‘Screwed Up Priorities’: US Space Industry Gets Unneeded Bailout As Unemployment Hits 12%

© Photo : Twitter / Lockeed MartinThe newly introduced US Space Force's Space Fence
The newly introduced US Space Force's Space Fence - Sputnik International
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Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus, told Sputnik Thursday that the US government’s priorities aren’t in order as it looks to “provide support” to the space industrial base while millions of Americans are unemployed.

In a Tuesday news release, the US Air Force said it was “posturing to identify and provide support to the space industrial base, assessing sectors most impacted by the pandemic while creating an environment where companies in need can compete fairly in the event of supplemental federal relief funds."

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“Our space industrial base is critical to our military and economy,” Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics and US Space Force service acquisition executive, is quoted as saying in the release. “The Space Force Acquisition Council held an emergency session to synchronize our response to fragile supply chains, at-risk workforces and receding commercial markets, and we’ll continue to work with the Department of Defense and Congress to get additional help.”

Meanwhile, around 12% of the US workforce was receiving unemployment benefits in the week of April 18 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout, according to the US Department of Labor.

Gagnon told Loud & Clear hosts John Kiriakou and Brian Becker the Space Force Acquisition Council’s request for support was “an excuse on the part of the aerospace industries to load up on corporate welfare using the claim that the virus has impacted their production process - which is really untrue, because all across the country, we’ve seen that the military production system has been declared essential services.”

“I haven't heard of any particular facility being shut down whatsoever or impacted at all by this virus, in a sense, and so it’s just one more way they can funnel more money into the hands of these weapons makers at the same time that people are still waiting for their $1,200 [stimulus] check. I don’t know anybody that’s got theirs yet. More and more communities or states are being asked for help with unemployment insurance as more people are unemployed than during the time of the Great Depression. So, we have huge needs today,” Gagnon told Loud & Clear hosts John Kiriakou and Brian Becker.

Gagnon predicted that on May 1, when rent is typically due, “all kinds of people” will lose their housing as they’re unable to pay their landlords. “We’re now starting to hear about foreclosures that are happening because people can’t afford to pay the banks their mortgages,” he said.

“At the same time, these weapons corporations are just going to be stealing from the national treasury. It’s just outrageous and disgusting, and it's such an example of screwed up priorities,” Gagnon told Sputnik.

Meanwhile, the pro-Space Force propaganda is in full swing. Earlier this month, Netflix announced that a new TV series, titled “Space Force” and starring comedian Steve Carell, would be available to stream starting May 29. 

“A four-star general begrudgingly teams up with an eccentric scientist to get the US military's newest agency - Space Force - ready for lift-off,” the Netflix description reads.

“They [the Pentagon] really need to popularize the Space Force, and there’s a reason behind that. It’s money. I keep reading these quotes from various leaders of the Space Force, and they all keep using the same word, which tells me it's a public relations campaign: ‘lean.’ It’s going to be a ‘lean’ force. And what that means is it’s going to be really expensive, and they’re trying to put out in the public's mind that it’s not going to be expensive, when we know that the Pentagon has been saying for years that ‘Star Wars’ would be the largest industrial project in the history of planet Earth,” Gagnon added, speaking of the 1980s Strategic Defense Initiative project.

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