The CEO of Boeing announced that he’s leaving the company at the end of the year. His announcement came after a string of mechanical failures on Boeing jets, which employees say were the result of years of cutting corners. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: The CEO of Boeing announced that he’s leaving the company at the end of this year. His announcement came after a string of mechanical failures on the Boeing jets, which employees were warning about for years. They said, this is coming, this is coming. But it was during a time when there was cost cutting and cutting corners at every, every step of the way. This is an industry, Farron, that is making so much money they can’t spend it all. Right. They’re the war, they are the weapons war industry. That’s what this story, I wish they had got into more details on it, but they’re the weapons war industry. They don’t make money on building jets. They make money on selling missiles that blow the hell out of three quarters of the world. That’s what they do. And so they’re making a ton of money, but they still want to cut corners so they can pay this cat an exorbitant obscene bonus every year, while the workers keep getting cut and cut and cut. Pick it up.
Farron Cousins: Or worse, depending on what happens to the workers, as we’ve seen. But like you said, you got over 150 employees for Boeing that in the last couple years have sounded the alarm to regulators saying, hey, listen, they’re cutting corners here. They’re using shoddy materials. They’re not following regulations. This is subpar material on this jet that will fail. Will you do something? 150 employees telling regulators this and regulators say, nah. I mean, we’ve got all these big contracts with Boeing. We’re kind of bailing ’em out already with the 737 Max. So we’re just gonna let it be. And of course, what happens? People die.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah.
Farron Cousins: It’s obscene.
Mike Papantonio: Okay. 350 deaths just in two fatal crashes. 350 deaths. Not to say, what else is there? And okay, so not one time have they been criminally prosecuted. Okay. They always get these sweetheart deals. We’re gonna defer prosecution. Can you get it right? No, Mr. CEO, you’re not going to prison. If you killed that many people, you’d be in prison tomorrow. But we have a Department of Justice that is so tied to white collar, I mean, here’s what happens. They’re looking for jobs. You got lawyers there that are looking for jobs. Either that, or the lawyers with the Justice Department are career lawyers. They’re tired. They don’t have to work that hard. They’re at GS, whatever the hell that is. And they’re making all the money that they need, so they don’t do anything to go after these folks. The other part, like I said, the other, two different divisions. One is the career person. Hell, why work hard? Right. I’m gonna be paid anyway. And then the other folks that are looking for jobs with corporations like this. So they kill all these people, no criminal prosecution, just like we saw with opioids. They killed 150 people a day for decades, Farron. The Department of Justice had everything they needed to prosecute, but they didn’t prosecute. And we see it constantly. It’s just a way of life in this country. But in this case, the 737 Max 9, what a disaster.
Farron Cousins: Yeah, absolutely. We’re dealing with a company that there is no question they were intentionally making bad airplanes.
Mike Papantonio: No. Which is the part of the criminal intent.
Farron Cousins: Right.
Mike Papantonio: Which flows all the way to the top. Right?
Farron Cousins: Absolutely. And these non prosecution agreements from the DOJ are actually only meant for basically first time offenders. Okay, this is your first time doing something bad. You didn’t actually even hurt anybody. So we will give you a non prosecution agreement here. But with companies like Boeing, these are repeat offenders. They should not even qualify for these non prosecutorial agreements. But instead, this guy’s getting off. He’s leaving the company just as they need leadership and he says, well, I can’t do that. And I guarantee you, you’re right. At the end of this year, he is gonna get a massive bonus as he’s walking out that door, even with the giant body count behind him.
Mike Papantonio: And the whistleblower’s gonna be murdered.
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: I mean, that’s the end of the story. Until, look, until the message goes out to white collar corporate America, that yes, you will be prosecuted. We will put you in a line and perp walk you. You will spend 20 years in prison for making these kinds of decisions. Until we do that, we’re always gonna see the Department of Justice, ah, they’re special. They went to Harvard, they went to Yale. They don’t really look like thugs. Well, they’re worse than thugs. They’re worse than thugs. And we give them this free pass and because of that, the criminality simply perpetuates itself. It becomes part of our societal norm. Oh, he’s not gonna go to prison, 350 people, he’s not gonna go to prison. But by God, you kill 350 people, you’re going under the prison for most people.
Farron Cousins: Ring of Fire founder and host of America’s Lawyer, Mike Papantonio has a new book came out this week called, “Suspicious Activity.” Like his other books before it, this book actually deals with real legal cases that Mike Papantonio has handled, but in a fictionalized way. The book follows the character of Nick Deketomis that Papantonio first introduced in his book, “Law and Disorder,” and it carries on the story that began in “Law and Disorder” through “Law and Vengeance,” “Law and Addiction,” “Inhuman Trafficking,” and now “Suspicious Activity.” This book, in particular, deals with the financial institutions that have helped launder money for terrorist organizations, which of course is a topic we have covered extensively here on Ring of Fire. So if you’re a follower of Mike Papantonio’s books, or if this is your first one, you can get your copy of “Suspicious Activity” now. Just go to MikePapantonio.com and place your order. And if you haven’t already, check out Mike’s other books, also available on MikePapantonio.com.
