Rocket Ranch, the main manufacturing site for Firefly Aerospace off of Highway 183, is hard to miss. The site in Briggs, between Liberty Hill and Lampasas, has grown from a small engine test stand to a sprawling space-age complex.
Firefly is building the new Antares 330 Rocket for Northrop Grumman. The new rocket is to be ready for launch in 2025.
That would be Northrop Grumman, the humongous aerospace conglomerate that has very little competition and can therefore gouge the shit out of the taxpayers.
You see, back in the 1990s, there were about 51 aerospace and defense contractors. Now it’s down to FIVE. That’s the kind of “greedy monopoly” that Comrade Clayton bitches about endlessly.
For instance: In the competitive environment before the companies consolidated, a shoulder-fired stinger missile cost $25,000 in 1991. With Raytheon now the sole supplier, it costs more than $400,000 to replace each missile sent to Ukraine. Even accounting for inflation and some improvements, that’s a seven-fold increase.
This is different, though, because I’m now 99.9% sure that Comrade Clayton’s DAD works for Firefly. Where do you think Comrade Clayton’s shiny new toys and tractors come from? LOL. Very likely Daddy buys those with his huge Firefly paycheck, which is thanks to the bloated Federal Government defense budget and the fact there are now only FIVE major defense contractors.
So to recap Comrade Clayton’s wildly contradictory positions on monopolies:
Government-run school monopoly GOOD – even though places like Chicago spend over $30,000 per student and nobody can read or perform math. This monopoly is good because it benefits the teacher’s union, and they give tons of money to the democraps.
Beef processing monopoly is BAD – because Comrade Clayton likes to pretend to ranch on grandpa’s property and ostensibly is getting ‘crushed’ by “Big Ag” even though he could very easily just sell his products directly to the public (if he had any) like my pals at Winter’s Beef and thousands of other small ranchers do.
Aerospace and defense contractor monopoly SUPER GOOD – because Comrade Clayton’s daddy works in that area and this provides Comrade Clayton with new toys and keeps a roof over his head despite the fact he kills more goats than he sells.
What a hypocrite!
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