bitteroldcoot 21 points 3 days ago

Having worked for the army I can attest this is all true.

Contractors would routinely deliver equipment that didn’t work, then demand payment. The contracting office ignored us and just paid them because it was cheaper than a law suit.

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TranscendentalEmpire 17 points 3 days ago

Hehe, did you ever have to use the Dowsing rods that claimed it could magically sniff out both drugs and bombs?

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Whostosay 6 points 3 days ago

This is insane, how has this not been dogged on in the news holy shit

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TranscendentalEmpire 6 points 3 days ago

It was for a short period in the late 00s. There has been a lot of stuff like this for just about any major conflict. Turns procurement officers in just about any military are just as vulnerable to con men as anyone else.

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ayyy 2 points 2 days ago

They also scammed the fuck out of stupid school boards in red states.

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bitteroldcoot 2 points 3 days ago

Nope, not my area.

But this stuff is so common we were just happy if the post it notes we ordered actually worked.

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gandalf_der_13te 5 points 3 days ago

this reminds me of the rocket that ULA (boeing and lockheed marteen) claimed to build for the US Nasa ... which just ran comically over budget again and again. since it was a cost-plus contract, which means the US keeps paying them until the product is finished, it was just a free money pipe for them. they never intended to deliver anything worthwhile.

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bitteroldcoot 3 points 3 days ago

That is so boeing. When you know their history it's not surprising their planes keep crashing.

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Almacca 16 points 3 days ago

All that military budget isn't for the troops, silly. It's for the weapons manufacturers.

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wonderingwanderer 12 points 3 days ago

This is actually super disconnected from reality, because that person is working to enrich the MIC which is responsible for leaving those troops to suffer. The bloated military budget is still going to killing innocent civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure. Just because that money isn't being used to take care of servicemembers doesn't mean everything is a-okay.

OOP is just trying to cope with the cognitive dissonance of working for the evil people responsible for all of this.

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Biffsbraincell 4 points a day ago

Also aren't scams and corruption evil? Didn't the tax paying mom need that money for her and her kids, like the scams aren't morally neutral either.

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kewjo 9 points 2 days ago

how is the outcome not morally evil? you're admitting you cannot change anything, except you're still generating the arms that are killing people including civilians?

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mrgoosmoos 1 point 2 days ago

yeah but only like a little bit of the time, so obviously that means it's okay

it's kind of like if I walked around sucker punching one random person a day. because I'm only doing it for part of my day, it's morally neutral. the rest of my day is mostly just doing other unrelated things.

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unemployedclaquer 7 points 3 days ago

Wtf you think is morally neutral? Son it is not the scams and corruption we see now.

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HerbGrower 5 points 3 days ago

Scamming and corruption is bad. But its mostly done against an evil government. So... Chaotic good?

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GreenBeard 4 points 2 days ago

Pretty sure that's chaotic neutral. Chaotic-Good would be doing it with the intention of using your ill-gotten gains to help people. If you're just doing it to upgrade your private jet, any benefit to anyone else is incidental.

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Biffsbraincell 1 point a day ago

The military industrial complex partially just exist to enrich corporations by doing their work abroad, so when the corporations scam the military-industrial complex it's not like it's negating it, it's just another way to enrich themselves which is one of the main purposes all along.

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Malyca 5 points 2 days ago

Arms going to Israel though

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SpaceCowboy -1 points 2 days ago

It's just American narcissism that makes you think that all good and bad things that happen in the world are because of the US.

Despite what Trump might've convinced you of, US Presidents can't just end wars by making statements. Ukraine didn't surrender because Trump stopped support of Ukraine. Israel wouldn't have either. Hamas massacred villages and took a lot of people hostage. There was nothing anyone could do to stop a war from happening. If Israel didn't have precision guided munitions they would've used big dumb bombs instead which would've meant even more casualties.

Best anyone can do is to try to reduce casualties and try to influence countries towards negotiations to end the war. Sorry to break this to you but US Presidents can't just snap their fingers and end all wars. Trump lied to you.

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Malyca 2 points a day ago

Israel can function independently of course, but not for very long or at this scale. If the USA stopped all aid to Israel, it would ruin their current plans of genociding every Muslim in the world. I know threatening to withdraw aid works because it's worked countless times, most recently with Biden.

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SpaceCowboy 1 point a day ago

Israel spends $46.5B on defense. The US provides $3.5B in foreign aid. That's about 7.5% of their defense budget. I'm sure they could manage, especially if they were no longer required to buy expensive US weaponry.

Sorry but no, the US doesn't actually control everything in the world. Israel will continue to go one with or without the US.

I know threatening to withdraw aid works because it’s worked countless times, most recently with Biden.

Yeah who doesn't want subsidies to buy fancy weapons? But if you end all aid, you no longer have any influence.

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ZombiFrancis 5 points 2 days ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket

Nothing new, unfortunately.

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ScoffingLizard 5 points 2 days ago

Could have told you about the scams ages ago. They call that fraud, waste, and abuse, but It's okay when rich people do it

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explodicle -2 points 2 days ago

Yeah but you're still driving a car on the way to work, aren't you.

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