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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

#51

Post by valuearb »

ahelwer wrote: post #36
Lev1a wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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: > 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. That's 0.0022% of the Pentago…

The average American pays about $10k in federal income taxes each year. Assuming they do this for fifty years, this means the average American might pay $500k in federal income taxes over their lifetime. So this propaganda rag consumed the lifelong social contributions of 31 people, every year. It isn't nothing.

The “average” American doesn’t pay federal income taxes. Only 47% do.

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

#52

Post by js2 »

From a bipartisan group of Senators:

> We understand that DoD plans to cease publication of Stars and Stripes on September 30, 2020 and completely dissolve the organization by January 31, 2021 as a result of the proposed termination of funding in the fiscal year 2021 President’s budget. We urge you to take steps to preserve the funding prerogatives of Congress before allowing any such disruption to take place, for the following reasons.

> First, the House-passed version of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2021, contains additional funding not requested by the Administration to continue operating Stars and Stripes. Second, the Senate has not yet released a defense appropriations bill, nor had an opportunity to conference with the House position, leaving it as a real possibility that Congress may not agree with the proposal to eliminate this funding. Third, the standard text of a continuing resolution – that funds are provided “at a rate of operations… for continuing projects and activities” as provided for in the previous year’s Department of Defense Appropriations Act – places a legal obligation on the Department to not act on a termination of a program until a full-year appropriations bill is enacted. We seek your written assurance that the Department will comply with this obligation and avoid steps that would preempt the funding prerogatives of Congress.

https://www.boozman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2020/9/boozm...

Additional coverage:

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/09/02/senators-espe...

https://www.stripes.com/news/us/bipartisan-group-of-senators...

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

#53

Post by NationalPark »

Shivetya wrote: post #44
Finnucane wrote: post #27

"Stars and Stripes embodies that most American of values: the right to speak truth to power." Which is the last the thing current administration wants anyone to be able to do.

Show me one in the last generation or two that did? Who harassed more journalist and whistle blowers during their time in office, Trump or Obama. Neither was great but the prior administration set new standards for threatening those who would make government justify its actions. The difference is one was a media darling and the other is a media flashpoint

I think you're looking for a "gotcha" to call critics of the Trump administration hypocrites, but you will find that 1. people are never logically or morally consistent so this is a weak point in the first place and 2. A lot of people who oppose Trump from the left share your anger with the Obama administration and see him as someone who ran on progressive values and governed as a center-right neoliberal with a penchant for military adventurism.

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

#54

Post by ch4s3 »

nicwolff wrote: post #49
Shivetya wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Show me one in the last generation or two that did? Who harassed more journalist and whistle blowers during their time in office, Trump or Obama. Neither was great but the prior administration set new standards for threatening those who would make government justify its actions. The difference is one was a media darling and the other is a media flashpoint

No contest: Trump harasses journalists at every rally – by now, hundreds or thousands of them. And whistle blowers? He fired Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman and his brother after Vindman testified. His lackeys in the House exposed the IRS whistleblower by name.

I don't really have a stake here, and voted for Obama but he and his justice department prosecuted a record number of journalists. To quote the Washington Post "Of the 13 people who have" (ever) "been prosecuted under the Espionage Act for leaking secrets, eight were arrested under Obama's administration"

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

#55

Post by colejohnson66 »

krapp wrote: post #24
itomato wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not with you on that one. Soldiers and their families are, were rather, represented in print. Not any more. What's that worth?

No more or less than any other demographic. If it's that important, someone can put up a website or find another publisher or something.

Not saying whether this is a good idea or not, but soldiers on the front lines don’t always have internet, and, as such, can’t access internet news.

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

#56

Post by elliekelly »

ahelwer wrote: post #43
elliekelly wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The average American pays about $10k in federal income taxes each year. Do you have a source for this? There is absolutely no way this is true. Are you including Social Security contributions as "federal income tax"? Or maybe did you mean the average American household pays $10k each year?

Here you go: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2017/10... Say it's about $10k for federal, for ease of calculation. If it's less, then that means even more people's lifelong contributions are incinerated by a propaganda rag.

> According to a recent survey of nearly 130,000 American consumers, the average American spends $10,489 each year in federal, state, and local income taxes.

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

#57

Post by rjmunro »

ahelwer wrote: post #36
Lev1a wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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: > 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. That's 0.0022% of the Pentago…

The average American pays about $10k in federal income taxes each year. Assuming they do this for fifty years, this means the average American might pay $500k in federal income taxes over their lifetime. So this propaganda rag consumed the lifelong social contributions of 31 people, every year. It isn't nothing.

31 people's tax is nothing in a country of 328,000,000 people.

Even 1500 people's tax every year, which sounds worse, is still nothing.

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

#59

Post by mikestew »

valuearb wrote: post #51
ahelwer wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average American pays about $10k in federal income taxes each year. Assuming they do this for fifty years, this means the average American might pay $500k in federal income taxes over their lifetime. So this propaganda rag consumed the lifelong social contributions of 31 people, every year. It isn't nothing.

The “average” American doesn’t pay federal income taxes. Only 47% do.

The average American also has 2.3 kids. Are you going to counter-argue that no one has three tenths of a child?

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

#60

Post by nateberkopec »

liability wrote: post #50
ghufran_syed wrote: post #45

For those who are against this move, in general are you in favor of government journalism in general? Do you think the US would be better with more government journalism? Should there be a a US postal service newspaper, a bureau of land management newspaper, possibly a US Customs and immigration service newspaper? If not, what's so special about having a government-run military newspaper that you think it should exis…

PBS and NPR are generally okayish, they certainly look good when compared to their commercial equivalents anyway... though that might be damning with faint praise. I'm not sure of these are valid comparisons to Stars and Stripes though.

NPR and PBS both receive the majority of their funding from private sources, so I don't think its a valid comparison.
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