the white people involved had deeply held prejudices that just don't go away with the presence of like one black employee. And this is a feature that extends more and more through Lockheed Martin's history. Like the closer you get to now, there's still incredibly racist employees like dangerously racist, like the largest EEOC case in history. Equal employment opportunity commission, um, for a single individual, $2.5 million was a Lockheed Martin employee. [00:43:43] Danaka: Really? [00:43:44] Christian: Largest in history. [00:43:45] Danaka: Yeah, that's crazy. [00:43:46] Christian: Fucking nuts because they're like horrifically racist, Lockheed Martin facilities, um, with each new war there's a massive push towards more diversity within the company because they need more employees and there's, I don't know [00:44:00] more people going overseas. The early two thousands were not a good time to be at Lockheed. Here's the story. There are 11 different employees who found nooses in their offices at like different Lockheed facilities. [00:44:11] Danaka: Oh my God. [00:44:12] Christian: Yeah. The company, oh God, this is Joseph Banks. Um, this is a write-up from the Washington post quote, the company knowledge that a noose was found, but not located in Banks' work area." Which is not better. [00:44:25] Danaka: Guys. It was in the break room. It's fine. [00:44:28] Christian: It's totally fine. Like if it was at his locker, then we'd have a problem, but break room where everyone can see it. Well then what's the issue here? [00:44:36] Danaka: My God, that's terrible. [00:44:37] Christian: Adding that quote. "Although the incident was investigated immediately and thoroughly, the investigators had not been able to determine who was responsible. There's another employee who I think worked with Joseph Banks, or at least at an Lockheed Martin facility, quote Gilligan, "who is 52 and white said he heard the N word used countless times in the workplace. He said he began reporting to the incidents to the supervisors at Lockheed, providing the names of workers who had taunted black people with nooses then had to change his home [00:45:00] phone number after receiving so many threats." Like a white employee, who's trying to report racism is also getting like incredibly threatened at Lockheed Martin. So if you're wondering who's, you know, in the admin offices providing these F 35 contracts or whatever, it's incredibly racist employees. [00:45:14] Danaka: And we get to pay their salary. So that's very cool. [00:45:17] Christian: Gilligan says that he has seen roughly a half dozen nooses displayed during his tenure with Lockheed and that the two most recent ones occurred in the spring of 1999. Uh, yeah. Um, This is also from the Washington post quote, "Buddy Gearing, 53, who works on the wings for the C-130 from 1978 to 1991. Her new Cadillac was regularly defaced in the parking lot with scratches. She had a racist term sanded off the hood and eventually gave up and gave her car to her mother. [00:45:45] Danaka: Oh my God. [00:45:46] Christian: That's fucking horrific. The breadth of allegations makes Lockheed Martin's case different from the race discrimination ones settled from like Coca-Cola. Tyrone Brooks, a representative in the Georgia legislature and the head of the Georgia association of black elected officials [00:46:00] says that the Coca-Cola suit was more confined to promotions and advancement than like hostile treatment. He says, quote "Coca-Cola would not tolerate the kinds of things you see happening at Lockheed. Believe me, Lockheed is the worst I've seen in corporate America. The executives simply will not admit the fact that they have a problem." So this guy has probably seen a lot and he says that Lockheed Martin is like the fucking worst. Guess who comes into the picture? Johnny Cochran. [00:46:21] Danaka: WHAT? [00:46:23] Christian: Johnny Cochran joins the legal team, which is so fucking crazy. This is also post OJ. [00:46:33] Danaka: Oh God. Um, like, like there he's defending Lockheed? [00:46:38] Christian: No, he's not defending Lockheed. He's defending employees. That'd be insane if he was, like, "Lockheed Martin did nothing wrong." Ultimately this class action lawsuit, even after Johnny Cochran had joined, was broken up by a judge who says that the group of employees seeking like back pay emotional damage, pay, whatever didn't constitute a class of people to be in action, because it was a class action lawsuit. I don't know. Shit I don't understand. [00:46:58] Danaka: Yeah. [00:46:59] Christian: The judge [00:47:00] recommends that each person individually like file suits and they don't go anywhere because like, if you're one person you can't really sue Lockheed Martin yourself, you're going to lose except for Joseph Banks. I couldn't find any other employees getting as much coverage for like following through on the suit. Um, but the largest EEOC lawsuit in American history is Charles Daniels who he was treated in a incredibly racist way by his coworkers, asked to be moved to Hawaii, to like get a fucking break. And they transferred the same people to Hawaii with him. [00:47:25] Danaka: What? [00:47:26] Christian: Yeah. Uh, and so he's for virtually documenting all of the insane, horrible shit that's going on to him, um, and is able to win this case because it was just like so fucking bad. Um, and that brings us to the year of our Lord 2020. [00:47:43] Danaka: Jim Taiclet. Current. Are we talking about the CEO? Yes. Yeah. [00:47:49] Christian: There's nothing I have to say about Jim Taiclet. Other than like you said, he does look likeRandall from Monster's Inc., but I want to talk about the White Man's Caucus.. Can we talk about the white caucus about the White Man's [00:48:00] Caucus? I've been dying to talk about the White Man's Caucus. [00:48:01] Danaka: Which congressman was so upset about that? It was Tom cotton, right? Yeah. [00:48:06] Christian: And the guy whobrought it to - I at least I think he brought it to the attention as Christopher Rufo who's the guy who's like the main charge against critical race theory. He's the guy who invented talking about it and like he tweeted one time his strategy was like to associate anything vaguely leftist with critical race theory. Like he's fully aware of what he does. [00:48:25] Danaka: Yeah, yeah. [00:48:26] Christian: Yeah. However, he did also post all the documents in the White Man's Caucus. So. [00:48:29] Danaka: That's awesome. [00:48:30] Christian: I lived. [00:48:31] Danaka: Just the White Man's Caucus is it is, it is a racial sensitivity training-- [00:48:37] Christian: --run by White Men as Full Diversity Partners. [00:48:40] Danaka: That's the title of this? Yes. [00:48:42] Christian: They had a year prior done a White Man's Caucus at Sandia national labs, which is a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin that does nuclear testing. And so I guess Lockheed Martin was like, we need one for our top dudes too. [00:48:55] Danaka: Because that group has a whole other scandal in 2015. [00:48:57] Christian: This is from the zoom call. This is the White Man's Caucus.. [00:49:00] Cause it was taken over zoom. [00:49:02] Danaka: So I'm confused about this because Lockheed definitely has like white women in their executive leadership. [00:49:08] Christian: They just didn't send them to the racial sensitivity because it's literally like for white men. It's like, cool. Cause there's like male privilege statements. They all had to like recite there's heterosexual privilege statements. Would you like to know a few of them? [00:49:19] Danaka: Yes. [00:49:20] Christian: Okay. So one of the male privilege statements, it's always stuff like. Um, if I get a promotion, I get congratulated instead of made fun of, or like, if I get more education, then I'm treated with more respect because I guess women aren't that. [00:49:35] Danaka: Yeah. [00:49:36] Christian: One of them is quote, if I'm heterosexual, it's highly unlikely that I'll ever be beaten up by a spouse or lover. That's one of the privileged statements they had to like recite, which I... [00:49:47] Danaka: I would love to be a fly, a fly in the zoom, fly on the zoom wall. [00:49:53] Christian: So this took place between June 8th and 11th of 2020. Again, oh God. The founders of the [00:50:00] White Men as Full Diversity Partners, it's Bill Proudman and Michael Welp. Are such good names for the men who founded White Men as (Full) Diversity Partners. Welp! Welp, I'm a proud man. Um, heterosexual privilege statements include, nobody calls me straight with maliciousness, or I did not grow up with games that attack my sexual orientation and then they write up a slur for like the F slur. [00:50:27] Danaka: Like read it out?? [00:50:28] Christian: Yeah. I E smear the queer or blank tag. [00:50:32] Danaka: Okay... [00:50:33] Christian: like, where are they reading that part of that? [00:50:36] Danaka: Also? I've never heard that second phrase in my life. [00:50:39] Christian: I guess it outdates us. Um, there's also- the two founders wrote "I'm tired" statements that are supposed to be like from the perspective of people of color or women. So it would be like, "I'm tired of being told how articulate I am," or "I'm tired of hearing you say that you can't find qualified people of color," et cetera, et cetera. [00:50:58] Danaka: I bet they grew so much from this. [00:51:00] [00:51:01] Christian: I bet everyone grew from this experience of hearing all of this. One of the videos that they have to watch is Coca-Cola's remove labels, this Ramadan, have you ever seen this video? It's where they seat six men around the table in complete darkness and like, have them have a conversation. And then they like turn the lights on and everyone's like, oh, you all look different than like I thought you would. And then the climax of the video, they reach under their seats and they pull out a Coca-Cola can that doesn't have a label on it. But on the back it says, labels are for cans, not people. [00:51:31] Danaka: Wow. [00:51:31] Christian: So we are removing labels this Ramadan that's like the, oh, that's the whole bit of it, which is so funny because White Men as (full) Diversity Partners do partner with like Coca-Cola and AT&T and like all this other stuff. And those are in the video resources for like future white men's caucuses. I dunno. It's maybe the funniest thing I've ever read in my entire life. [00:51:51] Danaka: And again, like the painter Lockheed probably paid... [00:51:56] Christian: They wouldn't say how much they paid white men is diversity. [00:51:58] Danaka: Cause they probably paid them millions [00:52:00] and millions of dollars. [00:52:01] Christian: Yeah. And what is so upsetting is that White Men as (Full) Diversity Partners is not, uh, um, it's, uh, it's a for-profit company, so it's a little harder to find. I don't know. And find revenue statements. I think you can, but I didn't have the time, but I spent way too much time reading about the white men's caucus. [00:52:18] Danaka: That's incredible. [00:52:19] Christian: So that is a little history of diversity, equity and inclusion at Lockheed Martin. [00:52:24] Danaka: So the CEO that made them do that, his name's Jim Taiclet, he took over after what was the other woman's name? [00:52:32] Christian: Marilyn Hewson [00:52:33] Danaka: Marilyn Hewson. [00:52:34] Christian: Um, Do you know why Marilyn Hewson got the job? Sorry to interrupt. [00:52:38] Danaka: No. [00:52:39] Christian: There was supposed to be a man who is going to step into CEO, and then he was let go because he had inappropriate contact with a like young female employee. So then they were like, guess we need a woman now. Boom, Marilyn Hewson. [00:52:49] Danaka: Oh my gosh. [00:52:52] Christian: It was honestly slay and yas. And then when they pick the new CEO, she was like, mm, not another woman and pulling ladder up right up with me. [00:53:00] Anyways, Jim Taiclet. [00:53:01] Danaka: Oh yeah. The reason I bring this up is because during the merger, let's backtrack a little bit to 1995 Martin Marietta merged with Lockheed and became Lockheed Martin. Lockheed was first, but like Martin Marietta basically ran the entire company. The CEO of Martin Marietta became the CEO of Lockheed Martin. And his name was Norman Augustine. Um, I want to tell this story, cause it's such a common practice in defense companies and that it, it comes back to Jim Taiclet. I promise. Um, So Augustine served on the defense policy advisory committee when he was the CEO of Lockheed Martin. Okay. Sorry. Defense policy advisory committee on trade. Uh, that had such a massive influence over arm sales, Lockheed Martin benefits, arm sales. And it also had a huge influence over like Pentagon budgets, that kind of thing. Um, and over 50% of our Pentagon budget, which is $800 billion this year, it goes straight to private companies like Lockheed Martin. [00:53:59] Christian: [00:54:00] Slay! [00:54:00] Danaka: Um, so that's relevant because like they-- all of these CEOs who like, are also on the board's think tanks; they make our foreign policy. So Jim Taiclet is a member of the council on foreign relations, which is a super influential think tank. [00:54:15] Christian: Okay. [00:54:15] Danaka: Um, that impacts policy all the time. [00:54:18] Christian: Is he the chair of it or is he just like..? [00:54:20] Danaka: He's a board member, I think. [00:54:22] Christian: Okay. [00:54:22] Danaka: Um, So like the council on foreign relations made policies like containment. During the war. Notable alumni, Henry Kissinger. It's not, it's not. And then like his response to the BLM protest was to make these people go to the White Man's Caucus. And then a bunch of Republicans got so mad at him. Like I promise, like he is, he is not a, like just Jim Taiclet our-our left wing hero. You know what I mean? [00:54:53] Christian: Our woke king, like, of diversity and slaying. That was fucking [00:55:00] crazy. [00:55:00] Danaka: Oh, but you, you mentioned something that made me think of the 2015 scandal. [00:55:05] Christian: Let's hear it. [00:55:06] Danaka: Uh, where are my notes? [00:55:07] Christian: I'm having so much fun! I gotta say I'm having a freaking blast. [00:55:12] Danaka: Um, so one thing that Lockheed spends its money on is lobbying. They spend millions of millions-- [00:55:16] Christian: Is this the Sandia Labs one? [00:55:18] Danaka: Yes. So that's what made me think of it. The Sandia Labs um, so they lobby Congress and the Pentagon to give them certain contracts like the Cheyenne helicopter, that kind of thing. [00:55:28] Christian: Also, I'm sorry to backtrack. But Sandia labs is the subsidiary of Lockheed Martin that does nuclear testing. [00:55:31] Danaka: Yes. Um, in 2015, Lockheed Martin paid the department of justice, $4.7 million because it's subsidiary, uh, got caught using taxpayer dollars to lobby the government to give them a massive contract. [00:55:48] Christian: Oopsies. I made the same mistake at my last job. [00:55:51] Danaka: It's such a wacky wacky occurrence, and it's such a, it's like the biggest repeat offender of federal fraud when it only exists [00:56:00] because of federal budgets. It's awesome. [00:56:03] Christian: It was so also Sandia labs, um, continuously is fucking up their testing. There was a detonator that blew up in an employee's hand one as recently as like 2014. [00:56:13] Danaka: Did his hand blow off? [00:56:14] Christian: I actually didn't check. I mean, it's certainly must be. [00:56:18] Danaka: I don't know how bombs work. I'm going to be honest. I don't know how to work, but if I was holding one, when it off, I would be confident I don't have a hand. [00:56:25] Christian: I'd be a little afraid. One would say. [00:56:27] Danaka: I'd be like, "Ow." It hurt really bad. I mean, maybe it wouldn't, maybe I wouldn't feel anything. [00:56:32] Christian: There's a specific woman that Sandia labs was lobbying. And I was, I'll have to pull up her name on my little computer here, but I was looking through her Wikipedia page and she was so enmeshed in this scandal and it doesn't even appear on her Wikipedia page. Like I have to look this up about her to know that she was part of it. Um, lobbying, I don't know. You talk for a second. Oh woman. [00:56:56] Danaka: Was she beautiful? [00:56:58] Christian: I don't know who this woman [00:57:00] is. I'll post on my Instagram later, whatever she does some representative. Um, and you know what she is beautiful. Um, honestly of all the stories that I have about Lockheed Martin, I feel like we did just simply scratch the surface, but, and yet go so deepat the same time. [00:57:16] Danaka: Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, everything we've talked about is such a, um, like it's so routine for all of these companies, it's like the same thing happens with Boeing. The same thing happens with Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, general dynamics, and then they pour all their money back into like political campaigns. Um, so. [00:57:38] Christian: And I feel like I need to, once again, emphasize the scale and how I feel like if you read about even just one of these at any other like non arms defense company, it would be like a catastrophe. It's such an insane scandal that the two of us could just sit here and like have like swap Lockheed Martin stories. Like we're just like sitting in a bar like, oh man, here, this thing [00:58:00] happened, like it's fucking gossip. Like it's insane how common this is for them. And the, [00:58:05] Danaka: you know, if you get mad enough about it, like things do change. Like, like it's, it's silly, but when the coffee maker thing happened and when the toilet seat thing, at the same time, they were charging like $70 for hammers, like nine dollars for a nail, like they're doing this for everything. And so when that scandal happened, like so many people got upset with it because they were just like outraged at the military budget and like where all their money was going. Yeah. So, I don't know, get pissed about it more often. Like this is our money. This is like, this is what our, this is what our taxes go to. [00:58:42] Christian: Yeah. And the amount of like over-billing scandals that are not the ones that we just talked about, like there's a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin that's tools and metals Inc. Um, president of tools and metals Inc. Went to fucking prison for this. And they were overcharging for like [00:59:00] perishable building materials, which I guess it's like nuts and bolts. I guess those do perish over time. Tools and metals. Tools and metal like bolts and shit. Um, and. Lockheed Martin had to pay 15.85 million dollars to settle that specific one, but that's like, it's just like one of the very, very many settlements at Lockheed Martin pays to the federal government. So that, I guess they'll just receive again for the new contract. [00:59:23] Danaka: I know !Like, uh, yeah, there's a bunch of lawsuits open against Lockheed Martin, either in Florida or California, where, because okay. The, the manufacturing of weapons, the use of weapons, anything that Lockheed makes is so detrimental to the environment. Yeah. Like I forgot how. How many gallons of, of, of gas, it's like several gallons of gas that the F-35s use every like 30 seconds. And so they like, uh, their manufacturing plant, like poisoned the groundwater or something, and like Florida or California, or like the dirt, I don't know. So it's like causing [01:00:00] it repairable like, oh, and then the Lockheed Martin was contracted to do the environmental cleanup on one of them. [01:00:07] Christian: It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. This is money going in a big circle. It just like it gets funneled in and then just circle circle circles.. And then someone gets a nice house in DC. So it gets a beautiful house, just a gorgeous house, beautiful house, a little slice of paradise, everyone. [01:00:25] Danaka: It is beautiful. [01:00:25] Christian: It's a beautiful home. I guess there's a lot of stuff I got to post on my Instagram after this one. [01:00:29] Danaka: Yeah, please, please. Post Marilyn hewson's beautiful home. I will. I bet it look. The interior design is disgusting. Oh, rich people have horrible taste. Like I know there's like a lot of buttons on her couch. You know what I mean? [01:00:53] Christian: Yes. I'm [01:01:00] looking up Marilyn. Hewson's home. I'm looking at the inside right now. [01:01:03] Danaka: Disgusting. Horrible [01:01:06] Christian: out. Ooh. I don't like whatever is going on here. Oh, this is like a, a painting. It seems inappropriate. Yeah. There's a few inappropriate paintings. Inappropriate handrails, inappropriate columns. [01:01:18] Danaka: Wow, those couches look so uncomfortable. [01:01:20] Christian: Those are not for sitting. No, those are for display. Oh man. I'm looking at her bedroom now. She's got, um, uh, cheetah print throw at the foot of her bed and her bed looks like. Anyways. [01:01:34] Danaka: Check out her beautiful home! [01:01:35] Christian: Check out the beautiful home. What I would give to live in that home. I mean, I love a home. [01:01:40] Danaka: I'd love a house one day. [01:01:43] Christian: Wouldn't it be nice? [01:01:44] Danaka: Wouldn't it be nice to have a home? [01:01:46] Christian: So, yeah, that's uh, that's Lockheed Martin, um, in an, in a frigging nutshell again, surface scratching. Yeah. [01:01:54] Danaka: I do recommend the book Prophets of War. It's very good. He's very funny. [01:01:59] Christian: It's incredibly [01:02:00] funny. It's you can't put it down, you know, like it's just a fantastic book. [01:02:04] Danaka: So follow, follow, follow William Hartung on Twitter. Yeah. He doesn't post very much, but my-- [01:02:10] Christian: I'll follow him anyway. [01:02:11] Danaka: He works at the Quincy Institute. They, they, uh, write a lot of really interesting stuff about foreign policy and armed sales and that kind of thing. [01:02:17] Christian: Do you talk to him often? Like, do you have a chance to talk to him often? [01:02:20] Danaka: Yeah. I mean, he's on a lot of like coalition calls, um, about like, um, I go to like monthly meetings about the arms trade he's typically there. Well, thank you for having me on. I had a great time. I've been looking forward to this for weeks. [01:02:36] Christian: Me too. Um, do you want to plug any socials or anything before you leave? [01:02:39] Danaka: Um, you guys can follow me on Twitter @WifeofToast. That is on my CODEPINK business cards. They were like, we're going to put your Twitter on it. And I'm like, oh, that's great. [01:02:51] Christian: Cause you'd never considered- so now you can't change @WifeofToast. [01:02:53] Danaka: I have considered changing it. But you know, I think, you know, my personal brand does mean something to me. I [01:03:00] love toast. So. [01:03:01] Christian: I'm [REDACTED]on Twitter. Yeah. [01:03:04] Danaka: I love when I get the notification that [REDACTED] is like my tweets. [01:03:08] Christian: And [REDACTED] them likes most of your tweets, I'll say it. Um, yeah. So do that. Oh, follow, @BustedBizBureau on the internet too. Also follow, follow anything.CODEPINK does. CODEPINK is always producing excellent work, sign up for their newsletter. I, I open every single one of those damn emails. [01:03:25] Danaka: Thank you! Thank you. I see the open stats on the backend of the [01:03:30] Christian: I'm a fervent opener, especially when it says Danaka from code pink. It's time to open. [01:03:35] Danaka: So happy with my friends told me they're signed up for those emails. I'm like, oh gosh. Now I have to really pay attention. There's no typos in there. [01:03:41] Christian: So you can have spelling errors for strangers, but not for your besties. [01:03:44] Danaka: Yeah. If my bosses are listening, I've never had a typo, any alert that's sent to thousands of people every week. It's never happened. [01:03:55] Christian: Never seen a typo, but also you have a fundraiser going on right now. [01:03:58] Danaka: Oh yeah. I mean, when's [01:04:00] this actually, you know what? It'll probably be done by the time the podcast comes out. [01:04:03] Christian: Yeah, I can. Well, you're doing a very incredible fundraiser. That's almost at its goal, right? [01:04:07] Danaka: Yeah. We're like a thousand dollars away, which is pretty, pretty cool. Cause we were supposed to have, I have it open for weeks. It's only been a week. [01:04:14] Christian: Wow. [01:04:14] Danaka: Yeah. There's 20,000, nearly $20,000 for Yemen and a week. That is crazy. [01:04:19] Christian: Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Amazing work that you do. It is so fucking cool to have you on this podcast. [01:04:25] Danaka: Thank you for having me. [01:04:25] Christian: And it's so cool to be your friend [01:04:27] Danaka: Aw, thank you, Christian. You too. [01:04:29] Christian: Danaka also does improv comedy. [01:04:31] Danaka: I have done it. I almost did a tight five at the Lincoln Lodge but I didn't. [01:04:37] Christian: Really? Yeah, you should have. [01:04:38] Danaka: Lou and Parker wanted me to do it. And then I was like, uh, or Lou offered it to me. Then there were too many people I knew here. Like no. [01:04:48] Christian: I look forward to seeing that tight five someday. [01:04:49] Danaka: It'll be a JFK impression. I can't do it on here because I can't do it on [01:05:00] --my bosses are going to listen to this. [01:05:03] Christian: Got it. Okay. Goodbye, everyone. See you later.