We never forget who we're work- ah, screw it...

Lockheed Martin is the world's largest and most profitable weapons manufacturer. That's some heavy karma to deal with on the face of it, but you factor in the global bribery, shoddy workmanship leading to scores of deaths, hiring the Japanese mob to pressure customers, almost comically evil environmental damage, general scumbaggery on a grand scale, even suing a head shop over its name, and you have to wonder if Satan isn't a major stockholder. Some 80% of their business comes directly from the federal government (with some additional revenue that technically flows as "foreign aid" first), meaning that you and I pay their bills, mostly on borrowed money that our grandchildren will still be paying off after they retire. Don't expect the corporation to help out by paying taxes either.

In short, these are precisely the people that President Eisenhower warned us about.

The company's tag line is "We never forget who we’re working for," which seems open to some interpretation, but on a good day in theory means the military (ours, Turkey's or Israel's depending on the contract, much of which we foot the bill for in any event.) A more pollyanna-ish interpretation would be that they work for you and I (as the military does in theory), but this lacks supporting data. Either way, you might hope that that might mean the American people at some level, the people making do without health insurance or functional literacy by the million so that our Masters of War can have their megabillions.

Considering all of this, if I were Lockheed, and if I were giving out American flag pens at a job fair, I might take the time to make sure that the pens were made in the US (nosediving in decent manufacturing jobs) instead of by Chinese prisoners and/or children. Or at least that the wrappers didn't read MADE IN CHINA in larger letters than our web address. Or, failing all of this, that the MADE IN CHINA tags weren't situated to cover the American flag logo. But I seem to expect too much. "Forgive me in my lack of gratitude, O Glorious Overlords!"

When you get the chance, check out the motherlode of dirt on this Mother of All Weapons Contractors.