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Pentagon to cut Stars & Stripes funding, leaving some troops w/o access to news
Last edited Tue Feb 11, 2020, 11:19 AM - Edit history (1)
Link to tweet
Barbara Starr ✔@barbarastarrcnn
BTW @starsandstripes newspaper can be read in hardcopy real newsprint in locations around the world where troops cannot use their phones because of concerns their locations will be tracked.
Idrees Ali✔@idreesali114
Pentagon says funding for Stars and Stripes will be cut because it decided that "coming into the modern age, that newspapers (are) probably not the best way that we communicate any longer." In many cases, Stars and Stripes is the only publication available to troops at bases.
2:17 PM - Feb 10, 2020
Stars and Stripes is an American military newspaper that focuses and reports on matters concerning the members of the United States Armed Forces. It operates from inside the Department of Defense, but is editorially separate from it, and its First Amendment protection is safeguarded by the United States Congress, to whom an independent ombudsman, who serves the readers' interests, regularly reports. As well as a website, Stars and Stripes publishes four daily print editions for the military service members serving overseas; these European, Middle Eastern, Japanese, and South Korean editions are also available as free downloads in electronic format, and there are also seven digital editions. The newspaper has its headquarters in Washington, D.C. -Wikipedia
On edit: I just gave a cursory glance at S&S stories from the past week. This opinion piece jumped out at me, from Feb 4th (orig published in the WaPo on 2/3/21, but reprinted in S&S the following day) :
https://www.stripes.com/opinion/no-trump-hasn-t-learned-a-lesson-on-misusing-taxpayer-funds-1.617530
No, Trump hasn’t learned a lesson on misusing taxpayer funds
By SAM BERGER | Special to The Washington Post | Published: February 4, 2020
As President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial winds down, more than one GOP senator has tried to justify plans to vote against removing him by suggesting that Trump has been chastened — he may have done something “wrong and inappropriate,” as Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, described it, but he’s learned a lesson, and that’s good enough. On Sunday in an interview for NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said that “if a call like” Trump’s call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy “gets you an impeachment, I would think he would think twice before he did it again.” On Sunday, when asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper whether she is “confident that he won’t do this again,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, replied, “I think he knows now that, if he is trying to do certain things … he needs to go through the proper channels.”
But Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., had it right on Monday when he argued before the Senate that Trump “will not change” and he will “do it again.” Why? Because Trump’s misuse of taxpayer funds, at the heart of his impeachment, is part of a pattern.
The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan government agency charged with overseeing the use of taxpayer money, found that the Trump administration’s hold on congressionally appropriated military aid to Ukraine was illegal, as it violated the Impoundment Control Act. And a series of emails between the Office of Management and Budget and the Defense Department’s acting comptroller show that the White House was on notice that it was acting outside the law. “In fact,” as the GAO noted in its decision: “Congress was concerned about exactly these types of withholdings when it enacted and later amended the ICA.”
It’s not the first time Trump has violated budgetary laws to further his aims. In 2018, Trump shut down the federal government, refusing to sign a government spending bill unless it included funding for his border wall. As the shutdown stretched on, however, he became increasingly concerned about the public response. So, ignoring the law, he began reopening parts of the government to try to reduce the political pain of his actions. Most notably, he recalled tens of thousands of IRS employees to ensure that processing of tax refunds would not be delayed.
</snip>
No, Trump hasn’t learned a lesson on misusing taxpayer funds
By SAM BERGER | Special to The Washington Post | Published: February 4, 2020
As President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial winds down, more than one GOP senator has tried to justify plans to vote against removing him by suggesting that Trump has been chastened — he may have done something “wrong and inappropriate,” as Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, described it, but he’s learned a lesson, and that’s good enough. On Sunday in an interview for NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said that “if a call like” Trump’s call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy “gets you an impeachment, I would think he would think twice before he did it again.” On Sunday, when asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper whether she is “confident that he won’t do this again,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, replied, “I think he knows now that, if he is trying to do certain things … he needs to go through the proper channels.”
But Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., had it right on Monday when he argued before the Senate that Trump “will not change” and he will “do it again.” Why? Because Trump’s misuse of taxpayer funds, at the heart of his impeachment, is part of a pattern.
The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan government agency charged with overseeing the use of taxpayer money, found that the Trump administration’s hold on congressionally appropriated military aid to Ukraine was illegal, as it violated the Impoundment Control Act. And a series of emails between the Office of Management and Budget and the Defense Department’s acting comptroller show that the White House was on notice that it was acting outside the law. “In fact,” as the GAO noted in its decision: “Congress was concerned about exactly these types of withholdings when it enacted and later amended the ICA.”
It’s not the first time Trump has violated budgetary laws to further his aims. In 2018, Trump shut down the federal government, refusing to sign a government spending bill unless it included funding for his border wall. As the shutdown stretched on, however, he became increasingly concerned about the public response. So, ignoring the law, he began reopening parts of the government to try to reduce the political pain of his actions. Most notably, he recalled tens of thousands of IRS employees to ensure that processing of tax refunds would not be delayed.
</snip>
It's a pretty harsh assessment of Trump. I wonder if he got wind that it was in S&S and that's why they made a quick decision (so quick, the publisher, Gannett, had no idea it was going to happen *until* they read about it in the WSJ yesterday) to cut its funding?
13 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
S&S is actually a pretty fair publication. I get the sense they would rather supplant it with Faux or, worse, OAN.
This opinion piece jumped out at me, from Feb 4th (orig published in the WaPo on 2/3/21, but reprinted in S&S the following day) :
https://www.stripes.com/opinion/no-trump-hasn-t-learned-a-lesson-on-misusing-taxpayer-funds-1.617530
By SAM BERGER | Special to The Washington Post | Published: February 4, 2020
As President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial winds down, more than one GOP senator has tried to justify plans to vote against removing him by suggesting that Trump has been chastened — he may have done something “wrong and inappropriate,” as Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, described it, but he’s learned a lesson, and that’s good enough. On Sunday in an interview for NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said that “if a call like” Trump’s call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy “gets you an impeachment, I would think he would think twice before he did it again.” On Sunday, when asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper whether she is “confident that he won’t do this again,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, replied, “I think he knows now that, if he is trying to do certain things … he needs to go through the proper channels.”
But Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., had it right on Monday when he argued before the Senate that Trump “will not change” and he will “do it again.” Why? Because Trump’s misuse of taxpayer funds, at the heart of his impeachment, is part of a pattern.
The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan government agency charged with overseeing the use of taxpayer money, found that the Trump administration’s hold on congressionally appropriated military aid to Ukraine was illegal, as it violated the Impoundment Control Act. And a series of emails between the Office of Management and Budget and the Defense Department’s acting comptroller show that the White House was on notice that it was acting outside the law. “In fact,” as the GAO noted in its decision: “Congress was concerned about exactly these types of withholdings when it enacted and later amended the ICA.”
It’s not the first time Trump has violated budgetary laws to further his aims. In 2018, Trump shut down the federal government, refusing to sign a government spending bill unless it included funding for his border wall. As the shutdown stretched on, however, he became increasingly concerned about the public response. So, ignoring the law, he began reopening parts of the government to try to reduce the political pain of his actions. Most notably, he recalled tens of thousands of IRS employees to ensure that processing of tax refunds would not be delayed.
</snip>
By SAM BERGER | Special to The Washington Post | Published: February 4, 2020
As President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial winds down, more than one GOP senator has tried to justify plans to vote against removing him by suggesting that Trump has been chastened — he may have done something “wrong and inappropriate,” as Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, described it, but he’s learned a lesson, and that’s good enough. On Sunday in an interview for NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said that “if a call like” Trump’s call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy “gets you an impeachment, I would think he would think twice before he did it again.” On Sunday, when asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper whether she is “confident that he won’t do this again,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, replied, “I think he knows now that, if he is trying to do certain things … he needs to go through the proper channels.”
But Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., had it right on Monday when he argued before the Senate that Trump “will not change” and he will “do it again.” Why? Because Trump’s misuse of taxpayer funds, at the heart of his impeachment, is part of a pattern.
The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan government agency charged with overseeing the use of taxpayer money, found that the Trump administration’s hold on congressionally appropriated military aid to Ukraine was illegal, as it violated the Impoundment Control Act. And a series of emails between the Office of Management and Budget and the Defense Department’s acting comptroller show that the White House was on notice that it was acting outside the law. “In fact,” as the GAO noted in its decision: “Congress was concerned about exactly these types of withholdings when it enacted and later amended the ICA.”
It’s not the first time Trump has violated budgetary laws to further his aims. In 2018, Trump shut down the federal government, refusing to sign a government spending bill unless it included funding for his border wall. As the shutdown stretched on, however, he became increasingly concerned about the public response. So, ignoring the law, he began reopening parts of the government to try to reduce the political pain of his actions. Most notably, he recalled tens of thousands of IRS employees to ensure that processing of tax refunds would not be delayed.
</snip>
It's a pretty harsh assessment of Trump. I wonder if he got wind that it was in S&S and that's why they made a quick decision (so quick, the publisher, Gannett, had no idea it was going to happen *until* they read about it in the WSJ yesterday) to cut its funding?
(on edit: tacking this on the OP itself given how curious the timing is)
