March 19, 2024

Large Contractors: Profits Up, Sales & Lobbying Down

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River economic community. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the Leader’s owners or staff.Morning Coffee logo

Lockheed boosts profits in 3Q despite a dip in sales, reports The Hill, noting that large defense firms have thrived during the sequester by cutting costs including personnel. Defense Daily reports Lockheed’s strong 3Q profits driven by higher margins, lower taxes and pension expenses. (Paywall.)

Roll Call posts prime contractors’ 3Q lobbyist expenditures, a few up but most down from 2Q.

In today’s market, it is critical for small companies to raise their visibility by creating value added content and using blogs, webinars and social media to potential customers, reports Washington Technology.

Final comments are soon due on the government’s cybersecurity guidelines to industry, provisions could ultimately favor compliant contractors, reports Next Gov.

US tells France that media reports on NSA intercepting phone calls were distorted, reports CNN Security Defense. How to deal with the NSA’s spying powers is shaping up to become a battle in Congress, reports The Hill.

US challenged on drone strikes, reports CNN Security Clearance. The White House  strongly disagreed with findings from the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, says US did not violate international law, reports DEFCON Hill.

Reuters reports a threatened rift between Saudi Arabia and the US. But Secretary of State John Kerry says relations remain strong between the nations, reports CNN Security Clearance.

Lockheed protests Navy’s  contract for the new Air Missile Defense Radar awarded to Raytheon, reports Defense Daily.

Lockheed links wireless ground sensors to UAVs, reports Defence Talk.

 

Comments
One Response to “Large Contractors: Profits Up, Sales & Lobbying Down”
  1. Carolyn Egeli says:

    I’m sure that sales were kept up somewhere out of view. The NSA spying revealed by whistle blowers should not become political. It is a civil rights issue…the civil rights of all of us, otherwise we are shaping up to be a surveillance society, not unlike Nazi Germany. When we are all so frightened we can’t speak up, the “terrorists” will really have won. Not sure who they are any more. As it is, travel has become a complete intrusion into our privacy..even of our person. What we write, speak, and purchase has become a matter of public record to be bought and sold. A record of our measly doings are stored and poured over by our government via private contractors. Why? Not to get terrorists…but to keep some in business, and to develop crowd control is what I think. Is this the kind of society we really want to be? While controlling ourselves and others seems to have developed into our national industry, why don’t we think about how we can take these same assets and quit pointing them at ourselves? Let’s build things that will not hurt or harm ourselves or hapless grandmothers gathering okra in a field in Pakistan. For the White House to deny the obvious is insulting my intelligence. There have been too many strikes to overlook, that have killed innocents. And it is quite obvious that we spend an enormous amount of energy strategically protecting the energy we use up doing it! 25% of the world’s fossil fuel is used by the US. BP is the largest supplier of fuel to our military, the largest user of oil in the world. BP is our original partner in the Middle East to ensure the control of that fuel, going back to after WWII. The major energy companies more or less are the tails wagging our dogs. Solar panels work and are getting cheaper all of the time..60% cheaper in the last three years. Look at what the Germans and the Swedes are doing. We are putting our efforts in the wrong places. We can save lives and live in peace if we try. While the US and the Saudi’s keep Syria busy “training the rebels” (WSJ article), Israel and Cyprus steal their oil and gas off of their coast and sell it to the Chinese (Oil Drum, I think). Does anyone see something “off” about that? Nothing is obvious in the main stream news, except we are beating a dead horse over an extremely damaging to us fuel supply to keep mulitnationals in the businesses in China etc. And where are we?…fighting for jobs in the defense industry to keep it all going and the rest of us fight for jobs at Wall Mart, whose wages are so low, that taxpayers have to subsidize Wall Mart through providing their workers with food stamps, etc. What a racket! We are in competition with multi-nationals in the world for jobs and we have lost. Now the only jobs we have left is just to do their bidding through our defense, which we are busy paying the tab for to protect their businesses throughout the world. I’d rather have a solar panel, please. Please, I think the public may be catching on. And eventually, some other people in the world might just have had enough of us and whup us up. Personally, I think we are in competetion directly with China, India and Russia. It’s a fight over the dollar and oil. We are losing. They are deserting the dollar. Even with fracking here, the liquified gas goes to the world market which the frackers boast about using up American “cheap” water. Cheap water! Of course, it’s free! because it belongs to Americans?!! Do Americans benefit? Not as much as Europe will without a pipeline our military and the Saudi’s couldn’t secure. And we won’t benefit at all, because Americans will pay for it all. Back to the solar panels. We must do something about this, instead of continually throwing good money after bad. The multi-nationals don’t care about Americans. They only care about their market share. That is their government and their allegience. Are we Americans or do we work for them?

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