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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

#61

Post by ahelwer »

elliekelly wrote: post #56
ahelwer wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I really don't know what you're arguing about here. To repeat myself, if I overestimated how much they paid, then it's even more people whose contributions are incinerated. Yay for my original point I guess?

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

#62

Post by glitcher »

One thing I've always wondered about when it comes to the temporary nature of US presidential terms and their respective administrations - why does it seem like it's so much easier to dismantle things than to create them in the first place?

Especially for things that took a substantial amount of time and effort to build, shouldn't we require much more scrutiny before considering an action that effectively dismantles/dissovles/destroys them? Instead it feels more like we are at the mercy of the whims of whoever is the current temp-employee-in-chief.

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

#63

Post by TheAdamAndChe »

klyrs wrote: post #35
TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Only, you're not cleaning a garage, you're a tin-pot dictator and you control the budget of a newspaper which has recently covered a narrative that you don't like.

The article did not mention that they covered a narrative that Trump disliked. Where did you get that from?

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

#65

Post by ahelwer »

rjmunro wrote: post #57
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.

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.

No, it isn't nothing. My point is you can't wave away these numbers just by putting them next to a much larger number. These bills ultimately have to be paid, and asking whether a propaganda rag is worth >31 people's lifelong tax contributions every year is a much better framing than "we already incinerate cash, what's a bit more" - that is just utterly terrible reasoning. Try applying it to your own budget and see where that gets you at the end of the month. Things add up quickly.

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

#66

Post by jakkyboi »

glitcher wrote: post #62

One thing I've always wondered about when it comes to the temporary nature of US presidential terms and their respective administrations - why does it seem like it's so much easier to dismantle things than to create them in the first place? Especially for things that took a substantial amount of time and effort to build, shouldn't we require much more scrutiny before considering an action that effectively dismantles/…

I think that's just the nature of government. If a large enough force acts, it's very easy to tear down such an abstract system.

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

#67

Post by itomato »

Anon4Now wrote: post #38
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?

When I was in the service, Stars and Stripes was so censored that to call it journalism would be an overreach. It's not 1945 anymore. Being represented in print isn't worth much these days - especially by a propaganda rag.

You could write a thing and send it to someone.

Now what do you have?

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

#68

Post by Bud »

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.

I'm not sure you are parsing what "average" means.

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

#69

Post by slg »

ch4s3 wrote: post #54
nicwolff wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"

Anyone have a full list of who they are counting as either the 8 or 13 in that quote? According to Wikipedia, the number of people who have been charged under the espionage act is much higher than 13. For example, there are 52 pages of people convicted under the act.[1] I guess it depends on your definition of "leaking". The relevant dictionary definition of leak is "to give out (information) surreptitiously".[2] Giving information to a foreign government should seemingly be classified as leaking so I'm not sure we should necessarily link it to either journalistic endeavors or whistleblowing.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Persons_convicted_und...

[2] - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/leak

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

#70

Post by lern_too_spel »

ch4s3 wrote: post #54
nicwolff wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"

You're being intentionally misleading. The eight prosecuted are not journalists themselves but government employees who leaked sensitive documents to journalists.

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/12/5/obama-and-le...

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