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Comment by nodefortytwo | Hacker News Reader

"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."

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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.

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.

I feel like if it was mission critical, they would find a way to make it work. Fund a print publisher through the black-ops budget, launch some wireless satellites or something.

I also feel like they can do without, all else being equal. Not being able to read a magazine isn't the end of the world.

It was a naked propaganda rag. I have no idea why people care about this.

You can look back and see where public sentiment may have been skewed to support a mission.

Now you can't.

Absolutely nothing, to be honest. Let's not act like soldiers and their families are suddenly persona non grata because of this decision.

Non-government military news sites that regularly expose failures of the system, injustices to those in service:

https://www.military.com/

https://www.militarytimes.com/

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?

You could write a thing and send it to someone.

I'm pretty sure that's part of the reason they want to shut it down.

The US postal service? /s

Are you saying that Stars and Stripes would deliver mail / messages to soldiers? I'd like to hear more of what you were saying.

You could write a piece, submit it, and get it printed. Like any newspaper.

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.

Ye olde "if we don't spend it we don't get it next year" mindset certainly doesn't help.

That's just one Reaper drone. They have 200.

Except, the budget will not be cut by 15M, just reallocated

Oversight is the last place to cut.

Cost cutting is good, but they are not going to trim $15.5 million from their budget request nor use it for the VA or something else that would benefit the troops significantly.

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