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The Pentagon has ordered Stars and Stripes to shut down

usatoday.com

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Re: The Pentagon has ordered Stars and Stripes to shut down

#11

Post by brmgb »

natcombs wrote: post #2

"No good reason" is subjective. Was there any reason given? Looked at the article, but didn't see any. Perhaps it was cost? Does the Pentagon budget break out the cost of Stars & Stripes?

> Looked at the article, but didn't see any > Does the Pentagon budget break out the cost of Stars & Stripes?

The answer to this question is in the eighth paragraph of the article, right before the discussion on how congress actually refunded the publication, the decision now resting with the senate and how the Pentagon ordered it to shutdown anyway which is unusual.

I will hasard that when you said you looked at the article it was to be taken literally and didn't imply that you actually read it.

Re: The Pentagon has ordered Stars and Stripes to shut down

#12

Post by strombye »

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #6
natcombs wrote: post #2

"No good reason" is subjective. Was there any reason given? Looked at the article, but didn't see any. Perhaps it was cost? Does the Pentagon budget break out the cost of Stars & Stripes?

From the article it sounds like the cost is $15.5m? > The memo ordering the publication’s dissolution claims the administration has the authority to make this move under the president’s fiscal year 2021 defense department budget request. It zeroed out the $15.5 million annual subsidy for Stars and Stripes. > The eagerness to kill Stars and Stripes is hard to fathom. As the senators note in their letter to Esper, the…

And you’re gonna fall for that as the reason? And just ignore the administration’s long running campaign to undermine journalists Whenever possible?

Re: The Pentagon has ordered Stars and Stripes to shut down

#13

Post by TheAdamAndChe »

stanfordkid wrote: post #8
natcombs wrote: post #2

"No good reason" is subjective. Was there any reason given? Looked at the article, but didn't see any. Perhaps it was cost? Does the Pentagon budget break out the cost of Stars & Stripes?

The military budget is $700 billion, as stated in the article. They probably spend more than $15mm on toilet paper for a single Airforce base.

Let's say you need to clean out your garage. It's piled full of stuff and it's going to take you a while to clean up. Do you first reach for the biggest thing in the bottom of the pile, or do you grab the small stuff on top that's closest to you first?

Re: The Pentagon has ordered Stars and Stripes to shut down

#15

Post by tomohawk »

Never heard of "firemen first"?

That's what this sounds like.

Whenever there's a budget fight, there's brinkmanship, and this is a common tactic. Government, industry - it doesn't matter. Respond to cuts or proposed cuts by putting something on the cut pile that is unacceptable.

Re: The Pentagon has ordered Stars and Stripes to shut down

#17

Post by moate »

natcombs wrote: post #2

"No good reason" is subjective. Was there any reason given? Looked at the article, but didn't see any. Perhaps it was cost? Does the Pentagon budget break out the cost of Stars & Stripes?

No reason is given, so there is “no good reason”. There technically isn’t a bad reason.

The implied reason is “because its funding wasn’t included in the (non-binding) presidential budget proposal “

Re: The Pentagon has ordered Stars and Stripes to shut down

#18

Post by ryneandal »

jdhn wrote: post #7
nodefortytwo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The eagerness to kill Stars and Stripes is hard to fathom. As the senators note in their letter to Esper, the $15.5 million saved by eliminating the newspaper’s subsidy would have a “negligible impact” on the Pentagon’s $700 billion budget."

I'm OK with cutting $15.5 million from the military budget. Sure, it's a drop in the ocean, but any savings we can wring out of the military is a good thing.

I agree with the sentiment, but there are legitimate changes in purchasing/budgeting that could _actually_ impact the budget (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-end-of-t...). Better reporting on egregious kickbacks like this might lead to more repercussions for the Congresspeople in question, that'd be one of the best ways to trim the fat on the Pentagon budget.

Re: The Pentagon has ordered Stars and Stripes to shut down

#20

Post by atonse »

stanfordkid wrote: post #8
natcombs wrote: post #2

"No good reason" is subjective. Was there any reason given? Looked at the article, but didn't see any. Perhaps it was cost? Does the Pentagon budget break out the cost of Stars & Stripes?

The military budget is $700 billion, as stated in the article. They probably spend more than $15mm on toilet paper for a single Airforce base.

It's worse than you can imagine. I once witnessed a defense client creating a $5 mil project with a defense contractor out of thin air, because they didn't want to lose the money at the end of the fiscal year (which was 3 months away).

Overnight, the defense contractor assembled a team of 20 people that were on the bench, so they could bill for the project. 20 random people that had never worked together before, all to work on an experimental java project the agency didn't need until that Monday (and I'd argue, didn't need even after that Monday). I suggested in that meeting "why don't we just return the money to the taxpayer?" and got glares from at least two senior executives.

Right there is 1/3 of the $15 million that is spent on Stars and Stripes.

With a $700bn budget, based on what I've seen of the defense industrial complex, I'd suspect at least 10% of that goes to complete waste (and toilet paper isn't waste. I mean things like IT projects that don't see the light of day, etc).

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